Letters to Daddy

The blog has moved!

2008-05-22T16:09:00.000-07:00

I have officially moved the blog for a number of reasons, the first being the decrease in the amount of time it takes to upload pictures. The new blog will also enable Mark to be able to see the children's images larger without having to double click on them. There will still be a link to this blog in the left-hand column of the new blog. Thanks for stopping by and helping to support us during this time!

http://www.letterstodaddy.wordpress.com

A day off

2008-05-14T21:52:00.000-07:00

Guess what? I took the day off with the younger three and I am glad I did! We had fun just being together and not needing to rush anywhere. Enjoy! Click on to see larger!

little chipmunk cheeks and did you notice the pants? She's such a peanut, they kept on falling down! Do they even make belts for 1 yr olds? :)

I'm going to have this one printed up, does anyone want to give their two cents on which is better, black and white or color?

This is what happens when I try and get them to pose :)

Family Support Day

2008-05-14T21:29:00.000-07:00

We attended the family support day for the families of the 432nd. I could have never anticipated how much it would help our family. I was amazed at how the children opened up and at how in one day they went from feeling somewhat resentful to proud! Proud of you and what you are doing and proud of their part in it. It was really the first time that they were raised up for what they are sacrificing, it was the first time they were told thank you. The most touching part for me was when we were watching a slideshow of the soldiers from the 432nd. Everytime a picture of you would come up C would shout with glee and a huge smile on her face "DADDY!!" Near the end of the slideshow there was a picture of your departure that I had not seen before. It was a picture of you hugging M goodbye. The look on your face says it all. A couple of minutes after the picture was shown M came up to me sobbing. It had touched him deeply because he wants more than anything to have his Dad hold him. Two of the leaders of the group saw him with me and told him it was o.k. to cry, that everyone understood that here. It was just the way he said it, with tears in his eyes and so much compassion, that meant so much. M did cry, he did not feel embarrassed, and that was so important for us to not feel alone. When we got into the car after the day was done, M said it was one of the best days of his life! The girs likewise were very happy about having gone and thanked me for taking them. I want to thank Chris Schoeder and Amy Lauder and the people from Operation Military Kids for all that you did for us, you will never know just how much it helped.

And here is a little clip from the day, P is the baby with the ball in the beginning.

For some reason it won't link it but if you copy and paste it and put it in the address bar it does work, sorry!

http://myfoxwisconsin.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=6458812&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1

Super blogging!

2008-05-14T20:49:00.000-07:00

That is what I am going to have to do to get you up to speed on what has been happening around here lately! First things first though, and that would mean thank yous! First to start we had a yummy meal of fried chicken with all of the fixings brought by Cathy Carpenter. She came quite a ways to bring us our meal and it was deeply appreciated on this day as I was having some issues with A and P that were keeping me quite busy. After that Michelle Croegert brought us a very kid-friendly meal that we all enjoyed! I was grateful to hear the cheers about all that she brought! Thank you Michelle for bringing us Joe's meal every week too, you are a dear! On Mother's Day I was treated to a meal of brats and fixings, from Ted and Mary Kanavas, it was a real treat! Thank you so much! I know that was a busy weekend for you and I appreciate you taking time for us to make a meal and bring it over!

Then I must let you know about the generosity of our nearby church Holy Apostles. I have been so touched by all of their efforts towards our family... The fifth grade class had a bake sale to raise money for our family. With the money they raised they brought over 12 (yes 12!!!) meals from Dinners by Design. This food is not only healthy and like homemade, it tastes so good. We have loved everything we have tried! What a great thing to just pull out a meal on those days when you don't know what to fix that night. We really have enjoyed every meal so far. I truly am humbled by their efforts to help us...

If that was not enough, on the same day some of the Holy Apostle's girl scouts and their mother's came over to weed and clean the yard. It REALLY needed it!! I certainly have not had the time to keep up on the yard maintenance. When I came home, it looked like a whole new yard! They even planted flowers which I can look out at when I have my coffee in the morning on the brown chair. Later that night your father mowed the lawn and well, it just looked beautiful when it was done!

Thank you to everyone for your continued help! Now as was promised, I am going to post some pictures of thing blooming in the yard like you had hoped. I will continue to get them as they bloom.

The cherry blossoms

The sour cherry tree

Wine Lilac

What I did to the strawberry patch

Feeling creative...

2008-05-06T21:48:00.000-07:00

Maybe it's the change in the season, maybe it's just feeling better on the whole, but I am feeling creative! I love it when my mind is thinking of all sorts of scenes I could capture, it is truly a joy! Amazingly the children seemed somewhat in the mood to have their picture taken, it has been a while for them, or maybe they are excited knowing you will be seeing them. Before I continue on, I want to let you know of a couple of people who have brought us meals.

Judy Bloom brought us a wonderful meal of chicken bake which I was told is one of their favorites, well I can see why!! It was yummy and I will be asking for the recipe. I have really been enjoying some new recipes this year that I will be trying on you when you come home. Sandi Schimel likewise brought a wonderful meal of Italian meatloaf that everyone loved! Who would have thought to put cheese in the meat, but that made it so yummy! (Doesn't cheese make everything better?) Thank you so much ladies for helping our family out!

Now I know you are waiting to see pictures of things blooming around the yard, I promise I will post those tomorrow. A couple of these pictures were taken last week when it was a lot colder. I am amazed to see the amount of growth when I look back at the pictures compared to now. Hope you enjoy, because we sure did!

This is the best picture I could get of P today!

I just wanted you to see the new "crocs" P has that she is so proud of!

Here a couple from last week, note A's outfit! He was helping Mom with the yard work, notice him wearing your gloves :)

Lost tooth!

2008-04-27T20:22:00.000-07:00

M looks so different since losing his last tooth! Had to give you a close-up view!

A very happy memory!

2008-04-27T20:05:00.000-07:00

Our favorite family memories are from this cabin that my grandfather built, we will get there again my dear!

Settling in

2008-04-27T18:57:00.000-07:00

I am not as good at blogging as I thought I would be. When I first thought of blogging, I had envisioned myself recording all of the important moments of each day, so you would not miss a thing. It was going to be my way of keeping you in our lives, the best way I can. In the beginning of this deployment there was maybe a little bit of a high, awestruck that we were actually doing this, and making it just fine. It was a sense of victory. I am to a point where that has quickly worn off and has been replaced with the aching sense of our loss. Loss you say? Yes, temporary thank goodness, but a loss. Your absence is felt so keenly and it no longer feels like you are just away for a while from us. Your absence feels like a gaping hole in our lives. I know you are lonely on your end too, maybe that just makes it harder. And so I don't blog as often, because it is difficult to express what I am feeling and going through and yet it is impossible to act like everything is "normal". I am always afraid I will do *THIS*! Unloading! I am so good at it! I sometimes wish I could be the type of person that rides through the storms of life with a steadfast gaze straight ahead, focused on the journey's end. Instead, the rockiness disturbs my very being and does not let me rest inside. I have been watching the news and seeing the reports of the many mortar and rocket attacks on the Green Zone where you live. It brings me to a place I don't often have to go, a place where you dare to hope for the best outcome possible, and at the same time you fear the worst. A constant struggle to want to control your destiny and then offering that up to His plan in trust. A place where I offer you and your life completely to God. And so my faithful blog readers, we ask for your continued prayers for strength, peace and perserverance.

I do want to take the time to thank all of the wonderful people who continue to show their support and love for us, your care means so much to us! Starting with Famous Dave's restaurant in Waukesha, what a treat it was to come and eat for free! That is something my children rarely do (eat out!)and so they were very excited! It was good to meet a neighbor Beth Von Rueden who provided a meal for us, so yummy! She motivated me to start walking again after hearing she is training for a race!

Noelle Tessmer provided a delicious meal the night I went out with friends and that was a huge help! Noelle, I appreciate you taking the time especially when you must have been so busy with the preparations for the expectation of your newest little one! The children enjoyed the meal and I was so grateful I did not have to prepare anything before going out! Thank you Noelle, I hope to meet you someday! Jean Pritchard sent a delicious meal we thought tasted like breakfast burritos (which we love) and so all was pleased with that, thank you so much Jean!

