Listening Ears

It's been brought to my attention by three different people that I didn't hear Clayton right yesterday--apparently he was saying "SUNSHINE" and I assumed it was Allison. As Judge Judy would say, I needed to put on my "listening ears!" Sorry I made you miss out on him singing "You Are My Sunshine," maybe we'll post that one next time! And I'm SO glad everyone enjoyed him as much as we get to everyday!

He Gets it From Me :)

For a long while, I've been promising some of you a video of Clayton singing. Unfortunately, everytime I had the video camera going, he got stage fright or something because he didn't want to sing for me while it was rolling. So since we sing during bath time everyday, I decided the best time to catch him off guard would be in the bathtub and it worked! I also used my phone so he wouldn't be so distracted by the actual camera. Hopefully you'll get a kick out of this even if he is sitting in the bathtub! (By the way, Gail is my aunt and Hannah and Allison are two of his therapists).

Hope You're Not Tired of Hearing about the Band!

We played last night for a launch meeting of a new church and things went SO MUCH BETTER than the fair! It was a small crowd, but we turned all of our levels down and tried to be really conscious of how we were sounding--I think almost everyone in the audience came up to us a one point or another to tell us how great we sounded! Made us feel much better and kind of erased the bad experience we had had earlier.

And for those who have asked, I'm working on getting a video clip. My friend Stacey is making a copy of a DVD for my Maw-Maw to watch and I'm hoping there is something good on there I can share here with my blog readers. It's questionable since the tape was made at the fair . . . hopefully there's one small clip to give you a little taste of our music.

Fair Report

Last night was our big gig at the county fair. And I must say that it was a little anti-climatic. We had sound issues from the get-go and I was immediately frustrated, which makes for a different feel when you're up there singing. In a nutshell, the crowd reported that you had to stand in certain spots to get a good sound and to actually understand what I was singing. Very frustrating! I'm such a perfectionist and stickler for these things that I was very disappointed after we left. My mom said it all sounded good in the way that you could tell we were playing great and on key and stuff, but you just didn't always know what the song was about! And that's the whole reason we're up there--the message of the songs!!! At any rate, we got paid for our work and that was the nice part of dealing with the issues . . . we had lots of people come out and see us as well--I just hope they don't judge us too harshly because of the sound problems!

One good thing about last night was that Clayton got to ride some rides! He loved it! I was so proud that he got to do what the other kids were doing--I snapped this picture with my phone, so the quality isn't that great, but you can see he has a smile on his face!

New Kit

Noel Mignon is now in the kit business and her first one is jam-packed with product! Check it out here.

Hi from Clayton!

Paying Gig!

Well, if you've been wanting to hear our band play, next week's your chance--we'll be playing at the county fair! And what's even better is it's actually a paid gig! Never thought I'd be excited about going to the fair (I usually tried to avoid it at all costs), but I'm pretty excited that we'll be playing to a public crowd instead of just our church. We've got some more plans that are coming together--the ball has really been rolling for us. Can't wait to see what God has in store!

We Will Never Forget

All is Well in Scrapbooking Land

Well, thank goodness the whole gallery crisis seems to be over. :) The link to the right will take you to my gallery on Scrapjazz and all of my journaling is with my layouts now . . . guess everyone found out how obsessive I am about my scrapbooking with that last post! (Yes, I want it all to be in order and perfect!)

Meanwhile, a very special layout was chosen as layout of the day over at Create My Keepsake. I was so excited that one of my layouts about Shawn was picked!

Here's the journaling: Shawn, Joshua, Teegan, Gabriel, Joey, Matthew, Charlotte, and for all those who will join them . . .When Brian and I saw this picture developed, we both said the halo of light reminded us of an angel. We didn't know how prophetic our words would be. Our baby would keep company with the angels just days later. And since that moment, we have become acutely aware of many children dying. Are we more in tune with the tragedy of other parents? No matter . . .I now live conscious of these angels providing protection and an abiding love.

The Height of Frustration

Frustrated. Upset. Banging my head against the wall. I guess that's what I get for using technology that is apparently smarter than I am. The site that I use for my main layout gallery (www.scrapjazz.com) just underwent a major upgrade and ever since then, I've been so frustrated with it! So for those of you who got an email from me today with a link to my gallery and couldn't see my layouts, I don't know what's up with that. I click on the link and I go straight there. I asked the site administrator about it and of course she immediately said I must of sent a broken link because all galleries are public. Were any of you out there able to see my gallery? And another thing that is extremely frustrating is the fact that all of my notes (in particular, the journaling) for all my previous layouts are not with them anymore. They were "included in the code, but their still working on it." Hello? The journaling is usually the most important part of my layouts! I just don't know why some people think they have to fix something that was working just fine--I mean, you pretty much need a user manual to get around the new message board. . . ah, the drama of an online scrapbooking nerd!!!

SO . . . in conclusion, if you would like to view my layouts AND read the journaling, I have changed the "my gallery" link to the right.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

For now, it will take you to my gallery at www.createmykeepsake.com. The reason I try to use the ScrapJazz one is because I usually put all of my layouts there and save the better ones for CMK. At any rate, if you got the link from me and it didn't work, I'm sorry if I confused you--hopefully it will all be sorted out soon and we can all go back to our regularly scheduled scrapbook viewing. :)

Hello

**spent two days at the lake this weekend--hoping it's not our last trip for the year

**Clayton doesn't swim in the lake, he "skis"

**tried to stay busy all last week just to keep my mind from dwelling on Shawn's death, funeral--glad to have that week behind me for now

**finally watched Dream Girls the other night--good flick

**I'm registered to go to Scrap Etc. 2008 even though I said I wasn't going! This year we even have homework and we got our first assignment this week--it will be interesting to see if I get it all done!

