Hi Everyone,
This weekend was Uncle Dink’s last Sunday to preach at our church before he retires. There was a wonderful service with lots of music and a dinner for family and friends to celebrate the event. Andy sang a solo that left many all teary-eyed. After the church service we went to the waterpark with several cousins/nieces/nephews. Later that same evening my good friend Eric got in town. He will be staying with us until Tuesday. Here are some pictures.
Dana
Hi Everyone,
Not a lot to report – just a few pictures from the last couple of days.
Photo One: Jackson after his ballgame. Notice that he lost one of his front teeth. The other is just hanging on by a thread. When they are both gone I imagine he will have a pretty good gap up front!
Photo Two: Gracie with her Aunt Leah. Grace is modeling the dress she is wearing for Aunt Leah and Uncle Ken’s wedding. Grace is mortified at the thought that they might kiss at the wedding. Her words are, “Oooo, Gross!”.
Photo Three: Jackson completing his first slide into home. Not that there was a close play at the plate he just decided he wanted to try and slide.
Photo Four: Aunt Leah snuggling with Gabriel.
Hi All:
Today I started something new in my quest to live long enough to see these children grow into adults: an insulin pump.
I was diagnosed with diabetes as a teenager (1984 or 1985 – I don’t remember now) and I’ve taken multiple injections of insulin daily since then. I’ve had serious eye complications from the disease (eye surgeries in 1999 and 2000) and in December of 2007, I got horribly sick with the flu and it sent me in to diabetic ketoacidosis – my blood sugar was well over 800 (normal is 110), my body temperature was down to 94 and my body was starting to shut down when I arrived in the ER at Hays Medical Center.
I’ve started a new blog describing my experiences with the pump, which I’ve named Clark (in honor of Clark Kent, Superman’s alter ego). If you would like to read about my adventures on the pump, check out the blog
Hi Everyone,
We received the sad news on Thursday that Andy’s Uncle Jim had passed away. Jim was such a fun man – he always had a funny joke or story to tell. At one of the first Stanton family get-togethers I attended (probably 11 years ago) somebody asked what my family had done for a living when I was growing up. I responded that my Dad worked in the oil fields and I jokingly said that I guess that made us oil-field trash (a phrase common in Oklahoma and Kansas during the 80’s). I remember Jim laughed and said that I was in good company with the Stanton family. I also remember that he loved my mincemeat cookies and my raisin cream pie. My son Jackson loved Jim (and of course Jim’s wife Elaine). When visiting Logan, one of Jacksons favorite activities was going down to visit Jim and Elaine.
Jim’s funeral was on Saturday. Funerals are such a mix of emotions. Everybody is sad because somebody has died, but on the other hand you always also have a good time because ALL your family get together for the time around the funeral. It is a time to reminece and tell stories about the “old days”. There is always a ton of food, the kids get to play, you get to see cousins and relatives you hadn’t seen for years. You almost feel guilty for having such a good time, but knowing Uncle Jim he wouldn’t have had wanted it anyother way! Below, find some photos from the weekend.
Dana
Jackson, Grace and Gabe with some of the (many) Stanton cousins.
One of our Stanton rituals is to keep track of how tall the kids get. We measure them on the inside of Grandma Stanton’s pantry door. So far Zane (shown measuring his sister Katie) has the top notch.
Hi All,
Here are a few pictures of my favorite brothers. Gabriel just lights up when big brother plays with him or shows him attention. Jackson is so cute when he occasionally tries to comfort his little brother when he is upset. Jackson will say in the sweetest voice, “Gabe, come to Bubba, come to Bubba!”.
On a day to day basis Grace and Gabriel actually interact more than Jackson and Gabe, but when I downloaded pictures today I found only pics of my boys. Here they are!
Dana
P.S. Am I crazy, but do Jackson and Gabriel look somewhat alike?
Hi All,
Nothing much to report, but here are a few pictures from the last couple of days.
Gracie at the pool.
Gabriel at the pool enjoying some ice cream.
Gabe after the pool and after the ice cream!
Gracie at Jackson’s baseball game.
Jackson in the dugout. They won this game!
Hi Everyone,
We had a nice weekend spent at home. Sunday morning we had brunch with some old friends from Dodge City. Stephen and Sarah now live in Colorado and stopped in Hays on their way home from a wedding. It was great getting to see them again and having the opportunity for them to meet Gabriel and see how much Jackson and Grace had grown.
Late Sunday afternoon we decided to try and take all three kids to the movie to see Kung Fu Panda. We reasoned that Gabe would likely sleep through the whole movie since he hadn’t had a nap and if he wasn’t tired maybe he would actually watch some of the movie. Well, lesson learned – Gabe is not ready for the movie theater. He probably sat a total of 10 minutes and watched the movie. The rest of the time I spent with him out in the lobby. Of course in the van on the way home, Gabe feel fast asleep – figures!
