Oregon is....

Clouds.
Spending time with Grandpa and Grandma R.
See's candies!
Sneaking frozen cookies from Grandma's freezer.
Riding the carrousel in the park.
The Oregon Coast Aquarium!! What a totally rockin' day!! Even the teens had a blast!

Riding the carrousel in the park.
Hanging out with Grandma and all the cousins, uncles and aunts (Deb's brothers & sisters) at our family reunion at the coast!! An absolutely terrific, memory-filled time! Thanks so much, Aunt Kristin!!

(Grandma and Cousin E)

Sandcastles.
"A" starting a bonfire with half a can of lighter fluid!
Teen cousins hanging on the beach making s'mores and laughing until midnight.


Climbing over the rocky outcroppings at low tide.
Exploring tide pools.
Sea anemone.
Shells.


Touching Manta Rays at the Aquarium.
"B Family Beach Olympics" - hilarious and lots of fun!

(A, J (Steve's), Uncle Travis, Banana. The losing Olympic team! Don't believe Travis or A when they try to deny it!)
Sand mermaids.
Seeing Uncle Paul after such a long time!
Girl cousin giggles.
Salt water taffy.



Aunt Melanie breaking two bones in her foot on Uncle Scott's leg during a rather aggressive game of soccer.
Finally meeting Scott and Anne's adorable baby girl!

(My handsome little brother and his wee little princess - I stole this from their blog! It was too cute not to swipe, Scott! And since it wasn't copyrighted I don't think Steve can come after me.)

Cold. Wind. Clouds. Cold. Rain. Cold.
Going to the classic car show in downtown Salem; munching on free snacks. Great dogs!

(M pretending to drown at the aquarium)

See's candies.
Schmabbers' trip to Build A Bear with Grandma R and cousin M (Matt's brother's daughter).
New Build A Bear bridal dress, veil & shoes that quickly became a First Communion outfit.



Sleep-overs at Uncle Tim and Aunt Brenda's house with M and her sister E! Lots of fun!!
Watching fireworks at Riverfront Park.
"A" loved picking on Grandpa!
A & K spending not-enough time with their buddies Alex and Katie S. and Josh & David K.


(Schmabbers and M on the way to Build-A-Bear)

The big downer of our trip was that Daddy wasn't able to catch a hop and join us before deploying for a month. We were really looking forward to him coming and he was really excited about seeing everyone again. In the end we knew it was God's loving kindness that prevented Matt from coming, because the first military hop back to Germany didn't get us here until 4 days after he left. Had he been in the States we would have had to pay an outrageous price to buy him a commercial ticket. His absence put a big damper on the trip for us, though. The other big disappointment was our lack of time and transportation to get all of us around to see the other really special people we were hoping to visit. Circumstances prevented that this time, but we're looking forward to making up for it on our next visit.

Utah is....

Fun times meeting new cousins (Kristin's son "E" and Tammy's son "R", both almost two).
Helping Aunt Melanie build her porch.
See's candy!

Ice cream cookie sandwiches with Grandma at a shop near her office, then rolling races down the grassy hill outside the BYU library.
Uncle Steve's catamaran.
Actually floating (REALLY floating!) in the Great Salt Lake. (The kids had so much fun hanging out with their cousins that day! Sinking is literally impossible in the brine shrimp infested waters of the Great Salt Lake. The kids were all laying flat on top of the water, "standing" in 20' deep water, and sitting cross-legged in it while they chatted with each other!) Lots of fun! Thanks, Uncle Steve and Aunt Suzie!
Swimming pool fun with cousins.
Walmart.
See's candy!!!
Swinging on the rope swing at the creek.
Costco!!!!
Playing Bonko with my sisters! (Deb)
Princess Dress-up Party at the local library. (Schmabbers, Banana, Cousin "K" (Tam's))
"Watching Uncle Travis hack up a watermelon"
Planting flowers in Aunt Tammy's yard to surprise her.
Playing with cousin "B" (Tam's oldest)
J's 10th Birthday! Complete with a killer-rich Reese's Peanut Butter cake. (Four chocolate cake layers filled with peanut butter mousse, frosted in chocolate frosting, topped with more peanut butter mousse and chopped Reese's. Elastic-waist pants, anyone?)


A's first unaccompanied flight (to El Paso to hang with his buddy for 10 days).
Our first Stateside Mass.
Miss Jana's amazing hot dogs and homemade fries and fry sauce! If you're in SLC, look up MUTTZ for a great lunch and tell them Debbie sent you!
Getting hooked on Heroes with Aunt Tammy.

"Oooowww!!! It hurts!!"

Banana had been begging to have her ears pierced so she could look like a "real" princess. We'd promised her we'd let her when we got back to the States, and she repeated reminded me until we finally went to Claire's. Here's our little princess excitedly anticipating this rite of passage!

She happily chose pretty little pink stones that were labeled as being her birthstones. (Are October's stones really pink?) Unfortunately the store only had one employee working and she wouldn't let me pierce one ear while she did the other so we could get it done all at once. Here's Banana right after it was over and she'd stopped crying. "I did this for a green sucker?!? Are you kidding me??!!"


And here she is with her bright, sparkly earrings, red eyes, and tear-tipped lashes.



10 minutes after leaving the store she announced that they didn't hurt anymore and happily skipped away sucking on her lollypop.

