The Cline Family

So, I've been tagged and I thought I would play along. I'm actually suppose to be studying for my final I have in the morning, which always makes me distracted...brings me back to the college days!!! Anyway, here's my picture.



This picture is pretty obvious, but I'll explain anyway. This was taken when we went for our alterations of our dresses for Ashley's wedding dress and my bridesmaid's dress. It was a really special day, just the girls! The last time we were there, all the bridesmaids were there and we all had to get fitted, which is never fun when you are twice the size of most of the bridesmaids (I am pretty sure Amber ordered a 0 or 2, puke!). Anyway, this day was totally different. It wasn't rushed and mom and I were able to ohh and ahh over how beautiful Ashley looked. We tried on tiaras and veils and pearls and just had a wonderful time. It is hard to believe it was over three years ago!

Okay, I tag Leanne, Krista, and Jennifer (you better do it girls!!!)

Got the call from the doctor today and I am CANCER FREE!!! I never thought I would have to say those words, but right now they sound so sweet!! Thank you all for your prayers. They were much needed and appreciated. Now we just pray for my continued physical healing and that only good things happen from here on out...we're ready to start having fun again! I'm still a little sore but feel confident that I will be all healed by Jen and Lance's party...we plan to enjoy it to the fullest (like we ever party any other way!!).

Love you all and talk to you soon...off to bed to get ready for another fun filled day with hormonal teenagers...am I crazy to really love spending my days with them (for the most part)? I guess I am, but I can't imagine doing anything else.

God is good!

I know I haven't posted anything in a while, but we've been pretty busy around here.

First, we've been working on finally getting the house finished. My parents are up here right now and hopefully we'll be done today, but if not we'll only have the small stuff to finish up from here on out...thank goodness. I'll post pictures of the finished rooms soon.

Second, I have been going through some stuff and didn't want to post until I knew all was well. I actually won't know all the definite details until Tuesday, but the doctor feels pretty confident that it is not anything to be concerned about, so I'll go ahead and tell you what is going on. About three months ago I found a lump in my left breast. I thought that it was probably nothing and would go away (sometimes lumps come up depending your menstrual cycle and then go away after your period) but it didn't. So, about a month or so ago I made an appointment with my OBGYN to have it checked out. She felt it and said that she wanted an ultrasound and mammogram done just to be safe. So, I went to Western Kentucky Diagnostic and had my first mammogram (it was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be) and an ultrasound done. Although the lump could be felt, it did not show up on the mammogram or the ultrasound, which was strange. Two weeks later, I went back to my OBGYN for a follow-up appointment. My doctor could still feel the lump, so she sent me to a breast surgeon to get fluid drawn and a biopsy. When I went to the surgeon, he did another ultrasound and again could not see the lump on the ultrasound. Because of this, he could not draw fluid. Instead, he told me he would have to surgically remove it. So, yesterday at 8:00 a.m. I had to have a lumpectomy (I'm sure I didn't spell that correct) in my left breast. I am pretty nauseated, but doing well. My mom has been up here taking care of me.

Sorry I haven't sent anything sooner, but it has just been such a whirl wind. I'll post again on Tuesday after I see the doctor again.

I love you all and will talk to you soon!

I know I haven't written anything in a while, but I figure I wouldn't bore you all with...I'm grading papers, working on graduate school stuff, and working in the yard...that's about all that has filled my days! Not a lot of excitement. I did, however, feel that we have a blog worthy announcement that can be made in the Cline household.

First announcement...my brother is going to be a daddy! He and Crystal are expecting their first child, a son, together in February. We are all very excited (shocked at first, of course) for them. It is going to be so neat seeing the difference between this little boy and little miss priss Sophie. I'm curious what Sophie will think of the baby. She has loved babies up to this point, but all of them have come and gone and she's still always the center of attention. It should be interesting!

The second announcement is that JoeDan's brother is also going to be a daddy. He and Natalie are expecting in April. It's too early to know what they are having yet, but we are really excited for them as well. As can be expected, I did have a little "poor pitiful me" moment when I found out Robbie and Natalie were expecting. We found out the same weekend that I had spent the weekend with Angie and Branson, who was only a week old (too cute...I need to post some of the pictures) and I started my period. So, needless to say, I was a bit down at the time that we were told. I got over it quickly though, said a pray to God...thanked him for my wonderful life and told him that I was going to stop stressing over wanting to be pregnant. I have too much to be thankful for to overlook it all and think that being pregnant is the only thing that will make me happy. I know it isn't, but it's hard when you are surrounded by babies and don't have one to call your own. Okay, enough of that. I am totally excited for both my brothers and can't wait to see these new little additions to the family. We are growing oh so quickly! It is amazing how fast a family dynamic can change. I can't wait to see what the future brings for us all.

