Catching Up

June: 

Johnathon graduated! He will be studying Culinary Arts at Collin College and will continue working at Market Street in the Bakery. His classes start on August 22nd. He just moved into an apartment in Frisco Square. It's a nice area in Down Town Frisco and is about 5 or 10 minutes from our house. http://www.friscosquare.com/

All the kiddo's attended the annual Diabetes Camp and Aaron had a blast! Thomas and Amanda were volunteers again this year and said they miss being campers. The camp was at new location this year so there was a lot of confusion. I think next year it will go more smoothly. Lainie will be old enough to attend next year too.

Aaron attended Horse Camp again. He had the same group of counselor's he had in the spring, and he had yet another great time. The Texas heat didn't seem to bother him a bit!

Miss Kim, Aaron and Lainie's reading tutor, lives on a farm in Celina, TX and invited Aaron over to go horseback riding with her girls and play with all the farm animals. He thought this was pretty cool! Aaron was sworn to secrecy because Miss Kim said if told anyone, all the other kids at the Reading Ranch would want to come over! She told me Aaron is like a nephew to her. She is great with Aaron and Lainie!

 

We took our 3 week trip to Europe. John took 2,500 pictures, so it may be awhile before I post any. We went to Naples, Rome, Messina, and Capri, Italy.  Piraeus, Athens, Rhodes, and Chania, Greece. Kussadasi, and Istanbul, Turkey. Amanda and I really liked Sicily.  Aaron was a little freaked out by Mount Etna, but had fun picking out some lava rocks to bring home. We all really liked the Sicilian Pizza! Thomas really liked Istanbul and all the sights we saw. We did stumble across a chocolate eatery in Istanbul and everything was handmade in the store, so it was pretty cool watching them make everything. They made coffee, candy, ice-cream and many baked goods. Yep, this is the one time we didn't have the camera, so we won't be sharing any photos. We sampled many items and needless to say everything was fantastic! All the places we visited were very unique and some were absolutely breathtaking. It was very nice spending time with the family and getting to visit grandma and grandpa and seeing their home.

July:

Amanda had her scoliosis surgery. It was a success. She went from 50 degrees to 5-10 degrees. She was in a tremendous amount of pain following the surgery and was in the ICU for 3 days and in the hospital for a total of 8 days. Each day she is doing a little better. It seems sleeping has been her biggest problem but even that is improving. Her blood sugars have been doing remarkably well considering the amount stress her body has been under. She had her first sleep-over the other night, so she must be feeling a little better! She goes back to see the surgeon on August 11th.  

Timothy and Kathy are now proud homeowners. They purchased a 3 bedroom home in Little Elm, TX. They also have a new puppy, Lady Bird. They are still trying to train her. She has chewed a few hoses and is still very hyper. Ella thinks the puppy is pretty funny but Audrey isn't quite sure what to think yet.

Aaron started a Martial Arts Program and it has really boosted his self confidence. He attends 3 days a week and is in the basic training program right now. The program focuses on respect and confidence building, as well as the the physical aspect. He gets so excited to go he puts his uniform on 4 hours early each day.

We have decided to have Aaron repeat 2nd grade this year at a new campus. Aaron has been struggling with reading since Kindergarten and has been going to the Reading Ranch for additional help since first grade. After many meetings with Aaron's school teachers and his reading tutor we have decided that it is in Aaron's best interest to repeat the grade. We are fortunate to have two elementary schools in our subdivision, so we put in a request for the other school and it was just approved.

Lainie will continue going to the Montessori School and will be starting a ballet class sometime this month or as Lainie would say "Ballerina School".  She is a princess!

August:

John just left for Philadelphia, PA for the rest of the week to attend a medical conference. He is looking forward to cooler weather since we seem to be stuck in the triple digits.

