Christmas 2009

Grandma (GG) opening gift from Cooks

Jessie helping GG open her electric lap throw

Kids with PEZ from Cooks

This years "famous" socks from Jim

Chocolate orange from Cooks

GG with books from Cooks

Jerky from Cooks

Jenny with Chocolate Orange

GG opening sandart from kids.

We started our Christmas season with our traditional trip to the zoo for the Electric Critters. Chris and Rachel joined us and everyone loved walking around looking at all the lights as usual. It's always cold so this year we got smart and brought hot chocolate to drink while we walked. Jessie wanted to go back to the zoo she loved it so much but it's too expensive to do twice so we settled for walking the River Walk and looking at those Christmas lights. That was a lot of fun too (and free). The kids were a little disappointed that we didn't do the boat ride with Santa this year but we had already seen all the lights while walking and we didn't want to spend the money. Maybe next year. Next was our annual trip to the mall to visit with Santa and mail their letters. We walked around for awhile and Brandon played games in the arcade while Mom took Jessie on the little rides they have. Scott and I did a little shopping while mom watched the kids in the play area. Then we ate dinner at Subway. Last year Grandma went with us but this year she already had plans to go out with a group from the Towers to look at Christmas lights in the van. She really enjoyed that.

Christmas Eve we went to Chris' house (as is our fairly new tradition) and ordered pizza. He cooked chicken wings and made breadsticks and sauce and cookies to go with it (he's quite the male version of Martha Stewart) and then we had hot chocolate later in the evening. We opened some gifts then. We like to open the gifts that Brandon buys at his school Santa shop and the things that Aunt Pat and Uncle Jim send us on Christmas Eve so we can really spend time looking at them when it's not so hectic. The socks and poem Jim sends to dad need special attention. Brandon bought Jessie some lipgloss in the shape of the word LOVE. You would have thought he gave her diamonds the way she carried on and thanked him and kissed him. He gave Scott a sports mug that says DAD on it, me a pin that says MOM and is heartshaped, mom a bookmark with a heart and beads on it, and dad an ornament that says, "I love Grandpa" on it. They were having problems keeping a good supply of items to shop for this year in the Santa Shop so he and Jessie ended up making sandart vases for eveyone else. Jessie got it into her head that she had to give Santa a gift too and kept wanting to buy him a gift at the Santa Shop, but she settled for "writing" on a Christmas card and leaving that out for him on Christmas Eve along with the cookies and milk.

Christmas day won't go down in our memories as one of the best we've had but it was still nice. First Brandon's gift from Santa was a metal detector and it didn't work right. Then Chris had car trouble and they were late getting here. Scott wasn't feeling well (more on that in a minute), Chris forgot my gift and one of Rachel's, grandma (GG) was still tired from the Christmas Eve party, and we just couldn't seem to get organized. Inspite of all that, we still had a nice dinner and a nice day.

To elaborate more on Brandon's Santa gift, mom and I ran out the next day to try to replace it and the plan was to have Brandon write a letter to Santa to let him know it was broken and then Santa would make a special trip to drop off a new one, but they were out of them so dad had a metal detector he hadn't used in years and he cleaned that up and we had Brandon write the note and Santa delivered the "new" one with a note that he felt so bad that the other one was broken that he gave him an even better one, but this metal detector was very special to him so he needed to take really good care of it (since it is more expensive we wanted him to be more careful). Brandon was so excited and assumed that meant the metal detector belonged to Santa and he was giving him his own instead of making a new one. That's kind of true. Aren't grandpas really Santa anyway? He loves it and is very happy.

Now our latest medical issue, Scott. He had gone to the doctor a couple of weeks ago suspecting he might have a bladder infection but his brilliant doctor didn't put him on antibiotics and it ended up getting worse. I ended up taking him to emergency room the day after Christmas and he has a very large kidney stone and an infection, which probably wouldn't have happened if he had gotten the antibiotics in the beginning. He was supposed to have an ultrasound on Monday that would break it up but it was too close to the bladder so they sent him to the hospital for same day surgery to put in a stent. So he is still in pain and trying to pass it and is taking a bunch of different kinds of medicines and has to go back next Monday to see if all is well. I'm the only one that hasn't had surgery recently so I sure hope it stays that way. We're REALLY hoping 2010 will be a better year. Hope everyone reading this blog has a wonderful New Year.

Brandon's Glasses

Forgot to mention that to add to all our medical dilemmas, the nurse at Brandon’s school sent home a note that they thought he needed to have his eyes checked because they said he failed the far sight test so after all the surgeries were over and I could face dealing with one more thing, I took him in and big surprise, he needs glasses for seeing far distances, like seeing the board. He can see fine reading and only seems to have problems with reading far away, he says nothing else looks blurry. So like his cousin Mary, he now has glasses. Also like Mary, he looks really cute in them. He doesn’t seem to mind wearing them, thank goodness. We were worried that he would be upset about having to wear them, but his teacher says he wears them all day at school, even though he really doesn't need to. So far the worst he has done is to leave them at school and Scott had to go and pick them up, but we’re waiting for him to completely lose them at some point. Hopefully not somewhere we won't find them, you were so lucky Rebecca that they sent them back to you. That was amazing that they found them. Hopefully that will be the end of our medical issues and we can move on to more fun stuff.

Jess's Surgery

Sorry it took so long to post about her surgery. Everything went fine. If anybody has had their tonsils out recently you know what it is like but if no one has don't let anyone tell you that is it is just a simple procedure and they will up and running in a couple of days. You have to worry about bleeding and accidently pulling the scabs off the throat for at least ten days. You can't eat anything but soft foods for ten days, and especially for the first few days have to keep drinking fluids, Jessie's size four oz every hour to keep her hydrated and her fever down or they have to go back to the hospital for an IV. Try explaining to a three year old, a stubborn one at that, that you have to drink even though it hurts and you have to take the yucky pain meds to make it stop hurting. Oh and they also don't tell you until right before just when they are starting to feel better, the pain comes back and this time in your ears because the nerve is connected to the throat so your ears and throat hurt as the scabs fall off. Nothing makes a mom feel useless and like a not good mom like when your child is in pain and you can't make it go away. I couldn't even bribe her. She is finally doing better. She still has a few bad times but they are getting fewer. The worst thing is I just got her to sleep through the night a few months ago and now she is falling back into the pattern again of waking up and she wants her binky again which I just about had her weaned from now that she was sleeping through the night. Now I have to start all over hopefully not taking another three and a half years to do so. The surgery was quick and she did really well except that they wouldn't let us be with her until she was back in her room and when we got there they said she was emotional from the anethestic, it had nothing to do with the fact that she woke up in a strange place with strangers and we were no where around. that made me a little angry. Once I got to hold her she calmed down and when we took her home three hours later she was in pretty good spirits because she wasn't feeling any pain at the moment. I think she ate more that day than she had in a week. I hope this makes sense and is not jumbled, I am not used to no sleep again and Jessie is trying to hurry me up so I have to write this quickly but I wanted to let everyone know how it went.

Jess surgery date

Jessie's surgery date is Dec 1. She was so funny at the doctor's office telling everyone that she is Cinderella and a princess and making sure that they didn't forget that she was to get a sucker and sticker when she was through. The doctor told her that they needed to get the monsters out of her petite princess's throat. She was a little surprised by her size but most are when they realize how old she actually is especially when she speaks because she talks very grownup for her age but looks like a two year old. Any way when we went to set up the surgery date she told the nurse her name was Cinderella and I told her that they needed her real name or they would be confused so she huffed and said " fine. My name is Jessie". Unless she freezes at the hospital, she will be very interesting while we wait for the surgery to start.

halloween

Here are some pics of the kids' Halloween costumes. Jessie was Cinderella, which is currently her favorite thing, and Brandon was, of course, a wildland firefighter. The one of her alone was to show her Cinderella shoes. We went to the mall for trick or treating and then we went to Chris' new house for dinner and brought GG to see his house and see the kids' costumes. This year the kids made us dress up too. Mom was a witch, dad and Scott were firefighters and I was Red Riding Hood. The picture of Brandon with the wild hair is from when his school had "Crazy Hair Day" and that's how he wore his hair for school that day.

Alphabet song

Jessie was singing the alphabet song the other day and when she got to the lmnop part she sang "a lemon and a pea". Brandon informed her that was wrong that it was lmnop and she said " I know that is what I said a lemon and a pea." After arguing about it for a few minutes Brandon finally gave up and told me " I give up she is impossible."

Jessie's turn

Now Jessie is going to have to have surgery. She keeps getting strep throat, she'll be off the antibiotics for a few days and then it comes back. She is on the third round of antibiotics and the doctor is setting her up with an ENT to have her tonsils taken out. At least that can be done here in Pueblo so we won't have to keep going up to Springs. Brandon is taking it harder than she is. He started crying and said he didn't want her to have surgery because she might die. Of course he was also very tired at the time and he is feeling the stress of all the problems we have been having. I wish I was better at keeping things away from him but he is way too perceptive and he worries too much for a kid his age. Jessie takes everything in stride and unless it hits her later, she isn't worried and is just happy that she can have popsicles after. I guess I should be happy that nothing catastrophic has happened and we are still making it so far but they say God only gives you as much as you can handle and I think he has forgotten to check up on how we are doing because I am not sure how much more I can take this year.

surgery update

The first few days after the surgery Brandon was doing well with only a little pain if he tried to do too much. He had a slight fever after the surgery but it went away and there was no other sign of infection and we had to keep reminding him to keep calm. It is amazing how such a little incision and still cause a lot of pain if you move wrong. Any way on Monday we sent him to school and he didn't even want any tylenol or anything for pain and he was fine. About 10:30 while we were on our way to the grocery store the school called. They said Brandon was complaining that his incision was hurting and they took his temp because they had already sent several students home sick that morning and he was running a slight fever so we had to bring him home. Now when I got him home and took his temp it was only 99 and I figured it was because he was hurting. Other wise he was feeling fine but the school policy is you can't send the child back to school for 24 hours after the fever is gone so we knew he would be out Tuesday for sure. On the way to get Brandon, Jessie started looking like she wasn't feeling good and she was running a fever also. So on Tuesday, Brandon was acting fine except for a runny nose and a cough and a slight fever, and we had to take Jessie to the doctor because she was complaining of a sore throat and strep has been going around. She was confirmed with strep. The doctor said Brandon just has some virus and it would just have to run it's course. Scott then made me a doctor's appointment because my throat was hurting and I suspected that I had strep also ( which I do). By Wednesday, Brandon was finally feeling lousy enough that I wasn't regretting keeping him home and his fever spiked and we were all just feeling lousy. Poor Scott was the only one not sick. Brandon's nurse from the surgeon called to see how he was doing and she said that sometimes it happens that if a child has a virus that is in incubation that sometimes the surgery sets it off and the kid gets really sick right after the surgery which is what seems to have happened to him. Anyway everyone is feeling better now and we were able to have mom's birthday party on Saturday and enjoy it and Brandon will be going back to school tomorrow and hopefully won't pick up something else. Yesterday was the first day Brandon was off of surgery restrictions and he felt really good and ran everywhere. I don't think he walked anywhere.
On a brighter note here are a few cute things the kids said and did. When you ask Jessie why she is so cute she says it is because everyone loves her. And if I am getting on her about something she tells me "now mom, mind your manners". The other night I went to check on them because they were having trouble sleeping and Brandon was leaning over her bed singing to her and stroking her hair. I told him he was such a good big brother and he said "I know". Last night I was trying to get them to sleep and they kept talking and laughing and Brandon said that there were just too many jokes in their heads and they had to get them out before they could fall asleep.

Brandon's Surgery

Brandon had his surgery yesterday. We had to get up at 4 am and be up in Springs by six. We did okay until we got to the hospital and then couldn't find where to go and there wasn't anybody on duty at the front desk. A flight nurse happened by and showed us where to go. It was a good thing we took into account for getting lost and left enough time. Once we were checked in, Scott's brother-in-law Louie and the assistant pastor at his church, who had driven up, came into the room and said a prayer for Brandon. After they left we sat around the room for a little while and watched tv until it was time for the surgery. The surgery was scheduled for 7:30 and they came and got him right on time. They only allowed one parent in the operating room so Scott went in with Brandon until he was asleep, which took like five minutes, and then he was back in the room to wait with me. They told us the surgery was going to take about an hour because the doctor thought there were two small hernias. Scott had taken off to go find some food and he hadn't even gotten back to the room yet when the doctor came in and said they were done. It had only been maybe a half hour. He said there was only one hernia after all, just a lot of fat pushed through. The hole itself was probably only maybe a few centimeters big. So I went to recovery before Scott even got back to the room. The nurse said that Brandon would probably sleep for awhile because they gave him twice the amount of anethesia since they thought he would be in longer, but Brandon started coming around when he heard my voice. At first he was okay and was drinking some juice but then he started getting sick. They gave him some medicine for the pain and nausea but he just wasn't tolerating anything well. Since his vitals were good we left recovery and they took us back to the room where Scott was waiting. There we tried to get him to hold some liquid down. He was just so tired and had so much anethesia in him, plus running a slight fever, that he just felt crummy. He wanted to go home but we knew he would be so miserable riding home for an hour when he was feeling so sick. They finally gave him some different medicine that they use as a last resort because it causes the patient to fall asleep but that is what he needed. Brandon was afraid that if he fell asleep they would do more surgery. The meds kicked in quickly and he went to sleep. The problem was that as he slept his oxygen stats kept dropping below 87 which would set off the alarms and a nurse would call and see if we needed something. I spent an hour watching the monitor and waking him up enough to take deep breaths to keep his stats up until he woke up enough to stay awake. Besides the kink in my neck from looking up at the monitor, it worked wonders. Once we got him to stay awake and get dressed, he said he felt much better and he was acting more like himself. The nurses had given him a blanket and a bear to make him feel safer and he told the nurse he was going to give his bear to Jessie when he got home so the nurse gave him another one to give to her so he could keep his. Once we hit the car, he immediately wanted to go get food. Amazing because an hour ago he couldn't even stand eating a popsicle and now he was starving. He ate two fruit bars on the way home and half of a chicken sandwich when we got home. Jessie was so happy to have him home she couldn't stop watching him and mothering him. Then they both took naps. Jessie woke up at 5:30 when she realized brother was gone and made mom put in Shrek to watch because there wasn't anything good on tv that early so she was pretty tired too. He was still feeling a little bad last night with a low grade fever but this morning the fever was gone and he is just stiff and sore. The incision is only about 3/4 to a half of an inch long and covered with steri strips. The fun part is going to be keeping him calm and only doing quiet activities for a week. The surgeon told me good luck with that. He has to avoid gym and recess for a week and he is worried that he will get into trouble with the teachers for not taking gym. We keep telling him we have a note from the doctor so they won't be mad. All in all it went as well as it could have and at least it is all over and hopefully we will never have to do something like that again. I am so proud of him. He was so brave and strong through the whole thing. The nurses said they wish all their patients were like him, he never cried or anything, he just did what they told him to. Thank you for all the prayers. They were greatly appreciated.

North Pole Trip

Mom had a little money set aside for summer family trips so this year's vacation was going to the State Fair and the North Pole in Colorado Springs. The kids got to see all the free shows at the fair and the petting zoo and ride the ponies, which they always like. When we went to the North Pole, we didn't tell them where we were going so it would be a surprise. They were so excited. The first place we went was Santa's House. They were still a little overwhelmed and didn't talk much to Santa. Jessie said she wanted another doll house and Brandon wanted a real horse. Then we started on the rides. It is a good deal because you pay one price and can ride the rides all you want. Most of the rides are pretty mellow, which is the way the kids like it. Jessie and Brandon were able to ride on all of them together or with me and Scott. They were really liking it. There was only one ride they didn't like. Scott talked us into going on the Tilt-a-Whirl. They were not impressed with that one. Luckily that was one of the last so it didn't make them not want to ride any more. It did rain on us a few times. The first was no big deal. We just went into some of the gift shops while we waited it out. We told the kids one more ride and then we were going home and then it started to rain a second time. It downpoured on them during the ride and they had to stop it early. It wasn't a big deal because we were ready to go home anyway but the problem was that everyone in the park decided to go home also because it was an hour before the park closed anyway. It took us forever to get out and onto the main road because traffic was so bad. All in all it was a good day and a good way to end the summer and forget our troubles for a little while.

Brandon's surgery

Brandon had his preop appointment today. His surgery is set for next Friday, September 25 at 7:30AM. We have to be at the hospital at 6AM and since it is in Springs, we have to leave here at 5 which means getting up at like 4AM. Maybe we will be so tired we won't be as worried. Mom has offered to watch Jessie for us, and I am sure if she knew the time before hand she might have had second thoughts. At least she only has to walk over and hopefully Jessie will stay asleep for awhile so mom won't have to entertain her that early in the morning. The good thing is that Brandon should be released by 10:30 so we will be home for lunch and with any luck naps. I'll send another blog after the surgery and let everyone know how it went. lots of prayers.

Jenny’s Special Birthday Gifts

I’m sneaking into Jenny’s blog to write a story I think is cute. I thought it would be fun to take the grandkids shopping so they could pick out a birthday gift for their mother. I gave them free reign (within a reasonable price range) of what they thought would be the perfect gift for their mother. I was really curious to see what they would come up with. So the three of us set out for Wal-Mart. Before we left on our shopping trip Brandon told his mother he wanted to get her flowers, those pretty cut flowers in the case by the front door of Wal-Mart he said. Jenny talked him out of those because she told him although she loved flowers, once they died she wouldn’t have anything to keep forever from him so he decided he would rather give her something she could keep. They both decided jewelry was what mommy needed so we headed for the jewelry and I figured I would start them at the first aisle and let them look at everything on the racks and then decide which one they wanted. I didn’t realize the first aisle was the children’s jewelry. Jessie wanted to get some Tinkerbelle bracelets that would only fit a child and I don’t think she really had mommy in mind at that time. I told her we were shopping for mommy and not her and maybe she could get those later so then she liked a Hannah Montana necklace that would fit her mommy. I told her we would keep looking but if that’s what she wanted to get her we would come back for it. Brandon tends to just zero in on something, like it calls to him, and then he is set on that item no matter how many other things he looks at and this time was no exception. He headed straight for a box of earrings and that was exactly what he thought his mommy should have. Jessie is more of a shopper so she looked at everything. She liked the costume jewelry rings and picked one of the largest red stones I’ve ever seen on a ring. It was a huge square stone with a couple of small diamonds on each side. The rings weren’t the kind you can size and I was afraid if it didn’t fit any of Jenny’s fingers then she wouldn’t be able to wear it at all and Jessie would be very disappointed so she decided to keep looking (you’re welcome Jenny). Finally, she decided on a gold and purple necklace. Then she wanted to give her a second gift so I said they could pick out another gift that was from both of them. Jessie wanted to give her a card of earrings but it was very similar to the ones Brandon had picked. He wanted to give an identical box of earrings to the ones he had already picked out but with a different color stone but I thought maybe a bit more variety would be nice so they decided on a card of beaded bracelets. We thought it was a card of about eight different bracelets but it turned out to be all one bracelet and when pulled out, looks like a very pretty slinky. So happy with their purchases we paid for them and some gum that they talked Grandma into. Then we stopped at my house to wrap the presents and they were very picky about the tissue paper and bags we used. They both decided they wanted to give her a card too and luckily I have a bunch of cards I get free in the mail so they each picked one out. Fortunately, I had two with a dog that looked like Shane on it because they both wanted that one. Brandon signed his card himself but dictated what he wanted to say on it to me. It read, “I wish you have a very good birthday for many many years. P.S. I love you very much and we are back from Wal-Mart.” Jessie “signed” her card too and dictated on hers the message, “Dear Mommy, I love you, I want you, I don’t want you to die.” What with Bill, their dog Sara, and several of our special cats dying recently, death is a bit on her mind. They gave their individual presents to her on her birthday, which really helped make it a special day, especially since Brandon had that bus fiasco on her birthday, and gave her the bracelet at the family party on Saturday. Jenny wore the other jewelry they gave her at the party too. Jenny loved the fact they had picked out the gifts themselves, which made them very special, and I have some really special memories of our shopping trip as well. See the pictures below:

1st day of school

Brandon had his first day of all day school yesterday. I was worried about him lasting all day because he always gets tired in the afternoon. He did fine with that though and said that he enjoyed going all day. We will see how long that lasts. He did have problems with the bus however. When he was supposed to get off the bus, he wasn't there. Melody from next door, who was getting her son off the bus and runs a daycare, asked us where Brandon was. Dad, who was waiting outside, jumped into his car and started chasing down the bus. Melody started calling the bus garage, and I called the school. She said they messed up with one of her daycare kids in morning kindergarten too, they had the drop off address wrong, and he was on the bus an extra hour before she finally got him to her house. I finally got a hold of the school and they started tracking him down. Apparently they put him on the wrong bus and he wasn't the only one. Parents were chasing down buses and calling the school and in general panic mode throughout the county. The school finally called and said they had him at the school about the time Scott was getting ready to head down there and I was going to wait at home in case they dropped him off there. Dad returned home after verifying that Brandon wasn't on the bus. Needless to say Scott and many other parents were giving the school an earful. Then they tried to tell us that Brandon was on the right bus and just didn't get off, so Scott let them have it again because we tracked the bus down and he was not on it. I figured Brandon would be freaked out by now but when we got him he was more worried that he was in trouble because they took him to the principal's office to wait for us. He is calling it his great adventure. On the way home I asked him if the bus he was on even went in our direction and he said no that he thought they took him to Mexico because it was a foreign land. I had baked cookies for him to have when he got home from school but by the time we got him home he was too wired to eat them. Every year something goes wrong for him on the bus. In preschool, the bus got the kids to school 20 minutes before all the other buses and they didn't bother to tell the teachers that so his first day he waited outside the school with no teachers and it scared him and the other kids. Last year the bus went into a ditch, and this year they lose him. I can't wait to find out what will happen next year. Great birthday present for me to have my son lost in the bus system. They don't take care of the kids like they used to that's for sure.

Brandon has his surgery scheduled for september 25, at 7:30 in the morning, which means we will have to leave here at 6:30 and hopefully not wait for hours until they get him in. At least it will be over and I can stop worrying about it.

Brandon had his appointment with the surgeon yesterday and he said it was an epigastric hernia. The muscles never closed up completely allowing some fat to get pushed through which is the lump we can see. It must be the only fat in his body because I sure can't find any anywhere else. The good news is that it is unlikely to cause any serious medical problems but it can be painful and they want to do surgery but I don't know when exactly. Probably in the next month or two. They said it was better to do it while he is young and recovers quickly. Brandon was funny though before we left to go to Springs. Mom was babysitting Jessie at our house and Brandon acted like she never been there before. He was showing her where everything was and telling her how to do everything like how to open the door if the dogs wanted out. He showed her the fridge and told her what snacks Jessie liked and where her juice was. Right before we left he showed her the keys to the firetruck in case they wanted to go for a spin and then thanked mom for watching his little sister. It was funny.
Scott's test result came back normal except for a lot of acid and now they want to do a scope. I don't know when he will get around to doing that. I think it is just stress and he hasn't been feeling like working out or anything lately and that doesn't help. At the end of the day Brandon tells me that this was the best day. I was thinking yeah I love driving for two hours for a fifteen minute visit, told that my son has to have surgery, Scott needs more tests to find out what is wrong yeah right this was a great day. We have a meeting set up on Wednesday with several potential investors to hopefully invest in the business so hopefully that will go good. Mom is feeling more positive so that helps. I never realized how much I count on her to help me stay a little more positive. She is on vacation this week which helps break up the monotony too. Prayers are welcome.

When it rains it pours

Last year wasn't our greatest year in terms of finances because Scott didn't get much work. I thought 2009 was going to be better, I was wrong it just keeps going downhill. Not only has our financial situation not improved any, but there must be some life law that when you are down and out everything must break. Our car has just broken down for the third time this year. I am not talking small things, I am talking the cheapest time was $300 to $800. Luckily we do have a back up car that so far is behaving itself. Scott is having to have tests done to see why his GERD is back. He had surgery years ago that was supposed to take care of it, but now he having problems again. We are waiting to find out the results of his upper GI and see where we go from there. Our insurance isn't the greatest so there are our of pocket expenses. Then I took Brandon to the doctor for his regular checkup and the doctor decided that the small lump he has had on stomach since he was like two, that she always told me was a blood vessel and would eventually disappear, decided that maybe is a ventral ulcer and he needs to see a pediatric surgeon which of course are none in Pueblo so we have to go to Springs for. Just what he needs to do right before he starts first grade and is in school all day for the first time. He will not do well if they decide he needs surgery so I am praying that something will go right and they can take care of it right there or decide that it is nothing to worry about. Brandon goes to the dentist next week along with the appointment with the surgeon and I am dreading what may come up then. The only saving grace is so far Jessie seems to be perfectly fine except that she has decided to quit sleeping at night again which she was barely sleeping in the first place which means no sleep for me either. I am really trying to remember that things could be worse and focus on the good things. Every day I wonder what is going to happen today. If my family is being tested on our faith then I am afraid we are failing. Even mom who usually is the one who holds us all together and keeps the faith when we all slip, is having trouble staying positive. I am not sure what to do any more.

4th of July

Our 4th was definitely memorable. It started with mom finding out she had a flat tire, which of course can't be fixed until Monday. We picked up fireworks while Dad made the traditional homemade peach ice cream. Then the kids, mom and I made Grandma's birthday cake since we celebrate her birthday on the 4th. There must have been some grease left in the broiler from the steak we cooked the other day because the broiler caught on fire and blackened the cake and smoked us out of the kitchen. Luckily the oven was not ruined, only the cake. So Mom and I ran out to the store to buy new cake mix and started over (this time at mom's house). After we made the cake and were decorating it, we put the 94 candles on and the 9 was broken so we had to lay them down on the cake instead. Then the rain came. We ended up eating inside because even though it finally stopped by six, we weren't sure for how long and everything was really wet. After dinner, we took the kids outside to set off the before dark stuff like smoke bombs and snakes and we had bought a bunch of silly string and had a silly string war. The big kids (Dad, Scott, and Chris) really had fun with that and Brandon has requested more silly string for his birthday. Jessie preferred to watch from the sidelines. We went back inside for cake and ice cream and presents so that Grandma could leave whenever she was ready to, and about the time we were ready to go back outside and finish the fireworks, it was raining really hard again. We had also bought some glow sticks to play with outside, and we ended up playing with those inside with the lights out. That passed the time for awhile. Around 9:30 it had died down a little bit and Chris said he had a rain poncho and would light the fireworks so we put up the patio awning and everyone sat under that to stay dry and Chris lit fireworks. Jessie was so tired by then, because of course neither one took naps, she fell asleep on Mom's lap shortly after they started. Brandon managed to stay awake until they were done but he was zoning pretty hard by the end. Because the air was heavy with all the humidity, all the smoke stayed low instead of rising up like usual and a few times you could hardly see the fountains and all the illegal fireworks the neighbors put off (that you are not supposed to) were staying low to the ground. (We of course were good and didn't have any illegals.) It is a good thing that everything was wet because there probably would have been fires otherwise. The rain held off until we got everything finished and back inside, and then it started up again shortly after everyone went home. Grandma says that even though it wasn't necessarily the greatest 4th, it will be one of the most memorable and we will look back on it one day and remember the 4th of July when we almost burnt the house down, ruined the cake, and it rained almost the whole time. And we will probably all laugh.

Uncle Jim and Aunt Pat's visit

Aunt Pat and Uncle Jim visited last weekend. It was fun as usual. Everyone really enjoys their visits getting to see family. Jessie invited everyone to her and Brandon's swimming lesson on Friday and they all went. Everyone means Scott who always goes with me, Mom, Dad, Pat, Jim, and even GG. It really meant a lot to the kids to have everyone watching them. Then we all came to my house and had lunch and relaxed outside for awhile. That night everyone came back out for a picnic. We weren't sure if the weather was going to cooperate but it ended up being nice after a short rain and we were able to eat outside. That made Scott happy because he works hard keeping up the yard and he likes showing it off. After dinner Scott lit the fire pit and we all sat in the rock garden watching the fire and listening to the fountains. It was almost like being in the mountains. It was nice sitting outside relaxing and talking. On Saturday, we went to Rye and spent the afternoon in the mountains, eating lunch and sitting around. Uncle Jim even climbed the big rock like he used to. Scott tried to get a picture but Jim got down before he could take it. Mom, Scott and I took the kids to the mountain park for awhile and everyone else stayed at the picnic site and relaxed. That night we had dinner at Chris's house where mom planned a surprise 60th birthday party for Aunt Pat and Uncle Jim. She decided to get even for all the over the hill parties they have thrown and said that they shouldn't get away with spending those birthdays by themselves. Dad had a lot of fun buying joke gifts for the two of them. We had a nice dinner and took some family photos which mom will get out as soon as she is done fixing them up and playing with her new photo software. We then ended up outside and hung around Chris's backyard until it got late and it was time to call it quits. I hope they had a nice visit, I know we did and Grandma always loves having everyone together. There are pictures of the birthday party on shutterfly for anyone who would like to see them. We can't wait until next year.

end of school year

Brandon had a busy May. First was career day where Scott went to talk about being a wildland firefighter and Brandon got to show off to his class and learn about a lot of other careers. He has decided that he wants to try karate which makes sense because he is always running around pretending to do it anyway. Then he had his field trip to the zoo and the city park rides. He had fun and I went to be with him but it was ninety degrees that day so all the kids were pretty worn out. Scott took Jessie to the park to feed the ducks and play and have lunch so they had their special day. Last Friday was Brandon's first field day. He got third place at the 50 yard dash that all the kids run and they all got ribbons so that every child got at least one ribbon. The other games the kindergarten kids played was egg toss, water race and group dance. The kids didn't play for ribbons, they just got tickets for gumballs. They all had a great time. Today was graduation. The kids have a program called zoo phonics to help them learn the alphabet letter sounds. It seems to really work and they all dressed up in animal costumes and sang the zoo phonics song and then individually came up and said their sound. Brandon was "Inny Inchworm, he wore a green shirt that was supposed to be the leaves of a tree and had a big stuffed inchworm on his arm.

Then they sang the kindergarten graduation song and received their diplomas.

He is now officially a big kid and will go to school all day next school year. I can't believe it. I guess I shouldn't complain too much because I got an extra year since he missed going to kindergarten last year by a month because of the age limit. Brandon is growing up so fast. A few weeks ago he gave me one of his favorite stuffed animals saying that he didn't need it any more and maybe it would help me with my nightmares. Of course he still has blankie hidden under his pillow and the bear that Scott gave him when he was born so he isn't too big yet.

Both kids are excited about summer and all the fun things. The first thing is swimming lessons and this year Jessie is old enough to start the basic program so they will both be in the water which means I can actually watch instead of trying to keep her occupied in the bleachers for a half an hour. Hopefully Scott will be on a lot of fires this summer and will be gone a lot not that I won't miss him but we need to make up for the slow season last year. I hope this summer will be fun for everyone.

Easter

The kids had a lot of fun on Easter. It was snowing so we had to do the egg hunt inside which they are used to doing as there have only been a few years when it was actually warm enough to go outside although we usually don't have snow. Jessie was really excited because this is the first year she was old enough to really get into decorating the eggs and finding them. She was bouncing all over the place and wasn't even on a sugar rush. We had dinner at our house with everyone and then that night we read the Easter story out of Brandon's Bible that he got for Christmas. It was a good day all around.

Last week I babysat for the daycare next door for an hour or so. I watch the kids for her when she has appointments she has to go to so she doesn't have to try to schedule around all of the kids. (this is the daycare Brandon used to go to) There were seven kids all under the age of five. They all knew me because I have sat for them before but it is like having a substitute teacher or a babysitter at home. They all tried to take advantage of me by trying to do things they normally aren't allowed to do. Luckily the four month baby wasn't there that day or I would have had her also. Melody had put on a movie before she left and they were supposed to rest and be quiet which lasted about five minutes after she was gone. The kept going into rooms they weren't supposed to and getting out toys they weren't supposed to play with. I knew that they were playing me but I wasn't sure exactly how much. The two older ones kept contradicting each other over what was allowed and what wasn't. I finally told them that they knew they would just get into trouble when Melody came home so they should put everything away they weren't supposed to have. They wanted to read books and kept bringing more out but wouldn't stay to read and while I was trying to read to some of the kids the others would take off. When the school bus came, they knew Brandon was on it so they went running out to see the bus and then I had to chase them down and get them back into the house which they thought was a really fun game. Luckily none of them thought of running back out of the house after I put them and and was retrieving another kid. Melody's oldest child came tearing into the house through back door shortly after Melody left, which she was supposed to be in school and took back off but when she had come in through back she let their dog into the laundry room. I kept hearing noises coming from that direction and kept counting the kids to make sure I wasn't missing any, and then I happened to open the laundry room door a little while later to throw a dirty diaper away and found out what the noises were. The dog had got into the trash can and was having a heyday. Right before Melody came home one of the kids announced that the movie was over which no one was paying attention to anyway. Needless to say the kids were all in trouble when Melody came home and I am sure her daughter was going to be too for not only ditching school but letting the dog in. It was definitely an interesting afternoon and she is probably afraid I won't ever watch the kids again but I didn't really mind and it makes good stories.

Brandon's bus accident

On the way home from school today Brandon's bus slid off the road into a ditch because the dirt road had turned into slippery mud from the brief snow storm we had this morning. The snow had all melted off so I wasn't too concerned with him coming home, but I didn't expect mud to be the culprit. It could have been a lot worse if the ditch were deeper as out in the farm lands the ditches can be pretty deep. The bus had turned partially on it's side but luckily no one was hurt. Nothing stops your heart faster than getting a phone call from the fire department telling you your son was in an accident. I figured that he was going to be either completely freaked out or think it was totally cool having all the firetrucks and police there. It was the latter. When we went to the accident site to pick him up and sign off that we got him, when he came off the other bus they brought there so the kids weren't sitting in the cold and mud, he came off grinning. He told us how he had to walk sideways to get to the back of the bus and a fireman helped him out and his shoes got all muddy. He was more worried about his friends and whether they were hurt or not. All the kids were checked out and no one was hurt thankfully. He hurt his nose a little when it hit the window but that is all. He told me when we got home and I said that he had an exciting day, " It was not exciting. I was in an accident and I was worried about you picking me up that you would get hurt." I will be really surprised if he doesn't go into some field where he helps people when he grows up. I will definitely be thanking God in my prayers tonight that he kept everyone safe and that it was not as bad as it could have been.

Also, Jessie was totally worried about her brother when we were going to pick him up. She didn't relax until she saw him and knew he was alright. She really loves her brother. She was so excited telling the story later to her grandma that she was jumping up and down. You would think it was her adventure instead of Brandon's.

Spring Break

Brandon was on spring break this week. It was interesting weatherwise. We went fishing at the reservoir on Tuesday and it was a little chilly with the wind blowing, but the kids still had fun. A couple of bites but no fish. There were two geese that kept scaring the kids though because they would come right up to us trying to get food and that was a little too close for their comfort. Then I took the kids to see GG at her apartment on Wednesday and they had a tea party and played over there for awhile. On Thursday we went to Walmart to get some batteries for a flashlight before the predicted winter storm hit and it was chilly but sunny. By afternoon the blizzard hit. Only in Colorado can you have sunny skies one minute and whiteout conditions the next. It snowed really hard all night into Friday. Mom stayed home from work because of the roads and so we all went out to play in the snowdrifts and build snowmen. The kids had a blast sledding and trying to walk in the drifts. Some of the drifts were a couple of feet tall and Jessie got stuck in one of them while I was getting the sled. They haven't had snow like this since before Jessie was born. The dogs thought it was pretty great too and they were acting like puppies jumping in and out of the snowdrifts. Saturday the snow started melting but they could still play in it and by Sunday we were outside wearing light jackets and most of the snow was gone.
Brandon and Jessie's snowman with Fearless


Brandon and Jessie climbed into a snowdrift and I am rescuing them


I included this picture because Mom told me that there was interest in what Chris's girlfriend Rachel looks like. The necklaces are ones that Jessie got for her birthday, Chris put them on her.

Jessie's Birthday

I can't believe Jessie is already three. Time goes by so fast. She can't decide whether she wants to be a big girl or little. One time she'll say she is a big girl and then she will turn around and say she is not big, she is little. She had a great time on her birthday. It was princess/tinkerbell themed and she loved it. She loves the princess, tinkerbell movies and wants to watch them all the time. I love watching her play and learning new things. It is so amazing to see her learn and grow and discover new things and get so excited over the smallest things.

Brandon is doing well also. He is doing good in school, a little trouble learning to write his numbers to 100 but is doing above average in reading to make up for it. They are both looking forward to spring and getting to play outside more often. Of course they also don't want to take naps either. Brandon is big enough to get by without one but Jessie becomes a roller coaster of emotions when she doesn't get enough sleep and I have enough trouble getting her to sleep at night much less fighting with her during the day also.

Christmas

Christmas was a hectic but fun time. This is the first year Jessie really understood what was going on. It was a little sad also as it was the first Christmas without Bill. In some ways it was a blessing that he passed away before Christmas because he wouldn't have been able to be there with us anyway and at least this way he wasn't sitting in the nursing home alone. Grandma did pretty well considering and I think the distraction was good. We took her with us to the mall to see Santa, and Jessie wouldn't sit on his lap, but she and Brandon talked to him. Then we wandered around a little bit, and they rode the kiddie rides. Then we took the kids to the playground where there was a little boy that was the same size as Jessie but probably only about maybe two, if that. He was having trouble on the slide and Jessie was trying to help him. Then he decided that he liked her and they went around holding hands. He took her to meet his mom and then Jessie took him to Scott, who was sitting in there with them. She was running around telling us she had a new friend and Brandon was following them around like a protective big brother making sure that he wasn't going to hurt her. I had to tell him to relax and that it was okay and then he relaxed and went back to playing.
Bill knew this was going to be his last Christmas and he wanted to give the kids a special present just from him, especially Brandon because they always had a special bond. Grandma suggested children's bibles that he could write an inscription in and they could have them always and pass them down to their kids. He wasn't able to hold on before Grandma could buy them, so I took her to the store and we bought them and she wrote the inscriptions for them that she thought Bill might have wanted to say to them. The kids don't completely understand the whole death and heaven stuff yet but they both seemed to understand the importance of the books and got very quiet when they opened them. Brandon especially because he is so sensitive about things. I think they will really appreciate them when they get older. All in all it was a good Christmas with lots of presents, family and happiness.