Friday

Just a quick update. Mom was doing so well today, we wondered if she is really as sick as they are thinking. She was up and alert all day. Visiting, eating. She even sat in her wheel chair and ate at the table.

Wed. in Grand Junction

Monica took this picture. It's one of many of the paintings my mother painted.


We started the day trying to get mom to an appointment at the hospital to take out a port in her chest.
We weren't sure how to get her in and out of our cars so we called "car care" to come and get her. We were expecting a van that we could wheel her chair into. but they came with a regular van. there is no way this would work. so we did a bunch of car juggling till we had a normal car. Getting her in and out with her legs so wobbly was quite a challenge.
When we got back from her appointment we expected her to be completely worn out. But she sat up and ate a bowl of cream of cauliflower soup. Eating all by herself.
She did sleep after that. but she looked really good today after all the excitement of the trip to town.This is Mark in a wheel chair at only 10 yrs old!
He said it's fun to play in it, but he's glad he doesn't really need one!

Moriah, April, Dayton and Eric visiting while Grandma is sleeping.Later in the afternoon we had visitors from Hospice. They sent a social worker , and a teen counselor, the head medical guy, and a nurse. They came to visit with all of us but especially the young people that might have questions or concerns. We all sat around and asked lots of questions. They were a great group of people. They kept saying they can't remember seeing a family of so many generations in one room, all working together with so much love for each other. They said they were really impressed. We do have a great family. :)

Mark was pretty quiet through most of this time, but at the end he asked "will she be here for her 79 birthday?" ( which is next month) They said, we just don't know. Only God knows the time . Well Mark was really sensitive and he broke down.

Picture

Here's a picture of me at Christmas a few years ago.

mothers day picture

A little late I suppose

mom

Today was a strange day. Moriah needed a tire, and we kept getting lost in Grand Junction. It's not a big city so it shouldn't be that hard, but it was a bit frustrating.
My mother was not doing well at all. She was very peaceful in her new hospital bed at Jeannie's house. She was so sleepy she couldn't stay awake. Although we would think she was sleeping and suddenly she would ask a question about what we were talking about. So she must not have been really sleeping. She just couldn't keep her eyes open. She began to have pain this morning too.

Grand Junction

Sat morning my mom took a turn for the worst and she was so weak she couldn't even eat. We thought we better head down to Colorado. So Martha, Moriah, April, Mark, Monica, Paul, Dayton and Eric and I took off in 2 cars. We left in the evening and drove though out the night.
When we finally saw mom she was doing much better. On Monday she was even doing better then the day before.
We have been having a great time going through all sorts of photos and old memories. Last night Moriah and I started going though a fire proof file box. It had the hospital bills in it from our births.
They were about $300-$400 for a 5 day stay at the hospital. Room and board for a day was $14 .
Such emotions. Physically taking care of her is fairly easy, but the emotional part is so hard on everyone.
This is Corrinne with Grandma

One of the children put their hat on Grandma.
Hospice brought a hospital bed for her.
This picture has Grandma, April and Dayton

My mom and Colorado

Well my mom was even worse on Friday and Sat. So Martha, Moriah, April, and I decided to head down. Monica, Mark, Paul, Eric and Dayton headed down in 2 cars Sat evening. Drove all night.
We got to see mom on Sunday and she is doing much better right now. We are so glad for some time with her while she is still clear and doing well.

pictures from thanksgiving and misc.

Jon , Paul and Mark
Joe and Eric
Children patiently waiting for their dinner.

Tony
Maria and Mishael making gravy
Mishael likes to make our serving dishes beautiful.
Moriah making nice whole wheat rolls.
Martha making the yams
Jon, Mark and James on the roof putting up lights.


Fred with the traditional potato peeler.
Plus we had to put to work our guest too. Peeling potatoes is a nice straight forward job for any helpful person.

boys on roof

this is my Roomba. I bought it with birthday money and a little extra. It's really fun and keeps the kitchen floor pretty clean.
Miriam and Gina during the family picture.
Kendra helping me cook. she is so helpful and really enjoys cooking.

