Happy Birthday Julia!

Happy 4th Birthday to our sweet niece, Julia!!! Aunt Jen, Uncle Patrick and Morgan wish you the very best day. We love you so much.

Birthday Fun with the Tenneys

After a brief stop over at the house, we headed south today to celebrate another Tenney birthday. Julia turns four next Tuesday and we had perfect weather to help her celebrate. It was nice to see all of the Tenney clan there as well. We have a good time when we all get together.

Julia, trying on her birthday presents from Nannie and Big Pop. You may remember Morgan's red boots similar to these!

The birthday girl, proudly displaying a gift. Doesn't she look adorable as a cowgirl?

Morgan and Patrick looked on as Julia opened her gifts.


Four generations of Tenneys (Ralph, Charlie, Kole Tenney Blount, and Patrick)

Morgan and Nannie....silly girls!

Morgan playing with Uncle Chris

Our handsome little guy.

I think it's funny (or ironic or whatever) that 3 generations of Tenney men all married women whose names start with "J"! June (married to grandfather, Ralph), Janet (married to dad, Charlie) and Jennifer (married to son, Patrick). If we ever have a boy, I guess I'll "know" when he meets the girl he will marry :)

Yes, we are dressed alike. No, I don't normally like to do this, but it WAS a Mountaineer football day. And to be fair, I had my shirt first.

Patrick's sister Amy, and her husband Chris


Mother and son. So precious.

If you would like to see more pictures from today, hop on over to Morgan's website!

Quick Update

Things continue to go well here in sunny Florida. This past week we have all got to do a lot of resting and relaxing, which has been so nice. Mom continues to do well. She saw her doctor yesterday and he was very pleased with her healing so far. He did mention that her gagging may continue for the next three months (hopefully not) but until the swelling in her neck goes down she'll continue to have mostly a soft diet. She can start driving on October 10th and will probably return to work October 25th. Aunt Linda will be staying with her until the 10th and Morgan and I head back north tomorrow. If would like to know what we have been up to this past week, head to Morgan's website for pictures and updates!

This and That

My first week in Florida is already almost over. It's been a good week overall. Some days have felt very long, but overall the week has just flown by. Morgan had a great time on the plane and overall was very good. The weather here is gorgeous, but H-O-T! I knew it would be, but going from a 48 degree morning to a 96 degree afternoon was a little tough. I think I have finally gotten used to the weather here, but I already anticipate getting sick when I go back home.


Monday we tried to go to the beach to relax and play in the water. We only got to stay for 15 minutes because the yellow biting flies were TERRIBLE! Morgan had a great time playing in the water and I promised her we would get back out to the beach before we left. We have plans to meet a friend of mine on Tuesday for some fun in the sun.






Mom's surgery on Tuesday went really well. She was in surgery for 3.5 hours, and overall we spent less than 32 hours total at the hospital.


She spent one night in the hospital and I was able to bring her home Wednesday afternoon. Mom had a good day Wednesday. Thursday she started complaining about a very sore throat (which we anticipated) and was coughing up a lot of mucus. This morning she was gagging every time she swallowed and said her chest felt very heavy. We headed out to the ER and after 4 hours there she was diagnosed it post-op pneumonia. Poor thing! She is now on a pretty tough antibiotic to help get rid of that as well as her pain medication for her neck. She has to wear her neck brace at all times unless she is eating, showering, or sleeping. She says the brace is very comfortable (I am shocked).



Her Charge Nurse, Morgan, has been a huge help, feeding Mom water in the hospital and getting things as needed around the house. She likes to say "I am in charge", and she is!! Mom's night nurses, Leon and Pfeffer, have been cuddling with Mom a lot. Hopefully their puppy snuggles will make Mom feel better soon.






Not much else has been going on. Mom and I do a lot of crossword puzzles together. Aunt Linda entertains Morgan and we have all been simply resting. Thank you all for your prayers for our family. If you can, please continue to pray for Mom while she heals, and for Linda and I since both of us have been battling headaches/migraines over the past couple days.

On Steroids, Soccer Moms, and Marriage

It's been an interesting start to fall in the Tenney household. Here's a quick stream of consciousness rundown of our last few days...


After noticing the dog walking funny for three days I finally picked her up and discovered three of her toes were infected and oozing pus (yeah, it was gross). I should mention that Bailey is allergic to the grass. I think it's weird that a dog is allergic to grass, but she is, and it makes her feet itch like crazy. I pump as much Benadryl into her as I can, but I guess it wasn't working. Back in 2007 this same thing happened where she managed to lick her feet raw and they got infected. So I made an appointment with the vet and taped a pair of Morgan's socks onto her feet to keep her from licking them. Needless to say, she was less than pleased.



