Linda came to town!!! yeah!! And I got 1st dibs on her. She got to spend Thursday & Friday night with us. We gave her up to Gina & Malcolm Saturday night. But while she was with us, Fred & I took her to breakfast Saturday at Cracker Barrel. Then, Linda & I met up with Becky & Lisa for lunch at Cheddars. Yum!!

Linda is not just my mentor, she's my therapist too. :) I sure have missed talking with her.

And it was so cool to get with Lisa & Becky, too. You know, there was a time when I had maybe one close friend. God has really blessed me with some wonderful ladies through the years, and I believe they have made me a better person.

We just finished our Crown class and it was a great group of folks! I had a great 10 weeks with them. Now, I am having small group withrawals. I told Fred we need to start a group again.

I have my 2nd gum surgery this Thursday. The way things have been going on at school, I am actually looking forward to it just so that I don't have to go to work, how sad am I?

Then it's Spring Break... I was talking to a teacher today and she said she was feeling drained too. So I said that spring break was put at the right time of the school year when we all need a break. ha ha

Steph is talking with a friend from school who lost her dad last week. She is trying to see how she/we can help out the family. They live in Bloomingdale. She doesn't think the mom goes to church anywhere, and she is feeling overwhelmed with all that has happened. I told Steph that Fred & I would be willing to go visit her and help in any way IF she would accept us. So Steph is being the middle man and trying to work that out.

I am not going to go into what Andy did this weekend. Let's just say it only took a week of having his license... aaarrrggg!!!!

And Freddy is doing good, not seeing much of him, but he's doing good.

Well, this has been a potpourri of a blog, hasn't it? I guess that's ok. I'm going to take a nap now. See ya!!

Easter part 2

I meant to write about this earlier, but I am having more "senior" moments lately... (no comment from YOU! James)

I was looking forward to Easter as well as a little nervous. I knew the service was going to be great, the choir & orchestra always do a wonderful job and I knew that Easter was going to be even better. The church had been asked to park in the far parking spots so that visitors & the older folks would have closer-to-the-church spots. We were expecting a large group to come to church with us and I was worried about getting seats together...

Well, my brother & his family were coming down for a visit and we invited them to join us. They decided to get a later start and didn't get to us until late Sunday afternoon. We went to get my mom on Saturday night to spend the night with us so she could come to church, only to have her tell when we got to my house that she had no intentions of going to church. Andy invited his girlfriend & family to church. They are not Christians and I thought Easter was a great day to do the initial invite... Well, the girlfriend kept being "non-committal" for a week only to say Saturday that they were having family over and couldn't make it. (we get out of church at 10am, come on!)

And Steph was too sick to travel... so instead of a pew full of people, there were 5 of us... Ok, don't get me wrong, I am glad for the ones that were there, but we had 10 drop outs. It was a bummer.

Oh well, we'll keep trying.

Here is a picture of me and my "babies".

I cannot believe how tall Steven is getting. And Savanna's artistic skills are getting better and better. I miss them. :( But they are really enjoying living in NC and they like their school, so that is great. I don't know when we'll see them again. My brother said there was a BBQ contest in the Summer, so maybe we'll do a road trip.

The Nassar Men at Easter

Normally, it's me & Steph that get our pics done at Easter. But my baby girl was sick :( and wasn't able to come home from Orlando. Freddy went to 1st Brandon with us and brought Brenda. We like her...

Don't the guys clean up good?

Text Messaging

Yes, this is our last cell phone bill for Andy's phone... 12,392.

good thing we have unlimited texting. I just want to know when does he sleep and eat...

My prayers weren't answered...

My son has a Florida Driver's License.... God help everyone in Brandon/Valrico

Bella does tricks...

Here's Bella playing dead:

It took me forever to post this video! I don't know what I kept doing wrong, but boy! was it a pain! Hope people like it and it wasn't a waste of time. :(

Goodbye Friend

Our family went to Robert Wimberley's funeral this morning. There were many testimonies from friends and family about Robert. I learned about a new side of him. He was a great dad. He was a great friend. And he truly loved the Lord.

I always liked talking to him. He made me smile. But listening to everyone, I realized I really didn't really appreciate the great guy that he was.

Steph was struggling with watching Aaron. He was hurting so much and was trying very hard to keep it together. At the end of the service, he presented his mom with the American flag in his full uniform. It was ridiculous how much sniffling you could hear in that chapel. If you were able to keep it together during Tom Hellier saying he has lost his 2 best friends in 2 months, his kids testimonies, and through Doug singing "I can only Imagine", you just plain gave up at the end.

It was a very nice service. Valerie handled it well. She has a lot of family support and that's good.

