Long time not type, huh?

HOLY COW ! ! ! The last time we blogged was right after the Reunion?!?!?!

Well, things have been CRAZY around here ! ! !

Ricky has since celebrated birthday #2 on June 9th.

Judson had an emergency appendectomy - I was 2 hours from home at one of my Financial Centers and thought I needed to head back home and got wheeled into surgery immediately to remove my appendix...it was getting close to rupturing, but had not. I was out of work for a week and a half. Returned to work for three days and then...

Kristi's dad had a stroke...we stopped by their house to pick up his truck so we could go purchase a box spring and rails to add another bed at the house - we rented it out for race weekend....get to that in a minute! Kristi's dad said something was wrong and he needed to go to the hospital. He had just been the one that drove me to the ER, so when he said he needed me to take him to the ER, I thought he was kiddin' and actually snickered a little - boy, that made me feel no bigger than an ant ! ! ! ! They were having a garage sale of all things so Kristi and I packed their "extras" up to take to the mission and Kristi's mom took him to the hospital. They found that he had a stroke in the lower back portion of the brain - affected his equilibrium and he had some numbness, but no sagging of the face or loss of motion with any limbs, praise the lord!!! They went in to see what had caused it and another praise the lord, they did just a precautionary test and found that an artery in his neck was 95 - 97% blocked. So they transfered him to another hospital and put a stint in. He is recovery pretty well...moving around good now, still not cleared to drive but should shortly. He just had some tests done this week and they found another blockage in his heart which will require another stint - so he isn't out of the clear yet.

Kristi has started teaching a class "Strengthening Families" through the local social services organization. It gets her out with adults and she is getting paid to do it, so she is earning some $$ on the side. I am glad she has found something that she is interested in and can make a difference in people and give her a sense of contribution to the family income.

We joined a church - Tennessee Avenue Baptist Church and we have met some really good people and building friendships. A couple of guys stopped by the hospital to see me, they mowed the yard during my recovery, we had meals sent over to us...very similar to the relationships we had built at Pinedale. Nothing can ever replace Pinedale, but it is nice to have that quality of people and friends around you as a support system. Pinedale has their sermons on Podcast, and I just recently downloaded 6 to listen to this week while I travel to my Financial Centers. Good stuff....good to hear our former pastor and actually our former sunday school teacher preached one sunday, so it was good to hear him as well.

Race #2 in Bristol was in late August - YES, THE REDNECKS INVADED AGAIN ! ! ! ! This time, not only did they invade our town, they invaded our home!! HA! Just kidding. We are at such a good location to do it and heard from a lot of people that they rent their house every race, so we signed up for it in late spring or early summer (after the first race). It is good money and the folks we had stay here left the house in great shape - just like we had left it for them....they even left us some steaks in the 'fridge!!! Our trash can was 2/3s full of beer boxes and cans...as long as the house is OK and they didn't tear anything up, that is fine. It forced us to do some home improvements that we had put off, which was still kinda tough with me recovering and father-in-law in the hospital...so we will be better prepared next year.
Since I am a fan of racing, I bought the tickets from one of my employees again. Kristi's brother and I went to the Nationwide race and Kristi went with me to the Cup race. All had a good time. It is fun to watch the really red rednecks make fools of themselves. Spend A LOT of money to get here...spend A LOT of money on food and drinks...spend A LOT of money on tickets....and they get drunk and pass out!!! ha !!!

Kristi's just had an uncle on her mom's side just pass away, so I am at home today with the Boy and he is napping, so I thought I would FINALLY update this for all of those who still check us out...probably gave up on us, huh?

I guess you want to know about Ricky, huh? That boy is ALL OUT ! ! ! Non-stop ! ! ! Scrapes here, bruises there, bumps here....ALL BOY ! ! ! His speech has finally started to speed up some, but he usually goes back to his favorites: Fire cruck (then he makes a siren noise), po-po car (police car), me-ment truck (cement truck), pane (airplane), copper (helicopter), moto-i-ya (motorcycle) then he does like a motor boat with his lips - a lot of HOGS here in East Tennessee!!! He still loves balls, trucks, and being outside. He put together his first attempt at a sentence the other day. He kept going down the list of family members like he wanted us to call them, we tried a few and no one was home, so then he got his shoes on and said, "umm Mimi...ah..car....bye-bye"...he wanted to get in the car and go bye-bye to see Mimi. He had done away with milk, but I gave him a full sippy cup this morning and he drank it all, so maybe he is coming back around. He likes us to put ice in his cup and he shakes it up and feels it clanging around. He is starting to get more particular with his eating...he lets us know if he doesn't like something...but overall, he eats very well for a 2 year old. If you haven't been around Ricky a lot, then you might think he is potty trained because he knows all the motions and acts like he can do it, but he can't. He is letting us know when he poops...he pats his butt and says, "Poop". He will take his diaper off and stand at the toilet and say, "Pee pee" and never do anything. He is still sucking his two fingers in the mornings and as he wakes up from nap time - he has stopped for the most part while he is awake. We tried the "Thumb" stuff - you paint on their fingernails and it is like a hot sauce, but he ends up sucking it off and then goes to town on those fingers. A lady at church recommended that we tape his fingers and he got that off and still shoved them in his mouth....we used the bandage tape...doesn't stick all that great. We are now trying athletic tape. He loves church. We were helping out at Vacation Bible School the week of my surgery, and were going every night. So now when we go to church on Sundays and Wednesday, he says, "Bible cool?" No fussing anymore when we drop him off...he just walks right into his classroom now without even looking back to say "bye".
I could go on, but a lot of things I can't remember right now. Maybe we will get better at updating this.