Praises and My Dad

Praises...

The house is quiet, people have scattered here or there and for a few moments the house is calm, and I can think.

Dax has stopped throwing up! He threw up for hours this morning, but then he chose to eat pizza for dinner and well, I figured it's worth a shot. He's now peacefully sleeping.

Everyone else is feeling better...after a week of the stomach bug hitting every single person in this house, many with a repeat visits, we all seem to be holding our own tonight...pray that continues and no one else starts..we might have to post a contamination warning on the door!

There are flowers throughout the house and they are the happy flowers, not the sad ones. ( yeah, that might not make sense, but it's ok)

Finn has learned to climb up and down Nana's staircase like a pro, at least a semi pro.

Dosh, my medic, was here when Finn took a tumble down the stairs under his big sister's supervision. (I can say much, if it was under my supervision I probably would have fallen too)

Finn, after careful evaluation seems to have walked away with a small bump and a bit of rug burn.

Cards, Cards, & more cards. Notes from people via the Internet. I am amazed at the love pouring out. The notes that are coming from people none of us know, only Dad knew..I'm seeing more of my Dad then I realized was out there.

The planning is over. the CD's are made, the music is chosen, the programs are run, the words are written. Now we can only hope that we have been half the party planners my dad always was and that he would be pleased with our efforts to make tomorrow a day he would have loved. I sure hope we live up to his expectations!
A family that I love with my whole heart.

Having a great husband, having him back with me.

Having my whole little clan back together after too long apart.

34 years and 20 hours with a dad who I didn't always understand, but I always loved and who did his best at being a good dad. If he was not my dad, I would not be me, and I am so blessed that God gave me this family.

Laughter.

The ability to see joy in all of these moments.

A song for my dad...

There are a million, but this is one of the fun ones that was placed on the "at home after the service when it's just the close friends and family CD", with all the other inappropriate for church songs.

My Big Bitty Boy!

Finn turned one today! It's hard to believe it's been a year since this little guy debuted in our family. We can't remember life without him! I wish I could say these were his real birthday pictures, but alas, they are from our staged 1st birthday party we had on the Saturday before Easter. Probably better that we did it then, today was slightly chaotic and the little guy was a grumpy gus for his birthday, but he did get some cool presents, till Dax took them over...poor guy, maybe by next birthday he'll know how to take his presents back!

PS Traci, happy birthday tomorrow! I want to see pictures of you with blue icing on your blog soon!

The Gift of Music...

Today we spent many hours discussing music. Not just any music, but the right music. For dad, music meant so much that choosing the wrong things for his day seems like some sort of mortal sin. We've talked about music, we've sung songs to each other(thank God we're family, and not on American Idol), we've YouTubed for hours, we've visited stores, and we've hunted down lyrics. We still are not sure we know what we are doing, but there were moments in the songs today, moments where he was so close, and moments where we know he was talking to us. The sweetest moment for me today was hearing my dad send my mom a love song via Dosh and YouTube.

Tonight, while hunting for songs Dosh says, "What about Smokey Robinson, Dad was always having me look up Smokey Robinson stuff" We played some Smokey, we discussed we reminisced but Dosh was not satisfied that we'd found the right song, good ones, yes but not the one stuck in hi memory. "There was one, one he said was for mom, that mom loved. He made me find it for him even after he couldn't really talk well. This one was for mom." We searched, we found, we played, Dosh left the room. Mom knew, without a shadow of a doubt that he left this for her and she smiled, and cried. I too smiled and cried (I snuck out of the room for that part). We should have known he'd give us musical notes...

Here is his song for Mom...



I stumbled over to my Aunt Lynda's blog tonight and it seemed he had a little musical note for her today too, we might just need to use his message to her too, maybe she had the answer to our issue all along! www.xanga.com/GoodGuyTheBoss She also has some great old pictures of Dad posted today.

I've had several people ask, so here is the link to Dad's obituary, today in the local paper...

http://www.wnewsj.com/main.asp?SectionID=4&SubSectionID=4&ArticleID=164744

Happy Birthday...

For my husband who has been on his own for oh so long at his point...I wish you a happy 33rd birthday(you are 33, right?) I've been trying to think of a song to post for you and I keep coming up blank, so I took a trip to YouTube and this is what I found...




I thought that would amuse you. I thought about telling you I was pregnant, than later tonight telling you it was just an April Fools thing...but I wasn't sure you'd make it through the day. =)

I love you! Have a great birthday!

Blessings Abound part 1

I call this "part one" because I know it is only the beginning. I want to share with you some of the sweet moments that occurred today. There are some amazing moments that have occurred this week that I will soon blog about, I don't want to forget them. I need to have them captured somewhere other than in my mind. I'm sure some of them I will share with so many people so many times that people might just want to duct tape my mouth shut So maybe I should wait to post them until I get the pleasure of sharing many times with people first...we'll see. I hate that there are times I go to tell a story and I see the look of "yawn, we read this on your blog last night".

I digress...lets just talk about today

Today in Illinois...

