More tree story, and other stuff

A litle bit more on putting our tree up. So we tried to hoist it up in front of the window, but we couldn't get it more than a few feet off the ground. Lukas, Nicole, and I were trying to keep the bucket (what we used for the tree stand), from sliding, as everyone else tried to lift it up, but the bucket kept sliding further and further along the wall in front of the window. At one point Nicole got trapped between the tree and the wall. So, then we went to plan B, which was to have a couple of boys stand up on the balcony, tie a rope around the tree, and have them lift the tree, while the rest of us pushed and arranged it in the bucket, then trying to scoot it over in front of the window. Well, once we got it upright, we started to scoot it, but it was too tall, and wouldn't make it under a part of the vaulted ceiling. So, then on to plan C, and that was to tie it and leave it right where it was. It is tied to the pillar with tie-downs and ropes. The whole thing was actually quite funny, and we were all laughing. All in all I think the tree looks pretty good, but I think the one we get next year will be a few feet shorter.

I am ordering a scrapbooking kit called Project 365. You are supposed to take a picture everyday of the year, and write a little note about it. So, I am going to try and keep up with that on here.

This picture was taken on Dec. 28, 2008. (I took two of them, and mom's eyes were closed in both.) We had my mom and J.R. over for dinner. We had pulled pork, corn, baked potatoes, and brownies & ice cream, to eat. While we were in the great room visiting and talking, Patrick was driving his remote control Hummer he had gotten for Christmas, up and down ramps he had made. Marshal also got out a remote control car, and was driving it around. So, it was kind of loud, but nothing too unusual for a house full of boys. J.R. came from a family of mostly boys, and my mom kept saying, that she just wasn't as used to this, meaning all of the racquet.

This picture was taken Dec. 29, 2008. It is of Rebecca, (9 years old), and my niece, Ella Kate Cooper, (4 1/2 years old). We had my dad, Arlene, my brother Timmy and his wife, Jennifer and their daughter,Ella Kate, my brother Daniel, and his girlfriend Megan over for dinner. We had Papa John's Pizza and pineapple cream cheese desert to eat. It was fun to sit around the table and talk, and laugh. Ella Kate had a lot of fun playing with Rebecca, and was upset when it was time to leave. It's so nice having family close by to visit with and see.

Getting our tree

For the third year now, we went out to my mom's 15 acres, which was an old Christmas tree farm. Since moving into a bigger house, with taller ceilings, we decided to get a taller/bigger tree this year. However, it was VERY hard to get it put up where you would usually put a tree, in front of a window. So, we strapped, tied, roped, it to one of our concrete pillars and banister.

Does it fit? Is it too tall?


Nope, it will work just fine right here!

Ivan is doing quite well with his recovery. He says that he is about 80-85%. Tomorrow we go to get a pin put in his right pinky, to repair a torn tendon. (A basketball injury.) It has to stay in for 8 weeks.

Has it really been a month already?

Yes, it has been a month since Ivan's surgery. We went to the follow up appointment with the dr. last week. Everything looks/sounds good. A couple of things the dr. said, there is a possibility that he may not have to have this valve replaced, that it could do him out. They have been using these type of valves for 15-20 years. The dr. also said that if he were to go to a dr., that wasn't aware of his replaced valve, the dr. may not know that he has a fake one in. He is still taking a few pain pills during the day, and can drive as long as he hasn't taken any pain meds for 4-6 hours. He has more and more energy everyday, but can still get tired. We were talking last night, comparing this surgery to the first, and he is SO much farther along than the first time around. He was still on IV antibiotics, and maybe oxygen at this point. So, all in all, things are going well.

We are busy getting ready, and excited, for our company that is coming for Thanksgiving. Then, before you know it, it will be time to start getting ready for Christmas.

