Happy Thanksgiving!

Just checking in to say Happy Thanksgiving! We are just meeting ourselves coming and going recently. Between side jobs for Jeff, basketball and deer season for Owen, school events for all 3, doctor's appointments and physical therapy appointments and trips to TX for me, a girls weekend (that included all 3 boys!), Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas preparations, Levi's 7th birthday, one teeny case of headlice that was shared with the household (we have to suppose...everyone got treated anyway!), all the laundry that that entails, vehicle maintenance, and so on and so on...I haven't had time enough to gather my thoughts for a new entry.

We are really looking forward to seeing family and friends over the holidays. I have so much to write, and so many pictures to post, but we'll get to that another day.

Hoping that my trip to TX next week is my last for awhile. I LOVE Texas, and MDACC, but I love being at home with my family even more. If you get a chance, pray for me as I travel next week, and I look forward to posting something of substance very soon.

Blessings to you all. Please leave a comment, even if it's just "Hi". I'd love to hear from you again!

Love,

Leslie

p.s. This photo is of our kiddos and our friends, Darren and Jill's, boys. It was taken during a night time visit to the corn maze. 7 boys+acres of corn=lots and lots of fun!

Quotes of the Day

Jeff and Owen are hunting this weekend, and the little boys are rather down about being left behind. Bedtime was a fiasco, with one stall tactic followed by another. Two quotes that simply must be remembered for all eternity were uttered by the mouths of my two youngest. Totally cracked me up!

Levi, stalling as best he could, just keeps talking and talking about nothing in particular. Finally, after I don't take the bait, he states in despair,

"But Momma! It's just that sometimes, every direction looks like North!"

Ummmm...okay?

Then, when that doesn't trigger a bedtime postponing discussion, he says (quite dramatically),

"Momma? Sometimes, when I think about when you had cancer, it just makes me so sad..."

at which Isaac sits up abruptly from his cozy bed and says, "WHAT! You had cancer?!!!!"

(He must've missed it!)

Totally cracked me up!

Copied...

"From the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, the Name of the Lord shall be praised!"

I just read this on my cousin Cari's blog and I think it says exactly what I'm needing to write right now. These are her thoughts and her words, but somehow they are mine as well! Don'tcha just love family?!

I think I may have forgotten how to blog. It's been so long. Several times a day, I think of some freshly illumined truth, or surprising connection and I say to myself, "Self, you should blog that!" And then the day continues. My thoughts continue. But I never find the time to sit and write it out. When I do sit down to "pen some words", I can't quite remember how the truth or the illumination occurred, and in a late-day fog, I can't quite piece together the sequence of surprise, much less, the connections. I forget. I blog to remember, but at some point I must remember to blog:)

But this is what I know for sure. God is good all the time. He is Truth and Light and Love and Purpose. Unpredictable, yet Reliable. Uncomfortable, but Comforting. Simply Complex.

“Not everything that can be counted counts,and not everything that counts can be counted.”
Albert Einstein, 1879-1955

What a Life!

This month we celebrated Jeff's 40th birthday. Here is a photo of him and the boys after they presented him with their gifts...a coin organizer for his truck, a new watch, and his hunting and fishing license for the year. All of the gifts painstakingly sought out in a Wal-Mart shopping trip, then proudly presented to their daddy the night before his birthday (they couldn't wait!).

Had you been a fly on the wall, you would've heard, "Open it Daddy! It is NOT a coin holder...it is definitely NOT a coin holder! What do you think it could be Daddy? Open it! Open it!"

I LOVED every minute of the presentation. Do I have a wonderful life or what?!

Newsflash!

It has occurred to me...slowly but surely...that I don't need to write a book with each entry. Just a little blip about how I'm doing would suffice. I avoid updating, though, b/c I don't seem to have time to gather my thoughts.

So...here are my un-gathered thoughts in a nutshell...

The boys started school, I started physical therapy for my post-surgeries right arm, Jeff is working and enjoying his job, and the weather is getting cooler every day. We are almost tired of cherry tomatoes from our garden, but we are lovin' the sunflowers the boys planted. My trips to TX are spread out enough that we hardly notice them anymore, and I've discovered Farmville on Facebook. Definitely a waste of time...but still fun.

I have lots of summer pics to post...when I get around to it.

Hope you are enjoying this last bit of summer. We are trying to drain every last drop out of it...and are eagerly awaiting autumn!

Thanks for checking in!

Blessings,

Leslie

Our Summer is Flying By!

Well...if anyone is even still checking at this point, I wanted you to know that we are all alive and well! My recovery is going very well, and I continue to make trips to Houston every 2-3 weeks for checkups. I am looking forward to the day when I can journal without mentioning anything medical!

Our boys have been very busy, and have all enjoyed learning how to swim this summer. Levi has been busy securing visits from the tooth fairy, and is working on losing yet another tooth in hopes that she'll visit before school begins again.

Isaac celebrated his 5th birthday in May, and Owen just celebrated his 10th birthday this past weekend. I LOVE HAVING BOYS! For Isaac's birthday, we celebrated by visiting the zoo with his cousins Sloan and Brody. It was raining, but...NEWSFLASH...boys love puddles, and everyone was equipped with an umbrella, so a good time was had by all (with perhaps the exception of baby Brody!).

For Owen's birthday we took a few of his friends and both of his little brothers to a local rock climbing gym. HUGE fun! Absolutely will go back...hopefully soon. Those little guys were scaling walls that went to the ceiling of the warehouse, then repelling back down again. There was also a huge rope swing in the middle, and with harnesses secured, they could swing from one end of the gym to another. EXTREMELY fun...especially for the littlest ones. And...it was challenging enough that the 10/11 year olds never got bored, and were still going strong at the end of our allotted 2 hour visit! Massive success on my part as I usually fall short of planning the perfect party. Then the guys returned home for a swim and nachos for supper, and finally a little Tim Hawkins comedy video before heading home. Way big fun for 6 boys!