DFW Weather: 32 Days of Temps at or Above 100 Degrees and Counting

Parts of North Texas Experience Power Outages Tuesday

The DFW Metroplex blew the high temperature record off the charts -- posting a new record of 110 degrees Tuesday. I had previously said, "Crank up the air conditioner DFW!" but we're actually encouraged to turn up our thermostats to 78 or higher in an effort to conserve energy so that we don't have to go without power. Several parts of DFW experienced power outages on Tuesday.
ERCOT, the state's energy grid operator, set an electricity demand record Monday and it will probably be broken again over the next few days. ERCOT is asking North Texans to conserve energy -- especially between the hours of 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Residents are encouraged to turn off all unnecessary lights and unplug appliances.
Energy Emergency
The state is now in an official energy emergency. At least 6,000 homes across North Texas are without power. With no relief in sight, DFW needs to heed the warnings or else brownouts and rolling power outages will occur.
Even Six Flags Over Texas closed the Mr. Freeze ride this week and will shut it down again when ERCOT requests energy conservation. The ride requires 2.4 million watts of electricity just to launch it.
Temperatures Expected to Rise
Dallas is hot and it's only going to get hotter. Wednesday's high could reach 111. North Texas is certain to break record high temps all week long. We can only hope that Tropical Storm Emily turns into a full-blown Hurricane and turns toward the Texas coast -- which is very unlikely at this point. (My apologies to the people in the property insurance business -- but we are desperate).
Excessive Heat Warning
The Excessive Heat Warning continues. Actual temperatures will hover around 108-110 the majority of the week, and heat indexes may be well above 115. Meteorologists predict that we could easily pass the 42-day record for triple-digit temps set back in 1980.
July
The only day that wasn't in the triple digits was July 1. The remainder of the month was 100 degrees or higher. DFW also set the record for all time for the warmest low temp at 86 degrees.
WEATHER SCOREBOARD Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Tuesday's high: 110* set new record.
Number of Days of 100 degrees or higher in DFW in 2011: 39
Consecutive Days of 100 degrees or higher in 2011: 32
Days over 100 Degrees in 1980: 69
Consecutive Days Over 100 in 1980: 42

FORECAST:
Wednesday: 111* R
Thursday: 109* R
Friday: 108* R
Saturday: 107
Sunday: 106
Monday: 105
and Tuesday it cools down to 104 - which will be day number 39.
R = a new record.


This sums it up.

Johnathon's Prom

Johnathon's Prom 2011

Johnathon looking very handsome

Kathy looking beautiful

Johnathon and Kathy

Johnathon and Kathy

Johnathon and Kathy

Johnathon, Kathy, Aaron and Lainie

Johnathon and Kathy looking at Limo Driver

Johnathon and Kathy getting ready to leave

Johnathon and Kathy

Me and my baby boy

Baby Love Bird

Bonnie and Clyde have had numerous babies over the past year and this is the first yellow baby - an unusual color mutation. She is really sweet but seems to be treated like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer because she is different. We had to place her in her very own cage tonight because Bonnie, Clyde and her siblings were picking on her. John noticed some blood on the cage and saw that it was coming from the back of her head. Since she is the baby, she may have been trying to get back into the nest box and, with 5 eggs already laid, she is not welcome.  The parents can be very aggressive when they feel it's time for the kids to move out. John clipped her wings so she would not fly all over the house and we played with her for awhile. We plan on keeping her and working with her to make her tame so she will let us hold her. She's already a very sweet little bird. Hopefully she does ok with the injuries.

Hives

Hives are annoying!

Poor Lainie, over Easter weekend she broke out in hives that covered her from head to toe. We took her to an allergist yesterday and he seems to think it may be a food allergy, so we can't give her any milk, berries, fish, nuts, or any food that contain dye until the hives are completely gone.  He put her on steroids, zyrtec, zantac , and benadryl in hopes the hives will go away, so far we haven't had much luck.  Just when they start to fade and we think she is improving she has another out break.

Easter 

We had a very nice Easter. John was home in the morning to share in the egg hunting and basket fun but missed dinner. He did his 3p to midnight shift. My parents came over for dinner. We had ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, corn, and rolls.  Mommit made my favorite green dessert. Yummy! It was a very quiet but lovely day. Timothy spent the day with Kathy's family and made a wonderful dinner for them. He really seems to enjoy cooking!

Pictures before the Hives.

