Little Angels

When God calls little children
To dwell with Him above,
We mortals sometimes question
The wisdom of His love.
For no heartache compares with
The death of one small child
Who does so much to make our world
Seem wonderful and mild.
Perhaps God tires of calling
The aged to His fold,
So He picks a rosebud
Before it can grow old.
God knows how much we need them,
And so he takes but few
To make the land of heaven
More beautiful to view.
Believing this is difficult
Still somehow we must try
The saddest word mankind knows
Will always be "Goodbye."
So when a little child departs,
We who are left behind
Must realize God loves children,
Angels are hard to find.

I thought this was an appropriate tribute to Brenden's friend Paigelyn.

Paigelyn

Paigelyn has passed away. Her parents emailed us today. She passed away Saturday Jan. 26 at the age of 8. Thanks to everyone for praying for her. Please continue to remember her family in your prayers. If you are new to my blog, scroll down through earlier blogs and you will see her story. A special thanks goes out to Kara for posting messages re: Paigelyn on your blog too and to Kara's family for their concern and prayers. Food for thought: check out St. Jude's site sometime and look at the things that you can purchase from them that the patients have made and other items as well. Prices are low and it all helps to fund research for these children who have cancer and other illnesses. My heart goes out to the Weaver family right now. I'm so sorry for their loss. Paigelyn fought a good fight. God bless you sweetie.

I love heat!

So, the furnace was able to be fixed yesterday. Turns out a "limit switch" went bad. So he fixed it and we didn't need a new furnace, which we were told that if we needed one would have been around $2000. YIKES! No thanks!!! However, our house is 12 years old now and he said furnaces start to have their problems and need replaced around 12-15 years old. Convenient.....
But, hopefully that can be the next owner's problem if we sell this year. Brenden had a basketball game today. His team lost by 2 points. Ouch! We took the boys to the store today to let them spend some of their allowance money. Now they need to save for vacation cuz we'll match what they have saved. Brenden got $20 from us this week for his awesome report card. He's a very good student. He loves to write and has written several comics and a 44 page story called "Captain Zack". He wants me to make copies and sell them to his friends. Okay, they've started Shrek the Third now so I've gotta go....Tonight is family movie night!

Cozy up by the fireplace

Well, we've lived in this house for six years now and have always thought of our fireplace as a wall taker upper, for lack of better words. We only light it at Christmas time once or twice and never use it again til the next year. Well, last night that all changed. The fireplace proved its purpose and is welcome to stay. Around bedtime we started noticing it was noticeably colder than it had been earlier. We looked at the thermostat and realized it was 10 degrees colder than what it was set on and going down. We turned it up and out came cold air. That's freakin great. Coldest night of the year so far and we've got cold air not warm. So we brought the kids and their mattresses downstairs and we all cozied up by the fireplace to sleep. By morning it was under 50 degrees in here. To quote Dr. Evil from Austin Powers, "It's freakin freezin Mr. Bigglesworth!" So, now we sit and wait for the furnace guy to come and fix it. Richard stayed home today to be here when they come and tell them what's going on. He believes it is the ignition switch. We have the water running everywhere so the pipes don't freeze and bust and we have the oven on and open so we can get some heat in here. We thought about going to a hotel last night but decided not to because we don't know how much this will cost today and Richard's sister lives here in town so I'm sure we could go there if we needed to. It sucked but was a funny experience. I however won't be saying that it was so funny if we end up needing a new furnace if this problem can't be fixed. That will cost a LOT of $$$.

Update on Paigelyn

This is Paigelyn. Last week she was taken to Children's again and they found that the tumor had started growing again aggressively. She had surgery on Friday to drain fluid from her brain and has been in a coma since then. Without the surgery, I was told she would have died within hours. She was transferred to a hospice room over the weekend. Please continue to pray for a miracle for the family.

This has been a year long battle for this poor little girl but she's been such a trooper the whole time. Last year when she came home from her first stay in the hospital I took over some candy and a teddy bear Brenden had bought for her. It was around 8pm and she was allowed a few pieces of candy since it was bedtime. She kept pointing to it wanting more candy the whole time I was there. She loves chocolate and skittles. Her parents got her the dog she'd been wanting last year. I've been lucky enough to know this sweet shy little girl since the kids were in kindergarten. The tumor has affected her ability to speak and walk. She has been attending school half days and has been in a wheelchair most of the time. She has been able to walk again but gets tired so needs her wheelchair at school. It takes time for her to speak but she can. Her abilites have been impaired like in a stroke victim. But she was able to go into 3rd grade with her class; she finished 2nd from home with a tutor. The kids were so happy to have her back at school with them this year. She's been a fighter so far, so lets all band our prayers together and fight for her now while she can't.

