Monday, July 28, 2008

Mom's Site

Our friends Tony & Sara put a site up for us, for updates on Mom. If you would like to keep up on her progress, go to: lmshattuck.com. Thanks so much T & S for doing this, we all appreciate it!

Update On Mom #2

We had a blowout on the way to MI last night, about 20 minutes from Mom & Dad's house, ugh! After a lot of kicking and some yelling too, Jerry decided to give up on trying to get the spare to drop from the front of the van. Our lovely spare in located towards the front of the van and is suppose to drop easily after 30 cranks to the left. We did that over and over and over and no such luck. We knew my sister was not far behind us, so we called them and they stopped to pick me and the kids up. My BIL, John, and my brother Doug brought Jerry a spare but it wouldn't fit. They finally decided to take off the bad tire and bring it back to the house and Jerry would take it to get if fixed this morning. They finally arrived at the house around 1:45 this morning. When we got here Dad told us to go over and say hi to Mom, so we did. She would somewhat respond, but not until you said hi and told her who you were. She is pretty much the same, we were able to get her to take 3 bites of the vanilla ice cream, she was asking for. Today she had had a few drops of water and a few drops of jello water too. She continues to breath very shallow and moans once in awhile. She doesn't seem to be in pain, so for that, we are VERY thankful. All of us kids took turns sitting by her side last night, so all of us a pretty much beat today, but...Dad did get to sleep well so that is a good thing! We were able to get a hospital bed today and that has seemed to help her be more calm and she has been able to rest a little better. I will post again as soon as I can. Thanks again for your prayers!

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Update On Mom

We had a nice time at the wedding yesterday, Meg looked absolutely beautiful! I will post details and pictures later. In my previous post I asked for your prayers for our family, thanks so much for all of them! Mom and Dad did not make it to the wedding, Mom was not well enough to. I talked with Dad on our way home from Chicago yesterday and he said she had put in another rough day. He did say they were able to take a little drive on Friday evening around the countryside to "get her out of the house". He was hoping she would get a good nights rest last night and that maybe they could make it to camp today, but...instead she put in a REALLY bad night and he was up most of the night. He was heading to bed this afternoon around 3:00 since he hadn't really been to bed yet. My sister Darlene and her daughter Kay were with her this afternoon to help out, so Dad could rest. My niece, Kay, is a nurse and she told my sister, "you'd better call your sisters and brother home, grandma isn't doing well". As we speak, we are on our way to MI to be with them. We have gotten a couple of calls today and said she wasn't doing well. Her breathing is really shallow and she is beginning to hallucinate. She isn't eating or drinking much at all and she is super weak. We feel as if this maybe our last trip "home" to visit with her. Please continue to keep us all in your prayers! Most of us (31 of us) live here in IN, so there will be a lot of traveling going on. My niece Meg is taking all of this news pretty bad and has talked about not going on her honeymoon, cause she wants to be with all of us if Mom should get worse or even pass away. We have told her Mom wouldn't want her to do that, so in the morning, her and her new hubby will be off to the Bahamas. Anyways, just thought I would give you an update. We will keep you posted if possible, but since we don't get a very good signal up there, we might not be able to. Thanks again for your prayers, they mean a lot to us!

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Pray for Mom

As many of you know, this weekend my niece, Meg gets married. My parents were suppose to head down here today and then they were going to ride with us to Chicago for the wedding. I have talked with Dad several times this week and Mom has been having a pretty good week so far, until yesterday. When I called him this morning, he sounded really tired and told me Mom wasn't doing well again. He said she sleeps almost all day and night and when she does get up, it is only with his help that she can get where she needs to go. She can't hardly keep any food or drink down, therefore she is really weak. He also said sadly, "I don't think we will be making it to the wedding" : ( Of course this made me sad, but I can't imagine how sad it is going to make my sister, Shirley and her daughter Meg, when they found out that Mom & Dad won't be at the wedding. Mom put in a really bad weekend last weekend and it looks as if those bad days are just going to keep hanging around. Please pray for our family this weekend, as it is going to be a bitter-sweet time. We know Mom probably doesn't have a lot of time here with us on this earth, so please pray that God will comfort her as well. One more thing, it looks like the kids and I will be making an un-planned trip to MI next week, so pray that we will have a nice time while we are there. We know it may be one of our last trips we will get to be with Mom, so it is bound to be tough. Thanks for your prayers in advance!

