AJ 2014, before her
2nd heart and kidney transplant this past
June at Dallas Children's Hospital

OKC Feb 2011, AJ, Chloe and cousin Audrey.
She was 13 here, Chloe 10, Audrey 9.  One of my favorite
times with AJ was when Jackie, Chloe and I picked her and
Stephanie up in Little Rock during a sleet storm
to make it to our classmate Barbie's surprise 40th birthday
party in OKC.  We literally laughed all the way there
and even more on the way back...Poor Jackie,
 he needed headphones and probably his own car LOL :)

 2004 in Little Rock...Jackie, Chloe and I tailgated at a Razorback game
and we left Jackie at the game to visit with Stephanie
and AJ.  Again, another fun visit, full of fun and laughter.

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

I'm so sad that my sweet, dear friend of 30 years, Stephanie Bates Jones lost her only child, Adriaunna, from complications from her 2nd heart and kidney transplant.  AJ was born in Little Rock on July 24, 1997 with a rare heart condition, Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome.  In September that year, she got a new heart and begun her journey.  AJ had such a wonderful, fun personality.  Always smiling as you can see in these photos, she was full of life, strength and humor.  A few years back, we picked Stephanie and AJ up in Little Rock for a weekend in our hometown of Oklahoma City for classmate Barbie Barton Greer's surprise birthday party.  We had such a good time going out there on the 4 hour trip, talking Facebook friends, old friends and high school memories.  That weekend was fun and the ride back was one of the most fun times I've had, in a car of 5 people, all girls but Jackie, in my life.  AJ told us all about a fight at school the week before, she said.  "it was a GOOD FIGHT though!" Hahahaha....

At the age of 6, AJ went into End Stage Renal Disease.  After 6 years of dialysis, she got a kidney transplant at 12 years old.  It soon failed and after 2 cardiac arrests and Transplant Coronary Artery Disease, she received a double transplant, heart and kidney this past June in Dallas.

AJ was sweet, smart and hilarious.  She had a great sense of humor on everything.  I've never met someone that smiled as much as she did and was a strong as she was.  I'm very glad we got to spend several visits with her and that weekend in Oklahoma City.  I miss her and I am deeply sad for Stephanie's loss.  I will continue to pray for her and her family as they grieve this great loss.  There's no question AJ is here with us, at peace without pain in all her beauty watching over her mom and family.  We will continue to pray for them.  Rest in peace AJ.  You were and are very much loved.  

Her service is Friday, December 5, 2014 at Lincoln Funeral Home, 8100 Fireside Drive, Dallas, www.lincolnfh.net.  Reverse Wake is Saturday, December 6, TBA.

To see her COTA page http://cota.donorpages.com/PatientOnlineDonation/COTAforAdriaunnaJ/

Be an organ donor.  We are.

Paint Your Art Out, Edmond

Chloe's finished product

Friday, November 28, 2014

Mom took Chloe and cousin Audrey to downtown Edmond's Paint Your Art Out.  It was a perfect activity after Thanksgiving, thanks mom!  The studio is set up for individuals or parties to come in, get instruction, supplies and within a couple hours you will have a new canvas to hang or a gift to share.  Chloe, of course, chose to paint her beloved Biscuit, she emailed the owner a photo from her iPhone and they took it from there.  Chloe got good information about texture, light and strokes.  Chloe's been painting since she was preK and I'm glad now, in the 8th grade, she got some good instruction and enjoyed it.  She plans to hang Biscuit in our living room once it's glazed and dried.  Fun times and a good time with Audrey too.

I love Audrey's purple chevron

The place was spacious and Chloe got some
really good instruction about texture and lighting

I'm telling you, here are two future artists...:)

Thanksgiving in Edmond

Friday, November 28, 2014

Happy Thanksgiving!  We had a good time in Oklahoma City.  We got to Edmond on Tuesday without my clothes.  Yes, that's right...Jackie didn't pack my hanging bag with my shoes and clothes.  Luckily it worked out somehow because my dear, dear friend Stephanie's daughter passed away Monday and I had funeral clothes packed assuming her funeral would be today but it turns out it's next week.  So a trip to Old Navy Wednesday got me a dress to wear and some jeans I just rolled up (of course nothing is the right length when you're my height).  Jackie and I went to the Oklahoma City Thunder game that night and had fun catching up with old friends.  I figured out Thanksgiving morning that AJ's funeral was actually the next Friday which was good because we were planning to pack up Thursday to head to Dallas Friday but, of course, that wasn't the plan.

We had a great lunch at Lottinville's in Edmond, watched movies, went shopping and ate a good meal last night.  We did the Edmond Turkey Trot 5K Thursday morning of course, it was a cold start but a good run.  It's always so nice to do a run before all that food for sure!  The turkey trot is a fun family tradition for us, we think it's been 4 years now.  This year there were over 2,000 participants and a ton of dogs and strollers.  We saw a ton of people in costumes, I saw one man in a full turkey outfit, top to bottom and ran with a pumpkin pie and a can of whipped cream.  Hahaha!

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving with family and friends.

Brr....Chloe and Audrey were so
thankful they had gloves
and hats, it was about 32 degrees,
as it is every year.  My oldest niece
Erin made all three of us tutu's to wear.
They were exceptionally easy to wear
and didn't bother me at all.

I added this photo to have evidence that I too wore a tutu

Chloe at the finish

Audrey

Oh the way to lunch...this is the girls listening to Jackie, mom
and Gary discussing OU football..they were extremely bored :)

Village Creek Photo Day

After the photo shoot we opened up the east side of our yard into
the Birdeye Dog Park.  Chloe and Whit are playing catch with the
dogs, it was a cool but fun afternoon

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Two weeks ago school was out so I took Chloe and my nephew Whit with bikes and dogs to Village Creek State Park.  The park had contacted me the day before about coming out to have their park photographer take photos of mountain biking in the park. Chloe and I changed our plans to go to Shelby Farms Dog Park in Memphis and loaded up everyone for Village Creek.  It was a lot of fun.

We biked with the photographer for 2-1/2 hours...I know right?  We thought it was going to be 30 minutes.  Then we hiked for about 30 minutes and went to lunch.  We had a great time with Whit and all the dogs.

Village Creek has lots of hiking trails

Technically you're supposed to have dogs on a leash but it was
so early in the morning, we were the only ones out there

Whit and Chloe in white in back, me in red and a park employee
in orange and Jackie in the back...Photo by Chuck
Haralson, Arkansas State Parks photogrpaher

Denny Hess rolled out with us, this is a good shot of him,
Chloe and I close behind...Photos from Chuck Haralson,
 Arkansas State Parks photographer

Whit and not far behind in white is Chloe...photo
by Chuck Haralson, Arkansas State Parks....
Beautiful isn't it?

Cara and Truman, Birdeye

Cara, a shepherd mix is about 35 lbs.

Crazy Cara, she's about to get in trouble fence fighting our neighbor

A good quality about Cara is that she's a
fast learner.  She's crate trained, leash
trained and knows a ton of obedience
commands. 

Truman, very smart, crate trained, leash trained and great
with kids, cats and other dogs.  A real keeper and pleaser

I'm proud of this photo of Biscuit (lower left), Cara,
ding-dong Buddy and Truman.

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Well Chloe and I have these two new fosters.  Cara, a shepherd mix, is about 7 months old, heart worm negative, vetted and ready for a home.  She's very smart, we've crate and leash trained her.  I'm not sure she can go to a home with cats but we're working on that.

Truman, a terrier mix, is about 6 months old and is a pleaser big time.  He loves to listen and learn.  He's leash and crate trained and is ok with cats, kids and other dogs.

Both are ready for a home and I'm 99% sure they'll be house trained since they choose to use it outside the kennel run.

Spay/Neuter people, it's not only good for the health of your pet but it's good for your community.  Some quick facts:

Think about these facts before allowing your pet to have "just one litter" of puppies or kittens!

• One female dog and her offspring can produce 67,000 dogs in six years! One cat and her young can produce 420,000 kittens during the same time frame.
• For every human born, there are 7 puppies and kittens born.
• An estimated 6 to 8 million dogs and cats are euthanized in shelters each year. That's about 55 percent of the animals entering shelters, based on reports from the National Council on Pet Population Study and Policy.

5th Midsouth Kids Marathon

Photos by Bill Blair...my camera died so unfortunately I didn't
have even a single photo of Chloe out there Saturday.
She and 2 other 8th grade track team members rolled out for the
2nd grade participants, they relayed them in...it was a fun day!

This is Rev. John G. Smith who has volunteered the last 3
years helping us with the marathon....he is so
motivating!! Just look at him and you can see Whit over there
on his right yelling with everyone!

Saturday, Nov. 3, 2014

Well thankfully we had another successful Midsouth Kids Marathon today.  We can't pull this off without each AND every volunteer!  We had parents, teachers, grandparents, sponsors, police officers, city workers and Chloe's fellow 8th grade track team members out helping us with the final 1.2 mile of the kids marathon.  I'm so thrilled it was a SAFE event, cars slowed, volunteers cheered everyone on and it was a great day.

Jackie and I went on and ran the half at 9 am with a late start.  We did good until I realized at mile 2 my Dexcom sensor wasn't getting a reading.  I felt great so I decided to give it a few more miles until I'd quit since I didn't even have a glucometer on me.  At mile 3 there wasn't a glucometer but mile 4 at Dr. Price's aid station at the country club, he had one and I went on.  I put the senor transmitter in my sports bra to warm it up and after 5 miles and 40 minutes it came back to life.  Thank you to Dr. Beaton who had the glucometers out there as a just in case situation, it saved me for SURE!!

Thanks again to all the volunteers who were out there on the course supporting this kids marathon.  Thank you to Mrs. Hollaway and the Wynne School District for supporting our kids marathon.  Let's keep these kids healthy and active!

Here's Kyra Dobson running with the 2nd graders...she and
Chloe have been friends since pre-kindergarten 

Linton Bradshaw with Rev. John G. Smith and Beth Bradshaw

I got this shot of the warm up.  We had 100 sign up and about
half that showed up because it was 30 degrees at 7:45 am