Tuesday Fiona Whitt

Tuesday Fiona Whitt

October 11, 2006 - January 30, 2009

She didn't even make it a day after she got home.

Get your tissues out.

I stumble across blogs from all the stuff I like to read. Usually, I just scan them and go on, but today I fell upon one that was just heart wrenching. I guess it hits closer to home because my brother watched his baby die. And to this day, I can't talk about Johnathon without choking up, and changing the subject. I can casually mention him, but to actually have a conversation about him is still a no go, even 5 1/2 years later.

http://half12.blogspot.com/

A mom, Jessica, started blogging about her family in Jan. of 2008. She has two boys and twin little girls.

On July 20, 2008, Jessica found out that one of her twins, Tuesday, had cancer. They started treatment. She turned 2 in October.

On Dec. 17, 2008 her scans came back clean!

On Dec. 26, 2008 they found a new tumor and were back in the hospital for treatment.

On Jan. 22, 2009 scans showed 75% shrinkage.

On Jan. 28, 2009 the cancer had doubled in size in less than a week. It is now horribly aggressive, and no longer chemo sensitive.

On Jan. 29, 2009 they took Tuesday home.

She most likely won't last through the week.

Her brothers won't grow up with their sweet sister, and her twin sister, Piper, will lose a little part of herself.

When Johnathon died, I tortured myself. I would think, he would be "this" old now. (10) And then, Emma or Lily is at the very age that he died. (3 1/2) My girls are now living an age that he never saw. That one gets me every time. Putting them in his place, they wouldn't be here now. And then the tears roll down my face. Life without them is impossible. They are my everything. The reason Neil works so hard, the reason I get up in the morning. They are THE reason. For them to be no more, is unthinkable.

But, SO many people live through this unimaginable pain. The closest I came to this pain, is losing a pregnancy. That brought me to my knees. But, I never held my baby, never nursed him, never whispered how much I loved him in his ear. (or her) To lose a child I carried, even for such a sort time, was traumatizing, I can't even fathom how difficult it is to hold that child and then lose it.

Please say a prayer for this family! Only He can help them through their heart ache.

Dinner last night...

...was so good! And the best part was I didn't have to make it. The girls and I picked up a pizza from Papa Murphys on the way home yesterday. It was so good. They fix it up for you, you take it home and cook it. Sounds like a lot of work for so much money, but oh, so worth it! And I cut up a fresh pineapple, and we had salad.

I never much liked pineapple. I think it was the texture, because I love the juice. So, I thought we would try a fresh one.

We had this one sitting on the counter for a few days, getting ready to eat! Isn't it pretty? I had to take pictures of it as I cut it. It was just too fun.

Emma kept stealing pieces. She loves this stuff!

Anyway, it was actually very good. I think fresh is much better.


And here's our dinner. It was very good.

Oh, and since Emma wasn't feeling 100%, she had this...


...homemade chicken noodle soup, that Neil made the other day. YUM!

So much better today!

I took the girls to the doctor yesterday. Just a stomach bug. No biggy. They were much better yesterday. Lily was still running a very slight temp this morning, and the doc wanted them on Motrin for a little bit, so that and cough medicine is working well. They both went to school today, and they had lots of fun! Here they are zoned out in front of the Little Mermaid 2 a few minutes ago.

My day...

...started out like this...


middle of the day, it looked like this...


It's amazing how fast the weather changes here. This morning, taking the girls to school, I was slipping and sliding, and when I picked them up, it was warm and pretty.

I thought I would have to babysit all day. Cade got a baby brother a little after 7:00 tonight. But, thankfully, they picked him up early, and turned down my offer to babysit all night. Poor grandma was in an accident on her way to work yesterday, and is in a lot of pain. Plus sitting with her daughter all day, I knew she must be wiped out. But Cade has a good granddad who wanted to see him, so he went home early. I said thankfully, because this is how our day is ending.


Emma and Lily are sick. Emma came home with a stomach ache, so I told her to rest on the couch. A little over an hour later, she starts vomiting. No fever, just vomiting. She feels horrible. I look over at Lily, sitting on the armrest right next to me. I just knew something wasn't right. Asked if she felt bad, just a little, her belly button hurt. :) Smiles, laughs, and a 100.9 fever. So, one child vomiting, no fever, feeling bad, another, smiling, watching a movie, blood shot eyes, and a fever. Fun, fun!

