Grandpa Marner

On Monday, November 29, I had the privilege of saying goodbye to my Grandpa Marner.  He was in the hospital with pneumonia but suddenly took a turn for the worse on Monday morning.  My mom called and told me he was deteriorating, so I should come soon.  First my cousin came to stay with the kids, but then Mom called again and said to get there ASAP. I called Ryan's mom and thankfully she was already in Iowa City, so she just dropped what she was doing and went to my house to watch my kids.  It was a horrible thing to walk into his hospital room and see him laying there, laboring to breath.  The great thing was that he was in no pain, they had him sedated so he didn't have to feel the pain of his heart not working properly.  Soon they brought my grandma up to say goodbye.  I can't even explain how awful and lovely it was at the same time.  Grandma and Grandpa have been married for over 60 years and they have a love that is pure, committed and lovely.  It is a love that many people do not ever get to experience.  Grandma told him that she loved him and wanted to hold his hand.  When she was talking to him, he turned his head toward her.  It was amazing to see him recognize her voice even through the fog of the medicine.  Grandma had many wonderful things to say about Grandpa like, "He was the best husband,"  "I couldn't have found a better man,"  "He loved me."  After she had spoken for awhile, she said, "I wish he could go be with the Lord."  So we encouraged her to tell him it was okay to go.  The reason this was so important is that my grandpa was my grandma's caretaker.  Even in his last days when his cancer had come back and he felt horrible, she was always his first concern.  Their pastor was there and we got to pray together as a family and he read some Psalms.  My grandpa tried to talk and moved his head when he heard the Psalms being read.  This spoke volumes to me.  Unless you know the Word thoroughly, you will not recognize it at the end of your life when you are sedated.  How many hours had my grandpa spent reading, studying, meditating on the Bible in order for it to break through the medicine fog?  One can only imagine.  He was such a wonderful man of God.  The spiritual legacy that he left for us is amazing.  I always knew that he loved the Lord and was committed to him.  What a comfort it is to know that he is in heaven right now praising God and enjoying His presence.  My kids have prayed prayers of thanks that Grandpa is no longer in pain, that he has a new body and that he is with Jesus.  Oh, I pray that that will be the reality for them when they die.  There is no greater joy than to see your children walking with the Lord and I'm grateful that my grandpa got to see his children and his grandchildren walking with God.  I will miss him tremendously.  I love you Grandpa!

Family Pictures

Amy Gilbaugh took our family pictures a few weeks ago.  I'm so excited to get them, but now I have the hard job of choosing which ones I'm going to get.  I thought I would post a few of my favorites.  You'll see that Lauren wasn't the most cooperative, but we did get a few good ones of her.

How 'bout Cheetos?

Last night Ryan was working late so I took the kids to the grocery store.  We were walking down the chip aisle when Lauren piped up, "How 'bout Cheetos?"  I laughed so hard.  Guess what we came home with?  Cheetos, of course.

Another of my favorite sayings of her is, "Oh my." I wondered why she said it all the time until I heard myself saying it to her.  She is really having a word explosion, it's so fun to hear her talk, and talk, and talk...you get the picture.

Fall Cookies

Saturday we continued our annual tradition of making fall cookies.  Lauren even go to help this year.  She wanted to roll out the dough and she kept using the cookie cutters over and over in the same spot, oh well.  Aubrey loved it and really took her time and did a great job.  Cameron enjoyed it too, but didn't last as long when it came to frosting the cookies.  His main goal was to be done with one so he could eat it.  We didn't let Lauren frost the cookies, I didn't really relish the thought of food coloring and clothes together.  I love sugar cookies and this always gets me excited for making Christmas cookies!

Applesauce

Last week I had 2 bushels of apples to do.  I had offers for help, but it just ended up that I did it on my own.  Sometimes you can't really plan your days in this season of life.  So, I started at 12:30 and Aubrey helped me until nap time off and on.  I have to say that the kids did a great job of playing and then of course they went to nap.  I took off, I got everything cooked and worked through, in containers and cleaned up by 4:30.  I think 4 hours is good time if I can say so myself!

The finished product

Leaves

It's that time of the year again...time to rake leaves.  Ever since the first day of fall, my kids have asked if they could jump in the leaves.  So last Saturday Ryan raked the leaves and the kids got to enjoy them.  It's fun to see Lauren taking part this year, she just jumped right in with the others.

Reading

Lauren loves books.  She brings me books and says, "Read, Mommy, read."  I think it's wonderful.  Here she is reading books on our bed.

Other notes about reading:  Aubrey is doing a fantastic job of reading.  She really is blowing me away.  I love seeing how she catches on to new words and sounds.  She's even trying words on her own and figuring them out!  

Cameron isn't reading of course, but he has learned to spell his name in the last few weeks and now writes his name everywhere.  This is awesome since it wasn't that long ago that he didn't know more than the "C" and didn't care.  Teaching our children is such a blessing.