the good with the sad...

It has been nice in the last week to be surrounded with family. My grandma was one of two sisters, herself, Alice, and her sister Joyce. My grandma had two daughters (that's my Aunt Connie and my mom Cathy on the left); Joyce had SIX boys. The number of cousins we now have in Georgia, even my Aunt Joyce couldn't give me a total number. They all live in Georgia and we just don't see them often enough. Four of the 6 boys came up for the funeral and of course Aunt Joyce and 2 of her grandsons.

my mom with her aunt and 4 cousins.

Following the funeral, we did what we all do best - spent time together laughing and eating.

It felt good to smile.

we played a bit of football...

....

...and we did some bike riding.








we listened to funny family stories...

...and the newer cousins met the older cousins

(and this gorgeous guy was only 1 1/2 when I last saw him! - he's now 19)

...and we smiled for a family photo once again...

..and we said our goodbyes once again

 as they headed back to Georgia.

 until we all meet again ...

a long week....

It's been a week full of family, friends, emotions, food, hugs, visitors, sympathy cards, sorting through old pictures, food, laughter reminiscing over family memories, and food.

Did I mention food?

Holy food. 

Wherever the tradition began of bringing food to comfort those who have lost a loved one, 

it's a very appreciated tradition in our family this week. 

I have never eaten such a variety of foods in six days in my entire life. 

I've missed my blogging but it's been a nice week well spent with family members and 

sending my Grandma on her "Flight Home." 

In all of the sadness of the week, I felt such pride for my cousin William, while looking
through his pictures from his service in Iraq. His father was visiting here from Georgia and was surprised
to find the pictures still on the camera.
I can happily report that William is now home
safe and sound
but will soon deploy again for Afghanistan.

and found great humor in this picture that he took as well...

Glad to see they're still able to keep a sense of humor over there!

Have a great rest of the week....

My Grandma, our GG, made her journey to Heaven Saturday morning. It was not an easy last few days for her before she died so I am so relieved that she is at peace now and as Maddie says, sliding down the slides on the clouds up there in Heaven. During the past week, we all took turns sitting with her at the nursing home. The nurse says the hearing is the last to go so we kept talking to her and reassuring her that we were there and that it was ok to go now. She struggled on and on. There were trips to see her in the middle of the night as the nurses would call and say they thought it was time. But wouldn't you know it, she passed away when not one of us was there. My uncle had gone home for a short time to eat and she passed away while a few of the nurses were with her. So maybe all week she was just waiting for all of us to leave her and to spare us from having the hurt of losing her. She was a stubborn lady so if she was in charge, I think that's what she wantd. She died on Isabella's first birthday which we were all hoping would not be the case, but a friend's message on facebook (hi Leslie) gave me comfort. She stated it was a great gift on her birthday because she is now Izzy's angel. So that is how I am going to look at it. We went ahead and celebrated Izzy's birthday last night as we know she would have said "go about your day" as she often did. I couldn't help but imagine my Grandma's smile last night as Izzy just devoured her birthday cake. She would have gotten the biggest kick out of watching her clap icing all over and just soak up the attention.

GG was in Heaven watching and Izzy was in

Heaven on Earth as she enjoyed her cake.

happy first...

365 days.

happy FIRST birthday our sweet izzy-belle!

you are truly a gift.

I made it...

thank you all for your kind words regarding my grandma - it's crazy how you feel such a connection with your friends on here, most of you strangers to me, yet somehow you know that all of these readers have a listening ear and a shoulder (or do i insert "blog" here) to cry on- i guess that's what make women who we are, right? we can all have our petty sides, but when you really need someone to listen, we women have just what it takes. so thank you. i found all of the kind comments to be so comforting.

and really comforting is that I AM HERE! i am here in Illinois with my family. I managed to pack our bags on an hour and half's notice, fork over a thousand bucks in airfare change fees (gulp...gulp again), get three little ones packed, dressed and fed  (not sure what in the world they wore to the airport or if teeth or hair got brushed, but we made our flight) and we were on our way to illinois.