Ivan's Surgery

As some of you may know Ivan's mechanical aortic heart valve that he has had in for 9 1/2 years, has been leaking for some time now. So, we have known that it was going to have to be replaced. Well, this past summer, one of the wires, (that were put in to hold his bone together after the first surgery), came un-twisted. We didn't think too much about it, but went to the cardiac surgeon. He told Ivan that he could put him a little bit under and take out the 3-4 loose wires, or put him all the way under and go on and replace the leaky valve. After praying and fasting about it, we decided that it was time to go on and have a new valve put in. Dr. Robert Salley is the one who performed the surgery. He is very well known, one of the drs. that Ivan consulted with when we lived in Cheyenne, Wy., have heard of Dr. Salley. You couldn't find anything neutral, much less negative, about him. So, on Oct. 17, 2008 he underwent open heart sugery for the second time. The surgery lasted for about 5 1/2 hours, and went well. The dr. said that there were 2 healed bulges/abcesses (no infection at all), and the leak that we already knew about, around the old valve. The old valve was 25 millimeter, and the new one is 29 millimeter, (which is the biggest they make). His cardiologist said that we should notice a big difference in his energy level, etc. He was in ICU until Sunday evening, then in a regular room. I have stayed at the hospital with him for the past 2 nights. He is feeling pretty good, his pain is under control, he is up and walking. He got 2 units of blood yesterday. We should be able to go home tomorrow sometime.

The kids are doing pretty good, being on good behavior for our family who have been watching them. Most of them have been up here to see him. We are so grateful to have family that lives close, and are willing to pitch in and help out, and for all the yummy meals that have been provided for our family. Patrick is the age that Kimball was when Ivan had surgery the first time. I will post another update soon.

We have moved

Here are some pictures of our new home, I don't know if you can tell much from them. The home is 9100 square feet, so plenty of room for our family. It is just up the road from where we have been renting for 2 1/2 years. It has sat empty for over a year, and there was a little bit of vandalism done to it, mostly cosmetic, minor stuff. We are still getting settled, and un-packing, but we really like it.

Marshal, Orin, & Patrick's bedroom.

Hallway towards master bedroom, and office.

Quin's bedroom

Nicole & Rebecca's bedroom

Nicole & Rebecca's bathroom

Lukas' bedroom, his favorite color, but not the flowers and butterflies, as much.

Kimball's bedroom

View from great room, over looking the pond.

Kitchen

Pictures of the basement.

Theatre room.

Family room.

Ivan's office

Master bedroom & bathroom pictures. This one is what the ceiling looks like over our bed.

Slight, ok major change of vacation plans

It won't let me move my typed text around, so just scroll down to after the pictures for the full story.

Ivan holding an injured snake.


We paid a nice man from the flea market, that was just up the beach, to take these pictures of us on our last night there.

Nicole's lovely braided hair, before she took it out. She left it like this until after the first few days of school, and one Sunday for church.

Orin in front of a group of bananas, outside next to where we had lunch on the safari day trip.

After our swim up river, and cliff diving. It was a lot of fun.

Don't you just love pictures like this??

Anybody need a taxi ride? These were all over the streets, sometimes with 3-4 people on them.

A cock fight demonstration.

We were grinding coffee beans, then got to sample our handiwork. It was pretty gross. This was one of the first pictures I took on vacation. Patrick says that they are in love, and kissing each other. We couldn't convince him that they were probably fighting, and trying to eat each other.

Waiting at the bar for the unlimited free slushies. (strawberry daquiriy or pina colada).

Eating at the Mexican restuarant.

