~So Much to Tell~

I am attempting to figure out why blogger has done away with my comments, because we all know how much bloggers love to get comments. Let's see if this works.... YAY! Comment away it now works! :) First, let me say.... I WON!!!!!!!!!! My dear blog friend, Karen, had a contest and I won! - this is the VERY FIRST contest I have EVER won and I couldn't have been more surprised and pleased! I won some absolutely gorgeous sock yarn, and as if that wasn't enough, she put it into the most ADORABLE little bag! Now you would think that that would have been enough of a bonus gift, but inside the bag with the sock yarn were two balls of Peaches and Cream (I love dishcloths), candy (ditto the candy;)) and THREE packages of coffee (ditto, ditto the coffee)! Check out the little note card with the knitting on the front! This little package so full of goodies and wrapped with such care truly choked me up! Life has been throwing me some tough curve balls lately and I can't even begin to thank you enough Karen! THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart! (Click for better view) ;) The school year is coming to a close, and with that, my second child and oldest daughter will be graduating. I am so incredibly proud of all of her accomplishments and of the person she has become that I find it hard to put into words. She has been recognized by her peers and teachers on countless occassions during her school career and she has turned into a very bright, compassionate and loving young woman. She will be so terribly missed next year when she leaves for college, not only by me, but her two sisters will be lost without her. We are into the full swing of Senior Year here with the Honor Society Banquet (she received her cords for graduation), Class Night, Senior Banquet, Sports Banquet, Prom, Graduation and then "the Party"! She is having such a good time and it is wonderful to see her so happy! We had a surprise 50th Anniversary party for my parents a few weeks ago and although Iwas terribly nervous about Mom even making it here for the surprise (her health is rapidly declining), it went off without a hitch! They were so surprised when they drove up and saw the banners and balloons outside, but the biggest surprise was inside!... my cousin (he has been like a son to them) flew in from Ohio and my dear friend/sister Patti drove up from New Jersey for the party! They were shocked to say the least! Patti The happy couple! I LOVE YOU MOM AND DAD! For those of you who have seen pictures of my dining room in the past, you will remember that it had hideous flowered wallpaper in it - well dh decided to strip the wallpaper and paint the dining room a week before the party. Now, those of you who live with a man will most likely be nodding your head at this.... As I am asking him repeatedly how soon he will get it finished he is telling me not to worry that it will be done no later than Thursday (the Party was scheduled for Saturday, and the out of town guests were coming on Friday morning) - I very calmly (the first time anyway) TRIED to explain to him that it needed to be done before Thursday evening as I had to unpack and wash EVERYTHING that was in the china closet, as well as wash all the floors and clean the house that had a film of plaster dust EVERYWHERE! He finished it Wednesday night and thankfully my boss insisted that I take Thursday off - I made it by the skin of my teeth as the doctor's appointment I had on Thursday took 5 HOURS!!!!!!!! (more on the health front later). The next party was Nicole's 13th birthday! As you can see she still loves Elmo! This was the Elmo that was sent to her has a gift by a woman from EBay, that I had never met, before her heart surgery last fall! As you can see, she is the picture of health and thoroughly enjoyed her birthday party. She even liked the cake I made her (which by the way, was more red than the picture shows!) Graduation Party is next in June (I have a few weeks to prepare!) In the midst of all of this partying, softball has been in full swing! All three of my girls play (a total of 7 teams between them) so it has been VERY BUSY to say the least. The high school varsity team is in first place for SWCL East with two games to play and are headed for Districts. I think I mentioned that Emily (freshman) made the team and is thrilled to be playing with Melyssa! She had an opportunity to prove herself a couple of weeks ago in a big game! They were down by one run in the bottom of the 6th with two outs and two on base - Emily was the designated hitter and hit the two runs in to win the game! Coach rewarded her by putting the following article in the paper! She was on cloud nine, as were her teammates! These girls have put so much work into playing as a team and it is paying off for them in a big way. What better way to end a high school career! (there are 7 seniors on the team). On the health front: I don't usually put too much health related information here, but I have been gone a while and I will probably be gone for a while again. I have been battling Anemia, my SVT, precancerous conditions and other issues for quite a while and will be undergoing a hysterectomy in June. I am hopeful that this last resort surgery will allow me to have a better quality of life, get my Anemia and SVT under control and enjoy my children's activities the way I want to. Positive thoughts are more than welcome! If by some chance you have managed to make it to the bottom of this incredibly long post. HOORAY FOR YOU and thank you! I've missed you all and hope to catch up on my reading and commenting very soon!