Biker Boy and His Shadow

Grant ran into the house last Tuesday exclaiming he had taught himself how to ride his bike w/o training wheels. I really didn't think he quite knew what he was saying and what it means to really ride your bike w/o training wheels, but his confidence sparked my interest, so I followed him outside for the demonstration he was so excited about.

And what do you know, he really did teach himself - in one day - less than one day! I think it took him just a few tries, and he had it. Whew! I was starting to think I was going to have to be the one to teach him, and frankly I didn't think that running alongside a six-year-old on a bike over and over and over again would be very fun. You can watch a video of him showing off and almost running me over here.

He was just sure that I would let him ride his bike to school like the other kids in the neighborhood. (Notice the backpack.) But, sadly, he was wrong. I just don't feel like he's old enough or has had enough experience on a bike to be able to go it alone. No, this did not go over well, but I'm Mom, and Mom makes the rules.

Of course Grant's shadow had to partake in the events of the moment, so he grabbed his "bike" (yes, it's a scooter), and showed off his moves which you can watch here.

Even Breena, our sweet neighbor, joined in on the fun. Boy howdy, I tell ya, these two do everything together! Between her sweet curly hair and his spiked do, they really turn heads.

Garry update for AFE friends

I got home from church on Sunday and received a sad phone call that informed me that Angie, my long time friend and old teaching partner's husband, Garry, was in a very bad car wreck the night before. He had called her and said he would be home soon, but he never showed and wouldn't answer his phone when she called him. She finally got in the car to look for him, and she did end up driving up on the wreck. Thankfully, he had already been taken away, so she did not see him at the wreck-site. As a matter of fact, he had already been care flighted to Memorial Hermann in the med center and was in surgery by the time she found the wreck.

Diagnosis thus far (I'm getting info from Angie's mom and sister, Julie) = He has many broken bones including ribs and his jaw. They are worried about his left arm as the driver's side was hit and a lot of the glass went into that arm. They had to remove his spleen and had to "fix" other hurt organs. (sorry I'm not more specific than that - the list was long and was given to me quite quickly) He had surgery on Monday to repair his bowel and the abdomen was able to finally be closed. No other internal bleeding was found. He is still unconscious, but last night he was able to move his shoulders, jaw, hands and legs. Angie said she saw a tear in his eye when she played their song for him. Today (Tuesday), a tracheotomy was done to prepare for future jaw surgery. That procedure went well. The biggest concern is his head/neck injury. He currently has a halo thing around his head to keep his back/neck straight. Not much more info to give in that area. He is also on a feeding tube. I don't know if he's on a ventilator or if he's breathing on his own... I'll ask Julie.

He remains in the trauma ICU and there is no talk of him leaving it any time soon. They remain hopeful that he will pull through. I have a feeling he will - daddies will do a lot for their families... They appreciate everyone's support and prayers. Angie said she'd talk to us when she was able/ready.

At this point, they do not know much about how the wreck happened. They just know he was hit in an intersection (I believe), and he was struck on the driver's side...

I told the family that we are all here to help and are ready to meet their needs. They said they are fine for now, but they know needs will be changing shortly and will let us know what those are as they arise. Her mom said that money for parking and vending machines (life at the hospital) will soon be needed.

Angie continues to remain by Garry's side all day but does go home at night for sleep. Baby Ashley is continuing to go to daycare this week. They aren't sure what they're going to do with her next week. Right now they are just taking it day to day. Angie requests that no one call her - she just can't handle that right now. Because of this, I will continue to pass along info as I receive it from her mom and sister Julie. I plan on doing most updating via my facebook account, so check there daily for updates as Julie sends me info on a regular basis.

Thank you, Lord, for wrapping your arms around this sweet family during this hard time. We pray that you will continue to speak to the doctors and nurses and hold Garry in your healing arms.

It's all about who you know...

We spend Sunday nights with our Lifegroup from church. Our group consists of four families (which includes eight kids - Whew!). Tonight was Sean & Lisa's turn to host... and we are sooooooo thankful it was their turn because tonight just so happened to be the date of an MD Anderson Children's Hospital fundraising event at the zoo that Lisa helped to coordinate. And since life is all about who you know, and we just happened to know Lisa, our entire Lifegroup got into the event for free!!! Our sit down dinner was free! Our drinks (and wine) were free! The cotton candy was literally just sitting out on tables for you to pick up! And as if that weren't great enough, the zoo was closed to all guests - except those of us with yellow wristbands. It rocked! Okay, so the fact that everyone there (except our Lifegroup) had boocoos and boocoos of moola and their kids were dressed to the nines (Strasburg Children outfits, beautiful dresses, smocked brother/sister coordinating zoo outfits - literally. I am serious. Many of the rich kids' clothes matched their siblings', and many were smocked and then embroidered with zoo animals. Wow!) did make us feel a bit out of place, we decided to suck it up and enjoy the free evening.

There were zookeepers walking around the party with animals you could pet. (Yes, I see Grant needs a haircut.

I do promise that I combed his hair

and put hair GLUE in it - it's really obvious, huh?)

They had a beautiful brightly-colored decorated tent with

yummy food and AWESOME desserts!

As if I was going to pass this up! It's as big as my head!

Ask me if I even care how many calories it was...

It was sooooooooo verrrrrrrrrrrry worth it!

Grant and Ethan enjoying their free cotton candy.

Of course the zoo's carousel rides were free tonight, too.

Rhett didn't care about the free part. He was flat out pretty freaked out by the whole tall-animlas-moving-up-and-down-to-loud-muisc-thing. (Shocking, I know, since "Rhett" is synonymous with "Tough Guy".)

