More Grandchildren...

To be fair, I am posting photos of my husband's adorable grandchildren: Kyler (12), Janae (10), and Ian (7).

We love spending time with them and making memories, like going to the drive-in movies, snowmobiling, and watching sporting events like hockey and baseball. They are funny and interesting kids, and we love them a lot!!

My grandkids just MIGHT be cuter than yours...

...believe it or not. You may even have been forced to listen to me talk about them. So, I'm reminding everyone that my three granddaughters are the cutest little dolls ever. I made nightgowns for each of them this past week, and it was like sewing for babydolls.

This is Jocie admiring herself in the mirror. Silly Demeree at the Bee's game. And Naomi contemplates little sister's birthday gifts.




See, I told you. Comments welcome. Bring it on!!!

Happy Birthday, Tobin

Two years ago today -- what began as exciting as any day I've ever anticipated -- my first grandson was born. My son honored me by inviting me to be part of Tobin's birth, so I put my clothes back on at midnight and drove to the hospital. Everything was perfect -- the baby was full term, his heartbeat was normal, mommy's labor moved along nicely, and the three of us stayed up all night too excited to sleep. I worked on a project for my office, Ryan sat with Alisa, and she slept off and on. By 5am, the doctor and anesthesiologist showed up to check on things. With little alarm, we watched the baby's heartbeat drop occasionally -- nothing unusual. Nevertheless, they gave Alisa a whopping dose of epidural (just in case they needed to do a C-section). By 9:30 she was ready to push, but couldn't feel enough to do the job, so with Ryan on one side and I on the other we held mom up enough for her to do the hard part. And after about five minutes of pushing, our lives changed forever.

Our beautiful boy -- the boy who carried his dad's name and HIS dad's name and HIS grandpa's name -- our Charles Tobin entered the world completely formed, ready for a long life. Except for the raging infection that no one saw coming. He was born sick, and he lived 36 hours.

Our hearts yearn for him more than our empty arms long to hold him. Losing one's baby leaves scars that will never fade. But we smile through tears today in celebration of what would have been his 2nd birthday. We will all grow older: his sister will grow up, his parents will age, his grandparents will become elderly. But Tobin will forever remain our lost baby. We loved him then and we love him still. Happy Birthday, angel. Our memories of you will never die.

A Letter to My Blog

Dearest Blog,

I meant to catch you up on the family comings and goings of this past week, but it's been hard to find uninterrupted time until just now, 10:30pm on a Wednesday. Joceline (Jocie) turned 1 last week, so we used that occasion to have a family BBQ on Sunday afternoon. It was so much fun to have all the grandkids and their parents here with us. Mark prepared most of the food, cooked all the BBQ items, and played gracious host. He even cleaned up the kitchen afterwards, while I rested. It is such a rush for me to see my four grown children having fun together and enjoying each other's children and spouses. Ryan brought his guitar and serenaded us briefly. Joel says he'll bring his ukelele next time, and I'm going to re-learn the "squeeze box" that Mark's grandmother left him. Naomi, Demeree, and Jocie played in the pond out back and ended up with wet clothes. Wearing only panties, Naomi danced to "Shake Your Bootie" -- it doesn't get any cuter than a two-year-old doing a hoochie!!! Aaron and Joel turned 29 this past weekend. So our family party was to celebrate with them, as well. I've gotten pretty creative with my gift giving, as my kids seldom "need" anything. So, I bought two season tickets for BYU Football, which I will share with the three sons who have birthdays in July.

I just got off the phone with my friend Barb Fosse, who is in MN for the summer. We spent a lot of time together while I was living in Japan -- so many lovely memories. I hope she will take me up on my offer to have her visit here next summer.

Future blog topics coming soon:

"Who Needs a Nanny When You Have a Wooden Spoon?"

"Can I please be Secretary of State, Mr. President?"

"My Experience with TTTS: Twin-to-Twin Transfer Syndrome"

"Pet Therapy and Autism"

"Where in the hell is Carmen San Diego? She has my airline tickets!"

A Fable for Capitalists

A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old professor, now retired. During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives. Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups --porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - -telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate. After all of them had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor began.

"Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones? While it's normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. The cup that you're drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it's just more expensive, and in some cases it even hides what you drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups, then you began eyeing each other's cups.

"Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate -- your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate."

[source unknown]