Tough times ahead

Lance's mom was admitted to the hospital in Tupelo yesterday and will likely have surgery today. She has been having severe neck pain and the drs. in Eupora did an MRI. They sent her to Tupelo without telling her what was wrong. Apparently the radiation from her cancer treatments caused some sort of bone leakage. We don't know much about it, but hopefully we will know more today. This will likely change our travel plans. We will probably postpone our visit with Joe and Tricia in La. and spend more time in Eupora to help Lance's dad. I have a bad feeling about all of this. God bless her. She is still so weak from her fight with cancer plus she was just diagnosed with emphysema. This past year has been really hard on Lance's dad. They have been married for 50 years and he hasn't had to take care of himself much in that time. But since she's been sick he has really stepped up to the plate. I'm proud of him, but I know he is tired and scared, as is my own sweet husband. He has never lost anyone he was close to before. Whatever the outcome, this time coming up will be hard for Lance's family. Please keep them in your prayers.

I think I must have sounded pretty bratty in my last post. Both our parents are getting older and are experiencing different health problems, so I shouldn't complain so much about us being the ones who always have to travel. Becky says I should try to find positive things about the trip and she's right. So, the positives are:

1. Good BBQ and catfish. What passes for each of these in North Carolina is pretty sad, so I'm looking forward to catfish at Mitchell's in Eupora and hopefully Corky's in Memphis.

2. Lawrence will get to run the bases at Swayze! Some of my favorite memories of Ole Miss, and of Lance, are watching baseball at Swayze field. Lawrence is old enough this year to run the bases after the Sunday game. I'm tearing up thinking about it. So special.

3. I'll get to see the Barry's, whom I haven't seen in about 5 years. I hope to get to see Sheryl, too.

4. There will be lots of extra pairs of ears around. I might get a break from my sweet Lawrence's need to be constantly talking!

5. Although we don't feel like either of our folks could handle our two wild ones on their own for long, my sister will be in FC, so Lance and I might at least get a lunch alone together!

I'm sure there are many more things I could list. Thank you, Becky, for your prayers.

Home

We will be traveling at the end of the month. For nearly two weeks we will be on the road to Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas. Ugh. I am not looking forward to the trip for so many reasons. It will be fun to go to Thibadoux for the first time. Lawrence is going to love visiting his Parrain, but the rest of the trip is going to suck. I hate being in Eupora and Forrest City! Both places are so depressing. Nothing ever changes. Both places will be dark and dirty and missing all the love we feel in our own home. My mother will be happy to see the kids, but all her conversations with me will be about me being fat, Margie being too skinny and how Karen never calls. Lance's parents will go on and on about everything his sister is doing wrong and how life is so hard, blah, blah, blah. We always feel so bad when we are back there. But, since we are the only ones willing to travel, we have to endure it as best we can. Now that Lance's mom is doing better, it is probable that this will be our only trip this year.

We love our home here in Sylva. It took me a little while to appreciate it, mostly because I was so miserable when we first moved here. I was 7 months pregnant and nothing was going to make me happy. Once Annabelle got here and we made it through the first couple of months, we began to settle in and enjoy our blessings. Our house is small, but it is affordable, which is a very big deal to us. It was only a few years ago that I would have been willing to pay a lot more for my "dream home." I now know that my dream home is wherever Lance and the kids are. Our little house is set on top of a hill with the best view in the world. We can look out our windows at any time of the year and see God in all the beauty he created in these mountains. I am always happy to share it when people come visit and am especially excited that Paula is coming soon. The only thing that would make it better is having friends. We have met a lot of people, and heaven knows Lawrence has made lots of friends, but we don't feel really close to anyone, yet. There's nothing like the friends you've had forever. The ones that are in your blood, like Paula, Sheryl, Jason and Mark and Becky. But, I've never been good at making friends, so that will probably always be missing.

It is Lent and I am trying to be more diligent in my reading. For anyone out there with a Catholic Bible, try to read from Sirach this season. It is used a lot in the liturgy during Lent and, like Proverbs and Wisdom, it has a lot of useful lessons for daily living. Chapter 29 deals with debt, which has been on my mind a lot lately. Thankfully we have been able to avoid bad debt so far, but that is not the case for so much of the country. One of the best things I ever did for my marriage was change my spending habits. I look at our finances now very prudently and wish our government would do the same. But, I will save the speech about our government's recklessness for another day! Take care all!