Wordless Wednesday

The Following Was Done For Safety Reasons Only

We rented a U haul on Sat and drove 45 min to moms to load up all of the stuff they are keeping so that we could bring it back here and put it in storage. The good Lord blessed us with the help of several volunteers from the Knights of Columbus from our church.

They were awesome.

It was pouring down rain and these men were moving heavy objects which included a piano and a huge refrigerator. The most amazing part....they had smiles on their faces the whole time. I was blown away and saw God in each of their smiles.

It was an exhausting day and we still do not have their house cleared, everything else is going to be sold, donated, or trashed. And we have until Sat. to do this. Good thing stressed is desserts spelled backwards because that is what I have been doing :)

Anyway, on to the pictures. We have gotten mom and DD moved into our family room. Mom's therapist thought it would be good to have a chair beside mom's bed so we could use the lift and have her sit up during the day. She has not sat in a recliner in over a year.

Well before we could do that we had to make sure it could be done safely so Jose and I were bored and wanted to be entertained agreed to get in the lift to determine the best way to get mom into the chair.

And just in case Marissa ever decided to jump in Nana's lap while she was in the lift we had to make sure that it would be safe.
I can assure you we were not monkeying around and had absolutely no fun playing with testing mom's lift to ensure her safety.

Up Up and Away

Mom's Hoyer lift arrived two days after we got her here in our home. We have only used it a few times with home health supervision but today Deana and I did it on our own.



We transferred her safely from the bed into the lift and then into her wheel chair. We used the big chair which unfortunately will not fit through our doorways, not even the front door, and it doesn't even fit the portable ramps we have outside. But it's more comfortable for her so I thought we should get her used to sitting up before we try the smaller wheelchair, which is the one she will have to ride in to her doctor's appointment in one week.





We did however open the door and let her look out at the real world and get some fresh air. She said it was awesome.



And we snapped some goofy family pictures while we were at it.




Good thing she does not have access to the computer at this time because I would be in a heep of trouble for posting that first picture....so sshhhhh.

I've Learned So Much From Him

I knew from the start, way before we were even married, that my husband was an honorable and compassionate man. I, however, did not know the extent of his honor, forgivness, compassion and patience.

Every day, every month, every year I see it more and more. I see his honor when he refuses to use his job title for any personal gain.

I see his faith every time I panic and worry, he stays calm and reassuring.

I see his patience when I snap at him and he does not snap back even when he has more than enough reason to.

I could go on and on but I will get to the point of this post.

I have now seen his forgiveness and compassion displayed in ways I never thought possible.

When we had to get my mom and aunt out of their house because of the ice storm and they had no heat, it was never a question that they would stay here until it was safe for them to return home.

Then my aunt had to spend a few days in the hospital and we realized that she is no longer capable of taking care of my mom on her own. So Jose told them they should move to our town and they could stay with us until they found a place. We talked about it beforehand but I never thought he would be totally open to the idea.

When they were worried how they would ever get all of their stuff out, he did not hesitate to tell them that we would do it.

Jose and I spent Valentine's Day at their house packing and sorting through their stuff. They have rooms that you can't even walk in. It is quite a daunting task.

Deana and Jose spent today there because I overdone it yesterday and needed to rest. On the way home Deana said that Jose told her that they should stay with us for at least a year to save money and get on back on their feet.

Not flinching when the subject of your mother-in-law moving in comes up takes a pretty terrific man.

But there's more.

I won't go into too much detail because it is in the past and we have moved on. But when Jose, Ruben, and I moved from CA to KY, we moved in with mom and Deana. It did not last long and we basically were threw out with no where to go and a 16 month old. There was blame on both sides but kicking us out with a baby and no place to go was something I thought would be one of the few unforgivable acts someone could do. And if it wasn't totally unforgivable it certainly is something that would not prompt you to open your home to them when they needed it.

He has done both, forgiven them and opened our home to them.

Jose has taught me how to forgive and he's taught me there is nothing that is unforgivable.

He continues to teach me how to live, laugh and love, how to be a better parent, daughter, wife, friend, and Christian.

I'm so thankful I know this man and even more thankful that this man is my husband.

Closer to God, One Step at a TIme in 2009

I came across BibleSEO and found this great article How to Do Quiet Time - Time Alone with God.

It kind of goes along with this post that I wrote at the beginning of Jan. I didn't mention too much about what I wanted my relationship with God to be but it is one of the relationships I want to work on this year. Sometimes I feel like I just don't have time to pray or spend a lot of time with God so I just don't. Terrible I know but I'm being honest here.

So I found this article and thought it was something that was definitely doable for me. Baby steps Kiesha, always baby steps to start out with no matter what behavior you are trying to change or create.


It's a short and to the point article which it had to be to keep my attention.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did and I will let you know how it goes. I'm sure most of you already do this but there has to be others out there like me, or at least I find comfort in telling myself that. :)

How to Do Quiet Time - Time Alone with God.

Quiet time is one of the most essential aspects of your Christian life. Many Christians take some time reading the bible everyday. While it is very useful, just reading the bible will not lead you to much fuller Christian walk with Christ. You need to spend time in his words, study and learn from it everyday. Without daily regular quiet time, our spiritual life can be seriously malnourished just as our body can be malnutritioned without proper food and water! I often wonder when people talk about forgetting to do their quiet time due to busy schedule; I have never found anybody who forgot to eat for a day due to work!

Here I am presenting simple steps to do your daily quiet time. While you don’t have to follow it exactly, it can serve as a guide.

Time: You can take about 10-15 minutes for quiet time. You can choose time according to you schedule. For some, morning works better, for others, night may work well. While, I recommend the morning time as you are much calmer and fresh, any time can work fine. It is also important to set fixed time everyday, as it brings discipline and consistency.

