A Dietz Family Year in Review

Remember yesterday when I said I had a blog post about Christmas and one about Grace to post? Well, I lied:) Sorry. Those aren't coming...at least not in that form anyway. I stumbled upon my friend Sharlee's year in review, and thought it looked like fun, so that's what you're getting. O.K., so maybe I didn't stumble upon Sharlee's year in review, it appeared in my e-mail. But nonetheless, it looks like fun, and I thought I'd give it a shot.



January

*We celebrated my 27th birthday at our house, with a fabulously decorated cake that my husband made and some good friends.



*Ken and our friend Alan put together Grace's crib and tried to shove it through our hallway.



*This was NOT successful! So, they ended up tearing it apart and rebuilding it in her room:)

*I found this random picture of Fenix and John which cracked me up, and still does:)

*Ken found new ways to harass Byron.




February

*Ken and I celebrated Valentines day with a cruise to Italy.



We dined on escargot




and

fine wine.



We followed our cruise up with a huge President's Day bash on February 21st.





Psych! I actually have absolutely NO idea what we did in February. Blame it on the pregnancy hormones!

I apparently had a horrible tooth ache though, and embarrassingly and somewhat psychotically, blogged about it here.

I'm glad that's over!

March


*I started decorating Grace's room.

And sadly, I have yet to finish.

*Sharlee and Amanda threw us a baby shower. It was a lot of fun and really well put together. We have great friends and family and were/are really grateful for all the support.

(P.S. Somewhere around January of this year I got REALLY bad about taking photos, and so I don't have many from the shower unfortunately.)






*Ken and I started our birth classes in the middle of this month, and let me tell you, it was an EXPERIENCE! They had me totally freaked out and feeling super unprepared.

April

* My work threw me and one other a co-worker a baby shower. It was incredibly thoughtful and Grace has the staff of MMS to thank for much of her impeccable wardrobe. In addition to that, the ladies at St. Lukes in Meridian (where my mom and I used to work) also threw me a baby shower. I really love those ladies! I am so lucky to have them in my life. They were such wonderful friends to my mother and are such great friends to me as well.

* We spent our Saturday mornings watching Fenix play soccer. He really enjoys it and has grown so much this year as a soccer player.



May

May was a big month! A phenomenal month!

*I taught my last day for the school year on May 6th. I had a great class last school year. I really did. I could not have had a better group of kids to share my pregnancy with. Some of them were almost as excited as I was. They also made a lot of memorable/laughable comments throughout my pregnancy, that kept Ken and I, and others, entertained.

*On May 8th, Mother's Day, Gracelyn decided to make her big debut. She was determined to get here on Mother's Day, and arrived just in time, at 11:24 that night. She was 6 pounds 14 ounces, 21 inches long, and perfect. I spent my pregnancy trying to imagine what she looked like, never really able to get a clear picture, and then she came and I looked at her, and it all clicked, like I already knew.



June

*We spent May and June getting to know our newest addition. Fenix loved/loves being a big brother and is a great one at that!



*Ken was named "Employee of the Month" at his job. A fact that Fenix and I harassed him about constantly. Every time we went to see him we had to go and check out his "Employee of the Month" picture:)

They didn't give him a button, which I thought was an atrocity. Every employee of the month needs an "Employee of the Month" button to wear for the duration of their reign. So, I made him one to compensate for his work's lack of thoughtfulness and appreciation.



*We celebrated Father's Day (You'll have to excuse the pajamas:),



and Fenix's 9th birthday.



*Grace started smiling this month:)

July

*We didn't have Fenix on the Fourth of July this year, so we celebrated a tad early, on Saturday, July 2nd. Dennin and Brooke came over, along with Dennin's main squeeze at the time:) We played Jenga, ate really good BBQ, and then let off fireworks in front of our house (as in sparklers and fountains).

We managed to somehow anger our neighbor. In fact, she was very upset that we were lighting off fireworks two days before the Fourth of July. Apparently that's unheard of. She didn't even know it was us though. She came out of her house asking us if we lived here. The idea of my husband, and I, and our 2 month old and our 9 year old sneaking into someone else's yard to light of fireworks did make me chuckle though.

She threatened to call the cops on us before we were even able to respond or apologize.

This is a picture of us and our shenanigans.



Seriously! Look at those heathens!

