Christmas and other things

Christmas was so special this year! Funds have been low due to so much traveling for funerals and such that we were going to have a very small Christmas. But someone in our ward family found out and got a number of presents for our children and even some for Richard and I. I felt so overwhelmed with gratitude! I cried off and on most of Christmas! We have been so blessed this year!! I hope in the upcoming years we can do the same for others! We were so so grateful!!

(Richard got me a puzzle for Christmas this year. It was fun to put together!)


Well, a couple days after Christmas, one of my friends from high school lost her father to pancreatic cancer. My heart aches for her and her family! I am so thankful they got to spend one last Christmas together! What a blessing! I remember my friend often telling me throughout high school all the things her father used to teach her and the things they would do together as a family. She knew the scriptures inside and out. I always thought it was so neat that her father taught her so much about the gospel and that they had such a close relationship! I hope she is feeling peace at this time! I wonder if my father got to be there to help Brother Wright transition!

I talked with my mom a couple days ago and she wondered if my father was happy. I haven't felt anything but happiness from him since his passing. He is out of pain and has so many less limitations. I still miss him like crazy, though. My sister said this morning "I didn't know crying could go on for so long". Boy, no kidding!! I got one of his books in the mail today - a signed copy - and I just held it and cried. And my brother made a memorial video of my father that was really beautiful! I cried through that too! I miss him so much. I know the pain will fade in time, but for now, it's still hurts!

I have decided to make some changes for the new year and set myself some really good goals! I have lots to work on! I'm looking forward to a new year!

Time of Year

I know this is supposed to be a joyous time of year, but I'm really having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit. My dad always made a big deal about serving people at Christmas time! I miss that! And I remember the first year that my brother and his wife sent us the Christmas story they had created about their little Lili. I still have it saved on my computer so I can look at it. And I'm certain this has got to be a rough Christmas for Uncle Jim's family too. And just today I learned that a friend of mine from high school is losing her father to pancreatic cancer. It is hard to find joy and happiness when such sadness is hanging about. I am trying, though. I have decided to try and enjoy one blessing at a time, one joy at a time. To help, a friend suggest that I make angel ornaments with the faces of my loved ones lost, to hang on my Christmas tree. And oddly enough, that has really helped!

It is also the time of year for colds and flu - bleh! Emma has had trouble sleeping the past couple nights because she's got a croupy cold. I'm grateful for Christmas break and that I don't have to get up really early. That has been a blessing. I will certainly rest easier when she's better, though.

I had the worst realization a couple days ago when I received a Christmas card from a cousin. All three of her girls have grown up, graduated, and moved out of the house. I remember all of their births. Time really is a fleeting thing! It won't be long before all my little ones will be grown and gone too. And for as much sleep as I haven't had over the past few years, and the worries, and frustrations - it won't be long before they're gone and I know I will miss this time. I'm trying to make more of an effort to enjoy the little things and not worry so much!

Snow, Tooth, and Balloons

We got a lot of snow the day before yesterday - somewhere between 8 and 10 inches. I spent the better part of the day shoveling our walk way and helping 4 of our neighbors do the same. It started snowing Nov 30th and snowed all through the night and most of the next day. We built a snowman and half of an igloo (plus shoveled the walkways and driveways) before my back couldn't take any more. Jared was soaked from head to toe - but he had a lot of fun. The girls came out later than him and played for a couple hours. We all had fun!

They declared a snow day here yesterday so the kids didn't have to go to school. Most people couldn't even get down our street. I watched the neighbors (4 of them) struggle to move their truck from the driveway to the street corner - about 40 feet. It took them about a half hour. And on the news they said that just for the morning commute alone, yesterday, there were 45 accidents and slide offs. I'm so so very thankful I didn't have to drive anywhere yesterday and neither did Richard!!

Jared lost yet another tooth a couple days ago. We were brushing his teeth and brushed it right out. It flew out, landed on the floor and bounced into the hallway. Much excitement and joy followed this!

Emma is learning so many new words - her newest: Balloon...

LEAF

Well it's been a while since I blogged so I thought I'd should.
Elections yesterday were...interesting...to say the least. We'll see what the next few years bring with the people in office.

Halloween was fun! I honestly didn't think about it much until about a week before. Too many other things on my mind. My kids went as Wednesday Addams, a ghost, and Cinderella. We parents didn't dress up this year. Maybe next year. I should probably start planning and preparing now.




We went out for a walk the other day and Jared found the biggest leaf on the ground that I have ever seen. It was an overachiever leaf! HUGE!


