Another Porter Moment.....

He looks so innocent doesn't he? Well he is very clever and into everything! He is always one step ahead and does things that I would never think of. The other day I locked our bedroom door to keep him out. I had gone upstairs to get something in the boys closet and I heard our door open. Then I heard Porter exclaim, "I did it, I did it!!!" He was so proud of himself. He unlocked our door and got in there. How, you may ask?! Well....... there was a nightlight plugged in and he pulled it out, and used one of the tongs to put in the slit and turn! I only know because he was holding the nightlight up against him and I can only imagine that's how it went down! Perfect solution, problem solved! Oh boy........

This Little Guy......

has been so funny lately! While I was gone with my parents last week I was telling him to stop doing something in the car. He started shaking his fist at me and then said, " punch.....your.....face!" I couldn't help but laugh because he'd never said it before and I have no idea where he's heard that. Today we were picking Dave up from work and he got mad at Cole. He started screaming at Cole, told him punch your face and then said, " break....your....nose!" I again couldn't help but laugh. This time the other boys were in the car with me and they couldn't hold it in either! I think we're in for a ride with this one!!!

A Sad Goodbye.

I know it's only for a short while, but on February 17th one of my most favorite people in the world passed away. My cousin David was only 55 and fought Mesothelioma for almost four years. I got to visit him toward the end of October and knew that it would probably be the last time I would see him in this life. A few weeks ago my mom sent us an email saying that Dave started talking about one of his grandpa's on the other side that he was seeing him and that he was going to teach the angels to fly in formation (he was a skydive instructor). We knew then that his time was coming fast. I got the call the night he passed about 5 hours later. Even though we knew it was coming you still can't prepare for that moment that it's going to occur. We are deeply saddened and heartbroken.


On my dad's side of the family I only have two male cousins. They are both old enough to be my uncles and this one in particular was way more than a cousin. He made anyone he met feel like that. He gave the biggest, hardest, hugs that sometimes would hurt. He held on forever and made you feel like no-one else mattered when you were in the room. He'd pick me up as a little girl and flip me upside down while walking, he'd pull on my ears, chase me around, and was the big brother I didn't have growing up. While in town for his funeral I had a dream that he came to me, hugged me, told me he was ok, and then gave me a piggy back ride across the room and disappeared. When I shared this dream with his wife Fran she laughed, knowing that's something that Dave would do and to me it was a symbol that he could do it again!


His battle was long and courageous. At one point his doctor told him he was the longest living survivor that they had ever seen. I'm sure the loss wasn't easy for them either. I imagine as a doctor that you get attached to a patient who you see year after year and who gets more sick every time. I don't think I could do that!


Porter and I went with my parents to Lancaster for the funeral. It's the first time I've ever taken Porter to see my dad's family. My aunt and uncle from St. Louis were there as well as my sister Michelle from Maine. My aunt and uncle have never met any of my kids and Michelle has never met Porter. It was good to see everyone, but not for the reason we were there.


Porter was a trooper! He never cried on either of the car rides. The viewing was for three hours Tuesday night. We stayed the whole time. Thankfully the funeral home had a kid room with toys in it so we spent a lot of time in there. The funeral was the next day. It was beautiful out. The funeral was very emotional and went well. We followed in the procession to the graveside. There were more than 55 cars in the procession, the funeral home said it's the longest they've ever had. We arrived to many military personal as it was a full military burial. It was very emotional as they did the 21 gun salute, retired the flag on Dave's casket and gave it to his wife, and as one of them read a poem that was very fitting to my cousins life. Dave and Fran have been together since she was 15 years old, and were married for 33 years. I was glad to see she has such a huge support system as this will not be easy for her at all.


Dave, I love you! You are the best. I hope that I can be a sliver of the person you were. Life won't be the same without you. I'm glad to know that this isn't permanent and that some day we will be together forever. I'll never forget your hugs, your handshakes, your pet snakes....... I'll always remember the good example you set, the love you had for everyone, the kindness you showed. I'll cherish the love you showed to me forever. I'll never forget. Someday I maybe even will skydive, but I might save that for when you can be by my side......


