AI Bottom Three

Kristy

Michael

Ramiele

Going Home Tonight:

Kristy

(....hey, this has got to be right at some point, right?!??!)

Random Fact of the Day: To go along with Jen's post, my first car was a 1988 navy blue Chevy Nova (photo-likeness, of course...):

Oh Sabriiiinnnnaaa!!!!! (She says in a sing-song voice....)

Looky what I found!! Have I mentioned how much I love my new scanner?!?!

Junior Year (1994)...wasn't this in the band room taken for the newspaper or something?

Senior PROM (1995)!!

Drum Major + Cheerleader = BFF, right??!!

Testing my theory....

Most of you know that Ella has been diagnosed with Alopecia. She had been losing a lot of hair until recently..... it has been growing back! It was not noticeable unless you really knew it was there because it is on the back of her head. I first noticed it in August, as were getting ready to go to my girlfriends house for a party. I was putting Ella's hair in pigtails. This is what it looked like:

Not a big deal, but startling, nonetheless. I did some Internet research (don't ever do that, BTW), and came up with the conclusion that she had this thing called Alopecia and she was going to lose all of her hair (typical mom response, don't you think?!). I took her to the ped the next day and he confirmed my thoughts (the Alopecia part, although he wasn't hopeful about her future) and told me to go to a dermatologist. So, off we went and got the same answer, although this doc went as far as to say that because of her age and where the spots were she had a 75% chance of losing it all. Our next stop was Hopkins and they were a bit more hopeful. They gave me a prescription for a steroid cream and sent me on my way. To them, her prognosis was a positive one. I was now as confused as ever, but understood that's the way of the disease. There is no way to know or tell or determine what will happen next. Jon and I decided against using the cream. She can make that decision when she is older. The cream only encourages hair re-growth, it does not stop hair from falling out.

A few months later, in December, this is what her head looked like:

More hair had been falling out, but I noticed that it had happened a few weeks after she had had a fever (the week of Thanksgiving, to be exact). Then I got thinking about the first time I noticed the patch (and yes, back in the beginning of August I had noticed more hair than normal falling out as I brushed her hair in the morning but you have to know Ella's hair to realize how thick and adult-like it is. I thought it was her normal "shedding" time.) and remembered she had a fever back in mid-July. Both times the fever was a freak thing. It only lasted 8-10 hours and got really high with no other symptoms. Huh.......

This brings me to the current day where she is running a 102.2 fever. Poor thing, she is miserable! I almost hope my theory is wrong and that a fever is not jolting the disease, because her head now looks like this:

And her hair has been growing back quite rapidly!

So, can you all please say a quick prayer for her? I know this is going to be a life-long thing for her and I've already given this whole thing to God and am comforted to know that He is in control. That being said, we all know God wants us to come to Him with our troubles, and so that's what I'm doing. It makes me feel so good when I can go to Him and lay it all down.

Funny Picture Friday (or FPF)

Like Father, Like, er, Daughter!?!?

For Jodie....

So Jodie had asked me about my spice rack after my random fact yesterday. My spices are not in my pantry, they have their own drawer. This, for the most part, is fantastic. However; the drawer can only handle certain-sized containers and it makes it hard to keep them alphabetized. But, below is my attempt to keep them somewhat organized:
As you can see, they are fairly alphabetized, but backwards-ish. Anyway, I had taken a photo of my actual pantry some time ago for something else and managed to find it, so I'll post that, too:

It has looked better and it's looked worse, but again, for the most part it's organized. I think when Jon thinks of the movie, the main idea is the fact that every thing has to be facing forward so it is readable. I will turn a box and a can until I can read what it says.

And Jodie, for the record, the resource room feels like my home away from home!!

Ugh....

Ella goes to a dance class once a week. It's done by the local rec council and I've been happy with it so far. This week was "Bring a Friend to Class." So, we had her good friend, Lydia, over to spend the night last night because Ella's class is early (9:30). Lydia herself had dance last night so I wasn't able to get her until 7:00. I got a call this morning at 8:20 from the class mom telling me that class has been cancelled today. I immediately hoped everything was okay because it is not like the instructor to cancel this last-minute (or at all, really). So, I asked if everything was okay and the mom gave an exasperated sigh and said, "S forgot that her son's preschool Easter program is this morning, and decided to cancel class so she could be there."

