Starting a Scholarshop foundation in Mari’s honor.

To find out more about the foundation I plan to start, please click on the page at the top of the website titled "Scholarship". If you would like to donate to this cause, please click the donate button.

I have included a meter to show the progress we are making towards one full scholarship. To find out more details, please see the "Scholarship" page at the top of the website.
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What does it mean to nurture?

When God created women, He knew well beforehand that they would become mothers. I have no doubt in my mind He had a long list of what a mother’s qualities and characteristics not only would be but needed to be. Those included loving and show unconditional love, compassionate, friendly, unselfish, kind, patience, teaching their children right and wrong as well as God and how Jesus died on the cross.

For obvious reasons, Jesus dying on the cross is number one as we need to do all we can as mothers to make sure our children spend an eternity in heaven. . . . → Click Here To Read More: What does it mean to nurture?

Happiness

I’m sometimes amazed at the power of God. He put writing into my life and has blessed me as a result. Something that started out as a way to deal with my grief and share those feelings with my friends and family so they knew where I was at has turned into so much more.

I look at Mari’s death in a whole new light. It’ll be four years on July 16 (Really, four years already!). Through my grief journey I’ve been able to find something that brings me pure happiness. I’ve been able to meet new and encouraging people . . . → Click Here To Read More: Happiness

Joy

Joy can mean so much to so many different people. For me I felt pure joy last night. I spent the day determined to write write write in the fictional book I am writing. I actually wrote 8,472 words and finished the first draft of my novel. Talk about exciting.

I think back to how I began writing. It was to keep my friends and family abreast of what was happening to my little baby girl. I started a Care Page. Those first fifteen days of writing were while she was a live and the last day, the day she . . . → Click Here To Read More: Joy

You just never know…

Well, I took a pregnancy test today. Now, before you get excited, it was negative.

With today technology age and the Smart Phone, there are so many kewl things you can do. Well, I have the iPhone 4. I started with the 3g. I love my phone other than the keyboard is a touch screen instead of an actually keyboard. I mess up texting more times than I can count because I can’t actually touch the screen.

Back to the reason I bring up my phone. As they say, “There’s an app for that.” Yes, there is an app that is . . . → Click Here To Read More: You just never know…

What do we have to be thankful for?

I know that this question is not normally asked at this time year. We always attribute it to Thanksgiving Day. But shouldn’t we always be asking ourselves this?

For some it is really easy to answer. To those looking from the outside it looks like they have truly had a blessed life. A life filled with hope and happiness and no terrible tragedy to speak of. People who have died have done so because they have gotten older.

But for so many this is not the case. I look at the tornadoesthat came crashing through towns the other day and . . . → Click Here To Read More: What do we have to be thankful for?

Becoming a Writer

What has writing done for me? Well more than I ever thought even possible.

I remember sitting in my high school English class and being just a “C” student. It was hard for me. To get into college I couldn’t even test into English 101. I would have had to go three below and start with English 097. I mean, you really can’t much lower. So for years I have always thought of myself as a terrible writer and that my English writing sucked.

By the time I was around 22 or 23 years old I was actually able to . . . → Click Here To Read More: Becoming a Writer

Changes in life…

First let me start off by saying long time no talk.  I am sorry I have been gone for a while.  A lot has happened in my life since the last time I posted anything on Mari’s website.  I look back at the date of June 23 and it seems like a lifetime ago.

On July 15 Keith and I headed to Chicago to be with Mari (so to speak) on her 3 year mark of being gone.  July 16 was officially 3 years and we spent some time at her grave.  It is hard to believe that 3 years . . . → Click Here To Read More: Changes in life…

Keith’s 40th

Today is Keith’s 40th birthday.  He starts a new generation today.  The last generation has had some of the biggest bumps and bruises he’s had in his life.  Those bumps and bruises have slowly been healing but they will never go away.

We both continue to live our lives on a path neither one could have expected or wanted yet here we both are anyway.  I like to tell people, “It is what it is.”  What I mean by this is can I do anything about the path that has been laid before me?  No I can’t.  However, I just . . . → Click Here To Read More: Keith’s 40th

Seeing Mari again

I want to share a passage of the Bible that was recently shown to me:

2 Samuel 12:15-23

15 After Nathan had gone home, the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill. 16 David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and spent the nights lying in sackcloth[a] on the ground. 17 The elders of his household stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he refused, and he would not eat any food with them.

18 On the seventh day the child died. . . . → Click Here To Read More: Seeing Mari again

Writing through tragedy

Recently things have been good.  I have not been overly sad.  I mean, I miss Mari but I am doing good.

I sit here in church again.  I am glad we have started going to church on a regular basis.  It is important for the two of us and our marriage.  My hope is it only makes us stronger and helps us to get through the loss of Mari.  I know through God anything can happen.

I know some people might say, “How could you believe in a God who would do this?”  My response is God knows more than . . . → Click Here To Read More: Writing through tragedy

Singing…

January 2

I sit here in church service.  Right away they start by singing.  The tears start to well up and I have to leave.  I still have a hard time just being able to sing in church.  It is so hard for me.  Somehow it just makes me miss Mari all the more.  She would always love the singing portion of church service.  She would sing in her own special way.  She would sometimes flap her arms in excitement.  She truly loved the singing.  I think I just truly miss that with her not here now.

Maybe in her . . . → Click Here To Read More: Singing…

The magic of love

December 14, 2010

Love.  Love has its own special magic.  When all else fails, you still have love.  There are some people who have not been lucky enough to truly experience the love you receive from your life partner.

I feel like I am one of the lucky ones.  I met Keith when I was only 19 years old.  Our first impression of one another was, let’s just say, not that great.  So it wasn’t love at first sight.  Personally, I have never experienced that but sometimes you just don’t need to.

The second time we met started our friendship.  . . . → Click Here To Read More: The magic of love

Playing Games

December 7, 2010

Can you imagine loving to play a game so much that you allow yourself to stay up later than you should because you have to go to work the next day.  Well, Keith and I both love playing the same game and we stay up way too late.

Last night was another one of those nights.  We finally got to bed about 11:30pm.  Then we sat talking for a few minutes.  I think we both finally headed off to never-never land around midnight.

This morning when I woke up I was more tired than I could have . . . → Click Here To Read More: Playing Games

“Out of these ashes beauty will rise”

Steven Curtis Chapman has a song that talks about “Out of these ashes beauty will rise.”  The ashes represent the tragedy his family endured the day their daughter Maria died.  The “beauty [that] will rise” is representative of God’s grace and love that even though something as terrible as losing a child, God is still there through it all.  He is seeing you through.

I can say I do love this song and the hope it brings.  However, my life doesn’t seem to have found the Beauty of it all.  I still have yet to feel this hope.  I mean, . . . → Click Here To Read More: “Out of these ashes beauty will rise”

Work at Walmart

(It looks like this was written around end of October)

I have been working at Walmart now for the past 2 months.  When asked, “Is it what you expected?” I’m not sure if I know what to expect exactly.  I mean, I know I would be on my feet the majority of the time (I mean it is Walmart after all).  But as for what I expected, I really did not have a lot of expectations.  I know that starting off on the graveyard shift would be a drastic change since I have never worked that shift before.  Not only . . . → Click Here To Read More: Work at Walmart