Party Day!

I've been meaning to share these pictures for several weeks, but seem to have had a slight disruption in the routine. Thank you for all of your prayers for Dwight. He has returned to work on a minimal basis - and is being cared for by his woman boss, who sends him home when she thinks he's had enough. He actually made it to choir practice tonight and seemed to really enjoy that. Everyone is so glad to see him back at work and church. And the girls are thrilled to have Grandpa back home. He does seem to have developed a secondary fungal condition on various parts of his body. A trip to the dermatologist yielded a powerful once-a-week pill for six weeks, as well as orders to take 2-3 bleach baths (one cup of bleach in a tub full of water) per week. Crazy!! But he'll do ANYTHING to get rid of this fungus junk.

I started this a few days ago - and today (Monday) Dwight worked a whole day, then went for a short walk when he got home. YAY for improvements every day!

One Saturday awhile back, there were three birthday parties planned. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera for the first one. All 4 girls were invited to both of the children's parties that day. The first one was for a 6 year old girl who was born in Peru to her Peruvian mom and American dad when they were missionaries over there. This was a really fun parties with lots and lots of cute little girls. The daddy led in very energetic games. The food was plentiful and good. Then there was the pinata, which they made themselves. It was such fun watching from the youngest to the oldest taking their whacks for the candy.

We went back to our house for a couple of hours, only to return for a "princess party" later in the day. Oh, my goodness, what fun they all had. It was a tea party and they were to all dress up.

The tables were set up with games and puzzles.

Then they were treated to manicures (well, fingernail polish) and "jewelry".






The professional princess serenaded them with Disney songs. She was really good!




Then they had tea and cookies. . .




Followed by the very special cupcakes - showcased by the very lovely little birthday princess --




The birthday princess received so many lovely princess-worthy gifts --




The princess posted with each of the girls, and with the whole group.










That evening, we left the little girls home with Grandpa and headed over to celebrate my dad's 86th birthday.

Thursday night, the 4 girls, Kristen, and I are all going to Disney on Ice. The little girls are used to being left behind, so when Katie asked, "Do we get to go?" and the answer was "Yes, you get to go!" - the reaction was priceless!!

Sorry to be gone so long . . .

It's definitely time to catch you up on what's been going on around here. It was four weeks ago today (Friday) that Dwight went to bed in the afternoon. It's been more than two weeks since I wrote the first post about this physical trial he's been going through. He has been on the i.v. antibiotics this entire time - the schedule was changed from one two-hour infusion per day to one-hour infusions twice a day - 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. His wonderful sister has done this process every day for 22 days. Hopefully this morning's infusion will be the last, prior to his appointment with the infectious disease doctor.

The improvement has been slow, but steady. It was a great day when his voice began to sound like himself. It was a great day when his appetite began to improve. He has spent a lot of time sleeping, reading, and watching t.v. with our brother-in-law, who is disabled. I have been there as much as I could, but have had the girls often, so I haven't seen him every day. I love hearing his voice on the phone, just as I did when we first met.

He did make it to church for the late service last Sunday, and he was so happy to be there. Everyone was so happy to see him. We're all hoping he'll make it back to choir in time for the Easter musical.

We had to go shoe shopping - there was no way he was ever going to put his toes into those possibly fungus-infested shoes. So into the garbage can went several pairs of really nice shoes. He also replaced his socks. I can't say that I blame him. We went on to Culver's and grabbed a bit of lunch together - it felt so good.

He's gradually doing more activity. I think he's hoping to go back to work on Monday - after four weeks off.

Interestingly, we received a survey in the mail, asking about our experience in the ER - I had been planning to write a letter of complaint, and this was the perfect opportunity. We filled out the survey, which went to a location in Miami. That wasn't satisfactory for me, so I sent a letter directly to the CEO of our hospital. Prior to that, and when he was still in the hospital in the town north of us (because his doctor is up there), I had called our hospital to register our dismay, and hadn't heard back from them, thinking that was the end. I don't know if they've received the letter, but they called us from the ER this week for more information. They asked if Dwight would approve the sending of the records from the hospital where he was admitted, to see what they missed. It'll be interesting to see what comes of that.

