New Year's Eve 2007

After our day in the sun (yes, all 3 of us managed to get a little sun burned), we decided to take the trolley to the "downtown" FMB square. Dylan thought the trolley was fun. We walked around the square and did some "people watching." The square was decorated nice for the holidays with lights on all the palm trees. A balloon lady made Dylan a parrot and me two kissing doves in a heart. There was one of those street performers paint in gold who would shock people by acting like a statue and then suddenly moving. Dylan wouldn't get to close to him :-) We did a little shopping, ate some dinner, and had clowned around. Before we got back on the trolley we stopped for some ice cream. It was a fun night.

Dylan was exhausted by the time we got back to our room and was asleep by 10 or so. Chris and I barely made till midnight :-)

The beach!

8.5 hours later... we made it! Our hotel was right on the beach on an island called Fort Myers Beach! Our hotel room was on the ground floor, right across from the pool and the bar.

The sun was setting when we got all checked in and unpacked (they are 1 hour ahead of us). We threw on shorts and decided to go check out the beach before it got too dark. You should have seen Dylan's face! He was so excited! He started doing cartwheels! He insisted upon getting his feet wet as well. We got a few pics in before it got dark! We ate dinner at the restaraunt located at the hotel (we were tired of being in the truck).

We spent the day Monday at the beach and the pool! Dylan was loving it (as were we). The original plan was to head to Tampa and see Busch Gardens on Thursday and head back to Dan and Linda's on Friday. However, we were so in love with the beach we all decided we'd extend our stay here until Saturday morning. (Dylan actually chose the beach instead of an amusement park!)

Weekend of 12/28-12/30

We left Friday afternoon. Traffic wasn't too bad. Dylan entertained himself with his DVDs, LeapFrog, travel games Kori bought us, and his journal. He drew us pictures of what he thought we'd be doing over the next 10 days. We arrived at Aunt Linda and Uncle Dan's (Chris' side of the fam)around 8:00. Cousin Jimmy's step daughter (3 yr old Kaitlin) and his 1 yr old daughter Emily were there. Emily was asleep but Kaitlin waited up. Dylan and her stayed up watching cartoons together for quite a while.

Saturday we got to visit with Dan, Linda, Jimmy and his girls, Kevin, Teresa, Forrest, and April. It was great catching up with everyone!

Sunday morning we three were so excited to get to the hotel (and the beach) so we left around 7am.

Our Winter Vacation

A few months ago we started planning a winter trip for after Christmas. We decided after going through our first holiday season with out Cedie and facing the first anniversary of her death, that we would head south to warmer weather and brighter skies.

We decided to go to Fort Myers, FL. Its about 16 hours away so we decided to drop in on Aunt Linda and Uncle Dan (approx. 1/2 way) to break up the drive. We drove to DeFuniak Springs, FL on Friday, 12/28.

Mock Christmas 2007

Thank you to all of our Family and Friends who supported us and helped us get through this Christmas. We are truely blessed.

Christmas Trees for TCU

A couple weekends ago, my mom (Nana), Dylan, and I made Christmas trees for the TCU patients at LeBonheur. Before Cedie, I never knew how many children spend their Christmas holiday in the hospital, some fighting for their lives. Before Cedie, I didn't know what it felt like as a parent to have one child at home and one at the hospital and try to spend time with both on Christmas. When Cedie spent her first Christmas at the hospital, Dylan was full of questions about where Santa would take her presents and how is she going to get to see our family Christmas tree and decorations. We ended up decorating her hospital room and we got her a Christmas tree of her own. A few of the other parents followed our lead and decorated their child's bed or room and got them trees as well.

My mom and I decided that it would be nice if we could bring Christmas trees to the patients this year, in honor of Cedie. It is our hope that the trees bring a smile and a little Christmas cheer to these amazing children who face so much and to their families who are forced to celebrate with their children in the hospital.

And ofcourse I couldn't forget the wonderful nurses who care for these special children! We brought them a basket of candy and cookies. The last picture is of Nurse Kim, a dear friend of mine thanks to Cedie, who was Cedie's nurse at LeBonheur and at home.











