A tribute

This blog is a tribute to a precious, young girl whose earthly life was ended on August 5, 2008. Kaylee Marie Allison went to be with our Lord and Savior on her 10th birthday. I have had the pleasure of knowing Kaylee's family for 2 years. Kaylee's brother Sam has autism and is in my class. As I sit here at the computer trying to find the right words to say about Kaylee Marie....I am speechless. She was an amazing girl who had a wonderful life with a wonderful family. I put up a slide show that was played at her funeral and it will say all the things that I am unable to. Before you watch the video I am writing a small part of what was written in the bulletin at her memorial service. Her parents wrote this and it is incredible. Kaylee's mother said something to me the day before her funeral. She said "Julie, I am comforted by two things...1) Kaylee Marie did not suffer, 2) I know she is in heaven." Bless you Allison family and you are in my prayers daily.

Insert from bulletin:

We want to thank you all so much for coming today for the purpose of remembering and honoring our sweet angel. Be excited with us in knowing that Kaylee Marie is now in Glory! She is in the presence of her Heavenly Father and we just know she is dancing more than ever! God has opened his loving arms....one to comfort us and other to welcome his precious girl.

"He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away."
Revelation 21:4




God is good!

The saga continues!

Life has been so crazy this past week! Last week was the first week back with kids and I am already counting down the days to summer! Is that terrible of me?!?! On top of that, I am staying up entirely too late watching the Olympics. I have told the parents of my students that I will be much better teacher once they are over and I can get some much needed sleep!

So back to the whole reason you all are here.....to find out what happens next in my fun-filled summer. So, the last day of the beach was fun and I did not want to go back home. We ended up hanging out all day, shopping at the new peir park, eating longhorn, and cleaning. We left that night after dinner in the pouring rain. Of course it rained the entire way home!

The next day it was back to work for PJ after being on a vacation from work (per the doctor's orders). He had serious cabin fever and I was glad to get him out of the house!!! During that week I started thinking about what my sweet niece had said to me that weekend (if you are unsure as to what I am talking about you have some catching up to do in my last 2 posts). I thought to myself "Hum, maybe I should take a pregnancy tests just to make sure that she was wrong". So, before PJ got home from work I took one (it was one of those cheap Wal-Mart ones) and the stupid thing did not even work. It is supposed to give you a plus sign and then a negative sign in the 2nd box. Well the first box worked but not the second one. So, I threw the thing in the trash! The next day, PJ got home from work and ran to Home Depot (his favorite store) and I could not stop thinking about taking another pregnancy tests. Since the first one had not relieved my fears I felt I needed to take another! So, off I went to the potty to try again...all the while thinking that I am just wasting my time and money. I went ahead and did it and much to my surprise it was positive!!!!!!!!!!!! I stood there shaking and immediately ran to the trash can to retrieve the tests from yesterday and saw that it too was positive. I could not believe my eyes. I called PJ and ask him very calmly to stop by Target and pick up a Pregnancy test but not a cheap one one that actually says PREGNANT or NOT PREGNANT!!! He runs out of Home Depot leaving his cart and everything in it in the middle of the store and rushes home. He wants me to hurry up and take the tests but I had just peed 30 minutes before that so he proceeds to pace our in living room, making me a nervous wreck!!! Finally the time comes for me to take the 3rd tests and it confirms that I was pregnant! I was in shock! We had not been trying at all and I didn't feel ready! I needed more time to plan!!!!!!!

Unfortunatly, I did not have health insurance so I was freaking out. Thank the good Lord above that it just happened to be open enrollment at PJ's work so I was able to jump right on his! I made an appoinment with the doctor's office for two weeks later.

During this time of excitement my brother and sister-in-law welcomed a new baby boy into their family. My nephew Andrew William was born July 1. When he was born his lungs were not fully developed so he spent the first week in the ICU. The first few days were very touch and go. Andrew was not responding to the treatments and was needing more and more oxygen. He was such a fighter and pulled through! It was a very emotional time for our family but the prayers were answered. Here are a few pictures of the sweet family.

Wll, Deanna, Tyler, Jon Thomas, and Andrew.

Here are the boys and with my dad meeting their baby brother.

Now, when the time came for my doctor's appoinment I was starting to get use to the idea of having a baby. Not that we didn't want kids, I want a big family, it was just not the right time. We had just moved into our new house and bought a new car and I wanted to wait another year or so! Guess the Lord laughed at my plans! So I went to my appoinment and they confirmed everything! Great News! Then they ask me when my last period was...huh I have no idea I do not keep up with that annoying thing. I started thinking about it and I honestly could not remember my last one! So we made another appoinment for two weeks later for an ultrasound. The sad part is that I had a miscarriage at the end of July and I truly was quite upset. I didn't think that I would be that upset....but I was. I had a hard week just dealing with the emotions but I never once questioned why this happened. Please understand that this was very difficult for me to share with all of you reading my blog but somehow I thought it would be theraputic for me. My husband was amazing throughout all of this and it made us much stronger! I know when we are ready that everything will fall into place as it always does. I just want to say thank you to my close sweet friends for all of their support and phone calls and to my family for allowing me to grieve the only way I know how. I know most of you felt shut out during that time but I felt your love and support.

Well, that sums up my month of July in a few paragraphs! Crazy and emotional! Next time on Happening with the Henthorne's....our trip to South Carolina and a precious girl gone too soon. See you next time!

I'm Back!!!!!

So, here I am again and you didn't even have to wait a whole week! If you are just reading my blog for the first time you must go back and read the blog from before so that you will be caught up on all the festivities that have happened this summer. Here we go for part two!!

