When Grandaddy died in Spring my brother and I flew to Tennessee together for the funeral. During the flight we began talking about recent movies and he insisted that I have Lexi watch "Taken". We watched it this AM on pay-per-view (I made Lexi set aside her cell phone for the movie) and I was soooo glad my brother pushed the subject. I honestly think all teenage girls need to watch that movie! Besides, Maggie Grace is in the flick and she does an awesome job! I was truly impressed.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0936501/

Hellooooo you all everybody! Just wanted to drop a line and let everyone know that Lexi will be going in for her 3-month lupus check on Tuesday. I'll post an update on her progress and a long overdue Long update (tee hee) as well! I miss you all and I'll be back online again regularly very soon. I truly hope to get the chance to see some of you at D*C (if things work out in my favor)!

For those of you that Facebook....I have decided not to continue with that account much because a lot of my students are on there and able to link into my posts, comments, pics, etc. I'm not informed enough to know how to filter that stuff from them, so I think it's best not to use that account much. Make sense?

Blowing kisses to you all! Miss you!

While watching Lost tonight I screamed outloud. I was thrilled, elated, electrified.....thus, I screamed outloud with immense joy that could be heard around the world! (yes, that was me) My LostLife is now offically reborn. Thank you God!

that is all

Hello You All Everybody!!!

I know I've been absent so long, but I'm still alive and kicking. I've missed lots of birthdays and important updates, and most of all....I have missed all of you, TREMENDOUSLY! Things are starting to get much better in exil-land so I hope you are ready to see me around more often. I'll post a huge update soon....so much to tell you all. In short, my life has done a complete 360 about 360 times. Talk about dizzy...SHEESH!

Anyway, I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone. Much love to Lana and Trevor for the card (I love all the pics of your beautiful family!!), as well as Mel in Philly! Thanks for remembering me!!!! Hugs and kisses for all of you...you are not forgotten! I miss you all sooooooo much.

I love you all!!!

P.S. Can you believe we are suppose to get snow in Austin at midnight? That means the whole city will shut down. Yeah for a snow day!! (A snow day means I get to catch up on LJ)

Which creature of the night are you? Your Result: Ghost   Life has beat you into a mere shadow, and you have little to gain or lose in the world. Quiet and introspective until roused, when you become a scarier, poltergeistier thing.
Incubus/Succubus
Sorceror
Vampire
Werewolf
Demon
Cthulu Spawn
Which creature of the night are you? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Thanks to everyone for keeping us in your prayers! Lexi is still having a difficult time with leg pain and has little energy. She had to drop her Spanish I course because doctor's appts. were interfering too much. She was sad but didn't want to continue because she was slipping further and further behind.

My job starts Monday and I'm hyped. The thing is that I'm totally crazy for putting even more on my plate right now. But this job was sort of put in my lap so how could I refuse? It's part time....I teach 4 classes from 10:30-1:30 then I work with 2nd grade until 4:10. I usually pull back in my driveway around 5 PM. I'm still spending mornings at doctor's appts. Our October is pretty booked then things should slow down.

Please don't forget about me just because I'm not around as much.

Much love for everyone!

Chris

Lexi's Lupus diagnosis was confirmed with a biopsy and ANA test. She's been really sick now for 2 months so life has been a real chore these days, mostly for her but as you know....a mother is only as well as her sickest child and only as happy as her saddest child. Her biggest obstacle right now is lethargy and leg pain. She's missed some school which is a bit scary since she's taking three high school classes this year (she's in 8th grade). Still, she's keeping up. We're going to tour Texas A&M over Thanksgiving break. She's determined to be an Aggie. She's a strong girl for living in Austin and daring to go to A&M. *hee hee

This was Lexi at the beach when her face started falling off. It's healing, so no worries.

TJ has discovered girls. My word, has he discovered girls. Or should I say the girls have discovered him. They won't stop calling. It's ridiculous. He's always been a great student and suddenly he's now struggling in math. Well, I guess he is a cutie...



Lia turns 9 tomorrow. *sigh* We had a really fun hotel sleepover party Friday night. Good Times!



