Maybe today will be better...

First thing yesterday morning I learned of the passing of my oldest cousin, Rod.  He was only 46 years old, not much older than me.  Certainly, too young to leave this earth.  I will always remember the place he had in his heart for Tyler.  He only met Ty twice, but always asked about him (and all the kids, but he knew Ty best).  He and Tyler went on a turtle search once in Florida.  They found rabbits instead, but Ty has talked many times about how much fun they had.  RIP Rod.

Shortly after the news, Bo sends me a text to come to the urgent care center.  He has cut his finger with a band saw (again!). The first time, a few years ago, it was a laceration that went straight to the bone and required stitches.  This time, imagine taking a knife and running it down the side of your finger against the bone, from your middle knuckle to the finger tip, taking all the meat with it. For those with weak stomachs, I will spare you the graphic photographs.

Before I arrived at urgent care, he was advised to go to the emergency room because it was more than they could handle. But, does he listen??  NO!  He came home instead.  Hoping to get more information than Bo was indulging, I called the doctor that saw him at the urgent care center and was told that if the wound became infected that he could lose his finger because the cut was so close to the bone.  They feared that simply cleaning it would expose his bone which would require an orthopedic surgeon to be present.  After a lot of pleading and 2 hours later, he finally acquiesced.  Once at the ER, they numbed his finger with two needles.  I've never seen him in so much pain.  It was hard to watch.  Once he was completely numb, they cleaned the wound out and dressed it.  X-rays were taken and the bone is fine, luckily.  The prognosis is good.  He will be missing a large chunk, but he will have full function of his finger.

As a reward for going to the ER (lol), we had pizza in bed.  Of course, everyone had to give me their funny faces for the picture, but the funniest part of this photo to me is in the bottom left....Baylee wants pizza, too! She blends in with the quilt, so look hard...she is staring the pizza box down!

This morning was difficult.  He had to change the dressing and as soon as the air hit the wound, he was literally falling to the floor in pain.  The next few weeks will be hard on him while he heals, but I reminded him this morning that it could be worse!  He could be missing his finger entirely.

Once at work this morning, he revisited the saw and found the other part of his finger.  He sent me these pictures:

My prayer for today is for Rod and Bo.  I pray that Rod knew Jesus Christ and is in Heaven with him now.  I pray for miraculous healing of Bo's finger and minimal pain as he heals.

The grades are in ...

Ty-Guy struggled a little (well ok, a lot!) last semester with turning his work in. The work would usually be completed, but somehow it never made it to the teacher's desk; and ultimately to the grade book. This resulted in many failing grades. He worked hard the last few weeks before Christmas break and was able to get all of the work turned in. His report card came home today with all A's!  What a turn around! 

Being in 3rd grade, Connor's academic grades come in the form of 1's, 2's, & 3's. A 3 is excellent, with a 1 being needs improvement. There were NO 1's and he received a few 2's, but got several 3's as well. His conduct was excellent this go around. Although, he has never been "bad", he typically doesn't stay on task, which results in a lower behavior grade most of the time. 

Sarah completed her first college semester at UNG with 2 A's, 2 B's, and 1 C. This kept her at a B average, so she was able to keep the HOPE Scholarship for spring semester.  She only made one C her entire high school career, so she was bummed about receiving a C in Art Appreciation her first semester in college.  I, on the other hand, am very proud of her considering how hard I know college can be.  

This spring she is taking English, World Geography, Psychology, Philosophy, and First Year Seminar. Currently, she is planning on enrolling in classes at the University of West Georgia this summer. 

Bo and I are so proud of all 3 of them!  They have done so well in school!   

The Birthday Gift

My neighbor just came to my door and handed me $20.  His son, Watson's, birthday was last week.  Tyler and Watson are buds.  Unbeknownst to me, Tyler took $20 of his own money and gave it to Watson for his birthday.  Knowing that I wasn't aware of Tyler's gift, his dad wouldn't let Watson accept it, so he returned the money.  When I returned the money to Ty, he said that Watson was saving money for an xbox and Ty wanted to help him. I think we will make a trip to Target tomorrow to find a birthday card for Mr. Watson and maybe slip a twenty in it ;)

Will the real Tyler Richardson please stand up?

If you know Ty, you know he is a spaz.  I mean that in the kindest of ways.  He is constantly jumping, bouncing, and climbing the walls.  I have actually received a phone call from his teacher saying that Tyler is literally climbing the walls in the cafeteria, AGAIN! His brain runs at 90 MPH and so does his mouth...lol.   He is extremely compulsive and does so many things without thinking them through, which causes people to misunderstand him.

Something happened the other day that has had him on my heart and I never want to forget it. I started not to blog about it because I figure not everyone would be interested, but then I remembered what I created this blog for.  I want to share the moments of our family with others that care for us, but most importantly, I want a record of the little moments that are always forgotten as time passes and life happens.

Tyler received this text the other day from 2 different friends:


He came to me and said, "Mom, I don't know what to do about this.  I only have seven people in my contact list."  Bo and I discussed it with him and explained that it was just a chain letter/text and could be ignored...blah, blah, blah. Nothing bad was going to happen if he didn't send it, nor did it change his relationship with God.  God loves you anyway, we told him. He had tears in his eyes and said, "But, I feel like I'm letting my friends down.  They must have thought of me as a friend if they sent it to me and it makes me think that they care about me.  If I don't send this back to them, they will think that I don't care about them and I love my friends."  He felt the message must be true since he has been struggling with some things lately and his struggles ceased around the time of receiving it. Obviously, we had a deep conversation with him, and he came to an understanding, but what a heart!

Tyler's compassion gets overlooked at times due to his daily struggles, but this is the real Tyler. He is misunderstood by many. Ty may be a spaz, but he's my spaz, and I love him dearly.

Thank you for allowing me to monopolize your inbox so that I can treasure this memory!