My niece Penelope

I just love this picture of Penelope. She was over at our house and she found my Ipod on the table and was carrying it around, so I showed her that she could listen to music on it. She walked around the house listening to it and letting everyone else listen too! She is so adorable!

Back to school

Audrey went back to school today. She was so nervous last night, I had gotten her to bed at 9 and she didn't go to sleep till after 11! I prayed for her 2 or 3 times and she finally looked at a bible story book she has and it calmed her down. I am so proud of her for being so brave and not complaining about going to a sorta new school again. She went to this school last year so she knows plenty of kids. She even has a few of her old friends in her class! Plus she said the teacher she has is very nice, I was glad to hear that cause I wasn't too sure about the teacher. I'm glad she's back at this school, I like the schools here better than in FL, they seem to teach better here. The school is much closer too!

Happy Easter!

My pretty girl in her Easter dress!

My brother Brandon, Audrey, and Me at Outback for Easter lunch.


It's Easter Sunday and it's pretty cold out today. I have to say we have very few warm Easters here in TN, but I'm not complaining! I still wore a skirt and flip flops and Audrey wore her pretty dress and sandals. Cooler wheather didn't stop us! We went to church of course, it wasn't the typical Easter service, it was just church.

I didn't have a chance before today to get Audrey anything for her Easter basket, not a good idea. The only place that was open was Walgreens, not that there stuff isn't any good, I just wanted to get her some cute stuff from Target. I did get her stuff she likes and I was happy that she was happy.



We even had our own egg hunt here at the house. Uncle BB came over too and Audrey just LOVED having him hunt eggs with her and help to hide them! He was actually fun to be around today, I think he's glad we're back in TN, even though he wouldn't come out and say so! I do love my brother Brandon and he's Audrey's favorite uncle too!



This is the fam on Easter. Me, Dad, Mom, Audrey, Brandon, and Eric.

Just another day in TN

I am really happy to be back! I like that I can get with my friend Carla anytime now, since I do live just a few minutes away! We went out to dinner tonight at The Tomato Head in market square tonight, just us ladies, no kids. I had a lot of fun with her, we haven't went out just the two of us in a long time. After we ate we went to a couple of stores down there and just looked around. It was so nice to be able to look around and not have a child whining about wanting to leave or wanting to touch everything breakable! We will have to do it more often!

Update on my pappaw:
He is at home now and is adjusting very well. He has learned how to get around the house in his wheel chair and is having therapy at home 3 times a week. He should be able to get a fake leg in about 6 weeks.

WE DID IT!

We did it, we moved back! On Wednesday of this week I decided I'm moving back. I had been going back and forth all week about moving back. Both my parent's were back in TN and so was the rest of my family. Before I made my decision I was just not wanting to be in FL anymore, just me and Audrey. I was ready to come back.

So on Wed after I got home and Audrey got out of school we packed all our stuff, mainly our clothes and other personal stuff. I got as much in my car as I could and we left out at 8:30 the next morning. I was nervous about the drive the day before, that was one thing I didn't know if I could do, especially by myself, with no one else to help me drive. I knew I had a long hard day on the road, but on the morning we left I had no nervous thought about getting on the road and driving possibly 12 hours. I know that God was with me the whole way, I did awesome, I'm so proud of myself for doing it, I feel so much stronger now! We ended up getting to the house in TN at 7:10 that night, we made it home in less than 12 hours! I booked it on the road, we only stopped to get gas and to use the bathroom.


It was so awesome, no one in my family knew we were coming in. So mom took us over to see my pappaw who was still in the hospital. When we got there mom went in first and then we walked in. Pappaw was so happy to see us, he really was glad we were home. I can't believe how much he has changed! He seems to be a new man, he's just so positive about everything! We also surprised nanny today at her house. We walked in and said surprise and she was just so very happy to see us. She has wanted us to come back ever since we left. I am very glad to be back!

My BFF Carla came over the night we got in to visit with us. I have missed my buddy so much, it doesn't even seem like I've been gone now! Now I'll get to watch Nate grow up and I will get to see the little baby when he arrives and I'll get to help my friend out! I love it here!

We might be moving back!

2007 Welcome to Tennessee
Originally uploaded by scmikeburton

Well we might be moving back to TN real soon. Maybe this weekend! I really want to since all my family is there and I have nothing down here. My parents are the reason we moved in the first place, well things have changed for them down here and they don't need to be here now, later maybe, but not now. So I could drive me and Audrey up, the only thing is I would have to drive all by myself. Just us girls on the road, it could be kinda fun I guess. I would def have to stop and spend the night somewhere, it's a 12 hour drive or maybe a little shorter. Audrey could go back to the same school she was at last year so she would know people there. She's actually getting excited, she was sad and cried a little bit when I told her. She didn't want to leave the girls across the street, but she will be okay. Well I have a lot to think about.

