BLESSINGS 5-8

Here are some more blessings from God: NOV 5: PATRICK VALVERDE is our special blessing today! Pat has blessed us in so many ways! He gives us so much love and joy! We've always enjoyed hearing about his sports activities and the fun he has with life. We love him so much and pray for him all the time! As we do his children who are adorable and we adore! Thank you God for bringing Patrick into this world and into our lives! Forever grateful!!

NOV 6TH: Thanking God for Riley!!! Our gorgeous grand daughter is going to be 20 years old this month!! So hard to believe. She is one of the sweetest girls I know. Always kind and loving and we enjoy spending any time with her! She loves sports and a bit of a tomboy doing all sort of fun things with her dad in the gym and trails, yet she looks like a sweet pretty girl! Love her so much and we are so thankful to God for blessing our world with her!

11/7 BLESSING: Today Lauren Black is on my mind and we thank God for blessing us so much! Lauren has always been so close to Papa and I through her life. She has counted on us and we have helped her all we could. She is now at Washington State University across the state and we miss her and the memories so much! She makes us laugh and we tease each other so much that people don't understand. But we know the love we share and the jokes. We were blessed the day this girl was born and the 19 years since. God is so not done with Lauren. We are excited to see how he will be working in her life and blessing us all! Thank you God!!!!

November 8: Madelyn (my 8th grandchild and 4th granddaughter) is super special to me. She is so good to me and loves me so much. She wrote me a whole letter telling me how much she loves me! She calls me all the time to tell me how her day at work went or to see how I am and we laugh so much or we vent to each other. I love her so much!!! And I thank God so much for our girl! She is so tough and smart and beautiful!!!!

November 8th : Decorations, Libby, Karla and Madelyn

Well, I am glad it is election day so they will be over. We voted and now we wait and be happy the commercials are over!!! Today was a really good day! Had a long hot shower this morning without getting too winded. Papa made egg mcmuffins for breakfast which were so good! Libby came over for a visit while Kevin (her hubby) worked (at the Bremerton ferry dock). She visited, went to Safelight, went and said hi at Kevon's work. She got to visit him, Amanda and Rick Rayment. She loved it. She came back here and Alyssa came over and visited Aunt Libby and us. It was a good day! This picture was taken a year ago.

Sunday was a good day because Tara and Riley came over and put up our Christmas tree and inside decorations. It was so awesome, They did an amazing job....perfect. I love those girls. Tara does so much for us. And Riley put all the ornaments on the tree herself. I know it was a long day for them and we appreciate them so much and we're so thankful to God! It couldn't get done if not for them.

And the Seahawks won their 4th game in a row!!!! Love Gino our quarterback!

Our Christas clock is up!!! It plays a song every hour from 6am until 9pm and then lets us sleep. We are a bit worried about Scruffy. He doesn't like it when we have company anymore. He lays on his bed and barks like he is trying to break up our talking Also he goes into the bedroom now and lays o the bed. I know he is losing his hearing and sight. Breaks my heart. I am missing Karla. She is suppose to call me this Sunday. I can't wait to hear how she is doing. I think of her every morning, day and night wondering how she is doing. If you want to text her she will eventually get it. The email is: Messagesforkarla@gmail.com It is for encouragement for her. She can receive letters, cards, and packages at this mailbox. Packages are checked for contraband (drugs, alcohol, weapons, and any food that isn’t nutritious – she isn't allowed candy, cookies, chips, soda, energy drinks, or foods that say diet, fat free, low fat, or even sugar free) The Center Attn: Karla Rogers 547 Dayton Street Edmonds, WA 98020 Well, not much more to say but I will close with these pictures of Madi she let me post. God bless you all!

BLESSINGS 1-4

This month I am so thankful for my family!!! I am posting every few days about the people I am thankful to God for and I pick someone different every day. Enjoy!! ANDREW: 11-1 BLESSING!! Every November I like to write about who I am thankful for. Of course, it is all my family and friends but certain days I pick one person. Today is our first grandson, Andrew Black. From the first day I saw him til forever he will have my heart! He was 5 months and so cute and sweet when we met!!! Everyone fell in love with him. Watching him grow up with his faith and love so strong touched my heart. I have so many great stories I will put on my blog but not here. lol! Thank you, God, for Andrew!! Please continue to protect him and draw him into your arms.

NOV 2nd: Today we are so thankful to God for Parker Valverde. He is our 2nd grandson. He was born so perfect and handsome. He makes me happy just talking on the phone. I love to hear his voice and he is so kind and sweet to us. He truly loves us and we truly love him and we can't believe God will bless us in such a wonderful way!!! Thank you God!!!!!

NOV 3: Thankful for Jordan! Today is her birthday and the special day we praise the Lord for her all day! She is our princess. She is our girl. We adore her and love her more every day! Our girl is a wonderful, kind and beautiful grand daughter, daughter, sister, cousin, niece, wife and friend. Thank you God for bringing Jo to Brad and Tara and the rest of the family and world!! Love you Jo!!

