Christmas in Stages

Look at those EYES arn't they Beautiful!!! Great Grandpa Star is still shining through. This makes 4 generations of blue eyes defying all the brown eyed or hazel eyed parents.

Garrett's Dr. Seuss hat from High school days. It looks better on Starlynn don't you think?

Starlynn gets lots of help opening her presents. Okay so the present came from Auntie Nea Nea



























What is that?














Oh, you have got to be kidding. This can only spell trouble.















Look at the devil jumping up and down with excitement in his eyes. You know that means trouble for someone. Probably me. I am so not pleased. In case you are wondering, it is a power remote control with 4 control boxes. I can only imagine all the things he will come up with to use those for. But it won't be long before he displays his imagination gone wild.























































Can guess where Heather laid the rug. Thanks Garrett and Leslie.




















Grandma's Warm bear buddy. He has a magical back. It opens only to reveal a heat pack. It is cool , I mean warm. Thank you Leslie, Garrett and Starlynn.































Hey, whats with all the thumb sucking? I thought that you got over that when you were 16?

















Starlynn with one of her many books.

Christmas was great. We did it in stages. We had Christmas day with Grandma and opened a couple of gifts. Then went to the church for a potluck with some of the members who did not have much family with them. Garrett and Leslie and Starlynn came Saturday. Bob worked so we waited until Sunday to open the rest of the gifts. Kathlen and Jon could not be with us this year. But we still mailed gifts. The package from Kathlen did not get here until the Monday after Christmas, Bob worked so we waited until Tuesday to open it. Kathlen and Jon still have not received our gift and do not know when they will get it, as UPS promised it by Wednesday (today) but it won't arrive until the 4th of January, after they have left Sturgis and gone home to Ann Arbor. I am not very happy with UPS.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Sad Day :-*(**

Tomorrow Dad starts back to work. After 3 months of having him home, it will be sad to send him back to work. It makes us look forward to retirement.

Dad will be in the 200 area for the next 3 months, at least. That means further to drive to and from work. Which translate into leaving for work earlier and getting home later. Bummer!

Physical therapist thinks that Dad will have full range of motion by the end of December. Then he will begin strengthening exercises.

By the end of next year we are looking at fixing his other shoulder.

Mean while I am looking at getting my other knee done before the end of December. Hopefully by this time next year one of us will be in working order.

Brad says he will be home by Tuesday or Wednesday next week. Dad is REALLY looking forward to his coming. He keeps saying MY Brad is coming home. If Brad only knew what his Dad is thinking, he just might change his plans. If you think about the workaholic Dad is and how he has not been able to do all that he wants to get done. Then think about Brad, young, strong etc. you get the drift. Lets hope Brad does not read this, Dad's afraid I will scare him off.

Growing Old is Not for Whimps!

Yea! I got my stitches out of my knee today. Dr. Hazel said there was a LOT of scare tissue in my knee. And when the swelling goes down I should have better range of motion.
I look forward to a more useful knee.

I am starting to think I will get the other knee done before the end of the year. I asked the Dr. about the possibility of the same problem with scare tissue in my other knee. He informed me that they are doing studies on preventing scare tissue from forming. He explained that they collect the platelets from a patients blood and using a double syringe they will shoot the platelets and a protein into the knee. So far the studies are proving successful. He told me that I will be apart of that study, when I do my other knee.

Dad's shoulder is doing well. Dr. says that he is on track with his range of motion. We are still looking at December before he can do any strengthening exercises. Dad should be returning to work the 20th of this month, on light duty. Which means he will be traveling to the 200 area for work until February. I think Dad will be glad to be back to work, so he can rest.

Winter in finally setting in, it frosted this morning. They are calling for snow tonight. Burr!! THINK SPRING!!!!!!

Grandpa Bob's BIG BLUE Tractor.

Brett doesn't Grandpa look like he is having fun?

Grandpa Bob really likes playing on his tractor.

Sometimes on his tractor he digs BIG holes in the ground. When he makes big holes in the ground, he puts the dirt on top of the ground and makes Big piles of dirt. Sometimes he uses his tractor to move dirt from one place to some place else. He uses his tractor to help him build fences, rototiller the garden so we can plant seeds and grow food. Sometime he uses it to mow the lawn. Other times he uses his tractor to build roads and move the gravel to make the road smooth.

When he is done working on his tractor he washes it and make it shine. Then he puts it away in a building to keep it safe and dry.


