Year in review...

May 2010 - May 2011, quick and dirty version:

Sam graduated and got a job, Amanda headed to Maine for grad school, I got pregnant, we bought a minivan, Eli started transitioning to Pomfret School in prep for Kindergarten (starts Fall 2011), Dad retired from CRREL, Molly was born on February 11 (only 3 weeks early, yay!), I got laid off, and we built a greenhouse.

:)

~Becky

this one's for you, Porter...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! :)


~ Becky

life...at warp speed!

I was reading some of my friends' blogs this morning, thinking to myself how lazy I've been updating my own. I've caught quite a bit of flack from people for not keeping it up. Oh well, that's the way it goes. You get busy, and when trying to manage daily life it is tough to think about adding yet another "task" - which I don't want this to be! If it feels like work I won't be able to enjoy telling our tales!

So what to say...

Eli has next week off from school and I am worried. He has been loving the routine of school 4 days a week, and he gets out of sorts when he has more than 3-4 days off in a row. Today marks the first of 10 days in a row of no school...yikes! We'll be heading to the Montshire quite a bit in the next few days, I'm thinking. Anyone want to join us?

The snow and chill this morning have put a damper on outdoor project plans. There are leaves to rake, lawns to thatch, gardens to till, flowerbeds to tear out and replant, and of course winter dog-bombs to locate and dispose of. Ick. Maybe I'm not so sad that the dreariness is keeping us indoors today. Perhaps I'll tackle the attic instead. Lots of sorting to do, especially as we need to uncover all of Amanda's storage boxes in the next few weeks. She is moving to Maine for grad school starting in May, so we need to find all of her apartment essentials. Plus it will be nice to organize things up there - it's a bit cluttered with nearly 40 years of furniture and books and assorted junk - 3 generations worth! There is a large box of butternuts up under the eaves that has been there for as long as I can remember...not so edible anymore, I'd say. My parents' old stereo, Grammie's old steamer trunk full of her upholstery supplies, Grampa's and Uncle Royal's army coats, piles of Uncle Ronnie's college notebooks and models, plus all of our excess boxes. There is no shortage of STUFF around here, let me tell you! Looking forward to decluttering. :)

Eli is hiding behind my chair playing his guitar. He loves music - he has started singing along as he plays (not the right notes, but a good effort nonetheless). He has been drawn to Beatles songs lately and can sing "Love, Love Me Do" and "Blackbird", and the chorus to "Ob-La-Di". He is always singing, especially songs he learns at preschool.

On that note, it's time to play!

~Becky

Boy are we bad at this!

I guess it's tough to keep up with the blog when life is moving at warp speed! We've had our fair share of ups and downs in the last few months, and that pattern seems to continue - with every down comes an up, and so it goes...

My uncle Eugene (Dad's brother) had surgery this week, and the next day was rushed back in because he had internal bleeding. He is stable now, but they weren't able to find the source of the bleeding so weren't able to correct it. Hopefully it has resolved on its own. Dad said he looks pretty haggard, but that he should improve and make a quick recovery.

Eli is doing AMAZINGLY well! He has had few medical issues this winter, which is a huge blessing. No ER trips, and his airway is getting larger despite all of the scar tissue around and under his vocal chords. We are hopeful that it will continue to grow properly without the need for surgery to remove the scar tissue, which would affect his voice permanently but would allow his airway to fully open. On a lighter note, since he turned 3 last fall he has been going to "school" in Woodstock as part of the EEE program (early education), and he is thriving! He loves going to school, and has been doing really well with the structured program. He went from having only 5 words in November to over 125 now! Instead of dragging an adult to what he wants, he is now able to ask for things. He babbles all the time, and is currently obsessed with "Cars" - his Lightning McQueen car is never far from his little hand, and he can often be heard from across the house growling "Ka-chow!"

Melinda is getting VERY close to delivery - the baby has begun repositioning so Melinda is no longer being kicked in the lungs anymore, which she is grateful for! Little Miss Mya hasn't even been born yet, but she's already the most spoiled little baby since...Eli! ;) Melinda is nesting, and in between lots of napping is cleaning her house like a crazy person! I can't wait to finally be an aunt, and it's been really nice to buy girl clothes for a change, after years of shopping for boys!

That's all I have time for now. Got to go chase after a little boy who has decided that he doesn't like overalls and is running around without any pants!!! :)

~Becky

Merry Christmas to All Our Dear Friends and Family

Merry Christmas Everyone,

I can't believe its only 4 days till Christmas and I'm just writing my letter. It has been a crazy year and truthfully, I'm glad that we can start a new year soon. Our family has been very blessed this past year and we have much to be thankful and grateful for this holiday season. So many feelings and emotions have been felt since our son Marc's horrible car accident in August. For those that don't know, he was in the hospital for 6 weeks and in the beginning the doctors weren't sure whether he would come out of the coma and if he did, whether he'd fully recover. He was a passenger in a car and he suffered a traumatic brain injury as well as other injuries but thanks to the power of priesthood blessings, the expertise of the doctors/nurses, family that stood by his side everyday, prayers from friends, family, churches, temples, and so many others, Marc has had an amazing recovery. He's doing very well and hopefully will be able to go back to work in late spring/early summer. He still gets tired after an hour or two of physical activity but he comes over almost daily and works with his dad or just hangs out with family and friends. He amazed the doctors when he went back in November for his neurology follow up. The doctors say it will be a year before we know the entire outcome but I know without a doubt that our Heavenly Father was and is watching over him and that Heavenly Father gave our family the strength to get through this trial.

