In Loving Memory – Julie Joanne Suss

Memorial Table

Originally uploaded by queenladybug0525.

March 19, 1958 – December 18, 2008

Services for my mom were held last night at Evans Brown Mortuary in Sun City.

Pastor John Gaskins from Sunridge Community church welcomed up and then led us in prayer.

My sister gave the family message which boiled down to remember the good memories. My Uncle Larry, Aunt Debbie and Aunt Cheryl got up and spoke as well.

Then we watched a slide show of pictures. Pictures taken at her first birthday, as a girl scout, snuggled on the couch next to my dad when they were in high school, pictures of me as a baby, pictures of her pregnant with my sister, pictures of her shooting water guns at the grandkids. Lots of happy memories. The song accompanying the photos was Casting Crowns Who Am I?

It was my turn after that, I read a poem.

We thought of you with love today,
But that is nothing new.
We thought about you yesterday.
And days before that too.
We think of you in silence.
We often speak your name.
New all we have is memories.
And your picture in a frame.
Your memory is our keepsake.
With which we’ll never part.
God has you in his keeping.
We have you in our heart.

The pastor spoke some more and then we listened to Amazing Grace, a version from the Woman of Faith Worship team. I cried a lot, and it is very hard to say good bye.

We had a small reception afterwards with carrot cake and Starbucks coffee, thank you Kelly! It was nice to sit around and remember. I am going to miss you Mom, I will see you again one day I know it. I love you.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year

I know I am slacker when it comes to blogging!  Please forgive me in advance if this comes across choppy or rushed, a lot has been going on…

Let’s start with the girls!

 

Kaylee started preschool Monday!  She is going 4 days a week.  She seems to like it.  She does not like the fact that they don’t allow binkies and sippy cups though LOL.  So we are trying to ween her from those.  She has started potty training.  In fact we started that on our first day in Florida.  As soon as we got off the plane.  She is doing really well at it and the school works on it too, so in no time I think she will be full trained!  She talks up a storm.  She has been using terms like “I think” in the correct meaning.  She was singing her ABC’s at the breakfast table yesterday, she counts to 10 though it’s just from memory not actually counting objects.  Everyone at the Beach House fell in love with her and wanted to take her home with them.  She is such a ball of energy.  She played in the sand constantly, we are going to look into getting her a sand box for her 3rd birthday.  She did really well on the plane rides, drew pictures, read stories with me, and we listened to my ipod.  The landings were tough on her ears but she did good.  She behaved really well in the crowded airports too.

 

Katie is back at school, her class is learning about camouflage and how animals protect themselves in the wild.  She wrote a book about it.  She is really into drawing pictures and then writing about them.  Good thing her Nana bought her a big thing of markers for her 8th birthday.  Yes I said 8!  Katie turned 8 years old a month ago yesterday.  We celebrated by having cake and ice cream after church.  You can check those pictures out here.  I worry about her teenage years LOL, she is already emotional like her mama.  She moved up to Musical Theatre 2 yesterday, we are so proud of her.  She really enjoys the singing and acting part of it.  Her first class is next week, she can’t wait to start rehearsing for the recital in July.  Katie loves going to church too.  In fact she encouraged me to start a Bible study with her.  So every Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday we are reading through the Bible.  We are using a Bible in one year guide, that goes through the Bible chronologically.  We just started last night.  We just take turns reading through the verses.  Going backwards a little bit, Katie had such a blast at the Beach House over the Christmas Break.  She totally enjoyed hanging out with her 13 year old cousin Nora and her 8 year old Aunt Indah.  The 3 girls created their own club called K.I.N.  Their initials but also meaning family, they even created their own rock band in Rock Band 2 with that name.  They rocked the house down, created sand castles, swam in the ocean, went on night walks with Grandma Kathy, and did special art projects with Auntie Susie.  The girls included Kaylee in almost everything they did.

 

 

And then there is me.  I am holding up, some of you may know that my biological mom passed away on December 18^th.  It’s been tough since it was such a shock.  My sister and I are her next of kin so we have been the ones dealing with the paper work and all of that fun stuff.  The services are on January 20^th in Sun City.  I feel very sad because we were just starting to grow close again.  And then I feel mad because I wanted my daughters to know her better, I wanted to know her better.  I am praying every night for guidance on it.  If you are the praying kind can you keep me in your prayers while I try to hold things together? Health wise I am doing much better then I was a month ago.  I am on better medications for my migraines, my doctors have given me the list of food items I need to avoid for the migraines and my digestive issues so I’ve actually lost like 7lbs.  I am exercising on the Wii Fit a few times a week and going to the gym on Wednesdays.  I am going to try and make it to the yoga class on Saturdays too.  I miss yoga.

 

Keith is the same old Keith LOL…  his mom moved in with us recently though, she is going good.  So far our only mishap is one of her dogs doesn’t get along real well with our pets.  We are working on it though.

 

I hope all is well with everyone and you all have a happy 2009!

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

I  know it’s a few days late but I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving with lots of turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie!  We had 3 Thanksgiving dinners LOL, well a sort of lunch at the Herold House.  The girls had a blast playing in the yard.  Then we headed over to the Crosby house for some yummy dinner and tons of homemade pie!  Then tonight we went to the Rekoske House for dinner!  Surprise Auntie Susie is in town!!  We had a great time and are all looking forward to our Florida trip in December.

Give Love Away

Last weekend November 16, Sunridge Gave Love Away.  Groups filled bags of groceries for those that needed it, a group took free bread to another church in the other, a few groups headed over to Chaparral HS in Temecula and cleaned up trash and other good stuff, many went to The Brook, our Church meets there for lunch every Sunday and feeds those that are in need.  On Give Love Away they were there from early in the morning until the after noon, cutting hair, feeding people and fellowship.

