Most of the time I start these blogs with how the kids are doing....I don't want to skip this part. Kyle finished his first year of college & is now working summer help at a factory in Holland. Hopefully he can make enough money so that next year he can just concentrate on his studies. Cody and Katie are finishing up school & the count down has begun for them both. As of this week I reminded Cody that he is "top dog" at school for a year. Katie is getting ready to move over to high school. Man, my babies are growing up fast!
Katie and I were both able to tour Washington DC with some of the students from her Middle School. What a whirlwind tour & so much history that we learned about. The buses traveled to/from during the night giving us 3 days to see all that we could. We were up @ 6:00 every morning & going until past 11:00 pm. By the end of the week we were back home & I was one tired mama! I teased my mother about the idea of "seeing all that we could see" & the high velocity of travel reminded me of our family vacations from my youth. I wanted to take a minute to thank those people ~ you know who you are ~ for helping to pay my way for this trip. It was not cheep & we appreciate the generosity of those who donated to the Andrews.
Tom has been struggling with his gurgling stomach and pain throughout his body. This keeps him up at night & he has seen many 3:00 am's in a row. This has also effected his energy level & sometime makes him grumpy. I couldn't imagine living daily with chronic pain. His attitude still amazes me & he has a lot of "fight" left to give. Tom had given his official letter of resignation to Wayland Area EMS. Though it was a hard decision for him to make, he realized a while ago that he could no longer physically do the job. He received a wonderful "Thank you" for his years of service from the service along with many touching posts on Facebook. I was in DC when these post came through, maybe I was a little on the tired side, but each post made me cry a little harder as I read them. During his years of service I was proud of him when he chose to work the weekends/holidays, to be there for others in their time of need.
Last night as Tom was in pain & couldn't sleep we were talked to way after midnight about our dreams of our past, our hopes for our future, and just life and how we choose to live. Our lives are both so far from perfect but we keeping striving to make the right choice & be the best that we can be. We do have another mile stone in the Andrews family. On May 20 Tom and I will be celebrating our 25 wedding anniversary. I still wonder "where did the time go?" We are both looking forward to our get away this coming week to celebrate our lives side by side. When I look back I think of how I would do things differently, but I know that I would not miss our lives together for anything! In talking with one of Tom's doctors years ago it was stated that 60% of terminal patients end in divorce and I told him "I take the for better for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness & in health, until death do us part very seriously". So I hang onto our bumpy ride called life & love the man I gave my hand in marriage to. Love you babe forever!
1 Corinthians 11:3 "But there is one matter I want to remind you about; that a wife is responsible to her husband, her husband is responsible to Christ, and Christ is responsible to God."
