A Place in Heaven

Drew has spent several months praying for so many during his bedtime prayers. Most of those for whom he has been praying were/are afflicted with cancer. He has been so faithful, on his own, to remember each one, every night. In November, we explained how one of those friends he was praying for had graduated to Heaven. It was the first experience we had with trying to explain this in relation to someone he knew, to help his four-year-old brain conceptualize our/his friend dying on earth and living in Heaven with Jesus forever.

In the last week, we lost another friend to cancer. However, once again, we are comforted by her being in the presence of her King. However, it was once again time to attempt explaining to Drew. With one discussion like this under our belt in recent history, we tried to be a little more specific with our explanation. It seemed that perhaps that helped a little.

Fast forward to last night, when it was once again time for bedtime prayers. When listing all the names he was going to remember in his prayers, he asked if he could pray for the two friends mentioned above. We affirmed his desire to do that; however, we reminded him that it is the families of those two friends who need our prayers now and that our friends are in heaven, so they have been healed completely. He was in need of further explanation, so we reviewed the concept of them not being on earth anymore and our not seeing them again until we are in Heaven.

Then came the statement that melted my heart, and my tears fell: "Daddy, is cancer a place in Heaven?"

Oh, sweet precious Andrew. It is so hard to explain these things... these are not things that are easy for Daddy and Mommy to know the words that are perfect. It is so important that we share all these things with you, even when we know the news will hurt and cause your heart to be sad for a little while.

My tears, my melted heart... they were a result of his strong desire to think, to consider, all the things being discussed... his attempt at grasping two very abstract concepts... his desire to understand why it was their time to go to Heaven.

In the meantime, just a reminder that we are so grateful for what each of these two special ladies was to our family over the years, and that we are thankful for the years the Lord did give them on this Earth... our lives, including the lives of our children, have been enriched because of them.

Simpler Christmas Revisited

Well, turns out I'm not the only one on this journey...

Read this, and you will also enjoy reading the comments that follow.

Dad's 70th Birthday

Cousin Linda (from New York), Gary, Jaime, Piper, Mom, Dad, Drew, Jen, Dave and Brad

Beach Fun

I love this photo of Bradley for many reasons, but one of those is because he looks like his late Great Uncle Gene (my dad's brother) in his fishing hat.

Memorial Day 2010

Boys in My House

There are boys in my house – and Spiderman shoes
And 200 papers in various blues.
There's Bob (he's a builder) and Thomas the Train,
There's a fireman coat to wear in the rain.
They have cars on their shirts and frogs on their hats
There's a glove and a ball and a red plastic bat.
There's dirt on a face and a smudge on a nose;
Grass stains on knees and sand between toes.
There's bathtime at night with bodies to scrub,
And when we're all done there is dirt in the tub!
There's bandaids and bruises and curious bumps,
There's smiles and laughter and sometimes there's grumps.
There's odors most icky; there's boogers so green
There's more yucky things than I'll ever get clean.
There's piles of laundry; there's stories at night;
There's bedtime and bathtime and dinnertime fights.
There's cars and there's trains and there's books about trucks
There's Scoop, Lofty, Dizzy, and Travis, and Muck.
Sometimes there are bugs, and sometimes there are frogs;
Sometimes they are lions, or dinos, or dogs.
There are cute little vests and darling neckties
Dragged right through the mud – oh what a surprise!
There's running and climbing and jumping and falling
And laughing and crying and hugging and brawling
And rolling and losing and finding and creeping
And whining and stealing and sometimes there's sleeping.
There's tantrums and time outs and extra loud noise –
There's love in my house shaped like two little boys.
Author: Erin Jo Kilmer

See the Two Teeth on the Bottom?

I'm Pathetic, Really

A while back (a long, long while back), I commented on Facebook that I was finally packing up the bassinet, after struggling for months with not wanting to put it away (even though Brad outgrew it within two months). Well, I couldn't bring myself to do it... and so then I became a liar. A liar because I said I was doing it, and then, well, I didn't do it.

I don't know why I am having such a hard time putting it away, but can you blame me? I have such precious, wonderful memories of my sweet babies sleeping in this thing.

Who would want to put it away? My sentimental attachment to it has been bordering on (okay, we've blown past bordering and soared right smack into the middle of) ridiculous.

So, about 11 days ago, I left for my Sunday morning trip to the grocery store. I told David I had started to take it apart, after I took two more photos of it put together (really? YES, really!), and I just couldn't go through with it. This was as far as I got, and this was only the top half.



I asked him to please have it disassembled and removed from our room so as to end this silly nonsense. So, he was happy to oblige and now it is sitting in the garage, right by the door to the house, where I walk past it every day, thinking about how sad it is that it is packed up in a bag, sitting where I can see it.

The Hardest Thing About Boys... Thus Far

... Is that even as infants, I can't hold them as much as I would like. Once they get to be about four months old, they start wiggling out of my arms. They want to move, they want to run, crawl, jump... they are already wired to be movers and shakers. They love the arms of Momma, but not enough to stay put.

I know I only have them for a short time... and once they become men, they won't be desiring Momma's coddling, by God's design. But do I have to let go so early? I just wish I could hold them, rock them, kiss them, indefinitely, until they are at least five - right?

I Love Living Here

This is the view from my front window


This is the view from my back porch


I love that Andrew squeals with delight every time he sees a bunny.


I love the hawks with their impressive wing span and the frost that shows up when it is 7 to 10 degrees colder than on the coast (although I hope we're done with the latter).


