Josh and Josiah

On the last visit Josh made to the house, last weekend, he took Josiah out to show him all the flowers. Josh is Sarah's hubby-to-be. He will be leaving for basic on Monday. Sarah will be missing him greatly! He is so good with kids. We will be planning for a September wedding, September 4th. We will be gaining another son!

Grandparents Again!!!

Josiah Randall Potter (above) was born via c-section January 21 at 3:07am at St. Ann's Hospital in Westerville, OH. He weighed 7 pounds 11 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. Missy had a really hard time with the labor and delivery. They are home now and doing well. He has tons of black hair and is dark skinned like Joe. I think Missy was thankful he wasn't fair like her. We both tend to burn a bit too easily...unfortunately. Sorry Sis! Isn't he a doll?

Mason...

While Sarah was home over Thanksgiving, she took this picture of Mason (at the top). Isn't he just angelic? I could just eat him up, he is just so darn cute!! I am not a bit biased either!!!

Sarah is doing better and getting well. She texted me this morning and said she was going to the gym to run, so she must be feeling much, much better! It is amazing how much your body can heal in such a short time.

Crops are slowly coming off...another 50+ acres of corn and we will be DONE!!! Thank God! This has been the longest harvest season I think we have ever had. Between Ran being off sick with kidneystones and Sarah in the hospital with infection.... The field he is in now is doing exceptionally well. He is getting 230+ bushels to the acre! He can only go half way around the field and has to dump the corn into the cart! Too cool!!

Well, lunch is over so I gotta run.

Blessings...

Sr Pictures...

Well a couple of weeks ago I had my first opportunity to take one of Sarah's friend's Sr. pictures. They turned out really good. Check out this one! Her mom said she might have someone else that may be interested in having me take their picture!! This is so cool! I love doing this kind of thing. I just have to figure out how much to charge....

We have been fighting off some kind of nasty bug here at work. There have been two girls that have been off sick over the past two weeks. It is like this people....STAY HOME IF YOU ARE SICK!!!! It is a pet peeve of mine that when someone is running a fever or coughing up a lung or blowing Niagra out of their nose and they still feel the need to come into work! We have been Cloroxing and Lysolling (is that a word?) everything!! Everywhere you turn people are coughing or sneezing and not covering their mouths. Or they blow their noses, handle their tissue and then open doors, use your pen, touch counters, etc.!!! Ugh!!! Ok, I feel better now that I have vented...

Sarah just stopped in tonight. Sarah, Caitlin and their friend Josh came up to see Katie's volleyball game and since they were close to home they came on up. She came over and introduced us to Josh and picked up a few things she forgot on Sunday when she left to go back to Wright State. I snuck in a box of snacks that she wasn't expecting. :-) That is what Mom's do! She probably won't get to come back home until Thanksgiving. She did her PFATs this week for ROTC and maxed out on everything except her weight. She was 3 pounds shy of the minimum of 125 pounds. She said they will retest in six months.

Well, dragging my behind...fighting this crud too...Blessings to all....

Mason at Farm Science Review

Mason had a blast at the Farm Science Review on Wednesday, September 23, 2009. He is sitting in a combine in the picture, just pushing buttons and using the steering wheel! He went all day and was one tired little puppy at the end of the day. He went with his dad, grandpa and great-grandpa. Unfortunately, Grammy didn't get to go! I had been sick all the previous weekend through Tuesday so I had to go to work....:-( But...that was a LOT of walking so maybe it was a good thing I didn't go! LOLOLO

Missy is doing well with her pregnancy and Sarah is getting her thing going at college. So I guess...life ain't so bad right now.

I am still canning and freezing. I canned two quarts of pears a couple of days ago and still have about five cabbages to do as well as a bunch of peppers.

Till later....blessings....

Birthday!!!!

We had Mason's first birthday party today despite the rain. Boy, did he get lots of stuff! It was fun watching him eat his cake and then opening the presents. He really liked the balls. We got him a John Deere Buck scooter. You have to watch the video. He really liked it!

Blessings....

I love being a Grammy!!!

You know that laugh a baby does that just makes you laugh out loud when you hear it? This past weekend we had a cook out for our oldest, Missy and her hubby, Joe for their anniversary...#6!! Anyways, Missy...having a headache...made faces at Mason and shook her head and he just giggled outloud. I love it! Fills my heart with joy...you know what I mean?

Over the fourth of July we went camping and Mike and Renee and Mason came over to the campground. We took Mason over to the swings and put him in one and started pushing. At first he was unsure, but the more they pushed him the more he liked it. He would kick his legs and laugh out loud. check out my video!