We decided not to go to Ukraine. We went to Puerto Plata Dominican Republic instead. Some of the things that factored into us changing our plans are: we weren't able to get a hold of Quin & Rebecca's older sister, the flying/tickets were a little more complicated, we were concerned about Quin being able to be the translator (he was feeling pressured), some of the older boys (who have been there before), kept saying that the little kids were going to get lost, etc., etc. We also didn't feel right about it. So, we decided to go to somewhere warm, tropical, and beachy. We considered Puerto Rico, Hawaii, & Mexico. The Domican Republic had one of the lower cost of all-inclusive resorts, and was pretty close, flight wise, and the flights looked good. All 10 of us made it on the same flights down there, and on the way back 8 of us were in first class. (Ivan and Patrick sat in the bulk head row, because Patrick wasn't old enough for first class.) Most of you know how good Ivan is at getting motel rooms, car rentals, and flights pretty cheap on Expedia, Hot Wire, etc. But, being that we now fly on stand-by, we didn't want to book our rooms, until we knew for sure when we were getting down there. Ivan was on his laptop in the Atlanta airport, and on the plane, but had to turn it off before he could confirm our rooms. So, we get to the airport, and for any of you who have traveled over-seas, you know that the internet is sometimes a bit of a joke, and difficult to use. We ended up taking a taxi, (a Toyota mini-van, with 10 people+luggage), to one of the resorts that we saw and liked on Expedia.com. We get there, and Ivan is talking to them at the front desk, and they were quoting us like $5-6,000 for 3 rooms for 1 week, even though it was a lot cheaper on Expedia. So, Ivan paid for internet time, on their computer in their lobby, and got 5 rooms for $2,800 for a week. (The way Expedia was working, you could only have 2 people per room.) Me and the 3-4 little kids sat out in a grassy area and watched some tourists do rope climbing, while the big boys went betweeen Ivan & I, while he was getting our rooms. And they kept giving me updates on how things were going. After booking our rooms, we went to eat and explore the resort while they got our rooms ready. We went down by the beach after dinner, and of course several of the kids got wet. The resort was ran/owned by companies in Canada and England. So there were quite a few english speaking tourists. After breakfast we didn't see much of Kimball & Quin, because of all the pretty girls there. Finally after a few days of that, we said, ok we are eating together, and you need to check in with us periodically throughout the day. We did some of the scheduled kids activities. The room that Ivan, Orin, Patrick, and I stayed in, was right outside the wave pool, that had water slides as well. We couldn't have asked for a better room. Most days we went to the beach, and swam in the pools. On one of the days, we paid, and took a safari-type trip, where we got to see some native fruit farms, men carving things out of stone, a cock fight demonstration (it's legal down there), see and climb up 7 waterfalls, and go cliff jumping. Here are some pictures from our vacation. Overall it was a very relaxing, fun vacation, just like vacations should be.

Busy, busy summer, sorry no pictures right now

Well, as the title says, it has been very busy around our house. And it just dawned on me the other day, that my kids start back to school in less than a month. This summer seems to be going by faster than usual. The first week of summer, Nicole did a volleyball camp put on by the high school. She is going to tryout for the middle school team. The next week, Nicole and I went to Girls Camp. This was Nicole's first year, and she had a blast! It was kind of nice that the camp is at the same place as our family reunion, which she has been going to since she was born. We both had a lot of time around all those girls/young women, since we are greatly out-numbered at home.

Marshal went to Boy Scout Camp for a week. Kimball, Quin, & Lukas all went to EFY at Southern Virginia University, for the fourth of July week. They all had a lot of fun, and they all got a C.O.W. (crush of the week, I had to ask them what it stood for.) This is Lukas' first of the two week band camp. Orin and I went to Cub Scout Twilight Camp for 4 days. He had a lot of fun, and I enjoyed spending time with him. I took Patrick on the last day. The theme for camp was Nautical Nonsense, so, there were pirates, a treasure hunt, water games, as well as bow and arrow and bb guns.

Right after EFY was over, we flew down to Florida for a few days. We spent some time in Orlando, then went to Daytona Beach. I'll post some pics later.

Our annual family reunion starts a week from today, and goes through Sunday. On Sunday, we are planning on leaving to start flying to Ukraine. I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but back in Mar. Ivan took a part time job with the airlines, so we get to fly stand-by, so it may take us a couple of days to get there. We are going to be gone for about 1 1/2 week. I don't know if I will be able to get on the internet while we are over there, but, if not, I will post about our trip on here, when we get back.

I need to get off here, so I can work on packing for all of our up-coming adventures!! Have a good rest of the summer!!

Can you recognize them??

This past weekend, our 4 older boys FINALLY got their hair cut. Don't you think it makes them look much more handsome? Ivan & I have been asking, begging, threatening, bribing, etc. to get them to cut their hair. Here are some before & after pictures: