Not a happy post....

I have been trying to post this to our blog, but each time I start to write I can not find the words that I want to use. I have finally decided that I just need to write what I am feeling and get it out there. This is not a happy, family blog kind of post that one should make. However, this blog is about our family albeit mostly the "Four Red Thread Sisters".

My Dad, the girls' Pop-Pop passed away on July 21st. He had recently been diagnosed with cancer. We found out later on that he actually had a growth for sometime, but did not tell anyone. As it worsened he finally had to see a doctor.

He was born on October 18, 1925 in rural Graham County Kansas. He served in the Army during WWII, was captured by the Germans and spent approximately 2 months in a prisoner of war camp until he was released. He returned to Kansas and farmed the rest of his life. He loved to travel and meet people. His grandchildren were his pride and joy and they will miss their Pop-Pop very much. He is leaving behind a huge hole in our hearts that will be very slow to heal. He was buried with full military honors including a 21 gun salute. Although he had always said that most of his friends had already passed before him, there was a large crowd present for his service. During the quiet of the service when the color guard was refolding the U.S.A flag, it was ironic to hear a tractor hard at work across the road from the cemetary.

We are putting one foot in front of the other and plodding along with our daily lives at this point. We know that God has healed him now and Dad is no longer in pain. There is so much more I could say/post about this wonderful man, but this is not the place. He has left this earth, but will always be with us in our hearts and thoughts.

Happy 4th of July!!

I was kind of a slacker yesterday and today. We had some family over for food and fun on the fourth. Mark grilled some great chicken, I made potato salad, RaeLynn made a fruit salad, yummy yummy and Daryl stole the show with homemade chocolate ice cream! Then we watch the girls videos. By the time that was over, it was getting dark out and time for the fireworks!! The girls did sparklers and were somewhat excited and scary at the same time. The wind was blowing and the sparks were getting pretty close to them if they stood facing into the wind. Silly girls, they kept their mom a nervous wreck trying to get them to turn around and put their backs against the wind!

We already have plans for next year. Now if Pugston will get over his initial shock of the fireworks. Poor dog was a little frightened of all the noise.

Pics at the Park

Jordis Li's orphanage Yahoo group is going to put together a 2010 Dianjiang calendar of all the kiddos who have been adopted from there. The proceeds will be donate to help out at the orphanage. Our photos had to be in by July 1st. We took the girls to Gage Park to try to capture THE right photo to submit. *note to self, next time feed the girls BEFORE the photo session. They grumbled about starving the whole time!



We captured some pretty cute photos even with their stomachs growling. Good thing we went to Spangles afterward to fill them up again!

Maybe they do listen to me......

When the girls are getting along with each other, life is generally grand. However there are those days when all we hear is "ZoraLin pinched me!" "Kendalan won't stay away from me!" "RaeAnne won't play with me!" "Jordis move out of the way!" "RaeAnne threw the flipper at me!" ETC....

Those are the days that I try to remind the girls that they ARE sisters now and someday I hope they appreciate having a sibling to talk to. Most of the time I think my talk goes in one ear and out the other. But I found this homemade note on our magnetic wall and I was so happy that it made me stop and take a photo of it.



It really touched my heart to see that maybe sometimes they truly are listening to me. I did find out that RaeAnne made this. She used the ends of Lunchable boxes to make the name and I think it is a nice touch that she used one of each of the girls' initial magnets to secure it on our wall. She also made this picture. Rae makes me proud with her artistic ability.

T & A

Or the less abbreviated version, tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy. That is what Kendalan had today. We arrived at the ExcellENT Surgery Center at 7:15 this morning. Kendalan was a real trooper! There were no tears until she started waking up from anesthestia. The nurse came out to the waiting room to get me and said that she woke up crying and kicking. She was VERY happy to see Mommy and they gave her some more morphine and Lortab elixir and sent us home. Daddy and ZoraLin showed up just as I was carrying her outside. Daddy took her home while ZoraLin and I went to the store to get more pain medicine and soft food for her to eat for the next few days.

She has spent most of the day dozing in bed or on the couch. She has been such a good girl and we are so proud of her!

Happy Father's Day!

This is a photo of my Dad when he and my Mom started dating...approx 1957ish?

The girls greeted their Daddy in bed this morning with rounds of "Happy Father's Day!" They each made cards for their Daddy and we have some budding artists here! They then gave Daddy his "Best Dad Hands Down" T-shirt complete with their hand prints and his new John Deere shirt. He was thrilled of course!

Since we really hadn't planned on doing anything today I made an executive decision to call my Dad and ask him to meet us for lunch. He was game and we met at Coyote Canyon in Salina! We then let the girls run around at the play area in the Mall for a while before we parted ways. Us to come home and my Dad AKA Pop Pop for his home.

My Dad is going to be 84 years young this year. He still gets around, but he has taken to using a cane. This is both good and bad. Good because he is being responsible enough to finally use one, bad because he needs to use it. We are starting to get worried about his health and his traveling so much. Of course, trying to talk to him about it is like talking to a brick wall! Here is Pop Pop and the girls today at the Mall.

Fantastic Caverns

It is never fun to have to come home from a trip. Vacations are fun and like the girls had said, our hotel (suite) was nice enough we could live there! All the comforts of home, I even ran the vacuum sweeper one morning! It was great because I did laundry twice, so we came home with most of our clothes clean and all we had to do was unpack and put things away!

I am sometimes a spur of the moment person. Fortunately my family is willing to go off the beaten path with me. It is pretty common for me to take off down a road to see where it will take us, most of the time I think we are pleasantly surprised at what we may find doing this. Like our little excursion yesterday found us at the lake and Inspiration Point! Today as we were driving home I saw the sign that said "Fantastic Caverns" exit 500 feet I quickly checked the lane beside us and said "Let's go check this out!"




There are many miracles of nature here on earth. I would wager that this cavern is one of them. It was very interesting and I think we all had fun going for a ride underground into this wonder.







I think that the girls all enjoyed it. It was a nice trip for Daddy as the temperature underground was a balmy 65 degrees! We learned about stalactite's and stalagmite's and some history at the same time!



We arrrived home just in time for Daddy to run the mower over the front lawn real quick, me to pull some weeds that had gotten out of hand and the girls to spend time with Paige, our neighbor, who they missed like crazy while we were gone. The cats were very happy to see us and this morning we brought home the dogs who were equally happy to have us home!