What do you need?
Your bible, note and pen. You can occasionally refer to bible commentary or dictionary for difficult passages of bible. But I would recommend studying bible as it is and ask God for his guidance to understand the passage. It is a very good practice to take notes in your quiet time. You will be amazed when you will see your quiet time notes years later!

How To do Quiet Time?

■Start with prayer:
■Spend just few minutes in worship and thanksgiving.
■Spend some time in asking God for forgiveness for our sins.
■Ask for his guidance in today’s quiet time
■Passage for Quiet time: It is good to select any book of bible and read it continuously. It will help you to get the whole picture and can enjoy your quiet time more. Select about 8-10 verses, don’t select whole chapter, as you may not be able to cover it all. Select small paragraph according to passage.
■Read the paragraph for 2-3 times. This method is also called ASPECT method.
■A – About God – What can you learn about God through this passage?
■S – Sin – Does it talk about any sin?
■P – Promise – Is there any promise in the word?
■E – Example – Is there any example, I can follow?
■C –Command – Which command I need to obey?
■T – Teaching – What can I learn from this passage?
■Concluding Prayer:
■Thank God for his guidance in quiet time
■Worship God for his characteristic
■Pray for deliverance from any sin
■Ask for strength for the day.

Alright Already!!!

My dear sweet husband has had it with my new look every two days thing I have had going on here lately.

Well, I had finally found one that I loved and was satisfied with. I was at peace with my blog design decision, UNTIL I found a website that showed me how to use a three column template on your blog. I had been trying to figure this out forever.

With two columns on my blog it just looked too bunched up. So I followed the step by step instructions and to my utter surprise it worked the first time.

So now I had three columns, what I did not have was a layout that worked with the three columns. Hadn't thought about it not being compatible, but evidently you can only have three columns with layouts made specifically for three column formats.

So I had to change the layout I loved and spent hours making a header that would fit this blog layout perfectly. I still have to make some minor adjustments, but don't worry there will be no big changes for a very very long time or Jose will change passwords on me and take away my editing abilities. :)




Deana got out of the hospital this afternoon and is feeling better but now comes the daunting task of packing up and moving them here. They will eventually find a place of there own close to us but for now and probably the next 6 months or so they will be living here.

That will be a piece of cake compared to packing up all there stuff. They have rooms that you can't even walk in because they have saved so much stuff. But I'm determined to get it done and get it done by the 21st of this month.

I'm off to Mad town in the morning to do a lot of throwing stuff out packing.

Well I am off to bed, it's almost 2am and I have to be up bright and early.

Wordless Wednesday

Look Out Papa John

Four Cool Cats

Hug Fest




Let the pizza making begin!

Papa Josh

Roo and Marla posing for the camera.

Marla and I taking pictures at the same time.

The pizza making crew.

Jake and Josh contemplating the art of pizza making.

After making the pizzas no one ate they headed outside.

Marissa was the pit crew and here she is fixing Ruben's tire.

All I said was pose for the camera and this is what I got.

Thanks Marla for letting us escape come to your house on Friday. We had a blast.

See ya this Friday. lol

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

This is my first time participating in Not Me Mondays and it certainly is Not because
I haven't been able to figure out how to do Mr. Linky.

I did not keep my son out of school on Friday just so we could have a play date with my friend because I was in desperate need of an escape from my bed bound mother and aunt who have just moved in with us.

I did not spend a lot of money on a beautiful baby blanket for my newborn niece the day she was born and have her name embroidered on it even when I knew there was a chance that my sister would change it. She did. So if anyone knows a baby named Lacie Rae I have a blanket for her. :)

I did not let my son play his star wars video game for 6 hours straight because I was exhausted. I would never ever let a child stay in front of a tv that long!

My mom and aunt both had to be transported in an ambulance to the ER yesterday and I most certainly did Not go in each of their ER rooms and go through the supply closets and take supplies we would be needing at home because I would not have the time to go out and get them. That would so be stealing and I would never do that.

Ambulances, Bed Pans and Exhaustion

Mom and Deana had to be taken to the ER by ambulance this morning and I am just getting home and it's 9 pm. It has been a very long overwhelming exhausting day.

Deana was admitted and will be in the hospital for a few days due to a bacterial infection, her white blood cell count is really high and she has a bad UTI.

Mom got to come home but she is still pretty sick.

Marissa is sick and has a doctor's appointment tomorrow. I have no clue how I am going to get her there because no one will be here to stay with mom.

I need to clone myself.

I never pictured having to take care of a bed ridden mother and an aunt in poor health while raising small children. I thought the kids would at least be a bit older before it came to that. But it has and I will take care of them until the day I die, it's just really overwhelming right now. But I will find a way to juggle it all and I know God will give me the strength.

I am the luckiest woman in the world to have such a caring, giving and compassionate husband and one who has no qualms about putting his mother-in-law on the bed pan when he has to.

Going to collapse into bed now. I hope this post makes at least a little sense. :)

Welcome to the World Little One

Update: The baby's name has been changed to Layla Kay. All I can say is my sister wanted to name the baby Layla but her boyfriend wanted Lacie so she let him name her. However tonight he came to the hospital high on drugs and physically attacked my sister. She is ok, just really shaken up. So she changed the baby's name to Layla Kay. Kay is after her mom.Please continue to keep my sister and niece in your prayers.

Lacie Rae
6 pounds 8 oz.
19 inches long






Layla and her Mommy, my little sister, Elizabeth.



Elaina with her little sister, Layla.




Thank you God for protecting my sweet little niece for the past 9 months and bringing her safely into this world. Please continue to watch over her.

This Warms my Heart

Finally having us all together has been great and I think they may be moving here so that we are better able to care for them.

The kids love crawling up in the bed with Nana and watching TV.