Class of 2025

Well, not sure how I feel about my little one beginning school tomorrow..I am excited for him, but also very anxious and sad.. He is growing up so fast and I can't stand it! So here are my thoughts as he begins school tomorrow: I want him to know, that he will experience failure, but he will learn more from those failures than from his successes. I want him to always try to do his best even when it gets tough! I want him to always do the right thing no matter if it is unpopular..I don't want him ever to forget that he was "fearfully and wonderfully made.." I want him to never give up on anything and more importantly to remember that Jesus is with him always!! I love you Cade and I know this is going to be a great year for you!! You are our "WARRIOR!"

It's been a while..

I have not been really good at keeping this blog up to date in the past few months. Not sure why, but here is what has been happening around here lately:

We have all been doing great! Cade is having a great year! He loves his new friends he has met this year and will totally miss his teacher-Ms. Leigh- next year. A few weeks ago he had his kindergarten readiness testing for CPA. He was so excited! Last week we received his acceptance letter. I cannot believe how fast the time goes by! He will be 6 at the end of this month--that is so hard to believe.

His eye seems to be healing quite well from the surgery in December. We still visit Dr. Holland in Ohio every few months and we have received good reports from him as well!
We have really enjoyed this last few months as a family. Chris' basketball season ended in February, so he has been home more. Cade loves that! He loves spending time with Chris and absolutely adores him.

We are so anticipating the spring arriving here in Nashville. We have had some pretty bad weather in the in the past few weeks, but the temps have been so nice-80 degrees last week! We love being outside!

March madness is also around the corner, and as most of you know it is the Brian's favorite time of the year. The time where it gets really competitive. We love it though! Cade has really loved watching basketball. He has been to many games with Chris and I, and absolutely loves it.

So it has been a while, but we are all doing great! Will try to continue to update when I can!

Love to you all!!

"I want a hippopotamus for Christmas"

We are ready for Christmas at the Brian household!! Cade loves this time of year. He absolutely loves everything about Christmas..the lights, music, trees, inflatables, etc. He heard the "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas" song on the radio on the way to school this past week, and he laughed through the entire song. We also have the Griswold house right across the street from us which is Cade's favorite. They have everything up except inflatables..ha! (so many lights!)

I wanted to give some updates on him and let you all know about his upcoming surgery on the 15th.

Cade has been studying the planets at school this past week and informed Chris and I all about Pluto. He absolutely LOVES school! He also has been working with a speech therapist at school and is doing great. She has told me that Cade is such a hard worker and is making great strides.
He is also just now getting into watching sports on TV with Chris and I. He is already very competitive. He wants to know who is winning and gets VERY upset when his team is losing. He gets it honest.
He loves playing video games on my computer and is very tech savy for a 5 year old..Crazy how young they start!

As far as his eye is concerned, his vision has not improved, so we are back at step one with the patching. We patch we he gets home from school until bed time. He has done great with it. He is schedule for another surgery on December 15 at Vanderbilt Children's here in Nashville. Again, I cannot tell you how thankful we are for that place! Dr. Mawn and Dr. Singer will be working on his bottom eyelid. The procedure will be very similar to last year's procedure on the top eyelid.
We are praying now for no complications and no pain for Cade and for his heart. We know this will be a scary thing for him once again as he fears the hospital.

I will say that each time Cade has had to endure another procedure the Lord has given me such a peace. I am praying for that once again and that we would release our fear and worries knowing He is holding Cade in the palm of HIS hands.
Please continue to lift Cade up and the doctors on December 15th. Will post again after the procedure!

Love you all!!

Where Have We Been???

Okay, so I just noticed that I have not updated my blog since July.. Wow!! There has been much going on here, so I guess I will just give a few updates on what we have been up to in the past 2 months..

We all started back to school in August. Cade started PreK-5 this year and he absolutely loves it--not to mention his teacher is a former student of mine-HA! He has learned so much and he even gets to eat lunch with the big kids. He loves that!
Chris and I have been busy coaching and teaching. I am still coaching middle school volleyball and he is coaching football, needless to say, we are very busy right now. Cade spends the afternoons with me in the gym. As he has gotten older, he has enjoyed being in the gym and hanging out. The girls love him and he usually plays with his Legos or his Leapster while I practice. We had five games this past week, so we were both spent by the end of the week.
Chris' team is struggling some this year and it has been hard to see him come home frustrated. They lost a few key players and it has made a big difference. This week should be interesting though, they play us! Yep, Davidson v. CPA If you ask Cade who he is rooting for, he always says daddy's team. It should be an interesting matchup!!

To update you on Cade's eye we have been to Ohio a few times to check on the scarring on his cornea. It is thinning out, which is a good thing, but will go back in November to see if the small piece will need to be removed.
He is scheduled for another procedure with Dr. Mawn and Dr. Singer(his neurologist) here in Nashville, in December. They will be working the bottom lid this time. We are hopeful that they will be able to get what is left of the VM on that bottom lid.