That evening Andy accompanied Jackson down to the “ditch” and they hunted for tadpoles. Although they didn’t find any tadpoles, Andy said they found plenty of mosquitos. I swear, Jackson loves that ditch and goes down everyday to “hunt” for stuff. He has a special bucket that he uses. Thankfully we have taught him that it is o.k. to catch his critters as long as he puts them back in the ditch – this keep my little boy happy AND my house free of tadpoles, frogs, toads, minnows and the occasional crawdad. I remember when I was Jackson’s age I was fascinated with the creek at my Grandparents farm. I don’t remember catching frogs (gross!!), but I certainly did spend many a happy hour there.
Gracie is too small to explore the ditch, but spends her outside time happily with her cat Rajah – actually she has trouble pronouncing “Rajah” and it sounds more like “Roger”. This cat adopted us around April. He is definitely an outside cat, although Grace will sneak him in now and then (see picture below). This must be the most patient/good-natured cat on the planet. He lets Grace pet him, hold him, love him and carry him around for hours at a time.
Dana
Jackson, Grace and Stephen
Jackson, Stephen, Grace, Dana and Gabe. Notice Jackson’s new trick when taking pictures. Also notice how Gabe is sneaking a drink of taboo soda when Mom is busy smiling for the camera!
Gracie and her beloved cat Rajah.
We got the e-mail from a friend of ours about a certain little boy named Dang Hui.
Here’s the e-mail we received:
Someone just told me about a little boy from Hanzhong (Maja’s
completely amazing SWI) who is looking for his family. So I went to
the ageny’s website (www.hopeforchildren.org) and looked at his pick
(Dang Hui). VERY cute! There’s also a very cute cleft-affected girl
from XianYang, Shaanxi and a completely ADORABLE 6 yr old HepB boy
from Guilin. He is SO, SO cute!!!!
I don’t know anything about the agency, but I know someone who has
used them three times!
Well, we looked at his picture several times and just laughed. There was no way we could adopt again! I guess the Guy Upstairs had different plans for us. A few days later we filled out paperwork to see his files and the rest is history! (You can see the original photos of him on our PHOTOS page)
Andy
Hi All,
Jackson continues to play baseball and is loving it. He is such a great little boy – with such a good heart. It doesn’t seem to bother him if he wins or loses. If he strikes out he just smiles and jogs back to the dugout. If he makes a great play (which he did last night playing third base) he is all smiles. He is super supportive of his other teammates and is generally happy and excited just to play. He is not a super competitive kid – just out to have a good time.
Alas, I fear that neither Grace nor Gabe will be as laid back in the competition field. Everything is a race – who is first, who did it best, am I better than everybody else. Neither have much time for deep thought or contemplation – they are both a flurry of activity.
We did have an unpleasant incident last night. I knew it would happen sooner or later, but so far we have avoided any nasty comments about Gabe’s arm. At the last game I thought I had heard one of the boys on Jackson’s team make a nasty comment about Gabe, but I told myself I had misunderstood him. Well, last night the same kid asked me “What’s wrong with his arm?”. I gave him the standard line about how he was just born that way, but that he was o.k. and could do almost everything that he and I could do. The kid then responded, “Gross, he’s a freak. That is disgusting!” I was pretty astounded and just picked Gabe up and walked away. My first impulse was to go to his parents and tell them that their son was a foul mouthed, rude little punk, but made myself wait a few innings and calm down. Andy made the suggestion that maybe we should try talking to the kid again after the game (by the way, Andy was just as mad as I was and needed a couple innings to cool off). So, we took the high road. After the game I took Gabe over and as the kids were leaving the dugout I called to the boy and introduced him to Gabe and told him that yes Gabe’s arm was different, but that he was still a regular little boy. After a little back and forth the boy finally said, “Well, it still looks weird.” Well, I took that as at least an improvement. Of course, neither Gabriel nor Jackson had any idea that the whole incident happened. I had tried to prepare myself for things like this, but I was surprised at how much it hurt MY feelings. It doesn’t bother me when people innocently ask questions – especially little kids – usually they are just curious. I guess we are so used to Gabe and seriously his “stumpy” as we call it, really doesn’t slow him down. It just surprises me when other people notice it – we honestly don’t. Another pet peave is when adults (once again usually well-meaning) try to make us seem noble for taking a “disabled” child. I know they are trying to be nice, but yikes give it a rest! I imagine if these people would spend an afternoon with Gabriel they would rethink the term “disabled” or “handicapped”.
Dana
P.S. And of course a few pics from the game!
Hi All,
This week our nephew Colton and niece Lori spent a couple of days with us. While they were here we went and saw the new T-Rexcetera exhibit at Sternberg Museum – which was very cool.
Jackson had his first baseball game on Thursday. He did a great job and the coach gave him a MVP award.
On Friday Leah, Kate, Zane and Riley (Zane’s friend) came and stayed with us. Kate was in town to play basketball and Zane and Riley played in a baseball tournament in Plainville. So, we got to watch basketball and baseball. The weather was wonderful and we had a great time!
Here are some pictures.
Dana
That’s one big turtle fossil!
Gabe’s first experience at the Sternberg Discovery Room – he really liked Howie the iguana!
CSI Hays, Kansas
Jackson’s cheering section.
Most Valuable Player!
Grace, Zane and Jackson
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