Time sure flies by and before you know it you need to recap before you can stay current on posting! A few weeks ago I printed off my Nannasnotebook 2 for 2010 and it made me realize how important it is that I keep writing in my blog so that I have a record of all the wonderful things the Lord has done for me over the year. After I get 2011 printed then I will be current so it would be nice to have some important things in that 2012 book! I have decided to briefly recap the summer.
Way back in May I attended a conference for VASFAA (Virginia Association of Financial Aid Advisors) in Norfolk and so I stayed with my sister Connie. She is battling Pancreatic Cancer and it was so reassuring to see her positive attitude and spunk. This is her Jane Fonda look as we went to celebrate her birthday with her sister in law. There was a book that she wanted signed by the author. The woman wrote the book about her husbands struggle with pancreatic cancer.
We got together again for my second sister, Kathy's birthday just before Connie went to Baltimore for her surgery:
And here we are in August at our get-away beach trip to celebrate the fact that her surgery was successful!
It has been a strange health summer for all of us...but more of that later.''
Now, back to May. We have an Easter Egg Hunt each year at school so here are the pictures from this years event:
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| Jack is really good at this! |
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| Papa, Jack, Logan and Anna |
I am the Southern Virginia University Women's Society President this year so next spring this will be MY responsibility! It's a great event that we put on for the children of the employees of SVU and we all know that means a lot of kids!
Anna had her first birthday!
She is such an adorable girly, girl and quite the climber!
Brittany and JJ had their first anniversary and moved into the apartment in Emilie and Logan's basement. (sorry no picture)
Tommy had his end of the year art show and we all went:
They sure grow up fast! Emilie and Logan and their cute family:
The women's society adopted a room in Durham Hall and painted it. It was a great bonding activity and the room looks great!
We have lots of events planned for this year starting with our welcome dinner in September. I love this place, it is such a tight knit group of people all with the desire to help this great school.
In June our wonderful friends Sandi and Jerry Ramsey came to town for a visit. They are taking this amazing trip all over the United States visiting Baseball Fields and Temples and we were blessed to get to go to the DC Temple with them. The next day they came to see us in Buena Vista. We took pictures on the porch of Main Hall:
And then we went on a buggy tour of Lexington:
And visited the overlook spot on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
The old saying of" make new friends but keep the old for one is silver and the other is gold" is true. I am thankful for facebook in that it makes it so much easier to keep in touch with, and feel connected to, old friends! I love it when you get together with people and it is like you have never been apart. It is so heartwarming to see these two together and enjoying life so much!
Also in June we got to go to see Mitt Romney in person in Roanoke. It
was a thrill for me to be that close to him. I wish they would quit
saying how un personable he is because he is not. He is very warm to
the crowd and loves to get down and shake hands with all that he can
reach and he speaks with respect and dignity. I got a burn on my chest from standing in the sun for so long and now I proudly wear my Romney Tan!
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| Brittany held my I Pad over her head to get the shots. |
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| He spoke at a place that makes the large equipment that is used in coal mining. |
On the 4th of July John and I thought it was about time we did a good ramble so we headed over to Lynchburg to be tourists for the day. Lynchburg is where the railroads and the river converged and so it was a very strategic place for the south during the Civil War ( war of northern aggression if you are from here!) We visited the cemetery where many of the dead were buried and saw the small Dr's office where clean hygiene practices were begun that saved many lives.
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| Description of the cemetery |
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| The doctors office and medicinal herb garden |
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| Rows and rows of graves |
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| The oldest part of the cemetery is behind John |
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| A Dove House but none live there |
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| A prayerful friend |
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| this was also where they kept horses that needed to go to the front. So many of them were dying that they asked the Dr who was saving so many soldiers to come and find out why the horses were dying...same thing needed, clean surroundings. More horses died than made it to the battlefield. |
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| A swing in the cemetery. |
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We also toured the downtown:
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| Plaza before the hill down to Main Street |
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| John ready to fight! |
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| Courthouse museum | | | | | | |
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We ate dinner at a restaurant that was in an old shoe factory that has been made into a fancy hotel
We then traveled to Bedford to the D Day Memorial to watch the fireworks. Bedford lost more of their young sons in WWII per capita than any other town in the US (if any of you have seen the movie The Majestic it is like that town).
