My Beautiful Mother

It is with a broken heart that I share the news of my mothers passing. Over the last month her already frail health quickly deteriorated even more so. Momma passed very quietly and peacefully on Monday evening. I really want to share all the fun things she and I did together, all the things she taught me, all the ways that made loving her, admiring her and appreciating her so easy...but it breaks my heart to even share the news of her passing.
Throughout my blog there are many stories about Momma, those of you who have read for awhile will know that I love my mother, my bestest friend dearly~I don't even want to imagine how much I will miss her...

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday Dear Momma,
Happy Birthday to you.

Today is my beautiful mothers 80th birthday...WOW!

Yesterday my sister and BIL arrived and the 5 of us celebrated Momma's bday with a silly string greeting (I keep telling you she is going to get kicked out of there~~silly string was my sisters idea!!) which was hilarious as the 4 of us walked in her room, each of us with a can of silly string and covered her with the slimmy stuff in a variety of colors....It was hilarious...and she loved the surprise, of course she was sleeping when we arrived, therefore she was really really caught off guard!

Today, after worship, Ed and I will take dinner up to her as we do each Sunday. I asked her yesterday what she wanted for her very special 80th bday dinner...which is always an interesting conversation since she always answers "no" to any question you ask her...and finally she was able express that what she really wanted was a PBJ sandwich. Not sure that is what she will get but it is what she indicated she wanted. Ed is thinking Chinese....I am thinking clam chowder....we shall see.

Happy Birthday Momma...I love you so much.

Snowmen, snowgirls and more snowmen...

By now you would think I would be getting pretty tired of snow...well, I guess I might be a tad tired of snow...but it is pretty much impossible for me to ever get tired of snowmen.

This is the snowman the kids made this on Saturday....
Here he is again, taken Sunday afternoon, Rex titled this picture "Death of a Snowman"....
Here is my momma with the snowgirls we made this afternoon...hey, if momma can't get to the snow...the snow will get to momma!!
Here is my PURPLEwork snowman, January is done minus the embellishment, which will be snowflake charms. It is hanging up in my mothers room because I will be working on these while visiting with her, she didn't want me to bring this one home, rather she wanted it to be pinned to her MOMMA wallhanging. That's ok with me, she can watch the progress and keep me plugging along should I get lazy about it. (sorry the pic is fuzzy...). LindaJ is to blame for this new project of mine, and Norma was right in there with her, pressuring me...tempting me...giving me all kinds of hassell and frustrations until I caved, those two will get you in trouble in a blink of an eye! I hear there are rumblings of others joining the crowd.

So, there you have it my Snowman Post of the day!!!

Here is another pic of my mother. We had told her that IF it snowed we would fill a container and bring her some snow...I think she forgot because when she took the lid off the container and ...well....a picture is worth a thousand words, don't you agree?? She laughed and laughed. There was enough snow to make 2 snowgirls (a momma one and a little girl one(*¿*) ) and a couple of snowballs to keep close by just in case one of her not-so-favorite nurses should happen to step foot in her room...which they didn't! LOL I love to see my momma laugh! There is basically NOTHING that I won't try to get away with if it means bringing even a teeny tiny amount of joy to my mother. Yes, there are rules at the care facility she is living in. Yes, we have been "versed" on these rules (and versed again!). Yes, I know those rules are meant for a purpose. But~~ HELLO ~~ this is my mother we are talking about! And I do love to spoil her!

Mirror, Mirror On The Wall...

...I Am My Mother Afterall

I've been reflecting on a lot of different things in my life of late....I tend to go through these seasons from time to time...something will happen to trigger a memory and off I go down Reflection Road.

So....these are a couple of the things I have found on this trip down Memory Lane.

