OMG!!

My little one is growing up before my very eyes!! She will be 7 on October 7th! To celebrate, Karsyn wanted to invite 3 friends to Libby Lu's in the mall for a "make-over," dinner and.... yep, a slumber party! Garry and I are officially parents!! We survived our first true slumber party! 4 little girls, lots of giggles and not much sleeping!! Libby Lu's was a blast... as you can see from the pictures! We went to Chili's afterwards and ate and opened gifts! Then home for cake and sleep! (yeah, right!!) Actually, they were great! They whispered and giggled, while watching Camp Rock, and gave in to heavy eyes about midnight! Some of them slept "lightly" in order to salvage the hair! And they were hard at it again by 7am!! We then loaded up and went to Kaleb's football game! (where Kaleb met us after spending the night with a friend to avoid the girly girl stuff!) Needless to say, everyone crashed after a busy day and not much sleep the night before!
Here are some pictures!! They are such little divas!!






The next day!!!

Friday Live!!

So the last Friday of the month at Bennett Elementary is celebrated with Friday Live!! It is sort of like a pep rally! They recognize those who have had outstanding months with shining star awards, Bennett Bear awards, etc.! Benny the Bear shows up and the cheerleaders cheer, and everyone gets loud!! This year, Karsyn is a cheerleader, and this was her first Friday Live to cheer at, and Kaleb ran and was elected to Student Council so they were taking the oath! Lots of fun stuff for the Gormans!! Here are some pictures...

Another 5K...

So... I didn't have plans to run another race, as I am not sure that it is "my thing!" However, this one was in honor of our friend Abbie, who is in 4th grade at Bennett, and currently in a coma at Baylor's rehab facility in Dallas! She was in a car accident with her family 2 weeks ago and suffered severe injuries, including brain trauma. Please pray for her and her family!! Anyway, 1/2 of the race proceeds were going to her family, so we thought we would help out! Garry, Kaleb and I ran the 5K, and Karsyn ran the 1K! Our kids were so excited to do something to benefit Abbie and her family. (and I even shaved a minute off of my first race time!) Here are some pictures from the event!

Toothless!

Karsyn finally lost her other front tooth!! She is so excited and has already received her suprise from the tooth fairy! (whom she wrote a note to, to let her know she would like to keep her tooth!) Of course the tooth fairy left it for her!
Isn't she cute??

This one is for you Bri...

The race was called the Labor of Love (hence Labor Day!). The labor part I get!!! The love part... I need a little more convincing! Anyway... I completed my first race! Completed being the key word!! It was a 5K (3 miles) and Garry and Kaleb ran with me... and stayed with me. My goal was under 35 minutes and I did it in 34 minutes and some seconds. We haven't received official chip times yet... but I did it! Here are some after pics!

Football!!!

Football season is here! Kaleb is on the Longhorns again, and could hardly wait to pad up and get out there! His number is 72 and in this 1st picture he is the one in the middle facing you!! He has been having practice 3 to 4 nights a week and has his 1st game on Sept. 6th! We will keep you posted! His position is fullback, and he has even been carrying the ball some! Yikes!!

First Day of School!

Kaleb is now the big man on campus, being that he is a 5th grader, and Karsyn... well, she is always in charge!! She is in 1st grade and couldn't wait to get back to school. Here are a few pictures from the first day... It seems as though this might be the last year I get this photo op with Kaleb! Here is a good one of them with Mrs. Hanks & Dad! And then one with Karsyn and Mrs. Stahl! What a cute little 1st grader!

Thumbs up for E-Care!!!

So... Kaleb enjoyed a trip to the E-Care for his first set of stitches!! Nana was the lucky one to get to take him! For those of you who do not know Kaleb well, blood and needles are not his thing!!! Everyone in the building knew he was there... and when we went to have them removed, the nurse remembered him too! He will not be using knives anytime in the near future and is glad that his thumb is back to normal...

August 19th...

Such a random day... however, 11 years ago, as this day found us racing to hospital after hospital and being surrounded by family and hundreds of friends, random it was not! Yes, this day marks the 11th anniversary of Garry's brain "thing" (as Kaleb calls it!) As I laid down to bed last night, I was reminded of how tired I was that night as I finally laid down to sleep after 21 exhausting hours of disbelief, emotion, & confusion. I knew that the Lord could take Garry from me at any moment. After all, he is one of His rightful belongings. But, what an awesome God we serve, Garry has been making memories with Kaleb, Karsyn & I every since. The road was long and painful, but we did not have to travel it alone! God gave me tremendous strength through our quest, and a lot of that strength came from all of our family & friends that so graciously spent hours upon hours with me at the hospital day in and day out! I just want to say THANK YOU to all of you for that! You know who you are... and we love each and every one of you! Words could never express how thankful I am for each of you and your role in our adventure!! Happy Anniversary Garry! Love you!

