UPDATE....

Pictures from our fabulous dinner last night!!!! I laughed and cried and made a wonderful new memory to add to "our story".

Desirae Duncan Johnson, Me, Robyn Loertscher Moody, & Darci Simmons Branich

Darci, Desirae, Me, & Robyn

Love, Love, Love these girls!!!

Old Friends (Not to say they're old)

I have this dinner coming up with three long lost friends; I'm so excited about I just have to share. And so the story begins.......

Once upon a time there was a girl named Brandy. When Brandy was a wee one around the age of 5 she would often visit her Grandparents; but while there would become bored and whiney, driving her Grandparents absolutely crazy. Her Grandma decided to find her a friend, luckily a few house down lived another wee one named Robyn. So when Brandy would visit she now had a wonderful friend to keep her busy. The two rambunctious children soon became great friends. A couple of years went by when Brandy was enrolled in Robyn’s school and the two were now reunited in 2nd grade. What fun they had with their days learning, playing at recess, walking home from school together, but tragically, after that magical year together the two were split apart!

They both continued on their journey through 3rd and 4th grade when as fate would have it, Robyn was enrolled at the school Brandy was now attending. It was such a reunion! During that year, they brought several other girls into their friendship, most fell away, but they found a special bond with Desirae, and the two became three, three girls who shared the next two years doing what most “tweens” do; learning, laughing, fighting, making up, sharing, finding boys, and such. They made great memories during those years.

Just when the world seemed right, the three girls were headed for impending doom. They were, despite their best efforts to fight it, being sent to Middle School. It was a scary time, very scary indeed. How would they navigate through that huge school? What if they got lost? What if they got bullied? But worst of all, what if they got separated? It was a horrible thought! But there was no way out of it; they had to face this journey, hopefully together.

For the most part the three were split into different classes and lunches, but luckily they found a way to manage to remain together, the three of them, walking to and from school together, sharing what had transpired during their days apart. During this time they learned to lean on each other and were so lucky to have their special friendship to hold them up during that difficult transition. But what they didn't realize was that something was still missing from this group of three, or was it someone.

During that first year of middle school they made several new friends, but one fit perfectly, her name was Darci. Darci was a perfect addition to this friendship. With her bubbly personality and her optimistic outlook, she helped these three navigate through all these changes and taught them to let others in.And so it was, the three became four; Brandy, Robyn, Desirae and Darci, conquering middle school, awkward preteen years, sleepovers, toilet papering, and oh yes...boys, together. Those are some of my fondest memories growing up, the four of us, with our trips on the bus to the mall, riding the sky coaster at Lagoon looking for cute boys, scaring ourselves so bad with scary movies sleepovers ended up having little to do with sleep and more to do with keeping each other awake; but most important learning who we were and who we weren't.
After we started high school I went to a different school, and sort of lost touch, I can only blame myself for the loss of such great friendships. I hope they remember our friendship as fondly as I do.
Robyn, Darci and I have managed to get together about a year ago with our kids to catch up, but we were missing Desirae.

She had moved away and we weren't able to find her at the time. But that darn Facebook has a way of helping pull people out of the woodwork. Desirae has been found, and lucky for us, although she is living over 2,000 miles away, she is here visiting family for the holidays. We are planning to get together tomorrow night to catch up, look at pictures, and most importantly to rekindle our friendship.

This Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has always been a great holiday for me. Family, food, friends, and fun, not to mention a day to reflect on everything we have to be thankful for. No matter who I’ve spent this day with in the past it’s always left me with a good feeling and warm memories.

I have memories of Thanksgiving shared with the Lugo family, eating rice and beans, with family filtering through my Grandparents house, almost as if we were scheduled in shifts. I have memories of Thanksgivings with the Casper family, with the whole family sitting at the table to eat a turkey and all the trimming together, all while the guys continued screaming at the football players in the TV, as if they could hear. And most recently, Thanksgivings at the Chatwin home, where the visiting and games after dinner were really what everyone was looking forward to.

Last year Thanksgiving was about being thankful that Curtis survived his accident and was finally able to come home. In fact he was so healthy; he actually boarded a plane to visit his Dad. So, without him, we all came together to give thanks for that. The day ended not so well for me, leaving the ER early the next day. But look, it’s a year later, and I’m still here, planning Thanksgiving Dinner for this year. I’m going to try to not let the anxiety of those memories or my uncoming test results haunt me, I’m going to give Thanks for my family, my friends, my health (yes, my health), my families health, for my ability to work and help provide for my family, and equally if not more so that Ronnie is able to do so, I’m going to give Thanks for all the wonderful people who have stood by me from day one, those who have come out of the woodwork to show how much love they have to share, and those who have shown they don’t, so I can get on with those who do.