In the meantime, life has gone on with the kids as usual, except for missing their grandpa, who provides so much fun. I can assure you that Grandpa will not be renting skates again! I miss him in so many ways, but I really miss his awesome help with the kiddoes! Most of my days haven't been this crazy, but here is yesterday's madness:

7:30 - the girls had spent the night, as they always do on Wednesdays. It was "Crazy Hair Day" at school, so they needed to stop by their house on the way in order to do the crazy things to their hair, as they had forgotten their accessories at home. Got them to school and left the twins with their mommy for a couple of hours.

8:30 - went to the gym for a bit of "me time."

10:30 - picked Kristen up to take her to a meeting in Fort Collins (she was out of gas and doesn't get paid until today). Stayed in the car with the twins while she was in the half-hour meeting. Traffic was crazy both ways, so she was a bit late for her meeting, therefore late getting out of her meeting, therefore late to work. Had a headache from that madness, but it went away soon.

12:30 - dropped her off at work and went home for a few minutes - Emma was desperately asking for something she had left here.

1:30 - went to Taco Bell for lunch - we enjoy that little routine about once a week, usually on Tuesday after Bible Study. But today it was God's timing for sure, because there sat my other sweet babysitter for my kids, the one I mentioned in my last post who has 8 kids and is a fabulous mom. She's here visiting her folks and had brought her 4 youngest kids with her on this trip, whom I had not met before. We had a great time visiting while the little girls were on their best behavior. It was such a nice treat.

2:30 - went to Sam's to get gas, but realized it was now too late to go in there and get my glasses adjusted - Emma and I had collided heads the night before, and besides the knot on my forehead, I have wonky glasses, which is definitely not a good thing when you have lineless bifocals! So we headed out to school, even though it was a bit early - no sense trying to get anything else done, or go home. So we sat in the car again for a half hour, waiting for Livi to come out. Hayley had yet another after school activity, which would last an hour, so again, no sense going home. We could have gone to the grocery store close by to get some things I desperately need, but I didn't have the energy to drag all of them in for that adventure. It was a beautiful day, so Livi and the twins went to play in the little park right by the school while I sat in the car, reading and watching Livi be in charge of them. I dozed off a a couple of times in the warmth of the car, but all was well.

4:30 - Hayley was finished with her latest activity - a 5K run coming up in May for girls - they're beginning training. She also stays after school every Tuesday for Battle of the Books, which is a district-wide contest of teams reading and retaining details of the books in a showdown in April. They both also stayed after school Wednesday to try out for their (silly) talent contest coming up, which is not really a contest at all, because nobody gets judged - it's one of those politically correct affairs where they all get to "perform" but nobody gets their feelings hurt. I have to go every year, but can barely bear watching it! I am urging the girls to do an actual talent next year, such as buying a track tape and singing something without the backing of Taylor or Miley or Selena. Or singing one of Hayley's own songs that she has written. For crazy scheduling of Kristen's work reasons, I had to pick them up all three of these days - if she picks them up, she can just get Livi and go home, and go back for Hayley later because they live so close to school.

5:00 - grab a quick bite to eat, get homework done, and run back out to the south end of town for the 4th time.

6:00 - Family Math Night at school - timing is everything! This turned out to be a very nice event, but I was beyond tired by this time. They had a great time, and the twins were well behaved, so it was worth the time.

7:30 - back home to get baths taken and jammies on so they'd be ready for bed when we picked up Mommy from work.

8:15 - sit outside Hobby Lobby and wait for Mommy to get her closing rituals done - the store closes at 8, but it takes a lot of time to get out of there - we sat there another 15 minutes, them asking every few seconds when she'd be out. The answer - "when she's finished with her work."

8:30 - headed for their house - the 5th trip to the south end of town for the day. I'm hoping that they went right to bed and to sleep, as they were told they must do the minute they got into the house. I came home and breathed a huge sigh of relief that the crazy day was over.

