Matthew's first 4th of July

We had a very busy weekend. No pictures (forgot the camera), but it was a good time had around town.

* Friday we skipped our annual trek to the Arlington Independence Day Parade. We really enjoy it, but were afraid it'd be too hot for Matthew to tolerate. Emo and Papa went, and they said it was great fun, as always. Friday morning, Jordan decided we needed to have a "Happy Birthday America" party. So, Jo-jo and he went to the party store, loaded up on red, white and blue decorations and we had ourselves a party. Hot dogs, watermelon, birthday cake, and that very American side dish: queso. Friday night, we went down to Mansfield for their 4th of July fireworks.

* Saturday morning, Matthew and Jordan went to Emo and Papa's while Dondi and I went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. If you haven't seen it, it's worth seeing in the movie theaters, but it's really not all that great of a movie. Saturday night, Jordan wanted to see more fireworks, so we went to the display at the Arlington Highlands. We found a secret spot to watch from (perfect access, could see everything and no traffic, unlike in Mansfield). Unfortunately, the wind picked up and they had to cancel the show midway through. It was a lot of fun, though.

* Sunday was pretty uneventful as we attempted to get laundry done and ready to go back to work.

This upcoming weekend, Kim and Dusty come up from San Antonio and we're going to hang out with some of our old Fielder friends. Should be a lot of fun.

Texarkana

It's been a long time in between posts. Sadly, we've been busy.

Dondi's godmother has been fighting cancer since last November, and ultimately went home to be with her Savior on Sunday morning. Dondi, Matthew, Jo-jo and I drove to see her Friday in the ICU at Christus St. Michael hospital in Texarkana, Texas.

Dondi had her four-week checkup on Friday morning (it went well and she's healthy). Pa-pa and Emo came and took Jordan to their house for the day and night, so then Dondi, Matthew, Debbie and I headed northeast on I-30.

Including a stop for lunch at the Chick-fil-A in Greenville, it took us about four and a half hours to get to the hospital. Due to some cell phone issues, it took us about half an hour to find "Pop" and Dondi's Aunt Jackie. We had a good visit with them in the waiting area while waiting for visitation. (Visitation is four one hour time slots throughout the day). Joy was on a ventilator and was in a drug-induced coma. After visitation was over, we headed over to Pop's house for Jackie and Pop to eat dinner and to visit for a while.

During the drive home Friday night into Saturday morning, Joy's heart gave out and she was removed from life support. She died around 5:45 a.m. Sunday.

The funeral was Tuesday afternoon, back in Texarkana. Tuesday also happened to be Jordan's first day of summer Mother's Day Out. So, we dropped him off at "church school" and then Debbie, Dondi, Matthew and I made our way to the memorial service. (Don went in a separate car with D and M and Pa-pa picked Jordan up from MDO). We had a good visit with some of the Jordans' close friends after the service, and then packed up and headed back to Dallas. Since Debbie and I both had to get to work, we booked it back home (thankfully, DPS had no patrols along I-30 westbound between Texarkana and Rockwall).

We got to see Joy one last time while she was still healthy back in November. The picture above is a shot from my camera phone of Jordan, Dondi and Joy. (This is on the swing in Joy and Pop's backyard in Texarkana, Ark.)

There has been some fun stuff, too this last week. Jordan spent Sunday night and all day Monday with Aunt Cristina. They took the Trinity Railway Express from Centreport to downtown Fort Worth and had lunch with Emo. Jordan enjoyed that immensely. He also wasn't ready to leave Aunt Cris' house.

Matthew is still growing. All that stuff about him being easy-going; yeah, forget that. He's not so easy-going anymore. :)

And yes, some pictures: