...but you can go to a NEW home....

This is a continuation of my mom's transition to a one-level home!   I talked to her today...she put a bid on a house and they accepted!!!!  I didn't have lots of time to talk because I was meeting Aaron to pick up Hux.  I liked what she described to me and later sent her this text: I am so excited for you I can hardly stand it!!!! It will be fun!!!  A new adventure!!! and then this addition:  I guess it should tell you that wherever YOU are will be home!!!  I love you mom!!!

Mom's got a new home and I am genuinely EXCITED!!!!  I will get details and pictures later!!!  But right now I just want to tell the Lord "Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, for Taking care of my mom!!!!"

While I am sitting waiting for information to continue working in our home office I will do a "bi-annual" (or so it seems) update!  Probably the biggest deal in these two years was our sweet grandbaby, Huxley Tobias Aaron Watkins!!!  Born on Easter, March 31, 2013!!!

This is his 1st birthday!  

This was at his 2nd birthday!!

 And what a sweet boy he is!!!  He just turned two and his vocabulary and use of sentences is amazing to me!  AND, he is the sweetest, bestest two-year-old DRUMMER ever!!!

 Our grandbabies are growing by leaps and bounds!!!  Gavin just turned 10!!!  Oh where, oh where did the time go?  He is an awesome, sweet, sensitive and wonderful superhero of a boy!!!  And Emery, "EmJ", just turned 8!!!!  Again, how time is flying by!!!  She is 'all girl' and loves anything to do with primping!!  And they love their "cousling" a ton!!

 The kids all still live together--well in the same house anyway, though their lives are all so busy that sometimes I wonder if they EVER see each other!  Jana commutes to Cheyenne, Kelsey works down the street, Rob and Aaron have side jobs while they are waiting to go back out on tour with Random Hero.  (And I get to watch the grands a lot during the summer!!) 

We, Wes and I, moved since the last time I really got on here!  We sold our beloved ranch-style home and bought grandma and grandpa B's home when they moved to Kansas! Our boys who helped us build the ranch on Steamboat Springs weren't too happy to see it go!!!   But,  we are now the proud owners of a "tri-level" home....does that make sense to anyone out there over 50???  Oh well!  It is what it is as a wise lady always says (huh, Jana?)!!  I am growing to love it as my home!  We have made a lot of changes inside and out, making it ours!   One thing I really enjoy is my "squirrel tree"!  

  Can you see them on the ground?  We have several baby squirrels this year!!!  They are so cute!!  And the squirrels are Belle's favorite thing, too!!  

I'm going to post a few pictures and then sign off for now!  Will it be another two years??  Your guess is as good as mine!!!  

Here's one of mom when she and I went to a Cajun restaurant in downtown Loveland!  It was a hit!!

She actually came and stayed with us about two weeks this year!!!  

This picture is of my birthday present to myself!!!  Love my hat!!!  ....and the horses that often come with wearing it!!!

Jana and Aaron doing what I love seeing them do!!  Praising the Lord, together!!!!

And

This

 Is

Random Hero!!!

Doing what THEY do best!!!  

I love that my kids sing for Jesus!!!  And I am a blessed mama....and Kuque'!  (oh, yeah....I changed the spelling of Kookah, again.....this is the last change!!)

"You can't go home again"

I'm lying here tonight staring at the ceiling with memories flooding my heart and mind.  Why?  Because a few weeks ago mom fell and broke her femur and is now in a 45-day rehab away from her home, our childhood home.  The home is a bi-level and is no longer a home she can manage safely because of the stairs so she has decided to sell it to my nephew, CJ.  I was ok with this decision and, in fact I know it's a good one.  But when the time-frame accelerated  quickly in order to have the needed funds to purchase a home on one level, I find myself now in this position:  my mom will never return to her home again as "her home."  My last trip there after she had fallen was my last trip back to "home!"  I wish I had known it was my last because I would have liked to have said my goodbyes to it properly.  Every inch has so many memories--good and bad!!  The blog "MommyNeedsCoffee.com" though our memories are different, expresses my own feelings of sadness.  I wish my nephew and his new wife-to-be all the blessings with their new home, but there is a hole in my heart right now.  I know that wherever mom lives will be "home" as long as she is alive, but man!  I didn't think it would hurt this much!  Tracy says, "it's just a home!"  But it's so much more than that!!! I wish I was talented enough to put my memories on paper! 

Some of those memories (good and bad):

--family dinners, holidays, celebrations

--hide and go seek till way after dark

--sleeping out on the old deck and watching the movies at the drive-in

--dad playing music or missionary stories about lions on Sunday mornings to get us up for church 

--"string" telephones between our bedrooms

--Dad tracking me down when I was 5 minutes after curfew late

--the "calls" about my Tim, and Barry

--the Homecoming mum from dad after Tim died

--the police siren and megaphone (Rod--a date)

--Tracy's bike accident and fierce praying

--all our poodles and cats

--Punkin's mom leading me to her kittens

--mowing that huge yard

--hours on end of dish duty , laundry folding, ironing, cleaning

--piano practices on Grandma's old upright

--Watching home movies with dad and the family

--the countless screen doors that broke from the wind

--preparing for graduations and weddings

--mom and dad becoming Grams and Gramps

--dad's accident and death

--changes to the home inside

--visits home to be with mom

****

Here's praying that the perfect new home is found for mom and that our memories will continue in it. 

Pictures as promised

Here are the pictures from our Zoo Day!  (I hope!)

A DAY AT THE ZOO!!!

Yesterday was an awesome day!!!  I woke up, heard it was supposed to be a beeeauuutiful day and decided that it would be a great day to go to the zoo....with my honey and my grandbabies!  Unfortunately my honey wasn't as enthusiastic (he'd been out of town, so don't blame him).  So I met Rob and picked up the kiddos!!!  They were not told where we were going, just that it was an surprise...an adventure!!  EmJ was positive we were going to the mountains!   "It's definitely the mountains!!"  "What makes you think that, Emme?" I asked.  " Because we can SEE them!!" they BOTH replied in unison!!  "Well.... maybe!  We'll have to wait and see!"  I said!  So OFF we went!  They guessed "to see the horses" and the "waterpark", "mountains" again, and "I have NO idea"!   It took us awhile to get to our destination because of a traffic problem on I-25, which I cleverly thought I'd avoid by going down Colorado Blvd! (It helps to know which county road IS Colorado Blvd before you head in that direction!)  :( But this was an adventure so there was no stress!  We all just went with the flow!

You learn a lot from your grandbabies when you just LISTEN!  And listen, I did!  I learned that at "At 5:00 mommy and Aunt Kelsey and I are having a girl time! And you're invited!  But you have to have curly hair. So you just get it wet and crunch it!"  Gavin piped up and said the "Yeah and daddy and me and Uncle Aaron are having a guy time!  Grampa's invited too!  We're going to have a burping contest to see who can do the longest one and the smelliest one!!"  :).

We had a little breakfast at McDonalds with one of the BIGGEST play areas I've ever seen!  But since this wasn't out final destination we didn't stay real long!  As we got closer, they were more and more curious!  But once we turned onto Colorado Blvd south of I-25 and got closer to Steele street Gavin cried out, "It's the ZOO!!  I KNOW it IS!!  I recognize this area!!"  Smart boy!  But I still didn't say yet!  Not until I put the blinker on to turn in to the parking lot, when at that time they both squealed "THE ZOO!!  I KNEW IT!! I KNEW IT!  YAY!!  IT'S THE ZOO!!!!"  :)

We has a wonderful time!  The weather was perfect!  Partly cloudy, but comfortable!  At first the animals were pretty sleepy but once they woke up they put on pretty good shows!!  The tigers in particular, we're really animated!!  The kids and I LOVED it!!

We only had two times when one of the kids, who will remain nameless, decided to get a bit testy!  I had two dollars in quarters in my pocket in case they still had food for the ducks (which by the way, they do not).  I'm pretty sure that God inspired this thought--I told both Gavin and Emery that I was going to give each of them 4 quarters.  Every time they got testy or nasty or mean they would owe me one of their quarters!  This worked like a CHARM!!!!  And they were SO proud that they had ALL their quarters when we loaded back into the car to go home!!!

On the way home Gavin invoked the "Quiet Game."  Which they are NOW pretty good at!!!  I'd forgotten we were playing it until Emme said something after QUITE awhile and Gavin said "Oh, YOU LOSE!!"   They played it quite a bit!  (I think they were pretty worn out so it made it much easier!!)

We ate a late supper at Taco Bell--Gavin ate 7 tacos!!!  Whoa!!  (He asked for 8 but took one home!)  I took them to their Aunt Shell's new home to meet up with Rob and Janaque and I headed back to Loveland!

I am so thankful for the day!  It was my definite HIGH!!!  No low!!!   :-D

I will post pictures later....having trouble with the computer keeping my accounts straight at this time!!!

I LOVE MY GRANDKIDDOS!!!

A bit of new news....

Now it's been 6 months!  The biggest news would be the anticipation of our next grandbaby!  Yep!! Aaron and Kelsey are expecting around April 1, 2013!  They are going to find out if baby Watkins is a boy or a girl in about 4 weeks!!  I don't have strong feeling either way--boy or girl--as long as he/she just comes!!!   Gavin and Emery are both in school now!  I love when I sub at their school and get to take them home.  We often go on "Kukax" dates ;oh, that's a new change too--the spelling of my nickname!!  But that's another story for another day!).  We do Hi/Low check-ins!!   Have to say they generally pretty happy and often say "No low!!"  And of course, I love when their "high" is "right now"!!!!  

It is another election year--more critical even than the last one!  The USA literally hangs in the balance as if the current administration continues for 4 more years I doubt that we will even have the right to blog like this and that our rights as we know them will begin to disappear!  Very scary!! And a lot of us are praying very hard for God to intervene!!  I AM working the early election again this year ... More to come after November 6th!!

Also new in our home us "Belle" (pronounced Bella) a 5 month old blond cocker spaniel!  We got her July 1st and it is amazing how FAST she grew!!  She is now almost taller than Lexi!!  She is spunky, onrey, possessive, sweet and goofy.  She sits on Lexi's head like king of the hill!!!  I'm pretty sure Lexi doesn't appreciate it but she sure is amazing to allow the little butt head to do that!!

I am going to try to post pictures later, but need to get ready to go to school.

....continued

Posting a few more pictures before actually signing off! Pictures Baldy and his girl, Jordan; Jana and Rob; Aaron and Kelsey; and one of Aaron from his band Random Hero!