The joys of having a six year old!

Our daughter Acilia is quite a delight!
She fills our days with goodness and light!



Acilia was born in June, what a great month! We have celebrated the last three birthdays by taking her horse back riding. Her true passion in life! It's been a joy to see her grow and change; her personality shine! She has two significantly different personalities. One is sweet, kind, sharing, compassionate, friendly, well mannered & funny. The other is one that only comes out when she isn't happy with what she's been told, or if she doesn't like the way she was treated (ex. if you tell her to do something without saying "Please" *ahem*). She has a face that we call the "frowny face" and she becomes ambivalent ( simultaneous and contradictory attitudes or feelings (as attraction and repulsion) toward an object, person, or action). It's interesting to see her blossom! In the last year alone, she has really come into her comfort at school and her ways of sitting quietly and waiting for the teacher to ask her if she needs something, have been traded with confidently asking for what she needs and expressing herself through writing! She is expressive and she is gaining points in self esteem daily! I am so proud of my little shining star whom I must add, is a little girly, prissy clone of me!

The joys of having a toddler!

My little boy is so sweet and content by nature. We've been blessed to have him. In a few short weeks we will be entering the "2" stage and though we have seen glimmers of what's to come (tantrums, deciding to do something even though he was told NO, you know the "2 year old" things) I still believe that there will always be glimmers of his sweetness. Miles is speaking pretty much constantly now and I love listening to him put words together in his own language!
Cuck= Truck
Lub wew= Love you
Deeda = Daddy
Neeena=Grandma
Nunu where are you?= Where is my pacifier
Arf arf = dog
the one that melts my heart the most, is
Teek you mama = Thank you Momma. Even at the tender age of "almost 2" this child is displaying graciousness and to be honest, I am going to soak it up while I can, because I know not shortly after this sweet stage comes to "I won't say thank you even if you beg me" stage!
Miles passes the time playing with his Thomas and friends train set, reading books & pointing out any and all airplanes, trucks, cars, busses, etc! He laughs when he hears the adults laugh, he sings along when he hears music and he values his independence as he goes off and plays on his own!

You capture! - Faces

FACES!

Get up close and show us some cute, handsome, stubbly, soft-skinned, furry, adorable, beautiful faces! Even yours, if you’d like!

I got a few great shots, Miles my son, Franko my dog (Black and White) Acilia my daughter and Remo (Cream colored poodle) OH! And one of me, with some baby chicks on my shoulders :) Enjoy!

You capture! - Color

The challenge:
Show us some color during these bleak winter months! Extra credit if you can find it outside.

Outside shots first :)





















And moving indoors....














I am blessed to have a bright cheery room in my house, my daughter's room! Infact, when we first painted, looking at the bright green walls with absolutely nothing else in the room, some even joked about needing sunglasses! :)

You capture! - Love around the home

This is the last one I need to throw in here before I am caught up




I took pictures of all the crosses in my house, why? Because I love them and they are in my home! I also took a few of the stained glass light fixtures, love them!

Notice the stained glass window in my circa 1850's home! Love it!

You Capture! - Winter

I am excited to have found this little weekly challenge, I am going to give it a try! There was one from a week or two ago that I just can't pass up, so that will be my "first official challenge"
The theme was: Winter
Click the "You Capture" button on my sidebar if you are interested in playing along too!!

Without further adieu here is Winter here in Chicago, lot's of snow and lot's of cold!

My very first "Not Me Monday"

This is *not* my first time doing "Not Me! Monday" hence having no idea how to get the "Not ME!" Logo in my post.

I am *not* sitting here devouring the best Mexican Style by El Milagro bag of chips after just eating lunch!

I am *not* enjoying the peaceful silence in the house as Miles sleeps, Acilia is at her cousins' house where she spent the night and hubby is at work!

