New Year 2012

The new year has been under way now for 22 days and I have been lazy about posting, so what is new...LOL! I started the new year with a bad cold and a sinus infection, the cough is hanging on.

We have been trying to get things planned for James and Brittany's wedding, we have to pay for and plan the rehearsal dinner. It will be fun putting together a video of their lives, I will really enjoy looking through the photos of them when they were younger.

Ben has moved out to try living on his own, our house is truly an empty nest now. This is a hard time for me. I miss my children so much, there is so much emptiness in my heart. I find myself playing on the computer more just so I don't cry so much, I helps so that I don't have so many headaches, but it really doesn't ease the heartaches. I told the kids I miss them and really need to see them at least once a month, they said they will try to make the time, I pray they will.

Well that's all for now, God Bless everyone!

Christmas 2011

This year I just can't seem to get into the Christmas mood at all! I just want Christmas to be over with! I also want this year to be over with! If it could go wrong it has! There has only been four good highlights this year...James and Brittany's engagement, Nicole's birth, I have lost 61 pounds and Mom & Dad's Golden Anniversary!! Other than those this year has totally sucked!!! I won't rehash the problems on here but let's just say they just make the national debt look good!! So it is no wonder I have depression that is a bottomless pit. I have sought the help of my primary care physician and a therapist. Some days it is all I can do to get out of bed, but I have too, I am after all taking care of Brooklyn. If you don't find me online playing a game, then you might find me in my room watching tv, staring off into space or crying. Seems I can't even make this blog make sense right now, better stop while I am ahead.

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving 2011 is coming fast. This year I am so Thankful for my family as I know so many others are. I know it is said so many times it such a cliche, but so true! I have such a large family that it is so hard to Thank them individually but I should, so here goes. Thank you for being a part of my life David, James, Brittany, Elizabeth, Ben, Mom, Dad, Michelle, Chelsea, Chance, Brooklyn, Jenni, Mark, Katie, Jonathan, Larissa, Jacob, Matthew, Tanya, Mike, Jon, Matt, Emma, Nate, and Nicole...I love you all! This is my immediate family but the cousins and Aunts and Uncles are just as important and Loved. Thank you all my friends, there are too many of you to name but you all mean so much to me!! HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ONE AND ALL!!!

My "Baby" turned 19

On September 9, my youngest son turned 19 and entered the last year of his teen years! Where have the years gone? I know every mother asks this, but I really mean it. My oldest is getting married in May, my daughter is getting married then too and not talking to us, and now my "baby" is in his last year of being a teenager and truly an adult. He is in college, he just got his first job, and he is starting to pay his own way. It won't be long till he is on his own. The empty nest syndrome I have long been dreading is starting to set in.

Another milestone hit very close to this one, my Dad turned 69 on September 13th. I can't believe he will be 70 next year. He seems so young too! He has survived a stroke and a heart attack and yet he still manages to do all his own yard work and anything else he sets his mind too!! Remember he and Mom just celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary in August!! I think he will be around for a lot longer!

Ben - 15 months - Fairbury, Illinois visiting Great Grandpa Zehr, we were at Aunt Sue and Uncle Eddie's house in a park playing in the mud.

50 Years of Marriage

August 12, 1961, my parents, Grace and Jim Oakes were married in the oldest Baptist church in Columbia, South Carolina. On August 12, 2011, they celebrated their 50th Anniversary with a surprise party which we girls planned an entire year for. It was such a joy to pull this party off and see their faces as they saw friends they had not seen for years and then to see family that had travel hundreds of miles to be there. It was worth all the lying and stress to enjoy and endure the tears and hugs. We all had a wonderful time that turned into several days of visits and stories. I hope the following photos will share the joy of the event, they are only a few of the hundreds that were taken.

Welcome to the World "Nickel"

We have a new niece!! Nicole Leiann Morrison was born July 17 weighing in at 7 pounds 13 ounces and measuring 19 1/2 inches. Tanya and Mike are so happy. The doctors had to use suction to get her out, so she had a nasty bruise and scrape on her head but otherwise she is beautiful. Everyone is enjoying spoiling the newest addition to the family.

James Graduation

June 18, 2011

James Ronald Zehr

Magna Cum Laude

3.87 GPA

Alpha Beta Kappa Honors Society

College America