Sunflowers

I love sunflowers and after my photography class a few months ago I took Myah to my favorite spot to practice some of my new techniques on her. The last few photos I took of her were in front of a few sunflowers that were planted on the side of a historical home. The flowers were so huge and just looked so happy. I would love to plant a field full of just sunflowers...and take lots of pictures.

Heavy Hearts

Photos of Chippy courtesy of Special Olympics.

I really feel like my blog is becoming one big obituary notice lately, and frankly, enough is enough. My heart cannot take much more sadness. My Aunt Mary and Cousin Tammy read my blog faithfully, they are my biggest blog fans without a doubt. Aunt Mary used to print off my blog pages and take them to my Grandma who did not have internet access, she is so sweet that way. My heart goes out to them and their immediate family this week, my cousin Johnny's son Johnny Jr. passed away suddenly at school on Monday. He was 14 years old, the same age as my Dayton. My Aunt Mary just lost her sister (my grandma) 2 weeks ago and now she has lost her grandson. Little Johnny (Chippy) was involved in the special olympics, they did a very nice tribute to him on their website this week. Chippy's visitation is today and his funeral is tomorrow, would you please hold this family up in your prayers, I know it will be very difficult for everyone. My heart is so heavy lately, so much tragedy. On Sunday we are going to spread my Dad's ashes in his favorite places, I am preparing myself for an emotional weekend. I am loving the new song by Mat Kearney, Closer to Love, I feel like it is my theme song for my life right now. We all are one phone call away from hitting our knees. I feel like every time the phone rings lately it is with more bad news. I am trying to see the good in all of this, I know our loved ones are in a much better place, I am so thankful that I have that comfort.

Dayton's Homecoming

Dayton hangs around a large group of friends, this was a few of them, such good good boys! I am still amazed at the size differences at this age. My sweet young man

Ordering at the restaurant

Such a fun group of young people.

The men in my life

We were so glad that Grandma could be here for this, she had a hard day, losing her momma and all.

Me and my baby boy! Notice how I have to look up at him now!!! (excuse my puffy eyes, it was a rough day for me too)

Of course Miss Myah is never far behind when Grandma is around!
On top of everything else going on this weekend, it was the Chinese Moon Festival as well. Myah's little Chinese angel, Shan sent two beautiful moon cakes over for her. So while Dayton was at his dance we had our own little moon festival.

This weekend was so crazy, we were getting ready to take Dayton to his homecoming parade and game when we got the call that we should gather our family together for Grandma. Before I even had arrangements made to send my kids with others we got the call that Grandma had her own Homecoming in Heaven. Dayton ended up going to the game with friends and Myah stayed with the neighbors so we could go be with our family. On Saturday we spent the day doing funeral stuff and my mom came down to gather some pictures and things from me so we were excited that she could see Dayton before his big dance. Dayton had the bright idea to sit/lay on his bed after he was already dressed and his fuzzy blanket got all over his black dress pants. Thankfully Grandma came to the rescue with the lint brush and no one knew better. Dayton and 10 of his friends met at a nice restaurant in town and we let them have dinner (without parents around). My friend Debbie and I volunteered to be the drivers from the restaurant to the dance. It was so nice to have such good friends to share this day with. Four of the boys were my cub scouts years ago. Three girls joined the group, it was very funny to watch the interaction between them. The boys could not wait to get into my car after dinner, the girls were all in Debbie's car. I was laughing to myself at their conversations. Only one boy had a date that he was meeting at the dance, this is all so new to them. So funny!
Sounds like Dayton had a nice time at the dance, he said it was very crowded probably over 800 kids were there. My little boy is growing up. It was a very emotional weekend for our family but Dayton seemed to keep his cool and I feel that he was able to enjoy himself despite our heavy hearts. If there is one thing I know for sure Grandma would NEVER want to stop anyone from enjoying good music and dancing. We sat in church on Sunday morning and Dayton kept complaining about how badly his hips hurt from dancing. I think he did Grandma proud!

(thanks for being patient Aunt Mary and Tammy!)

Grandma's Gone to be with Jesus

My sweet Grandma passed away on Friday around 3 pm. She started having mini heart attacks around noon and after reviving her several times she made the decision to let nature take its course. We are busy preparing for our final goodbyes, but my heart is aching to see her and talk with her again. There are so many things I am missing about her already. She was a strong woman with a few weeknesses (mainly sweets!), she fought very hard the past few weeks while she was in the hospital. I loved her so much and she will never be forgotten. It has been a hectic weekend around here, Dayton had his first homecoming on Friday and Saturday. I feel bad that I wasn't able to enjoy the whole weekend with him but he understands. He had a fun time and I will share pictures later. Please continue to hold our family up in prayer, it has certainly not been an easy 3 weeks for us. Rest in peace sweet Grandma.