So - hopefully today's trip to the doctor will see the pic line and all the paraphernalia hanging from Dwight's arm removed, him coming home, and life returning to some semblance of normalcy. I have a 9:20 appointment with the podiatrist and he has a 1:20 appt with his doctor, so the day promises to be busy as well. As for my foot - it's gone backward, I think. I really can't even think about the "S" word and being off my feet for 6 weeks. (NOTE: Dwight is home and so glad to be here! His numbers were very good, and the exhaustion should dissipate soon, since he is DONE with antibiotics. I, on the other hand, am back in a boot - ugh!)

Thank you all, dear prayer partners, for your love and concern and prayers! I'll be back again with more of the crazy saga that is my life.

In Memory of David Crider

When my children were little, we were blessed with two great young babysitters. One of them enjoyed the kids so much that she would take them to the park and to get ice cream, just for the fun of it, at no charge to me. It was great. This young woman told me recently that she was inspired to be a mother from this job. I told her she went far beyond me, because she has 8 children, and is an amazing mother.

The other sitter was also great, but she was older, so we didn't have her around as long. Then she and her family changed churches, so I lost touch with her. But then I was asked to play for her wedding, which was a blessing to me.

I would hear about Kathy every once in awhile, and knew that she had become a fine Christian woman, and had three sons. Kathy's mother did attend our church and was a part of our Sunday school class when Kathy's youngest son, David, was diagnosed with a rare type of cancer called synovial cell sarcoma in January 2007, when he was 13. He was a gifted basketball player, and continued to play much longer than most would have even tried. He played better with one good arm than most do with both.

I never had the privilege of meeting David personally, but we were kept apprised of his condition every Sunday. It was an amazing roller coaster ride for the family. As young as he was, David was a man of God. I have never heard of one so young with so much faith and such an ability to share his faith. David kept a journal, which was filled with such insight that it simply amazed me.

On May 25, 2008, when he was 15, David wrote this final entry in his journal:

"Wow! Many things have happen(ed) this month. I had surgery on Monday at 11 am! On the 5th. Better than on the Friday that week. Surgery went well and my spine feels good. I have no use of my left leg. Right leg is ok but still very weak. My right arm and hand is coming along. Slow, but faster than anything else. I can't extend my fingers yet but it will come. I can grip bottles and other things like that. I can use a fork and spoon. And today found out I can write, I couldn't do any of this after surgery. Slowly but surely! Being able to write is nice. Can't play games like X-box, so this is pretty much it. And it's taken me well over 45 minutes to write this much. But time has no significance to me. The time of day anyways . . . I'm still planning on going to Florida in a couple weeks and then Hawaii. Just need to keep working to get stronger. It's going to be a long journey. . . A tornado hit Windsor (David's home town) and wiped out many homes. But no one died!!! Talk about a God thing! I text(ed) all my friends as soon as I heard. All of them, their family and homes were ok. No one has power but that's a minor thing right now. The town of Windsor is now on a long journey of its own. I am there in heart and spirit. We will go through these difficult times together. And we both, me and the town of Windsor, will pull through. It will take time, but what is time? People can get way too caught up in the things in life that shouldn't matter. Like having a couple gray hairs or getting wrinkles on your face. Just anything that is part of life. Pretty much everyone wants to live forever or something like that. But I guess if you don't have Christ you wouldn't want to.

Not me . . I'm very much like Paul in the Bible. Split between two things. Paul said something like this in the Bible and I have thought it for a long while. "I would love to die and be with the Lord but through my pain and suffering others are coming to know God." So I'm more useful alive in pain than dead and in paradise . . . And I'm now ok with that. Now that others are seeing God through me I'm content with living until He calls me home. I have fully given Him my life to do with it as He wants. If suffering or working hard is all I have to do, to bring others to God . . . I would do it Forever. Whatever His plan, I will accept it. My heart and feelings extend toward others much further than myself . . . I'm not going to quit or give up hope which would be easy to do. But I'm sure you already knew that if you know who I am. I have much more to say but it's time for me to go. "Live life, Love life, Love God, Live Forever." (signed) David Crider.




After his death, one of his friends wanted to do something to make a difference, so she began to have these shirts made with David's very last words imprinted on them. The family sells them for the organization "Catch-a-Dream", which sends children with life threatening illnesses on a hunting/fishing trip of their dreams in David's memory.

David and his family did go on that trip to Hawaii before his death on July 30, two months after this final journal entry.

