Storyside B & Nevertheless

I got a really neat surprise at church last week. Two of the bands from Air1 will be coming to give a youth concert at OUR church! I was so excited when I seen this in the bulletin. The concert will be the first day of our Easter Break on a Monday evening....April 2nd.

Storyside B

Nevertheless

I listen to Air1 online at work and in the car to/from work. The kids even sing along to the songs. It's so excited that our small church will be hosting these two bands in just 2 weeks! We attended the planning meeting after services today. Gene volunteered to do outdoor security and I'm going to be working in the kitchen. The bands have their own "demand list" that we need to get together and then we'll be handing out bottled water and popcorn free of charge for the kids who attend the concert. I also volunteered to make the labels we'll be putting on the water bottles.

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I used Sarah VanDyke's Frames Vol. 5 for around the verse.

"Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John 4:13-14 NIV

We've arranged for Joshua to do a sleepover with grammy that evening. This will be Kyle's first concert. We are planning on paying for a ticket for our sitter and asking her to come along to help keep an eye on Kyle. Our youth minister estimates 350-500 kids will be here for the concert. So that's alot of lives that can be reached for the Lord.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Nope no green beer here! Only some leprachaun pudding with gold dust sprinkled on top and the traditional corned beef and cabbage. When we went to put it in the crockpot this morning, there was NO seasoning packet inside the bag. Though it advertised there was one! Gene to the rescue again! Whatever he used to season it....turned out so delicious! I'm looking forward to some Rueban sandwiches for leftovers. The kids even ate the cabbage with totally shocked me!

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I was a little bit lazy today, but I did manage to get all the "junk drawers" in the kitchen sorted, cleaned and organized. I'm so proud of myself for that! You don't know how long we've stabbed ourselves with pushpins while rooting through the drawers looking for something. LOL!

Grammy-Gram's tulips have finally emerged! And then....the snow hit and BURIED them! I thought this layout was appropriate for today!

Hint 'O Spring

For full credits go HERE

I hope your weekend is a great one!

St. Pat's Day SNOW!!!

Yes...we got the traditional St. Patty's Day snowfall today. We now have about two inches on the ground now and it's still coming down. Quite a contrast...considering Tuesday it was 70 degrees and sunny....I think I need to move to a warmer climate. 'Cause just having the sun shining and being able to open up our sunroof was such a mood lifter!

I have a quick layout to share with you all. I shared pics of everyone with Duchess except for myself. I'll admit....that's 'cause I didn't have a good one I'd be willing to post on the web yet. LOL! But here we are....she's so tired of posing...so I just had to add that cute caption above her.

This was done using Merkee's "Colorful Silliness" Kit and it was so much fun working on this. It's so outside my box. I also used Merkee's Tape Fun, Frames & Alpha. Link to full credits HERE

Forget new furniture and carpeting....

She's here and she's SO adorable!!! Just don't let those eyes and cute face fool ya though....she packs ALOT of mischieve into one little furry body. She's ALL paws and legs....you should see her try to walk down the stairs....it's hilarious. She's a beauty though and we are so blessed to have her.

Within minutes of being home....she had found one loose edge on the berber carpeting in the livingroom and thought tug of war was in order. LOL! Let's see....she chewed the wing off of the cats toy, peed on the carpet 8 times and did #2 twice already in the house. She tried to play tug of war with Joshua's jeans that were left laying in the middle of the livingroom floor. She chewed a lego....which she dug out from UNDER the couch....and found the remote in the cushions of the couch(Gene loved that one! LOL!) She likes to jump up on you....and the kids like to fall to the ground and let her nibble on them! A habit we are trying to break ALL THREE of them on!!! LOL!

So, we took our first walk tonight and she sure does pull. I don't think she's been outside much, because everything seemed to catch her attention. She's definetly a "water dog" and a "garbage dog". She'll find a piece of rubbish in the oddest places and pick it up in her mouth, UGH!!!

She has a nose for a mile long....very good sign for hunting! So without further ado....I present to you........Duchess.

She seems to enjoy when Gene lays on the couch...she cuddles right up to him.

That's her favorite toy...a pink stuffed bow with a small squeaker inside.

The boys just love to play with her!

Here she is waiting outside the bathroom. She wanted to get into the tub with Joshua. He got out of the tub and shooed her out, then closed the door so she couldn't get back in to the bathroom. I snapped this picture just after I re-opened the door. She was so cute, just sitting right outside the door patiently waiting for him to be done.

I'll get some better pics tomorrow....hopefully outside with better lighting. Night!

PHEW!!!! Taxes are D-O-N-E!!!

As much as I didn't want my purty little pup pic pushed down...I just had to share the excitement and relief of my accomplishment today!!!

I'm DONE with our taxes! All we need to do is hit the SEND button. I'm waiting for Gene to come home and review them, plus we'll be using his card to pay for them...no way am I paying an extra $30 from our return just to have them deduct their fees from the auto return. I used Turbo Tax online for the past two years to do our taxes.

