Mom and me

I have this picture of Mom and me in a frame in my living room. While it is not the most flattering picture of either one of us, it is how I remember her. I think the picture was taken the fall of 2000. Today was a rough day for me emotionally. I think the fact that today was a Monday made it even that much more difficult. It seemed I just kept reliving that day 6 years ago every time I turned around. It was such a beautiful day. The sunshine and breeze was perfect. I kept thinking how much she would have enjoyed a day like today. I was also reminded of how nice it was the week she died. It really felt more like spring than fall. I was feeling pretty sad when I got home, so Al, Becky, and I raked a pile of leaves and took turns jumping in them. It was really just what I needed. I know Mom would not want me to be so sad that she's gone and would want me to continue to have fun in my life and enjoy the little things. I guess when I miss her so much, it really is a tribute to her. She was such an amazing person. I can only hope I am the kind of wife, mother, and friend to those in my life that she was to so many people around her.

My mom

Becky Rae Dolecheck January 14, 1951 to October 29, 2001
I found this picture of my mom and just wanted to share. It is definitely one of my favorites I have of her. The back of the picture says January 1981, so my guess is it was taken sometime in 1980, probably the summer or fall (Mom was never very good about getting pictures developed right away!) I love how happy she is in this picture. Life was good. That bedspread and room bring back fond memories of life on the farm when things were simpler.

(I also just wanted to say that in my frustration with this whole computer thing, I was able to download my printer from the internet. I just had to do it online because the printer I have has been discontinued and the driver on the CD I had would not work. At least they have updated the one for the printer! I just needed to calm down and be away from it for a few hours until I could rationally think about what needed to be done!)

P.S. I want to post a recent picture of Mom in honor of her memory, but the latest one I could find this time of night was one from Christmas of 2000. I will try to find one from 2001 to post before the weekend is over.

"Vicky"

Okay, so I decided I had to post a few pictures to make sure it works like it used to. Becky and I got to go for a ride in "Vicky," Dad and Patti's 1931 Model A Victoria. I even got to drive it! It was a lot of fun. Becky liked pretending like she was driving after we got back to the house. Was so cute...just had to snap a couple pics, of course! ~Okay...I may have made her get in the front seat to pose for a picture, but she thought it was fun even though it was my idea!!!~


honking the horn posing with Grandpa

update on Becky's binky (or lack of)

Just wanted to post that Becky has done pretty well without her binky. It really took about 3 weeks before she wasn't whining when she went to sleep at night. Becky and I were in Mt. Ayr last weekend and she cried a lot and had a hard time going to sleep, but then slept through the night. She has not cried the past three nights when laying down to go to sleep. She is also not waking up in the middle of the night looking for her binky. As hard as it was for Al and I to put up with her temper tantrums, it is very nice for her to not be so dependent on that filthy thing! She still walks over to her crib sometimes like she is going to grab something, but she no longer asks for her binky. She actually quit asking for it after about three days. She just acted like she wanted it or needed something else for a while. If only us adults could adapt to change so well and be so resilient!

computer fixed...mostly

Well, finally got ahold of The Geek Squad this morning. (Not what I wanted to spend my day off doing, for sure, but oh well). Apparently they were supposed to tell me when I picked the computer up that the hard drive acted like there was nothing on it and that it was completely blank. At least I decided to go ahead and buy the new one instead of having them run the diagnostic to tell me that! I can apparently take my receipt in tomorrow and get refunded the money for the transfer that didn't happen. We really didn't lose too much. I lost some pictures, but most of them were on Shutterfly so at least I can still order them. The ones that weren't on Shutterfly were still on my camera. Having to update really stinks though! We've got the new version of Windows, Windows Vista. It won't recognize my Canon software! At least I was able to transfer the pictures on through Windows picture viewer and just not use the software that came with the camera. I would have REALLY had a fit if I hadn't been able to get those pictures off the camera! I'm off again tomorrow, so I will try to get some pics posted then. Thinking it's about time to go to bed tonight! I spent most of the morning today reloading programs on my computer since everything was lost. The only thing that wouldn't work was our web cam. Guess we'll have to get a new one! For some reason, the company that made ours know it doesn't work with Vista, but they are not going to change it. CRAZY!!! Everything else I'm sure will get redone over time. I just have to say thank goodness for Shutterfly. Otherwise, I would have lost pictures from the last year. I have run out of room to store the actual pictures, so I haven't ordered for a while. Better believe I'm going to start backing up once a month (I'll schedule it in my planner so I do it) and ordering pictures when I send them out! ~I also need to find time to scrapbook so I have room to keep all the pictures. I'm cropping all day next Saturday. I can hardly wait!