Our faithful neighbors the Schoepkes came through for us again to watch the children so I could accept an award for Mark that was a distance away. I came back to their place to find all five children (I had taken P) asleep on the floor. They told me to go home and rest and upon their advice I even slept in and had a good cup of coffee while I read the newspaper, ALL TO MYSELF! Well, o.k. I did have P, but when your downsizing from 6 to 1 it felt pretty darn close to being completely alone! :) A huge thank you to Ellen Schlosser for helping me out with an outfit for the event and watching the children so I could run numerous errands again, ALONE! This time completely alone!:) Signing off with just a couple of pics from around the house..

Here is the new kitchen set we got for the two girl's birthday's, they love it!

Things are warming up!!

2008-04-26T23:28:00.000-07:00

Or should I say they were. Yesterday it was in the 70's and today was in the 40's-50's, tomorrow there may even be snow! UGHH! Oh well, I appreciate just being able to get out more and take a couple of walks, just breathing fresh air is nice! I know you are not seeing a whole lot of green out where you are so I took a couple of pictures of things around the yard that are blooming. I love watching the new growth come out of the old, it is such a perfect art!

The woods looked fantastic this spring!

A leaf bud on the lilac bush, this week it already opened and is covered with leaves

At Play

2008-04-18T21:29:00.001-07:00

I took a couple of the children enjoying the outdoors today!

Having so much fun with the neighbors

I know she looks ridiculous, but here she is calling out to everybody that they had better come and get her. She will not walk on the grass yet, so funny!

Bernadette to the rescue!

While the others were outside J was in practicing, she promises I will be able to get some more shots of her soon!

My Birthday!!

2008-04-18T21:10:00.000-07:00

I am so touched by all of you that remembered my birthday, it truly was one of the best B-days I have ever had!! I was first greeted in the morning with a Happy B-day phone call from Mark ( a wonderful way to start the day!). A couple of hours later someone came to the door with the largest bouquet of long stem red roses that I have ever seen from Mark. I took a picture, but it sure did not do it justice, it was too difficult to actually get it all in the picture! If you imagine our kitchen table Mark, they took up almost the whole length! Those flowers kept me smiling all day!

Later on in the evening the Mercy mom's treated me to a night out at Bravo's! What a wonderful treat! They had presents and a wonderful cake made by Kate Gehrig with four layers of chocolate ganache, yum! And if that wasn't enough A. Wichgers babysat and Julie Swielik and Mary Schmidt provided a meal for the children so I wouldn't have to think of that! WOW! They honestly thought of every detail, we are so blessed by our Mercy family!! I am including a picture of some tulips they brought for the tables that I got to take home. A huge thank you to all of you for making my birthday one of great joy! I will post some pictures of the evening as soon as I get them from some of the ladies! :)

Can you believe it, she's ONE!!!

2008-04-12T20:02:00.000-07:00

I am a little behind in taking these, but today it was snowing, *yes, snowing* outside and so I decided to play with the studio lights a bit. We had a wonderful party for P and C last weekend with family. I was so grateful to have everyone there to make it feel special for them. All of the children are a gift but I have to say having a little one around during this difficult time is such an incredible gift! As A said during night prayers the other night:

"... and God thank you for our baby that makes us laugh and laugh and laugh. We love her so much!"

out of the mouths of babes...Thank you God!

Just a note, she is so proud of this tutu! She walks around holding it and loves it when people say she is cute in it! In the middle of taking her pictures with the cake she waddled over to me and gave me a big "mahh" kiss, I love that girl!

We broke out the bubbles here, unfortunately one got in front of her face!

A thank you from Mary!

2008-04-12T19:50:00.000-07:00

O.k. now it is my turn! I have had a great week with the mail! I have always enjoyed getting snail mail, but up until the deployment pretty much all of the mail came for Mark (go figure). This week was full of presents that came in the mail in the form of gift cards and such from different people! To the Schmidts, Kolbs, Churchills, and Schmitzers, it will be used well, thank you!!!

I have a very sincere thank you to Marie Wycklendt for giving selflessly of her time and watching the children so I can could get out with the ladies. You are a dear! And to your whole family, we loved the cheeseburger casserole! It was a real hit here! Thank you again!

I received a wonderful meal from Mary Ann Hanson and besides that an incredible bunch of tulips, sooo pretty! Thank you so much for everything Mary Ann!

And last but not least, thank you to all of my wonderful friends who pitched in to take me out to the Melting Pot on Monday, I had such a wonderful time! It sure was on a day that I needed a little break from everything and seeing all of you lifted my spirits so much! I am so blessed with incredible friends and family!

A thank you from Mark!

2008-04-12T19:37:00.000-07:00

Some of you may have seen this already, but in case you missed it, here is a thank you from Mark to all of you who have helped us out!

A Letter from Mark Gundrum

Dear Friends,

Hope all is going well back in beautiful Wisconsin. My wife has kept me informed of what a challenging winter it has been. But for a few sandstorms, the weather here in Iraq has been tolerable thus far, though it did hit 100 degrees earlier this week. I am sure I will be very envious of Wisconsin weather come summer.

I have been in Iraq for about a month and a half now. Serving our country in this capacity is one of the greatest honors an American can experience. My work is primarily focused on helping the rule of law take hold and, hopefully, one day thrive in Iraq. Because of my background in the state legislature and local government, I have also been plugged in a fair amount on Iraqi governance matters as well. Earlier this week, we convoyed into downtown Baghdad for a committee meeting of the Baghdad Provincial Council (a near-equivalent to our state legislature).

Most of my time is spent in Baghdad, though I did make a site visit to Mosul for several days to assess the extent to which the rule of law is taking hold there. We convoyed into town for some insightful meetings with local Iraqi judges, the police chief, and the jail administrator. Because al-Qaida in Iraq and insurgents are still very active in Mosul, we always had to make these visits unannounced and keep them efficient and fairly brief.

America and Iraq are at such an important crossroads for the future right now. There have been so many encouraging improvements in conditions over the past year in Iraq. The Iraqi Army and police force have begun picking up more of the security responsibilities that used to fall on Coalition shoulders alone. The national governing bodies - the Council of Representatives and Presidency Council, as well as the provincial governing bodies - like the Baghdad Provincial Council, have begun functioning like governing bodies in other more established democracies. Similarly, many Iraqi judges and other actors in the criminal justice system here are beginning to demonstrate a commitment to the rule of law. It is exciting to see decisions being made by Iraqi officials based on debate, persuasion, justice, and a commitment to doing what is right, instead of out of fear for personal or family safety - as was the case for more than three decades under Saddam Hussein's regime and even just a year ago when terrorists and insurgents controlled portions of Iraq.

But things must be kept in perspective. There are many forces within (and some outside of) this country still actively committed to undermining a free and sovereign Iraq. Mortar and rocket attacks, car bombs, IEDs, suicide bombers, snipers, etc., attacking innocent Iraqis and American troops are still a very real part of life here. Corruption is still a concern throughout much of Iraq's government to a greater extent than in most other, more established democracies. And fear, though less than perhaps at anytime in the last few decades, is still a concern for honest, upright government officials here. That's why we are at such a crossroads.

The next several months will be quite telling. This is the time when Iraqis, from the policeman on the street to the shopkeeper on the corner to the highest government official, must take full responsibility for their sovereignty and freedom and make the sacrifices necessary to make it their own and make it permanent.

While here, I have been privileged to work with some amazing American patriots. So many wear a uniform - Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. Many are not servicemembers, but are civilian government employees and contractors who have volunteered to come to Iraq because they too want to serve their country in this capacity. Many of these servicemembers and civilians have made tremendous sacrifices to come here and do their part for our country.

America is so great and strong, however, not just because there are servicemembers willing to go to far off lands to fight for our country - but because other great Americans - the ones who are back at home, also step up to the plate and do their part by supporting servicemembers while deployed. That is something my family has been very blessed to experience first-hand over the past few months.

Thank you to all those who have helped clear our driveway during one of the worst winters ever, who have made meals for my family - so my wife could use that time to tend to the needs of our six children, who have bought groceries for our family, watched the children in times of need, and have helped in so many, many other ways.

