Meet Zorro - Our Newest Family Member

Zorro, the Bearded Dragon Lizard has joined our family. He is the coolest lizard/pet we have ever had. He eats crickets right out of our hands and loves nothing more than to hang out on our shoulders and take a nap. Zorro can get up to 2feet long and live 10 years. He is quite the investment already - it was Marks major Christmas present and Grandpa and Grandma Brown contributed majorly to his arrival. Zorro eats about 20 small crickets per day - soon he will be up to medium/large crickets. He is 3 - 4 months old. Mark is quite the caretaker, as he has been with all his other pets: hermit crabs and Rosie the Tarantula.

Merry Christmas!

We had a great holiday - spent Christmas Eve going to church then to the Jones' for Christmas Eve dinner, opening cousin gift and hand-made ornament exchanges, then home to unwrap our Christmas Eve jammies. Mark put out cookies, milk and his little questionaire for Santa. All three woke up at 3am to check out the stockings under the tree, fell asleep for 2 hours and were up again ready to open presents! We were all done by 6am! We had my parents here, my brother and his family, the Jones family and Eric Mendoza and his family here for dinner. I learned how to cook an AUTHENTIC mexican chili verde dish and it was fabulous! We had a great time with their family and I treasured the time I got to spend with Eric. We partnered up for a couple of games of Go Bananas and had a good time playing against Mark, Kaylie, and my two nieces. Life is short, changes rapidly and we all enjoyed our time with the Mendozas. It was a very special Christmas!

Death in the Family / Dec. 2009

Rosie the tarantula has died. She passed away of natural causes. She lived a great life in her 10 gallon aquarium where she resided for the last 3 years, on Mark's bookcase in his room. Rosie was loved by everyone (those that weren't afraid of spiders), especially Grandma Brown, who would hold her and let her crawl on her arm every time she came to visit. We all have wonderful memories of Rosie; some of our favorite being: letting her out to "exercise" on the landing upstairs - she loved exploring and stretching her legs - even climbing up the linen closet door a time or two and scaring Mom once when she actually jumped!; taking Rosie to show and tell in first grade; and watching her pounce on crickets when she was fed was always fascinating to watch! Mark took wonderful care of her and loved her to the end. She was an important part of our family and she will be missed!

Blessings

I have always been grateful for the blessings in my life even through the times where it's been hard put to find those blessings. But I consider myself a person who does try to find the positive in almost any situation. Right now, more than at any other time, I am grateful for being able to stand in my own kitchen, in my own home, fixing banana pancakes for my children who are healthy, and a husband who still has a job, when a mom I know has been living at Primary Children's Hospital with a one week old baby in a tiny room while her son fights for his life a second time in the last 4 years. Eric is a 5th grade student at WVE, battling leukemia again. His first time around was in 1st grade. I spent several hours at the hospital yesterday holding baby Lila and visiting with his parents. This family lost their home and rents out a basement, and the dad was just laid off. Lila is Eric's best hope for a bone marrow transplant and the family is waiting for the results. I am blessed with family, friends and co-workers who are able to help meet a few of the many, many needs of this family. Prayers for a miracle for this family are needed by all.
When visiting this family, no crying was allowed in the room as it stresses Eric out so I was strong, though, throughout the afternoon, a cloud of sadness was hanging over me. It wasn't until I was at James' Velocity training, watching my healthy son do something that he loves, that GOD thought I needed to release all this emotion, which I proceeded to do in front of his soccer coach when he asked how I was! In fact the only time I wasn't emotionally having a breakdown in the two hours I was there, was when I was on the phone with a friend trying to distract myself. Being a mom, watching those boys be able to do so much while seeing Eric in the hospital battling leukemia again, watching his mom so desperately praying her son lives through this just hurts my heart. My heart still hurts to this day for a friend who lost her precious daughter a few short years ago. We all hurt when a friend hurts; when a child is hurting or lost. But being a MOM makes it all so much more personal because we can feel that other mother's pain like it was our own. People say that you don't know what it's like to lose a child, and you can't imagine what that feels like until you've been through it yourself, but I believe a Mom, who loves her children with all her heart, knows what that other mom feels. I, and so many other people are praying for God to give this family the miracle it needs. Lila is Eric's hope. I don't want another mom I know to lose a child that I know.
So hug your kids, be grateful and feel blessed for what you do have right now.
I know I am.

Snow Day

After hurting my back 4 years ago in a horseback riding accident, I'm not much into doing anything that could possibly hurt my back more, but I threw caution to the wind and went with Mike, Mark, his friend Nick and Kaylie to the Hunter Park hill (where I even went down a few times on an air mattress- really fun and I felt safe on it) and took a few pictures before I felt frozen! It was fun to watch the kids, and Bear going down the hill!

Saturday Afternoon Craft

I realize that as the kids get older and life gets busier, that it requires a more conciencious effort to do crafts with them. I used to be so good about doing crafty things with all the kids when they were little - it was a weekly thing, and now I'm lucky if I can get holiday cookie baking and decorating in with them! With that in mind, I made that effort and so this weekend, Kaylie and I went to a craft demonstration at Michael's and decided we just HAD to buy the stuff to make a few holiday clay pot figures. Kaylie, Mark and I spread out the newspaper, assembled all the necessary supplies and had a fun afternoon together making three adorable clay snow people. I really enjoyed that time with them.

Halloween Photos

Halloween was pretty busy this year. Kaylie had Halloween party plans at a friends' house, James was with Jade and other friends, and Mark lasted about 2 minutes trick or treating with Mike and I before he took off with a group of his friends. Mike and I were alone passing out candy (that was something different than we were used to) until time for me to pick up everyone and run Jade home. I had dropped James off at a Halloween party the night before Halloween and when I got back a neighbor asked how the "teenager thing" was going. My only comment was "not sure I like the social part of it" as I seem to be running James to and from all his "social engagements". The kid is not happy unless he's on the go constantly, doing something. When's he turning 16 and driving himself...?

I just have to put this out here - totally unrelated to Halloween - but I have to brag about Kaylie. She got a 4.0 for her first 8th grade report card. She is on cloud nine about it; can't quit smiling about it; and we are extremely proud of her! She has worked incredibly hard to obtain that. I have seen such a difference in her self-esteem and confidence that was hard won after a rough 6th grade year, and an even harder 7th grade year. She has perservered and realized that she CAN do things, and do things well, and survive hard, difficult and mean teachers. And come out on top! Way to go Kaylie! You ROCK! :)