A birthday party...

Thought I should share this photo with all of you.....Sawyer celebrated his first birthday last Saturday. Here he is eating his cake...and wearing it, too..... lol. He loved it and was doing some two-fisted eating, as you can see. He got so many new toys at the party that he doesn't know which one to play with. Katie says she's going to rotate them one at a time..... hahaha.

He's growing up so fast...and is on the verge of walking any time now. His daddy and my other two boys were all walking by the time they were a year old, but Sawyer is taking his time. Right now, he crawls over to the couch or coffee table or wall or chair or whatever and pulls up and walks holding onto it. But he will walk by himself in his own good time..... :) All I know is he melts my heart and is pure joy!!!

A friend's book...

My friend, Fred Minnick, spent 2004 in Iraq as a U.S. Army journalist. He was based in Mosul, though he traveled around the country to cover military missions and events. We kept in touch by e-mail during his year-long deployment, and he wrote a blog, In Iraq for 365, using the name Sminklemeyer that I read everyday. Some of you will know him as Desert Smink. His was the first military blog I ever read, and it had me hooked from the start. I checked his blog constantly for new posts . . . some had me rolling with laughter, others brought me to tears. I told him that he could paint a picture with his words . . . a picture that was vivid and made me feel like I was there and that I knew the people he wrote about. I, along with everyone else who followed his blog, encouraged him to write a book when he returned home.

Well, that book, Camera Boy: An Army Journalist's War in Iraq, is finally being published, and it's a good one. How do I know? I got a sneak peek . . . . . :) Anyway, his book will be available in November and can be pre-ordered at http://hellgatepress.com/display_book.php?id=84.

How I'm spending my summer...

Need I say more?!?!?! Life has never been so sweet..... :)

My cell phone rang tonight...

...and I saw a name on the caller ID that I hadn't seen in a long time.....Seth. Yep, my baby boy is home...and it feels great!! I don't yet know if I'll get to see him this weekend, but he's back, and that's all that matters..... :) What a wonderful gift just in time for Memorial Day!!

Welcome home, Seth!!

Thank you, Lord!!!

When Sawyer smiles...

...all is right with the world..... :)



Sawyer and Katie have gone home now. I drove down to Hood with her on Friday and helped her "find" her house and yard after being in Dallas for a couple of months...which was longer than she had planned...but she enjoyed being here and we loved having them here. Waking up in the morning took on special meaning while they were here...nothing says good morning better than Sawyer's smile...it's contagious..... :)

This morning, I thought I heard him playing with one of his toys in his crib and a smile crept across my face, until I remembered that he was no longer here.....*sigh*. A few minutes later, like she had read my mind, Katie called and Sawyer told me good morning, which sounds alot like mmmmmbuh, but it was a sweet song to my ears..... :)

After Seth gets home, which will be soon, they will come up for a long 4-day weekend...I'll get to hug my baby boy whom I have greatly missed and see his baby boy's smile once more...ain't life sweet!!!

Can you see this, mom?

Can you see this little great grandson of yours? Do you see me when I hold him . . . how much I love him and enjoy him? All the times I watched you hold my babies, all the times I saw that smile on your face and heard you humming to yourself as you rocked them . . . that all plays over and over again in my mind now. I was thinking of you just now as I rocked Sawyer to sleep. I thought as time went on, I would begin to miss you less, but I just seem to miss you more and more each day, especially now that I've become a grandmother. I wish you were here to hold this little guy. I know how much you would love to be able to do that. I can just picture the smile that would be on your face and hear you humming with contentment. I know you look down on us from Heaven and must be smiling . . . but I wish you were here. This is how I picture you still . . . holding one of my babies . . . . . :)

Spring . . . and new beginnings

Oh my, so much has happened since my last post. It's spring here in Texas and new beginnings are in the air.

My hubby is now permanently employed at the temporary light-duty job he started when he returned to work after his neck surgery last year . . . granted, he had to take an 8% reduction in pay to do it. It's hard to believe it has been almost a year since his surgery. Time has just flown by. We were really sweating his job in January when his light duty ran out. We didn't know if he'd be able to get the job on a permanent basis or not, and the doc made it clear that he couldn't return to being a mechanic, but we knew we couldn't do without his paycheck. He did end up going a couple of weeks without any pay while the big guys worked out the details, though . . . and that happened at the same time I found out everyone at my company would have to take a 5% pay cut so no one would get laid off. You might think that I'd be upset about this, but actually, I'm extremely thankful. We are both working (even if it is for a bit less), I'm working at home and he's working two blocks away so we save money on gas (and we just found out that because neither of us "drives" to work now, our car insurance went down . . . bonus), we transferred our health insurance to my company and saved a ton of money (whoever said municipalities have better coverage is crazy), our 401Ks have taken a beating but we're investing like crazy now that prices are low hoping that there's nowhere for them to go but up, our family is healthy, my middle son finally landed a full-time job and begins work tomorrow, my baby boy will be returning from the sand in a few months, and his beautiful blue-eyed baby boy is asleep in the next room (working at home has its perks when it comes to grandbabies). I have no complaints . . . life is sweet . . . . . :)

Here's Sawyer after waking up from his nap today. He loves to sit at the edge of the crib and play peek a boo around the rails. He will be 6 months old tomorrow . . . . . :)


Thank you, Lord, for helping me see all the wonderful blessings in my life even during tough times . . . and help me continue to see them every day. Blessings on all of you, my friends . . . . . :)