Happy Birthday Jacqui ~ 7*

Our Jacqui Rose is 7 years old! She had a wonderful birthday this year. She was able to spread it over a few days. We had a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese over the weekend, with a few of her close buddies. She had a blast! She picked out a Littlest Pet Shop cake and played games to her heart's content. She is quite excited about being 7. She got a new bike (she has outgrown the one she got when she was 4) and some fun games and toys to play with her friends.

We spent an evening over the weekend going to dinner at my coworker's house. They do not have kids, so I am always a little nervous about what my little narrator will say. Children have absolutely NO filter so it is always interesting what pops up in conversation :) After being completely nosy and searching their entire house, and insisting on seeing their basement and every other area of their house, Jacqui was ready to sit down and eat dinner. After dinner we were sitting and chatting while she was looking around at their 'treasures'. She found a big rock crystal on a table and initially thought it was really neat. "Ooohh what is this, that is SO cool". After a closer inspection she let her thoughts be known (no filter) "Don't you guys ever clean your house? This thing is filthy! I can see slimy bugs in it... You should really think about cleaning this!" I was mortified, they were amazing hosts and offered to let her clean it. So they got out q-tips and tweezers and she spent over an hour getting all the dirt and grime from between the crystals. I just love having a precocious child, never a dull moment! They enjoyed Jacqui and her tales of her fish and school, and how things ought to be done in the world and decided to give her the crystal rock as a birthday present. She opened it up at home and was ecstatic. I have never seen her so excited with a present she got in her life! She did the whole "This is for me?!? They didn't have to do that, they are so nice" just like an adult would say, it was cute... Anyway, we had a great week with her birthday and she is quite the happy girl.

A few updates to go along with the birthday info. Jacqui is currently enrolled in soccer for Spokane. Her and a little friend are in the same team and so her friend's mom is able to take them to the games on the weekends I work. Jacqui is pretty excited and has been practicing her drop kick skills. She got her first set of cleats and shin guards and got a pink soccer ball for her birthday. I will post some pics after we have a few games...

Jacqui is in an after school class for the next month or so to be a cheerleader. She signed up for it and absolutely loves it! She comes home and practices her clapping and cheers. She is learning some little jumps to go along with the cheers and she's pretty good at it! Her voice carries (don't know where she gets that from!) so we have fun practicing what she learns every week. Again, they will get their little pink t-shirts in the next few weeks, so I will post a pic when she gets it.

School is going well for both of us. Jacqui is getting into sciences and discovering and exploring. She is starting to ask lots of questions all the time and is trying to figure things out. I love it, it makes going on walks very fun and interesting! I have 2 weeks left for my current class. It is going well, although it is my least favorite class I have taken to date. I am looking forward to some of my upcoming classes...

Work is well, we are busy and starting many new projects that are fun and exciting. Being on day shift is a blessing and spending the evenings and every other weekend with JR is great!

It is still snowing off and on here, snowed this morning and actually covered the ground (YUCK!). Ready for spring to stick, we have been working in the yard and mowed the grass for the first time of the year last weekend. It is starting to look pretty, and we have been planting beautiful flowers just as fast as our deer can eat them :( We are working on finding plants that deer do not like, turns out there are not many plants like that, or our deer aren't picky...

Hope all is well with the rest of you, hope your spring is blooming with blessings and opportunities... Love YOU!

Arizona!

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Updates...

Sorry I haven't posted in over a month... It has been busy around here, we have had lots going on, on all fronts!

Levi is doing well, he continues to wear his brace and is healing well. He gets the brace off in May. He has been blessed to be able to change job positions and so he is able to work in the office off and on so that he has a little bit of income:) He is getting his first house and we are excited to help him get settled in and decorate! He is keeping his spirits up and looks forward to really going back to work. He still has the burning/tingling in his hands, please pray that this improves. It is manageable at this point, but would be better if it was gone completely!

Jacqui is going to be 7 (!AH!) on the 19th. We are counting down the days... She has decided to have a small, just 3 of her good buddies, party at Chuck E Cheese. We will be going to Seattle at the end of the month to see the tulip festival and visit family and do a little more birthday stuff there. She is excited to be 7. She is loving Littlest Pet Shop right now and we have taken up playing baseball at home. She wants to play, but working rotating weekends I can't get her to all the practices and games, so we are just working on it at home for now. She also has a fishing trip planned with Grandad next month and is looking forward to catching her 3 fish :)

We had her school conference right before spring break and she is doing well. She tends to talk too much in class (go figure) and that distracts her at times, but she worked on a timeline of her life where she wrote a story for each year, and it turned out beautifully. She really liked it and is learning the writing process, which is great. She is having fun in school and is enjoying learning, which is the most important thing. She has been talking a lot about chicken research (hilarious) as they did a report on chickens and they are learning how to research. It's great to hear about all her interests and see how she makes them make sense to her.