• My mother loved spending time with her grandchildren...and since I have 2 sons I was able to see her interact with grandsons more than granddaughters. Rex is my oldest grandson, he is 14. When our oldest son, Roy, was about the same age he was in the kitchen fixing something or another and my mother came around the corner and gave him the biggest hug then kept walking through the kitchen and into the diningroom. This past Christmas day I was standing at the kitchen sink at our kids' home and Rex came through, put his arm around my neck and said "I have the best gramma in the world." Roy said that to me about his gma...my mother...after getting that special hug from her. I am not sure what prompted Rex to hug me or make that statement but I do know that I learned to be the gramma I am by watching my mother with her 11 grandchildren and numerous great-grands.
• I love holding my mothers hands...and I love it when she holds my hand...she strokes my hand, plays with my jewerly (my wedding ring was her mothers ~ my grandmothers ~ wedding ring), she pokes at the saggy skin on my knuckles ~ she has the softest touch. Almost every day that I see my mother I get a hot wash cloth and wash her face and hands...then I message her hands and arms with "stinky stuff" hand lotion that is saved just for this purpose. I love the feel of her skin and she loves getting all that attention. Our granddaughter, Kaitlyn (age 9) loves it when I message her hands or feet with "stinky stuff". She and I can sit for hours sharing conversation, reading books, watching a movie and holding pinkies. The power of touch. The picture above is my mothers and my left hands...as much as our hands look alike...my sisters hands look even more like my mothers, someday I hope to get a picture of our 3 hands together.
  

Mirror Mirror on the Wall
I am My Mother Afterall

(I am one lucky daughter!)

Eggnog, Garfield Style!

We love Eggnog...during the holiday season we make Eggnog lattes rather than anyone of our other favorite lattes. Seems like Garfield and Jon love Eggnog too! So, here is our Santa Eggnog picture for 2006. We agree with Garfield and Jon, Eggnog tastes better in Santa hats!

Christmas 2006 has come and gone. Christmas Eve we spent with our kids here in town: dinner, games, movie and then the reading of the Christmas story. This year Kaitlyn and Tristan shared the responsibility- each reading half. Each year the children take turns reading, this has been a family tradition since our own boys learned to read and is now being passed on to the grandkidlets. Always warms my heart to hear them as they read the story.

Christmas Day morning Ed and I got up bright and early and spent most of the day with Momma~gave her her packages (camera battery died as soon as I turned the camera on!!! grrrrr!!!), we went down to the dining hall for a nice ham dinner, back to her room to watch Elf (her favorite part was the singing in the bathroom part - if you haven't seen the movie I will not spoil it for you). One of her gifts was a digital photo frame that I had loaded with 100's of pics (gotta love those 2.0 GB disks!) that she seems to enjoy oohing and aahing over. She kicked us out about 3 p.m. I think she was ready for a nap but we teased her telling her she was tired of US!! It was a good day for her and her spirits were up....always a good thing for me as I get so emotional when she is down.

4 p.m. dinner at the kids house. Dinner, games, football, laughter...more games and lots more laughter. Around 8 p.m. I started to feel "wierd", wasn't sure what was going on but knew I didn't feel well...we left at 9, a bit early for us but, I just needed to be home...I went to bed and did not wake up until 3 p.m. the next day. Achy body...headache...slight fever. It is pretty much gone now but it knocked me out for a while. I missed a whole day of my life!!! good thing it hit after the holiday and not before!

Yesterday I worked through the morning but did not return after lunch, was still a bit tired and business was slow so the boss said he would handle the office alone (do you all see as many red flags as I see in that? LOL). Today and tomorrow I am using up the last of my use it-or-lose it vacation time and will return to the office NEXT YEAR LOL.

We were suppose to go to Diamond Lake today but I feel the need to stay home one more day so will go tomorrow if I am feeling up to it. The kids are all going up tomorrow afternoon. How fun to ring in the New Year sledding, making snow angels, having snow ball fights and laughing with the grandkids! Today will be spent preparing easy meals to toss in the oven or microwave so that we can spend as much of the wknd outdoors as possible. (Overnight breakfast casserole, meatballs for spaghetti dinner, etc.) Will take the crock pot and keep redhot punch going all day for warm ups between outings.

Happy New Year to all!