Cheers for Caty

Dear Friends,
I am a firm believer that God gives us little lessons in our lives to help us along on our Journey. Today I would like to share a story about my daughter’s friend, Caty and her journey.
A few weeks ago Morgan received a phone call from one of her close friends telling her that their friend Caty had just returned from her doctors visit and they were going to admit her into the hospital the following Monday for test on a cyst that was located in her back. They feared that is might be cancer.
A few days later, Morgan and Addie went to the hospital to visit, and while they were there, she received the news that her tumor was indeed cancer. She learned that she had a form of cancer called Ewing’s Sarcoma and she would begin a long duration of treatment.
Instead of being asked to leave, her parents invited the girls back into the room. There they sat together and prayed with her. To Morgan’s amazement she talked of her faith and growing relationship with God. She talked of words of encouragement and how she was going to “Tackle” this head on. Then she said the most wonderful thing, she reflected on her times at church camp, and how they had talked about their purpose, she then told them that she realizes her purpose was to bring people closer to God. There in that hospital room, 13 years old and just being diagnosed with cancer; she realized her purpose was to help others. This story moved me.
Caty was able to leave the hospital for a few days before starting “Chemo Camp” as she calls it and decided to cut her beautiful long red hair and donate it to Locks of Love, still thinking of others.
I have decided to try to share Caty’s story of Faith and Encouragement to everyone I can. I am asking for people to add her to their Prayer Request at their Church and to your blogs, and to send her letters of encouragement. I would love to see how far her message is received.

Please send letters to the following:

Cheers for Caty
2935 Thousand Oaks #6-220

San Antonio, TX 78247

Thank you,
Amy

Wordless Wednesday

Maintenance

Because of a Dog Named Scout

Well Dixie turned out to be a dog named Scout. She was returned to her loving home late this afternoon. But, will stay forever in our hearts as a dog named Dixie.

McKenzie cried all the way home.

Look What Followed Us Home

Last night after dinner we went for a walk around our neighborhood. We took a shorter walk than usual because I was worn out from working on Kenzie’s room all day. The girls like to ride their bike ahead and were home a few seconds before us, when we turned to corner to our street, the girls shouted “Look at this dog in our yard.” The most adorable dog was playing with the girls in the yard. We thought it might belong to the people who live a few doors down, so we walked over and knocked on their door. Nope, didn’t belong to them. We put the dog on a leash and walked it around for a while and knocked on a few door to neighbors whom we thought owned a golden retriever. Nope, no one. So the girls went home and made some signs, we drove around (by now it was 10:00 @ night) and posted them around the neighborhood hoping to find its owner. No luck so far. She is obviously someone’s pet because she has been trained really well, ha maybe she can teach our dog a few tricks. When Adam left for work this morning he told them “Now don’t get attached, she belongs to someone.” Ha too late, the girls have named her Dixie from the book, ‘Because of Winn Dixie’ by Kate Dicamillo. Will keep you posted on this one….

Tickled Pink

Look what we did. I had this crazy idea that we needed to paint Kenzie’s room this weekend. She and I took a trip to Lowes and looked for the most perfect shade of pink. This is what we came up with.
Kenzie chose a color called Very Berry from Lowes

