some like it cold, some like it hot

Okay, so I know that there are a lot of coffee drinkers out there and now I have finally joined the bandwagon.  Coffee used to mean a bitter taste in my mouth and how could anyone ever like that disgusting stuff, until I ventured out and bought flavored coffee creamer and now I'm in love with  my glorified coffee. 
Now because I love coffee, I had to figure out how to make it.  Ross was just making extra for me before he left for work, but I upped my coffee intake to two times a day.  The first time I tried to make it was a bit of a challenge.  I put the grounds in the filter and put the water in, turned on the machine and I was expecting it to brew, but it came out pouring through just as fast as I put in the coffee maker.  And it was COLD!  So I thought that I just had to leave it in the pot and let it warm up on the tiny coffee burner.  Ten minutes later, it was still cold.  I resigned myself and put in the microwave to warm up my "coffee".  I may have done this a few days before I finally swallowed my pride and called Ross to learn how to make coffee.  Apparently, I was not supposed to put the water right on top of the grounds in the coffee filter.  Whoops!  Apparently, I was supposed to put the water down the side of the machine.  It felt so wrong the first time I dumped that water in where it was supposed to go.  I said to Ross "are you sure I'm supposed to dump it in there?  I'm not going to ruin the coffee machine, am I?"  He just chuckled and said it wouldn't ruin it.   He was right!  It didn't ruin it, it actually brewed my coffee and it was HOT! 
I can make supper, I can make desert, I can make bake goods, and now, ta da, I can make COFFEE (or should I just say I can make caffeine).

Haircuts

Today was the day the twins needed haircuts.  This is not their first one, they've been getting them since 9 months old.  Since I'm dutch, we save money by having Grandma W. (Wassink)come over and do it.  I did it one time, but the outcome was not good.  Once in awhile the twins do good with it, but usually they HATE it.  Today was one where they hated it.  We put one in the high chair and let the other one roam.  Reed was first today.  He was doing okay in the very beginning but got progressively worse as the hair cut went on.  Part of the battle is getting them to sit still.  Every time Grandma would get ready to cut, he would turn his head.  Luke, who was supposed to be playing, started to have sympathy tears or really sympathy wailing.  Luke was hanging onto our legs as we tried to get Reed done.  Then it was Luke's turn.  Luke has always been worse with haircuts.  Right from the start he was throwing a major fit.  He would not sit still.  Twisting and turning his body this way and that. Trying to stand up and basically fighting Grandma with everything he had in him.  Reed was sympathy wailing for Luke now.  We decided that I should hold Luke in my lap and try to keep his head still.  He is strong!!  He twisted his body so that he was laying stiffly on his belly on my lap and he accidentally kicked Reed to the ground(Reed was standing clinging on my leg).  But somehow through all that, we got the job done.  Luke's hair is far from perfect, but it looks a lot better than it did before.

REALLY!?!?!

It has been quite the few days over here at the Wassink house.  Leanne close to being admitted to the hospital on Friday, Saturday her beloved chicken died and then today.  I had a doctor appointment scheduled for Leanne for a recheck on her lungs and I took the babies along for flu shot.  First of all the babies were a mess.  I mean, they were the worst I have ever seen them act in public.  Whining and trying to get down.  I will not let them crawl on the nasty doctor office floor.  Never again will I have the babies come over supper hour.  That was mistake number one.  Thankfully my mom was there to help me.  My poor mother didn't know what she was getting herself into.  Leanne's lungs checked out okay.  Her oxygen level was 95% (normally between 98%-100%) and she checked Reed to and of course his asthma is beginning to flare up too.  Then after that we were waiting for the nurse to bring in the flu shots.  To keep my crabby babies occupied, I was letting them throw tissues in the air.  They thought it was so much fun until it happened.  Leanne bent down and hit the hinge of the door way with her head.  KABOOM!!!  I took one look at her and said "oh, no she needs stitches!"  The nurse practitioner heard me and came flying in the room.  Sure enough she had a gaping deep cut on the top of her forehead.  And my response, I was laughing!!  I couldn't help it.  I felt bad for my girl, but REALLY? REALLY?!.  The babies were still falling apart and my poor dear mother could barely handle all of this.  REALLY?!  REALLY?!!!  I mean we were almost out the door.  Thankfully we they looked closer they decided they could use bonding glue.  I was so thankful because Leanne was turning into a crying mess.  She screamed when they irrigated it and I don't blame her-it had to HURT!!  They got all glued together and it's looks okay.  And my poor mother was holding both babies, during all of this, on her lap and they were not sitting still for her at all.  After all that drama,we had to wait another 15 min before they could get their flu shots and they (Leanne and the babies) were NOT happy. The nurse practitioner just happened to pop her head in to tell us it wouldn't be much longer just as I was saying "I'm going to go insane!" To make the long story shorter we finally got that done and I left with three crying children.  By this time our appointment was already over a hour and I decided right then and there, it was time to pick up fast food from Wendy's and call it a night.  And my poor mother drove all the way back to Jenison after all that.  I don't think she will ever want to go help me again.

