God is Good

Happy Saturday, everyone! I have just been relaxing this morning with coffee and Billie. I love Saturday mornings when we have nothing we have to do. Although, I really need to be cleaning my house! That will happen a little later this morning. I am done with school now for the summer, that is the best feeling ever! I have nothing except my family to worry about every evening and weekend. I am studying to take the GRE, I have that scheduled for August 3, so I do have some studying still, but it is different and doesn't seem as "pressing" as when I am preparing for an exam at school. Probably because I am a procrastinator and I have almost two months to prepare! But since it really tests you on a lifetime of knowledge, I probably can't "study" that much, it is more about practicing my test taking skills and familiarizing myself with the format. Billie has soccer camp next week at UT, and she is excited about that.

I woke up missing my boys so much this morning. Yesterday I read a blog of one of my good friends that also had beautiful conjoined twins that passed away shortly after birth. It was a flash back of the day they found out their girls were conjoined. I read it on my lunch break, and I sat out in the gazebo at work and just let myself think and cry. Sometimes I think that is so good for me. I tend to push my memories and thoughts into the back of my head to "deal with later" and then never pull them back out. I sat there after reading it and let my mind wonder the to day we found out our boys were conjoined. I tried to remember how it felt. I remember going in so happy and excited, and leaving 8 hours later exhausted and filled with panic. How can something so wonderful turn so bad? We were so hopeful, though. I just knew they would have two hearts and be separable. We then had the task of telling our family and friends. We left my car there, since we had driven both cars that day, with plans for Matt to bring someone back later to get it. Matt called his best friend, Danny, and asked him to drop everything and come over and I called Kellee and asked the same. They both did it without asking any questions and were here within minutes. It was so hard to say out loud at first. There is nothing in the whole world that could have prepared us or our loved ones for the news that we were having conjoined twins. We are so blessed to have such wonderful and supportive friends and family surrounding us. They carried us through that time. God put the people we needed in our lives way before we would have the boys, just to support us through that time. God is so good! Like my friend Vanessa said yesterday, our lives are now split into two time periods; before we found out about the boys, and after. I guess that is true with any "big" thing that happens in your life. I still say things like, "That was before Michael got sick." or "before Billie was born." And even "before I met Matt." If you have read "The Shack," you know that he judges time by "The great sadness" and while I read that book I kept thinking that I have two periods in my life like that: the day I found out Michael was sick, and the day I found out my boys were conjoined. Those two days changed my life forever. But I still do not have any regrets. I still love the person God has created in me, and I know that all I have been through is part of God's plan. God is good. He is always good. Even when I do not understand or like it, I will hold on to my faith in God's plan for my life and that he knows what he is doing.

Billie's Piano Recital- the video

Hopefully this works. Enjoy! Thanks to Matt for filming and editing and making it a web-friendly video for me!

Busy Weekend

We had a very busy weekend. Billie had a soccer tournament on Saturday, they tied 1 - 1. Courtney (my cousin Kellee's oldest) graduated from high school on Saturday, too. Billie had a piano recital on Sunday, which these pictures are from. And Courtney's graduation party was Sunday, too. Billie did great! She played "Lean on Me." We took a video of it, and if I ever figure out how to post it, I will. We had a very good time at Kellee's house after the piano recital. We got there very late, but were still able to visit with some of our friends and family. I am so proud of the young woman Courtney has become. She is so sweet and so smart; she got two scholarships! I love that Billie has her and Mackenzie for role models. They are both just wonderful girls. They are very sweet to Billie, and she absolutely adores them. I am so glad since she doesn't have siblings around, that she has Courtney and Mackenzie to help fill that gap. She will always have them to confide in, and I trust them to give her good, sound advice. I have to get to school, but will try to update again soon!

Good Morning

Good morning! Sorry I have let over half of May get by me without a blog. Let me bring you all up to date. I had finals the first week of May. They were exhausting - 5 in one week! But they all went great and I am officially a senior now! That is so amazing and exciting to me. I am really going to make it--I see a light at the end of the tunnel! I am taking sociology now for a miniterm class. I love it. My teacher looks JUST like Clint Eastwood. We asked him yesterday if he has been told that before and he said "No, but my kids call me Clint." He is so funny. Retired from the Army, with a PhD in Sociology. We have an exam today, I think when he hands me my exam I will say "Go ahead, make my day." So miniterm is only 3 weeks, so I get 3 credits in 3 weeks! I love it!

Billie is finishing up 3rd grade. Today is 3rd grade day. She was very excited going to school today. I am going to join her after my exam. I can't believe she will be in the 4th grade next year. She was reminiscing yesterday about the last year and she was saying how she loves Mrs. Kauffman so much. She will miss her next year. We have been so lucky with all great teachers every year, I sure hope 4th grade is the same. Friday is her last day, and she has a half day. Her friend is going to come home with her to her Grandma and Grandpa's house (I have to work)where they will be having a end of the school year pool party! I sure hope all this stormy weather passes before then. I guess we are getting our April showers in May! I am pretty tired of it, myself.

