Hi There!

Hi!

It's been a while.

A long while.

I've completely fallen out of the habit of blogging.  There have been a few changes in my life, and overall things are good.

Both of my sisters have moved to Texas with their families.  (Yay!) Andrea is about 3 hours away, and Brandi is 10 minutes down the road from me.  With Brandi being so close, we finally started the bakery that we've been dreaming about for so long.  We're baking out of my house and delivering goodies locally.  (Check out thesweetcreambakery.com!)  We bake 5-6 days a week, and we're loving it.

Jamie got a promotion, and now has the title to go along with what he's been doing at Halliburton for quite some time now.  He's been working at home since the start of the pandemic, and it has been wonderful to have him so close.  

Gisèle is a freshman in high school now and doing amazingly well.  She's taking advanced classes, maintaining an A average, and is a full-blown drama queen - meaning a theatre kid.  She wants to be a director/actor when she grows up, and will be competing at the National Thespian Festival in Solo Acting in June.

Miles is a 6th grader and loves his percussion class.  He's doing well in school, and takes an 8th grade Critical Thinking class once a week along with some other advanced students.  He's also still loving taekwondo.  He's a senior purple belt and on the JV team.  We're at taekwondo with him 4 times a week, and there's no sign of him slowing down.

I've been doing okay, health-wise.  I'm still NED (No Evidence of Disease), which I am incredibly thankful for.  Treatment has caused a host of side effects, so that has been difficult.  After chemo, surgery, and radiation, I can say that I'm out of "active treatment," but I still take daily pills to try to prevent a recurrence or metastasis, and get injections to shock my body into menopause every month.  All the treatment has caused hypothyroidism, so I'm now taking Synthroid daily.  I also have rheumatoid arthritis, and have gained about 55 pounds.  I don't feel like myself anymore.  It's hard to look in the mirror and see someone else, and it's hard to get out of a chair and feel like an elderly woman.  I have to constantly remind myself that any extra time I have is a blessing, and the side effects are worth it.  

Some pictures to catch you up since October:

Gisèle went to her first Homecoming Dance

We celebrated Halloween!  Butterfly, spoilsport, Dragon, and Injured Knight

G finally got her braces off!

Our Christmas elf putting the star on the tree

G was Sally in A Charlie Brown Christmas with Mustang Playhouse

I had a bone infusion.  My osteopenia is edging toward osteoporosis.

We were able to see Matt, Natalie, Q, and Sophia before Christmas.  Nana led us in some painting.

We spent Christmas and New Year's in Oregon with Mindy & Jeff & co.  The kids got to play in snow!

The girls

The boys

We celebrated Dad's (Papa's) birthday, and he even wore a hat while we sang

G on one of our bakery deliveries

A beautiful Texas sunset.  God's way of reminding me to choose joy.

Miles at Age 12

To read about Miles at age 11, click here.


1. What is your favorite color?  "Blue.  Royal blue."

2. What is your favorite toy?  "Rubik's cube!  Speed cube." 

3. What is your favorite fruit?  "Umm... that would probably be mango." 

4. What is your favorite tv show?  "I'm trying to think, Mom... I don't know.  Let me think... I don't know." 

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?  "Uh... Probably whatever the cafeteria serves me." 

6. What is your favorite outfit?  "Some comfy dry-fit shirt with comfy dry-fit shorts." 

7. What is your favorite game?  "Probably Poetry For Neanderthals." 

8. What is your favorite snack?  "My favorite snack is whatever my mom bakes while I'm at school." 

9. What is your favorite animal?  "I gotta say my favorite animal is probably any kind of cat.  Cats are fascinating." 

10. What is your favorite song?  "Gotta be Guns and Ships." 

11. What is your favorite book?  "My favorite book is Charlie Joe Jackson's Guide to Not Reading." 

12. Who is your best friend?  "My best friend is Javier." 

13. What is your favorite breakfast?  "Probably some baked good my mom makes with bacon, sausage, eggs, and juice." 

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside?  "I like throwing my boomerang, I like running, I like kicking a ball or hitting a ball with a bat..."  

15. What is your favorite drink?  "Oh - all sodas mixed together." 

16. What is your favorite holiday?  "Christmas, no doubt." 

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night?  "Well, I like taking my body, I like taking my blankets, turning on my lava lamp..." 

