Much Needed Vacation

Tomorrow we are leaving for our first vacation together in 2 and a half years! We are going to visit our friends, Heath and Adrienne, in Austin for a few days, then we're heading further south to spend a few days in San Antonio. We have never been to either city and we are excited for the adventure! We planned this at the perfect time, we both need to let go of some stress! Planning and packing for vacations usually stresses me out, thankfully that was not the case the last few days. I'm ready and raring to go, I just have a few things left to do, like get my house nice and clean...I LOVE coming home to a clean house!

Jobs, We Don't Need No Stinkin' Jobs!

Forest has had a feeling for a few weeks now, something was about to change. He also knew that the City of Dallas was renegotiating their contract with Compucom. He had a meeting on Friday and while his bosses fought to keep them, they are letting most of them go. Forest's last day is on Wednesday. The library will no longer have a designated support team (or, as is the case with Forest now, support person) and neither will public safety divisions, such as fire and police. One person will do the support for all of those things and for some reason they chose not to keep Forest (and he told me he wouldn't want to do that anyway!).

So, what does this mean for us? The best case scenario is that Forest finds a job in the next few weeks (he has a months worth of severance) and we save whatever severance we don't need to use, that would be wonderful! The next best and probably what will happen is that it takes the entire month to find a job and we break even. If we don't have to dip into our savings, I will be happy. Neither of us have been upset, or nervous about our future, because we know we'll be taken care of. Forest is happy to get some time to relax after the last 9 months of pure madness at the Library and it will give him time to get some things done that he's not had time to do. It comes at a convenient time for me as well, Gracie is going to be on the other side of the country for 2 weeks, so now I'll have Forest here to keep me company!

Although Forest will enjoy this little respite from work, he still does need to find a job, so if any of my blog readers know of any contacts in the IT world, please let us know. Thanks everyone! :)

More Flags, More Fun

Like I said in my last post, we go to Six Flags a lot. Forest had this last Friday off (May 28th) and so we went for the entire day. It was pretty slow, except for the water rides, which all had 30 to 90 minute waits. I have officially been on every ride in the park, except for the kid rides they won't let me on and Texas Giant, which I would seriously not suggest trying to ride right now!



See, right now it's a death trap. They are turning it into a steel/wooden hybrid and it'll back next season. I was told not to ride it before the construction started if I wanted to keep my spine in tact.

Forest said that he wanted to try some bigger coasters, so I took him on Shockwave last week! He got his head caught down when we went through the double loop and that kind of hurt, but he loved the rest of the ride. We went on it again on Friday and he liked it much better that time.







We went up on the Oil Derrick, it hasn't been open much this season. Here are some pics of us that we took up there.







That's the highest point in the park and has a great view of Dallas and Fort Worth. As you can tell in these pictures, when it gets hot, my hair just does whatever it wants. I did wear a bandanna to the park and lost it on the very first ride we went on. I just didn't think about it! Forest ended up winning me a hat at the "Guess Your Age" game. She guessed 27. I was really surprised she guessed so close! I guess Forest is starting to look his age...

Tomorrow (Memorial Day) we are actually not going to Six Flags (I know, shocker!) but are going with the Dendy Family to the Scarborough Fair in Waxahachie. I have never been, so I am very excited! I have been having really rough mornings though...I hope I can get up and feel good for the day. I'm sure we'll have a ton of fun, pictures to come soon...

Six Flags Therapy

- Waiting in line to ride Tony Hawk's Big Spin -
The very first time I went to Six Flags was in 2008, with the Dendy's. We left Grace with her Grandma and went for the day. I hadn't been to a theme park since 2002 and I fell in love with coasters all over again. Last summer, I went with Forest and my sister in law, Jan. Forest liked at least a few of the rides. He doesn't like big coasters (although he's never been on one!) but liked the smaller family rides. He told me then that he wanted to try a water park the next year.

So, a month or so ago, I asked Forest if he wanted to get season passes. We were planning a trip to San Antonio and since there is a Six Flags there, we'd get a little more use out of them. But, Six Flags Fiesta Texas (in SA) has a free water park, almost identical to Hurricane Harbor here that costs extra. After we found that out, it was a definite that we get the passes. I figured out that we spent about $35 extra than we would have if we had gone to Six Flags once and Hurricane Harbor once. But, being a pass holder comes with awesome benefits. We will more than make-up that $35 because we have free drinks for the day passes, bring a friend free on any day passes and skip the line passes. We have already been 4 times, we have been going in the evening for a few hours on the weekends and the park clears out shorter after we get there. It's great!