Many thanks to all of you who posted b-day wishes for me. I have just briefly checked out LJ and want to let you know that I will catch up soon and do a worthy post...promise. Oh, and I must express my gratitude to 1oldmanfan for looking out for me during Ike's fury!

Oh....I was just offered a teaching position and I accepted. I'll be working with 1st-3rd grades as a literacy instructor beginning next Monday. I'm so excited!

*must go to bed now*

Love to all!

I took my Girl Scouts to South Padre Island for our annual beach trip and while we were there Lexi's face started falling off. I don't know how else to describe it...pieces of her skin just started coming off. I took her to the Dermatologist today and they were perplexed (as usual) but really think she has Lupus. They took a biopsy and put two stitches in to close it up. It looks like we may finally get a definitive diagnosis for our girlie. The picture doesn't really show the severity of the spots, but you'll get the idea...


Here's just one pic of some of my scouts, including Lexi.



I have to go work up at school for a bit and then I'm off to take a 4 1/2 hour teacher certification exam....and Lexi has Open House at school tonight. Yikes! What a busy day. I'll post more beach trip photos soon.

Thanks to all of you who voted for my video...it's not too late and I really need your vote if you haven't voted yet. See it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9AJ7Gaow50 and post a text message for my video if you can.

I love you all!!!!!

I need your help please! My video was just accepted to a contest my university is hosting. The top prizes are scholorships and I REALLY need some financial help. I finished my video, but didn't use the theme song I wanted to after reading in the rules that copywrited material should not be used. You could really help me by voting for my video and asking all your friends and family to vote too.....

Dear Friends and Family,

The video submission period for the WGU Video Scholarship is ending soon. Please take the time and visit my video, vote and leave a comment. The voting to select the finalists ends August 23, so get your votes in soon to ensure I’m included. Clicking on the star rating on my video on YouTube counts as a vote.

You can view my video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9AJ7Gaow50 . If you have an account with YouTube, log in and vote for my video. If you would like to sign up for an account with YouTube visit here: http://www.youtube.com/login

Feel free to visit http://www.wgu.edu/contest to learn more about the contest.

Thanks! I love you all!

I need some help. I'm preparing a video for a scholorship contest (Boy! I really need a scholorship!) and I'm looking for the theme song to Laverne and Shirley. Do any of you wonderful people have the song you could send to me? Please?

Oh, and I may be begging you all to vote for my video too. I have to research the details on voting procedure but I'm pretty sure I can advertise for votes.

I graduate in May so expect an exil return soon.

I love and miss you all.

Well, it seems we are all getting older these days.










Happy Birthday Kerry! I love you!

Hello my friends!

Boy do I miss y'all! I've been lost in my classes all summer and have deadlines that would make you cringe. But, on the happy side, I'll be done in May, after I do my student teaching...then I'll be all official and everything. I just returned from San Antonio with all the other exils, where I took my teacher certification exam. I hope I passed!

I've got to get back to studying, but I had to pop over to wish my pal a Happy Birthday. I want you all to know that I NEVER forget about you!!! You're always on my mind!









Party down Jinxie! *bed bounce for you....so high you can touch the sky*

I love you!

Hello Friends!

Just want you all to know that I miss you!!! I'll be posting pics soon, along with an update.

*blows kisses*

I feel so disconnected from all of you and I know it's my own fault. So much has happened. I don't know where to start.

I'll start with the good. I finished 10 classes and once I complete these final two classes I will have my BA. Yay! School is out for summer. Double Yay!! I made reservations to take my Girl Scouts back to S. Padre this summer. Triple yay!!

I've decided not to share the bad just yet. Tonight is a good night. Well, it should be anyway. It's the Lost Finale so I'm really excited.

This is what I posted at the 'lage


Greetings LostFriends!

I know it's been like 108 days since I've stopped by or something. And now that I have time to play, the season is ending. Sheesh!

Things just don't seem right this season! I feel like I should have seen some men in tutus and forced certain stooges to wear strange items on their heads and enjoyed a real life Freeze Friday and pointed at a Javi and had another first with my first and giggled with the clown car *gg* and played bed bounce with a certain pincher and partied all night long with the dj and romped through the rain with my manager and performed bad karaoke and watched a fire burn in the distance and well, all kinds of other stuff that just didn't happen. Sigh! I miss you friends! *tears
You'll find me at the bar.

blows kisses around the room for all her LostFriends

Happy Birthday to you Nikki!

