no one noticed our little friend today until i went to put a pan of broccoli on the stove. my heart jumped into my throat and a weird, breathy ghhhhh noise came out of my mouth. chantze turned, laughed then he noticed the mouse and screamed. i called dad to come over and get rid of it. so dad came over, picked it up from the back and guess what? it bit him. dad yelped, jumped back, arms whipped up and back letting the mouse fly backwards. the mouse hit my water cup, tipped it over, then fell on the floor and slid under the frig. while this was happening, chantze & i screamed, turned and slammed into each other and i end up bouncing off the wall. dad did get the mouse out of the house. the silly rodent got into the mouse poison and started to die.

we took the pics before dad came over. that top blurry one was when i was trying to focus and the stupid phone rang. it scared me.

uncle kenneth

uncle raymond, uncle kenneth, dad, uncle sam, uncle junior










randy, kenny, robert, uncle kenneth

uncle kenneth

mom, wendy, leona & myself took a trip to see uncle kenneth. he's dying of ALS (lou gehrig's disease). he was diagnosed in 2008. he is quickly deteriorating. it's crazy because my dad and his brothers are strong--don't need any help from anyone. to see someone so strong get so weak in such a short time is completely heart breaking. my uncle is now walking with a walker and has a hard time speaking. his young wife says he's in so much pain all the time. she gets very little sleep and he cannot help but be frustrated. randy, his son, is always over there making sure he's ok. someone always has to be with him in case he chokes. randy cries a lot because when they were very young their mom left them. uncle kenneth could have put them in an orphanage but chose to raise them. randy says he'll never forget that. kenny, his other son, says he helps as much as he can also. small note about kenny--he's been in rehab for two years for drugs. he's doing so good. i'm proud of him. he has a hard time watching his dad die. robert, another son, doesn't come to see his dad very much. when we were there, robert stayed only a few minutes. he barely looked at his dad. when he left he told his dad "see ya dad--love you". uncle kenneth didn't want us to leave. as we were leaving, his eyes had tears in them. it was hard. i talked to ray about going a couple days during our vacation. please pray that we will have the money and the van is running good. it may be the last time i see him.

pray for my mom

keep my mom in your prayers. she went in for a normal colonoscopy and dr power found a polyp that was too big to remove. she was diagnosed with cancer. at this point she will have surgery to have the polyp and probably a little bit of her colon removed. just pray that that is all she will need. she's not scared. she believes that God will take care of her. Amen!

mother's day

ray, chantze & the twins made mother's day very very special. they bought my 2 new belly rings & 2 new sun dresses. they made breakfast in bed for me and took me out to someplace else pizza. they even bought me a mocha from starbucks. the girls made a really nice picture on brown paper. they are so thoughtful. they made the whole day about me and gave me hugs & kisses. ray says he owes me a full body massage. ;) i hope all of you moms felt as special as i did on sunday.

we also bought special gifts for our moms. i'm pretty sure they liked their gifts. mom & violet, we love you very much & we'll always be there for you when you need us. May our loving Father in Heaven always be with you.

yikes!

ok, so the girls were playing on webkins right before bed. they have lots of furniture & paige bought a refrigerator & food. they were having a lot of fun but then something strange happened. something stole all their webkins stuff! so they hired a detective dog to help but he didn't help. as they were trying to figure things out i told them they had to go to bed. darn it. paige yelled out "mama, we're too scared to sleep in our bed because there is a monster under the bed with long sharp claws that will rip our legs apart". and that is when they told me about their stuff being stolen and they had to hire a detective and a monster, under their bed, with long, sharp claws will claw their legs...huh? needless to say, they slept with me until ray carried them to bed.

brooke sings

Enjoy!

MOM'S LUNGS

ok here's the thing. mom is having some difficulty breathing so she has been seeing doctors & having xrays & breathing tests. for a while, i was really worried because she would shake, wheeze & cough. she seem to not be able to catch her breath. i told mom the next time she sees her doctor ask him to be referred to a pulmonary doctor (dr. kleaveland). the beginning of February, she came home from her doctor's appt. and told me she was referred to a lung doctor. dad asked, "did the doctor tell you how long you had?"

yesterday, my mom saw dr kleaveland. dr kleaveland didn't see anything worrisome--praise God. he did tell her that he would like to see her in the summer when she is not sick. dad chuckled and said, "we'll have to dig her up from her grave and bring her body in." for those that don't get it, he insinuated that she is always sick.

what can you say? my dad--my poor mom.

btw, dr kleaveland told her why she would shake. basically, mom was over-dosing on her breathing meds.

