Testing, Testing, and Testing


Just a few short months ago I had to undergo rounds and rounds of testing myself.   It all started in April and wasn’t finished until the last day or the school year.   I wasn’t overly worried  about the results but I could tell by the faces of the ones around me that they were scared, anxious and worried.  This went on for hours each and every day…all the while I tried to remain calm so that those around me would have that same calmness.   I couldn’t muster up enough nerve to say that the testing wasn’t a big deal and it would all be over soon and it just didn’t matter that much.    I know the truth… 

It took months and months to get the results…Even then they were not 100 % sure of what was going to be the outcome.  The final results will be revealed soon.  What will it mean?…will it be okay or will we sink into the failure funk…We try so hard to please and we try some preventative measures every month…just hoping that we don’t miss any thing on the diagnostics that will show up on the big test.  If we don’t reach the “A” status we will be disappointed…and the newspaper doesn’t take into account the transient students, Non-English speaking children, the poor, the hungry, the abused, and the mentally and physically challenged kids….If we test enough our scores will surely increase…and if they don’t increase we just don’t know the consequences…But I know that kids are missing the boat on what they know and don’t know because of the testing craze…and that, my friends, is a teacher’s take on standardized testing. 

 Spring Break Reflection


I can't believe a year has passed by and I haven't written one thing...Spring Break..ahhh the time when teachers rest and rejuvenate...HA!!!This holiday takes the cake...we have moved every piece of furniture out into the garage, rolled up the rugs and pads, and taken every piece of decorative glass, china, and what not and put into the garage, workshop, or bathtub...We are getting new flooring in the house that we JUST moved into in December...(that was our Christmas holiday)...In the midst of getting ready for the flooring we decided it would be wise to install a slate backsplash in the kitchen and touch up paint some areas...(it is days and weeks like this that make me wish I was not a lover of fabrics and glassware)  and I also chose this week to rid myself of the awful poison that my doctor prescribed for some hot flashes, moodiness, anxiety, etc... This drug is of the DEVIL!!!    So I can't decide if the fatigue, grumpiness, etc are just withdrawals from the drug or from the hard work or maybe the time change...but I am getting a lot done and will be back to normal(not sure if that is the correct word) by the time I go back to work on Monday...

spring break

Cleaning, Resting, Reading and who knows what else....This semester is flying by....Our school celebrated 3 days of Common Assessments by having some incentives this afternoon... Popcorn, snow cones, music and movies...it was a FUN day...lunch outside on this beautiful day....

Me, Worry?!?!?!

For somebody that never worries, it was certainly a shock to find out that I have a small ulcer...not sure if worry causes this but I have always heard that it does...my blood pressure, cholesterol, heart rate are all fine but according to an endoscopy, I have a small ulcer and need to take a little medicine...no mention of watching what I eat or taking it easy...they also took a biopsy of a couple of things and are testing for that h-pylori/bacteria???...it seems most people have it or maybe they just put everybody on antibiotics just to be safe....The actual procedure was easy...much less crazy than the eye surgeries and a lot quicker to boot... a girl from high school was the nurse and she was also a nurse when my 2nd child was born...now I am just waiting for a colonoscopy since my doctor said I was a little late on getting this done...not sure about this ulcer stuff...just hope the meds make me feel a little better...

Me and Brooke Shields

My eye check up for June was re-scheduled for August 11th...the first weekend after the kids came back to school...thought this would be a good day to get some paperwork done while I waited to see the doctor...each time i have been to see dr. meyers, it takes 5-6 hours to actually see him.   I have been using bromday drops (steroid) for about a year and just didn't think that was a good thing to be doing...On saturday I expected him to stop the bromday drops, brag on my delicate retina, and send me on my way...a free woman... Little did I know that the first test they did indicated a higher pressure in my bad eye than usual...I have never had that problem so i was a little taken aback...the nurse didn't mention it and by the time the doc comes in and says that I need to use some new drops to decrease the pressure he was gone...no mention of glaucoma, eye disease or anything else...just a slight elevation in the pressure...after searching on the internet i found a few causes of this pressure change...drops, trauma, glaucoma...since i have two of the three i will just go with the drops and trauma being the culprits...my new drops, lumigan,  are applied at night...just one drop to the bad eye...the only thing is that if they burn or make my eye red i will need to get a milder type of drop.  my eye is slightly pink and i can feel the drop for just a few seconds after it hits the eyeball..not really burning but just a slight irritant... i will give them a few more days and if my eyes don't itch i will continue with them until my next appt. in november...and if you see someone that is looking like brooke shields,,, it could be me..except i will only have long lashes on my bad eye...that is another side effect of the lumigan....

