Well, 2011 was a year full of change for the McKay family. We moved in January into Heather and Chad’s house. They moved to Bartlett to put Charlie and Hannah into school. I continued to homeschool Beau, Jonah, and Carter through the end of the school year. We took a trip to Florida in March to visit with Jason’s Grandmother Henderson. She had never met Jonah, Carter, or Isabelle. We had such a great time! She is an amazing Christian lady and she adored the kids. We went to the beach (the first time for Carter and Isabelle to see the ocean!) and spent time with Gram and her family. Lads to Leaders came in April and it was awesome! All the boys participated in Song Leading and Preaching. Beau won 2nd place out of about 60 boys his age in Song Leading! We were so proud! He has a great voice and he loves to use it!
When school was over, summer was packed with baseball and swimming! We had a great summer! In July, we went to Gatlinburgh for vacation with my Mom and Dad. We camped for a week beside a beautiful creek! We enjoyed the outdoors and we went to Cades’ Cove, where we saw a mommy bear feeding her three baby cubs! It was unbelievable! We left from there and went to Pennsylvania to drop the boys off so they could spend a week at church camp with MamaKay and DaddyKay. The kids had a great time at camp! After a week, we met MamaKay and DaddyKay to pick up the boys. MamaKay and DaddyKay moved to St. Thomas to run a coffee shop.
School and football started in August. Beau, Jonah, and Carter all did awesome at football this year! Jason coached Beau’s team; Jonah and Carter played on the Bantam team. Homeschool was rough; Beau and Jonah did fine, but Carter struggled with the structure of it. He needs a strict schedule and lots of structure, which is NOT the way I teach, so we were butting heads pretty hard! Jason and I did lots of praying and we felt that the kids needed to go back to school this year. So, we had to move AGAIN to get the boys into Shelby County Schools! We moved September 1st to our house on Douglass. It’s an amazing location! We walk to the elementary school and church! The kids are so happy there! We got them all back in school and football was in full swing by October.
The kids were thriving in school and football when we had a slight disaster. After running the 5K race for Team Hannah and LeBonheur, I suffered a mini-stroke. It was the scariest moment of my life-I truly thought I was dying and I would not see my children grow into adults. I spent 3 days in the hospital having a multitude of tests run. Doctors decided that a small hole in my heart led to the stroke and I needed to take a daily 325mg dose of aspirin a day to prevent a future stroke. So, I take my aspirin and I am continuing to run 4 times a week to keep in shape. Hopefully, I won’t have another stroke.
November came and football continued. All three boys made it to the playoffs in football, but lost in the first round. ;-( It was a sad day! Beau made the All-Star team and was named Lineman of the Year! His work ethic on the football field is astounding! All of his coaches love how dedicated and hard-working he is. He gives 110% all the time and never gives up! I hope he will always keep that winning attitude!
Jonah is a clown! He loves to entertain us and make us all laugh! He will just get in the middle of the room and start doing a silly dance just to see how we will react. He’s also a bit dramatic. If he gets a paper cut, he acts like he cut his entire finger off! Jonah also loves animals! I think he might be my vet one day. Carter is my “thinker”. He contemplates everything he sees and he can figure out anything. He reminds me so much of Jason that way. Carter is the one we go to if we lose something-he usually knows where it is. He loves to work with tools and cars and anything with “parts”. It’s pretty amazing! Isabelle is our little princess, of course! She absolutely LOVES the color pink-it’s almost an obsession! She only wants to wear pink clothes and even at Easter, she would only pick up the “pink” eggs! It is hilarious to see! The boys love to carry her around and baby her! She eats it up, too. She is such a girly girl, too. She loves to play dress up and play with baby dolls and play kitchen! But, she’s not too girly to get in the dirt and play with a truck-as long as it’s PINK! ;-)
Well, in a nutshell, life is just as I have always wanted it! It’s not perfect, but it’s perfect for me! I get to spend every day with the people I love most in the world-my husband and my kids! This is my dream! As long as I have them, I couldn’t ask for more! My family all lives nearby and we are all so close. It’s like a preview of what Heaven will be like!