We celebrated Jared's birthday this past week. He is getting so big! He loved opening his presents! This year his choice of cake was cookies. Fun!


I find that I am incredibly forgetful these days. It's really driving me crazy. I thought I wouldn't be this forgetful until I got a LOT older. Oh well. :) Life goes on.

Lost tooth

Jared lost a tooth yesterday. It's been hanging on by a thread for a few days and finally came out yesterday. It was one of his upper front teeth. Now, when we practice his words, anything with a "th" or "sss" sound has to be said two or three times because it feels funny to him where his tooth is missing. Funny boy!


Becky did an inquiry project in class today about Autism. It was very touching to see her knowledge and understanding on the subject. I swear she really is a full grown adult in a young person's body. I was very proud of her!

Fall is really coming in strong. Everything is so colorful outside! I love it!

Home

I just spent the last 5 days in Kansas with my brother and his family! It was a lot of fun! They are such a beautiful family! I can't believe how much the kids have grown! It was a very fun trip! We visited the zoo, played games, made treats, visited Gene's work, and walked and drove around the area taking pictures. They have vines in Kansas that grow up the trunks of the trees and change colors in the fall before the leaves of the trees. So, the trees still have green leaves but the trunks are surrounded with red vines. It is really pretty to see!


Zoo Creatures:

Very pretty Snake!
What you lookin' at?
Sleepy Lion!
Cow with an itch
Black Swan


I'm grateful to be home now and am very tired! I didn't realize how much traveling I'd done in the past two weeks. It caught up with me. I was so tired this morning. But I had a wonderful time each place I went so I can't complain! It was nice to see and spend time with so many family members at Dad's funeral!


I can honestly say, I don't like traveling any more as much as I used to. I like getting to my destination, but I don't like the flying and driving in between. I got home quite sick to my stomach - motion sickness. I swear it's getting worse as I get older! At times I felt like I was on a boat in the sky - there was quite a lot of turbulence. I was very grateful to make it safely each place I went, though! And I was so grateful to get home last night. I missed my little ones and my Ratchet so much!! I just love my little family!!!

Random Thoughts

Jared really needed a haircut last week - his hair was getting a bit unruly. Richard got such a funny picture of him as I brought the clippers over. He looks terrified. Too funny!!

We are home now from Dad's funeral services. It was a nice weekend. The area he is buried in is so beautiful! We saw one of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen on our way back home. It was very hard to see everything so final, but I felt like he wanted me to be happy. I felt a lot like singing. So, I sang! Cried quite a bit too. But I do not feel so sad about his passing anymore. Plus, I know he is with Lili now- which is comforting.

I also learned this weekend, that my dad and Lili will be joined soon by my uncle. He had a liver transplant not very long ago and had to go through chemo and radiation because they found cancer afterward. Well, the cancer is back and they can't do anything about it this time. If they give him chemo treatments, it will kill him because he is already so weak from the transplant. If they don't give him chemo, then the cancer will take him. So, they have given him 3-6 months to live. My heart just aches for his family! I know exactly what they're going through and it isn't fun! We are praying for them a lot! The Lord sure must need a lot of help up there!

Becky scored about 28 new bottle caps this weekend - thanks to Uncle Ben! We are so excited. She has now filled her 4th shadow box with bottle caps.

I saw a saying in a saddle shop a while back that reminded me of my father - it is:
"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming 'WOW WHAT A RIDE'"

Good-bye Dad! I Love You!

My dad passed away tonight. I miss him already! He has been struggling with a cancerous, inoperable, brain tumor for a little over 2 months. And as much as I tried to be prepared, I just wasn't. It still hurts! I am still sad! Until I see him again, I will miss his hugs, his sense of humor, our walks, his total joy over little things, his strong presence, his intelligence...and much much more. Each night when Becky was little we used to say "sleep sweet" before going to bed. So Dad, sleep sweet till I see you again. And give Grandpa and Lili a squeeze for me! I love you, Daddy!

Duct tape

There really is nothing like duct tape!! It doesn't fix everything but it sure fixes a lot! The following picture makes me feel like a white trash mom but oh well:


We bought a nice, brand new, tub of butter and two days after opening it, our littlest one tried to pick it up. It was too heavy for her so the whole tub fell right to the floor and the lid split from one side to the other. And no matter how hard I try, I can't pick the darn thing up from out of the fridge without grabbing it by the lid. My hands don't fit around the tub. So, every time I try to grab it, either the lid falls off, my thumb goes through the crack into the butter, or I drop it. So frustrating! And I have watched my kids do the same things trying to get the ridiculous tub of butter out of the fridge. So, I duct taped it! So far it's holding well. We'll see how long it lasts.