I finished my Servant Leadership course at Gonzaga and I think it was my favorite class yet. The instructor was Larry Spears, who is the guy who wrote many of the Servant Leadership books. So that was really neat and I learned so much in that class. It really generated a lot of thought and discussion for me and my dad and I have had some great conversations on the subject. I am getting more and more what my dad actually does which is nice, and I have a whole new respect for the servant leadership process... It is good stuff. I am now in a new class, which I do not like nearly as much, but I have only 4 more weeks to go and it will be done. I'm sure it is a valuable class, just not engaging to me...

Work is great, I have spent a couple of days on our medical units training as a medical nurse. I plan to stay in psych, but it is always good to have some cross-training so I can help out when needed. It also allows me to meet more people in the hospital, which I love. I have my 2nd Mental Health First Aid course that I am teaching this next week. It is a great program and very valuable for all jobs I think... It is a nationwide program and hopefully will start becoming available everywhere. We are the first to offer it within the VA, but many states are offering the training free through state grants... I'm pretty excited about it :)

Hope everyone else is doing well. Can't wait to see our family on the other side of the state, and we are excited for G & G to come back up to chilly Washington... Jacqui is excited to come spend the night and teach grandad her baseball skills. We love you guys! 'Til next time...

Levi Pics...

Just a couple pics of Levi up and about now that he is out of the hospital...


And a pic of his neck after surgery. Hopefully it will heal up nicely :)

Levi Update

Levi has been out of the hospital for a couple of days now. Overall he is feeling better and much more positive getting to be away from the loud intrusive distractions of a hospital! He has taken himself off his pain meds already (he says they weren't helping that much anyways!) and is working on healing. He has a significant scar on the front of his neck from the surgery. His throat is still a little sore due to them moving his windpipe and everything else to the side to perform the fusion surgery on his vertebrae... He is able to eat now, and swallowing is not so difficult. He is not looking forward to keeping his neck brace on for the next 3 months, but is learning to live with it. He is planning on going back to his previous living arrangements next week. He continues to have nerve pain in his thumbs that radiates to his forearms, but this is significantly less than it was originally. Please continue to pray that his healing continues, his pain goes away completely, and that he is able to stay positive. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. Our family really appreciates it!

Levi Update

Levi has been discharged from the hospital (YEAH!). He is pretty worn out and tired, but happy to be outta there! He will be at Uncle Steve and Aunt Susie's at least for this week, so Glenn can help him navigate his way around. He has a neck brace that he has to wear constantly for the next 3 months (cannot take it off to sleep, to shower, nothing...). So he has some challenges ahead of him, but he is medically stable enough to be out of the hospital. It will take some time and frustration getting used to the new limitations, but hopefully with everyone's prayers and encouragement he will be able to stay positive.

Update...

Levi is awake and feeling pretty good. He is cracking jokes and has a couple of his friends visiting. He is still having some tingling in his thumbs, but the doctors said he should be out of the hospital by around Thursday! Yeah! Proud of you Levi! Thank you God!

Pre-Surgery Pic

Levi and Glenn pre-surgery. He is rocking the hospital gown. I told him we (Jacqui and I) will bring her bedazzler when we come visit to spiff up his neck brace! I will post more later when he is conscious again later tonight or in the am...

Levi Update

Levi is now out of surgery. The surgeon said it went 'better than he expected'. They fused his neck vertebrae C3 & C4 together, then C5 & C6 together. They did not have to fuse to C7 so Levi's mobility will be better than they originally expected. Levi is in Recovery right now, and will be transferred to the ICU after he is done in recovery. Thank you all for your prayers... keep them coming for his recovery and healing from the surgery :) Love you all!

