The Big Reveal

Tessa and John learned the gender of their baby yesterday on what would have been my parent's 44th anniversary.  They kept the secret until today when the family gathered to celebrate our nation's birthday.  We learned through a DQ cake that a baby girl will be joining our gatherings in November.  WhooHoo!  Isaac will be here at the end of the month, and Kinsley Noelle will join us later in the year.  Noelle is my sister Tasha's middle name.  Tasha is Tessa's twin, and she went to Heaven just two weeks after she was born.  A newborn boy and a newborn girl = so much fun and lovin' to come.

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.

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.

Tea with Mom

We finally made good on our Mother's Day plans, and took my mom for tea today.  Yes, tomorrow is Father's Day, so we are a bit behind, but that is not unusual in this family, and jobs and illness delayed our celebration.  We had a lovely afternoon tea feasting on scones, small sandwiches, truffles, cookies, and gingersnaps.  Of course, we also enjoyed tea, and Savannah even found that she likes some hot tea.  Julia stuck to pink lemonade.  Our server seemed to rush us a bit, so that was a challenge.  I am not sure if she needed the table or is just new.  I know that new servers often don't have the best timing on wrapping things up or remembering to let the guests have some time to enjoy each other and their food.  The real downer today was that Tiffany and Danielle could not join us, but Mom had a good time anyway.  Happy Late Mother's Day, Mom!

Julia and Tara refused to wear hats.  They are such party poopers!

Savannah, Tessa, Mom, and I did choose hats for the occasion. 

Our Week in Review
We are certainly feeling something here, attacked, strained, frustrated, and sometimes downright scared!  On Sunday before leaving for church I ran the dishwasher and was certainly surprised to find it running when we returned. I started it in plenty of time for it to finish or be pretty close to finished before we even left the house that morning.  We found it running hours later than it started later that same day and soon discovered that it is broken.  Andy's Internet diagnosis is that we have a stuck button.  How to unstick that button is any body's guess as everything we have tried has failed.  You guessed it! We have done plenty of dishes by hand this week, and two days we were without a kitchen sink as Andy replaced a leaky pipe. During that repair process, the kitchen just remained trashed...ick! That pipe still leaks, so Andy has to go back in and tweak this repair. 

By the end of the week, we were also facing a broken drawer on a bathroom cabinet.  The cabinet was bought three years ago with the intent that it would be temporary though the timing on this loss stinks. We will continue to make due with the cabinet.  So Andy gave up on the dishwasher and told me to call in a repairman.  Yeah, well, as I struggle with our much tighter budget, luxury verses necessity are starting to blur.  Yes, the dishwasher is the most used appliance in the house, and yes we do hang on to some luxuries (such as sports), but really, do we need a dishwasher?  I am thinking the repair can wait.  I have to consider that within two months, we will have to supply the kids for school, get uniforms that fit, and register Savannah and Zach for sports which is certainly pricey.  It is very tempting to axe the sports.  I mean they are truly luxuries, but it is hard to keep Zach from one area where he has found success, self-confidence, physical fitness, and passion.  Savannah asks for so little.  She only wants to play field hockey, so I think the dishwasher will wait.  Of course it will wait, it isn't going to fix itself (bummer), and I am not entitled to a machine to do the dishes.  Of course my vain concern is that doing dishes by hand will quickly age my hands (lol)!  I might add that I am really not trying to be whiny on the blog, just real.  Yes, our appliances break, and we have frustrations, but we have lots of highs too.  This is life!

limping along

Our computer was down most of last week.  I think it may be on its final legs, but we are letting it limp along for now as a new computer is not exactly in the budget at this point. 

Zach returned from Washington DC this week, and as soon as I am willing to load the 528 pictures he took on that journey, I will share some here.  I think he had a great time.

I am posting today to say that my sister Tessa's deadline to reach her fundraising goal for pancreatic cancer was today.  She came in under the goal but was pleased with the amount of awareness she raised, so she went ahead and shaved her head.  The video camera did not work, so she did not get it on tape. :(  I did not get to see it myself, but she looks adorable.  We celebrated with a cookout at my parent's house this afternoon. Don't you think these two great women are cute together?  Keep praying for a miracle as Mom has her scans scheduled for Friday.

my big-hearted sister

That's my biker-chick mom with my sister Tessa.

My sister Tessa is raising money for pancreatic cancer. If you feel led to donate money to help with with the under-funded research for this rare cancer, here is the link to Tessa's page: www.pancreatic.org/memorial/Todd
Tessa is doing this in honor of my mom who, as you now know, has pancreatic cancer. If she raises $1000.00 by April 25th, Tessa will have her head shaved while singing Sinead O'Connor's Nothing Compares to You. To my knowledge Tessa cannot sing, so this should be funny, and she is willing to have it videotaped to be posted on youtube. My sister has a big and generous heart, and I hope she succeeds at meeting her goal.

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.

Good Grief!!

The news to hit this family yesterday is that my youngest sister who is a DECADE younger than me needs a hip transplant. She is on crutches in the meantime. Good Grief!

a medical year

• Dad is almost finished recovering from surgery and plans to have a knee replacement later this year. Shall we say bionic man?
• Mom is coming home from surgery and is hoping to have her neck surgery later this year.
• It looks like Wyatt will have another surgery this year too.

Can we get a group discount? :)

pictures that I just can't leave off

I don't know how these pictures were left off the previous post, and I still can't figure out how to rearrange pictures on this blog, so they require an extra post.



My nephew Logan goes for the catch (he tossed his Easter egg up in the air). This is Austin.

This is my sister Tessa with Savannah.