Blessings....

Wow! If I only didn't have to work!

This summer has been busy, busy, busy! We finally got to take off and go camping this past weekend at Mt. Gilead State Park. Check out the link posted for Ohio DNR for different camping information throughout the great state of Ohio! We had awesome weather, ate too much and just plain ole' had a great time!

http://ohiodnr.com/parks/tabid/80/Default.aspx

Mike and Renee brought Mason over on Saturday. He got to ride on a swing for the first time and he loved it! He actually laughed out loud. It was great! I love being a "Grammy!" Can't wait for more to get here! A few more months!!!

Check out Mason playing ball in the grass. You cannot keep shoes on the kid! The hillbilly coming out in him I guess...hahahaha!

Blessings....

Merry Christmas ~ Happy Holidays ~ Happy New Year!

My how times have changed... I can remember when it didn't matter if you said Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays. Today you can tell someone Merry Christmas but they aren't permitted to reply the same back to you for fear they will get into trouble. That is pretty sad. What happened to freedom of speech? Employers are are forbidding their employees from saying Merry Christmas for fear of offending someone and having it backlash back on their business. WHY???? We have been to several places this past week and we have told our server, sales person, etc. "Merry Christmas" and they reply back "Happy Holidays." My husband says it again and they reply back the same. He asks them, "You can't say Merry Christmas back?" They reply "NO, we will get into trouble!" To me this is unbelievable!! Christmas is the holiday we are celebrating. If someone were to say to me Happy Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, I would probably reply the same back to them. Why is it that a few make it bad for the whole group? People, grow up!! This is a free country...is it not?

Sorry...I will get off my soapbox now...

I am thankful for my job, my family and friends, and another year of breathing. I am thankful for my new grandson, Mason, who is a doll!! He has so much personality! My job is not ideal, but it is a paycheck, and you make the best with what you've got and try to influence others. I pray that I have made a difference in someone's life this year and hopefully for the good.

This year has been a big one for Sarah. She graduated from high school and moved away and started college. As a mom, this has been a hard year for me...letting go and letting them make their own decisions is sometimes a difficult thing to do. You don't want your child to suffer and get hurt. I trust my daughter, but it is difficult when I know she is sick and is trying to make it on her own. She has had a bad stretch this past month and a half with illness. Hopefully, now she is on the mend. She will have to finish her quarter late, but at least she has that option.

Randy's farming has been difficult this year. The lack of rain hurt his crops a great deal, but thankfully, we have insurance. He actually bought a computer for the farm this past week! Randy and a computer! I never thought he would do it. He gets so frustrated when I try and show him how to search the internet and such. But, he is determined to make a go of it and I applaud him for that. For someone who is technologically challenged to go forward and make a purchase of a computer is a huge step.

My prayer for you and your's is that this coming year be a blessed one. May you see success in all you do and God blesses your every step. May you have a Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!

Birthday and State Track Meet

Today is my oldest baby's birthday! Happy Birthday Missy!!! We love you! :-)

Well Sarah took 7th place in the long jump at state with a jump of 15'5". She also took 13th place in both the 60 meter dash and the high jump. It was a very early drive in thick fog to get us there by 8:30 so she could get warmed up to jump at 9:30. We didn't make it back home until about 3:30.

Blessings...

Wow! What a month this has been!!

Well, I know I haven't been on here much for a quite a while now...almost as bad as my daughter! Ha! Ha! Sorry Missy!! But figured I needed to update my age since I have had a birthday...awwww another year closer to 50! Ran hits 50 this year so I will have to have a big party for him. Can't wait!! I have had a time for over a month now with this nasty cold thing that has been going around. I also took a tumble here at home and kind of messed up my knee, hip and rib cage on the left side. Nothing like slipping on ice and coming down hard on your knee and ramming every thing up into your hip, bouncing off your hip and landing on your ribs! I bounce pretty good! LOLOLO!!! I still can't figure out my landings...having trouble with those! Ran said he was going to buy me a walker and a skooter...then busted out laughing! What a booger!

We had over 20 inches of snow last week. It was pretty but very dangerous to drive in. The week before we had a huge ice storm. Check out my picture of our maple tree at the top of the page. I am hoping spring is around the corner! I am ready to start planting in the garden!!

Pray for my mom. She is having a lot of severe pain in her neck again and had to go have an MRI done today. She is afraid she will have to have surgery again. But if it will fix her and take away the pain it would be worth it. It just continually gets worse and worse and she has to take more and more pain meds and that isn't good! Her brother Raymond is having a lot of problems too, so keep him inn your prayers too.

Gotta run...Blessings....