I have been so proud of my son lately! He is doing so well in school and is even starting to read on his own! It's awesome!! He is very happy most of the time now and doesn't have fits of anger as often. He has just been so much fun lately! He makes our lives very happy! Today he came home with a couple new drawings that were very cute...


He is just an amazing little person! I love him!

I talked with my dad today and am pleased to say he is doing well. I love his sense of humor so much!! He made me laugh so many times today. I just love him! I get to go see him soon and I can't wait. I know he is often frustrated with his situation but he is sure in good spirits! I am excited to go see him - and the other members of my family that are there. It will be nice.

Bath Time, Clue and Roller Skates

I will never understand why people are told to give children a bath before bed as something to calm them. They must have really mellow children. Baths do NOT calm my kids. It's play time and they go crazy! Then, it takes them another hour just to calm down from the fun of the bath. Can't figure out where the "calm" part comes in!

My kids' favorite movie lately has been Clue. They have watched it a few times and always laugh at the same parts. It's great! I think that would have been a fun movie to act in! It's very silly!

Saurus has been invited to a birthday party at a roller skating rink and she wants to be able to skate around without holding onto the wall this time. So she has been practicing around the house all week. Now she's got baby son skating with her and on occasion Kinz joins in too. At least they're having fun!

Finally!

Well, it's been what seems like forever, but we finally got our website up and going again! Yay!!

Becky has a bottle cap collection that Richard casually started with her about 4 years ago. We kept finding more and more and I never knew if they were old or new so I started organizing them and taking pictures. Now, we have posted all the bottle cap pictures on our website here and each time there is a new one we will add it. Lots of friends and family have given Becky more bottle caps to add to the collection! She loves them!! She now has over 1000 bottle caps (many duplicates for trading) and over 360 originals. It is a fun collection!

Also, Jared loves to draw - has since he was about 3 - and has just really gone to town with his drawings over the past few years. I can't keep up with them. We have a whole box full at home. I am posting some from all different areas that he has drawn. Lots of family members have asked for copies of his work - sorry it has been so long coming. Jared does all of his drawing free hand and they change all the time. He began with very specific drawings of specific characters and never mixed them on the same piece of paper. If he wanted to draw Finding Nemo characters or Wall-E, each had to have their own piece of paper. Now, he draws characters from his own imagination and mixes everything together. I cannot ask him to draw something specific most of the time. He just draws whatever strikes his fancy at the moment. It is really fun seeing what he comes up with!

Anyway - I'm really excited that the website is up and running again! It has been fun to make!!!

Cherish the Moments

This past month has sure been a difficult one for our family.  My father was diagnosed with a brain tumor over the 4th of July weekend and although part of it was operable, part of it wasn't.  And it's cancerous to boot.  Dad has chosen not to have chemo and radiation.  His remaining time with us will be short.  So, we all got together as a family (all his children and their spouses and children) and had a family meeting.  Dad, was then taken to Kansas to spend his remaining days with my mom, sister, older brother Gene and his wonderful family.

Then, this past Sunday, we got a call that my younger brother's oldest daughter Lili passed away.  My heart is broken for my brother and his wife.  Lili was one of the sweetest little angels in the world!   To my brother and his sweet wife - we love you so much!!  Lili - we love and miss you!  I know Dad will be happy to see you in a few months when he joins you on the other side!

Life is such a Mystery...

Becky's fish, Mystery, died this morning.  Becky was very sad!  =(  We had it for 3 years.  Richard brought it home from work one day (and I don't know how long it had been there) and I figured it would die within a few days - a few weeks at most.

But three years later...

So we will be burrying it this evening.  Poor little fish.  Maybe we'll get another one or a frog or turtle or something.  The kids really liked having something.  Especially Becky.  I wonder what will be next.

Summer

Summer has started - hooray!!

It has been a busy school year!  I am looking forward to summer vacation with my kiddos at home!!

Becky won a free bike for perfect attendance this year in school.  She didn't miss a day!!  Go Becky!!

Jared finally got team pictures with his little league team - and for the sake of privacy, I won't be posting that picture  - he also got individual ones.  They turned out so cute!