Natural instinct

This evening it happened.  When we got the dog,I thought this might happen,but he got along so well with the chickens.  This evening his natural instincts kicked in.  I really don't blame Yooper, the chicken was in his domain. One yellow/orange chicken was in his dog house eating his dog food.  The chickens usually will go in there and eat his food but today one chicken was caught in the action.  Ross came onto the scene when it was too late.  The poor birds feathers were taken out and it was basically dead. Ross took it out back and put the poor bird out of it's misery.  
We were all in the babies' room when I carelessly said "we only have 4 chickens now."  Leanne burst into hysterics and sobbed, "wha wha wha happened to my chicken?" We told her Yooper got him and Ross told her that he had to put it down.  Leanne sobbed "you killed it! you killed my chicken! Why don't you just kill all of them!"  We had to explain to her that we had too and we didn't want to.  She seemed to understand and started to forgive her daddy but then she asked "what did you do with it?"  Ross then wished he could bury his head into the sand, but he told her the truth "I took it far into the woods and left it there.  It will be a good meal for a coyote."  Leanne did not respond well to this and stated "why didn't you bury it!"  Ross told her he was cold and he didn't know where his shovel was.  Leanne insisted he should have found a shovel and buried him.  I agree with Leanne.  I don't think Ross did anything wrong by placing him in the woods but I would have done a little burial so the kids could have said goodbye to their chicken.  Then she sobbed "was it the one with the yellow feathers with a little bit of white on them?"  Three out of the five chickens are orange/yellow and we can't tell one from the other.  Ross didn't know exactly which one it was.  I told her tomorrow she can go check.  I never knew she had a favorite.  She had seemed to finally calmed down and it was time for her and Alli to take a shower.  Of course, the hard question came there.  We had just talked about how God knew the  perfect timing for this chicken's death and how God is in control of everything.  Her big question was "is my chicken in heaven?"  I made Ross answer this one. His answer "Leanne, chickens don't have souls like you and I do.  God will have animals in heaven, but I don't know if your chicken will be there.  But God loves you and cares about you." Death is so hard for little ones to understand.  The other kids were not sad about the death of the chicken, instead they are looking forward to spring when they can get some new chickens. I feel so bad for that little faithful egg laying chicken.  I feel even worse for my tenderhearted little girl. 

birthday girl

My Allison is now a big 4 year old.  Her birthday was Nov 19.  She is such a joy in our lives. Allison believes that she is Cinderella's twin.  One day, this past year, she said to me, "Reed is Luke's twins and Luke is Reed's twin, Cinderella is my twin."   Allison's favorite color is purple, favorite thing to do is watch mommy cook/bake, and she loves to play "mom and dad".  She also loves Minnie mouse and all things princess. Belle comes in a close second to being her favorite princess.  We call her princess and sweetie but she is also called chipmunk by a certain aunt because of her small stature.  Her Grandpa B (Bykerk) likes to call her Sunny.

 

I posted a few pictures of her from baby to now. 

 

Allison Paige

7 lbs 8 oz

my only bald baby

 

Allison at 1 year

 

 

Allison loves her daddy



 

 All the kids with their pet chickens

 

 

 

Alli and her sand cookie

 

 

She LOVED her purple princess castle cake!