I'm gonna be a grandma!!!!

On Christmas Eve Mike and Renee announced, thru little wrapped onsies for each of us with little notes attached, "to Grandma," "to Grandpa," etc. It is so exciting!! Their due date is July 29th.

Well, I accepted a job at North Central State College in Mansfield and I am supposed to start on the 14th. But, I also had an interview today at MVNU for a job, which I will find out Monday or Tuesday if they offer it to me or not. We will see what they offer. If it is more pay at MVNU, I may take it instead.

Check out my new link to my Webshots website.

Blessings...

My life...

You know, sometimes it feels like all you do is beat your head against a brick wall...or at least a tree or something.... I am finding it very difficult to keep a positive attitude these last few days. I absolutely hate job hunting now! It has been 9 entire months of job searching and rejections. I just pray that my online business will take off like a rocket and I won't have to go back to work at all! God sent it to me, I know this...I got the call just a week after I lost my job in January. All of the people I have dealt with at the company have been exceptionally helpful emotionally and spritually. When I have sent out e-mails for prayer regarding Sarah, my dad, and Ivan my father-in-law, I always received several e-mails back from the different ones in the company...my upline...that were so encouraging and thoughtful. I even talked to one of my upline leaders this week for almost an hour about things regarding faith and church and such. He was such an encouragement to me. I didn't realize I needed to get it all off of my chest. It was so theraputic!!

I don't know, maybe it is just the fact my baby is now a senior and will be leaving to go off to college in a few months. Tomorrow night is senior night at her last home game of volleyball...already!!! This is a major milestone in her life and she is also feeling it. She was sad this morning when she mentioned it to me. I think she almost cried...

Daddy has just three more treatments and he will be done with his radiation treatments. I know he will be very relieved and mom too. I know it has been hard for her going every weekday for 9 weeks. I am amazed at how well Daddy has been. He has kept up his everyday schedule despite having to go every morning during the week for treatments. He still does his hay and working with his cows everyday. I am so proud of my parents. They are so strong and seem invincible at times. I love you mom and dad!!!

Blessings...

Testing...

Oh how I hate testing! After spending last weekend in the hospital in soooooooooooo much pain, I guess I will have to endure the testing to find out why. Let me tell you! I am NOT looking forward to this at all!!! In less than 8 hours they will inject me with some kind of radioactive (nuclear ??) dye and wait awhile then inject me with something to make my gall bladder empty or squeeze to empty to see if it is functioning properly. When Sarah had this done back in the spring she got veeeeeeeeeeryy ill. I pray that it will not be so bad...

We are going camping this weekend and I can't wait!! We are going to Kokosing, just down the road from our house. I like it because if I forget anything it is only about 5 minutes from our house and I can go back and get it! It is right on the lake and it is so relaxing. I am hoping to get some fishing in this weekend as well. We are celebrating Randy's birthday (19th)...one year closer to 50 and just one more to go!!!! Woooo Hoooo!!! ;-) Bad, I know...just can't help myself! He is almost an antique!!! Heee Heeee! So I sound too gleeful! I think it is great! Guess I need to get some shut eye since I have to be at the hospital at 7:30am...YUK!!!

Blessings....

Labor Day Weekend...

Well, I would like to say that this weekend was wonderful, but....
Some parts were. We went camping for our anniversary at Mt. Gilead State Part. Mike and Renee and their Labradoodle Jack came over Friday night and we had hotdogs over the fire. Saturday, Ran and I got up and left to go home about 6:30. Ran had to work on taking down two grain bins. He came home and took a shower and we headed back over to the campgrounds about 6pm or so. Missy and Joe came up for dinner on Friday. We had steaks, mashed potatoes and fruit pies made in the fire. Yummy!!! Missy made the pie crusts and the two different pie fillings and they brought ice cream to eat with it. Yesterday, Mom and Dad-in-law, brother-in-law and wife, and cousins of the sis-in-law, nephew and his lady friend and son came over for a cook out to celebrate our anniversary. It was nice.
The parts that were not wonderful...
Sarah is sick. She has come down with a very severe case of strep throat, with canker sores all over the inside of her mouth, running a fever, throwing up...just all around HORRIBLE!!! She called me at 1:30am on Sunday morn. I took her to the ER and got back to the campground about 5:30am. About 10:00pm she started calling again..feeling really, really bad and wanted me to come home. Well, we packed everything up and left about 11:30pm. Hubby wasn't too happy, but my kids take presidence over fun. I had her back in the ER about 1:15am with a fever of 103 degrees and not even able to swallow her own spit and trouble breathing. They put her on new meds...actually four kinds, an antibiotic, steroid, ibuprofin and a strong me for pain. I also got her some stuff for the sores in her mouth so she can at least attempt to eat. She was able to get a scrammbled egg down late morning. This was the first she had eaten since Saturday morning. So hopefully now the meds will kick in and she will be able to get back to work on living. Unfortunately she won't be able to play in her volleyball game against Centerburg on Tuesday. She is really bummed about that. But, being healthy needs to be priority here.
Father-in-law's leukemia is now stage 2. He will go back in December and they will do their battery of tests and get back with him then. He said he is feeling great and not badley. That is a good thing.
Daddy had to have another stent put into his heart this past week, his second one in less than 3 months, and he is feeling much better. And, he is half way through his radiation treatments.Mom is having him a cookout today for his birthday and lots of family have come to celebrate. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!!! Y Y Y

