Where Past Meets Present Part V

May 2011 (I'll have to share the month of May in two posts...so much to share.)

May 8~ Mother's Day

My parents came to town so my Mom could spend Mother's Day with my beautiful Grandma. I wish I had a current picture to share of this remarkable woman. She is 98 years old. While My Mom was with her mom, Ron took me, the kiddos and my Dad out for a special Mother's Day lunch after Church. The weather was perfect. We had a wonderful time.

My Dad's birthday is May 9th~ after we all got settled after the Mother's day celebration~ we celebrated my Dad's birthday. (We also did a pre-birthday celebration for me. Our birthday's and Mother's Day are all squeezed together. If you have been following along or know me....you know how we all do a group thing every year. I was tired and looked terrible on the pictures so I didn't include any of me; except this one with my Dad and his birthday pie.)

Lucey on her favorite spot...Papa's lap. And with a book...that's icing on the cake!

Princess Lucey took a swim in her new princess pool. She saw this at T*rget and tugged at Ron's heart a little and he caved in and bought it for her.

Lucey's Godmother, Renee, is so kind to pass to us her daughter's (adorable Emma) clothes. This little Gap skirt came from her so we did a little photo session so we could share how cute it works for Lucey. We get hand-me-downs from several friends and we are so grateful for the generosity.

May 13~ My Birthday.

Ron always does a little something special for me even though there is a pre-celebration many times with Mom and Dad and whoever else is visiting....he always makes me feel special on my birthday. He wants me to feel set a part. He wants me to feel treasured and I really do. He is such a good example to our children. They also are very good that way. I also know our Heavenly Father sets us a part and treasures us. Isn't that a wonderful feeling?

Ron ordered this cake from my favorite bakery~ Marigold's~ it's in a different town. I found out a few weeks ago that Adam and Andrew were on cake duty and went together to pick it up. Andrew was sharing that with me the other day as he was telling me how much he misses Adam. He loves his drives with Adam and the chats. Adam makes him feel very special. We all need that boost.

(This was one of those 1/2 birthdays....now I'm sliding towards that really big number...oh my!)

May 16th~ National Junior Honor Society Induction

Christian was inducted. We are so proud of him!

May 18th~ Piano Recital

The recital was held at the high school. Nothing Fancy but good practice for the students.

Andrew

Christian

May 20th~ Lucey's last day with Carol, Speech Therapist.

Lucey has made so much progress with her speech. She has terrific receptive language...we are working with her pronunciation or, expressive language. Again~ her hearing aid works so very well for her. It truly makes a difference for Lucey. I just wish it stayed on her head, in the correct location. Lucey will have the surgery to implant it as soon as her skull is thick enough to do so.

Present: (I almost forgot) No more boxes on the main two floors. That makes me so very happy. Our basement has boxes we still need to go through. We are going through them so we can purge....our favorite word! We move again in less than 8 months. Wow! I am really going to miss this place.

We live in a historic Spanish revival. This is our entry way for now. I'll share more pictures of the house soon. I am going to research more history on the house. It really is neat but it also has many quirks. I love my neighbors and have plugged in so quickly. This place has been a real blessing. We head to Carlisle, Pennsylvania next....the United States Army War College. I have heard that the housing is quite small. I leave it at that. :-)

Where Past Meets Present Part IV

Okay, so back to the past. I ended the last WPMP in April of this year and our amazing son being sworn into the United States Army Reserves (and Lucey's dental). This post takes us through the rest of April. Which was a very busy month and the start of the many busy months that followed.

April 17--Palm Sunday

Andrew and Christian confirmed their faith and their love for Jesus in the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church. They spent two years studying God's word. Every week they learned a new memory verse and studied their lessons. It was at times, difficult. It was a commitment and time consuming. In the end, rewarding, as they confirmed that Jesus is Lord and Savior.

We had a small celebration for the boys.

The table is set and ready for our guests to arrive.

The confirmands are ready to go to church and share with the congregation that they are committed in Christ.

Andrew and Christian's class.

Pastor Mease and the boys. We miss our church family, Pastor Mease and his precious family...I'm so happy we shared this together.

Aunt Marianne and Uncle Paul came to support the boys and share the day with us.

April 21st--We drove to St. Louis for Lucey's Cranio-facial team appointment.

With the cap on her head, she is ready to get her picture taken.

There she is on the computer screen.

They are measuring head growth and comparing to other kiddos who also have their skulls measured.

Lucey's appointment went very well. She is growing just as she should be. The plastic surgeon spoke with us for about 45 min. He was ready to start jaw reconstruction this past summer. We chose to wait. He showed us pictures of his ear reconstructions. We are praying for wisdom in how we are to proceed with Lucey. Such big decisions. We knew the teeth needed to be fixed first and that was a must. Not too much new news. This was her third team appointment. This went much better than last year. I was so happy Ron could go with us.

April 23--Coloring Easter Eggs! My sister and her little guy came over to Mom and Dad's to have fun with the eggs.

