Will you pray with me...

I have a prayer request today that is dear to my heart. One of my first friends (ever) has been fighting the battle of his life for the past nine years. His wife shared this news with our HS class this week:

After 9 years of battling, Bubba was told yesterday that his tumors have grown, and that the doctor didn't think he should do any more treatment. Unfortunately I was not by his side when he got this news, but his wonderful parents were.

Bubba is a fighter, and is my hero! He has done everything for our family, and I am forever grateful! He told the doctor he could not come home, and tell me this without trying something else. There is one other chemo that his body has not seen, that he will be trying. We then will be going back in November for results, unless needed to go sooner. The oncologist fills like the reason he is so tired is because where the tumors are pressing, and it has also gone into his cerebral fluid.

He has suffered so much these last 2 months, and it gets to a point where it is more about quality, not quantity of life.

We are putting all of our faith in The Lord, and relying on the power of prayer to give Bubba the strength to win the battle! Let the oncologist be in awe of His glorious hand, when Bubba is healed!

This text is very hard to send, we debated what we needed to tell all of you because Bubba does not want people to think he is giving up. We agreed we needed to tell everything, because right now, prayer is what is going to get us through this! We have one of the best groups of family, and friends out there, that can share this news, and get the prayer chains going!

Just please know, this is a very difficult time for us, and I'm doing my best to stay strong around the kids. It would be best if I didn't talk about it around them, because I don't want to worry them. I talked to Jordan a little last night, and he sent a text out to friends to pray for his dad too.

My request is simple - pray for strength. Pray for courage. Pray for peace. Please simply pray.

Our high school motto is three simple words: Rockets Never Quit. And Bubba (Roy) lives this credo. He has never quit - fighting, praying, even working throughout his illness. He supports his family through all of the obstacles that life has brought to him. He never quits smiling, loving, encouraging and praying. 

And we never quit - hoping, supporting and asking for a miracle. 

Our class is one of those crazy mysteries that even we can't quite figure out. We are small town through and through and though years and miles separate us, we are still connected. And one of our own needs us. 

Bubba is a great man and needs all the prayers that we can offer. This news shakes us, but our fear pales in comparison to the mighty hand of God. I ask that you lift Bubba and his family up in prayer. 

Move mountains with your faith. 

Because Rockets Never Quit. 

Fairy tale frienships...

Believe it or not, my life isn't really a fairy tale. I know. 

Like everyone we Kings have our ups and downs. While we relish the good - sometimes the bad seems to stick around for a while. And when that happens we turn to each other and to our support system and our happily ever after resumes. 

But - parts of my life are a dream come true. 

Like these women.

Kerri, Jenni, my Momma, Dee, Me, and Chrissy

I met Jenni in kindergarten but we became besties in the first grade. We were both in Mrs. Sadler's class (seriously the best teacher ever) and pretty much from that year on, we were inseparable. We took cheerleading and dance together. We had sleepovers. We shared secrets. We played dress up. We lived life in pure bliss. Some people I meet are shocked to hear that I have been friends with someone for close to 30 years, but I can't imagine my life without Jenni.

As time went on our friendship just grew. And soon after, our Moms became best friends, too (because they basically had no other choice). How awesome is that? My best-friend's mom is my mom's best friend.  They are basically Laverne and Shirley, Cagney and Lacey, and Clairee and Weezer - all wrapped in one. 

I love their friendship. They take care of each other, make each other laugh. Love like sisters and fight like them too. They have celebrated each other through the good and supported each other through the tough. Dee introduced me to the wonderful world of REAL mayonnaise (yum!), fried bologna (yum!), and chocolate gravy (still debating!). She made me eat a half sandwich at a time so I wouldn't waste food. She punished me like her own daughter and loves me like one, too. And mom does the same for the "Tuley girls". We are each other's people. 

The times in my life when I have laughed the hardest have been with them. And when I have needed to shed some major tears, they have been there to wipe them away. They have loved me, supported me, cheered for me, cried with me, challenged me, and every now and then loved me enough to tell me they were disappointed in me. I, too, have offered words of wisdom and advice, support and love. I know every story, every heart ache, and every celebratory moment of their lives. Kerri and Chrissy seem just as much like my little sisters as Jenni's (especially when it comes to spunk and attitude because, well... I'm a fiesty one.) 

