Monday November 11 


Good Morning and Happy Remembrance Day...

Remembrance Day.. How bitter sweet.. The time ( 2 minutes if we can do it) we take to remember all of our fallen soldiers and to remember, and feel how truly blessed were are because of the their giving of their lives...An oxymoron.. My husbands uncle Robert Bradley Stone (my husbands name sake) was a sergeant on a Lancaster, his job, navigator... he was shot down over Berlin in one of the raids and his body was never found he was 22... I remember him today and thank him for his sacrifice. We have his metals and when we go to the cenotaph, we carry them with us and remember..... 
Memories are such precious precious things because in the end that's what we have. That's all we have, No matter the money, the station, the vehicle, who got there first, who was best....It's our memories you can't buy .. Laying in the dark at night I am flooded with them. Good, bad, and hellish...I have noticed that I am particularly seeming to let go of the bad ones more and enjoy and suck the love out of the good ones...To live and relive those feelings is so sweet for the soul. Sometimes when life beats you up it's so easy to focus on the bad ones, and be robbed of the good ones...don't rob your self of those sweet sweet memories. Revel in them...soak them in....Breathe them in and feel , feel the first time you held your new baby and the smell of their skin and the softness, the first time you fell in love,, real love and to look into the eyes you so completely get lost in....Laughter, oh sweet sweet belly rolling laughter...and not even knowing what the heck you where laughing about. 
I think I hear a song ( I know if it's not voices its songs.....lol ).. How about a few of my Favorite Things.... no rhymes to flipping early...lol
My dad use to pack up our old woody station wagon and on Friday night he would roll around the school pick us up and take us camping a the Pinery Provincial Park in Grand Bend with our best friends almost every week in the summer. We would all have jobs when we got there, kids find bathrooms, wood piles, and water taps, short cuts to beaches and a way to stay out of trouble...My mom was always amazing she would cook on and open fire and the food was so amazing, she was a great mom and even camping she would go break a branch and sweep the camp site after every meal..we would have camp fires, play games, build secret forts away from the parents find fools gold and think we were rich, and sit on the beach for a hour before we could go swimming, what torture, but we loved it..at the end of the weekend we would pack everything up and the my dad would drive us from camp site to camp site to collect all the beer bottles people would leave.. the station wagon was loaded and the trailer stuffed tightly but we collected till we had no more room, back then I think they were 2 cents each and when we got back we would share the money ( I thought I was rich) and dream of next weeks plunders...my best kid memories... I was able to do the same for my kids, camping became special to them except some how when Brad and I took them there was always 6-8 kids... The cooking ... god how I loved cooking for them all, 6 boxes Kraft dinner 2 dozen dogs.. the came they ate they left.. we rested ,, then stated all over again,, oh my goodness how happy they made me...Breakfast bacon, eggs, home-fries, toast, juice and anything else we cold stuff in those 6 teenagers mouths...and how I love to think of the happiness around the fire, the boys dancing to YMCA with their tops tucked up girls getting brought home by rangers, spider dogs, chubby bunny, smores ....glow stick splatter fights in the night and beaching and laughing...and lots of goo and mess and i wouldn't change one memory for millions of dollars,,, oh sweet laughter..Thank you kids, Alisha, Chelsea, Josh, Rutger, Daniel Crawford, Andrew Crawford the Hoornweg kids and many more.....You are a very sweet spot in my memories.. I must say also my poor sweet hubby, When i met him had no children of his own he was free wild hippie with no tie downs,,, and then he met me.....I had four kids at the time and shortly after he married me we adopted our dear Martina's Children Chelsea and Rutger and our family grew, not only with those kids but we became the leaders of our youth group and at any given time had any given amount of kids sleeping, living or visiting here....He only wanted a peaceful kid free environment in his life......SUCKER!!!! he got the full Monty and this morning said it was the best thing that ever happened to him that, meeting me gave him life.....and it did ( crazy, wild, dysfunctional life but life....) He has experienced so much with our crazy family but I don't think he would trade one of our memories or tears for anything.... Why don't you take the opportunity today with your family around the table (please one meal at the table together) and share what your remembrance day with them, share a good thought, l hear your kids tell you their best family memory somethings its not what you think, Sometimes its not the great trip to blah blah blah but he car ride or the birthday party or something simple. Take the time to know what your memories are doing and if you you even need to re examine what a new one should be . Memories worth a million, cheap to find and make.....do it for you and your family.. They are more precious than gold in the end....You wanna throw a real loop in order pizza or take out then set your dining room with your best china the stuff no one uses, maybe except for someone real special, and fed them on it and tell them there is no one more special to use the GOOD dishes on then them...I do it with with my kids all the time and they love it and talk about it ( yes we have chips and cracks but we used them and every ship and crack created you got it a memory).... dust of that stuff off and make them be the best most special company ever!!! (it probably needs to be washed anyway, kill two birds with one stone...)

And, again Team Awesome you have done it once again for me... The cries of your heart for me to sleep have been answered I slept 6 hours the longest since Oct 22. I needed it so badly and I felt your prayers and your thoughts and mostly your love and concern. Again I am so blessed to you have you guys on my side... GO TEAM AWESOME!!!!!!! I'm telling you I'm working on uniforms...lol So thank you, thank you, thank you.. a little something extra in the pay envelop this week!!! And please when I say thank you and I am silly trust me you have no idea how truly thankful I am , they are words written on this page but hey are engraved in my heart. It is because of you people that I will get through this, you, your love your prayers and your concerns so please do not ever let my Thank you's fall on deaf ears... You are my team Awesome! and I NEED YOU!
So I start 10 days of rest, this will be the hardest for me....I do go for another echo on my heart today I pray the fluid is down again. My heart is still the scariest thing right now for me. 
Then sadly my dad has to go back.. It has been the most wonderful time I have ever spent with him and another sweet sweet memory, over the course of our relationship we had some pretty big downs but they are all gone and I love him so very very much and he is my best daddy in the whole world and I would never change him for anything. He is perfect just the way he is and he is mine....I will miss him greatly but he is here in my heart and my sweet memories. 
My big sister Suzette Earhart is staying here for the next week as chief babysitter and watcher and she's tough so if you come to visit and when she says times up. I'd take up my hat and coat and go.....lol 
Love you all again thanks for the prayers and the sleep. Now go remember and make some sweet memories today..,

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