Lainie and Aaron dying eggs

Mommy helping Lainie

Lainie concentrating very hard

Football anyone?

Forget about the wire stick my hand works

Amanda

Green egg in orange dye.....interesting

The teens

Amanda's eggs

Thomas being creative

Lainie back to the stick

Eggs

Blue eggs

Amanda's creation

Aaron

See the dye

Mommy with eggs

Mommy and Lainie

More eggs

Lainie and her new bike

Lainie riding her new bike

Lainie and Aaron

Easter surprises

Aaron

Thomas

Lainie

Johnathon

Amanda

Lainie and her big chocolate bunny

Lainie

Mommy and Amanda eating her big chocolate bunny

It won't open!!!!!

Reading my card from honey

My Hummel from my hunny bunny.

Life is Good

We had a very nice and quiet spring break. We really didn't do much. Amanda did a a lot of socializing and Aaron went to horse camp, which he absolutely loved. He will be going back for awhile this summer. It is an awesome location in McKinney, Texas (Storybook Ranch) and I just found out that Diabetes Camp will be held here this summer too! 

I did get to see my grand-daughters over spring break and baby Ella spent the night. They were both very good girls. Ella is the funniest little thing. She loves to experiment with her voice. She slept through the night which was amazing because Lainie woke up twice crying because she didn't feel good and our alarm went off twice to check Amanda's blood sugars and little Ella just kept on sleeping. Timothy and Kathy made a trip to Austin to attend the music festival and had a great time.

Aaron got glasses and is so exited to be able to see clearly now! He looks very studious.

Thomas has been busy studying and playing his video games. He did have a friend spend the night and they took the telescope out so they could see the "giant" moon the other night. 

Johnathon passed his college entrance exams and will be starting Collin College in the fall. He is still planning on pursuing a career in Culinary Arts. He will be graduating from Wakeland High on June 4th and he is very excited. He has been very busy working too! He has been working 30 to 40 hours a week while going to school. He is planning on staying at Market Street while he goes to CCCC.

Amanda has been experiencing some very extreme low blood sugars which is a work in progress. It's pretty obvious she is low when she is trying to poke her finger with her flash light instead of the finger poker and then proceeds to put four contacts in each eye all the while I am trying to get her to drink juice and eat something. She did bounce back very well and has no recollection of what took place. We have had a few other incidences but not quite as bad.

Amanda's surgery has been scheduled for July 18th and she will be in the hospital for about week and her entire recovery time should be about 4 to 6 weeks....just in time for her to start high school. She will be going to Carter Blood to give a unit of blood to have on hand just in case they need it during the surgery. The doctor thought it would be best to use her own blood if the need arises. They will be placing rods in her upper back and the surgery should take 5 to 6 hours.  The doctor said she should have near complete mobility since it's her upper back.

We will be celebrating Timothy's 23rd and Arron's 8th birthdays this weekend. John and I went birthday shopping yesterday, after we had a much needed lunch date. John has been so busy working as usual. He worked 12 out of the last 13 days. I am looking forward to spending the next few days with him.

Joe has been painting in the house for the past two weeks. He touched up all the woodwork that needed it and then we had him paint the three upstairs bathrooms.  Then we had him repaint the three bathrooms upstairs because the big boss didn't like the way they turned out....yep that would be me! Things are shaping up nicely now and I am happy again.

I hear alarms going off and no one is getting out of bed to turn them off so I must go wake everyone up. Here are a few recent snapshots of the kids...

Audrey taking a nap at Nana's house.

Ella taking a nap at Nana's house.

Goats and roosters

Guest house

Very big tree

Old church

Western Town

Western Town

Barbecue pit

Bonnie and Clyde robbed this bank and I am not referring to our birds.

Barber shop

Fire Station

Saloon and Hotel

Old Church

Pretty view

Yep, these are horses!

One of the many party rooms on site

Main House

This says it all.

Aaron on a Jet

Arron riding Jet

Aaron said Jet has two speeds. Slow and very slow.

Aaron riding Jet

Aaron galloping on Jet

More galloping

Lainie found rocks

Lainie occupying her time

Have a great week!