Nana and Lucey working on the eggs.

April 24th-- Easter! He has Risen!

I brought their baskets/buckets with us...I love doing them and the boys get a kick out of them still. We have had these buckets for quite a few years! Lucey was so excited to see her basket.

Lucey putting her ears on Mr. Max. He can tolerate a lot!

The Tucker Troops--Easter 2011

April 25-- Adam wins and American Legion Award

This award recognizes the boys and girls who are deemed most worthy of the high qualities of citizenship and of true Americanism. I think this award was most appropriately given to Adam.

Adam and Peter were the boys awarded from his school.

April 26th--Adam celebrated his 18th birthday! I feel like his special day was crammed into this very busy month. He is such a go-with-the -flow kind of guy...he was happy to have a cupcake.

This is what 18 looks like! A man....an honorable man. A man I'm so proud to call son.

April 27th--Christian at a home track meet. Christian is in Gold and Navy closest to the camera.

As you can see by this picture, he was not happy with his time. He ran a 6 min. 2 sec. mile. He is very hard on himself and disappointed. He went out there to break the 6 min. mark. Christian also has asthma. The kind that requires daily medication....the kind that can scare a mom to tears. I have been in the ER with him more than I can count. I'm so proud of Christian! I think his time was amazing!

April 30th-- The Ft. Leavenworth Post Wide Yard Sale.

I have to say, I was organized and ready despite 5 teenage boys spending the night at my house the night before....what was I thinking?

We sold quite a bit of our "stuff" to help lighten the load of our move. Lucey was loving the boys Hulk Hands. I think all the kids had fun with them....by the end...they were ready for the trash. The little car was not for sale despite people asking.

October 6, 2011

Present---Lucey and her pumpkins....it's a beautiful day here!

Sparkles and Bows

Sparkles and bows....a girl after my own heart. God created me very much a girlie girl. God gave me a daughter who, if possible, is more of a girlie girl than I.

Lucey was very much in need of a new pair of tennis shoes. Her poor little toes were pushed to the very end of the ones she has been wearing for the past 4 months. I was looking at the K*ds; white Maryjane's. Simple. Lucey had other ideas. She picked out these S.R. "fancy" pair. I tried to steer her towards the ones I was looking at for her but she kept talking about the ones with sparkles. She kept talking sparkles....so I gave in. This was the first time she had such a strong opinion about something she wanted to wear. I do think they are cute.

I spotted the grown-up version out of the corner of my eye....

We both walked out with our bags of sparkles and bows.

A Mother-Daughter moment for sure. Shoe shopping. There will be plenty more to come.

(There seems to be a shoe pattern with Lucey...two shoe posts in a row)

Cinderella

After Lucey's speech evaluation yesterday, we stopped into Tuesd*y M*rnings to look around. I rarely go shopping. I love to shop but there is so very little time and I have to drive quite a distance to shop at the stores I love. We do have the store I just mentioned above. I'm looking for bedding for Andrew's room. They had nothing in that department but they did have, at a very low cost, these "glass" slippers. Lucey was so excited and I just couldn't help but buy them for her. She loves to play dress-up and she uses her imagination to create a sweet little world for herself. She also asked in the most polite way and I couldn't resist.


I also bought her three puzzles. She loves puzzles and so do I. They were also very reasonable--to be honest---cheap!

This morning she had fun being a princess and we put together one of her new puzzles. I sat with her but she really does not need me for a puzzle this size. I was enjoying watching her figure it all out.

I had a few things on my calendar this morning and decided to clear them off. I came back from our trip exhausted and 4 weeks behind on all that needs to happen around here. {Just to recap the last 4 + weeks....Lucey's pain which stopped production around here, my parents visit, my trip to St. Louis for surgery and then our trip to Adam's graduation} then caught a cold. I was feeling very under the weather over the weekend. Today I feel much better! Yippee!

Cinderella for me looks more like this.....




I'm actually very excited about getting things around here back to clean...it's not clean here. I also need to organize. Papers are everywhere....to include Lucey's speech eval. from yesterday....the papers just keep stacking up. I have a few prescriptions that need to be filled. Yikes! Important stuff like that just slipping through my disorganized cracks. And there is more that I won't bore you with. Sometimes I become paralyzed when I look around and see all that needs to be done. I know, that sounds ridiculous.

I'm clinging to this today....

Josh 1:9............ "Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed,
for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."

My Boy Scouts

Andrew and Christian are fully committed this year to their Boy Scout troop. It's a small troop (about 16 boys) which can be an advantage. It's organized, they can get their work done in a timely manner because there is less chaos and the scout master has more time with each individual boy ( a little encouragement). Ron has more time this year to partner with the boys. They love having their dad along! Last weekend the three of them headed out for a two day camping trip with the scouts.

Christian-left and Andrew-right.

Andrew is a Chaplain's aide. He is so enthusiastic about praying with the troop. Warms my heart.

