Pray for Kaycee Thompson In Tucson

One of the last times I posted here on Blogger, it was about our retreat back in September. For my dear friend Sheri, who was one of my roommates that weekend, it was just the beginning of a very long journey. Just before we left for Casa Grande, Sheri's daughter Kaycee's left shoulder started to move on its own. They didn't think it was anything too serious at the time and even joked about how funny it looked. Sheri showed us a video clip on her cell phone. We'll, to make a long story very short, this was not the end. Since the day the first tremor began in Kaycee's left shoulder, a new tremor has begun every two weeks almost to the day and hour. These tremors are cumalative, so none of them have stopped. All tremors are located unilaterally on her left side. She has tremors now in her shoulder, eye/cheek, throat, bicep, stomach, fingers, thigh and calf. She has had CT scans, MRIs, EEGs and was in the hospital after her throat tremor started but is doing okay right now. She is walking with a cane but is not backing off from living the life of a 15 year old. She played at her piano recital the other night, even though it wasn't perfect. She just earned her learner's permit today and is very excited about that. She is still going out and being social and even laughing about her circumstances. She is tired from the medication that is supposed to ease her tremors. She has been seen by numerous neurologists. They are all baffeled and have never seen anything like this before. She will go to the Mayo Clinic in January for a more extensive EEG. The family knows that in another week (the two week mark), another tremor will likely rear its ugly face.

Here's where you come in...please pray for Kaycee, her family and her doctors. We are praying for a diagnosis, cure or that it will just go away and that she will be healed!! I will write updates on my blog as I learn anything new. Thanks for praying for Kaycee!

Casas Women's Retreat at Francisco Grande

Casas tried a new resort this year for retreat and we went up to Casa Grande to the Francisco Grande Resort. It was out beyond farmland and was outside of town, which was good. I went up one day early with my friends Kim and Sheri so we could get some extra retreating in.

Hannah Singing for Miley World

Hannah has been talking for the last month about entering a singing contest on Miley World and finally got around to making and uploading her video. We've had lots of fun watching some of the other entries on the website. Thousands will enter and they'll choose four finalists. My little actress and singer!

Spring is In the Air!

I can't believe it! We've gone from it being cold and having a fire in the fireplace to almost 80 degrees today. It's been like this all week and we're really enjoying it. I went out and bought the dogs a wading pool so they can cool off too. Miley is a real water dog. Scooby has come around too and was drenched by the time they finished playing! We're having a laid back afternoon after some yard work this morning. Ah spring in Tucson...warm weather, blue skies, snakes, scorpions and killer bees. What more could a person ask for? Really, despite the critters, the desert is really a great place to live. We just have to watch out for them and respect them if we meet while out on a walk. It's a different story if they end up in my yard or in the house! When we first moved to this house, we had a swarm of 20-30,000 africanized killer bees in the the big mesquite out front. Spring is definitely in the air and it feels great!

Returning to "Big Church" and Valentines Celebration

Could it be her heart, mind, sweet spirit? I don't think so!

John and I had a really great time with our ABF at the Valentines dinner hosted at a local restaurant. Nice dinner, guest speaker and the "Not So Newlywed Game." Lots of really nice couples in the class...the class we helped start just before leaving for a smaller church a year ago. Well, we have just returned to our "Big" church after lots of prayer and discussion. Hannah was not enjoying the middle school group at our small church. The middle and high schoolers were meeting together and we weren't sure we liked that idea either. We saw her pulling back and not wanting to be involved. So, we have taken her back to Casas where we know there is a very strong program for youth. She has transitioned back smoothly and is with many of the kids she has grown up with. We made the right decision. We're thrilled to be back with our "No Excuses" ABF class. They are very active and have strong teaching as well as social activities. They had a family bowling night recently and all of us had a great time. Spent most of it laughing hysterically though.

On a lighter note, Miley tried to eat the couch again today. I think she missed me while I was at work! John took a picture so I could see the proof when I got home. We'll probably have to have one or two cushions remade in as close of a match as possible. If you only knew how many couches John and I have owned over the last 15 years, four dogs later. All this to say...I LOVE my Miley girl. She'll outgrow this just like Rollie and Scooby did. When you're a dog lover, what's a shredded couch or two or three?

CYT Tucson Showcase Clips

Scooby Canned From Annie Musical!!

