Saturday, July 12, 2008

An Olympic hopeful, a child on the mend, an attempt at a skipped birthday, and a missed girls camp.

Since Mark has been sick, I feel so out of the blogging loop. I have missed reading blogs and can't wait to get caught up. Mark is doing better. He is slowly but surely improving. He is finally able to eat a little more but it is basically a bland and smooth diet. He cannot have any chocolate, soda, citrus, tomato-ey or fried foods for one month. I made him smile for a quick snap to ensure everyone that he is still among the living. :) Well, as hard as I tried, no one would let me skip my birthday. I received several lovely cards, a few emails and a couple of phone calls. My mother sent me a cute little doll (forgot to get a photo as she is safely tucked away already in my curio cabinet) and a pretty necklace. I got a funny card from Craig's parents with some money inside....Hmmm, what shall I buy??? Fabric, wood??? Craig's sister sent me a card with a stitchery pattern inside. She wrote a little note saying that she wanted to see it finished and on my blog in a week. Sorry Michelle...I don't think it's gonna happen. And finally, a cute little handmade card from the leaders of the women's group (Relief Society) at my church. Craig recently returned form the Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon. He is happy to report that Jillian Camarena made the Olympic team in the shot put event. So, he will be leaving for Beijing on August 8th. We have had news reporters calling him and doing news stories on the both of them since he's been home. They have been the subject of many newspaper articles as well. I feel sort of famous....vicariously through them of course. Because of Mark's sickness, I regrettably had to miss our churches young women's camp. Ragan refused to go without me and even though I felt some pressure to MAKE her go, I knew she would not have a good time worrying about her brother the entire time she was there. I feel so bad about missing it, especially since I had made the commitment to go several months ago. I hope that none of the other leaders were cussing my name. I worried about it all week. Now that Mark is on the mend, I hope that we will be able to get back into our usual routine. At the moment, I feel a bit like a deflated balloon, but I just wanted to let all of you know how your prayers and kind words REALLY helped us through this rough patch! Thank you for them! :)

11 comments:

PARKER KALAEKOI KAM said...

Glad Mark is on the mend!
Happy belated birthday!!

Melissa

May Kristin said...

Happy birthday to you! It's good they didn't let you skip your birthday! Hope you had a great day after all! And how good it is that Your son Mark is getting better!
Take care!

Linda - Behind My Red Door said...

First of all I am so happy that Mark is doing better. Even when our kids aren't kids, our world is not right when they are sick.


AND.....

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear Jo-anne,
Happy Birthday to you!!!!!

(Be very happy you can't me singing!!)

How exciting for Craig to go to China. I look forward to hearing more about it.

hugs, Linda

lera said...

Happy to hear that Mark is doing better.

And a happy belated birthday to you!

(Somehow I think you are exempt from Girls Camp this week. You are a mother first.)

Gettysburg Homestead said...

I had no idea it was your birthday Jo Ann. Happy Birthday!!!!!

I am so glad Mark is doing better.

Congrats to Craig and Jillian!!! That is really awesome news!

Mary

Kim Walus said...

Happy Birthday Jo-Anne. I'm sure it's a happier one now that Mark is getting better!! Congratulations to your husband and Jillian. That's pretty exciting!

Thanks for your email it was very thoughtful of you especially in your time of stress! You are very sweet to take the time, I appreciate it!

Thimbleanna said...

Well, happy belated birthday! Glad to hear Mark's on the mend and congratulations to Craig and his olympic hopeful!

Anonymous said...

Yeah! Mark is getting better! He does look a little thinner, huh? Poor guy! Congratulations to Craig. Yes - I'm still jealous that he is going to Beijing! One day I'll make it to China! :)

As I said the other day! I'm happy that it was your birthday and I'm glad that you had a good day! I'm sure everyone understands about Camp...but I know what you mean!

See you tomorrow! :)

Andrea said...

I've been away for almost three weeks and just getting caught up. Congrats to Craig, Happy Birthday to you and quick recovery to Mark. Amazing how life just keeps ticking away - you are so good at it all. : )

Anonymous said...

Glad to hear that Mark is doing better! Oh, what a handsome young man with a 100 watt smile!
And Happy Happy Birthday!
And congrats on the Olympics - I don't know the full story here, but anything to do with the Olympics and news reporters calling is cool!

Gail said...

Glad to hear things are getting better. If you want, you and Ragan can come to girls camp with me. We would love to have you.