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Ian Andrew Clayton
January 6, 2005 7:40 a.m. 7 lb. 15 oz. |
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Stories Saturday, July 12, 2008 - Well, if any of you are left that haven't given up on me, here's an update. Eight months have passed and they have been full of ups and downs. December was not the best month for us, and mostly I didn't write because I had little positive to say. The early part of the year continued to be difficult, and once things began to straighten out, life was just busy. And I had that thing that I think most of us have when it comes to contacting friends - the longer it has been since you've done it, the harder it is to do it again. However, here we are in July and life is just as busy, and I just checked the website for the first time in I don't know how long. In fact, I had forgotten the password and sat here for quite a few minutes trying out options before I finally got it. I also put in a request to have the e-mail sent to me and it was an old address that is no longer active. So, here are the basics since the last update: In January, Ian turned 3 and I turned... older than that. In May, we went to Ivee's second birthday party. Most of you will be familiar with her - she is my friend Hope's daughter who had cancer. She is doing remarkable well. I just checked out her website also and they have had good news from St. Jude this week on Ivee's progress. If you want, go to thefoleyfamily.blogspot.com to check it out. In June, school got out on the 4th or 5th. Before the end of the year, I submitted for a transfer and was hired here in Milton at the high school. I will be teaching 9th and 10th grade English and Sarah will be attending there. We all went to Disney World for a week with my parents, sister, and her daughter. That was fun and exhausting. After the trip to Disney World, I plunged in with both feet training with my mother as an agent for Liberty National. I had passed my test and become a licensed agent shortly before school let out. The 28th of June we left to see Andy's family for about 10 days in Illinois. This is a summer tradition for us and I've written about it before. We hang out with Andy's brother and his wife and son and Andy's parents. We rode in the parade for the 4th and threw candy. My sister-in-law and I both had sore arms for the next few days - pathetic, I know. Speaking of Cristin, she and Adam are expecting their second baby in November. Their son Ethan is ten months older than Ian; he turned 4 in March. We are back from Illinois and I am working again with insurance. I fought against it for a while, but now I really like it, even though it is hard work. It's not glamourous, and no one wants to think about the need for it, but I can see how people have been helped by having it and it makes me feel good to know I'm a part of that. I've also learned it's possible to make a living with it while still doing the right thing. I think the reason I struggled with whether or not to get involved was because no one likes insurance agents - there have been some out there who didn't always put what the family needed as their first priority. Anyway, you're probably bored with this topic. Andy will not be going back into teaching. He is currently and has been for a while looking for something else. We have considered going back to the military, but once you leave active duty in the Air Force, they won't let you back on active duty. He has checked into doing the reserves in the AF and has also looking into joining the navy. He has applied for jobs all over the country, but nothing has turned up yet. Right now he's staying home and I'm out working - I figure it's fair since I got to stay home for three years when Ian was born. It would be great if he could find something here since I still have the umbilical cord attached to my family, but also because if we can't hold onto this house long enough to build up some equity and for the market to improve, we are going to lose our shirts on it. Please pray for us - that we can make it financially, that Andy can find the right job for him and our family, that I can do all the work that is required to be good at two jobs as well as being a wife and mother without losing my mind and ripping my hair out. I just realized I didn't mention also from June that Sarah turned 14, and she will be very upset if I leave that out. We had her birthday party at my family's house the Saturday after her birthday, and it was neat because my neice Skylar turned 3 on the 17th, my cousin Jay's birthday is on the 25th or 26th, and his daughter turned 2 the day of the group party. It was a very nice day for all. The last couple of things that come to mind are that my dear friend Sonya and her husband are expecting a little girl in August. That will make the 6th child in that family! Also, my friend Deborah is coming down in the next couple of weeks and hopefully she, Hope, and I will be able to get together. I will end this novel with an apology for anyone who was bugged because I wasn't writing. Frankly, if I just write an update, it doesn't take that long, and I should never let it get this far behind. Pictures, on