 

 

We're so happy that Allison is part of this family.  I couldn't imagine a day without her!  May God grant us many years to come with this little sweet princess!!!

Dead Wrong

Dead wrong, yup, I was dead wrong.  I didn't know I was wrong until we reached that point.  I thought it would be easier, but it's not easier, just different.  I'm no longer a zombie, but instead I feel haggard. The thing that I was dead wrong about is that I told myself, when I was extremely exhausted from sleep deprivation, that it would be so much easier when they turned one.  They, being my precious, mischievous, getting into the toilet bowl, crawling in sissy's room, taking things out of the cupboards, pulling each others hair, hitting each other, stealing each others food, crawling on the table at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, standing up constantly in their seats, putting things in their mouths that are not supposed to be in there, crawling over the other one cause they don't realize they can go around, crawling crawling crawling everywhere, and forget about taking them downstairs, that is a whole new world down there.  Down there is a toy room that they shouldn't go into.  Down there are way to many little parts like, Lego's, Barbie accessories, little itty bitty toys that just do NOT belong in their mouths.  Down there are two more bedrooms they shouldn't go into.  But if they do get a chance to go down there and the room doors are open, they are in there.  Down there is another bathroom that is off limits, but we have other shorties that forget to shut the door when they are down there.  And between down there and up there are the stairs.  They know how to climb them, over and over and over and over times 2, but they can't get back down unless they use their heads as a cushion as they fall.  It's just best if we stay up here.  Who are these little adorable lovable, give me a 2 tooth smile and makes it all worth it? Who are the ones that giggle and hang onto mommy's pant legs while she's trying to make dinner?  Who are the ones that greet daddy with big smiles and drool?  I think we all know who the culprits are.  Why it's Luke Grant and Reed Lane.  Cutest twins ever.

Leanne turns 7

Leanne, my oldest, turned 7 years old this past Friday.  She is my helper and I miss her a lot when she's at school.  She is very good with the twins and has a take charge attitude. Her favorite color is pink and her favorite hobby is arts and crafts.  She hates dolls and never did like to play dress up.  She still likes Thomas the train and her other favorite thing to do is reading.  She's currently reading The Boxcar Children books. 

Here's a few pictures of her growing  up

Leanne when she was a baby

1 year old



Leanne, 2 years old, with her brother,Clay

Leanne's 3rd birthday

 

 

 

 

in Disney World

 

 

 

 

First day of preschool

 

 

First day of kindergarten

 

 

 

 

 

First day of first grade

 

 

 

 

Leanne is a good big sister

 

 

 

I can't believe she is 7 years old.  It went so fast.  I hope that God grants us many more years to be parents of this bright little girl.  Happy Birthday Leanne!

 



Brave

Brave.  Yup, that's what I was yesterday.  Brave.  I was going to go to Target before I met the school bus when I only had the four younger children, but decided against it when I remembered that Leanne needed to pick out her birthday treat.  Brave.  I picked Leanne up and then we were off.  I debated if I should take my double stroller or pile the twins and Alli into the cart.  The cart won.  Alli went in the front of the cart and the twins went in the big area of the cart. The older kids walked along side of the cart. Brave.  I've made a scene at the library before with the five, but this was my first time to go to a bigger store without Ross along for help.  GULP.  Since the twins were occupying the larger area of the cart, I debated if I wanted to take another cart or get a basket to put underneath my cart.  I opted for the basket underneath the cart since we didn't need many things.  We were off.  We got Leanne's treat and she had a big selection because the halloween candy was out.  That was the first things into the basket.  The twins heaved whatever was in their area over the side so I was thankful I chose to take a basket along.  Trying to act normal while people stare at you can be hard.  I try to ignore them.  We continue.  The twins are no longer sitting down, but standing up and holding onto the sides of the cart.  They were so happy!!  Go down another aisle and a lady exclaims "TWINS".  I smile and nod my head and continue on my way.  Get a few more thing and check them off my list.  Pass another lady in a aisle, she points and smiles.  I think to myself, I create a scene where ever we go.  I'm almost done.  I'm starting to get hot.  I can't wait to leave.  Everyone was behaving wonderful.  I even let them look at the toys for a few minutes.  The kids don't get out much.  We head to the check out.  While in line, a lady in the next aisle makes my day and makes the trip really worth it.  She says to me, "I've been watching you as you went through the store (who hasn't?), and you're twins are the cutest things I've ever seen.  At one point, one of them had his arm around the other one (I didn't see them do that, but I was very preoccupied).  Your kids did good in the store.  You're a good mom."  I think that what every mom wants to hear.  Thank you to that very kind woman who went out of her way for telling me that.  It truly brightened my brave day.  After that we proceeded to go out of the store and I got everyone in the car and went home.  Maybe when I get up enough courage and nerve, I'll do this again someday.   