technology frustrates me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I haven't posted in a while as I've been super busy. No real excuse, just not wanting to spend extra time on the computer. Tonight I'm writing on a new computer because ours went on the fritz. I paid Best Buy a lot of money and they were supposed to transfer my old hard drive to the new one. There is absolutely nothing there. I have been on hold waiting for them now for 28 minutes. Looks like I will have to spend my day off tomorrow dealing with those idiots again. If I could do it all over again, I would definitely go to computer school so I could fix the stupid thing myself! I hate being so dependent on them. Great. They just hung up me. And they're still not answering the phone. They close soon. I'm sure tomorrow I won't be so mad. At least I can still get on the internet. I just am disgusted I wasn't backed up recent enough to be able to just do it all myself. You'd think live and learn, but I've done stupid things like this before!

If I ever get this whole computer mess figured out, I'm off work the next couple days. I'll definitely post some recent pictures!

No more binkys ~ for real this time!

Well, Becky is officially a "big girl" now. At least that's what we keep telling her! We decided to take her binkys away this weekend. I talked to her about it for a couple days beforehand, and she would always tell me yes when I asked her if we should throw her binkys away because she was a big girl. So Friday when we got home from day care, she walked upstairs to get her two binkys out of the crib. She carried them downstairs and threw them in the trash. She also threw her one from day care away. She put each one of them in her mouth one last time, and then just threw them in the trash. Then I gave her a "high-five" and we did a happy dance. I told her she was very brave and what a big girl she was. She was fine until bedtime. She quite possibly threw the worst tantrum ever. She even tried to get her bedroom door open to go downstairs and get her binkys. She didn't get any stories read to her before bed on Friday because she was just too upset. She finally went to sleep after about an hour. Al did go up to check on her once, and there was no comforting to be done there.

Becky was in a fairly good mood yesterday considering she didn't sleep great. She woke up when I went to check on her Firday night, but then slept only until 6:30. Didn't get much nap yesterday, so actually went to sleep at about 8:30 after only whimpering for a little while. Slept until 6 and then I went in (since it's still dark!) and told her she was okay. Slept until 8. Not much nap again today, a lot of crying.

Laid down at 8. Just cried (while I was thinking how well she was doing, of course!) after about 25 mintues of being in bed. Went up and told her she was okay and changed her slightly wet diaper. She really is just procrastinating. I asked her what she wanted, though, and she couldn't even say "bink" anymore, so I think she's almost forgotten. She just knows something is missing! Hopefully after a couple days she'll get her sleep back that she's missed out on and be able to sleep without so much crying!

We decided to take her binky away because she was really starting to digress. She had only been having it at naptime and bedtime since she was one. The past couple months she had started wanting to go up to her bedroom just to suck on her bink for a couple minutes. It seemed to be the only thing that could calm her anymore if she got upset. I had enough! I figured it was only going to get worse from there. So...here we are! And so far, all of us have survived. It was definitely best to throw them all away this time though. There was no way we were going to dig them out of the trash!

Chocolate Chip Cookie week!

Well, I guess it's been a week for making chocolate chip cookies! I made them a week or so ago, and they were so yummy that they didn't last long enough! Becky enjoyed her beater immensly. Al enjoyed his too, I just didn't snap a picutre of him eating his beater! Then.....


... on Wednesday night, Becky and I thought it would be fun to make cookies together. (I had made them by myself the last time) As we were making them and Becky stook her finger in the batter each time I got done using the mixer and as she was turning the bowl for me and helping me move the mixer around, I couldn't help but think, where is my camera man? Al was at class that night, so I've only got the memory, not the pictures. I'll just have to let her help me again, I guess! It was fun though. The only time it became a problem was when she wanted to help me put the cookies in the oven. So....she got to "wash" dishes, which basically consisted of her pouring water from cup to cup, but she was having a blast. So I got my pictures then. As you can see, she REALLY liked the warm chocolate chip cookies we made!

cousins

I just thought this picture was pretty cute. Becky and Bode played hard this weekend. They still aren't quite sure how to share with each other and seem to both want to always play with the Sesame Street toys, but they are getting better. It's so fun to hear them laugh at each other!