the other hand, are another matter altogether, and I don't know when I'll get around to that. I hope this note finds all of our friends and family doing well, and know that even if we don't write, or call, or update our website, you are always in our hearts. With love, Diane and family Tuesday, November 13, 2007 - It's EARLY in the morning and we are getting ready for school. We had a 3-day weekend and it was nice. We have the rest of this week at work and then will have fall break/Thanksgiving next week. Since we have to leave soon, I don't have much time, but I wanted to post a picture. We took the kids to see Santa yesterday (I know it's early - but we had the day off...) and got a picture made. So, here it is. Love from all of us. Saturday, October 20, 2007 - Yesterday marked the end of the first quarter of school for all of us. It's been... an interesting... nine weeks. Lots of breaking in for us to do. This weekend we are in Atlanta at my friend Sonya's house. Today Andy and Bill went to a Georgia Tech game and got pretty sunburned. Tech won though, so Go Tech!!!! Tomorrow we are all going to Six Flags for Fright Fest. We bought season passes back in May and this is the first time this year we've been. Oh, well, the summer was much busier than we anticipated. I have tons of pictures to upload. When we get home on Monday I may be able to put some up. If you have a chance, check out my friend Hope's blog. Her daughter is in remission, thank the Lord. That's it for now, I suppose. I'll do my best to get some pictures up soon. Love to all! Wednesday, October 3, 2007 - So after my rant last month, we were tested about not complaining. Katie had a HORRIBLE staph infection that scared us all. She had had it for about a month before she was correctly diagnosed. She is fine now, though. Ian got sick during that time as well. My dad went into the hospital with LOTS of infections. He is back in the hospital again now and they have diagnosed him as insulin dependent diabetic. We never even knew he had diabetes! This has been a crazy week. Our jobs are insanely busy, but we are settling in. We're hoping that it gets easier after the first year. I realize that this is a terrible post, but it's been a month since I put anything on here. I owe you guys pictures and probably better stories. ;-) Unfortunately, tonight I can't do that. I haven't paid bills in more than a month and its the first thing on my to-do list before I can go to sleep. Take care, everyone!!! Monday, September 10, 2007 - Well, I've been terrible. For those of you who haven't fussed at me, take heart in the knowledge that other people have (and you know who you are). ;-) Life here is crazy busy. I write this with complete sincerity, and yet I am troubled by saying it. Right before I logged on to our site, I checked out my friends' (Deborah's and Hope's). Hope's family is dealing with normal, everyday "busy", and then with a very scary health issue as well. A link from her site for the Busby family is just as sobering. Do we all realize how truly blessed we are? We complain about the traffic we have to fight to get to our jobs, the people we have to work with who get on our nerves, our kids and spouses, the lack of anything good to watch on television. Thank the Good Lord - He is merciful and doesn't turn His back on us even when we are ungrateful for all that He has given us. I could go on and on about this, but you didn't come here to read my ranting. Soooooooo - Much has happened since I last posted. You probably figured that out since it's been 2 months since then. Andy and I spent two days in mid-August going through a supersonic speed new teacher orientation followed by a week-long prep week that was filled with a year's worth of information. I'm not complaining! School began on Monday, August 20, and I LOVED it. Andy isn't quite as enamored. Our kids are doing very well in school. Sarah is with us, Katie is in first grade at a brand new elementary school, and we've moved Ian to a daycare that is very close to our school. We are VERY busy, bringing home work every day and I've gone into the school for the last two weekends as well. Everyone is adjusting, but overall, we're content. I was going to coordinate a Financial Peace University class at our church that was to start this week, but we've tabled it until January. Also, I'm going to be working with students in the county who are homebound. I start with my first student this Wednesday and will be meeting with him each week probably through the 9 weeks, which ends near the end of October. Bored, yet? ;-) Today is Katie's 7th birthday! We cannot believe how big our kids are getting. She had a birthday party at her MeMe's this past weekend and we are planning something for this weekend, though I don't know yet what it will be. I'm sure I'm missing something big, but it's time for me to start dinner. They're all hungry, so that's my cue. I'll try to get on soon and put up pics. Love to all - Wednesday, July 18, 2007 - Whew! I've been bad! My apologies to anyone who has checked the website for new information and found none. Here's the main update - Andy and I have both been hired to teach at Woodlawn Beach Middle School. He