Last Updated: March 10, 2006

Already 3 months into the New Year!!
     I'm getting lazier about keeping everyone updated. You think that the older my kids get the more my life would slow down! Not TRUE! We had a great Christmas, a house full of people but somehow I managed. Time for a new house! It's just tooo small. I have a new daughter in law now, and my first grandbaby on the way VERY soon. It's amazing how I raised all my kids in this small  house! I'm upgrading from a 3 bedroom house to hopefully a 5 bedroom house in the very near future. Why You ask?  Well I still need a master bedroom, Mikey needs a larger room now that he is a teenager, I need an office... I'm sick of working from a desk in the corner of my dining room! The new baby needs her own room... I FINALLY get to make use of my VERY large vintage  strawberry shortcake collection. And then of course I need a guest room.  The dining room in my new house needs to be able to hold up to 15 people and then of course a big enough family room to entertain as many! I also want to have a game room, that is a dream I have always had!  I have been searching the market for my 2 story dream house for a few months.. haven't found it yet.. but it's out there I just know it!  Finding the time to hunt has been almost impossible though. A lot of you have no idea what the past 2 months has been like for me!
    
     I guess January wasn't such a bad month... pretty calm compared to what was to follow.   In fact  nothing significant happened that month except that we have just been working on the house we live in now.. doing some painting and minor remodeling to get it ready to rent out. Ugg, the mess its in... I can't wait to get the new carpeting and flooring in and the kitchen done!

      February was a nightmare In the first part of February my middle son Jeremy was injured at work. A large percentage of his legs were burned with an accidental gush of a chemical called phenol. Here are the pictures I took and posted for his lawyers to have on record. The good news is that Jeremy got released to go back to work on March 6th and He and Candace's baby girl is due to arrive by the end of April!  I know I promised you a site with Kaylee's growth - pics of her ultra sounds and the 3 D video of her but I just haven't had the time. I will promise you that it's coming soon.  Here are some  adorable pictures that I took of Candace and Jeremy.. you can see them HERE  I also took pictures at Kaylee Leanne's baby shower and stuck them up on a web page so that I could have something to start with.. there is a story behind each picture but I haven't  gotten that far yet.. I hope to soon! You can view it  HERE hopefully I can get that done today too before anyone has the chance to look at it. Now onto the rest of my nightmare filled February.

     February 21st at 7 am I got a phone call from Jeremy saying that he and Candace were on their way to Galveston Medical Center and that Ralph Jr. has been involved in a near fatal car accident on his way to work in Freeport and was in ICU. Well needless to say I immediately got Mikey up and was out the door within 15 minutes.  Didn't I just go thru something like this 2 weeks ago I'm asking myself as I'm speeding through morning rush hour traffic for 45 miles to Galveston? We made it to Galveston in record time.  Thank God he was still alive but still in critical condition, we couldn't see him for almost an hour because they had him in x-ray. Tarrah (his wife) was already there and we all had to take turns going in to see him. He looked rough... poor thing was in so much pain!  He was released 2 day later but the Dr. ordered that someone watch him 24/7 for the next 4 days. Tarrah dropped him off with me while she went to work and school and she would pick him up at night on her way home. He's fine now! As for details of the accident.. there are all in black and white here.. I wanted to show the family how fatal this could have been.  No the truck (our truck by the way) isn't  OK... we should be getting the insurance settlement sometime this week. OH WELL that is the price us parents pay when we borrow out our vehicles, I'm just glad it wasn't my new Jeep!!!  He only needed it THAT day too... his wife had lots of things to do so I let him use it to go get his company truck keys and check into his hotel room so that he could leave his things there!  Here are the pictures of the scene and the story of how it happened. ACCIDENT Well with all that behind me my bad luck for this year should be over.

     Now I have some good news!!!  For those of you who were as disappointed as I was to hear that Candace and Jeremy were taking a job in Aruba for a year shortly after the baby was born.. GUESS WHAT!!! They are STAYING!! Yesssssssss I get to watch my grandbaby grow up!!! I am also planning a trip to Anchorage the first part of April to spend 4 romantic  days with my hubby.  :)  I cant wait!!

     I almost forgot to tell you about Mine and Mikeys trip to Vegas.... It was my hubbys Christmas gift to us.  It was a great 3 days.  It was another trip to try to get Mikey on stage to perform his amazing Magic!  He met lots of Magicians and even got to go on stage with Mac King at Harrah's, we went to the  Rick Thomas  (magic show) at the Stardust we got to visit with him after the show again this time.. last time we got the picture with him.. this time it wasn't offered. We also had a great time at the Monte Carlo this time we actually went to see Lance Burton he puts on a great show! We visited Caesars Palace (shhhhhh dont tell my hubby but I spent wayyyyyy too much money in the forum shops haha) We also went to the Bellagio light show the last night we were there. We also visited Madame Tussauds Wax Museum at the Venetian.. its amazing how real the wax figures look!! We  Played lots of slot machines... did lots of shopping and I even met a friend I met online 4 yrs ago.. we had a great time with him too! I have lots of pics but they are very low quality, the digi I had at the time was an el-cheapo.. I'm basically embarrassed to put them up. I might some day haha!  Mikey is doing well in his Magic carreer.. he just got offered a job at Houstons Magic Island he will start there after school is out for the summer. He came upon it by accident. He and his big brother went downtown one Saturday to buy some magic supplies from a shop.. turns out the owner was there that day.. he also has something to do with the Magic Island. He told Mikey he can come down there and perform any time he wants to! He is very excited!! OK That's all for now, I have to get my day started... 9 am already?? YIKES!!!


Until I have more news...  Kimee aka Barbs