Category: Totally Tatum

I wanted to return to Ohio to see Dr. Nemeh, but this time, I’d bring my mom. He could fix her scoliosis. Me? I could use a miracle too for my intestinal troubles.

Tot made me a pic…love this so much

I got up early (our flight was at 7:30 am) and hung with Coops, Daddy and Tot. Thank you for the coffee daddy!

We will miss you, Tot and Daddy!

We got to the airport, and I got my mom a wheelchair; so helpful.

Through security and to our plane…we made it. Smiling and ready for Ohio.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Tot and Daddy are having fun. I left a few goodies for Taties to open each night if she behaved well.

Jammies!

Coopy got a little nighty too. (Thanks to Tot!)

Also, Tot made Daddy some dessert. Just look at this creation!
He also grilled every night…that was heaven, I’m sure! Along with many chess games and playing in the pool.

Mama and I got our car, a shake from Chik-Fil-A (Thanks to a lovely lady who pushed the wheel chair for my mom), and headed to our hotel.

Cheesecake Factory for dinner and then she gave me a lovely bracelet to commemorate our trip and memories. We haven’t been able to spend much time together, so this was a special time (and for Tot and Daddy too!)

THANK YOU! I just love it;

Tot sent me many texts of love.

I miss you too little cutie.

The next morning, breakfast bar, gym, and delightful time with mom. Ready for Dr. Nemeh!

The water is always a surprise! What fruit will it be today? Blood oranges, OK!

Mama and I got ready and headed to see Dr. Nemeh.

We arrived as we were so excited! I’m ready for a new start. (so is Mama)

Mama went first. He commented that she was so healthy except for her back. He worked miracles on it so she won’t have the improper curvature.

I was next. He commented that I was much better than Feb. (but much inflammation in my back)

But I complained of all the pain and bloating…gas etc.

After we were finished, we went to McDonalds for ice cream and just to relax. I felt awesome, but still so bloated. Not sure WHHHHHYYY!??? Still!!! So glad we go back tomorrow for some followup questions.

Shopping…browsing. Enjoying every flower and tree. It’s so green and colorful!

She offered to take me back to Cheesecake Factory! Oh, my…salmon again. Thank you so much mom.

Tot and Daddy grilled and enjoyed their chess game. I knew they were having a great time.

The next day, we visited Nemeh again.But first, we found an EINSTEIN’s! My coffee! It’s so stinkin’ cute too. Like a little cottage.

Ok..at the office: I told him I just don’t understand: all of my biomarkers have come down. He told me that I have a functional problem. What does that mean? From an injury? I was told it was from food poisoning. The gas in my intestines is caused by archaea  (upon eating, they get activated) which produces methane and causes extreme bloating. Then the gas gets stuck and does not move through my small intestine. WHY!!! Finalllllllleeeee….he noticed my bump near my groin where the trapped gas goes. It has become weak and compromised. OH MY…. WE HAVE ALL MISSED THIS: It’s a INGUINAL HERNIA! I have every symptom.

I immediately scheduled an appt for a surgeon in Scottsdale. I’m on it like white on rice.

Mom feels AMAZING too.

Thank you Dr. Nemeh

Mama and I visited the park and the VIEW of the lake. The beauty is breathtaking.

You can sit on the swing and just Be. I NEED THIS in my life.

The path!

We headed downtown to the Rock and Roll Museum, and we parked near the water. Oh, I wanted to get in!

It was packed, so we decided to just go in to the gift shop. They had a cool band playing out front.

The gift shop was little rocking! I found the cutest shirt for TOT since she LOVES music!
Stay tuned.

Now, back at home, Daddy and Tot

Had brekkie…(Starbucks unicorn cake pop. Can’t beat it.)

had some BBQ parties apparently.

And lots of good ol’ fashion frolicking in the pool!

OH, the joy of it all! They are blazing hot in Phoenix, as I enjoy the rain and cool weather in Ohio. 75!

More flowers for us! Many more in Ohio.

And our final night at Cheescake.

Oh, I miss the Tot and the Daddy, and she misses us!

Now, mom and me? Oh, the blessing. We bonded so much over talk of family and growing up. Daddy and Tot bonded too! I see so much fruit on the tree. I feared traveling with mom, but she was so delightful.

When I got home….WOW!

the card too?

She always draws pictures of her with me or Daddy..it’s all about relationship for her. (The family is her number one!)

Look at how much she and Daddy did to make me feel special!

Here’s the shirt I bought her…MUSIC is her LOVE so I thought this was great!

Such a great time and WINS all around.

1. Mama and me bonding!
2. Mama’s back healing
3. My experience with Nemeh
4. Daddy and TOT bonding
5. Being missed and missing them…so good for our family!
6. GOD IS IN ALL OF THIS! XXOO

LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH

WE LOVE TO READ! More importantly, we have some daily habits that we practice, and I try to model.
I hope she can keep these as she grows and matures. Here’s some things we like to do!