has 7th grade math and I have 8th and 6th grade Language Arts. We have found a daycare 2 miles away from the school for Ian and Sarah is transferring to the school with us. Katie is going to a brand new school that is on the way to ours, but we have to leave so early in the morning to get to school on time that she will be going to school and coming home with a friend in the neighborhood every day. Well, it's 7 p.m. and "So You Think You Can Dance" is coming on. I'll have to finish this up tomorrow. ;-) Thursday, May 31, 2007 - I can't believe this month is ending. Half of 2007 is nearly gone. It's amazing how fast time flies by. Life is crazy as usual at the Clayton house. School is out for the summer. Ian is still at daycare, Katie is attending a day camp that she went to last year and LOVES, and Sarah is at home doing the Clayton Summer Home-Schooling Program. She's thrilled about that, let me tell you. Andy is at work today for his last official day. He has to go back in June for his boss' retirement ceremony as he is the MC (or whatever they call it in the Air Force). The most exciting news at our house right now is that it looks like Andy and I are both going to get hired at an awesome middle school here. We both went in yesterday and interviewed with the principal. We loved her and she loved us. The problem at that time was that they didn't have a math position open and that's all Andy can teach. I'm a little more "marketable" because I am certified with what they call "Middle School Integrated Curriculum", and that means that I am "highly qualified" to teach any core subject at the middle school level. Pardon all those quotes, please. The way it works here in Florida is that for about 10 days after the end of the school year, the positions are only available to transfer teachers. Then they can be opened up for everyone else and must remain so for 5 business days. I tell you all this to say that we won't know for sure until close of business next Friday. Here's the miraculous part, though: Less than an hour after we left the school yesterday, one of the math teachers called the principal to tell her that she wanted to transfer to high school. So now there's a math position at the school! I spoke with Mrs. Carnley this morning, and she told me that if she could hire both of us today, she would. So now we're just waiting, and praying that all goes well. The school is Woodlawn Beach Middle School. It is the largest middle school in Santa Rosa county and is new - built in 2000. The administration is awesome - supportive, encouraging, etc. One of our neighbors works at the school as a 6th grade math teacher, but we didn't realize he was at that school until Mrs. Carnley said so yesterday. It looks like I will be doing 7th grade Language Arts, which excites me no end. Please, please, please pray that God will be with us, and that even if this school doesn't work out, that we will both find good jobs as we both have to work now that Andy is leaving the military. On another note, my friend Hope, whom I've mentioned before, is at the hospital again with Ivee. Ivee just turned one this month, and she is in the hospital most of the time. That child and her family are going through hell, but their faith in God is an awesome thing. Please pray for them, and check out their website for updates. I've put it on the site in a separate post, but I think it's www.thefoleyfamily.blogspot.com Happy Birthday to Sorden Hiraoka on May 15th! (Sorry I didn't put that up before, Sorden!) To all of our friends and family, our love to you all. Wednesday, May 9, 2007 - Wow. It's been a busy month. I'll have the thought that I need to update the website, and then before I can actually sit down to do it, weeks have flown by. We went to another play with my friend Sonya and her husband Bill the last Saturday in April. It was - now the name escapes me, but it's built around Elvis music. "All Shook Up," I think. That was a fun weekend. That evening after the play, we went to Dave & Busters, which is a huge restaurant/arcade/pool hall/etc. We played video games like kids and had a wonderful time. I got sick the Sunday morning we left Atlanta and am still not well, though I'm better as I've been on antibiotics since Saturday after a heinous trip to the ER at 2 a.m. that lasted over five hours. Yuck. Katie and Ian had a trip to the eye doctor on Monday. Katie's vision in her bad eye has improved to 20/40 with glasses. Without glasses we started at 20/200! With glasses, we started at 20/70, so there is definite improvement there. She is set to have eye surgery to correct the muscle on June 13. At the same visit, Ian was prescribed glasses, which I am picking up this morning. That should be fun. Katie was wearing hers at a very young age, also, and if I remember correctly, she didn't care for them very much. ;-) I'll (really, really try) to get some pics on the website before the week is out, and I'll put one up of Ian in his new specs. School is out for the girls on May 22, and we have a very busy summer ahead of us. Andy's last day at work is May 31. Please pray for us that he will find a teaching position. No one can even interview him until around June 1 as the