Yet another Flood '08 Update!!

We have tile!!! Here is a quick picture of the new and improved laundry room! We love it!!

Flood update...

So the recovery stages are well under way...
We have removed border, painted and hung a new fan in Kaleb's room! He has new furniture on the way, and the tile and carpet will be in on this coming Tuesday! Then our lives will begin to resemble normal!!! Here are some pictures of us painting Kaleb's room! We did it while he was away at church camp, and surprised him when he came home...

Pics from "The Beach"... as promised!

So... a little more on the trip to the beach! Our destination was Perdido Key... that is about 40 miles West of Destin (for you Destin fans!) in the Pensicola area! The drive was long, but worth every mile! We ventured through 5 states and had an adventure in just about every one!! Our favorite was looking for signs of the leprachaun in Mobile, Alabama! (for those of you wondering about this... tune into Youtube and search the leprachaun in Mobile newscast... you will laugh until you cry!) After an overnight stay in Hattisburg, Mississippi, and lots of "fun family time" in the car... we made it! The beaches are pure white... or sugar as Karsyn describes!! And... believe it or not, it was way cooler there than it was here. We rented a condo for the week and had rights to a private beach... cabana boy and all!! We went to the beach each morning, then the pool, followed by lunch and a great nap! Our evenings were spent searching for crabs and seashells on the beach, swimming, cooking in and of course finding lots of great seafood spots out as well! My only disappointment was that from the time we left Texas until we got to Florida, we saw maybe 1 Starbucks!! We finally found one on about day 5, the DT's had about come to an end by then, but of course we indulged!! We had so much fun and will definitely go back again! Here are a few fun pictures!!

Prepare to be blessed...

legacy - something handed down from an ancestor or a predecessor or from the past

Take a moment to read the words of the following blog, and then thank God for those He has given to you and tell them that you love them!! This blog is such a tribute to a man who truly left a legacy. It is a testament of faith, love and the truth that you never know what God has in store for you. So grab some kleenex and prepare to be blessed and inspired from the words you will read! Furthermore, prepare to live the legacy that you will pass on someday!

SonOfWhale

The Beach...

So after the flood, we left for a much needed vacation in Florida! We rented a condo for the week in Perdido Keys! We hung out at the beach, went swimming, napped, watched the dolphins, hunted for crabs, barried each other in the sand and sited jellyfish! We had a great week, and definitely plan to go back!! Here are just a few pictures to get you started, but I will post many more and share some fun stories from the week soon!

The Flood of '08...

So, Kaleb had gone to spend the night with a friend, and Karsyn and Garry were snuggled up in the chair watching a movie! I took this opportunity to catch up on some laundry and e-mails!!! With Kaleb being gone, the back part of the house was uninhabited... (is that a word??) Anyway, lights were off all was quiet back there! I emerged from the office to hear water and thinking it was the rinse cycle, headed back to add some downey to the load... so I thought! I didn't quite make it to the hall before I stepped in something very wet and cold! It was water!!!! And the washer was not rinsing, it had never stopped filling!!!! The dog bowls were literally floating! I grabbed a broom and began sweeping the water out the back door, while Garry grabbed our shop-vac! As he began sucking up water, we knew this was much more than our little 5 gallon shop-vac could handle! So we called in the calvary... friends and a restoration company... Water was literally everywhere. It was flowing out of Kaleb's room out into the garage from under the wall! Karsyn's room was flooded all the way back through the closet, and from the kids bathroom and game closet, the water passed to our bathroom and closet!!! After staying up until 2am and living with 6 days of those large industrial sized fans and dehumidifiers all over our house, everything was finally dry! We had to learn to talk at a normal volume again instead of yelling over the fans, but it was dry! We are waiting on insurance to settle, so until we can move things back, we are enjoying a huge slumber party with extra mattresses in our room. And for those of you who know me well, you will understand that I am going nuts with this unorganized mess! Check out the pics! We will keep you posted on the disaster relief efforts!
Karsyn's room (i.e. the dining room)

Kaleb's room (i.e. the sunroom)

Karsyn's "playroom" (i.e. the front entry)

Independence Day Fun!!

We started our sunny July 4th with a parade in downtown McKinney! It was a bit lacking... those of you who shared the experience - can I get an Amen?? We did meet up with our friends the Bain's and made the best of it!!! We spent some time on The Square and enjoyed lunch at Spoon's!! We spent the rest of the day swimming and enjoying the nice Texas heat! We ended the day with some great fireworks and a concert by Josh Gracin... Here are a few pictures from our day!