Old dog learning new tricks...

I have always taught regular education classes but really enjoyed teaching the kids that just weren't  on the level they should have been on... you can see more growth in them and can see it in their eyes when they have learned something new...the draw back to this is that you have to always have paperwork before, during and after the learning...the paperwork is killing most teachers...anyway that wasn't the entire reason for a job change...sometimes you just need to step out of your comfort zone to make you appreciate what you had or to see how much better things can really be...not sure which one is true for me...i had a great school, principal, friends, and once inside the school i didn't have to go outside to get to anything but recess...
The new school has several buildings, steps, gates and locked doors...the parking is also a little inconvenient...I do have some very sweet and caring cohorts  in the challenge program at my school...they are about my age and are being great mentors...i now have a number for the copier, know where the drink machine is, have been in the cafeteria, have experienced morning and afternoon duty, have been to a staff meeting and grade level meeting, and put things in the courier box...everything is beginning to come together...There has been a big adjustment in the fact that I don't have kids the moment i get to school, I don't have to take attendance or do a lunch count, or worry about how my students are getting home...it really gives me a little time to plan, prepare, pray and get ready for the kids...the class size is smaller and it seems more like a family than a class...i get to do the same lesson for 5 days before i have to change things...in the regular classroom things changed daily...So you can tell by the post that this old dog is learning some new tricks...just hope the rain isn't bad today and my room floods...i guess the sandbags will be up when I get to school today...

technology, scammers, accents and frustrations

I am once again sitting on the couch using my laptop...this probably seems like a normal thing for most people but for the past 2-3 weeks i have had nothing but  TROUBLE with technology...one of my least favorite things (besides exercise and eating right ) would be talking to ATT or Belkin...i hate computerized phone calls...and i especially hate speaking to people with accents...that means anyone that doesn't speak red neck or southern...Speaking "technology" is so hard to do on the phone...especially when it concerns technology, problems and accents...and that leads to another topic on technology which would be how these scammers are calling us on both cell phones and our home phones about an account/debit card at Bancorp South that we don't even possess.  Oh well, you would think someone could stop those scammers since they are very persistent with their calls.  Back to the Belkin Router business...I think the router wouldn't work properly because ATT needed to update our modem but just failed to notify us...today after dealing with S-L-O-W service for 2-3 days I defragmented, cleaned out temporary files, cleaned out the trash and cleaned out anything else that Microsoft and I deemed unimportant...probably got rid of stuff I needed but during the purging of the computer I didn't seem to care...just wanted the internet connected  and wanted it to connect sometime during my waking hours.    Now that I have complained about ATT, Belkin, and BancorpSouth scammers, i guess i can now mention Direct TV...Our HD receiever only comes on when it wants to...at least 3 days a week we cut on the tv and have no video service...they tell us to unplug, count to a certain number, and reset the box...that sounds pretty simple but by the time that is done we have missed the beginning of the news or a show...again it is so hard to call them, talk to a human and understand their accent...I was on the verge of disconnecting all services today...getting back to basics...talking to people in person, reading the paper, and just enjoying being outside in the sunshine...but just in the nick of time an update notice appeared when I reset the modem and this  put the computer, modem and router all back on track...the tv will be another problem for another day...

The Not so Lazy Days of Summer...

On Tuesday I accepted a new teaching position...4th grade challenge at Rankin elementary...makes me a little nervous since most people comment"whoa they may be smarter than you"...Could be a fact but I can still baffle them with a lot of senseless trivia that only comes from years and years of listening and thinking...I have a lot of experience in the listening and thinking areas...I can always beat the pants off of those kids that are on the children's jeopardy show...and can even beat some of those harvard/yale types...hehehe...anyway my peaceful summer had not even started when i was back at Thomas St. with boxes and tubs trying to get my stuff out before summer school begins on monday.  My garage/workshop that is normally neat as a pin is stacked high once again with 16 years of teaching stuff...not sure what those little smarties will need but didn't have time to organize or sort through the stuff...I hate leaving a job where I was comfortable , had lots of old friends , had made lots of new friends there and knew what the curriculum was and just exactly what 2nd graders needed...oh well, just another new beginning...and that will bring another post of my moving into rankin later this summer...the room already has a lot of stuff in it so i guess i will spend some time there sorting and looking and thinking...

