February Update

This has been another busy month for the Queen family. :-)

I began the month by organizing a "Souper Bowl" Chili & Soup Lunch & Cook-Off at work to raise money for our "Big Hearts of Willis" Heart Walk team. All the soups, chilis, fixins, dessert, & drinks were donated/prepared by employees. We had over 20 entries in our Cook-Off and raised $900 by selling Combo lunches for $5 each.

Courtney and I went to a Super Bowl Party at our friends' house and she enjoyed playing with one of her former teacher's granddaughter. Although I don't like the Colts, I really wanted Peyton to win another Super Bowl.

Courtney missed the 2nd session of her bowling league due to her surgery, but she was able to start this 3rd session. They bowl 3 games on Saturday mornings for 8 weeks. She is on a team with 3 other girls this time and their team name is Thriller. Her first week back, she rolled her highest game ever with a 96.

Kelsey and Jennifer visited Courtney's school for her Valentine's party on Friday. Courtney took Kelsey's CD that she made and played it for her class. Several of the teachers wanted to buy copies. :-)

We went to Rob and Lynn's house Saturday night for dinner and enjoyed spending time with them, Michael, Ryan, & Peggy and Glen.

On Valentine's Day, we had a family meal at home. Kelsey's boyfriend came over and ate with us. We had lasagna and Jennifer made some of Kelsey's favorites for dessert (Reeses' no bake pie & chocolate covered strawberries).

Kelsey's DCA Show Choir "Legacy" competed at Belmont University in the Music City Show Shoppe. Their theme was "The Awesome 80's" and included "Living on a Prayer", a medley of 80's hit tunes ("Walk like an Egyptian", "The Color of Love", "Love is a Battlefield", & more), and ended with a Michael Jackson medley ("Beat It", Man in the Mirror", & "Thriller"). They did an awesome job.

This was their 2nd time in this competion and their critique judge told them that they were 1,000 times better than last year. The schools that placed in the Top 5 all have Fine Arts auditoriums and are much bigger schools. We spent the entire day there, since they performed at 11:00 AM and the finalists were not announced until almost 6:00 PM. I helped with the stage setup and removal before and after their performance. It was a great day and we were really proud of them. Robin took Courtney with her for the day after Kelsey's performance and they went bowling, shopping, and played games at Robin's house the remainder of the day.

We had a birthday party at our house for Tori, who just turned 2. It was originally going to be at Chuck E. Cheese, but after some last minute shuffling, we had it here. Lots of fun and enjoyed having everyone here (Glen & Peggy, Jim & Phyllis, Bill & Judy, Phillip & Christy, and Tanner, Trace, & Tori).

Kelsey's DCA Show Choir gave an encore performance of their "Awesome 80's" show for the school on Monday afternoon and then another performance for family and friends that night. Jennifer's cousin Autumn got to come for the performance and really enjoyed. Several people even thought that her and Kelsey favor each other. :-)

And if the month had not been busy enough, we ended it this past Saturday with Courtney's bowling league. She bowled her NEW high game of 111 and bowled a TURKEY (for you bowling novices, that is 3 strikes in a row). They announced it over the PA system and she was excited as she could be. She has 6 more weeks in this last session of the league.

I will try to update more often than a month at a time, especially once we know more about Courtney's next surgery.

Thank you for catching up on our family. If you can, leave me a comment and let me know someone is reading this and if you would like for me to continue.

January Update

Courtney is still doing very well at home and at school. Everyone who talks to her on the phone or in person is really amazed at how much better they can understand her.

Kelsey is as busy as ever. The DCA Legacy Show Choir is preparing for their competition at Belmont in February. She is also preparing for the SETC competition in Lexington, KY in March and practices several times a week for the Spring Musical in April. She recently auditioned for and was chosen for the Creative Ministry team at DCA. They will perform at local churches once a month as an outreach to youth and help promote DCA to possible local students.

We finally got to exchange Christmas gifts with my family as Mom, Dad, Aunt Charlotte, and Madison came over and spent a Saturday with us.

When the snow storm came in last weekend, we got about 4 inches of snow and our streets were covered for several days. Courtney got to enjoy her first sledding experience. We went down the main street in our neighborhood and also down a couple of hills in the common area. I worked from home on Monday and helped scrape the right side of the street so that cars could get in and out. Below are some pictures of the girls in the snow.

