2011 Year in Review

Whew!!  Here it goes.  2011.  Farewell. 


January- We rang in the new year at home in Weaver. We got to see lots of friends and family and it did our souls good to be home for a week.  We flew back to Houston around the 6th and Dave jumped right back into chemotherapy. Round 4.  We jumped back into school with the help of Dave.  It was nice having him teach History and Science.  My sister Lori came for a visit.  Carlton, Aimee, and Hope came to visit us.  John came for a visit also.  We had another trip to the ER and ct scans at the end of the month.  We met Stacey and Brad who were also being treated at MDA for a rare sarcoma.


February-  This was the coldest month.  It even iced over the roads one day in Houston.....but no snow!!  Dave's oldest friend Ricky and his wife Angie along with their little girl Emily came for a visit.  Dave was very weak from the chemo.  Mama flew out and spent the month with us.  We took the kids to the Rodeo parade and the zoo.  Daddy drove out a couple of weeks after mama got there.  We took  3 day trip to San Antonio.   Believe it or not, the kids went swimming! in the outside pool!!


March-  Dave's sister Brenda came to visit.  We went to the Houston rodeo.  We got to go home for a few days.  Dave began having neuropothy in his feet, legs and hands.  Dave also started passing out alot.  March was a difficult month.


April-   With April came beautiful bluebonnets to Texas and it also marked 6 months for us in Houston.  Dave began his 8th round of chemotherapy. We had yet another trip to the ER. Our friends Linda and Gary came for a visit.   We went home for Easter.


May- We were home at the first of May for Relay for Life.  Dave walked his survivor lap. Dave began radiation this month.  Abby had her 11th birthday. 


June-  This was an exciting month.  Dave finished radiation.  Erin had her 10th birthday. Dave and I celebrated our 13th anniversary. Our friends Holly, John, and Murren came for a visit.  We moved home on the 23rd.


July-  Home.  We tried to get back into our routine. I painted the kitchen.


August-  We worked hard trying to finish our bathroom remodel.  Dave started back to school at Donoho. We went back to MDA for Dave's surgery.  Surgery....Success!! Dave had his 38th birthday in the hospital.


September-  Dave spent most of the month recovering from surgery.  We started school. 6th, 5th, and 3rd grades.  Samuel started football.


October-  We were crazy busy with kids activities.  Life was easing back to normal.  The changing of seasons was beautiful.


November-  Samuel turned 9.  I turned 37...ouch.  We had a great Thanksgiving with family.  The kids and I started training for a 5K.  We decked the Swinney halls for Christmas!!


December-  Dave's first scan after surgery brought us great news of NO EVIDENCE OF DISEASE.  (NED)   I ran my very first 5K.  We spent lots of time with friends and family.


Just as we were last year.....we are filled with hope for 2012. 

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.

Micah 6:8







  Happy New Year from the Swinney's!

So....my life....I love it

This week  Dave and I have the privilege to spend time with college students from all over the county at the Campus Outreach National Conference.  There are some amazing speakers here this week .  Matt Chandler and John Piper to name a couple.  This morning we had a women's rally with a speaker who use to be on staff with CO.  She spoke on contentment.  This is where I have been living lately.  Not content!!  Last year, I was probably more content than I have ever been in my life.  Why?  Because I was fulfilling my purpose.  I was not thinking about me and all my wants. One of my favorite quotes this morning was "When you are doing what you were created to do you will experience contentment."  Another was "Purpose fuels contentment."   So Lately I have not been very content.  This has been fueled by my lists of wants!  Not being satisfied with what I have.  Our speaker talked about pinterest this morning. If you haven't dicovered it yet, it is a virtual board where you can pin anything from recipes to hairstyles to cute crafts.  As we scroll through all the cute, neat, fun pages......we (I) begin to want, want, want.  Pinterest is not a bad thing in itself, but sometimes things like that fuel uncontentment in me.  The title of my post is also a quote from this morning.  She was quoting a friend who is overseas with her husband who is in the military.  Her life is not at all easy...but she said "so...my life...I love it."  I want this to be me.  Whether this coming year brings happiness and health or  hard times and sickness, I want to say of my life....I love it.   Why?  Because I can find my true contentment and joy in Jesus not in how much or how little stuff I have or how good or bad my circumstances are.

Reflecting

Today as I sit in Mama and Daddy's living room talking and laughing with the family, it's hard not to remember what we were doing on this day last year.  Our family had been out for the week and they all packed up and left early on the 24th.  We had a really good week with them, but it was sad to see them go.  We planned to make the most of our Christmas Eve in Texas.  We had lunch at California Pizza Kitchen and went to see the movie Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  We attended the Christmas Eve service at Bethel Church and then went for coffee and hot chocolates at Starbucks.  The kids each had a gift card to Target that some sweet person sent them and they wanted to use it to buy me and Dave a Christmas present.  It turned out to be a really good day for us.  One of the things I remember is riding through Houston and the song Christmas Shoes came on and we all wanted to turn it real fast and Dave told us it was OK that we couldn't avoid all that was sad this year.  We cried and went on with our night. 

So this year it is good to be with family. It is good to be home.  It is good to know Dave has no evidence of cancer in his body.  It was good to celebrate the birth of our Savior with our family at Grace Fellowship last night.  So happy Christmas Eve to your family from our family!!

Gingerbread Houses.....A ChristmasTradition

Five years ago I started what has become one of my favorite Christmas traditions.  It started with Chloe, Abby, Emma, and Erin...."the big girls".  The next year we added Samuel and Andrew. Then the next year we added Ruthie and Brady. The next year we were in Texas.  We all spent Christmas together, but we didn't get to make gingerbread houses. This year we added Katie and our sweet friend Lillie. I love making gingerbread houses probably more than the kids do.  Next year we will add baby William to the mix. 

