Washington DC - a few pictures...long time in getting them posted :(

Well here are some of the pictures we took from our trip to Washington D.C. - if you have never been there you need to check it out.  We didn't get to see everything we wanted so someday we will make another trip out there hopefully

We are standing in front of the White House But you really can't see the house very well.  The person who took this forgot to include it...she was concentrating more on us I guess.

 

This is the Captial Building (the back side) as seen from The National Mall

 

Washington Monument...It is really huge! We didn't get a chance to go inside for the tour...maybe someday we will.

 

Lincoln Memorial. The reflecting pool was drained :( 

There is Jes and Brett...

 

A picture of the Washington Monument and the Veterans Memorial

 

The kids standing in front of Lincoln

 

The worlds 6th largest Cathedral - Washington Cathedral

The carving inside the Cathedral is exquisite

Gargoyles on the outside which Brett found fasinating

 

Of course we had to go to China Town for some very delicious sushi - mmmm!

Same place just taken at night

A bronze statue taken from inside of The American Indian Smithsonian - their most recent museum

The Capital taken from Capital Hill (front side)

Guards posted every where (front and back) they stand there all day!

The figure on top of the Capital - "Freedom" is his name

Picture of George Washington on the ceiling of the Rotunda

Another shot - the Rotunda is where people can pay their respect for presidents who have passed away.

The tour inside the Capital is pretty cool. It all starts underground.

A picture of the lamp posts around the Capital

 

Brett's fun picture! He is holding the Washington Monument in his hands :)

There is so many more pictures we took and maybe sometime I will post more but this is all for now

Heat Wave today

Thank goodness we had a nice day today temp was in the low forties...HEAT WAVE hee hee

Snowstorm Jan 2010

Well the snow has come here are some pictures so you can say "wow did they get snow!"

the river from my back yard

the Purple Cliffs from my back yard

the deck

another view from the deck

can't tell to well but this is the end of my driveway - I was plowed in glad I didn't have to go to work

my mailbox that always gets burried -good thing we dug it out last night might have not found it today (hee hee)

the snow again this morning - shoveled the front pathway last night at 11:30pm but gave up doing the rest was to tired you can see the difference

All the snow on top of the truck will clear it tomorrow - just plain tuckered out today to do it

the view of my house from the street - should've seen it yesterday - was knee deep in some places (like at the end of my driveway) - check out the snow in the bed of my truck it is over flowing

my buddy George - he gets the job done!  What would I do without him - probably still be shoveling!

BTW see the big mound of snow that's Brett's sledding hill he discovered later. He enjoyed sledding onto the street - only when no cars were coming which was not very often

the driveway - cleared at last with the help of George and Cody

there's my mailbox - now we can reach it - Brett is hoping his boyscout uniform arrives soon!

the view from my front porch

the trees in my front yard - my rose bushes almost completely covered (lower right corner)

the boys in the front yard

Brett sitting in the front yard on top of the snow - said his boomerang in under all the snow - he said he'll see it again in May (hopefully LOL)

Cody - I'm glad I'm done with working!!

One more thing

While I was up in Denver I went to visit with Noah at Childrens Hospital. Wow he was amazing to watch. During his physical therapy we worked hard and his spirits was high. He can't wait to get out of there! He was talking about getting a wheelchair that could go in the snow. Even though his prognosis is not great his attitude is. He told the doctor that he had a 50% chance of walking. The doctor looked at him funny and Noah said "Either I walk or I don't that 50/50 right?" Great huh? He will be coming home by the end of this month and I can't wait to see him home. Jason is doing well as can be expected. Amada had the pins removed from her leg and she is doing good too. Going to physical therapy but it is great to see her walking. Pretty soon there will be no stopping her. I don't know much about Dante since he is living with Cassandra's parents. Please continue to keep them in your prayers.

A new year

Sorry all for not posting in quite some time. Time just seems to go by to fast for me. As a matter of fact we are already 18 days into a new year YIKES! Since it is a new year I have decided that I will TRY to keep my blog updated more often...TRY is the operative word LOL!

Just thought I would post some pictures from our Christmas Break that we spent with Bryan's family. It was a hard Christmas for me because I was missing the two very special people in my life but I made it through. Here are some pictures that i took from my new camera the kids got for me - A brand new spankin digital Canon XSi 12 mega pixels - now that a very sweet gift!

BTW most of these pictures are candid shots so bear with me-hope you enjoy

Brett trying to stay serious

My nieces Kelsey and Dani

brothers

Bryan's dad - Grandpa looking great it was great to see him!

Kelsey with grandpa

Cody and his new present - an ipod touch

my niece Evan

Celeste-Bryan's sister

Tony-Celeste's husband

my nieces Dani and Ashley (sisters)

Charissa-Bryan's sister with Snicks

Jay-Charissa's husband

Jes and Dani

The gifts for Christmas Bingo

Grandma explaning Christmas Bingo (sorry the picture got blurry I guess I moved the camera)

Cousins - Jes, Evan, Ashley, Dani on the floor by Jes is Abby and Kelsey

Celeste, Grandma and Tony discussing an answer written on the bingo sheet

Jay - still trying to get a good picture of him - he avoided looking at the camera all the time

The cousins just hanging having fun!

And last one of my most favorite pictures - cool huh?

A Prayer request

For those of you who follow my facebook you already know what i am about to say and for those of you who don't this week has been a very difficult week for me and my heart breaks for what i am about to share.


