Today was one of those days were the plans just kept changing on us. But any day together is a good day. Justin left at 4:50am to go to a jazz competition in Vancouver, WA and won't be home until late tonight and then has to get up in the morning for work:( We went to Beth's for breakfast and then tried to get flowers at Pike's and this is not the time of year for flowers, so I came home empty handed. Breakfast was good and the sun was shinning and the kids had us laughing....it was a good day.

He is the cheese to my maccaroni

This guy is my bestest friend. I came home from work a lot later than I usually do and I was a little tired....maybe a lot tired. I walked into a clean house and a yummy dinner. He worked a full day, came home, hung out with the kids and made dinner! If that isn't love then I don't know what is.

Honest to Blog?

OK so Mattias and I had a dentist appt today and I apparently brush my teeth too hard. Huh? And this is a very small dentist office so when I came out to the waiting room Marce was hysterically laughing at what the dentist told me. When we got home I'm not ashamed to say I got comfy cozy and grabbed my laptop and laid in bed for the rest of the evening. The kids came in our room to hang with us through out the night. Justin had to work and then he went to get a new phone. I don't know who goes through more phones me or him. The meds are slow to work for Misa:( so she and Dash were very happy to be lazy with me:) And then I worked on my Face book.....I don't know how I feel about it yet...I'm reserving my judgement to see how it goes. uuummmm Dash is the cutest dog ever! Honest to blog he is!

My Happy Place

Tuesday 1-27-09, my scrap room has moved all over the house. I think this is my 4Th time that I have moved to in our house. Marisa wanted the big room downstairs so I moved upstairs. I do like to be upstairs close to everything and this room is very cozy. There are a few things I want to do but for the most part definitely my happy place.

Wednesday 1-28-09. I had to capture Justin working. His room is covered in sheet music. I love it. I'm so proud of all his hard work. My poor Marisa has yet another sinus infection. I hate when she is not feeling well. But we were able to make a quick trip to the mall and get her a little something for her good grades. And Mattias brought home another thank you note from another substitute teacher thanking him for his good behavior and hard work. I'm so proud.....can you tell?

Let's see....where was I?

Wednesdays 1-21-09 pic. Justin has been working so hard on his music. He has a lot of Jazz concerts coming up and he is sounding good!

Thursday 1-22-09 everyone picked me up at work and we drove to The Great Wolf Lodge. Two days of lots of fun!

Friday 1-23-09 The kids on the Magi Quest. We slayed a dragon.

Saturday 1-24-09 Moriah's sweet 16 party. Happy Birthday MoMo!

Sunday 1-25-09 Jareds hockey game. Donavin was loving the camera. He would tell me "more" and make a funny face for me to take a picture of him and then he would say "see" so he could see him self. So darn cute :)

Speaking of loving the camera.....I love my Rebel~and I got the cutest red floral strap for it!

And for today I haven't taken my picture for the day yet......maybe of my messy craft room...we'll see.

"we have chosen hope over fear"

I Love being home with my family everyday, but today was one of the few times I said "man I wish I was there". Amazing to see millions of Americans celebrating a great day.











As for yesterday....we had SUN. Marce took the dogs and kids to the park for a little fun.

Chill Time

I have to say I love where we live! Most everywhere I have been to in Washington is just beautiful. I met my scrap buddies at this great cabin in La Conner (thanks to Kim). I got to spend a very nice relaxing day with some great people and even got some scrapping done :-)
Thanks Marce for taking care of "life" while I checked out for a while. I love you.

Waiting....just waiting....

My poor pictures are sitting and waiting....waiting and waiting so patiently for me to scrap. I swore last night I heard crying come from my scrap room. My goal this year is to MAKE time to MAKE stuff. I know I can make a million excuses why I don't have the time but I know the truth is that I have to schedule it in and just do it. I am going to a cabin in La Conner Washington tomorrow to scrap with some friends but I want to make Moriah a present for her birthday so I wont be working on the stack of pictures there :( But one day soon my beautiful pictures....

Another year older......and cuter

It was nine years ago today that this precious boy joined our family. At 5:35am in Corona, California. You weighed 9lbs 5oz. With a full head of black hair and big, dark eyes. You had a cleft chin and beautiful coloring. I fell in love and it has only grown more and more over these nine years. Mattias you bring all of us so much joy. We are so thankful for you! You crawled at six months, you walked at eleven months. You were fully speaking and very clearly before you turned two. You had very funny sayings that you came up with by yourself. When something happened that made you happy, you would yell "2 plus 2!" you didn't like to try new things and when we would try to give you something you didn't want you would put up your little hands and say "no fanks, no fanks". You called Brownie (Marisa's bunny rabbit) a funny wabbit. These past nine years have just gone by so fast. You have grown to be such a kind, loving, intelligent, funny, wonderful little boy. "How wonderful life is while your in the world" Love Mom

Here lies Nanci.....the popsicle

Nanci, Becky and Jared are on their way to freezing Chicago. Nanci was so convinced that she is going to turn into a Popsicle that she had us all over for her wake. It was a first for us and more fun then I expected a wake to be. They made tacos, tostadas, rice and beans. Yummy! So we ate and laughed and enjoyed each others company and then I made Becky promise to bring my sister home completely defrosted:) Love you guys have a great trip and kick some hockey butt Jared! Don't get in any fights please!