Little Baby Bat-Boy

This weekend we had some company, my sister Mary and her family came to visit. They went to church with us and then home for dinner. They stayed the night and then left for vacation on Monday. Keegan had his Bat-Man costume out and was playing, so we tried his mask on Maverick and wa-la, adorable pictures! He is such a little doll! Thanks for coming over guys, we had fun.

Little Baby Bat-Boy

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Clinton County 4-H Fair - 2008

For some reason I couldn't get the message to appear up here, so you will have to read it after looking at the pictures.
Kallee and Mamaw waiting on the parade to start!
I love this picture of her, it is sooo sweet!
She is picking up candy that the parade participants have thrown to her.

Keegan decided to ride his scooter instead of walking!

Talon rolled along on his roller-blades

Jerry gave all his candy away before the parade route ended : )

Just Hunter is one of our friends and Jerry was his "sign coordinator" for the May election. Justin is running on the Republican ticket as Judge. He and his family are some very nice people! Talon and Justin's daughter, Heather, are in the children's youth theater program.

Finally, the 4-H Fair has arrived! Each year we all look forward to this event, but are ready for it to end, by the end of the week. It always starts with a parade on Sunday afternoon and we have been walking/riding in the parade for years for some reason or another. This year was no different, Jerry and the boys walked/rode for Justin Hunter's benefit. They all had a fun time! -- For years I worked the Clinton Co. Right to Life booth while Jerry would take the boys to see the animals and such, but since we no longer have a local RTL chapter, we spend our week at Jerry's booth. The company has told him they would pay for him to set up, so we feel "obligated" to take advantage of that advertising. Anyways, we always have a good time seeing people we know and meeting new people. This year Talon asked his Daddy if he and Keegan could be clowns and work at his booth. Daddy agreed and the fun began last night : ) Talon painted faces for an hour or so and then switched to balloon animals. Both of these things are things he has taught himself, so he is pretty proud of his creations. He had a pretty good line of kids waiting last night, so stepped in and started blowing up the balloons for him. Jerry worked the Republican booth last night and when he asked a little boy if he would like a balloon, he said "no, I heard there is a clown in another booth giving out animal balloons and I'm going to go get one from him" : ) Of course that put a big smile on Talon's face! So if you all get to town, stop by for an animal balloon or to have your face painted.

The Lost Sheep

Since Gene & Angie were gone on Sunday, that put us "in charge" of Jr. Church. Our theme for the day was "The Lost Sheep". We started class with the kids helping me search for my lost sheep that I had "misplaced", (Jeffery Durgan was the winner for finding my lost sheep). Then we had a "shepherd" come to visit our class (Jerry). Of course our story was about the lost sheep and our scripture was Luke 15:6. It was kind of neat that we used that scripture because we had a rather wiggly, little Luke in our class...so we were able to make a big deal about our scripture reading and scripture being taken from the book of Luke : ) Anyways, towards the end of the class we had all the kids write down people in their lives that were "lost". Some of them caught on, but others wrote themselves down, their great grandparents (that have been saints for years) or their pets that are lost, HA! As I pulled those little papers out today to begin praying for those listed on them, I found some that really DID know who they were requesting prayer for. There were a lot of aunts, uncles, mamaws, friends, etc. on those pieces of paper and it made me sad to see that some of them realize that their family and friends are lost. On the other hand, it made me happy that they realize that those people need prayer. If you think about it, say a prayer for these requests, I know you don't know them, but God does and He knows how much it would mean to these little ones if He answered their prayers!

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Famous Sayings by Keegan

Today I thought I would get my scrapbook stuff out and see what I could get done. That was a good thought, maybe tomorrow : ) While I was looking for some tickets stubs from the summer of '05, this is what I found instead.

Famous Saying by Keegan:

He thinks our cat is pregnick because she lays around all the time

He wonders why Laura Ingalls is eating with the “whippin’ spoon” (wooden spoon) on the Little House movies.

While praying, Keegan always asks God to “pretect us, keep us safe and keep your eye on us”.

Spull Feet Ahead = Full Speed Ahead

“Mom, you need to go pick your purple flowers, why I asked, are they dying? No they are all dirty” (because they were dying and all brown)

Karate Chot Tum = Karate Chop Them

"Tie my shoes on tight, it is really blowie outside, I don’t want the wind to blow them off".