practice is to only hire transferring teachers for the first 10 days after school ends. Then whatever positions are left can be offered to new teachers. Also, there's a neat little link on the bottom of the home page of this website that will let you know when I update if you fill it in. Given my sporadic updates, you might want to do that. If you'd be kind enough to write even just a quick "hi" in the guestbook, that would be great, too. I wonder sometimes if anyone is even checking in on us. Of course, it would help if I was writing any new information, huh? Well, that's it for now. It's 7 a.m. and I have to wake up Ian and get him dressed for school. The girls are already up, ready, and downstairs watching TV while I write this. Take care, everyone, and our love to all of you! Thursday, April 5, 2007 - Hello, everyone! I'm about to leave the house for an appointment, but wanted to take a quick minute to post. It's been a busy month as I suggested it would be in my last post. Over the girls' spring break, we took them to Georgia to the Aquarium, we went to the beach for a picnic, and hung out doing several other things over the week. We also did some "home improvement" things that week, like putting a shed in the back yard to hold our huge collection of holiday items. Katie has lost her top two center teeth in the last week, so she's a snaggle-toothed cutie. I need to take a picture to put on here, but I need to do it quickly because her permanent teeth are already coming in! She and Ian got hair cuts this past weekend - hers looks cute, Ian's not so much. I'll try to get pics on from that this weekend. This weekend we are going to the egg hunt at our church on Saturday which should be fun. Oh, yes, our nephew Ethan turned three last week on March 28. Happy Birthday, Ethan! Well, if I don't go now I will be late, so TTFN. I'll post again soon (or I'll try to, anyway!) Saturday, March 10, 2007 - Just a quick note, everyone! I have posted pictures from the Mardi Gras parade that we went to and from the Renaissance Faire this past weekend. We are going today to Geogia and taking the children to the Georgia Aquarium tomorrow. I will post again when we are back. Have a great weekend! Love, the Claytons Monday, March 5, 2007 - As you can see, I have been remiss in posting lately. It's one of those things where so much is going on it's impossible to do it. Here are the highlights of the last month: Probably the biggest thing was that we got results on Katie's health issue. The final diagnosis was that it is a benign "calcified nodule" and no further action is needed for it. Her other "thing" right now is an eye patch. She has been wearing one 24 hours a day since just after Christmas. I took her this morning to the eye doctor, and her vision has improved (with her glasses) in her bad eye from 20/70 to 20/50, so we are making progress. She has to continue wearing the eye patch until our next appointment on May 7, and we have scheduled the surgery she will require to repair the muscle for June 13. That is tentative based on how much she has improved by the May appointment. Please pray that all will go well and that we will be able to take care of this before the end of July. We will do what we have to do to get this taken care of, but it would be nice to be finished with it while we still have Andy's health insurance. Speaking of Andy, he is enrolled in his last 2 math classes right now that he needs to get his certification to teach math at the middle school level here. He will be finished in May, so I ask for prayers again that he will find a good job. Our plan is to be VERY frugal so that I can stay home one more year. If I work INCREDIBLY hard, then I think I can finish my court reporting degree by fall of next year. I am now in the middle of my third semester, and it is much more difficult than I had ever imagined it would be. It's a minimum seven semester program, but already I'm in classes with people who are repeating speed levels. It's just very hard, so I guess this is my third prayer request from you all today! ;-) We've done some fun things in the last month. On February 24, Andy and I went to Georgia to see Spamalot, the Broadway musical based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It was quite funny. I had only seen the movie once over a decade ago, and Andy said he'd never seen the whole thing. We've borrowed it from my dad to watch but haven't had a chance to yet. Next week is spring break for our kids. We are planning to take them to Georgia to the Aquarium at the beginning of the week, and then do some things around home because one of Andy's classes is daily on base. We also went to a renaissance festival this past weekend and had a lovely time. We've got some good pictures and I will post them very soon. Right now I have to leave to pick up Katie and Ian or I will have some upset children. Sorry it took me so long to put something up - oh, can't sign off without a couple of other quick notes: Happy birthday to Uncle John and Aunt Phyllis Clayton. My mother, Judy Smith, has a birthday this week; my m-i-l, Katie Clayton has a birthday next week on the 14th; and it seems I'm forgetting someone... I will check and