Final Fragments

Unless something changes in the near future, this will be my last Friday Fragments post at this location!
I've set up a blog on Wordpress; leave a comment if you'd like to come visit there.  I'm not trying to keep it private, I just don't want to link it here.  It's quite easy to find.

I am SO tired of miserable people trying to make everyone else as miserable as they are.  The saying "Misery loves company" is so true.  I wish they would just live their miserable lives and leave me alone!

I had a really great week at work, and the grand finale was an excellent evaluation.  It was my first eval at this job and it could not have been better!  It makes all my hard work worthwhile.

On Thursday night my son came over, along with two friends, to visit with us and Wiz the Chinchilla.  We had such a good time.  Tim took some really funny pics of the chinchilla, but he hasn't sent them to met yet, so I'll have to share them over at the new bloggy home.

My mother-in-law bought Elayna her very own flute!  Elayna was THRILLED.  She started playing in her middle school band last year and really enjoys it. 

 

My niece is due with Baby #2 on August 13th, but her doctor is expecting her to deliver literally any day.  We're beyond excited!!!  We all have plans to get together this Saturday for a chicken & dumpling dinner; maybe Baby Alexis will get so excited for the dumplings that she'll decide to make an appearance.  

Today is Dusty's 18th Birthday!  Feel free to order something from our Zazzle store - all proceeds go to Dusty!

I'll leave you with the funniest thing I saw on Facebook this week - enjoy!  

And have a wonderful weekend!

The Weekend

On Saturday, we had my niece Heather's Baby "Sprinkle".

(it's like a mini-shower.)

Sidenote: I totally dominate at shower games.

It's like my super-power.

Seriously.  Ask anyone.

It turned out really great and we all had a great time!

Layna & Me

Shelbie &  Me

Dusty & Shelbie
(I swear that boy will do anything for Shelbie!
Note the tiara)

That monkey cake was adorable!

We had a great spread of munchies.

 As I've mentioned before, my kids ADORE Hayleigh.  

Hayleigh & Elayna

Hayleigh & Shelbie

Hayleigh & Tim

 Hayleigh has a totally-not-secret admirer.  

These kids' parents are friends and they are very close in age.  

He looooves her.

She mostly tolerates him.

She prefers cupcakes.

Sprinkled with gifts =)

Hayleigh helped clean up after her Mommy's shower.
Such a good girl.

 These are my Mommies!  

Left to right, my Mother-in-Law, my Mama, and my second Mother, 

who I've known all of my life and spent half of my childhood at her home.  

Her daughter is one of my lifelong best friends.

photobombed by a kid!  

I was very happy that my mother-in-law came.  

Also, Heather's dad surprised her by showing up - 

he lives out of state and she had NO idea he was coming!

Now we're all ready for Baby Girl Number Two's arrival.

My son Tim spent the night with us on Saturday night.  I cooked a big meal for everyone and we hung out and watched TV.

On Sunday, we went to church, then had lunch at Steak-and-Shake, then spent the rest of the day at my Mother-in-Law's pool.  It was absolutely lovely.  We had several hours of sunshine, and I floated around the pool in full relaxation mode.  Aaahhh.  Niiiice.  

Hope y'all had a good one!

Cancer Sucks, Friends Rock. {PYHO}

Cancer sucks.

Having a friend with cancer sucks. 

Having a friend whose son has cancer sucks. 

Having your daughter's boyfriend having cancer sucks. 

Having a friend whose husband has cancer sucks.

But somewhere in all of that cancer suckage, there is a little ray of sunshine.

It started with an idea of mine. I decided to create a Zazzle store to sell products and raise money for Dusty, our family friend/my daughter's boyfriend, who is fighting T-cell lymphoma.
Now to say that I am not a graphic artist is a huge understatement, but I made a very simple design with a lime green ribbon to symbolize lymphoma, and added the words "My Hero is Fighting Lymphoma - Praying for Dusty Thomas." I placed the image on several products and shared the store.

And that's when the ray of sunshine showed up, in the form of my friend Amy.

Amy lives in Canada and is one of my BBFs - Best Blog Friends. She and I have been through a LOT together and she has been a wonderful support for me. In an effort to cheer me up during a dark time, she even did my beautiful blog design!

Now, unfortunately, we have another connection - Amy's husband Ken is also fighting lymphoma. 

And that sucks.

He is getting treatment in another town, so much of the time, Amy is taking care of their two very young sons on her own, while working and dealing with having a husband with cancer. 

