All is well....

kind of.

Andrew is doing great...

The quarter is OUT (took less than five minutes), he is home and back to school today.
While I was visiting yesterday, Nick left the room for a minute and said "a friend of yours from high school's daughter is here".  It was my friend Nancy's daughter, Amber - she was there with HER daughter.  Unexplained pains they were trying to diagnose.

Andrew & Emily (he's a little shy, can you tell?)

So all is well in Nick's household...we are so happy about that.  Here...different story.  Try to keep this as upbeat as possible, but sometimes life throws you curveballs.  I want to LOVE fall.  Too many memories that make me want to go back ten years and fix things.  I wish I could hibernate until the spring.   No energy. No motivation. And for the first time, my strength, my ROCK is struggling with me.  I wish I could do or say something to help him, but I think he put his grieving on hold to help me. This is a struggle that I don't think will ever go away.  I just want to say that I (we) are so thankful for the friends who have stuck around and have been patient with us.  We are a work in progress, and you have made a difference in our lives.  We needed you  then and we need you now and are happy that you are still there for us....

A New Chapter...

in the Fortener family book...

Andrew started Kindergarten this year!  Hard to believe.  Already a good story to tell.  After getting off the bus, we were walking back to their house.  He said "I had a great day today Pamma!"  I asked him what they did.  He was trying to tell me what they did but I couldn't understand him - I thought he was saying "we learned three new WORDS today" - but he kept saying "NO.  RUS"...finally I asked him to tell me what the word meant - and he said "you know, what we can do and what we can't do" ...
OH.  RULES.  So we figured that out.  Then he said "we learned about OPPOSITES too".
So I said "What's the opposite of night?"  "Day"  Black?  "Gray" - um... then he said "white",
then Up - "Down".  Then pointed to myself and said "me"(and thought he would say YOU) and he said "Pop Pop".  Funny thing - we ARE opposites!

Looking forward to Andrew reading some books to ME.


Andrew & Max are playing soccer this year too...

Have played two games so far - and happy to say that they are having fun.  Can't say that for all the four and five year olds out there, but they seem to being enjoying it.

Of course enjoyed the Holiday at Home parade and festivities too...

our friend Greg taking the kids on rides on the golf cart...

Andrew waiting for the parade...

the best part of the parade...the Star Wars characters!

TWO happy boys!

Celebrating my birthday with the boys at Cracker Barrel. New tradition.

Not much on celebrating my birthday any more, but this I LOVE.

My flower garden.  Didn't even plant it this year. It reseeded itself from last year.

"I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the fall"

                                           Fort

Cleaning up her resting place.  She loved the fall so much.  I used to.  Not so much 

anymore.  Not the same without her.  

Stopped by to visit my friend Jackie too.  She's not too far from Melissa.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

and ANOTHER chapter for the book.  Andrew gave us a little excitement today.

When he came home from the sitters, he told Mere "I swallowed a penny".

It was actually a quarter.

Mere took Andrew to Urgent Care, Nick stayed home with Max. While at Urgent

Care, Andrew was sitting on a chair, holding his chest (I guess it was hurting when the quarter was moving down)...he leaned forward and face planted on the tile floor.  Smashed his forehead and nose.  Started throwing up immediately.  Several times. 

On to Childrens Hospital, where he had a couple of X-rays AND a CT scan.  Xrays to see if the quarter is moving.  If it doesn't get into his stomach, they will have to extract it.  More concerned about the fall - and concerned about a possible bleed.  They are still waiting for the results. I probably won't sleep tonight - Donny and Max are already asleep.  I'm waiting for a phone call.

NOTHING worse than seeing your child in pain.  Only thing worse is seeing your GRANDCHILD in pain....

Although he doesn't look like he's in too much pain here, I worry because he's sleeping and he has a concussion...(if you look closely, you can see the big red mark on his forehead)... they are keeping him overnight for observation.  Always something to worry about when you have kids.  And it doesn't change with grandkids....

What I DO know, is he has his own personal Guardian Angel.  Yesterday, he told Mere that Melissa was sitting next to her.  She said "how do you know?"  He said "I can see her".  She's always around.

Now she's sending me hearts.  I see them everywhere.

I think I posted this one before, but the angel and heart are outlined in this one...

