spilling the beans

Do you remember this post?  You know, the looooong post that opened this year reviewing our holidays and expressing our hopes for the new year....
http://lifewiththepages.blogspot.com/2010/01/ringing-in-2010.html

Well, this is the year in review at this point in September:
My mom's cancer turned out to be pancreatic cancer, and we have been through a series of highs and lows regarding this diagnosis.  As I type she is still struggling and believes that she may not be able to tolerate her newest chemo.  This stinks!

In May we learned that our tuition bill for the coming school year would increase by more than $4000.00, so I took a second job to try and hang on to Christian education for the kids.

In August I returned my full-time job, and I distinctly remember starting the year thinking about how much I love this job.  I love the people, the climate, and the traditions.  I love it! This is my 17th year in the building and my 12th year in my current position.  Guess what I learned this week. I have a 30-50% chance of losing this position.  If I keep the position, it will never be the same again.  This is the other stuff I referred to in my post about being discouraged. 

Of course there have been highs this year.  Vacation comes to mind.  Our kids are healthy, and we just started having small, youth group meetings in our home a couple of weeks ago.  It just seems that the hits keep coming, and I am reaching the whatever stage as my life seems to be crumbling. 

To end on a high note, today Savannah played her last field hockey game of the season prior to the tournament which starts next week.  We could see the rain coming over the football field before it made its way to the field hockey field, and as it moved past us, a double rainbow appeared briefly over the school. I didn't get the second rainbow, which disappeared quickly, in the photo, but Savannah's team went on to win their first game of the season!

...and another high note -Zach played in the varsity game tonight! SWEET!

stylin'

"These are beautiful, and they're my style" - Julia's reaction to her new jeans.

Seriously?  Isn't the "style" of a six-year-old whatever her mother buys?

Discouraged

Please pray-
Mom feels crummy. She needs blood, but she has antibodies against so much of the blood that it is not an easy fix.  She reacted badly to platlets and has blood clots. 

Life aside from Mom's illness is discouraging.  I need to get my van to a body shop for a repair from a hit it took in a parking lot.  I am so grateful that the owner of the other vehicle took responsibility, a nice reminder that honest people still exist.
There is other stuff going on that I cannot put on the blog.

I am discouraged.

Famous and Fabulous

Julia told me today on the way to church that when she grows up she wants to be famous and fabulous.  I told her that I can so see that.

Last week at church, we sat with our friends Nick and Julie who happen to be months away from having four, yes four, teenagers. We were swapping stories of the challenges of parenting teenagers when Julia noted that I should share with this couple the characteristics of our four children according to Julia.  This is Julia's assessment.
Zach is the annoying one.
Savannah is the quiet one.
Wyatt is the loud one.
Julia is ...

are you ready for this?

fabulous.

I can't resist sharing these pictures

Yes, we all look this good just minutes before leaving for the hospital to birth a baby.  I just love this picture of the proud papa and his little glowworm looking at each other.

All dressed for her homecoming in the same dress her mom wore home from the hospital.

Regan and Uncle Josh

Of course I stole all of these from Facebook :)

Finally getting around to posting about Labor Day Weekend

Before Regan arrived, I left off blogging with the news that we would be taking Wyatt on an adventure tailored to his love of rocks and desire to see the inside of a cave.  On Saturday September 4th, we started our day a little later than hoped (not unusual at all here) and headed out of town to visit a quaint and fun little place.  The kids toured the cave.  Andy and I have been in this particular cave before, and we are watching our budget, so we wandered around the village while the kids were in the cave.  Zach and Savannah reported that Wyatt was intimidated by the stairs.  He came out of the cave pumped for some mining fun.

Our budding geologist mined for gems and was thrilled to take home a bag full of fancy rocks.  He was mad that I did not return to get a particularly shiny rock that he wanted, but we were a bit rushed.

Candle making and a trip to the mill followed.

We finished the day with a trip to the candy shop and questions from Wyatt about how soon we can return.

Labor Day weekend fun continued on Sunday when we joined my parents and siblings for a humongous meal.  Zach and Savannah slept over at Tiffany's, and Wyatt and Julia stayed with Grandma and Grandpa.  It was back to work on Labor Day for me (at my part time job, which I decided to keep).

sugar and spice and everything nice

Just thought I'd share some more pictures of the beautiful and fascinating Regan.  Tessa took these.  When I visited Regan on Friday, she wore her little hospital cap and kept her hand over her face.  She was happy to be held by anyone, but if we tried to hand her off to someone else or put her down, she used her lungs to let us know that she was fine thank you very much!  She then settled right down.

Look at how she looks her Aunt Tessa right in the eye.

...and Aunt Tiffany too. I don't think she will be a shy girl.

I did get this shot of Savannah and Regan together. Zach was sick and didn't get to see her until Saturday.  He went with Andy, so in typical guy fashion, the camera did not go with them.

Kids say the darndest things

This post comes with a disclaimer.  I don't care for bathroom humor and certainly don't encourage it in my kids, but this was just funny.

On our way to school yesterday, Wyatt and I had a not so unusual conversation about his insatiable appetite.  He, however, had some unusual information to impart.

I told Wyatt that he eats more than anyone I know except maybe Zach.  Wyatt responded that he eats more than Zach. Our conversation continued like this.
me: Wyatt, where do you put all that food?  You stay so skinny.
Wyatt:  When you eat food it becomes poop.  When you drink, it becomes pee. That's where it goes.

