WELL YOU ASKED FOR MY MOST RECENT PICTURES WELL HERE THEY ARE WITH SOME EXTRAS...

Well.....here is the most recent picture of me.

Was it worth the wait?

Well this Christmas my sisters, brothers and their kids decided to surprise my mom for Christmas. My sister in Minnesota was the ring leader on the surprise. She kept in touch with us all through out the summer and fall as to who was flying or driving, when we would arrive, how long everyone would stay and the main thing is where are 19 people going to sleep in a 3 bedroom house! Then came how do we get all this done with out leting Mom know? Hmmm now step in our step dad, he kept this secret from mom for over 6 months. Now there is a big secret to keep and we are all thankful to him for helping us get all this set up. Here is a picture of me, mom, and step dad...

By the way the reson for an orange tree and no snow it was in Arizona.

We all had a great time. I arrived there on a Sunday afternoon, and was to get some things ready for when the rest would arrive. Well my sister from Minnesota drove from her home to my sisters in Oklahoma and stayed the night there then drove the rest of the way to Moms and arrived at 4:30 am on Tuesday. At that time we tried to make noise as mom was still sleeping but she would not wake up. At that point our step dad woke up came out to living room saw us and the proceeded to go wake up mom. He was like a little kid keeping a secret he was so excited. Well she came out and was SHOCKED to see us all sitting in her living room and dinning room. We kept her busy the whole time and she loved it, having all of us kids there for the holiday.

My other brother that lives in Arizona with his wife and 3 kids came up on Dec. 24th and they stayed there for 2 days, wow what a house full. We all had a great time there. We had to eat in shifts at times. There were people sleeping all over the house like bedrooms, living room floor and chairs, and even on dinning room floor but it was all worth it for us to be there for this holiday.

Here is a picture with almost all of us...

Well this is most of my family that showed up for Christmas.

Back row: Me, J.J. (nephew), Miah (nephew), Mark (brother), Mathew (nephew), Kirk (brother).

Next row: Mel (sister), Ana Marie (great niece), Sasha (niece), Christal (niece), MOM and she is holding Hunter (nephew), Bonnie (sister) hidding behind mom, Jon (nephew), Felicia (niece).

Front in the middle: Ashley (niece).

My Mom's ICQ status:

My sister Mel's ICQ status:

My sister Bonnie's ICQ status:

My brother Mark's ICQ status:

My nephew Mathew's ICQ status:

Missing in the picture was Marks wife, she was sick. And Chris, Mel`s boyfriend, he was taking the picture.

Also missing was our Big brother Scott, and his sons, as he was snowed in at his place in Oregon. But I do have a pic of him taken this summer with my sister bonnie.

He called us on Christmas Eve to let us know he could not make it and talked to most of us.

These pictures of Scotts 2 sons Brenan, and Clayton. And of course my nephews. They were also unable to come as snowed in as of all the snow in Oregon.

All in all we had a great time visiting each other even though some times were a little tense with so many people in a smaller house. but what do you expect. This was only the 3rd time we were together in the last year, before that it had been about 15 years so it meant alot to us and mainly our to Mom to have us there to be with her on Christmas.

The only other time we were together this year was for our Dads Birthday in march of 1998. It meant alot to him for us all to be there for his birthday.

But the sad part was he died about 1 week later. I had just been with him on Sat morning we went to have breakfast and went shopping before I flew home. I called on Sunday to let him know I made it home ok, and at that time he said that my oldest brother Scott had just called, he was unable to make it there for Dads birthday. On Tuesday I got a call from my sister that Dad got sick and went to hospital. I called and talked to him for a bit. Then Wednesday he slipped into a coma. I got a call at work and tried to talk to him and he could not talk or recognize me, I started to cry. The next morning I could not go to work as I needed to be at home as I knew something was about to happen. So I called into work and within 3 hours I got a call from Mel that Dad had passed away in her arms. Man it was hard to deal with.

We all went back a month later for the Memorial. He donated his body to science for research. That was his way to help others with cancer. So the doctors may use his body for tests that maybe they can help find a cure for cancer.

He was a VERY SPECIAL PERSON TO US ALL...

This was the last and best picture we had of him, it is a few years old but it does him justice.

And this will ALWAYS be my favorite picture of my dad.

Well since then the family has been more tight. It is bad that it had to come to Dads death to bring us all back together but we are all together again.

WE MISS YOU AND WE LOVE YOU FOREVER DAD...

And I want to give a special thanks to MEL as she was there while all of this was happening and she was able to take care of everything from his death to the getting everything ready and arranged for the Memorial.

This Rose is for you Mel...

THANKS MEL YOUR THE BEST AND WE ALL LOVE YOU.

Well Mel, Mom, Bonnie, Mark and I keep in touch over E-mail and ICQ. Now we just need the others to get a computer.

So I guess you can say that all bad things end out on a positive note.

To go to learn more about my Dad and his last days...

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page