Looking forward...saying goodbye

Time sure is flying! It's the middle of January. We've been busy. Last weekend was a little tough for John. We lost one of the kittens. The smallest, Tiger, John's favorite passed away. We aren't sure what happened. He was tiny and never really seemed to catch up with the others. John went out to play with Shon and Alex on Saturday morning and he found him. This would be his first experience with death really. He doesn't really remember when my Papa John died. He cried so hard. It was quite emotional for all of us. We had to bury him and then he made a little grave stone for him with his name and 2008. It was quite nice. Hard lesson for him to learn but one he will experience many times again.

We look forward to all the birthdays we celebrate in the new year. We celebrated with Griffin yesterday. He enjoyed it very much. I love watching a 1 year old with all the traditions we force on them. He took it all in stride and absolutely LOVED his cake taking it all in, slowly, savoring it.

My John will soon be 7, yes I did say 7 and we will celebrate in a couple of weeks with a party. It will be a Clemson theme. He is excited and hopes to play football with all his buddies. He has grown a lot from 6-7 not just physically but emotionally. I specifically pray for his salvation now and coming to know the Lord personally in God's time of course. He amazes me. He is enjoying his new X-Box very much and plays it every chance he gets, negotiating each day to play one game before doing homework. He loves any kind of computer game and is often on the computer. He also is reading more and more and love his Magic Tree House series.

Alex was sick last week with a stomach virus. I of course hate this type of illness the most. Not much you can do for them. He's almost back to normal now. He's soon to be 3 in almost exactly a month. We will have a Thomas the Train party for him. His first with friends invited. He loves 'choo choo' trains as he says. We look forward to celebrating with him and letting him enjoy a 'real' party where he is the center of attention. He's usually a little more shy and withdrawn than John but I have a feeling this year he will come out of his shell and enjoy this very much. He loved Polar Express over Christmas, we still usually watch it daily or at least every other day. He now wears a watch and tells us it is 5 or 2 minutes to midnight. His new saying is 'hoie moie'(holy moly) for just about anything new or exciting. I don't know where he picked this up but it is very funny when he says it!! Disciplining has become quite the challenge, too! Standing in the corner is the best punishment for him, last night I told him that his nose would fit perfect in the corner and he proceeded to pretend to take his nose off and hand it to me. Very smart kid! I couldn't help but laugh!

I'm terribly disappointed that my Cowboys lost yesterday. Just wasn't their year I supposed -- now I'm pulling for Green Bay to go all the way.

Pray for the new semester. Students are back now and I'm just not sure I'm ready for them.