Suffering

I wanted to write a little about something that I have realized since you have left. It is that while we never want to put the word "suffering" next to the words "my children", I have learned that there is a reason for it. I have at least learned to trust more and put our children into the hands of God and His great plan. I worried and fretted so much about how this deployment would affect the children, I worried they would be damaged. I could not see how anything positive could come out of this. As it turns out, yes, it has been difficult on them. On some, harder than I would have imagined and yet something else is happening at the same time. I am beginning to see leaps and bounds in their growth as persons and in their character. Each one is having their own seperate journey and way of dealing with this, but I am not sure that what is being accomplished in them could have been done without the "suffering". I hope and pray that this continues in the positive way it has been going, but I guess I just want you to know that you can be very proud of your children. When you come home I think you are going to see children who are a little more caring, a little tougher, a little more helpful and a whole lot deeper. Isn't that something that we would all wish for our children? Tonight I am grateful for the blessings that can come out of difficult situations, I am just so grateful...

I am including a picture of Laura who has been so incredible in her support to us. She is like a medicine for the family. Thank you Laura for all of the times you have come into town to watch the children and give me a break! We love you!!

Laura playing Boggle with M. Just a note that how P looks in this picture does not represent at all how she is with Laura, she absolutely could not get enough of her!!

It has been too long...

since I have said my last thank yous! That sure doesn't mean I appreciate it any less! We were out of town and then I was having some computer issues this week. And there are so many to thank! I will begin with Christine Foley helping us out with a meal when we were still mending from our sickness. She brought over a fantastic Taco Bake that all of the children raved about, definitely a recipe I would be interested in getting! Thank you Christine! After that we were treated with an incredible pot roast that has set me on a quest to find out exactly what was in that roast that made it taste and smell soooo good! That was given to us by Kristen Lindblom, a very busy lady herself who gave of her time selflessly! Thank you Kristen!

Taking a break here from the meals, we got a refrigerator!!! The Gratz's had an extra one and they were looking for a home for it! It is really helping with leftovers and yet again less stops at the store for milk! The Barnes came over and installed it which was no small feat! Backtracking a bit, our good friend Nicole B came over to help me clean. Now you know it has got to be pretty bad for me to allow someone to come in and help me clean, but I felt like I was drowing in the mess after being laid up for so many days. Thank you Nicole for making me feel so comfortable about it all, you are a true friend! The next day we were blessed by a meal from Diana Robertson, something I had never had before but really enjoyed. It was a casserole that tasted like Chicken soup! So perfect for the children, thank you Diana!

We went out of town and then came back to a meal in the cooler, a yummy tuna bake with soup on the side! It was perfect since I did not have much in the house after traveling. Thank you so much Georgia for the wonderful meal. And to finish it off I just have to say "you can never have too much pizza!" We have been blessed with two families who have ordered out pizza for us on two consecutive days, Sue Manley and Kathy Fulton!! There were many smiles from the children as the boxes came to the door each day! What a treat! I know I have said it before and I will say it again, I am supposed to be losing weight, not gaining it, but with all of this wonderful food.... well, it is difficult! I am hoping to at least start walking off some of this *ahem* extra me!

And what is a post without pictures, as I promised I am posting a few more of our trip back home. You can really see how all of the little ones have grown, being that it had been so long since we had seen all of the neices and nephews, my focus was really on them! Again, I just really had so much fun at home. I want to make sure to also thank my brothers for taking the boys for a time, they really had a good time! And I also want to thank my sister for such a great time, having our great sister talks makes the trips home so important to me!

Becky's children..










Jerry's youngest "petting" P. She was fascinated with her. The children look a little grungy since this was taken moments after waking up. We had such a good time with them at our sleepovers!




Jerry's children had a very cool camera by Vtech that M was fascinated with. Maybe another photographer in the house?






M got along so well with Jerry's oldest, they have already starting writing one another



Grandma and J at the tea party, our oldest will always be our "little girl"



I had to include a couple of Mark's little girl. I am so excited I was able to get a couple of shots of her since she is quite the mover!!

Back Home!!

We have safely returned from our very enjoyable trip to MN. It was SO GOOD to see family again and see all of the little nieces and nephews. WE started off at my brother's in Winona. Thank you so much for putting us up, we had a wonderful time Jerry and Susan! Then on to my parents for hours of talking and catching up. I had a great time getting my fill of adult conversation with my brother Andy! Thanks Andy for all of the great advice! To my mother and father thank you so much for putting up with all of the chaos and personalities, I truly was able to relax! Nothing made me happier than sharing the joy I have about the children with both of you and to see you enjoy them so much made my heart sing!