Matt is doing good, too. He has been working on his golf game. I am so glad. His new office overlooks the golf course, so he will go to the driving range on his lunch break or after work for a bit. He has played several games on the weekends with his friends, too. I am glad he can get out and fun on his own. I know it is good for his soul, and his golf has improved so I guess it is good for his game, too!

We are looking forward to June when we take our family vacation to Elkmont to go camping with all the Rosecrance/Spriggs family. It is going to be so fun. We are going to have about 30 people and we have a group camp site so we can all be together. The fireflies will be out, so we will have nightly shows, too. Billie is especially excited. She loves to camp. She loves the out doors, loves to get in the mud and get dirty, explore the woods and creeks.

I think that catches everyone up to date for now. I will try to post some recent pictures later in the week! Love to all!

Drive Safely

I know a lot of you already know, but I thought I would fill in those non-family members that read our blog about my cousin Kristin. For those who do not know her, she is my cousin and we are about the same age and since we were babies we were inseparable. In the picture from my last blog, she is the little blond girl. My Grandpa called us "The Two Kris's (or Crys's if you want to spell it my way!) We often times would meet at my grandparents house and spend a few days together with them. When I moved to Tennessee I thought I would probably die because I wouldn't be able to see her anymore. We wrote almost daily and tried to always one-up the other one by sending goofy cards or gifts, sometimes really cool posters and things. My dreams came true about a year after I moved, her and her family moved here! It was amazing, for the first time in our lives we got to go to school together. Over the years we have remained close, until just recently, but I won't go into that. On Monday night, April 12, Kristin was in a very bad car accident. She was flown by life star to UT hospital with multiple injuries. She remained in ICU for the better part of the week, and had surgery on Friday on her spinal cord and her leg. She initially had bleeding in her brain and her spleen, but they were able to get control of that eventually. She received several blood transfusions. She also has a "nick" in her liver, but the doctors said that will heal itself. She also has a broken pelvis, in several places, a broken shoulder, broken ribs and a gash on her head that needed staples. She has a place on her lower leg that looks like a shark bit her, and she will eventually have a skin graft on that. She is in a room now, and is talking a little more and doing better. It was very scary for a while, though. And she has a very long road to recovery. She will eventually be moved to a rehab center. She was thrown from the truck, and it is a miracle that she is alive. I find myself thanking God every day the he spared her life. I know she has a lot of work ahead of her to get better and back to being whole again, but I know she can dig down deep and find the strength to do it, and I am also praying daily for that. Please remember her and her mom, especially, my Aunt Margaret Ann in your prayers. She is always by her side, and is wearing herself out to be there. I guess I knew how dangerous cars were, but I am reminded of it now. Everyone drive safely, and don't let your cell phone or anything else be a distraction. It only takes a second for a terrible thing like this to happen.

Happy Easter 1977?

AMAZING! And kind of scary for me because I can see that I am the spitting image of my mom, who is shown here when she would have been about 10 years younger than I am currently! I think this was probably in 1977, but I could be a year or two off either way. That would make me, the little one in the front in the sailor dress about 5 and my sister, Nikki, about 8 and my mom 27, give or take. Kristin in the front, the only blonde in the bunch, would have been 4, Kellee on the far left 7 (or almost) and Kim I guess 9 or 10. I think I remember this Easter Sunday, but most of them we spent with Kim, Kellee and Kristin so I could be just remembering them all! I do for sure remember loving to wear an Easter Hat! That was my favorite thing about Easter. Wonder why we don't do that much anymore? I stole this picture off my sister's Facebook page, thank you, Nikki. I thought everyone would get a kick out of it. I can definitely see Billie in me as a little girl, too. How fun. Good times, I was a very lucky little girl to grow up with all of my cousins around me. The five of us were always so close and always had the best times together. I hope you all had a great Easter weekend. I will try to post more Easter pics later in the week when I can.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter Eve, all! We took Billie this morning to the "The Egg Drop" at Powell High School. This first picture is from that. They dropped eggs out of a helicopter! It was so much fun. Billie got to jump in "bounce house" things and slides and we saw lots of friends there. There was a huge turn out, tons of people. ONE LIFE Church hosted it and they did a great job. Billie didn't win any special prizes, but she got to get lots of candy and see some friends so she was happy.

Billie and I went to the zoo yesterday, and the other pictures are from there. They had baby camels that just loved Billie. I am sure they were really hoping she would give them some snacks, but she thought they just loved her so that is all that matters. We spent a good while watching "George" the one year old Chimp. SO CUTE! Oh my goodness, I totally see why people have them as pets because they are so much like little human babies, but they grow up to be strong, scary Chimps. Billie had a wonderful time at the zoo, and so did I. Matt worked half a day and then golfed with a friend in the afternoon. He had a great time. His office has actually moved, they moved Monday to their new location and he over looks the golf course all day, making him want to be out there golfing instead of working! So he plans to take advantage of the close proximity and get a lot more golf in from now on. I am so happy he has the opportunity!

I am trying to study while Matt and Billie wash the cars. I am sure I got the better end of that deal! I hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful weather and you all have a wonderful Easter. I am in awe of the sacrifice made for my sins on the cross this weekend so long ago. I am so thankful Jesus washed away my sins so that I may have eternal life. Love to you all!