Experiencing a New Normal

Yesterday (April 29) marked the one year anniversary of TJ going home to live with Jesus.  There are times I can't believe it's already been a year (it seems as if it WERE yesterday) and at other times it seems like forever ago.  I wanted the day to be special - a day to reflect and remember our sweet TJ.  In the Disney movie Tangled the mom & dad (and the community) let off sky lanterns in memory of their daughter's birthday.  I thought this would be a perfect way to honor TJ.  In the movie they are way smaller - so I ordered one per family (we included both sides of our families).  Since it's better to do these when it is dark we had to either let them off early in the morning or late at night.  Well since TJ had passed away at 5:20 am - Jon thought it was fitting (as did I) to do it in the morning.  I had passed all of them out ahead of time so anyone who wanted to could write a message to TJ.  We also dec...

A little over two months ago my younger sister and I signed up for the GLOW Run!  I had seen it advertised somewhere (don't remember where) and thought it looked like fun.  In fact, it is described like this:  The Glow Run 5k Run/Walk event is a one of a kind night time experience that is less about how fast you run and more about enjoying the music filled glowing course with your friends and family.   Well, we had good intentions of training but as always, life happened and we didn't train as we had hoped.  But after the last email I had received saying there were 12,000+ signed up and they weren't even timing the event - I figured we wouldn't be last!!   The email also said they would be giving out awards for the top glow people, so we decided to make some costumes.  We bought tube socks - painted them fluorescent green and striped them out with glow in the dark puff paint.  We also made a tutu and sprayed it with glow in the dark spray pai...

The other day Charlie wanted to get the mail.  Well, he isn't tall enough to open the lid, reach inside and get the mail out - I wasn't sure how this was going to work - so I watched.  Here is what I saw:   He takes the footstool off the deck...   carries it down the sidewalk to the mailbox.     Then he sets it down....     climbs on top to open and get the mail out.     Last... he sets the mail on top of the step stool and carries it back to set on the deck!  Then he rings the doorbell to bring the mail inside!     I must confess that the first day I watched.  So the next day when the mailman pulled in and Charlie said, "I'll get the mail" I ran to get my camera.  You can't tell this kid he is too small for something.  He will find a way!  I absolutely love that about him.  

I had received a phone call from my great Aunt Shirley telling me she had made me something and wanted to bring it over.  Yesterday she stopped by to give me what she had made.  It was a beautiful quilt.  But it wasn't an ordinary quilt.  She had started this project when TJ was sick.  She took several quilting squares to different locations for signatures and words of encouragement.  Two squares were left in the bank in New Sharon for members of the community to sign.  Another was given to TJ's classmates.  One was from the nurses and volunteers at the Serenity House.  Two were from family - the Fergusons (my extended family) and Wilkenings.  And another one was signed by our neighborhood.  I was told that a square was given to my side of the family and Jon's side of the family but she never got those back, so she decided to go ahead and make it without them.  I absolutely LOVE this quilt.  It's been fun to see all w...

I was going to update all of you yesterday, but I got busy and by the end of the day I was exhausted.  So I'll share with you today! Yesterday was Will's eye surgery date.  I wasn't looking forward to it and neither was he.  We tried talking to him about it on the way up to Des Moines.  And I thought we had done a good job and he was feeling good about it until we parked the truck.  He didn't even want to get out!  We finally convinced him to get out, but the minute he stepped out the crying began.  We checked him in and the kid threw a fit when she tried to put on his ID bracelet.  I knew it wasn't going to be good after that.  I'm not sure we even waited five minutes in the waiting room before they called us back.  Once we were back there he kept crying, kicking, screaming "I want to go back to the truck" and carrying on.  He wouldn't cooperate with the nurses at all.  They finally got that thing that you put on your finger...

Fourteen years ago today was a day I'll cherish and remember (hopefully) forever!  It's the day I married my best friend.  I remember it as if it were today.  For those of you who don't know - we were married at 9:30 AM.  Yep, that's right, in the morning (I must have been more of a morning person back then)!  It was Easter weekend.  Back then our church did Easter Lilies and in 1999 there just happen to be over 70 that we were allowed to use plus the decorations of fresh cut spring time flowers.  Our flower lady did an amazing job - it was absolutely gorgeous! We arrived at the church to do hair, make up and get dressed.  Since we had a morning wedding, no pictures were going to be taken until after the wedding was over.  So the first time Jon would see me was when I would walk down the aisle!  We didn't have your usually wedding (obviously).  I had a good friend of mine, along with her par...

That lovely time of year has approached us......Income tax season!  Usually we have it done by now, however farmers didn't have to file by the usual March 1 deadline this year.  Which was nice, but it just prolonged the inevitable!  Well, I'm not sure how everyone else does their taxes, but this is usually what Jon and I do.  I enter the checkbook into the computer.  I always start of the year good and enter each week/month and then I'll get busy and it will slide and I end up doing the whole year in a matter of a couple of days.  I'm sure none of you ever let that happen!!  Well this time when I went to start working on entering it - I only had January done.  So needless to say I had a lot of work ahead of me!  (I did have it all entered into the computer by last week)  After I enter everything in - that's when Jon takes over.  He does some report and goes through everything and then asks questions.  Then he takes everyth...

I know I'm a day late - but better late than never, right?  Plus, I needed some time to reflect on this first.  You see, I have always loved Easter.  But this year Easter was a little different to me.  I saw it in a whole new perspective.  Our church put on "The Stations of the Cross."  It portrays the last few days of Jesus life here on Earth.  The youth group sponsors were responsible for setting up three of these stations - two stations that were only going to be seen by our youth group and a handful of others.  Jon and I had been gone when some of these planning meetings were held - so I honestly felt clueless on a lot of this (which is totally all my fault).  Anyway, I knew what it was, yet at the same time didn't really know what to expect.  Sunday night (Palm Sunday) we took our youth group through eight stations.  We read a scripture verse, an explanation of those verses and an application to our lives.  I have to make ...