put it up tomorrrow. Also, my friend Deborah had her baby. If you'd like to see her blog, the address is www.debchastain.blogspot.com. And my friend Hope whose baby Ivee had the brain tumor has a site also: www.thefoleyfamily.blogspot.com. Ivee is doing well, which is wonderful news. Okay, now I REALLY have to go. I'll put pics up by tomorrow. Love to everyone! Friday, January 26, 2007 - Well, I'm a little late putting up pictures, but I did put up quite a few today from Christmas, our trip to Callaway for New Year's Eve, and Ian's 2nd birthday. I've sent many of you an e-mail letting you know about what's happening with us right now. Basically, Katie has some sort of abnormality in her chest. We had a CT on Wednesday and are going in for another one next Tuesday afternoon. They will sedate her and inject the dye through an IV to get a better picture and idea of what it might be. The guess right now is a teratoma, which is a germ-cell tumor, and they believe it is benign. Please keep her and our family in your prayers, and I will post again when we have more information. Oh, yes, before I forget. Happy Birthday to my father-in-law Bill (Jan. 22), my brother-in -law Mike (also Jan. 22), and me (Jan. 28.). Tuesday, January 9, 2007 - I intend to put up pictures this week from Christmas, but I wanted to ask for everyone's prayers regarding something else today. A dear friend of mine since high school has a daughter, Ivee, who is 8 months old now. Last month, Ivee had a bad fall and when they were checking her out from the fall, they discovered that she had a brain tumor. Surgery was performed within a few days to remove it, and it has since been diagnosed as an agressive stage 3 cancer. Hope (my friend) has a website with all the details: www.thefoleyfamily.blogspot.com Please keep them all in your prayers and send her a comment on her website if you feel lead to do so - it lifts their spirits to read them. Thanks, everyone, and I'll put up pictures soon. Wednesday, January 3, 2007 - Wow! Can you believe it? It's 2007!!! It's been a crazy month for us. Here's a brief update: Andy got home on December 8. The camera died that day so there aren't really any pictures of him coming home. ;-( It was a wonderful, and rough, day. Ian was very happy to see his daddy, but they separated us for Andy's in-processing and that was horrible. Ian did not understand that he would be right back. It was an awful hour, and Ian was Andy's shadow for a while after he returned home. The following weekend (Dec 17), Andy and I took the kids to Callaway Gardens near Columbus, Georgia, for their Fantasy in Lights. It is a fun event and we all enjoyed it very much. During Fantasy in Lights, they have all kinds of Christmas stuff going on at Callaway. I have posted a picture of the kids decorating cookies in Christmas Village. We also saw Santa and Rudolph. When we came home from Callaway, we had a bunch of sick people in our family. We took Ian and Katie to the doctor on Tuesday, and all seemed basically fine. By Thursday, Katie was much sicker. On Friday morning, we took Katie back (per doctor's advice) and it turned out she had pneumonia. So Katie and I spent the next two days in the hospital at Eglin AFB. That same Friday, Andy's mom and my sister and her family flew in for the holidays. Luckily, Katie got to go home on Christmas Eve and we all had a wonderful Christmas. All the visitors left again on the Wednesday after Christmas, and Katie started wearing her eye patch that day. The eye doctor wants to see her again in March, and at some time she'll have to have surgery to correct the muscle in her eye - hopefully before this summer. She has to wear a patch 24 hours a day, but the doctor gave us some samples of some really good ones and we've ordered a bunch that should come in soon. They are decorated and we also got some plain white ones that she can decorate herself. For New Year's, Andy and I went back to Callaway. It rained the whole day on New Year's Eve, but we had a really good time anyway. I haven't gotten the pics off the camera from Christmas or New Year's yet, but I did post a few from earlier in December today. The kids are all supposed to be back at school tomorrow and Andy went back to work today, so I will try to get up some more by the end of this week. By the way, happy birthday to my grandmother (Jan 1), my cousin David (Jan 2), my sister (Jan 4), my sister-in-law Cristin (Jan 6), and of course Ian (also Jan 6)!!! December 4, 2006 - Hello to all our friends and family! I have been remiss (VERY MUCH SO) in posting lately and I apologize for that. I will try to come back soon and put pictures up and update the stories as to what has been happening in our lives. The good news that I wanted to put up right now is that Andy will be home this week - he is scheduled to arrive on base this Friday at 8:45 a.m. Please keep him in your prayers for a safe journey home. We are very excited about seeing him again soon. Our love to all and I will post again soon, I promise! Tuesday, October 10, 2006 - Well, it's been a couple of weeks, and I need to update as I'm sure you will all agree. It's been VERY busy, so please forgive me. Let's see... what's happened