But not long after I posted the link to my Zazzle store on Facebook, I got a comment from Amy, offering her amazing design skills to create more (and WAY better, although she is far too kind to say that) designs for products to raise money for Dusty - a kid in Florida whom she's never met.

I flipping love this girl!!!!  She is kind, giving, caring and selfless. And amazingly talented. 

She made this offer purely out of goodness and friendship, not for recognition or praise. Just to help me help Dusty.  But she will certainly get recognition and praise from me because she is truly inspirational.

The world needs more people like Amy.

I would love for you to visit my zazzle store and look at Amy's artwork. If you would like to order something to help out Dusty and his family during his cancer treatment, well, I would love that even more. 

make custom gifts at Zazzle

Pouring my heart out with Shell at Things I Can't Say 

Sundays in my SWAMP

I was looking out my kitchen window this morning 

and saw that one of the trees out back 

had beautiful white flowers blooming on it.  

The branches are very high, so I couldn't pick any blooms.

I couldn't figure out what kind of tree it was.

I could tell by the leaves that it wasn't a magnolia, 

and the blooms were too big to be dogwoods.

So I asked hubby, who immediately said, 

"It's a bay tree.  They grow in Florida swamps."

And that definitely describes our home - 

a Florida swamp.

I knew he would know what kind of tree it was. 

His knowledge of the outdoors is practically encyclopedic.

Amazing.

Can you find the flowers?  There are three.

 I hope you aren't tired of seeing pictures of my caladium plants yet.  

Because I really love them, and they're doing so well.  

I have already been able to transplant some to other areas.

It's a good thing they thrive in the swamp.

It's so tropical and bright and pretty! 

Yes, I know, I need to weed.

Neat plant life.

I even love weeds,
especially when they're purple.

Wanna ride?

In case you couldn't find them,
here's your cheat sheet.

On Another Note: 
I have created a Zazzle store to raise money for Dusty, 

Shelbie's boyfriend who has t-cell lymphoma.

If you would like to order something, the link is below!  

ALL proceeds will go to Dusty's family.

www.zazzle.com/backinthebush

Focusing on the Positive Fragments

~ Work was exhausting this week, but I am looking forward to the weekend!
Tomorrow we're going to visit both sets of parents (and the baby Hayleigh will be there!!).
Saturday, we're going to Byron's family reunion.
And of course, Sunday we'll be celebrating Father's Day!

~ Today we went to my stepson Tyler's baseball game.  Shelbie's boyfriend Dusty came with us.  The team won, beating a team that was favored to win.  Afterward we all went to my MIL's house for a cookout.

~ You wanna know what puts a damper on all of that?  On the way home, we stopped at a store and Dusty got out and threw up his dinner. Then, on the way back to the truck, he took his hat off to wipe his forehead and I saw several bald patches.  Talk about reality slapping you in the face....
He had chemo this morning.  This was, I believe, the fourth time this week.  Right now he is doing chemo 4x a week.  It's called "Hell Month".  Then he enters a maintenance phase.  But during this period, his body has NO time to recover from chemo before it's time for another treatment.  It's so hard to see a strong, active teenager going through this.  He's seventeen.  This should be the time of his life, with no major worries, just enjoying the last of his carefree childhood time.  But cancer ended that.  And it sucks.

~ Anyway...focusing on the positive.  He had a good time and has a great attitude and good spirit about all of it.

Hope y'all have a good weekend and a wonderful Father's Day!

Go visit Friday Fragments' summer home at Unknown Mami's place!

Family, Friends and Frags

~ I worked a weird schedule this week.  A co-worker asked me to switch a day with her.  She is the same one who switched with me in March, enabling me and Byron to run off and get married last-minute, so I was happy to help her out.  I worked Monday and Tuesday, was off Wednesday and Thursday, and I work Friday night, then I'm off Saturday and Sunday.  It's like having two weekends in one week.  Kinda cool!

~ Dusty is Shelbie's boyfriend.  He has cancer.  His mom is Heather, my friend from high school.  I LOVE her.  She also drives me crazy.  BUT...when she calls and asks me if I can do her a favor and take Dusty to his chemo appointment?  I can't say no to that.
It is so surreal to hear her explaining that the length of the appointment depends on his blood counts and whether or not he needs a transfusion....sigh.
He's strong. He can fight this.  That's what I keep telling myself.

~ Tonight (Thursday night) we went to my parents' house for dinner.  Hayleigh was there and OMG.  She is at my FAVORITE AGE (between one and two).  She is SO funny, cute, adorable, etc......I just wanna freeze her!  She sings, dances, talks, plays,  And my kids adore her.