Vacation

This past week our family went on vacation.  We went all the way to Curtis (located in the Upper Peninsula).  It was a long drive, but all the kids were wonderful.  We stopped during our trip up there at Arby's.  Ross and I were kind of dreading to take all of our children in there, but every one needed a break from the long car ride.  Ross and the kids sat down (of coarse in the back of the restaurant) and I went to order and bring back the food.  They were well behaved.  As I sat down with the food, an older gentleman came over by us and told us what a lovely family we have.  He repeated it a few times and looked at each of the kids.  It meant so much to us to have a random stranger come up to us and say that!  Usually people say  to us, wow, you have a busy family.  It was so refreshing!!!  We know that we are blessed to have all of our children, but it made us feel even more blessed that someone else noticed.

Our week at Curtis was so much fun.  Scott and Shannon Denherder, along with their two little ones, Gavin (almost 3) and Alice (1 1/2 years).  We shared a large cottage and we rented a pontoon boat that needed two people to get it started (it was a pile, but a fun pile).  The kids played in the sand and played in the water. 

Gavin and Allison playing at the cottage

 

 

 

Ross and one of the babies (I don't have

a clue wich one it is)

The kids playing in the water at the cottage.

We went sight seeing every other day. If you ever go to the U.P.  check out Fayette (a place they used to mine iron ore).  It's a historical place with buildings set up with things of how they used to live. 

Clay and Leanne by a wagon wheel at Fayette

Seney wild life refuge is another good place to go.  Ross and I usually take the kids for a drive through there on Sunday.  It's a nice little drive through nature. 

Reed loved driving through Seney.  We let

each of the kids take a turn driving.  We start

them young.

 

Another great place we went and usually go every time we go to the u.p. is Kitchi-iti-kipi (palm book state park).  It is a natural spring that you take a slow moving raft across.  You can see the spring through the beautiful clear water.  Great big fish are usually swimming in the area too.

Some of the Big fish at the spring

The spring (it looks cooler in person)

Leanne and Clay looking through the glass

at the spring

Pictured Rocks are also a great place to go.  We usually bring our bathing suits and swim at Lake Superior.  We love swimming there.
This year, we also drove up to Munising.  We wanted to see the aftermath of the wild fire they had this past spring.  It was so odd to see all stumps of trees and charred trees. We drove by all these burned trees and Lake superior suddenly appeared out of no where. We stopped at the campground there and let the kids go out and play.  They gathered all sorts of beautiful rocks there.  Sparkly pink and orange ones, dark gray ones, ones with unique cracks in them. 

 

The loggers are starting to take down the

burnt trees.  You can see a stack of them in this

picture

 

 

 

There used to be an inn in this location.

The fire consumed it.

Family picture at Lake Superior.  Not

the best picture of us all, but we were

cold and the wind was blowing.

 

We had a wonderful time spending time together as a family and with our friends.  So happy that God gave us time to relax and enjoy His handiwork.

Got Eggs?