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for dessert?  "Anything my mom bakes is pretty good." 

19. What is your favorite dinner?  Freddy's or Grimaldi's." 

20. What do you want to be when you grow up?  "Right now I think I probably want to be A. an engineer, B. a coder, C. operate my mom's bakery, or D. someone who works at Starbucks." 

I am so blessed to be your mom, Miles.  You are an amazing, kind, generous, talented kid.  You will do incredible things in this world.

Gisèle, age 14

To see Gisèle at age 13, click here.

1. Describe yourself.  "That's broad.  Um... I'd say I'm a creative person, umm... {long pause} I feel like I'm a very responsible person who can get the job done, so like, stable, well, relatively stable. I'm definitely an enthusiastic and passionate person about the things I love." 

2. What are you thankful for?  "Family.  Friends, as well, just everyone who has helped me get through the pandemic.  I think our pastor is really cool, too, so just everyone at our church who has helped me grow and develop my relationship with God." 

3. What makes you happy?  "Umm, being crazy makes me happy.  Doing things that are nuts every now and then.  Doing theater makes me happy.  Family game nights are fun."

4. What makes you sad or angry?  "Not eating." 

5. What do you want to be when you grow up?  "Is this a necessary question, Mom? Because I'm pretty sure you already know it.  Director/producer/actor." 

6. What's important to you?  "Family, friends, relationship with Christ, being able to do what I love and not be made fun of or criticized about it at all.  Being able to be myself." 

7. What do you love most about yourself? 
"Probably my drive. My drive to do things and to make sure that if I want to do something, I will go for it and I won't listen to anyone who tells me no."

8. What do you love most about your mom?  "Umm... I like how brave you are, Mom.  Just the fact that you're always there and always ready to try something new even if you don't have the energy at the time. You always want to try everything, go for everything, and try everything new.  You're always courageous." 

9. What do you love most about your dad?  "Probably how much he's like me. He's so much funnier than I am. He's hilarious at really weird points. I think I said this last year, but it's the same. He helps me embrace my inner crazy, but tone it back at the same time. He always makes me laugh." 

10. If you could go anywhere, where would you want to go?  "I really want to go to New York, but in comparison to other countries, it seems a little non-ambitious. I'd like to go everywhere, but if I could choose one place right now it would be New York." 

11. Who do you admire, and why? 
{loooong pause} "Well, I definitely admire you, of course. I admire you for your courage. I'm trying to think of other people I admire... ummm... probably Lin-Manuel Miranda just because he's an actor and he knows that he needs to create work for himself because every actor is unique. He recognizes that he has a unique voice. I aspire to be like him because I'd like to create my own work, also, and have people respond positively."

12. What do you want to learn more about?  "The film industry. Because I've never done films or participated in films except for that one commercial I participated in, in 2nd grade.  And I don't know if it is something I'd like to go into later."   

13. What's something you'd like to do to help someone else?  "Umm... I'd like to provide homes for the homeless.  Lately I've been seeing them a lot more often than before.  I see people who look like they're struggling. and I'd like to help them." 


14. What are you afraid of?  "Not being able to do everything I want to do.  Before I know it I'll die or be physically disabled, or too old, and I want to do as many things as possible before then."


15. If you could only keep one thing, what would you keep?  "Family." 


16. What's your favorite memory?  "That's really broad!  Can I just list some that I like?  I do remember when I was originally in Annie as Annie and I got a bouquet of flowers, and I stood on stage for my picture, and other people and parents wanted photos of me... you know that Cinderella song "This Is Love," well it was kinda like that." 


17. What are you proud of yourself for?  "I guess just my achievements.  I've done well in a lot of shows and school stuff, and academic-wise I'm a great student.  I'm a decent baker.  I'm proud of my variety of skills I excel at." 

18. What are you looking forward to?  "Umm... Probably college.  Being able to get my own dorm or apartment or something.  Just discovering, like, a life plan from there." 

19. What do you dream about?  "In my sleep I dream about really weird things that are super random." 

20. What else do you want to say?  "Umm... I'm thankful that I've gotten to age 14.  Not everyone gets to do that." 

Here's to my bold, brilliant, beautiful 14 year old!  You amaze me every day, and I'm so incredibly excited to see where you go and what you do from here.