One Year Ago Today

God answered the prayers of our family and friends. In honor of Dylon's one year anniversary of having a healthy heart, I've compiled all of my blog posts from the day of his surgery to the day he came home.

June 4th: 6:15 AM Just received this photo and text from Griffin:

Dylon's now in surgery and I believe he is quite excited :)

Dylon just had to talk to his Houston this morning. I can't wait to see these two reunited again! You should have seen the hug and kiss Houston gave him before he left. It was the sweetest, most sincere good-bye I've ever witnessed. I think he understands more about what his twin is going through than we thought he would.

Still praying here at home, and expecting an update from the surgeon soon. It's been about 2 hours, and could possibly take 10 more. All of the support this morning from all over the world has been amazing. Dylon's name and picture is all over Facebook right now.

June 4th: 3:53 PM
SURGERY WAS A SUCCESSS!!!! PRAISE GOD!!! I will do a bigger update later! WE LOVE YA'll!

How We Spent Dylon's Surgery Day:

We picked up Houston and Laeton just before lunchtime. They'd had a great time at Wade and Suzanne's. We got home just in time for Houston and Dave to eat lunch together. They talked about Dylon some. Houston knew that Dylon was getting his heart fixed today.

Laeton saw his trains, and eating was out of the question.

We all wore our I Love Dylon shirts today.

Ms. Amy came over and brought the boys some snacks, some coloring books, sidewalk chalk, and toy trucks. They loved them. Thank you Ms. Amy. That was soooo sweet of you!!

Once the surgery was over, we had a wonderful video chat with our family members in Texas!! We were all crying tears of joy together.

Houston chatting with Daddy. The first thing he said when he saw Matt and Shelli was , "I want to talk to my Dylon!" We had to explain to him that Dylon was still sleeping. Maybe when Dylon comes out of ICU the two of them will be able to have a video chat.

At lunchtime, Dave promised to take Houston to Wal-Mart that night, and he did not forget it. As soon as Dave came in the door, he was ready to go!! Dave bought Lae Lae some more train tracks.

Justin, Anna, and Josh helping Laeton set up his new track. I think Justin and Josh love those trains as much as the boys do!


HouBaby picked out a Bumblebee Transformer, and Dave couldn't have been happier about it.

Lae Lae woke up early this morning wanting his trains. Mother said she heard him talking in his sleep last night. He kept saying, 'I need batteries!"

Houston is still asleep, and you can tell he does not sleep alone.

We are still thanking God for all of his blessings, and praying Dylon through a speedy recovery.

June 13th: Nine days after undergoing open-heart surgery he came home!!

I have no words to describe the love and joy this day has brought us. I'm so thankful to have been able to witness this..........

Grand Slam School Day 2010

This day is one of the highlights of my school year:) I LOVE baseball, and if you have never been to a Montgomery Biscuits game, you are really missing out. Every year they host a Grand Slam School Day, and SES always takes the top 100 readers in the school.

This year 8 of my kids made enough A.R. points to qualify. They all had to have more than 72 points, and one of my girls has the highest number of points in the school at almost 600!!

Here we are excited and ready to go!

This is the view of the stadium from the lawn seating where our kids sat.

The Biscuits provided some of the teachers to a free lunch in the manager's box.

I felt a little bad sitting in the AC while my kiddos were sweating in the 95 degree heat:)

After my luxurious lunch, I got invited to sit with the "Biscuit Bunch" and the media by one of our students that had a press pass for the day. These seats were absolutely amazing! I actually got to sit down and watch the game. I normally escort kids back and forth to the concession stands and restrooms during our trips. We felt so important sitting here:)

As you can see, we were basically right by the Biscuits' dugout.

And we had the best view in the house, when the Biscuits' stole home in the
bottom of the 9th to win the game.

Thanks for inviting me to sit with you C!

Hobbies

Dave's favorite hobby is of course turkey hunting. Unfortunately for him, he only gets to enjoy it for 2 months out of the year. He did get to go to Tennessee the weekend after Easter, but didn't kill anything while there:( He said the long-beards were all "henned up". I am pretty sure he is planning to go back again soon.

He did kill one last week. Here he is with the jellyhead. Dave has been telling Houston that a dead turkey is called a jellyhead. Now jellyhead is one of Houbaby's favorite words.



I have finally found the time for some hobbies of my own. I am happy to say that graduate school is winding down. I will take my finals next week, and then I will have the entire month of May off. This summer I will do my second internship at the high school, and since I PASSED both the PRAXIS Test and COMPS, I will graduate on July 23!!

My newest addiction is sewing. I love my new machine, and can't wait to have more free time to practice on it. Over spring break, Shelli got me into appliqueing, and mother gave me some sewing lessons. Here are a few of the things I've done so far.

An outfit for Kyleigh

I bought this dress at Wal-Mart and appliqued it for Blakeley.

I also appliqued a "Reese" onesie for Avery.

It's going to be a stormy weekend with a possibility of severe weather. I can't wait to stay home all day and sew. Maybe my turkey hunter will be here in the dry, safe house too!

St. Patrick's Day-Easter

My class tonight was canceled, so I have decided to devote some time to get this blog somewhat up-to-date.

First of all, it is turkey season at our house, and that is a very important thing to my husband. These days he can either be found at work, in the woods, or asleep on the couch because because he's been, or should I say WE'VE been up since 4:00am.

On St. Patrick's Day, Josh and Dave got a real-life lucky charm which helped them to kill these two turkeys. Here's Josh with the turkeys and the new lucky charm, Avery Bryant Till.

Sweet Avery is such a good baby! You can read more about him on Anna's blog.

Dave recently had a birthday too! I can't say that he looks his age, but I can definitely look at photos of myself pre-graduate school, and now and see a BIG difference!

Avery and his parents stopped by to wish Dave a happy birthday. He has been to our house several times, and has slept through every trip!

EASTER 2010

I stole this picture of the boys from Shelli's Facebook. I was not able to catch the three of them together in a good picture on Sunday, and they were just as cute then as they are in this photo!

The Rodgers Family

Kyleigh has such a funny personality for a 10 month old. She is so growny. Her attitude and the looks she will give you are something else!

The egg hunters

In this photo it looks like Laeton Reid feels outcasted by Kyleigh! He does get jealous of her, but he also LOVES her too.


Aunt Christy wanted a photo of all of the Clark family, but this is the best we could do. My husband, Uncle Roland, and Justin were MIA at the time.

Here we are on our front porch before church Easter Sunday. I had set up the camera and tripod, and Dave was less than pleased when he stepped out the door and saw it. You can tell by the look on his face here:) Truthfully, he was in a bad mood all weekend because he was missing the opening weekend of turkey season in Tennessee. I don't know who in the world decides on the hunting seasons (obviously not a woman), but they should know better than to schedule it to open on a holiday! Or on my anniversary or birthday:)

SPRING BREAK BEGINS IN 3 DAYS!!! The students and teachers here need/deserve a break, and we are hoping this beautiful weather (minus the pollen) continues!