A little update....

I don't really have pictures of anything exciting that has happened in the last few weeks, but we have had some good times.  This post is mostly to catch my aunties and my mom's friends up on life so they won't worry about how we are doing!

First, thought you should know that Kedzie planned and invited four of her little friends from school to a party without talking to me seriously about it first.  She had mentioned the idea, but I didn't know she had done the inviting until one of the mom's called and asked about it!  Long story short, we moved the party day and time to this afternoon and two of her little friends are coming to our house for a princess tea party!  She requested that they bring a treat with them!  We'll see how it goes!

Ethan is still playing basketball every Saturday and enjoys most of the hour!  He did make one basket this morning.  We used to tell him to make a basket for Grandma Mary and that was highly motivating to him.  We haven't quite figured out his new motivation yet.  Oh well, we have one more game left and it's been good for him.

Alex doesn't stop talking!  He also has no interest in potty training, so he'll be almost three before we attempt that.  Phew.  I don't like it anyway.  Much easier to change a diaper!  He is now addicted to the Cars movie and the cars characters.  It's fun to watch him play with his cars.  His imagination is soaring.  It's fun.  He is my little buddy every morning as the kids are in school.

I'm back at the gym and enjoying that.  I even started a spin class once a week which is truly a love/hate relationship.  I'm also back to Weight Watchers because last year was tough on our scale.  I'm glad to be losing some weight and feeling better about myself.  As for the loss of my mom, I'm miraculously doing rather well.  I went to therapy this week and after about 30 minutes, I didn't have anything else to talk about.  So, I'll see her again in a month and that will probably be my last session.  I've been going since August, so I've had a lot of time to work out my mom's loss and I'm feeling good about where I am at right now emotionally and spiritually.  I'm truly blessed.  I think of my mom often and I miss her every day, but we are moving forward, as she would have wanted us to do.

The most exciting news is that we got the money from my mom's house and we are going to be able to pay off our home!  Karen came to visit a few weekends ago and she was here when we got the money and I started to cry saying I didn't want the money, I wanted the mom!  But, she sounded just like my mom as she told me how this is what my mom wanted to happen with the money.  She wanted us to be financially secure.  And, with our house paid off, what greater blessing could Travis and I receive from my mom.  It's weird to even think about, but we are grateful.  A true tender mercy.

I ordered a book copy of my mom's caringbridge site.  I love it.  I has all her writings about her cancer experience and all the comments people made to her.  It is a treasure.  And, I got my blog from last year, complete with pictures and talks etc from my mom's funeral all put in a book form.  I love it.  It is a great way to wrap up her death experience.  I'm grateful that she taught me how to express myself through words and photos.  What a wonderful lesson that she taught me, and she probably had no idea how much it would impact me as an adult.  I love it.

What else?!  We went to the mountains again last weekend with friends and had a great time.  Kedzie is getting really great at skiing.  She and I went together and it was fun.  The kids are wrapping up a session of drama classes which has been so much fun for all of them.  I'll blog about that in the upcoming weeks.  Kedzie is the squirrel in "The Gingerbread Man" performance on Thursday.

I'm grateful for my extended family who has not left me behind!  I'm grateful for their love and concern for me.  I'm grateful for the prayers that continue to be thrown my way.  I'm truly blessed. I can't believe that it's only been two months since my mom's passing and yet our family is doing so well.

Oh, I did have to report that Kedzie finally had her moment of missing Grandma and we both handled it very well.  I was proud.  She was playing animals with her friends.  When they went home, she  came to me crying saying that she wanted to just call Grandma Mary and send her some animals and she couldn't.  I asked if she wanted to call an Auntie or Karen or if she wanted to write Grandma a letter or make something.  She said she wanted to make something.  I asked what and she said "rolls because Grandma loved our rolls!"  So, we happily made a batch of rolls and she was just fine.  It went so much better than I thought it would.  I'm grateful that we made it through that.

I'm anxious about being in Utah in June, but if it goes anything like my life has gone in the past two months, I know it will be fine to be there without my mom's physical presence.  I'll be blessed and watched over and we'll have a wonderful time playing and being with family.

So, that's my update for those who care!  Love, Emily :)