2011 so thats the end of that...

This year has flown by. We often say that but this year has. It has been a strange year. Things have felt "off" hard to explain. Like something is freakishly wrong in the universe. Time just seems to be going so fast. My kiddo is growing up so fast. Some days I wish I could just freeze time and live in the moment for ever. I know not possible. We have had some fun times this year, some sad times along with difficult times as everyone has, A lot of changes taken place. So many things different. We lost some family members that were very special to us. I don't deal with death that well at all, I know no one deals with it great but since my dad I really have to prepare for funerals. Ya I'm a mental case. but you knew that. So maybe that is what is so "off" both of them being close with my dad brought back a lot of pain and memories I do not like. It was good to see family that I have not seen in a while. Sad the reasons. Bella started a new school this year. 3rd Grade. UGH! hard to imagine. I KNOW.

She was so excited to be a cheerleader. She carried on the family tradition of the McCrary girls before her (me and Kasi were both cheerleaders GO DRAGONS!!) So it was just fitting that she wanted to. I was surprised since she is so timid when she is first around people. She didn't know anyone at this school but she went in like she knew them all and joined the cheer squad. I was so proud of her. By the time school started she had a few friends already.

She did a great Job. She had to miss one game because she had to have her baby teeth take out and the wires put in. That was tough on her. She missed almost a week of school. The anesthesia was rough on her. BUT she was a trooper and did well. Her 8th Birthday she didn't want a big party this year. She missed her bff Bailey so much. Sooooo she wanted her to come spend the night and them have a party. Soooooooooooo

ya look at the clock they were still goin strong! John and I... not so much. Since she didnt want to have a birthday party. We went to see RIO then to Cheeburger Cheeburger (one of her favorite places to eat) and she got LULU

SHE LOVES LULU. She goes everywhere with her just about if not her then her American Girl doll does. She is all about The matchy outfits and stuff. (it gets crazy sometimes)

How can this not make you smile in the morning? We had a nice Easter She hunted eggs with Eva Caroline and We made cards with Grandma

Had a scary flare in May with Multiple Sclerosis. It messed with my swallowing as well as chest and right side. As soon as the steroids were in I could swallow better but lost my voice. was so strange. THEN I had weird side effects from the steroids got terrible yeast inf even in my eyes. was horrible took loong time to get through. Seems every May I end up in hospital. Am really really scared this year since insurance is being a butt and I am off my meds. VERY scared what will happen. I also discovered I DESPISE GREEN JELLO!

LEAF blower man vacuuming the shrubs... Yall really didn't think I was serious did you? I know hard to see because of screen on window but look close. THAT IS A SHOP VAC! THIS IS MY BEDROOM window. YOU SEEE how close that is. YES its LOUD! WHen your sick and have shingles in and on your ear it makes the nerve make everything hurt and that sound and the leafblower vibrate everything and not in a good way. the sound and the vibration o m g. you cannot escape it. I have wanted to just DIEEEEEE on many occasions. People often wonder why I get so grouchy and irritable. THIS is alot of the problem. TRY waking up to this at 7 am and NOT get a single day off. (IT HAS gotten a lot BETTER I HAVE TO ADMIT) he waits till 8 30 some days now. Fourth of July Johns parents were here. Lala was so cute.

Was a peaceful restful time. ahhhhhh!

We spend alot of time with Tara and Gregg on some holidays. They are good friends of ours. We usually do Halloween and New Years with them. It has kinda become a tradition so to speak... well sometimes New years Depends what is going on. We have added more people as the years have gone by to the crew at the get togethers we have a lot of fun and the kids enjoy it. We get to be silly and not worry about anything since we are right here in our little neighborhood.

Tara with sonny and cher singing I GOT YOU BABE! Bella and Eva Caroline went to the Fall Festival at St.Elmo Baptist Church. We all had a great time.

For Johns Birthday we went to Cheeburger Cheeburger. John ate the BIG ONE and got his picture up on the wall.

For our anniversary we went to our Favorite place The Japanese resteraunt!!

Afterwards we had to stop at Marble Slab for some dessert! Guess who had that idea!!

