A Crazy Day!

I knew as I glanced at my calendar and the day began to fill up, it would be a crazy one, but it actually turned out okay...
A glance at the day & the outcome...
Smart & Final- quick last minute trip to get brown napkins(at least I thought)
Gracie's soccer pictures 9:30 -James made it there with no problems
Gracie's game 11am- Gracie scored 4 goals
Jessica's shower 11-?- 25 ladies in all & Jess got a lot of great gifts
Zach's soccer pics 1:40- We pulled up to the field as the team had just finished the team pic without him :(
Zach's game 3- Zach's team lost 2-0, but Zach played great!
Mason's b-day party 4:30-6:30- The kids had a blast & Mason got EVERYTHING Spiderman!
Spellmen magic show 7-9- Pretty good, we sat next to a family from Gracie's Kindergarten class & the kids thought it was great!

I'd love to post pics from each of these events however, I seemd to have lost my battery charger for my camera & didn't get a single pic of the entire day :( Pictures or not, it was a busy, but really good day! :)

Something to live by

I read this quote from Rick Warren and thought it was great! So I'm sharing...

"Happy moments, PRAISE GOD. Difficult moments, SEEK GOD. Quiet
moments, WORSHIP GOD. Painful moments, TRUST GOD. Every moment,
THANK GOD."

It is my prayer to be able to do just this, in every aspect of my life, turn to Christ!

Dr Phil show...or not :)

I got free tickets to the Dr. Phil show & thought it would be fun to go see a taping. Jess & I, along with my sister Holly decided to go. We needed to leave by 7:30 at the latest to get to check in between 9-10am. When Holly still wasn't here by 8(she drove up from San Marcos), I went & got Jess & we got starbucks & were waiting here for Holly when she got here at 8:30. We ended up getting there about 10:20 & there were still people walking in, so we found a parking spot on a side street near by & ran to the entrance. After about 20 minutes we were told there had been a huge response to the show and they were full & had added more tapings, but we could still probably get in. We waited an hour & then the guy told us to get some lunch and come back in an hour and maybe there would be room in the next taping! :( We saw a lot of ghetto people and decided it might not be the greatest topic anyway & didn't want to waste the day waiting in line & then still not being able to get in, so we decided to leave! On the way out though, we saw Dr. Phil & Robin, his wife walking in the back door of the studio for the taping & they waved, so at least we got to see him (it made Holly's day)
We ended up driving around Hollywood, got a map to the Stars and drove around Beverly Hills, Bel Aire and made our way to Rodeo Drive hoping to see some random star (ya right) We had lunch at the Grove near the Farmer's Market on Fairfax & sat in nearly 3 hours of traffic to get home.
Not the day we were expecting, but we still had fun! :)

Crazy days!

Our weeks have been packed full and this past one was no exception! My sister Heidi got married on Sunday. James performed the ceremony, as he is the big Rev. Oates now :) The rest of us were all in the wedding too! We drove down to San Marcos on Thursday right after picking up the kids from school, did the rehearsal and dinner & got back home by 11:30 (late night #1) Friday the kids had school (cranky, cranky), James, my Papa & some of his friends moved the BBQ island to the concrete pad in the back, I had a hair apt, then I had girls over to scrap & James played poker (late night #2) Saturday am Zach had an 8 am soccer game and then the rain came so we skipped out on Gracie's game and headed down to San Marcos again. We checked into our hotel, ran a bunch of errands & James hung out with the guys for the bachelor party-they watched the fights & had some beer (Whoo-Hoo!) My sisters, mom and Grandma, along with all our kids finished the wedding favors and then went back to the hotel to catch some sleep. (late night #3) Sunday am came too quickly it seemed & started way too early. My sister came & got me to get our hair & make-up done at 8am, James took the kids for breakfast with my brother & parents. By the time we all got our hair & make-up done it was time to be at the wedding place...We got there later than planned & everything seemed a little rushed, but ended up turning out great!

My sister Heidi looked amazing & all us sisters looked pretty good too :)

Zach walked down the isle cool and collected with one hand in his pocket, it was too cute!

Gracie kind of left Hope in the dust and walked very quickly down the isle throwing hand fulls of pettles before dumping her entire basket at our feet in the front. :) Hoper being the ham she is turned the corner for all to see her and made a silly face, crazy eyes & all! You've gotta' love that one!

After the reception we headed back to my moms for a little family hang out before Heidi & Erik left for their honeymoon. We got home again about 11:30 (late night #4) It was great fun, but I am so glad its over!

Monday, I knew would be a rough day for everyone, so the kids stayed home from school & just layed low, everyone took a 2 hour nap in the afternoon & went to bed early!

Baby food already?

