School!

For the next however many years... my life will revolve around the school schedule...no more weekend trips in the middle of the week! No more lazily enjoying the day...life is structured once more. I was having a bitter sweet morning, watching this sweet girl get ready for her first day. I am excited for her to begin school, the learning, playing and making new friends. But I am wondering to myself, did I really take the time to enjoy having her around all the time? Did I teach her enough... well no!... but I guess I can still work on that. E is more than ready to be in school, she LOVES having friends and she loves learning (just not when Mom is the teacher!). I guess I'm realizing that even though most days I wish she would "grow up a little" it happened all too fast. I am not going to be there for the fun moments when she learns something new, or discovers she's really good at something. Separation issues for poor ol' Mom. hahaha
I'm waiting anxiously to hear how her day went.

After going through a million and one outfits she was determined to wear this. It was actually the first choice, I thought I would talk her into something different, but she was not having it! She really wanted to wear one of the necklaces Laci gave her for a birthday present.


It was a quiet morning with just Elizabeth and I, reading and getting ready.

Couldn't leave without saying good bye to Henry! He SOOO loves his big sister. He's anxiously waiting for her to come home too!!

She didn't even notice I was there anymore. Found the coat hanger, put her stuff away, said hello to the teacher and sat down to color with the other kids. I wish I could just sit in the class and watch her excitement! I had to get her attention to tell her I was leaving... more for me than her... but what can I say?!

5 years

My memory usually is pretty good, however, when it comes to Elizabeth, pictures are necessary. Not, mind you, because I forget what she looked like, but because on hectic days I seem to forget the great JOY she has brought into my life. These are just a handful of my favorites. She was born a couple days early and has been RACING through life at full speed. She started walking/running with my help at the age of 5months, walking on her own at 7 months, running soon after, riding her bike at age 4 and would really like to be driving by now!

Her first words were apple, cookie, please and thank you. She was the sweetest little thing! I never had to tell her to say "please" or "thank you." And she LOVED her baby dolls.

This one is for Hillary, she looks so much like her cousin in this picture! You can't really see it, but there was a mirror in front of her and she would sit and make faces at herself for hours! And yes, today she is still very much infatuated with her reflection.

Yeah I know, looks crazy right?! She was 8 months old.
I'm not sure there has ever been a day in her life that she hasn't been trying to HURRY and learn something.


She has always managed to surprise me with her secret abilities. On the way to Grandma's house one day I accidentally left a glad Tupperware container on her lap, that happened to be full of cookies. In the few minutes it took to get to Grandma's she had opened the container and eaten a few cookies... and covered herself in CHOCOLATE!

She was so proud of herself and I couldn't stop laughing.
Hangin Out with Uncle Jake. So sweet and fun and adorable. There are times that she fills my heart with joy! I guess that's what having kids is about... some days are good and some are tough, but truly the joy outweighs the hard days... That's what the pictures help me remember!

And now she's 5, starting kindergarten and COMPLETELY independent. I asked her what she wanted for breakfast on her birthday and she said "MOM! I can have whatever I want, sorry but I can." I forgot that the age of 5 was the age of Independence. I have so much to learn. :) I have thoroughly enjoyed all five years. They haven't been easy on her, but she has taken everything in stride and grown into a strong and confident girl! She has so much love to give and I am so blessed to be her Mom. I am very curious to see what the teenage years hold!! I know I'll be eating my words soon enough.

Law of the Harvest

"While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." Gen. 8:22

"The harvest truly is plenteous"! Matt 9:37

This is where my garden & greenhouse began, remember how GREEN it is when the leaves finally come in! And a few months later this is what we have received from our "plenteous harvest."

Cucumbers never tasted so good!

Some heirloom tomatoes, these are called Striped Roman's and are definitely my FAVORITE!

And these are called Purple Mauri's (I believe)

This one is called Pink Accordion, so far I haven't seen the "pink" but isn't it a crazy lookin' tomato?!

And here is my garden today! Growing in abundance.

We have potatoes, peas, lettuce (a few varieties), spinach, swish chard, arugula (which I LOVE), cabbage (red & green) radishes, carrots, celery, zucchini, and green beans.

Zucchini!

Not as many plants as last year, but still LOTS!

Which leads to....

Zucchini Relish! YUM! Thanks to Aunt Di for the recipe!

Two Years!!!

Two Years ago today Henry had his Bone Marrow Transplant.
We Celebrated with Red Velvet cupcakes, a bit of morbid humor :D



It was quite a day. We were disheartened by the fact that we were facing our "last resort" to rid his body of the LCH. We lost the first donor, but ended up with a really good "cord blood" donor. The room truly smelled like creamed corn, while you may think that's not bad... it was!



A day or two after transplant, our super hero was hangin on!
Playing with the doc's tools and tape to entertain himself.

By the end of this day things started to get tougher.

His calming "blow-by" (providing the needed oxygen because his little lungs couldn't get enough on their own)

I won't post any more pics from transplant days because they break my heart. (You can view them in the blog aechives) It's a bitter sweet bunch of memories; hard for me to see because of the pain he had to endure and yet they bring me joy because he made it through.
Some days I take for granted that he's a "normal" healthy kid.

We still struggle with smaller issues but NOTHING compared to what we've already been through.

Love you Henry!

Happy Transplant Day!!