Dasher Jones

Marce is always teasing me because I just LOVE Dash so much. I can't help myself! He just melts my heart. And did I mention how much NOT like a dog he is. He never chews on anything that he's not suppose to....never digs...only eats dog food(even if someone left a plate of food on the ground in front of him) I can go on and on but its really only interesting me, Marisa and Nanci:) My boss who is recently a empty nester told me today she found her self home all alone last night...just her and her dog. I couldn't help but think of me & Dash left at home when the kids are off starting their lives and Marce off traveling for work.....hhmmm....I'm good with that:)

MoMo

It makes me so happy to see Moriah Scrapping! She took a photography class this year in school and is very talented behind the camera! She has come home with some very cool shots. Yesterday she gave me a picture of Dash that is so very awesome! I can't wait to run out and buy a cool frame. It is such a great print that I can't decide where to hang it! :) Thank you MoMo....
This morning was Justin's Dr. apt. with the neurologist. I have been pretty down all day, I gotta tell ya. But when I got home I received a nice card from my friend Kim and that really made me feel better. Thank you Kim. And it made me smile that Sam said"Oh look, she makes cards like you."
We are still pending one lab test and then the Dr. will give his final diagnosis. We know what its going to be......and I just can't talk about it right now.
Tonight Justin is writing some songs for his upcoming recording, Mattias is playing a new game he got for his birthday, Marisa is baby sitting LaLa, Moriah is scrapping and I'm enjoying all of them while I'm working on my blog. And I know Marce is going to come in behind me and spell/grammar check me. I love that. I also love that he went and did the shopping and let me chill at home. What a MAN!

365

There is a challenge out "there" right now to take a picture everyday for a year. I'm a little late considering today is the 12th of January......and I don't know if I can keep it up a year.....I guess that's why they call it a challenge. I know I won't scrap 365 pictures so I'm going to try to blog them instead. I may have a better chance this way. Either way....something to do right? I feel like I have to occupy every moment of the day. This way I don't worry to much about the future. I hate to say things like that. It sounds like I'm miserable and I'm not...Justin's Dr. apt is in the morning and I'm once again thinking and worrying......It was so much easier when it was me. Your child is much harder. I may have good news in the morning. Once again I hope.

Mattias got some cool things for his birthday and all the kids had a good time. This picture is him checking out a magic set he got from his friend Mayda.

Justin

I haven't blogged since summer. I kept telling myself it was because I'm so busy. But the truth is......I couldn't. I have been too sad....too scared. We just have so many unknowns right now. We had a great summer. We did a lot and enjoyed the warm weather. Got a camping trip in, rented a boat for the day it was lots of fun. We thought Justin was having liver issues because blood work was showing elevated liver enzymes. Not too high, just above normal. We took him to aLiver Doctor and for second opinions at the University of Washington. He went through ultra sounds, CT scans, MRI's, tons of blood work, and finally had a liver biopsy. Come to find out his liver is pristine. Nothing wrong at all. Justin's enzyme levels just run higher than the average person. Ok. In the meantime, Justin took the summer off from basketball to work. He was saving up for a new Jazz guitar. Through out the summer he kept telling us about how "dead" his legs were. We, especially I, kept telling him, well your just out of shape, exercise. He kept trying, it wasn't working. Other than that he was fine. School started, his senior year, his first fall ball game. We watched from the bleachers shocked. Justin looked like someone put cement blocks on his feet. He couldn't run up and down the court. I couldn't understand. This is more than out of shape, could he be injured? But both legs? I figured he needed some physical therapy. Marce was positive something big was going on.....I couldn't let myself think that. The next day Marce had him in the Dr's. The Dr. said he had muscle loss in his thigh muscle and took blood and said lets send him to a neurologist at Children's hospital. She would call us later with a referral. The next day she called with the lab results. Normal CK levels are 20 - 100.(this is how many muscle enzymes are in you blood stream....in other words how badly your muscle are breaking down.) Justin's levels were 3,113. She said forget Children's we want him seen at the University this week. We went and saw 3 neurologist at UW and they felt pretty strongly that Justin had Limb Girdle Muscular Dystrophy. We were devastated. I was extremely angry. How could he grow so big and strong just for it to waste away. This started a new group of tests for Justin, many physical examinations, more MRI's, and a 2 hour EMG, so many blood draws we have lost count and finally another very painful muscle biopsy. Here it is January 4th and we still don't have a definitive answer. We are waiting for 3 more test results that were sent out about 3 weeks ago, ruling out some very rare genetic diseases. It still feels very up in the air. A lot of unknowns and a very unsure future for my son. I'm hoping next week we will have some answers......I hope. That's all I can say right now.