A new determination

Since my last post, much has happened... My mother went into the hospital in February with heart failure. The doctors had hoped to get her a transplant, but other vital organs began to shut down as well and by mid-April they had tried everything they could think of. She passed away on Saturday, April 28, 2012. She was 45 years old. I am grateful for the time that she was given here on this earth.

I have done a lot of things in the last few weeks that I think would make her proud. She helped me learn to sew by making nine patch squares for a quilt. I have had the squares just kicking around for over ten years... For her funeral I finished the quilt top to place on her casket. I have now finished all but the ties on it.

I was given the journals that she had at the house and as I read them (there wasn't much) it really impressed me that she wanted to continue to practice her talents that she had set aside for so long. She wanted to start drawing again, and practice playing the flute, among other things. I have a new determination to continue to improve myself as well. Today I sat down with that flute, googled a fingering chart, and learned a simplified childrens song from the Friend magazine. I guess I remembered more from the three times I dropped out of band in elementary school than I thought. We both always loved to sing, and I want to share that more often.

I'm sure that all of this artistic stuff is going to drive my husband absolutely nuts, but I don't really care. Losing both parents in the span of six months has caused me to realize that you don't know how much time you have. There are so many things that were left undone for my mom. The week before she went into the hospital she bought fabric and patterns to make dresses for Zoe and my cousin Kira (who is a year-and-a-half older that my daughter). I have the stuff and I will be making Zoe's dress at the very least.

It is interesting to me just how similar I am to my mom. Days before her passing we were sitting in the hospital discussing something and there was a pause, followed by both of us saying "THAT would be interesting" with the exact same inflection in our voices. My grandma just looked over at us and said "that's enough you two". We sound the same, more than once I was told that people never thought they would hear her speak until I said something. We've looked the same for ages, but now even my hair is becoming more like hers was...

I am glad that when she died so much of her survived through me. But more than the physical traits I want to carry her legacy of faith and love. Even as she was being told she would die before the end of the week she was speaking words of encouragement and comfort to the medical team that had done so much for her. She knew where she was going and she was as ready as she could be. She trusted that it was her time. She had fought the good fight, and it was time to go "home". She had such immense faith in God and his plan for all of us. I want to be remembered for that as well.

It SNOWED!!!!!

I'm one of those crazy people that actually LIKE the snow to come to me. It was a "requirement" when we decided to move to The Dalles. This winter we got one day of snow in November and a LOT of rain. Until Wednesday that is :)

I'm sure anyone who watched the news saw the the Northwest got pounded on Wednesday, with some places getting over a foot of snow. We got some of it, though not quite a foot sadly. After days of a light dusting that melted off by 10 am, my daughter was extatic to see several inches in our yard with more coming down. She could barely wait to suit up and go play!

So while I shoveled out the car so I could go to work, Zoe had a ball running through the yard and making snow angels! By this time I was cursing the fact that we didn't live in the Portland Metro area where everything shuts down when it snows... I wanted to make snow angels too dang it!

Anyway, we got in the car and went putting along to daycare. I dropped Zoe off, and in an attempt to get myself turned around on the basically unplowed road got the car stuck! I probably should have taken a picture of that, but hey, this way there's no evidence other than my highly embellished story! So I'm in the car, inching forward and then backing around since forward wasn't really working (I should probably also mention that our daycare is on one of the uphill roads in The Dalles and there are NO "slight grades" around here) and backed into the snow burm from people, and presumably a snowplow at some point, driving by. After about 5 minutes this nice kid came up from shoveling his sidewalk and asked if I needed help. OF COURSE I NEEDED HELP!!!! He then set about digging snow from under my tires, for which I was very grateful. I went back to daycare to see if there was any sand or kitty litter I could use for traction and came up with some ice melt. When I went back out there was a man (and I must say he was a genius) who had parked at the bottom of the hill and walked up to get his chains (see? GENIUS!). He made sure I was indeed intentionally trying to point my car down the hill and then offered to push while I tried one more time to move the car forward. Victory!!!! I didn't dare stop the car again so I just leaned out my window and shouted my thanks to these two helpful strangers and went on my merry way to the office.
I would have much preferred a snow day to play with Zoe, but I guess we don't always get everything we want, now do we?

New year's reflections

Happy New Year!
What a year this has been! I feel like so much has happened, and I don't even know where to start... I wonder what this new year will have  in store for my little family, and for the world in general. As I look back, I feel tremendously blessed. We have what we need, and a lot to spare. I have a wonderful husband and a beautiful daughter. We have a great house that keeps us super busy, and it sure looks great! Brandon and I both have stable jobs when so many have lost hope. A lot has happened in my life in the last few months. I am grateful for the knowledge I have that has helped to get me through it all.
As I look forward there are things that I want to do this year. I know that everyone makes resolutions, and then breaks them. I'm not making resolutions, but I do want to try harder to keep in touch with family. I hadn't talked to my father for at least five months before he passed away. The week before, I thought about calling him, my husband suggested I call and talk to him, I brushed it aside and then he was gone. I don't want that to happen with anyone else that I love.
I want to be truly happy with where I am at in my life. I thought by now I'd have another child, that I would be able to devote my time to being a homemaker. I work in a tax office and look forward to the day when I can put Homemaker as my occupation on my taxes. I have watched what seems like everyone I know get pregnant and have babies while my baby is growing up! I sometimes look so much at what I want that I don't see what I already have. I am done with that. I have a family, and when the time is right we will be blessed with another child. Until then, I will be happy with the opportunities I do have. I am looking forward to going to school this year. I look forward to traveling a little lighter since Zoe isn't a baby anymore. We might even go to Disneyland!
Most of all I can't wait to see what this new year brings to us all!

I'm Baaa-aaack!

I am not even going to attempt a recap on the last three or so years... I just forgot to blog, and Brandon didn't like the url I made up so maybe I was pouting a little >.<
So the last few years we have been pretty busy, we obviously had a child. We also bought a house and working on that (or saving money to work on it) consumes a lot of our time. I think I'll post some pictures of our most recent adventure later this month. I just wanted to write this and let anyone who checks it every so often know that I'M BACK!!!!!!

I almost weigh as much as Brandon!

We had the most recent doctors appointment on Wednesday this week and I weigh over 150 lbs! Just saying that makes me feel huge, but there is a baby to take into account so I feel a little better about it. I'm going to post all of the pictures I've taken since we found out but they aren't so great because they're from my phone. I have been using picure mail to keep people posted.

This one is obviously from when we found out... yeah, I took a picture of it lol. What can I say? I was really excited :D

This is my "barely bump" (left)there's a better one but this is the first picture from when I noticed it.It stands out a little better in the black shirt, now it's hard to remember being that small!

These next few are just a progression of the past few months and my belly just keeps getting bigger and bigger!

This one is Fun because I also took one from the front and you couldn't even tell that i have a belly!

It just keeps getting harder to button my pants! I don't get it ;) The bump is very obvious by now too

Now for the drumroll... I can't wear my normal pants anymore and I almost weigh as much as my Husband!

The infamous first post... lol

Well, I may as well get this over with. I just got bored and decided to take my sister Jennah's advice and start a blog. I intend to put a lot of "prego" pictures on here so everyone can see that I'm getting bigger! I might put some wedding pics up too. That would probably be a good place to start. I was recently married in August so I'm still a newlywed and my hubby is a full time student right now. BTW Jennah is actually my hubbies sister but I think of his family like my own; I never had siblings, now I have a bunch! I like to write and hopefully I'll get some pics up soon. This should be a great way to keep everyone posted :)