I love the holidays

Not just the Christmas spirit and the magical feeling in December, but because friends come home to visit family.  That means that I also get to see friends that I only see this time of year.  This year, my bff from high school, Amy, came home for Thanksgiving.  Today, we met for lunch with another friend from high school, Alex.  I also got to meet Amy’s new hubby, Nate, whom I adored.  As always, we got to reminisce about the good old days of high school. We were all in a small chorus group together and had an excellent time in high school, so we have lots of great and funny memories.  And now, because of facebook, we were able to chat about all the people we’ve come back in contact with.  I don’t know about them, but I had a fabulous time today and can’t wait for Christmas time when two of my other best friends from high school, Roger and Ryan are coming in town.  Alex & I plan on getting together with them too!

Within second of my arrival, I thrust my camera into Nate’s hands and had him take a pic of Amy & I.

Alex arrived within minutes and again, Nate was camera man!

Before leaving, I realized that I didn’t get a photo of just Alex & I, so out came the camera!

It’s great to have such good friends that when we get together, it’s like coming home.  I miss you guys!

Stone Mountain Christmas 2008

My lovely weekend

Yes, I know it was 27 degrees at times, but my weekend was wonderful because my very best friend, Lesley and her little boy, Giovanni, came in town for 3 days.  We packed a lot into those three days!

First, I took off work on Friday and we went to The Flying Biscuit, my very favorite breakfast spot. I had my favorite- eggs on top of love cakes (black bean corn cakes) smothered in tomatillo sauce, sour cream and feta cheese, with a side of grits and flying biscuits with cranberry apple butter of course.

Lesley had her first fried green tomatoes, which were covered with goat cheese-yum!  G had oatmeal pancakes which had a very strange texture from the oatmeal, but were totally addicting!

Here is G in the restaurant.

Then, we headed over to Perimeter mall.  I haven’t been there in ages- it is so nice.  I was pretty peeved that they don’t have a Hollister.  I mean, really.  Who the heck doesn’t have a Hollister??  That was the main reason for me going to the mall- Christmas presents of Hollister t-shirts (on sale of course) for Jake.  But, finding my new favorite store, Anthropologie, made it all worth while.  I’ve decided that if I ever win the lottery, I’m just going to buy the whole store. 

After that, we head home to take the kids to their birthday dinner- Japanese steakhouse, of course.  Bailey turned 9 on the 13th and Jake turned 12 on Monday.  The kids had fun with the warm hand towels.

…about Dave’s head…I’ll just leave you with “stupid human trick” and you can use your own imagination…

This was Giovanni’s first time at a hibachi and I was kind of concerned.  I shouldn’t have been- he had a blast! This was the look on his face the whole night.

Our hibachi chef was quite funny.  He even posed for me!

I also had the best drink I’ve ever had.  Seriously.  You know how much I love lychees.  They are absolutely my favorite thing.  My favorite fruit, my favorite drink (which I can only find at the Asian market),  my favorite candy (again- Asian market only) my favorite flavor of all time.  Well, new to America is Soho Lychee Liquor.  Yee haw! They made a drink there with it and it was just lychee yumminess.  Next time I go, I’m making them give me the recipe. Here is the loveliness which is my new favorite beverage.

After that, we headed over to my mom and dad’s house to drop Jake off to spend the night.  They brought out their bin of ooooold McDonald’s toys and we all had fun. I think Lesley and I had more fun than the kids!

The next day we headed out to Stone Mountain Christmas.  Lesley just couldn’t get over how amazing Stone Mountain was!

It is pretty darn cool!

Here are my goofballs.

This would have been a cool Christmas card, had Jake not made a silly face.

After walking around the Christmas village for a little bit, we decide to go up the mountain on one of these.

Jake keeps telling me he doesn’t want to go up and can’t understand why he can’t just wait in the car.  LOL  By the time we get in line, he is hysterical- he is sobbing, hitting me and calling me an idiot.  Um, yeah.  My response?  Suck it up, be a man, you.are.going.on.the.skytram.  Here he is halfway up the mountain.

We made it to the top!

There is nothing like a sunset on top of a mountain!

Jake LOVED running around the top- it looks like the surface of the moon.

So, we’re ready to ride down and somehow, Jake talks Lesley into hiking down with him while Bailey and I take G town on the Skytram. Great idea, right?  Sure, the hike wasn’t bad.  But, the fact that it took them around the other side of the park and they had to walk miles back to the Christmas Village was just not in the plans.  So, an hour later, with wobbly legs, they finally find us!

And then my camera dies…

If you have kids and you haven’t gone to Stone Mountain Christmas yet, I recommend it.  The village is adorable, the Christmas Train ride was great, unfortunately we didn’t get to see the 4-D Polar Express, but we’ll get that next time.  The best part was the Snow Angel show at the end- fireworks, snow (soap suds) falling from the sky and a real flying Snow Angel- she was actually flying above us- held up by wires.  It was very cool!

The next day, they went home and I cried, as always.

Happy Birthday Mandi!

Mandi just turned 30.  Last year, the sisterchicks all went on a cruise for our 30th birthdays.  Since Mandi’s a little younger, we had to do a birthday bash, sisterchick style.  First,  Staci, brought her to the destination blindfolded! 

We took her to dinner at Bahama Breeze!  Get it?  Just like our cruise last year to the Bahamas! As you can see, we’re missing Mandy, whose dh had to work at the last minute.

After a scrumptious dinner, we headed out for another surprise.  We went to the Atlanta Cupcake Factory, whose website was just a tad bit misleading.  It was basically a hole in the wall with no place to sit! 

Disclaimer- here are my two favorite single gals, Staci & Kristen.  If you are a God-lovin, mature man, go ahead and check out their blogs! They’re both beautiful inside and out and would be a prize for any man!

Back to the hole in the wall… they did have lovely cupcakes!

The man working there brought out fresh ones for our little partay.

Here we are with our baked goodies.  You can see Amanda’s little bundle of joy, Asa, in the bottom left.  He was such a good baby!

So, we headed back into my van and asked Magellan to take us to the nearest Starbucks.  Luckily it was only 0.3 miles away.  Don’t these cupcakes look delicious?  Here are the flavors we chose: Pumpkin Latte, White Chocolate Cranberry, Double Chocolate, Sugar Cookie Nutella, Gingerbread Lemon, Chocolate Almond, and Caramel Apple. 

This is what the box looked like when we were done.

Here are some other pics I just couldn’t leave out.

Here is Mandi, who kept asking what a certain cupcake was! 

Happy birthday, friend!

Marcus update

Marcus is doing well- this is a picture of him with his sisters last night.  What a beautiful smile!  He had surgery to correct a problem with his broken leg and has now been moved to the therapy floor- he has a long road ahead of him.  Please pray for strength.  Like the bracelets we all wear say: “Marcus is Strong!”  He is starting to feed himself and speak a little, but it doesn’t always make sense.  Keep up your prayers!

Marcus is healing!

The latest update on Marcus is that he is breathing on his own- Praise the Lord!  His body is healing, although one lung still has a drain.  He is awake now, but is confused and doesn’t seem to understand speech.  The injury was to the frontal lobe of his brain, which is the speech center- pray for healing!  He gave his family a huge smile yesterday, so that is promising!  They do not know what  his cognitive ability will be like.  It may stay the same or his brain may keep healing.  We know he will start to come back to us-will you pray with us?  He knows what to do with crayons and how to put on a watch, so that is amazing in itself.

Marcus

 

The lastest update on Marcus is that he does not have pneumonia- praise God!  They are moving towards extubating him and having less and less sedation, while keeping his pain low.  The results of the latest CT show damage to the temporal lobe, which controls speech.  This news is scary for his parents, but at the same time Marcus is a fighter!  Please pray for his family and his two sisters at home.  They need peace!

Please visit Marcus’s caringbridge site and tell them that you’re praying for him.  We’re trying to get as many people from around the world praying!  http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/marcusnickell

Keep praying for Marcus!

 

Marcus is doing amazingly well, but his lungs need prayer!  Right now, one of his lungs is not inflating.  They are having difficulties keeping the lung inflated without having extra air push through the tear in the other lung.  Please keep this sweet boy in your prayers.

Visit http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/marcusnickell to read daily updates.

Great news!

This is copied from Ben’s carepage:

They did the last MRI and have reviewed it, along with CHLA and the other drs on the tumor board, and all signs of the remaining bits of tumor have dissipated..gone..are NOT there..it was a clean MRI!!!!!
There will be no need for a biopsy, as they can find nothing large enough to biopsy..or radiation..after this, we are done! The real finish line in sight!

Our hearts swell with gratitude that we have not put him through all of this for no good reason..that we took the chance to enter this clinical trial, with very little to go on, and that our hope has been realized. That our boy, whose tumor filled 1/2 of his brain at the start of this process, has no discernible tumor left on his MRI.

We proceed with the stem cell transplant, with much more confidence and hopefulness, hoping it eradicates all the cancer cells floating around in his brain (that can’t be detected by an MRI)..that not one cell remains, as that is all it would take to come back full force.
Join us in our deep, abiding relief, gratitude..and don’t stop praying, promise?!

We still have a ways to go through this round..and then the months ahead..he will need your continued prayers and thoughts!

 

Thank you…

to everyone who ever prayed for my friend and co-worker Libby.  Libby has been fighting pancreatic cancer for almost a year now and lost the battle on Saturday.  But, there is reason to celebrate!  Libby is rejoicing in God’s glory now in heaven.  Praise God! 

Please continue to pray for my friend Ben, as he fights his brain tumor. Ben is an amazing little boy with so much love and life left.  He has touched the lives of so many people with his wisdom.  Ben was adopted four years ago from Korea.  He has 3 brothers and a loving mom and dad who have already lost their daughter, Maddie, to a heart condition related to Down Syndrome.  This family needs all the prayers they can get.  Ben has been in the hospital for the better part of 6 months.

Here is a picture of Ben and the Chairman from Iron Chef, who came to visit him in the hospital.

I love this picture of Ben praying.

Ben is playing bumper cars with a friend in the hospital.

I’m going to leave you with some of my favorite quotes that wise little Ben has said recently.

“Always keep your heart open for love!”

“You just can’t get too much love, you know!”

 ”loving just takes practice!”

Here is one of Amy’s thoughts that touched my heart:

” I know it’s probably odd, but sometimes I feel like Maddy was so pure and such light, and she died. I know it’s not really rational, but sometimes I have this primal fear that Ben, with his sweet intuitive ways, a purity of soul yet untarnished, will be snapped away on account of it…as if the world, with all its problems, were not a fit place for souls like his.

I sometimes wish he was just a bit more ornery or something…be a little naughty or something. But, you know, the world needs more people like him..his gifts are needed here. And besides the world, WE need HIM..we can’t live without his particular joy and the light he brings. There would be such an eclipse..a darkness so profound. So, I remind God from time to time, that he will be a teenager someday..and he’ll get ornery soon enough..and I promise I’ll celebrate even that.”