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| John made friends with the locals! |
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| Interesting thing about the fireworks: They set off at least 6 ground fires and so they did the finale early so the firetrucks could came in to stop the fires! There was one truck there at the beginning but they needed more! |
It was a fun fourth and next year we would like to take the kids to see them!
We took the boys overnight in August so that Emilie and Logan could go away to celebrate their anniversary. Brittany and JJ watched Anna and then had the boys the second night. They love coming to our little cottage and are still trying to get it all straight as to why it is our house now and not theirs.
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| I thought this was too cute not to include! |
On Saturday we took them on a little ramble to Saunders and then up on the parkway:
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| They really got into the rhythm of things this time! |
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| If you come visit we will take your picture here too! |
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We also attended the Rockbridge County Fair again this year. We had high hopes that it was going to be improved because they promised more animals and better kids rides but it wasn't all that good. We bought bracelets for the boys and went on one ride before the heavens opened up. We went inside to a quilt show but soon ran out of things to see and ended up leaving. Oh well, gotta love those summer rain storms!
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| The one ride we got to go on..he let Emilie and I ride for free |
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| In the exhibit hall |
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| Anna took a few steps! |
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| the rain finally won |
MEMORIES ARE MADE OF THIS? Sorry this is so long!
On fast Sunday August 5th we were in Sacrament meeting and I went up at the end to bear my testimony. People tell me it was a good & spiritual one but I don't remember because after sitting down and singing the closing song and listening to the closing prayer I no longer knew what I was doing. I talked to people but did not remember that I was supposed to go and do sharing time or that I was even in the Primary Presidency. I didn't know the Bishop was our Bishop and I thought we still lived in our last house. After receiving a blessing John took me to the emergency room at the hospital and, after some tests I was diagnosed with
Transient Global Amnesia . It took about 3 hours before I began to come out of it. I remember John saying to Emilie, JJ and Brittany "ask her anything but she won't remember it". I opened my eyes and saw my children and began to come back. It was a very frightening experience for me and my confidence in my memory is still weak. I still have no memory of those several hours and even though they say it is rare for it to happen again I am still nervous. They say it happens more often than you would think and people have told me stories of others that they have known that it happened to. Maybe the old brain was just too full and needed to dump some things out? They say that it is usually caused by a bump on the head (didn't happen in church!) or stress so I guess with go with the stress.
Last weekend (the first of the month again!) I began to have some bumps that I thought were bug bites. I had spent the whole month going to doctors for various tests and all had come up showing nothing wrong so I was confident that it was a random thing and that I was really in pretty good health. The bumps really hurt and I thought that odd but it was labor day weekend and I didn't want to go to the emergency room. On Tuesday I went to my doctor and she recognized right away that I had
Shingles! Guess what causes shingles? Usually a stressful experience or low immune system. My immune system had just been tested so quess what is left! The really fun part is that I had just gotten back from a vacation with my sisters where I had truly relaxed ( I think). I have now missed 4 days of work right at the busiest time of year and I need to de-stress! Easier said than done.
The pain is similar to really strong contractions in labor but there is no reward of a baby at the end! Clothing hurts and sleep is difficult but I am beginning to improve. This morning I was staring at my picture of Emma Smith on my wall and thinking of all she endured both physically and emotionally and realized that my ailments are nothing compared to what some have to go through. My sister has just finished 6 rounds of chemo and a very complex operation and still faces more treatment. How can I complain when others burdens are much greater than mine?
I am grateful that the Lord has seen me through all of this and I know he will sustain me with whatever is next for me.
I learned yesterday that when I am feeling well enough the Stake President wants to talk to me.........
