One more picture...

Here's one more picture that I forgot to add. Me and my sweet little man...oooh I could just eat him up!

Merry Christmas!!

Our 2010 Christmas Card (Photo by Dan, Design by me)

Its been far too long since posting, so hopefully these pictures will make up for it.

Several weeks back, we drove down to Coronado to meet up with our good friend Dan and Sara. He's an amazing photographer, so of course we always hit him up for family photos. This year we had Michael's family join in on the fun.

Michael's mom's Christmas Card


The following photos were scanned in, so if they aren't super clear, thats why.

It was super windy...just check out my hair!

Thanks Dan, for the beautiful photos!

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Happy Birthday!!

My sweet little baby boy is all grown up...he is 2 today!

How did this happen so quickly?!

9/3/1953 - 6/25/10

Pat (Patricia Luanne Ours) died this afternoon around 3pm (4pm New Mexico time).

It was very quick.

She did not suffer.

She had a lot of her family there with her.

She was 56. Far too young.

I am at a loss for words right now. I think I'm still kinda shocked.

Here is part of an email that I wrote to my mother-in-law the other day:

Michael and I were doing our bible study and reading together last night and after reading, I have a new found peace about Pat’s situation.

First of all, I’m still praying that God will heal her. I know that he is fully capable and powerful enough to create a miracle in her healing. Will he do this? I don’t know…but if he does, it won’t be “thanks to science” it will be a miracle worked by God.

But if he doesn’t heal her body…there is still something to celebrate. Pat has served God her entire life. I have known her all my 28 years and I have seen nothing but her positive attitude, always lifting others up with encouragement, and doing everything in her power to set an amazing example of what it looks like to be a follower of Christ. She has never been pushy with her beliefs but she’s always shared her faith gently, with Love.

With all this said, what is more exciting than knowing that one day soon, Pat will be meeting God…her creator, her comforter, her healer. She will be at peace.

Jesus will greet her one day soon by saying “well done, my good and faithful servant! You have acknowledged Me before man, through those you came in contact with in your life, now I will acknowledge you before my Father in Heaven!”

Can you imagine hearing any better words? To hear that the life you lived has been pleasing to God!?! That you did all you could in your given years to live your life to the fullest and to show true LOVE to those around you.

I know it will be really hard for her family and friends when she is gone. We will be the ones who are at a loss. We will have emptiness and a void in our lives. But I just pray that when times get hard for those who love her, we’ll remember that she is where she belongs, where we all belong, with our Savior! And that while we are here grieving, I hope that at the same time we can be rejoicing for her.

She has lived a life that should be celebrated!

Update

This week has been very overwhelming for the Ours family...

Dan, Sara, Howard, Pat, Gizmo, Amy
Kaelee, Jeff, Isaac, Krista
EASTER '09


Sunday evening Sara and Amy arrived to New Mexico from CA and jumped right in to all the responsibilities of caring for their mom.

Sara, Pat, Amy
Thanksgiving '09


On tuesday they made the difficult decision to no longer try and fight the cancer with chemo but instead put Pat on hospice so she would be made comfortable, in her own home.

Isaac, Howard, Pat, Kaelee
Thanksgiving '09


On Wednesday Jeff arrived from Colorado, along with his wife Krista and kids Isaac and Kaelee. Dan, Sara's husband also arrived that night.


And last night (thursday) the hospice nurse told the family that Pat probably had a week left to live.

Howard and Pat

Thanksgiving '09

Things are going fast. This family is hurting as their mother/wife is slipping away.

Please pray that they will find comfort in this difficult time.

PAT

I know that several of you know Pat Ours and I'm often asked how she is doing, so I thought I would give an update on my blog. For those of you who aren't fortunate enough to know Pat, she is an amazing woman who has played a major role in my life.

Pat holding Audrey

She grew up with my mom in Carlsbad, New Mexico. My mom and Pat both made their way from Carlsbad, NM to Pasadena, CA to attend college at Pasadena Nazarene College (currently called PLNU). Pat would always "tag along" on my mom and dad's dates to serve as their chaperon...or maybe just to snag a free dinner.

Pat and my mom at Pat's chemo treatment

Fast forward about 10 years or so and both my parents and Pat and Howard ended up in Hemet, CA. This is where my brother and I spent our entire childhood, along with the Ours kids (Sara, Jeff, and Amy). Neither of our families had any extended family in town so we served as their family and they served as "Ours."

Pat and Howard (left) with my mom and dad in Alaska '09

Almost every memory of my childhood has Pat in it.

...from spending every family vacation together...road-tripping our way around the country, with Pat in the front passenger seat talking on the CB and snacking on her red licorice,

...to our weekly trips to Taco Bell (Pat's favorite),

...to having huge parties at our house on sunday nights after church. What were supposed to be small get-togethers always turned into Pat inviting the entire church over to our house, cause with Pat, its always "the more, the merrier!"

As you can imagine, growing up with Pat in my life was an adventure!

Howard, Pat, Jeff & Issac, Krista (Jeff's wife), Sara and Amy

About 10 years ago (roughly) Pat was diagnosed with Breast Cancer but after a successful treatment plan of chemo and radiation, she went into remission...until about a year and a half ago.

The cancer had come back...and it had spread into her lungs, liver and bones. Since then she has tried several types of chemo but lately (in the past few months) things have taken a turn for the worse.

Pat has been having an extremely difficult time breathing because her chest is filling up with fluid and putting intense pressure on her lungs, making it impossible to catch her breath. She just recently came home from a 10-day hospital stay, where they inserted a drain so she will be able to drain the fluid while at home. Pat is VERY low on energy. She is sleeping around 20+ hours/day.