Lately

Becky has been working on a project lately that has been a lot of fun.  She is learning about story telling in school and chose to find out about 4 members of the family and learn some of their stories.  She was sent so much information that she will not be able to present it all in her little report.  Instead, she is showing it all, but only sharing some of the highlights with the class. 

Jared is graduating from Kindergarten this year - so excited about that!  And Emma can't wait until she gets to have her brother and sister home all day with her.  I just can't wait until the very first morning I get to sleep in!  Oh, it will be wonderful!!

Mother’s Day and other things

Yesterday was Mother's Day.  Such a lovely day!  I spoke in church and then taught a lesson later so I was very nervous most of the day.  But it all turned out well.  All the ladies at church were given little potted flowers that I am excited to add to my yard to add more color!!  (It's sadly lacking in color right now.)  After getting home, my family took over and let me have a nap.  They cleaned up the house, made dinner and made me a cake!  It was SO nice!!  I really have the most wonderful little family!!  It was a great day!

Saturday, we visited the FitExpo in Boise and enjoyed meeting some of Richard's job-related friends.  Some neat people!   Andy Haman liked Jared's Charlie Brown shirt so we got a picture of them together - as much as Jared would allow.  He was a little overwhelmed by all the people!

After that, Jared had his Little League game and that went wonderfully well!  He had a lot of fun and really did most of the things himself without a whole lot of prompting! So nice.

We had a really strong wind here the other day that tore up a bunch of trees around town.  One of our neighbors, that has many huge trees around their house, had one fall on their house during the wind.  The house is still in tact but the roof is damaged pretty bad.  Someone went over yesterday and cut the tree into a number of pieces so that it could be removed from the yard and away from the house.  It was a big tree.  The cemetary on the hill also had a number of trees that were uprooted during the wind!  The weather sure has been bizarre this spring!  Today it is quite rainy!  We haven't had many sunny days.  I can't wait until they come more often!!

Emma's favorite movie the last little while has been Blue's Clues!  She loves it and has even learned the little song at the beginning - well, the actions anyway, and a few of the words.  It is so cute to watch!!  She has also taken to coloring on herself!  No matter how hard we try, she just won't keep it on the paper...

School is almost out - I can't wait!  I know Rebecca will miss her class because she really loves it, but I think Jared will be very happy that it's over.  Emma and I will be the most excited.  I won't be making 15 trips around town a day, and Emma will have her brother and sister home with her all day.  What could be better than that!

More often...

I have decided I need to blog more often so I can remember what we do on a weekly basis.

We signed Jared up for Little League this past month (April) with a team of children like him.  Everyone on the team has special needs - be they physical or mental.  And they are all close to Jared's age.  Each game only lasts about two innings before they kids have all lost interest and are playing in the dirt and running around the field.  It is SO FUN to watch!!  Jared's team is called the White Sox. 

Jared hated his first game so much!!!  He cried and was angry for almost the whole game.  We took him to the playground afterwards and that helped.  The next game, we didn't tell him about until we got there.  He was crying at the beginning but was happy by the end.  He was given his uniform at this game but wouldn't wear it.  Game three - he was happy the whole time and wore his uniform - Yay!!  Success!!   And just the other day we passed a park and Jared saw some kids playing softball.  He asked if it was his turn to play and I said not yet.  He was disappointed!  I am so excited that he likes the game now!!   Hopefully we will be getting video footage of it next week.  This past week it rained so we didn't bring the camera.

Last Saturday, May 1st, Richard and I ran in our first 5K run/walk.  I was so nervous!!  It was wonderful, though!!  I hope I get to do another one!   At the beginning of the year, I was quite overweight and my good cholesterol was too low.  It's supposed to be between 40 and 60.  Mine was at 27.  I was told I needed to lose some weight, exercise 30 minutes a day, change my diet, and take some supplements to help get it corrected.  So far, I have lost 30 pounds, I have changed my diet, exercised 30 minutes a day pretty regularly and am doing much better.  I had my blood tested again and my good cholesterol is at 44!  Yay me!!  I am so excited!  I still have some weight to go, but I'm getting there.  Setting the goal of the 5K race was to help me keep motivated for exercising each day.  And it helped a lot!  Richard and I ran it in 33 min and 40 seconds.  We finished 35th and 36th out of a hundred or so runners!  Not bad for a half-cripple!  The doctor who did my broken ankle surgery a couple years ago was there.  It was good to see him.  All in all, it was fun to run and I'm so glad Richard was with me!  I love running with him.  I love doing anything with him - he's just a wonderfully fun person!!

On the day of the race, it was freezing outside!  I was afraid it was going to rain, but it didn't.  It was just cold.  The weather stayed dry for our race.  Then, later that evening we went to Jared's baseball game and it was raining as we arrived but then it let up, the sun came out, and it was beautiful through his whole game.  Then, as soon as his game was over, it went right back to overcast and rainy!   We were so blessed!!

One of the ladies I used to serve with in the Primary Presidency has been in the hospital for almost 4 weeks now with one of her little daughters.  My heart aches for them!  Kayelee, their little daughter is believed to have HUS - which is quite dangerous!  Her kidneys are not fully working and her body is having trouble producing red blood cells amongst other things.  It has been a tough road for their family but they are so strong!!  Kayelee is one of the strongest spirited children I have ever met!!  If anyone can make it through all the blood transfusions and such that she has had to have, it would be her!!  She is such a trooper!!  She is doing better but still not able to come home yet.  Hopefully soon!  They are such a wonderful family!!  We just love them so much!!

Tonight we are going out to the church orchard to thin apricots.  Lots of work to do.  I'm excited.  And the weather is nice enough to go!  That's even more exciting.  It has been freezing lately!  It's still cold but the sun is shining and one of our neighbors is even outside in shorts!  Looks like summer might come afterall.

Rebecca is almost done with her 3rd grade year and she hasn't missed a single day!  If she can make it through the rest of this month until the end of school, with out a day missed, she will win a brand new bike for having perfect attendance!  I hope she makes it!

Emma is learning all kinds of new words - right along with Jared!  It is so fun to listen to the two of them talk!  Jared asked me the other day, "Mom, can we go to the moon?  I need a rocket!"  I love that he knows he needs a rocket to get to the moon!  If I had  had one on hand I would have taken him to the moon immediately!  Loved it!

We were watching the Princess and the Frog a while back and the beignets that they make in the movie looked yummy so we decided to try and make them.  We got all the ingredients together and were set to make them after church.  Rebecca walked up and told her daddy - "Hey Dad - Mom's gonna make some man-catchin' beignets today."  I heard Richard say, "Oh really?"  I about died laughing.  I didn't know I was doing that!  My intentions were just to learn to make beignets - I wasn't trying to catch a man.  But, Richard liked them, so, I guess the "man-catchin'" part worked.  =)

That's all I can remember for today about our family happenings over the last little while.  As I blog more often, the posts will be shorter.  =)

Fun

The kids were given free tickets to the Idaho Junior Steelheads hockey game last week so Richard took the day off yesterday and we made a day of it. Hockey is the best sport for our family to go see. Jared can be as loud as he wants and no one cares; Becky thinks it's hilarious when the guys get smashed up against the glass; the baby can freely move around without obstructing anyone's view; and we all enjoy cheering, clapping, stomping and making noise for our team. It was a lot of fun! Idaho won so it was even better. They played against the Fresno MonsterJunior Hockey team from Fresno, California. I have to say, even though Fresno lost, they put up a good fight! The score was 3-2. The Fresno goalie, Peter Megariotis (#31), was really good! I was quite impressed! It was a good game to watch. During half time, they had this tiny little team come out called the Mighty Mites and they played for about 5 minutes on half of the court. It was the cutest thing! They were all between the ages of 3 and 6 years old completely decked out in hockey gear. So cute!

After the game we went out to eat, ran some errands and I went and got a haircut. It's up to my shoulders now. I don't like it this short, but the last time I got a haircut, the lady really didn't do what I asked for so it needed some help. Now it's almost all the same length and will grow out long and thick. So, it's short again. =(

All in all, it was a really nice day!! I love spending time with my kids and it makes the day perfect when we get to have Richard all to ourselves! It was wonderful!

On Saturday - Feb 13th - Richard and Rebecca had a Daddy Daughter date at the Nampa Rec Center. They had face painting, cookie making, games, dancing, crafts and all kinds of stuff! Becky made me a necklace and one for herself to match - along with a bracelet. Becky had a great time with Daddy for their Valentine's date!

Random

I went to a long meeting this afternoon for Jared so that we could go over goals and things for the upcoming year for him. This is the second or third time I've been told I am a 'supermom' because of what I do for Jared. I think I'm sadly lacking and I have a lot to do. Which means that a lot of other mothers must really not do much with their special needs children! How sad! I feel sorry for those children. I love my Jared!!

I did, however, get a lot of great ideas about how to work with him here at home to help him in his daily progress. I am very excited!! I really think this is going to be a great year!! I can feel it! =)