Cataract Capsulation

This is the information about the latest procedure that is scheduled for my bum eye...and by the way...one of the side effects from this procedure is a DETACHED RETINA!!! I feel like I am a character in a Laura Numeroff story...A circle story that you just can't get out of....Anyway...this info comes straight from google....

"One of the most common cataract surgery complications is a posterior capsule opacity (also called posterior capsule opacification or PCO). During cataract
surgery, your surgeon will remove the cloudy natural lens of your eye (cataract) and replace it
with an intraocular lens (IOL). When the cataract is removed, your surgeon makes every attempt to maintain the integrity of the lens capsule, and normally your vision after cataract surgery should be very clear. (Should be is the key word)
However, in about 20 percent of patients, which would be ME… the posterior portion of the capsule becomes hazy some time during cataract surgery recovery or even months later,
causing PCO. Posterior capsule opacification occurs because lens epithelial cells remaining after cataract surgery have grown on the capsule. In some cases, if the condition progresses
significantly, your vision may be worse than it was before cataract surgery.

Fortunately, a YAG laser can treat posterior capsule opacity
safely, effectively and painlessly. This procedure, known as YAG laser
capsulotomy, often can be performed in your doctor's office.
The procedure takes only a few minutes and is entirely painless; nor does
discomfort occur post-operatively. You must remain still during the procedure, however. Very
uncooperative patients, such as children and mentally disabled people, may
require sedation.
Although a YAG laser capsulotomy poses slight
additional risk, overall the procedure is extremely safe. The most important
risk is that the retina can become detached from the inner back of
the eye.

"Eye" thought it was over....

today i went to mothershed's office to talk about corrective lenses for my bum eye...20/50...not so shabby for an eye that has been lasered, siliconed, gassed, and fitted with a new lens due to a cataract from all the above...not to mention the hundreds (or thousands) of stinking drops...after a few eye tests with bright lights and lots of small letters on charts it still appears that i have about 20-50 in that eye...things seemed to be okay and i was a little nervous about the style of glasses i would choose...would i go with a sarah palin look or a more sassy look that the young chicks are sporting...maybe some contacts...disposable, flexible, colored...the choices were going to be endless...just the thought of all the choices was making me a little nervous...i hate making decisions like that...wellllll ...when the dr. finished his exam, read the records and letters from dr. meyers he announced that i wouldn't be getting any corrective lenses today...since it had only been a few months since the cataract surgery(Nov. 17) there was still some film on the lens that would need to be cleaned off and that would have to be done and see if my vision improves any more... i didn't remember/understand all of "words that were coming out of his mouth"....capsulation, laser, cataract, insurance, simple procedure were about all that i heard...none of which sounded like really good news...I have since googled cataract capsulation and learned a little more about it...."eye" still don't like the sound of this....

Ain't they grand?!?!?!

The grands all came during Thanksgiving and the weekend before Christmas...a "grand" time was had by all....Tripp and Garner loved playing together (especially in the pantry), strolling, and digging in the toy basket . Holder and Sims loved opening presents and wrestling...she may have a future...

Red Ribbon Week/We're off to see the Wizard....

Since Red Ribbon Week and Halloween were so close together, my 2nd grade team decided we would dress as the Wizard of Oz characters ...it was hero or celebrity day so we gave it a shot. We planned it at about 3:15 on Wed. afternoon and this is how we turned out on Thursday morning....the kids loved it (and so did the rest of the staff). I had already made Ashley a skirt a few days earlier so I just used her scraps on Thurs. morning to make me one....got the red shoes and wig at walmart on wed. after school.

