Friends~Love them, just LOVE them!

Last week something happened that shook my world upside down. Not only my world but many of my friends also. It is still so surreal I can hardly believe it is real. This week feels like a whirlwind of emotion for me, so I can just imagine what it feels like for my friend~actually she shared with me how it feels. I have learned alot about friendship over the years but this past week has taught me to love my friends, really love them~just love them! and BE THERE for them! Friends come with all kinds of quirks, oddities and other amazements and so do we! I am thankful for the strength God has granted me to be there for her and for the understanding He has given me. No judgements, No expectations, just understanding. There is much more I would love to share, but I think this is all I can express for now. Friends for Life!

NO POSTS in 2010~WHAT???

Yep! looks like it......the ChatterBox was pretty quiet ALL of 2010.....this would lead you to think that not much was going on last year, and for the most part it was pretty mundane with the regular family events, Cherie being in nursing school, Scott working, Morgan in her 2nd year of college with a 4.0 GPA, Jacob playing sports and working on his Eagle Project....even though I said mundane~we are still very proud of our kids and all their hard work and accomplishments!! Little did we all know that on Sunday, November 7, 2010 at approximately 740pm~life as the Echols Family knew it would NEVER be the same!

That Sunday night Scott was headed to Uncle Sonny's in Enterprise, Alabama to visit him....He was not doing well and Scott knew there weren't many days left in his dear beloved uncle's life. On Scott's way just outside of Baxley, GA and about 45 minutes from Dothan, AL he had a major auto accident that left him fighting for his life. I will summarize the next 5 months.....he was first taken to a Dothan Hospital where a major pelvic artery was sealed off to stop the bleeding and then transferred to UAB Hospital in Birmingham. I arrived (with my Dad and my sister Ronda) in dothan just in time to see him put into the ambulance (this was around 130am) and we continued on to Birmingham arriving around 5am. Scott spent the next 2 months in TBICU (trauma/Burns ICU) on the ventilator, then moved to stepdown in TBNU for about 5 weeks, then to the next stepdown in ATCU for another 5-6 weeks, then on to Spain Rehab Center (there at UAB) for almost a month. Now he is back in UAB at TBNU for 2 weeks, still awaiting more surgery so that we can go home. He had several internal injuries and almost every bone in his abdomen broken and both hips and left lower leg. He has suffered nerve damage and resulting wounds due to the pelvic artery that had been sealed off. That is what we are waiting on now to recover from before we are able to go back home to GA. It has been such a long road and he has come so far. His last day at rehab he was able to walk 58ft. with the aide of a walker....doctors and me never thought we would see that day without some major pelvic/hip surgeries in the future~but he and our family has been blessed with many miracles from so many prayers! We are so grateful :):)

Happy New Year 2010

Happy 2010!

We got together with our dear friends Mike and Sue. This has been our tradition of our families getting together to bring in the New Year for years (at least every year that we are in GA). Now since the kids are older they have their own parties to go to. Our two children made it back in time to toast sparkling apple cider with us at midnight. Another one of our traditions is playing cards~the game Frustration~and Mike ALWAYS wins.....I think I won once in the last 10+years....so it was a HUGE deal when I won on New Years Eve!! So huge that we had to take pictures of the scorecard and I had to rub it in his face (literally).....Mikey was such a good sport about it and let me enjoy my "moment".....We had fireworks right after the ball dropped and our toast.....None of the pictures of the fireworks up in the air came out, so I just have a few of the sparklers and shooting them off. The picture of Sue with her sparkler, she is on the phone wishing her daughters at college a Happy New Year. It was a fun fun night and so thankful to bring it in with our children and our best friends~Mike and Sue!

Remembering Grandma and Grandpa Echols

While we were in Enterprise Alabama visiting Uncle Sonny, we also went to visit Scott's parents gravesite. We hadn't been over there in quite a while. We took a wreath to place on their grave. They were killed in a plane crash when Scott was 11 years old. They have been greatly missed by him and his sisters. My children have also missed having them as Grandparents. We are so thankful and feel blessed that we will see them one day. Families Are Forever......

