Quote Aunt Brenda sent me today...

"Life is too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so..... Love the people who treat you right and pray for the ones who don't."

4 Month Checkup

We had Samuel's four month checkup this morning. (He's actually closer to 5 months now.) Anyway, I was curious how much my little chunky monkey weighs. Everyone in the family has been guessing and wondering, since he's so huge. And now it's offical...he's huge. My "baby" weighs 18lbs 5oz. So, he has gained 5 pounds since his 2 month checkup and also 2 1/2 inches! Big ol' boy! He is in the 75 percentile on his height and "off the charts" on his weight! Crazy, huh?
I'm also proud of my other little man. We went to Lake Amon G. Carter yesterday to spend the day on the lake with my mom and David. Mason has always liked water, but lakes have kind of freaked him out. But by the end of the day yesterday, he was swimming with his life jacket all over the place. At one point he climbed out of the lake and hollered, "daddy! look! i'm a fish now!" He starts his first swimming lessons tomorrow, so I think he's going to do just fine.

Happy Mother's Day

What a nice weekend we had. In lieu of things that had been going on, it was really nice to have no plans and to just "be". We kept Kasey and Koy on Saturday. You'd think having two extra boys at the house would be crazy on our part, lol, but they all do so good together. They played outside all day long in the mud and pool. The one thing all three of them can agree on is that they love trucks and trailors. And there are plenty to go around! The joy of letting them run crazy outside all day is that by 8:00 after food and baths, they are done! Put them to bed with a movie on, and they are gone. Easy! Who said boys were hard? LOL
Sunday was Mother's Day. Mike had already gotten me a camera, that I picked out, hehehe. So he let me sleep in as much as he could with all 4 boys hollering and running through the house. Then he cooked me breakfast. And I got a cute card from the boys. After that we loaded our two boys, Kase, Koy, and Deb the dog into Mike's truck and headed to Olney. (That was interesting!) We spent a couple of hours vising with Dale and Kathy. Was pleasantly surprised to see Ira and Katey there too. After that we headed out to my mom and David's. I had been wanting to shoot some clay pigeons. So we set up and I shot about 3 cases of shells. I was so sore the next day! And my ears were still ringing! (Note to self, need to put earplugs in my gun case.) Then David cooked us all a steak and we headed home. It was a nice relaxing Mother's Day. Can't ask for more!

Heartbroken

It's been a hard week for me. You see, yesterday my family buried my baby cousin Jeffrey. Words can't even begin to describe how this felt. I've never felt such a range of emotions at one time. Anger, love, sadness, guilt, humor, loneliness. I could go on and on. He was only 19 years old. Barely a year out of high school, had his whole life ahead of him. And he's gone. Just like that. I'm really bothered that I didn't get to tell him goodbye. I'm wondering if he knew how much he was loved and thought of. But then I realize that he did.
His funeral was tough, but it was amazing. I was awed by the people who turned out to say that he had touched their lives. He impacted so many people in such a short amount of time. His family knew how special he was. We knew what a good person, respectful, strong, funny, loving kid he was. But it was amazing to hear strangers say the same thing. It was comforting. Jeff survived a lot of tough times, but he never let it him get it down. I've always been so proud of him and his accomplishments.
And now I'm left with tons of good memories of that smiling big ol' bear. I'm remembering how he drove me crazy when he was little wanting to hear "Indian Outlaw" over and over, and my grandma played it cause that was what Jeff wanted. I'm remembering more recently him running and playing with my son Mason. And Mason shrieking "Jeff-eee" and laughing and hiding from him. I'm remembering my birthday party and laughing so hard at him telling us about his "out-of-body experience." I'm remembering fishing with him. I'm remembering loving him.
I'd give anything to have him here to make more memories with.
I wonder if anybody noticed the weather yesterday as we walked into the high school auditorium. All of the sudden the wind picked up and the clouds got dark. And everyone was kind of getting scared because there was talk of a tornado. But oddly enough I was comforted. I told my family it was just Jeff letting us know he was still here. And he is. He's still here in my heart and everyone else's. We were blessed to be touched by this young man for the short time he was here. And we will never forget him.
Rest in Peace, Jeffrey Morris Taylor. I love you.