I have been in a terrible rut for a few months now. My health has been declining and so I haven't felt like doing much of anything but sit around and watch Hulu and Netflix. We haven't been out of the house much and we found ourselves not really communicating to each other much. I haven't been nearly as active as I had been before, because I have just been so sore and stiff.

It seems silly at first to think that an amusement park could help me feel better, or help our marriage, but it really has! It dawned on me last night how great it's been for us. We spend a lot of time waking around, in the fresh air. There are no computers or TVs around to distract us. We spend the whole evening together, taking and laughing and that's so therapeutic for me. We have so much fun, even if we only get a ride a few things in between walking around. Yesterday we decided to go and didn't realize a storm was coming in. They shut down most of the rides, but we still had a great time walking around because the weather was so cool. It's also great to people watch, we have seen some really funny things! It's also nice that we can just go for a few hours and not feel like we have to do everything in one day. I get dizzy pretty easily, so it's great to take it slow. It's a (relatively) short trip to Arlington and almost a "free" night out. It's better than a movie because we're outside, getting fresh air, getting some exercise and it's of course, a far more social activity. Forest is also getting braver, he told me yesterday that he wanted to go on Shockwave...too bad it was closed the whole time we were there! There is always next weekend!

Stephanie Nielson

If you have yet to see the Mormon Message about Stephanie and her family, please watch it, it's beautiful and amazing.

I watched this a few weeks ago when I wasn't feeling very well. Forest asked me to watch it, I think he knew it would help me feel better. Today has been a rough day, it's been a rough few weeks. I knew I needed to watch it again. I found Stephanie's blog and went all of the way back to before the accident. She has a beautiful life, the life that I have always wanted. Faith, a wonderful husband and adorable healthy children. Even with all of the advercities she has to face for the rest of her life, she is still a daughter of God and knows her true worth. I wish that everyone could have that attitude. I love hearing the stories she tells of her and her husband, Christian. He is just as amazing as she is.

So, as I have been feeling down and out for weeks now and with feeling stiff, tired, unmotivated and everything else I have been feeling, I have let so many things go. I just don't feel like I have the strength to move on and get things done. Even going home and making dinner has been a challenge most nights after getting home from work (where, usually, I feel the best all day, that's a blessing). Forest has stepped up and pinched in more than he ever has. After hearing about how much Christian has done to take care of Stephanie, I didn't even have to contemplate for one second if Forest would do the same thing for me, because I know he already has. When my body revolts against me, he is right there ready to take on anything that comes with it. I could never express how amazing my husband is, there just isn't an earthly possible way to do it. He has faced much adversity in his own life and sometimes I feel like I should be ashamed with the issues I bring to the table, but he is always there to guide and help me, no matter what.

I find I am the exact opposite of most people when it comes to prayer. I am always very quick to pray in thanks to our Heavenly Father, to let him know I appreciate all of the wonderful things he has given us. I still find it so amazing that we live in a great house, we both have jobs we love, we have never struggled with financial problems, even when Forest was unemployed during parts of the first few years of our marriage. I even thank him for the time we have to share as a couple. Because we don't have children, we have had so much time to bond and develop together. While it is sad we haven't received that blessing, we know that He is waiting for the right time for Him. We are so thankful for the blessings he gives us in return for all of this waiting. On the other hand though, I rarely pray when I am having a rough time. I feel like He doesn't need to be bothered with my problems, that no one needs to be bothered with them. I sometimes wonder why the help isn't coming and it's because I haven't asked! I am trying to be better about that...