Now, I'm all for family first, but this was completely irresponsible in my book. I've had two in preschool and I know that they give you plenty of heads-up when there is a program coming around. This is not S's first child through preschool so I also know that she had to know an Easter program was soon. She has also been teaching for many, many years and should know to look for things like this that could coincide with her class schedule. That being said, there were a lot of us that went through a lot of trouble to be sure our daughters had a friend available for class today. So, S was letting down not only her normal 12 students, but 12 other little girls as well. Maybe it would've been different if it were a normal class, but letting down 24 kids is pretty big.

What would you have done in this situation? I'm pretty good (alright, I'm downright anal) about writing things in my calendar and making sure I know everything that is going on, when. I go so far as to respond to permission slips, RSVP's, and other things of that nature immediately, so it does not get forgotten. So, I cannot say that something like this will never happen to me, but I'm pretty confident that the chances are slim. Regardless, I would've gone with my class and sent a family member to the school with the video camera. If it had not been BAF week, I'm not sure what I would've done.

Random Fact of the Day: Jon says I remind him of the guy in the movie "Sleeping With the Enemy." Just open my pantry to see why....

AI

Okay, I admittedly have NOT seen AI yet....however, I was at my Bible Study and overheard it occasionally (the TV was on in the other room! Talk about torture....). I really hope Kristy Lee goes tonight.....I knew it was her as soon as she started and I didn't like it!

We'll see....


Is there only one going home tonight??

Random Fact of the Day: Jon really wanted Ella's name to be Ariel. He went to school with a girl name Ariel that he really liked (as a friend...she was really nice) and always liked her name. So, his association would have been her (which didn't bother me) but that left mine as the Disney mermaid and I couldn't do that. So, we tried combining the two and came up with Ariella, but I didn't like that, either. I like Ella! Oh, and BTW, her middle name is Lavice (pronounced Lah-veese). She is named after Jon's grandmom.

Kevin's Tribute Video

For anyone interested, the tribute video that was made for Kevin's memorial service is up on our churchs' website. Just click and scroll to the bottom....

As I was listening again to the lyrics of Homesick (the 2nd song in the video), there was a verse that caught my attention that made me think. Here is the whole song, and I'll italic and color the lines that stuck out to me....

You're in a better place, I've heard a thousand times
And at least a thousand times I've rejoiced for you
But the reason why I'm broken, the reason why I cry
Is how long must I wait to be with you

I close my eyes and I see your face
If home's where my heart is then I'm out of place
Lord, won't you give me strength to make it through somehow
I've never been more homesick than now

Help me Lord cause I don't understand your ways
The reason why I wonder if I'll ever know
But, even if you showed me, the hurt would be the same
Cause I'm still here so far away from home

I close my eyes and I see your face
If home's where my heart is then I'm out of place
Lord, won't you give me strength to make it through somehow
I've never been more homesick than now

In Christ, there are no goodbyes
And in Christ, there is no end
So I'll hold onto Jesus with all that I have
To see you again
To see you again

And I close my eyes and I see your face
If home's where my heart is then I'm out of place
Lord, won't you give me strength to make it through somehow
Won't you give me strength to make it through somehow
Won't you give me strength to make it through somehow

I've never been more homesick than now

Love that song.....

Tim sums it up for all of us....

I MISS KEVIN

How long is this grieving process going to take? I'm exhausted. And I know Kathi is talking about him at MOPS tonight. I'm going to talk to them about my Make-n-Take thing I'm doing, and am planning on staying to support Kath.

I'm praying for you, Kathi! You are so strong to do this...again!!

Random Fact of the Day: I've only had stitches twice....and both have been in the same spot!

Blog-Worthy....

So, we were having a movie night with the kids last night and in order to conserve time (we were losing an hour, too!!) I was hopping in the shower right after Ella got out. As I'm ready to do that, she looks at me and says: "Mommy! You have big milk thingamajiggers!!!"

(At least she didn't ask if we were having another baby.......**sigh** I want my old body back!!!)