And it is officially FALL

I love this time of year. We usually do not have much of a FALL season here in Arkansas, but this year has been exception. I think Mother Nature is apologizing for the helluous summer heat that we had this year.

Family Update...Hailie is now in 3rd grade. She spends 55% of her day in mainstream class and the other 45% of her day in either therapy or resource. Math is finally soaking in. I didn't think it was going to ever happen so I am very happy. Her reading is phenomenal and comprehension is increasing, but still low. Hailie has started P90X with me and Adam again. She only does bits and pieces of it, but it really helps with building her muscle mass. She is now 9 years old and only weighs 42 pounds. Carter started 2nd grade this year. As usual, he has high expectations for himself. The poor kid is way too hard on himself. He is awesome at everything he does, but excels in math and science. He scored in the 99th percentile on his standardized testing :) Fall season of baseball is also in full swing. He has moved to short stop and does a great job there. Adam still works his butt off all the time. He is the Wing Exec on the base now. We should be finding out next month if we are heading to D.C. or somewhere else. It will be hard to leave Arkansas after being here for over 7 years, but on the other side, the longer we stay here the harder it will be for the kids to move. As for me...just trying to keep up with everybody. I have a couple of Stamp Clubs going on this year. I will be having surgery at the end of the month to have a ganglion cyst removed from my wrist. That will be fun, NOT! I am excited about my birthday present this month! I get to go away for the weekend to scrapbook and hang out with the LADIES. I don't know if I am more excited about getting sleep while I am gone or the other stuff :)

Till next time...

And let Summer begin

Well Summer is here in Arkansas. Temps are hovering around the 100 degree mark already. Hailie had heat exhaustion at Carter's baseball game yesterday. It was a phenomenal game. Those boys played their hearts out. 2 innings of overtime to break the tie. The other team finally scored and won. Final score was 12-11. That was our last regular season game. All-stars traveling season for baseball starts Monday. No rest for the wicked.

Last day of school is today. The pool is filled and ready for action. I am sitting here in my craft room enjoying the beautiful silence that will be taken from me for the next 2 1/2 months. I think the dog can even sense that our little world is about to become chaotic. Kids could not be happier :)

A day in the life of me...

I went back in time today. I dug out a box of letters that I had written to Hailie after she was born. She was born on July 10th 2002. On the 10th of every month I wrote a letter to her. Now let me tell ya, I balled my eyes out reading these letters for the first time in 8 years. I can say with all my heart and soul that I would never change a thing. I read the first heartbreaking letter that I wrote after receiving her diagnosis. I literally went through "mouring" after the neurologist told us she had Smith Magenis Syndrome. Keep in mind that I was 8 months pregnant with Carter when we found this out. By "mouring" I mean this...

the day I found out I was having a girl I started to plan her wedding. The next day I planned her educational future which included Montessori schools and Ivy league universities. I thought of all the wonderful genetic attributes that she would obtain through mine and Adam's DNA. Would she have blonde hair or brown? Blue eyes like me or hazel like Adam? Will she be brilliant in science or fly mutli-million dollar planes and work for the Presdient of the United States like her dad? She would just have to be good in sports because me and Adam rock in sports. This is the kind of cocky confidence I had that I would have this "perfect" child. Then on a hot summer morning Hailie Morgan was born. She was very sick. Countless appointments to figure out why she had failure-to-thrive. Countless doctors telling me that I was an overreactive first time parent. Countless doctors telling me nothing was wrong with her because she was too beautiful (not even joking. that is what one of the numb nuts said to me).

Then when Hailie was a little over a year old I was looking at this beautiful blonde hair, blue eyed, adorable little girl. Only problem was she still couldn't walk or barely crawl for that matter. She was not attempting to talk either. We moved to a new Air Force Base in Oklahoma and saw a God sent doctor that actually listened to me and my concerns. She agreed that something was not right. For the first time someone listened. 2 months later after extensive testing we were called in the day after Christmas to meet with the lead Neurologist at Childrens Hospital in Corpus Christi. This is where I met the biggest asshole of my life. This jackass had enough nerve to sit us down and with a HUGE smile tell us that Hailie had Smith Magenis Syndrome. He was happy because this syndrome is sooooo rare that he never got to meet a patient with it. He then (no joke) tell us, "She will never walk. She will never live alone. She will never talk clearly. She will not have the ability to learn. She will not ever know what love is. Her reasoning skills will be so poor that if she set herself on fire, she will not learn a lesson from it, and do it again the next day."

That is when "mourning" occurred. My hopes and dreams for Hailie were stomped on and destroyed in less than 5 minutes. It took me a long time to realize how wrong I was. This beautiful little angel (that does not pause inbetween words when she talks) lives out my hopes and dreams every day. If it would not have been for Hailie I would have never learned patience, acceptance, and unwavering love. My children are the best things that have ever happened to me.