I'm a Sap

Jim and Gracie at Easter 2000

Gracie's 2nd Birthday. The girl loved Diet Coke. We did not have kids yet because I would never buy a 2 year old DC now. :)

Steph and Gracie with Ryan a few days after he was born.

Summer at Six Flags. Anyone notice the cute Clouse kids? :)

Residency graduation 2004. Steph and I were both pregnant at the time. She would not be happy with me for putting up this picture, but it was the most recent one I had of the four of us.

I admit it. I am sap. It does not take much to make tears come to my eyes, good or bad. Books, movies, TV shows, thinking of my family, even the occasional commercial. Today was no exception (the PMS that I am experiencing right now doesn't help matters either). I received such a sweet note from Steph, one of my friends from residency. She recently had a baby and was thanking me for the baby gift I had sent her. I wasn't surprised to get a thank you from her, but was by the beautiful note she wrote. I left me in tears. I have been thinking of them a lot lately and regretting the fact that we don't keep in better contact. In the note, she wrote how much our family's friendship meant to them and how they consider us family. Anyone that has been through residency in a location far away from family, know how important it is to have good friends. We all spent many holidays together when the hubbies were working too much for us to go home. Steph and her husband were some of the first friends we made in San Antonio. Jim and Mitch were in the same residency class. Their daughter was 18 months (I think) and we took a liking to her right away since we didn't have children of our own until 3rd year. We spoiled her! It was so easy to do because she was such a doll. Jim and I were known as "Mimmie and B" to Gracie and then also to their other children. In fact, most of our group in San Antonio called me "B"  :). They are also an important part of our 9/11 memories. Mitch and Steph didn't have cable then, so they and their two kids at the time spent the day at our house watching all of the horrific news footage. Ryan was born the next day.

I don't know for sure why I am writing this all or why this note got to me so much. Maybe it was just nice to know that someone would take the time to write such nice things. Like Oprah says (corny, I know), we all need to know that we matter, that we are loved. And that is so true. At any age or stage of our life. We just want to know that we matter. Thank you Steph for the beautiful note. It meant more than you will ever now.  We hope to see you and your family soon.  

(Sorry for the pictures being at the top. I am having problems again cutting and pasting my pictures with my Mac. Any suggestion?)

I'mmmmmmm Back!!

After several phone calls/emails and my husband threatening to post for me (so scary to think what he would post), I have decided to make a return to the blogging world. I miss you all! I really have no reason for not blogging in over a month (ouch!). Life has been going on as usual- school, basketball, Weight Watchers meetings (more on that later), the gym, hanging out with friends/family, and trying to survive the horribly cold weather we had this winter, although we have had some beautiful weather the last few days. I guess I just felt I didn't have anything interesting to say. It did warm my heart to know that I was missed. 

Ryan recently completed his first season of Upward Basketball. It is such a nice program and he really enjoyed it.

Thought this site of Ryan was so cute! What a funny boy, wearing his sister's Dr. Suess hat while playing his Nintendo DS. 

This is how Alex fell asleep Sunday night at 6:30. Jim and Ryan were sitting on the couch playing a DS game. Alex laid down to watch a show and promptly fell asleep, which is so hard to believe because Jim and Ryan were making so much noise. Poor girl! I guess we should not have skipped nap that day. 

I am home with Ryan today because he has strep throat. Poor guy! He stayed home yesterday from school with a fever and had one again this morning. I decided to take him in to the Dr. because a friend he was with Friday (no school-teacher work day) tested positive as well for strep over the weekend. Both the Dr. and nurse didn't think it looked like strep, but they were wrong. At least now I can start him on meds and hopefully he can go back to school on Thursday and Friday since they don't have school all next week or the following Monday (Spring Break).  

I have gone back and forth about writing this, but I need to do this for myself as a reminder of the progress I've made. Since joining WW in October I have lost over 11 pounds. It may not sound like much, but I can tell a difference and I feel SO much better. I still want to lose an additional 9 pounds, but I am very proud of the success I have had so far. And to think in those months, there was Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, and a trip to Las Vegas. :)

I have some good mail pictures (thanks Carlo and Kim Sue!) to post but am having trouble posting so I will save those for tomorrow. Hope everyone has a great day!!