NHS Ceremony

Last week Breann was inducted into National Honor Society. It was sort of cool to see both of the girls in something together. Brittnae was involved in Breann's induction because she is the secretary. To say that Michael and I are proud of both girls is quite an understatement.

BREANN AND HER CERTIFICATE AND ROSE (HERE AT HOME)This is Brittnae lighting her candle during the ceremony (sorry about the blurry picture)Breann receiving her certificate and rose

The group of new NHS members Breann, Rebecca, Tori, Bethany, Chris and Colby

Both of our precious girls they are growing up way too fast!!

CONGRATULATIONS BREANN!!

UPDATE FINALLY

Needless to say I think that it has been way too long since I have blogged!! LOL!! I sure am sorry. Life has just been way too intense. To re-cap the last oh lets say six months-URGH!!
Michael and I bought the Imperial Auction Market Cafe in August. To say that I have been a little overwhelmed is an understatement!! I am finally getting the hang of being the "boss" Michael the girls and I have put in alot of LONG hours in painting the floor, cleaning, adding shelves, cleaning, organizing, cleaning, adding new faucets, cleaning.....get the point....needless to say there is still alot of cleaning to do. I have finally decided that it is not going to happen in a few weeks. So I am going to just take it one day at a time and enjoy this gift the Lord blessed us with.

I will get some pictures and post them soon.

Michael is almost finished with corn harvest, Brittnae is now working at the Heritage Manor as a CNA, and Breann works at the pioneer cafe and Tommy's (restraunt).

New Flower Garden

This last week I have worked on the rock garden that I started last summer. I only had a few of the rocks placed last summer. Then my daddy bought me this bench at true value the last time he was here. So my thought was to form my garden with the bench in the center. All of the rocks came from our pasture, so there is a little of my parents and a little of home.This is a side view. Mom Maris bought me the solar lights for my birthday. Tis is a better side view. The black rod iron flower baskets were given to me from Momma last summer.

I am planning on putting a few rose bushes in these spots by the trellis.

This is just a better view of the pathway . I had so much fun doing this. I think that it was very healing for me. And now I can look out about any window and see my rock garden.

Off to Camp

Saturday afternoon I took Brittnae to Bethel Bible Camp. This first week was staff training. She wants to spend the month of June being a camp counselor. I am yet to hear from her, and I know that she is having a wonderful time. She will come home this Saturday for a week and then she goes back again the 15th-the 28th. I think that it is pretty cool that she wants part of her summer serving our precious savior.

Roses are Red

Today I planted roses in my Daddy's memory. There was nothing he liked

better than to work in his yard and in his rose beds. So I decided to take some of my memorial money and plant a few really nice rose bushes. I got them from common sense green house. They are just so beautiful. I cannot believe that if you count the Friday's he will be gone a month already. I am finally doing a lot better. I returned to Nebraska the 19th and had a really hard time being alone, but after a week of solitude and oh yeah a nice hospital visit. (I spent Memorial weekend in the hospital passing a kidney stone. Wow what fun LOL) I

am doing much better. I think that I am finally back to the land of the living. I know for a fact that my Dad would not want me to disappear from life. So I thank you so very much for all your cards and prayers. I hope to see you all soon.

Funeral Details

We went to the Funeral home yesterday and made all of the arrangements. The visitation will be Wed. from 4-8 and the Funeral is Thursday at 10:30. It was a really terrible day for me yesterday, I think that the reality of things have set in. But we know that he is in a much better place. Mom said that Daddy talked to her last night and told her that he is happy and that he just wants her to live the rest of her life to the fullest.

Daddy is with Jesus

I just wanted you all to know that last night around 10:45 my daddy went to be with the Lord. He went right out of Mom's arms into the arms of Jesus. Which is the way that Momma wanted. Hospice brought a hospital bed yesterday and Mom and Daddy were snuggling all day. It was so amazing because our family all gathered together and were in a circle of prayer asking the Lord to take him from this life to heaven. I will tell you that the last few days were very difficult, but now there is no suffering and Daddy had a new heavenly body.
God is so good and faithful Daddy did not breath his final breath until he saw everyone he needed to see and we assured him that we were all going to take care of Momma.

