Casey video

These are pictures of Casey over the past year.

Who do you think...

is going to win American Idol? Or do you care??? :)

Even though my daughter disagrees with me, I really love to hear Adam Lambert sing. I think he has an awesome voice, and I am a huge fan of rock! My daughter wants Kris Allen to win. I think all 3 of the finalists are awesome singers.. no doubt.

Just curious who you think is going to win, and who you want to win. I am usually NOT one to follow the crowd at all. I don't pick someone just because the majority thinks he/she is good, but I really do think Adam is insanely talented.

Aminals...

The exotic animal drive-thru park that we went to on Saturday was so much fun. Casey and I have been several times before, but Jason had never been before this weekend.

Yesterday, we went to church and then had lunch with Jason's parents. Casey and I spent the rest of the day catching up on DVRed shows, playing games, and watching old episodes of our favorite shows on hulu.com. It was a really good Mother's Day. We were supposed to go to my sister's house last night, but I wasn't feeling well. I haven't been sleeping well, and I have a lot of swelling in my feet and ankles, so I have to go get blood work tomorrow to check out my kidney function.

I just want to say what a wonderful Mom I have. She's not only given me life 3 times, but is always there for me, is very loving and patient, and puts her children and grandchildren first. I love her so much and am so proud to call her my mom!

I am so proud to be Casey's mom too! Instead of giving me a gift this year, she gave all of the money she had saved up to help a friend of ours pay his medical bills. I was so proud of her for doing that. :) She drew me this beautiful picture of a butterfly and a flower, and waited on me all day yesterday. It was awesome!!

I hope all of you had a wonderful Mother's Day!

Here are some pics from Saturday...

A preview pic...

We had a great time today and took tons of pics, but I haven't had time to really look at them yet, so I thought I'd give you a preview of what's to come. :)

TO ALL MOTHER'S: Have a blessed, wonderful, joy-filled day tomorrow. You all deserve it!!

My niece's bday party

My niece Caroline will be 12 tomorrow. I can't believe it! It seems like yesterday when we were waiting (not so) patiently in the waiting room for her to be born. Casey was 18 months old at the time and running around the hospital in the middle of the night. I thought Caroline was going to be a boy. We were pleasantly surprised when my mom came out of the delivery room to tell Casey that she had a new baby cousin named Caroline. :)

She had her birthday party last night, and Casey and I were recruited to do hair and make-up. I was too busy to get before and after pictures, but I did manage to get one of Caroline's hair after I straightened it. Caroline has very thick, very curly hair, and it has never been straightened before. I thought she looked beautiful! It took me an hour to straighten it. Here are the results...




And here are more pics from the party...











Today we are headed to an exotic animal drive thru park. I'm hoping to have plenty of photo opportunities!

Dear Diary...

I almost didn't write to you tonight because the internet is so slow, but I decided to sit and wait for this page to pull up, because I really have SO much to tell you.

First of all.. Bristol Palin... you know, the preggers girl (well, she's had her baby now) is speaking out about teen pregnancy. What is everyone ragging her about? She made a mistake (believe me.. one that many, many teenage girls make), and she got pregnant. Welllll.. she's got two choices at that point. To terminate the pregnancy or have the baby. If she has the baby, she has even more choices.. like keeping the baby or putting him/her up for adoption. Bristol chose to not get an abortion. SO whyyyyyyyy are people ragging on her???? Unbelievable! They should look at her courage and talk about THAT!!! I mean tons of girls don't have this courage. Not that I judge them in anyway, but why are people judging HER??? She could have gotten an abortion and went on with her perfect little, ambitious life, but she didn't. She chose to keep her baby!!!! But we all know that society is going to find a problem with whatever you do, right... haha! Look at Miley Cyrus... sweet, virgin girl, who I think is a great example for my daughter by wearing a purity ring... AND she's ridiculed by everyone in Hollywood and elsewhere. She's too GOOD for them. People are telling her to make a sex tape.. I mean come on!!!! Geeze... you can't ever win.

So diary, that's not the only thing bothering me. We lost another CFer tonight. He was 60 and the brother of a great friend of mine named Brad. Yeah, he lived way beyond the average life expectancy for a CFer which is 37, but that doesn't make it any easier for his family and especially his mom, who has already lost 2 children. I'll be praying for the King family for sure!

Casey sent me a text message tonight (she's with her dad a few days). It said "Missing Clark, Rich and John". Just so you know diary, Clark is the guy at church we have been praying so hard for. He had bladder cancer at such a young age and went to Mexico after they told him here in the states that there was no more hope. He passed away this past Monday. :( Rich and John are CFers whom Casey met at the 2004 Transplant Games in Minnesota. They died after that. Casey has always had a hard time with their deaths. I do remind her that we will see them again, but it provides little comfort for her at this time. I think it has something to do with her fear of me dying.

On a really good note diary... my friend Jeri is doing so good. She had her lung/liver transplant .. uhhhhh... well, it's been a couple of weeks ago now. She is exercising and doing so GOOD! I'm so happy for her. My friends who have prayed for her and thought about her over the weeks are awesome.

So, I've tried writing a book or two in my life. One was a medical mystery that involved CF. I got to the 4th chapter and got writer's block. Then I started writing a House episode, which I think was pretty good, but once Cuddy got pregnant, I got writer's block. See the pattern?????? Sooooo I'm looking at writing my life story, BUT in the form of a fantasy novel. We'll see how that goes. I've made a few notes. I'm really hoping I get past the 4th chapter on that. :)

I'm catching up on the Arrested Development episodes. What a great show!! Absolutely hilarious. I'm really not sure why this was cancelled. Ron Howard directed and narrates it. It's great! There is a movie coming out in 2010, so I want to make sure I'm all caught up before it comes out.

My fibromyalgia is acting up. It's because the hot weather is coming. Last summer I was debilitated from it in many ways. J and I are thinking it might be from the humidity in the air that we don't have in the winter. We aren't sure, but it's definitely rearing it's ugly head again. It's not debilitating yet, so diary... don't worry about me yet.

My blood sugars are out of control this past week. They have been doing SO good, but this past week, My meter has read more 300 and some blood sugars than it has in a very long time. I do wish my transplant docs could put me on a steroid-free protocol to help with that, but I think they will only do that if you have had a kidney transplant ONLY.. the lung transplant kinda throws that one out the window!

I'm exercising. Yeah.. but... I've pulled a muscle in my back. My physical therapist told me last year that I was using my QL's in my back to lift my hips and legs instead of using my quads more. SOOOOO I guess when I've been using the stepper lately, my QL's have been overworked. Thanks to my massage therapist hubby and Tiger Balm, I'm feeling better. I just did lunges and squats tonight instead of the stepper, to hopefully give those QL's a rest.

There were tornados in my area today. Was I scared??? No, not really. Our local news makes SUCH a big deal out of ANY change in weather, because, it's very boring here... so I figured their bazillion hours of coverage was just a way to get ratings. :)

I do however, love the rain! All those people complaining about the NC rain... well... I just don't want to hear them complain this summer when we have a drought.... like we do EVERY year. ♥♥♥ to rain!!!!

So yeah Diary.. I'm addicted to Twitter, or getting very close to that. I have so neglected blogger, and so NOT neglected Twitter, that I think Blogger might be jealous. But I'm finding it much easier to fit my thoughts into 140 characters than it is to think LONG, COHERENT, INTERESTING thoughts to put down on my blog. They really might have something with that micro-blogging thing. It's more for those of us who get writer's block.. and well, diary, you know I surely get that.

Jason is at work, Casey is at her dad's, and Balin is asleep.. but no.. I don't feel alone, because I have you diary.. the only one who is always there.. no matter what. Thanks for that!!! :)

I should probably go to bed now seeing how it's 4:00 am. I'll be complaining tomorrow about how tired I am if I don't. Thanks for listening as always!

Wordless Wednesday