Four Wheeling With Daddy

If you ask the farm boy/rancher that I married how he feels about riding horses, he'll tell you, "I'm more of a four wheeler kid of guy." So when we visited Idaho, he took the kids out for some wild rides at Grandma and Grandpa's house.
Justin pretended to be terrified, which was hilarious.
Tanner was just a little terrified, which was also hilarious. He loved it.
Wind-whipped, but exhilarated!

In Memory of Haley Jo

A little over two years ago, I learned that my friend Abby’s husband had passed away in his sleep of an undiagnosed heart condition, leaving behind his beautiful wife and 6 darling daughters under the age of 10. I have paid careful attention to Abby’s journey and feel blessed to have even the tiniest window into her experience. Last week my friend Haley Jo passed away in similarly unexpected fashion, from seemingly the very same undiagnosed “enlarged heart” condition. At 36 years old, she leaves behind a husband and 5 children, ages 14 to 1.

The similarities between the situations have not been lost on me. I have pondered the irony of their heart conditions, recognizing that in life both of these amazing people had been often described by those who knew them as generous and “big-hearted”. Crying myself to sleep as I pled with the Lord to offer comfort to their grieving families felt eerily familiar as well. Faith in a glorious afterlife and enduring family relationships can help strengthen the grief-stricken survivors as they travel along their tender journey toward solace and healing, but it doesn’t completely eliminate the pains of mortal grief and sorrow or the day-to-day struggle of their new reality. Hearts have been broken and expectations are being entirely rewritten; their lives will never be the same.

I’ve (rather predictably) contemplated my own mortality and asked myself a thousand times throughout the last week, “am I ready to meet my Maker?” (Is that shrill vibrato “NOooooo!!!” echoing in your ears too, or is it just me???) I’ve thought of all the things I keep putting off until “tomorrow”, with a fresh and thought-provoking reminder that tomorrow doesn’t always come.

Haley and I taught together as volunteer preschool teachers in Voronezh, Russia way back in 1995 for a semester. I will always remember her as witty, quirky, optimistic, grounded, comfortable in her own skin, and very kind. I am grateful for the example she set for me and the lovely life that she lived.

“I love doing laundry every day,
I love doing laundry in every way.
I love finding laundry which has not been done,
Smashed in the dresser of my adorable son.
I love towels used, then dropped on the floor,
Damp and dirty for me to wash once more.
The very best mornings are when someone’s wet the bed,
The sweet stench of pee makes me want to kiss their head.
If you take off your socks, please shove them under the couch,
A great laundry surprise, lucky me, I’m no slouch!
When you clean your room, don’t put clothes away,
Throw them in the hamper, clean or dirty, it’s okay!
And if you get cold, please don’t wear a sweater,
Drag a blanket from the closet—or a sleeping bag…even better.
Whatever you’re doing, please don’t cut back,
I want laundry all the time, give me no slack!
Hey--it’s raining outside, go roll in the mud,
Of course it’s okay, go get dirty, bud!”
~~Written by Haley Morales, 2009

Haley circa 1995, Voronezh Russia
Haley (and Siska) playing with handicapped infants in a Moscow orphanage.
In this picture, Haley and I are standing outside Moscow State University, just before sneaking past their armed guards.
Haley and I are inside the Kremlin.
Peeking out the windows of MSU from the 26th floor.
Our group of teachers taking a trip to St. Petersburg.
Haley, her best friend from childhood, Siska, and me. On the Baltic sea.




Taken right from my scrapbook; Below the group photo I have written in Russian "God be with you 'til we meet again."

Love you, Haley Jo.

Chef Tanner

Things I learned from cooking with Tanner this morning:

#1. Cumin looks like horse poop and kind of like dirt too.

#2. 4-D things are just 3-D things that you can smell. Like burgers, pancakes, chicken nuggets, sausage, spaghetti sauce, roast beef, mushrooms, and pizza.

Idaho Friends

Friends are so fun! While we were in Idaho, we enjoyed a delicious dinner and relaxing evening with our friends, Merritt and Mandee!