Thanksgiving

Well yesterday we decided to try to get a family picture. It is quite a feat to get all the grown children home for a picture. Trying to get everyone's work schedule organized. So I found a time that would work, and got a friend to take professional pictures. All 11 children with Rick and I included! We still haven't seen the pictures yet. We can't wait to see if they turned out.
It was amazing to have all 11 children with us. It's amazing to think we actually had all these children. They are all grown up and beautiful people. The Lord has truly blessed us.
We had 10 children at home for thanksgiving, plus grandchildren and son in laws etc. about 24 people. Only Miriam couldn't make it home.
I forgot to take the turkey's out of the freezer early enough. so I got up at 4:30 and put 2 mostly frozen turkey's in the oven. I have never tried to cook frozen turkey before. I must have been very distracted this week. But come 3 pm they were both very done, and very juicy. Dinner turned out wonderful after all. Martha came early on Tuesday and has been here cooking and helping. Everyone brought food, and it was so nice and easy.
Well the hard part of the day was a phone call that my mom is not doing well at all. They are not sure she is going to live. So we have all been doing a lot of crying and praying today. Plus some planning on a possible trip down to Colorado. We are waiting to hear tomorrow how she is doing before we make our final plans. It's hard to think of leaving home right now. I have no births coming up for a while, so the Lord knew why business was supposed to be slow. But figuring the children and homeschooling can be the tough part. We will figure it all out. I just wish I could be there now.

We thought the skunks would be gone!

Last night I asked Mark to put something in the freezer. He walks in the garage and with the doors all closed there was a skunk in there! That's scary! How did it get in?
The septic tank seems to be backing up a bit. I suppose it's time to get it pumped. It's done so well for so many years it's defiantly time now.
My mom has been in the hospital. She is really sick, but shouldn't have trouble recovering. It's the Kidney's not working right. They did one 4 hour hemo dialysis and she is having a horrible time. She is in pain, and confused. Insisted on going home. My poor mom. It's awful to have her suffering.
Rick had his business meeting in Kalispell today. So we all got up at 6:30 am and left for Kalispell. We had to drop him off at 9 am. We planned on going to church with Martha. It didn't start till 10:30. so we went to Super one and bought a Turkey for only .27 per pound. I also bought some meat and cheese at the deli and some rolls. Plus 2 big containers of yogurt. They ate everything, except the frozen turkey! It ended up costing $13 just for breakfast. Sometimes children can really eat. Don't you wonder sometimes if fast food is cheaper? It's not as healthy though, so I'm glad I usually go the grocery store route.
After church we all went to Moriah's house and had a great dinner. I had brought 2 roasted chickens that I had cooked the night before. I made the gravy at Moriah's. Martha brought a coleslaw and homemade whole wheat rolls. Moriah baked potato's. We had a feast.
Plus she loaned us more " I dream of Jeannie". We like that show.
The week will be quite busy. It's Mishael's birthday Monday. Martha and the boys are coming up Tue. Wed I have appointments, then I've managed to schedule all 11 children for a family picture. This is amazing. It gets harder to get us all together as life gets busier for everyone. Miriam has to make a special trip. The rest are staying around anyways for Thur. So we are planning on a birthday party for Mishael on Wed evening. We plan on baking pies and such on Tue or Wed. too. Thursday 10 of the children will be here along with their family's, making about 24 of us. Then Friday we are planning a trip to June's house to eat leftovers and pie while we spend the day visiting and singing around the player piano. When both are family's are together it can easily be 35 people. Only problem is gas is so expensive, it's hard to make another trip to Kalispell. Gas is $3.13 a gallon today. It costs $58 to fill my tank!

Clam Chowder

I made clam chowder tonight. I used a cookbook that brought back memory's.
Rick and the children gave me the cookbook in 1986, for my birthday. Remembering back it seems like life was so simple back then. I suppose I didn't think so at the time. I had 4 little children and I was expecting another. I doubt I saw it as simple. Diapers, 3 meals a day, keeping all the clothes organized and clean, trying to keep a house clean and a budget balanced.
Inside the cover it says: Martha Vogel 7, Eric J Vogel 39, Maria 4, Moriah 3 and Michael 14 mo.

Frisky

Here is Frisky. She just got her hair cut. She loves her hair short, it makes her so "frisky". She is 14 yrs old now. It's so sad to think she might not live much longer. She has been such a sweet family pet. We do spoil her a bit now. I had to buy a $25 heating pad for her bed this last week!
This is Gareth, the youngest grand baby. He loves to play the piano!

a few random pictures

I haven't been able to add pictures. But I'm in town at Montana Sky net and i thought I would give it a try. So here are a few random pictures.
Monica was waiting for me at the birth center, and began to take pictures of stuff on the walls!

