To my brother Andre

Happy 16th Birthday Andre! Hope this year is filled with fun and excitement. The years will just get better and better from here on, so get ready! Your a great guy to live with...sweet,fun and very helpful. Thanks for always helping me out when I need you and brightening my day with your cute smile and funny sense of humor. Wishing you the best this year!





If you want to say anything to or about Andre or just want to wish him a happy birthday, place your comments here!

Good times

While in Canada I saw this hat and t-shirt and just had to get it for Devin, couldn't help it.... thought it was so cute...."Blame Canada!"





Big Mike enjoying a moment with the kids!

Thanks!

Due to my Blogger being stupid, I can not post pictures. But I just wanted to say "Thanks" to Dad and Jaana for having Michelle and me up for the week. It was so good to see my older brother James and and his wife Janevieve for the first time in years. And thanks Jaana for being such a great hostess and taking care of all my meals and snacks, it was so sweet of you! I had a wonderful time and hope we won't wait for so long till our next visit. Will try and post some pictures when I can until then you can see some on Michelle's blog.

Home Sweet Home

Well I made it back in one piece. It was a great visit, had fun and just relaxed. But the trip back was something else. Whose had a bad experience traveling??
Well, mine all started out bright and early on Sunday morning, waking up at five am, then driving two hours to the airport. My sister Michelle's flight left at 10:30 am and mine didn't leave till 4:00 pm, so I checked to see if I could catch an earlier flight with her to Chicago and from there she would head out to LA and me to Dallas. So that all worked out, but when getting to Chicago and trying to catch an earlier flight to Dallas, nothing was available..they were all booked! Soooooo I had to wait for my original flight that didn't leave till 6:30 pm!!! Ahhhhh!!!!
So there is little weak Marieanne wandering the airport for a good 7 hours, trying every seat position possible, read a little, did crossword puzzles till my eyes were soar, tried to rest with 2 big English women behind me ranting and raving about how horrible the security checks were. Then my flight was delayed....had to wait another hour and a half. Finally we boarded, arrived in Dallas and I was greeted by Tati and Mike..Yeah, friendly faces!
Then came the time to wait for my suitcase, took awhile for the luggage to arrive, when it did we watched as each bag past....but not mine...sigh! It's about 10:30 pm now and I'm VERY tired and my suitcase are nowhere to be found.....sooo off to the baggage service we go. Wait in a long line.... then wait while they try to locate my missing bag....an hour later....they find it and we're off.....for another 2 hour trip home by car! Whew, all that to say....I don't like traveling so much any more!

Till next time

So I'm off tomorrow to good ol' Canada! Please do keep me in your prayers as traveling these days is a little more difficult for me as it's hard to find good healthy food I can eat and I get tired more often. So your prayers are welcomed. Will post when I can...hopefully with some good photos and stories to tell!
Love you all and good night!

Hat Party

It was Vicki's 14th birthday (a fellow cancer!), so we had a Hat Party to celebrated the special occasion. Everyone had to come up with their own unique hat. They varied from the shockingly original to the mundane. Here are some of the interesting ones:

" The whole gang"


" Jonny Apple seed"


" Bee keeper"

"Courage under fire"

"Willy Wonka"

"Pretty Chinese lady"


" Urban camoflauge"


"Pope John Paul"
"Chinese wedding hat" ??

Psalms 23

I videoed Devin reviewing his chapters today, but for some reason when I put it on "YouTube" the timing of his voice and mouth are off, It's kind of frustrating but still cute! So Enjoy!

Awesome idea

I went into my sisters room the other day and saw their lamp beautifully decorated with all these butterflies that had died. I guess they saved them and carefully glued them to their plain looking lamp.....Very cool idea!

All grown up

Yes time does fly, seems like just yesterday Devin was this little ball of pudge, so small and helpless.....




