SUMMARY

To quickly summarize the last two months we'll say busy!

Life has been fun, we have been on the run all the time and we are all doing well! I'll do a summary with photos to fill you in. First off we went to Chicago in August to see the IOWA HAWKEYES! play at Soldier Field. It was a fantastic weekend away and a ton of good food, friends and of course football! Here are Anthony and I with Tiffany and Josh @ the Hawkeye Huddle!

We got to meet up with my great friends Annie and Ross !

and hang out with our buddies Craig and Jenny from Denver!

I finally got a much needed Mom's weekend away so Megan and I headed up to Minneapolis to visit Katie!

Since then Cassie has begun potty training and talking like there is no tomorrow. She is so good on the phone she even answered the call waiting today and went from Anthony's mom to mine. Imagine my surprise when I took the phone back and instead of Kathy it was my mom!

Here are some good shots of Cassie's fun this fall, don't want anyone to get the impression only the parents in this house are having a good time!!!

At the Zoo!

Playing in her Bounce House!

Cheering on the Chariton Chargers @ Homecoming!

Little Farmer

We took Cassie back out to the Iowa State Fair for the last day and went through the Little Hands on the Farm Display. It is the greatest thing I have seen for little ones. Here's How it goes...

You go into the first building and get an apron, basket and a hat...

You pick a "seed" to plant ( a poker type chip with a picture of a vegetable on it) You go dig in the dirt and plant your seed,

then you go harvest your crop and pick up the same veggie you planted.

You get to pick and apple from a tree in the orchard

Then you go through to the grain bin, get some Corn and Soy Beans in baggies to go in your basket, walk through the chicken coup and gather an egg,

head to the fuel barn and turn in your soy beans for a gas can to fill up you tractor,

ride that around a course,

head on to the sheep barn and get a bag of wool, go into the dairy barn and drop off you corn for food for the cow, milk the cow and get a container of milk,

head to the market and sell your items and get a fake dollar to spend in the grocery store.

Cassie bought some juice with her dollar. Isn't this just the cutest thing you have ever seen :-)

Crazy Storm

This morning we awoke to a crazy thunder and lightening storm. About 6:35 I thought the lightening must have hit a nearby house it was so loud, I opened the blinds and looked out and saw nothing. Then about 6:45 I noticed we had a car pointing at our house and waving. I sent Anthony out having completly forgotten about the storm. That loud lightening had struck our tree. Here are some pictures!

It's a small world after all...

Yesterday as I was strolling through the Iowa State Fair in search of some air conditioning I passed a woman I swear was a twin to a friend of mine from high school in New Mexico. After returning home and cooling off and napping I sent her a message to tell she she has a twin in Iowa. Imagine my surprise to get a message back from her this morning that in fact she is in Des Moines and was at the fair. Our time table was short as she is on her way out of town right now So I called her early this morning and Cassie and I got to run out to her hotel for a visit and some breakfast! It was so great to see Kristen again and catch up. She comes every year so next year we'll plan on a longer visit, maybe a bbq or something fun. Kristen when you get around to reading this thanks for hosting us this morning and we look forward to seeing you next year!

The Iowa State Fair

Alright so we admit it, we are not patient people... We had plans to go to the fair tomorrow so of course we ended up there tonight.. We had a good time 2 hours was just enough for Cassie. She visited the animals in the barn, had a corn dog

and a pork chop on a stick,

rode the giant slide not once but twice,

Had a smoothie, got a Hawkeye tattoo,

met Curious George, shared a cup of cookies with us and enjoyed herself to a T.

Lazzzy Dayzzz

I would say we are well deserving of some lazy days around here. After Paul passed away we drove to Chariton each day to make arrangements then spend about 60 hours down there for the visitation and funeral (Both were so nice and Anthony spoke @ the funeral, I was so proud of him). We came home and spent a day Shampooing our carpets, doing laundrying, taking back cans, and defrosting the deep freeze. So today is relaxation day. Anthony went golfing and I did some laundry & caught up on some e-mails. Tomorrow we'll hit the Iowa State fair for our annual Pork chop on a stick and Ye ol Mill date :-) We've been going the first Friday since we were engaged!

Monday we are back to work and hopefully back to a bit of normalcy in our lives. Cassie is doing so good with everything despite sleeping in wierd beds and moving around alot. Here are a few pictures of her Swimming @ Grandma's and enjoying her breakfast while we were in Chariton.

Peaceful

Last night @ 11:56pm with 2 of his 5 sisters and myself and Anthony by his side Paul passed away. I feel so honored that I got to hold the hand of such a great man as he left this life. Thank you Paul for all that you gave to your family and friends.

The Big Ol Update or my first Ambulance ride!

For those of you out of the know which is pry everyone but my husband here is where the Brown family is today!

On June 17th Anthony's Step-Father Paul went into the hospital short of breath. He was brought by ambulance to mercy in Des Moines and was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in his lungs, bones and Lymphatic system. He spent some time there in the oncology ward, moved to the cardiac floor for 3 days for heart trouble, back to oncology, had his first does of Chemo on June 30th. the 1st of July he was moved to ICU for monitoring, late that night he began to have trouble breathing... He was sedated and placed on a ventilator where he spent the next 9 days in a comatose state. On Tuesday July 10th we removed the ventilator and had a changed man in front of us, he was talking and more alert. He had a rough night that night and then a better day was foloowing eaxch day. We spent 3 more days in ICU and then Paul was moved to a Hospice center in West Des Moines. After 4 days there he was moved to Hospice in the Chariton Hospital. I rode with him in the ambulance and we got him settled and I felt like aside from some major weight loss as we left there he looked better than he had at any point in the last month. We all know that his cancer is Terminal and his time left with us is short, so we are taking advantage of every moment we can. It is hard to imagine that 1 year ago this man was tearing apart my house and dangling from the scaffolding during our re-siding project.

Cassie Turned two on June 19th, we had a family party the 16th and then another family celebration in the hospital on her actual birthday. She is doing quite well with the changes to her life and schedule and is as spunky as ever.. I'll post some new pics when I get home.

My two old blogs... Note the dates :-)

Here is a picture of Cassie from back in that time frame just to catch you up!

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

The Never Ending Sickness!
Cassie is now on day 3 of diarrhea and had a horrid diaper rash, after two bout of the stomach flu days apart I was sure we would be on good ground for a bit minus some teething...Guess My daughter goes in waves... NICU for a week scaring us crazy... home and healthy as a horse for about a year and now the never ending and constantly changing stomach bug.. I already took tomorrow off of work, so I'll be home with her, the grandma and GG came the last 2 days and took care of her, thank god for them, aside from pooing on the carpet and some ink pen on my new couch My daughter was loved when I couldn't be here and that is all that matters.

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Adventures in Motherhood
Well I had my first big introduction to the funner times of motherhood on Sunday night, We went to Anthony's parents for a bbq and were driving home ... 15 minutes after we left.. Cassie puked in the car.. She is still in the rear facing seat so I heard her kind of gag, looked back and WOW!!!!!! I think grandma overfed her a SMALL bit!We pulled over, Called grandma to bring wet towels, stripped her down, out her in the stroller and pulled out the carseat to begin the clean up.... 52 minutes later we were headed back home!I have never seen such a mess in all my life, I spent her whole nap yesterday cleaning out the car and trying to get the smell of Chicken noodle dinner out of the carseat!

And just to show you how big she has grown.. this years 4th of July fireworks!

Re-joining

I had started a blog ages ago.. obviously that went over well as two posts into it I forgot it and just remembered it. I'll post those in a bit. but since it seems I am able to keep up with friends lives on here I'll re-join and let you all know what is happening with us!