Josh, Aaron & Steph were the 3 Amigos for a long time and it was nice to see them together again...

this is Aaron & Kyleigh's baby, Elijah. He was adorable!!

I have started making notes and plans for my funeral. I'm not being morbid, just realizing that none of us really have a guarantee of tomorrow.

And the controlling part of me wants to make sure things go the way I want them. lol.

Old West Pizza

A friend from KABC has opened a pizza place in Valrico. It's called "Old West Pizza". It's a really cute place with all kinds of western decorations. Some of them came from VBS of last year!


It is located by the Walmart on Hwy 60 in Valrico. Everyone should go and check it out! The prices are reasonable, the food is good, and Andy works there so I would appreciate it if he earned his money! lol

We were the first "dine in" customers!!

Nina on her Cruise

Here are some pics of Stephany & friends on the cruise:


Steph & her friend Lauren, they're goofy


This is a cool pic. The cruise took professional pictures of them and this is one of them


Another proffesional shot, except this pic was taken by Lauren, lol


Steph actually ate lobster and liked it. She is very picky.


They got to dress up for dinner,isn't she beautiful??

Mommy's Home!

Well, Steph got home yesterday and Bella was jumping all over the place for 30 minutes, she was so happy!
Steph had a blast on her cruise, and as soon as she lets me get a hold of some pics, I will post them. She went to Jamaica and Grand Cayman. She snorkled for the 1st time, climbed the Dunn's River Falls in Jamaica. And ate lobster on the ship. Oh, and they got offered drugs on their tour of Jamaica. yeah. That I didn't want to know. They politely declined.

Mine & Fred's 25 Anniversary is next year and I want to do something big. I want to go somewhere new and I want the kids to come. I know, our 25th anniversary, and I want kids with us? But they are going to start leaving and having lives of their own and this will probably be the last time we can get together...
So Steph is pushing for a cruise. I was thinking maybe New York or Puerto Rico, but she said if we did a cruise, we wouldn't have to plan anything and everything would be taken care of for us. I do think it would probably be the type of trip where the kids could go off and do things on their own, after all, I wouldn't want them with us 24/7. It's our anniversary, after all...

We'll see...

Ok, Day 3 & 4

nothing too exciting going on with Bella. She is still pooping everywhere. She loves riding in the car, so I took her with me to the airport last night to pick up Freddy from his trip to Rhode Island. AT MIDNIGHT! I am tired, to say the least.
I had a weird thing happen to me on the way home from the airport. I was driving on I275 and I started having tremors/shakes. My whole body was trembling as if I was freezing, down to chattering teeth. But I wasn't cold. Freddy looked at me and asked "are you going to kill us?" I was working real hard at holding the steering wheel without shaking. I finally decided to pull over and have Freddy drive. I shook all the way home. It lasted 30 minutes. By the time it ended, my body was exhausted. I felt like I had ran a marathon, the muscles all over my body ached. I have no idea what it was, though the closest thing I can think of would be a seizure, except I never lost consciousness and I was able to speak (between shivers)...
This happened to me 6 years ago when we were living in the apartments while our house was being built. I didn't know why it happened then either...
I guess I should go to the doctor. But I feel that they probably will put me through a bunch of tests only to find out they don't know why it happened. That's a real pain and time I don't want to waste... Anyway, I figure if it happens every 6 years, I can live with it, right?

Well, I gotta go. Idol is on!!!

Day 2, spoiled dog

I was supposed to put Bella in the cage last night while we slept. But she cried so bad, I felt sorry for her... so I let her out. I knew Fred wouldn't be keen on her sleeping with us, so I laid on the couch and she climbed up. After a couple of minutes, she went over to the love seat. I wasn't going to sleep on the couch if I didn't have to, so I went to bed. Sure enough, a little while later she shows up in my room. So I scooped her up and she spent the rest of the night in our bed. Fred had no idea so that means she didn't bother him. The funny thing is that Kaya usually sleeps with us and now she's mad. She will not share the bed with a dog, so I don't know where she was last night.

Now the hilarious part: I mentioned it to Fred and he said "why doesn't she just jump in, there's room" . This is the man that would be thrilled if my cat took a walk off a short pier and was not happy about our barky friend spending a week with us. ha ha!!

I think it's going to be long week at the Nassars.

Below is a picture of Bella and my attempt at giving her a bath. I don't think I did a very good job. She stills smells like a dog.

Day 1

Steph left the house at 7am this morning. It was the longest goodbye in history (between her & Bella, not me) bella cried for a little while, that was sad.

Bella is doing fine... she is not as active as she was back in Dec when she visited last, but that's ok... she's eating,drinking and pooping, so all is working well.
I have come down with a rotten cold so she and I have been doing a lot of sitting around and watching tv. But I have to get the strenght to give her a bath. She stinks like a dog!! ha ha

She needs to take 1 pill and 2 liquids twice a day. Steph did this morning, so my 1st try will be tonight.
My poor cat Kaya, I think she is going to hide in my room this week. Last time Bella visited, it took them 3 days to aclamate to each other.