God is so good!

A couple of weeks after our last post I received an email from one of my sisters informing me that one of our other sisters, Tammy, was in the intensive care burn unit at the University of Utah Medical Center. Tam had been fighting a Staph infection in her eye for two months and had been suffering through disfiguring facial swelling, constant oozing from her nearly swollen shut eye, and excruciating pain that radiated to her throat. After further diagnosis, Tam ended up having a PICC line inserted to administer a powerful antibiotic concoction 24 hours a day. After 28 days of IV antibiotics, the line was removed and we were hopeful that she was firmly on the road to recovery. But within a couple of days her face and head began to swell and turn bright red. In a matter of hours her left ear was so swollen that she couldn't hear out of it. By the next morning, when she went to the ER, our Mom almost didn't recognize her. In the ER she began developing huge, quarter-size blisters all over her body while the swelling continued at an alarming rate. The oozing blisters posed a serious infection risk, so Tam was transported to the burn unit at the University.

Mom, Kristin (baby sister), and my two sisters-in-law were planning on meeting in NYC that weekend for a few days taking in the sights and a Broadway show. Over the next few days, as Tam's condition grew more serious, we decided to cancel our trip. Super Travel Agent Nancy (Mom) worked her magic with the airlines and my siblings graciously pitched in financially to trade my NY ticket in for a ticket to Salt Lake City. Wonder Stud-Muffin juggled all the kids and his work schedule, and sent me jetting Westward for two weeks. (We've been blessed with amazing kids! They did an absolutely awesome job of taking care of each other, fixing all the meals, and running the house for two weeks while Dad was at work!)

Tam spent nearly two excruciatingly agonizing weeks in the burn unit being deemed healed enough to go home. She was released the day before I got to her house, so I was spared the horror of seeing her in the hospital. I did see photos of Tam while in the hospital and can't adequately describe how completely disfigured she was. Her swelling increased to the point that she was put on a respirator for several days. Her skin was an otherwordly shade of deep, purple-red (almost like an electric magenta). She looked like she'd gained a hundred pounds which made her face lose all it's features. No chin, no ears, slits for eyes. Her skin, from the top of her head to the tips of her toes was covered in huge blisters and crusted, oozing sores. Her head had been shaved so the sores on her head could be treated. Her fingers were so grotesquely swollen that she could barely bend them to hold a pencil. And she was covered with little staples that attached a synthetic "skin" to the 80% of her real skin that hadn't been surgically removed. When he first went to visit Tammy, our brother, Steve, walked out of her room to tell the nurses they'd given him the wrong room number. He didn't recognize her at all. Picture Will Smith in "Hitch" after he eats the shell fish.

Over the last couple of months Tammy has made an amazing recovery. The upside to all of this is that her skin looks fabulous! She looks like she's had several chemical peels and just glows like an 18 year old now. She's gone through two very painful cycles of her skin completely sloughing off; all part of the healing process. The result is that she has very tender, almost premature baby skin that has to be protected from all sun exposure for at least a year. Her hair is growing back and her sassy, smart-alecky, stubbornness is back in full force. (That unbelievable stubbornness is most likely the reason she survived!)

I treasure the two weeks I had alone with her (before I brought the kids back with me) and I miss her terribly. Thank you all for praying for her recovery!

I love you, Tam!!

Whew!!

What a busy, tiring, fun trip we had! I left Tammy with the intention of going home to gather up the kids and get back as soon as possible to continue helping her. We diligently watched for a military hop (read: free flight) to our preferred Stateside destination and when one finally popped up over a weekend we headed to the airbase to try to get on it. Having never flown in a military plane we were anticipating "bare bones", but had no idea what fun we were in for! We sat in jump seats that lined the walls of the plane and faced pallets piled high with mysterious cargo. The planes are so loud that earplugs are handed out before the engines start warming up! Our only view of the world below was a small window in each of the two doors at the front of the plane. We came prepared with fleece blankets and big German pillows which definitely came in handy. Once the plane was at cruising altitude we were able to spread out on the spacious walking path and play or sleep. The girls thought it was great to sit on the floor and play with Polly Pockets and color!

The little boys killed time watching a couple of movies on a portable DVD player and A and K had fun talking with some of the retired military people/couples on board. "A" really gets a kick out of "old people" and struck up a couple of friendships with retired servicemen who were openly impressed with our goofy man-child. One of the gentleman suggested we ask the flight Load Master if the pilots would let the kids go up to the cockpit. What a great suggestion! That turned out to be the highlight of the flight for the kids. They were able to go up, two at a time, to visit with the pilots while we were flying over the Atlantic. "A" thought it was a hoot that the pilots were playing online games with each other while the Autopilot did its thing. And "K" disappeared a couple of times to go up and just hang out with the young hot shots!

Another of K's highlights on this flight was the friendship she struck with the older couple sitting next to M. He was retired military and she's a German national. She was such a loving and doting wife; it was just precious to watch them together. During one of their conversations K complemented the woman's bracelet. The woman asked K if she knew what it was, and K said that it was a Rosary bracelet with pictures of the Divine Mercy. This sweet little lady then took it off and handed it to K and told her she'd like for K to have it as a reminder to pray. K was very touched by such a kind and personal gift!