Easter 2010

This year was a lot of fun for the girls! They made out like bandits in their Easter Baskets and with the egg hunt! They looked so cute all dressed up for church and were so excited to get new shoes to match! I have to show off their cuteness!

I pray for strength

On Monday, March 22nd, 2010 I lost one of my best friends to cervical cancer. She was diagnosed at her 6 week post partum checkup with her daughter the first time. She had chemo and various other things and thought she had beat it. A few months later, she started having severe leg pain. The doctors told her that it was bursitis or micro fractures due to the chemo. After multiple visits and complaints they finally did a scan only to find out that the cancer had spread to her pelvic wall and was wrapped around major arteries and close to her spine. She fought a LONG two year battle. She wanted to watch her daughter grow up and never gave up hope. Even when she was flying to PA constantly to the Cancer Treatment Center of America, she continued to fight and be strong for her husband and her baby. Finally, her body just couldn't fight anymore. The cancer spread to her brain and she was just so weak. She went to be with our Lord and spend her forever in Heaven.

For those of us left here on earth, it is a struggle to understand why such things happen to good people. Why is her daughter left without her mother? But, I know that we may never understand or get that answer until we are one day in Heaven with the Father and can ask him ourselves. Every day I remind myself that she is no longer in pain and no longer suffering. Her body is perfect and whole again. She is spending her time in perfect happiness. Although I thank God that she is no longer hurting, I am left to grieve her loss. I see her pictures in my home, I think of the fun times we had together, and then I mourn the time that we will never have. The process of grieving a loved one is a long road and I know that only God can see me through this.

Please continue to pray for my healing and for the healing of her family as we go through this journey.

Rest in Peace, Jamie. 4-11-1981~3-22-2010

PS. Get your yearly Gyn exam! We all know how dreadful it is, but early detection can save your life!

Ewwww......

So today I decided to take the girls and go out to lunch with Marvin. We haven't gone out to his job to see him in a while and I figured that he would appreciate it. So, we drive out there and pick him up. We get to the restaurant and sit down and have a nice lunch. It was a salad bar, so the kiddos were all nice and full when we left. We all get our coats on(because it is still cold and we have two feet of snow or more on the ground) and head up to the counter to pay for our bill. Little Bit was making faces, so I thought she had something stuck in her throat or something. WRONG! She puked all over the floor of the restaurant! It was so gross! All of that salad bar food came right back up and splatted all over the floor! I was mortified! I kept apologizing and the ladies were so nice, but it didn't make me feel any better. I wanted to run out of there, but we still hadn't paid the bill and the people in front of us in line were taking forever! So needless to say, we had to stand there and soak in our embarrassment for a long time!

I can't wait until the kids are old enough to tell me what is going on! I would like to avoid another scene like that for a while!

My excitement for the week!

I am so excited to finally have a new camera! I have had my old Kodak EasyShare for about six years and it was just so out of date and wouldn't hold a charge and ate batteries like crazy. It would shut off in the middle of a picture and I was getting so annoyed with it. Well, income taxes finally came so I went to Best Buy this morning and purchased a Nikon D3000. It is really nice! I have been playing around with it for the last few hours and I haven't even come close to figuring it all out, but it takes great pictures! I am so excited to have a real reason to use it!

Reading "The Five Love Languages"

A while back I purchased the book "The Five Love Languages" on audio for my iPod and listened to it. It is an amazing book and I highly recommend it to anyone! It tells you how to show and receive love from anyone, not just your spouse.

Anyways, I have been asking my DH to listen to the book for about a month now. I gave him constant reminders that I wanted him to read it and even left my precious iPod with him on occasion in the hopes that he would turn it on and listen. Well, last night I had finally had it and I told him that I was serious and that I NEEDED him to listen to this book. I told him that it would show him what my love language was and how to speak it. I told him that he wasn't filling my "love tank" and that the book would show him why and how to fix the problem. Well, he finally took it to work with him today and started listening to it. When I called him a little while ago to see how his day was going(which we usually do everyday anyways, this isn't a special call), we finally started talking about the book. He never realized what my love languages are. He didn't know that he wasn't filling my love tank fully. He knew that he was scraping by with the bare minimums, but wasn't doing much more than that. He was putting a band-aid on things instead of fixing them. I think that we finally got to a place where we can both see what we need to work on. I have been actively trying to fill his love tank for the last month since I listened to the book and he acknowledged that he saw the difference. He was grateful for the changes I have made. Now, I just hope that he can make those same changes so that we can have an AMAZING marriage and we can get back to how things used to be. I was always so proud when I was the one with the husband who refilled my drinks without being asked. He would send me flowers on every special occasion just to say he loved me. People noticed those things about him and knew how lucky I was and I never felt more loved than I did then.

I will say it again....if you haven't read "The Five Love Languages", do it! It could change your marriage and your entire life!

You have a piece of my heart

It seems amazing to me that I have known you for over 10 years now! We have laughed together, cried together, been new places and seen new things. We have experienced the oceans and the mountains while in each other's presence. I miss you terribly! Even though you are still here and I can call you on the phone, reaching you is so difficult. I spend many nights thinking about you and how you are doing. I pray for you and your family. I think about what it will be like when we can be together once again like it was in the old days. We will never go through pregnancies together again and we may never live nearby again, but I am looking forward to the days when we can take our kids to the county fair, or swimming, or to the park. I can't wait to spend long nights watching scary movies or just hanging out. I want to grow old with you just a phone call away.

I know you don't want me to worry about you and that you are trying to keep me from the realities of this life, but I WANT to be there. I want to help you and I want to be your crutch, or crying shoulder, maybe even your chef. Whatever you need. I don't care if you don't feel like talking, or don't want to get out of bed. I don't care if you don't have your makeup on or even if you are still in your PJ's. I want to be able to be there. You will forever have a piece of my heart because you are part of my life. I love you and it will never change!

Get well my friend!

Cute Story!

Today I was in desperate search for a sitter. I called my mom and dad, my sister, my friend, my aunt and finally I called my cousin. Now, normally, I don't ask her to babysit for me because she is also a busy mom and she lives about 45 minutes away from me. Well, today was an exception and I went ahead and called her. Luckily, she was happy to help. So, I got the kiddos all dressed and ready to go and told them that they were going to spend the afternoon with Bonnie. They were excited because they know Bonnie and her boys, but we don't see them a lot.

I got the kids in the car and on the way over, they were asking their usual 1,523 questions. Only, the thing that made these questions funny is that they kept calling poor Bonnie, Barney! Questions like, "Mom, where does Barney live?" and "Mom, how long until we get to Barney's house?" I had to keep correcting them, but it was so funny, I couldn't stop laughing while trying to correct it!

Fortunately, I got it into their little minds that her name was, in fact, Bonnie and they managed to call her by her correct name when they arrived!

Darn those kids!