My Dad

Caught a nice one!

Funny guys!

In some ways it doesn't seem like 5 years ago that Dad died but in many ways it seems like it has been forever. I didn't think it would be that hard for me to write about today but it is harder than I thought.

Burke will never know him and I hope that Aaron and Adam will remember all the wonderful times they had growing up around him. He had infinite patience with them - taking Aaron to every bathroom in every place they went, teaching them to fish when the rest of us were too busy and wanted to be in the stream, being goofy a lot of the time.

I know that he loved me beyond all reason. I was Daddy's girl and he taught me to fish, let me do a lot of things I probably shouldn't, helped Mom spoil me to death and was always proud of me.

When I was away at Young Life's Summer Place for the summer, he sent me a funny card every day.

When I would cook something that didn't turn out like it was supposed to I could always count on him to eat it no matter what.

He would do anything for me, Mark and the boys. He loved having Aaron and Adam around and spent so much time doing things with them and for them.

Dad, you were my biggest cheerleader and fan and I always knew it. What a love a father had for his daughter. I miss you still.

Happy Birthday, Aaron.

Aaron's 1st trip to Colorado

Aaron's 1st trip to Lake City

Today is Aaron's birthday and I found these pictures of his first trip to Colorado and first trip to Lake City the next year! We stayed in a cabin in South Fork with Mark's parents when Aaron was 7 months old and this is one of my favorite pictures. We stayed for the first time at the Texan Resort in Lake City the next year.

We have had many precious memories over the last 32 years and quite a few of them took place on vacation in Colorado with all the grandparents and other relatives. We love you, Aaron, and are so thankful for your life.

Here are some random facts about Aaron that you may not know-

(1) Before he could talk (was there such a time?) he signed I love you when I was sick.

(2) He learned to read when he was three. He would read all the signs to Papa Fred and take out all his credit cards and want to know what they were.

(3) He also visited every bathroom in every store we ever went in.

(4) He never met a stranger.

(5) He would wander off in a store causing Adam great anguish.

(6) He and Adam would eventually end up in the same bed when they were little even if they were in different rooms.

(7) He would compete with Mom to read the cereal box at breakfast time - or anything else available to read.

(8) He has an amazing memory and reminds us of crazy, funny things that happened in our family that none of the rest of us remember!

(9) He is my constant tech support and can work tirelessly on computer problems.

(10) He makes us laugh and he brings incredible joy into our lives.

A Good Report

I have not posted in a while and I wanted to at least update after Mark's visit to the Cancer Center on Monday. We have been waiting for the results of the PET scan and we were able to see those yesterday. The results were good, the doctor was pleased and Mark did not have chemo yesterday and so will have time to heal more.
I guess that I am not sure how I am feeling with all of this. I am happy, of course, that the scan was good but I guess that there is still that knowledge in the back of my mind that it will come back at some time. I don't want to be pessimistic or not trust God's faithfulness but I do want to be realistic and be ready for what is supposed to come in the future. It is that living one day at a time that is hard - not looking forward and wondering about tomorrow. It is that fine line of trust and being prepared. I am ready for some days that Mark is better and not suffering from some sort of reaction to the chemo and life is sort of normal.
I am so grateful that God is good and only wants my best and He will see to it that His glory and my good will be the outcome.

You know those days that nothing seems to go as planned or as far from it as you can imagine? Our sweet little Burke came to spend his first night away from Mom and Dad this past weekend and we were so excited. The sleepover turned out not to have much sleep involved however! That really wasn't that bad - we have lived through non sleeping babies and survived. The problem this weekend was not Burke but Toby. After a night of getting up several times and the morning feeding, I went to let Toby out and he had thrown up in his crate, out the door and on the carpet. I cleaned this up and went to put Burke on the bed with Mark and he(Burke, not Mark!) threw up on the down blanket. Toby jumped on the bed and then he threw up on the blanket. I got them both off and heard Toby again throwing up on the bedspread! I got him out of the room and went to find him only to be assaulted by a horrible smell. He was continuing his path of destruction with a trail of diarrhea all over the wood floor and oriental rug! Of course, all this led to major laundry and rug cleaning, etc. You just have to laugh - not really what I had pictured our first weekend with Burke to be like but it is just the reality of life. Hope your weekend was was much less exciting.