One of our black chickens all of a sudden developed a maternal instinct.  She has now decided that she will sit on her eggs and not get off them.  Before she would wander the yard with the other chickens, but lately she has become a home body or should I say a coop body.  Mind you, we do not have a rooster, so her dream of having baby chicks will never be.  When I was baking the twin's birthday cake, I ran out of eggs.  This rarely happens to me.  I usually have a surplus of eggs and I give a lot of them away.  However, this had to happen on the day I needed them the most.  I refuse to buy eggs (and I had little desire to pack up all 5 kids to go buy eggs) and I knew that our nesting chicken had some good ones laying underneath her.  I sent Leanne and Clay to go get eggs.  They came up with 2 eggs.  I was one short.  When I asked if they checked under the black chicken, they said no.  My kids do not pick up the black ones because the black ones peck at them.  The orange/yellow ones don't.  So I convinced Clay to go outside with me to try to gather the eggs.  I told him that maybe he could pick up this chicken.  As soon as he reached in there, it pecked him.  We both got sticks and poked her with them.  The chicken, in turn, pecked at our sticks.  I gathered beans from the garden, in hopes of trying to bribe her with food to move.  A yellow/orange one, gobbled it up instead.  That chicken was NOT going to move.  After some hem hawing, I decided to give up and wait till Ross got home for lunch to gather the rest of those eggs.  I really wanted to finish my baking.  Then my ever determined girl, Leanne, went back out there to give it a whirl.  She came back up with ONE egg.  She handed it to me and it was still warm (that's a little to fresh for me).  I asked her how she did it.  Leanne said she took a stick and lifted up the chicken's butt and reached under the chicken and grabbed the egg.  Then she proceeded to tell me that the chicken was in process of laying 2 more eggs.  I have yet to see a chicken lay an egg and I have little desire to see it.  We decided that the stubborn chicken needed a name and decided to call him Pesky. Leanne saved the day.  I love that girl so much.

Our first year

My twins turned one.  I can't believe it.  It went so fast.  This is a little recap on the babies first year of life.

This is the morning of the c-section.

my first time seeing the boys.  reed is by ross

my first time really holding them.

reed on left, luke on right

 baptism

first smiles

first time sitting in the bumbos

first time sharing

 first time eating baby food

Reed was hospitalized at 6 months for rsv and pneumonia. 

He was one sick little boy

We can push ourselves up

Yay. we can sit up

First bath time in the big boy tub

We love our daddy

Standing by our play table for the first time.

Luke left, Reed right

We love to play by our toy box after bath time

We are at the big table.  We steal each other's cups and food

Reed thinks his cupcake is yummy.  Happy first birthday Reed!



Luke thinks his cupcake is yummy!  Happy first birthday Luke!

Reed and Luke buried in all of their gifts

We are so blessed to have these boys in our life.  God couldn't have given us a more precious gift than our family.  Happy 1st birthday Luke and Reed.  Mommy, Daddy, Leanne, Clay, and Allison, love you!

daily living

8 am......Clay or Allison sneak into mommy's bed for morning snuggles.

8:30 am.... Everyone is hungry so time to get out the breakfast.  Get babies cereal and sippy cups ready and then head to their room to get them out of bed.

8:35am....bring both babies down the hallway and wrangle them in their highchairs.

9am.....breakfast complete.  phew, made it through meal number 1.

 9am through rest of the day.....check every few minutes to make sure that basement door is shut.  Sometimes it is, sometimes it's not.  Yell, "make sure you shut the basement door.  We don't want the babies to fall down the steps."

9:30.....make everyone get dressed.  I don't care if they don't match, just as long as they throw some clothes on.  Help Alli get dressed (have to be careful with what underwear she gets.  It might "hurt" her)  Somehow manage to get both babies dressed (they like to roll and fight me until they are free to crawl)

9:45am....."We're hungry.  We need a snack."  Pass out granola bars.

10am.....Clean up all the cereal on the ground.  Dustpan full of fruit loops and cheerios goes into trash-how much even ended up in their mouths?  no one really knows.

10:30....babies crawl into the bathroom and get into the bath toys.  I run in to make sure toilet lid is closed.  It is.  back to cleaning up.

10:40am...find babies by laundry basket pulling out clean folded laundry and tossing it on the floor. 

10:45am.....Babies go down for 1st nap of day.  I clean like a mad woman.