Bleak outlook on Dad

We went into Chicago to a Oncologist who specialises in metastatic melanoma. After looking at Daddy and reviewing all of his files he had to break some really terrible news to us all. There is nothing that can be done for my daddy. He is not eligible for the clinical trials, and he is far to weak for chemo. Dr. Clark said that daddy is bordering on the edge and the chemo will cross him over. So we now know that it is only a matter of time. He suggested that we call hospice and we are waiting for them to come at 10:30. Dad is scared like the rest of us, and even though we can not imagine him being gone we all know that he will be going to see the Lord and that he will have a new and healthy heavenly body. Someday we will all be together again. And we just have to hold on to the promises that the Lord will keep us in his loving arms and surround us with His Love. Thank you for your prayers

Update on Dad

This picture was taken on Wed. it was a good day for Daddy. Then we took him to the hospital on Friday. He is not doing so well. The tumor is rapidly spreading and we are having a really tough time controlling the blood sugar and blood pressure. A normal blood sugar for a diabetic is @ 100. Dad's has been in the 350 range. His blood pressure is 209/64. Which is very dangerous, and can cause heart failure or a stroke. Mom called this morning and said that the people from the pain clinic were coming in to check out and set up a pain pump. We do not know if he will have to come home with it or not. So keep praying.

Gizzmo's hair cut

I took Gizzmo in to see the dog groomer that my mom takes her dog to. This is what he looks like now. She did such a great job.

Gizzmo loves my Dad and Michael did not want me too travel alone, so of course I had to bring him with.

An update on Dad:) we start the clinical trial the 29th of this month, so keep your prayers commin.

UPDATE ON DADDY

I just wanted to let all of you know that I am in Illinois. The Dr. gave dad 2 options on Friday. So we are waiting for a phone call from him telling us whether he is eligible for a clinical trial, (he has been denied once already because of the stroke factor). If he is not eligible for the clinical trial doc wants to try i.v. chemo. Which because of the low sucess rate he is leary of putting dad through that.
I will keep you all updated as the day progresses. Please keep praying, Dad is really discouraged this morning and wanting just to give up. God can do mighty things, but right now we all need His strength.
UPDATE: HE WAS ACCEPTED IN THE CLINICAL TRIAL WE ARE NOW JUST WAITING FOR THE TIME AND DATE OF WHEN WE WILL GO TO CHICAGO

Prayers Needed

I am asking all of your prayers. My dad sees the oncologist this morning at 11:00. We are waiting to see if the chemo is working. I will update you all after I get the news. But I appreciate all of your prayers ahead of time.

Breann's Knee

Well today we are at days 4 post-surgery. And Breann is finally doing a whole lot better. We got to take the wrap and guaze off this morning. Then we got out the saran wrap and wrapped her leg up and we had a bath. (this is the first time I helped her take a bath in like 12 years.) This grey thing is the ice pack. It is the most amazing machine ever. It has a cooler that you pack with ice and it filters cold ice water through continuously. This is what her leg looks like, but it is minus the ace wrap around her foot. We were able to take it off this morning, and we can keep it off unless her leg begins to swell.

catching some zzzzzzz...................

Got Duck Tape??

Michael and I have been married almost 19 years, and this is the first time I have been give the job of "surrogate Mom" Lucky as I named him is now my bottle calf. This poor little guy had quite a terrible start. His little tongue froze, and his Momma stepped on his front leg. So of course my husband has to get out the roll of duck tape and we proceeded to make a home cast for Lucky.
So far so good.

I get "slimmed" almost 3 times a day, because he has a tendency to slobber. Wow I feel like someone off of Green acres. LOL

Happy 15th Birthday Baby Girl

March 31st my "baby" turned 15. Wow where have the years gone? We had a nice celebration with Grandma and Grandpa Maris. Grandma made her this volleyball cake-yummy!! I made her favorite ham and cheesy potatoe casserole, with corn and french bread for supper. Then we had cake and turtle tracks ice cream for dessert.





She is sort of windy like her Mom:) LOL!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY GIRL.

FINALLY

Hello there, it seems like it has been forever since I have posted anything, so I am going to try to change that. I have gotten into "trouble" from a few people about not updating. There are so many things to post, that I do not know where to begin.
Breann tore her ACL on the skiing trip, so we have been working on that. We finally had the surgery April 2nd. She is doing about as well as can be expected. Sore, but she is quite a trooper. We begin a 3 a week physical therapy regimen. She is sort of nervous about that. We are praising the Lord that he healed parts of her knee that we thought was going to have to be surgically repaired. God is great!!
March 19th we found out that my Dad has melanoma bone cancer. So Michael and the girls and I went to Illinois to see them. We left on good Friday and Michael and the girls came back on Monday. I stayed for another week and came back on the Amtrack train Monday morning. My Daddy started the chemo pills on Sunday. He is feeling about as well as we can expect. I will be truthful it is very hard to be here when part of my heart wants to be with my family in Illinois. Sort of like I want to be in two places at once.
Our biggest prayer request is that the chemo will begin to work and that we see a shrinkage in the tumors.
So that has been my life in a nutshell. I will post some pictures of Breann's 15th birthday, and of our visit to Illinois.