This is my second or backup birth room. Sorry it's sideways! The white thing on the wall is my grandmothers.
She did this sort of stitching that is incredible. She pulled threads and did very fine stitches. I love to show it off.
This is a wood burning insert I was hoping for a bit more heat then it puts out. It's nice and cozy for a waiting grandpa or Mom in early labor. but it sure doesn't heat the whole place.Mark was given this on his birthday from his "nephew" Paul.

normal life

Well Thursday and Friday we finished up our painting. It's looking really nice. Now to bring the furniture back in without it being crowded. You would think with our big house we would have plenty of room for everything. But the main floor is where we are most of the time, which means it needs most of the stuff. Too much stuff.
I thought Sat. would be spent sorting in the garage. But instead we slept really late, sat around and talked and then watched DVDs of I dream of Jeannie. I made big thick hamburgers for dinner, and Cody and Gareth joined us.
The boys decided they wanted to put up Christmas lights. We've never been much into the regular Christmas stuff. We got away from most of it over the years. But we find that some of these things traditions the children enjoy so much and it's just fun. I bought the lights last year in Jan. when they are really, really cheap. So Jon, Mark and James have been up on ladders and making the house look amazing!
to dinner, people are so This morning we went to church in Bonner's Ferry. It was very nice. Every time we go we get many invitationsfriendly. We went over to Tom and Sherry's for lunch and had such a nice time. It's really good for us to spend time with people again.
So it was a nice relaxing weekend. Tomorrow we will have to get something done on that garage.
Gina comes home Wed. We are all missing her and can't wait to show her what we have done.
I'm still hoping to paint the front door, clean the garage , clean out kitchen drawers, and of course clean the upstairs all before thanksgiving! Plus do school, make my web page, laundry, dinner, etc. etc. Just daily life can take the whole day on it's own.

Kalispell

Yesterday was a fun day. I usually go to Kalispell about once a month. So this was our monthly trip.
Mark had an recheck appointment with the asthma doctor. Which he saw 1st about 6 weeks before. The difference was black and white. The general Doctor he had been seeing, had him on tons of medicines and Mark was wheezing most of the time. He would use spray 4-5 times a day and ended up in the hospital ER one night. Now this Dr. has him on two medications and he uses his spray maybe 4 times a week! What a wonderful difference! It's so wonderful to not hear your child breathing from across the room!
So we had lunch at June's. They put in a beautiful fire place and made a stair case that looks like it came from a craftsman style house. Miriam, Moriah, April and Martha all came and we had lunch together. Monica played the player piano.
Then we shopped. Costco, Target, Lowes, Shopko and Walmart and we even went to petco. The children really needed clothes. Jon was able to pay for his own clothes, which is best because he doesn't like my budget type clothes anymore. We need some sort of heating pad for frisky, as she is getting old. She really likes it outside, so we thought we would rig up a heating pad under her bed. She will be very happy I'm sure. We plan on putting together shoe boxes to send to poor country's, so we had to get the stuff for that. Plus regular grocery, household supplies and birth center supplies. I was so tired and didn't leave Kalispell till 10:30. I drank a big cup of coffee/capichino and it kept me wide away. Problem is it kept me wide awake for 2 hours after I got home too! :)
So now I wake up to a very messy house, the living room still in project mode (the paint looks wonderful) , needing to get ready for our home school group and the car still full of everything! I think I better get going.:)

no more skunks in our garage!

The other day I drove up with the children in the van, and I said either that is Gray's (our cat) tail or something else. Right then the skunk begins to waddle right towards us. I said "stay in the van"! Well the skunk just waddled away. Skunks are cute when you see them up close! :)
Well today we got our new garage door. Early this summer our garage door broke, again. It has broken so many time, it get ridiculous. Well I called around to find out we are looking at over $1000. I knew it would have to wait but we have pipes in the garage so it needs to be done before winter.
Well we have a beautiful green garage door, all insulated as of today. And the Lord provided the money.
I had a birth this morning, a beautiful little baby girl that they named her Martha. The baby had the cord around the neck really tight, so her birth was a little tricky, but no real problems. Her husband was incredibly attentive. He was so sweet, and truly knew how to cherish his wife. What a blessing it is to see this
I almost forgot how much I love midwifery. I think being in the Philippines was pretty emotional and draining midwifery wise. I felt like i needed a break, but I also needed a very normal beautiful birth. the Lord gave me this birth this morning. It was so nice and perfect, peaceful and calm. I love helping women have babies the way they want.

Well even though my husband, my son and my son in law all work for the Internet company, for some reason my Internet is so slow, I can't download pictures anymore. For some reason I must need more patience.