Our crazy week started off with Chaz having food poisoning. So Monday was all about healing Chaz then I spent the rest of the week trying to get caught back up. Somehow even with all this crazy, we managed to get all of our home school work and my work done. It might have been crazy (with all caps) but we had a great and fun week!!
Tuesday I spent the entire day in meetings then got to rush home to accomplish Operation Surprise Heather. Heather's fiancee was injured one month before Chaz. Chris was also with the 101st. He is also an above the knee amputee. Chris and Heather are getting married in one week. I could not have her getting married and not have a bridal shower. So I tricked her into thinking we were planning a caregiver dinner before she went out of town. She helped me plan the whole thing. Her soon-to-be hubby was involved too. I love this first picture I snapped of her. She is calling me evil. This was the exact moment that she realized what I had done. The man in the pic is our concierge here at the apartments. He was in on it too! Aleethia Foundation donated our dinner and Operation Ward 57 donated 2 dozen red velvet cupcakes (Heather's favorite). Thanks to everyone's help, we got to give Heather the bridal shower she deserved. We may not be her family, childhood friends or even her best friends, who were the ones who threw my showers. But we were all drafted into this craziness together and together we make this the best experience we can!
Wednesday we got our home school finished in time to go to gymnastics. From gymnastics we went to pick Chaz up from his class and then we were off to the circus!! We knew we couldn't make it back to the hospital to catch the bus with everyone else so we got our tickets in advance and drove there. I didn't realize it until we got there but we were in one of the suites at the Verizon Center. Just so you know (and can thank them) Sun Trust donated their suite to the hospital so the wounded warrior families could enjoy the circus!!! Here are some of my favorite pics from Wednesday!
Thursday was spent with the girls and I sleeping in and recovering from our late night and me catching up on emails and such. We got our home school done and then had some cooking fun! We made blueberry muffins and then shared them with our neighbors and friends. Then it was March Madness time for Mommy!! I don't do professional sports, but I do love NCAA basketball, so yes I am having a lot of fun right now. As of yesterday, I was 13/16 on my brackets but I have not updated yet!
Friday is test day so we got up and got our tests done while Chaz was at the hospital doing his PT. Then Chaz returned and we were off to the hospital. I went to the main building and he took the girls swimming. I met my friend Laura in the lobby and we went to find the Smith family. My Uncle Tommy from Chattanooga had shared their story with me and I knew I needed to welcome our fellow Tennesseans to the WW Club. I love meeting with all of the families, but you know I am partial to 101st, TN, KY and OK families. In regards to the Smith family, what a great family!! I know that will not be my last time visiting with them. Andrew is like Chaz, he is blessed by all these great people who love him so much. They will do very well and I hope that we can help them along this journey.
After our visit with the Smiths, Laura and I went to Executive Services to get some cupcakes!! I contacted Operation Ward 57 a few weeks ago and asked if we could bring some smiles to the inpatients for St Patrick's Day. They were all for it so they got us some Georgetown Cupcakes!! We loaded this tall cart and wheeled a bunch of cupcakes down the halls of the hospital. Here's a peek inside one of those pink boxes!
We met so many great families yesterday. Some of which truly touched my heart and almost made me cry. You could see how thankful they were and that always warms my heart. Several families also have facebook pages and it was really fun to connect faces to pages! We all giggled about it. Who would have ever thought facebook could bless so many lives?! I am so glad we set the cupcakes up. I really needed to refill my own heart yesterday! It had been a very hard week and I needed a recharge of happy! Mine was a little low. So many thanks to Operation Ward 57 for helping me overflow my heart again! I just love spreading those smiles around.
We finished at the hospital with just enough time for me to get back and get change for dinner. Chaz and the girls were already back and ready, but I was running behind (no surprise here at all, remember I am a Kappa Delta, we tend to have that problem sometimes). So I rushed to get ready and our friends Hannah and David joined us to go to the New Zealand Embassy for dinner. This was another incredible dinner put together by Aleethia Foundation. When we arrived one of the people from the Embassy asked our girls if they wanted to join the children of the Embassy staff. We didn't see our girls again until dinner was over. Our girls had a blast and Chaz and I had a great dinner with grown-ups. Unplanned date night, woot-woot!!
Our girls were super excited that they got to meet the New Zealand Ambassador. They were beyond excited when he shook their hands like he did Chaz's and gave them the same coin. You know you're an Army brat when you are excited about collecting coins!
Right now Chaz and the girls are still asleep and I am blogging, then I am getting to work! We are joining the Yellow Ribbon Fund and many other Wounded Warrior families to go see the Lorax later today. And yes I already have my green on!! I hope you all had a great weekend and Happy St. Patrick's Day!
What a great week! That was so wonderful what you did for Heather. It is something she & her new husband will never forget.I wish more people could read stories like yours, than what we generally get on the news & read in our newspapers. Thanks for your great blog.
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