i was able to see my grandma this morning. i just held her hand and caressed her face and just told her we were all here now and to please make her journey to heaven. i took izzy with me so that the sounds of her babbles and laughter could be in the background, but chose to leave the twins at home with my dad. i want them to remember GG as the happy and healthy GG that they know. that's the  way i will remember her and have so many wonderful memories to keep with me.

i am just so relieved to be here. the girls are on their way to go pick up their cousins from school which will create miles and miles of smiles so that thrills me. my grandma's sister and nephews from Georgia made their way up too so we are all just where we need to be.

together.

with family.

with GG.

happiness in a messy counter...

I'm still loving my Happiness Project book.

I'm trying to read each chapter in the month that it is supposed to be read, but honestly, it's really difficult to stop reading - it's one of those that you really just want to keep on reading and reading.

So kudos to the author for writing such a great book!

I found a simple picture in my picture files and decided there's a lot of little things in my kitchen that create happiness.

simple things, but happy things.

now don't get distracted by that messy counter - that's a different story, so back to the "happy".

have a happy day!

I miss her already...

It’s one of those times where I’m really resentful for being so far away, and for being the only one of my family that IS far away from home. My grandma, GG we call her, both for Grandma Grace and Great Grandma for the great grandchildren, is on hospice presently. I am just waiting for the phone call and so badly want it to arrive because she is truly suffering and in pain and she deserves a peaceful passing. I’ve found myself calling my aunt and mother however numerous times because I believe I am checking on them and how they are coping just as much as I am calling to check in on my grandma.

On Sunday, my uncle held the cell phone up to my grandma’s ear while she rested in bed and I said my goodbyes – with the sudden realization of having to do this, I just couldn’t find the right words. I would need much more time than a quick phone call to tell her all that she meant to me and to remind her of the wonderful memories we’ve had in our family. I said nothing profound, yet I repeatedly told her that I loved her and to please fall asleep. I told her my grandpa is waiting in heaven for her arrival, and that I’d continue to tell my girls all about their GG. It was not something I thought I’d have to do over the phone.

I’ve been talking to the girls about heaven and have told them that GG will soon be arriving there. I can tell in their little minds, they’ve created a Disneyland of sorts out of Heaven – complete with rainbow houses, apple juice, DVDs, a slide to go down the clouds, happiness and no sicknesses, and a cord that attaches from the gravestone to heaven to get up there – all from their little 4 year old minds. We prayed for GG the other night and Mia asked that “GG have fun in Heaven” and Maddie asked that she find “her Grandpa Lou up there” (my husband’s father who the girls never got to meet).

I just wanted to be able to talk about her in the present tense as I know that opportunity won’t be here much longer. My grandma and I have written letters back and forth since I left for college at 18. We’ve continued over the years and she always teased that she finally learned to write my address in pencil in her address book because I never sat still in one spot for too long. Last summer, she handed me a box full of the letters I had written to her . When I read through them, there was one commonality in all of the letters – ranging from age 18 to my age of 34 at that time – I always told her how homesick I was and how much I missed my family. She never expressed her opinion on my living so far away, yet made me feel loved through her letters but was sure to express to me how much she missed me as well.

I miss her already. I miss her handwriting. The girls mailed her two colored worksheets of the letter “G” so that she could hang them side by side in her room and have her name spelled out. I hope they arrived so that she could  smile at their colorful creations. I just want her to have peace. No more suffering.


I am waiting for the phone call.
and I pray Mia and Maddie are right about heaven.

17 days later...

i can stop wondering now. wondering what she looks like, what her baby skin smells like, how tiny her little toes are, how soft that baby skin is -- WE, the girls and I, FINALLY met the newest baby girl in our family -

 K y r a

OOOOOOh, is she a cute little thing.