since last time? I got all A's my first semester in school and have started my second semester. I stress about it too much but want to do well. Katie is doing wonderfully in kindergarten. She brought home two papers today with "Wow!" written on them. They were words that Katie could recognize and read when the teacher showed them to her. Sarah is growing taller every day - and it amazes me that she is in 7th grade. Middle school is crazy!!! Was it like that when we were there??? Ian is growing and talking, talking, talking. In fact, he won't sign very much any more. He'd rather tell me. The problem is that I still can't understand him all of the time. ;-) Andy has just about reached the half-way point. He is doing very well with his job now. He likes his boss and his boss likes him, and his men like him. He's such a good leader, and it doesn't hurt that his wife sends cool stuff that he shares with them. ;-) I've thought all along that Andy is a wonderful officer, and I think the Air Force isn't very smart to let him go, but what can you do? Hopefully we will be able to get him in a full-time reserve position at Maxwell. Other than that stuff, this past weekend I took the kids to Atlanta. We went to Fright Fest at Six Flags on Saturday night and had a wonderful time. I'm putting up several pictures from there. We also went to a Georgia Tech football game - didn't work out so great but it was certainly an experience they hadn't had before. Ian got sick and we had to take him to the hospital - his fever topped out at 104.6. It was scary, but of course by the time they triaged him, the Motrin had kicked in and it was down to normal. Geez... We are planning our Christmas. The plan is to go to Callaway Gardens for our family holiday. Mom (Katie) is coming down around the 21st for a few days. I'm not sure what else is going on other than a trip to Biloxi that Andy and I intend to take ALONE around New Year's. ;-) Well, it's after 10 and I want to try to get pics up and go to bed. Love to all and remember Andy and our family in your prayers, please. Thursday, September 22, 2006 - Hello, everyone! I wanted to get up the pictures from Katie's birthday party this past weekend and when I opened the site to do it, lo and behold, they have upgraded so that I can upload up to 10 pictures at one time. Let me tell you, that took MUCH LESS time than it usually does. The one downside is that I can't put a caption at the same time and I'll have to go back and do that later as I don't have the time right now. It was a WONDERFUL party. On Friday afternoon, my dad and my sister came over. At 5:30, Sonya got here and we all went out to dinner. (Thanks, Dad!) Carol and Sonya stayed that night and we wrapped presents and I finished Katie's cake (a picture of my masterpiece has been posted ;-)~ ). I told her that the cake had gotten ruined so she didn't know until the party started on Saturday that she even had one. She was very surprised and wants me to trick her again next year. ;-) Saturday morning we all got up and left for my grandparents' house about 9. When we arrived, the children were surprised with a new swingset (desparately needed...) and that was a great start to the day. By lunchtime, Nancy, Big Carol, Grandpa, and my friend Hope and her three children had arrived. Hope is another very dear friend of mine that I've known since high school. We had lost touch, but I'm attempting to remedy that. There is a picture of the two of us that I put up today (I'm the one in the feather boa... LOL). By the way, for any of you that know Deborah, she texted me last night that the baby is a girl! Yay! We all had lunch and then started the party with the presents (the kids decided this). After presents, we went outside for the pinata - very popular with everyone. Then the kids got into the pool and had cake. Then they played with water balloons. Katie said it was the best birthday party she had ever had, which was the plan since Andy isn't here. However, it was so much fun, I've decided I want to do it every time! Espcially the pinata... Andy is doing well. He has received packages from Deborah and his mom and is so grateful. He is really AT WAR. I don't think either of us (or any of us for that matter) knew what he would be going through. E-mails, letters, packages - those are the things that make it easier for him. If you don't have it, his e-mail address is andrew.clayton@hurlburt.af.mil I have to leave now to pick up the children. Thanks to everyone for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. Love to all ~ Thursday, September 14, 2006 - (at 9:35 p.m. which is past my bedtime, people!) I finally got some new pictures on the sight, and man, it takes a long time. I've put up a few from the night Sonya and Jon came doen (July 8) and we went to dinner and the Michael Buble concert. I've written before that the concert was AMAZING, and dinner was fun, too. ;-) I also put up a few pictures from Ian's school. His teachers were nice enough last week to take a few so Daddy could see his boy. Most of the pictures are from our trip this past weekend to Grandma Blades' house in Niceville, Florida. She lives about an hour away and we left after school last