Before I could say another thing, Wyatt piped up with, "I figured that out all by myself." nice, huh?

6 pounds, 4 ounces of joy

Regan Elizabeth arrived today weighing 6 pounds, 4 ounces.  She is 18 inches long, alert, and beautiful. Regan and Danielle both decided to be stubborn resulting in a c-section intervention.

These were taken through the glass at the nursery.  I hope to make it back to the hospital for better pictures today.  For the 15 minutes or so that I spent at the hospital elbowing my way past Regan's grandmas and an array of aunts and uncles, Regan looked around.  She never slept.  She only cried when the nurse picked her up so that I could get a better picture.  It didn't work :)  If I could read her mind, I would think that she is saying to herself, "where am I, and what happened to my world!?"

My baby brother is a dad!  Congratulations Jonathan and Danielle!  We love this stubborn stinker already!

Leaves, a tree, and back to decisions

After the devastating news that hit last Thursday, I pretty much came home and went to bed.  As tired as I was, I thought I would sleep the afternoon away, but that did not happen as I was too upset.  Mom talked with the doctor and learned that the cancer has spread to the area outside her liver and to her colon.  She resumes chemo on Tuesday, and apparently there has been some good results with this chemo, so we continue to hope and pray.  Our hope is not in chemo or surgery but in Christ.  I know that my mom is in a win-win situation.  She can recover and spend more time with us or go explore her mansion, physically hug Jesus, reunite with relatives missed and live where it is said that one day in the courts is better than a thousand elsewhere (not necessarily in that order).  This, however, is not a win-win situation for me.

On Friday I gave my two weeks notice to my part-time employer.  Much like the decision to seek and subsequently take this job weighed on my mind, my decision to leave is constantly on my mind.  I resigned because this is retail, and it is a small enough store that often only two people are scheduled.  Given that set-up, I feel like I can't leave on a moment's notice, and I feel like I need to be able to do that.  However, the discount is nice, and if we can ever pull enough money together to replace some furniture that is in bad need of replacement (ie. the kitchen table and chairs since we can't all six sit at the table at this time), the discount combined with the sale prices could make some very nice furniture affordable.  The people I work with there are super, and the kicker is that I received my first school paycheck yesterday.  I could not determine my pay last year when I was trying to work with the school on Julia's tuition.  School pay is a complicated thing.  I knew there was a possibility that my pay would drop, and it did.  Therefore, I am not sure I can afford to leave this job.  My kids are bothered by this set-up, and much as I like the job, it has been difficult to run the household with this added responsibility.  My manager has offered to keep me on if I will work one shift a week.  I am in a quandary about what to do.

Saturday found us in a different sort of mess.  Savannah has a leaf project due on the 14th. She needs to find and identify 40 leaves for this project.  We joined a few of her friends and a couple of moms at a local cemetery to collect the leaves.  This cemetery marks many of their trees, so we were able to collect 40 leaves and now she faces the task of compiling this project and finding the scientific names.  I am grateful to the security guard who granted us permission to pick the leaves off of the trees as we could not find any on the ground.  Why would this project be given at this time of year with the specification that the kids could not pick the leaves? I never complain about school projects, but I may do that on this one.

I had never been to this cemetery and plan to take Wyatt and Julia back to feed the ducks, a childhood pastime that they missed because my grandmother was no longer able to do this by the time they joined the family.  I also want to explore this very old, serene, and beautiful cemetery.  I came home to a lovely surprise.  My original intention before I became distracted by school projects and life was to paint a small area off of the kitchen on Saturday.  It was a much needed task.  I worked on prepping the walls on Friday evening, and returned from the cemetery on Saturday to find that Andy had completed the first coat.  The walls improved immensely with just that one coat of paint.  Andy hates the color on the kitchen walls (a Dijon mustard yellow), so he quickly pointed out that the contrast made the kitchen walls look awful.  Guess what is prepped and ready for paint today:)

We are in the process of fixing things like our broken closet doors and painting walls in desparate need.  Unfortunately, we are also tearing things up as we go.  When I was putting on the second coat of paint, Zach walked under the area where I was working, and paint dripped on his shirt.  Without realizing it was there, he promptly sat on my favorite couch.  Andy replaced our broken closet doors last night, but he slammed the trunk down on his GPS when trying to load up everything for Savannah's field hockey game yesterday.  (sigh) I, for one, am beyond tired of this recession.

Julia had a family tree project due on Monday...as if there was not enough going on here without school projects.  She used the pictures at the end of this post.


Today I have a special plan for Wyatt.  I am struggling to afford this, but Wyatt is kind of the left out kid right now.  We are going on a family outing to see a cave (something he has wanted to do all summer). He has been fascinated with rocks and crystals lately, and there is a place where he can "pan" for cool rocks at this particular cave.  I would wait to do this, but this is the last weekend that this place is open for the season.  He is one pumped little guy!

The following pictures are from Julia's family tree project:

Andy's side of the family

This picture of Andy's parents is quite old.

This picture of Andy's sister Pam with her husband Mike is also quite old.

Page is Pam's and Mike's daughter.

Mitchell is Pam's and Mike's son.

Andy's sister Dianna with her boys, Alex and Ben.

My parents and my sister Tiffany with her husband Tony and their boys, Austin and Logan.

Tara and Jonathan

Tessa and Joshua

For our family we used the blog home page picture.