New Address

For those of you that still come here ... maybe someday I'll be able to maintain two blogs. But for now, please click on over to my main blog about the The FarmHouse Kids and my life.

www.thesiekmantriplets.blogspot.com

Thanks for visiting!

Tanya

Sneek Peek

Meet Emma, Nate and Ali of The Holsey Triplets. Here's a little peek at three very cute little turdlets. I think they are just the sweetest littles I've seen in a long time. Their Momma hasn't seen this picture yet ... she was praying for just "one" good one of them together.

Honestly, this is the only one of them sitting together. They're fifteen months old and very much on the go! As soon as Mom would line them up and sit them down, then jump out of my view ... they were up and running! We laughed a lot that day ... and trust me, we were exhausted ... but it was just so much stinking fun!

My Sister Kim

Meet my sister Kim, and her daughter Erin. Say hello everyone. Today we had a Bridal luncheon for my niece Tory. Kim and I, along with my other two sisters, Robin and April hosted the whole she-bang. It was a great success and lots of fun. Loads of food, lots of laughs and a few tears. It was a recipe for happiness on a beautiful sunny day!

As I was driving home this evening .. it dawned on me, this was not a traditional bridal shower. Instead, it was a coming together of families. It was spiritual. It held presence, and it was beautiful. The words spoken and the words heard had so much meaning. I truly felt the presence of God in the room.

Coming together of families .. not as in the joining of two families, but in the sense of healing a broken family. Not broken in the sense of injustice or divisions, but broken in the sense of time.

We all get busy in our everyday life .. and life happens. Time marches on, and we look back and see that our lives have changed. Some of us have grown up, and others of us .. have grown apart. It was nice to bring everyone back together today, in prayer .. and in love. It was especially nice today ... to have the sister-in-law that I've missed become a part of us again.

I am a very lucky sister. I have three sisters and one brother, and we're all very close. We have truly been blessed to have each other. I just can't imagine my life without them.

I love you Sis ... it was a great day! We did it good.

Earthquake

Wow ... It's 4:43 am and we just had a doozie of a Earthquake. Our house swayed and things shook for what seemed like forever. It was as if things were rolling, and the sound is what woke me up.

The odd thing is, that we live by a coalmine and when they blast, we feel things shake at times, but this wasn't the coalmine. I remember the last Earthquake about twenty years ago, and this was quite a bit "more" and lasted longer than a typical blast.

Then Juli called me crying saying that they were woke up with her house shaking and everything is off the walls. She obviously is closer to the epicenter than I am. She lives about one hour north-west of me.

At least it didn't wake the kiddo's up ... whew!

Added: after listening to the news ... it's confirmed. 5.4 on the richter scale, and the epicenter is located in West Salem, Illinois.

West Salem is where we lived when my older kiddo's were born and growing up. I wonder if they'll all think about the time when they were little and I had a Earthquake drill. Something tells me that they will!

Time to move on ....

Okay Folks, Mom's Birthday was a month ago ... what can I say? I love my Mom and thought I'd dedicate a whole month in her honor! Do you believe that?

Just don't tell my Dad that I missed his birthday, which was exactly one week after Mom's. I even have it drafted. Should I go ahead and post it, or save it for Father's Day?

So from this day forth ... I will try to update this blog as often as FarmHouse Kids blog. I'm in the writing mood again! Boy, I am having some doozy thoughts!

Be Blessed Everyone.

Happy Birthday Mom

Today is my Mother's Birthday. She's only eighteen years older than I am. Sixty-Nine. I have a young Mother. In saying that, here are a few things I remember about my Mother when I was young.

1. She had a pair of high-heel black "go-go" boots. I thought they were the coolest things! Now I can't imagine my Mom wearing those boots. Wonder if she thought they were cool too?
2. She wore "mini-skirts" when I did. That was back in 1971 when I was a Freshmen in high school. I remember one in particular that was kind of circular and was pea green with flowers on it. All I can say today is: Yuck!
3. She is an awesome cook. I never mastered it quite like Mom did. Do any of us ever cook as well as our Mother's or our memories?
4. She loved her Mother very deeply and was a wonderful daughter.
5. She loved us kids more than we ever knew. Isn't that funny, you never know how much your Mother loved you until you become a Mother. She used to tell me that.
6. She loved those sheer criss-cross curtains. It drove me nuts. She would wash them and hang them so perfectly. I remember how they would blow in the breeze when the windows were open. NOW, I love them too.
7. I remember once when Mom got all new furniture. We thought she'd gone and lost her mind. Our new couch had fruit on it! Avocado Green was the "in" color back in the early seventies, and Mom made sure she got plenty of it. More than anything she loved the "free" fruit dish that Finkes gave her for buying furniture there. She dared us to touch it. It's home was smack in the middle of the coffee table. Again, .... Yuck!
8. She drove a Rambler. I know most of you have never heard of a Rambler. It was the ugliest car on the market. I hated it, but Mom loved it. It was a station wagon Rambler to boot!
9. Speaking of cars, when I was a teenager, my Mother was just not hip or cool, or with it. My Mom and Dad went to buy a new car and she actually told the salesman that she liked those "Grand-Pricks." (Gran Prix) Oh geesh Mom ... you really said that!
10. The funniest thing I ever heard my Mother say while talking to another Mother about some wild kids (she called them wild) caught smoking Marijuana at school. "Yes, and if their parents don't watch those kids .... they'll be smoking that there Pot too!" Yeah right Mom! ... it's the same thing! I was sixteen and wanted to melt into the floor.