Since I had the candy wrapper business, I thought it was the best way to go and it sure did us good last year. Found all kinds of deductions that I wouldn't have known to take. I freaked out a few Sundays back....I think late Jan/early Feb. I thought I'd surprise Gene and quick finish/file the taxes before I went to church that morning. Gene came home from work and I was still in my PJ'S!!! Mind you....it was around 5 PM!!! I was in tears.

I had to tell him that we owed $2,000 + for our state taxes. For the life of me....I couldn't figure out why and I wasn't going to file until I could get it right. He laughed at me(Gee....thanks, all that stress and tears and you laugh at me????) He told me, "Honey, it's gotta just be a mistake somewhere, you'll figure it out." Yeah, ok....nevermind I spent the whole day lookin' for the "mistake" and even missed church because of it. LOL!

Well....he hinted today that the taxes really needed done. He's counting on the federal refund to get some things done. Yeah, ok, um-hummmm, I know! So, I came home from work and sat down with my nose to the grind stone.

HURRAY!!!! I finally found the mistake.....I didn't enter our State Tax withholding!!! Yeah, I know....silly me. The reason I didn't notice that before is because I didn't even make it to the end of the State Tax review....where it shows your "bottom line". LOL! I was watching that nifty little box they have in the top left corner that calculates your refund/tax amt owed as you work through your return. I guess I must have panicked....'cause that little box was in the red the whole time and wouldn't go below $2,000 that we would owe!

Now....when I look back at it...yeah I can laugh! Now please don't hold these blonde roots against me....ok???

Our NEW Weim Baby!!!

Ok...she isn't here yet....but I have these pics from her current owners and so excited, that I didn't want to wait to show her off. So here she is! They've been calling her Duchess and I kinda like that name...so we're gonna keep it!






Ain't she purty??? Gene will go take a ride to pick her up after Kyle gets on the bus for school this Wednsday.

I searched the net for two days looking for a female pup. She came at a reasonable price...$350!!! The owners bred to keep her and run her in field trial competition. But the guy who has her had a neck/back injury and isn't able to get the litter of pups in the field. They are 12 weeks old now and he wants them to get good homes.

We are SO excited!!!!

Weimeraner Puppy WANTED!!!

Oh, y'all...I'm so heartbroken.

We had to give up our five year weimeraner that we got just this past Thursday...a few hours after my FIL passed away. He was a great distraction and comfort to the boys for a few days, but the past two days he became WAY too aggressive with both the boys. Lashed out at both of them. Finally, after biting my oldest son's finger and drawing a bit of blood and knocking him to the floor...we had to send him back to his original owner.

My oldest was crying, balling that now he was afraid he'll forget about Papa, because the dog looked almost identical to my FIL's dog. Both the boys are taking it hard and we are on the search for a weimeraner pup.

We prefer a female, as they are less dominant and hyper as they grow out of the puppy stage.We've owned a weimeraner in the past, so we are very familiar with the breed. My husband was also raised with them and he would be interested in one for hunting purposes as well.

Due to the kids being so young, we have to get a pup, so they can grow up together.

Anyone know of some good resources?

I've tried searching online with limited results.

A new addition and a loved one gone...

We have a new addition to our family! His name is Expo and he is a five year old male weimeraner. We called a few days ago from an ad in our local newspaper.

He was free to a good home.

Here he is with Joshua holding the leash. We had arranged to pick him up Thursday evening. That was before we knew all the events that would happen that day.

He came into our lives just hours after Papa passed away and left our lives.

We got the results from Kyle's chest X-Ray....he has bronchitis. Nothing we can do, but let it run it's course. The fever did break finally Thursday afternoon! But he's been running a low grade temp since then. Funny thing is...I have a cough just like him and can't shake this YUCK feeling. Hmmmmmm.......

So, I left Kyle with daddy to take a nap...they'd both had a long night/day. I took Joshua to go pick up Kyle's schoolwork for the days he's missed, take back some movies, and to the local dollar store to pass some time. I forgot my cell phone in my car and we browsed through the store. I didn't even realize that Gene was desperately trying to get hold of me. As I pulled up in front of the video store the phone rang and he said didn't they give you the message at the video store? I asked, no why? Because I need you home now, dad's dying. OK....the only thoughts through my mind were....if he doesn't make it there in time....it's all my fault for not having the phone with me. So a carefree excursion with Joshua, instantly turned into a race against time to get home so Gene can get to his dad's bedside.

He made it and had time to tell Bud that he loved him and would take care of mom. That I loved him and said goodbye and that the kids said they loved him and goodbye. He nodded his head each time. He was coherent, since they hadn't given him any morphine since Gene had left that morning. He stopped swallowing and they were unable to give him anything by mouth. A morphine pump was on order, but not installed yet. Gene and my sister-in-law Regina, were holding his hands as he took his last breath. Gene's youngest sister, who is 5 months pregnant, did not make it in time to be there when he passed. She lives almost a 45 min drive away.

He called me at 6 PM to tell me that Bud had just passed away.

The boys are having a difficult time dealing with Papa being gone. Kyle is quiet and introverted. Very sad and doesn't want to talk about it at all. Joshua is angry, frustrated and acting out. Gene is being so strong for me. I'm just falling apart and he seems to know just what to do or say.