sick days - part 4 - re check in Tupelo

On sat. morning i trucked on over to dr. mothershed's office to see dr. meyer and his staff...they come to tupelo every so often on a saturday so i didn't have to travel to memphis for the re-check of my bad eye...got there about 11:00 and the place was packed...after i signed in and picked a seat i asked the nice folks beside me just what happens in tupelo...the man had some detached retina issues and was a fishing guide from pickwick/corinth...he says it is the same in memphis and tupelo...lots of drops, tests and waiting , waiting, and more waiting. he was exactly right...the first girl, michelle, called me back after about an hour and a half to check my pressure...eye pressure..not blood pressure because i can assure anyone that my blood pressure was high...i hate sitting and waiting...i read one magazine before i went in to see michelle, but after the numbing drops and dialation drops i could only imagine what was in the magazine. she numbed my eyes and put her magic wand straight onto my eyeball...the bad eye took the test the first time...my good eye took 5-6 tries before it would take...if you haven't had this particular test it doesn't hurt but you can see a tiny tip headed straight for your eyeball and then see some wavy lines through all the drops...she said the pressure was great so just sit outside and wait...i waited in the dark room until i almost fell asleep...i moved to the front, bright room and flipped through some magazines and looked at the pictures the best i could...2 or three people came in with eye injuries...both got patched up and were lucky not to have any laser surgery...some young man finally called my name and all he did was check my pupils...yes they were dialated...and i waited some more...finally around 1:45 or so you could see some people coming out and you knew the doctor was working...the fishing guide had a 10:30 appointment so when he was called in i hoped i would be next...that is exactly how it worked...there was another woman across the hall that got a shot in her eyeball...i don't know exactly what was wrong but she was in some kind of pain and kept being called back and forth. i heard the doctor say "be still and i will let you know when there will be a little pain...i am a good shot giver"...i couldn't watch any more of that so i just laid back and listened...she didn't moan or cry and the doctor said she didn't even blink. she left with a patch on her eye...i then heard him talking to the fishing guide....he got a good report and then some fishing stories were told...something about an 8 year old boy catching an 8 pound crappie...then the doctor came in looked at my eye with his magnifier and said the leak was sealed and the tear was repaired...great job...i was so glad to hear that...next appt. dec . 4 in tupelo...left the office a little before three...starving again and ready to get home...and another round of drops to use 2 times a day for another week.

went back to school today....the morning was fine but i got a little tired after lunch.

Cake

A lady from our church called me back several months ago and asked if i could make a 60th birthday cake for her sister...I agreed to do it and couldn't believe i hurt my eye one week before the date. I guess it worked out that i was home and able to cook a layer at a time and started icing it on saturday after my re-check visit. it turned out really nice.

sick days - part 3- Dr. Meyers visit

On Tuesday morning we took off to memphis to visit the meyer (meyer) clinic... that is what their signs says...We arrived for the 11:00 appt. at about 10:30 or so...filled out the forms, gave them the insurance card and drivers license and only had to wait a few minutes until a nice guy, Eric, called me back...he was very funny and charasmatic...i later learned he was a minister...well, in this room he checked my vision on two different machines. the next machine checked my peripheral vision. it was a white concave machine that had some small dots in the center. he gave me a mouse-like clicker and said each time i saw a flash i needed to click. he said some flashes were bright and some were dim and some were farther out than others. it took 3-5 minutes until the timer went off and the tunnel went dark. on my left (bad ) eye it was just the same but by then my eyes were tired and my a.d.d. kicked in...i sort of drifted off during that test but he said I did fine. and by the way he added 3 different kinds of drops to my eyes. then i had to sit outside this room in the hall and waited until a woman called my name...i went into her room and all she wanted was more information about the accident and to check all of my information that was on her screen. Granted nothing had changed since i gave it to the first lady...then she said just wait in the hall...i was beginning to get hungry since i have lunch at 11:40 everyday...i was too scared from the warning about not eating after 7:00. Dennis was hungry too, so he bought some snack mix and i had one tiinnnny bite...a good while later another man (stanley) called me to yet another room. He did some tests that looked like nuclear symbols and signs twirling all around...i didn't do anything but just stare at them...then they took some more x-ray kind of pictures of my eye...they added two kinds of drops and made me look up, down, left, right, and every direction in between. They couldn't find the tear so I was hoping that my prayers had worked and it had healed itself over night...the girl told stanley that he was going to get called in if the doctor found a tear...so they did a sonogram of my eye...this time it was a closed eyelid sonogram. still not very pleasant since they covered my bad eyelid with slimy, cold goop and then decided their machine was not plugged in correctly...after a few adjustments she got a good view of the tear. she helped wipe off the goop and sent me back to the hallway....this wait was longer than the rest. I was getting more hungry, tired and scared...there were people everywhere...the lights were very dim and not one person was headed back to see the doctor....at a little after 1:00 a woman came out and called 5-6 of us back. We were placed in little cubicles side by side and were instructed to lay down when the doctor came in...I could finally hear his voice next door and he told that woman her ailment had improved so he didn't have to do surgery...i was still hopeful at this point. he came in and looked at stanley's x rays and called him back just like the girl said. He told him the photos were beautiful but not one picture of the tear. He got out his magnifying glass and turned on his miners hat light and found the tear in no time flat...he then proceeded to talk into his tape machine and was sending dr. mothershed a message about my eye...he thanked him for his wonderful diagnosis. he then said that the tear was somewhat larger than was reported and he hoped he could get the laser to fix the tear. if not, he said, we will put in an air bubble and have her back next week for surgery. I was just hearing this by eavesdropping and it made me nervous again. He said just go around the corner and they'll get you ready for the laser...so off to another room...they had an elderly lady that was being set up in the head gear for the laser...the nurse said that she felt like the dr. would put me before the 3 other lasers but that you never know...all of a sudden another nurse popped in and said...put the retinal tear in front. i was glad because i was hungry and ready to go...
the procedure involved a funnel like plastic thing placed under the eyelid to hold my bad eye open ...it had some salt stuff on it that kept the eye from moving around...my head was against a metal bar and my chin on a ledge and the nurse pushed the back of my head to keep me from pulling back. all the time he is aiming and shooting the laser all around my eye saying "this is great, this is perfect...great job"...i had to keep my good eye straight, my head still and my mouth shut...i let out a small moan when he put in the funnel (my eyeball is bruised) and another small moan when he lasered close to the places that were bruised....sort of like having a filling in a tooth and it not being deadened all the way. Not real pain but not real good either...i forgot to mention that she put in at least 3 sets of drops for numbing and dialation...

