My, how time flies!

Today is March 19, 2010. It has literally been months since I've updated my blog. Oddly enough, the last time I wrote in here Anna was spending the night. Guess what? She's spending the night again! Yay!!

Anna is now seven months old. She crawls, she climbs up stairs, she plays the drums, she laughs, she 'talks', she's amazing! Anna will be here all weekend and that will be so much fun. The weather promises to be very nice this weekend so we're going to put her in the stroller and take her to the mall, on walks and such. It'll be so much fun when she's old enough to take her to the park to play on the swing, the slide, etc. I love this Grandma stuff. :-D

At last writing, I was working for a law firm. I have since left there (thank goodness!!), worked temporarily for the City of Portland during the Special Session of the Legislature, and now I'm looking for a permanent full-time job. It was a big risk for me to leave my job at the law firm, but my health was suffering from working there and I realized that I didn't want to spend the rest of my working career in a law firm. I had to make some tough decisions. Hopefully I'll find another job soon. It's a little scary, but I'm trying to have a good attitude and a lot of faith.

Jay and I will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary on March 23rd...and they said it wouldn't last! We really haven't decided how we want to celebrate it but we'll figure it out. We were hoping to be in a position to go to Maui for our 25th, but with the economy the way it is, that wasn't a feasibility. Maybe our 30th.

This next week is Spring Break. We bought a Wii with part of our tax return and I'm so glad we did. At least the kids won't be bored during the break. The Wii is pretty cool. It's been fun to watch the kids play it. I'm surprised at how many games there are for the Wii. They aren't cheap, either. We only have a few games, but they have enough components that it should keep the kids busy for a while. :)

I guess that's it for now. Anna's had her breakfast, a 3-hour nap, a hearty lunch and now she's watching the boys play Wii. Time for Grandma to take a shower.

Sleepovers & Assumptions

Sleepovers

I am a huge fan of sleepovers. Especially when the guest of honor is our granddaughter, Anna. She spent Friday night with us and it was great! Whenever she's here the house feels so happy. :) And Anna is pretty much an equal opportunity baby - she lights up when Grandma is around, especially when Grandpa is around, when her aunts and uncles are around...no one is left out. What a kid! I have also found that I need to have money set aside every time she spends the night because I have this compulsion to buy her things. Oh, it's way too much fun!

Assumptions

Chrissy and I took Anna shopping on Friday night. As we walked through the mall and around stores, people just assumed that Chrissy (age 17) was Anna's mother. It's ridiculous. People just assume that if a teenage girl is out with her middle-aged mother, the baby belongs to the teenage girl. It really made us angry. I found myself saying things to Anna like, 'Isn't Aunt Chrissy great?', or 'I hope your mommy and daddy are having a good date night tonight.' I really felt put out that we felt we had to do that. Even a couple of Chrissy's friends from school saw her there and started whispering about her within earshot of us. HOW RUDE!! Chrissy wants to get a t-shirt made that says "As if...I'm her Aunt!" We'll be getting that made soon.

When we met with Chrissy's school counselor before the school year started, her counselor told us that last year they had eight girls who were pregnant during the school year. I guess that number was the highest to date. It's so sad. Chrissy has a friend who is pregnant. This girl is Chrissy's age and she is not at all phased that she's pregnant. These kids just don't get it, do they? How times have changed.

I feel old today. ;-}

Where Has the Time Gone??

Holy cow! I can't believe that my last post was toward the end of 2008. It is now the end of September 2009 and I'm just now updating my blog. Wow!

The last many months have been interesting to say the least. Last year ended on a sad note with the passing of Jay's mom. We miss her to this day. But other things have happened to bring joy to our lives and we are very grateful for that.