bless her heart

i remember my school days and remember how much i hated it. all the disappointments and cruel little kids. i had really mean teachers & bus drivers--fortunately, the girls do not. i remember how i felt when someone hurt my feelings or i didn't get something i wanted. but wow! those feelings are 10 times worse when your own children go through it. today, i was looking for clothes for brooke to wear. i was feeling frustrated because she was being a bit picky so i snapped a little. when i turned around, she had tears in her eyes and i asked if i hurt her feelings. i did. so i hugged her tight, gave her a kiss, and told her i was sorry. then she burst into a hard cry--tears streaming and trying to catch her breath. i felt really bad. i didn't think i snapped that bad--just a little--so i told her i wasn't mad at her but she went into this confusing story about how she lost the pirate costume contest and no one wanted to be on her team except Breeze. i guess she was a captain and kids were suppose to line up behind the captain they wanted. Breeze was the only one who lined up behind her. Mr. VanOss, her teacher, reminded everyone that brooke was a captain too. after that, 2 other kids lined up behind her. she said she almost cried in class but held it in. i held her for a while then told her she could have free time the rest of the night. that made her a little cheery. the story broke my heart because i know how she feels being hurt by friends. i told her that i agree with mr. VanOss--they probably didn't realize she was a captain. i'm telling you, just by the look on her face, i could tell she was really really hurt.

stay tuned...

brooke is going to sing for us. the song is a surprise. we'll record it as soon as we find the words then i just have to figure out how to get it on my blog. hopefully this week. in the mean time, ask ray about his pizzahut guessing games.

just stuff

this is my dad's sister, barbara. i don't remember too much about her because she died in a car accident when i was very young. i do know she worked for the gov't and won a beauty contest. she won with a leopard print bathing suit. she left behind a daughter, debbie. she inherited lots of money. from my understanding, she is a little weird and a bulimic. my dad told me that when he was young, out of all his siblings he hated getting in fights with barbara. i guess she would bite and claw. she was an aunt that i would have really like to get to know. well, since that is impossible now, let's talk about glade candles. elisa, ray's coworker, inspired me. she had one burning in her bathroom and it smelled so nice. so i bought one. i've decided to buy 5 or 10 because i want my house to smell really nice. i am a terrible housewife so maybe--just maybe--people won't notice that but notice how nice my messy house smells. on that note, i have to say ray is so sweet. he went from a very neat woman to me. yikes. he probably did not realize what he was getting into. oh well. love you ray :)

Happy birthday, Ray!

Awwwe. My favorite person is my first follower and he is 38 yrs old today! The kids and I made him tacos & bought him Guiness beer, Guiness beer glasses, & a Jack Johnson cd. I am pretty sure he liked everything (especially the beer glasses).


The kids made him a special box of love you notes and pictures and cookies. I left it out for him this morning and soon I will be waking him up to help me get the kids off to school so maybe he'll comment about it sometime today.

Ray is a wonderful dad & husband. He works so hard for his family. Not only does he work 40 + hours a week but he is also writing to better his family. Which, by God's grace, will happen someday soon. He is an awesome writer. He loves all his kids and loves to be around them. They love him so much too.


He does so much for me. Here are just a few things he does for me...

I love that he will trade cars so I don't have to put gas in the car or if the roads are bad he will have me drive the van. He starts my car and scrapes for me. He drives because he knows how much I hate it (even if he doesn't have to go). I love it when he says I'm the most important person in his life or when he says he loves me the most--my heart skips every time. He tells me I am beautiful even on bad days. He makes me feel good about aging which most women have a hard time. He is quitting smoking and choking down pills that makes him sick to his stomach. He doesn't mind me following him around like a lost puppy on the weekends or when I call him during the week just so I can hear his voice. I love it when he plays his guitar especially when I am trying to sleep--it is relaxing and helps me fall asleep. On nights we go to bed together, he waits up while I do my night time routine to cuddle with me. He wakes me up when I have my stupid demon dreams or when I go into stupid sleeping paralysis. When I have nightmares, he doesn't mind when I mash myself against him to get away from the edge of the bed. He sometimes comes to bed just to lay with me until I fall asleep. Although, sometimes he gets up and shuts me in the dark--I don't like that. He puts up with a lot of stupid crap I do. I appreciate & I love him so much. Besides Jesus, there is no one I love more. He makes me so very happy.

Hailie, Chantze, Brooke and Paige are very lucky to have him as a dad and I praise God every day for giving him to me.


Happy birthday, baby. I cannot wait to see you this weekend.