*Ken's mom and step-dad come to visit from Colorado. We had a blast. Ken and I had big plans of taking them to the botanical gardens and to a few wineries. In the end we spent most of our time on our back porch, chatting. And to be honest, that was even better. It was SO nice having them here. We did attempt to take them to the Idaho Botanical Gardens on two occasions. Both times, they were having a concert there, so next time they come we will make sure to call ahead. I would love to post pictures from their visit, but I'm having trouble finding them on the computer, which means they are somewhere on Ken's phone. I really will have to upload them later.


*After two years, we sold my mother's house. This was bittersweet, but it was time.

*Grace started laughing towards the end of July. She was outside in her swing when she discovered the mobile and found it very funny!:)

August

*I surprised Ken with an early birthday present, a trip out to Nebraska. Ken was missing his family, and we really wanted Ken's Grandparents' to get to meet Grace while she was still a baby. It was a short trip (filled with lots of plane anxiety--this seems to get worse as I get older:), but it was a really good time.






*My district started school on August 15th and Grace started staying with Cara and her family during the day. Something we are SO grateful for. They take such good care of her and they love her. There's not much more we can ask for.

*Ken and I celebrated four years of marriage on the 17th. We went out to dinner that evening with Grace, but celebrated a few weeks prior with dinner and wine, while Grace spent some time with Sharlee and her mom.

September

*Ken turned the big 3 0! We celebrated with a BBQ, complete with super tacky decorations hanging from the ceiling, and some great friends! Ken's birthday falls on Labor Day weekend, so sometimes it's hard to get everyone together with it being a holiday weekend. We're really grateful for those that came and made the evening special. Our patio was packed And, once again, I failed miserably at taking pictures.

*Sharlee, Grace, and I, participated in the St. Lukes Women's fitness walk. I've been waiting a while for Grace to join us.

*In addition to that, Sharlee and Zach joined us for Purple Stride, a walk to raise money for pancreatic cancer research. We formed a team called "Cruisin' For Caren". We are really hoping to do it again next year, and raise a bit more money/possibly recruit a few more team members.




*Grace was also baptized this month




and towards the end of September began to experiment with sitting up on her own.

October

*Grace turned five months and towards the end of the month, started eating solids. She LOVES her food!



*We enjoyed another season of soccer, and Fenix scored his very first goal! He was psyched!



*My husband found even more ways to harass Byron.



*We celebrated Halloween with an 80's Halloween party the weekend before, and then I spent Halloween handing out candy with Piglet...I mean Grace, and my zombie step-son helped his friend put on a haunted house. It was a good Halloween. We're already planning for next year.









November

* Ken's dad, sister Kori, and brother Kasey came to visit us for the Thanksgiving holiday. We ate lots of good food, lounged around the house, played games, went Black Friday shopping, and had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. Ken's family has joined us for the last few years on Thanksgiving and it's something we look forward to every year.






*The kids spent some time sporting their Nebraska Huskers gear. (I think Grace may actually have more Husker gear than Bronco...:)




And finally (you're almost to the end, hang in there!)...

December

*Grace got her first tooth at the start of the month and her second at the end. She is getting super close to crawling and has been for the last month now. She seems pretty content to just scoot and roll her way everywhere, so when crawling doesn't work, she just does that. She'll be 8 months in a little over a week. The mobility factor has made taking our monthly picture a little difficult. See picture below for evidence.




*We went to "Festival of Trees" with Amanda and her daughter Cecily. In addition, Grace and I got our Christmas spirit on at the Christmas Show in Boise with Sharlee.



*Ken found yet another way to harass Byron.



*In addition, he found a new way to harass Grace...or at least me:)



*I managed to mail 40 Christmas cards this year (If you didn't get one, I don't have your address:) Which really made me think about how blessed we are. We have a lot of really great people in our lives.



*And finally, Christmas came. We had a great Christmas. Ken made yet another delicious dinner on Christmas Eve, and we spent Christmas opening up gifts, eating dinner at my aunts, and relaxing and spending time together.









Phew! If you made it his far, then I commend you! I'm exhausted just typing all of this, which means I may need to make updating this on a monthly basis a New Year's Resolution of some sort.

2011 was a good year for the Dietz family. I'm grateful for the family, friends, and memories that were a part of my life in 2011, and I'm excited to see what's in store for the Dietz crew in 2012.

I hope 2011 was good to you, and that 2012 brings you lots of new adventures and memories!

Happy New Year!

New Year's Resolutions

I apologize for the haphazard nature of my blog. I have pics to post from Christmas and an update I started on Grace. I've come to the conclusion, that when I have posts that include pictures, it takes me an eternity. Those are on the way though...at some point.

I thought I'd take a moment to get my new years resolutions down.