December 2009 Pictures

This was Kelsey in studio making a Christmas gift CD. She really enjoyed it and the CD was awesome (if I do say so myself). :-)















Courtney loves bowling and has gotten a lot better since she started playing in a league. This was during our Family Day during Christmas visit in McMinnville.






This was Kelsey fixing Courtney's surgery hairdo. She always puts it up in braids anytime Courtney has surgery to keep it out of the doctors' way. Also notice the scrubs they both have on. :-) Kelsey has a Vanderbilt Children's Hospital jacket and sometimes gets mistaken for an employee. :-)






Aren't they so cute? :-) Kelsey loves to crawl up in bed with Courtney while she is in the hospital.






Courtney had us up at 6:00 AM on the 30th wanting to go walking. We toured the 2nd floor and took pictures of the Christmas decorations. She went back to bed and I took a shower and headed to work. :-)





New Year's Eve - Getting ready to go home. Kelsey is making gifts and I am getting Courtney to eat enough to allow us to go home. We were home by 6:00 and brought in the New Year at home. YEAH!!!!!

Tuesday, January 12th

Courtney went back for her follow-up appointment today and the doctor was very pleased with how well everything is healing. He doesn't need to see her for 3 months and said that she doesn't have any restrictions on her right now. She can do as much as she can tolerate while she builds her strength back up.

She is going back to school tomorrow and is very excited about that. Since they had a couple of snow days last week, she only missed 4 days.

Kelsey didn't get the part she auditioned for in the DCA Musical, but she will be on stage throughout the entire play. She will lead off the play with a lengthy speaking part and then will be in the ensemble in every act. She was really disappointed about not getting the part of Kathy, but she is starting to get excited about some of the things they are going to do on stage and the fact that she gets to tap dance. In addition to practice for the musical, she also has Show Choir practice (competition at Belmont in February) and getting ready for her Governor's School auditions this weekend. She will be trying out for a vocal spot and a theater spot.

Friday, January 8th

I was able to get out of the neighborhood this morning and made it to work. The roads were clear once I got out to the main roads. There was a snow plow that put down salt and scraped the roads in our neighborhood this afternoon. It has started snowing a little more this evening.

We had pizza fondue for supper, watched Alvin and the Chipmunks, and played Wii tonight. Kelsey's callback for the play was postponed until tomorrow afternoon. I haven't been able to get the pictures uploaded yet. I will try to do that tomorrow.

Thursday, January 7th

Courtney is still doing well. We have completely stopped giving her the pain medicine. She is now able to play some of her Wii Fit games and loving that. Jennifer is getting a little stir crazy since we have had to keep Courtney inside during all of this cold weather.

Kelsey got a callback for the part of Kathy in the DCA Spring Musical "Singin in the Rain". DCA did not have school today and it will be closed again tomorrow. The callbacks are scheduled for Friday night, but I am not sure what the school closings will do to that.

My office allowed us to leave at 4:00 today and the roads were fine until I got to my neighborhood. I was not able to make it up the road to my street and had to park the van in front of a neighbor's house. I may have to work from home tomorrow or take a vacation day if someone doesn't clear our streets tonight or tomorrow morning.

Courtney is doing well at home

We have been home 2 days now and Courtney is recuperating well. We have been able to cutback on the pain medicine and she is loving playing with her Wii games and her iPod. She is sleeping downstairs on the couch for a few nights and one of us is staying down there with her so that we can give her medicine in the wee morning hours.

Yesterday, we pretty much just caught up on sleep and rest. I watched football games all day, read some newspapers, cleaned up my work e-mail, and watched movies with the girls. Kelsey spent the day with friends and Courtney played with her Christmas gifts.

Jenn went in to the office today and worked a little bit and Kelsey spent most of the day practicing for her audition for the DCA Spring Musical "Singin in the Rain". Courtney and I played Wii and I did some laundry, watched football games, and cleaned up some on the house.

Tomorrow Jenn and Courtney will stay at home while Kelsey and I go to church in the morning.

I will try to post some pictures on the blog site tomorrow.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support.