April 2009

Happy birthday to Brittany, Brandy and Brandon!! Wow I cat beleive the twins are already 10 years old. How time flies! They had a good birthday. The girls got a TV for their room so now there shouldnt be any fighting over who gets to watch what. Brandon got some Bionicle Lego robot things.

We passed the 1 year anniversary of my dad's passing. (We still miss you daddy).

On the 30th our town's cheif of police Wayne Hoffmantook his life. It came as a total shock to the whole town. Wayne was a good man with a kind heart. He was the second person we met when we moved to town. He helped us move our furniture in through the window because the couch was too big to fit through the door.

Decided to start my own garden. Of course we dont have a tiller and dont have the money to rent one so I ended up digging an 8' x 8' garden by hand with a shovel. Cant tell me that I dont know the value of hard work LOL. Should have something planted by next month. To be continued......

March 2009

Weather has been completely insane this month! One day it would be almost 80 degrees but the next day it was down around 40 degrees. We even got a blizzard toward the end of the month. (See pics)

I had a very terrifying experience as well this month. Amber decided that she was going to run off. She told me she was going to a youth group meeting when there wasn't one. She had been gone for 5 hours before I realised that she wasn't where she told me she was going to be. I made frantic late night phone calls to her friends and then finally the police. Thankfully she came home unharmed! No parent should have have to live through that kind of terror. the terror of what could have happened.

If February is so short why did it feel so long?

Wow! February was a busy month! Amber got selected to go to the Tournament of Champions. That is an academic competition for the best students in each grade. She tied with her good friend for 5th and did not qualify for the next level of competition. I am couldnt be prouder that she got picked in the first place. A week after that she was chosen for the Spelling Bee team.

Valentine's day was good. Jeff got me a bunch of white roses and a big teddy bear. Of course he was a week early with the gifts but at least he remembered and got me something LOL.

I had the little ones' parent teacher conferences. They all went really well, even Justin's. The twins and Brandon have straight A's again and Justin has brought his grade average up to a B. He has much such gerat progress since the start of this school year. According to Amber's midterm report she still has all A's except one B in Math. She is trying so hard to bring that B up to an A.

The 26th was my dad's birthday. Happy birthday daddy! We all miss you so very much!

Got a ton of yard work done. It's almost Spring! I have some mystery flowers coming up in the back yard. I think they are daffodils but I am not sure. I guess we wil have to wait and see what they do. I was even able to get one of the second story windows primered and painted. Of course I had to hang out of the second story window to do it but I survived.

My sincerest apologies!!

I am a terrible blogger! I have not updated in a year. I do sincerely apologize to anyone that might actually be reading this blog. I will try to give you the highlights since the last post.

March 2008
Jeff took voluntary layoff from his job so that he could take a new job in Oklahoma. For awhile he drove 500 miles one way to go to work and was away from home a week at a time while I was home with the kids trying to find a place to live down there.

The end of March was rough! We found out that my dad had been diagnosed with liver cancer. I thought that my world world end that day but the worst was yet to come. All house hunting stopped and i scrambled to make arrangements to go home to see dad.

April 2008
While still trying to nail down arrangements to make a trip back home to see dad my world shattered. April 9th I received a phone call from my brother. My dad had collapsed at home and was rushed to the hospital. My world spun out of control waiting for the next call that came in about an hour later saying that my daddy had passed away. I didn't make it! That was the day that the color drained from my life.

Jeff made it home in time to take me back to Indiana for the services. Somehow I managed to get through them without totally falling apart or killing some of my siblings.

On the way back to Kansas we stopped in Missouri and took Jessica and our grandson out for dinner. So something good did come from the trip.

May 2008
The house hunting was a success! We found a really nice two story in a quiet little town. We packed up and moved in memorial Day weekend. We had found a couple of young guys to rent the house in Emporia and we were now landlords.

June/July 2008
We slowly got settled in to the new house. The kids and i started going to church so that we could all meet people and feel like part of the community.

August 2008
The kids started school at the new school. They really like it. I think this school district is way better than the last one. Well I should say these two districts are better than the last one LOL Amber goes to Junior high School in Oklahoma and the little kids go to grade school in Texas. yeah the joys of living right on the state line LOL.

December 2008
Well holiday season in the new house was awesome. In spite of the economic crunch the kids still had a great Christmas. The people of this town are great. We got a couple of Christmas surprises in the form of charitable contributions to our family.

Fall/Winter down here has its downfalls. They are called tumbleweeds!! you cant get rid of those things no matter what you do.

January 2009
The kids are all doing great in school. Justin had some trouble at first but is making a lot of progress now. My family suffered another blow this month. My Uncle Frank passed away from complications due to cancer only 9 months after my dad's passing.

Amber turned 13 this month. I cant believe how quickly time has flown by. It seems like only yesterday she was a toddler. Its hard to believe that the beautiful young woman I see everyday is that tiny girl that used to play in empty cardboard boxes LOL

Happy reunions!