I found out tonight that Cade had RSV last week. Nice to know huh? So, I'm gonna call their doc tomorrow and see if I can get them tested. So NOT happy! But, it could be worse! They both could be running a pretty little fever and both be vomiting. I am thankful!

Another one of Sasha!

No diaper this time. I made the girls clean their rooms today. Took ALL afternoon. (Actually, a little over a week!) Sasha was inside today, and she wanted to go snooping down the hall so bad. But since she gets into the girls' faces, I made her stay in the living rooms. It was so cute. She stationed herself right at the gate. And she didn't move until she went out to potty. So sweet! She loves the girls. When we let her in at night, she goes to their rooms and sniffs them out. Seeing if they are in bed, I guess. One time, when the girls were gone, we let her in and she went nuts. She looked everywhere for them. We finally got her to believe us that they were fine, and she then went to bed.


As you can see, we have a very lazy dog. All we have to do is lean gates, and she doesn't even bother with them. At night all we do is prop a gate between a box fan and my dresser, and she leaves it alone. That's all, just prop it up there. There's even a tiny space where she can squeeze through if she really wanted too. But she doesn't. It so nice having an unambitious dog sometimes!

FUNNY!!

Our Sasha is in heat. Seems like it's been forever! We let her in the other day, knowing this, but I thought for sure she wouldn't be messy. I was wrong. So, we bathed her, and then we put protection on her. What we had available was...well...was this.

She actually wore it. It was so funny! She did really good, and she got to stay in my clean house! Win, win situation. She's still in heat, will it ever end? But it's not so bad now, so she got another bath, and is begging to get on my white couch. Nice!

This might have been a little too much information about us, but it was too funny!

Learning my Camera!

My dad spent quite a lot of money for me to go to school! Thanks DAD! And one of the classes he spent money on was a photography class. (It was a fine arts course.) This class was so much fun! Neil and I were able to take it together, and I think that's where my love for photography really started. It was a black and white photography class. And we learned how to develop the film and pictures on paper. It was really neat! But it was sooooo expensive. Now that I have my DSLR camera, it's a lot cheaper. I can ruin tons of "film", and it won't cost me a thing!

But one thing I never really "got" was how to expose the film correctly. It was so over my head. Of course, Neil got it, but I never understood it. Just guessed and shot.

So, I finally picked up a book about exposure the other day. And in the first 15 minutes of reading the book, it clicked! I went home, picked up my camera, and realized I had no idea that I had to mess around with this other little number. So, I picked up my camera's instruction manual, found out how do it, and I did it. I have always wanted to turn it to manual and shoot away, but my pictures were always way TOO dark. Now they aren't! And I know why! Even better!

I know, no big deal. But after Neil spent so much money on that camera for me, I felt so guilty that I didn't have a clue how to use it. So, now I have a tiny clue. Yeah!!!! I am very excited! I have SOOOOOOO much more to learn, but I am getting there, one step at a time. Ha, I made a funny. One step, one F stop is a step. Ha, ha, ha! Ok, just knowing that each F stop is a step is a HUGE step in the right direction, so just laugh with me, and I'll be happy! ;o)

Ok, nuff ramblings, now for some pics. I made the girls go outside with me so I could practice taking pics in manual. They happily played basketball and wrote with chalk as I shot away.

I have seen so many people take pictures of a group of girls, and they have them jump at the same time. It's such a cool shot, so I had to try. I was just playing around, really just seeing if I could get them to jump together. And they can, so when I get a chance, I'm gonna really set the shot up cute!

Don't they look so happy??

And speaking of great imaginations...

My girls have picked up a new game. They have taken to playing school. Yeah, I know, not unusual. But it's not in their rooms. Yea know, where they have desks, tables, paper, colors, all that good stuff. No, it's not in the living room or dining room.

No, it's in the bathroom.


Yeah, I don't know why.
The house is, was, clean. They didn't need to play in there. It wasn't the cleanest room in the house. (Even though it was clean. I promise!)
I asked them why, and they just said because it was fun.

Umm...ok!

Have fun, Babies!

(And when I use the potty, and look down to see Emma's dress shoes between the wall and toilet, I will try to not let it bother me!)

Love these!

I love my girls like crazy! I love listening to them chatter to each other. I love their made up stories and games. They have such an imagination! They are so sweet. And they love having each other. I was so excited that I had another girl! I hoped Emma and Lily could be best friends. Well, my hopes came true. They are best friends.

Now, this doesn't mean they don't fight.

Oh, my! Do they ever fight!

But, that's ok. All siblings fight!