Talon & Sissy sittin’ in a tree, KISSTUV (kissing)

When Dale Bailey was in the hospital, K. was really worried that Dale hadn’t had his lunch or supper the day of his surgery.

He said that God was up there making his “plant” for Dale, to live or not to live. (He meant plan).

His stomach isn’t in the right direction. It is going er! er! er! It is kind of this way (motions with his hands), kind of cock-eyed.

Keegan told me one morning while in bed with me, “I want my own choo-choo train when I go to Heaven”. I said “you do, why?” He said I want to be able to pull up to the wall with my train and pancakes and be able to pull a handle that will come down and dump syrup on my pancakes.”

He sings, “stop in the name of the Lord, before you break my heart”.

He was so excited when he talked with Nana on the phone, she told him Papa caught 2 hippopotamus’ in his trap (they were opossums).

Al-er-dries = Allergies (These are why he has the Bless Yous)

“How long have birds lived here? Have they lived since the olden days, like Daddy and everyone else?”

He was drawing at the office and asked me to draw grass for him. I told him I didn’t know how to draw. He suggested that I could take coloring classes. I said, “do you think they have them for my age”? "Sure he said"! He then said (as he was erasing some of the grass) I am doing this (erasing that is) to make the grass shorter.

He calls a coupon a Chew-Pawn

He said “I’m the only boy that bees nice to the girls. I will be the one getting all the kisses from them, cause I bees nice”.

He came screaming and crying in the house and said, “I’m finished with Talon, he is being a big, fat jerk! He just scared me and now he has his self locked in the barn”.

And I saved the best for last---

He was talking about Papa’s syrup…
“If you run out of syrup, you get these pipe things, you get a hammer and a nail and you put a hole in the tree. You gotta get a metal thing (spicket) and put it in the tree and then put the nice, clean bucket up. Before you do that, you gotta get a thing that goes brrrrr… (drill) and it will put a hole in the tree. You gotta get the big pan thing, brick and wood to make it in (the large boling pan). And get a metal thing, kind of like a door, to cover over the fire, so it won’t go on the ground. Get a metal thing that is long and hard so you can go pisss, pisss to stir the fire and break up the wood. Papa’s got everything in control about syrup. Actually you know what I do to help Papa with syrup, I helped dump the syrup in a bucket and it has to have a piner (clothes pin) with a cloth on it (used as a sive) to pour the syrup in. Very good Mom! You gotta have woods to make it in so people won’t copy you. If people start to copy you and start shooting arrows at you, we have to tear it down. That’s what someone did to Papa’s shack, so he had to tear the Sugar Shack down.”

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Summertime Fun

We are really enjoying our summer! I know it will all come to an end, WAY TOO FAST, but until then... We won't be able to go on vacation this year, but we still have a lot of things planned, like; attend the 4-H fair (we will get to help Daddy with his booth), the Circus Hall of Fame (if we can get Daddy to agree to it), a wedding in Chicago (which Nana & Papa will enjoy with us), a day at Fair Oak Farms (on the way to the wedding), VBS (I am "in-charge" of crafts this year), possibly Friends Family Camp (if it isn't during VBS), a day at Indiana Beach (free tickets from the Summer Reading program), a day or two fishin' with Daddy and Tony, possibley a boy's weekend camping trip, the CAT Family Picnic @ Six Flags (free to all retried CAT employees), hopefully a day at the State Fair and last but not least, the family reunion Labor Day weekend! Hope you all are enjoying your summertime : ) Here's what we've been up to---
Talon crusin' along on the mower
Keegan showin' off the worm he found, YUCK!

K & K tryin' to see if the worm is still alive : )

Kallee riding her bike

Daddy workin' on Tony's boat!

Keegan roamin' around on his "new" 4-wheeler. A guy gave this to Jerry a few years ago because he couldn't get it to run. Needless to say, it has been in the barn all that time and Daddy has finally given it his magic touch and it is going. Keegan has always said it was going to be his (since it is a little one), but he does NOT like the pink seat on it : ) We could paint the seat, but then it will be Kallee's turn to ride it in a few years and she will LOVE the pink seat, LOL!