The day that we had Joyce's funeral, Mary and Tim announced that they were expecting! That was the perfect thing to hear on a day like that. Without recounting Mary's entire pregnancy, suffice it to say that Mary had a less than 'perfect' pregnancy, dealing with nine months of morning sickness, pre-eclampsia, a dicey labor and an epidural that didn't work right. But the final outcome was amazing and here is what those nine months produced:
Anna Mariko Sieroslawski was born on August 7, 2009 at 11:37pm, I believe. She weighed 6 lbs. 4 oz. and measured 19.5 inches long. Bear with me as I sound like a proud Grandma for a minute...she is amazing! From the get-go she has been so loving, so happy and adorable. I love holding her. She is what I refer to as 'Prozac in a diaper'. All I have to do is hold her and I immediately relax and feel peaceful. The picture above was taken the day after she was born. The hands in the foreground are Tim's. The look on Anna's face is one of, "It's my Daddy!". I love this picture of her. Below is a picture that was taken a few days ago.


Anna is now 7 weeks old and she is so much fun! She is very smiley and very interactive. We love spending time with her. Mary and Tim are very good parents, which doesn't surprise me at all. :)

Okay, I'm done gushing over my granddaughter for the moment...lol

Let's see, what else has been going on:

I went back to work in April 2009. I work for the same law firm that Mary does. I'm a legal assistant to the managing partner. This place is a kick in the pants. Everyone runs around in jeans and t-shirts, which I love! I've learned so much in my time there. I have a lot of respect for the people I work with and I'm grateful that I was able to find a job so quickly.

We had a very strange Summer. On June 13th, my Dad had a heart attack. He ended up having a quadruple bypass plus a pacemaker inserted. He was in the hospital for quite a while. His recovery was difficult. He ended up having to go back to the hospital with pneumonia, but as of today, he is doing great! He turned 82 on September 12 and he is very healthy and going strong.

My Mom has been amazing through all of this. She took such good care of Dad during his recovery. Jay was Mom's right hand man during this time. He spent many days and nights there helping take care of Mom and Dad and doing whatever they needed him to do. I was so proud of him for doing such an amazing job. The family was great at taking turns spending days and nights at Mom and Dad's house, helping out, cooking meals, cleaning, you name it. We have a pretty great family!

School started in September. I only have two kids left in school. Chrissy is a senior in high school (ACK!!) and will graduate early in January. She's pretty excited about that. Jacob is in 7th grade this year. He seems pretty happy this year. He likes several of his teachers and that's always good. He's in Band again, but this year he is playing a Baritone as opposed to the trumpet he played last year. He likes the Baritone a lot better than the trumpet.

JB and Jill are going through the usual young adult stuff...what do I want to do with my life, where can I find a decent job...we all remember those days. Things will fall in place for them in time.

I think I've written a book here, so I'll cut it off for now. I will try to update this more often now. Life has settled down quite a bit over the last several months and I feel like I can start to focus on other thing. Life is good, my dear friends. It is what we make it.

The Day After...

I was just reading my blog from Tuesday, as I said 'good bye' to my sweet mother-in-law. I especially rested on the part where she didn't want a funeral because 'no one would come, anyway'. Boy, would she be surprised! At her graveside service yesterday were her children, grandchildren, her sister, my family, friends, and people from church. If the weather hadn't been so dicey, her friends from Silverton, Oregon, where Mom lived for so many years, would have been there. But we had quite the group and I can just about guarantee you that she would be amazed at the number of people in attendance! Here is the link to her obituary in the newspaper:
http://legacy.com/statesmanjournal/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=121570022

The service was so nice. We had about three inches of snow on the ground, which made for an amazingly beautiful backdrop. Mom is buried in a very lovely part of the cemetery with a huge tree nearby, something she would love. Everything went as well as it possibly could.

The part that really stuck out for me was this amazing poem that Erin, Joyce's youngest daughter, wrote. Erin has this wonderful gift of being able to express herself through poetry and other writings, and it was so heartfelt. Once I get the text, I'll post it. It was something she wrote on her way to the cemetery. What a gift!

We had a luncheon at the church afterward and it went well, also. We got a lot of family pictures, which I will also post once I get them. Then we came back here and Jay and his sisters went through a lot of Joyce's stuff. It was fun to hear them reminisce about their childhood, and also things that happened even after they became adults. Joyce tried so hard to make as many positive memories for her family as she could. All she ever wanted was for her children and grandchildren to be happy.

