New Blog

I started a new blog-
We had our annual white elephant Christmas party last night at my house- This annual party consists of whoever can make it from my mom's side of the family, w/ her siblings and my cousins. This year we had 18 people, we were missing almost 1/2.
The reason I'm starting this is so I don't bore people who don't care to look through all of the pictures from my childhood, but I wanted to put them on there for my relatives. So, look, if you want..... I had made a picture cd at my Grandma's funeral, but from what I heard one was lost and one wasn't working, so now we will have a place to put all of the pictures.
so at the sidebar you will see Bilow Family Pics, that is what it is. :)

Melissa and Mono

We have had so many people asking about how Melissa is doing, that I thought I should update. First we really appreciate you asking, it has meant a lot to us and Melissa. Her beehive class gave her a card where they all signed it and she was very touched. It was very cute, she teared up a little and I had to tease her that she is just like her mom. :) Then the next day she got a basket of cookies from her Aunt/Uncle from the east coast and she was touched again. It has made her and us feel good about how many people care about her and love her!

It all started in September when she got a cold and was really sick for a couple of weeks. I had never seen her soo sick, she slept prob. about 20 hours a day! She only came out for food and bathroom. Her friend had just been diagnosed w/ mono, so we went and got Melissa tested, too. They had to take blood, and a couple days later we knew. Since then she has been doing half days at school. We recently, at the counselor's suggestion had her withdrawn from her morning classes. We saw a visible relief from her after that. It has been hard on her trying to keep up with everything! There are a couple of problems with mono, one if you over do it too much you have an enlarged spleen and it is very painful, and if your not careful, it could burst. Yikes! Well a couple of times, it has been very painful and we have ended up in Urgent care or the ER, making sure she is ok. This last time we finally got some pain meds for her so she could rest. The other problem w/ mono is that you're just sooooooo tired. It may not seem to others that she is "sick" because usually when she is out and about she has slept 16 hours, and is fine the few hours a day that she does function. She just doesn't last very long. We have to plan only one thing for her to do or she is just wiped out!
We think she is getting better, her fun personality is coming out more and more, hopefully she'll be well enough to go to school full time in January. It is said that mono can last anywhere from 3 to 6 months! Yikes!
Thanks again for all your prayers and support! We really appreciate it!

I am Thankful for Grandparents!

As Thanksgiving came and went we spent time thinking about what we were thankful for. We made a list and came up with most of the "normal" things. One thing that has been on my mind is how thankful I am for grandparents. I've had this on my mind for a few reasons, one with the recent death of my grandpa Frank. Also next week we are having our annual family white elephant party on my mom's side. This year I get to host! It will also be the first year w/ out a grandparent of mine alive and there. As I said earlier one of the few things good about split families is the blessings of more grandparents. At one time my children had 7 grandmas and 7 grandpas. We have been soo blessed! Ray & I both have grown up w/ wonderful grandparents! I know on both of our sides our grandparents growing up in difficult family situations were our life lines and saved us numerous times! Here is my mom (Gayle) and thom and Keagan on his baptism. Grandpa Thom is sooo fun to have around, we are really lucky to have him!

Here is my dad (Don) and Grandma Judy. She is a life saver! I don't know if I could live around my dad w/ out having her "soften" him.

Here is Ray's parents, Jackie and John on our wedding day.

Here is Ray's grandpa, Sam Stambaugh, he past away a few years ago. He was a wonderful man and was always giving us big hugs (so big you could hardly breath) and loved a practical joke.

Here is Grandma & Grandpa Stambaugh a few months before Grandpa passed away w/ Melissa.

Grandma Stambaugh, me in the back ground at my wedding shower. I really loved her! I felt like Ray's grandparents were my own!

Here is an old picture of Ray's grandparents mid 1970s.

This is my Grandpa Don (my dad's dad) and his wife Barb. I don't remember them much, I never got to "re" meet my grandpa, I found my dad and his side of the family shortly before he passed away, I did go to his funeral. My grandma Barb just happened to live in Olympia before she died and I got to see her a few times.

This is one of my favorite pics of my grandparents! (My mom's parents) My grandma Jean Bilow passed away this past March and my grandpa Darrell Bilow passed away a little over 5 years ago. My grandpa was one of my favorite people in the world! I only heard him get upset once, and that was when he was upset at something that had wrongly happened to me. He was soft spoken and a wonderful man!

Here are my grandparents on their 25th wedding anniversary, in the 1970s.

A 4 generation pic! My grandma Bilow, her mom, my grandma McGiveron, my mom, and me the baby. Sadly, I don't remember her, she passed away when I was 4. ( I think) My mom loves to tell the story that when we went to go see her for the last time (she was in a nursing home at the time and not really too coherent) I climbed up beside her and said, "We're not going to see you anymore, because you are going to die!" My mom just about died! :)

This picture we got 3 for the price of 1! :) Thom, Grandma Pearl, Cindy, mom, Grandma & Grandpa Bilow. I couldn't find any other pics I had scanned of Grandma Pearl, who is Thom's mom. I only knew her when she had Alzheimers, so she would repeat things all of the time. She was soo sweet, she would say, "Oh, its soo good to see ya, what ya been doing, and Oh are you leaving so soon (even if we had been there all day or longer)" she would say those things over and over...

