Prayers for Mom

Last week at Mom's second party, she received a letter from the Governor and everything!  We are so proud of her!  Mom was  a working woman before it was THE thing to be!  This is l-r: Me, Mom, Mel

Well, the time has come, mom's surgery is tomorrow.  She retired today.  Kind of hard to celebrate when you aren't allowed to eat anything other than clear liquids and spend the evening cleaning out your body (sorry but it is the truth).  We should be celebrating the fact that she has worked her last day in 32 1/2 years, that day will come.  Right now we need to focus on getting her well and getting the cancer out of her body.  It is so hard to live away, I am going to head up north tomorrow, bless everyone who is taking care of my children in one way or another so I can be with her and my sister.  Another reason we should be celebrating is because today is my sister Melanie's birthday, oh to be 38 again!!!  Instead of eating cake and drinking champagne I am packing, cleaning, donating a closests worth of clothes to charity, dropping my outdated magazines off at the library and my house will hopefully be spotless by the nights end.  I feel the need to get all my ducks in a row so to speak when I know life will be crazy.  I have been down this road so many times with our loved ones it is a shame that  I know so much about how to prepare for it.  Packing a larger purse to have up at the hospital, one that can hold a book and a few magazines along with anything I may need during the day.  Having extra food on hand for my kids to snack on while I am gone, setting outfits out so that my hubby doesn't have to guess at what "goes" together for Myah.  I know that all of this seems pretty trivial but it is what I have to do in order to feel better about everything. 

I pray that mom's cancer will be a part of her past, that we never have to bring it up again.  That she can start enjoying her retirement as soon as possible.  We can hardly wait.  Please pray for my mom Linda, she has never had a surgery of any kind, she is putting on a brave face for us girls but I am sure she is worried too.  The Dr's are removing a portion of her colon tomorrow and also her gall bladder, they found some polyps on that as well.  She feels great now, you would never know that anything is wrong with her, except that she is thin, so we hope that her strength will help in her recovery.  She has some pretty special angels watching over her.  It is expected to be a 4 hour surgery and she could be in the hospital anywhere from 4-7 days.  After that my sister has a gorgeous suite already prepared for mom's recooperation.
We have just gone from one surgery to the next around here, I am in my 5th month of playing nurse.  Dayton is doing much better, ( I know I keep forgetting to update on his condition), his second surgery went very well, the screws and plate are gone, he is starting therapy again and hopefully this was the answer to all of the unusual swelling. 
   I just had to add a few pictures from mom's retirement photos, her office put on two retirement parties for her, this was the last one, Mel and I gave a little speech and a few gifts.  I had to laugh, someone must have grabbed my camera for me (hence the quaility but I don't care!), ok, we are a family of many facial expressions!  If you know me you already know how quirky I can be, but it really shows in this sequence of photos of Me, Mom and my sister Melanie.  Thought you would get a giggle out of these!

 Mom loving the new watch from Mel.

 Not sure what we are laughing about but this is soooo us!!!!  What is up with my cat that swallowed the canary grin?!!!

 Not sure what little ditty about Mom I was dishing about here but Mel must have agreed!

 Aren't we so attractive?!!! ha ha!!! I don't care, we know how to work a room!!! ha ha!! I think after mom retires we could be a traveling side show! We love being on stage!!

 This was at Mom's surprise retirement party, she was very surprised! Her coworkers loved working for her, they said she ruled with an " iron fist inside a velvet glove" I loved that!!!

 Grandma and her granddaughters.

Many friends came to celebrate with mom.

 Mom and her daughters

Mom and her cake, just in case you were wondering who she was standing by!  Ha ha!

Our family, minus Mel's hubby Chris, Dayton had just had his surgery two days before bless his heart he was a trooper to ride in the car for 4 hours!



Sorry this is such a heavy post but I know there is power in prayer, and we need it, all that we can get!!! Thank you so much!!!!

Goodbye Summer......

Up north on my mom's lake the girls jumped in, we could not keep them out of the water.  No one has swam in front of her house for about 30 years, it is all full of muck, they did not seem to mind one bit!  We finally stripped them down and let them enjoy themselves.  The water turned their undies gray!!!



Myah



Annabelle



Chloe



Expect the Unexpected

Unexpected:  Coming without warning; unforeseen  definition from American Heritage Dictionary

Unexpected.  Another word for surprise, I really dislike surprises. However I do like things that are unexpected. Most of the time.  I especially like them when it is something like a gorgeous sunflower field in full bloom on your way to a birthday party and your little girl is dressed in her cute little house on the prairie dress.  And she is a willing participant.  I just let her be as the cars were whizzing by us.  I LOVE sunflowers, I wish I could have them in my home every day, I was so excited when we just drove up on this beautiful field of sunshine on a gloomy day.  They all had their own personality, some were droopy like they were pouting, it was kind of comical. 

What a treasure to find alongside a busy road.  Somewhere that I would have never expected it to be.

Of course my little one loved running in the fields, she also loved the mint in her mouth!

What a sight,  sunflowers as far as I could see, it was like they were bowing their heads down to me as to say "hello your majesty!"

Sweet sweet child, skipping in the sunflowers

I took this one from inside my car window, I just happened to look behind me and there was this barn.  Unexpectedly.

So many things are coming at me so fast lately, I am trying to stay organized and prepared, just to keep up in case anything unexpected comes up.  And it did.  And right around that time, when I was dealing with something I prayed I never had to, I found this in my garden.  Several of them.  I knew I had not planted them there, how did they get there?  What are they???  Then one day Myah happened to be standing nearby when I was admiring the new growth, she said, "oh,momma, I planted them, me and Annabelle, she dug the dirt and planted the seed and I watered them."  How precious!!! It really caught me speechless.  She was so proud.  And would you believe the other day we finally got a glimpse of what type of crop she was growing. 

Get this......

My favorite tiny white gourd pumpkins!  God has a way of sending the unexpected our way just when we need it the most. 
As I type this I am listening to the Mr. talk to a nurse, she is on the phone getting the information she needs for Dayton's surgery tomorrow morning.  Unexpectedly, we went to the surgeons  office on Friday and she wants the plate and screws out, something is causing an infection of some sort and he has a golf ball sized lump on the lower part of his scar.  So here we go again.  I would appreciate any prayers you can send his way.  If there is anything I know for certain it is to expect the unexpected.

Happy Birthday In Heaven Dad

September settles softly

leaves are starting to fall,

Theres a hole in my heart and i carry it

whereever i go, like a treasure that travels

with me down every road,

Theres this lonely loss so deep, Kinda

bitter kinda sweet, there a hole in my heart,

in the shape of you

Even though my heart aches theres a smile

on my face cause just like a window to heaven,

theres a light shining through this hole in my heart

Theres a hole in my heart,

Theres a hole in my heart,

Theres a hole in my heart,

But its in the shape of you

Shape of My Heart sung by Jewel

 

 

*today marks my Dad's second birthday in Heaven, and also the day of my mom's CAT scan, please say a prayer for our family today while our hearts are heavy , love ya for it!*

Warming Up To Fall

I put my sweet velvet pumpkin inside a tiny little birds nest that I found in one of my ferns on the porch! Thank you little birdie!!!

I am just not ready to hang up my flip flops just yet, I am going to squeeze as much as I can out of our crummy summer.  However, today is the first day that my kiddos are both in school full time and I am feeling the nesting instinct coming on again.  Maybe it is the cooler nights that are making me feel the need to warm things up a bit.  Can I just say I love my Ikea furniture, many of you have asked how I like it and so far so good.  I still want to purchase an ottoman but that will come when I get some more $$.  I am not about to put away all of my shells and beachy stuff, that is just who we are so I have to work around it, besides, staring at those things is what gets me through our long upcoming winter months, yuk!!!  I have picked up a few pieces at late season yard sales and decided to put them in the family room to make it a bit warmer and fall-ish.  I used to go all out decorating for fall, I just have not had the extra time or energy over the past few seasons so I put out just bits and pieces here and there.  I ordered the cutest, tiniest little velvet pumkin, boy are those hard to find, it is just so sweet and the perfect little accent piece. 

I wish you had smell-o-internet because my house smells so wonderful right now, my hubby is making a batch of home-made chocolate chip cookies for the kiddos when they get home!  I know the kids will be hungry and tired when they get home today, I hope they find comfort in the small changes that I made, warm candles, cozy throws and fresh cookies, I can't wait to hear about their day!  P.S. If you are stopping by from The Lettered Cottage, feel free to look in my archives, most of my home is furnished by purchases from yard sales!!!

I took the nasty blinds down and left just a light cotton panel from Ikea filter the light for us. We really don't need the privacy on this side of the house anyhow.  I still love my $5 dresser that is now our entertainment center!

A few yard sale items that were just too cheap to pass up, the cute little matching tables are made of metal and rattan, they were a dollar a piece at a barn sale!  And the cool large door was $5, I brought up my little walnut colored table to bring some warmth into the space as well, and I added a rug that I stole from my bathroom.

This sale had llamas staring at me while I shopped!  Too funny! I could not let them distract me from my $2 tables!

I wish this magazine was still in print, I saved every copy that I had. It has provided me with some great inspiration, it is much easier to organize when the kiddoes are not around the house!

I love the warmth that this rug gave the room. It has been moved all around my house!

Such a cool old door, Ijust propped it up for some height in the room.

I even changed the top of my hutch in the kitchen, I used my green dollar screen, I just flipped it around to show the brown side.  I was able to fill my little white cupboard with all kinds of yard sale finds this year, lots of ironstone to love!

It won't be long and the view out of my window will be gorgeous red and orange maple leaves!

Another view, I love not having the blinds on the windows! The cute little bench/footstool was a $3 find along with the pail! 

I am still not giving up on summer!!!

First Day of School!!!

Today was Myah's first day of kindergarten and Dayton started his Sophomore year!  I can't believe that is it that time again.  Today was only half a day so tomorrow will be the true test!  Oh how I already miss staying up late, sleeping in and having no schedules to follow!!! But I am excited to start a bunch of projects and help out at the school.  I will also have time to think for a little while!!! Peace and quiet......what is that?????

Just kidding, I will miss them terribly!!! They are my sweetie pies, my buddies, my pals, my amigos!!! I am anxious to hear about all of their adventures!!