When Grandpa Bob works on his tractor, he has so much fun that it looks like he is playing.

We love you! Grandma Ni and Grandpa Bob




This post is for Brett Robert Wierschke.

Brett has a love for tractors. So much so that when he is asked if he wants to call Grandma Ni, he says No. When asked if he wants to call Grandpa Bob, Brett says No. Then his Mother adds Grandpa Bob has a tractor. Then he responds, Yes!

Sorry, Brett Grandpa's tractor is ___________ what color?

Funny Dad!

Dad was out of surgery around 7:30, and all went well. Dr. Hazel put 6 screws in Dad's shoulder. When Dad woke up they discovered that they had not gotten all the nerves put to sleep. So they had to go in and redo the sedation. The reason being that it would get Dad over the major hump of discomfort.

On the way home Dad was over come with emotion (due to the sedation that was still effecting him). Once at home Skyler showed up to help his Dad get out of the car. When Dad saw Skyler he was over come with emotion again and said "your such a good boy!" Skyler was taken back for a moment. I tried to cover for him with "Dad's just being silly." Skyler all of a sudden caught on and immediately hit Dad up for $80.00. That brought Dad back to reality, fast!

Okay, Dad has to be in a sling for 1 month. Hopefully he will be out of the sling just in time to go back to work (light duty), to keep us from going to long term disability.

Dad starts physical therapy next week. Originally Dad was not going to be able to move his arm, only the physical therapist was going to move Dad's arm. But after the surgery the Doctor told me that he is going to allow Dad move his own arm, but only with supervision of the PT. I guess that means that his arm is in better shape than we first thought it was.

Dad has to sleep in the recliner for the next 4 or 5 days and take pain pills if I can get him to take them. Depending on the pain level after the 4 or 5 days he may get to sleep in bed.

Goodnight!

Dad's Surgery

Just a quick note to let everyone know that Dad goes in for surgery tomorrow. Dad was scheduled for the 30th, but was able to get it moved up to tomorrow. We had bad news today. We thought that he had until February off on short term disability. We found out that sick days off in the last year directly effects short term disability. Dad has to be back on the job by the first week of December. Doctor told us today that it will be 6 months before Dad will be back to full duty status. We are hoping to be able to get Dad back to work by the 21st of November on light duty. But that is only a hope. Mean while Mom is looking for a job. If everything does not go the way we hope, it may mean that we will go to between 50 to 65% of our regular pay scale. We were told that the percentage will be taxed at 25%, and they will bill us for our medical, dental etc. plus our 401K. Which means that I am very glad for food storage. oh, yes I forgot Dad has to have his arm in a sling for 1 month. Doctor has promised Dad that the sling will drive him crazy. I think, Dad not being able to move mountains at his will, will drive him crazy. Goodnight everyone!

skydiving

Need I say more

My city boy gone farmer!

Okay here is my disclaimer, I didn't do it!!!!

Once upon a time there was this little girl named Heather. (Heather has always had an uncanny sense of finding new animals to call her own. )

Heather was listening to my friend talk to another friend about going and getting calves and raising them on goats milk. And Heather managed to get my two friends to let her in on the deal. So Melissa and Jen went and got 7 calves. 2 for Melissa, 2 for Jen, and 2 for Heather and one for ?????, they couldn't leave the last one by himself, so he came too. Now this means everyone shares the work as well as the spoils. Well Heather has odd hours that she has to work, and she can not always make it for the work. So guess who picks up the slack. Your wrong, it's Mikaela and I. But Dad's in the pictures?? Well I have to admit, Dad helps. But not by coercion, he actually volunteered. He doesn't much like it when the calves start sucking on him instead of a bottle. He gets a little frustrated.

Sorry the pictures are not very good, but it was my cell phone that I used to get the pic.
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However it probably means there will be meat on the table in about 18 months.

Tonight I go in for a CAT scan of my back. Dr. wants to know what the spine is doing before he makes any recommendation on how to put me back together.

Dr. Steve Sawyer home from Hawaii, Yay!!!! I talked to him this last week. He was still adjusting to the time difference but was glad to be home,

Sad days just keep coming :-(

Sad days seem to be filling my life lately. Every time I turn around something else seems to have gone wrong.

Today is no exception! The vet called today to give us the results of Ozzie’s biopsy. You guessed it, it wasn’t good, Ozzie has lymphoma. I chickened out and did a 3 way call with the vet and Garrett, and I let the Vet tell Garrett. Now comes the hard decisions for Garrett.