Honor Band

Thursday Brittnae was involved in Honor Band. They went to Culbertson and had practice all day. Then they had a wonderful performance at 7:00. I was so proud of her. She did such a wonderful job. It kind of gives her a definate idea that there is a chance her music will take her places.

The conductor came from Hastings, he was wonderful, and Brittnae really liked him.

Weekend with Olivia and Sonya

This weekend I got the pleasure of playing with Olivia and Sonya. And of course when we went to Imperial on Friday we had to go to Alco and get a new toy. So both of the girls a polly pocket. I love to play polly's with them. They have such a wonderful imagination.

A typical lunch of mac and cheese, hot dogs, and cheese balls. I try to offer them something else, but we always have to have mac and cheese. lol

I loved this Sonya decided that her baby needed a candy:) notice the green sixlet .

While Sonya was taking a nap Olivia took all of her polly pocket stuff and climbed on my bed and played for an hour or more.

Sonya helping with the laundry!!

Where is Sonya--notice the hands peaking out.

Olivia decided to get in on the action.


We are having a blast!!

SWEET "16"

HAPPY "16TH" BIRTHDAY MY SWEET BABY GIRL!!!! My where has the time gone, it seems like yesterday we were headed up to North Platte where you decided to make your grand entrance:) 7 weeks early.We decided that to celebrate Brittnae's 16th birthday she needed 16 presents. So here is Brittnae on Sunday in front of her stack of presents. As you can see there are 2 different types of wrapping paper. The yellow presents were the ones that she could open Sunday, and the others she had to wait until today.(Wed)
We had Grandma and Grandpa Maris over for cake and ice cream and sort of celebrated her b-day a few days early.

I think she liked the whole 16 presents idea:) well I sure hope she does not expect 17 next year. lol

A new favorite thing for her is penguins, so of course on a penguin hunt I went and WOW did I ever find some adorable ones.

This is a memory box from me to Brittnae. It is a willow tree angle "give her wings to Fly" inside her special box I placed my class ring. A long time ago I promised my ring to her on her sweet 16. Hopefullly she can pass it down to her kids (not anytime too soon).

Grandma Sharon made a tee-shirt cake. Then of course we had to add a few penguins.


I think she is windy--must take after her Daddy lol

More Christmas pictures

I have been wanting to post these since Christmas. Every year we put 7 stocking stuffer's in the girls stockings and they open one every night the week before Christmas. Well this year Michael wanted to do something special for the girls and of course jewelry came to mind. When we were all finished opening Christmas gifts Michael says girls I thought you opened all of your stocking stuffer's.

This is them checking out what else was in their stockings. Michael got Brittnae a beautiful gold bracelet and Breann some silver dangle earrings.
I truly think that this was my favorite thing about Christmas 2007!! The joy in Michael's face when his girls opened their "special" gift from their Daddy was priceless. Brittnae has yet to take her bracelet off, and Breann always has one of her earrings in. Good Job Dad!!

New Furniture

After 18 years of the same couch and love seat Michael and I finally broke down and got ourselves some new furniture. We decided this is what we were giving to each other for Christmas this year. So we went to McCook on Saturday (29Th) and found the perfect sofa and love seat. It only took us about 20 minutesto find our dream sofa set. We really wanted a sectional, but our living room is too small.
The couch and the love seat each have 2 recliners which the girls absolutely love. They delivered these beautiful things to us on Friday.
So Merry Christmas to us.

OUT WITH THE OLD AND IN WITH THE NEW.....2008 IS GOING TO BE GREAT

A SURPRISE VISIT

Sunday we had surprise visitors. My little brother and his family just about blew our minds. Here we were just sitting around watching a movie and the doorbell rang. Michael was pushing the girls to hurry and get the door. The story behind it was that Michael knew they were coming. And he kept it a secret.
Dan said that the look on my face was so worth the trip. They were only able to stay Sunday, Monday and left on Tuesday. Dan said that it was worth the trip even for just an hour.
We sure made the best of the "short" visit. We colored, played games ate and talked most of the day Monday.
We sure brought in the New Year the right way. What a beautiful way to start 2008.


THIS IS MY "LITTLE" BOTHER DAN Brittnae and Breann with their Uncle Dan Aunt Heather and cousins Clayton and Ivy. And yes Clay is sticking out his tongue.

Dan and Heather

Heather and Ivy

Dan and Clayton

Dan and Ivy