But Bruvher, Ethan, Mia and Avery were having a good time,

so Rhett decided to give it another go.

(Grant was waving at me.)

And he LOVED it!

So did I!

Rhett loved it so much, we had to take turns riding it with him.

We finally got him off the carousel and got to see a few animals in

the children's area before it got dark.

You'll just have to trust me that this is the owl cage

since I took a picture of their dinner (dead rats) instead of them.

The owls were really very pretty though, but their dinner was really pretty funny!

We got to pet and brush the goats. I think Rhett brushed every. single. goat. Surely the Houston Zoo has the most handsome goats tonight thanks to him.

City boys Grant and Ethan quickly learned that when a goat raises its tail, it's about to poop... They got a real kick out of it! Boys will be boys - especially when goats will be, well..........goats.

This is Keeley. She was in a bad mood tonight. She yelled at everyone. But then again, if I were a stinky, ugly goat with an overbite that lived in a petting zoo, I'd probably yell at everyone, too. This is the one goat that Rhett chose to stay away from.

The boys got to fulfill their lifelong dreams of being prairie dogs.

Ethan, Grant and Rhett enjoyed being some of the few

lucky Houstonian kids running and screaming through the echoing bat caves. I did not enjoy being one of the few Houstonian parents that lost my hearing because of it.

Icing on the cake = there was a beautiful full moon shining down on us.

And the weather... Oh! the weather!! It was perfect. Now, for a Houstonian to say that, you know it's a big deal. There was low humidity. The temp was in the low 70's. There was a light breeze and lots of sunshine (before the gorgeous moon came out). In case you still don't understand how rare of a beautiful day it was here in Oven Land, here's one more hint = It was actually a good hair day! (except for Grant - ha ha)

This is the outside of the zoo when we left. Notice there is NOT a crowd! Rare sight!

Gee, it's fun knowing the "right" people.

The animals were getting tired and were literally starting to go to sleep for the night, so we decided to go home to our beds, too. Grant was too sleepy to walk back to the car (so he said), so he hitched a ride on Daddy's shoulders.

What a fun evening! I think I can speak for the whole group when I say all sixteen of us had a BLAST! What a great way to end the weekend. Gee whilikers, I can't wait until Sean and Lisa host again. Ha! Tonight's going to be pretty hard to beat.

Howell Life Group (Final part of "A Youth Group, a Vision for Haiti and a Talent Show")

So I am actually admitting to the world that yes, I call these people my friends. We were actually in a Lifegroup with them, but the group got so, so, so big and we had to split into two. Anyway, I LOVED their act as it was very creative, and as you can see, their goal was to be as random as possible. (Toooooooo funny!) Points of interest = the five people eating hamburgers - just because, the saxophonist playing different tunes, Courtney and Lisa blowing bubbles behind the hamburger eaters, Amanda juggling, Ryan dressed up like Mini Me, Josh wearing a bunny outfit, Angie speed walking around the stage, and let's not forget the cartoon that was being shown on the big screens behind them. Are they not the most awesome people, or what? Yes, we have a GREAT time together!

Stuff LikeThat There (Part III of "A Youth Group, a Vision for Haiti and a Talent Show")

Thanks to sweet Rick, I now know how to upload videos from You Tube. And let me just say, it is waaaaaaaay faster than using Blogger! (note to self)

Okay, family, here's my talent show act Kerry recorded with my little Cannon camera (NOT a video camera). WARNING = The quality is not the best, but at least you get the idea.

I think I may have had a little too much fun with this song- but, it is one of my favorite songs, after all, and I do LOVE performing! I continue to be my worst critic, though. I see/hear many flaws (flailing arms - was I trying to swat a passing bee??? Gee whiz!!!!!, shaky pitch at end of song, was my vibrato really that happy is it the poor recording quality???) that I hope you overlook. Oh well - at least I had a BLAST on my way-too-short vacation that performing can take me on. Laundry was not on my mind. Errands were not on my mind. Keeping track of Grant and Rhett was not on my mind (they were on Gramma's - ha ha). My To-Do List was not on my mind. It was just me, a mic, my favorite dress and my favorite song. And let me tell ya, it was very freeing!

Oh, in case you are wanting to know what I said before the music began (Mom), I told the sound guy to "crank it!"

Taking Care of Business (Part II of "A Youth Group, a Vision for Haiti and a Talent S how")

This is the video of Kerry and Grant at band practice as I mentioned in this post.

Unfair

Today I learned that my friend, Rick Johnson, died today while on a walk with his wife near their home in Antioch, CA. This is very shocking news - especially because Rick was an avid runner. He was in G.O.O.D. shape! This came out of no where, and it hurts. I hurt for his sweet wife, Virginia, who crocheted my treasured "Kilgore" doilie when K and I got married that now hangs above our front door. I am sad for his younger son, Jeremy, who just had his first child. I am sad for his older daughter, Jennifer, and her three kids. I am sad for those of us that truly valued him as a person and a friend and a leader.

I first met Rick when K and I started attending Sugar Grove Church of Christ here in Sugar Land. He was the music minister here, so of course we hit it off. They moved to California a few years ago to continue their ministry, and I've continued to keep up with Rick via blogging, and of course enjoyed seeing him and Virginia when they came to visit SGCC on occasion. He was easy to talk to. He was a very, very good man. I just can't believe someone the world really needed was taken away - - - just like that, yet it happens every day to people everywhere. And this is why I say it's unfair. I did not know him as long or nearly as well as so many others did, but I am blessed to have been able to call him a friend.

Wouldn't you know, he's the last person to post a comment on my blog - just yesterday.

We love you, Johnson family.