Meemo's 90th birthday party had almost all of her family there! We missed great-granddaughter, Bailey, but the rest of the "greats" managed to make it there! From L to R: Janna &Jesse, Gina & Josh, Jonathan, John & Jill, George & Pam, Meemo holding Olivia, Doug and Claudia behind Anno, Steve holding Ansley, Jill behind Aiden, Ruth, Josh with Abi holding little Rush, Linda holding Max, and Ryan. Amazing that we got all of us in one photo! 

Sigh....

Well, I am getting better day by day from my Limbo crash (almost 60 y/o women probably should NOT do the Limbo). The swelling has mostly drizzled down from my knee to mid-shin and looks like a tumor there. I can walk without crutches as long as I have my bionic woman (complete with "dial-a-bend) brace on. The blessing of the whole thing is discovering a grade 2 leak in my mitral valve which needs to be followed yearly. Would not have known about that without needing a pre-op clearance for the knee surgery. Back to crutches after surgery on Wednesday but only for a few days. Once I'm healed, I'm gonna keep dancing.... but I promise to skip the Limbo from now on!

New Normal

Well, here I go again with yet another adjustment to make to the "new normal" in life :-)

Hmmmm, partial list of stuff to do while I "adjust"...not in any particular order: regular quiet time IN THE MORNING when I have a brain; some kind of daily physical exercise (swimming, walking, push mowing, gardening, dancing); weed out unnecessary junk from the house; tackle the out-of-control garage; 30 hours of nurse/birth educator continuing ed before March (women's health and labor induction); do fun stuff with Doug when he is in town; work on Jesse's and Janna's ancestry album and then start one for Ruth, Jonathan and Josh; hang out with friends; CLG Shalom study and ladies' Bible study; Wednesday AM's at New Life; misc. doctors' appts for routine maintenance; look forward to Ruth's next visit; take Mom somewhere fun every week; etc., etc., etc..... Ok, no excuses for moping around missing my hubby and kids while they are gone....too busy and too much to do :-)

Update

I am a lousy picture album keeper and evidently a very irregular blogger! Almost a year later and I'm finally posting something new!

Doug and Ruth are almost to Reno, NV as I type. Ruth is moving there for her second travel nurse post (the first was in Colorado). Doug will fly back to Vegas on Monday where he works M-Th most weeks.

Maybe I'll be able to "steal" a few photos from Ruth to post of her drive from Boulder to Reno. Lonely and bleak along much of the drive but also beautiful from what they tell me.

Doing that "mom thing"....

I've discovered that as mom's many of us just never seem to be able to quit doing the "mom thing". Even my 85 year old mother still reminds me to grab my keys, remember my wallet, and to not forget what time some appointment is. She tells me she can still call me a "girl" because that is what I am to her (as she pats my cheek and says what a sweet girl I am).

Even tho' we are no longer teaching our kids formally, or they are no longer living in our homes, some of us just don't lose that need to continue to offer support and/or encouragement. I've always prayed for my children but now that I am not so physically responsible for their day-to-day needs, I find that prayer is THE way I can stay involved in their lives. God continually lays on my heart the urgency to pray for them, to bring their needs before Him daily, hourly, and sometimes minute by minute. I know He loves them even more than I do and He knows how they are feeling, what they need, their sorrows, burdens and joys. I'm thankful that I can depend on Him to hear my prayers for them and to answer faithfully...and as long as I can, I'll just keep on doing that "mom thing" for all of them.

This 'n that

Well, the wedding turned out to be quite lovely. We had just the right amount of food and it only took a couple of days to put everything back to normal at home. I think we should do a family wedding here at our house. It would be fun and should save money....just need a couple of candidates :-)

Heidi, Hannah and I started a weekly Bible Study (on Mondays) to go through the book of Acts. I'm looking forward to it and especially the motivation to memorize more scripture.

Spring break for Jonathan is coming up...he might visit Jesse at JBU. Then Jesse comes home 2 weeks later for his spring break.

I'll be 58 in about a week...how odd that sounds!

Weddings

I've been to a number of weddings and bridal showers lately. Must be something in the air :-) My niece, Heather, is getting married on Valentine's Day. I've been learning to make 'foofy" little candies and trying out various hors d'ouvres recipes so we can have extra interesting little food things at her reception. I really wonder why weddings have to be so stressful...they should be fun! I'm praying that Walt's and Heather's day turns out to be a blast and the stress for everyone disappears!

Family Christmas 2008

We spent Christmas in Austin this year. Jesse, Jonathan, Doug, G'ma and I spent the night at Ruth's and then went over to Josh's 'n' Gina's for early Christmas morning for stockings, gifts and brunch. Gina's family, Abi and Josh Chalmers and Bailey were there too!

In the photo, L-R on the stairs:
Gina and Josh, Abi and Josh
Front row, L-R: Doug, Jesse, Ruth, me, Anno, Bailey, and Jonathan.

Jesse, Ruth, Bailey, and Jonathan
posing after filming Agent 1 Returns.




Jesse (below) filming at the McMinns.

Jonathan filming Agent 1

Returns

Two New Videos by Jesse

Jesse posted two new videos on jdbrothers. Both were editing assignments from his digital editing class. The Monty Python sketch stars...Jesse and Jonathan...and was an assignment to edit a dialog. The Autumn was an original based on a Calvin and Hobbs cartoon.

Under Construction

If you stumbled upon my blog...well, I'm new to this and am just playing around trying to figure it out :)
Don't waste your time here for awhile!