So that is a quick update on the Brians. Yes, we are still alive, but super busy!! Love to you all!!

Not worthy, but HIS

Our favorite place to be..

We just returned from a fabulous trip to Seagrove Beach. My family and I have been making this annual beach trip since I was in high school. It is something that we look forward to every summer. My parents, our family, and my brother's family all stay in a house on the beach--no better place to be than ON the beach!

Cade took his first steps at the beach and has always been pretty cautious about getting in the water. It seems that each year he gets a little braver about getting in. This year he really took to the water. He surfed the waves for the first time and loved it!! He and Brody played so well together! They had so much fun, whether they were chasing each other with their water guns, or throwing sand on each other-they had a blast!

Some of our favorite things to do while there is looking for seashells, looking for crabs at night, visiting Pier Park, eating shrimp, looking for dolphins, walks on the beach, ice cream, etc.

We love our time at the beach!! So thankful that we have these times with family to share and we can't wait until next summer!!

Summer has officially begun..

We love our summers!! This year we started our summer with a trip to San Antonio, Texas. We haven't been back in a few years so we were very excited to get to see everyone. Chris' entire family live there, so it was a very busy but fun trip. We ended up staying with Chris' dad and stepmom in their beautiful home. Cade loved it! They have a trampoline and a hot tub. Being that it is so hot there we limited Cade's time outdoors. He would wake up and want to go on the tramp. and end the day on the trampoline.

We spent most of our days visiting family. Chris' mom's side of the family and Chris' dad's side of the family. We were very busy each day. We did spend a day at SeaWorld. Cade's favorite place. We went with Grandma and Navaeh-Chris' brother's little girl. It was VERY hot to say the least, but it was a fun day! His favorite thing this time were the sharks!! :)

Greg and Donna (Chris' dad and stepmom) have two dogs. Cade is allergic to pet dander, but he didn't have a problem being around them, in fact, he LOVED them!! He wants a dog soooo bad! He chased them around and he loved for them to chase him back. It was so cute to watch!

Because of the location of where we were staying, there were many deer around the neighborhoods. When I say everywhere, they were practically just chillin' in the yards. It was so neat to see. So close, you could pet them..Again, this was something Cade was not used to and he loved to look for each day!

It was a great trip..in fact, neither one of us were ready to leave. We hope to see them all again very soon!!

pics to follow!

Heaven...

Well, this past week has been very interesting and hard all at the same time.. It is nearing the end of the school year, in fact, this is our last week of school. We have been busy reviewing with kids, making exams,etc. Chris and I both are anticipating the summer, and not to mention Cade has been counting down how many days left of school.

Everything though came to a halt for me last week, and LIFE took over. We had a student who was involved in a tragic skateboarding accident and passed away due to severe brain trauma. So yeah, everything kind of took a backseat for me, as I pondered how fragile our lives here on earth are. I also mourned for this precious mom who no longer would be able to hug on her son as he came home from school, or watch him play football and soccer again.

My students have been walking around dazed as they continue to grieve the loss of a classmate, and as I sit here and write, I will be heading to his funeral in a few short minutes.

Of course, death gets us thinking about Heaven and about all those we will soon see once again. I can't wait to see my Nana and Papa in heaven. I loved them so much and the Lord called them both home when I was in the 8th grade. Both of them met Jesus within about 3 months of each other. What a great reunion that must have been.

I have had the book "Heaven is For Real" for quite sometime now and never really picked it up to read. My books to read for the summer are piling up, but I thought it would be fitting because of the course of events this past week to start this one. So yesterday I sat and read the entire book. Very interesting perspective of Heaven from a 4 year old and so "matter of factly." As I read, my anticipation grew even more for Heaven. Reading this little one's experience with Heaven made me ponder "if only I had the faith of a child."

It is a great book and I highly recommend it. In fact, our pastor will be going to Nebraska next week to interview Colton and his dad. He will be beginning a new series on Heaven and Hell in the weeks to come. Excited about that..

So this is where my head has been in the last few days.. Cade and I have also had some discussions on this as well, and it is amazing to hear a five year old's perspective on Heaven.. So cute!!

I will leave you with one part of the book that I just loved. Colton was explaining to his dad where everyone was sitting in Heaven.. He was explaining the throne room of God. Colton's dad asked him where he was sitting and Colton said, "I was sitting on Jesus' lap, next to the Holy Spirit.." This just reminded me of how we should view our Heavenly Father, similar to our earthly Father...sitting in his lap comforting us when we become frightened, scared, worried, stressed, whatever it might be. LOVE THIS PICTURE!!!!