Missy's Moments

Eric loves to snuggle, he did then and he does now- only now he’s 10 and doesn’t fit quite as well in my lap so we make do- he curls up next to me on the couch and squishes his body up so he’s in a nice ball shape and snuggles. He’d never admit it. He’d never let me take a picture of it like below. But I don’t care. I’ll take them as long as he’ll give them

I took this picture Christmas Eve. Kayla was chillin in the recliner and when I looked over at her she looked so content. I’m pretty sure she wasn’t even aware that I took a picture. Today (Dec. 27th) is baby Jack’s due date. Since a little before 20 weeks – August 4th to be exact Jack has kept us on our toes. After numerous trips to the doctor and 6 weeks of bed rest, efforts to keep him in have proven to be successful! Kayla has had contractions today anywhere from 8-12 minutes apart, she can’t keep anything down, she is convinced she’s dying and is already re-thinking the whole epidural thing. We went in and they gave her something to hopefully keep some fluids in and were told she’s most likely in the beginning stages of labor. They also said we could be back tonight…. yeah or in a week not so yeah…. **there are some bits of information that it is best not to share and telling an uncomfortable pregnant woman that she could be like that for another week is not the best jud

Some of my favorite things (in no particular order) music - it’s true, just yesterday in fact I was sportin some new wireless headphones and boppin around to some of my favorite 80’s tunes. I know I’m having fun when Eric gives me a pleading look “please stop mom, my life will surely end if someone sees you”. I am the most unmusical person you will meet but I love to listen to all different kinds of music and I am really blessed by the talents of others. movie nights with the family - I love to snuggle up with everyone in the family room and watch a movie. Even the not so great movies seem alright when we all sit and watch them together. Every Christmas break it seems as if we spend a lot of time with movie nights. In fact by accident the last 2 years we’ve watched all 6 Star Wars episodes, which none of us get sick of. This year we’ve started with Harry Potter. I watched the first one for the first time. I am a Harry Potter newbie and that is going to end this week. church-

All 4 of my children were under one roof for Christmas this year. Hope it is a start of new traditions. starting on the left. Kayla, Bobbie (aka mom), Chris (brother), Alissa (Chris’ better half), Eric, Sam, Me, Jordan, Ryan (cousin), Kathleen (aunt). And behind the camera is Rick. All 11 of us enjoyed a great Christmas. Oh let’s not forget these two… Macy aka dufus and Bixby

picture taken back when getting underwear was acceptable….. It’s Christmas Eve today. I do love Christmas but I’ll be honest it’s proven to be a lot of work for me in the past. There’s Christmas cards, getting the right picture for them, mailing them out, baking, decorating (2 trees and way to many snowmen for any one house), shopping, oh the shopping that’s just traumatizing to think about. And then there’s the wrapping. I suck am challenged when it comes to wrapping presents. There’s Christmas dinner- which is worth the work. I make a pretty tasty dinner on Christmas Eve. Some years on Christmas morning I would be waiting for the go gun at the start line to start ripping down the trees in an effort to get order back to my life. Well last year I let the cards go. I am off work for 10 days and decided it’s ok to nap and not kill myself working on a to-do list. I don’t really bake a ton and Christmas time is no time to put my hat in the ring. I just enjoy what others bake

40 Days til… I turn 40. Not thinking about this for any particular reason. I’m not freaking out about it. I’m not overly excited about it. I’m not convinced I’m one step closer to having a foot in the grave. I ‘m not old, I don’t feel “middle aged” As with a lot of other things in my life I just feel it is what it is . I thought it would be fun to try to blog about some of the past 40 years. I feel as if 40 should at least entitle me to enter the “maybe she knows something” category. I sat here this morning drinking my coffee…. well honestly grabbing it for dear life as I do most mornings. I was browsing Facebook, thinking about my to do list and I glanced up to see that the sky out my windows turned this amazing shade of pink. I shut my laptop and just sat. Perfectly still. Knowing enough to know that the sky only stays that shade of pink for a few minutes while the sun is just in the right spot of the skyline. As I looked out my window I could hear my furnace running, my husb

I've been thinking- actually I've been thinking A LOT about my blog- I love coming back here and reading about all the memories that I kept track of. Life with 4 kids in the house always provided good story telling material. My days either brought me tons of laughter or brought me to tears. I was reading this post and the nostalgia was there but more-so an undeniable feeling of gratitude. Life looks different than I ever imagined it would look. So I remembered that I started a list of 1000 gifts and I think I'll try something different and try to continue it. So that brings me to #10. I am grateful for life lessons. A couple of weeks ago a couple at our church said good-bye to their 12 year old son here on earth. His funeral, the celebration of life that was held for this boy was heart breaking and breath taking all at the same time. I have found myself more than a few times asking myself when Eric and Sam are being ridiculous "does this really matter in the big

I wake up.... come home from work.... To this: and this:  and this: I do have one area unpacked: and then I fall over. (into a bed that almost has bedding on it) lovin it