Please remember to pray for the military spouses and children left behind when a loved one goes off to serve. It takes a significant toll on the family. Though many months of my deployment still remain, for my family that toll has been lessened substantially thanks to the great generosity of so many wonderful friends, family and neighbors. Other servicemembers may not be so fortunate. If you know someone who is deployed, please consider offering to help their family in some small way. The impact it makes for that family and the peace of mind it helps provide the servicemember serving overseas is substantial.

Once again, my family and I wish to say 'Thank You' for all the support we have received during these initial months of my deployment.

Mark Gundrum

The comments herein represent only the opinions of the author and are in no way meant to represent the views of the United States government or the military.

signs of spring

2008-04-02T21:35:00.000-07:00

Thought you might enjoy seeing some snow drops from our woods. We have had so many of these this year, a definite sign of spring! I also thought you might enjoy seeing a picture of what you were doing around this time last year. Remember when you saw M working so hard on his golfing and you ran out to show him how to do it better? I am so glad I captured that moment!

You had better watch out!!!!

2008-04-01T13:21:00.000-07:00

After reading the letter you sent to A, he was really intrigued by the idea that you said you were afraid he might be so strong by the time you came back that you might get hurt when he hugs you. The rest of the evening he was checking out his muscles in the mirror and asking me if I thought he was strong. He kept me laughing inside all night long. Today he asked if we could take some pictures to show you how much his muscles grew (sooo boy!). You better watch out honey, he has set some serious strengthening goals!

O.K., I guess there is still a soft side to him left. He simply can't resist his sister! She is so into giving kisses lately!

Suffering

2008-03-31T21:20:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-03-31T19:30:00.000-07:00

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!!

2008-03-28T22:24:00.001-07:00

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!

2008-03-18T19:09:00.000-07:00

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!!

2008-03-16T20:39:00.001-07:00

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..

2008-03-13T21:29:00.000-07:00

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!

Delicious light!

2008-02-27T21:21:00.000-08:00

I was drinking my coffee (yes, unfortunately since you have left, I have taken to the habit again), and noticing the light on the kitchen table and I just couldn't resist!! It won't be much longer and that bright clean white light that reflects off of the snow will be gone! And so I captured a few of P for you, she is starting to take some steps and so I tried to capture a few of those for you too! I love it when little ones start walking, they are so cute and proud of themselves!!

Initially she was not so sure about this lamb because it made it's own sounds :)

Love this one, I just wish I had more room in the kitchen so it did not cut off the top of her head! Also for some reason they look very grainy on here!

All alone with the crows...

2008-02-27T20:58:00.000-08:00

I titled this about crows because this is the title J made up for the poem she wrote. I love it when our children are creative and deep! J has always been known for that and this poem shows it real well. We went out in the yard and took a picture of what she saw when she wrote the poem, the only thing missing is the crows, she definitely wants the crows in the picture.

Before I get to the poem though, I would like to tell you who has been helping us out this week! We had a real treat with homemade pizza, a delicious salad and garlic bread on Sunday from Jim and Deb Bowers. It was so yummy! Thank you too Deb for the weekly call, it means so much! On Monday Becky Bierce brought over a yummy taco bake, my absolute favorite type of food is Mexican, soo good! Thank you for coming all the way out here and bringing the meal, again I wish I had not missed you!! We also had received a meal from J Elfelt called Polka Dot pie, a clever name for a very healthy meal! Of course it was delicious, you know J Elfelt, she is the queen of homemaking with style! Thank you Julie!

Now on to J's poem..

All Alone With the Crows

All alone in the blank white,
what a personal sight,
feeling deep thought,
cannot be bought.

Alone with black birds,
alone with white snow,
My thoughts, who heard?
My thoughts, who knows?

No one knows, no one knows but God and the crows.

Embarrassing...

2008-02-22T06:54:00.000-08:00

O.k., it is getting to the point that I am embarrassed to let people know there has been more sickness in the house. Honestly, people must wonder if my house is that dirty or something. For the last two weeks my youngest two have been dealing with Roto virus. I wasn't sure what it was until my youngest got it, it is sooooo nasty!!! Needless to say it has been a good week of staying put at home and doing a lot of holding P. I have however made a huge dent on spring cleaning since being home so much and that feels great!

During this sickness the meals and help has been very much appreciated!! I truly needed the help with not being able to get out much!

First of all a big thank you to our neighbor Didier for keeping an eye out on the ice situation and plowing us out. I love the days when I can get the children in the van at the top of the driveway!

O.K. doing it once was understandable, but twice? I was so embarrassed to say that I got the van stuck again on the driveway again. This time I was going to pick up the children from school and proceeded to back out of my ice skating rink driveway, when I literally slid backwards three- quarters of the way down the driveway until I was sideways and very stuck in a snowbank! I had tried to turn around at the top, but with the ice it was impossible to do and then I could not get straightened out again. Oh well, thank goodness for our good neighbor Al again! He came and pulled me out no problem, thank goodness for that! He and his son also surprised us with a wonderful meal! They came over with it steaming hot, how comfy!!

I was not able to get out to get groceries and so my neighbors, the Schoepke's, went out and did the shopping for me! I am so grateful to them for what they did for our family, it was such a huge help!

We had a wonderful meal of Sloppy Joes from Barb Burton. The children had just been asking when we could have sloppy joes and so it worked out perfectly! We loved it Barb, thank you!

Our good friend Jennifer Collins made her way out here during the sickness to visit and drop off a meal. What a good time I had, even though it was short! She has been offering to do so much for our family and I appreciate it so much! She brought our goddaughter with her and the only thing I wish I had done was take some pictures, she is so adorable!! Maybe this summer I will get one to show you!

I truly appreciated the meal Pat McQuade brought over and the only sadness I had was not being there to meet her!! Because of the driveway I had to put the cooler at the bottom of the driveway and when I came home it was filled! Thank you so much Pat, we loved every bit especially the yummy chocolate muffins!

We also were blessed by Michelle Croegert bringing us a meal of KFC (we love that stuff!). She has been the one who drops off Joe Henne's meal on Thursdays, but Joe was out of town. Thank you so much Michelle!

Our good friend Carrie Jensen brought us a yummy meal and again it was so appreciated!! Thank you so much Carrie, I know that is a far drive. When are we going to do another coffee night?

A big thank you goes out to Jim Bowers for running out and bringing me salt! It is hard to find in the stores right now!

And last but not least, a neighbor Ron Schmidt, saw us walking down the icy driveway the other day. He turned around and asked if he could put some salt at the bottom of the driveway. When I came home I found he had completely shoveled the driveway and put down salt. Such a huge, huge help, THANK YOU!!

I truly am being spoiled and I never could have imagined such an outpouring of love and care. I am not sure that I will even know what to do with food when you come home, do you realize I have hardly had to cook since you have left? This is so helpful! It not only allows more time for me with the children, but it also has decreased my time at the grocery store, this is a very big help! Thank you, thank you, thank you everyone!!!

Your new nephew!

2008-02-16T18:08:00.000-08:00

He is so adorable and I was so excited to get some pictures of him!! Isn't he scrumptious? I made an announcement for him and have included some parts of it below. He is a strong little boy! Click on photos to see larger.

Remember this?

2008-02-14T21:20:00.001-08:00

I absolutely love this, it says what you are all about as a father! That skirt is so silly looking! Click on it to see larger.

P's 10 month portrait

2008-02-14T20:33:00.001-08:00

Again you can click on the picture to see our baby bigger!

Shh! Don't tell her the bear is upside down, she's loving it just the same!

M

2008-02-14T20:21:00.001-08:00

M has been having a difficult time with you being gone, it is really starting to hit him hard. I would say I did not notice any problems until this week, so he definitely could use some prayers. I had asked for some for J and really it was like a miracle how she changed! I am so grateful for all of the prayers, I know that is what is holding me up! So at this point M is the one who could use a boost. Here is a picture he drew today. He came home and started working on it right away, it says so much! It is a picture of you leaving on a plane and down in the right hand corner is our family. I am holding P on the far left and we are all crying with tears on our face. I really think it is interesting how large he made the heart balloon, I'm no psychologist or anything, but could that symbolize his love for you? Click on it to see it larger.

Our Valentine's Day

2008-02-14T20:02:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Valentine's Day, although we definitely felt your absence. My day started out real well because our neighbor Didie came and scraped off the ice on the driveway. He then drove the van up the driveway for us, what a relief!! We had a red dinner complete with Joe's Spaghetti dinner, kid wine (sparkling grape juice)salad, chocolate covered strawberries and some cookies that Mary Forecki brought us. This woman is a wonder when it comes to baking!! She has come over with wonderful pies, cakes and meals since you left, all of it being very delicious! She has been such a wonderful help to us on our busy night. The younger ones look forward to her coming to read stories and the older ones enjoy the help with studying their homework. It allows me to get the kitchen somewhat in order before it gets so late. I really appreciate her help, and the children and I have grown very fond of her! Thank you so much Mary for giving of your time and opening your heart to our family!

Mary Forecki made these wonderful Valentine cookies for us (below) with the children's names on them. YOu and I had one with both of our names on it together :) Want to hear something so sweet? B decided that she wanted to mail her cookie to you so you could have it, then M thought that would be a good idea too.
All of a sudden A had this look of horror and he ran up to me and hugged me while crying. He was so upset that he had eaten his cookie and now it was too late to give it to you. Yes, my heart melted... We decided we could give you one of the other cookies with the heart on it, since he is so good at coloring hearts. He was so relieved when I told him that!

our yummy strawberries

2008-02-13T22:12:00.000-08:00

I promised I would get some up of B and I had to dig up some from last fall. I don't believe you saw these. You can click on the picture to see it larger.

For some reason this one catches my eye, I love how mysterious and unposed it is. I was having fun with the processing of this one.

Added texture to this one, it was taken in late fall when the sun was so golden! M is missing you very, very much.

What a hair doo! Taken at the cabin, added some texture and bordering, again just practicing.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!!!!!

2008-02-13T22:04:00.000-08:00

The children did this for you, G wanted you to know that he colored the heart all by himself! Taken in the kitchen at night, we love you!

Aren't you jealous?

2008-02-13T21:50:00.000-08:00

I have had so many people say they feel bad for me about not being able to get up my extremely long, steep driveway because of the snow and ice. Lately I pretty much have had to park at the bottom and walk up everyday. It is very kind of them, but what they are missing is what a benefit it really is! I mean who else has a Bally's right out their front door? All I need to stay fit and trim is right out my front door. Let's think about that, with the groceries I carry up, that must take care of at least one package of Oreos I have in one of those bags. Hmmm.. yes, lugging P up and down at least six or seven times a day has got to amount to a half an hour of weight lifting. Oh yes, and running the incredible amount of garbage our family produces down the driveway once a week before the garbage men come has got to amount to an early morning run. There you see, I am lucky! Who knows maybe I should try and capitalize on it and start charging a fee for anyone who wishes to utilize my wonderful driveway, it could be the next new thing, everyone would begin to envy my long steep driveway...yeah, right, I sure hope spring comes soon!

Yum, Yum!

2008-02-13T21:37:00.001-08:00

We had some generous souls brave the cold and snow to bring us meals in the last week and I am so grateful!!

Lori Harrell brought an amazing meal of pot roast and all of the fixings! I have to figure out what she did to it, because it was soooo goood! (Are you willing to share?) She also came out in subzero temperatures, thank you so much Lori!

Christy Cool, (isn't that the coolest name ever?, yeah, I am sure you hear that all of the time :)) brought a wonderful meal with very yummy chocolate chip cookies. She also was kind enough to check up on me later after seeing I had succeeded in getting my van stuck in a snowbank at the end of the driveway. Thank you Christy!

On to getting my van stuck in a snowbank, I am embarrassed to say that I did. In 6 years I don't think I have ever done that, but of course when I was supposed to be somewhere on Mon night I got the van stuck instead. It's just that with groceries in the car, I REALLY wanted to make it to the top for the unloading factor, let's just say I have learned my lesson.

Our neighbor Al had just offered the day before to help us out in any way that we needed, how timely :)! I am so glad he did because it took nothing for him to pull me out with his cable hooked up to his four wheeler. I am so grateful for his help and support of us!

We had some other helpful neighbors this week that came to try and chip the ice off of the driveway on Sun. Tom and Beth worked hard and long, but in the end I believe it will have to be a warm day that helps us out!

A big thank you to Julia Westphal for having our crew over and making me laugh harder than I have since Mark left! She and her family welcomed us in and made us feel right at home! We had pizza, made cupcakes and made some very "special" cookies that even the dogs would not eat after having a taste! We had used some "wrong" ingredients and well let's just say that I laughed so hard I was crying watching people (and the dogs) eat them! Thank you Julia for not only organizing such an incredible group of help for us, but opening your heart to us. I am so inspired by your kindness and gratful to God for our friendship! You keep me going with a positive attitude girl!

Remembering...

2008-02-07T22:12:00.000-08:00

As I promised, here are a couple of scenes from our relaxing times this summer..
Again can be clicked on to see larger.

Can you say "BLIZZARD!"

2008-02-07T21:28:00.000-08:00

Well, we got socked!! It was nice having the children home for a snow day and as I woke up on Wed. I was excited thinking about how much I was NOT going to do that day. Then the opportunity to take J in to the doctor's presented itself and I figured I should take advantage of it while I could. So with J and the younger two (I left the middle three with Rita) I proceeded to go out in the storm. It was no problem until my battery light flashed on, then very quickly I could not steer. NOT GOOD! I was lucky enough to make it into the parking lot. I guess I just said lucky, but I really believe it has nothing to do with luck. I was not able to get towed due to the storm and so our pediatrician Dr. Andrew Swietlik ended up lending us his Suburban (with four wheel drive) for as long as we will need it. He actually had called a couple of times this past weekend offering us the vehicle after he heard we cannot get up our driveway many days. The driveway just gets so slick and even a little bit of snow is too much for our van to handle. Can you believe it!!! What an incredible friend he is! I keep on thinking about what would have happened if that belt (that is what it ended up being) fell off anywhere else on the road. It would have been really difficult.And so our friend Dave came and fixed it on the spot in the parking lot for us, we are so blessed by generous friends!

The next morning I wanted to get out to be at school for J's presentation of her report. Needless to say, there was so much snow I wasn't sure how I was going to get out of the driveway, much less get out the front door with the snow drift in front of it. I was upstairs thinking to myself that I would call one of the Wichgers to help me out and no more than five minutes later the children yelled out that someone was shoveling us out! It was good ol' Chuckie Wichgers!! He was such a godsend! By the time I got back from school, he had shoveled the whole top of the driveway and walkway and cleaned up some garbage that some animals had gotten into!! Now that is a true friend! When I came home and saw it all cleared up it brought me to tears! Thank you so much Chuck!

Well, as you can imagine I felt a little fried today. I was looking at my long list of things to do and then I looked at G and C and wondered to myself "what is a mother to do?" Well, build a snow fort of course!!! I really had NO time for this, but I had to have the time for this. It meant the world to G and C and it ended up being a great stress reliever for me. We had fun and the children wanted to show you in a picture. I really did not get the fort because I was enjoying G's happy look on his face too much that I focused on that!

So on to a couple of pictures, all of these can be clicked on to view them larger:

Jacinta giving her report, she made some really neat Indian figuirines out of clay that I should post up here, they were really well done.

and a couple of them outside

and one of P watching the children outside (later in the day)

Sometime I have to get B in front of the camera, that is a challenge, she has become 'camera shy' since the start of the blog! I will get her yet!

Some thank yous!

2008-02-07T21:14:00.000-08:00

The meals keep coming!!! Thank goodness, it truly is a great help, however I do believe I am getting very spoiled!!

Jill Lukic, brought over a wonderful Italian meal that we all enjoyed very much! Her husband was kind enough to go all the way to the back of the house and put it in the cooler because I forgot to set it out! Thank you so much for all of the great effort and please know that not one bit went to waste! :)

Carrie Kohloff came over looking cute as can be pregnant and all! She made a wonderful meal for us (including cupcakes!) and was very kind about checking up on us later to make sure we were o.k. with our driveway and all. I appreciate what she did for us, I know how tiring it can be to be pregnant.:)

That wonderful Karen Albers came over with a meal again!! This time around it was homeade fruit salad and cookies with Kentucky Fried Chicken and all of the fixings. Definitely one of the children's favorites so far! Thank you Karen!

A big thank you goes out to Michelle Croegert who has offered to bring Joe Hennes restaurant meal home to us once a week! This a great help as that is our very busy day!