NOVEMBER 4th BLESSING: Dylan Roger!! He is such a special grandson. He is funny and made us laugh without even trying! He is so smart!! Named every Mariner in the line up when he was just a little kid (and would perform running out and doing the line up! Dylan graduated from the UW and has a really good job. He lived in New York and tested that out. He is brave and wonderful. God has been so good to us blessing us, Karla and Joel with Dylan and watching over him his whole life. Thank you, God!!!!

Karla, Kevin, and Halloween

It is Wednesday. Over a week has gone since I could write about this. It has been so hard but my brave daughter wrote on facebook what's been going on with her and said I could post it. So here goes: Sensitive post warning: written by karla " I wasn't going to to talk publicly about this, but I've given it some consideration and I think maybe if it were talked about more freely perhaps I wouldn't have ended up in the position I am. That's probably not true, but I would have felt less shame and fear, maybe. I am suffering from severe depression and anxiety. As a mom, I've always learned to put my feelings last, sometimes ignoring them completely. It's a bad habit, and incredibly hard to break. The people closest to me knew, but not HOW bad. I wouldn't be here typing this post if it weren't for my husband. He sensed something off in a text I sent and called me and could tell something was wrong. Then I wasn't answering anymore. He drove 30 miles from work to call 911 after finding me. Depression is a liar. It tells you that you're worthless, nobody loves you, everyone is better off without you. I've lost someone to suicide. I've raised money for suicide prevention. I've lost people I wasn't ready to lose. I've felt that grief. Yet, I still felt it was the right thing to do. I still thought my family and the people who love me would be better off. It's a powerful voice in your head. A lot of people will think I shouldn't be talking about this, airing my dirty laundry on Facebook, but when I think of people who are suicidal and try to take their own lives, I never would have thought of someone like me. They were extreme. I imagine quite a few people will read this and judge me, and that's okay. My hope is that maybe someone reads this and sees themselves somewhere in this timeline. Maybe it will help someone to personally know someone who got on the other side of this (trying to anyway) and is here to understand how they feel right now. This week I'm being admitted to an inpatient center to help get control over my depression. It's one of those fancy places that pampers you while making you cry. My brother did his research and found the place. I find out for sure on Monday if I'm going but it's pretty much 100%. So i'll be around until Wednesday morning, then i'll be off healing for awhile. ( UPDATE: I'll be leaving Monday now, not tomorrow. I'm (by choice) not going to have any access to my phone, texts, calls, email, social media - but I will have a new email address I will be able to read messages from friends and family - encouragement, just a "hey hope you're doing well", "miss you", "you got this". I'll have it set up this weekend and if you want it, let me know. I'll probably post it on Facebook before I leave but in case I don't I'll make sure everyone who asks for it will get it.) Until then you can spend some time telling me how much you love me and want me around (totally kidding, that's the kind of humor that is pissing my kids off right now haha). Seriously though, if you have questions for me or want to talk to me, I'm available. People say "my door's always open" and "you can call me anytime if you need to talk" And I'd be willing to bet that's true, but how true? And for how many people? The ones closest to you? Your neighbor down the street? I can tell you from experience, telling someone close to you that you feel so low you can't breathe sometimes is harder than telling your UPS driver. (he's safe, I didn't tell him). I know by posting it publicly I'm opening myself up to gossip, but for the sake of my family, try to remember there are people who were really hurt by what I did and are also learning how to heal. They don't' deserve that."

So you can see it was a rough week last week. We all kept close to Karla. She wasn't left alone all week. I don't think she liked it but understood. Tomorrow Karla and I are going to a late breakfast and then a movie. It will be fun. We actually have a plan this week. lol Monday she goes on her trip. That's what I call it. It is like her going to college She is so smart and going to learn more than she needs and I see her helping others. I love her so much and will miss her. She'll be gone a month. God will be taking care of her while she is gone. And her family. He is so good!

We also had another blow. Kevin (Libby's husband) had a stroke Monday morning. It was a light stroke so he still kept his ability to walk and talk. He had to stay overnight in the hospital for tons of tests. It was hard on Libby but her family is full of love and support and God was there taking care of Kevin. Thank you, God!!! Halloween is over and we had 2 dinosaurs visit our house. And one of them was having his birthday!! It was so great Jessica and the boys were over! It sure makes me smile and laugh to have the here. They are so funny and so smart! We gave birthday present and he loved it. These boys are so polite and grateful! Saying thankyou without being told to? That is really cool for 2 and 3 year olds!! Jessica is such an awesome mom. I am so proud of her. Papa told her how proud her dad would be. For sure!! HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY ODIN!!!!

Papa made a great stew on Halloween. We have stew every year on Halloween. So good.

I'm going now. but thanks for taking time to read my blog. Please pray for our families as I pray for yours! And have a happy November!!