Clay County Fair

We got to spend the weekend in Spencer and visit the Clay County Fair. Saturday it was CHILLY!!! Brenda and Bode got to go too. The kids got too tired to go on any rides and went home for a nap. They sure had a good time looking at everything though! We did manage to get a ride on the sky glider before naps though. Becky got to play on the boat, too, which she thought was pretty neat. She thinks she's pretty hot stuff!



Al, Becky, and I stayed in Spencer Saturday night and got to go back for more fun on Sunday. Becky actually got to ride some rides despite being so tired. She rode the carousel twice, the ferris wheel, the monkeys twice, and the sky glider again.

first head injury

Well, Becky got her first (of many, I imagine) head injuries tonight. We were sitting in our oversized chair together. She kept throwing herself over the arm of it, putting her head toward the ground and keeping her feet on the chair. I kept telling her to stop or she would get hurt. Guess what? Mommy knows what she's talking about. I looked away for about two seconds, and over she went straight on her head. I think it scared her more than anything, but she's going to have a mark for sure! She stopped crying when she got her binky. She also bit the inside of her lip. She was soon playing again, so she was fine. She sure stayed away from the chair the rest of the night though!

Here she is right before bed. I like how her binky really makes the mark stand out!

just being silly

Becky's newest thing is to slide down the stairs with us. She is pretty cautious and doesn't really "let go" to slide on her butt, but still goes one foot at a time. She laughs, though, and thinks it's pretty hilarious.

Helping me swiffer the floor. Just loves helping out!
Relaxing with Daddy. They were hanging out watching football.

Labor Day Weekend

We had a great Labor Day Weekend. It was such great weather! Becky helped Al wash both his car and mine. Wow! She, of course, had more fun just playing in the bubbles, but at least she didn't interfere!

On Monday, we went to the Labor Day Parade. This was Becky's first time of ever being able to go out and pick up the candy. She loved it! Of course, she wanted to go for the smashed ones in the middle of the road, so we were constantly chasing her, but I think we all had fun. We sure got a lot of candy anyway!

day with Becky

I took a random day off in August to spend time with Becky. Here is some of what we did...
She watched Elmo while I showered....

We went to Nollen Plaza to meet Al for lunch.....
Hardly had time to eat, she couldn't wait to get in the water!
Taking a walk with Dad before he had to go back to work....

On the slide at the wading pool/park. She was kind of scared of the water fountains and wouldn't let go of me, but she sure had fun on the slide that day!
Remember....to see more pictures of what's been going on this month, click on the link over on the side, Our Shutterfly Pics. I just posted an album online. Have a great week!

old pics

We have had a pretty busy month. We spent a day in Tingley with my mom's parents.

Becky loved helping me dust one night.
At the zoo with Grandpa Larry, Bode, and Grandma Donna
Getting splashed by Bode!
Time for a bath, kids!

we're a great aunt and uncle!

Our step-niece Sarah had a baby girl yesterday. Her name is Emma Jo. She weighed 9 pounds, 8 ounces and was 22 inches long. Both Sarah and Emma are doing well. Al, Becky, and I got to go visit them at the hospital for a while this evening. She was so adorable with a head full of black hair. Becky kept wanting to touch her and calling her pretty. She thought she was pretty neat!

So did Al and I!!!

Excitement at our house!

Becky and I were getting ready to go for a walk tonight, when a lady came running up to us and said, Emergency! Can I use your phone, my car is smoking. I got Becky out of the stroller and went in to get a phone. Something fell out of the bottom of the car and was on fire. Soon, the smoke got worse and started smelling and rolling out. We called 911 and had the fire department come. They got there just as it really started to be on fire. The lady said she was on her way home when she heard a "pop" and turned the corner. Her car just died in the middle of our street. She told us her husband had bought the car for $300, and she had just paid for the registration at 3:00 today! I think it's a goner! None of us had ever seen a car on fire before. Thank goodness the firemen got here before it blew up!!!

Becky was just having fun sitting playing in the dirt while we waited with the lady until her husband arrived. Thought she was being cute, so had to snap a picture!

out of time!

Okay. I'm out of time for now. I am almost caught up with July though. Hope you enjoy looking at these pictures, and I'll try to get the rest of it posted over the weekend. We have definitely been busy. Hard to believe it's August already! I will also try to make sure all of the albums are posted at Shutterfly so you can look at them. Have a fabulous weekend! We hope to take the WaveRunner out on Sunday (it's working again. Way to go, Al!) Tomorrow we're heading to Tingley to visit my mom's parents.