Emmaline laughs!!!! This was the first time she's laughed and we got it on video!
Mythbusters: Farm Edition
10 years ago
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
We went to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Sunday for my mother's day gift. The weather was perfect! Emma did fine when qualifying was going on and only 1 car was on the track (as long as I had her ears covered). She got irate when they started practicing and many cars were on the track and we had to leave and go find the "kid zone". It was a great day!
Above the boys are racing video games at the track in the kid zone.
This is from today at Gabe's 1st grade picnic at school.
Above is the first picture where I've captured her smile!!!!!! So cute!
That would be Mike's car! I don't think it'll make it much farther!
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Monday, April 29, 2013
It's been a long while!
I've pretty much ignored this blog for a long time! I was trying to
email a bunch of pictures to a few people and was having trouble and
then remembered I could do it this way. Here they are:
Gabe at bat
Emmaline in her ridiculously cute rainbow outfit today. I know it's over the top and love it!
Action shot of Gabe at little league game tonight.
Our shed is finally organized! A few weeks ago Mike took on this project that I've been wanting to take care of for years! He hadn't planned on doing this project that day. He originally just went out to find a storage spot for Caleb's new soccer goal (you can see some of it in the left of the picture below). But when he opened the shed we found that the boys hadn't actually put toys away all winter! They had just thrown them right inside the door! Ugh! So now that it is organized and everything has a good spot that it belongs in, they have to put things back where they are supposed to be and we check it everytime to make sure!
He build a small loft to get some things off the floor.
I found plans for this on Pinterest and built it to organize all the balls
This one is from a few weeks ago when it was nice enough to hang out outside. She is showing off her new cloth diaper. The rainbow "baby legs" again are over the top cute!
She's loving the exersaucer these days!
With Big Bro!
This is Emmaline next to her cousin, June who is only 2 1/2 weeks younger! Emma is off the top of the growth charts on her height and around 90 percentile on her weight. She's growing out of her clothes before she's had a chance to wear half of them!
Emma's bedroom window after hail storm. luckily she wasn't in her room when it happened. It only broke the outside pane, so no glass inside thankfully. You can see in the picture there is about 6 inches of water stuck in the bottom section of that top window. The window was boarded up the next day and remains that way. Insurance adjuster comes tomorrow (almost 2 weeks after the fact!)
This is the side of the house that got hit the worst (that is Emma's window). Swiss cheese!
Here is one whole upclose right after the storm....notice hail still stuck in house!
This is a Mei Tai baby carrier that I made. I had someone embroider the saying on a piece of white material and then incorporated it into the carrier. I love it!
Here we are at the Race for the Cure. She was in a snow suit and then wrapped in a blanket inside the carrier, stayed toasty warm the whole time while we were cold, and slept the whole way through.
My little miracle girl before we started.
Of course, Caleb didn't want to look at the camera.
This is our team this year minus my Dad and Gabe. They were there earlier, but Gabe had little league pictures that morning and my Dad was nice enough to take him back to Franklin for that.
Candy helping Brody and Caleb down the first cold stretch of the walk. After we got off this street the wind wasn't so unbearable!
Hope you enjoyed my pics!
Saturday, December 10, 2011
5x7 Folded Card
Hearts And Home Christmas Card
Quick and easy: Christmas photo cards at Shutterfly.
View the entire collection of cards.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Grandma's House
Okay this is a post I've wanted...or needed....to do for months now, but never have taken the time to sit down and do it. It's an emotional subject for me, so here goes.
It's been a hard couple years emotionally watching Grandma age a little faster then I'm comfortable with. She turned 96 last May. I remember, probably 25 years ago, making a "deal" with her that she'd live to be 100. It hurts to know how close to that year we are now. She still tells me she wants to hit 100! I love that.
I hate that she got frail enough that she could no longer live in her house. That house always felt like a second home to me and my sister. We spent a lot of time there when we were younger before going to school and then weekday evenings and usually a week or 2 in the summer's and holidays and birthdays. We were always there. I also lived in the upstairs my last semester of college.