This year as been FULL! I've grown quite a bit, as has our family. I am very grateful for what I have been blessed with. I'm a little nervous about 2012, I have to be honest. It's going to be a year of discipline! At least that's what I'm hoping.

So here goes, my New Year's Resolutions:

1) Budget better (this means being a bit more realistic) and stick to it. We don't have credit cars or car loans. Most of our bills are bills we will have for quite some times: house and school loans. We do, however, have a ton of medical bills. Having a baby is expensive! And, it doesn't help that Ken had to have surgery as well this year. Even though his hospital stay was 5 hours, compared to my two days, it cost the same...seriously! In addition to that, it looks like we will be acrueing a few more here in the next month with Fenix. We're going to use taxes to pay off as much as we possibly can, and the rest we'll make payments on. I'd like them paid off by the end of summer. That's my goal anyway:)

2) Lose the last bit of this baby weight. I've got 8 pounds to go and no excuses. I need to eat healthier and I need to work out. I'll be honest though, I don't have much of a plan for the working out part. My days are busy and I don't want to take away from the little time I get with Grace in the evening, so I'll need to work something out. It will be easier once the weather is warmer. Then, we can go back to our walks. I may just have to wake up a bit earlier...huge sigh.

3) Stress less. This is a big one, and probably my main one. I am very much my mother in this sense. I stress over school (can we say ISATs?), and money, and choosing decorations for Grace's room (yeah, I know, I'm at times a bit ridiculous). So that's my big one. There is only so much I have control over, and if I'm doing my best, then that's really all I can ask for. So I'm going to work on accepting myself and my efforts a bit more.

Part One

My mother passed away from pancreatic cancer two and a half years ago. I'm pretty sure if you are reading this, then you know me, so you already know this fact:) From time to time, I have well earned "pity me" moments, and I've found that I tend to weave my mom into most of my blog posts. Well, I promise this won't be a pity me moment; however, this is a blog post about my mom, which means it may be sad, or I may get sappy, so be forewarned.

Most likely this story will come in parts. It may take me all week or it may take me all year to finish. We will just have to see.

My mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer the summer I was twenty five. I had just started my first real job as a teacher, and was teaching a four hour a day summer school course. I started on a Monday, and the kids came on the following Tuesday. My first day was memorable. I felt like a fish out of water. I was very sure that anyone seeing me trounce my way through the school could tell this was my first teaching job. It didn't help that on my first day (a staff day), there were multiple meetings being held around the school. I walked into what I thought was the staff meeting I was supposed to attend, only to find out I wasn't in the right room. I had to get up 15 minutes into the meeting and crawl my way out to the door, only to then arrive late for my actual meeting. Once the meeting was through and I made it up to my classroom, class roster in hand, I called my mom.

I remember her answering, the first words out of my mouth being, "30 kids Mom! 30 high school students! That's how many students I have in my summer school class!"

I was terrified,

but she laughed, and I was reassured.

This memory has absolutely nothing to do with my mom's diagnoses; however, I felt free that day. I was starting my first teaching job, something I had waited a while to do. All my years of college had paid off. I was ecstatic and scared to death at the same time. And, I shared all of those feelings with my mom, in fact, I'm pretty sure she felt them too.

The Friday of that week, my mom went to the doctor. She thought she had a UTI.

She took a urine analysis test at he Primary Health by my house. They were able to determine that it wasn't a UTI immediately. Her urine was dark (if this is too much info, I apologize). In fact, it was brown. I didn't know it was that dark until she was in the hospital. Had I known, I would have encouraged her to go sooner than what she did. Because of the color, they were fairy certain she had hepatitis.

I was completely lost in my own world at this time. I didn't have much time to plan for summer school, so I was planning as I went. I spent most of my time at the school that week, or working at St. Lukes.

My sister called that night after my mom talked to the doctor to tell me they thought it was hepatitis-the "bad" kind as she had said.

I bawled.

In fact, I called Ken and made him come home because I was worried.

Then, I called Sharlee and left her an incomprehensible message about my mother possibly having hepatitis.