Especially in the car!

Well...that's where these little devices come in handy.

We had just gotten home from a "going away" party in Lubbock.
It was late, way past their bed time. But they didn't fight on the way home. They were very occupied by their NDS.



The other day Neil took the girls to see his uncle, who was in the hospital. I was sick, so he went it alone. He took their NDS with them just in case. He said they were perfect angels at the hospital. Of course they were "acting" shy. And then he said, it was soooo quiet on the way home. He walked in about 2 minutes before the girls, so I asked if they had fallen asleep in the car. Nope, they were just playing their games.

So, while I love listening to them play, when the claws come out, I am soooooo thankful to Nintendo for coming out with their DS's!

I am a sucker...

...for these freckles!

We are in so much trouble!

Another pray request!

Please say a quick prayer for my sister-in-law, Mandy. She is going in on Monday for a hysterectomy.

Thanks!

Yeah!

This is me, happy that the computer is working. Neil wanted me to play on the laptop when he got it home, and he had to snap my picture as I was doing it. It was pretty late, and I was tired, so don't mind the sleepy eyes!

Look how dark my arm is and how white my face is. I think I need to get out in the sun more...hmmm....

Just sharin'

I took portrait type pics of the girls a while back. I played around with them the other day, and love how they turned out. I'm defiantly gonna print these out and frame them.


I have a picture of Emma doing this when she was a little over two. I had her squat in our entertainment center. It was completely black, ...actually here it is.

I can't believe how big she's gotten. Sniff, sniff...

And here's Lily's. She was being silly, but I love how it turned out!

Oh, and I'm learning editing skills. She had peanut butter and whatever else all over her dress, and I was able to clone it out.

So proud!

Easy Bake Oven!!!

Do y'all remember Easy Bake Ovens? Lily got one for Christmas. She even asked for it. It's really cute, and she had so much fun doing it. I guess I am really anal when it comes to cooking and cleaning. It's so hard for me to let go and let them just do it. That's one of the reasons I got this for her. I knew she would love it, and it would be good for me too. The only bad thing is you have to bake one cookie at a time. So, 6 cookies times 8 minutes a cookie, equals a very happy child and a very frazzled mom. (We lost Emma after the second cookie.) I really didn't know what to expect from it. I had never played with one before. Here's what you get. This nifty microwave looking oven, pans, utensils, and packets of goodies. And you buy a 100 watt light bulb for the cooking.

Here's the oven.

Now, you would think that this thing opens like a microwave, but nope. It has a slot on the side that you slide the pan in and another slot on the other end to slide it out.

See? In...

...out!

We decided that our first attempt would be sugar cookies. Here they are in the package.


You see the small writing? It says "Food shown larger than actual size."


It's not lying. I wish I had a picture that shows you to scale, but I don't. They were so tiny. The plate they are on is a huge plate, so that helps to see a little. Anyway, we cooked them up and iced them. Only the icing was suppose to be purple, and it ended up clear with purple clumps.

Before pic...

...and after.

They were actually really good. They tasted just like sugar cookies. Even the clear and purple clumpy icing was good.

I made her wait until everyone could try them together.
She was very patient. It took longer than I thought, I looked up and I found her waiting...patiently.

Too cute!

So after daddy got ready for work we all had a little taste testing.

We were very impressed. Next on the menu is cake. I have heard that one can be a little messy. But I'm ready! Bring it on!

Weems' Christmas

I really got sidetracked on my blogging lately. I have completely left out the Weems' Christmas pictures. So, here they are. I took loads of pictures, but here are the high lights.

It's a very rare occasion that the family takes pictures together. Or at least pictures of something other than the kiddos.

Here is Neil and his sisters. LaJeannia is on the left and Teresa the right.

Present time! Don't ya love Mema's wrapping?


The kids got together and got the grandparents a group picture of all the grandkids. It turned out really good. And Patsy and Don loved it.


It was so sweet. When we gave the picture to Patsy and Don to open the kids just gathered around them. It was a sweet picture. The only one missing was Cadence. She was more interested in the toys in Mema's room.


But we got her in there eventually.


Here is Neil with Teresa, his mom Patsy, LaJeannia, and his dad Don.
Who knows the last time they took a picture all together?


And here are all the add on's.
Theres Me, Neil, Teresa, Fili, Patsy, Don, LaJeannia, Melvin
Brandon, Sage, Emma
Lily and Cadence

And...now it's time to go buy a tripod so we can all be looking straight instead of down.