it probably took 15 minutes to get it set up until it was over....i had a grip on the handlebars that were manly...my shoulders were arched up and so tight...the nurse even said...just loosen up a bit..."easier said then done" ...when that ended and they pulled out the funnel, all i could see was purple goo. the nurse used some eye wash and got most of it out but had to lead me by the arm back to stanley for more pictures...and you know you can't take pictures without....DROPS...to get good pictures this time the girl pulled my eyelid from the corner and stanley pushed my nose and then placed the camera right where he needed it and he got some great shots...all the while i had my bad eye looking up as high as possible to the left...

we went to the last station, check out, and the girl made my re check appt. for 11:00 sat. in tupelo...she gave me a tiny bottle of DROPS to use twice a day for inflammation.
Couldn't wait to get some food... i really think i could have eaten a sandwich while he did the procedure...

i didn't check my spelling or grammar...just trying to get it typed

part two - sick days-dr. mothershed

I went straight to dr. mothershed's office, filled out the paperwork, and waited for just a little while. I had asked my friends at school "how will they be able to see the floaters inside my eye". I haven't been to an eye doctor in a very, very, very long time. (each very stands for 10 years)...So needless to say they have all types of machines for your eyes...they tested my vision in the first room, put in some drops,took some x-ray type pictures of the inside of the eye, (they looked just like a mammogram),put in more drops to dialate my eyes, took some more pictures, looked at the eye with bright lights and then moved me to another room and took a sonogram of my eyeballs... they put in numbing drops, used a little wand and stuck it straight to the eyeball and rubbed it around...all the while i had to be still and move my eye to certain directions...up down and all around...each person said that "that was great" and moved me to another room. Finally dr mothershed came in and looked at all the information on a screen and made me do some more letter tests on a screen across the room. they tested my pressure, it was fine...no cataracts...20/20 vision and i thought all was going just fine. He returned to the room after they added more drops and put a magnifying glass and the brightest light known to man straight on my eyeball. I could feel the heat building up. I once again had to look up, to the left, to the right, and straight down with my bad eye. we did this more than once when he finally said "yep, i see a horseshoe retinal tear. Still thinking that some cream and a patch on the eye would take care of this ....i was very taken aback when he said call the retinal clinic...dr. meyer in memphis...get her in as quickly as possible...she has to have surgery on this now....they made the call, sent some paperwork, and instructed me to go home and not look down, don't pick up anything heavy and sleep with your head propped up...this is serious....they gave me two kinds of drops (by now you know i don't like drops) one for infection and the other for who knows what...drops 4 times a day....i have had more drops in the last few days than i have had in my entire life. So I paid my bill and got in the car and headed home. Things were a little blurry but I made it home fine...Called the school secretary, got a sub and laid down (after I put in my drops) Got to dr mothershed's office at 2:30 and left there a little after 5:00...the people there are super nice but hope i don't have to visit again soon.