My life group offered child care at the church.  I think we had close to 20 kids ranging from 2 to 5 Years old.  They all had time in the bouncy house the Koski’s rented.  All of the kids had story and song time.  Joe read “Going on a Bear Hunt” the kids loved it.  After story time they got to go on a “Love Hunt,” the older kids hid hearts for the little ones to find.  I was charged with the 2 year old and we had such a blast.  We watched Veggie Tales, played with Playdoh, colored pictures and just played our hearts out.  Katie was a huge help to me.  If you look over at my Flickr you will see her holding little Ruth in the bouncy house.  Kaylee had a good time too.

That evening we all came back to church to celebrate.  People got to tell their stories, we sang and prayed and it was an amazing time.  After that we fellowshipped in the youth room with all kinds of goodies people brought.  Katie ate my chocolate covered strawberry!

We had a really great weekend and I think our church will continue to give love away.  If you want to get involved in any of the Give Love Away projects they are listed here, http://www.sunridgechurch.org/love.html.

Days that don’t go right

Today is one of them.  I feel as if I am doing everything wrong.

Vacation – Day 6,7&8

Girls and Pumpkins

Originally uploaded by queenladybug0525.

Halloween is over! I uploaded the pictures I took! Check out the Halloween set on my Flickr!

The girls had a great time and between them nearly filled one container. Saturday I played a lot of the EQII, dings 78! Woot Woot! I am mostly done with Kunzar Jungle quests if I get time next week I think I work on Jarsyth Wastes.

So I totally forgot about the time change yesterday… I got up when the alarm went off to get ready for church. Took my shower and when I got out, I couldn’t figure out why the cable box said it was only 5:30 AM! ARGGGGGGGGGGGG so much for gaining that extra house sleep. It was a great time at church though, my mom came again. I hope this is a new start for her. The walker room was pretty quiet just 4 little ones. A big difference from last week’s 9! Katie helped out in the 2 year old room until all of the adult helpers showed up. She did such a good job. We had a great lunch together wtih Grandma Jenkins, Kelly, Aunt Debbie and Uncle Larry. Afterwards the girls and I took Grandma home. She gave me a nice book shelf, and she also has a hutch for me to put collectables in. I just need to hunt down my Beatrix Potter collection. We hung out there with my mom, and my Aunt Sue came back from her old church. She is visiting and goes home tomorrow.

We went to Life group and our baby sitters couldn’t make it so we had 3 girls under the age of 11 helping… Katie was one of them they each earned 10 bucks, and did a great job.

Today my plans are to get the house cleaned up, pick Katie up from school, make dinner and go to bed… LOL the time change has made me tired I woke up early again. It’s back to work tomorrow. We are recording Podcast #50!! Holy Cow #50!!! Hubert and Emily plan to talk about the election, Kelly Knox will Skype in for an interview. We also hope to have some EQII devs to talk aobu thte Shadow Odyssey Launch.

Vacation – Day 4&5

I forgot to blog yesterday… I did clean up Kaylee’s room, the books were scattered everywhere. Kaylee and I also played with her train tracks and blocks, making tunnels for the train to go through. We had a yummy dinner Deep-dish Pizza casserole. YUMMERS! Other then that it was a pretty boring day. It sprinkled a little I feared it would rain today, and we would have to cancel trick or treating…

As for today, I went to Katie’s school for the Halloween Parade! That was fun, look for pictures on my Flickr later. Lots of Hannah Montana’s and lots of Stormtroppers… Once Katie gets done with school today we are going to carve pumpkins, eat dinner and then go trick or treating. I am making chicken enchilada’s tonight. A first for me LOL.

Vacation – Day 3

It’s Wednesday, of course today wasn’t all that much different then a normal Wednesday since I usually work from home on Wednesdays. I did get time to dig a bookshelf out of my garage I forgot I had and bring all of my books back into the house.

Katie had dance class tonight which was a pretty normal class. I played some Warhammer last night and today, I am level 10 now WOOT.

I was going to scrapbook today and get Kaylee’s baby book updated but unfortunately the keys to grandma’s house are in the car my husband drove today. All of the scrapbook supplies are at her house. Oh well there is always tomorrow.

Well I am off to fold the mountain of laundry in my room.

Vacation – Day 2

Yuppers it’s day 2 of my vacation.  I did a 40 minute work out with Wii fit, mostly cardio.  The second load of laundry is being washed, of course nothing has been folded yet LOL…  Dishes are done and I cleaned out the freezer, fridge and one cupboard.  Also after our shower I gave pedicures to Kaylee and myself   Purple!!

Katie, Aubrey, Jalane and I saw High School Musical 3 last night…

I dinged to level 9 in Warhammer yesterday and I plan to play more today. I will probably also play EQII as well. If the photos I ordered last week come today I am going to scrapbook. Maybe I will update Kaylee’s book completely!!

Aww well I am updating my iPod and then I will log into Warhammer I think.

Vacation – Day 1!

Woohoo, today is the first day of vacation…  Did I sleep in?  HAH!  you are funny…  Nope I got up at 7 AM, got Katie up so she could get herself ready for school, got Kaylee up and shoes on, we dropped Keith off at our other car, and Katie off at school.  Kaylee and I had a rather pleasant grocery trip.  She mostly behaved.  We came home had breakfast, she watched Meet the Robinson, I cleaned up a bit, started some laundry and then did 25 minutes on the Wii Fit.  I played some Animal Crossing ate lunch and now I think we are going to go visit with the Crosby’s.

I do have a monster headache, I took my meds about an hour ago, I pray it goes away soon.