A weekend to remember…

 

What a great time we had this past weekend! My very best friend of 30 years invited us over for a get together at her house.  

 

Cyndy, Jim, her daughter Hannah and children welcomed us out with open arms and all kinds of fun things to do with lots of wonderful food. Yummy…

 

 

Here is Cyndy on “Crepe Way”, a beautiful row of trees she and her husband planted.

 

 

After watching our own children play over the years, it was so much fun now seeing our grandchildren doing the same. My oh my how the time has flown by so quickly.

 

 

Before we left Cole got to meet Mr. Bear!

 

 

Then off we went to celebrate at the Relay for Life Walk-a-Thon. My son Jordan is the handsome guy in the middle helping to carry the banner.

 

 

We are so grateful each year that we get to see him walk the Survivors’ Lap. I loved this year’s theme!

 

 

There are also many special friends we continue to walk in memory of.  Brent was a very close buddy of Jordan at St. Jude. We’ll always remember how valiantly he fought until Jesus called him home. We’ll never forget Brent and the inspiration he was to all of us!

 

 

For this and so many other reasons, we continue to give thanks!

O LORD, You are my God; I will exalt You, I will praise Your name, for You have done wonderful things, even purposes planned of old [and fulfilled] in faithfulness and truth. Isaiah 25:1

St. Jude- 2012

This past week we flew to Memphis for my son’s first annual check up at St. Jude. Prior to this visit he was on a six month check up.

 

 

For those of you who don’t know, Jordan was treated at St. Jude for a brain tumor 6 1/2 years ago! Since that time we have been returning at least twice a year to monitor his progress.

 

(Jordan and his buddy Kody at the Grizzly House!)

It only seems like yesterday when we first walked through those doors quite afraid and not knowing what our future would be.

 

However, during the time we were there our fears turned to faith as we met some of the most amazing families all going through the same journey.  Praise God…Jordan responded well to his radiation treatments.

 

 

Prior to this visit Jordan’s tumor had continued to shrink or at least remain stable.

 

 

While we were there for this visit we attended a special dinner hosted by Benihana for the St. Jude Families. 

 

 

The restaurant chain presented a check for $55,412.00 dollars to St. Jude.  Thanks Benihana!  The meal was just incredible and we had so much fun.

 

 

While we didn’t get the report that we expected or wanted to hear this time, we are still so grateful that God has kept Jordan safe through this long journey!

 

 

So, we flew home to a beautiful sunset, but will be flying back in only 3 months time for another set of scans.  The Lord is teaching us how to trust in Him more and more as we wait.

 

 

Finally, after all that traveling I ended my week with a wonderful celebration for Mother’s Day. Thanks sweetie for these gorgeous yellow roses.  My favorite.

 

Weekend With Grammy!

 

This past weekend my son and his wife had to travel to attend the annual Army Officer’s Ball in the northern part of our state.

 

We were so excited to get the chance to have all of our grandchildren for the weekend!  Now what could be better than that?

 

 

The School of Agriculture at LSU had an “Ag Magic” hands on experience for children to teach them how important agriculture and animal husbandry was to our state. Anybody want to pet a roach?

 

 

It was an interactive environment that so the kids could see how the food and fiber products we use every day came from the forests, crops and livestock. 

 

 

Many of the booths were sponsored by Louisiana farmers, ranchers and forest landowners.  My sweet Karli just adores animals.  So for her, this event was over the top!

 

 

They were also so excited to see and hold these adorable baby chicks, and they even got to see them hatching live in an incubator.

 

 

Of course, no event that taught about how important our forest are would be complete without “Smokey the Bear”.

 

 

Well, there wasn’t a chance for a cowgirl to ride a real horse, but you couldn’t tell it wasn’t real by the smile on Kayla’s cute little face.

 

 

And yes, even the pigs got a little love!

 

 

After we were finished we went to visit the LSU mascot, “Mike the Tiger” over by Tiger Stadium.

 

 

And the girls had fun doing some cheers for us.

 

 

If this was not enough, when we got back home they all wanted to go fishing.

 

 

The only problem was the fish were not biting!

 

 

It was the end of fun filled day, and beautiful memories we will always treasure.

 

Celebrating good times!

 

 

This past week my oldest son was promoted to Captain.  There are just no words to express how excited and proud we were of him.

 

 

He was so thoughtful as he thanked everyone and brought roses for his beautiful bride, his two little princesses and even for me. Talk about melting a mom’s heart!

 

 

  Then it was off to the Zoo to celebrate the day and enjoy the spectacular spring weather.

 

 

To my surprise while we were walking around I spotted the cutest little monkeys climbing around in the huge live oaks.

 

 

Yes…I’ve never seen any cuter monkeys in my life!

 

 

After a long walk we stopped to watch the giraffe’s feeding.  Then my son wanted to watch the alligator's having lunch.

 

 

That steak was a little bit under cooked for my taste, and I was a bit nervous seeing how close that zoo attendant was getting to those gators. 

 

And then one of them got loose and we asked Karli if she wanted to feed him!  Notice how valiantly my wonderful husband held his mouth open!

 

 

The kids were officially worn out after that event, so we strolled off to see the otters at play.

 

 

My sweet daughter in love took this picture of my son, Kayla and me.  Here sits one proud momma!

 

 

On the way out of the Zoo Karli was thrilled to see this peacock.

 

 

After chasing him around for a little while, he finally stopped to show us this amazing display of beauty! Truly this is the handy work of God.