Monumental day

Are you ready for this? I actually entered and exited Target without buying anything. I know, I'm still in shock myself.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the Walk to Defeat ALS and also my dad's birthday. He would of been 75. It's suppose to be sunny and high of 80-thank goodness! This will be our 4th walk which doesn't seem possible. My mom is actually going to go this year. She has stayed at home in past years but I think she's ready to see what it's all about. I'm excited that she will be there. After the walk, my family is gathering and we are going to Dad's resting place and then out to eat. It will be a hard day as the walk is always emotional. So many people with ALS turn out for this and it's difficult to see people my age in wheelchairs with trachs and on ventilators because ALS has robbed then of their ability to breathe on their own. It will be a good day too though as I will be with my family and we will be able to celebrate my dad's life and his legacy.

Testing video

I don't know why but this didn't post in my original.

Tae Kwon Do Test

I am so incredibly proud of my little guy. He's been in tae kwon do for 2 years now-Little Tigers until he turned 7 and since then he's been in the normal class-all ages. Well, last night he tested for his yellow belt. Testing is totally different than it was with Little Tigers in that it's not done at his regular Do-Jang (school). It's done at one of the locations of the Oriental Martial Arts College with lots of people, not all from his school. AND the most intimidating part of all is that Grandmaster Choi (some big tae kwon do guy) is grading the test! He sits in front of them at a big table. So, here's my little guy having to go thru his paces while getting instruction from people I can't even understand and who he doesn't know at all. He has to remember alot-his "forms" are almost like a choreographed dance-I don't know how he remembers all the moves. He broke a board at the end but then had to be interviewed by the grandmaster! I was so nervous for him. But, he did what he needed to do and got that belt! He said his legs were shaking so bad. What a trooper. The 2nd video is my favorite of him sparring with an obviously much bigger and older person!!

Missing teeth

Evan is just cracking me up with his missing teeth. I don't know why I'm getting such a kick out of it but I am! Yes, you can tell my life is extremely boring.......

For some reason, Evan's baby teeth do not fall out on their own. As of today, he's now had 6 teeth pulled-3 today. We're hoping that maybe, just maybe one will come out naturally! Anyhow, he's quite the trooper. He just sits in the chair with the nitrous oxide on his nose and he doesn't even flinch when she shoots the novacaine into his gums (3 shots). So, this is the after shot. I just realized he needed to blow his nose before I took the picture!

Rock climbing

The hospital had a big groundbreaking party today for the new hospital that will be completed in 2012. Evan wanted to climb the rock climbing pole they had and climb he did! He got so high that it kind of freaked me out a bit. He loved it though.

Prayers please.....

For sweet baby Elliott (and his family). See blog below.


www.judycrawford.blogspot.com

San Francisco

Golden Gate Bridge
Alcatraz

One of my favorite things about San Francisco is the sea lions that hang out at Fisherman's Wharf. It's amazing how many of them there are and how loud they are. I love the cable cars too-I took a little video of what they do to turn the cable cars around at the end of their line. We had a good trip-the conference itself, well a bit boring, but we had good food, plenty of drinks, we were within walking distance of the best shopping district ever AND there were no earthquakes! It's funny but I could not remember the name or location of the hotel that I stayed at in 1996. Couldn't come up with the name to save my life but as we went out walking on our first day, we went around the corner from our hotel and boom, there is was!! OK maybe not funny to you but funny to me! I'd really love to post a picture of one of our neonatologists at the 60s party we had Saturday night but I promised I wouldn't. :) Unfortunately it was pretty overcast the two days we were down at the bay so the others with me weren't able to get a good look at the Golden Gate Bridge. You can barely see it in one of the pictures I took. I know I've said this before but I need and want a new camera!!

WE HAVE POWER!!

I am packing up and going to the grocery store out here and then we're heading back home. Thank you Sissy, Cathy and Mom for putting up with us all week!!

Grrrrr

No power. Maybe no power until Saturday. No school until Monday. No work until next week because of no school until Monday. Am I happy? You decide.