My mother in law jumped in to help my family in my absence

A good friend delivered dinner to them

The mom of one of Lily's best friends relieved me of all school carnival duties.

A friend called and offered to pick up a cake for my poor husband's birthday(his mama is there, he'll be ok), and prayers were lifted.

Today in Ohio...

A short staffed bank manager gave a bank teller the next Saturday off to moonlight as the pianist for my Dad's service just because he loved my dad's many work related visits to his bank.

A neighbor walked around the street and shared the news of Dad's passing with all the other neighbors as she did this they all signed a beautiful card and gave money for quite a lot of restaurant gift certificates, but most importantly, they sent their love.

A hospice nurse ran into my mom & I in Walmart and no words were needed, only hugs.

An old friend who happened to be a pediatrician saw Finn on a moments notice on her kitchen counter, diagnosed him with a continued ear infection and called in a prescription for him immediately.

Walmart filled above mentioned prescription in record time. (totally unrelated praise, but worth mentioning)

My mom's sharing group gathered in the living room for a while just to show they love her. (Thursday night girls...I swear, this is us in 20 years!)

Several little neighborhood children who are usually up to mayhem and mischief or much worse rang the doorbell, and each presented my mom with a red rose and told her how sorry they were that her husband had died.

Life went on...

Early this morning at 3:28 my dad peacefully left this world, he was 61. My mom & the dog were in the room with him, but the rest of us had scattered. I think he was finally glad we weren't all watching him!

Yesterday, 3/28, was my birthday. Seemed like maybe a last little message from my dad that he made it through my birthday but choose that time...made us all smile just a little!

In the days to come I want to tell you more about him and I'm sure I will, but for today I am just grateful he is dancing in heaven.

Finding Joy in this Journey

I wanted to take a few minutes and say thank you. Most of you know I have been home in Ohio for the last week with my Dad who is in his final days of battling cancer. Although these days and the months before them have been rough the joys are there everyday. This week I am in awe of how God has blessed my life. He has given me a family that can all be in the same house day in and day out for a week under pretty sad circumstances and still love each other, still like each other even and mostly, still laugh together, even through tears.

God has given me an incredible husband who can take two kids and make it on his own (with help) for a while and never once complain. I couldn't do this without knowing he was out there. Three children who can roll with punches even on the bad days. They still make my heart smile, just hearing their voices on the phone and seeing that rotten little grin and a giggle trail off to go up the stairs for the 27th time today.

God has given me friends that I don't even begin to deserve. They have called, they have emailed, they have cooked, they have cared for my children, they have done my laundry, and they have prayed. This morning when beautiful flowers came to the door the tears came flowing. Those girls don't even know how much that meant. Knowing they have my back is a little miracle all on it's own.

My parents have family and friends here and all over sending in food, and prayers, and cards. people willing to pick up the pieces as they need to. I have in laws just waiting for the calls to help.

I can't even begin to say thank you. You have all richly touched my life and those of my family.

Blessings flow all around me. I am so blessed. Blessed to have a Dad who taught me to laugh, love music, and gave me a slight bit of artistic ability. Good, bad, or otherwise without him I would not be the person I am today.

34 years ago today, my parents welcomed me into this world, not knowing what the future held. Tonight I sit in a room with my Dad not knowing what the future holds, but I know that God is here and he holds it all in his hands. I pray that he will ease my Dad's pain and bring him peace and new legs to dance with.

I am so truly grateful for every moment and every memory.

Praises... Easter Morning sunlight

Finding goodies in baskets.
"Dad I can open that faster!"

Family Pictures on Easter Morning.

(yes..it would have been cuter without the binky!)

Getting all dressed up and deciding we didn't really want to leave Mom & Dad to go to church. The miracle of the internet let us stream the live feed of Dosh's Church service from The Wave church in Virginia Beach to the big TV. We made breakfast and all worshiped together in the family room!

Friends who will track you down anywhere! I love you!

Time

Love

Laughter

Music

Praises...

Amazing joy a small boy can find in a mirror.

Amazing joy a room full of adults can find in a small boy wearing a hat that reads "Swinger".

Coloring Easter Eggs.

Having Jessy around to sit and color with my kids when I have so many other things going on in my mind.

Amazing friends & amazing support.

Quotes & Memorables...

Dax sneaking out of our room without any one noticing first thing in the morning. We noticed he was gone when he came back, throwing the door open and saying "I sorry I eat my chocolate bunny. I sorry I not ask." I asked if he'd bothered Papa, he replied "I tell Papa he sick, I got spicey."

My mom's version of the story was that she wnet downstairs and found Dax's binky & Gigi (his giraffe) laying on the floor in front of the open freezer and Dax naked from the waist down finishing up his chocolate bunny from grandma. So much for breakfast....

He did then go upstairs get on a new pull up and proceed to sit quietly on the bed with my dad while eating a "spicey" and according to my mom he calmly told my dad he was sick but he'd feel all better soon like Sasha.

It's amazing the things you miss sleeping till 7:30.