My first Post

This may be my first posting in cyberspace. I feel like there is an echo to everything I'm saying, as if I am speaking to the vastness of the universe. OK, enough of that. Let's get down to the reason I am posting today. I love my wife. My gorgeous, funloving, supportive wife is at home while I am at the lab. (9:40 pm on a Friday) My mouse brain tissue has a one hour incubation left before I can continue with the experiment, and so I have been trying to stay busy writing, but instead found myself surfing the net. Again, I am drifting off topic as I feel my thoughts permeate this expansive and mysterious world of solitary sociality. Tracy, has been caring for our two cute children everyday at home, like many of her friends do with their little ones. Kids get sick, they get cranky, she gets sick and tired. The house seems to dirty itself moments after we all get up, and yet she greets me with a smile and a kiss when I come home each day, as if my stress needed more relief than hers. True, that if everything fell apart at the lab and I flunked out of school we would have no money or income and I would be looking for another proffession. But my stress is meaningless compared to that of teaching a child right and wrong and providing a good example for toddlers who don't seem to be paying attention anyway, and doing all that while constantly trying to take feelings of frustration from your mind. I believe her responsibility is infinitely greater than mine. As I write this I realize that I may be putting a little pressure without intending to. So to make my point, I just wanted to say thank you to my sweet wife who successfully accomplishes her responsibility while still finding time give me a healthy dose of joy.

Travel dates, double ear infections, a new puppy love and more!

Okay so it's been a crazy month. I don't even know if I have the patience to sit here and write it all...so I'll lazily recap for ya'll. (in no particular order...just what comes to mind)
1. Drew is scheduled for surgery next Friday to have his adenoids removed and tubes put in his ears...turns out he's getting nothing from the world of sound and it's kept him from talking so it's time to bite the bullet.
2. On the topic of Drew, we're excited to have our real child returned to us cause I feel safe saying we are ALL tired of the one we've had for the last 3 months. (although we've caught glimpses of the real Drew now and then and of course some Drew is better than no Drew).
3. The other day we were at Kohl's and Drew found a little stuffed Dalmatian dog (i'm sure you've all seen them by now if you are a frequenter of Kohl's) that he toted around the store for the entire time we were there (and no I won't tell you how long that was). And that's saying a lot cause his attention span isn't very long.
4. We are flying in to San Jose on the 19th of December and Eddie leaves to come home around the 3rd of January but the boys and I will be staying a little longer in the sunny state of CA. However, after the 3rd I'll be in the southern regions with my sis. And then we fly home on the 13th. So to any and all LET'S GET TOGETHER! shoot me an email please!!!!! (tracyhaws at gmail dot com)
5. Eddie put up our Christmas tree and it looks fabulous! I love this time of year.
6. No news on our house yet. We've sent in the papers needed for the mediation people to get started like a month ago, but we've been told it can take 3-6 months for anything to happen...like communication of any sort I guess.
7. Happy belated Thanksgiving....I hope it was wonderful! I'm most thankful for my family, a home that hasn't split in half yet, the blessing of getting by with just one car, my new bedspread, and the knowledge that tomorrow is a new day.
8. I will just state here and now that our yearly newsletter will probably be late and I refuse to feel guilty...okay maybe a little guilty but it probably won't change anything.

Okay. Peace out.

It's beginning to look a lot like....

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! Why you ask? Because of the generosity of my Grandpa Cherry and the help of family, we are going to be coming home to Cali for the holiday season! I don't even have the words to express how excited I am. WE'RE COMING HOME!!!!!

Primary Program

Today was our Primary's Sacrament Program where they sang all the songs they've learned this year in Primary. We had our nursery children come up and sing the first verse of "I Am A Child Of God" with our younger primary children. I can't even begin to express to you the love and tenderness that was in my heart as I listened to these pure, innocent children singing "lead me, guide me, walk beside, help me find the way..." As frightened as I get about the future and what's in store for us in these last days, I am comforted by the Lord's love and guidance of His children. I was so touched by A's testimony today after the program finished. I'm so grateful to be serving along side her and feel honored to be serving with M and J too. What amazing women! And can I even tell you how excited I am that it's over? I feel so relieved! But mostly I feel gratitude to know truly who I am...I am a daughter of my Heavenly Father and He loves me and I love Him. I have a Savior who gave His life so I might eternal salvation. What a gift!

Halloween

I am out of steam...here was our Halloween experience. Drew was a duck. Nate picked out his own costume...he was a "num a num" aka M&M.

Iowa Day 4

The last day was spent at Church with my family, where the other highlight(s) of the trip occurred for me...John's testimony, sitting next to my sister in Relief Society, and having my children run between pews from one family member to another. Then when we got home we celebrated Nathan and Grandpa Cherry (Dad)'s birthdays before Mike and his family and our family had to drive back home. It was so fun to see all the cousins playing together...I miss my family already!

Iowa Day 3

On Saturday morning, we all gathered for breakfast at the Cracker Barrel. Eddie and Drew My happy boy! As long as food is involved, this is what you get...