Giny and baby William with their gingerbread mansion:)

The gumball tree we made from branches......isn't it lovely:)

All the kiddo's before the fun began

Abby

Chloe

Erin

Brady

Samuel

Emma

Ruthie

Katie

Lillie

Andrew

Dashing Through the Springs...5k

I ran my very first 5K last weekend at Shocco Springs. It was brutal. I couldn't run the entire thing because it was so hilly. But I did run alot of it and I finished strong. The kids did the fun run. The kids and I have not finished the couch to 5K yet. We got out of our routine the week we went to Houston and this week has been an off schedule kinda week too. But we will complete it!! These are some pictures from the day.



Tracy, Jessica, Giny, Mama, Me, Lori
Ruthie, Emma, Erin, Samuel, and Abby
All our runners!!





Katerri and Carla



Old Christmas Coupons

Mama was looking through some old stuff a few weeks ago and came across these coupons I had given her and Daddy when I was in the 3rd grade.  I wonder why I didn't color them.  Oh well....I guess even in the 3rd grade I wanted to show people I loved them by doing stuff for them.  I promised to help Daddy do yard work.  I also told him I would be good in 1983 :)  Mama always liked a clean house, so I promised to help clean the house.  The next one makes me laugh.  It says "I will whack the baby's".  I think it should say watch the babies......but it says whack the baby's.  Sorry Lori, Giny, and Tracy....I guess I was planning to whack you  :)  I love that she found these.  Homemade gifts really are the best!

Our Trip to Houston, scan results, and such

We had a good visit with Dr. Ravi on Tuesday. Dave's long term prognosis looks good. There is only a 30-40% chance of recurrence after you have had chemotherapy and Dave's chances are even lower because they found the tumor so early, it was not in any other tissue, and it came out so easily. I could see the weight lift from Dave when Dr. Ravi told him this. We enjoyed some time in Houston Tuesday afternoon. We rode by the apartment and got ut and walked around. We have good memories from our time living there. He had his scan last night at 7pm then we had dinner with Sarah and Ron afterward. It was a light and happy time. It was the first time I have seen Dave really happy in a long time.  We are so blessed to have friends here to visit with and stay with on our trips to Houston. We got happy news from home last night too. Daddy sent me pictures of Samuel from his karate class. He got his yellow belt last night. He has been waiting on it for almost 2 months since he tested. He was so excited.

.

We are meeting with Dr. Pollock, the surgeon, today and getting scan results.  We are waiting on that now.  His appointment was supposed to be at 10:30, but they must be running behind.  Dave is not nervous about this meeting.  He was more stressed about what Dr. Ravi would say more than anything else. I scheduled our flight home for the last one of the day at 8:30 so we are gonna have a long afternoon.  While we are waiting to see the doctor I'll tell you a story.  I forgot to reserve a rental car.  I remembered at about 9pm Monday night. I got online and tried to rent one, but every single car company said they were sold out.  I thought there is no way this could be true and that we would get one when we got to Hobby Airport.  Oh no....they were completely sold out.  So we took a cab to the hospital and then we were able to rent a car near MD Anderson.  So it all worked out and it actually cost us less money than if we had rented it at the airport.

ok..We just saw Dr. Pollock.  We couldn't have asked for better results.  Clear scans!!!!!!  He said recurrence rate is probably 20%. He told Dave to go live.  We are THRILLED!!!!  Rejoice with us.  thanks for praying with us.  Now lets go and LIVE LIFE!!

Happy December Y'all

December came in with a bang at our house. Thursday the kids all rode on floats in the Jacksonville Christmas parade.  The girls rode on the float with my sisters children for the dentist office and Samuel rode on the Yoshukai float.  When his float came by, I actually heard him yell "Santa Claus is for Alabama."  Oh my goodness...that boy!

ok ....this was in November, but I had to add this picture of the girls and I with Christy at her baby shower. In a little over a month we get to hold her baby girl.

                                                   

Friday we had a Christmas party with Campus Outreach at JSU.  We played dirty Santa and had dessert.   It's always fun to hang out with the students.



poor Courtney...Dave is stealing her coffee mug!

                                     

Christy and I schemed and sadly ended up with these yucky shoes :)

Abby ended up with a Justin Bieber poster.  Can you tell how happy she was :)

 

Samuel got an Alabama cookie jar after a trade off with Richard.  thanks for making my boy so happy Richard.

Erin was at a spend the night party with her cousin Emma!


Saturday was a big work day at the lake.  We raked lots and lots of leaves.  ok....so we played a little too :)

                                    

  Today we had lunch with the Campus Outreach students.  The lunch was supposed to be at our house....BUT...when i woke up we had no power.  Our power never goes out. NEVER!!  so i thought it would be back on any minute so I proceeded to make my corn chowder and Chili in the crock pots.  An hour passed...still no power.  So I ended up taking all of my crock pots to Jason and Christy's at around 9am and just hoping the food would be hot when all the students go there to eat. It turned out to be a great day. It was a good time of fellowship with the students.  They take finals this week and then go home for Christmas break.  I know God was trying to teach me something this morning.  Probably several things.  I hope I learned the lessons. 

Tonight Dave is speaking at my parents church.  He will be giving his testimony of the past year. It has been a very difficult week for him as he thinks about next weeks scans and has had to prepare for this talk tonight about the past year.  If you read this before 6pm, please pray for him.  If you read this after that please pray for us as we travel to Houston for scans Tuesday.  I'll post Wednesday as soon as we get scan results.