Saturday, February 25, 2012

H E R O

 H  E  R  O

a: a mythological or legendary figure often of divine descent endowed with great strength or ability b: an illustrious warrior c: a man admired for his achievements and noble qualities d: one who shows great courage
2
a: the principal male character in a literary or dramatic work b: the central figure in an event, period, or movement

HERO, what does that mean to you?

Is it a military man or woman who is protecting our country?

Is it police officers, fire fighters, or EMTs that keep up safe or help us when we're in need?

Is it a mom who lays in a hospital bed for seven weeks, her three children are at home being taken care of by other people, so that she can keep her unborn baby in her womb as long as possible?

Is it the parents who sit at their baby's bedside in the NICU for months on end watching the baby literally fight to live?

Is it the mom who wants so badly to be a stay at home mom but must work to help financially support her family?

Is it the dad who works 60+ hours a week to support his family?

Is it the man or woman who volunteers his or her time to deliver meals to people who still live on their own but are unable to make their own meals?

Is it the person that has "organ donor" checked off on his/her licence and sadly passes away but gives life to others?

Is it the mom and dad who are losing their own child but chose to donate their child's organs to save the lives of other children?

Is it the big sister that wakes up to a fire in the house and rescues her younger siblings because their dad is down in the basement working and doesn't realize there is a fire?

Is it the child who is watching her mom slowly lose the battle to Alzheimer's but patiently takes care of her mom, feeding, bathing and loving her?


It is all of these people, and so many more.  We all have people in our lives that we consider heroes for one reason or another.
I have many. Actually most of the examples up above are people I personally know or "know" through blogs I read and I consider ALL of them heroes.
But today, February 25, 2012, there is one HERO I am thinking of especially.  One of my heroes.

My niece, Julia.
Today is her birthday!  Today she is 18!
Why?
Because she is AMAZING!  She has overcome more obstacles in 18 years then most of us do in a life time.  Not only that, she have overcome them with grace and a smile.  She is happy, and kind.  She is loving and helpful.  She is one of the most generous people I know.  Not only with "stuff" but with her time, her heart and soul. 
Julia was excepted into her first college a few weeks ago!  A college that's not easy to get into but when they looked at her application they saw what an amazing addition she would be to their program and accepted her.
I could say so much more. I have so much more in my mind that I want to say but I also really want to post this today and I have run out of time to write it all.
So, I will end with this....
Happy birthday Julia! 
You are my HERO and I LOVE YOU!

Julia and Grammy (my mom who happens to be another one of my heros!)

Julia and Ben

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

This is what

My four monkeys
Looked like on

Christmas Eve
(Yeah, I know I'm like 2 months behind on this one, oh well, they're cute!)

Monday, February 13, 2012

This is....

This is...


My sister Jen and three of her girls
Julia, Heather, and Theresa


My sister Stephanie and her three kids
Sarah, Dylan and Kyle


My brother Charles along with his wife Heather
And their two children
Emily and Isaac

All the grandchildren except Nicole who is away in the Navy
Me and Chris along with our kids
Maggie, Katelyn, Ben and Connor
A post with my siblings, my nieces, and my nephews
I love'm all!

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Story with Grammy

When my parents were recently visiting Maggie drew a few pictures and told Grammy a story about them.

Grammy encouraged Maggie to make a book out of it.

They worked together to put the book together and Grammy wrote, word for word, what Maggie recited for her.
Then, while sitting on Grammy's lap, Maggie read her book to me.  It's called "Green Dog" and has a great life lesson in it. 
A quick explanation is that Green Dog would see a friend that was a different color and would change to be the same color as that friend.   But in the end Green Dog realizes that he likes who he is and decides to go back to being Green.

Beautifully written by Maggie with a little help from her Grammy!

Thursday, January 26, 2012

This is....

Absolutely

Pure
amazing
Just plain
Sweetness...

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

My 2nd favorite Christmas gift

At dinner on Christmas night we went around the table asking each child what his or her favorite gift was.  Then Katelyn asked me.  My answer was, "My favorite gift today was seeing how happy and blessed our family is!  I loved seeing all the smiles and hearing all the laughs of my family!" 




I then said my second favorite gift was this figurine.  I cried when I opened it.  Just as a picture is worth a thousand words this figurine is worth about a million words. For what is now and for what I will miss later.  Rocking my children safe and warm on my lap is by far my favorite thing to do.  Nothing even comes close.  Fortunately, I learned early on that taking the time to rock my children is one of the most important things I can do so I have been sure to do it often! 
Sadly, I know this won't last forever.  The day is coming all to soon that I won't be able to rock my children because they will be too big.  Of course we will "nuggle" as Ben calls it and that will be great but it won't be the same.
So I cried for what is so amazing now and what I will miss so much later.
Yep, this is my 2nd favorite Christmas gift... 

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Payback....

Don't let her fool you...  She's not so innocent...  She may look like she's just sitting nicely and enjoying company at our family Christmas party but she's not...
She's making fun of her innocent little sister's pecan pie. The first pecan pie her very sweet and wonderful younger sister ever made.  Possibly, said pie didn't come out overly great but that's not the point...


So when the younger sister sprayed whip cream all over her face she deserved it!!!!!
Who's laughing now?!?!?!?