Our first exposure to grits... And clearly we weren't impressed. But that didn't stop the "Stomach of Steel" from enjoying some good southern comfort. The rest of the day was spent at Nauvoo with the family. Next to the actual graduation, this was the highlight for me. We got to participate in the town's Halloween parade, eat at some sidewalk vendors, watch a hilarious play put on by the couple missionaries, walk down the famous Parley Street, throw rocks into the Mississippi River and enjoy the Spirit and beauty of the Nauvoo temple. It was a heavenly day spent with my family. I will cherish that day forever.

Iowa Day 2

The second day of our trip was John's graduation day...Enjoy the slide show!

Our trip to Iowa Day One

So we had the great blessing of attending my brother John's graduation from Palmer Chiropractic School. It was kind of a journey as we drove to Iowa and back in 5 days. So the journey began with a long 15 hour car ride.




We left Wednesday afternoon and arrived bright and early Thursday morning...Just in time to help pack the U-Haul.



John and Christy and their family are moving back to Ca for work and Chris' father, Dean, was going to drive the U-Haul back for them but he needed to get back for work on Monday and so left after the graduation Friday.

During the loading of the U-Haul there was another exciting event taking place, Christy was loading her own precious cargo.


Lewis Jennings Cherry was born Tuesday, October 21, 2008 around 9:00 pm. He was 8 lbs 7 oz and 20.5 inches long...by far her smallest baby yet. In fact, 2 pushes and 5 minutes later he was out and resting on her tummy. I got to tag along with John to pick her up from the hospital on Thursday and bring her home to the chaos of a half packed/mostly empty home.

When we got back, my boys couldn't get enough of "new baby". Drew was head over heals in love with the baby...a little too much lovin' on Drew's part. He hasn't quite learned how to be soft.

My birthday...Man I'm getting old. ;)

Not really...I know I'm still a youngin'. So for my birthday this year I gave myself a present. I signed up to run a 5K for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. I even got Eddie to sign up for it too and thanks to M and J for lending us their double jogging stroller. We got there and it was packed! My favorite part of the whole experience was just before the race as the national anthem was sung. It was so beautiful and it hit me why it was that I wanted to run the race in the first place. My mother's mother, my Grammy, had breast cancer and eventually lost the fight on October 24, 2003. Because of this, and also because this was the type of person my mother, she was always a huge supporter of breast cancer research and proudly wore her pink ribbon. She had a pink ribbon pen, her personal checks were pink with pink ribbons, she had pins and earrings and you name it...So really this race, which so perfectly fell on my birthday, was really in their honor. And what a perfect way to celebrate my birthday, by celebrating the lives of those that gave me mine.


Here are my boys right before the race.


And here we are at the end of a very long "cattle herding" experience...It was so horrible I can't even write about it. There were over 30,000 people there walking, cause there certaintly weren't any running like we were trying to.

The day definetly got better when Eddie took me out that night to see "The Merchant of Venice" in an outdoor theater. It was heavenly to spend some one on one time with the love of my life. We had a great time and recommend it to anyone in the North Dallas area.






Isn't it so fun when you get to remember why it is you fell in love in the first place? Eddie, I love you and thank you for making my birthday wonderful! I'll canoodle with you anyday!

Pinkalicious

For one of our Mothers Group's outing we went and saw a play based on the book "Pinkalicous", by Victoria and Elizabeth Kann, and it was Nathan's first experience with the arts. And I use the term "arts" loosely here. It was however a total blast to be there with the other mommies and with my boys. It has made a lasting impression on Nate however who frequently asks me, "remember when we saw Pinkalicious?" (We're into the "remember" game around our house) And just today Nate made a joke when eating his blue lolipop..."I'm done eating my sucker, I don't want to be bluealicious."


Me and the boys.


The crew.

BYU Vs. TCU

So we orginally got tickets to see the BYU vs. TCU game out of excitement to see BYU in action but instead we had to suffer through what you now know was the worst possible game.


Here we are when we first arrived (side note: we're still smiling even after an hour or so of bumper to bumper traffic to get to the game...poor, poor fools...you could have saved yourself time and heartache by watching at home!)


And of course by the end we were no longer smiling.


Probably for me the highlight was the half time show when they had breast cancer survivors come out into the field and line up in the shape of the pink ribbon.


Then they released pink balloons and I know this might sound cheesy, but for those that know me, you know I love me some CHEESE but I seriously had tears in my eyes as I thought about my Grammy and mother and all the people the balloons represented. It was plain beautiful! It also brought to mind, or rather helped me understand and appreciate the love that NieNie has for releasing balloons and what it symbalizes for her.


And here is the crew that sat through the horrendous game...Eddie, Tracy, Megan, Matt

Pumpkin Patch

Okay so in an attempt to catch up on my life, these next blog postings will be almost all pictures with very little journaling. We went to the pumpkin patch with some of the mom's in my ward and great times were had by all...minus the time when the huge, scary bees kept trying to eat Nathan's lunch and I had to pretend I wasn't scared so he wouldn't freak out and would instead think of them like "flies" and shoo them away. ;)



The boys on a hayride!