Now he's all grown up and finished K-5!  He got his little diploma for finishing his school. He's very excited to be moving on to 1st grade in September. My mom took them the kids to Chucky Cheese as their "end of school" party, Thanks mom! Everyone is ready for summer break.

I'm still planning on doing some things with Devin during summer and thankfully Devin is loving his new "summer school". Lots of arts and crafts, games, music, outtings, and a fun educational website I got from my mom that is just perfect for kids ages 5 to 9. You should check it out at Starfall.com if you've got kids. Devin loves it and it's helping him keep up with his reading.


 
* Learned to read
*Knows all about the calander, days of the week, months of the year etc.
*Know the four seasons
* Five senses
*Four food groups
*7 days of creation
* Add and subtract numbers up to 5
* Counts and recognizes numbers 1- 100
* Christopher Columbus discovers America
* 2 American Presidants: George Washington and Abraham Lincoln
*Plants and animals
Etc, etc, etc and the list goes on. Needless to say I'm proud to have such a smart boy.

This and that

Ahhh me, I've been a little weary of posting something new, not much going on and the heat I fear has somewhat fried my poor brain. It's so very hot, makes ones day dreary. 

Good news.... I'll be visiting my dad in Canada on the 24th for a "family reunion".  It'll be nice to see my other brother and sister that I haven't seen it awhile. Weather should be nice, get some time to relax, swim, see my sister Michelle!She's going to! Till then I will grin and bear the heat here and hope for cooler days.

On another note:

Miss all my friends.... Your in my thoughts always and I wish I could visit each one of you.
I love you so much and am thankful to have you for a friend! xoxox

belated 4th of July

I know this is a little late but here are a few pictures of our 4th of July. We bought some firecrackers and went in the back yard and had some fun.

Happy birthday Mom

Words just aren't enough to say how wonderful my mom truly is. She's the one who's helped pull me through my time of sickness,encouraging me that I can make it and will get better. I wish I had the kind of strength she has and pray everyday that I can follow in her footsteps. She is such an amazing and beautiful person and I'm so thankful to have her as my mom. So here's to you mom on your birthday, may it be filled with happiness and joy and everything you deserve. I love you!


A caring mother Always their for us kids
Takes time for the little things....a smile and warm embrace
Knows how to have fun and enjoy life Always ready for a good time
and is just like one of us kids......
Your beautiful mom and young at heart, don't ever change!

More blueberries

Here's a few more pictures

Blueberry picking

While out Mike met a very sweet man he mentioned that he had rows a blueberry bushes in his yard and that the kids could come over and pick as many as they'd like. What fun....my mom was especially excited, the next day was Sunday so me and my mom took the kids to this guys house to go berry picking.....now we've got blueberries coming out of our ears, we got blueberry muffins,blueberry jam, blueberry icecream, blueberry wine and I could go on....but won't! Here's a few pic's






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Let it RAIN

Yes, it has come......the skies did open and poured down rain upon this dry and dusty brown land. TG! It was sooooo refreshing to feel the cool breeze and rain drops on my face. We really needed it, it's been soooo hot here and everything was turning brown..ugg! But now the grass and trees will grow once more! As I was enjoying this heavenly bliss of a feeling I noticed the kiddos all running outside in their swimsuits....hummm great idea. So I walked over to the back deck to see them enjoy the rain. And there I find the teen girls doing some songs and dance with the kids. It was sooo cute I had to take some pictures. I also captured the girls running wild and free through the rain. You can tell we miss rain ha!
That's my boy... shaking his little booty


Ahhhhh rain at last! Oh happy day :-)

trying our luck

Played some poker the other night with my dad and mom, most of everyone there was new to the game so Mike did his best to try and explain things and I think they got the basic idea. We didn't bet with real money though...just chips. My dad was the lucky one that night and I believe he won in the end...way to go dad! All in all we had a pretty fun filled evening.


Mike the dealer Poker faces...hmmmmm Tati (deep in thought), Mike (happy as can be), Vicky (shocked by it all)