The Daddy Doll

2008-02-04T22:38:00.000-08:00

Shelly Matthison was kind enough to get us this Daddy Doll. On the tag it says, "Hug a Hero". It basically is Mark shrunk down to 18 1/2 inches, ha!

M has really taken to it and loves to hug it/you and just to prove it here is a picture of how he sleeps now. He sleeps on his Dad. Underneath his head is the Daddy doll and he sleeps this way every night. I don't use flash so he did not wake up while I took this, we love you hon!!

Remember this?

2008-02-04T22:28:00.000-08:00

Each time I blog I have decided I would post a "remember this" picture. It will be a picture most likely of one of our great cabin vacations from last summer. I love our simple vacations that consist of nothing more than our family, simple traditions,no outside noise and the great outdoors..

Remember this beautiful hike we took?

enlarge to see bigger

My photography

2008-02-04T22:07:00.000-08:00

I am spending a lot of time studying my technique with photography while you are gone. I always feel like there is so much more to learn. My goals this year are to get some technical issues down, work on my composition and using the rule of thirds, but most of all I want to work on capturing pictures that tell a story and capture emotion. I love this picture of a friend of mine and her baby below, I need to train myself to sit back and wait for the moment, not try and make it happen. It is a different approach. So no more telling the children to sit down and pose, I want to capture them for who they are and what they are doing this year. I want you to feel as if you have shared in the moment...

The WGA meet

2008-02-04T22:04:00.000-08:00

M did awesome at his last meet!! He came away with six medals and an all around medal! I was so proud of him, he was so focused and worked hard. He can't wait for you to come home and see his medals! There are no pictures because I took the youngest two with me and there was no way I was going to try and handle a camera and them at the same time. We had a great time watching him!

A whole week!!

2008-02-04T21:52:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it has been a whole week since I wrote my last post, shame on me... My plan with this blog is to eventually have it printed up as a blog book. I just found out about a company (will have to get the name later) that prints up your blog posts into a book! What a great idea! With that in mind I had better do a better job of keeping track of the events that happen here. As you can imagine things have been busy and we are still adjusting to your absence. I sometimes wonder if we will ever really settle into a routine completely. Over all I would say everyone is doing well with the exception of the oldest. She could use some prayers. I think it is difficult on the older children because they understand completely and yet they do not have the tools to deal with it properly yet. I took this picture this past Fall, love this one because of her natural smile!

Swiss Meet

2008-01-29T21:06:00.000-08:00

Just a few from the last meet. He had a lot of fun and did pretty well. His scores were pretty consistent with last time, he stays around an 8 most of the time.

How I feel...

2008-01-29T20:49:00.000-08:00

Everyone naturally asks how I am (and I do appreciate their concern :)) but, I really never know how to answer that question. I'm not sure how to answer that most of the time because I have not been able to put a finger on why this is so hard. The other day Mark sent some things in the mail for me and there was a decal in there that described exactly what makes deployment so difficult:

The best way to describe how it feels is that things are not "right". We have ups and downs, but overall things are just not how they are supposed to be. I know I have a long time to wait, but I cannot wait until things are they way they are supposed to be and you are at home with us again...

The 432nd in training

2008-01-29T09:17:00.000-08:00

The link below shows the 432nd Civil Affairs Battlion during training excercises:

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080126/VIDEO0301/80126058

2008-01-27T21:23:00.000-08:00

This is how he comes down for breakfast, in his army pajamas and hat that you gave him for Christmas :)

He was so excited to show you that he can write his name! We are using the shortened version of course! Click on it to see it larger.

Not the best pic of him, but it was all I could get out of him! Notice the army stickers he put around his name?

Some wonderful women!

2008-01-27T21:01:00.000-08:00

As much as I miss you and do not enjoy this time with you away, I have to say that I am really enjoying getting to meet so many different people. So many people, all with different stories, but all with a tenderness of heart and a generous spirit. Our lives are blessed because of them!

The Republican women contine to come through for us, it means so much to have that meal on Sunday, I truly can make it a day of rest!

Thank yous go to Karen Albers for a wonderful meal with all of the details taken care of. She thought of everything and we loved it! Those oatmeal cookies lasted a week and went in the children's lunches, it was perfect!

Can you imagine coming home to the aroma of rosemary-lemon chicken with roast potatoes and carrots? Now picture two plates of homemade brownies sitting next to that and that is what we saw when we came home that Sunday! What a comfort that was! It was incredible, with lemons in the cavity and fresh rosemary, so, so yummy!! I am only sorry I missed you Shelly, thank you so much!

Vicky Ostry and I had a wonderful time together visiting and well, giving me a chance to have adult conversation! Thank you for taking the time Vicky, I enjoyed it so much!

Cathy Waller came by with a wonderful Italian meal today, unfortunately I missed her because of M's meet. It was perfect coming home to a meal ready made so I did not have to think about it, trust me I was exhausted! It was delicious and a meal the children really love, thank you Cathy!

We also had Doris Fons from J Westphal's group come this week. She brought over some tortilla soup (my favorite) and sides. I really enjoyed meeting her, she has some interesting history from WWII that she shared. I am learning so much from the people who come to visit! Thank you Doris for the wonderful meal and taking the time!

We also had our good friends Anne and Chris Wolfe stop by with a meal today, again I missed them because of the meet! Thank you for taking the time and for the yummy meal!

I know it may seem like a lot but trust me, every single meal is so appreciated! It is just one less thing I have to think about and trust me I can use that. I am definitely feeling the pressure of being the only parent, so instead of cooking I can be attentive to my other wonderful duties such as disciplining and loving and disciplining and loving and still more disciplining and loving!!!

She is so much fun!!

2008-01-21T16:18:00.000-08:00

All done!!

Some of P...

2008-01-19T15:42:00.000-08:00

Open gym

2008-01-19T15:36:00.000-08:00

We had such a great time at open gym!

Later on in the week G had one of his good friend over, these two get along so well!

Busy week

2008-01-19T13:39:00.001-08:00

Well they say a picture is worth a thousand words and thank goodness, because I couldn't possible blog everything that we have done in the last week!! I will post pictures of some of the highlights. Please know that we are being taken care of by all of our generous friends and people who have extended themselves to our family!!

Remember L. Vacarro? She surprised me with a wonderful meal and a couple of days later her daughters made us a chocolate eclair cake! Oh my goodness, I think I ate about half of it myself! It gave me a chance to see our goddaughter Sophia, what a sweetheart! They have been checking up on us to see if there is anything we need.

On to J Westphal, she has been absolutely incredible, what an angel to have put in our lives at this time! I can't believe how much she has done for us and all the while being a very busy person herself. It amazes me when I hear of all that she does! She belongs on that elite list of supermoms!!

We met Joe Hennes (forgot the camera, will post picture later) a guidance counselor at Brookfield East, who also owns his own restaurant called Sloppy Joes. What a really nice guy! He is providing us a meal of wonderful Italian food from his restaurant once a week. Wow, wow, wow!! I told him when you come home that we will have to go and visit him at his restaurant! The generosity of the people towards our family is overwhelming!!

A huge thank you goes out to the Fergusons for helping with dropping off Mark from gymnastics!
E Schlosser came with one of my fav's for a meal the other day, Tortilla soup! I have been eating the left-overs for all of my snacks. Everyone enjoyed the meal very much. E came over on a day that I was having some difficulty with A. She knew just what to do, she is so intuitive! She took him on a walk, and he came back a different little man. I appreciate the time you gave E and the shoulder to cry on, thank you so much!

O.k., I am having difficulty focusing on writing with the noises of the children so I will go on to posting...

Beer, brats, Harley Davidson and bowling!! That is how I have always described Milwaukee to people from out of town. We had a great time with the McMani clan at the local bowling alley and then on to their home for a wonderful turkey dinner! Thanks so much you guys for a really great time!

B and friends after seeing her score

I guess this score was not as great as the last one :)

M was having a really bad hair day, but a great time bowling!! He spent half of the game upside down trying to figure out how the balls were coming back up again through the machine.

Caught this picture right before the ball landed! Gotta love those boots!! I swear he is so silly when it comes to what clothes he will or will not wear.

