Kirsten

Kirsten..awww what a friend...and most important my oldest child. Even though there is only 9 years difference between us I will always consider her my kid;o) I married her Dad.., and she has become one of my favorite people. She is so smart, a great Mom and an all around great person.
When we first met it was kinda funny but we wore the same watch (don't know if she remembers that) we were at a Rockies game for mine and Larry's Bday, a gift from Greg. I remember thinking that we were going to be good friends. I'm not sure what her thinking was at that time, she was 23 years old. I could only guess what her thoughts were at that point but 13 years later I hope that she knows that I love her and her great little family. She has taken on the oldest sibling role and that makes me happy, that's a big job considering she has 4 brothers and a sister to keep tabs on...good thing that Starman has big shoulders;o)
She has brought to us (along with Scott) two wonderful grand-daughters Rowan and Tressin...it is so nice to get to know them and for them to feel comfortable around us. They are so much fun..I've gotta write some of the comments that they say and some stuff they do...that's got to be a future blog;o)
Love ya Kirsten....

Mark

Looks like Mark is going to be the first on my blogging chopping block. Mark was 14 when we first met. I'm not sure what he was thinking about me but he and Larry hit it off pretty well at first. He was always nice to me and never made any fuss about anything in the begining. My first real story about him "testing" my authority was when we first moved into Greg's house on 8 Mountain View Place and Greg had already gone to work. I remember sitting on the counter having a cup of coffee and Mark comes down ready for school and he gets a wine glass out of the cuppard and pours a glass of wine and slams it down by the sink...I'm like Mark what are you doing? His reply was "I do this everyday" well I called Greg and said ..did you know that Mark drinks wine everyday before breakfast and school? Greg said WHAT no, I don't think he does...so I said ..well he just did..lets just say that Mark's evening was not very good when his Dad got home after work, and I think I ruined his morning wine fix before school. I guess at least he used a wine glass I should be proud right;o) I laugh at this now but, at the time I thought wow...what the heck?? Am I ready for this...turns out I was. Now, Mark and I are good...he calls me the ol lady (my nickname) and he has given us 3 wonderful grandkids. He has grown to be a wonderful, responsible, giving loving person. He is a great Dad and I'm proud t call him my son.

Kids

Well it's been awhile since I have blogged, I wanted to but I forgot my password and user name so kinda had to start over. So here it goes again.

When Greg and I got married we blended two families little did we know how challenging that can be. Just because we fell in love didn't mean that our kids were going to follow along with us. Eventually they have all settled in and all enjoy each others company but those first years were tough. Each one tested us in different ways, just when we thought we'd heard or seen enough the next one would open our eyes to something new. We laugh at it now, but most of the time we wondered if we could get through it.
Greg has 4 kids I have 2 easy enough right? Try explaining it to people especially when we try really hard not to say step-this or that. What does step-kid-mom-dad really mean anyway? We married each other and our kids were an added bonus. I have been blessed with a man that has accepted me the way that I am along with my added bonuses. Being in a blended family has had it's bumps in the road but, I have seen families that have all the "slotted players" and they have their problems as well. Some even have more problems. I think it all comes down to the fact that Greg and I have tried really hard to treat each kid the same but in different ways. We have always "backed" each other even if we thought sometimes maybe he/she is not correct. Kids are smart they pick up on everything, they know exactly which buttons to push and know when and where to push them.
None of the kids are more special than the other but, they each are special in their own way. We love them all and really don't know what our life would be without them. They make our life more interesting and the fact that they are giving us those little angels called grand-kids is making our life complete.
More to come on each of the kids...they are gonna love that......

Letting Go

This last year was my year to learn about really letting go. I lost my Mom to leukemia on April 8, 08 that date will be ingrained in my head probably till I die. I always thought it would be her bad heart that would take her. It was a tough few months for her but she did it with dignity. I love her so much and she is in my heart everyday. In nursing school they teach you that before someone dies they need to hear that it's OK to die. I told my Mom that it was OK and at the time I meant it because I saw that she was in pain (didn't want to take pain meds because she didn't want to get hooked on them) but after the fact I didn't want to let her go and wanted her back. Her big concern was that she didn't want us to be sad and she didn't want to let go of us either. She fought a hard fight but her body gave out.
I think about her everyday but today more so, every morning I put her old sweater on and I visualize her giving me a hug it's my own way of dealing with all of this. Today when I woke up to my phone ringing it was my youngest son Larry calling telling me he was on his way back to a place where there hasn't been peace for before time and said "you know I'm OK with it". You see he is also teaching me to let go, he knows how much I worry about him and wants me to be OK just by his words. Even while he was on leave here he was teaching me, I fought it hard but in the end I had to let go of the fact that he is a grown man able to make decisions for himself and able to take care of things in his own way. I wanted to hang on tight to him just like I did my Mom but, he had to make the long trip back to Afghanistan. Letting go is not easy......but we have no control it just happens.

How I Met my Best Friend

Today I am start my blog, which I have wanted to do for quite sometime. Our daughter Kirsten started one and I love reading and keeping up with her and the Starman family. I have also been reading other people's blogs and just love reading about their lives. I started thinking what would I have to write about all of our kids are grown and lead their own lives and my blog would be a boring middle aged woman so here it goes. Today I'm thinking about how I met my best friend;o) He kinda just appeared even though we had worked together or alongside each other many times. We met at the hospital, I was working night shift as an RN charge nurse. I enjoyed working night shift because I could be at work pick up Larry take him to school, sleep while he was at school and be up in time to spend his after school hours with him and then be back at work just an hour before he went to bed. He stayed with my mom and thank goodness she lived near us, otherwise I'm not sure what I would have done. OK, this is going to be a problem with my blogging already I get distracted with one story so back to how I met my best friend;o)
While working I kept noticing that Dr. McAuliffe kept coming in early and boy that really would tick me off because he'd wake the patients up and then write a crap load of orders. All I wanted to do is finish my shift and get home! This happened quite frequently and then he would sit right at the nursing station where the charge nurse sits (me) and try to talk to me. We would talk about being single parents, kid stuff, cars (I was in the process of getting a new one), travel and pretty much anything. He was so easy to talk to which was unheard of being a doctor and all. I got to where I kinda liked him coming in to do rounds.
I was leaving to do my two weeks for the National Guard and told him that I was going to be gone and he said "drop me a postcard". So while I was in Panama I did just that. When I got back to work there were some beautiful flowers waiting for me no signature but simply saying "welcome home" in this very distinguished handwriting. The very handwriting that I would early in the morning take orders off ,I knew whose writing that was! Wow how did he know that I was even coming back to work tonight?? What a nice surprise;o) This was just the beginning of the many nice things my best friend has done for me. After that, we talked everyday and ended up falling in love and 6 months yes 6 we married and joined our kids together in a nice small ceremony.....I love being married to my Best Friend Greg....