Pat's daughters Amy and Sara (along with Sara's husband Dan) were at our house on Saturday night when they decided that now was time to get out to New Mexico to spend time with Pat and to help Howard with Pat's care. My mom and dad picked Sara and Amy up at the airport yesterday afternoon and dropped them off at Pat and Howard's house last night. They were able to surprise Pat who didn't know that they were coming.

Pat has a doctors appointment today and tomorrow so please pray for her...as it takes ALL her energy to get out of the house these days.

Here is the link to Pat's blog: http://patriciaours.blogspot.com/

or you can just click HERE to be taken directly to her blog. Sara updates the blog regularly so be sure to check-in to see what they find out at the doctors appointments.

I love this lady.

Pat is one of the most loving, accepting, light-hearted, faithful, spontaneous, fun-loving people I know.

Please pray for her in this journey that she faces.

Birthday Boy

Happy 29th Birthday, sweet hubby of mine!

I love you!!

ps...Lakers, if you could please win game 7 tonight, that'd be a great gift for my man!

THE NEXT SURVIVOR SERIES

Hey friends...this is too funny not so share! It really puts into perspective what our job as a Mother entails!

Thanks, Mindy for sending this my way!

THE NEXT SURVIVOR SERIES

Six married men
will be dropped on an island

with one car

and 3 kids each

for six weeks.

Each kid will play two sports
and take either music or dance classes.

There is no fast food.

Each man must

take care of his 3 kids;
keep his assigned house clean,
correct all homework,
complete science projects,
cook,
do laundry,
and pay a list of 'pretend' bills
with not enough money.

In addition,

each man
will have to budget enough money
for groceries each week.

Each man
must remember the birthdays
of all their relatives,
and send cards out on time--no emailing.

Each man must also take each child
to a doctor's appointment,
a dentist appointment
and a haircut appointment.

He must make one unscheduled and
inconvenient visit per child to the Emergency Room.

He must also make cookies or cupcakes
for a school function.

Each man will be responsible for
decorating his own assigned house,
planting flowers outside, and keeping it
presentable at all times.

The men will only have access to television

when the kids are asleep and all chores are done.


During one of the six weeks,

the men will have to endure severe
abdominal cramps, backaches, headaches,
have extreme, unexplained mood swings
but never once complain or slow down
from other duties.

They must attend weekly school meetings

and church,
and find time at least once to spend
the afternoon at the park or a similar
setting.


They will need to read a book to the kids each night

feed them,

dress them,
brush their teeth and
comb their hair
by 7:30 am.


A test will be given

at the end of the six weeks,

and each father will be required to know

all of the following information:
each child's
birthday,
height, weight,
shoe size, clothes size,
doctor's name,
favorite snack,
favorite drink,
favorite toy,
biggest fear,
and what they want to be when they grow up.

The kids vote them off the island based on performance.

The last man wins only if...
he still
has enough energy
to be intimate with his spouse
at a moment's notice.


If the last man does win,
he can play the game over and over and over
again for the next 18-25 years,
eventually earning the right
to be called Mother!

3 months later...

BEWARE...this post has a lot of pictures...in fact, there are 3 months worth. I have been told by many of you that I need to get my butt in gear (sorry Audrey, I mean "toosh") and update my blog.
So here ya go.
Here are some pictures to update you on our life lately. Keep in mind that these pictures are totally in the wrong order!


The kids and I went with Amma up to Idyllwild (back in April)

I have mentioned before that Wylie is a thumb sucker...but now, as you can see, he is a double-fisted, eyelash rubbing, thumb sucker.

Audrey decided that she wanted to get her ears pierced...

even though I told her it was gonna feel like getting a shot in her ears.

As you can see she was very excited when we got there!

Then she realized that she wasn't too stoked to be there...and started FREAKING out...everyone in the store was staring at us!

But after it was all over and the tears had been dried, she danced out of the store, twirling her dress, singing "i'm a pretty pretty princess!" She now LOVES her sparkly earrings!

Audrey had her first dentist appointment...

No cavities!

Michael and I went for a hike in Idyllwild. We took the Devil's Slide Trail...and had a blast! It was a BEAUTIFUL day and it was great to get away!

I finished my burlap table runner (months ago)

We hung my cool lantern over the dining room table (months ago)

And my dad and I just recently made a table to go under the pictures on our entry wall (these pics are from months ago...thats why you don't see the table)

Since my last post, some of my closest friends have had babies...and ALL boys!

For some reason I don't have pictures of the babies...just of the mommies...and I'm sure they are going to hate that I put these pictures on my blog...but since you are my friends, you are fare game!

Mindy had Jake on 4-11-10

Krystina had Ryder on 4-13-10

Sarah had Stetson on 5-26-10

And Jenni had her little man Kobe...(she can count herself lucky that I don't have a picture of her in labor)






Audrey's "boyfriend" and neighbor, Hayden graduated from kindergarten.

We all decorated easter eggs at Amma and Papa's house (told you these pictures were old!)

We had a family day in Coronado at the beach.

We had another family day at the San Diego Zoo

(don't let these pictures fool you into thinking that my kids actually get along. Wylie's latest habit is shoving his sister...and I don't mean just every now and then. He does it ALL.THE.TIME. Maybe he has aggression issues...cause most of the time she doesn't even deserve it (most of the time).

Another recent habit of Wylie's is sticking his hands in his pockets...he looks like such a little man when he does it :)

Alright folks, thats all for now. I'll try to do better about blogging on a more frequent basis...but I can't make any promises cause life is CRAZY!!