Oh, and Patsy got us tickets to see David Copperfield in Lubbock next month! So cool!

Soon, I promise!

I have so many things going on right now, but I promise I will blog soon. Hopefully I will have time tonight. Oh, my wonderful hubby has my laptop going, so as long as I keep still, lean to the left, and not breath, we are good! I have my pics available, and I have some ideas for blogs, so as soon as I get a few things done today, I will get started! Neil's working tonight, and this weekend, so lots of time to do it!

Oh, and thanks for the thoughts and prayers for my grandmother. It really means so much!!

GG Update

Mom, I hope you don't mind that I copied and pasted your email. If you do, I will take it down.

This is from Mom last night. I wanted to give everyone an update. She sounded so sad on the phone. So please pray for peace for her and the rest of my family. Thank you so much!


(Mom's Email)
the dr. was very blunt with mom and me today. he said that mom needed to go to dallas and have open heart surgery. Mom said no that she wasn't going to be put under anymore. that she will just live with what she has. the dr. said the the heart murmers are larger. some of her blood is just washing in and out. it isn't benefiting her. she is not getting any better and won't. in Moms words she may live a year, or she may die tonight. come what may we will praise God in the good and in the bad and that is exactly what we did in our prayer tonight. I am exhausted and emotionally drained so I just wanted to let you know what we are looking at in the future. Thank you for your love and concern. I will write more when I am able. Mom is extremely weak and cannot get around well at all. Love you all, Billie ann/Mom/cuz/etc. God Bless each one of you.

Saturday was my grandmother's 77th birthday. Mom took pictures of her to celebrate, and they got fancy. Seeing GG sitting on the bike, with all the leathers on and the helmet means that she is getting stronger. (Because leathers are heavy!) So, Mom I am so proud of you for what you have done for GG. And GG you are looking so good! (Mom, hope you don't mind that I stole the picture!)

Happy birthday GG!!

And a pray request. GG has fainting spells and she gets pretty banged up from these. Everyone is really hoping the doctors will find a reason for it. She is having a stress test and echo cardiogram today, and then she is being admitted to the hospital. The doctor has finally gotten serious about finding the cause of all this. So please pray that the cause is found, and please pray that it is fixed with medication. She has been advised not to be put under. Apparently, she has in her papers that she doesn't come back from that very easily. So, she really needs a fix that won't require her to be under anesthesia. So, please pray that the doctors find something, and that she will feel better soon!

Thanks!

Computer Woes!

Well...remember that picture of my laptop with a black screen? It is once again on the blink and I don't know if it will come back from it this time. So, blogging will be slow unless I dig through old pictures to post. Which I might. I can't remember what all is on this computer. So bear with me, and I will try to keep y'all updated.

New Year's Eve 2008

HAPPY NEW YEAR'S!

We had a lot of fun this New Year's eve. Isaac, Sabrina, Destiny, and Kade joined us this year. They got here around 9 pm, and we gobbled down 3 pizzas and some salad. Then we started playing games. We played Cranium for several hours, until Sabrina and I finally won. And we stopped in time to watch the ball fall, and toasted the new year with sparkling grape juice. Yum!

We broke out the tiara's and blowouts, and tried to get a good family picture.
But it was hard without a tripod.


I think I've finally talked Neil into getting me one soon! Yeah!

Ike has a big tongue! Actually his whole face looks abnormally big!
And Emma is pretty happy looking, too!

Isaac sure is a happy boy here!

Here's the best shot!

Anyway, we made several attempts. They were pretty funny.
And of course we made the kids pose.

There's two good ones with the kiddos. But this one, Kade isn't looking...


...and this one, Destiny looks like her blowout broke! :(

And then we had a ghost visit us. Kade loved it! His favorite game is "Catch me" and this was perfect for him!


Lily on the other hand...


...wouldn't leave my hip. She thought it was funny and all, and she knew it was Uncle Ikey and all, but she still wanted to make sure it was just all fun and games, ...and all.


OOOhhhh, we knew it was you the WHOLE time!
Silly Uncle Ikey!!!

As the ball fell...Happy New Year!!

Lily ducking out of the way of the streamers...

...Isaac helping Kade pop his popper...


And we can't forget the infamous kiss at midnight.
Not the world's most romantic kiss, but I wouldn't want to be kissin' anyone else!

We didn't get to do much with them, Isaac had to work and we had the Weems' Christmas to go to. But we had a lot of fun in the few hours we had together.

Hope to do it again, SOON!