Another Win!!!

The Fredericktown Ladies Volleyball team won their game again tonight against the Johnstown team. They won all three games. It was good! There were lots of smiles going around the team.

Could you all pray for my dad? He has to go in again tomorrow morning for another heart cath. He has started having the same pain in his back and shoulders like he did a couple of months ago before they put the stent in. He has his radiation treatment then goes in for the cath.

Blessings....

More interviews...

Well I had my 1st interview for a second position yesterday at COTC and they also told me about a temporary job that they would be having as well. I should know something about both jobs at COTC by the end of the week. At least, that is what they told me. I had signed up with the staffing company of Acloche and they called me with a temporary job in Delaware. I have to go there at 2pm today for an interview with the Delaware branch manager of Acloche. We will have to see how that goes. I just wish I had gotten these calls before my unemployment ran out! My online business is starting to pick up so I won't have to work outside the home for long.

This weekend, Sunday, is our Anniverysary, 29 years, can you believe it? Daddy's birthday is Saturday. He will be 68 years young. Love you Daddy!!! Handsome, isn't he? Happy Birthday!

Blessings...

Do you think???

Do you sometimes wonder what God has in store for you when things are just not going right and things are falling apart around your ears? I have thought about this all year. Yes, this year has been a real stinker and the worst so far...in my short life of 47 years :-). I know adversity is supposed to make you stronger but there are times when I think, "Okay God....What gives????" I know God has a plan for my life and that I am to touch many lives in one way or another.

So far this year I have lost my job of 13 years, Sarah has been very ill, Daddy was diagnosed with prostate cancer and then had to have a stent put into a blocked artery then started radiation therapy, Ivan (father-in-law) was diagnosed with leukemia (which is in remission right now), Shirley (mother-in-law) is getting worse with her dementia, Tiffany (Missy's sister-in-law) passed away, along with a multitude of other problems....

But, things are looking up!!!! My online business has picked up and seems to be speeding along!!! To which I am extremely grateful! My coach, Scott, has given me many ideas to pursue to make my business grow even quicker. And it all involves photography! How cool is that?!?! One of my most favorite things to do!!! God is blessing........

Blessings to all....

COTC....volleyball

I had another interview, this time at COTC. I think it went well. I have another one at COTC on Tuesday for a different position in the same office as this last interview. I should know something by the end of the week about the interview I had at Kenyon College. Today was Sarah’s first day of school of her senior year. I can hardly believe my baby is a senior already! I took pictures!! She was like…”Jeesh mom!” I love my kids!! I pray that this year goes better for her than last year, healthwise that is. You should have seen her yesterday at her scrimmage. It was good to see her smile a lot. She really looked like she was having fun. I even took a funny picture of her…See!!


Blessings....

Rain, rain go away....

Wow! What a ton of rain! It can slow down anytime now. We have had about 4-5 inches of rain already. This is definitely not good for the crops. Hubby said if it doesn't slow down the soybeans will become diseased and that will not be good! Too much rain is just as bad as not enough.

Well, my unemployment runs out this week. My online business is growing, just wish it was faster. But, that takes dedication and being faithful to working it. I know God brought it to me for a reason. Many of my upline and team are Christians and have been very faithful in prayers for different requests I have sent out. They are there for each other and willing to help where they can.

Dad had had 12 radiation treatments so far and is doing well. Mom said he is still working and doing everything he always does. He hasn't noticed any difference yet. Hopefully he won't have any side affects from the radiation. Hubby's dad, Ivan, his cancer is still in remission as far as we know. He is due to go back for a checkup soon. Mom-in-law's dementia is getting worse and Ivan is still in denial and won't seek help with her. She is still driving and taking care of their bills, although I am not sure how. Just pray for them that something will come along to help Ivan to see something has to be done and that there is help out there.
Blessings