A New Year...

WoW! So much time has flown by since last I wrote. Here we are together in 2010!
I've started my own little business of cleaning and organizing for people to help make our ends meet financially. I am now also a boro council woman in the town of Newport. I am teaching the adult Sunday school class and am a ward missionary working with new members, inactives and potential members...we are seeing good success...and it is very exciting! Our family continues to press forward with the hope of being an eternal family. Gretta will be turning 6 in a few short weeks. Hard to believe that my baby is not actually a baby any more. Emma and Sally are now 5th graders, learning, changing and growing way too fast for this momma. Robbe has started a new job after losing his managers job at GNC at Strawberry Square two weeks before Christmas. Becky is growing as a great mother and wife, and little Jack is so incredibly adorable, I can't help not kissing him! As for Stephen, he has tested for a manager position at the post office and we are hoping he'll be called in for an interview any day now.

Update on "A Blink of an Eye"

Sunday after church we checked out email to find an update for Michael...the update was there. He had passed away Sunday morning at 2AM. Saturday they had to put him on full life support. Needless to say, Robbe was shattered. Today he is in Utah after flying out last night. You see, they had a pack between them to attend each others wedding...Michael kept his end of the pack, now Robbe is doing his best by attending his funeral. The timing, the elk, the collision, the injuries, if only comes to mind...I am very good with wondering about "if Only's". Perhaps Michael will look up Pappy...in any case, HURRRAY for Michael, he finished his part here! May the Lord bless and offer substancial comfort to his loved ones.

In The Blink of an Eye...

We received word that a friend of ours, Robbe's best man at his wedding, a missionary companion, a son of God who came on the very day Robbe did...was in a terrible freak accident last Friday a week ago. An elk was hit by a truck that was traveling in front of him, throwing the elk into the air and propelling it onto their car. With such force, the car was flipped and Michael Booth and his best friend Amanda Hoins were thrown from their vehicle...
For nine days now they have been fighting for their lives. It's been a terrible fight. Michael has severe internal injuries, even blowing a hole into his heart. He's had several surgeries, unable to close him up because of all the swelling. Now we've been told that his heart is working so hard that it may fail...
On my way to heritage days today, we passed the site of where I used to live with my mom and dad and Robbe back in the early 90's. The house has since been torn down, yet as we passed I swore I could almost see little Robbe and my dad picking up chestnuts and then with another glance I could almost see little Robbe gliding down the snowy hill on his sled.
Keep up with me as I ramble on...
6 years ago this weekend, my daddy died. It was 6 months after my momma passed. It was a Friday evening, a homecoming night for West Perry. I asked Rob to go visit Pappy because I hadn't gotten over that day. He was anxious to get to the game, but agreed to cross the mountain first to see him. Awhile later I got a call from Robbe saying that Pappy was lying in bed and wasn't responding to him. He had a major stroke. While at the hospital they pulled us into a room to tell us he would die from this. Robbe spent the evening sleeping in the bed next to him. Sunday morning before we were going to leave for church I called to check on him. The nurses said that we might want to get there soon as his vitals were failing. We found someone to set with the girls at church and went quickly. By the time we entered the hall of the hospital, the nurse met us to tell us that he had died at 9:02AM. Part of me was relieved that I didn't see it happen. Part of me shouted for joy that He made it home and the journey here was over for him. Part of me was terribly sad that my daddy was gone...
Life is good...the Lord lives...I am so very grateful for all the blessings that I have been given...most of all I thankful to know my Savior personally. I am a recipient of His ever outstretched arms.

It's so hard to BELIEVE!!!!

YEP...It's true...we are officially grandparents...actually, I am a grammy and Stephen is a grampy. Jackson Ulysses Nulton arrived by c-section Thursday, August 27, 2009 at 10:22PM. He weighed in at a whopping 6lbs. 7ozs. and was 18" long.
After a long labor Jack was having trouble. They found a knot in his cord and it was wrapped around his tiny neck. How grateful we are for the intervention on his behalf.
He is three weeks old already. Sunday he will receive his name and blessing. He is a beautiful little boy. Becky...is a great momma. Robbe is stepping into daddy role well.
Here are some pics of the little fellow. Enjoy!

$3 ride and slide day at Lakemont Park

Another Nulton adventure...$3.00 ride and slide all day at Lakemont Park in Altoona, Pa.
We had such a blast! The girls and Stephen and I alike. The pictures will tell the tale of the day...enjoy them.

Cindy-Lou HOO???

After watching the Grinch movie, my girls disappeared with Becky into the bathroom. Along with them went a curling iron, 3 plastic cups and assorted hair ties, bretts and bobbie pins. And, out came what you see. 3 Cindy-Lou Hoo's!!!!!

I'm back where I belong.

No pics this time to share...Perhaps in a few weeks.
I think I can quite honestly say this has been the longest week of my life...and the worst to date...keep in mind in my lifetime like others, I have had pinnicles of sorrow, pain, fear, trepidation, and torment. What started out facing a surgery that was to last 2-3 hours with the removal of my gall bladder, and the repairing of a large ventral hernia and being sent home the next day. After a six hour delay in the start, the surgery lasted 3-4 hours, with the removal of an extremely swollen gall bladder that was very difficult to remove, and the finding of 3 hernia's, one being the size of a small kick ball and taking great pain for the doctor to fix and repair. I made it back to a room at 1am the next morning after an extensive stay in recovery. An over night stay turning into 5 days.
I can see the tender mercies that I was issued and am quite aware of the different states of agonizing pain I was called to go through. How thankful I am that my loving Heavenly Father chose not to take me home this time...
As I pleaded with my Savior to once more remove the pains I was traveling through, I was everso aware of his great sorrow for me.
For now, I will go and try to find some comfort at the side of my eternal companion...
God lives...and He loves ME...of this I am sure. We press forward, because we have no other choice...we decided with a choice long ago, to come here to acquire our earthly/physical bodies...so, press forward we do.