Flashback Friday

Andy and I celebrate 20 years of marriage this month.

Here I am with my brothers on my wedding day.

crazy life circumstances, an update

As I type Julia is sobbing on my lap.  She spent the night at my parents' house last night, but my mom was still in the hospital. Julia is worried about her grandma and missed having her at home. 

This is the latest:  Lots of fluid was removed from my mom's right lung today.  She can breathe much easier now.  There is, however, fluid around her liver.  They are awaiting biopsy results on the fluid from around her lung before doing the liver biopsy.  They did not do the liver biopsy today as it requires going through the lungs (or something like that, remember I am about as non-medical as a person gets), so they did not want to risk shooting infection or malignant cells right into her liver.  Praying here for a good result on that biopsy.

As for Josh, he made it home by 10:00p.m. last night, not so bad for a trip to the ER and then a visit with Mom before heading home.  Now Tara is posting daily on her Facebook page that Joshua should get the shot.  If he had had a shot at home, he may have forgone the whole EMS/ER ordeal.  He is sore today, but fine.

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 :)

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.

Labor Day Weekend!

So you can see just how far behind I am as these Labor Day pictures are just getting posted, but I think this puts me at four posts until I catch up.


On Sunday of Labor Day weekend, we enjoyed a cookout at my parents' house. We enjoyed Wii wars playing some sports gladiator type game. Since Andy, Tiffany, and I do not play the Wii, we were the half-time entertainment during the tournament...meaning we played the game but were there for comic relief.

Tara and Tessa go at it!
and Tara is victorious!

Jonathan and Joshua take on each other. As I recall Joshua claimed victory over everyone and won the tournament.

Even Grandma joined the action fighting Logan. You aren't supposed to try and knock your grandma off a platform, are you?

Austin goes after Grandma.

Aunt Tara fights Savannah.

On Monday, we visited with the other side of the family, when Andy's sister Dianna brought her boys and Granny to our house. Andy showed off his percussion skills and gave Alex and Ben some pointers.


Alex takes a turn.

Now, it is Ben's turn.

We then visited a festival at our church where Zach got a "tattoo." The weather was beautiful, but it was very crowded...lots of fun to be had, but we were hungry, and the lines were long.

Wyatt enjoyed a slide.

waiting to climb the "King of the Mountain"

from left: Dianna, Granny, Julia, Ben and Alex

Ben is King of the Mountain

Julia got some help from the guy controlling the ropes. He had no idea what a monkey, she is. With a little patience, she may have done this on her own.

Julia waves from the top.

Alex starts his ascent.

Vacation -Go carts and screaming swing

July 16, 2009


Today we started by racing out the door to go ride go-carts. They run a 2 rides for the price of 1 special before noon. Once again, this was a first for me. We chose an elevated track, and I had a car with plenty of horse-power. I screamed going down the hills and let out a couple of "YEE-HAWS!" After all, I was in Hill-Billy Vegas. Savannah loved the ride but chose Dad to drive her on the second run. I think I may have embarrassed her just a bit. It was plenty of fun, and I would do it again. According to Tiffany, it is also cheaper than the go-cart track in her town.

I could only get a picture of Andy and Julia on the actual cars and didn't see the observation deck until they were finished. They missed the cut-off when we rode, so they went in the group behind us.
so this is the go-carting group --Wyatt rode with Tiffany, and she cracked up over his statements that he was a good driver which were often followed by raising both his arms in the air like he was on a roller-coaster--I was only a little surprised that he liked it as he does not like roller coasters.

After the go-carts, Zach, Logan and Josh took a ride on the Screaming Swing. You would not catch me on that thing. They were video taped, and it was hilarious. They were laughing, and at one point, Zach stated, "I think I can see my house."

This is the view of the mountains from the strip.

After the thrill ride, we did a little shopping, and Wyatt is now the proud owner of a Western guns and holsters set. We hope this will appease him until we find the wallet. He is thrilled! He and Julia have fallen in love with Toy Story, and Wyatt wants a Woody doll, so this is a good start in that direction. "Reach for the sky."