(I'd also like to be credited for teaching Kerri the art of basketball because I had some mad skills and passed all that knowledge to her on afternoons that Jenni was at tennis practice.)

And as we get older, sometimes life gets harder. Our moments of support are a little bit bigger than that bad breakup or silly rumor. We talk about things like mortgages and taxes. We pray over our desire for healthy children. And we offer support before it's even been asked. And when life hands us things that we don't like or understand, we have each other. 

Dee was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2004, breast cancer in 2009 & 2011 and has recently been met with some new medical concerns that are out of our control. My heart swells thinking about the poise and grace Jenni has demonstrated as she has become the caretaker, decision maker and rock for "my people." She teaches me every single day to love with freedom, to wait with patience, and to act with faith. I ask for your prayers as they navigate the decisions that are to follow. 

I pray that my kids are given a friendship like ours. That they each have a person that they get to spend their ENTIRE life with - beginning to end, good and bad, happy and sad, easy and hard. I so badly want them to have a constant reminder of honesty and goodness and integrity and love. 

Because that is what I was gifted. For some reason, I was blessed with this one tiny fairy tale friendship that I cherish in big and small ways. 

Always.

Please don't go girl you got the right stuff...

As soon as the "soccer celebration" was over on Friday, I jumped flew torpedoed myself got into Ryan's car and headed to Waco to pick up Jenni so we could drive to Dallas for the ultimate GNO at "The Package" tour. Y'all. I was more giggly than that time I secretly held Craig's hand in the library during reading time in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade. 

This was going to be EPIC.

Ten, yes TEN, of us girls from the good ol' class of 1997 were meeting up for some fun. 

(Can we pause and reflect on that? How awesome is it, that we are all still friends after all this time? Some of us talk and see each other more often than others, but we have friendships that have lasted for 30 years. And we are barely even 30 (ok, maybe not barely anymore). I am SO incredibly thankful for the blessing of a small town childhood. A place that is just as much home today as it was the day I left for college. A place that brings love and laughter into my life to this day.)

Katy, Jenni and I met up at Amy's to get ready before heading out to meet the rest of the girls for some dinner first.

We gobbled up some delicious grub, drank some bubbly beverages and filled the first part of our evening with silly stories and laughs. 

One quick group photo and then we were off...

And as soon as we entered American Airlines Center my heart was flooded with memories that I didn't even know I had. Boyz II Men was seriously killing it and I.Was.GIDDY. Like stupid happy. Like a giant kool aid smile on my face. 

Amy got us great seats (and if I would have brought the 300mm lens like I wanted I could have taken some much better pics, but size did matter in this case and no one wanted to lug that sucker around). They sounded amazing and had the whole house swooning and singing to their greatest hits.

We couldn't stop laughing at ourselves. Jenni and Kellie really couldn't stop laughing at me. I may or may not love to sing (loudly) but could potentially be slightly tone deaf.

All too quickly B2Men had to say goodbye - and that is always so hard for them.

(get it?)

Then there was this part in the middle that we like to pretend never happened where Nick Lachey, Brother Drew and two other guys that I don't know their names came out, danced a little, sang some songs and then brought a pregnant woman on the stage, sat her on a stool and proceeded to dance around her in ways that married men should never dance to a woman who is WITH CHILD. 

Or the part where we all realized we were 30(ish). 

So we paused to take a group pic instead.

(We missed you Niki!!)

And then it happened.

My 5th-7th grade dreams FINALLY came true.

They arrived.

NKOTB!!!

And for the next two hours proceeded to put on a great show! They sang all our favorites and sounded great! They also added some parts that I don't remember from 5th grade, like stripping - and while we were all too mature to buy-in to that, we had fun watching the women around us go crazy.

All 15,000 of them!

;)

Jordan still loved the spotlight and could strangely still sing as high as when he was 17, Joey was still adorable, Donnie was still the bad boy, Danny was still the one that no one noticed and poor Jonathan just looked miserable. 

We still knew all the words to all the songs, sang them loudly and only paused once or twice to sit down...

 (well some of us more than others).

:)

It was seriously an AWESOME night spent with some of the greatest women around. 

(this is me. Hanging Tough).

:)