strangely theraputic

no this is not my child, mine has greater finger dexterity

no surgery next week. that's the message we received from the children's hospital about an hour ago. we don't know why or when it might be rescheduled, just that it won't be next week.

more later

ok, i've made a small change to my template on the right - i've added a link to family pictures. if you happen to venture there you can see various things like tyler's earlier surgeries (not complete yet) and the latest CT scans. i put these out there not so everyone would feel sad but because i can give the link to parents that we will meet next week in houston. these pics will help them to understand what they may be in for down the road. it's a weird type of club to belong to, but when your kids are screwed up in the same way you can instantly connect regardless of any race, religion, nationality or whatever. hmmm, what an idea.

some of you have asked so here is our plan for next week:

Sat 3/27 - go to Houston
Sun 3/28 - have a real slow relaxing day (this always helps going into the surgery)
Mon 3/29 - surgery (in morning)
Mon & Tues - be in hospital
Wed 3/31 - check out of hospital if we didn't escape on Tues
Thurs 4/1 - head back to Kerrville

before i write any more about surgery, know that i am so thankful for those that have loved on us in incredible ways. many of you have treated us as your own family (the good part of being family that is) and have really encouraged us along the way. one of my favorite things to remember was being given a blank signed church check to pay for our motel stay. now i don't necessarily recommend ever giving someone a blank check, but it certainly made things easier. i will remember the love that was shown to us long after any bad experiences of a hospital stay. thanks for being the hands of the Father to us. PAX!

HI BJ!

we are having a garage sale tomorrow and for me that is about as lovely as showing up to church in your dirty underwear - that's right, not just underwear, but dirty ones! while i was digging through my closet i found some of my college notebooks that i had been holding on to. not sure why, as i never really felt that i fit in (at Baylor U.), but somehow i didn't want to let them go. anyway off to the dump they go and in a weird way it is really a cleansing of some sort. ok enough of that stuff.

while i was digging through one notebook i found this - not sure who wrote it.

i am only one
i cannot do everything
but i can do something.
what i should do
and can do
by the grace of God
i will do.

i kinda liked it.

SUCCESS:

At age 4 success is . . . not peeing in your pants.
At age 12 success is . . . having friends.
At age 16 success is . . . having a driver’s license.
At age 20 success is . . . having sex.
At age 35 success is . . . having money.
At age 50 success is . . . having money.
At age 60 success is . . . having sex.
At age 70 success is . . . having a driver’s license.
At age 75 success is . . . having friends.
At age 80 success is . . . not peeing in your pants.

spent some time today listening to some folks talking about raising daughters and the struggles they are or have experienced. truth is, i was upset when i found out that we would be having a Tyler instead of a Rebecca. certainly this was no surprise to the Father as he knew that i was better suited to raise a boy than a girl. i certainly hope to have the chance to have a baby girl in the family, i just guess it will have to be with a grandchild. WOW - i just referrenced being a grandparent. i feel really old now. sob.

the big 7

today is a big day for tyler - it's his birthday and he thinks he has earned the right to run the planet or at least a small household. this afternoon his class at school will be having a pirate party; yes i know he has watched one too many johnny depp movies, but who hasn't. it should be a lot of fun and i don't have to clean up the backyard for the party, so YEAH! one of the games they will play is pin the patch on the pirate. this is a new game for our household so we had to make the game pieces up. tyler was all too willing to pose as our pirate.

what a day -

my sister's baby Macy has just been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. to learn more about CF, go here.

my bride is back in the blogger game again. yippee, she is certainly more of a writer than i'll ever be.

"If we are to lead a life that is open to change, we will most likely find ourselves traveling down paths that we never expected, but that lead us to places we have always wanted to be."
-- William C. Hammond

what a weekend - already we have watched our last basketball game of the season, pulled a bunch of cat5 cable for a network at the my son's school, mounted a big hook through the rock of the school for the cable drop (those lutherans are going to be mad when they see what we did to their 80 year old building), mowed the lawn, that's right, my front yard was already close to a foot high, and spent some quality time with my buddy nick. today i don't think i'll be as productive, however we started the morn off with some music downloads from itunes and some t-shirt research, so who knows. by the way, here is our latest find. PAX!