Here he is again decked out in his army hat and no, I did not iron the children's t-shirts, they are lucky when it makes it into the drawer!!

Here is C with her great toss of the ball!

Watching it go, go, go!

My Grandfather's example

2008-01-14T21:41:00.001-08:00

My grandfather served in WWII and is a great inspiration to Mark. He was a wonderful, virtuous man who believed in serving God and your country. While visiting my parents, Mark has spent time poring over my grandfather's letters to my grandmother, which were saved by my mother. My mother has since put them on a blog. My mother always remarks at how much Mark is like my grandfather and it is really true, I think if Grandpa could have met him they would have gotten along real well. The link to the blog is here:

http://dearestmarie.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html

I have linked it to one of my favorite letters from my Grandpa under "A Beginning" at the very bottom of the page.

Mark and I

2008-01-14T21:08:00.000-08:00

Thought I would share a couple pic's of Mark and I. Goodness, 11 years of marriage and it took a deployment for us to get a picture of us together! :) The first one is courtesy of a good friend Nicole Barnes (my photog. friend) who does awesome work, thank you so much Nicole, I will cherish this picture forever! The second is of Mark's departure.

Having a large family!

2008-01-13T18:47:00.000-08:00

If you have a large family, you will want to take the time to listen to this to get a good laugh!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaD8xat6VDw&eurl

A fellow blogger Cathy H (the one who gave me the idea for the Christmas cards) sent me this and oh my goodness, could I relate!! I have heard every single one of these comments and I really appreciated this! I needed the pick me up today, thank you Cathy!!

Celebrating feeling better!

2008-01-11T22:07:00.000-08:00

I had in mind so many things I wanted to say, but at this moment, I am completely out of energy! I will post some pictures from today...

He wears the hat you got him for Christmas, all of the time!!

C is feeling much better, thank goodness!

She also carries around the bear you got her for Christmas all of the time. Every night we set him up on the bedrail to watch over her while she sleeps.

And a couple of P, I know you are missing her, she looks so different doesn't she? She's a skinny little ragamuffin now that she is moving!! :)

God's goodness to us!

2008-01-09T20:00:00.000-08:00

Do you remember the winter wonderland you left? It is completely gone!! Today was a gorgeous day and had the hintings of a very new spring, it definitely lifted my spirits! I hear that there is snow ( a lot of it of course) in the forecast for tomorrow and Friday, we will have to wait a long time before we really get spring!

I wanted to make sure I said some more thank yous that are definitely well-deserving out there! It is a great joy to say that your family has been wonderful to us, I know I can count on them! L picked up M for his class on Sat., which was a huge help while being sick and A came early Monday morning for our "false alarm" with M. A also ran over some soup and bread today, which is always a great comfort. Do you know what was so neat about A? When I told her not to come because of the sickness in the house, she said, "who cares, I'll be there anyways!". Completely selfless, that is what that is!

And what would life be without our wonderful Italian neighbor!! She is always there for me! She helped me out with some groceries this week, but even more she gives our G some get away time and me a big break when he stays at their house, it seems to work out well for all of us! Most importantly is how she never fails to make me laugh! I know you must be missing me telling you the funny things she says, to know her is to LOVE her!!

M Schmidt has helped our A so much this year by opening her home and giving of her time to him, and in turn that has helped me!! She was there for me on Monday, picking up A and keeping him for the day! When he came home you could tell his spirit was lifted, I appreciate that so much! And her help with M is beyond what she needs to do, but every little bit helps things not get too overwhelming , I can't tell you how much I appreciate her being the "boy's helper" this year!

Our good friend N is vigilant in checking up on us and making sure all is well. She is one of the most selfless people I know. From bringing over a meal, buying groceries for me, to constantly offering her time to give me a break, I appreciate her so much! She has been very flexible with my many schedule changes too! Thanks N, I can't wait until we have some time to talk about the fun stuff (cameras, lenses, great light....) :)

Last, but not least, a huge thank you goes out to my devoted mother. I have been so blessed with the relationship I have with her. While not physically able to be here with us she has gone to bat for us in prayer! She is fully with us in her heart and we can count on her prayers. She recently went through very difficult eye surgery and she offered all of her prayers and sufferings for us, this is no small thing, I believe in the power of prayer. Her surgery was scheduled the same day as Mark's departure, there are no coincidences with the Lord!

And so you see, we are sooo blessed! And as difficult as it can be to accept help sometimes (o.k., every time), it also makes me believe in the goodness in people, but most of all in the goodness of God! I am so grateful for the way that He takes care of us. I am so grateful for all of the good people we know who are willing to be His hands, His feet, His kind words, His kind actions!

She prays!!

2008-01-07T20:54:00.000-08:00

Because of the nature of little ones and how much they change, you will hear a lot about P! She started praying at the dinner table tonight with us! She was so proud of herself she finished off the prayer with a little rocking back and forth dance! I wish you could have seen her little hands together in prayer, hey hon, she said that one for you!! She also has become a fast mover with a determination to go downstairs, so life is a little different having to make sure the doors are closed so P does not fall down the stairs. To my great relief she finally eats table food and does very well with it as long as it is not mushy! One more thing hon, I kissed her squishy soft belly 3 times today just for you! This is her 7 month picture so it is outdated, but I don't think you saw it yet, and with all of the sickness, I have not pulled out the camera much at all!

M meet

2008-01-07T20:48:00.000-08:00

M did awesome at his second meet coming home with 5 medals and 1 trophy! He was so excited I wish you could have seen his face! A saw the medals and really wanted to be like his brother, so of course M gave him one to keep, he's still your good boy! As soon as he came home from school today he put on his uniform and started practicing! Thank you again Smreceks for making it possible for him to go!

An Update

2008-01-07T20:43:00.000-08:00

Boring title I know, but that is what I feel this is, the update, and it's a looooong one! For those of you who didn't know Mark was able to come home for Christmas (still on orders) since he was still stateside (yeah!)! We were so grateful to have him home, it would have been very difficult without him. Well, as usual we did things the Gundrum way, that would mean sick the whole time! I don't know what is wrong with us this winter but we just keep on getting everything that is going around! To make it a little shorter I will number our events in the order that they happened:

1 Mark comes home!! YEAh we all rejoice!

2 Christmas day: Mark gets sick and faints in the bathroom hitting his face on the tub on the way down. Mary is quite frightened upon finding him unconscience on the floor. The children are sent to Grandmas for Christmas dinner without us and well Mark and I had a great time talking and spending time together, even with sickness.

3 We had a couple very uneventful days of staying in our PJs and playing boggle watching the beautiful snow come down.

4 We went to Organ Piper Pizza, because of the kindness of some friends, and had a great time until B informed us that she needed to throw up, well indeed she did. Cleaning up my own bathroom is one thing but, a public bathroom? YUCK!

5 The next day M informed us that it was his turn and Dad did a real good job holding the bucket!

6 Everybody seemed real good except J had some real red rings under her eyes and C had some strange spots on her face that we didn't think much of.

7 We went out to dinner without the children, thanks to the Shoepkes! We had such a wonderful time and then reality set in that it would be our last dinner together for a long time....

-Mark had said it was the most amazing days he had ever had with his family, even with the sickness, it didn't matter, he was so grateful for the time!

8 We dropped Mark off......... This was the saddest day of my married life and it was nothing short of traumatic, for all of us. I appreciate everyone's prayers. It was so hard to believe that this was the last time he would embrace us and look at us for a year. Well, I'm sure you can imagine. After we left, M through tears asked if we could visit Jesus, he just needed to talk to him! After visiting our Lord in church we went to Grandma's for some hot chocolate and cookies. It felt a little like a death coming home and seeing everything that is his.

9 That very same night my daughter J throws up from the top bunk, I will let your imagination fill in the rest of the details!

10 The next day P, C and J are not doing well so they are taken in to the doctors to find out that C has hand, foot and mouth disease, J has strep throat and P has an infected diaper rash that would not allow me to put her down. I am still trying to keep my patience at this point...

11 Later that evening I feel a fever coming on so I take some Ibruprofen and start disenfecting with some germicide that C gave me (thanks C!) By the next morning I am laid up (and I mean laid up) with a 103 temp. After two days of this fever I finally figured out it was strep and got the proper medicine, what a tremendous relief that was!! B was incredible! She basically ran the household, hardly even saw P except to feed her. I started to feel sorry for myself and then I saw in the news two more stories of soldiers who have died in Iraq. Right away I resolved that I would go through this a million times over if it means you will come home to us safe and sound. I pray for those suffering families...

