What a crazy, hectic but good week!

On Monday morning, I started a two-day photography workshop that one of my UT instructors, Steve Chastain, hosted with Rob Heyman from Brisbane, Australia. What a great experience this was! Great for learning - I learned soooo much! Great for my mental health because it was with 9 other great photographers - who all had great personalities and senses of humor so there was A LOT of laughter and fun. We spent the mornings learning and then mid-afternoon on both Monday and Tuesday we went out shooting with Rob and Steve.

Dad and Marilyn got here late on Monday afternoon. So, they spent the evening with us Monday and then spent the entire day in Kingston and Rockwood on Tuesday with Gran and Jack and Sue. On Tuesday, I went strait from the photo shoot that we had at Market Square and downtown Knoxville to my Tuesday night class.

I was pooped Tuesday night!!

Wednesday morning, Don took the day off and went with us down to see Gran and we took Jack and Sue, with Gran out to lunch. We had a great time! Gran got a new haircut and looked great! She is doing so well at Victorian Square! It's truly amazing! She really does consider it her new home and she's getting involved and making friends. But, her memory is still continuing to get worse. At least I don't worry about her ever waking minute anymore.

Dad looked so good from the front but his poor head... it looks so painful and bad. He has some paralysis in his face, mouth and shoulder. He is slightly disfigured but that isn't what matters... what matters is how hard he is fighting this! He brought the custom mask that he had to wear during radiation for us to see. He had to be bolted down... he's done with radiation and he starts the intensive month long - 5 days a week chemo tomorrow and then he continues on with chemo 3x a week for 11 months after that. What a journey he still has ahead of him. Please continue to keep him in your prayers!

It did her and Dad both good to spend some time together!! It did me good to have some good quality time with Dad and Marilyn and to see that they were both doing better emotionally than their last visit the end of April. I've been so worried about them both.

Then, we headed back to the condo and worked to get everything ready for the final estate sale Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. We got rid of so much more stuff!! It was a big relief... a lot of work but worth it! We met some of the neatest people - but also some that weren't so hot! I will do my best to remember the good ones... like this 83 year old couple who were both so sweet and were so very excited about the things that they got. They'd been married 63 years and just sweet good people. Boy, did they drive away with a packed pick up truck full!!

Katie went to Dr. Chris Miller, the neurologist, FINALLY this week. He really didn't tell us much we didn't know already. Katie definitely has mid-line brain abnormalities and all her "connections" are definitely not firing properly. He thought she was doing AMAZINGLY well to have the brain abnormalities that she has and encouraged us to keep challenging her to meet her maximum potential... but she will definitely struggle more as tasks become harder and more complicated with maturity.

We went to see the Smokies play on Friday night! I was so pooped but we had a fantastic time anyway! We had gotten great seats - especially for Katie's vision. But, I am still having some back problems from my last farm related injury so we ended up in the outfield on a blanket - which actually was a little more fun because we got to laugh and giggle more with Katie! It was a great night!!

Yesterday, we met more people down at the condo for moving out some big items and then we all kind of crashed yesterday afternoon. So pooped!!!

Katie is going to a friend's birthday party this afternoon at Build-A-Bear! Thank goodness it isn't Chuck-E-Cheese! YAY!!

I will post some of the work I did with Rob later today or tomorrow. I have a photoshoot scheduled this Wednesday for a local children's boutique - that should be fun!

More later!
LA :)