Tough lessons...

Wow. It has been QUITE a week around here.

Nothing quite like telling your kids that a person whom they love has passed away...

It hurts so much to see your children in pain! Seriously, it is 100 times more painful than what you experience yourself...

We made it through the private burial ceremony, but the public memorial for our beloved Ju Ju is still to come tomorrow. Pray for strength and stamina, because this has been A LOT for my kids..

This has been a rough year. We lost our 16 year old dog Bandit, our dogs Trixie and Speck, Luke's father, and now Ju Ju. We are ready for 2011 to be OVER, and remain hopeful that 2012 will be better!

11-12-11

We are heartbroken. Our beloved Ju Ju went to heaven today.While we know she is in a better place without cancer and without pain, we miss her, and we are sad.

We love you, Judy.

Fabulous Ju-Ju

We have the most special wonderful lady in our lives, who I am always bragging about. She is our Fabulous Ju-Ju. She started out as the kids' babysitter when Grace was an infant, but has morphed into more of a family member and grandmother figure to my kids. She has been there for all the important events in the lives of my kids. She goes to their ball games, and eats lunch with them at school, and takes them out for ice cream, and takes them gardening in funny hats...... and goes to their egg hunts...
... and goes on their field trips.
We love her around here.

The day before school started, we got some devastating news about our beloved, fabulous Ju-Ju. Luke is her doctor, and he had to tell her that she has pancreatic cancer. And that it was bad.

She's very sick, and we are very sad.

Please pray for her, and please pray for us.

Happy Halloween 2011

Halloween came and went at a fast and furious pace around here... Daddy was "on call", so we had to go it alone this year :-/ That is always stressful for me, but we made it fine. Grace had her party at school, and then after that we trick or treated the Square, and then made the rounds in one of the neighborhoods. Fun times!

Of COURSE, we had to have "Costume Drama"... Grace chose to be a lovely butterfly, and we have had the costume for months. She wore it to character dress-up day at school, and ripped the wing. Then she wore it again to the Band Carnival, and COMPLETELY ripped out the wing... I tried to fix it yesterday with a little fabric glue, but it did not work. :-( SO... after school yesterday, I told her she could either be a butterfly with a broken wing, or she could choose something else from the dress-up box. She said that "butterflies with broken wings always die", so she chose an old costume... After a little starch and some ironing, it looked pretty good!! We even managed to find the tights that went with it. I was proud of BOTH of us for being flexible! :-)

SO... Here is my little witch, Grace...
And my little monster, Abby...
And my very grown-up looking Cookie Monster, Kate.
Happy Halloween from the Killian girls!! :-)

The Runner...

Kate began running Cross Country this year, and to be honest with you, I was a little surprised. She has never really LOVED running, and I think she only joined the team because a couple of her best buds were running.

However... as the practices went on and as she got into it, I think the little missy discovered that she actually might be kinda GOOD at this running "thing". She went to her first meet and placed 27th out 150 girls... Not too bad for a kid who hadn't really run before, and didn't really know what she was doing! She just went out and ran!

At that meet, they handed out 20 medals. When she realized that she missed getting a medal by only 7 places, she made it her goal to win a medal by the end of the season.

At the next meet, she improved her time dramatically, but we learned that it depended on the meet as to how many medals they handed out... There were only 10 medals at THAT particular meet.

Next meet, only 15 medals. Once again, she was edged out.

This past week, I was unable to attend the meet because the other girls had soccer games and Abby's team (which I am coaching) had pictures. But, Luke was able to go and watch Kate run. When he arrived, the gun had already sounded to start the race. He went to the turn near the end of the race and started counting the girls... when he got to Kate, he shouted, "YOU ARE IN 15th PLACE!!! THERE IS A GIRL RIGHT BEHIND YOU!!! R-U-N!!!!!" He said she TOOK OFF. She sprinted in to the finish, and she got her medal!
She finished 15th out of 120+ girls. We were super proud of her, and she was super proud of herself. Way to run, Kate.

The Fox

Every year, our 4th graders at school do a play. Each year it is something different. When Kate was in 4th grade, they did "Go West", about the westward expansion of our nation. Kate was the Yellow Rose, a saloon girl from Texas.

This year, the 4th graders performed "Pinocchio". Abby played the part of the Fox, who is the "bad guy" in the play. (If you know my little Abby very well, that is really pretty surprising, as she is the sweetest, shyest, quietest one of my daughters... I was quite surprised when she came home and told me this was the role she wanted to audition for!)

BUT... she proved once again that she is quite the little actress and singer, as she landed the role she wanted, and WAS the Fox who tricked Pinoccho out of his money. She was GREAT!