The letter were custom made from Miss Bella's Room

Weekend Adventures

This weekend my mom came into visit for McKenzie’s 7th birthday. We had lots of fun with Kenzie’s mini slumber party and just hanging around the house. On Saturday we decided to venture out of the house before mom had to go back to Ft. Worth. My neighbor had mentioned that there are the cutest Antique shops off of Hildebrand and San Pedro (in San Antonio) and that the prices were “still reasonable.” So we tried to be polite and ask in one in the house if they would like to go, when all of the sudden Morgan said that she would like to come too. So she threw on her shoes and off we went. We had to make a few stops along the way. But once we finally approached the highway, Morgan asked “where are we going?”
“To a few shops Mary told me about” I told her.
“Wait, I thought we were going to the mall…..” Morgan was confused.
“Why would WE want to do to the mall?” I told her. I try to avoid the mall whenever possible.
“Oh wait….can you take me back home,” she the sure look of panic across her face.
“Nope, so just enjoy the ride.” I laughed.
We reached a small row of shops in a row, and went in. Now, these shops were not fancy by any means, but had good cute pieces of furniture and very reasonable prices. Most of them said that they were having a sell, and most of them like cash and No credit cards. We found a set of 6 beautiful old Chippendale chairs for $699 and a buffet, which is what my mom has been looking at for years, but the table was already sold. Then at the next little building, I found a vanity for Morgan’s room. I asked the man how much and he said $135, I then asked him if he would consider $100 (I had never really haggled before, but thought I would give it a try, you never know) He said he would, and I tried to control my excitement I paid for it. I have looked for a long time to find a cute vanity for Morgan’s room. This one was good because the top can be used as a desk also. Now, to load it I said….
Lucky for me I drive a large car; most of my time is spent driving lots of kids to and from places, so I needed the extra room. At least this is how I sold my husband on it. Truth be known I like to find stuff and bring it home (see ugly chair parade), that way I don’t have to borrow my husband’s truck, he might figure out what I am up to. (Sorry babe!)
After a few tries we got the car loaded with the back two row seats folded down, when Morgan asked, “Uh, where am I supposed to sit?” “Oh Morgan, we’ll figure it out,” I reached between the two legs of the vanity which was lying on its back and flipped up the middle seat so she could sit. “Here you go,” I told her.” “You gotta hold the mirrors also though.” Oh she looked thrilled to say the least.
We drove down to the next little set of shops, there we found Morgan a pair of high heel cowboy boots, which she has wanted, but all have been very expensive (I refuse to pay lot for shoes when her feet are still growing) I asked the lady and she said twenty dollars. I handed her a twenty and off we went.
Then we came to the cutest shop called Casa Bella, it is a mix of Shabby Chic and French Country finds. He had an adorable rusty twin size bed we thought would be perfect for my niece Re. “Oh mom it’s so cute.” So she made a deal with the owner and it was ours. Now how to get it home??? This is an issue all its own. But we did it, with a happy teen in the mist of it all.

I'm still not sure how we got the bed into her little car.

Just Keep Swimming, Just Keep Swimming…

A few nights ago we went to an end of season award ceremonies for McKenzie’s swim team. All of the parents gathered around waiting for it to begin, and of course all of the kids run off to go play on the play ground. Gratefully the six and under were the first to get their awards. The Coach gave her little speech about how hard they had worked, and how some of the children really didn’t know how to swim very well in the beginning, but now were strong swimmers. This is my McKenzie. McKenzie really hadn’t swum in the deep end of the pool until the first day of swim practice. They had her jump off of the diver’s blocks and start swimming, to my surprise she didn’t sink to the bottom and came up smiling. I was so proud of her.
When school let out, we had 11 am practice, and McKenzie was always dressed and ready to go. Every day, she would swim her little heart out. Then we had the first swim meet. There were 4 girls swimming against her in the freestyle. And in that meet she only stopped a few times to hold the rope and catch her breath. In the meets to come she would stop in the lanes and hold on to the rope. And typically she would come in last place. But she never gave up. She would always look forward to practice, and be dressed and ready to go at 11 am. Never once did she make a comment about always being the one to finish last. But, she looks forward to going to practice every day.
McKenzie received two awards for swim team. One was the trophies that they receive just for joining the team, but the second trophies was for most improved. We brought it home and it sits on the bookcase with all of her little 5th and 6th place ribbons she received. But to me the biggest reward of all is how she swam the race. She just kept going, and never gave up.

The Cottage

This was one of my favorite little cottages in the King William area

Garden Gates

Ok, I couldn’t wait until Monday; here are some more pictures of my walk in King Williams.