Some Goals

I am sitting here working on a list of goals for a family planning meeting with Mg. I am coming up totally empty. Well not totally... I have-feel better-written down. And really that's what I want... I want to feel better. I have felt tired and haggard for 3 years now and I am ready to feel better. Thyroid disease is a huge part of the problem but there is also my consistently poor attitude and some lingering sadness as well.

I know there are ways to deal with all of it and I plan on doing those this year. As well as trying really hard to love my family in a new and refreshed way. I have been slacking on the loving again. Falling into the old pit of selfishness and laziness that accompanies bad attitudes and the sadness lurking at my door.

So that's it: Feel better. Love the people who God has given to me.

Looks short on paper but I can see the outline starting to trail off of these two things. I know the amount of work my heart needs and how hard it will be to surrender the junk in there...Doing these things is not really something that will be "accomplished" this year-tho I hope for great progress-but something that will be worked on over the entirety of my life. I know I have a long road ahead of me and that I will have to work at it. but I want to enjoy the work...and I'm smiling thinking about how much grace I'm going to need...

Owen 5yrs and climbing

"Everyone to whom God has given wealth, and possessions, and the power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil-this is the gift of God. For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with the joy in his heart." (Eccl. 5:19)

Better late than never...again

Merry Christmas!


We had a lovely Christmas. It was full of friends, family and love.


I wanted to take a bunch of cute photos of the brothers in matching jim jams in front of the tree but no such luck. So this is what I got. These photos are more real anyway.
Hope your Christmas was great and that you have a very happy new year as well.


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10 Months

Henry,
Today you are ten months old! You have officially been out of the womb as long as you were in it!

Henry you have changed a ton in the last couple months so I will start from the top and work my way down. You have almost no hair but the little that is starting to come in is blonde as can be. It is even more fair that your brothers was. You have 5 teeth as of today. You LOVE to eat!! You will eat any old thing we put in front of you. Seriously you will eat anything...I have always prayed for a good eater...your brother was always super picky so you being an incredible eater is a great blessing and proof of Gods grace. Some of your favorite foods are frozen grapes, avocado, turkey, pears, brown rice cooked in home made chicken broth, green beans, black beans, and bananas

You have learned to crawl...kind of. its this sort of mix between crawling and scooting...we shall call it scrooting. Its adorable whatever it is and your thrilled with your new mobility and are having a blast testing all the limits of our not very baby proofed house(add to list of "to dos"...put little plastic guards back in plug in wholes)

you scrooting away from me towards the wires.

 Some other fun developments are that you love to chatter away pretty much all the time and you have about 4 voices you use regularly. The falsetto, the growling monster, the squealer, and the normal Henry voice.

this is what most of the photos looked like. you are always moving at least one part of your body.

You have quite a wide range of nick names so far. I will document them here for you to be embarrassed by later. First there is Henny, then henny penny puddin and pie, Hank(of course), Henners, stink bottom(Owens nick name for you), little mister, mister mister, buddy, broth(short for brother also an Owen name), little, tiny, doozer(thank aunt Lindy for that), and hanky panks. Hank is the most widely used by me and little buddy is what your papa calls you. Owen thinks up new ones all the time and they are usually nonsensical but sometimes one sticks.

We are head over heals for you little Henry. All of us... your whole entire family just thinks your grand. Your a funny little guy and you are happy and contented most of the time but you definitely share what opinions you have. I cant believe you belong to me! I feel doubly blessed and am so thankful for your sweat self.
I am your lucky momma and I love you

5

Owen,
Yesterday you turned 5! I can hardly believe that 5 years have come and gone already... words actually fail me. You are so big now. You are a real live boy no more preschooler left in you and all vestiges of babyhood long passed.

This was your cake. you were really impressed...which is funny because it was a monumental flop. The cake was vanilla with mostly chocolate frosting(I had to add some left over colored butter cream to fill in when i ran out of chocolate). You loved the effect and specifically asked for the number 5 to be on there.

We had the 3rd annual cookie frosting party... this year only a few of the kids did the frosting...and I am left with a giant bag full of cookies the neighbors will be getting soon. Owen you loved eating the butter cream frosting. That's about all you did with the whole cookie bit this year...next year we will try a new theme.

We saved our presents for you until the evening and you were really excited about all of them. I always have such a bitter sweet feeling about giving you gifts... bitter because I always wish it could be more but sweet because you don't even know or care that you have not received a lot. I am glad that you are so easy to please and that you have such a great capacity for joy.

This picture is blurry... but so is life sometimes... this year has literally whirled by me. I find it so hard to accept that your 5 and that I have had you for this huge amount of time and yet I am still getting to know you. You are still my sweet natured little boy. You have compassion for those who are hurt and needy. Owen you have a very gentle spirit and you are kind and loving to everyone around you. You are also always moving and there is honestly constantly some sound effect coming out of your mouth. I fear that the days of snuggle ups on the couch are nearing there end and that someday soon you may even decide kissing me is gross(please never feel this way...). I am treasuring every last drop of your littleness because it is disappearing before my eyes as the new big, independent you is emerging. I love that your growing and changing but it hurts a little too. I still remember the feel of your warm baby body so sweet and tiny in my arms. I am even more in love with you now than I was then... Imagine that...
Love, Your Momma

Owen and Henry...