Here she is, along with her BFF, Lainey, who played the role of an Italian gypsy and puppet master.
Here is Fox again, along with her side kick, Cat, (played by Presley)... They were the dynamic duo... They were SO GREAT in their roles!! Funny, funny girls!!
Here are Lainey (gypsy / puppet master), Kasidy ( toy seller), Abby (Fox), Maggie (Book Seller), and Jennifer (mother).
Here are Presley (Cat), Abby (Fox), Matt (Geppetto) Triston (Italian Man), and Lainey (gypsy / puppet master).
And here are Lainey and Abby one more time after the show... You can see Cade, who played Pinocchio, there in the front of the picture. He did a super job!!
The entire cast did a great job! It was really one to remember!! :-)

Missing

My dog is missing.She never wandered before, but we brought home a puppy a few months back, and once that puppy grew up a bit, he began to roam, and my Trixie began to roam with him. This time she has not come back. I am fearing the worst.
She is such a good natured dog, and so smart... Our hearts are broken!

Come home Trixie!!! We miss you!!! :-(

Soccer 2011

Grace and Abby are both playing soccer this year. I just love soccer... This is the first year that Kate is NOT playing, but between volleyball, basketball, crosscountry, cheerleading, band and church choir, she's got enough going on...

I seldom remember my camera, but, lucky for me, I had a friend at Grace's game today who caught some excellent shots of my little Goalie in action.


Pretty cute. Unfortunately, the Purple Ninjas came out on the losing end today, but hopefully they had fun.

Abby's team, the Red Tornadoes, also lost today. (Despite some EXCELLENT coaching by my BFF, Shelley, and myself... ha ha)

Hopefully I can talk my friend into coming to Abby's game and taking pics of her, as well! ha ha

The BIG 4-0

Sadly, the rumors are true... I turned 40 years old this past weekend!! However, the weekend turned out to be one of the best of my life, because my FANTASTIC hubby took me on a trip to celebrate! We went back to Isla Mujeres, Mexico, which is just off the coast of Cancun. We have visited there before (last November, to be exact,) and it is still our favorite place we've ever been. Of course, since I am ME, nothing is ever simple when it comes to pictures... Let me explain...

I DID remember the camera!!! Yay me!! I know you are stunned, since I NEVER remember the camera... However, that camera did NOT have THE MEMORY CHIP inside of it... Boo!! And, apparantly when you are on a remote island in the Caribbean in a foreign country, memory chips are not exactly easy to come by... (Especially when you don't really know how to say "memory chip" in Spanish...)

So, I have fantastic images IN MY HEAD. These other pics I found on the net... Once again, blogger makes them small... WHY?!?!?!?

Here is an image off of Punta Sur (South Point) of the island. It looks like something out a movie. Breathtakingly gorgeous. The beach. AHHHHHHHH... I LOVE the beach. And this beach is AH-MAZE-ING. Crystal clear, turquoise blue water, white sand... PARADISE.

Here is an arial view of the island. For real, it IS this beautiful.

The hotel that we stayed in (for the second time now), is called Villa Rolandi. These pics are tiny, so you can't see much, but it is incredible. My favorite thing is that there are NO CHLDREN allowed. Now, I know that sounds a bit harsh, as I LOVE kids, but when you are talking relaxation, nothing beats the QUIETNESS that goes along with a place that has no kids. It is SOOOOOOOOOO relaxing. Just the waves and the fountains and the blowing of the plam leaves for noise.... So peaceful...

This is EXACTLY what the view from our balcony looked like. Unreal. The place has two pools, one heated and one not, and then a HUGE saltwater hot tub. There is also a private jacuzzi on every balcony.

Here's an interior pic of the rooms...They are LOVELY. The other thing that I LOVE abou this place is that it is SMALL. Only 20-30 rooms, so it never, ever seems crowded.

On my "actual" b-day, Luke arranged for us to have dinner served on the beach. It was pretty darn fantastic. Mexican luminarias lit the walkway down to our table. It was surrounded by tiki torches. Beautiful!!

The sunsets were something to behold, as well. This pic DOES NOT do them justice!

If you EVER get the chance, you must go. It was the perfect way to celebrate my first forty years!

My little "star"

Kate had to sing at a fundraising gala this weekend for our local civic theater. I know I am biased, but she was SO good...

Naturally, I did not bring my camera, but another dad did, and I am lucky that he shares his pictures on his website (Thanks, Larry!) Not sure why blogger loaded it in this tiny size, but I have re-done it twice, and it is still small... Oh, well...

She looked so pretty. She's growing up on me!!
I wish I had a recording of the song she sang. She sang "For Good" from the Broadway musical "Wicked". I thought it was great. (But, as I said before, I am ridiculously biased! :-)