They are never really thrilled with me and my camera but recording these events are so important to me. They were not cooperating so I started saying ridiculous, silly things. I don't dare to share on here....Ron missed it, as you can see... smiling away. (Ron was just fitted for hearing aids. I'll share more on that when he finally gets them. Briefly, his hearing loss is due to his 30 years in the military and the jobs he had.) Andrew-left....is looking at me like I have lost my mind. Christian is trying not to bust out laughing.... I'm usually very "lady like" if you will.... This photo sure beats the ones before it. They looked like they were in so much pain.

They had a great time camping. Ron bought our family a tent and is ready to jump back out into the woods. I have never camped* in a tent* in my life. Not even as a Girl Scout. I'm game. I'll give it a go. I'll take one for the team to enjoy time with my guys.

I'm excited about my new look~

I was feeling like the ugly duckling in the pond....

...Now I'm swimming with the swans.

I have long admired the beautiful blogs I visit and the beautiful stories that are shared. What a blessing that I found this blog....a lovely, sweet family on their journey to adoption. She told me about this talented blog designer, Jen,who also has an amazing family and they are about ready to travel to bring their precious son home from China. Jen is working on a big fundraiser. Designing 100 Blogs in 30 days. Click here for more information...there is still a few days left to get in on this wonderful opportunity.

A note to Jen~ I love my new look, thank you!

Thank you to my friends who offered to help me! I really appreciate your generous offers.

Singing in The Sun

A beautiful sunny day in September...

This month was chaotic and at times I just wanted to sit down in the middle of the mess and cry. It's pictures like this that remind me of all the good things....Lucey dancing through the sprinkler singing her "I miss Adam songs..." Lucey, pain free and singing again. Thank you, Jesus....for your love and care and handling the messies for me.

xoxo
Beth

A Happy Smile

I posted this photo first, the morning after her surgery. All smiles. Lucey and I spent the day together shopping and playing. Lucey had a great nights sleep. No pain meds and felt great. I have been praising God for her quick recovery. No more pain and boy did she eat this day. I took her to The Olive Garden where she inhaled a bowl of pasta.

I took this fuzzy picture with my phone.

The rest of the pictures were taken with an old point and shoot. I just didn't want to lug extra baggage on to the train. As it was, I struggled with the little I had with me.

Packed up and ready to go to the hospital.

My parents were visiting us in Oklahoma for the Labor Day Weekend. Lucey and I rode back to St. Louis with them. Lucey's surgery was at St. Louis Children's Hospital. I'm so grateful they could get us in sooner than the planned October 19th date.

Lu was a little concerned about what was going to happen. The staff at St. Louis Children's Hospital made her feel comfortable very quickly.

She let me help her into her scrubs and we tucked her in for what became a long wait. Lucey's last meal was completed at 6:00 a.m. and she was not wheeled to surgery until 3:00. She struggled a little towards the end. The television was a huge distraction. (I also gave her piggy back rides and we played in the waiting area.)

She chose bubble gum flavored medicine for her mask. She was really enjoying this scent. She chose bubble gum but she has never had a piece of gum in her life. I guess it sounded fun.

I was told that Lucey came out of surgery, was awakened and then she let everyone know that she wanted to sleep. She came to us looking so peaceful, angelic. This was a very different scenario from her experience last summer. She was very agitated coming out of anesthetic last year and then became sick to her stomach. I was prepared for that but she never had a problem. Another praise was that the anesthesiologist was very familiar with the difficulty in intubating Lucey last year (Lucey has a challenging airway). So he used a fiberoptic scope and was able to intubate her on the first try. Which also made the recovery much easier. She never seemed to have a sore throat.



Lucey slept for an hour. She woke up and asked for that Popsicle. She chose grape.

My Dad drove us to the hospital and stayed with us for the day. Lucey was very happy to have a little snuggle time with her Papa.

My dear friend, Katie, also came and was such a huge support to me. Thank you, Katie....for the coffee, for the sandwich and also for the "Lucey Sandwich"....you know what I mean! That was so sweet and so very helpful!

We took the train home. 17 hours. It was fairly pleasant. Lucey slept well....I did not. We snuggled all night and that I loved.

We loved the lounge car where we could spread out our Polly Pockets and play. The view was really nice.

Ron picked us up in Dallas.....what a fantastic sight for my weary eyes. I was never so happy to be with him and to be heading home to the boys minus Adam.

Thank you for praying for us. The surgery could not have gone any smoother. Two root canals, two crowns and two fillings. I was expecting more damage. The surgeon was wonderful and positive. Lucey now has some silver bling in her mouth.

In 3 days we board a plane (all 5 of us) to South Carolina for Adam's Basic Training Graduation. Stay tuned. I am prepared with tissue. I can't wait to give my tall guy a huge hug!!! I last hugged him on July 5th. Over two months ago. That's way too long for this Mom. My Children mean everything to me. I'm so proud of Adam. But I still miss him more than words can express.

xoxo

Beth