Life

Mom and Dad with LeeAnn at her school carnival Me, Eddie, and LeeAnn

The Edwards cousins

My In-laws

Me and my parents

We ran into Courtney and Jason at the zoo.

Three generations

Our little family enjoying the nice day at the zoo.

LeeAnn and our little friend nosey.

Nosey is checking out the camera. :)

Life has been a little stressful for me lately. It seems like I can't get ahead in my finances no matter how hard I work and it is almost summer time so that is a huge worry with me not working in the summer. Eddie wants to take a vacation and then there are so many other things we need money for. I know it will all work out....it always does but I am known to be a huge worry wart. I have had some personal issues too that have caused me great stress and health issues. My cholesterol is still high and the doctor wants me to get it down with my diet. I am really working on that but it is so hard to stick to because you can't eat anything! I need to start exercising but life is so busy and hectic it's hard to find the time or energy. I know that I will do better at that this summer. I tried twice to go back on my anxiety meds (different ones) and both made me have severe side effects. So, I decided to wait for summer when I am not working to try and get back on those. I am trying to work myself through the anxiety and somewhat depression and good friends and family help me with that. I have faith that God will get me through all these problems.

On a positive note, LeeAnn is thriving. I love watching her grow up and experience life. She is a true angel sent from God. She was out of swimming for six weeks, but it started back up this last week. I think the break is just what she needed because she came back better than ever. I was amazed at how well she did after being out for six weeks. Today we are going to her awards banquet and she is hoping to get an award. I am not sure if she will or not but I hope so because she deserves to be proud of herself. Last night she had a youth conference at the church that was an all nighter. I am sure she had tons of fun. I am excited to hear about all the details of her time there. Also, she is still in Anderson Area Children's choir and absolutely loves that as well. We have an Awards banquet for choir as well this month. Then she has her final concert on May 2. She keeps us constantly busy (and exhausted) but I wouldn't trade a minute of that time with her.

Eddie is such an amazing husband and I wouldn't trade him either. He supports me no matter how crazy and stressed I get. He knows that things get hard for me and he does his best to help me get through it. He is helping me stick with my cholesterol diet even when I get upset cause I want to eat something I shouldn't. He is such a hard worker and he mows in the summer to help us make extra money. Lately he has also been helping me around the house cause I get so overwhelmed. Now, if only this guinea pig would learn to clean up after himself, all would be right with the world. haha

LeeAnn

This is us after her meet at BSU
Swimming freestyle in her relay

Ready to jump when it's her turn!

LeeAnn with friends Meri and Julia

Words can't express how grateful I am for the special child that I have! I have always been amazed by what a good child she is. Thoughtful and kind hearted, great manners, and she does so much to help me out. (when I ask her to. :) ) She has always been kind of shy just like her momma so it does my heart so good to see her coming out of that shell some. I think swimming has been so good for her in that. It pushes her to go into the unknown and be strong. She has made lots of new friends that have helped her as well. I was orginally going to take her out of swimming as soon as she learned to swim. But I have since changed my mind. She is doing exceptionally well and she loves it soooo much! So, as long as we are financially able and her grades are good, we are going to strive to keep her in it. We had a meet at Ball State yesterday and she improved her times immensely on all four strokes. She was in two relays for the first time ever and she held her own with the more experienced swimmers. I thought she would be totally exhausted having 6 events in one day but during her time inbetween events she was in another pool practicing! She just continues to amaze me! Other than swimming being so good for her physically it is also good for her shyness. I think it is making her more confident with herself and she feels pride for herself as well. She just got her report card on Friday and she brought home straight A's for the first time ever! I thought swimming might interfere with her keeping her studies up but so far she has done well. We are trying to work out a way to become members to the Dolphin Club this summer so that she can continue to swim with ACAC during the summer and then she will have plenty of time in the pool to practice what she needs work on or just to play. This is only a dream at this point and we aren't sure if we want to spend the money on that yet but we are seeing how things go. I work hard cleaning houses so if I can save up enough money for summer we will see how much more I can save for that. Just so blessed to have LeeAnn as my child. She brings me such joy! I always wanted lots of kids but things didn't work out that way for us. But I am rich in so many ways and am just grateful to be a mom to LeeAnn. She is a true blessing in my life!

Been awhile.....

The Edwards Family The Edwards cousins

Me-Maw and Paw-Paw with all the kids

Me, LeeAnn, and Eddie

LeeAnn in front of our tree

Oleta's kids and LeeAnn on Halloween

The Edwards clan at the Pumpkin patch




LeeAnn diving in to the pool for Butterfly

LeeAnn doing the Butterfly


LeeAnn's new glasses



Thanksgiving with the Bailey Family

The Bailey Cousins

Me and my girl



Celebrating Grandpa's 70th birthday

Celebrating Grandma's 66th birthday

WOW! I haven't updated my blog since May. I am sure that no one has checked it but just in case I will update. LeeAnn is now in swimming. She started swimming in September on the Novice team. She was on the Novice team for two months and moved up to Bronze in December. She has been in three meets and has really come along way. I was only putting her in swimming so that she could learn to swim. Who knew she would love it sooo much and be so good at it??? Now, I just hate to take her out because I know that it is exceptionally good for her. LeeAnn is not the most active child so she has really gotten in wonderful shape through swimming. She has two meets coming up in January and I am anxious to see how much improvement she has made since moving up to the Bronze team.

She still sings in AACC and loves that as well. She had her Christmas concert in early December and has had a couple of weeks break before she goes back in January. She told me her favorite things are singing and swimming.