~ This weekend we're going to the Springs to celebrate a friend's birthday and Memorial Day.
I can't wait!  I love this time of year.


~ More and more every day, I realize that my husband is the perfect man FOR ME.

Hope y'all have a great weekend!! 

Family Filled Weekend - Sundays in my City

Today we went to my parents' house for a visit.

Of course, Hayleigh was the Star Attraction.

Concentrating hard on that block.
Or, ignoring her crazy aunt.

She finally graced me with a look
AND an almost-smile.  

Hello, I'm just wearing my food.

She's growing up SO fast.

This is Dusty and Shelbie.

You may remember Dusty from previous posts.   He is the son of a good friend of my since high school. He and Shelbie dated, then broke up, and are now dating again. Dusty also has cancer.  The meds are the reason his cheeks are puffy. He is doing well; he has years of chemo ahead of him,  but he's young and strong and his prognosis is good. He did lose his hair,  but as you can see it's already grown back! He went to my parents' house with us today.   It was fun spending time with him again. Tomorrow, we are going to my Mother-in-Law's house to hang out with her!   I love these Family Filled Weekends.
Hope y'all are having a good weekend! I sure am!


Visit Unknown Mami for more Sundays in my City posts.

Oh, Friday......

.............I sure am glad to see you.

I worked four nights this week (instead of my usual three) and three of the four KICKED.MY. ASS.
But the last night was great - and one of my patients is writing me up for our little reward system.  Hee hee - I'm such a dork that I LOVE that stuff!  I get a star on my name badge and a note in my file that I'm pretty much awesome.  It's the little things.....

This week Shelbie turned seventeen.  That is still surreal to me.
We had her birthday dinner Thursday night at a seafood restaurant.  My family and Hunter's family attended.  There were about 15 people there total.
It was WONDERFUL.  You would think we've all been family for years.
My son bought Shelbie a card and gave her money for her birthday.  The card was PERFECT for the two of them.  I am SO proud of all of my children!!
I also met Hunter's (step) brother for the first time and I just love him!  He's a CCU nurse who lives in Vegas.  He's coming over for dinner Saturday night.

I suppose I should give you an update on Dusty.
#1 He's STILL in the hospital.
#2 He and Shelbie are no longer dating.

His ex girlfriend decided to jump on the drama of him having cancer and try to win him back.
I do not have a good opinion of her - for MANY reasons.  Long story short - they are back together.
Health wise he is struggling.  And cancer doesn't give anyone the right to treat anyone the way he treated my daughter (basically getting back with the ex but stringing my daughter along).
Anyway.  I am still praying for his recovery and will probably visit him tomorrow because I still love him and his mother.  But as a Mama...I'm ticked.

One reason I will probably visit him tomorrow is that my best friend Danielle - who I just posted about on Wednesday - is in the hospital.  She had a seizure on the way to her honeymoon and has since had a second seizure - she's never had seizures before.  We have no idea what's going on. Prayers? Please?

We had a to call a refrigerator repair man out today; our refrigerator wasn't cooling properly (and Hunter and I LOVE our cold sodas!!).  He had to replace the fan.  I said to him, "I don't even know why we're bothering with this since the world's going to end tomorrow!"  I had him cracking up.

I guess I will leave you with my last Facebook status today:
Feeling incredibly blessed tonight. Not because my life is perfect, but because I am SO very grateful for what I do have. ♥

The Cat Came Back.....

~ Dusty Update: He is now out of ICU.  Chemo and radiation have started and he may get to go home next week (but will still have to do outpatient treatments).

~ I lost Hunter's cat today.  I absolutely could not find her ANYWHERE.  She is an inside-only cat.  He LOVES this cat.  I was beside myself.  I finally called him and told him I'd lost his cat.  When he got home we searched the house top to bottom, then searched outside.  No cat.  Altogether I had searched for at least two hours.
I apologized profusely.  He wasn't mad.  I think I would have been.  I was almost certain I hadn't left the door open, but I could see no other way for the cat to vanish!  Hunter said, "When she gets hungry, she'll come home."  I reluctantly agreed and we went inside to start dinner.  I opened a cabinet to pull out a pan and heard "Meow".
The freaking cat was in the kitchen cabinet the entire time.
I didn't know whether to hug her or choke her!
(I hugged her.)
(Hard.)
(But not around the throat.)

~ My job is going VERY well.  I was so worried that I would regret leaving my old job and not feel rewarded and fulfilled at this job, but that's not the case at all.  Even when I am running my ass off, I truly love what I'm doing!  And my ass can use the running!

Hope you all have a great weekend!!