Remembering Grandpa...

I don't have a lot of memories of my Grandpa Chuck, even though he just passed away this morning. When I was a kid, I have vague memories of a big bear of a man who was very particular about things, like his pool and his car. I remember his laugh. It was full and hearty, like my Auntie Emma's. 

I think I was around 13 when he had a stroke, taking away his ability to communicate normally. It also paralyzed one side of his body, leaving him unable to do things for himself and making him completely reliant on others. For my grandpa, this could not have been easy. He was a strong man who I'm sure didn't like to depend on other people. I remember Grandpa being a golfer. I remember him studying the Bible and working on his car. And playing music, he and Grandma would play and sing beautiful Hawaiian music. 

After the stroke, all of that was gone for him. I can't even imagine living close to two decades of your life trapped in a new body and mind after living a normal life for so long. I know he shed countless tears of frustration and grief as he came to accept his new life. I can imagine that it was very humbling for him to have to be taken care of, even at the most basic level.

I don't feel sad today for Grandpa. He wouldn't want that. I do feel sad for my family, knowing that there is sorrow and a void left by his passing. Most of them were closer to Grandpa than I was. But I imagine my Grandpa is up in heaven now, singing and playing Hawaiian music with his friends and family who had passed on before him. I bet he's got a tee time in the morning. He's loving every minute of being able to walk and talk the way he used to. He's probably dancing tonight, I can just picture him.

I love you Grandpa.

Teeth!

A week ago, Jon woke up with a tooth- FINALLY. I swear he had been working on that thing for months and I worried that it would never break through. But it did, and he seemed much happier. Then on Monday (three days later) he got the other bottom tooth. Poor little dude- no wonder it hurt him so much. But now he is doing much better, and he is so cute with those little pearlies in his smile! 

Falling apart...

Seriously, I was the kid who never broke a bone or got stitches, rarely visited the doctor, had never stayed in a hospital.... I got my first and only (not counting surgery) stitches (3) when I was 18 and cut my finger with a big knife at work.

Then came 2004, three weeks before our wedding- Appendicitis.

At the end of 2006, they took my gall bladder too. 

Last September, Viral Meningitis put me in the hospital for a week. 

And finally, last week, hernia repair surgery?

Am I falling apart or is it just me? I have scars all over my middle, I'm lactose intolerant, and I'm getting tons of gray hairs! Further proof of my old age, I just wrote a blog post about my ailments.

I guess I'm still young enough that my complaining is on a blog ;)

My thigh-highs... anti-embolism stockings... Cute right?

Baby Ethan

This little dude is the newest addition to Dave's family (Sam and Mariann's). He is still so new and tiny- it was so fun to take his pictures. Here are some of my favorites:

Lucky numba seven

I usually just ignore tags, but just for you Dana, I will do this one.

And lest you think I cheated... I did look in a few places as you know (I have photos all over, such is my life) and all of them were just really lame- pictures of things I was sending someone, or something equally boring or out of focus. But then I realized that right now there are over 7 photo folders on my desktop just waiting to be filed away, so here is the 7th picture in the 7th folder. It's true :)

This is my grandma- and a little logo doodad that I whipped up for the photo on our family Facebook group. I just have to say that I didn't get the whole attraction of sites like Facebook. I mean, I cannot STAND MySpace. Barf. But Facebook has been amazing. I've gotten back in touch with some dear friends back home and have been able to see/hear more from friends and family all over, since we are all so busy- it's not like we are calling each other and catching up on what's going on in our lives. I think the best thing for me has been that my extended (Hawaiian) family on my mom's side all caught the bug a little while ago, and it's been really fun to have everyone on there. I started a group for the family. It's just fun to *see* everyone there and be able to send a quick hello or I love you or share pictures or thoughts. 

So this is my beautiful Hawaiian grandma, Wanda- for our FB group, Wanda's Ohana :)

Fist bump!

I just can't get enough of this happy little cutie :) 

Christopher's turn... yeah.

So my last posts (I know it's been a while, that's why I'm playing catchup tonight!) were of Jon and Ben, and some were wondering when they would see Chris. You asked for it.

He was sooo not cooperative. This is why I don't really do this with him very often. But I tried. And it was funny. He is so darn cute- he's got those big blue eyes... I just can't capture it. He won't sit still, he scrunches up his face and says "file" (smile) or something equally silly.... it's like pulling teeth to get him to even look in my direction. But here he is anyway....

Just picture it....

I made an attempt to get a new picture of the boys last week. I have this 24x36 frame (for a 20x30 matted picture of the boys) over my mantle and it had a Christmas picture in it. So we had this beautiful 60 degree day and we went outside to give it a shot. We got ONE decent shot, which is what I usually end up with, so I'm okay with that. The outtakes from this one were too funny not to share!

So this was the winner, and is now hanging above the mantle and up in the blog header too...

But this was what I was dealing with in the other 87 shots... What are you yelling? And what is so interesting on your sleeve Chris?

Okay now suddenly the dead brown grass is soooo intriguing? (And for those not in Alabama, that is how grass looks here in the winter!)

No, look at ME! That's right Jon, you're the only one who is listening!! That's my good baby :)

Then Jon leaned over and hugged Ben, it was too cute!

I always get so frustrated doing this because heck if I can even get them all looking at the same time, much less smiling or giving me some kind of pleasant expression. I just pray that one shot will be okay to use, so my efforts weren't in vain! This is why I don't take them to anyone to have pictures done. It's not that I think I'm such a pro, even though I think I do okay... it's because I'm not going to pay someone for this... at least *I* can try again later if it doesn't work out!

Discovery Center: Revisited

So you might remember the Children's Museum that we went to before Christmas. Well, we all headed back there last weekend, this time with Rachel and family too. It was a fun time. The kids had a blast again. They couldn't get enough.

I went through to pick my favorite pictures from the day and ended up with like 35 sooo... I will tell you about a couple faves of each boy then leave you with a little slide show of the rest!

Jon loved just watching everything. He was in the stroller a lot just watching the kids and grabbing at things. We pulled off his tray and pushed him up to this table and he loved playing there. He also loved playing on the floor with the bigger wooden cars and being carried around to see more stuff. He was happy as a clam the whole day!

They had all these dressup wings. The boys loved Jon the butterfly!

Chris, Chris. He loves to dress up and they had engineer overalls and hats. His favorite part was the train you could play on, so he wore this stuff for quite a while, just playing... even though he was almost tripping over his pants, he didn't care. Here he is playing the xylophone on the front of the train and singing "Country Woads" :)

And inside the train. I knocked on the little window and got a big smile and a smush up against the glass. I love this picture!

Ben loved the train "station" ticket booth. He sat in there for quite a while yelling "tickets!" Then I helped him write ont the chalkboard. I actually just told him the letters and he wrote them. He needed a little help with the K and the 7 (and the $) but he was very proud of himself after! Incidentally, the $7 price is what he kept saying when they played in the market part. He would say- "this apple, seven dollars... this potato? seven dollars." Some things were other amounts, but $7 seemed to be his favorite.

He and Caleb played with clay for quite a while, making all kinds of things. Not a surprise- this kid will play with playdoh all day if you let him. I do want to get some other kinds of clay for them to try though!

(You can watch the slideshow change or click the thumbnails)

Love is in the Air (new blog look!)

I redid the look again, this time overhauling the whole thing and learning a bunch in the process :)