When I left off the last time we had just been put back in touch with Jeff Sr's daughter. She made plans to come out and see her dad and meet everyone and get to know us all. 2 days before she was to come out we got yet another phone call. This time from jeff Sr's other son Jason. ( I will get to that in a minute)

Jessica did come out on valentine's Day! It was quite the happy reunion. Her and her boyfriend and her son (our grandson) It was the best valentines day jeff can and probably ever will have. They spent 3 days here with us and we all had a great time.

Now I told you I would tell you all about Jeff Sr's other son, Jason. 2 days before jessica came out Jason called.It turns out, he only lives 40 minutes from us in the same state. How weird is that? Well 2 days after Jessica left Jason and his girlfriend and their 2 kids came down. They spent 7 hours here getting to know all of us and getting reaquainted with his dad. It too was a wonderful visit. Hopefully the first of many!

So thats 2 out of 3 face to face reunions and both went extremely well! The third has yet to happen because of jeffrey jr's incareration. jeff Jr had court yesturday for the addition charges and they decided to NOT give him any additional time. So he will be getting out in July as scheduled. yay!!!

Its been way too long!

So sorry friends! It has been really crazy around here. Let me do my best to catch you all up to speed.

Right before Thanksgiving we received a letter from a woman looking for her husband's father. After checking the information and confirming that it was in fact Jeff's son from his first marriage we started building a relationship with his son, Jeff Jr. Sadly, there will be no happy reunion just yet because Jeff Jr. is in prison but we still have contact with him and things are going great. We have met his wife and his children (all 3 of them) Hopefully he will be released in July and will be coming out here to live closer to us.

My kids are great! Everyone is so thrilled about having a big brother and nieces and nephews. Everyone is doing good in school. Justin is having some dificulties focusing but we are working on figuring out how to help him.

Jeff Sr is still doing great. He is still putting up with my crankiness and the kids' unruliness LOL. Although he has been a little worried lately about his job being that the plant is laying off more then 1400 employees this month. he has been actively looking for another job and has a few good opportunities just in case. Because of this lay off I am probably out of a job too. I am not sure if Jackie's parents are going to be needing me anymore or not. I guess I will find out Monday and we will just take it one day at a time.

Yesturday, another huge event happened. We got a phone call from who I thought was someone that Jeff jr knows but I was wrong and it turned out to be jeff Sr's daughter from his first marriage. She found out that Jeff Jr has been talking to their dad and she got the phone number and now she wants to be a part of his life again too. So now we have her and her son to look forward to getting to know better. Imagine all the family get togethers! Imagine the Christmas shopping this coming Christmas! (Yikes!)

What's happening around here.

Well I have been on vacation now for two weeks. I have not had my little babysitting girl for two weeks and wont have her for another week. I actually miss the little booger! She is a good girl. I just hope we don't go through the whole separation anxiety thing again. I also hope that we don't go back to square one with the eating thing. I was able to get her to gain a pound in the last week she was here. I hope she hasn't lost all of that since she has been gone.

Amber called from Florida on the 3rd. She is ,of course, having a great time. She was so excited telling me about all the things she has done. She got to meet her favorite wrestler, John Cena. He was out for a bite to eat at Whataburger. She got to sleep with Beluga Whales and says that they make more noise than her dad when he is sleeping. She also got to swim with sharks! Well she was in a shark cage but still very exciting. She has ridden every single roller coaster at Busch Gardens. Of course her and "Grandma" have been shopping at just about every store and mall in the tri-county area. LOL

Our 4th of July was great! We went to a cookout at one of Jeff's friends. The kids got to eat whatever they wanted (including tons of cookies), drink as much pop as their bellies could handle and run around like little animals outside all day long. Jeff played his very first game of horseshoes and his team actually won! I didn't really do much but sit around and talk amongst the ladies and watch the children play. I am fine with that too. If my kids have a great time then all is good. We got home with a couple hours to relax and spend some play time with Jake and Jenna (our dogs) before the town's fireworks show. As always, we watched the fireworks from our driveway because we have some of the best seats in town. A couple of friends came by to watch the show with us. A good time was had by all. The kids all slept like logs after their adventurous day and didn't get up until nearly 10 AM the next morning.

I had an eye doctor appointment yesterday the 5th. It was the first time I have been to the eye doctor in 8 years! yes I got quite a lecture by the optometrist. LOL I was quite surprised to learn that vision had not changed much at all in 8 years. However I was told that I now have an astigmatism in both eyes. They doctor said, judging by my current glasses I had one in my right eye years ago and no one told me. I was going to get contacts but the was too much red tape to get through for that and a little more money than I was wanting to spend at the moment so I ordered new glasses instead. This time I spent a little extra to get Transitions lenses. It was quite the learning experience for me to go and make all the decisions for myself knowing that I was paying for it all out of my pocket and not Jeff's like normal.

I also learned how to record home videos on my digital camera and send them via e-mail. I was having way too much fun making videos until my batteries in my camera went dead. So now I have to get more batteries before I can take more videos to send to everyone.