No power

I'm on my last nerve. No power at our house since Sunday afternoon. I arrived home Monday morning from San Fran after taking red-eye. Had to unpack and repack and head to London w/Evan. I was NOT staying at home w/no power and a 7 1/2 year old who had already experienced no power for 24 hours. Even though a huge tree fell on power lines in their front yard, the girls have not lost power at all-how can that be? Anyhow, I feel as though I've been hit by a truck so I'm going to try and go to bed. Will post later when I'm home w/pictures from my trip.

Off to San Francisco

OK, I'm usually not a nervous flier but two things have me just a little on edge about my upcoming trip (I leave Thursday morning).

1. I'll be flying on 9/11. So, the airports will probably be on high alert as they are each 9/11 and it's probably the safest day to fly at this point. Still...............

2. Saw that there was a small earthquake 25 miles east of San Francisco on Friday night. Is that all or is that a prelude of things to come? I LOVE San Francisco and can't wait to go back BUT I was a bit nervous about earthquakes the last time I went there especially when I went over the Oakland Bay bridge (the one that collapsed on top of itself during the 1989 earthquake). I guess that has nothing to do with flying though. Duh.

I need to just STOP THINKING ABOUT ALL THIS STUFF!!!

People are so rude

I just need to get this off my chest. Why is it that I seem to be the ONLY one saying excuse me anymore? People kill me at places like the grocery store or Target or wherever. They could care less if they walk right in front of you or if they're trying to get around you-you know what I'm talking about. As you can probably figure out, I just got back from shopping and I think I said it 10 times but then had no one say it to me.
O.K. I'm done.

Pathway to the Son

This is the place where my dad's ashes are buried. Not really what I'd call a cemetery-more like a memorial garden. See www.libertybarnchurch.com/pathway.html. My dad and mom's stone is to the left of the little pond.

3 Years

1st time Dad held Evan
Evan at 8 months
Evan's 1st Thanksgiving
Florida (Evan's 1st trip anywhere!) Florida

Inspecting Grandpa's yard
I love my grandpa!! Evan's tree at Grandpa's A Day Out with Thomas Our trip to New England in Fall 2003

It's extremely hard for me to believe that it's been 3 years since my dad passed away. He died early in the morning-that's probably why I'm wide awake at 4:20 a.m.! There may be some typos as a result of the time. :) His death was so sudden yet a tremendous blessing. We had all been together on Labor Day, celebrating my nephew Sam's birthday as well as our anniversary. I had planned to come out the next day to help my mom so I said good-bye to my dad and that I'd see him tomorrow. Although he was not doing well and we had to make the decision to have him in a hospital bed fulltime, we had no idea that he would die just hours later. I like to think that he was content with having been with his family one last time and that he just let go. One of the hardest things I had to do was tell Evan that his grandpa was now in heaven. Sept. 6th was to be his first day of preschool-he was starting his 3rd and final year at the Early Childhood Learning Center so all our talk the day before had been about school. I had to wake him up at 6 a.m to tell him he was not going to school and that Grandpa died. It was too much. Anyhow, I wanted to share some of my favorite pictures of my dad and Evan. He loved his grandbaby with a passion as he loved my two older nephews. They definitely had a special bond. Evan still remembers how he would ride with Grandpa in his van and that when he'd kick Grandpa's seat, Grandpa would reach around and grab Evan's foot-he'd just squeal with laughter. We plan on going up to the spot where my dad's ashes are buried later today. It's a beautiful location and I'm hoping for good weather because I want to take some pictures to share. I love you Daddy and I miss you so very much.

It's now 10:40 a.m. and I got back from walking a short time ago. At one point in my walk, there was a man in front of me who, from behind, looked like Dad. He was also walking a black Lab. :)

Our anniversary

Our 9th wedding anniversary was yesterday and as I was going thru pictures for another reason, I came across this one. It's my favorite from that day and it wasn't even one of the professional ones. We had gone back to my parents house after the ceremony and family members just started taking random pictures. My dad was quite happy that I had FINALLY gotten married!!

Evan's room

My latest find on craigslist-new furniture for Evan's room! He loves the bed-it's pretty high but he has yet to fall out. :)