Z, Y, X...

This came out of nowhere! We laughed so hard that he would know this. When he said "I'm going to do the ABC's backwards" I honestly thought he wouldn't make it past X! :) Too cute!

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Reflections

One year already.  Whew.  What a ride it's been.  In some ways it feels like forever ago. Some days it feels like it was just yesterday.  I am only speaking for myself, I can only imagine what the year has been like for my dad.  Or for my mom.  Yes, one year ago after getting the news 1 week before Christmas that my dad had stage 3 cancer, he underwent two months of chemo and radiation and on March 24, 2010 he had his esophagus removed.  The things I remember about that timeframe:
* My car's radiator blew antifreeze all over the parking lot of TCBY on our way down.   Halfway to Mpls and my car is ready to explode with my children and husband inside. It's rush hour. Really?  Now?!
* My dad engorged himself in delicious food for the week leading up the surgery knowing he wouldn't eat well orally for some time.
* We tried to be "normal" through all of our silent fears the night before as we took the kids swimming in the hotel pool, ate dinner in the hotel restaurant (kids ate free!) and drank wine in the lobby bar.
* The next morning emotions ran high as we (my sister and I) argued about (I don't remember)....but we argued and that's abnormal for us (at least at our age - the good thing was there was no clawing each other's skin like 25 some years ago.  And our mom didn't have to tell us to "go do that outside").
* The short drive to the hospital, the walk in, the waiting room and us....were quiet.  Reflecting, anticipating.
* We were told to expect the surgery to take around 7 hours.  Ryan and I took the kids to the MOA to Nickelodeon Theme Park and Underwater World.  And we still made it back before he was out of surgery.  We didn't get to see him until after 8 pm that night....13 hours from the time he walked back to surgery.
* That night we were so relieved.  We rejoiced.  We were so thankful.
* Day #2, #3, #4, #5..........etc we were rejoicing, we were thankful.
* Then on day # 12 he came home.  It was Easter Sunday.  They (Dr's felt comfortable with him coming home).  After that, he went downhill and fast.  Two days later he was rushed back to Mpls by ambulance where Krista, Lola and I raced around the U of MN hospital trying to locate him. It was horrifying.  I was scared.  I had a pit in my stomach.  We saw him.  I cried.  I prayed.  I begged.  I pleaded....don't let my dad die.  He was dying and I was terrified to see him in the pain.  He made it through surgery #2. 
* He was crabby.  He was ornery.  Who could blame him?  The next two months were long, arduous months.  But he prevailed.  He kicked the crap out of that cancer.  That terrible crap cancer, the thing I was sure would claim my dad's life last spring, he is now busy enjoying retirement, eating delicious food (much earlier than ever expected), golfing! last summer, wrestling with his grand kids and back to tinkering and creating beautiful creations like our entertainment center.  Wow. Amazing.

Here he is, 364 days later - a picture from the Morris Sun and Tribune.

Love you dad.  Keep doing what you do best....being a feisty old German.  It's doin' ya good!

Bowling!!

We took the kids out bowling on Saturday night. It was (actually) quite fun! I knew Teague would enjoy it, but I just envisioned having to chase Lola all over the joint or worse, have her run in front of others while they're bowling. While she did stay right by our lane, I did sprawl myself flat out by chasing her down the (very slippery) lane while she chased after Teague's ball. She did that about 4 or 5 times before she FINALLY understood what "no" meant in regards to that! Surprisingly she stayed right by us otherwise and just kept herself busy w/ pushing Teague's bowling "wheelchair" (that metal thing they give kids to line their ball up just right) and cheered. It was a lot of fun! I love doing these types of things with the kids and introducing them to new activities.

I think that Ryan is adjusting to life with out practice; though who am I kidding, yesterday he stayed after with the boys to turn in equipment and tonight he took the seniors out for dinner. Tomorrow night he is home and then Thursday-Saturday he will head to Minneapolis for the whole reason why he coaches, to go to the state tournament and let loose with all the other coaches in the state of MN. OK so again, I'm exaggerating, but it is like a grand finale that they all look forward to. Two weeks from Friday we will be in Cancun! Woo hoo!!

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More Proud Moments

final score.

Sad and Proud. And then ok. That sums up my feelings the past 15 hours. Ryan's boys played a hard fought game and in a last shot effort by the Dutchmen lost to LPGE by 3 points in the game before the state tournament. I'm sad because I feel the pressure on Ryan to perform. I'm proud because I live with him. I see the ins and outs of the behind the scenes he does to make that team the best it can be. I may not be the most active (aka: read - attend all the games because of my other full time job of mom and housekeeper) but I know how it all goes down. It's a year round job for him (Ryan) and the kids and I are proud. I may complain about the the commitment it takes to run the house or about not being able to make it to more games, but I love Ryan and I ultimately wholly support him on his passion of this sport. I say I'm ok because our lives will go on and we will be ok and have more proud and exciting times!