A picture update

Henry was a duck for Halloween and was less than impressed

Owen was a Lion he loved the whole afair

Henry Hates jumping in leaves 

Owen loves jumping in leaves

Owen dresses himself

I dress Henry

They both love each other.

I have been away a while so I just wanted to give you some cuteness to make up for it.

Christmas is upon us and we are slowly getting in the mood this year.

I hope to turn this house into a winter wonderland by the end of the week.

Emails from mom

Here are the last of the emails from moms house! This has been a wild 2 weeks!

Email 10: coffee ... Again
Last night I had forgotten to dump the little bit of coffee that was left... He drank it at 7pm! I told him not to but he wasn't having it. So I told him if he stayed up late no Whistling!
He also try's to tell me he can go one night with out pills every night!
His routine is messed up. But I can't do things exactly the same way you do... We can't eat back there with him because we have kids and jeopardy is on at their bed times so we don't usually get to watch that either. He eats with us sometimes tho. Also I make him fix his own coffee because I can't serve him everything while doing the kids and dogs.
Plus he is always trying to touch/hug/rub my back! All the time... I no likey! I actually just backed out of one now!
I'm sure he will be grateful when you get home :)
Love you
Dana
Sent from my iPhone

Email 11: touching
So I finally had to tell gramps That I'm not super comfortable with physical touch... He is constantly trying to touch me in some way,shape,or form and I had to put my foot down today! Sheesh! I had to pry him off of my shoulders!! then I just told him. He is all moody about it now. I said it nicely. I said " gramps I love you but I'm just not a huge fan of physical affection." he said I'm weird And kept trying to hug me and saying he would stop touching me... ... ...?!!!!!
Sent from my iPhone

Email 12: return& re- return
hi honey,

I haven't heard from you for a day or so - hope you are still speaking to me!! just kidding, I hope! we had a nice tour of Milan today, about 4 hours this morning, ending with seeing The Last Supper. it is sunny here but VERY COLD. reminds me of when Lindy and I came to "pick you up" in Firenze. we leave the hotel at 3 am to get to the airport (which is about 45 min. drive) and do all the fall-de-rall there. The hotel here is packing us "breakfast bags" since we will miss the nice breakfast here. Did Michael get the info. about our return flight that Devon sent him when we left? tell him we appreciate him picking us up. The flight is a Delta fligth coming from Amsterdam. It gets in around 11:15 am saturday the 19th. He can just drive us to Devon's house - our car is there. You could ask Janet to stay with Dad until we get home rather than have him drive up with Michael. I will check email again tomorrow maybe before we get on the airplane. It is 5:20 pm here on Friday right now, so for you that would be 8:20 am on Friday.

Love you!
Mom
I have presents. You should come over on Sunday to get them!

Me:
Oh things have settled down here a bit is all... Gramps is still doing his usual things but I'm getting used to them. Except when he kissed me on the check! That was NOT welcomed.
I'm making a squash soup for you to have tomorrow for dinner. And have already asked Janet to come to sit with gramps. She said she would sweep and mop and vacuum too! Going to get your packages today and will put marks gifts under your bed side and any Christmas gifts in grams closet.
Hope your journey is smooth on the way home. Mg knows to pick you up :)
Miss you tons!
I like presents!!
Dana

Sent from my iPhone

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Emails from moms.

These are the latest emails to mom. She does reply to my emails... but I don't post them because I didn't ask if I could and they are just full of instructions and stuff about Italy that makes me jealous.

Letter 7: Mia visits
Today... Saturday... Mia came over while lindy worked. All I will say is that at one point there was a ton of commotion coming from gramps area and so mg went back there they had gramps' chair(with him in it)all the way reclined-his head only inches from the ground-as they tickled him and jumped all over...
Gramps was a little traumatized... Poor guy!
Also Owen sprayed the orange bathroom spray into his eyes and I had to flush them with water... Lots more happened but those were the highlights.
Did you find vivoli?
Tell me what your doing and how it's going.
Love you
Dana
Sent from my iPhone

Letter 8: a cold for gramps
Gramps caught Henry's cold...tho he thinks it's from some sneezing man at goodwill the other day(yes I took him to goodwill). Can he have cold meds? During the day and at night? Will nighttime cold meds interact with his other medication? He is coughing at night :( poor guy! I feel bad for him.
Let me know
Love you
Dana

Letter 9: Home front
That's too bad that your backs are sore! Going slow can be frustrating but it's so glorious there I'm sure your just drinking it all in:)
Gramps slept alot during the day yesterday. So he was up till almost midnight whistling at the top of his lungs! Not the breathy whistle he usually does but really LOUD whistling! It was impossible to fall asleep. Henry woke up shortly after he stopped... Long night. I was grateful for a pot of good strong coffee this am(I got one cup...then gramps drank it all) speaking of coffee and gramps' love of it... He came out here 7 times(7)yesterday between 3-4:30pm asking for more! He kept saying "you probably don't make coffee do you?" I kept answering "I do in the morning but you drank it all" he would reply "there is no more? I was looking for some coffee)... he would repeat the quote from above...sheesh. Finally I made him some hot cocoa. He reluctantly accepted this substitution.
Speaking of hot cocoa...
Have you had any hot cocoa there yet?!
A scarf please... A good one :)
Love Dana
Sent from my iPhone





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