First, there’s always the COOPY who gets some attention in the day…but usually he is sleeping or following us around.

First, Tot is all about cultivating memories. She is very nostalgic, and she loves to keep everything. Case in point; her R2D2 shirt. She resurrected it, and I made it cute again sans the sleeves. (see the Coopy’s nose looking up to his sis?)

The mornings start also with our quiet time. I usually get a head start in our art/play room, and then she goes in to do her devotion.

Right now, we are doing one from Adventures in Odyssey with Average Boy! (I usually leave her a note)

But she also likes to have a checklist.

She goes through the “Armor of God,” Says “Jesus has a HOLD ON ME,” prayer, devo, and then …great day!

Later in the day, we end the day (or during the day) we read some fun books. Right now, she is into Adventures In Odyssey! We are reading this book which has 4 books inside.

We also are kind of into mysteries! The Westing Game is our latest unraveling novel!

Or I read to her from the Book Of Virtues. A classic. Short stories about important values/character traits like HONESTY, LOYALTY, COMPASSION, SELF-DISCIPLINE…

AND…well, I believe in being proactive as a parent. We are going through a Biblical Sexuality study and talking about marriage, sex, and identity in Christ (celebrating her gender!)

Or apologetics she can understand and own what she believes.

We also end every evening with bible reading. We started in Matthew a while ago, and we are reading through the NT. Just started Ephesians!

And…maybe we’ll watch a video of TobyMac! He just came out with a new song: THE GOODNESS! (The Goodness of God!)

(Yes, Jesus!…our King).

We love our time together, and all of these parts make it one special (and hopeful RICH) day! I love you my TOT!

We have so much fun together. Truly…she plays, I work. Then we come together for some drawing, reading, or just talking.

Today, she had a couple moments of “not so pleasantness,” and I LOVE how she immediately has remorse, we talk it out, and IT’S over.

She even sent me this text (she grabbed my phone as I went in the bathroom) and sent me this.

I LOVE HER HEART!! XXOO BABY.

Even for the daddy. Daddy cracked his tooth, and Tatum wanted him to have a visit. She has been losing teeth left and right, and so she felt it was HIS turn to experience some love.

So, she secretly and carefully slipped her tooth pillow under his pillow.

and when he woke up…

Now, if he could get it fixed without it costing more that $5? EEK!?

The girls. Yes, we are all girl!

Today, it started with some braiding.

Of course, we are still working on the french braid. I have to remember from a bazillion years ago.

We also discovered our clay from when she got this for her birthday. It requires the oven, so we had to do it when we had a little time. A turtle, a sloth, some penguins!

Then she wanted me to make her barbie doll some shorts. Aye! Can we make it a skirt? We pulled out our sewing kits, and I got to work.

I decided to use buttons on the skirt.

A fun-filled girlie day.

She woke up to a little reminder from the Daddy!

Love his drawings!

And they hugged. LOVE YOU TWO HAY’S!!

Then, she wanted to BE the Daddy. Hard at work. (Maybe she’ll organize his desk? Maybe not)

Oh, she has a call….Please stand by.

Later he wanted to surprise her with some more goodies. Tot and I spent the day doing girlie things and Daddy worked on the outside of the house. He always makes it so beautiful despite the quails making it unbeautiful. (Love those little guys but eerrrrggghh!)

Ok, so we met up around 2, and WOW! First, Tot gave him a card. She loves to draw them together.

Then, what time is it?
MINION TIME. Bob came to listen.

What’s this?

No way…how appropriate because at 4:50, we are going to take her to the new Minion movie! Surprise!

LOVE DAY! Hooray! It’s a GAS?

So later, we go. But she also got another surprise. Yes, we have a real live cutie Ken living with us, so she wanted a Barbie Ken doll. I call him the Daddy Doug Doll. He’ll be here Monday, but thank goodness we already have our own cutie here!

Off we went to the movie, and luckily we got there in time for her to

…..drive (off-roading?) Tot! stay on the road. Daddy, you have your work cut out for you when she does learn. Glad that’s your department. HA!

What a great day. You two….Your relationship with each other will continue to grow and develop. For that, I’m eternally grateful. Thank you Jesus for being at the center. Happy Love Day!

WE LOVE IT HERE! It’s our happy place. So, I decided to book a trip to our favorite hotel, Poco Diablo. While I don’t care for the name, I love the grounds due to the golf course being free and the prices being adequate. This time, I got a deal to stay at the Villas. They are like mini-condos, so I thought it may be fine to do a Hay adventure at the Villas!

On Monday, July 4th, we headed out around noon. We decided to celebrate our country’s birthday in Sedona this year.