The few days we were together for this were short. They were hard, they were sad. They were filled with hope of what's to come! We left my aunt joking. I told her that this isn't forever and that when we see him next she'll have her 20 year old body back and will be skydiving with him by her side. She looked at me and said, "Do I have to be 20? I think I was pregnant then and I don't want to be pregnant." I told her I didn't think she had to be pregnant, but that if she was it was the only place that you can skydive while pregnant because she'd just keep falling, there would be no ground to hit! She was laughing and it was a good note to leave on!!!

 My Aunt Yvonne (Dave's Mom) and I!

Dave's wife Fran and I. Porter too.

My cousin Rebekah (left), and Cousin Susan (right)

Cousin Katelyn (Left), Cousin Sabrina (Dave's sister), Cousin Jacob (left)

Aunt Yvonne (left), Aunt Jan, Uncle Lou

Porter hanging out!

 This is Dave in one of his more than 1,000 jumps.

May you have many blue skies ahead of you Dave! Until we meet again....

A Movie.

About 43 seconds in the baby starts scratching her nose and you can see her cute little fingers!!!

The Baby.......

is a GIRL!!! 

This week has been a crazy up and down week! I have been so set that this baby was a boy and I was ok with that. This week however, my attitude had changed and I was starting to get really sad about it being another boy and kept thinking I would be heartbroken if it wasn't a girl. Of course I would still love the baby even if it's a boy, but it would take time to wrap my head around it.

We got to the ultrasound way early today. They told us they would record a little of the baby if we had a dvd so Dave ran to the store to buy one. While I was sitting alone I got emotional and felt it was going to be a girl. I told Dave and then I said I'm sure it's not going to happen and I'm just being crazy.


The baby had her legs crossed almost the whole time. The tech kept kind of hitting my belly trying to get her to uncross them. Then........ I saw it. I saw the girl parts and started to cry while saying, "it's a girl isn't it?" The tech then assured me, yes, it's a girl! I asked her if she was 100% sure and she told me they can't say 100%. She said, "I will tell you this. If it isn't a girl you need to come back to me and tell me so I can figure out WHY it's not a girl!" To me that was her way of saying 100% without saying it out right!


As with dates and all my babies dates being off, the dates have been further along the last two ultrasounds. The last one was  a few days further, but today the babies size was 9 days further along. I might talk to the doctor next time seeing if they'll move the dates. 9 days seems like a lot to me! Especially when our babies come fast and they won't let me go full term.


Needless to say, we are beyond EXCITED! I almost still don't believe it! It will be all new territory, but I'm very thankful for the awaiting adventure!!!

      

          

The Argument.

Today I had an argument with Porter. He was insistent that the baby was in his tummy. I finally got him to accept that the baby was in my belly and he started whining and was doing his own made up sign to hold the baby. I told him that he couldn't hold the baby until it came out. The next thing I know, Porter has his face close to my belly and yells, "baby come!" It was super cute that he wants the baby out. A few other times today he has said "baby out". I guess he knows what's going on! He might not remember tomorrow, but he'll figure it out for sure eventually!!!

The Fire.

About 2:30 a.m. Friday morning I started hearing weird sirens outside. There is a road behind our house that emergency vehicles drive down so I just assumed that they were going elsewhere. Then I started seeing the lights. I looked out the window and saw tons of lights two buildings down from us. We know someone who lives down there and I worried about the woman and that something might be wrong with her. I ran outside without any shoes on or anything and couldn't tell which townhouse they were at, so I ran back in, grabbed a sweatshirt, my keys, my phone, and put on some flip flops and started down the street. 


I got almost there before I started seeing smoke spilling out of windows on our side of the street. I was relieved that it wasn't our friend, but stayed out with some other neighbors watching as the firefighters entered a home and started breaking out windows with their hatchets. As I was coming out of our house they were hooking up their hose to the fire hydrant outside our place. I got there before they even started fighting the fire. 