11am.....Ross stops in to get something.  "did you call the window place yet?"  I look at him and say "I'll get right on that (insert sarcasm)"

12pm...Lunch time.  2nd meal of day.  Just got done putting away breakfast.  Kids at the table, babies in the high chairs

12:10pm....Everyone is done,except babies.  Ross walks in the door to eat his lunch (at least he makes his own). 

12:20pm...babies done with lunch, Ross is back at work.  Clean up every ones mess again.  Another dustpan full of scraps into the trash.  2nd meal complete.

12:30pm....quick call window place to see if their in. 

12:35pm....find both babies in the other bathroom that we use for storage.  Babies decided that playing with vases sounded like a good idea.

1pm...One baby in the living room.  Where is the other?  "Reed, where are you?!"  He's found in the bathroom, standing next to toilet.  Look inside toilet to see he's thrown in a Piece of foam.  Look closer, the previous person (one of the kids) did not flush the toilet.  I fish out the foam and throw it in trash.  Reed then gets his hands doused with hand sanitizer. 

1:30pm...decide to make chicken salad for supper.  get going on that.  Not looking forward to chopping up chicken and veggies for it, but I'm excited about eating it later.

1:45pm...hear ripping sound from living room.  find babies with a psalter on the ground and they ripped number 33 in half.  take psalter away and place it higher.

2pm....put both babies to bed for second nap. 

That is as far as I got today. If I could look into the future the rest of the day would look like this.  Put out several fires (fights) between the children,  get babies up from naps and watch them like hawks.  I'm sure I'll pull some stuff out of their mouths that they're not supposed to have, and there will be several more times I check the basement door, and several more times they get into stuff they're not supposed too.  At some point we'll have dinner and then proceed for the best time of the day.  Bedtime.  I love seeing my children, but I always look forward to bedtime.


                                 Luke in green, Reed in grey. 
                                 Reed is using Luke to pull up to stand. 
                                  Luke isn't so happy with this situation.

Events of the Evening

Tonight was taco night.  I don't have a specific night for tacos, rather, we have them once every couple of weeks.  It's one of the kiddos favorite meals, but not my favorite to serve.  It takes awhile to get all the kids settled with their tacos with all the toppings on them.  By the time I get mine assembled, they are ready for another one.  I will not serve tacos if Ross has to work late.  I learned that lesson the hard way last year.  It's not only getting them all assembled but also the clean up afterwards.  Shredded cheese, lettuce, tomato pieces all over the floor and sour cream and salsa and bits and pieces that fell from their mouth all over the table.  During the meal we keep repeating "hold your taco over your plate."   After we finished our yummy supper, I had the bright idea of giving them a bar for desert.  I gave some to the babies too.  Let's just say it was a huge chocolate mess for the babies.  Into the tub we go.  Clay took off with Ross to do an errand, so I had the girls and the babies take a bath together.  Pretty exciting stuff over here when I let them climb in the tub with the babies.  The girls had fun spiking Luke and Reed's hair.  I always lay two towels out on the bathroom floor when I'm ready to get the babies out of the tub.  I usually take Reed out first and wrap the towel around him.  He's slower at getting out of the towel than Luke.  Then I take Luke out.  I hoist them both up on my hips and carry them to their room.  I plopped them down on their carpeted bedroom floor.  They immediately crawled out of their towels and, of coarse, crawl in opposite directions.  They think it's fun to crawl around in their birthday suits.  I have to decide who to diaper first.  I got to Luke first and scrambled to wrestle his diaper on.  He is the worst to get the diaper on.  Twisting and turning this way and that.  Amidst all of this, Reed was standing, in all his glory, by the toy box.  I knew this would happen to me at some point and tonight was the night.  He peed down the side of the toy box and onto brand new carpet.  "Reed, no no!" I exclaimed.  Of coarse, he looked at me with a blank stare and a quick grin.  He's only 11mo old so he doesn't even know he's peeing on the carpet.  I finally had the chance to wrestle his diaper on too.  Phew.  They are done,  I thought.  I decided to let them crawl around in their diapers for a little bit.  Now time to get the girls out of the tub.  At least that part was uneventful.  Leanne came back to me when she had her P.J.s on to get her hair brushed.  I sat by the kitchen table to untangle all of her hair.  Luke and Reed where crawling around the dining room as I was doing this.  I looked over at Reed to see he found a half eaten bar on the floor.  Oh no.  Not again. "Ross, can you help me?" (he must get so sick of me calling for him to help).  Chocolate all down the front of him again. Ross took a rag and wiped him up for me.  It was time to get their p.j.s on and do their inhaler treatments.  Ross took Luke and the kids downstairs for a few minutes and I was starting to set up the nebulizer machine.  I got everything ready to go and went to search for Reed.  I found him with his clean hands in the toilet.  He was having a good ole time splashing his hand in the cold water.  AAARRGGHH.  I promptly picked him up and rewashed his hand.  Ross and I took turns giving each baby a inhaler treatment and got those little rascals to bed. The older kids are now watching their favorite show, Wipe Out.  I decided to let Ross be on duty for a few minutes.  I need a break.