Bellas Third grade teacher (she is so awesome) Mrs. Overman did the coolest thing. The had a Renaissance medieval Feast. It was so coool. The girls talked about saving your love and kisses and being princesses of God. The boys talked about saving their love and kisses and being Knights of God. They worked on self esteem, purity, and are laying the ground work for the future. What an amazing day this was. Im such a sap I teared up during the speech Mrs. Overman gave. I wish I had it recorded so I could put the words down for Bella.

Greg was our court Jester. how cute is this?

Had a few bad weeks the beginning of Dec. Insurance company is messing with my interferon and it ran out so I had to cold turkey just stop taking it. So you can imagine. It did horrid things to my body. A lot of symptoms were messing with me. I still am having a lot of tiredness and mind fog. Am trying to play a few games (words with friends) to try to help with thinking but it is just showing me what I don't know I think. haha. My dr is trying very hard to convince them that I NEED this medication. Not the others. (Due to where my lesions are on my brain stem and the progression of my symptoms) I still have good days and bad days. Winter is better Summer is horrific. Heat melts me. I cant walk when I get hot I cant swallow I cant breathe. still get those horrific Hiccups that then make my chest contract and squeeze that feels like you are having a heart attack but you aren't and you have to take slow deep breaths and push in on your rib cage and take muscle relaxers to get it to stop if you can swallow at all during it. Makes your heart beat weird. no rhyme or reason to it. It just happens. Sometimes for a few seconds sometimes minutes. But mostly things are good and have been doing better since its cooler after I got over the sudden withdraw of the meds. Shingles aren't as bad. Still kinda leary. Christmas Kinda snuck up on us this year. Bella did her traditional pink tree in her room.

Bella got a letter from Santa! She was soooo excited. I loved hearing her read it. Just watching her facial expressions and hearing her little voice pronounce all the words. I wished I had video'd it. Yes I got teary eyed.

Bella and Brayden (her boy)playing the Kinect. SOOOOO CUTE!!!

Those are all the photos pretty much, I have on my laptop and Im sure you are asking "Holy wow Nancy. How many pictures are you going to put on this post?" WEll I haven't updated in some time. So was catching you up. JOhn is working and fighting with the insurance co. on my behalf and is my biggest support and advocate. I am grateful for him. Without him I wouldn't be alive today. That's the honest truth. He pushed and pushed to help find out what was wrong with me to get answers when no one would listen. HE KNOWS what we go through. So it gets frustrating listening to things sometimes. I hope you all had a fabulous 2011 and 2012 is even better for you. If I can get on my desktop there may be better or more photos of 2011 so Check back.

St Elmo Fall Festival

We had a lovely time at the yearly St Elmo Fall festival. It was A G-GORGEOUS day. PERFECT WEATHER.

These two were so excited to get to go have some fun getting treats, hay ridin', cake walkin and seeing friends!





They were pumped! singing and talking about what they were going to do first.








one of Bella's really sweet friends from her previous school. She has missed. Was really fun seeing her and spending time with her.


HAY RIDEEEE!


My little buddy that helped me hijack the hay ride (so he could driveeeeeeeeee!! the tractor! he was sooo adorable)



A beautiful ending to a wonderful day!

Goin to see Nana Faye...

Ever since I found out that Nana Faye was going to be this direction for a wedding, all I could think about was getting to where she was going to be. I knew this was a once in a lifetime chance to "get my hands on her" to get hugs and just to be around her even if it was for a few minutes. I know yall may not understand or be able to comprehend the value of the love we have for this woman. No she really isn't related to us. But she is our Nana. Thinking back she has always been around. When I needed someone to talk to. WHen I needed advice or someone to tell me like it is. Or a shoulder to cry on. Heck she helped me go through baby names back and forth when I was trying to think of names for this little bit right here!!


So getting to see her live and in person. not talking to her on the computer or on the telephone. (Im going to start crying again) was the most wonderful gift I could have ever been given in my life. I just kept looking at her. soaking it all in. Every second. Looking at photos. Talking and just being with her.
Her skin is so soft. She smells so good. I want to remember every second.
Time went very fast.






John took alot of pictures (I thought our expressions were funny on this one)

It was really good to see Carol and Norman again.
Nana Faye gave Bella the sweetest lil Doll. Bella has named her after Nana Faye. (how sweet is that?)