I could not have made it through this last sickness without the help of the Smrecek's. T took M to his meet (which was 4 hours long, six with travel) and L helped out with the children and the Sunday meal. She then ran out to get my medicine for me. We have been so blessed by your friendship!N your offer to help (great ideas!) meant so much and were greatly appreciated!

Robin Moore from the Republicans women club came and brought a wonderful meal of pot roast, potatoes, apples and carrots! It was perfect timing for the children and I even had some once the medicine took effect! What a wonderful meal! Thank you so much!!

I am starting to tire out so I will be logging off soon , but after this hopefully it will be much lighter topics! If anyone has any tips as to how to get the sickness out of the house, please feel free to share!!

2nd Christmas card

2007-12-21T16:37:00.001-08:00

Oh my goodness you should see how hard we are laughing!!!
If you click on it and nothing comes up, go back to it, it means someone is looking at it! Keep on trying!! One more note, sometimes it shows faces other than ours, you should be seeing our family on it, if you don't try again!!! Sorry, wish it was more direct!

http://www.jibjab.com/sendables/preview/b5bG03cIbztBHtepQbOVziiP

A fun family Christmas card

2007-12-21T16:27:00.000-08:00

This is soooooo funny!! It only fits a little more than half of our family, sooo more to come!!
Sometimes you have to click on it two or three times back again before it works, I think it gets stuck if other people are looking at it, just my guess.

http://www.jibjab.com/sendables/preview/QXqzNig2gRFyUCUqAHyjLU8N

Swiss Turners Gymnastics

2007-12-21T14:15:00.000-08:00

Thought you might enjoy these two videos of the Swiss Turner's boys team. The first one is the last meet they had and the second is video of practice at the gym. I feel proud just watching it!!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=a_mf3Ew9PEU

http://youtube.com/watch?v=YI94K2q2PPI&feature=related

Two more finalists!

2007-12-21T13:39:00.000-08:00

click on it to see it larger

I am so excited that two more photos of my most willing subject made finalist on Betterphoto.com!

Chula Vista

2007-12-21T13:24:00.000-08:00

O.k., onto why I did not get any sleep last night... Mark's mother is generous enough to take all of the families to a waterpark every year right around Christmas time and this year it was at Chula Vista waterpark! We all were looking forward to this very much and with Mark's sister Laura helping us out we made it work! Thank you so much to your brothers and sisters, they all were very helpful, but a special thanks to Laura for missing out on some extra fun and sleep!:) Anyways, everything was going well until 1:00 am when P woke up with a very high fever. Of course I had not packed medicine (why would an experienced mother of six do that?), so I went down to the bar with my sick baby to find out where I could get some. A WalMart 10 mns away was the only place, thank goodness Laura was there to stay with the children. After getting the medicine, P and I hung out on the couch in the lobby all night, seeing as she would not sleep and I did not want to wake the others. Hey, that night guard and I had some great conversation!! As much as the little voice in my head kept on telling me I needed sleep, I couldn't help but savor that time for what it was. Quiet, peaceful time, holding my baby on a soft leather couch in front of a cozy fire, soft Christmas music in the background. In the end it was a blessed time of peace and prayer I otherwise would never had found the time for. God is good!

Christmas Program

2007-12-21T13:01:00.000-08:00

As I am writing this I am working on 2 hrs of sleep, (I will explain later), but I wanted to post some pictures from the Mercy Academy Christmas Program. M made a great king and was so excited to play this part, I wish you could have seen his grin!! This school means so much to our whole family and we ask for your prayers that it may continue in its great mission in forming minds and souls. The pictures are a little blurry and noisy as I am not used to shooting in low light, but it gives you an idea of what our school is about!

The Bell Choir

Thank yous!

2007-12-16T19:01:00.000-08:00

Thank yous can never get old, because it only means that so many caring people are extending themselves to our family. I am so touched by the amount of kindness we have been shown. We have received some wonderful meals from genrous people. Every single meal has been a sigh of relief for me, and a comfort! I am able to spend time with the children, or get caught up on cleaning because of the meals. Some recent people I would like to mention are:

Julia Westphal, for doing SO MUCH!! She has extended herself so much for us, starting out with a wonderful meal she brought from her sitter and some yummy doughnuts on the side! Thank you so much Julia, your kind heartedness has been so heartwarming!

Girl's club from Mercy Academy , brought over cookies that they baked for us and that wonderful JS added some yummy berries and a take home bake pizza. That JS always comes through and my goodness she is about to deliver a baby in about a week and she is thinking of us!

Uncle P did me a humongous favor by taking M to his basketball on Sat. Not only was it snowing and I would not have been able to get up the drive, but this allowed me to keep the younger ones napping! Thank you P!

Mary Forecki called to say she overbaked, (this is good since she is a very good baker), and would I like some cookies! I gladly accepted, because in a household of six children you honestly can eat up Christmas cookies fairly quick. She also brought us some homemade chicken soup, I know this will come in handy this week for meals, thank you Mary!

And to finish the weekend off, two women from the greater Milwaukee Republicans, Luonne and Marilyn, dropped off a cozy meal of Tater tot casserole (yum~) and salad and dessert. I guess I am not sure who is enjoying all of the treats coming into the home, me or the children? I'm telling you, I am not losing any weight, not even close!!

O Christmas Tree

2007-12-15T20:46:00.000-08:00

We broke all of the traditions today!! It definitely was not the same putting the tree up without you! You are always so good about going out and making sure you get a real tree (even if it ends up being the "Charlie Brown" Chrismas tree every year from our local Steins or Home Depot!). This year we broke in the "pretend" tree. The children were not too sure about this idea, a tree from a box? How could we!! Anyways, after successfully putting it together and pulling down the branches to make it look like it was a healthy, perfect Christmas tree, Mom plugged in the one simple plug and Voila! Christmas tree in a couple of minutes!! This was Mom's idea of a great new tradition to be started in the home, I was smiling just thinking of the time that would be saved because of this modern convenience. Well, the children were not so sure..., they started commenting on how it didn't really smell like "Christmas" and how there are no needles on the floor. Starting to feel bad I sprayed a little holiday Febreeze (the limited edition that is supposed to smell like winter pines), thinking that would ease their discontent. Of course, their reaction was "P.U., what is that stinky smell?"

I then suggested making holiday ornaments out of cinnamon, allspice, cloves and anything else I could find that smelled like "Christmas". Off to the kitchen we went and well, by the time we were done the kitchen was one enormous mess! Never mind the fact that all day I was taking great satisfaction in the fact that I had cleaned it from top to bottom this morning. Oh yeah, and never mind that "time" I was supposed to save. We ended up having a great time together and we have some new stinky ornaments on the tree to show for it!

I was playing around with texture on this Chrismas photo

Dancing Turkey!

2007-12-15T11:19:00.000-08:00

The kids got such a kick out of this, I thought you might enjoy it too! It is from a friend's blog called Studeo, lots of great information on homeschooling and family life! She's the best when it comes to this topic!

Dancing Turkey

make sure and Choose a Destination!! :)

Ugh! More sickness!

2007-12-13T22:34:00.000-08:00

As if the flu bug were not enough, now M has strep throat, 'tis the season! I have to say I am very grateful that it is all happening before Christmas! M has had a great attitude about it though, thought I would share his latest masterpiece with you!

Brrrr...

2007-12-13T22:24:00.001-08:00

It's cold here, but that is not stopping the children from enjoying the great outdoors!

She can wave!!!

2007-12-11T14:24:00.000-08:00

Click on picture to see enlarged

She is waving bye bye now!!! And she waves hello and says "hi"! Can you believe how fast it goes?!

Snow Day!

2007-12-11T14:18:00.001-08:00

The children had off from school today due to the snow, what great fun for them!!!

Just something about "J"

2007-12-11T14:14:00.000-08:00

This is our wonderful neighbor who has been a great help with watching the children so I can run some children to activities and not have to take all of them! There is something about J, the children absolutely love her!!! Thank you J for all of the help!