Nothing else major is going on that I can remember at the moment, so I'm off to pick up Clayton at therapy!

God Works in Mysterious Ways

Background: I've never been able to sing "Jesus Loves Me" to Clayton. Why? We sang it at Shawn's funeral, and I've just never been able to make it through the whole thing without coming to tears. So I gave up singing it for Clayton a long time ago. He does know it because my mom sings it with him and one of his therapists sings it as well--I'm glad they've been able to teach it to him.

The rest of the story: Yesterday while I was giving Clayton his bath we had a quite moment and he started singing something. Took me a few seconds to figure out that he was singing "Jesus Loves Me!" I asked him and he smiled and kept singing. So I mustered up the courage to finish the song with him--I sang right along with the tears flowing. Isn't it amazing how God uses children to send his love right directly to us? It literally felt like I had been given a big ole' hug by Jesus himself. Definitely what I needed to make it through the day.

Thirty Minutes of Wonderful

For my baby, who went to Heaven four years ago today. Thank you, Lord for our short time with him. Journaling: It was easily the hardest night of my life. But in retrospect, I count the experience as a sweet blessing. I had been there as Shawn entered the world, and on this night and morning, it was a privilege to be there as he left us. How many other mothers have the opportunity to literally rock their baby into the arms of Jesus? My baby is lucky. He will never know the heartaches of this world. He will never struggle with the unknown effects of his early birth. He will always be innocent. He will always be perfect. For me, my time with him will be some of the very minutes that make my lifetime special.

I Think I'm Losing It

**I've forgotten to buckle Clayton in his wheelchair twice since the wreck

**I came in from Wal-Mart the other day and forgot to unload my car (which included a gallon of milk)--let the stuff sit out there for about 45 minutes before I realized I had never unloaded it!

**I was searching for the peanut butter yesterday and couldn't find it in the cabinet even though I knew we had a new jar--finally found it right next to the jelly in the refrigerator where I had put it the day before.

**I realized yesterday afternoon that I had only shaved one leg in the shower yesterday morning.

I'm not sure I should be allowed out alone, much less be allowed to take care of a child!!

First Name Basis

For a while now Clayton has been calling Brian by his first name. "Hi Brian." "Bye Brian." He interchanges Brian and Daddy when talking about him, but now he's decided he likes to call everyone by their first name! Pop gets called Phillip and Granny gets called Mar-wee. He seems to really like saying Mary, not sure why he's started this but I keep correcting him on it--POP AND GRANNY. He actually doesn't ever mention my name unless someone asks him to repeat it. I remember my niece went through a phase of calling my brother by his first name--maybe it's just something a lot of kids do?? And although I don't want him to get used to it, it is cute to hear him say our names--he's a smart little guy. :)

Let's Talk TV

So when Clayton came home from the hospital I got hooked on CourtTV. I don't sit and watch every minute, but I do keep it on for "company" throughout the day and kind of half listen for something really interesting to happen. And since I'm such a rut person, I've been a little upset with them for a while. First Kimberly Newsome left, then another anchor left and they changed up all the shows. Then Catherine Crier left. I started looking around and realized that it looks like the network was bought by Turner Broadcasting or something to that effect. Then Nancy Grace left a couple of months ago and they can't get anyone decent in her spot. And now they are advertising Star Jones' new show starting next week. Ugh. And the court coverage ends an hour earlier and I've been FORCED to turn it to Dr. Phil for lack of anything else on at 3:00. So I've become interested in his show against my will . . . . :) I've never been interested in those goofy shows that analyze someone's problems simply because I've got enough problems without adding other people's! I guess it's a good thing I'm not at home as much anymore since my little old CourtTV channel has changed so much because I can't deal with soap operas and Oprah . . . .

All I Have to Say Is . . .

It was 96 degrees at 10:00 last night, with a heat index of 99 degrees. That pretty much tells you everything.

It's Just HOT

It's pretty much too hot to do anything around here. I spent Saturday doing laundry and when I looked at the thermostat in the afternoon, it read 77. The air ran almost all day and it didn't catch up until that night. Talk about miserable! Brian went out to the lake with a friend of his and he said it was too hot in the lake--that's pretty bad when it's too hot to go swimming!!! Clayton has ANOTHER doctor's appointment today in Little Rock. It seems like those things always come all at the same time. I'm not looking forward to going down there in this heat. We have to go again tomorrow to the GI doctor. Lovely plans for over 100 degree days . . . .

Happy Birthday Clayton!!!

Clayton is FOUR YEARS OLD today! We had a pool party last night for him. He loved it and if ever there was a day for a pool party, yesterday was it. IT WAS HOT!!! Almost everyone got in! I only took about ten pics so I'm uploading some a friend of ours took. He cried through the Happy Birthday song (just like last year!) and he really didn't want to try any cake, but at least he didn't gag this year. But by far, his favorite place to be was in the pool with his Granny. He didn't want to swim unless she was there, and didn't want to get out unless she was getting out!

Wheelchair Wreck!

My poor baby! While on our way into clinic yesterday I let go of his wheelchair for a split second only to see him roll off the ledge of the sidewalk and flip over onto the parking lot! It was horrible! He was under the wheelchair and had landed right on his head (as you can see from the picture). He looks even worse today because everything has scabbed over--I know everyone's thinking "what did you do to that poor child???!" I was just as traumatized as he was, if not more so. I cried, his O. T. cried, and Clayton cried! I even had them call the paramedics because all I could think was shunt malfunctions and siezures! By the time the paramedics left, he was smiling and saying hi to everyone, but it sure was a close call. Thank God he's okay!!! (And now we get to have cute little fourth birthday photos with battlescars--guess he really is becoming a little boy!)