Uncle Sonny

We went to Enterprise, Alabama on December 30th to visit Scott's Uncle Sonny and Aunt Maggie. He is Scott's Mom's brother. He was diagnosed last year with Progressive SuperNuclear Palsy. This is a very rare disease that is somewhat similar to Parkinson's Disease but it is very progressive. There is no cure nor much that is really known about the disease. He seemed to know us or at least light up at our visit. I think at times we could see glimpses of the Uncle Sonny we used to know. This is a man who has always been very physically active and the hardest worker you will ever meet. He was a helicopter fighter pilot in the Army, he worked for NATO and wrote training manuals for future fighter pilots. He loved to play tennis, jog and stay busy. He kept the most beautiful, manicured lawn you would ever see, and grew the most magnificient roses that had to be the prettiest I have ever seen. He volunteered in the community as the head of the hurricane disaster relief program. He also gave of his time growing roses and landscaping at several areas throughout town adding to the beauty of the streets and Visitors Center. He served in his church "The Church of Christ" and has always been an example to everyone. He has always been willing to help anyone that he could. It was sad to see him physically held back by this disease, but his personality still shone through. He sang for us and we loved seeing him smile. He is very lucky to have Aunt Maggie take care of him. She goes to the Nursing Home promptly around 7am each morning and stays all day. It is very evident the love she has for him and also his love for her. She ensures that all of the wonderful staff are taking good care of him. That nursing home has to be the cleanest, nicest one we have ever been to. That is something to be thankful for. We really enjoyed spending the night with Aunt Maggie and visiting with her and with Uncle Sonny. The next morning we also went to visit Scott's parents gravesite. It was a wonderful trip....we love you Uncle Sonny and Aunt Maggie!

Christmas Day

At home for Christmas Day.....a great way to spend it with family! We made Christmas goodies, my famous red velvet cake, lemon meringue pies, brownies, cookies and Morgan made gingerbread cookies. We worked on our Gingerbread house too.....it turned out okay~at least we had fun decorating it! We didn't make our fudge this year, it seems we just ran out of time. Scott made a huge turkey that was delicious (even though it took forever for it to cook!) and we had our traditional Christmas lunch. My parents and Randy and his family came over. I loved having them and so thankful they were close by. I feel really blessed that we got to spend a lot of time over the holidays with them. We enjoyed a lazy morning of opening gifts and taking pictures in our Christmas pajamas. Everybody liked theirs and it was cute to be matching and the guys didn't complain......a Christmas miracle!! lolol

Thompson Family Christmas 2009

My family got together on Dec. 19th this year at my brother Randy's house to celebrate Christmas. It's been a few years since we've had everyone here and it was great to have us all together. I had to work until 7pm so I got there a little late and came in my scrubs.....after seeing how tired I look in the pictures, I probably should have changed clothes and freshened up a bit~but oh well, I didn't want to miss out on the festivities. We had lots of good food, and fun catching up on each others lives. We also exchanged gifts with my parents. My Mom still carries on the tradition of giving each of my siblings and me "Turtles" candy. That is something she has been giving us ever since I can remember, our favorite candy at Christmas. They also give us quite a few $ to have fun with. The grandchildren were so excited that they each got $50 bills, they quickly discarded the gifts with it and went around showing off their money~they were rich! and was already planning how to spend it! We took lots of pictures and I have put together a scrapbook to have printed for each family to remember our celebration this year. As the years go by, these family get togethers become more important to each of us.

Christmas EVE

On Christmas Eve we went over to Randy and Lori's to eat dinner with them. Lori's brother and parents, my parents and my family were there. We had a nice quiet evening remembering our Saviors Birth. We watched a devotional on BYU TV that was narrated by Walter Cronkite and music by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It was a lovely peaceful evening that got us into the true spirit of Christmas.