Christmas Memories

It is late but I wanted to post about my Christmas before I forgot what I wanted to write, it happens a lot to me. Anyway it was a great Christmas as usual! I think I was even more grateful and felt even more blessed to be able to celebrate this year after being in the hospital for 7 months and not really sure if I would make it. I did make it so it made the family time and traditions even more special. It is funny how the "kids" really enjoy the traditions too. We did our processional into the crib set to put baby Jesus into the manger and we say the "wrong" song and my oldest nephew and my niece both rejected the new song because "we always sing Come All Ye Faithful" so we redid it! LOL Also three years ago my mom made taco salad for Christmas day to have with the other stuff and to this day she gets a rough time for "the kids" how she changed the menu! Never again she says. So if you have little ones please keep traditions alive in your celebrations because they will remember them even when they are 21 and 18! To me that is super special.
So anyway on Christmas my brother Jon, SIL Judy, Ian and Ivan came from St.Paul and went to church with me, my sister mom and dad. It was a very nice service. Then it was back to mom and dad's for lasagne and then visiting and games. Here is Jon, Judy, Ian and Ivan.

They became part of our family last Dec. 31st and we love them dearly!

On Christmas day my brother Mike, SIL Jane, Matthew, Michelle and Logan came and that is when I started taking the pictures here is Mike and the family.

 And here is a picture of the grandkids for a frame I got my mom and dad.

Her is my sister with Ian and Ivan

Here is my mom and niece Michelle

Here is my dad being funny.

And lastly here I am.

As you can tell by all of the smiles it was a great day celebrating Jesus' birthday and spending time with family. I hope you and your family also had a very special Christmas!

Catch-up

Christmas is all done, family has gone home and I am going to do some catch up on my blog. It has been awhile but hopefully I will be able to be back more regularly. It is kinda hard writing in a blog knowing that no one else will probably read it but then again I enjoy going back and rereading it so here goes.
Since I am not working I had some time to do some crafts for Christmas. I found Pinterest and now I am addicted but I did get some great ideas.

 This is just a wreath made out of buttons, thought it was kinda cute. The tree is made out of rolled up scrapbook paper and wrapping paper. There are tons more ideas I want to try out but have to get supplies to do more. I also made some stitched cards but didn't take a picture of those.

This is just cheap dollar store frames that I put scrapbook paper in the back and then cut out the letters and have a neat wall hanging. I am going to do another of these for winter so stay tuned! LOL

Well that is about it for today. I will tell you all about my Christmas tomorrow. Enjoy!

Wedding

Happy Friday everyone! It has been a very busy week for me. I am still working out every other day and it is going good, stronger every day. I fell about 3 weeks ago and my shoulder was still hurting so I went to the doctor and I have a torn tendon so just another set back. I have anti inflammatory pills and pain pills. I also have to go through some more Physical therapy. I just want to be back to the strength I was before all of the complications. It took such a short time to lose all of my abilities and so so long to get them all back. 

One of the happiest things that happened right before my surgery is that my brother Jon got married to Judy. It was so beautiful and special. They got married on Dec.31st with just the family and it was quite the way to begin a new year, with 3 new members to our Loretz family. Here are some pictures.

 

Before the ceremony: Four separate sands/colors standing apart: 

 All four becoming one

 After the ceremony all the sand/colors together in one beautiful unit.

Jone and his "new" sons Ian and Ivan.

Oh yes such a special day!!

 

That is it for today, Love you all and be blessed!

I am back!!

Well here I am, I have been away so long and so much has happened. I thought this would be a good time to start back here because it is November and I have so much to be thankful for.

I went into the hospital on Jan. 26th to have a hernia surgery. I was suppose to be in there for about a week, then have some recovery time at home and go back to work about 6 weeks after that...well God had other plans.
I ended up with major complications, a number of different infections, a huge open abdominal  wound and a very long hospital stay. I was in the hospital for seven months. I went through just about everything a person could go through, from a coma, intensive care for 4 months, losing my ability to walk or hardly move, to kidney failure, a number of surgeries to a lot of physical and occupational therapy to finally home in August.
It was a very difficult time for me and for my family. They thought I was going to die but again God had other plans. I did a lot of hard work and now I am trying to be open to what God's plans are for me. I lost my job but physically I am much better. I have learned that there are so many small things I used to worry about and also learned how blessed I am. I am ever so thankful for God getting me through those 7 months, through the pain, the heartaches, the work and the fear. I was never alone. I am also thankful for the wonder family I have. They were all so supportive of me, so loving, so caring and so strong when I couldn't be. I am also thankful for the doctors and especially the nurses that kept me going and gave me such good care. It takes a very special person to be a nurse and I had the best! So anyway most of 2011 was not the best for me but with God's help the rest of it and beyond I am going to LIVE FULLY.

So Excitied

Well here it is only 6 days until Christmas and I am so excited. I am finally done shopping, have everything wrapped and ready to go now just have to work and then enjoy the two days with family. Jon, Judy and the boys are coming down Christmas eve and we will all go to church together and then have a big meal afterwords. Last year we had game night after we got cleaned up so I am pretty sure that will happen again. It doesn't really what we do just that we are together. Mike, Jane and the kids will come down about noon on Christmas day and then we will all have that day together to open gifts, eat, laugh and enjoy each other. I just love this time of year, it is the only time all of us are together. This year will end on a very high note as we add three very special people to our family on New Years eve day. Jon and Judy will be getting married. We will all be in the cities for that and we are all staying at teh same hotel so that will be a lot of fun also. 

The last time I wrote in here we had our first snow well since then we had our first blizzard. We got 20 inches of snow from last Friday night into Sunday morning. Now there is a chance of about 6 more inches tomorrow, I hope it misses us. I love snow but just not all at once.

Well that is about it. Enjoy this time my friends and remember the real meaning we celebrate CHRISTmas!

 

First Snow

Happy Sunday everyone! Well we finally got our first snowfall! It started Friday night and I woke up Saturday to go to work and there were about 6 inches on the ground! I am so excited! Now it looks like winter and we can really start getting ready for Christmas. I did a little bit more decorating this weekend and also went and helped my mom with her tree. I didn't get my cards done so I will hopefully work on them this week and get them mailed out this coming weekend. 

Back to work tomorrow and I just don't want to go. I don't know why just feel a real dread that I usually don't feel. I am hoping when I get there it will be better and the week will fly by!

I do have some bad news, I broke a tooth last night so now I have to fit a dentist visit in this week. What is even worse is I have to fit in a dentist bill. What a time to have a big unexpected bill like that! I am going to tell him if it is too much to just pull the tooth, I just can't afford it!

Well I have to get some laundry done, have a great week! Here is a picture of our first snowfall! Enjoy! 

Happy December!

Happy first of December! I was off today so I got a lot done. Outside there were snow flurries and inside there was Christmas music and Christmas decorating. I love it! I am almost done decorating but still have some things to do. I will just work on it a little each night. I do have my tree up and my lighted garland up so I can just have that as my light at night when I am watching TV, it is so pretty. 

Thanksgiving was so wonderful. My brother Jon, fiance Judy and the two boys Ian and Ivan were here. We had a wonderful dinner and then we went through the ads, made wedding plans, played games and just enjoyed everyone. I had to work Friday but they were still here so I went out after work and we had pizza and played more games and laughed some more. I was truly thankful that we were all together. The only thing better would have been if my other brother and his family were there but that will happen at Christmas and at the wedding. That will be so much fun!

Well I am going to get back to doing some decorating. Have a wonderful and blessed week!