Please keep Chris and Crystal and Robbie and Natalie in your prayers. Pray that both ladies have pleasant pregnancies (both have been a little sick) and healthy, beautiful babies.

I am officially in graduate school. I am not sure how I feel about that. On one hand, I am glad to be starting because that means I'm closer to finishing! Sad that I'm already thinking about graduation and I haven't even been to my first class yet! I ran by campus today and turned in a recommendation for a former student that is going through sorority rush. I have to admit, it was very strange being back on campus. I'm sure it will be even stranger when I am walking on campus and run into a student I had in class and he/she calls me "Mrs. Cline." I'll keep you posted as to how my class goes. I'm only taking one class. It is almost as much for one graduate class as it was for an entire semester when I went to Western the first time around. Crazy! I figure one class at a time won't break the bank and won't stress me out too much! I'm getting the hardest class out of the way this semester (Research Methods!) so that when we start a family I won't have to worry about it! We'll see what happens!

As you have seen, I haven't posted anything in a while. We've been busy, as you will read shortly. Sophie had her first birthday on July 20, I went to the Sheryl Crow concert on July 24 (also Ashley's 27th birthday...took her and Sophie to P.F. Chang's on the 25th before heading back to BG), and we've been renovating the house since May (more below on that!). So, I am catching up now...be ready for a long read!

Right before we went back to school, Ashley, Neal, JoeDan, and I headed up to Cincinnati, OH and pretended to be kids again! We went to Kings Island and The Beach (a water park). We gave the tickets to Kings Island to Ashley and Neal for their birthdays (Ashley's was July 24th and Neal's is August 12th - he'll be 30!!!) It was so much fun, but the rides killed me and totally freaked me out and took my stomach! I screamed on every ride!!! I definitely felt 30 by the end of the second day!!! I was so sore and ready to be on solid ground :)

School has also started back. We started last Tuesday, August 5 and I guess I'm pretty much back into the swing of things. My students are great for the most part...some wild ones in one class! I'm the yearbook sponsor for the first time this year...that scares me to deal and excites me at the same time. I hope I do the school yearbook justice! I have a great staff, so I'm sure all will turn out well! I am also teaching Business Principles (two class of this...all sophomore class...pretty much just business basics), Accounting I, and Accounting II (I have one class of Acct. I and Acct. II together...hard to balance giving both enough instruction time!). I think it is going to be a great year!!! I would post pictures, but I don't think I can put pictures of my students on here...there's a law against it!

So we started renovating our house back in May and it still is not finished and I have no idea when it will be...aaahhhh!!! Our plan for the kitchen was to have the cabinets painted black and change out the hardware, tile the kitchen floor, replace the kitchen sink and faucet, and get new counter tops. Here is where we are on the kitchen: the cabinets are black but the paint scratches off every time you touch them! The painters are to come back and fix them but aren't sure when they can get back because they are so booked! The counter tops got here this past weekend and are somewhat on...some parts cannot be screwed down because the people who built the cabinets (back in the 70s) put the old counter tops on and then completed the cabinets so now you can't screw one side down because of the way they are built (too hard to explain, but trust me on it...JoeDan, my dad, and I worked forever trying to do it!), the tile will PROBABLY be laid in two weeks...which is about a month past when we were told they would have been laid originally! We are currently walking on sub flooring since we already ripped the linoleum out a month ago! Here are the pictures of what my house looks like right now in the kitchen and what the back room looks like with all the kitchen stuff piled up in it!

Our beautiful kitchen floor...I'll give you the number to our interior decorator!!!


This is an up close picture of the new counter top, the brink wall, and the painted wall in the kitchen. We think it all blends really well together. I just hope the tile looks good with it too! It will be a while before we get to show the finished product :)


This is the room in the back of the house. Thank goodness we have this room and that it was mostly empty at this time. We have used it as a storage/catch all room recently. Everything in the hall closets, kitchen, and part of the bathrooms are back there right now since we can't have anything on the floors because of tiling...of course this stuff has been back there for about a month because we didn't want to put it back after we knew the tiling was pushed back since we would just have to move it again.


The kitchen sink is leaking and we have to have a plumber come this week. This means we have no sink to wash dishes in and no dish washer right now...fun :)

Okay, here is what we planned for the bathrooms: 1/2 bath - retile floor, replace cabinet and faucet, put in new base boards. So far, we had the floor finally tiled today and we'll be able to put the cabinet in shortly...we'll be out of town this coming weekend, so hopefully we can get the cabinet from my parents' house (my dad sells them and got us this one for free!!! Thanks dad!) and install it and then it will be done. Here are pictures from earlier and then today:


Where the cabinet/sink and toilet used to be...we need them back. JoeDan is in my space in the other bathroom!


The sub flooring, which we had to put down ourselves because the old one was rotten from a leak in the toilet...we had to pull up two sub floors, which were pressed wood, which when wet is pretty much saw dust...I was miserable!