Last night, we all had just about had enough. The boys were fighting. Joshua just wanted to be with Kyle and he only wanted to be alone. So it ended up that Kyle yanked Joshua off his bed and he fell on the floor smack on his head. I was on the pbone with my mom and Gene had the do outside at the time. When I figured out what had happened...I put my arms around them both as Gene stood behind me and told them...I know this is hard on you....it's hard on all of us....and we need to pull together and think of each other's feelings.

Gene sensed I needed a break and called our sitter. He totally surprised me and we went to see the movie "Wild Hogs" last night. Very good timing for us. The movie was very funny and had us laughing most of the way through it. We both needed the comic relief and for a few hours it took our mind off things.

I'm SO not ready to say goodbye. We went to Kathy's for dinner tonight. After the kids left the table, Kathy asked me if I wanted to go and say goodbye to Bud before they close the casket tomorrow. It wasn't a total surprise to me. Gene told me when he got home Thursday I would have the opportunity to see him before they closed the casket if wanted. Being that we were all sick, I didn't have the opportunity to say goodbye before he passed and I needed to stay with Kyle when he was dying so that Gene could go and be with him. I really wanted to be there. It's Bud's wishes to have a closed casket so I wasn't going to go. But Kathy when Kathy asked, she said she was going tomorrow in the early afternoon. I felt like she wanted someone to be with her and told her I would go.

I broke down tonight and told Gene, I'm not ready to say goodbye. It's going to be so hard tomorrow. I'll be going right after church to the funeral home for a private viewing and then the calling hours are 7-9PM. We'll be there at 10AM for calling hours and the funeral at 11. Our minister will be doing the ceremony. Then there will be a full military burial immediately after. They will do a 21 gun salute and taps with a flag presentation.

I'm not sure I can handle that. I feel so bad that I can't seem to keep it together, especially for the boys. I told Gene tonight, How can I help them feel better if I don't feel any better?

Please pray as this will be a very difficult few days.

One Week....

I'll probably be adding some layouts that have taken me forever to get finished up later, but for now just a little update.

We are just now getting over the flu. It took it's toll on the whole family. I was the last to come down with it and let me tell you I fought it the whole way. Today is the best I've felt since Sunday night. I had to rush Kyle into the doctor's today. He'd been running a fever all night of 102 degrees, at least that's what OUR thermometer said. By the time I got him to the office, they told me his tem was 103.9 degrees. They tested him for strep, but it was negative and they took a chest X-Ray to be sure he doesn't have pneumonia. We're still waiting on the call from the office about the results for that.

Gene spent the night last night at his dad's. The first since he's been over the flu. It was a long night and late/early morning they had to call the hospice nurse to come out because Bud couldn't swallow. He's refusing to have an IV or to go back to the hospital at all. He can't talk or communicate very well, but he understands and can hear when you talk to him. There is a hospital bed in the livingroom now to help keep him comfortable.

Gene came home in tears....they said it will probably be only a week longer before he's gone. Without being able to swallow fluids, he'll dehydrate and he won't allow them to take him to the hospital for an IV therapy.

After Gene left the house last night the kids and I watched a movie and when it was over, Kyle had a tear in his eye. I asked him why he was crying and he said he was thinking about Papa. He didn't want to talk around his little brother, so I took him back to my room. He said, "I know Papa is very ill." Red faced and teary eyed, "And I'm just hoping he gets better." I couldn't help, the tears just came and I told him, "I can't promise you that papa's gonna get any better, honey. He's very sick and probably won't get any better."

I read him the story that a friend of ours in church mailed to us this week. "Waterbugs and Dragonflies" I would highly recommend this book. The story gave Kyle some comfort and he knows papa is going to a better place and won't be able to come back to tell us where he's gone, but we'll be able to be with him someday again.

I said, "See Kyle, we will miss Papa, but he'll be waiting for us and we'll see him again." Kyle said to me crying, "Yeah, but I'm only seven, so it will be a long time for me." How do you answer that? I just hugged him. He wants to see Papa to say goodbye. But that is against Papa's wishes. He didn't want the kids to see him this way. We are going to arrange for him to talk to Papa on the phone to say one last goodbye when Gene goes over tonight to be with Bud again. Hopefully this will give Kyle some peace with the whole thing.

One surprise....we're getting a puppy!!! Well, not really a puppy....he's five years old and he's a weimeraner. So for that breed...if you know that breed....it's a REALLY BIG PUPPY! He's housebroken and been to training school with pure breed papers. His previous owner had a male/female and is moving to a place where he can't have them. The female is spoken for, but the male they can't find a home for, so WE'RE IT!!! Gene spoke to the lady last night. Hopefully we can bring him home tonight. The kids know there is a big surprise, but not what it is. They keep guessing, Chuck E. Cheese, a new PS2 game, a kiss??? I just keep telling them....nope BIGGER than all of that!

So hopefully tomorrow, or late tonight, I'll have pics of our new "addition" and some layouts completed!

Bye for now!