I wish I had known David.

A Quick Update

Good morning, dear friends. I have not written, nor been to visit, for many days. In truth, I have two posts sitting there half finished, but can't seem to get the words to form and land on the "page." I just wanted to update you a bit, and let you know why. Dwight was in the hospital for 4 days last week, after a trip to the ER on the previous Sunday. Then we treated an erroneous ER diagnosis, which allowed a raging strep or staph infection to worsen dramatically in his left leg. It's a long story, and I hope I can get it written soon. I have been keeping many of you updated on Facebook, but some aren't there.

He is getting i.v. antibiotics out of the hospital, and is doing this at his sister's house so that he can rest undisturbed by the lovely sounds of noisy little girls. His sister is a saint, in my estimation, and is caring for him so beautifully. I feel guilty, but blessed.

I will definitely try to get back soon for a real post. I love you all.

I am adding this piece that I wrote as a Facebook update:

If you have time, Google "cellulitis" and read about what Dwight has had going on. It is a condition created when staph or strep bacteria enter the body through a cut or scratch, no matter how small, on your body somewhere, anywhere apparently. We finally figured out, most likely, that it came through athlete's foot, which he's been fighting for a couple of weeks. Where he got the athlete's foot is another mystery, but perhaps when he took the girls ice skating and rented a pair of skates that had been worn by someone else who had the fungus, even though he had socks on. Disgusting, thought, really. But anyway, it seems that these bacteria live on our bodies all the time and why they choose at some point to invade and make us sick is a complete mystery to me, and to doctors as well, it seems. Anyway, it landed in his leg and began to get red. The ER doctor didn't even look at his leg unclothes, but just poked it and agreed with what we thought it might be - the pulled groin muscle. I am very very unhappy with this young, apparently inexperienced, doctor. So we did the wrong treatment for 3 more days and his pain was excruciating. Thank the Lord for our regular doctor who immediately sent him to the hospital, horrified at what he saw - the redness had filled over half of his upper leg. He still has pain in the leg even though it's improved greatly in the way it looks. Tylenol seems to be doing wonders on managing that pain. Let me know if you want to know anything more, and thanks so much for your prayers!

Valentine's Greetings from LOVEland!

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This is a bit of a re-wind from past years, with appropriate changes.

Way back in 1946 an idea came to Postmaster Elmer Ivers, Chamber of Commerce President Ted W. Thompson, and his wife Mabel. They had a vision - a vision to share the romantic name of our town of Loveland with the whole world.

So it came to pass, in the February of 1947 the Loveland Valentine Remailing Program was born. Since 1947, literally millions of valentines have touched the heart strings of loved ones with Cupid's message hand stamped and remailed from Loveland, Colorado.

Since 1962 a high school senior girl has been chosen to represent the program and the city as "Miss Loveland Valentine". Personal appearances representing the City of Loveland take this ambassador around the state of Colorado. An appearance at the Colorado State Legislature and a personal visit with the Governor are just two of the highlights in her busy schedule.This is the first governor's picture I've ever seen in all these years where he seems to be so thrilled to receive the official box of candy. He's quite the people person.

In 1964, a specially designed Valentine card was produced to offset some of the expenses of this costly program, and the Official Loveland Valentine's Cards continue to touch the hearts of people around throughout the world. Loveland Valentines can be purchased through the Chamber of Commerce , from their Official Loveland Valentine web site, or through any of the participating Chamber merchants. Every year there is a contest for the card's design, for the message on the inside, and the cachet that is stamped on the envelope. This is the first year that I remember the governor ever coming up here to stamp the envelopes. Here is this year's winner, front cover, inside message, and the cachet on the envelope:

Heart-shaped messages on the light posts around town can be purchased by anyone who wants to leave a very public "heartfelt" message to someone they love. It's fun and a bit corny, but is the "heart" and soul of town. It does represent somewhat of a hazard as you drive and try to read the messages! I have never taken pictures of these, but here is an artist's rendition on the official card from a couple of years ago. I must take some pictures.

