My Mom RETIRED!!!

BIG news for our family. My mom finally retired!!! I say "finally" because she is 67 years old and has been working 50+ hour weeks for years now--not an easy thing for ANYONE at ANY age.

My mom has been a nurse in Deming since 1981. She then went back to school to get her Bachelor's and then Master's degree in her 40s (during the 1990s). She has been a Nurse Practioner since 1997 in the little town. She was and is very well-known and respected in town. My siblings and I always joked about "who's turn it was to take mom to Wal-Mart." We HATED going with her anywhere because people LITERALLY FLOCKED to her wherever we went! Not exaggerating at all! We could be eating lunch somewhere and someone would walk right over and ask her to look at some skin sore/tell her about some body ache/have her analyze some weird rash/or write a prescription for them. She took phone calls ALL of the time at any hour of the day from patients. One time she even took a patient's dog home while he went to prison for a few weeks--again, NOT joking. So like I said, she was and is well-loved and respected--and rightfully so.

It's kinda sad the REAL reason behind her retirement. It had NOTHING to do with the patients or being over-worked--she LOVED this part. The company she works for is going "paperless" which means...COMPUTERS!!! Not a big deal to most, but to a 67 year old lady who doesn't even use a computer to check her bank account, this was TOO much. She decided that she didn't need that much stress in her life.

The company held a big "Retirement Party" for my mom this past Thursday. So all 4 siblings decided to surprise my mom by showing up:) A party on a Thursday afternoon???? Who the heck can make that??? (Next time retire on a Friday okay mom?:) So on a rainy Thursday, I drove in from AZ, my sister drove in from Las Cruces, NM, my older brother flew in from Monterey, CA, and my younger brother flew in from Huntersville, NC. And this is what happened: (I cry every time I watch this!)

Did you hear my younger brother say, "I'm here for my colonoscopy!"? HILARIOUS!!! It was so worth all of the extra effort made for all of us to be there. I wouldn't have missed it for the world!

So cute and unsuspecting...

LOVE THIS!!!

Mom & her boys--yes, this TINY woman gave birth to these ginormous boys:)

All of us--see my dad in the back???

So a big congrats to my mom.  We love her tons and tons.  We always like to ask my parents, "When are you guys going to go on a mission?"  Well....my dad has his master's in agriculture, my mom is a nurse practioner so we all joke about them heading right to AFRICA!!!!  My mom is not sure that she can do a 3rd-World country but I think she would be A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!

Our Family Joke:)

I've been messing around with a little video editing on my computer and was realizing how all of my videos are pretty much centered around piano/singing/music of any kind. So here is a 1 minute video of a very typical day at my home: Multiply this by 50+ piano students and well...there is pretty much ALWAYS music in our home. My husband (and Ethan) always joke about how they "LIVE in a musical." And well, they pretty much do. This always brings this SNL skit to mind when he says this: (and I have to apologize because I could not find this video WITHOUT an ad at the beginning:) So Chris and Ethan....if this ever really happens in our home, then you have my full permission to move out of the craziness:) And we'll make up a song about it:)

My Boys 1st Video--"Plankton's Attempt"

My boys are OBSESSED with the Lego stop motion videos on YouTube.  They spend HOURS and HOURS watching them and studying them.  Back in January this year, Max got a Nintendo DSi for his birthday.  We found and downloaded a stop motion app for the DSi and after recording literally hundreds of little stop-motion videos, they finally came up with one they were super proud of and "YouTube" worthy (in their humble opinion:)  So we downloaded the movie to our computer and then they recorded the voice-overs and voila!  Here's their first stop-motion video!!!  They are just SURE this is their ticket to instant fame:)  So if you have 2 minutes and 15 seconds watch their video.  They would LOVE to see this video get thousands of views:)


They were literally jumping up and down while we were uploading the video up to YouTube.  I can't help but smile.  Whatever makes them happy, makes me happy.  Great job guys!  I am SUPER proud of the both of you:)

GG's 90th Birthday:)

Well my dear, sweet Grandma Jane Ann turned 90 this past week.

I have nothing but the fondest memories growing up with my grandma.  She was the picture perfect grandma.  She lived in Tucson, AZ--which was "magical" when you lived in a place like Deming, NM:)  Grandma had a swimming pool, always made YUMMY food, and just spoiled us grandkids rotten.  My youngest daughter--Tatum Jane--is named after this beautiful lady.

Well...over the past 3 years our "GG" (Great-Grandma) has been slipping into dementia.  It's been a very hard thing to watch.  For instance--she always remembers my sister and I but doesn't remember our younger brother, Travis.  GG remembers sewing my wedding dress but has NO idea who my husband actually is.  She also thinks that my son, Ethan, belongs to my sister Anne.  She has also developed quite the "potty mouth."  I will never get used to this!  I have witnessed first hand her calling other women (in her nursing home) "Whores!"  My GG was actually in "a fight" with another lady over another man in the nursing home!  So we do our best to go along with it all and keep her in line:)

Because of the dementia, we thought we might get away with NOT having a birthday party for my GG this year.  Not because we didn't want to, just because it is such a CRAZY time of year getting all the kids back to school/football/piano/harvest time/my husband being out of the country for 2 weeks/and everything else.  But boy were we WRONG!  GG was GOING to have a party.  She may have forgotten many things but NOT her birthday:)

So my sister and I are the party-planners of the family.  So first we made invites:  (Sexy lady--YES with a  cigarette in her hand:)

Put together a movie of all the Great-Grandkids:


And had an AMAZINGLY great time celebrating the life of this wonderful woman whom we all love deeply.

GG and her Great-Grandkids (6 out 16 of them)

And what does every 90 year old woman want for her birthday?  Why a DANCE PARTY of course!!!  This next video I feel like I need to explain that this is my 23 year old/returned missionary nephew, Cassel:)  Crazy kid:)  If my younger brother, Travis, had been there, this would have been WAY worse:)

And then everyone joins in: 

So we did it!!!  It was a crazy weekend for me with a quick trip to NM but I'm so glad that I could be there to be a part of it all.  Love you TONS and TONS GG!!!  Happy 90th!  I hope to keep you another 10 years at least--even if you're kinda ornery:)

Anne, GG, & I

First Day of School 2012

Okay, okay....so I JUST realized tonight (as I was taking pictures at our Scout Pack Meeting) that I have not posted these pics yet!  So here are the pics of the first day of school (even though we're now in the 3rd week of school:)

Tatum in Kindergarten--Mrs. Hernandez

Max in 2nd Grade--Mrs. Vaughn

Ethan in 5th Grade--Mrs. Schanacker

Carlie in 7th Grade!!!  NO MORE UNIFORMS!!!

Just LOVE these kids!

So I'm entering a "new phase" of life now with all my kids in school.  I miss them terribly but I've been busier than EVER with them gone.  Gone are my babies but I am sure LOVING watching my kids grow and develop into wonderful little humans:)  Dang, they're CUTE:)