The drive was lovely as we listened to a few podcasts, and Tatum read and played. We loved the Adventures in Odyssey podcast about Nathan Hale and his heroism coupled with our country’s Founding Father’s faith and sacrifice. It was perfectly delightful. When we arrived in Sedona, the weather said, “COOL OFF KIDS!” Hooray!!
Tot and Daddy had some Mexican food, and then we headed for our favorite destination. ICE CREAM AT McDONALD’S!

We couldn’t wait to get to our hotel, and it didn’t disappoint. It was truly like a little condo with a bedroom, kitchen and dining area. We headed to the store so we could stock up, and then…. our celebration of our country.

My honey….I love you~!

We wanted to get up early for our hike and surprise, so we ended with the usual of reading and relaxing.
Although none of us slept well, we were ready to tackle the gym and the hike. Easy Breezy this time at Cathedral Rock.

Yes, we’ll take the EASY route today. Ha!

Welllllll, while on the hike, our lack of sleep caught up with us (and really some underlying unsolved issues). Tatum had a few hiccups, and Daddy (and me) had had enough (or maybe it was the straw). We had it out..right there on the Templeton Trail. (Remember Templeton from Charlotte’s Webb? The rat?)> Appropriately, it was a rat that tried to worm itself into our family, and Tatum threw a rock and said NO MORE! Apologies; time outs; remorse; and PRAYING. Tatum ended up hurting her ankle, and Daddy sacrificially carried her all the way down.

LOVE THAT MAN.

We moved on and made the rest of the day good. Our family FIGHTS for the US. With God at the center, we will continue to prosper as a team.

I love you, TOT! We’ll make it! SO BEAUTIFUL! Our cathedral..our family. We stick together.

OK, Circle K (Daddy drove us to the one that had cinnamon…thank you baby!), and then…..THE SURPRISE!

A…..

Helicopter…..

RIDE!

(with Apex and Joshua!)

We ended up getting the longer tour which took us through all of the back side of Sedona and all the monuments.

First, let’s get in and get situated. Tot and I sat in the back and Daddy up front.

Now just loooooook! WOWOW!
The black on the rocks is the manganese from the water.

When finished, we were so grateful and happy!

We thanked Joshua and Apex profusely and gratefully; we went to Tlaquepaque for some shopping and just to enjoy the architecture. Daddy makes our house look even better than this place!

Lunch and of course McD’s after lunch; swimming, dinner and just hanging out relaxing. SO good!
We were EXHAUSTED, so we fell asleep early and were ready for the next day.

BETTER NIGHT SLEEP. Off to the gym, then a new hike the HHH found!

About one hour around the chimney; Perfect!

OH this is glorious!

Daddy found this cool tree that looked like my highlighted hair! HA!~ A cedar tree?

And a bluejay. He was absolutely beautifully blue and breathtaking.

Almost finished. ….

Oh, I’m ready for my coffeeeee!!! Have you noticed that your pace picks up ten fold when you know you are A…L…M…O…S…T there…… YAHOO!

After our coffee, we went back to change clothes and head out to the downtown Sedona area to walk around and shop.

Tot had $13 allowance, and she had been saving for just the right thing. She decided on a shirt, but first, we had some diversions with other (MANY) options;

Ok, the shirt. Yes mommy…I want the glow in the dark shirt.

Here it is (a later day after I washed it)

After our shopping gig we headed to lunch and McD’s. And then…it happened. No family is perfect, and no family can have perfect children. We know this. We also know that there are behaviors that need to be given grace, and then there are those that need to be nipped in the bud because they can become BIGGER issues as the child matures. A sass here; a disrespectful comment there. When you have an only child, that child can be in the spotlight with ALL the behaviors, and that is what happened (BUT NEEDED) (We owe it to her as her parents because we LOVE those that we discipline just as the Lord loves us). At McDonald’s, Tatum had a few comebacks which were surprisingly ugly. Surprising, yet also had happened in the past (but not as bad), but this time, it was time to deal with it. Doug and I had had it, and she needed a wake up call.

Daddy had some NEEDED words with her, and she remained silent; taking it all in. (So did I! As Daddy needed to get it all out). Back at the hotel, we spent about an hour down at the creek “working it out,” but more importantly realizing that we truly need a DO OVER for our TEAM HAY and for our COMMITMENTS to each other, to Jesus, and to ourselves. Actually, it woke up Tatum. She had us throw some LARGE rocks into the creek to remember that those days over. We are going back to Scottsdale with a new start, Forever Peace path, and a newfound love/deep appreciation for each other.

This is what I LOVE about our family. We deal head on with our “stuff,” and nothing goes swept under the rug to fester. We deal with it then (or within the day).

Getting home, we welcomed our beds, our wonderful home, and our lives. Thank you Jesus for it all.