Now we turn our focus to Christmas. It will feel different this year, and I think *we* will feel different this year. The whole purpose of our lives here has been brought to the forefront of our minds this last week. Suddenly Christmas feels like it should: a celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Hopefully we have a better understanding of His mission here on this earth, His atoning sacrifice, and the promise of eternal life if we will choose to live worthy of that promise. We are grateful to a wise and loving Father in Heaven, who knows us so well, and more importantly, who knows us *individually*. That fact is made especially apparent during times like this, when we need love and comfort while grieving.

I love you all, my dear family and my dear friends. You are the gifts that I have been blessed with, and that's all I ever want at Christmas, or any other time of year, for that matter!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Good bye, Mom...

Jay's Mom, Joyce Greene, passed away suddenly on Sunday, December 14, 2008. She had just returned to Oregon from Idaho, where she had been visiting her sisters and her eldest daughter, Julie. I could go into all of the details of how it happened, but I will suffice it to say that it was quick and painless, just the way she would have wanted it. The doctors are certain that she never knew what hit her. They suspect that she died of a pulomnary embolism.

Joyce will be missed, especially during this time of year. She loved Christmas. She took great pains putting together such thoughtful Christmas gifts. She always apologized that it wasn't 'a million dollars', and we tried to convince her that what she had done by her own hands was worth so much more.

Creating beauty was always important to her. She had such a talent for decorating, creating the crafts that she loved so much, and finding beauty in the simplest things and places.

She also enjoyed imparting her wisdom to any and all. She went through a lot of unpleasantness in her life, but she always tried to see whatever 'positive' she could in those situations. One of her favorite sayings was, "This too, shall pass". It became one of her mantras. Another one of her favorite sayings was, "Live, Love, Laugh", something she tried to do every day.

Joyce and I would have these talks where we would just get silly and laugh like little girls. She always enjoyed laughing, and I loved and cherish those talks. I liked being able to make her laugh, especially when she was having a bad day.

Joyce didn't want a funeral- "no one would come, anyway", she'd say. All she wanted was a graveside service, then go back home and have a 'chocolate orgy' (her words!) and talk about all of the happy and silly things about her. We will honor her wishes, mostly because she said that she'd come back and haunt us if we didn't! lol

Mom, we are going to miss you so very much. We have a sure knowledge of where you are now, and that we will all be together again as a family, but until that day comes, you will be in our thoughts and in our hearts every day, and we will miss you. We love you so very much, Mom.

The Dreaded Family Picture!

Okay, so when your child gets married, getting pictures taken is part and parcel of the whole experience. I HATE getting my picture taken. But I have had people ask for a current picture of me and my family, so here it goes. Enjoy?!?

FYI, Jay and I are in the front, and from left to right in the back is Mary (the bride), JB, Chrissy, Jill & Jacob.

We Survived Wedding Day...

Mary and Tim are officially newlyweds! It doesn't seem like it was almost a week ago that they got married. Things are going well for them, complete with the usual growing pains that newlyweds usually face.

The wedding was wonderful. Mary made a beautiful bride, and Tim a very handsome groom. We spent a lot of time getting the church ready for the reception, and it all looked great. People seemed to have a good time at the reception (actually referring to it as a party, which is more appropriate). Everything seemed to be work out very well. We all had a great time!

I want to publicly thank Linda Rafn, Chris Rafn, Stephanie Rafn, Kim Lamborn, Andreya Nicholson, Jacob Mainard, Nathan Rafn, Elaina Rafn, David & Lauren Rafn, Daniel Rafn, Amy & Shawn Allen, Crossing 13th, and I know I'm leaving other people out (and I apologize profusely to you in advance). But I want you all to know that we couldn't have done this without you.

Next week will bring the beginning of classes at Chemeketa Community College. Jill and JB will be taking classes on campus, and I'm taking a couple of classes online. I figure that while I'm still recovering from my surgeries, I might as well learn something! Life is slowly but surely getting back to normal. It's all good.