Monday night on my way home about 5:15 (which was late because of Parent/Teacher Conferences) my co-workers and I came upon a terrible accident scene. Earlier I had heard sirens blaring past our school and as i always do i say a short prayer for the people responding as well as for those who need assistance. Well as we approach the scene all I can see is a truck that looked like an accordion and a taco all in one. It was bad...so I prayed again. Needless to say I didn't get home til about 45 minutes later (usually it only takes me about 20-25 minutes to get home) because they re-routed the traffic on the county roads. Anyway Brett had a Cub scout meeting so during the meeting my phone starts vibrating and i didn't check to see who was calling. Well it vibrated again so I decided to answer it. It was a call from my friend Mari Jo telling me that a former student of mine along with his sister, step-mother and step-brother had been involved in the accident and that my former student's step-mother was killed on impact and the children in serious condition and that they were being air lifted to the Children's Hospital in Denver. I was devastated. I got home and let some close friends of mine know the details that I had received and asked them to pray. When I got home a friend of mine who is a trooper with the state patrol called me and gave me some info he felt he could share at the time which wasn't much. Due to next of kin being notified he couldn't really share a lot except to say that the kids were in pretty bad shape he was able to share some of the conditions on the boys but not the little girl. He said it was on of the worst head on collisions that he had seen in a long time.


The next day i kept getting updates but they would change alot and at one time had posted on fb but decided not to post anything more until i was sure all the facts were straight. So here are the facts


Cassandra - killed on impact her son Dante has swelling in his brain and is in an induced coma and will be waking up as soon as the numbers for the ICP (inter-cranial pressure) get closer to the normal number which is below 10. His was above 30 on arrival. Then the doctors will assess for brain damage he also had numerous broken bones, cuts, ect...

Noah, my former student, had plastic surgery on the area surrounding his right eye and the orthopedics team set his right arm. His biggest obstacle right now is his back. His spine was damage in two places, bruising in the thoracic region of the spine and some vertebrae separation in the lumbar region of the spine. Due to one or both of these injuries he currently has no movement or reflexes below the waist, no feeling in his right leg, and very faint feeling in his left leg. the doctors have scheduled him for surgery on Tuesday, November 24th to have four of the vertebrae in the lumbar region fused together, if they don't heal on their own. Right now he has some of the best doctors assessing and working with him with the goal to have Noah regain back some mobility.


Amada has a broken left leg and right arm along with fairly extensive plastic surgery on her forehead and the top of her head as well as on her left leg. She has been sedated since Monday and they will be waking her up soon. Her condition looks great and she should mend fairly well.


Jason will definitely need all of our prayers. Please pray for comfort while he grieves for the loss of his wife; strength and endurance because he has a very long, hard, and difficult road ahead of him. Pray that Dante will come out fine with no brain damage, and for Noah to regain mobility so that he can go back to being the kid who loves to play soccer and loves to ski! Pray that Amada will heal quickly. Also for this family to grieve for the loving wife, mother, daughter, friend they have lost. Last but not least pray for Noah and Amada's mother Kimberly. I know she would appreciate your prayers.


Until next post

Updates

Sorry about not posting anything in quite some time but have been busy, busy, busy with everyday stuff. Time just seems to get away from me.

Well...

Brett has started Cub Scouts and so far is liking it. He absolutely can't wait to get his uniform and hand booklet to start earning those badges? patches? you know what i mean. As for me I'm a bit overwhelmed with Cub Scouts. I feel like a fish out of water at the meetings but i suppose things will get better in time. He has his Den meeting tomorrow and he just turned in his popcorn order. Can't wait to have some of that delicious popcorn that i ordered, mmmmmm. He is also looking forward to making his design for the pine wood derby race car races that will be held in February. Brett is doing good in school even though he doesn't like school very well.

Cody, believe it or not, is doing wrestling and loving it whoo hoo! Tonight he won his first match but lost his second one and then his third one was won by default because there was no one to wrestle in his weight division. I am so proud of him. He getting some muscle now so everybody better watch out! LOL He definitely stepped out of his comfort zone to do this sport and he is having fun too! He is doing well in school and of course still taking piano lessons.

Jes is taking a break from basketball this year. Not sure what is going on with that. I think she feels like she has let her dad down because she promised him should would continue playing basketball but she can't seem to get motivated to play. I will definitely be checking up on this. As far as school she is doing well still getting A's and B's and really is liking her science classes. She wants to be a vet and is looking at going to school at CSU. BTW that's where her dad went to college. She is planning on getting an internship at one of the local vet clinics here in town. She has been a tremendous help with the bus driving as my mom would have said or was it the chauffeur? She picks up Brett afterschool since Brett started having problems with some kids on the bus. Christina's parents pick Brett up afterschool, since they pick up their grandson too at Park and then Jes picks him up from their house. (BTW Christina is a very dear friend of mine.) Then she picks up Cody from practice on the days that I get home late from work. Then she takes Brett to his Den meetings because his meetings start at 3:30 on Fridays which of course is the time I get off of work in Ignacio. And then she picks up Cody from piano practice on Fridays at 5:00 since I have to pick up Brett at 5:00 from his den meetings. Oh did i mention she also makes sure the boys are out the door in time for school since I leave before they are fully awake? It is alot of responsibility I have put on her shoulders but she hasn't complained and for that i am so thankful.

As far as my work well it is really crazy right now. There seems to not be enough hours in a day to get all that needs to be done. As i am sitting at the bar typing my post Shadow is demanding some attention which makes me have to stop every so often cuz he keeps pawing at me to pet him silly cat! Can anyone say multi-task? I think i need to clone myself into at least 5 of me to get anything done. And to top it all off there has been problems with getting my mothers death certificate correct and I really want to settle her estate. UGH!!!! I am so looking forward to just getting a break at Thanksgiving. I just have to hang in there for at least 9 more days! Yippee. We have been invited to my friend Carie's house. She lives up the valley in Hermosa...I am so very thankful and glad that she's my friend. She's looking out for me!

So until next time...Cecelia, Jes, Cody and Brett