Oh the love of Spring!!

I am SOOO thankful for warmer temperatures!!! We went to the Park today and it was beautiful!! There weren't many people there so we pretty much had the place to ourselves. This is one of about 100 pictures I took of the kids today....priceless, huh?

This is my grandma, Edna Aileen Cronk. That is me she is holding. I was probably around 2 years old. Today is her birthday. She would be 89 years old. She died from Ovarian Cancer on April 7th, 1999, 2 days before her 81st birthday.
These are roses that my dad planted in front of her house years ago. I took this picture when I was taking care of her before she died. Grandma wanted to die at home, not in a nursing facility. When my grandpa could no longer care for her by himself, he called me to come and help him. It was one of the most difficult tasks I have ever had to do. Take care of someone you love as they end their life. After a few weeks I also could not handle the demands on my own, so my aunt and my dad flew out to Arizona to help. It was a week later, she had eaten nothing for 7 days and had no water for 4, that we could tell it would be soon that she would leave her earthly body. My dad and grandpa had been meeting with the pastor going over the final details of her memorial service (which she planned herself before she was so ill). My aunt, my sister and I were standing around her bed when they returned home.
You could see the blood leaving her veins and her breathing was getting more and more shallow. Grandpa and dad walked over to the bed. Grandpa bent down, kissed her and said, "Go Home Sweetheart, I love You." And she took her last breath. I had never watched someone die. It was SO blatently obvious that her soul left her body as that breath left her lungs. Grandma was gone. Her body was an empty shell. What a joy to know she was immediately in the presence of her Maker! Cancer free...pain free...free...
This picture was taken on my drive home from Arizona after the memorial service, going home to Illinois

Christ Is Risen!! He Is Risen, Indeed!

This was the picture that was the backdrop for our Easter service this Sunday...a beautiful image!

So here is baby Mauch #3!! Everything looks great! I had early ultrasounds with each of the other two and didn't with this one...totally amazing to see this one so big and way past the "teddy graham" stage of development!! What a miracle!! If you click on the picture it will show you an enlargement that makes it easier to see!

Precious Kiddos!

We had so much fun the other night! It was fairly warm, about 55 degrees, and Andrew and Brian had been working outside most of the afternoon. Brian is in the process of demolishing the old garage and had some scraps he wanted to burn, so we had a little fire and stayed outside for hours enjoying being outside!! The kids really were getting stir crazy being inside! I am excited to get the garage down so that I can see the kids playing in the back yard from the kitchen! It is always so nice to spend time as a family having fun, taking a break from routine and doing what is really important! I was watching Oprah yesterday and there was this family from Georgia with 4 kids who took a year off of work and are in the middle of a 365 day vacation around the world. Everywhere they are stopping they have a service project lined up. The dad explained why they decided to do this. Four reasons: 1. He felt his family was his top priority, but he was always working and not spending time with them 2. He had a friend who lost a child and he and his wife were reminded that we only have today 3. He had some very scary health problems last year and again was reminded of the brevity of life. 4. He had the opportunity to do some helping out in New Orleans and saw that there were piles of peoples "stuff" all around, but the people were still happy. He realized that their family had so much stuff and he wanted to expose his kids to how the rest of the world lived with so little and was still so content!

It was an amazing story and they are 7 months into it and are still smiling! They have done this on a budget of $45 to $300 a day depending on the country they are in...For a family of 6 that is remarkable!! It was really inspiring!!

Speaking of inspiring...I have my 20 week ultrasound tomorrow afternoon! I am hoping that I can get my scanner figured out so I can get the pics on this site!