Carol looked really good. I know she is about to have surgery on Thursday. Hope that everything goes well and she recovers quickly.

Bella was happy to see them and loved getting extra whip cream with Carol for her Banana pudding (they share that love)




We had a nice lunch. Had a good time. was so good to see Nana, Carol and Norman. Don't worry we Gave her hugs for everyone.
I just Didn't want to leave. I Wanted to put her in my car and take her home with me.
Love that woman! Really hope she enjoys the wedding and we didn't wear her out too much today. I know we enjoyed seeing her and I wouldn't have traded today for anything in this world.

No Frills/mini album class SOLD OUT

I would like to Thank you ladies so much for coming to the Class today for Making Strides for Breast Cancer. The mini album we made was a lot of fun. I am proud to announce that My class sold out! I have no class kits even left. Thank you so much for your Generosity your encouragement and helping Darlene to make her goal with Making strides. Thank you to everyone that helped. I am exhausted.

Bring em if ya got em

For those people that are going to be coming to crop and for those that will just be attending our class tomorrow here are some suggested tools and things that you may need that will make it a lot easier for you to put this album together in about an hour.
* I know there are a couple that have not cropped before or scrapped do not panic. You do not have to run out and buy this stuff.

I will have these tools on hand DO NOT GO OUT AND BUY THEM SPECIAL for this class! Now after you take the class if you play with them and love them decide it is something you will use and you love then go for it!

If you already own them.... PLEASE BRING THEM :)

*Cropadile
*scissors
*Distress edger tool (can be by whomever making memories, Tim Holtz, Heidi Swapp, There are many out there I have 1)
*Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher or a stapler
*Bone folder or trimmer that has a scorer
*pop dots
*liquid adhesive such as: Aleenes tacky glue, zip dry something thick the album is cardboard base.
*Tim Holtz vintage photo distress stain or Tea Stain distress stain or Tim Holtz VIntage Photo Distress ink Tea stain will work also (I have a few but I don't have enough for every one I really tried Im so very sorry)

THE GOOD NEWS IS: I will be doing a drawing and the ones that I have I will be giving them away in class to SOME LUCKY PEOPLEEEE.
YOU HAVE TO BE THERE TO GET THEM THOUGH.

NOW REMEMBER I WILL HAVE TOOLS on hand you are welcome to use just I have (example) 1 of the Tiny Attacher we have a lot of people that will be here so this is just to help you. If you have your own tools etc for you to use It makes it easier for you. You are welcome to use mine if you do not have something. I do have either or on the stains and inks and we are going to pass them around

There are a few other surprises we have too but I can't give away all my secrets I mean what fun is that?? I will see yall there. THANK YOU GUYS for signing up for this. Darlene is such an amazing person. I appreciate all of your support.
We are going to have so much fun I am so excited!

SO DO you wanna peek at the next page too for another taste? or will it freak you out? (REMEMBER we already have it PRECUT OUT FORRR YOUUUUUUUUU yall vote and let me know. ya? no? want to wait till in the morning to see it?

If you have any questions Lemme know. SEE YALL IN THE MORNING.

Our Last Game and a Pizza Party

It has been a GREAT year so far for Bella at her new school. She has enjoyed being a cheer leader. Last night was her last game. They had a lot of fun as we enjoyed watching them. They are just the cutest things.



Our girls have come a LONG way for a lot of them to never have cheered before.
SO PROUD of them.


I know Bella had a blast. She made some really good friends and it really helped her adjust to this new school a lot quicker.
She was really having a hard time.
She missed her school she was at before and her BFF's (still does)



Although she has made some really good friendships here and is doing really well.
I hope she will go out again next year. It has been fun.

After the game, There was a fun Pizza party at Godfathers pizza. eye yi yi!
can you imagine 22 hyped up little girls in a pizza parlor that was NOT very big along with their families. approx. 50 ish people.
(I had migraine all day was an interesting evening believe me)
Pizza was great, the kids were fabulous and I DO BELIEVE everyone had fun. You can tell by the Rave reviews the Blue and Yellow cupcakes received!












We are so grateful to our cheer coaches for their patience their time and dedication to our daughters. We thank them for taking the time with them and also the values and beliefs they help instill in our girls. We are so ever thankful.