Let's go fly a kite!

We had a very windy day on Saturday so I bought Audrey a kite. She had to get a Barbie one of course! Since the wind was so crazy the kite would go up for a little while and then come down. Audrey had fun flying her kite and I had fun watching her!



By the way. My pappaw is doing very well since he had his surgery. He is in rehab now so he will be learning how to get around on his own and other things I'm sure. He has been having painful nights, but in the day he's usually fine. My mom is very tired though cause shes been staying with him at the hospital. She doesn't know when she'll be coming back down either. Theres talk that we may move back there! I'm fine with that!

Having fun!

Me and Audrey went to the beach the other day just cause we wanted to. We had fun, I got to lay out in the sunshine and Audrey played in the sand and the ocean. We only stayed about an hour, but it was fun. Before we headed home I had brought a snack for us so we sat at a picnic table and ate our snack. We enjoyed our time together at the beach.

Doing good!

Pappaw is doing so good. I talked to mom this morning and she said he is doing very good, he is still having pain, but his spirits seem to be up instead of down. She said he is being very positive. He is medicated still so some of the "happiness" is from the meds. He was even joking around some with mom last night, she said that he's going to come to FL when he gets out of the hospital! Oh, mom said he was saying how his foot and leg were hurting, but he was talking about the leg that was taken off, he knows it's gone but in his mind it's still there and it's still hurting. He asked mom to rub his feet cause they hurt, well she rubbed his one foot and he asked if she would rub the other. So mom pretended to rub it and they both had a laugh! So over all he is doing exceptionally well considering this is my pappaw I'm talking about. Thank you Jesus for comforting my Pappaw during this traumatic time.

My Nanny is doing okay, mom said she was not doing good at all yesterday. She had been pretty upset. Her legs had been cramping all day too. I talked to her on the phone last night and she sounded exhausted. I told her maybe she was having sympathy pains in her legs. I was trying to make her feel better. I'm pretty sure I did, she sounded a little better when I got off the phone. She also got to talk to Audrey and I think that made her feel better too. I sure do love and miss my grandparents.

He made it

My pappaw had his surgery this morning. He made it through just fine, he will be in recovery for an hour or so. They said his leg was in pretty bad shape, a lot of infection and stuff. Now I pray that he will recover without pain and no depression.

I don't understand

I talked to my mom tonight and she said that the doctors where going to go ahead and amputate my pappaw's leg sometime tomorrow. I am so saddened by this. I was truly believing that God was going to heal him. My pappaw, who hardly believes in healing, was truly believing he would be healed too. I just don't understand why it didn't happen! I know I may never understand, I do know that all things happen for a reason. One thing about this is that when my pappaw found out he was going to lose his leg, according to my mom, he took it pretty well. I know all I can do now is pray for peace and understanding for my pappaw.

I didn't think it would bother ME as much as it has. I get very upset when I think about my pappaw going through this and I can't even be there to see him before it happens. I know God is in control of EVERYTHING. I guess me and Audrey are not there for all of this for a reason. Maybe it's because it would be too hard on us if we were there. Audrey knows that he is losing his leg, but I don't think it will make much sense until she sees him. I'm just so very thankful that my pappaw is alive and will be for some more years. I do miss arguing with him, I bet he misses arguing with me too!

Pappaw- I do love you very much I just have an odd way of showing it!

My Papppaw

Well my poor Pappaw is not doing so great. About a month or so ago he was bitten by a spider on his lower leg around the ankle. It never healed like it should have plus he's diabetic. Well he's in the hospital now because his tendon has started to die. Let me back up a little bit, a few weeks ago he went to the hospital and had surgery to remove the infected bite, that left a hole in his leg where they removed it. It never started to heal up and he began to have a lot of pain. Come to find out all that pain he was having was from his tendon beginning to die. Now they know that he didn't have to good blood flow in his leg and that's why it wasn't healing. So they now where going to try and do something with his veins for blood flow. That didn't happen, something about how he has hardening of the arteries, I don't know everything. So the outcome now is that unless God heals him, he is going to lose his leg from the mid thigh down.

My mom is there with him and has been for about two weeks now. She is very tired and worn out and now my Pappaw may have to face a very big challenge. He is a very depressed person and he is not going to do well with this news. My Nanny is doing alright, but this will be a very big challenge for her as well. I'm praying for total healing and for the doctors to be amazed at the power of GOD!

I don't know how I'll tell Audrey about this because she is a very emotional person. She will definitely be very upset. I cried for quite sometime after I got off the phone with my mom last night. I don't want this to happen, but I know it could be much worse.