Later in the day I sold Trigger (Treasures baby). With all the horse flesh in that pasture, she picked Trigger.

Then to add insult to injury the Bishop came by. You’ve probably guessed it again, the Bishop said he really appreciated the job I’ve done, but they were releasing me from Activity Girls.

Dad has been wanting, me out of Activity Girls for a while now. Guess he is getting his wish. My next calling won’t be near as much fun, I will really miss my girls.

Okay enough of my whine. Marion said no one would listen to me anyway.

Mikaela and I stopped by to visit Johnny last week. Johnny kept giving us Carol things, telling us if we did not take it, it was going to go to Goodwill. So we have some wonderful keepsakes to remind us of my wonderful friend. One of my treasures is a couple of pairs of tiger eye earrings, (tiger eyes go figure). How blessed my life will always be for having her been a part of it! In all her trials she NEVER complained. If any person deserved Sainthood in this mortal life, she did. She will always be one to whom I will always look up to and strive to be like.

A True Sister!

Thank you Carol, I Love You!!

A sad day, also one to rejoice in!

Today we said goodbye to Carol. After everyone left the cemetery, we started our normal work of closing the grave. As I was shoveling dirt I started feeling sorry for myself. All of a sudden Mikaela spoke up and said "She's in Heaven!" She brought me back to reality. In deed Carol was not there but in Heaven. How grateful I am for the gospel! Someday I shall see my dear friend again, and she will be whole!

August 20, 2009 10:33 PM

A Great Weekend

For those of you who were able to spend this last weekend with us, we really enjoyed it and thank you for coming for this very special event. For those of you who were not able to make it let me share some of the highlights of this very special weekend. Saturday the family arrived and grandma was able to make the drive, so for that we were truly grateful. Saturday we really did not do much other than get the family settled in and get dinner. Sunday was like mobilizing a military coordinating showers, cooking breakfast, and getting everyone ready for church. Before we left for church our families got together and Mom Cook offered a word of prayer before we left. You could definitely feel the spirit. For Starlynn's Blessing there was Dad, Brad, Ben, myself and one of the bishops counselors with skyler holding the mic, it was an amazing yet tender moment for myself. After Sacrament meeting we all came back home and prepared dinner and bar b Que and had a great enjoyable evening it was an evening that I will not soon forget.

Monday morning came and everybody started packing and getting ready to head for home but before they left we made a few stops along the way. Our first stop was at the Almond Rocha Factory in Tacoma, grandma lets just say she should have bought the company, not really but she did buy her almond Rocha. Our next destination was to Port Orchard where I saw the little boy in my father shine as he got to play on the trains and ride, it was great and a really neat experience to bond. Dad got to play engineer and the looks on his face were priceless, Skyler and brad took photos and videos like this amazing one above of mom and dad. Mikaela even got to play on these trains and she had a great time.

As the afternoon drew to an end we decided that we had better get going as we had one more event to do before we sent the family home. Now this was a first for grandma and the photos that I am about to show are shocking, yes it is true grandma is a rebel and here is your proof.
Yep this is grandma feeding the seagulls off of the back of a ferry and believe it or not its illegal. How does the saying go if you can not beat them join them. Anyway we took a ferry from bremerton in to Seattle and it was grandmas first time both riding a ferry and feeding the seagulls, I think its safe to say that grandma had a great time. When we arrived back home we were really tired but it was an amazing day and I would not trade it for the world. I was telling Leslie that we truly were blessed by having our family down and starlynns blessing and grandmas safe trip.
Well I believe that wraps it up for us, stay tuned as next weekend we go for a family vacation so their will be more photos and more to say as well as an update on starlynn on her blog @ Starlynngrace.blogspot.com or Garrettandleslie.blogspot.com

Thanks for stopping by.
-By Garrett

This could be a very long post. But then tonight I most likely have the time.