About 5-6 years ago is probably about when we where seeing more and more things that concerned us. I can't remember what they were now, just little, but we knew we needed to start thinking about different living arrangements. At first my mom and aunts and uncle tried talking to Grandma about it, but she would here none of it and would get mad. For several years we tried taking her to see different places to live. We had hopes of getting her into an assisted living place where she could have her own apartment and could call for help if needed. Grandma was very defiant and sometimes angry about it. She would go see these places and say they were nice, but she didn't need them. Finally about 2 years ago the kids (my mom and her siblings) got together and decided it was time. It was no longer safe for Grandma to be living alone and they were going to have to force the issue. She went to live with each sibling for a while, sometimes for months at a time. We all missed her around here, but new she would eventually be back. There was a lot of tension and stress around the issue between the 4 kids and Grandma. It was finally decided last June were she would be going and they moved her in, against her will unfortunately. Over the past several months she has softened to it all and knows she is safe and taken care of. She still desperately would like to go to her home, but it had been decided that it wasn't a good idea to take her back there anymore. It just confused her.
So for the past 1 1/2 we've been cleaning out the house. At first it went very slowly because between visits to her kids house they would sometimes bring her back home, so we didn't want to do so much to upset her. Didn't matter, she would still get upset. So I think last spring sometime is when she was last at her house. Since then we've been trying to totally clean it out. The first year that she wasn't living there I know my mom and sister did the majority of it. I was going through my treatments and couldn't help, so I don't even know how much stuff was gone through during that time, but it was a lot! I really started helping more last spring. We were shooting for estate sale dates in June. I think we ended up having about 5 sales in all. This week my mom and aunt have been meeting with a lady that is very interested in buying it. We all hope it goes through so my mom can stop stressing over all the paper work for medicaid and house selling. I worry about her with it all. Yes she has had a lot of help from Aunt Soni, and Aunt Sylvia when she can be in town, but alot of the calling and paper work is in her hands. I know she'll be glad when it's over.
Every time I go to Grandma's now I get depressed, and cry half the way home. It's so hard to let something go that has meant so much to you your whole life. Every time I'm alone in the house it's even worse. I don't know how many times I've stood in the kitchen facing the dining room and can just see, as plain as day, all my favorite people in the world sitting around that dining room table eating Thanksgiving and Christmas meals. Everyone watching Grandma take her rolls right out of the oven and passing them around the table warm! Those of us born into the family trying to tell those who married in the "right" way to eat the rolls...you unroll them! You don't just take a bite off the end! I tell Mike that and he thinks I'm silly, but it's been something talked about at every meal around that table for decades. I was very happy this year to teach Gabe the "right" way to eat his roll and he listened! :) I can see all the men washing the dishes after we were done, because that's how our family did it (and Grandma and Grandpa's house didn't have a dishwasher). Then some of us sit back down around the table for desserts and hours of games!!! Oh how I miss that. Other "visions" I've had are of all of us crammed into that living room passing out Christmas gifts and we'd try and open them one at a time so everyone could see all the gifts (that didn't always work out).
Every sale has been hard too. My mom, sister, and I'd be sitting at Grandma's kitchen table for several hours 3 days a week for all those sales, watching all Grandma's stuff being sold. It was hard to be at that table with those 2 and not have Grandma sitting there right with us. That's how it's been for years, us 4 girls sitting around that table. It started when we were little and ended when she had to move out. I miss that time visiting with my Grandma. She's a little too confused these days to really have a good conversation with her. That's only happened in the past couple years, where she has trouble remembering things, so she really doesn't follow the conversations well. I'm thankful that she doesn't have Alzheimer's or anything like that, but I do still miss those talks.
Today we were at her house. There was a very large tree in the front yard that has needed to come down for some time and last week it was finally cut down. I asked for some of the main trunk to be saved for violin wood (I'm very excited about that). The rest is firewood that we are splitting with Candy and Ken. So we were there to get it cut up and loaded in a truck. I've tried to avoid going inside lately if possible. Outside, minus the downed tree, still looks right. Inside is getting very bare. I don't like it at all. The attics that used to be crammed full are now pretty much empty, don't like that. The upstairs furniture...gone...don't like that. Grandma's bed...gone...don't like that. Grandma's kitchen and dining room tables...gone...don't like that (although my mom and sister now have them in their kitchens so we can still see them and sit at them). Grandma's living room...destroyed right now. The furniture is gone, but it's full of all the stuff being donated to a charity in a couple weeks. Once that stuff is gone it will also be pretty bare. I opened a couple kitchen cabinets today....shouldn't have...they are bare....don't like that.