It saddens me that my baby is nearly six months and could be eating baby/people food soon. I am wondering where the time has gone. Since he watches our each and every bite as we eat our meals I figured I'd try some real food. For about 2 weeks we've been giving Grady a mesh food holder for him to suck on.He's had cantelope, bananas and green beans all of which he seemd to enjoy. So I thought we'd try some homemade baby food.

3 easy steps- (that is to a screaming baby, haha!) 1)choose food 2)process it in the food processor with water & stir until its really liquidy. I actually took the picture before I liquified it & after he gagged the first time.

However as you can see from Grady's response & the red marks from crying so hard all he wanted was the bottle. So for now we'll be sticking with the bottle and the mesh food holder. :)

Loma Linda Again

Thursday mornings are crazy enough, getting all 3 kids off to school and there on time. Then to add in the fact that poor little Grady couldn't breath this morning, it made the mornings craziness amplified. After having dropped everyone at school, I took Grady to our primary Dr. and he took one look and listen to him and sent us directly to Loma Linda! Background...Hope was sick with a cough and fever last week, but seemed to have passed it on to Grady and instantly he's wheezing and gasping for air :(

Anyway, thankfully the ER wasn't too busy and his age was a benefit. We got in about 9:30 and came home about 1:30. They gave him steroids to open his airways and did a breathing treatment and monitored his pulse-ox, heart rate and respiratory rate. I'm was a little nervous given his history that we might be admitted again, but thankfully they sent us home with steroids for a week and a new daily medication to keep him from getting that bad again, plus we are doing the "liquid gold" breathing treatments every 4 hours!

All is well now, the Oates house is silent except for the clicking of the keyboard as I type, but then again it should be it's almost midnight. :)

Let the games begin

Okay, so as I sat down to blog this I got my camera to get out my card and realized that it was still sitting in my computer! Bummer! So all the cute pics I took of my kids at their first games of the season yesterday do not exist! I hate that!

Anyway...we got up early and Zach & I headed to his early game (we were at the field by 7:30) He played great & got to play both left full-back & right forward! Although his team got beat bad, 9 to 0, it didn't seem to bother the team :)

We came back home to James working on the backyard & the girls playing outside. We joined in for a little bit, then all the kids and I headed to Gracie's game (James kept working on the yard)

Gracie's team did really well! She even scored 2 goals. For her team the parents are contributing a quarter for every goal that is scored( to use at the pizza party), I think they scored 7 goals in all, so now I owe $1.75. We might be broke by the end of the season if they continue at this rate:)

So, if you ever want to know where the Oates will be on any given Saturday from now until November you can find us at the soccer field :) I'll post some pics next week after their games when I remember to put my card back into my camera. :)

News from the Dr.

After my scan on Friday I was discouraged to say the least and then not being able to know the results made me crazy! However, knowing that the r. wasn't there to review them I decided to put it all at the back of my mind and simply wait. (Good thing I decided that huh? As if I had any other choice) I think it helped to having a full house (see my previous post)as a good distraction.

Anyway...there is is good news!

IMPRESSION: NO EVIDENCE OF RECURRENT TUMOR OR METASTATIC DISEASE. INCIDENTALLY NOTED A RIGHT OVARIAN CYST.

That means there isn't more cancer! YEAH!!! However, my cell count & thyroid levels are still elevated & there is a ovarian cyst. That means more tests and Dr's visits to determine why the counts are high, as well as to see if the Dr. can get my weight gain & hair loss under control. I will heading back to COH for further treatment, but not until the end of September. Until then I will be seeing my OB here in Redlands and simply waiting.

The Lord has been so gracious through all of this, giving us the right people to encourage us, peace when there should have chaos and the right Dr's to deal with this all. As we venture on with more tests, we will be waiting in His FAITHFUL, LOVING ARMS!

Until Later...

Family Fun

We were able to spend Labor Day & the days after with our family from Tennessee! James & the kids had never met my Uncle Louis, Aunt Becky & my cousin Patrick, so it was a fun visit. (Hope & I visited TN when she was 18mo. but doesn't remember them)

We went up to Oak Glen one day, bought some apple treats & visited my mom & papa at the camp for lunch. We had a great dinner Tuesday night...Uncle Louis cooked Salmon, clams, shrimp and crab legs then we had apple pie for dessert! Mmmm!...

We hadn't seen my Mauma since she moved 1 1/2 years ago so, it was extra special to get to spend a few days with her. The kids loved that she came along to drop them off at school & pick them up too! The morning they all left, Gracie cried at school & Zach wondered where Mauma & everone was when he got home from school :( We will miss them! Hopefully we can make it back to Tennesee this spring break or summer!