Stephanie's attitude toward her appearance has really uplifted me. I know she is sad that her former self is gone, that she is this new person. Her spirit about it is amazing though. I have read so many hurtful comments about her being vain, but not once have I felt that about anything she has said. I could only imagine what it would be like to go from looking one way to looking completely different and then top it off with immense pain and troubles with mobility. I have struggled with appearance issues my entire life, being my weight, thinning hair, premature graying, having hair where I REALLY don't want it, my big feet, those types of things. All women struggle with their appearance and it's a constant struggle at that! As a teenager I thought I would never be thought of as "beautiful". Meeting Forest changed that, as he tells me on a regular basis how beautiful I am, even if I don't feel it myself. I have slowly learned to love some of those parts of me. I have to dye my hair, but it's a fun bonding experience for Forest and I (because he has to help me!) and I have an excuse to try new colors. I have finally found a hair cut that I love, but is easy to hide my thin spot (and I get SO many compliments about it, even though I've had it for 6 months now). I have finally found a skincare routine that minimizes the redness in my face and takes care of blemishes, because I can't believe I still have them at my age! I have felt different my entire life, but we are all different and beautiful and that unites us as women.

I doubt Stephanie will ever read this, I'm just one little spec floating around in cyber-space, but she really has me thinking about things I can do to change my life. I have many roadblocks in my way, but I can still try my best to get through them (or go around them!). I want to thank her for sharing her story, even if some days she just doesn't feel like it! Her blog is under my most visited now, I would encourage everyone to read it from time to time.

Field Day

The Northwest ISD has an adaptive Field Day every year for the special needs classes. I look forward to going every year, it's so much fun! This year's was Tuesday, May 4th. When we got to the field, we found out that *everything* was water based. Grace wasn't dressed to be wet, but since she had a change of clothes, we figured we could soak her. There were 8 high school kids waiting to help with the 8 kids in Grace's class and there was only one boy in the group. So, naturally, he had been assigned to be Grace's helper for the day! Grace flirted with him all morning. She was just a little bit wet until one of the kids in her class took a water-soaked sponge and squeezed it over her head! From then on she was soaking wet.













I think she really enjoyed herself, she kept screaming (in a happy way, I promise) and laughing all morning. She enjoyed her helper being there, he was very good with her. He reminded me so much of my friend Mark. He gave Grace a hug at the end of the morning and Grace tried to pull his hair. She's so cute, I love her so much!

May Flowers

All sorts of emotions are surging through me at this moment! I'm excited about the summer because we are actually going on vacation TOGETHER! Plus, summer always brings lots of fun things to do with the Dendys! We're going to the Scarborough Fair in Waxahachie on Memorial Day! I've never been before and I'm sure Gracie will get a kick out of all of the guys dressed up in crazy outfits. The Dendy fam will be on vacation for a few weeks this summer, so I'm going to take advantage of that time Grace will be gone. I planned a trip to San Antonio and Austin! I've lived here for 7 years and have never been south of Corsicana. We just got Six Flags season passes so we're going to go to the Six Flags park in San Antonio, do the Riverwalk, see the Alamo, etc, etc. Then in Austin, we're staying with our friends Heath and Adrienne. They know how to show visitors to Austin a good time, or so I hear ;)

Our living room is SLOWLY making it's way back to normalcy. The priming took twice as long as we thought. It's so thick it was just a pain to roll on. Now we are onto doing the texture and then we can (FINALLY!) paint. I think our couch and love seat are feeling neglected in the garage. Forest's friend from work came to help us last weekend, we were so grateful for that. Another friend of his is moving to the apartments near the rec center. I know Forest is really happy about that, it seems his closest friends are all on the other side of the Metroplex.

My year with Grace ends on the 31st of May. She had her evaluation about two weeks ago and they still haven't called back to let Jennie know if Grace has been approved for another year, which is causing me some stress (because I love to make myself stress for some reason!). Everyone who knows Grace will probably say a collective "WHAT!?" when I tell you that it's possible she may be rejected. The program she is in currently is the Medically Dependent Children Program, or MDCP. Medically, Grace is pretty healthy. Some of the things that got her into the program are no longer an issue, but others are still there. I really have no idea why I am worrying so much, because nothing has changed since her last evaluation, but the women who did the evaluation seemed a little more "business" and I think that has psyched me out a little bit. It would seem to me that if nothing has changed or gotten better and she is a year older, that would make it seem worse. The biggest and older she is, the harder it is to take care of her. I *really* wouldn't enjoy losing my job, but Grace receives so many more benefits from this program than just me. I wouldn't want her to lose them either.