Beautiful outfit, designed by her :)
Roller Blading Class -- Talon has been teaching his siblings some new tricks on their roller blades. He is pretty good on his, so he thinks he must instruct them : )

Hangin' out at the pool


Ready, set, GO!

Some Time Alone

I would like to say thank you to my hubby for allowing us some time alone on our anniversary. We went to dinner, did a little shopping at the mall and stayed at Holiday Inn for the evening. I know, it may not sound that romantic to some of you, but at least it was time we could enjoy each other's company, without 101 interuptions by little ones : ) We ate at Texas Roadhouse and since we were there before 6:00, we got the $14.99 special, YEA! At the mall I spent around $25 and got some great bargains: 3 pair of of uniform pants for Talon, a pair of goggles Keegan has been itching to have (he is paying me back : ), 4 pair of tights and a pair of flip flops for Kallee and a sweater for me. Of course I only shop the the clearance sections, so... that explains the great deals. Oh I almost forgot, I bought some soap (.87cents/bar) and some body spray ($2.62) at Bath and Body Works! B&BW sale goes until Sunday, so you'd better head over there if you are in need of those items, great bargains! And if you need tights for your little ones for fall/winter, they had a ton of toddler tights at Kohl's (.80cents for 2 pair). They were originally $8.00 for the 2 of them, so that is a GREAT buy!!! They have 12% spandex, so they are pretty nice tights. Just thought I would throw that bit of info out to you bargain shoppin' Mamas, LOL! As far as the hotel...we bought a gift certificate 3 or 4 years ago and are just now getting around to using it. Of course we paid for it back then, so no expense went out for that. Needless to say, we had a very cheap evening, but that is fine with me, cause I got to spend the evening with my man : ) Those kind of nights don't happen very often for us, so I'm just glad we got to be together!

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Happy Anniversary Baby

To my hubby --Jerry:
Wow, I can't believe it has been 14 years!!! Some days it seems like we haven't been together that long and then...some days it seems like we have been together forever! I love you very much and I want you to know I am in this marriage for the long-run. You have been very supportive of me in everything I do and I really appreciate that! You are a wonderful friend and lover to me and I am so happy that God allowed us to become husband and wife! You are a wonderful father and provider, thanks so much. On this day as we celebrate 14 yrs. of marriage, may we stop and take a moment to remember where we come from and where we are headed. I Love You lots and lots!
Your Wife,
Janiece
Bride - Janiece

Handsome Groom -- Jerry

Jerry's family --
L to R: Matt & Elizabeth Murray, Me & Jerry, Betty & Reed Cooper and Janelle & Alan Cooper


Janiece's family
The wedding party -- First Row (L to R): Flower Girls: Chantal & Shauna Shattuck
(my nieces) & Bible Bearer: Luke Clark (Sara's nephew)
Next Row (L to R): Jr. Bride & Groom: Megan Petty (my niece) and Jessie Reynolds (friend of bride), Jr. Groomsmen: Nick Petty (my nephew)
Row Three (L to R): Mator of Honor: Sara (Fritz) Derscheid (friend of bride), Bridesmaid: Elizabeth (Cooper) Murray (Jerry's sister), Bridesmaid: Kay (Petty) Beard (niece of bride), Maid of Honor: Mary Lee (Shattuck) Baker, Us, Groomsmen: Tony Derscheid (friend of groom), Matt Murray (BIL of groom), Groomsmen: Doug Shattuck (brother of bride) and Jonathan Bailey (friend of groom)
Last Row (L to R): Bridesmaid: Barb Shattuck (SIL of bride), Bridesmaid: Jaime Huber (friend of bride), Jr. Bridesmaid: Crystal (Petty) Beard (niece of bride), Best Man: Alan Cooper (brother of groom) and Groomsmen: Jim Griffin (friend of groom)
Best friends -- Sara (Fritz) Derscheid, Me and Mary (Shattuck) Baker (my sister)
Me and my Daddy (Lee)



"Dad" Fritz praying for us
You may kiss your bride : )

Mr. & Mrs. Jerry Cooper

On our way to our reception

What a kiss!

Happy Anniversary Sullivans

Ok, so I stole this picture of you two from your blog since I couldn't find one in my files (will you forgive me?! HA!) . Anyways, we would like to wish you all a Happy Anniversary today! It is a pretty special day isn't it?!? Hope you all have a great day (and night : ) and lots of happy years to come!