Brenden would like to add this: (it's from a card he wrote and sent to the hospital)

You are a good friend. I miss you a lot. I'm praying that God will heal you. Love, Brenden

Please Pray...

I am overhelmed with emotion as I write this message. Brenden's 3rd grade classmate and friend is dying of a brain tumor. She's been battling this for a year now and in the last several days has progressed to her final days. Please pray for a miracle. Her name is Paigelyn Weaver. She is the youngest child and only daughter of Nancy and Tom Weaver (friends of mine). She has 2 brothers, Nick and Jack who are grade school aged as well. Paigelyn had been showing such good signs of recovery but the tumor was always inoperable as it is located on her brain stem. Chemotherapy has been ongoing for a year and had shrunk the tumor for a while. An update was provided to us this morning by our PTO leader at school of her worsening condition. I cannot imagine as a parent what they are going through and never want to know either. Please pray for this family now in their desperate time of need.

What will 2008 bring?

Well, I haven't posted my resolution yet so here it is. I expect the kids to keep their room clean but mine always isn't. I have a tendency to just take the laundry in and not put it right away or put hang up clothes on the chair instead of in the closet. I justify this by saying I'm busy but then I tell Brenden and Spencer that it takes 5 minutes or less to do it right the first time and then you won't have a mess. So, I am taking my own advice and just doing it the first time (hopefully). So that's my resolution...not to let my room get messy either.
We started giving the boys an allowance for doing a few chores so I'll have to keep up on my room so I can lead by example. As far as what will 2008 bring for us? I hope and pray a new house. We've picked out the builder and the blueprint and that's as far as we've gotten. We still need land. Then we have to sell our house before we can build. It's a process for sure. I'm hoping that we can be in our new house by Christmas 2008. Anyone else have hopes or expectations for 2008? Or resolutions? Please share.

Our Weekend

This weekend was fun for the kids. Brenden attended a birthday party at the skating rink. He doesn't hold up the wall anymore! Or fall as much either. This was only his third time skating. I was hoping to have some funny pics of him skating but he did so well this time. I even had a caption picked out "laughing at you, not with you!" Cassidy put on some baby skates that go over the shoes and she absolutely loved skating. She fell only twice. She loved looking at the lights on the ceiling and dancing. Spencer spent that afternoon with Richard at the arcarde. We like to try to fit in individual time with the boys when we can. Now that Cassidy is getting older we can do more with all of them together again. There is a cool indoor glow in the dark putt-putt place in our mall now that we'll have to take the kids to. Still not ready to take them all to the movie theater yet...I think Cassidy still wouldn't be able to sit still long enough unless it's a Wiggles movie. She love the Wiggles. So, that was our weekend.

Here are some pictures of Christmas Day.

The one of the kids with Santa is the first one in 8 years that one of my kids has not sat on Santa's lap. Cassidy was scared of him so she sat with Brenden on the floor.

The last one is at Aunt Pam's for Christmas and they are watching others take their turn opening. This is such a cute picture of them patiently waiting. Top picutes are with my mom and kids and at Richard's sister Pam's house

Christmas is over...

Christmas is over and I'm finally getting my living room back to the way it should be...free from toys and clutter. It's hard to find a home for all the new toys when all I hear is "I still play with that" so it's impossible to get rid of old toys. The kids enjoyed Christmas. Spencer got lots of Power Ranger toys, Brenden got a game cube and video games, and Cassidy got dress up shoes and Baby Dolls, just to name the faves. Cassidy didn't understand the concept of opening all the presents at one time. She wanted to unwrap, open and play before unwrapping another present. It was an eventful morning but fun. My mom spent 4 days with us at Christmas. I got a Coach purse I've been wanting and Richard got his Ohio State Jersey he wanted (among other things). Christmas was good for all. Maybe next year my brother can be here too.

Brenden is playing basketball. He was named best defensive player at the game last Saturday. He is really good at basketball. He likes it better than football. Spencer will start Soccer in the spring. And I've entered Cassidy into the Beautiful Baby Contest on Live with Regis and Kelly so check here for more info on if she's been selected as a finalist so you all can vote!