I see my mama and I want to jump out of this stranger's arms!

Why won't that dog cooperate?

These darling orphans loved on little Scooby...but it wasn't to be!

Scooby is the poster boy but got canned from the production last Saturday! Yes, sad but true...he refused to cooperate with the director. He kept pulling Annie off stage to come find me. It got even worse when they asked me to leave the room. Scooby panicked. So they chose a mellow old dog who will come to anything you call her. It's really for the best. I don't think Scooby liked acting. He sure enjoyed all the attention for the actors though. All of the Annie performances have sold out and they have added an extra one on Sunday night. I'm going to have one tired eleven year old on my hands. CYT (Christian Youth Theater) has been such a blessing for Hannah. She just loves acting, singing and dancing. Neat kids who are all kind to each other too. That's wonderful in such a big group. The cast has over 100 kids from 7-18. It has

been a great confidence builder for her and it teaches great leadership skills too. Good things to have just as you're getting ready to enter middle school.

Scooby As Sandy in CYT's Annie Production!

It all started last Saturday when the director of the musical Hannah is in asked if they could use our dog Scooby for the advertisement posters. I thought it was only for the poster but as it turns out, he will be in the show! They have added his name, "Scooby Mount," to the program. So, instead of working as an usher as I usually do for Hannah's shows, I will be the official dog wrangler! When I took him to the UA on Saturday for the photo shoot, he was immediately surrounded by tons of little orphan girls wanting to pet him. He loved every minute of it. It will be VERY interesting to see how he does for eight full shows which all run the same week. I have to admit that his cuteness is hard to resist. That's whay I sprung him from the pound almost six years ago. I think this is going to be lots of fun so we'll all enjoy it. We've told Hannah that she can do one production this year. Annie was her choice...she'd do all of them if we let her but want her to try other things. We had hoped she'd play softball again but she is DONE. She wants to take some more dance classes which is fine.

A New Year!

We had such a wonderful two weeks off during Christmas break. Hannah and I had the same two weeks off. We enjoyed making a ton of our Chex Mix and delivering it to our friends and neighbors. Hannah sang in the childrens' choir for both Christmas Eve services at our church. The adult choir was awesome that night as well. This was our first Christmas at New Life.
We saw a couple of movies at the new movie theater which is very close to our house. My favorite was National Treasure. Hannah saw the Chipmunks three times! On New Year's Eve, we opened our house to friends and had a houseful. Hannah loved helping the younger ones dress up. Everyone participated in singing American Idol and being ruthlessly judged by Simon, Randy and the fake Paula. I think the kids really liked seeing the parents get into it.
I ended up with a blod clot that runs the length of my left leg (it's in a surface vein). Long story made short, I went in to my dermatologist to have some sclerotherapy for some tiny spider veins on my left thigh. They gave me an ace bandage to apply pressure to it for three days. They did not tell me how tight to pull it. It kept falling down my leg so one night I cinched it up good...so good in fact that it caused the clot! I walked around on it for a week thinking it was bruised. Finally ended up in the ER and ultimately in a vascular surgeon's office. The pain is gone and I am so thankful that the clot didn't move and is dissolving. I may have to have a procedure done in a couple of months to close the vein down because it is so enlarged. All this to say, NO MORE VANITY PROCEDURES! I will just have to wear longer shorts and that's okay with me.

THANKSGIVING WITH FAMILY

We had so much fun over the Thanksgiving Holiday with my sister Virginia and her family. Hannah got to experience having little boys around which she isn't used to. We had very nice eighty degree weather up through yesterday and spent time swimming, playing, eating and singing. We went to Old Tucson studios yesterday and had tons of fun on the rides and panning for gold (fool's gold, that is). The whole family participated in the American Idol version of Karaoke Revolution on our PlayStation.

Sadly, we had to say goodbye to everyone this morning. My brother in law owns a jet and they tempted all three of us by offering to fly us back to Denver with them! I love surprising my mom, which we would have done but duty calls and we all three stayed in Tucson. We told them that we'd take them up on their offer next summer though.

We're all laying low today, just hanging out at the house. I had fun earlier today by making my first digital photo album. I'm having it made for Virginia who is impossible to buy for at Christmas. I know she doesn't have time to do photo albums and thought this would be the perfect gift for her. It cost less than thirty dollars to make a twenty page album on Snapfish, where I store all of my photos.