Longtime friends

These two ladies were in my wedding! And we have been so bad about getting together over the years. Hopefully we can get together again soon! Was so fun seeing them both and helping Rita celebrate her birthday. :-) 

Eighteen!!

Yesterday was Ryan's 18th birthday!!! So hard to believe. I can recall a time way back when Ryan was a baby. I was working at a retirement home and I had come in on one of my days off to pick something up. I had 6 month old Ryan with me in his stroller and one of the ladies said to me, "enjoy him now...he will be all grown up before you know it" and truer words were never spoken. I can recall holding Ryan and never wanting to put him down when he was a baby. In fact, we had some concern that that might have been why he wasn't attempting to crawl when he was a baby! He was held too much!! If only that had been the reason! We were told we would have 3 years with this boy. But we are now 15 years past what doctors told us back then. It has not been an easy road by any means and we have said over and over that if it weren't for the Internet, Ryan likely would have died years ago. Of course we know The Lord has watched over him.  But his care has been constant and it has been a fight to keep him here with us. A fight that has been (at times) so incredibly difficult that had you told me that years ago as a young mom that this is what I would face with my son I never would have believed we could come this far. We love you so SO much Ryan Andrew! Your life has purpose and The Lord has big plans for you!!! 

Fun with art

I just thought this was such a fun art project to do with Jorie. For those that don't know; I love art! And Jorie seems to love it too. So it's a fun thing to do together. Jorie actually discovered this idea herself online and wanted to give it a try. It basically involves hot gluing crayons in whatever pattern you choose to a surface (we used canvas so we could hang it up) and using a blow dryer to melt the crayons. Jorie also painted the word "dream" down below. I thought that added a neat touch. :-)