Crew and MaggieMiss Maggie
Kinley and Sammy
I am still smackin' my lips over the grilled bruschetta chicken! YUM!

Visiting Grandma and Grandpa

For Thanksgiving break, we headed north to Idaho to visit Grandma, Grandpa, and Great Grandma!

We visited Grandpa at his feed store, where the kids bee-lined it to the forklift!As a side note, if you are looking for smoked pig ear chews, I know where you can get them for only $1.19 each.

The men-folk talking shop.
Then we drove over to the bank to see Grandma!
My little narcissists checked out Grandma's photo of... themselves.
"Cheese!"
Hope we weren't too disruptive!

The Thanksgiving Nap

Shhhhhhhhh!!!!

Bug

Kiki

Our Little Turkey

We Are Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving!!! We have much to be grateful for this year.

Nursery Rhyme Day

Tanner had nursery rhyme day at school last week. He picked Humpty Dumpty because he knew exactly what craft he wanted to do!Reciting his rhyme...
And "smiling" for a picture.
After school, Humpty Dumpty had a very great fall, indeed...
And the king's man had a high-protein snack.

Crew's Clinic OT

Crew really enjoys going to the rehab clinic. It's a different and exciting adventure with every visit. He is learning to go down slides properly, guiding himself down slowly. This builds confidence and upper body strength.Just a little therapeutic skateboarding for our little dare-devil-in-training. Dragging himself along for a little upper body strength.
Swinging for core strength and balance; incorporating rope pegs for bilateral self-help. And stacking cups. Crew has become a rather masterful stacker in the last several months. It has almost put Justin into the funny farm to endure the cups all over the kitchen floor. The things we do for development!
Poor, poor Tanner. This kid has always been so patiently accommodating and understanding with everything that life with Crew has demanded. Alas, he is really reaching his breaking point; he hates going to the clinic. Haaaaates. It. He is really bored there and jealous of all the cool climbing equipment that Crew gets to use. It's really sad, actually, but it's our life for now.
Other than that (and the distance, and the cost), so far we are really happy with the services Crew is receiving at the clinic.

With how much he is learning and changing these last several months, I can hardly imagine what milestones I will be documenting this time next year!

For example: the night before Crew started preschool... he decided to start talking. Like... real talking. We read Mother Goose and he just kept repeating everything he could. "Cat, dog, bird, duck, shoes, bat, hat, pig, book, cake, bus." All totally new words, all perfectly enunciated. This is absolutely par for Crew's developmental course; He doesn't do anything until he can do it perfectly. Turkey.

Bus!

Well, Crew rode the bus home last Thursday. They have him outfitted in a carseat and he listened to Disney tunes all the way home. He seemed to like it just fine. He looked remarkably tiny in it, but...

Anyway, he has a short bus ride home (ugh... there has to be a better way to say that without saying "short bus" in this post). A brief bus ride? A quick bus ride? Anyway, he rides the bus with a very small number of other children. He has two other stops on Tuesdays and one other stop on Thursday. He was home 19 minutes after class let out on Thursday and I can't ask for better than that. Tanner waiting in great anticipation!
Welcome home, big boy! Welcome home!

Darbi Day!

Once upon a time there were two little micropreemies that fell in love during their otherwise miserable temporary incarceration at Alcatraz Primary Children's Medical Center. Their parents leaned upon each other for sanity and a good laugh, friends for life.

When the miracle kids were about a year old, they were fat. Briefly. See more pictures of these cuties as pudgy little infants by clicking here.

Today they are skinny little toddlers with oodles of personality! Darbi is a thriving little princess; you would never guess that she was a 23-week micropreemie!Darbi's eyes were still sealed shut developmentally when they met, but she thinks Crew is all kinds of handsome now!
Yep, he's irresistible to the ladies. (Imagine this photo in their wedding montage.)
Thank you for coming to visit, you little darling!
Dear Audrey, Crew still has the hots for you!! You are his cougar now and forever.

Love you guys!