I think it's interesting (?) that the occasional bears (black spot by the front of the house) will greet the sun in our front yard as the fog lifts and I love the otters that frolic in the backyard when the 'lake' is fresh.


I spot peacocks that take mid-morning strolls and I hear roosters that announce the most beautiful parts of the day - dawn and dusk.


I have a front row seat to the most beautiful display of thousands of stars, and it doesn't cost a dime.

My amaryllis bloom shows up overnight, always when I least expect it, and puts a smile on my face, like a good friend stopping by for a surprise visit.


Thank you, Lord, for this beautiful place I call home.

BFFs and Babies

Not everyone knows the story of how Jen and I met in 1996, my freshman year of college. She was the one assigned to a group of freshmen, including me, to show around the campus for 3 or 4 days before everyone else arrived. We lived together our sophomore year, and spent many late nights goofing off and playing jokes on each other and our other roommates.

That's how we met, and it would take me FOREVER to write a post on all the in between stuff, but while we DID NOT EVER plan things this way, we both always secretly hoped one day we could be pregnant together. Well, we were (duh!) and now we both have newborns, four weeks apart. Here is Jen with her sweet Sarah Kate, born Oct. 24th.

Mommy & Drew

One of the last nights I tucked Andrew in as an only child... this was just a few days before Bradley was born. We were having so much fun playing in his room and getting ready for bed. Finally, at three years old, he looks forward to his bedtime routine (it only took most of that three year time period to get it this way).

He is my sweet baby boy, and I told him that he will always be my special boy, no matter how many siblings he has. He loves that!

Grandpa & Grandma Gonzalez

I am way behind on blogging and this is my attempt to start to catch up.

In September, Dave's parents left Naples and moved to North Carolina. Of course, we miss them tremendously. We had a nice visit with them right before they moved. It was a week before Bradley was born, so it was hard to see them go when they did. Here are some photos of Drew with his grandparents, having a grand old time. He misses them so much already!

I am continuing to make slow but steady progress in the nursery. Most recently, I cleaned out and sorted one large memory box (photos, keepsakes, memorabilia). You would not believe the trash I was able to get out of that thing! Oh, it felt so nice to purge all that 'stuff'!

Then, I found another one... yikes. But, I started on that one this afternoon during an unusually long nap for my little boy.

We also picked up the rope-styled decorative moulding for the chair rail in the nursery today at Lowe's. PRICEY - I was not happy about it, but other options would be more expensive and take too long. Thanks, Laurie, for the idea on what to use as our division for the chair rail! David is going to try to get it installed this week after work.

Drew and I pulled out all the newborn baby clothes (those we saved from Drew, those we recently purchased, and those we received as gifts). We sorted them and washed them so that tomorrow we can start putting them in the dresser.

David's Daddy Shower

The team of teachers with which David works threw him a "Daddy Shower" at work yesterday. It was very cute and lots of fun. Drew and I joined the festivities as we watched Daddy at a shower in his honor, which, in my opinion, is nice for a change.

A version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire was devised for Dave to play, appropriately titled instead Who Wants to Be a Daddy. He had to wear this crazy cool Super Daddy apron made for his diaper changing duties, and his arsenal was complete with three lifelines he could use while answering questions during the course of the game.


The three ladies that are part of the 4th/5th grade team with David are amazing. Here is a photo of them all together after the party. From left to right: Mary, Janet, Tammie, and of course, the Daddy.

Updated Baby Countdown

To the right, you can see my little 'Baby Countdown' in blue. That is according to my original due date, which is 9/30. However, most of you know I have to have a scheduled c-section. Well, this past week at the Doctor's, I was given my window of date choices, and I selected 9/19. So, whatever the Baby Countdown on the right says, just subtract 11 days from it.

September 19th would be my maternal Grandfather's 97th birthday if he were still alive. He went to be with the Lord a little over 10 years ago. I was very close with him, and was praying that his birthday would be one of my choices for Baby's birth. Now, unless God decides to insert His sense of humor here, Baby will come on Grandpa Rosy's birthday.

Drew's First Trip to Disney

Three weeks after our trip, I am posting about our trip to Disney. We took Andrew on David's birthday for Drew's first visit, and it was as magical an experience as we had hoped. I had found a book while wandering through the library one day that enabled me to plan our day to be as fun as it could be for a toddler, while being realistic about what can be done in one day. I highly recommend Kim Wright Wiley's Walt Disney World with Kids if you are planning on a trip to Disney.



Papa and Nana joined us on the trip, and were able to share in the experience of Drew's first visit, and all the excitement that goes with it. We shared a condo hotel, and were able to have lots of quality time together while we were there.



I didn't go on many rides, but here are Drew and I waiting in line together for the Peter Pan ride. We were getting our stink on with all the other folks in line, sweating up a storm. However, I must say, because we got to most of the rides for Drew in the morning, we didn't have to wait longer than 20 minutes for anything AND it wasn't in the late afternoon heat.



This was the moment that topped them all! We all waited in line for Drew to meet Mickey Mouse, to whom he affectionately refers as "Hot Dog" because of the Hot Dog song/dance Mickey sings on his show, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. The moment we walked into the room where Mickey and Minnie were, the unmistakable look of astonishment, amazement, unbelief, and pure joy came across Andrew's face. He could not believe he was looking at Hot Dog, for real! Hot Dog gave him a hug, visited with him, and even did the Hot Dog dance for him. Then we all got hugs and left with a very, very special memory.