And above all, to give Thanks to God, who has given me this wonderful life, who gave me the people I need in my life, who instilled in me the strengths I’ll need to endure and the faults I’ll need to help me learn. Who brought my wonderful husband into my life, and blessed us both with the two most wonderful children we could ask for.

Yes, the trials are not over for the Hess Family, but that does not mean the sun is shining any less bright on our faces. And for that, we’ll give Thanks.

Sophia's Haircut

Before the haircut

After donating 10" to Locks for Love

Sophia's Birthday in Pictures

Sophia's Birthday Breakfast Set-Up

Isnt' it fancy??? Thanks to Nana

Friends Party

Sophia and her pink polka dot cake

The girls making their "Friends are the Flowers in the Garden of Life" shirts

All the girls....Leah, Kaylee, Allie, Olivia, Sophia, Analisa, Lexi, & Kalena

Family Dinner Birthday Party (@ The Pie)

Me and my darling daughter opening presents

Grandma Sheila and Nana watching Sophia open her presents...

Sophia blowing out candles...again

I hope she had a wonderful 6th birthday. My baby is growing up too fast!

Veterans Day

"This Veterans Day, I believe we should do more than sing the praises of the bravery and patriotism that our veterans have embodied in the past. We should take this opportunity to re-evaluate how we are treating our veterans in the present."

~Nick Lampson

My grandparents live in a small town outside of Tucson, every year a local 4th grade teacher has his students write letters/poems to the local veterans expressing their gratitude and has them read them aloud. A few years ago we were visiting during Veterans Day and had the pleasure of accompanying them to this event. It was such an honor to be there and to watch as these children got up and expressed what we all feel, and to see the pride in my Grandfather was indescribable. I am so thankful to all the veterans, those who are living and those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, their lives, for all they have done, and all they continue to do. And if I could, I'd thank that teacher for making this day so special for those Vets and so important to his students, for reminding them how important our Vets are and how we should treat them with all with respect, dignity, and appreciation.

Here is a picture of my Grandfather receiving a letter from a student at the event last year...

I am so proud of him!

Sophia's birthday

It sure doesn't feel like it's been six years since our precious spitfire of a daughter came into this world, but it's been that long. Last week she turned six and I've never seen her so excited for anything. For days all she could talk about was her birthday, and turning six, her party, and having her friends come over.

I'll never forget the day she was born. She was so beautiful with that curly red hair and that big round face.
Although the curly hair went straight as it grew, its still a beautiful red color.

And although she's as beautiful as ever, and her hair is still the most awesome color of auburn, I'm more proud of the little lady she's becoming then anything else. She's so independent and sure of herself, she doesn't question her opinions or look to others for the path to take. She is a leader and a social butterfly. She loves to learn, and has actually been teaching a hispanic girl in her kindergarten class English. She hates the days she's out of school and can't wait to get back to the classroom. She's fearless, not afraid of anything, the only girl in a kung fu class and the the little girl who doesn't want to get off the 50 she inherited from her big brother. She has her own sense of fashion and loves the sparkly stuff, but also loves wearing her dirtbike riding pants and playing in the mud, she's a tomboy in a dress one day and wearing pearls with jeans the next.

I don't put anything past her, no one can tell her she can't when she knows she can. She told me this morning she wants to visit Mars, and knowing our daughter, she just might.

She is a Daddy's Girl and will always be my baby.

Happy 6th Birthday to our Sophia Maria Tortilla, FeeFee, Sofers, Sofeefee, aka Miss Sassy Pants!

***I forgot a couple nicknames.... Lil Red and the one I only call her; Sweet Pea.***

"Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it."

~Lindsay Lohan, Mean Girls

That's how it seems these days, doesn't it!