part - 3...dr meyer

Sick days

I have accumulated almost 90 sick days since i began teaching. Today I actually had to use a sick day for sickness...boy does that stink. I took a lick to my left eye on saturday while picking up limbs. It must have been folded back like a whip because it slapped my eyeball so hard and so fast that I never saw it coming. I cried worse than a baby...more like a baby calf that has lost its mother. I could hear myself crying and I couldn't stop it...sobbing, sobbing, sobbing...sitting in the dark garage in a rocking chair crying.....I think 30 minutes or so went by and I finally stopped the sobbing and then just softly moaned and cried...still thinking i was blind ...i felt the moisture and looked to see and it wasn't blood. I finally got up the courage to barely, and I mean barely, lift my eyelid...i could see some light so i assumed i wasn't completely blind...but the pain was still there. I said at last 100 (1000) times that "my eye is killing me". No matter what I did the eye hurt...if i kept it shut...it hurt. if i opened it...it hurt....and whatever my right eye did the left eye did too...it just hurt. we had lunch, cut down more bushes, moved in a kitchen table and headed home from fulton. I looked like Mike Tyson when I woke up on sunday morning...my eye was puffed and glued shut. after i loosened it and looked at the redness i was a little scared again. only when i kept brushing away a gnat in my sewing room did I realize that there were some black floaters in my eye...I knew a gnat should not be in the sewing room....my eyeball felt much better on sunday afternoon...very little pain but still floaters everywhere...I still didn't realize the seriousness of this injury and went back to Fulton to make sure we locked up and cleaned up everything on saturday. one thing led to another and I sprayed the dock, pier ,gazebo with some weather proofer and did the upper decks with some stain and a roller. Slept good Sunday night, eye not as glued together on monday but still red as blood and still having floaters... After a hectic day at school with a conference on an unruly child, TST on a child that is repeating and just the stuff that goes on at school on a monday, i finally got to call the doctor...they worked me in at 2:40...The other part of that story is...the lady that helps with my class had a death in her family and was off so there was no one to watch the kiddos. worked out that another lady could come in and keep the kids for my conference, tst meeting and stayed through dismissal.


and just so you know...dennis said he has never seen or heard me cry like that in 33 years. I am thinking 52 years...

part two - visit to mothershed

Chairs

We bought a few of these director's chairs that can be personalized with names, initials, fraternity/sorority letters, mascots, slogans, etc. They fold up and can go in a closet or under a bed for storage. Perfect for dorm rooms, cabins, covered porches. They would make great Christmas gifts or even graduation gifts for next year. $35.00....

what's a girl to do!!!???

With school fast approaching (and I am not wearing my glasses and my fingernails are really long so excuse my typing) I can't decide exactly what to do with my few remaining hours of freedom. I really , really, really enjoy relaxing but I feel the need to get some unfinished business behind me....but then again there is always tomorrow as Scarlet would say. SO today since G-baby has gone home , dennis is out of town for the day, and no calls from anybody needing anything ...I have decided to do a little of both. I sanded, stained and sealed the front door, did some laundry, made Tripp a shirt, weeded the flower beds, and organized and straigtened my sewing room.(which will be to do over as soon as I start another project)...oh, i forgot to mention that I did repair a HUGE hole in a pair of hunting overalls...I guess they were trash for some young man but they are now repaired and ready for some deer hunting . If you aren't a teacher you probably don't know this feeling of depression/anxiety that creeps up on us...Most people think we have it made but it takes 8 weeks to re-charge our batteries. I think most teachers are anxious to get back to work but it seems like just yesterday that we were getting those end of the year checklists completed. Monday at 8:00 am I will hear the things from our administration that they think will pump us up and make us better teachers...Tuesday is open house and Wed. the kiddos will be there...Their batteries will be completely charged and will not lose power until May of next year. Can't wait to meet them and have some FUN!!! So back to the pool now for the last few hours of sun and fun...they are priceless....

Garner and Tripp

G baby is here for a few days since the rest of his family are at the Hottest Place on Earth...the Neshoba County Fair. We picked him up on Sunday afternoon and brought him back to civilization. The big kids enjoy the dirt and sweat but not Garner...he is just a sweet bundle of baby...There is only about 6 weeks difference in Garner and Tripp but they are about as different as they can be. Tripp will tolerate some Baby Einstein but Garner seems to really enjoy it...Garner loves to be held and rocked and cuddled...all of the things that Tripp will try his best to avoid. But both boys love to get their blankie and get into the baby bed for nap time and bed time. Garner is watching Baby Einstein and Tripp is taking a cat nap ...