Sunset

This past week I've been playing quite a bit on the piano.  The babies love it.  They rock back and forth to the music.  Anyways, I started playing some hymns and it brought me back to the time I was a resident aide at Sunset Manor and Village (retirement home).  I loved my job taking care of the elderly.  I was 18 when I was a RA, but I started at Sunset when I was almost 16 working in the kitchen and as a waitress (not my favorite).  Being a RA included giving baths, making beds, and helping the residents get ready for the day.
We would also do juice.  Juice is in the afternoon a hour past lunch time.  We would load a cart up with different kinds of juice and a snack.  Another resident aide and I would go door to door to all the residents and give them a snack and juice.  This was really a time to socialize with them also.  I loved talking to Ruby.  She had a thick dutch accent and was hilarious.  Another one of my favorites was Cora.  She had tons of pillows on her bed and liked them lined up, it didn't matter what order just as long as it looked nice.  Then there was Andy.  Everyone knew Andy.  He would grow tomatoes outside by his room and he had so many he gave many away.   Helen lived on the second floor.  She was a quiet resident but she was probably my favorite.  She reminded me of my piano teacher.  I would sing "you are so beautiful to me" to her every time I entered her room.  And she would giggle.  Then there was the other Helen that would give you a kiss with her wet lips every time you saw her.  I would make sure her kiss would end up on my cheek and not my lips.  Occasionally I would work in the dementia unit.  It was a small unit.  Probably about 15 people lived there.  I really liked working there.  For the most part, they lived in there own little world.  They lived in yesterday, when they were young.  I used to make peanut butter cookies with them and we would sit around the table and talk before it was time for bed.  There was one lady (I can't remember her name) who had a piano in her room.  I asked if she would play it for me and she did.  When I gave report at the end of my shift, the regular workers told me that she hadn't played that piano since moving to the unit.  I don't know why she played it that day, but she did.  There was a assisted living unit upstairs that consisted of 6 or 7 residents.  These residents required a little more help then others.  The other Helen with the wet kisses lived here.  It was not my favorite place to work but I still enjoyed it.  Whenever I would work, I would gather the residents and bring them down to the sitting room and play the piano for them.  They would request songs (some I could not play at all)  and we would sing.  That's why when I played some older hymns it brought me back to sunset.  I'm sure that all the residents I wrote about have since passed away, but they will be forever alive in my memory. 

Family Night

Our family attempts to do one special night a week at home.  We usually make pizza from scratch and let the kids pick a movie to watch while we eat it.  The whole family looks forward to, what we dubbed, family night.  We eat together every night, but this is our special night. 


                                                    Homemade pizza dough

                                                                   Allison kneading the dough

                                                         Clay's turn kneading the dough

Leanne's turn

While we let the dough rise, we usually try to get all the kids bathed.

They love to press it in the pizza pans

                                                                 Yum Yum, mozzarella cheese

                             They all get to put toppings on.  This requires a lot
                               of patience on my part.

Our finished pizzas

Family time in the basement.  Even the babies get to be part of it.

Our kids love family time.  If we have to miss it because of other things going on, the kids are very disappointed.  I'm happy that they love to spend time with mom and dad.