Dedicated to Kevin....

This entry is dedicated to Kevin, who nicely told me that he has been checking the blog and there haven't been any updates since the end of April. So, here goes:

The quick recap of May - September (now that the month is essentially over)

May brought an overnight stay in the hospital for Elizabeth and Mommy; she had a fairly significant case of dehydration from the flu. Daddy took Nicholas to his Fun Days with school because she and I were having our own fun with the doctors and nurses. Mike experienced his first 4-H council circle, and he and I got to go out by ourselves for the first time in ages when we saw Alan Jackson in concert.

June found us saying goodbye to our church pastor and getting ready to welcome another. We also attended 2 weddings and an engagement party. We went on a Galactic Blast at church for VBS. Nicholas also was getting ready to start PT and OT again for the summer.

July was the busiest month every, I think. We went on vacation to the Smokey Mountains over 4th of July weekend with a couple of friends and their daughter. The next weekend I traveled to Portsmouth, OH to take a young lady from our church on her Chrysalis flight. After attending my cousin's baby shower one Saturday afternoon, I spent a week at Jackson's Mill State 4-H camp as a counselor and the next week at Mercer County 4-H camp with our Boone County 4-Hers. The kids went with me for this last week of camp and loved it!!! We also spent a Sunday afternoon with the McWhorter clan at their annual reunion - while Mike was sitting at the race track in Indianapolis with his buddies.

In August, the kids and I spent one day at the Boone County fair prepared to answer questions about 4-H, but no one really asked anything. We also went to the WV state fair one day. That was a lot of fun - and Nicholas even got to pet a pig. The last Saturday of the month, the Francis family had their annual reunion. We also got Nicholas ready for school.

September has not been lacking in adventure. We worked around the house over Labor Day and sealed the driveway among other things. Nicholas, Elizabeth and I took a road trip; we started in Chapmanville, drove to Indianapolis and spent the night, and then drove on to Milwaukee for a PHACE conference. It was fabulous - all that I wanted it to be and more. I learned the latest research findings about Nicholas' birth defect, got to meet other families and kids with PHACE, and learn where they are going in the future with research. There is even another study that we are considering putting Nicholas in. When the conference was over, we headed back to Indy (with a 2 hour trip through Chicago) and then spent a day visiting friends in Indy. The entire trek took us about 1,400 miles - but it was worth it!

Today Nicholas got his first "birthday gift" - the WVU band is headed to Louisiana for the football game this weekend and made a stop in Logan for an exhibition performance. The kids and I really enjoyed it. It brought back a lot of memories!

Tomorrow our little guy is going to turn 5 years old! Hard to believe.....

...and, yes, this is the short version of our summer!!!

And for Kevin, and several others of you who check the blog regularly, I will really try to do better at updating it.

Have a great weekend everyone! See ya on the flip side....