I hate that we have to get rid of this house. I wish someone in the family could take it, but it's just not possible. I need for the process to be over and say good bye to it. Every time I'm over there it's like opening up the wound again and again. It hurts every time....not just emotionally...I mean it physically hurts in my heart to be there now. The day we say good bye will be hard, but it needs to happen. There is a potential buyer that we hope will take it in the next month. Hope all goes well with that. It's bitter sweet.
Okay now that I'm a total wreck for writing this I need to end it.
It's been a hard couple years emotionally watching Grandma age a little faster then I'm comfortable with. She turned 96 last May. I remember, probably 25 years ago, making a "deal" with her that she'd live to be 100. It hurts to know how close to that year we are now. She still tells me she wants to hit 100! I love that.
I hate that she got frail enough that she could no longer live in her house. That house always felt like a second home to me and my sister. We spent a lot of time there when we were younger before going to school and then weekday evenings and usually a week or 2 in the summer's and holidays and birthdays. We were always there. I also lived in the upstairs my last semester of college.
About 5-6 years ago is probably about when we where seeing more and more things that concerned us. I can't remember what they were now, just little, but we knew we needed to start thinking about different living arrangements. At first my mom and aunts and uncle tried talking to Grandma about it, but she would here none of it and would get mad. For several years we tried taking her to see different places to live. We had hopes of getting her into an assisted living place where she could have her own apartment and could call for help if needed. Grandma was very defiant and sometimes angry about it. She would go see these places and say they were nice, but she didn't need them. Finally about 2 years ago the kids (my mom and her siblings) got together and decided it was time. It was no longer safe for Grandma to be living alone and they were going to have to force the issue. She went to live with each sibling for a while, sometimes for months at a time. We all missed her around here, but new she would eventually be back. There was a lot of tension and stress around the issue between the 4 kids and Grandma. It was finally decided last June were she would be going and they moved her in, against her will unfortunately. Over the past several months she has softened to it all and knows she is safe and taken care of. She still desperately would like to go to her home, but it had been decided that it wasn't a good idea to take her back there anymore. It just confused her.
So for the past 1 1/2 we've been cleaning out the house. At first it went very slowly because between visits to her kids house they would sometimes bring her back home, so we didn't want to do so much to upset her. Didn't matter, she would still get upset. So I think last spring sometime is when she was last at her house. Since then we've been trying to totally clean it out. The first year that she wasn't living there I know my mom and sister did the majority of it. I was going through my treatments and couldn't help, so I don't even know how much stuff was gone through during that time, but it was a lot! I really started helping more last spring. We were shooting for estate sale dates in June. I think we ended up having about 5 sales in all. This week my mom and aunt have been meeting with a lady that is very interested in buying it. We all hope it goes through so my mom can stop stressing over all the paper work for medicaid and house selling. I worry about her with it all. Yes she has had a lot of help from Aunt Soni, and Aunt Sylvia when she can be in town, but alot of the calling and paper work is in her hands. I know she'll be glad when it's over.
Every time I go to Grandma's now I get depressed, and cry half the way home. It's so hard to let something go that has meant so much to you your whole life. Every time I'm alone in the house it's even worse. I don't know how many times I've stood in the kitchen facing the dining room and can just see, as plain as day, all my favorite people in the world sitting around that dining room table eating Thanksgiving and Christmas meals. Everyone watching Grandma take her rolls right out of the oven and passing them around the table warm! Those of us born into the family trying to tell those who married in the "right" way to eat the rolls...you unroll them! You don't just take a bite off the end! I tell Mike that and he thinks I'm silly, but it's been something talked about at every meal around that table for decades. I was very happy this year to teach Gabe the "right" way to eat his roll and he listened! :) I can see all the men washing the dishes after we were done, because that's how our family did it (and Grandma and Grandpa's house didn't have a dishwasher). Then some of us sit back down around the table for desserts and hours of games!!! Oh how I miss that. Other "visions" I've had are of all of us crammed into that living room passing out Christmas gifts and we'd try and open them one at a time so everyone could see all the gifts (that didn't always work out).