(I was dramatic to say the least. I have always been a bit hyper sensitive to the idea of losing people. I'm not sure where it comes from. If you are a psychology student, or a psychologist, or just into that sort of thing, feel free to analyze away. When I was in kindergarten, somewhere around the time my parents divorced, I went through this phase where I didn't want to be away from my mom AT ALL! We lived kitty corner from my school, and one day, in the middle of class, I just snuck off and walked home. I very specifically remember knocking on our door, and my mother answering it and looking down at me with her jaw dropped. I held up a bow of mine I had found at school, and told her I came home to show her that I had found it. The weeks following this were painful for me, as I'm sure they were for her. I remember crying my little kindergarten eyes out in class and the teacher telling the other studenst to just "let me cry". It's all very comical now. But, I imagine at the time that I just didn't want to be away from my mother. I had this similar feeling when I moved out for the first time, and the second, and the third:) Or, anytime I went out of town. In fact, any trip out of town was accompanied by me going over to my mom's and crying because I was afraid I might die. I was never afraid of the actual dying part. I was upset by the idea of being away from her.)

Nonetheless, when my melodramatic charade was done,

I called my mom.

I had actually called her multiple times during this process, but wasn't able to get a hold of her. Really this should have been my first clue, that the possible diagnoses wasn't that bad. And it wasn't.

They did think it was hepatitis, but that it was easily treatable. They wanted her to basically quarantine herself until Monday when the full lab report came back.

That night I shopped for my mom. I picked up her favorites: cheese its, and chicken patty sandwiches, coffee and Keebler Elf Graham cookies; and then I dropped her groceries off to her for a weekend in. I hugged her, then left.

Monday came around.

It wasn't hepatitis.

That was good, right? I thought for sure it was something small and treatable.

Cancer had not even occur ed to me.

They scheduled her to come in the following day for a MRI.

My mom arrived her for her MRI at nine the next morning.

I was teaching.

She stood, half way naked, while a nurse conducted the MRI, and then she drove home.

They called her as she walked in the door to her house and asked her to come back in.

She sat in a doctor's office, alone, when the doctor gave her what she thought to be her diagnoses:

Pancreatic Cancer: Stage 3.

It appeared as though the tumor was wrapped around a major artery, but they couldn't be sure.

Merry Belated Christmas!

Merry Belated Christmas to anyone reading! I hope yours was a special one, spent with the ones you love.

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Grace isn't at an age where she understands it, but I really enjoyed putting her in her Christmas p.j.'s and watching her scratch through the wrapping on her gifts. We have been in somewhat of a Christmas tradition limbo since my mom passed, but I think we are finding our groove. Christmas Eve has always been a time I spent with my mother. Before Ken came along, my mom and I spent Christmas Eve exchanging gifts, eating snacky foods, and curling up on her couch. As I got older, we threw margaritas into the mix:) I know, not very traditional, but it was our tradition:) Once I met Ken, he joined in on the fun. Even when I wasn't living with my mom anymore, we spent Christmas Eve with her. We slept in my old room, we opened gifts with my mom, snacked, drank margaritas, and wrapped last minute gifts, along with Santa gifts, on her kitchen counter. Then in the morning, we joined my sister and her family, and we ended the day at either my mom's or my Aunts for Christmas dinner. In the last couple of years we have found a balance between how we spent Christmas with my mom and creating our own traditions. Ken didn't work at all on Christmas Eve day this year, which was nice. He threw pasta fogioli into the crockpot, I baked, we ate, and then drank wine while wrapping gifts. This is the first year in a while, where we haven't had Fenix on Christmas Eve. It was a little strange, but we had him all day and night on Christmas. Grace managed to wake up wide eyed at midnight on Christmas Eve, so we took midnight photos of her by the tree and then sat and watched the lights. In the morning Fenix came and our day took off from there.
It ended with a phone call from a very good friend and her mother, and Grace and I falling asleep on the couch with a book.

It was a beautiful day.

On Christmas Eve day I sat down and read this post by the Blogess.

Aside from friends, this is the only blog I read semi regularly. I am known to laugh until the point of tears when I read her blog. This blog post though, just made me think and to be honest, just made me a bit achy. This Christmas was amazing. It really was. I loved every minute. The only thing that could have made it better was having my mother there. I could relate to this post; however, I don't entirely agree. I will always ache for my mother on the holidays, and my Christmases will always be categorized as those I spent with my mom and those that came after. But, I will love the Christmases after all the same. I think they will always be accompanied with a longing for my mother though. I don't know that I would have it any other way really. I imagine that as Ken and I wrapped gifts and enjoyed our wine and pasta fagioli that my mother was in heaven (that in my head looks suspiciously like my Grandparents house), enjoying a glass of wine, or a margarita, or knowing my mom, a rum and coke. She was most likely seated at the breakfast bar, surrounded by my grandparents and a spread of appetizers (summer sausage and cheese to be more specific) laughing. At least that's how I envisioned her on Christmas this year. I suppose if my mother can't be with me on Christmas, that this is the next best thing.