Happy Birthday Mom! You are the Greatest .... I love you! I could go on and on and on listing things. But mainly, you were and still are a wonderful Mother!

Tannie

The Lump is Gone

Just thought I'd let everyone that reads here know that I'm okay.

The surgery wasn't that bad. I slept all the way to Indy and all the way back. That must have been a long boring trip for Von.

They removed the lump and sent it off for pathology. I'll hear a week from this coming Monday. But the Surgeon says it looks great and she's positive it is nothing to worry about. So I've decided to not worry.

It's such a relief to have it out and gone, and have no more worries. I've been to Indianapolis I don't know how many times over this lump. I've had it for years, but it's had changes, and it was time to have it removed.

I got up the nerve to take the bandages off a bit ago .... and what a great surprise I had when I peeked at the incision. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

It hurts and is very swollen, but that will go away soon, and I'll be as good as new! Now instead of worrying .... I'm planning the rest of my life!

Be Blessed Everyone.

The Lump

I'm having surgery in the morning. Even though I know I'm okay, I'm still scared.

I think it's just human nature to be scared, or to think the worst. How do you go into a surgery that could be life changing and not have fears?

Here I sit at 1:00 am, worried and thinking about my kids, and I have to leave in four hours, and we have a long drive ahead of us. .... and I still have to sleep.

I'm having a lumpectomy in my breast. Simply enough said. I'll be okay! I have to be .... I'm a Mom. A million thoughts have gone through my head. A million reassurances from myself are bouncing back .... but still, I'm uneasy.

It will be a simple surgery .... then a seven day wait .... then I'll breathe a lot easier! If only I didn't have the wait ..... sigh.

Tacoma, Washington

Juli has been in Tacoma, Washington all week visiting her best friend Mandy. Mandy is in the Army and will be deploying to Iraq soon for the third time, and Juli went out to spend some time with her before she goes.

Fifty years ago, I was in Tacoma. Although I don't remember being born there and traveling home to Illinois when I was one year old, it's kind of neat that Juli is there now. She'll tell me all about it and I'll see it through my daughter's eyes.

She says it's beautiful ... and the pine trees are awesome! I'm so glad she got to go, and I wish I could have gone with her. Maybe someday we'll get to go together. I'd love to see where I lived that first year and see the town that I was born in. My Dad was in the Army and Mom followed him out there when she was seventeen years old, married him there, and I was born the following year.

Juli will be flying home tomorrow .... so please keep her in your prayers that she has a safe flight! This little bird loves to travel, and she'll be landing in Indianapolis tomorrow night at 8:00PM. Until her feet are firmly planted on Indiana ground I'll be worried about her!

Be Blessed Everyone.

"Liquidators"

My children are napping and I've had a long soak in the tub, and decided that I needed to do a little cleaning and reorganizing. So I began to go through all the little shoes here in the basket by the back door. There are way too many pairs for three little kids. So sorted and bagged they are, and we're less 18 shoes now. That's single shoes, not pairs. But it is nine pair, which is too many extra shoes to have, that do not fit. Especially since I'm the official "shoe picker upper" in this house.

Looking at all those shoes reminded me of when I was a child of twelve and was very aware of what everyone else in the world was wearing on their feet. They were wearing something that I wasn't, and something that my Mother wouldn't buy for me. Penny Loafers.

After what I'm sure was much harping and whining .... Mom finally decided that I could have a cool pair of Penny Loafers too, and off to "Liquidators" we went. Liquidators was a store in the small little Illinois town I grew up in. It was where my Mom shopped a LOT! Being only twelve, I didn't know the difference in stores, and Liquidators was just like the Ritz to me!

Only today (honestly) did I put two and two together, and only today it hit me like a ton of bricks, ... and only today did I realize that Liquidators was a "sell-out" store or "seconds" store.

It actually took me thirty-nine years to realize why my new "Fake Leather Gray Alligator Penny Loafers" didn't look like everyone Else's did when I was twelve years old, and it left me scarred me for life!

I vividly remember the day Mom bought those shoes for me. I was hard to deal with, mouthy, and wouldn't make a choice .... and she made the choice for me! It was a lesson learned .... but did she have to make me wear them to school? She did.

Be Blessed Everyone.