The tag on each Christmas Tree says "Given in Loving Memory of Cedie Lynn Mock"

Dylan's Christmas Choir

Tonight was Dylan's Christmas program at church. Bless his heart, he just wasn't feeling it. Normally, Dylan really enjoys performing on a stage. Tonight he seemed excited to go up there but things quickly went down from there. In his defense, we had gotten up early to leave St. Louis, we spent over 5 hours in the truck getting back home, and he then was also on allergy meds because his nose was running all weekend. Dylan and the choir sang beautifully, but Dylan looked either bored or ready to pass out the majority of the time. So, I didn't get great pictures but his facial expressions are great anyway :-)

Christmas in St. Louis

We spent this weekend in St. Louis! We had a great time visiting with my family. There was no snow when we arrived Friday afternoon. Saturday morning we woke up to approx. 4 inches of snow and it snowed all day. Dylan was so excited and he got his Aunt Mel Mel (also from Memphis) to help him build a snowman! They had so much fun (they aren't used to seeing so much snow). At home everything would have shut down but in St. L everyone was still out Christmas shopping (including us!). Saturday night we had a wonderful feast and then we opened up some Christmas presents! Sunday morning we woke up to approx. 10 inches of snow! We were worried about the drive home so we left early. Luckily, the highways were cleared so we didn't run into any trouble (the people directly behind us weren't so lucky- we shared our snow from the back of the truck the whole ride home!)

Done for the semester!

I took my last exam last night! Now I get a break until Jan. 14th! Maybe now I can catch up on this blog :-)

Update:
12/17/07: I got all my grades in for the fall semester. I had an "A" average! I was really surprised, although I worked my tail off in order to acomplish this. Whoohoo! Let me tell you, that was not easy to pull off! Now if I can do the same in the Spring semester...

Christmas for Cedie

Today we brought Cedie her December flowers and the Christmas tree we made for her. After we spent time at her site, we attended a candle-light service at the funeral home. The service was really nice. It was particularly tough on us because this is our first Christmas without her and the service was held in the same chapel that we had her visitation. The sermon was helpful though so I was glad I stuck it out. The pastor told us about how great Heaven was. He also told us how time in Heaven moves much slower than it does here. He said for our loved ones, we are meeting them very soon, within minutes or hours, not the years we actually go through here. It was comforting for me to think that for her, mommy will be there to hold her really soon, like I did every day she was here on earth. At the end of the service, everyone held a candle (including Dylan) and a singer sang Silent Night. The funeral home gave us a glass ornament shaped like a bell with her name and "2005-2007" etched in it.

Christmas Time

As Christmas gets closer, I find it gets harder and harder for me to deal with it. I was going through a catalog this morning, looking for presents to buy. I suddenly found myself crying because I want to buy girly presents for Cedie. I want her to be here to enjoy them! Jesus gave us one good Christmas with her and for that I am and will always be truly grateful but I also selfishly want more than one! I found myself wondering which Christmas was worse- that first Christmas when she was in the ICU or this Christmas without her here. Rationally, I know she's better in Heaven than she was that Christmas when they had to induce her into a coma because she was so sick. However, a grieving mother's heart is not rational.

I decided to look on the web for suggestions from other grieving mothers on how to deal with the holidays. I found a site that had some good suggestions from other grieving moms and a really nice poem. I know I am not the only one who misses Cedie- she was so very loved by so many, so I am putting the link on here...

http://www.angelabode.com/holidayideas.html

Here was a good article about helping kids get through the holidays after a loss (those of you who will see Dylan this holiday season-this is a good article for you to read)

Also this poem titled "What is Normal after five years? was great. It really expressed my "normals" since Cedie left.

So Busy!

I realized today that I haven't done an update since November 11th! I have been so swamped with school and everything. But I promise I have taken pics! I will try to get them downloaded soon and fill in the gap from the last month! Make sure you don't miss any of the posts between the 11/11 post and this one.