Vacation pictures at the museum

I know it's hard to believe but when we got to the Children's Museum John didn't want to have a picture taken. Perhaps he just wanted to get inside so that he could have fun with the cars but first we went to the fishing area.

More vacation videos..................

While visiting Mili we went to the Children's Museum (not sure if that's the right name or not) which was a very nice place to go. Unfortunately John only wanted to see certain parts and he threw a fit when it was time to go. THey had lots of nice exhibits for the children including a place where you could eat bugs. Seriously.

Videos from our vacation

Here are some short videos taken from our vacation. One thing I forgot to mention was that it was incredibly humid there. All you had to do was walk outside and you would start sweating. Tulsa is different, it gets very hot here but the humidity level is not the same, it's just usually very hot. Of course yesterday I decided to cut the grass after it had rained earlier in the day so we did have a higher level of humidity and that made the process much more difficult.

One thing I remember is that John had to be the one to press the elevator buttons every time we used it but to him the word wasn't elevator but instead was "alligator." On one video you can see John climbing up a ladder of sorts and that is the first time he has ever climbed one like that on his own. I am encouraging him to try things instead of saying that he cannot do it without ever having tried. Of course this can make Connie anxious at times but he needs to learn that he can do anything as long as he tries.

Sadly, our short vacation is over.

We made it back from our short vacation safely last night. On Friday night/Saturday morning we drove to Horn Lake, Ms which is close to Memphis, Tn. It was quite a drive but we made it safely at about 7:30 am. The first order of business was getting a hotel room which was done promptly. Next came the free continental breakfast that the hotel supplied and after that we all went to bed. After a few hours of sleep we got up and got ready and drove the few miles left to go see Mili and Nova Lee. Nova Lee is a beautiful little girl and she couldn't take her eyes off of Johnito and started leaning over to him immediately. She really wanted to get ahold of him. Mili's mother-in-law was there and we met her and her three dogs and were able to talk with her. Mili had the bad luck of having a dental problem so it did hamper things a bit as she was in pain though we made the best of it. Later her husband Aaron came home from work and we were able to meet him. We made a trip to a nice local park so that Johnny could play (and me to) and we could take a nice walk.









There will be more to come tomorrow and lot's of videos too for everyone to see so be patient.

Here are some more of John's birthday videos

Since we will be going to see Mili and Nova Lee in a few days I'm sure we'll have a ton of pictures and videos so I thought I'd post the last of the videos that we have from his birthday.

Please Not Again............

Reposted from www.notmovingpictures.blogspot.com

This past Friday night as I was finishing my dinner break at work I received a call from my mother. She wanted to tell me that my sister, Teresa, was in the hospital and had been since the previous evening. My heart immediately leapt into my throat. If you notice my previous few posts you’ll see that it had been one year since my mother’s near fatal heart attack and my mind instantly went to that situation and I could feel the dread welling up inside me as I waited for her to tell me what could only be extremely bad news. As it turns out it was not life threatening but nevertheless was not pleasant for her either. You see last year Teresa (my older sister by three years) was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. I won’t get into the details of what sent her to the hospital but my mother explained that it was related. Of course my family is always very late in informing each other when something bad has happened to one of us. Usually by the time everyone knows about it the afflicted person is already out of the hospital or almost over their symptoms.

Last year was a very trying time for my family. First my mother almost died from a severe heart attack. Then my son burned his hands on a friends grill. Within a few weeks of that, just a few days before we were to go to my sister’s wedding my car died. While home everyone enjoyed spending time with my son John and he in turn loved being around them. As a matter of fact you could say he flourished with the attention given to him. The only negative thing for me was that my younger sister, Karen, did not show up to see her nephew, her brother and her sister-in-law nor did she see her older sister find happiness and share in that. She has made her choices in her life long ago for the things that are important to her and her children and her family are far down on the list. The day after returning home from my sister’s wedding we had a flat tire on my wife’s car which we had driven home. This caused us to buy a new tire. Next we found out that my car was a lost cause and would have to be replaced even though we did not have the money to do so. After some time sharing the one working car that we now had we were finally able to get an older truck for me. After that came the news that Teresa had Parkinson’s disease.

As you can imagine everything that transpired put us in a financial hole that we spent the rest of the year and the early part of 2010 digging ourselves out of. As a matter of fact it took our tax return to finally pay everything off. From my plane ticket home to see my mother, to the care needed for my sons hands (which his doctor was so wonderful for not charging us for every visit we made to have his bandages changed), to the cost of making a trip home and then a new tire followed by a new (to me) vehicle and then other little things that popped up (a few repairs to the truck) it just kept adding up so that not only was it a drain on our finances but on our marriage as well. Throughout it all I kept trying to keep a positive attitude and tell myself that it could always be worse. My mother could have died. My son’s hands could have been permanently damaged. My sister’s disease could have been further along and the quality of her life could have been worse. The truck could have needed more costly repairs. It goes on and on.

It does no good to bemoan the fact that bad things are happening to you. To question “Why me?” and wallow in misery. It’s much harder to be thankful that nothing worse happened. Still, when I heard my mother say that Teresa was in the hospital, I’ll admit to a few seconds of that sinking feeling that it was all going to start over again. But I was able to quickly correct those thoughts and tell myself to wait until I found out what was wrong and then I could start thinking about what would happen in the near future. Thankfully my sister is out of the hospital and recovering. I know I need to try to follow the idea of “it could always be worse” even though it’s not easy. Truthfully, rarely is anything worth having without effort so I will continue to try. It’s all I can do, no promises though. That’s life.

