One month later.....

Hard to believe, but it is true.... grandpa has been in heaven for a full month already!  We still all miss him so much here on earth, and yet I am still so very happy for him.  It has been sort of a whirl wind of life happenings since his death, and our trip down to Oregon.  Ever since returning, we really haven't yet gotten back into our own little family routine of life, and we have had others come to visit and stay with us as well.....and so it is, that here we are in the second week of February and I haven't updated my blog still.

In a nutshell, we came home to a nasty winter storm, complete with lot of snow, ice, wind, freezing rain and no school for a week.  From there, we dealt with Tracie being diagnosed with an L5 spine bulged disc, and essentially put on full bed rest for the next few weeks.  Grandma Kathy came up for a short week visit, and proceeded to have fun painting our kitchen and dining rooms, as well as redecorating.  We all enjoyed having her here, as she hardly ever gets to be with us all on her own.  She had a really good time, and the kids loved spending time with their grandma.  The same day that she left to go home, Grammy & Papa came up for a week long visit, to spend time with the kids, as well as to help us out in any way they could, since Tracie was unable to do much of anything.

We spent a lot of time having fun with playing games.  We also took the opportunity to take down all of the Christmas decorations, clean the house, and put everything back to "normal" once again.  And then, we had ourselves a fun Super Bowl Sunday!  We set up a projector, borrowed from our friend Greg, onto a 120" diagonal screen!!!  Way too much food, and lots of fun..... with Grammy, Papa, Brad, Greg and our family all together for the day.  :-)

We also took the opportunity to celebrate Brad's upcoming birthday, by going out to dinner at Herb Nieman's.  Brad will turn 41 this Friday!!!

Grammy & Papa left us yesterday, and we are now back to being just the four of us once again.  It is now time, I do believe, to actually try to get back into some resemblance of our own routine with life.  Spring is right around the corner, and a whole host of changes will be heading our way..... baseball, football, dance and more.

For now, it is time to start working on our taxes..... we badly need a refund this year, so we can try to scrape by for the months that lie ahead.  With our new work schedule that we have changed over to this year at the BFD, opportunity for overtime is nearly non-existent.  This is going to make for a really tough year financially for us, and it is my #1 goal to NOT allow the kids to have to see or feel that..... and to NOT let it directly effect them in a negative way.

On that note..... one more thing worth pointing out and asking for help on...... my brother, Brad, is losing his job at the end of this month.  His company is closing his branch office.  He is in need of work, and is already working hard to find another job.  If you could and would....please be praying for Brad!  And if you know of anything, or hear of anything..... please pass it on, either directly to him, or to us so we can tell him.  THANK YOU!!!  :-)


OK.... time to get this day started!!!