Cuteness

This is Levi's favorite toy.  He loves it.  And he is rather possessive of it. 

He also wants to make sure you know he has it so you can admire it too. He's a good boy.

 And.... totally unrelated.... Check out this rainbow! The best part is that it ended at the High School!  Hee hee hee!

Those Crazy Kids

I have some silly children. 

Who do some silly things. 

My favorite thing was the day Marian and Callie decided to trade clothes!  It was Epic.  The picked out clothes for each other from their own wardrobe and wore the other's clothes.  So awesome. 

But mostly they do stuff like this. 

Which is pretty entertaining. 

They definitely make me laugh!

Their shenanigans are the best. 

The random selfies I find on my phone are also quite amusing.

Poor Levi puts up with a lot, but I'm sure he is laughing too.

 I know these crazy kids keep a smile on my face!

A Birthday, and yes, MORE Cross Country!

 Rylee had her birthday while I was gone, so we celebrated a second time, with loot when I was home.  She was pleased.  I was dreadful about taking pictures, so there is no proof of cake.  But she was happy with the loot.

Her new favorite animal is the ferret.

And this is a "Purrito".  A stuffed cat in a burrito wrapping.

 It really was a nice birthday, I promise!

I even went to lunch at school with her and her friends.  So she felt special. 

And if you think all the Cross Country pictures are annoying, just imagine how Marian feels, having to wake up early so many Saturday mornings to run them!  She's awesome though!

 This was the last race to technically qualify togo to Far East. She was shooting for a sub 25 Knute 5k, but missed it by about 20 seconds.  We were still super proud of her!

Getting back to....Normal?

It was weird to be back home.  I was really grateful for all the friends who took care of Dan and the girls while I was gone.  Several brought dinner over, and many carpooled to YW and church.

This child informed me that I did not need to make her school lunch anymore, she wanted to do it.

Marian had another Cross Country meet for me to attend and I was so proud of her!  She shaved over 4 minus off her time from the first meet I watched her run in!

She had a great sprint to the end and passed two boys.  I was so proud of her.

I finished up my Scuba class.  I had started it before I went to Mountain Home on impulse. This was the only photo.  It documents my first dive in the ocean, even though you can't tell that at all!  But I am now a fully certified Scuba Diver. 

I don't even know why this was on my phone, but I like her! 

I do know why this is on my phone!  I have a silly kid. 

A kid who likes to steal my phone and use odd filters.

The Last Week

 I returned to Mountain Home in time to hang out with all my mom's siblings.  They had a Siblings Reunion and all 4 of her siblings and their spouses were out to spend time with each other. I felt rather superfluous since there were so many people in the house, but I'm glad I stayed.  It was neat to see everyone. And it was even better to get to spend that time with my mom.

Mom and all of her siblings.  They are all incredible.

I also had time to go through a lot of photos.  I found gems like this one. 

 And this one may be my most favorite.  This is me with my mom!

And I loved seeing pictures of Mom before she was a mom. 

The Sibs Reunion was from Thursday to Sunday.  Mom was pretty interactive up till Saturday.  Sunday was rough and Monday was even more difficult. I was so glad I was able to stay and be there for my parents at this time.  It was awful to see her go through it, but it was also amazing.

This photo makes me cry every time.  Mom did not was to lean back because it put more pressure on her chest and she felt like it was hard to breathe.  But she also did not have the strength to lean forward.  My dad sat there and held her head and talked to her with the sweetest words.  I snuck this picture in.  It seems a little intrusive, but I want to remember the love and devotion.

And I snuck in this picture as he held her so she could be more upright.  He always told her how beautiful she was and how much he loved her.  It was so tender and beautiful in such a rotten time for her. She was on oxygen the last few days, and she refused to leave her chair.  She did not want to die in her bed, so she stayed in her chair. 

 Mom died early Tuesday morning.  It was such a heart wrenching relief.  Hospice is the best thing ever and they took care of everything.  It was incredibly hard when they took her body away.  Somehow that made it so final. I got some photos printed at Walmart and picked them up so we could tape a picture of Mom to her chair. It made me feel better to look over and see her there.  Everything was so surreal.

We spent Tuesday feeling rather lost and empty.  Lost is about the best word to describe it. I was so glad my sister was able to drive out that evening to be with us. Especially since I had plane tickets to fly home on Wednesday. I considered changing them to stay for the funeral, but just couldn't make my family wait any longer.

So on Wednesday, Oct 2, I drove up to Springfield and started the 36 hour trek home.  It went smoothly except every time someone greeted me with a "How are you?!" I didn't know what to say.  But I arrived home Friday afternoon and the girls were delighted to see me.