Recap

Wow…what a summer this has been. I don’t know how it went by so fast, but it’s already over. So before I move on to the next season I must take a few minutes to reflect on the last.
For our family we started our summer a little earlier then usual, with a trip to California at the end of April. No, we didn’t make it to Disneyland, but we did lots of other fun stuff. We took the kids to Legoland, Seaworld, and spent a few days at the beach. With Ronnie working in California it was the perfect time to take the kids there, and they thought Dad having his own apartment was the coolest thing ever (I’m not so sure about that). I enjoyed my time with Ronnie and the kids’ and hope they will remember this vacation fondly.
It seemed to rain all of June, so planting of gardens and flowerbeds didn’t happen until way to late in the season, but I still enjoyed the digging and pruning while I could. If anyone has suggestions on raspberry bushes, let me know. I planted ours a few years ago, and still nothing.
Again, with Ronnie out of town, Ethan racing was a bit difficult. It was hard for Ronnie to not be there with him, hard for him to not have his Dad there, and hard for me to know what the heck I was suppose to be doing. I think I finally got into the groove, even pulled the bike on the trailer out to the last couple races. Ethan said “You’re the greatest mom ever! Not many moms would leave work early and pull a trailer with a bike on it just so their son could race.” It makes me so happy to know he gets it and really appreciates me. He’s becoming such a great little man.
And of course there was the great vacation my husband took me on in August…still can’t get over how much I loved it there in Maui, but who wouldn’t right.
We didn’t do as much boating this year as last, mostly because of Ronnie being out of town so much, but when he was in town; we tried to get to the lake as often as we could. The kids started jumping in the water on their own instead of being pushed in or coerced, they are truly becoming fish. We did manage to get a good boating trip in during Labor Day weekend. We went south and visited two lakes we hadn’t been to yet, Sand Hollow, which was beautiful, but far too small and too packed to really enjoy “boating”, it was more like “floating” and Quail Creek, wow, what a hidden gem. Quail Creek seemed about the same size as Sand Hollow, but was far less packed, I kid you not, probably at the most 10 boats on the lake at the same time the whole day. It was so warm and peaceful and we even managed to get my much beloved Uncle Pete to go with us. It was a great time.
And now summer is ending, we’ve already winterized the boat, I’ve pulled the flowers out of the gardens and tilled the dirt, I’ve hung autumn decorations in the house and have begun planning for what’s to come.

What a difference a Year makes!

I don't even know where to start...that's how I felt a year ago and it took me weeks to actually sit down and type out the story and my feelings. I won't do that today, I'll take the time to write, I'll make the words come.

Last year, at this time, I was sitting in the hospital with so many family members, waiting, for some spark of hope, for one of the nurses to actually smile or wink or give us some sign that everything would be ok. But it wasn't happening. Last year at this time no one gave any of us much hope that my cousin Curtis would still be with us today. Everything changed that day, life changed, the world changed, our family changed, and nothing is the same. The hospital staff just knew from that first day, there was no controlling this family, the ICU rules just could not apply to us. Two visitors at a time, no...we piled em in 4 deep 6 wide, visiting hours...what hours, no touching the patient..ARE YOU KIDDING! That was the most ridiculous, I understand the overstimulating the patient, but when you have someone in a coma, who is so used to a loving touchy feely family...like ours, he needs to feel us, to know we're all there, he needs to hear us, he needs to know how much we need him and want him back. That night, they gave up.

You see, for those of you that don't know..Curtis was in a horrible accident. They had given up on him before he was even in the hospital. They didn't call in a plastic surgeon to even look at him for two hours, they were just waiting for him to pretty much...die. When my brother called me, he told me I should come see him before they took him to surgery "just in case".

Over the next few weeks we all got to know that ICU better then anyone should. I would work all day, sometimes visit at lunch, and then either go straight there and then get home right before the kids went to sleep, or hurry home from work, spend a few hours with the kids, and then go to the hospital and drag myself out of there sometime before midnight.

Every movement, every twitch, every sound gave us some hope, and finally he slowly started to wake up!

He's still with us, life if different for him. He doesn't see himself when he looks in the mirror, it's a different face, and most of the time he's very positive about it, of course there are those moments when I'm sure it sucks pretty bad for him.

But for us, we're thrilled he's with us. We still want to beat him for putting us through that, but it actually has brought us all much closer, even after a year, we still make sure to say "I love you" before we end a call, we try to get together even for the little things, and yes, I do try to take more time off work for no reason at all.

I've always been waiting, working towards something, but now I realize...my life is happening NOW, it's not what happens some day in the future, its all these small moments woven together.

Appreciate every minute you have with each other, don't worry about the dishes in the sink (yes, I'm still working on that one) or the weeds growing in the garden, read a book to your kids, snuggle with your significant other, take time to appreciate what you accomplished today don't worry about what you didn't..it'll still be there tomorrow. But you never know WHO won't, love them while you can.