So there are a ton of pictures and it's just easier in a slide format, so here you go:

Another tag

okay so i have not visited blogs in who GOODNESS KNOWS HOW LONG and i'm thinking its probably better when i don't, cause now i'm way behind in tags...so here goes another one:

go to your fourth photo folder, post the fourth picture and tag four other lucky, unsuspecting victims.



i'm not sure when this pic was taken other than in "july 08" but i'm pretty sure it is compliments of nathan goofing around with the camera.

i now duly tag cindi, janay, angela, april

6-6-5 Tag

The rules for this tag are simple: Choose the sixth picture from your sixth picture folder and post it. Then, tag 5 people.

Okay so here it be:



This picture cracks me up. Nate had come out and told us, he was "ready for school". He had done his own hair and gotten on his little back pack...i should just mention that he also had picked out his clothes and shoes.

I tag: Erin, Amy, Michelle, Jenifer, Natalie

Thank you dear friends!

I don't have any pictures to post yet, which is embarrassing cause i haven't posted anything in forever and lots has happened. I think it's another one of those experiences where the task seems so daunting that I just bury my head in the sand and will "get to it later". I just spent the last hour blog hopping and catching up a little on some dear friend's blogs and I just wanted to say, "I LOVE YOU!" I have been so blessed in my life to meet and keep the greatest friends and though I'm horrendous at keeping in touch, I'm so grateful for you. I'm so grateful for the lessons I've learned through your friendships. Life is good. It's hard, particularly as Nov. 7th and the anniversary of my mother's death is rapidly approaching, but I feel joy in saying life's good. I'm so grateful for technology so I can keep updated on your happenings and can have my cup filled by your willingness to share moments of your life with me. So, thank you dear friends. Have a Happy Halloween!

California's Prop 8

I just spoke with my sister today, and I'm amazed at what her experiences have been while trying to support the family within our society structure. She shared this link with me today and I wanted to post it here in the hopes that it will get you thinking as it has me.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1815825713/bctid1819819843

Prayer Request

Hello. I know that we have a lot of people already praying for us, but we could use some more. I'm not sure who knows about our home situation here, but we have been having some foundation problems on our just barely a year old house. We hired an engineer to come look at it before our home warranty was up and got the reports to the builder. He tried to tell us it was our fault cause we didn't "water properly" and then had his own engineer come out. (this was about 1 1/2 months ago) His engineer came out and said that watering might have had something to do with it but it had more to do with how the drainage was set up in our backyard. When he gave us the report his reccomendation was the same as our engineer. We tried to call the builder and he was conveniently out of town for 6 weeks. We finally got a call back from him today and he tried to tell Eddie that because he has pictures of our lawn brown (which spots were brown but we had basically two months of temps over 103degrees and EVERYONE'S lawns were brown spotted...and besides our tree was green and our neighbors is totally dead!) that he expects us to pay at least half if not more of the repairs. So we're going to have to go to a mediation situation where a thrid party engineer comes out and inspects the house. Pretty much whatever this third party guys says we have to do...although when Eddie told the builder we opted to go to a mediation he said that he didn't have to do what they told him to do. So now we're not sure what is going on and/or what to do. So any and all prayers would be greatly appreciated.

Like mother like daughter...

So I was talking to an unamed person, okay lets give her a name, Pat, the other day. While on the phone her daughter, little Pat, ran past her to get to the bathroom. After a few minutes she wanted to go check on her to make sure everything was alright. Sure enough, little Pat was fine and finished her business in a timely fashion. However, the humor started to sink in when Pat took a closer look into the bathroom and saw little Pat's scriptures laying next to the toilet. Pat asked her daughter, "Why are your scriptures next to the toilet little Pat?" "Because that's where you read your's Mom." Pat then responded to me with a chuckle, "I guess at least my kids see me reading my scriptures, even if only on the pot."

What if the Mormon's were right?

My uncle posted this link on our family's website and I thought it was AWESOME...so here it is for the masses...or rather "the masses" that know Tracy. ;)

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/columnists/eamon-mccann/eamonn-mccann-what-if-mormons-are-right-and-catholics-and-protestants-wrong-13955402.html

Good Morning Baltimore

Okay so thanks to SC this is Nate's all time favorite movie at the moment. He watches it at least 2X a day and will sing and dance to every song. My favorite is the opening Good Morning Baltimore when he's belting with gusto and has his hands raised in the air. I have it documented on video, I just have to go back to Circuit City and get the right cord to transfer the videos onto my computer; so consider this a teaser and the good stuff is yet to come.

Yogurt Fiasco

As I was getting my dinner ready I heard Nathan yell from the family room, "Mom, where is Drew? He wants to play with me." I realized that I hadn't heard from him in a little while and that is never good. So I quickly turn the corner to go into my room, where they generally hide out so they can pull out all of my shoes and get into my jewelry, when I spotted him on the kitchen floor. This is what I turned the corner to find:





He had some how climbed up the kitchen chair, pulled down Nathan's yogurt and started to shovel it into his mouth, or at least try. At first I was bugged cause I knew how long I was going to have to be on my knees cleaning my tile, but then I just kind of started to chuckle until I was fully laughing and I knew I needed to get my camera. I figured he was doing such a good job of feeding himself that I just put him in his high chair and let him finish the job.