Wonderful Weekend

Friday, Reese and I headed out to Gwinnett for Relay for Life. First, we met my mom at Discover Mills and shopped for a couple of hours. After our shopping spree we headed over to the fairgrounds not thinking traffic would be bad yet. Last year Lance and I sat in traffic for two hours trying to get there. This year we sat in about 30 minutes of traffic...so not as bad. We got to the fairgrounds around 4:30 and there were already tons of people there. I think Gwinnett's relay is the largest one...they raised over two million dollars. That is amazing. The first time I went to Relay for Life was in 2004. We stayed late enough to see the Luminary walk at 10 pm that year and it got me hooked on this amazing fundraiser. It is a very emotional walk that is in memory of some one who has been lost to cancer. During this walk every one at the fairgrounds stops what they are doing, luminary bags are lit, and the families/friends walk while the grounds are completely silent. It is kind of like a moment of silence. That is the only year I have been there for that. It is too sad!! We are always there to see the survivors walk at 7pm. I think this walk is just as emotional but in several different ways. During this walk everyone on the fairgrounds stops what they are doing to watch the survivors (all have purple shirts on) and their caregivers walk a lap around the fairgrounds. Every one watching claps during the entire walk. No matter what I tear up each time. This year I think it was a little different for me. Seeing the amazing, brave kids with their purple survivors shirts on really hit me. We saw one baby that was younger than Reese with the purple shirt on. How is that possible?? I can not imagine being in that situation! While we were their we enjoyed buying drinks and food from the different schools. All of the money raised by the schools and organizations goes to Relay for Life/American Cancer Society. If you have never been to an event like this, GO! It is amazing! We ended up leaving around 8:00 or so and headed to my parents house where Reese and I spent the night. We woke up the next morning and spent some time with my mom for Mother's day.

Papa this one is for you...It says "Give Prostate Cancer the Finger"

Saturday we headed to lunch with Lance in Alpharetta and then off to celebrate Ocho de Mayo (my girlfriend Kristin's birthday...I know Saturday was the 10th but her birthday was the 8th). She had an "Adult Field Day" full of games and fun. We had a great time visiting with all of our friends, many of them had not met Reese yet. Then that afternoon Lance's mom and aunt stopped by on their way home from Chattanooga. We did a little celebrating of Mother's Day with some entertainment by Reese and Wii playing by Lance and his aunt. That night I had decided that I when it was time for Reese to go to bed I was going to let her "cry it out". I was really nervous about this but I knew it was the best thing for her and me. She needs to learn how to get herself to sleep. So after I feed her one last time she was almost asleep and I laid her down in her bed. She is safe their, no blankets, no toys, nothing to hurt her. She pops her head up just in time to see me walk out of the door and starts to scream. I am not talking a little crying...full on bloody murder scream. I go to the bathroom, say a little prayer for strength, and head downstairs. I turned off the monitor downstairs, I can still hear her screaming, I turn up the movie we are watching, I can still hear her screaming. Finally there is some silence, screaming again. Thirty minutes (+/-) after laying her down in her crib there is silence. I give it about five minutes and there is still silence. I go upstairs and she is ASLEEP!!! We did it! We made it.

Sunday was obviously Mother's Day. Lance got up, made breakfast, and got Reese out of bed and changed. He and Reese gave me some fabulous shorts and shirts that I desperately needed. We went to church, lunch, and some shopping that afternoon. Oh yeah, and we had to get the house baby proofed because (in maybe the two minutes it took me to go to the bathroom) Reese figured out how to open the cabinets in our bathroom and decided to play with the oil that Lance uses to grease his electric clippers with. Nice! On the bottle it says "is very harmful and possibly fatal". Just what we needed! Luckily she hadn't put it in her mouth which is unusual for her. She had just squeezed it all over the floor and her pjs. Now we have all of the cabintes locked and gates at the top and bottom of the stairs. Other than that excitement my first Mother's Day was perfect!!!