To view her 80th surprise birthday party go here

Wind beneath my Wings

I love this picture, we were cleaning up the hall at my cousin Kortney's grad party and my mom put the girls on this cart and Grandma sang and clapped her hands while mom danced the little girls around. This is just "so them".

Grandma modeling her new hat at Christmas.

On July 4th, my mom and Grandma on the pontoon. Grandma loves silly hats!

I need some prayers for my sweet Grandma Verna. For the past 3 weeks (since Myah started school) I have been visiting the hospital on a regular basis. For starters my Uncle Mike had prostate cancer and had the surgery to remove the cancer and is slowly but surely getting better. My Grandma lives with my aunt and uncle so while he was in the hospital she was on her own at home. In the past that would not be a deal. But this year has posed some problems for Grandma. She went to Florida over spring break and got sunburned on her ankle area, she started getting some pretty bad scabs on her sunburned area and since she is a diabetic and has poor circulation in her feet these scabs have become her worst enemy. So much so that she will not walk. The sores on her feet have spread and are very painful, she has had skin grafts, goes in weekly to a wound specialist to have her feet/ankles re wrapped and cannot sleep very well because they are so painful. After Uncle Mike came home from the hospital Grandma fell a few times and could not get herself back up. My aunt called me one morning and asked if I could come help because we need to take Grandma to the hospital, 2 days after my uncle had left. We got her in and they named off many things wrong with her, they told us had we waited another day she would have been dead. That was almost 2 weeks ago.

She has been getting better it seemed and was going to be moved to a rehab floor to get her walking, her feet are still in much pain but they told her she can't go home until she can walk. Bless her heart she is a fighter! Yesterday afternoon my aunt called and said that while they were sitting with Grandma she fell backwards in the bed, apparantly she died at that moment and the nurse came running in with a crash cart and they were able to bring her back and put her on a respirator. They determined she had a heart attack and would most likely have another one in 24-48 hours. We knew Grandma never wanted to live on a machine, she was fighting them, trying to take it out. The family decided to ask Grandma what to do, she made a gesture of "pray for me" and take it out. So we did just that, and we waited to see what would happen. The nurse came out and said she was doing well and was talking. We all had said our goodbyes to her beforehand so it was a gift to go back and have a conversation with her and hear her voice again. She would not stop talking! She was very coherent and amazed us with her memory. We do not know what today, tomorrow or forever will bring for Grandma but I am praying that she can come out of this. I know she is ready to die, she has told us so but we aren't ready yet. I don't know how I would handle losing my dad and my grandma within 9 months of each other. We have been through this before, losing Mark's dad, grandma and my grandma all within 9 weeks. It is not fun.

Last night while I was in the room with her the nurse came in and wanted to take her temperature, she said, "I am not going to take it in your mouth, I am going to take it under your wing" Grandma then replied "the wind beneath my wings". She is a huge music lover, I had to laugh that she would quote a song that has meant so much to our family through the years. She is a hip Grandma and always bougth the presents that we really wanted for Christmas, always had a swimming pool and baby kitties running around, as a little girl I loved that part! Grandma always had a stash of sweets that we loved too! Like my mom says Grandma always had the coolest hippest music playing, she still does. One day she told me she likes the new P-diddy song, I said "who?" she says "you know Puff Daddy, the one who sings Every Breath You Take". She loves to sing, especially "you are my sunshine". My mom and Aunt Katie sang it to her last night even. She is the sunshine of our family and I am praying that this is not the final chapter of her life. We need her, we love her and we would miss her terribly. Please pray for her, for all of us, we are having a difficult time, pray for my Uncle Mike, he has not been able to recooperate properly at all after having major surgery, pray for my mom, who is still grieving over losing my dad, pray for me, I am running around like a mad woman most days. This weekend is Dayton's first homecoming and I am really wanting it to be special for him. I want to enjoy it with him as well. On top of everything else going on , Mark's mom has a broken vertebrae and is in severe pain. She needs prayer too.

Sorry this post is all over the place, but that is how my mind is processing things lately, I am all over the place!!!