Helping Reagan decorate the tree.

Grandchildren have a unique way of decorating--a Bible next to the Santa suit!!

                Our grandchildren help us decorate our tree every year.  When our first grandchild, Gabriel, was two years old we started this tradition.  Each grandchild joined the fun when they were about that age.  Noah then Adam then Reagan and in a year or two Rylee will join us.  

                It is always so interesting to see where they put the ornaments.  Sometimes they want to put all the bells together, sometimes all the angels together or all the red balls.  And, they know if we move them!

               I love family traditions.  I love the wonder in a child’s eyes as they see the tree become beautiful with the “special” ornaments.  They remember year to year the ornaments and take care not to break them.

              This year Papa and I have a present for each grandchild that is our way of “giving” to our community.  I think they will really like our special gift.  Maybe it will be a new tradition.

              More later…….

WOW–I have a grandson who is a teenager!  I don’t feel that old but the mirror says that I am…

Gabriel Drew McGee turned 13 on October 30th.  He is an amazing young man who has brought so much joy into our life.  This is our awesome teen grand……

                                                                                                                  Isn’t he a handsome fellow?

Gabriel had a “Solve the Mystery” party with a house full of young people.  

                       His parents dressed as the butler and the maid.

We gave Gabriel “13″ gifts–including a bundle of 13 long switches.  Papa gave him the traditional birthday paddling.  That’s probably the last one he’ll get from Papa!!

We have so much fun as a family.  Thank you God for letting our children live near us.

Have a great weekend everyone.

It has been such a long time since I have posted a blog.  So much has been happening in my life–many things that I could not bring myself to write about.  But, thru all that has been happening my grandchildren have given me such joy.  The four boys have been joined by a wonderful grand daughter-Rylee Lyric Printy.

                               Isn’t she beautiful–even with the pacificer!!!!

I also had a birthday and celebrated with the family including my four grandsons.  They helped me open my birthday presents.  Gabriel is almost 13 (wow!), Noah is 10, Adam is 7 and Reagan is 3.

                                     I love my grands!!!!!

So, I’ll try to write more often.  Maybe write about the past few months….

Life is good, hard, exciting, trying, rewarding, painful, demanding, fun, joyful, surprising….

……..what did I leave out?

Look what we did at The Rock today!

At the end of Pastor Bryan’s message we wrote the names of people we know that we are praying for to know Jesus as their Savior on the bulkhead wall of the stage!!!   Now when we come to church we will remember the lost and our desire to have a church that new baby believers will be welcomed and supported.

I remember the cringe I felt the first time that I saw a smudge on that wall.  Can’t believe how excited I am to know that I didn’t cringe when I heard what Pastor B. wanted to do today! 

• It will be Easter.
• More people will join us to worship.
• We are doing something really important during the service…details later…
• Our grandsons will have on new duds!
• Our grandsons will be at our house for lunch–and their parents, too!
• I get to enjoy watching the grandsons hunt for eggs filled with yummy candy.
• This is the last Easter without a granddaughter—YEA!!
• Next year Rylee Lyric Printy will join us for Easter lunch.
• We will have lamb chops for lunch–yummmm!
• But, most importantly, we will remember the resurrection of Jesus our Savior.

A few days ago we went to Jacksonville, Florida, to visit with my sister-in-law, Kristy, and my brother, Milton.  Kristy was diagnosed with a serious brain tumor this past November and had surgery to remove some of the tumor the week of Thanksgiving.   Several weeks later she underwent 30 radiation treatments to further shrink the tumor.

To see Kristy you would not know what has happened to her.  She is a beautiful, poised, confident lady.      

         This is Kristy taking pictures of the family.  She always looks great in the pictures taken of her.  Kristy learned to stand just right so that the camera caught her “best side”.  Maybe I should try that….

Recently, we were in Florida visiting family.  We had a family gathering at my sister’s home in the country near to Leesburg, Florida.  After lunch–including mother’s pound cake–we moved outside to visit.  Tricia (my sister) saddled up her beautiful horse and the brave ones took turns riding.

Sooooo….I had a moment of insanity and decided to try something totally out of my comfort zone.  Here is what I did……

Over three years ago I was diagnosed with Papillary Thyroid Cancer which my doctors told me had spread.  Every six months I have had blood work done to check my Thyroglobulin levels which continued to rise.  This was quite worrisome for me and all of my doctors.  Last week I received the results from the latest round of testing and for the first time the levels came down–over 40% less!   Yea!!!!

And, two years ago I had surgery to check on a spot in the left upper lobe of my lung.  This turned out to be a rare carcinoid tumor and resulted in the removal of this entire lobe.  Subsequent tests have not seen any spread of the cancer.  Yea!!!

Then, several months ago a large knot appeared under my right armpit.  When it continued to grow, my oncology surgeon determined that these lymph nodes should be removed.  After extensive pathology testing, his nurse called last night with the news that there was no cancer in the nodes that were removed!  Yea!!!

Thank you Jesus for these reports.  Thank you for completely healing me.  I look forward to recovering my strength and being a healthy 57 year old grandmother of soon to be 5 awesome grandchildren.

So, it’s raining outside, I’m a little under the weather and the M.Stewart show that I taped from yesterday is about Super Bowl stuff.  Thus the reason why Martha is taste testing a whole bunch of different beers.  I guess she’ll be a little tipsy for the rest of the show!

I have taken the time to read several blogs today and catch up on what different people are thinking.  Quite interesting….

Next week is going to be jam packed.  Monday to Duke for a surgical followup, Tuesday and Wednesday catching up the office stuff,  Thursday meetings all day with The Rock’s offsite elders, Friday play with Reagan (#4 grandson) and spend time with our friends from Bulgaria.

Then, Saturday I hope to have some time with Gabriel, Noah and Adam (#1,2,3 grandsons). 

WOW this is going to be quite a week.  Lord, give me strength!

I hope you have a really great week–maybe not this jam packed…