A thank you

2007-12-11T14:00:00.000-08:00

A thank you goes out to two women from the greater Milwaukee Republican women for bringing us wonderful meals!

Stepanie, your Chicken Divan was divine! And the chocolate cake, wow, (I'm embarrassed to say I have never made chocolate cake from scratch) it was the real stuff and soooo good!

Karisue, again wonderful homemade food, enough chicken soup to last us a while. When they came to drop this off her husband exclaimed that it was the best chicken soup ever, and well I would not argue, it was wonderful! And the homemade brownies were a hit!

Now, I thought I was supposed to be losing weight when a husband is deployed, not gaining it!! :)

Thank you also to my very good friends J and C for the meals they sent home with me. These were completely unexpected and so needed! It saved me last week when things got really hectic around here. Love you guys!!

Swiss Turners Gymnastics

2007-12-10T19:12:00.000-08:00

A heartfelt thank you to the BBC for their generosity and support for our family during this time. Swiss Turners has always been about the whole person as well as an awesome gym, that is why we have been there for 7+ years! We appreciate all of you so much!!

The fun things she says

2007-12-10T12:12:00.001-08:00

Our little C has a knack for mixing up words, to the amusement of the rest of the family. One example was when we recently visited a local water park, Country Springs, she kept on calling it the "crunchy springs hotel". Some more recent ones are:

"Mommy, is my Daddy in the army right now?"

"Yes, honey"

"And he's in the airplane wearing his unicorn, right?"

After M's meet I had picked up some gum at a store. When I came home C asked,

"Mommy, did you get that gum at the meatball place?"

G the fixit man!

2007-12-10T12:07:00.000-08:00

A has really taken to fixing things around the house. He has changed all of the batteries in the toys, tightened the handles on the cabinets and put the vaccuum together (above). He seems to feel pretty good about taking this position while Daddy is gone.

Her First Christmas

2007-12-10T11:59:00.000-08:00

This will be the front of our Christmas card this year! I finally finished them!

Crazy Weekend

2007-12-09T23:17:00.000-08:00

Do you know how normally when you come home you are greeted with my lengthy narrative about my day's events? I know you must be missing that quite a bit, so I thought I would fill you in on the weekend's events:

(Take a deep breath)

O.K., it all started on Friday night I picked up the kids and went to Little Flowers group and then got a movie for movie night and cooked dinner while I disciplined B and held crying P and then Sat morning we went to Mass, the kids were so tired, then to gymnastics and then right after that to Uncle P's house for pic's, then the girls went to a play (I was late for that) while I went for M's basketball pictures and practice and a game then onto home and then had to clean a bit and make more dinner, thank goodness C made us a wonderful chicken pot pie, she really makes the best you know, but still while holding crying P, but thankfully not disciplining B, and then worked on some pictures, then Sunday I had to wake up early for M's first gymnastics meet far away, he was so nervous, but did o.k. and oh yeah, I almost got lost, then came home and made lunch, thankfully P was sleeping, -hey hon, are you listening to me?- and had to shovel the driveway from the small amount of snow that fell so it would not be slippery for when we had to go to a birthday party, right after that we went to Mass, because we could not go in the morning because of the meet and really the children did a great job, I was so proud of them!!!!

Whew!!
THERE! I feel a whole lot better, do you?

He is all the way on the right

Good job on the L hang buddy!

The pictures are a bit blurry and a little out of focus, gosh I knew I could find a reason to need a new telephoto lens!! :0) (you're not smiling are you Mark?)

High bar 7.5

Pummel Horse 6.5

Rings 7.0

Vault 9.2

Parallel Bars 6.6

Floor Routine 7.6

Three crazy monkeys jumping on the bed...

2007-12-07T12:21:00.000-08:00

Sweet Cheeks ll

2007-12-07T12:19:00.001-08:00

Just thought you might be missing these cheeks too!! (She is really not going to like me for this one when she is older!) :)

What happens when you don't have TV...

2007-12-07T12:15:00.000-08:00

I swear this is not posed!! This happens a lot in our house and if Mark saw this he would say to me, "See what happens when you don't have a TV? " Just made me think of you when I saw them like that!

1st Day of Piano

2007-12-07T12:13:00.000-08:00

J started piano lessons today, she was so excited!

Sweet Cheeks

2007-12-06T08:58:00.001-08:00

Just thought you might be missing these sweet cheeks and lips!! Love ya!

Oh St. Nick!

2007-12-06T08:09:00.000-08:00

Well, it wasn't as creative as you, but they seemed happy enough! The only thing they did not like was the Pop Tarts and fruit snacks (CC), what is wrong with our children!!? Anyways here they are after finding their stockings...

Here she is wondering, "what did Santa do with

my stocking?"

Oh thank goodness he did not forget!

St. Nick done Mom's way ;)

Starting off with a bang!

2007-12-05T22:13:00.000-08:00

I can't believe how many major things have happened in the short time that you have been gone. Things that make me realize how much I miss you... here are a few to share...

1. M lost his tooth, I was so glad to be able to speak to you about the name of his tooth fairy. You are the one who makes up the great names.;) I was just glad I remembered to put the money under his pillow (even if it was 3:30 AM when I remembered!)

2. The girls realized that Santa Claus is not who they thought he was. This was the discussion you had all planned out and were supposed to have with them! You knew exactly what you were going to say! Oh well, I did the best I could and think I did o.k., but you have a way of keeping things special, whereas I just kind of say it for what it is.

3. Um, six kids throwing up all at the same time, literally starting within minutes of each other? We do not have that many toilets! IT WAS NOT FUN!!! I had to leave C (our 2 yr old) alone with a bowl to fend for herself so I could help P(our eight month old). As you can imagine A (our 4 yr old)was as dramatic as could be about it all and M and B just did their thing without any help. Surprisingly J (10 yr old) worked it out on her own, I'm sure knowing ther was no alternative. The next day I had them spread out on the living room floor in their sleeping bags,(most of them still throwing up) and they spent the day there moaning and groaning. At one point, M asked aloud, " Mom, why did God do this to us!!!". I didn't have much of an answer as I felt myself coming down with it too. I was so worried about P, she was getting so dehydrated! The next morning, our pediatrician's wife ( and very good friend) dropped off a bag full of supplies for just this type of sickness, some recommended by the doctor (Pedialyte, chicken soup) and some recommended by mothers (popsicles, jello, and a bag of chocolates for when all is well):) Thanks J!!! I appreciate it so much!!

Here is P two days later, not fully recouperated but much better! (notice the pajamas?)

Shovelry

2007-12-05T22:02:00.000-08:00

Our faithful neighbor came through again today for me! I had not realized our anonymous donor had donated the full season of plowing for us and so had some men on call to maybe help with yet another snowfall (howcome whenever you go out of town it snows-a lot?). But before I could get to him our neighbor was out there working hard. I ran down to tell him he needn't feel he had to do this, I had people I could call. His answer was just the sweetest thing ever!

He said, "I guess I am old-fashioned and I believe in shovelry!" Ha Ha!

Anyways, here he is working away! He has always been there for us! Thank you so much G!

A Hard day...

2007-12-05T20:49:00.000-08:00

photo by H.Marc Larson/Press-Gazette

I am going to start with the day you left, Nov 29th. That was difficult going up to Green Bay to say goodbye, there were so many emotions to sift through afterwards. I am so thankful your mother came with me and the children to help and support us! I am so grateful for everyone's prayers!

Below is a link to an article about it and the second link is a video of the send off. I will post more pictures of our family with him later.

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071129/GPG0101/71129111&located=FLASH

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071129/VIDEO0301/311290088/0/theme

My First Post!

2007-09-26T21:45:00.001-07:00

So it has happened, I am entering the wonderful world of blogging! I am starting this blog as an easy means to keep in touch with my husband while he is on his tour in Iraq. I want him to be able to see the events of our day on this blog and feel connected by seeing his six children grow through the pictures I will post. I will also be posting pictures about some ways that people have helped during this time. We have been so blessed with generous friends and family, I thank God for their support!! I could not do it without you guys!

I am going to start with a practice posting of my two youngest daughters. The other day my two year old was telling me that I never take pictures of her anymore, the poor thing :)

This is my youngest taken almost a month ago! (click on picture to see enlarged)

and some of my two year old...