John at the computer, listening to music and something personal from me

Here's a picture I took today at the library. John took it upon himself to get on a computer for games only and put on the headphones and acted like he was typing away. It's only a matter of time before he'll need a computer of his own loaded up with educational games. I think if he stays interested he'll be learning to program computers at a very early age.



I've been looking around the internet for music from Peru and I found an artist named Miki Gonzalez who was very popular in the 80s and I like quite a few songs of his. This one about a woman named Lola is probably my favorite and John enjoys it a lot too. He started singing along to it which I found to be really cool until I realized that instead of singing "Lola" he was actually singing "Dora" and refuses to listen to me when I try to correct him. Whatever makes him happy I guess. We all live in his world.



Finally, This is something I wrote for my other blog (notmovingpictures) but since it's rather personal about our lives I thought I'd re-post it here. I have some other things along this line of thought that I want to write about as soon as I have the time. Perhaps tomorrow.......

One Year Ago.............
One year ago on a Monday my mother suffered an extremely serious heart attack that was nearly fatal. As a matter of fact if my older sister hadn't been reasonably close by and answered her cellphone I am convinced that our mother would have died on her front porch. She had been having chest pain and saw her doctor earlier in the day but after doing an EKG the doctor told her that it probably wasn't her heart and sent her home. Hours later as she talked to my sister, my mother refused to go to the ER because she said that the doctor had told her that it wasn't her heart and so my mother felt that it would be a waste of time and money to go to the ER. My sister talked again with her later and she was worse so my sister told her that she was hanging up and calling 911. My mother didn't want her to hang up and when my sister called her back she said that she felt like she was dying and stopped communicating with her.

When my sister got to her house the ambulance was already there and had initiated emegency procedures. The hospital was on the line and when they pulled in the staff was there ready and waiting and had everything prepared to start treating her immediately. She had a heart cath and had stents put in and we didn't know if she would make it or not. My sister called me at work after Mom was at the hospital but I wasn't able to fly out until the next afternoon because I had to make arrangements with the babysitter for my son. After arriving in Lexington, Ky it was a little over an hours drive from the airport and my niece and brother in law (to be) picked me up and we raced home. It was late when we got there and visiting hours were over but the doctor had given me authorization to see her because it was unknown at this point if she would be able to pull through.

It was touch and go for awhile but in the following days she started to make her recovery and the doctor was amazed that she was able to come back so quickly after suffering such a severe heart attack. I ended up staying until Saturday and by that point she had been moved out of the intensive care and it was clear that she would recover. She was released from the hospital a few days later. I have to say that she's a tough old lady and it amazes me that she was able to recover and resume her life.

I feel certain that she was minutes if not seconds away from dying. There are so many "ifs" involved in this story. If the hospital staff hadn't been as prepared as they were then she would have died. If the ambulance crew had arrived a little bit later then she would have died. And the biggest one of them all, if my sister hadn't answered her cellphone (which is not uncommon for her) then my mother would have died that day. I have said a lot of prayers and given a lot of thanks since that day. Who knows why things worked out the way they did? I'm just glad that they did.

Over the course of the year I can see where we family members have gotten complacent again, after all, it is human nature. I for one haven't gone to the doctor to get checked out nor have I started excercising as I should. I'm overweight and don't get out a lot which doesn't bode well for the future especially since after Mom having her heart attack I found out that there was a history of heart disease in the family which I was unaware of. At the very least for my sons sake I owe him the chance at having me fully functioning so that I can be there for him as he grows up. I know I have to make some changes but it's hard to escape from patterns of behavior that have been going on for decades. Slowly but surely I got into this condition so I need to slowly but surely pull myself out of it. All I need is to get serious and look at my inspiration...............

You want more birthday pictures?

Even More Videos From John's Birthday Party

In this video you can see the pinata that Connie made for John's birthday. However you won't see the hit that brings it down because I stopped filming about a half of a second before it happens.


Here the kids are playing the game "tag" in the back yard. John has a lot of fun even if nobody is trying to catch him.


And in this final one John is playing with the other kids in his bedroom. John likes rolling up in the blanket and pretending he's asleep.

New pictures of Nova Lee!!!

Mili sent some pictures of Nova Lee and since we'll have some brand new family pictures featuring the very reluctant Johnito soon I though I would put these up. She is now over 4 months old and hopefully we will see her in person in a few weeks.

Pictures of Johnny by Request

Connie's friend Cecilia made a quilt for John for his birthday and here are some pictures of him asleep with it. He likes it a lot so we give many thanks to Cecilia. Also, my sister Teresa sent him a Mickey Mouse t-shirt which he huggged when he saw it and then he had to change his shirt and put it on. He loves his Mickey Mouse on anything he can get it on. So here are some pictures of him wearing it. Hope everybody likes the pictures.

More pictures of Johnito's Birthday!!

You can see him getting ready to blow out his candles and then running around in the back yard. The girl in the pink shirt is 9 years old so you can see how big John is compared to her.

Pictures from Johnito's birthday party!!!!!!

Well I have to get ready for work but I thought I'd show a few pictures from John's birthday blowout. I'm still trying to recover and get some energy back. Expect more soon.

Video From John's 3rd Birthday Party!!!!!

Well I'm pretty worn out but I've gotten a few videos ready to show everyone how John's birthday party went. I'll get more done in the coming week but for now I've been cleaning up and since Connie and John have been asleep for some time then I think that I'll join them. The dishes can wait until the after I get up. Enjoy, he had a great time playing with all of the kids that were his age and is talking up a storm.