Sunday, September 25, 2011

Till we meet again. . .

Before my last blog I didn't know if I should continue on what had happened in order from what had happened. That is why I only have the one blog so far. 


On July 22nd, my sister, Andrea Marie Habel Greenberg passed away in her sleep. Alot of people knew her from her phone calls they got from her or from her smile she gave going down the halls of high school or even when she would just show up at their house to just talk. 


It is sad but true I have learned a little more about my siblings when they pass away than when they were with us. 


Some know that Andrea had a severe case of Spina Bifida, a birth defect in which your spine and spinal cord doesn't fully develop in the womb. Andrea's back was complete exposed when she was born and had to go into surgery right when she was born. From how severe the Spina Bifida was she only had 7 of the 12 nerves to her lungs. One thing I learned from when she passed was that when she was born the doctors told my parents that they give Andrea one year to live from how severe the Spina Bifida was and to just take her home and love her. Well even though I didn't know that till then I am glad that Andrea stuck around for as long as she did cause I would have never meet her if the doctors were right about the time she had to live. 


Andrea was 4 years older than me. We shared a bedroom, clothes and toys. From her being paralyzed from the waist down we were mostly the same size from when I was about 4 to 12. I shared a lot with her up to the time we got our own rooms. 


Her death was expected but yet unexpected. After my brother Garrick passing away Andrea started to gain weight. And with the weight gain and how fragile her body was for it was a lot smaller than the average women's body is, and with only have 7 of the 12 nerves to her lungs, she had some breathing complications. She had a really hard time to try and lose the weight for she had even less mobility from being in a wheelchair but also from the add weight. Andrea had been on oxygen on and off for a couple of weeks. My Dad was at her house on upgrading the bathroom to a handicap accessible for her. My Dad said bye to Andrea and she said bye back. She had just barely went to bed cause she was tired. He left and came to my house to drop off some pictures from the 4th of July. Then he went home and got a phone call from Carl, Andrea's husband, saying Andrea stopped breathing and the ambulance was there to take her to the hospital. They were not able to revive her. They believe that was gone about a 1/2 after my Dad left. That said he was at my house when my sister had gone. 


The one thing that was hard was that she was closer to our cousins than myself or my other siblings. We had a cousin reunion down at Lake Powell that weekend she passed. I messaged our cousin Jared who was in charge of this years reunion and was down there all ready. The morning after her passing was the day that was somewhat mandatory for everyone to be there if they could. Well they gathered for breakfast and they all found out together. Majority of them made it to her funeral. 

It was a peaceful time for we now know that Andrea is up there with her brothers, Alec and Garrick, running around and walking everywhere she wants to go. 



Tuesday, August 2, 2011

4th of July

With everything going on and time going by as fast as it can the 4th of the July was a good one this year. Jon wasn't able to spend the entire day with us cause he had to work.
I usually spend the night at my parents house so I don't have to beat the parade traffic the morning of the parade. We decided to do fireworks the night before the parade. Surprisingly Natalie does really well with fireworks. Thank goodness. But that night she would have rather played with her cousins instead of sitting and watching the fireworks.


The morning of the parade I got woken up by my Dad @ 4:45am cause my car was blocking his. He went to go and pick up my sister and her husband. Why that early you ask? Well my Dad entered his 1936 Plymouth into the parade. He had just got it running but it still needed interior work and a paint job. He is so proud of it.  He was a little excited to have it in the parade. :)

 Everyone loved the parade. Natalie got use to picking up candy that was thrown at her real fast. I guess I didn't need my chair cause I was pointing out the candy to Natalie all parade long.
Richard ran the 5k just before the parade and did pretty well. He did though seem to not be use to it cause he does only run on a treadmill each morning. And running on a treadmill and on the street does have differences.


During the parade while the derby cars were passing us the Rocky Mountain Raceway mascot "Rocky" posed with Arcadia and Mekensy for a picture. While Grandma wanted Natalie in it. I pick Natalie up and take her over. The picture that we got was amazing! Natalie was so scared of the mascot that was trying to run away when usually she will just stand there and cry. hahaha! Such a priceless picture. :)

After the parade we went over to my parents for lunch and some swimming. Unfortunately, Natalie went down for a nap and missed all the swimming, though we found out she doesn't really like pools in Delta a month before. My parents got this new gazebo, outdoor furniture, hammock, and table and chairs for the little ones. It was really nice to have a shaded place to sit and watch everyone else swim.



Dad gave us a laugh when we looked over and found him trying to not bring attention to himself as he slowing tips over on the hammock. :)



Natalie and I headed home to pick Jon up for a friend BBQ that night. It had been a long time since we had done something together with everyone. It was a lot of fun. The boys went and got some fireworks. Unfortunately Jon and I couldn't go and watch the Murray fireworks with the others for we both had an early start in the morning. It was a lot of fun and great memories were made. :)  


I didn't realize till now that I didn't get the group photo we took that night. It was priceless. Sindra or Cami if you have it would you please send it to me?

With all the holidays and good times, it is good to have all the family and friends to make the memories and share the great time with.

Why a new blog page?

I decided to start all over cause I got rid of my old email address and got a new for I had too many things coming into the old address. So those of you who have me on your private blog list please add me again with marissalee.mo@gmail.com. Plus revamping the old blog seemed to screw things up on it. I am still going to keep the old blog up for others to see what has happened over the years but if you want recent updates this is the blog you will want to come to. :)