I hope you had a fabulous day! Sure wish I could be with you to celebrate! Next year, eh?







Love you Mucho!!

Does anyone have a copy of "Shining Star" by Earth Wind and Fire? I need the song for another video I'm making. I know the song is on the Autin Powers Soundtrack too.

Hola everyone!

I'm wondering if any of you could help me edit a song....the song is "Closing Time" by Green Day. I want to use it for a graduation ceremony but I have to edit out the part about alcohol.

Can anyone help? I'm not sure how to edit parts of music out of the song.

Has anyone heard from Cheri? There's a tornado in her area and I can't get in touch with her. Needless to say, I'm extremely worried!

Okay, most of y'all saw my post about "Sicko" right?

Well, as luck would have it Bigexil had an accident yesterday. He severely tore his ACL in his left leg. Thank goodness we have insurance, right? HA!

Tony made it to the surgeon today..... $25 copay for the consultation. He was then sent to a durable medical equipment office so they could outfit him with a brace. Oh, but luckily for insurance we didn't have to pay the full $600 for the brace. Our wonderful insurance policy made it possible for us to get the brace for a bargain price of $320. What a relief because we sure don't have $600 sitting in our bank account!

As of now, this injury has cost us $345 directly out of our checking account, and this does not include our portion for the xray that was taken. We'll get that bill in the mail. Tony is scheduled for an MRI next week and then surgery. I wonder how much this will set us back now....as if $100K worth of medical debt isn't enough already.

It's enough to make you sick.....


especially after you look at the bill....



On the brighter side of life (and I do have an extrememly bright side)...I cut Lexi's hair. She begged me to cut it short, so I did. She loves her new style. What do y'all think?

I started this post with way too much information. It would have boggled your minds and possibly most of you would not have read it anyways after seeing the length of the post.

SO I erased it and started over.

Now I'm going to start this post with a simple question...

Are you ill?

No? That's great!

Yes? Then you will want to know more of what I have to share.

If you're not, then let me ask you this. Is anyone you love ill? Have you ever been sick enough to require surgery or long term medical care?

Have you or anyone you love ever been in medical debt?

Are you, or anyone you love, on a life long prescription for a medical condition?

Do you have medical insurance? If not, do you hope and pray that you never get sick?

These questions could go on and on.

Okay, well let me get to my point.... I just watched an extremely moving documentary. It left me confirmed about my suspicions and I urge you to watch it too.

I'm talking to all of you, but especially to people I love that I know can answer yes to one or more of the above questions. People like Cheri, who has diabetes and whose mother has cancer, and people like Lana, whose daughter is autistic. People like Kiki, who has had more experience in pain as a young woman in her early 20s, than she has had pain free and healthy. People like Amy, whose daughter's medical story is one that moved me so deeply because of the pain in her mother's eyes while recalling the details in summary to me. People like ffg, who deal with the constant pain from a disease like Lupus. People like me, people like you. People who have struggled to understand why a prescription for the flu for just one person costs $125, even though they have insurance. People like me, who are thousands of dollars in debt because we had the misfortune to get ill, or have a family member that fell ill. Like people who have a daughter with autoimmune disease. People like me, who had to have a hysterectomy, and my bigexil, who sawed off three of his fingers while crafting a beautiful princess bedroom for our little Lia (accidentally, of course). Like people who have two children that need a monthly prescription that costs $128 a piece.....and that's with an insurance policy that costs approximately $600 in premiums each month. They don't get the prescriptions because they can't afford them. This could go on and on.

I'm not trying to drum up a pity party. I'm just trying to make a point to all of my American friends who know what I'm talking about. I urge you all to watch a documentary that will tell you the truth about America's health system.

I love my country, don't get me wrong. I think what I love most about my country is that the people who live here can make things change....if we work together. Watch the documentary, then let me know what you think. I still have faith, but it's time to start taking care of each other again.

Go rent SICKO today. I checked it out from the library. Borrow it from a friend. However you can get it.... just get it and Watch It, please!

Much love to you all!!! Stay healthy!