Friday. Saturday morning we got up and went to this wonderful park there in Niceville. You can see from the pictures that it was awesome there. I can't wait to go back. The pictures don't do it justice. After that, we went to lunch at Bluewater Bay McDonald's (or something like that). Their playroom is outrageous!!! There are animatronic animals EVERYWHERE. The money "eats" his banana and swings, the butterflies' wings go up and down, there are lion and tiger heads on the wall that growl at you. It is very neat. After lunch it was time for a small party with cake and presents. We had a wonderful time there and hope to go back. We came back home Saturday night so we could go to church on Sunday morning. We have finally found a church home here, but we still miss Frazer so much. It will be good to get back there next year. This week, like the past few, has been hectic. I have managed to finish my first semester of school and have even taken 2 of my 3 finals. I'd have taken the last one if my teacher had made it available yet! That's driving me crazy. Those of you who know me will know without my saying that I got straight A's. Andy keeps telling me not to work so hard - but I'm just not wired that way. Speaking of Andy, we are VERY fortunate in that we have some kind of communication every day. We get to talk on the phone nearly every day, and we e-mail at least once each day. It is good to be able to stay in contact with him so easily. We miss each other (everyone), but Andy and I both know that our family will be so much stronger when he comes home. Already we have all realized that we took each other for granted - we will definitely be more appreciative from now on. Our anniversary was yesterday - 3 years and going strong. Our first year was tough, but we're so grateful we stuck it out, because it's great now. Katie turned 6 on Sunday and we are having her party this Saturday. I've got it in my head to do this awesome castle cake - wish me luck that it turns out how I want it to. I will put up pictures from that party as soon as I get a chance. I can't think of anything else and I'm super tired, so I'm going to sign off now with love to everyone. Monday, September 4, 2006 - Happy Labor Day to everyone! Just a brief update this morning as I have all the kids home with me today. Andy is doing MUCH better, which is a load off of my mind. He is having some health problems. When he went to the doctor, he was told he had blood in his ear (I'm assuming something burst on the flight??) and given four medications. The dust is also really bad over there and he's coughing all the time and losing his voice. I've already sent him two care packages and am getting another ready. He says his trailer is very cold at night. He has two blankets and one is apparently a table cloth. !?!?!?!? I'm going to send him another warm blanket and some pillows. He has been receiving e-mails from some of you and it has lifted his spirits so much. Thank you to all of you who have written him. As for us, life is busy. My school work is keeping me incredibly busy and as many hours as I'm working on it I can't seem to finish it all. My grades are really good however, so I guess I'm doing fine. The kids went with my mom this weekend to a little fair the power company there has every year. Ian rode a pony! Andy and I tried to get him to ride one in May and he wanted no part of it. Today the kids and I are baking cookies and watching movies. It will hopefully be a relaxing, fun day. Andy is supposed to call to talk to the kids - that will be good. I know I need to put up more pictures and I swear I'll try to soon. ;-) I get up about 6 in the morning and usually don't stop and sit down til 7 at night - my days are non-stop stuff that has to be done. I'm sure a lot of you know exactly what I mean. Well, all the kids are here waiting for me, so we're about to start our day. Love, Diane and family Saturday, August 26, 2006 - Well, as our family knows, Andy left last night for Iraq. The last few days had become more difficult as the girls started to grasp the situation. It was one of those things we had talked about so much for so long, we thought they understood. On Wednesday morning, however, Andy and Katie were talking about it as he took her to school, and she asked if he would be sleeping there. When he told her he would, she became very upset and stayed that way pretty much through last night. I let the girls sleep together in Sarah's room and promised them both I would let them sleep with me a couple of times here at the beginning of Andy's deployment. Poor Ian of course has no idea what is going on, and my heart aches at the thought of it. There is no way to explain to him where his father has gone, or why, or when he will be back. Please keep us all in your prayers. We are SO fortunate that the deployment is only for three months, but it is difficult regardless. We got some very sweet pictures of Andy with each of the children, but he has the camera so I can't post those until he e-mails them to me. As soon as I know he is there safely and can communicate by e-mail, I will post his contact information. Love to everyone!
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