Trip to Illinois in July/August

Three silly cousins... Jaden, Phoenix and Kira.

We went to State Farm Park pool a few times. They have a huge kiddie play area, a regular kids play area, a lazy river, a regular pool, and a big slide/diving board area. It was great fun for us all. Michelle braved the little slide with both boys. They squealed with delight the whole way down.

Mom and Michelle hanging out on the side of the pool talking and taking pictures. I took the camera from Mom to get a quick picture to capture the moment. I am glad I did. Mom always smiled big and laughed loud to show her joy in Christ Jesus.

Kira holding Michaela. This was Kira's favorite thing to do the entire trip. Any chance that she got, she was asking to hold Michaela.

A picture of Grandma with her daughter and 5 grand kids. At first, Mom was taking the picture of us cousins with Grandma, but then the neighbor came out and offered to take a picture with all of us in it. Since we had all taken the trip to Grandma's house, we thought that would be a good idea. Grandma was exhausted so she sat in the van and we huddled around. Mom was in the shadows for the picture, but at least we had her in this picture. So often Mom was the one taking the pictures and not in them.

Is Phoenix ready?

for potty training??? Are we ready for that huge commitment and added laundry??? Well, we bought him a potty chair anyway. We talked to other moms of boys and decided on the Baby Bjorn potty chair. It has a simple two piece design with a built in splash guard (no worries of the splash guard being popped off and falling into the potty.) The day that we bought it, Phoenix was so excited that he went potty in the potty 4 times, pooped once in it, and only had 2 accidents in his undies. Please notice that Phoenix is trying to reinforce his boy-like behavior by tossing his undies casually on the floor next to him.

Phoenix sporting his big boy undies. Since that day, he has not had but a few times of making it to the potty chair before he potties. We have no desire to push the issue since he just turned 2 a few months ago, and he will "get it" in his own time. We will provide the learning opportunities and the encouragement.

Here I am at 2 a.m.

I am typing in the blog and creating posts at 2:00 a.m. to create a busy feeling that I have come to enjoy. When things get tough thinking about my Mom and how much I miss her I have found myself busy. My logical side has taken a vacation and my emotional selfish side is prevailing. I miss my Mom and I am sad. I am not crying as much as I once did, but when I do it hits hard. Today, I heard Patrick say "so you're 58 then." to his Dad on the phone while wishing him a happy birthday. I cried a little then with Kira, but I thought that was the end of it. After the kids went to bed, Patrick and I snuggled up and watched an episode of Gilmore Girls. We fell asleep to a second episode and then headed to bed. As I was laying there, my mind went straight to my store of Mom memories. I started thinking about my Mom's last birthday... she turned 58. In a week, she would have been 59. I feel safe in typing to my blog because the only people who read this are people who love me and will support all of my emotional indulgences. It is not a google-able blog, so you had to find it some other way. Anyway, I came down here and got out my video camera to find what video footage I have of my Mom. I watched clips from my trip home this summer, and then found the clips on the computer from last Christmas when Mom and Dad came up here. I cried a lot. Mom never sounded or looked sick or like anything was bothering her. Most of my video was of my kids because I was thinking... I want to capture how they look, talk, and act now because they will be growing up fast. My lesson learned: capture the people I love all around me, because they will not look, act or talk that way always.


That space is for my Mom; she told me once that reading a big long "run on" paragraph that jumped subjects lowered general comprehension and interest. She always edited my papers all through high school and 2 years of college. Even when I would procrastinate and write my papers at the last minute, she would stay awake until 2 or 3 a.m. editing them and I would wake up at 5:00 to correct my mistakes. She was selfless like that. I strive to be selfless like that. I know that I am her kid so it was probably easier to do it for me (or more difficult sometimes because I was difficult sometimes), but she was like that with so many more people. We saw evidence of that at the visitation and funeral and the weeks following. It was also evident that my Dad has affected as many people; his kind, firm, just, and God fearing attitude and example has been an amazing way for me and Patrick to look up to him and learn from him. He is coming up here for Christmas. That makes me happy. I don't know if Christmas will be hard for me, but I am happy that my Dad will be here; so is Patrick.


I know that my Mom's birthday will be hard for me. I can feel it already. My birthday was hard too, but this next week will be full of specific prayers to make it through the emotional side and focus on the logical side that knows my Mom is in God's presence. To help me through Tuesday, we are going to open a Christmas present, watch videos of my Mom and one of our Christmas movies. Mom always wanted to go get the Christmas tree on her birthday. But, as life goes, it didn't always happen that way. Some years Michelle and I just climbed up on the roof to do Christmas lights because we couldn't make it to the Nursery to get a tree that day.


I am hoping that now I will be able to sleep. I need to get a glass of water because my head hurts from crying too much. Logical side is making a come back. Please pray for me and my family this week. I have just given you a look at how I am handling this week. I know that we all have memories tied to different things and some things will hurt me more than others and vice versa so please pray for all of us. Love, Faith

Bragging rights

The week of November 12-16 was a big first for Kira. She received all smiley faces on her weekly report! This was a big deal because she has been working like crazy since we got back at the end of September. She was doing two homework packets per week to catch up on the 3 1/2 weeks of having no homework and going to tutoring twice a week for her Japanese. Not only did she face her own struggles of her high energy levels and difficulty with focus and perfectionism, but she also had to adjust once again to being in school all day after having only short bursts of "focus time" when she did her homework with me in Illinois.

Her weekly report consists of characteristics of a good learner. I don't have on in front of me, or I would be able to tell you how many things are listed and give you examples of them. None the less, in the past her areas of improvement were usually focusing and completing work in class.

With coming home with a great report, Kira was able to plan her Saturday with her choice of activities. Beginning with a poptart, and ending with staying up late at a friend's house, Kira also had a great trip to the zoo and some games and art projects in between. Congratulations to Kira for a great week!

My kids

... love babies. This proof comes from Marc and Christina's recent stay with us.

Rylee Grace

Kira and Phoenix's newest cousin, Rylee, was able to stay here with us for a week with her family. She was 7 1/2 weeks old, and Kira loved having her here. In a very surreal way, Kira handled Rylee in a way that was beyond her 6 years. Kira was comfortable taking care of her and holding her and jumped at any chance she got to have Rylee.

Phoenix and his buddy Austen

Phoenix has not seen Austen for quite a while since his Mom is now staying home with him. So the other day when he came over to play, Phoenix was happy as can be. He climbed up on the couch next to Austen and put his arm around Austen. Of course, I was too late for the really cute picture where you could see Phoenix's arm around him, but none the less, it is adorable to see these two together again.

Trip to Seward

Although the weather did not cooperate as much as we had hoped, Marc and Christina still had some amazing pictures along Turnagain Arm.

Phoenix and Weston sat in the back of the Suburban with the middle seat empty between them so they could not touch each other.

Thoughts:

Phoenix: "Is he laughing or crying?"

Weston: "I am still in the car... Should I laugh or cry?"

While Marc and Christina were here, Patrick drove them down to Seward so that they could see the most beautiful highway drive in America. It is about 2 hours to get there so the kids needed some entertainment (books,toys, etc.) ... and they made their own.

The Wedding

Phoenix... so willing to share and so handsome.

Kira is looking beautiful and dainty in her dress, hat and gloves.

Check out those guns.


A picture of Patrick and I. I looked for a picture of our whole family together, but I guess that those pictures the professional photographer took (I remember posing for them though.)

Rod and Charlotte taking time to pose before the wedding.

Paul and Devon watching as Marc gave a speech. Marc was nervous, but he did great (even holding Weston because Weston wanted Daddy time.)

Of all the pictures of both Rylee and Weston, I picked this one because you can see how adorable Rylee's shoes are too.

Marc and Christina had a few moments to pose with no kids... but it didn't last long.

This is a way cool picture of Devon and Paul that also shows the beauty of the dress that Devon picked. To see Devon's hair and makeup, you have to wait for the professional pictures because we managed to get no shots of the two of them face on. They were both beaming and beautiful all day long.

Breakthroughs at the house

The post that explains how our kitchen and dining room went from blue country wall paper to beautiful yellow textured wall has not even been made, but here it our latest dining room change... too bad we didn't think of it before we finished painting and texturing the walls.