We love you Ryan. You define classy when it comes to being a model coach. An example of this; after last night's loss his text to me was "how was ur night? That was a fun game, right". So instead of focusing on the "sad" of it all, he could see the good in it all. He never brings home the game in a negative way. When you hear "leave it on the court", that's Ryan. Classy.

the entertainment center about halfway done

lookin good dad

Lola learning to walk in her rain boots

it took her awhile to figure out how to talk in those new boots

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March Nerves

Our silly and impatient little goo goo. She just loves bathtime. When we are in the basement and say "it's time to take a bath!", she tears up the stairs (as fast as her little legs will take her) and cannot wait to take a bath. If we aren't right there behind her she will just get into the bath with all of her clothes on (as you can see in the picture)! Most of the time Teague is trailing behind her in a whiney voice saying "I don't want to take a bath"! In the picture you can also see the devastating effects of her tumbling down the deck steps from Saturday (see previous blog posts).

Well if we're friends on Facebook you then know there's a lot of excitement brewing at our house with the section championship game for Ryan's team tomorrow night. Basically that means if they win they go to state. There is nothing that would make me happier for him than to bring his team down to Minneapolis for the tournaments. It's been a long tough winter in our household, but he's come this far and we (the kids and I) want to see him experience this momentous occassion. However the chips fall tomorrow night, the kids and I are proud of him. He puts so more passion and energy into that team. So needless to say, we have a lot of nervous energy in our house right now! As much as I want to be at the game, I almost just as much don't want to go because of how nervous and anxious I get. Stay tuned....

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Blogging from my Phone

I'm trying to learn to blog from my phone since that's how I typically take pictures. It makes it easier to attach the pictures. Here are my happy kids in the car. I know, can you believe that Lola isn't screaming?

March Madness

Lola trying on Teague's (clean) underwear

Teague the night before a much needed haircut

Lola being cute!

Baby Kianna with Uncle Ryan's Twins hat

Oh how I love and hate March all at the same time. I love the promise it brings of nicer weather, but I hate the chaotic-ness (is that a word) of it all as well. The good thing is that it will be over eventually and things will settle down and the temperature will allow us to play outside without the need for excess layers of clothes (including all the essentials of winter wear).

Speaking of winter wear, I got the kids all bundled up to play outside today, sent them out the door while I attempted to get myself ready and Lola has a tough time just walking in all of her winter gear and the next thing I know there is blood curdling screaming coming from the bottom of the deck - poor girl had attempted to take the steps and tumbled head over heels all the way down and landed in the snow face first. If it weren't for the enormous bruise on her cheek it would have been funny - Teague didn't care that it was painful as he continued to laugh and laugh at her hilarity. So Teague and I continued to play outside and I sent Lola with Ryan up to school while he worked on some stuff.

It is actually not that often that Teague and Lola are apart, and when they are apart they can be pretty sad and miss each other. Case in point, I took Teague to Ryan's first sub section playoff game on Thursday night while my sister in law, Erica, graciously stayed home with the babies (mine and Dana's). I guess Lola was quite sad while we were gone and missed Teague and I a lot. Or after we got inside today from playing Teague asked "where is Lola" and I replied that she went to work with Daddy, to which his response was "I really miss my baby sister". So it is sweet, they are quite good friends.

Lola is starting to talk in sentences. She can say (quite often about everything while pointing) "What....is....that?" She mostly has the two worded sentences down flat and we are working on her being able to say family names. She's getting pretty good. Grandma and Grandpa are hard ones to say, and when prompted to say "Nana" she responds with "PAPA!".

Ryan's team continues to do well and are now in playoffs. They play for the sub section championship on Tuesday. Gooooooo Ductchmen! =)

We all seem to be on the mend after what I would say was the worst case of sickness this house has seen in some time. I think I may have had the influenza - I won't get into the gory details of it all, but we are better and hoping the germs have been cleaned out of the house.

My dad has been busy building our built in entertainment center in the basement. It's looking AMAZING. I will follow up with pictures soon. I swear we can never move out of this house after all the sweat equity that has been put into this baby! So my dad has been busy at his house building parts and then hauling them over here to install. It seriously is so nice, I am in awe.

We had the privilege of having Dana, Ken and baby Kianna visit this past week from Seattle. It has been so fun to snuggle that little baby! ANd surprisingly it DOES NOT make me want another baby, so maybe I will be done after all! =) Dana decided to stay another 5 days so hopefully we will see them a couple more times before they leave.

Teague's new favorite thing: Pretending to be "George of the Jungle" - aka no clothes except underwear on with one my necklaces.

Teeth

Well it looks like Lola may actually not resemble an old lady without dentures afterall. She's getting 4 molars at once! Currently she only has two teeth on the bottom and 4 teeth on top. She will be missing 3 on each side between the front two teeth and molars and 2 on each side on top....unless she's cutting those at the same time?!

Maybe once the teeth cut through she won't need her shirt changed multiple times a day? Or maybe she won't need a bib at the ripe old age of 18 months? She seriously is drool drenched as if she were a teething 5 month old!

Poor girl though, it's gotta hurt.