I talked to some neighbors who told me they heard lots of pounding and that's what woke them up to begin with. There was a young guy in the unit adjoined to the burning one who smelled smoke and saw the fire. He called 911 and then started banging on the mans door as loud as he could. It took almost five minutes for the man to open the door and when he did he had no skin on parts of his head, hands, legs, and feet. He was bleeding, but insisted he was fine and didn't need to leave his house. He stayed in the doorway until the paramedics got there and took him out of the house.


After about an hour I decided I needed to come inside. My childhood asthma is triggered with smoke and I had inhaled if for too long. I had started to cough and was worried about the baby and being too close the whole time I was out there. I was only about 20 ft away from the unit the fire was in. After I came in I couldn't fall asleep. There were lights flashing outside our windows. About 4:30, 6-7 firefighters came and unhooked the hose and were talking, their radios were up loud going off, and they were banging the hose on the ground while rolling it back up. At about 5:30 I thought I could still hear trucks out there, but when I came down at 7 and the noise was still outside I looked and it was a news crew parked outside our house. 


The unit connected was unharmed. The woman and her son who live there are pretty traumatized by the event. I can't imagine when you are the ones who know there's a problem and working against the clock to try to save someone!


Little did I know that this fire would make national news or that we had a coach of an NFL team living close to us. When I saw his picture, I recognized his smile and realized that we went trick or treating at his house and he was giving out candy. He seemed very nice.


This is an article about it:http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&ved=0CEoQFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.usatoday.com%2Fsports%2Ffootball%2Fnfl%2Fsteelers%2Fstory%2F2012-01-06%2Fkirby-wilson-house-fire%2F52413994%2F1&ei=NdIIT72nF8TW0QGIvMi_Ag&usg=AFQjCNEm7-wPdQuz5J4QWkTkGawDO1KTxA&sig2=8zKNQAMsmCql9OK-4Dfn-Q


From reading nienie dialogues, I know with up to 50% of his body being burned he has a LONG way to go for recovery. It will be trying and painful. He will most likely have to have surgery after surgery. Hopefully they won't keep him in a coma for 6 months like nienie was. We will keep him in our prayers and hope for a good recovery. Luckily he has a big team pulling for him and to support him through this horrible tragedy.

The Baby.

I haven't said much about the baby this time so I thought I'd post a little! I had to have an ultrasound about 3 weeks ago because they couldn't find a heartbeat in the doctor's office. As soon as the lady put the ultrasound probe on my belly, all you see is a black hole and then a leg come out of nowhere and kick it. Then it returned back to a black hole for a minute until the lady started moving the probe around. I told her as soon as the baby kicked it you can stop it's obviously ok! What a relief! 

I was worried that once I hit the 16 week mark, my contractions would start like they did with Porter. So far I haven't had that problem! My biggest problem is feeling gross whenever I move. I prefer to sit on the couch and not move. If I get moving around too much I get light headed and feel like I'm going to pass out. I'm beginning to think I don't want to go through this again! I love my kids, but each pregnancy gets more trying on me and I don't know if I could do it again! Obviously though I might change my mind in a few years when I haven't been pregnant for a while......

Two weeks and we get to find out what the baby is! I'm banking on it being a boy, but I guess I could be wrong! If it is a boy, I had to get all new clothes with Porter unfortunately the seasons are off so I still have to buy everything all new again.... If it's a girl, the girl clothes I've collected are the right season for this baby! It would be convenient. I don't have enough, but enough to get started at least!

Cole's Winter Party.....

I planned Cole's Halloween and Winter parties in 
his class. This one didn't go as well as the 
Halloween party, but it went and the kids had fun.

We had snowmen on a stick for a snack, they played a Rudolph relay, decorated ornaments, read a story, and filled some large tubes with candy in a race.


Now...... it's time to start the planning for the Valentine's Day party. Last one of the year!!!

My Parents Visit .....

My parents came to visit for a few days before Christmas. It was great to have them here! Porter was super excited! We opened my parents gifts while they were here. My mom made each of the boys a blanket, and they also made little picture books of times they've spent with the boys over the years. The boys loved it!