Bodock Festival 2009

August 14, 2009---Rick ran in the Bodock Twilight 5K at the Pontotoc Bodock Festival. We arrived early enough to browse many of the vendor tents and get dinner at Red Rooster before the run started. The Bergerons drove over from Oxford to watch Daddy Rick strut his stuff. Grandmother, AJ, Emily, and Kye met us for dinner. Jackson had no interest in watching the race so I swapped AJ for him. AvaJo was eager to see her Uncle Rick anyway. She had called him twice earlier in the day just to talk.




We watched the beginning of the race just outside of Red Rooster but walked down to the courthouse to wait for the runners to return. AJ picked her spot and watched the runners come in.

There were 348 participants but only 333 finished the race. It is a tough race...heat, steep hills, and starts at 8:00 pm. The last mile of the race is all uphill. Every year there are several people who finish the race and immediately get sick. Rick (in the grey shirt) finished in 27 minutes 10 seconds. It wasn't his best time but it wasn't his worst either. He didn't really train for it either. Next year he'll have a better finish time.

By the end of race Molly was getting tired and a little fussy...

...but so were many others. I just don't have pictures of them. So, we had to say goodbye to the Bergerons for the evening.

We met up with Grandmother, Jackson, Aunt Sherry, Madison, Russell, Trey, Sheryl, Jonah, James, Hannah, a guy friend of Hannah's on the court square where a majority of Pontotoc County had come to watch a bad Elvis impersonator.

There had to have been a couple hundred people on the square...both young and old and everything in between...all waiting for the street dance to begin. A few people even rushed the stage in the hopes of touching the fake Elvis's hand or scarf. It was quite funny.

Even though we were only in Pontotoc for a few hours, it was good to see family and friends we haven't seen in a while, some since we moved 10 months ago. I must admit that I almost teared up a time or two. I miss the quaintness of Pontotoc, our church, and the Wellness Center too. For a town that I vowed to never like, I sure do miss it!!

Monsters of the Deep

August 12, 2009---For an end of the summer treat, Jackson, Chloe, and I went to the Monsters of the Deep exhibit at the Science Museum in Jackson.




The exhibit had re-creations of both current and prehistoric aquatic animals. And of course Jackson new the proper names of all of them. This was right up his alley!!

The kids enjoyed playing in "The Bone Yard" which had floor puzzles of prehistoric fossils.

Jackson was really good at matching the skull to the correct animal:

They also took advantage of the playroom:

Jackson and Chloe always enjoy seeing the permanent exhibit of native Mississippi animals (alligators, fish, turtles, etc.) but I didn't take pictures this time. The Natural Science Museum will be a place that we visit often. I wonder if they have a family pass?!?

First Day of 1st Grade

August 12, 2009---Today was Anna Catherine's first day of first grade. She says she wasn't ready to go back to school but she woke up on her own and was quite chipper at 5:50 am. Let's see how long that lasts--hahaha! Since she was up so early we actually had time to paint her toenails before school, her choice of color and style of course.

She was prepared---new backpack, new lunchbox, and new outfit. All of which she picked out. We arrived in time to take a few pictures before the halls were too crazy:

with her teacher, Mrs. Kling:

Two of her friends/classmates from kindergarten are in her room this year so I think seeing familiar faces this morning helped keep her emotions in check. Here's hoping for a wonderful first day in the first grade!

Balloon Animals

August 11, 2009---We did something tonight that we rarely do...go out to dinner on a weeknight. It was a busy day and we had "Meet the Teacher" night at Anna Catherine's school. I am the Yearbook Design Co-Chair for the PTO this year so I was at the school for two and a half hours between meeting AC's teacher and working the yearbook sales table. There was no time to cook so we decided to go to Beef O'Brady's for dinner. Beef O'Brady's is a family-friendly sports bar. Many of the booths have a private television in which you choose the channel you want. There are also numerous TVs around the restaurant and a big screen on one wall. There is also a small video game area. It happened to be kid's night and they had entertainment for the kids...balloon animals.