It has been wonderful having Becky, Sam and Eli living next door. We see our grandson Eli everyday and he is such a joy in our lives. We love him dearly and he is a miracle as well. Just 3 years ago he was born 3 ½ months early and was in the hospital for 14 weeks. He had a tough couple of years, last fall being the last time he was in the hospital (for 12 days) but this year he has been doing really well. He was diagnosed with Autism in August, high functioning autism is what they say. He has severe delays in speech and communication but he started 'school' a few weeks ago, where he works with a speech therapist and OT and in the last 2 weeks he is now saying 15 words, some two word phrases and repeats a lot of words we say. He loves to sing, hum and dance and he loves books. Becky is a full time mom plus works from home for the Alpine Shop doing their online sales and Sam is a full time college student at Vermont Tech studying computer IT with a GPA of 4.0.

We had great news in July when Melinda announced that she and Adam were having a baby. She is due the end of March with our first granddaughter. She is doing great and is sooooo...excited. Frank and I can't wait to have another grandbaby to spoil rotten, Eli could tell you stories... Melinda is working as full time bookkeeper for the Larson family (for anyone from church that may remember them). Nate is her boss and she absolutely loves the job. She also has 2 or 3 bookkeeping jobs on the side, yup, she's busy.

Amanda is working at Dartmouth Hitchcock Hospital and switched to the OR recovery unit this past June and is really liking it and learning a lot. She and Frank have been taking an EMT course this fall and they take their final exam mid January 09. Amanda is a natural when it comes to working with patients, she is amazing both in the field, in the hospital and also when Marc was in the hospital. She was wonderful with him.

While it has been a busy year, it has also been an amazing year of trials and triumphs, out pouring of love and times for us to reflect on the things in life that are most important and that being, our Father in Heaven, family and friends and also a time to find out just what inner strengths we have and that we can draw on when need be. Thank you all for being a part of our lives. We love you all very much. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

It's been a long time, so...

Hello everybody who stalks us here on the blog. It's been a while since anyone blogged so I figured I better write something. Marc is continuing to get better but what I really wanted to announce (I can't believe no one has yet) is that Melinda is having a girl! Yeah!!! That's what we had ordered! Not that boys aren't good too, but we have one of them already and we want to buy cute girly things that Eli wouldn't like. Pinks, purples, and butterflies. Melinda has decided to name her Mya Marie. So, we are all very excited and can't wait for her to get here. Well... that's not totally true. We can wait because we don't want her trying to compete with her cousin Eli and come MUCH too early like he did. She's just going to have to wait for her Christmas presents until next year. Well, that's all for now. Don't forget to set your clocks back tonight!

Love, Amanda

time keeps on slippin, slippin, slippin into the future

Boy, this week has flown by. I thought I better do an update. We've been back home just a week and things are going great. Marc will be doing out-patient rehabilitation a few times a week for both occupational therapy and speech/language therapy at Dartmouth Hitchcock. We started Friday, the day after we got home. It seems strange being back at Hitchcock but good that we are able to leave and go home with Marc everyday. Marc gets stronger every day and is doing really well in his rehab. It's nice to have him home and Frank has plans for Marc's PT rehab (if it ever stops raining). Marc took Jackie out to dinner with friends on her birthday which was Sunday and tonight they are at a friends home for dinner. Marc isn't driving yet nor will he be working for a while but he is able to do pretty much everything else. He does get tired but not nearly as quickly as he did even a week ago. He needs just one nap (sometimes two) a day. OT is having him cook spaghetti from scratch tomorrow and this will be great because Marc never cooked much, at least not that type of stuff. He made pizza and cookies while he was at Fanny Allen.

Eli is really happy to have things back to normal at home. He didn't like coming up to Grammie
and Grampas house when we weren't here. He was always looking around for us so now that we are home he is much happier. He's going through a growth spurt too plus he's saying sounds and words which is really great to hear. He's so cute and it's really good to be home with him again too.

It has been hard getting back into our normal routines. After being in the hospitals with Marc for 6 weeks and only eating, sleeping and doing therapy with him its odd to have to do housework and yard work again, plus having to plan, cook and cleanup meals and having to take Marc to therapy sessions but today I finally got into the groove and now I'm sitting here writing on the computer because I hurt to much to do anything else because I overdid. But tomorrow is another day.....

Thanks for checking in...love, Janice