Last day in 2007

I can't believe how fast the time has gone by....I feel like we just said goodbye to 2006 and now here we are at the end of 2007. What a year. So much has happened this year that has changed my life. I can honestly say that things will never be the same.

We're having my parents, brother, Molly, my mother-in-law, and the Hancock family over for games tonight and snacks. I'm really excited to spend time with people that love to laugh. I'll be sure to post on that in the next days.

2008 is going to be a brand new year with many more changes. Have a great New Year's Eve!

2007 Family Christmas

I hope that you guys had a great Christmas! We had a wonderful one. We spent the weekend with my parents in Manchester and I got to see Heather and her family, which was great. They cooked a huge breakfast for us and I got to see her baby neice, that looks just like her brother. We had our traditional family Christmas dinner with Ma, Mama, and Mom's side of the family. It's always fun to get together with them...it's never boring, I can honestly say!

We went to our Christmas Eve service at church, which was wonderful. There's just something about taking the Lord's Supper before Christmas...it just reminds you that Christmas isn't all about presents...it's about Jesus and his birth and all that He's done and will continue to do for us. I love our church and all of the wonderful people and mentors that are there.

Mom, Dad, and John came up on Christmas Eve and we invited Raun's parents over to eat dinner. We made a Thai stir-fry, complete with egg rolls. It was really good and filling. To top it off, we had dessert of caramel popcorn, cheesecake, and gingerbread men. We played games well into the night and we learned that Mom would make it well in Vegas.

It was great to wake up with my family still here. It made it more fun to have other people here, instead of just me and Raun. We made a big breakfast and then opened presents. John did the honor of reading the Christmas story this year, which is always enjoyable. And yes, we even watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation...a yearly tradition.

Raun and I left to go in the afternoon to go spend Christmas dinner with Raun's family. It was great to see everyone and to play the family games. I realized that I'm not so good at games when I'm tired, though. I have a very small window of opportunity after 7:00 p.m. We got to see all of the nephews and our neice, which was fun because they liked to make fun of their great-grandma's....until we reminded them that they are going to be like that one day! They are so much fun to be with!

I think New Year's will be spent at our house and we're going to have our New Year's Eve party here. Everyon's supposed to be coming back and I think that we're going to meet my parents in Atlanta on Saturday to spend the day shopping and visiting. I also have to see John's new television, since we haven't seen it yet! Happy New Year!

8 days until Christmas!

I can't believe that it's only 8 days left until Christmas. I'm still not ready. Maybe it will be better this week....we'll see! We had our Christmas concert at church yesterday and it was wonderful. My parents and Raun's mom both came with us. It's meant so much to me that they came. Dad even stepped foot in the mall afterwards and we got some Christmas shopping done. It was just like the old days....but we missed John. Dad even treated us to our favorite place...Baskin Robbins. They have a new Heath bar Shake now and it was very good.

Our Christmas destination has been decided. Mom, Dad, and John are having it at our house for Christmas Eve and Christmas and possibly even New Year's Eve and New Year's. I'm very excited about that! I love having my family here with us. I get to cook some new and even healthy recipes....it's gonna be great!

I absolutely love my job. As I mentioned in the post earlier, I am teaching children with special needs, as well as typical kids, through the School of Music at our church. I love it! After our concert, one of my piano boys (with Down Syndrome) came up to me and gave me a hug and a kiss! He's 6 1/2 and had battled a rare form of leukemia. He reminds me so much of Shannon because he is a fighter as well. He had chemo until he was 2 years old. He's now in remission, and they're just hoping it doesn't come back. He's so precious and smart. He loved my bassoon and told me he wanted to learn to play "Jingle Bells!" So we shall learn that for him. His grandpa is a classical pianist and is thrilled that he and his grandson can share this love of music together. I am so thankful that I have a job where I can make a difference in people's lives and where I can help what seems like the impossible become possible!

If you would like to check out my work website, feel free! It's http://www.musictherapynetworkoftn.com/.

Happy Christmas shopping!

Ahhhh!!!!

It was definitely a rough day today. One of my boys punched his therapist in the nose and broke it. I really and honestly hope that he gets transfered to jail because he would be someone that would both reoffend and hurt others. He has absolutely no remorse for what he's done but the system thinks that he is too MR to stand trial. He so knows what he did and he also knows the difference between right and wrong. He also knows that he can get away with it in the system. How are you supposed to work with them if they are constantly endangering myself and others? I love working with my boys and girls, but at times it's so hard to remember why we do what we do and why we constantly keep going back after being disrespected so much.

John called me during my lunch break just to talk and I told him to make sure to pray for me this afternoon because I just knew it was going to be bad. Sure enough, during my last session the principal came in and told me that one of their case managers (who is in her 20's, early 30's and is sweet) died today after a kidney problem. She had had surgery and it was okay and was sent home, but was admitted to ICU today and died around noon. The case managers and therapists were standing outside the school doors to talk with each of them after the news was told to the boys. I just pray that this helps them to change. We actually talked about our dreams during our session and it was neat to show them that many dreams can be attained if they really want it.

My little boy with autism regressed a little today. Hopefully he will have a wonderful week next week. He did say 4 colors for the first time, so it wasn't a bad session!

It's been almost two weeks since Shannon passed away and let me just say that it has been the longest 2 weeks ever. I am not really feeling in the Christmas spirit. I thought that if our Christmas tree was up then I would feel in the spirit....but it only serves to remind me why I'm celebrating (which is good) and that Shannon should be here to enjoy this holiday and to make a Christmas list. I think I'm slowly coming out of the denial stage and am waking up to reality. I don't like reality, so I may choose to stay in denial a little while longer! I see her in all my kids....I'm now working with special needs children and teaching them piano and guitar lessons at church and there's a girl who always looks like Shannon from the back....so I like to look at her!

Anyway, that's life in a nutshell over the past week.....