Anna Catherine wanted a blue mokey (climbing a tree):

Jackson wanted a brown bear (fishing with a red fish at end of pole):


Chloe opted for a ladybug:

The food was delicious and the kids were entertained....MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!

Surgery Update #2

August 8, 2009---After one week of healing you can already see that her boo-boo has faded so much and there are some spots that are flesh colored. She is healing so quickly.

And the no-no's are completely gone. She mastered doing things with them on that she never should have been able to do and she could take them off somehow, no matter how tight we made them. So, now she knows that if she touched her boo-boo we will put them back on. She hasn't touched it since.

Surgery Update #1

August 1, 2009---You can already see it fading one day after her surgery.




We've also made a compromise with the no-no's. She can take the left one off to eat and then she had to put them back on. She seems to be content with them.

Once Upon A Mattress...

July 31, 2009---When we left Little Rock we took a different route home. We found that it takes almost the same amount of time to get home with we went through Ruston rather than Memphis. We liked this because we really wanted to see Rick's Memaw and other north Louisiana relatives. As luck would have it, Kathy (Rick's aunt) was going to be in town visiting Memaw and Emma (Rick's cousin) was in a play at the community theater that night. We arrived in town just in time ti have dinner with Memaw and Kathy before going over to the Dixie Center for the Arts to see "Once Upon a Mattress".

"Once Upon A Mattress" is a Broadway musical comedy adaptation of the fairy tale "The Princess and the Pea". It was very funny and the kids really enjoyed it. Emma portrayed Priscilla, the Queen's Lady #2. She was in many scenes in which she sang, danced, and had speaking parts. If I'm not mistaken, this was her fourth play to participate in with the Ruston Community Theater. Emma is a very talented young lady. It's hard to believe she will be entering high school this year!

Toni (Emma's mom) had saved us the entire second row. The Crawford family was ready to cheer Emma on!! She is wearing a burgundy dress in some pictures and a burnt orange in others.

















with Memaw and Kathy:







The play wasn't over until 10:30 pm and we were too tired to drive home so we got a hotel room for the night and drove home the next morning. It was a quick visit but we will get to see them soon for Carmen's wedding!



***Note: Pictures from the scenes of the play were provided by Emma's mom, Toni***

Chloe's Latest Surgery

July 31, 2009---Chloe needed another pulse laser treatment so the whole family piled in the van and we drove to Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock for Chloe's 5th hemangioma surgery. This was a very quick treatment so we were able to bring Anna Catherine and Jackson with us. We left our house at 4:30 am so the kids had not had breakfast. Chloe was not allowed to eat or drink milk after midnight but she could have apple juice until 9:00 am. It would have been cruel to get drive-thru breakfast for the older kids. Once we arrived and Chloe was called to pre-op, Rick took the older kids to the cafe while I stayed with Chloe.


Rick and the kids entertained themselves with straws (pictures taken by Rick's phone):

Chloe rarely goes anywhere without her Binky:

She really didn't like the polyester/fleece type scrubs she had to wear but who could blame her? It's 100 degrees and the middle of summer!

She did not like the pulse monitor on her toe:

She did like having full control of the television remote control/speaker:

The nurses gave her lots of stickers for being so cooperative:

Chloe was still a little monkey climbing on her hospital bed:

I told her they would bring her "goofy juice" (a sedative) so she stood at the door with her sippy cup. She was so thirsty! It had been three hours since she had had something to drink.

After the surgery she was very upset. She did not like wearing her no-no's (arm braces to keep her from bending and touching the hemangioma site).

The area has to look worse before it can get better. The entire area turns black from the laser but will fade to purple, then red, then pink, and finally flesh tone. We hope this will be her last pulse laser treatment. She has a follow-up appointment April 5th to see how well she has healed and if further treatment is needed.