Tag: family

Conversations With My Family

My older Brother (to me): “Why is your hair so big?”

Me (quickly): “Because it’s full of secrets.”

Older brother (stares blankly): “Huh? Seriously? Your hair is all huge and poofy.”

Me: “It’s from ‘Mean Girls’ Geez”

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Sister-In-Law (to her 3 kids): “We’re going to mommy’s friend’s wedding.”

My 4 year old nephew: “Grown-ups have friends?”

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My Older Brother (to his family): “Today is daddy’s birthday!”

My 4 year old nephew: “I didn’t know grow-ups have birthdays!”

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4 Year old Nephew drew me a picture

Me: “What’s That?”

Him: “It’s a Spider-Snake.”

Me (Shudders): “That sounds awful. No thanks.”

Him: “No Emmie! It’s very cool. It crawls and has 8 legs.”

Me: “Gross.  No”

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I love my family. I have missed seeing my 3 nephews (ages 1, 4 and 7) for several weeks (I’ve been so busy at Corky I haven’t had time to go home!) 

Time keeps on slippin’….

It has never been more apparent than this moment that my parents are getting older. They turn 61 later this year. How did that happen?

My mom had back surgery last week. She had 3 ruptured discs so they fixed that and scrapped off some arthritis off her vertebrae. She is in a lot of pain, but it is getting better. But she needs a lot of help to do anything right now. So I took a few days off to help her and my dad.

Last night, I was texting with my BFF and found out her mom needs knee replacements and hasn’t been honest with her that she needs more help. BFF lives in Omaha, i live in Lincoln, and we grew up in a town 45 minutes away from that.

So I did what you do for family: I went over and helped her mom too. She cried, we talked about life and I did some things for her that she couldn’t do herself. It’s good for the soul.

However! As BFF said it best last night: why can’t our parents still be 45? This aging thing sucks.

IT’S NOT CANCER!!!!

Just got off the phone with my dad-the doctor said her stomach is red-most likely to the drugs she takes for back pain-that’s most likely the culprit for the low hemoglobin levels.

They still did a biopsy and we’ll get results Wednesday, but the Surgeon said nothing looked like cancer-but we’ll know for sure on Wednesday. But he said it wasn’t cancer!!

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers! I KNOW they helped!!!

Excuse me while I go do a happy dance!!!!

Two of my adorable nephews got their haircut tonight. Nick (the 3 year old on the left) got what he calls his summer ‘fuzzcut’ (instead of buzzcut). Jon the 6 year old, who is now a first grader!! begged all school-year long to get a mohawk. My brother’s compromise was a faux-hawk that he could still style into something appropriate if needed.

How freakin’ cute are they? Love these two!!!

This is one of my favorite pictures from this weekend: me and two of my three nephews after church Sunday morning. The oldest one, Jon, is my buddy. He and I are pretty tight. The younger one with his tongue sticking out in the picture is Nick. He’s 3 and I like to call him my brother and sister-in-law’s “willful child.” He is ornery! But their faces are priceless to me in this picture! Love those kids!

You gotta raise ’em right…

My 2-year-old nephew and I were looking at pictures on my facebook page the other day. I was pointing at people and asking him who they were. He calls me “Emmie” instead of Melissa and would point at pictures of me and say “that’s Emmie!”

Anytime he saw a picture of me from a race or in running gear he would call me "Go Emmie Go!“

That’s what he was yelling for me at during the Lincoln Half-Marathon this year! Love that kid!

I’ve trained him well.

“Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another.” Walter Elliott

I’m trying to stay positive. Really. I am. But right now, it is very dark and hard to see that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

My dad was fired (for the 2nd time) Wednesday. He was originally fired in 2010. Appealed, got his job back, and then they appealed the rehiring. The decision was made to fire him again. Today, a newspaper article was written about him and the appeal. (He worked for the state of Nebraska). It had the details of the suit and even how much money he made there! It just sucks.

Today he went to see his lawyer. He advised him not to pursue it any further. So that means we are done. He still needs a job. And my parents were on his insurance, and my mom has some pretty expensive medicine from having her heart attack that will cost a lot more now that they will have to change insurance! There are still bills that need to be paid and worrying about your parent’s jobs just shouldn’t be something that you have to stress about. I just want to worry about whether or not I should register for the Chicago Marathon! (I want to, but should I? Its so expensive and I feel like I would be wasting my money when I could give that to my parents.)

I feel like my family has been crapped on for a few years now. It started in November of 2010 and hasn’t really ended. I’m trying to having faith. To trust that things will be okay. But it is so hard.

How can you have hope when you feel like all hope is gone?