Loveland's "Valentine Sweethearts", Ted and Mabel Thompson have now passed away. The Loveland community feels their absence. To commemorate their vision and love of Loveland, their memory lives on through the annual Valentine Remailing Program. A bronze relief of the Thompsons is featured in Thompson Park on 4th Street in Loveland. (portions copied from the Loveland Daily Report Herald).

An average of 200,000 letters are stamped each year with the cachet and with the postmark from LOVEland. I read that Oprah even sent her cards here one year for the Valentine cachet. People from 110 countries send their cards here for remailing. The valentine program is so popular that there is a volunteer waiting list of 45 people.



Valentine's Day, oddly enough, has been overshadowed in our family ever since Kevin was born on the 13th in 1977. Happy 35th Birthday, my dear son.

A Breath of Fresh Air

I'm glad you all enjoyed seeing the pictures of the girls. I forgot to mention that in the picture of the four girls that is also the header picture, there was a really old, ugly ladder leaning against the fence behind them. When I saw the picture, I was not happy to see the ladder. I e-mailed Michelle and asked her if it was possible for her to remove it from the picture. She said she could, and she'd be glad to, although she kind of liked the way it looked, kind of rustic. But I didn't, so she removed it. I love it that it was possible to do it.


So - - I haven't watched a sitcom for a very long time - based on the commercials I've seen, if they are portraying what they think is the best they are offering, well - no thanks. So I've been living in the past lately. I've discovered several retro stations, which are playing many old shows. This particular one is called METV - the ME stands for Memorable Entertainment. I've been wishing recently that someone would run "Mary Tyler Moore" again and, lo and behold, I found my old friend the other day.

Because that's what it was like, finding this favorite old show again. It was my first year of teaching and my roomie and I faithfully watched her every week. Then my roomie took a job closer to her family the next year and I was alone in the apartment, with Mary as my faithful friend every week. It was such a well written show - so clean, so decent. I loved her hair, her figure, her clothes, her apartment -- AND her car - I had a 1969 Mustang, so I felt like we at least had that in common!



I also have been enjoying "That Girl" with Marlo Thomas. I know it makes me seem very old, but I just love the way they dressed in these old shows - so modestly and beautifully. She could have used about 1/3 the mascara, but she was so cute. And the stories again were so pristinely clean - not a hint of impropriety - in fact, they very deliberately did the right thing when they had the opportunity to do otherwise.

I have a friend who started working with me at CSU the very same day - I told her from the first day that she reminded me of Marlo. What do you think? Do you see it?






The third one I'm loving again is "My Three Sons." I especially enjoy watching Fred MacMurray - and I love his facial expressions. Such good clean fun.

I had also found "Father Knows Best" awhile back and watched it until they started over again - really fun memories there.

Well, enough for now - have a great week!

The Photo Shoot

As promised, here are the pictures that were taken a couple weeks ago. (If you don't know the background on these pictures, check out my previous post). It had been 3 years since the twins have had a professional photo. The big girls have had their yearly school shots, which haven't been too bad. But it was high time for everyone to have a fresh look to hang on the walls. There's a young woman who grew up in our church (in fact, Kristen used to babysit her and her siblings), who has recently begun her own photography business. She specializes in birth photography and is becoming adjusted to middle of the night calls. She likes to do creative photography more than posed shots, but I talked her into taking more formal photos of the twins and the four together. (One thing really odd - the twins' dresses are a deep purple, but always turn out looking royal blue in photos - the ones we took and these as well).

It was an unseasonably warm January afternoon in Colorado, so we took got them dressed up, took a blanket outside, and here are the results. I love them and will have a hard time with the ordering of prints.












Here comes Michelle's creative part - she told me she wanted to shoot the girls cooking or baking something together. I decided that muffins would be the easiest, so I set out everything they needed, they changed their clothes (all in animal prints, as it turned out) and she began clicking away. It was fun.

They all got their licks in, but Katie was licking the spoon more than the others.

They even offered to do the dishes - so I had to get it immortalized!

They were delicious!

BTW, I just learned that our photos are being stored in a cyber spot that filled up without my knowing I even had an account. Did you know this? I had to order a bigger storage area - not expensive, but I didn't know anything about it until I got a message that I couldn't load any more, right in the middle of this post. I was shocked.

Have a great week!