Bathroom floor laid today!!! Can't wait to get it finished! At least it is STARTING to look like a bathroom again!


One of the guest bedrooms piled with all kinds of stuff from the bathrooms...or at least it used to be a guest bedroom!

Main Bathroom - replace tile in shower/tub; replace faucet; replace tile floor; replace counter top; replace sink and faucet for sink. Here is where we are today - The tile has been put up for the shower walls and will be grouted tomorrow. It looks great and we are so excited to be able to shower again! We have been taking baths for two weeks now...baths are okay when you want one, but not when you HAVE to take one...baths are never fun for guys! As of last Thursday, we also had no faucet going to the tub and had to fill the bathtub with the shower head (one of those what you can pull down to was your hair, the dog, etc.)...it takes 30 minutes to fill the bath tub! I can you say pure hell!!!! The floor is to be tiled tomorrow and also grouted (I think!). Because the grout has to dry over night, we can not take a shower or bath for the next two days...we will have to wash off with wash cloths at the sink (the only sink we have might I remind you since the one in the 1/2 bath is gone right now and the kitchen one is out of order due to leaking!). That should be interesting to say the least! The counter top is suppose to be ready tomorrow (they called today), so as soon as we can demo the other one out and find some strong friends to help us put it in (granite is SUPER heavy), we'll have that room pretty much done!!! Here are pictures of this room:


The counter top is somewhere under there...this was before school started and when we still had other sinks to use!


The hardworking man of the house taking down the drywall around the tub (I helped, but there are no pictures since I was taking them and couldn't do both!)


The drywall coming down...check out the beautiful 1970s tile...now you know why we are renovating!!!


Drywall is gone! Notice we still have the old faucet (hot and cold are separate). We had to have a plumber come in and change it to a single handle faucet because no one sells the two handle ones anymore...imagine that!!! You'll see the other one in the next photo!


Finally tile!!! Though there is no grout yet (should be tomorrow!), we already love it! Can't wait to take my first shower this week!!!!


Up close of the tile and the border!


Yes, that is a toilet in our bedroom! It is suppose to be put in the 1/2 bath tomorrow...hopefully it will be!

Needless to say, we currently live in a live version of the movie "The Money Pit", but hopefully it will be worth it in the end! I'll keep you posted! Pray we make it through the rest of these never ending renovations :)

On July 23rd I got a call from my aunt asking what I was doing the next night and of course I didn't have much going on because it was right before school was starting and I was trying to get my house cleaned up (that didn't happen obviously!). So, I told her I didn't have anything going on. I figured she was going to ask if I could come down and watch her son, Ben. But, to my surprise she asked if I wanted to go to the Sheryl Crow concert with her! Without any hesitation, I answered, "YES!" Sheryl Crow is one of my all time favorites and I knew the concert was that night, but also knew that we were trying to renovate the house and didn't need to be spending our money on concert tickets. So, obviously I was so excited! I had not been to a concert it what felt like forever! Our seats were great and we rode in her convertible to the concert and got to park in the garage under the Somet Center. I felt like a kid again and like a V.I.P. It was a wonderful night! Thanks Deana!!!

Sophie's first birthday was on July 20. It was a great day! Ashley was such the super mom getting everything together, getting Sophie dressed after her nap, and playing hostess all at the same time. Sophie loved having all her favorite people there, but seemed somewhat overwhelmed when it came time to blow out her candle (the bigger kids helped with that!) and eat her cake. She never took even one bite of her cake. She just stuck her finger in the icing and tried to give everyone else a taste of it! She's a great sharer! Below are some pictures of the day. Enjoy!
Sophie and her cake

Sophie and Mommy!

Sophie and all her birthday presents!

Beautiful birthday girl!!!

It is hard to believe that my niece Sophie will be a year old on Sunday. She has grown up so much and has such an awesome personality. For some reason she just laughs and laughs at me and thinks I am so funny, which I don't mind at all!!! We seem to have a very special bond. Ashley laughs and says there is no reason for her to be around when I come down because Sophie and I neither one give her any attention because all we do is play and laugh with each other. I can't help it. I am totally obsessed with this child!! If you have met her, you know why! She is just a wonderful, happy little girl! It is hard to call her a little girl instead of a baby, but I guess that is what she is. She seems to think she is so big and wants to be so independent. The only time you can hold her is if you have on jewelry (which I put on especially for her!) or if she is tired. It tend to get her up before Ashley has a chance when I spend the night just so I have the opportunity to sit with her and rock her in the morning. She is always in such a good mood when she wakes up and is so happy to see you when you get her out of the bed. My heart just melts! Below are some pictures Ashley and Neal had made of her in her birthday dress and with a cake (which was suppose to look like a big cupcake, but Ashley says it turned out looking more like a mushroom...she's having someone else make it now!!!). Enjoy!