Every sale has been hard too. My mom, sister, and I'd be sitting at Grandma's kitchen table for several hours 3 days a week for all those sales, watching all Grandma's stuff being sold. It was hard to be at that table with those 2 and not have Grandma sitting there right with us. That's how it's been for years, us 4 girls sitting around that table. It started when we were little and ended when she had to move out. I miss that time visiting with my Grandma. She's a little too confused these days to really have a good conversation with her. That's only happened in the past couple years, where she has trouble remembering things, so she really doesn't follow the conversations well. I'm thankful that she doesn't have Alzheimer's or anything like that, but I do still miss those talks.
Today we were at her house. There was a very large tree in the front yard that has needed to come down for some time and last week it was finally cut down. I asked for some of the main trunk to be saved for violin wood (I'm very excited about that). The rest is firewood that we are splitting with Candy and Ken. So we were there to get it cut up and loaded in a truck. I've tried to avoid going inside lately if possible. Outside, minus the downed tree, still looks right. Inside is getting very bare. I don't like it at all. The attics that used to be crammed full are now pretty much empty, don't like that. The upstairs furniture...gone...don't like that. Grandma's bed...gone...don't like that. Grandma's kitchen and dining room tables...gone...don't like that (although my mom and sister now have them in their kitchens so we can still see them and sit at them). Grandma's living room...destroyed right now. The furniture is gone, but it's full of all the stuff being donated to a charity in a couple weeks. Once that stuff is gone it will also be pretty bare. I opened a couple kitchen cabinets today....shouldn't have...they are bare....don't like that.
I hate that we have to get rid of this house. I wish someone in the family could take it, but it's just not possible. I need for the process to be over and say good bye to it. Every time I'm over there it's like opening up the wound again and again. It hurts every time....not just emotionally...I mean it physically hurts in my heart to be there now. The day we say good bye will be hard, but it needs to happen. There is a potential buyer that we hope will take it in the next month. Hope all goes well with that. It's bitter sweet.
Okay now that I'm a total wreck for writing this I need to end it.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving! We had a very busy Thursday. Most years we either have to rotate between the 2 families on this day, or sometimes my family has been known to have it on friday. I think they mostly have done that to accommodate us, though, so I don't blame them for wanting to get together on the holiday! We got to Cinci around 10pm on Wednesday night. Got up the next morning to watch the parade on TV, visit a little with family, and also some friends came by and said hi. We ate lunch, trying not to stuff ourselves on round one. This was hard for Mike, but he did pretty good. We were very proud of Gabe. Before the meal he had told us that he was going to at least try everything. He ended up not trying everything, but did try quite a bit. I've seen a lot of maturity in him lately.
Caleb on the other hand, well, I knew it wouldn't be pretty. You see he only eats breakfast, peanut butter sandwich or peanut butter banana, and pizza right now. Once in a while you'll get him to each a chicken nugget or two. And of course, he'll eat fast food fries. I try my hardest to limit any fast food consumption, but I have yet to figure out how to avoid it all together in some circumstances. Back to thanksgiving, he ate nothing! We all sat down to eat and as the food came around the table I put a mouse size taste of a few things on his plate. If he'd just taste some things he'd love them, but he won't even take a taste! Anyway the wining and crying wouldn't stop because all he wanted was a PB sandwich! Over the last year we've decided that he doesn't get a separate meal, he eats what we eat or nothing. And usually it's nothing. I ended up taking to the other end of the house and putting him in a room and told him he could come sit with us when he decided to stop crying. He decided he wanted to stay in the room. Our dinner then was peaceful. He did eventually come out and we let him have some dessert because it was Thanksgiving! Then we visited a little more and had to leave for Indy for dinner.
