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.