Her initials are KLT so I decided early on that i am going to call her BLT so I found myself calling her bacon lettuce and tomato when we first started gabbing. no one can say that's not unique.

 so me and the little BLT got to know one another on sunday...

and the girls were excited to smother her

with more hugs and lovin'...

look at those eyes.

yep, just one more little girl for me to spoil.

glad to meet you BLT.

you're a keeper!

just two more weeks....

i did the math in my head this morning and realized my baby, my izzy-belle, is just two weeks away from her FIRST birthday. i am in shock. i knew it was soon  and i've been working on her birthday party decorations, but when you slap that "two weeks" to the actual date, well, that is arriving just way too quickly for my liking.  i still catch myself saying "i just had a baby..." um, yeah, almost 365 days ago! since she decided she wanted to start walking at 10 months in effort to keep up with all the big kids that she's surrounded by, the newborn-ness went away even quicker than i had expected.

izzy, with your new walking shoes that look oh so cute on you as waddle around on your own little journey, let's take these next two weeks a bit slow, ok sweet pea? no running in those shoes just quite yet. let mommy soak in these last two weeks before i have to call you my one year old.

i love you little one!

all 351 days of you!

A lot matters on this Monday..

there is a lot that i am thankful for this Monday, both the little things and the BIG...

first with the little - I was so delighted with all of the link-ups to my first blog party. It was so interesting to hear how different women met their husbands. I had both tears and laughter while reading the various stories. I also realized that I could never write a romance novel, because after reading my own engagement story compared to how others wrote theirs, well let's just say I need to step up on the romantic part. I did prepare a candlelight dinner for my husband tonight (and three little girls as well) and bothered to put on a dress instead of my shorts and tshirt that I romped around in all day -- so that's a step towards romance, right?

anyway.....

on to the BIG that matters to me this Monday..

My Sis-in-Law had that beautiful baby girl on Thursday, ten days early.

I've yet to meet the little sweet pea, by oh my, is she gorgeous in her pictures!

Meet Kyra Laikyn...

Jason meets his new niece for the first time...

Don't you just want to keep her for yourself?

Welcome to the world you precious,  perfect little baby girl!

Lots of Love For the SIL...

The shower was a great success this week – Jackie, my sister-in-law felt loved and was definitely showered with lots of pink and more pink! I was amazed that four of us managed to pull off planning a shower all over email – I guess that shouldn’t be so surprising but sometimes you think that phone calls just have to be made – nope! We divided up our tasks and came together that morning and created quite a cute room for the celebration.

Here's the Mama -To-Be

and sharing a familiar experience with one of very best friends from childhood,

who also has a world of pink awaiting her!

and a few of the pinkalicious decorations...

And I will note that I do not take credit for any of these cute things - wish I could fib and say "why yes, I made them all" but that's not the case. I did throw together the flower centerpieces using clearanced Christmas ornaments. How cute is that cake? I will clarify so that no one thinks we are the cruelest hostesses ever, Jackie has an elephant theme for her baby's nursery - we were by no means comparing her tummy to that of an elephant.

I will HOWEVER take all credit for these little attendees who came to their aunt's shower...

here is the sequence for the following three pictures...

1. puppy dogs eyes begging to eat her cookie before she eats the meal

2. a thrilled child munching on her cookie because the mom gave in

3. the sugar high that followed.

...and the other daughter rolled and rolled and rolled throughout the entire gift-opening.

(mental note - I MUST enroll this child in gymnastics)

rolling with her baby sister...

rolling right into the camera...

and the baby entertained with her walking and was quite curious about all of those baby gifts...

and i thought my bucket of baby gifts was good?

doesn't every baby own their own ipod?

i think there's a lot of spoilin' going on!

33 more days to go!

Linking up today to Silly Little Sparrow’s Toot your own horn party - I love that she is wanting to highlight the everyday things that we should be proud of – not just our crafty habits. It’s not that I need a pat on the back for hosting my sister-in-law’s baby shower, but I will admit that I left with a smile knowing that I had helped in making her feel loved and ready for this little being to arrive!