Our Easter was a cold snowy one, but enjoyable still! In MN we got about 6-8 inches of snow on Good Friday, our home in WI got a whopping 13-15 inches. We ended up having an Easter egg hunt out in the snow! I can't even begin to tell you how renewed I feel after my visit home, I came back feeling positive and like I was ready to take on the daily routine of my life, maybe it helps that everyone is healthy too!! I have so much to share with you in pictures but because it is time consuming I will have to do it in parts. I will start with one of the very special highlights while we were home. My sister-in-law held a tea party for all of the girls with not one detail overlooked! She is so talented! Her mother even made little flower arrangement things that the girls could take home (that picture will be coming in a later post). She provided hats and jewelry for the girls to wear and take home and then we had a wonderful meal of egg sandwiches, homemade pettit fours, scones, cucumber sandwiches and all of the fixings for tea. This was served on her grandmother's hand painted rose tea set. I'm not sure who this tea party meant more for, the girls or me, I appreciated how she paid attention to every detail, because I know how much effort goes into it. Thank you so much Meagan for such a wonderful time!!

C after finding a couple of candy filled eggs inside



If you look closely you can see some eggs in the tree, they got very quite creative with the egg hunt in the snow!



I thought you might want to see how L your godson has changed! He is such a big happy baby!



Here he is again, you know me and baby chub, I love it!!





Our P trying on the hats and jewelry




C in her Cinderella dress Grandma gave her

Going on a trip!

We are looking forward to our trip home to MN so much!! I will have lots to share when we get back! I am having trouble typing this as A poured bubble solution on the keyboard earlier today, so I will keep it short. Today I had planned to do so many things, and well not much got crossed off the list. It was overall a very unproductive day! I did however take a couple of P for you after our conversation about her today. She sure brings a lot of joy into this household and I hold her and kiss her all throughout the day! You can click on them to see her sweet face closer up!

New website!!

I have been waiting and waiting to show you the new website! I got the gallery of pictures up and thought I was ready to go when I realized I needed to know some html in order to get the text up! I sometimes feel as if I have lived in a cave and the whole world knows all of these things except for me. I stumbled over every single step in creating this website and it is still not finished! Oh well, it will get done, but I couldn't wait any longer for you to see it, soooo here is the link!

*My favorite gallery is Families, I just love the interactions between family members!

www.marygundrumphotography.com

Make sure you turn up your speakers to hear some beautiful music by Shaun Paul, he is so talented!

Over Easter break I will brush up on basic html and hopefully have it completely done.

The LAST time..

I am going to tell you about how we were sick for the very last time! I do not believe it would even be possible to get any more illnesses! It was a long and very painful sickness for all of us, there is no way there could be more in store, I cannot even imagine any more. My plans are to never write "we were sick..." ever again on this blog!! That is my plan and I'm sticking to it!

And so as you know, we were sick again. It was over two weeks and it consisted of days of high fever for all of us. No fun, no fun at all. All I could think of while going through it was that at some point I might be a normal mother and do normal things like buy my own groceries and maybe take a walk someday. Pathetic, I know, but remember, we just got through the roto virus and so I literally have not been out of my house much for over a month!

I do have to say, we truly are blessed with the people who came through for us, again!! I never could have imagined the type of support we have. It sure makes things easier for me to know that at any moment I am not alone and I have people who care and want to help. Luonne and Marilyn from the Republican women came and brought us a wonderful meal again, these women are troopers!! Thank you for being there for us! We were blessed by Moira's yummy soup, she really has a knack for being there when there is a need! Our good friend Julia Westphal came and brought an incredible meal! I told you before she is a supermom, well this meal just proved it! WoW! We loved every bite Julia! She also brought some balloons for C's birthday and some beautiful tulips that have cheered me up all week long! Then on to Bridget Fassett from the Republican women brought one of your favorite meals, chicken parmesan. It was wonderful, thank you Bridget!

I would be remiss if I did not make special mention of the people who helped out while I was down with the sickness. Amy, I could not have done it without you, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Amy helped take care of the children so I could try and fight off the fever and was here so I could run to the doctors. Laura S, you are an incredible friend. Laura ran out and got me groceries, made soup and took over some of my duties for the school auction. All of the people from school who took over my duties at the auction, especially Mary Cobb and Julie McDevitt. To Julie Swietlik, thank you for the incredible meal and tulips, but most importantly for"being there" for me, you are a true friend! Mary Jo came through again and bought groceries for us when I was in great need, thank you MJ! And last but not least, those wonderful neighbors the Schoepkes came through again for us! They provided us with many comforts as well as necessities all as a gift to us, I cannot thank you enough! There are many times during the day that I think of your kindness to us and feel, well, special!

I am going to post a couple pictures of C's birthday. It was kind of a sad party since no one could come because of the sickness. You can tell she is sick in the pictures. I plan on making it up to her at some point though and when I do I'll take some pic's of that! I couldn't get all of the pictures posted tonight since my camera battery died, the rest will come later.

here she is resting during her "party"



Her sisters visiting with her





She enjoyed the fairy costume she got



Her sisters even made sure she had "stick-on" earrings to make her feel special





those lovely tulips that made me smile all week!