After PJ's surgery we decided to join my family at the beach for Father's day and some much needed relaxation. My brother Warren was playing in tennis tournament in Panama City Beach and we thought this would be a great time to go visit and celebrate Father's Day. Since PJ was off work for two weeks, we left early on Friday (after I got off at 12:00) and headed down. We had a wonderful, not long enough trip that weekend. This picture was taken at the Panama City Racquet Club. Sound fancy???? Well, it is the furthest thing from it!! They actually had fluorescent lights strung from wires everywhere. Real 1st class people! Anyway, Warren played very well and won his first match but lost the second.

Later that night, we were all hanging out at the beach house and my 6 year old precious niece, Ansley, comes up to me and asks me "Julie, Are you pregnant?" I said "No sweetie, I'm just FAT!!!!!" That put a nice damper on things!! After her sweet comment my sister-in-law, Melissa, said "You know Julie, Ansley asked our friend that same question and a week later she found out she was pregnant". I blew off her comment and we enjoyed the rest of our night. The next day was Father's day and I was really glad to be their to celebrate with my dad. If you have never met my dad then let me tell you a little about this amazing man. He is a wonderful husband, father, granddad, christian, provider, leader, compassionate, family oriented, and the only other man who has half my heart.

I love you dad and I hope to spend many more days celebrating with you! Okay, I must go for now but there is much more to be told!!!

Next time on Happening with Henthorne's.........our last day at the beach, three tests later, and a new life enters the world. See you soon!

I know, I know!!!

It has been way too long! Everybody has been promising to delete me from their friend list if I did not post a new update! Sorry that it has been such long time since I have posted...alot has been going on! Unfortunately, it has not been fun stuff going on! PJ and I have had a hectic summer starting around the last week in May! I am going to write my adventures over several posts, otherwise it will get a little long! Okay, let me start from the beginning!

The lst week in May PJ and I decided to go and watch his nephew at one of his races. His nephew Tyler races dirt bikes! We had a great weekend with his sister's family and almost made it out of their with no problems. One Sunday of that weekend we spent the entire day at the race cheering on all the kids (and adults....I had no idea that even grown men raced dirt bikes). The race ended with his nephew Tyler having to be rushed to the hospital because he was involved in a wreck and they feared he may have injured his knee. Two hours later, we find out that he will be fine...just some bad bruising. Well my nerves were shot and I was hot, tired, and ready to go! Well, at the end of the race anybody can get out on the track and ride around on their bikes and four-wheelers. So, MY husband decides that he wants to ride his nephews bike around for just a few minutes. Now, I know PJ use to race four-wheelers but it had been several years. I immediately said to PJ "Do you think you should get on that thing?" and he looks at me with a crazy look and says "YES!!". He jumped on the bike, threw on the helmet, and gives it a little gas. He gets about 500 feet, the bike goes up on the back wheel, and boom he falls face first into the ground. I don't think I have run so fast in my life. I just knew he had broken his neck!! He jumps up, says he is fine, and gets back on the stupid bike! Of course he gets back on the bike...he has to regain his pride which had been smashed in the ground! He rides around for maybe 3 minutes and returns. He comes up to me and whispers (so no one hears) "I think I broke my finger". I say "Which one?" and he says "My ring finger!" I throw his hand in a cooler full of ice to get his ring off and we jump in the car for our 2 hour ride to the East Alabama Emergency Room . We arrive at 9:30 p.m. After, waiting about 1 hour to see the doctor we are finally called back. The first thing they say is "Oh I hope that your fingernail is totally black". What? Black!!!! Why would you want it to be black...why not its normal color!!!! The doctor procedes to say if it was black then we can jsut DRILL A HOLE IN IT TO LET THE BLOOD SHOOT EVERWHERE TO RELIEVE SOME PRESSURE!!!!!!! Oh no big deal!!!! The doctors are saying this as though they drill holes daily into people fingernails! I am totally grossed out and ill that we are even having to go through this! Why did he even have to go on that stupid bike anyway? They take an x-ray of his finger and then we find out that he has a fracture unlike any they have ever seen. All of these doctors and nurses are standing around looking at the x-ray just talking about how they have never seen this before. Great, give the man a medal and let's go!!!! So he gets a cast, a $205 bill, and off we go! Now, for those of you who don't know PJ uses his hands for his job so you can imagine the amount of work he was able to do the two weeks he had his cast on!!!



Our next adventure begins exactly two weeks later on a Sunday. We had spent the day swimming and grilling out all day. We arrive home around 6:30 that night and PJ says that he is going to lay down because his stomach was hurting. I attributed it to gas and thought nothing of it. About 30 minutes later I hear him in the bath tub, I go check on him and he says that his stomach is still hurting. He gets out and lays back in the bed. I go into the living room to watch t.v. but I am having a hard time hearing my show over his moaning...which he never does. So, at this point I know it must be hurting. He gets back in the bath tub and we are contemplating going back to the ER. It was a hard decision because we had just visited their two weeks earlier and we did not want to pay another ER bill. After numerous phone calls to both mothers, we were in the car racing to the hospital! We arrive at 10:00 p.m. and they take him right on back. We get to see the same sweet doctor from last time who takes time to repremand PJ about not having his cast on his broken finger!! Around 3:30 am, we are admitted to the hospital for PJ to have his appendix removed first thing that morning! Two days later we leave the hospital (which I had seen to much of lately) and head for home, with strict orders that PJ cannot return to work for two weeks! AAHHHHH!!! More time off work!!! All of this fun in a matter of two weeks. People say things happen in threes...wonder what will happen next! Check back and I will fill you in with how the rest of my summer went...on this entry we are only to June 14th!! Hope you enjoyed my rambaling!!!