It was at my sister's house. They smoked a ham and a turkey! MMMMM The table was full of all the comforts of what Thanksgiving used to have when we had it at Grandma's house. Homemade dressing, Grandma's rolls, greenbean casserole...okay so I am not a fan of that one, but it's a staple, Aunt Soni's Apple Crisp, Dad's fudge. Besides all the food, I loved that most the family was there! We used to all sit around the table and Grandma and Grandpa's every Thanksgiving and Christmas, but as our families got larger our get together's got smaller because everyone has busy lives. Last year and this year, though, I look around and see just about everyone I wanted to see! We missed Uncle Phil, he was in New Mexico taking care of selling their house so they could permanently move back to Indy. We always wish the Prouty's could be here, but living in Colorado makes it hard. There were several Christmas's growing up that they were here though. There are several of my second cousins that weren't there, but being from a big family it's really hard to get all of us together. Of course, we missed Uncle Irv, hard to believe it's been 2 years since we lost him, just not the same without him and never will be. We all miss Grandpa. He's been gone 22 years, but has a special place in all our hearts and memories and we always remember what chair he sat in every year! Speaking of chair. It was nice this year to sit around Grandma's dining room table. Candy had asked for it and now she has it in her house, so that chair that Grandpa always used was with us along with all the other chairs we have all sat in over the years. I get choked up looking around that table at all the people in my life who have made me who I am today! I'm so thankful for them all! I love them all! I was most thankful that my Grandma was there and able to enjoy all the time together. I know how much it means to her. I have a hard time thinking about how Thanksgiving would be without her. I don't ever want that to happen, but know it has to come sooner of later. We will all be devastated by it, but for today we give thanks that she is with us and pretty healthy. Thank you Lord!
Caleb on the other hand, well, I knew it wouldn't be pretty. You see he only eats breakfast, peanut butter sandwich or peanut butter banana, and pizza right now. Once in a while you'll get him to each a chicken nugget or two. And of course, he'll eat fast food fries. I try my hardest to limit any fast food consumption, but I have yet to figure out how to avoid it all together in some circumstances. Back to thanksgiving, he ate nothing! We all sat down to eat and as the food came around the table I put a mouse size taste of a few things on his plate. If he'd just taste some things he'd love them, but he won't even take a taste! Anyway the wining and crying wouldn't stop because all he wanted was a PB sandwich! Over the last year we've decided that he doesn't get a separate meal, he eats what we eat or nothing. And usually it's nothing. I ended up taking to the other end of the house and putting him in a room and told him he could come sit with us when he decided to stop crying. He decided he wanted to stay in the room. Our dinner then was peaceful. He did eventually come out and we let him have some dessert because it was Thanksgiving! Then we visited a little more and had to leave for Indy for dinner.
It was at my sister's house. They smoked a ham and a turkey! MMMMM The table was full of all the comforts of what Thanksgiving used to have when we had it at Grandma's house. Homemade dressing, Grandma's rolls, greenbean casserole...okay so I am not a fan of that one, but it's a staple, Aunt Soni's Apple Crisp, Dad's fudge. Besides all the food, I loved that most the family was there! We used to all sit around the table and Grandma and Grandpa's every Thanksgiving and Christmas, but as our families got larger our get together's got smaller because everyone has busy lives. Last year and this year, though, I look around and see just about everyone I wanted to see! We missed Uncle Phil, he was in New Mexico taking care of selling their house so they could permanently move back to Indy. We always wish the Prouty's could be here, but living in Colorado makes it hard. There were several Christmas's growing up that they were here though. There are several of my second cousins that weren't there, but being from a big family it's really hard to get all of us together. Of course, we missed Uncle Irv, hard to believe it's been 2 years since we lost him, just not the same without him and never will be. We all miss Grandpa. He's been gone 22 years, but has a special place in all our hearts and memories and we always remember what chair he sat in every year! Speaking of chair. It was nice this year to sit around Grandma's dining room table. Candy had asked for it and now she has it in her house, so that chair that Grandpa always used was with us along with all the other chairs we have all sat in over the years. I get choked up looking around that table at all the people in my life who have made me who I am today! I'm so thankful for them all! I love them all! I was most thankful that my Grandma was there and able to enjoy all the time together. I know how much it means to her. I have a hard time thinking about how Thanksgiving would be without her. I don't ever want that to happen, but know it has to come sooner of later. We will all be devastated by it, but for today we give thanks that she is with us and pretty healthy. Thank you Lord!
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