For Christmas I finally broke down and bought her the Wii she has been begging for. I have to say we have had a lot of family fun with the Wii games. LeeAnn and I especially, but we have convinced Eddie to "bowl" with us some and he enjoys it too. This will be her only game system because I don't see the point in having two or three of them. She will rarely have time for one when she gets back to school and all her activities anyway. Also, for Christmas Eddie and I decided to get each other new furniture. Long overdue. It has been almost 20 years since we bought our first set of living room furniture. It is really nice and we love it. I still haven't taken pics of just the furniture but the pictures of the Edwards family at Christmas are on our new couch.

We are thinking about trying to become members to the dolphin club so that LeeAnn can continue to swim this summer. It is VERY costly so it depends on what I can save between now and then and also if they let me make monthly payments like I have heard they do. If we become members she will still be able to stay on the swim team in the summer as well. I know with the two of us being off during the summer we will get lots of use out of a membership.

Which brings me to my next concern. My job. As most people around Anderson are aware ACS closed more schools again this year and we won't know if we have a job or what that job might be for awhile. ESMS won't be a middle school anymore. It will be 4th-6th and we have never had a building with just those grades before. So, needless to say, there are more questions than answers. It bothers me not knowing, especially since LeeAnn will be in 6th grade next year. She has no idea what to expect and I can't help her since they made all these changes. She will have one year transition before moving on to whichever high school ends up being the junior high.

Also, LeeAnn got glasses recently. Her vision has been getting worse for awhile now so we finally got her eyes tested and sure enough she needed glasses. She is seeing so much better now and she looks adorable in her stylish frames!

We celebrated Dad's 70th birthday this year and Mom's 66th. I am soooo thankful for my parents and every single day that I get to have with them. God really blessed me with them!

We had a great Christmas and a wonderful break. I have several New Year's resolutions that I hope to work on in the coming year. Hopefully this will be the year I get motivated and get things done. Only time will tell. I will post a few pics.

LeeAnn's 10th Birthday

LeeAnn's new HSM bag. And her HSM chair....

The cute new brown bear cubs.

Grandma and Grandpa with LeeAnn

Me and Eddie with LeeAnn
Fun times jumping out of the swing. :)

Forming a star on the trampoline

All 5 girls

Going to a fire....look out if these are your firegirls! :)

LeeAnn and her BFF Elli

Hayley, Elli, and LeeAnn

Action shot in the air.

posin' for a picture Nothing like Duck, Duck, Goose on the trampoline!

This year for LeeAnn's big 10th birthday celebration, we decided that it would be fun to have some of LeeAnn's friends over for a sleepover. She invited 3 girls she knows from AACC (choir) and her best friend from school. There were 5 girls total counting LeeAnn. She had the best time! They had a little carnival down at Payless, so we took the girls out there for games and fun. They had animals and the girls got to pet dogs and hold kittens. They all wanted a kitty, but I wanted the pit bull mix puppy. He was soooo cute! For dinner we made pizza. I bought these pizza's from a fundraiser and they were personal pan size and the girls got to make their own however they wanted them. They were so good and a lot of fun to make. After lots of time outdoors on the trampoline and the swings, they decided to come in and watch a movie. They finally after much debate decided on Daddy Daycare. We popped popcorn and they ate and watched and laughed. It was fun to watch LeeAnn having such a good time with her friends. The next day we just hung out here and they played outside a lot. The trampoline was a huge hit and they all told their parents that they wanted one. :)

Then Sunday, on her actual birthday, we did the traditional trip to the zoo with Grandma and Grandpa. It was a cool but sunny day and perfect zoo weather. We got to see lots of animals being fed that day. Just worked out that way. Our favorite is always the Walrus'. We finally got to see the new Brown Bear cubs they got recently. They are so cute. They were playing and very active just like small kids. It was very fun to watch. Then we went to Golden Corrale to eat dinner. Excellent food and we all ate till we were stuffed. After we got home, we invited John and Jean over for Brownie's and ice cream sundaes. (this was LeeAnn's request) So, we had a little time with them to visit. Finally we wrapped the day up by going shopping to spend LeeAnn's birthday money. She bought new shoes, a bathing suit, a couple of magazines, and candy. She ended up with $50.00 left and she is going to take that to Disney World for souveniers. I have to tell you that I have a great kid! She is so spoiled yet at the same time so unselfish. She never expects a thing. I love her so much and I am glad that I have been blessed to have her in my life the past 10 years. She is growing up fast and I am hanging on to every minute I have with her! Enjoy the pics!

Eddie's 40th birthday bash!

This day was Awesome! John took Eddie on a "joyride" this morning to get him out of the house. Mom and Jean came over and helped decorate. Dad ran last minute errands. I couldn't have done it without them! Eddie was definitely surprised! I thought surely he knew, but he swears that he didn't. All of the family was here for a wonderful day of celebrating and just spending time together. The kids all got along and were sooooo good considering it was to cold to go out and there were 13 kids in my little house. I worked really hard on everything (especially the photo show) and I am just glad to see it all come together and be such a fun day. Everybody got here before Eddie got home and that was Awesome in itself. Thanks to everybody for coming and for the amazing gifts that you got Eddie. I really wasn't expecting you guys to get him anything but he was tickled with everything he got! Cameron colored him a picture and was telling him about it and that was just so sweet. Most of the kids signed their own names too and that was cool. Mia included her last name and I thought that was hysterical. Anyway, thanks to everybody for making it a special day! All of the kids are pictured here except for Jordan. I hate that I didn't get a picture of him!

The Birthday boy with his cake.

I couldn't have pulled it off without them!

Tyler

Faith

Blain

My 3 sisters!

Olivia, Onita, and Jim

Ronnie and Gracie taking a break from hide and seek to pose for a picture

Most of the girls hanging in LeeAnn's room

The Bailey cousin Boys

Kids having fun playing together