I do *not* feel boastful when I make a homemade dinner, since it *doesn't* happen on rare occasion! (Pot roast in the crock pot smells yummmmmmmmyyyyyyyyyy)

Ok, I believe that's a good enough start for my first "Not Me!" post :)

Full circle

Today is a full circle sort of day. January 14th. The day of Al's first kidney transplant. 18 years ago. Today is the day Al goes into surgery again. The last step in this transplant. Removing his dialysis catheter. His lifeline while on dialysis will be taken out. It's amazing yet again to me how something that kept him alive for three plus years, is no longer needed. He has a working kidney in his body and it's working so well for him, he no longer needs dialysis to keep him alive. He has not used that dialysis catheter since the night of December 2nd. The night before his transplant. Now, it's the day to bid a proper farewell to dialysis for what we hope and pray is many many MANY years!

Al is having surgery today, he will be put under and they will make an incision to remove the peritoneal tube that was inserted in his belly for him to perform nightly dialysis. The tube was what Al used to connect himself to the machine that sat next to his side of the bed, that he would be attached to for 12 hours each and every night. This tube when not in use would need to be coiled and taped to his skin. He couldn't swim, the kids couldn't jump on their daddy in fear of "grabbing or ripping" his tube. He will be free! No tube means diving into a pool head first with no worries! No tube means his can pick the kids up and have tickle wars with them with no worries! No tube means no more restrictions! No more tape, just enjoying life!

This is a good day :)

He is 91 today

My grandfather turned 91 today. Last year, was his milestone 90th birthday. Last year was also his last birthday spent here with us. He spends this birthday in Heaven and although I have a sneaking suspicion that Heaven is worlds better than we can even imagine, we still miss him here. 90 years with us, didn't seem long enough. He was such a beautiful testament to living a Godly life.
We chose to celebrate his life today. My family and extended family met with Grandma at their church in Addison for the 9am service and then we went to breakfast as a restaurant that he and my grandma went to often. Grandpa surely would have been happy with the way we honored him today.

The pictures below are from Grandpa's 90th birthday. We had an open house type celebration at my aunt and uncle's house. He was surrounded by his family and friends and the joy on his face in these pictures are a great way to remember him!

Mother=Best Friend

A friend of mine lost her mom to brain cancer on the first of the year. It hurts to see a friend of yours going through such pain and loss. It hurts even more, when that person viewed their mother as their best friend. That hits too close to home for me. MY mom is MY best friend, and I have at times taken that for granted. God has a way of using others as a way of opening our eyes to what we have in OUR lives. I hate that it took a friend of mine losing her own mother, her own best friend, to see that my friendship with my mom shall not be taken for granted.
I must say, it also makes me fearful. Fearful of losing my mom. It could happen. It would be awful, I don't know how I would go on. My friend is living that exact nightmare, and it's my duty as her friend to comfort her. She lost her mom. I have my mom, I will always think of this time as a reason to not ever take my days spent with my mom as anything less than a special gift!

Here's to a good news day!

January 4th, the day the dialysis machine and all the boxes of dialysis solution are no longer taking up residence in my home! YAY!!! Fresenius came today and picked up every last box of the stuff that kept my husband alive for three years!!!!
Al's latest round of blood work, done this morning also revealed his creatinine level is now, officially in NORMAL RANGE!! 1.3 to be exact! Yay!!
Now if we could just get him in to get his PD catheter out of his belly he will be 100% free of dialysis and any evidence of it!!
Although it kept him alive when his kidneys weren't working, we are NOT AT ALL SORRY TO SEE IT GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dumps

It happens every year around this time, and it's rather unfortunate. I am an optimist and feeling deep down blue feels unnatural for me. I've been feeling depressed lately and it's getting old real fast. I am sluggish and moody. Food doesn't taste as good, I overeat anyway. I count down until bedtime and drag myself out of bed in the morning. I have no energy to clean, no energy to shop, but don't want to sit home as I go stir crazy. Winter blues are real and they affect me every year. Bummer, bums me out, bummed about it, bum...bum...bum!