And last, but not least! Grandma & Grandpa O'brien, my dad's mom and step dad, and her sister Rose in the background.

Grandpa Frank O'Brien

I just learned that my Grandpa Frank passed away earlier this week. He was my dad's step-father. My grandma & grandpa got married when my dad was a little boy, so I didn't know him as a "step" grandpa, just as another grandpa. One of the few good things about split families is it makes for more grandparents.
This is my grandpa this past August. We went down to Portland for a family gathering. I am soo glad we went, we almost didn't go. At this time I didn't know he wasn't well. We just found out a couple of weeks ago that he wasn't well. It was a blessing that he went so fast.
I am sad that I didn't know him so well. When I was little my parents divorced (another story...) and I didn't see my grandpa and that side of my relatives until I found my dad again when I was 21.
Some fun things about my grandpa, they used to live in Montana and when we drove out to PA 2002 (I think) we stayed w/ them for little while. He knew all of the places to take a drive and we saw some moose.... really close... down a gravel road. He grew up in Montana and had lots of stories to tell. He walked through their small town (Drummond, MT) every day and most days my grandparents had lunch at the senior center and my grandpa would go pick up some of the older ladies and make sure they got there. My grandparents moved a couple of years ago to sunny CA to live near my aunt.

Grandpa and my cousin Joy


2005 - My grandparents 50th wedding anniversary party, Rose, my grandma's sister is standing behind them.

The only picture I could find w/ my grandpa in it when I was little, and he got cut off a little. My brother Eric and I'm not sure which cousin are sitting in his lap. Look at Grandma!

We'll miss you Grandpa!

Faster, daddy, Faster.... Slower, daddy, slower

Aurora's (my cute 5 year old niece) form of the "chubby" story. We ask her to do it often 'cause it just cracks us up! Below is the video of her doing it.

So now, don't laugh.... at least too hard, I promised her. I think she likes the faster, slower part, she kept doing it over and over.....

matterhorn

I kept on accidently deleting these on the other 2 blogs, and then they were out of order.... but I love the last one in the matterhorn... I think I like the pic more than the ride... (Keagan is in front of Ray)

California adventure, day 2

We started off Thursday so nice and rested after having 12+ hours of sleep. I was soo exhausted I didn't even wake up once in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom! We started off Thursday in CA adventure, I had never been here before, the last time I came to Disneyland was 15 years ago, Ray and I came w/ my family and it wasn't finished yet. It was a lot of fun! It was very warm for us, too, in the mid 80s and SUNNY!

This is the way Ray, Melissa, and Brooklyn were most of day - Ray pushing the 2 of them.

Hollywood - so fun!

I do not know why I went on this ride 3 times! 1 to say I did it, and then we had to go on it again w/ Sandy and then again w/ Daren. It was fun and a little scary!

Here Keagan is a little scared himself to go on it.

The thing to do (I guess... I just saw other people do it and copied them) is hurry and go to the area that they show your pictures of the ride that they took on the screen and use your own digital camera and take a pic of the pic. This is our 1st time at tower of terror.


One of the fun things about being there on Thursday was there were characters every where! Most of them hardly had any lines, either. How can you pass up the characters! Fun ! Fun! This only about 1/4 of our character pics.....

We went on the buzz light year ride (I think that is what its called...) and I love Mr. Potato head! Too cute! He was talking up a storm, too!

Keagan and Ray in the ride "shooting"

This is one of my favorite rides at any amusement park when it is hot outside! Going through the rapids, we didn't get very wet, though, but almost got our cell phones wet, the next time we brought ziplocks to put our valuables in.

Melissa playing w/ the tiaras and crowns (whats the difference?)

She ended up getting one in pink and silver and wearing it most of the time.

Keagan got a pirate earring and eye patch. He only wore the earring for the pic, it hurt his ear too much.

Brooklyn pushing Melissa and she is now wearing her tiara

See, here she is wearing the tiara again, Keagan w/ the limo. We got a free limo ride, when we were asked to go listen to a time share.... we were suckers and did it, but we got a free meal, limo ride, and $100 in disney money. We were on our way back to the hotel to eat, so we got a free meal and more spending money. The disney money spends the same way in Disneyland! The kids thought it was pretty cool to ride in a limo. (We were smart and said NO to the time share thing, in case you were wondering)

Then we went back to Disneyland, Autotopia where you get to drive yourself, Keagan drove w/ me , he thought it was pretty fun driving me! He is always soo funny when hes driving, he is totally concentrating! Melissa in her tiara....

and Ray in the orange bug.

I think that the teacups are soo pretty at night time. Not my favorite ride...

Ahhhh.... the castle

Disneyland looks pretty cool at night time!