Thankfully the vet was able to see us the next day. We left there with an antibiotic, steroids, and a solution to soak her feet in. I was upset about the steroids because we had finally gotten all of the weight off her from the last infection. Because she's so little and LONG, extra weight is really hard on her back and legs. We are going to try hard to keep her limited on food and walking, but it isn't easy. Her pill regimine is so crazy I had to write it out on a calendar for us to follow.



Yeah, it's nuts. But I am happy to report that after only 4 days, her feet already look a lot better and I am no longer putting socks on her. She's happy about that for sure.
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Morgan continues to go to soccer practice, although I cannot say that she is participating. On Saturday her accomplishments were picking grass for the coach and crying on the sidelines. It was the longest hour. I get so frustrated with her, not because she can't play well, but because she refuses to listen to the coach. Her daddy will be taking her to practice this coming Saturday and hopefully she'll have a better day.


Unfortunately Patrick was NOT there last Monday to stop me from volunteering to be the "Team Mom". Here's something most people don't know about me...I hate when someone asks a question and the entire room is silent. When I was in school I would inevitably be the one to answer the question because after two passes of the teacher's eyes over a dead silent classroom I couldn't stand it anymore. The same thing happened on Monday. The coach asked for a volunteer to be the team mom, and all of those moms sat there, heads down, avoiding eye contact, until I finally raised my hand. I couldn't help myself! So now I am the Little Kickers' Team Mom. Great. Something else for me to do. I guess, though, that Morgan will have to tough it out the rest of the season :) I do hope that she does start participating, even if the only thing (and most important I think) she learns is that when she is on the field/court she should listen to the coach, not Mommy and Daddy, not the crowd, but listen to the coach. That's my one goal for her this soccer season.
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Lastly, I heard two things this last week that were really disheartening, and an indicator of how the world views marriage, I think. One of my colleagues is going through a divorce, after 39 years of marriage. How can that happen? You stay committed for nearly 4 decades then you decide you can't do it anymore? And on Saturday, the ladies behind us at the football game were being obnoxiously loud, talking about their kids and husbands, and multiple ex-husbands. The one woman, while speaking to a man behind her, said "It's not three strikes and you're out. It should be one strike and you're out. There are plenty of other men out there". That comment really slapped me in the face. I didn't say anything to her, but it's been weighing on me ever since.


As most of you who are married know, marriage is not easy. It's not all vacations and diamonds, and flowers all the time. Marriage takes total commitment every day from BOTH parties. But when you commit to someone, you vow to stay with them "for better or worse, in sickness and health, until death do us part". That is a serious commitment, and I feel it's because just words to people now. Marriage is a life bond between two people who love each other deeply. Marriage is happy times AND hard times. Society views marriage as a dating game where people are committed to a sometimes monogamous relationship for a short while then two people move on. That is not how God meant for marriage to work.


In our relatively short marriage of 7 years, Patrick and I have faced some very joyous times, and some very, very dark times. But during those dark times we remained committed to each other, and in the end leaned on each other (with a lot of praying) to get through those times. And I am not foolish enough to believe that our dark times are the last ones we will have. We made a commitment to each other, and while our love for each other has evolved into something different from when we first got married, our love is richer and deeper than it has been. It saddens me when people ask how long we've been married, then say "wow, that's a long time" at a mere 7 years. In 2010 most people are on their second marriage by this point in their lives. And I am not trying to say that people should never get divorced. Certainly there are very good reasons to dissolve a marriage. But it's too easy to not try, to not commit, to throw away a person out of your life just because you feel like it.


While I have no idea what to do about my feelings, I do hope that our marriage, while certainly not perfect nor will it ever be, will be a positive influence on the younger people we interact with. Sure we have plenty "how not to handle a marriage" moments, but through it all Patrick and I have stuck to it, and to each other. And my plan is to do so until we reach the gates of Heaven. And if I get there first, I'll wait on Patrick there, so we may be together for all eternity. That, I believe, is what marriage is all about.

Are you ready for some football??

It's September in the University City, which only means one thing.....WVU Football! Football is the ONLY nice thing about fall in my opinion. Otherwise I'd take summer year-round. In any event, Labor Day weekend kicked off the Mountaineers home schedule. Although our boys didn't look as good as most fans thought, they came out with a win, which I guess is all that matters.


We once again tailgated with some of the best people in the world...the Beans, Doolittles, Galeotas, Robinsons, and others. The guys had the tailgate set up by 6:45 (for a 3:30 game...yeah, it's crazy!) and the menu featured home made pulled pork sandwiches, and all the junk food you could imagine to eat. It's the only time of the year that I "don't care" what Morgan eats. She had such fun playing with the other kids, all while under the watchful eyes of her cousins Anna and Shannon.

Morgan and I hope to make it to 5 games this year, weather permitting. We are looking forward to another year of Mountaineer football and hope our guys have a great season! Let's GOOOOO Mountaineers!

Morgan, ready for tailgating action!

Mountain Mamas


Morgan's traditional Zul (frozen lemonade)

Sitting with her best buddy, Josh

Our beautiful cheerleader