10 From The Phone What's on your phone? What do you do with those pictures? Here are some randoms I found. 1. and 2. Zipline at Ironwood Christian Ranch. Yes I have height issues, apparently my children don't. Eric: Sam: Rick's response when I texted this photos to him: "and you don't let them cut their own meat?" That's fair (but they still can't touch a steak knife) 3. and 4. Flapdoodles. Have you been there? YUM-ME! A gift from a student - Thank YOU! 5. A visit with Rick's Dad and sisters Becky and Cindy. 6. The first time I saw our Grand-Baby. I went with Kayla to her appointment and the little sweetie waved to us :) (I'm already wrapped) 7. My fun co-worker and his pink sunglasses. (seriously he cracks me up daily!) 8. The near death moment for Macy aka garbage mouth, bottom feeder, carp or whatever else you can come up with for an animal that does this! Her days are now spent in a kennel again. grrrr

When I took this picture today I can assure you the look was simply due to being green at the gills because of the slow moving enclosed monorail I was riding at the zoo. I don't care for heights and I don't care for enclosed spaces. I really love the 9 kids that were in my group but at that height and in that small of a space I felt a bit tested. Especially when they'd bounce back and forth to see animals from side A to side B . I was sure the weight of these 9 3rd graders would be enough to bring the train car crashing down. (I know ye of little faith) but whatever I’m a wuss and I know it I started my day feeling a bit stressed. I think I hit new reality checks daily with all the out of the normal things that is in our life these days. Feeling a bit like a juggling act that I’m about to drop balls on. But I just keep taking a deep breath and praying for strength. Reminding myself I’m a big girl and this is just a season of our life. Regardless 9 out of 10 times when I

So I mentioned the house sale in my last post. Wow what an adventure that was. Having our home on the market proved to test my patience and my little girl "I want it now!" button on more than one occasion. Years ago (in a good market) when it came time to selling our home we put it on the market and it sold and it closed within 2 months. We were expecting Sam and had already purchased our new house and faced the possibility of having 2 mortgages. Well I tell ya... if that had to be done in 2010-2011 it could be a little frightening! But seriously every time we'd start to fret one of us would talk the other down, we never lost our peace for more than a moment and really were relieved of any anxieties that went along with the stress that came with trying to sell. One of the main complaints from lookers was the same as ours: a small kitchen- (trust me I know that kitchen is small) and the one complaint I never understood was our small backyard- yes it's small but there

Rumor has it that I don't like change. Apparently in the past I have been known to get a little... shall we say "on edge" when things change. I am quite certain that I am making good strides in getting past my refusal to accept reluctance to change, yet there are changes happening in my life, and in the life of my children, and in Rick's life. The emotions with each situation are so different I wonder some days just how one can go to through all these different feelings and not loose their mind. Well I don't really wonder, I do know how, but it doesn't change the fact that some days the rawness of emotion is exhausting and frankly there are days where I just pray and thank God for those distractions that keep me going. Last summer we made the decision to put our house on the market. We really had no timetable to keep for when we sell but honestly I don't think either Rick or I was prepared for the fact that it would take 9 months to sell our house

The boys and I started our spring break by heading up to St. Paul to visit the Boy King- The King Tut Exhibit . The exhibit itself was pretty interesting, what was tough was trying to get the boys interested in the journey to Tut himself- really it was all about the prize at the end for them the mummy. (which is just a exact replica). Sam would stop mid tracks and again remind me of how they make mummies... the gory details of how they are gutted. Nothing morbid or future serial killerish about his fascination but regular boy goofiness. Case in point- one of the statues had his son standing next to him naked- and yes all the parts showed- and yes Sam and Eric pointed, giggled and completely missed the fact that the statue like all the others had incredible details and colors and it was just amazing to me the ability and talent put into each one. I wish we could have taken pictures but they were not allowed inside the exhibit. In fact my friends daughter was scolded for trying to eat a

I am fearfully and wonderfully made.... I believe that... I do. For that reason I somehow got it in my head that it was OK (and it may be for you) to allow what is naturally happening to areas of my body- specifically my grey hair that was overtaking the top of my head. Well I have since decided this was silliness.....I read in a book recently that everyone is young in heaven..... I'm okay with a little heaven on earth. Before...... After

Last fall while in the ER with Sam for some abdominal pain the ER doc noticed in an x-ray a small curve in Sam's spine. Now granted these x-rays weren't meant to view the spine so he just told me the next time we're in to mention this to Sam's pediatrician. Well the abdominal pain turned out to be an on-going issue we have with Sam and his bowels (a post I will spare b/c of TMI) and so recently we finally had a chance to visit because of illness. I wasn't in a huge hurry b/c Jordan had mild scoliosis in his earlier teen years and I figured Sam possibly had the start of the same. Jordan's never required treatment and with Sam still being young there was no rush. Anyhoo we had to go up to the Mayo building to the peds imaging department (which like everything else at Mayo is quite plush) and Sam was asked to undress to his underwear and put on this blue paper robe. I had my camera- I wanted to sneak a pic- I really REALLY did but the fear of what Sam might do over