Tonight I am sitting at KGH in ICU watching monitors make their squiggly lines, hearing the blood pressure cuff come on and then slowly go down, reading the results on that BP monitor, which is usually reading some ridicules’ numbers like 99/35 main line of 49. I sit wondering if my dear friend will come through the night, or if this will be our final moments together. The very thought of losing Carol brings tears to my eyes and makes my heart ache. Probably because I do not think she will be here to greet the dawn. Almost 28 years we have called each other Sister, 28 years we have shared our laughter and tears, we have always been there for each other. And now as I sit and watch her struggle with each breath, I pray for her relief, and fear the answer to that prayer. I thought I would be ready for this day, as I have watched her suffer for the last couple of years. And now at this moment I realize I am not ready to give her up. And then again I question what her quality of life will be like if she stays. She has lost her legs due to poor blood circulation, she has to have kidney dialysis, and she has a bad heart. And today she was without a pulse for 17 minutes before they got her heart started again. Could she have brain damage? For the last hour she has had her eyes open off and on, I call her name, but no response. I find hope of keeping her quickly fading away.

I can only compare this pain to when I lost Mom and Dad. I am so thankful for having had the privilege of Carol in my life.

It has truly been the cycle of life this year. We have added two new Grand Daughters, and one Great Niece and one Great Nephew. Garrett and Leslie had a beautiful little girl Starlynn Grace in May and Kathlen and Jon had a beautiful little girl Katherine Lucy in June. Then my niece Amy had twins in July, Thomas Sawyer & Kimberly Ann. We were able to see Starlynn the day she was born, but had to wait to see baby Kate until late June. While we were in Michigan we had all sorts of fun with little Brett. Sure do miss that little guy! Wish they lived closer so we could see them more often. It is really hard on Grandpa not to be able to see and play with his grandchildren. I helped in spelling camp again this year. I love to watch kids break through that wall of not being able to read and grow beyond what they thought they could not do. This year proved to have real challenges with some of our kids. But all in all even our lowest child still saw growth. We had one particular boy, who reminded me of my own son when he had to go to spelling camp. Who fought me tooth and nail the full 2o days we went to school. What a battle that proved to be. But the results were great!

After spelling camp we had a short break and then it was off to Idaho to Brad's graduation. Dad was so proud. I think he was beginning to think all these kids were worth it. Then it was home to get our lives put in order and get ready to babysit the Bevan-Church children.

First week of August was Activity girl’s day camp. We had a blast! We made puff pillows with fur (fake of course) on the back and then we stuffed the pillow. We made journals / progress books, bubble blowers, bath salts and we made hot rolls, wontons, rice krispy treat sticks and apple butter. We then had a dinner with our Mothers. We were supposed to have a sleep over at the Fullers but the forecast called for thunder showers, so I canceled, boy was I in trouble for that one.

I haven't had a chance to drive my horse yet this year. Hopefully that will happen soon now that the weather has cooled off.

Well it is 4:30 a.m. and Carol is still here. She is still not responding to stimulation, except when they put a tube through another tube down her lungs and suction her out. Then she gets all bent out of shape and they have to give her something to calm her. But she still does not recognize or respond to any one. Please keep her in your prayers that she will be blessed with what is right for her.

Goodnight or Good morning?

college graduate

So the last three posts are from me I think some of my other family members should post something on here. So I recently graduated from BYU-Idaho. Its great after five years of spending my parents money going on many dates and still not finding MS right and pretending to pay attention in classes that seemed to drag on and on I now have a BS in sociology and have received many congratulations from family and friends and yet I am still unemployed. But with all of this I have started thinking what did I really learn while attending a institution of higher education and so far this is what I have come up with. First its only illegal or wrong if you get caught this goes for most every thing from driving backwards in round abouts (those crazy circle things that are replacing the 4 way intersections). to jumping/falling out of rafters in to pools of water. Second while the goo in glow sticks is not toxic if you get it in your eye it does burn. Third boys and girls will never understand eachother from the time we first realize there is such a thing as the opposite sex to the time we die the opposite sex will always be a mystery dont try to understand it you will just end up going crazy. Third just because someone is going to college does not mean they are smart I saw and did alot of stupid things while going to college and had alot of fun doing them and I plan on doing more stupid/ fun things in the future.

roary and hayley

more crack

more crack

Yeah that looks nasty but its mostly the dye from the shoes

No kidding the name of this climb is pygmies got stoned there are not many hand holds its alot of foot work but its so much fun

Crack climbing oh yeah that was cool

Hayley and Jess

me again

My sexy rock climbing pose that red helmet really helps my sexy pose

okay yall stop looking at my butt oh oh sorry you were probably admiring the chalk bag

bad time to realize that I have a fear of heights

city of rocks in the morning we are camped right below that rock formation

at sunset

City of rocks

Rainbow after it poured at the city of rocks


Mtn Biking

So this is how I have been spending your money Dad thought you would like to see all the fun I am having!!!!!