Keep Steph in your prayers. Pray she doesn't get motion sickness, food poisoning. That she has a great time. Cuz this is the last of the fun for a long time. She has to work VERY hard to catch up with her finances...

Our Bella

IS HOME!!!!


Bella went home this afternoon!!
This has truly been a miracle. All of the doctors at the animal hospital are very impressed with our little puppy!
She is going to need to take some meds for a little while and be on a
special diet as she regains her strength. And who has the privilege of
experiencing this time with her? ME!
Steph leaves for a cruise on Saturday and she's bringing Bella to me.
Honestly, I didn't really have a choice. She didn't really have anyone
else she felt she could ask. I am nervous about it, not really a dog
person (though I love this pup!) and to be in charge of giving her
meds... ugh. But I will do what I can.
The bill was quite large as you can imagine. This is really going to set
Steph back quite a bit. Once she comes back, Fred & I will need to sit
down with her and work out a plan for her to get back on her feet
financially.
Isn't God GOOD?!

She BARKED!!

Well, I haven't updated because it's been a roller coaster of days... On Monday, Steph went in and Bella was a bit more chipper and sat up for her... Tuesday she was back to just laying around... I couldn't take it anymore, I went to Orlando today. I met Steph at the hospital at 11am. Bella had been taken off the IV and hadn't thrown up in 24 hours. She walked over to Steph and started licking her. That was good. One of the workers went ahead and gave her water and food to see how she would do. She drank the water, but didn't touch the food.
We came back at 6pm and Bella got up to greet Steph. She still hadn't thrown up. We talked with a couple of the workers and they said she was doing really good. When we mentioned that she didn't eat, they looked and said, "oh, that's the gross stuff none of the dogs like". They gave her another type and she went at it. We were thrilled! But then, Steph had to go to work so we started to leave and then we heard scratching on the cage, her tail wagging so hard against the cage that it echoed, and she BARKED!! I tell you, I did a little dance.
The workers said that if she keeps it down, she could go home tomorrow. Steph called her the miracle puppy and I told the ladies that there were churches praying for her everywhere.
Now, I am still holding my breath that all goes well tonight and she can leave tomorrow. There is always a chance of her going down again. But it looks good!!
As we were leaving, the front desk girl said to Steph "it's you, she lights up when you come".

This little puppy has taught my daughter (and me) so many lessons.

Anonymous

Someone is leaving comments on the blogs but is not signing their name. The comments have been nice and they said they are praying. I would just like to know who it is... :)

Sunday update on Bella

Steph took her to the animal hospital last night. She has been diagnosed with Parvo. For those of you who don't know what that is (I didn't until I looked it up), it's a virus that attacks the intestinal system of dogs. It is VERY bad on a puppy. If a puppy gets it, it has a 50/50 chance to live IF taken care of right away. Bella was sick for 3 days before she was diagnosed with it, so it's not good.
The doctor last night was not very optimistic, but they are keeping her for 3 days hooked up to an IV of fluids and electrolytes to help her body fight it off. There is no cure for it, just the hope that her body can fight it through it's course.
I'm not sure she is going to make it, which makes me very sad. Steph is trying to stay positive. She stays at the clinic until they kick her out. She can stay with Bella for a couple of hours at a time. Steph left one of her shirt with Bella so that she can "smell" her while she's gone. She still responds when she sees Steph, so that's good.
If Bella doesn't get better after the 3 days, the doctor will be talking to Steph about the "options". If she isn't going to get better, it is not fair to let keep suffering.

We are counting on a miracle from God. That is the only way she is going to make it.

I'm such a dork...

I would use a stronger word, but this is a family friendly blog...

Steph's puppy Bella has been very sick for the last 3 days. 2 trips to the vet, blood work, xrays, and still no idea what's wrong. Steph is a mess and she's all alone cuz all her friends went out of town including her roommate.

She had to work today 5-10pm. Here's where I am dork:

I started thinking that it would be horrible if Steph came to find Bella, well, you know. So I texted her to call me before she got home. She calls me as she is cashing out and I tell her I want to be on the phone with her when she gets home. Right away she panics cuz she thinks I know something bad... she starts crying, I start crying. I told her I had no way of knowing. She calmed down and said she'd call me when she got home. She called her neighbor and he went to check on her. She was the same, which is better than the alternative, but she had thrown up the little water Steph had given her.

My girl is at the end of her rope with worry and what does her mother do? Make it worse...
dumb! dumb! dumb!

It's still going to be long night...