I used to love this time of year...now I just have memories of her last autumn.  She wasn't feeling well, but we did some fun things.  Went to the Holiday at Home festivities, went to the Oktoberfest in Cincinnati, took walks...when I walk now, I just remember how much she loved this time of year, and I just miss her so much...every minute of every day.  The hole in my heart is aching so much...

But I know you are with us.  Andrew just confirmed it.  

Love you and miss you every minute of every day Melissa Marie.

4 years later....

 Happy 4th Birthday Maxwell Irvin!

The first we knew of Max's imminent arrival was December 2008.  Melissa was still here.
Nick and Mere wrote out on a piece of paper "Meredith is pregnant", then cut it up (like a puzzle),
gave it to Melissa to put together.  She got the "Mere" together and said "is Meredith pregnant?"

They wanted Melissa to name the baby.  At the time, she was at our house in Hospice care.  She was laying in her bed in the family room, and we thought she was sleeping.   She said "Wilkinson Ray".
We all looked at each other like "What?  Is she kidding????"  She opened her eyes and laughed "YES. I am just kidding!"  Evidently there is a famous rugby player by that name.  Obviously at that time they didn't know if they were having a boy or girl, and this was around Christmas time, when her health was declining rapidly.  She never did pick names.

But I will say that the name they picked is VERY appropriate for Max.  Especially his middle name.
After my dad.  (she agrees...the puzzle just went off!)  The first time we realized how much Max is like my dad was when we said "The sky is blue" (or something like that), and he said "No it isn't".  Just like my dad.  ALWAYS right.  We were driving by the mall the other day and Max said something about it being a soccer store (because that's where they bought his soccer stuff).  We said "No, it's the Dayton Mall".  He said "No it isn't".  It's like that ALL the time.  We just laugh and call him "little Irv".

He arrived via C-section August 20, 2009.  To a not so happy little brother...but that has gotten better.
Being so close in age (they are 16 months apart), they are VERY close.  Max does EVERYTHING Andrew does.  They are very competitive.   They are alike in a lot of ways, but in some ways very different - like when they eat...Andrew is very clean. If anything gets on his hands, he wipes them off immediately.  Max is covered with whatever he is eating.  Every time.

The other day, I took them out to breakfast.  He took one of the jellies and was going to eat it.  I told him to wait until his toast came, he could put it on his toast.  I looked away for a minute, and when I looked back, this is what I saw...

his mouth was "ringed" with jelly.  I kind of gave him one of those "looks", and he said "I didn't eat any Pamma, I didn't!"  Then he had one of those grins...How can you not laugh?  

I found  a few of my favorite Max pictures...and some from this birthday.  

One of my favorites...Aunt Sue LOVED Andrew & Max - and they loved her!

Just the other day Max was talking about Aunt Sue.  They miss her too...

I was trying to do the "self portrait" and I couldn't get him to just SMILE.  Had to make a face (FORT!)

Then he was laughing...I love these shots!

For Max's birthday, we went to Newport Aquarium.  He was petting baby sharks and horseshoe crabs...not afraid of anything.

Celebrated his birthday on the 19th - because he had soccer practice on his birthday.

But he's going to be a baseball player...

Happy 4th Birthday Max!  We love you!

***

Had a big day with Andrew too last week!  I got to take him to his Kindergarten Assessment and Bus Safety Program.  Can't believe he's starting Kindergarten next week!

on the bus..."back to the back, seat to the seat, feet to the floor"....just a little to remember!

***

Took them swimming on Monday and WORE. THEM. OUT.  Got home and they wouldn't take a nap.  Until PopPop crawled in with them.... ZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzz

****

Went to a fundraiser with Jen (Smitty) for a friend of hers who was diagnosed with breast cancer, NO INSURANCE.  Great fundraiser.  Jen ALWAYS wins something (usually a purse).  This time, she won a basket FILLED with good stuff...she gave some it to me...

Butterfly Kiss wine!

That's it for now.  Can't believe summer is almost over and fall is just around the corner...

Melissa LOVED LOVED LOVED the fall...that makes fall very sentimental for me.

Makes me miss her even more.  

Love you pretty girl...(think she's ok with this post - the puzzle went off multiple times tonight. Hasn't gone off in awhile. That makes me happy. ) Plus I got another visit Sunday night, and I think another last night.  It's my birthday present, I'm pretty sure.  Doesn't take much to make me happy!

Thursday is my birthday.  Do something nice for someone for me...a random act of kindness.  

That would make me happy too.

Enjoy the last few days of summer...