Summer Stuff!

It has been a long time since I have updated the blog!  We have had a very busy June.  John got to come home for a month on June 1st.  We were all so excited for him to be home.  He is the funniest man on earth and we laughed from the minute he walked off the plane until he left.  We miss him so much already! 

We started the month in Louisiana to visit my family.  My mom had a heart attack at the end of May so we wanted to go and spend some time with her and help my sister take care of my parents.  Alison went right away to help out with my nieces and nephew so my sister could take care of my parents (my dad has been sick since October) and as soon as John got home we left for La.  We spent a week there and then we flew to New York for a quick family vacation that we had already planned before my mom's heart attack.  We spent 4 days in NYC shopping, eating, walking, going to the Alexander McQueen exhibit at The Met, and checking out Wicked on Broadway.  It was a fabulous week filled with tons of shopping and we walked about 30 miles.  The weather was fabulous!  It was 60 degrees and cool at night and 75 and breezy in the daytime.  Loved it!

We came  back to New Orleans in time for me to take my mother in for her second procedure.  She had to get another stent put in...she had 100% blockage in one side and 80% in the other...they fixed the 100% blockage the night she was brought in to the hospital by ambulance.  Well....I brought my mom in but she refused the procedure...she didn't like doing it in the out patient facility and then they were going to make her spend the night.  It was creepy.   Good thing she decided to postphone it and do it at the hospital because she ended up having complications and another heart attack.  She is much better now.  She is very tired.  They have her on a ton of medicines and the beta blockers make her exhausted.  Hopefully she will start PT soon and it will help her feel even better.  We are planning to go back for my nephew's birthday in a few weeks and I will get to spend some time with my parents then. 

We have been spending the last couple of weeks getting ready for a garage sale...I told Alison that she could have the money from the garage sale to help furnish her apartment if she did it for me...I HATE them!  She agree but I am not sure she is aware of the amount of work she has agreed to!  Somehow I seem to still be purchasing furniture for the apartment even before the garage sale though...hmmmmm???  We are selling a LOT of stuff.  We are trying to pare it down and stage the house so that when we leave we can sell it.  We are planning on selling the house in Sweeny and buying one in College Station for the girls to live in next year.  Janie is planning on going to A&M and living with Alison next year...WHOOP!  So if anyone wants to buy a house in Sweeny...let me know!

We have about six weeks left in the States before we head out for Saudi Arabia.  We are getting excited because we miss John so much.  I will miss Alison, but she has made a great life for herself in College Station.  She is moving in to an apartment in August and is planning on going through rush so she will be busy.  That three months before she sees us again will fly by!  I will miss my family too, but I know that it is the right thing for us to do.  I can't imagine living my life seeing John only once every three months....I just can't do it...for whatever reason God wants us in the Middle East and we will go until he brings us home...again....he he

Although we LOVE being home, we are kind of excited to get back to Saudi.  Madeline will be going to the International School in Jubail for a year and Janie will finish her senior year of high school and her freshman year of college concurrently at the University of Texas HS.  People keep asking me if I like being home or if I like living in the Middle East and what I have come to realize through all of these adventures is that I LOVE MY LIFE.  I love it here in the States and I love it in the Middle East...as long as I am with my family I am happy.  I have absolutely been blessed with the three best children and God couldn't have picked a better husband for me than what he gave me.  I would be happy anywhere they are...even though they are slowly leaving the nest!

I hope to be able to see everyone before we leave!  Let's do lunch!