Family Matters Most

We all have distractions in our life. Including our jobs, money, our home, our car, friends, what will we fix for dinner tonight, what's on TV, and so on, and so on. You get the picture.

But there are certain times when circumstances remind us of what is really most important. And what is most important to me, is family.

And the heart of my family is my Mom. She is utmost in my thoughts today. She is my distraction at the moment.

Mom is having surgery on her heart tomorrow. The doctors are replacing a defective heart valve. But before surgery she is having an angiogram. That is happening right now as I write this post. The angiogram will determine if they also have to do a bypass.

We are not anticipating any problems with either the angiogram or the heart surgery. But with any medical procedure or surgery, complications or problems can always arise. So before mom has surgery, we decided to have a little get together at Mom and Dad's house yesterday.


Todd and two of his daughters drove down from Utah for a few days. So I decided that I wanted to come down to visit with him and with Mom. So our course, we had to invite Andrea's family and Eric's family. So it turned into a little family reunion.

Except for the fact that Eric got sick and couldn't come down. He didn't want to expose mom to any germs. And Taylor is in Idaho attending school, and Zak is in Detroit Michigan on his mission. Boy, did we miss those three. Doesn't seem the same without them.

But somehow we managed to have fun without them.

Todd and his daughter Mari.
Jase, Cade & Julianna. Why do the kids in our family like to make funny faces for photos?

Danica, Jodi and Jeannette

Simon and Mom.

This is my favorite photo. Andrea, Mom, Jodi and me (Kim).

Nate being Nate.

Cade, Jodi and Andrea. Jodi and I fixed tacos for dinner. For dessert we had cheesecake, chocolate pie and banana cream pie (Jodi made all the dessert).

Before everyone left Jodi and I took photos of everyone's family (except for mine. Oops, forgot).

Andrea's family minus Zak: Jamey, Andrea, Nate, Noah and Simon

Mari, Todd and Julianna. Did you notice Jodi & me in the mirror? I guess it's not good to take photos in front of a mirror.

Jase, Danica and Cade being silly.

Eric's family minus Eric and Taylor: Jase, Jeannette, Danica and Cade.

Kim's family: Oops, forgot to take a photo. In fact, I didn't take any photos of my family. I'm terrible at taking family photos. Hopefully Jodi did. And hopefully Jodi will post some of the photos that she took.

We had a good time eating, visiting and just being with family. The only downer came when the Chargers lost!!! Boo hoo!!! But the tacos made up for it. Not quite.

It was fun getting together with my family. I love them!!! They are the best. I know I am lucky to have such a fabulous family. And that we all like each other. I know there are some out in the world who aren't so lucky.

I love that my Mom considers my stepson Jesse as one of her grandchildren. She was thrilled that he was able to come down and visit as well. That is the kind of Mom I am lucky enough to have. She loves her family, whether they are blood or not. Family is family and that is all that matters.

I just hope that we get to have Mom around for many more years. This heart surgery should give us the extra time.

Jodi just called me to say that they were just now taking Mom in for the angiogram. They had to wait as an emergency patient came in that had to be done first. So we won't know anything for a couple of hours.

Keep Mom in your prayers that her angiogram today and her surgery tomorrow will go smoothly. I'll keep you posted.

Love,