Since the party season is over, I have rearranged my kitchen...don't know what I've been doing for the past year! It was a mess, and now we are enjoying easily accessible snacks and less back breaking lifting of the crock pot from the cabinet. Big deal for me! I also tackled 2 years worth of accumulation of papers that have been hibernating in my bedroom since October 2007. I have successfully whittled it down to a manageable pile of envelopes, which I plan on going through today...perhaps!

Next on the agenda is moving my desk out of our bedroom so the aforementioned papers never again accumulate around my bed and dresser! Major project, but I will get it done. I am determined...and armed with a can of Pledge...which may be empty before the day is done!

Add to that a season of Little League baseball, cousins' birthday parties, parents birthdays, a trip or two to TX, tending a garden, keeping the grass alive (without an in ground sprinkler system), and watching my mom do all of my housework for the past month, and I'd say we've been pretty busy! Oh! And we raised some chicks that we promptly gave to Grandpa Coach.

I apologize for the awful pictures of Owen's party. Jeff has the memory card with him, so I'll get some pics off of that when he gets home...if I can still get to the computer!

Hope your summer is going well. Blessings to you all.

Jeff, Leslie, and 'da boys

Brief Update

Just checking in. I had surgery on Tuesday at 7 am. The procedure lasted about six hours (or so I'm told). This was the first procedure in a series that will reconstruct what was removed last May. My surgeon is excellent, and assured us that everything went perfectly in the OR. I am still in the hospital, but should be discharged tomorrow if everything looks good. Thank you for your prayers. I hope to be feeling somewhat normal again by Father's day, but we'll see!

Again, if you need to get ahold of Jeff or me, our email is davis-clan@hotmail.com.

Thanks for checking in. Love you all,

Leslie

Good Advice

Good advice. Written By Regina Brett, 90 years old, of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland ,Ohio

"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most-requested column I've ever written."

My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends andparents will. Stay in touch.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.

8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck..

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.

12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journeyis all about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.

16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.

18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.

19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is upto you and no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no foran answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don'tsave it for a special occasion. Today is special.

22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.

23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, willthis matter?'

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive everyone everything.

29. What other people think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did ordidn't do.

35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood.

38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's,we'dgrab ours back.

41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

42. The best is yet to come.

43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

44. Yield.

45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift."

A Favorite Summer Poem

Bed In Summer

In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer, quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.

I have to go to bed and see
the birds still hopping on the tree,
Or hear the grown-up people's feet
Still going past me in the street.

And does it not seem hard to you,
When all the sky is clear and blue,
And I should like so much to play,
To have to go to bed by day?

Robert Louis Stevenson

Anybody there?

Hello...just checking in so that you know I'm still alive and kickin'. We've been so busy lately, that I don't even know where to begin. I need to get a lot done today, so real quickly I'll just leave a few prayer requests, and then hopefully later type an update on the family along with a few pictures.

Prayer requests:

1) For my newest new insurance to be agreeable to my continuing treatment at MD Anderson. They are contracted on paper, but their front line customer service associates haven't found that yet, and we are back to square one in that area...with a surgery pending in June! Umhmmm...sounds crazy, but really...whatever happens, it's no big deal. I don't mind putting a surgery off for awhile! HOWEVER...it would be nice to get it out of the way, and get back to whatever normal is.

2)For our past insurance to figure out what in the world is going on. They pay some claims as in-network(08), then forget what they were doing and reject the next batch (pay out-of-network) (09). It's a quagmire, as Jeff would say! Gonna take a lot of phone time, and that is something I'm rather low on! Especially with the boys out of school! It will work out...it's just highly frustrating.

Basically...those are the 2 main worries right now. Kinda nice for a change, eh? In light of the past year and a half...it's laughable. Just got to keep things in perspective.

Blessings to you all!

Leslie

Rules of the Universe

1. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.
2. Don't worry about what people think; they don't do it very often.
3. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian anymore than standing in a garage makes you a car.
4. Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.
5. Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious.
6. A person, who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person. (This is very important. Pay attention! It never fails.)
7. For every action, there is an equal and opposite government program.
8. If you look like your passport picture, you probably need the trip.
9. Bills travel through the mail at twice the speed of cheques.
10. A conscience is what hurts when all of your other parts feel so good.
11. Eat well, stay fit, die anyway.
12. Men are from earth. Women are from earth. Deal with it. Embrace your differences. Love each other.
13. No man has ever been shot while doing the dishes.
14. A balanced diet is a chocolate in each hand.
15. Middle age is when broadness of the mind and narrowness of the waist change places.
16. Opportunities always look bigger after they have passed.
17. Junk is something you've kept for years and throw away three weeks before you need it.
18. There is always one more imbecile than you counted on.
19. Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.
20. By the time you can make ends meet, they move the ends.
21. Thou shalt not weigh more than thy refrigerator.
22. Someone who thinks logically provides a nice contrast to the real world.
23. It isn't the jeans that make your butt look fat.
24. There is a very fine line between 'hobby' and 'mental illness.'
25. People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.
26. You should not confuse your career with your life.
27. Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.
28. Never lick a steak knife.
29. The most destructive force in the universe is gossip.
30. You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight savings time.
31. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests that you think she's pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment.
32. The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down we ALL believe that we are above average drivers.
33. Your friends love you anyway.
34. Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.
35. How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are.