Levi Update

Levi just got word from the neuro - specialist doctors that they are going to do the surgery on his neck. They are going to fuse C3, C4, C5, C6, and possibly C7 together. This will reduce the mobility of his neck by about 50%. It will also strengthen his neck to reduce the chance of him becoming paralyzed later since he has multiple fractures of those vertebrae. He is going to go to surgery at 3pm, surgery can take 3-4 hours then he will be back in the ICU for a couple of days for recovery. He will have to wear a neck brace for at least 3 months after the surgery. They are hopeful that this will get rid of his arm and hand pain also. Any questions feel free to email. I will try to keep you all as up to date as possible... Love you all and Happy Valentines Day! Now is a good time for lots of prayers :)

Updates for Levi

Hey all, clearly time has gotten away from me, I haven't added anything new to the blog in over 2 months! Today I just wanted to post to keep everyone updated. Levi, as you know, was hit by a car on Friday while he was on his motorcycle. He fractured 3 vertebra (C4, C5, C6) in his neck and has some compressed and bulging disks, but has all the functioning of his body. He spent the weekend in the ICU and today was transferred to a lower level of care (this is a good thing!). He is having some considerable pain that the doctors say may be chronic, but it seems to be slowly improving. His neurologists are trying to decide a plan of care for him in the next few days (they are considering surgery to fuse his neck vertebra together) so please pray that they have Divine guidance and make the best decision for his situation. Levi will have to 'take it easy' for a few months, but is staying in positive spirits. He is trying to keep his facebook updated with how he is doing and doesn't mind well-wishing phone calls, emails, or thoughts and prayers :)

By the way, his 27th birthday is this Wednesday and he will be in the hospital (it appears so far). He is at Maricopa Medical Center in Phoenix.

Cruise Departure and Sea Day 1 & 2

Instead of posting a very lengthy story of our cruise, I plan to write small installments, both to help me get it done, and to not wear you all out from all the fun we had!

Jacqui, Kayla and Grandad #1 flew into San Diego on Saturday even after a bumpy ride down from a very snowy Washington. The airport in Spokane actually was shut down for over an hour with us all in the plane on the runway waiting to take off because of the snow. Grandma was worried :) but we made it without a problem. In San Diego it was gorgeous around 50, the natives were VERY bundled up in coats, gloves, scarves, boots, etc and we were loving the warm sunshine! We walked around Old Town that evening and retired to our room, where to Jacqui's delight there was a full wall mirror... She made the most of the evening talking to herself and performing in front of the mirror, it was a great show!

Sunday we headed down to the bay and the cruise ship and boarded before Levi, G & G got there. It was a gorgeous ship and we were all amazed at how beautiful it was on the inside, as well as how big. The Atrium

G & G and Levi boarded and we were so excited to see them all! We spent some time on the Lido deck eating lunch and waiting for the rooms to be ready for the next guests... At the appropriate time, we found our rooms, cozy and very nice and met our room attendant Joseph, what a great guy he was! We walked around the ship and explored some, and watched the loading of the ship, what a process to get ready to be at sea for a week! Finally the ship left port, we danced on the deck to the YMCA party music, and we went and had dinner in the Empire Room. Our waiter was a guy named Arman from the Philippines and was such a fun spirited and genuine guy. We were amazed at the food choices and made the most of it, trying a little something of everything!
After an eventful day, we went to bed with the ship rolling pretty good because of some strong head winds...
Sea Day #1 was quite eventful. We of course had breakfast on the Lido Deck and set out to further explore the ship. We played a round of mini golf on deck 11 that was quite entertaining. Jacqui was introduced to Camp Carnival and had a blast making her own cruise shirt, making friends with other kids, and working on arts and crafts. I absolutely LOVE that the ship has free babysitting during daytime hours and offers lots of fun things for kids to do... what a blessing and a breather for all the parents on board! Jacqui loved hanging out with them, and was very proud to show off what she had worked on during the day. While she was away playing on Camp Carnival, the adults had a chance to find some fun games and played various games of trivia as a team all over the ship. We had so much fun trying to come up with answers to Trivial Pursuit, TV show trivia, and other trivia...
Sea Day 1 had our first elegant evening formal wear. We got all gussied up to head off to dinner. Might I say our family cleans up very nicely! Grandad #1 even had bought a jacket for the special occasion and Levi got a couple of really nice new suits! We looked sharp and really enjoyed dressing up just for fun. We also took many pictures with the ninja photographers all around the ship. After our fine dining experience we went to our first Carnival show, 'Jazz Hot'; and it was amazing! There was singing and dancing, and all with the ship of course rolling with the waves. The cast put on a great show that evening and we were exhausted by the end of the day. We returned to our cabin to sleep and found a cute little surprise waiting for us wishing us a good night's rest...
We all slept hard and in the morning got up and headed to breakfast on the Lido Deck. We planned out a day full of trivia and Jacqui swam her little heart out all day. She also got to play on the water slide on board as I worked on my tan and worked on homework... In the afternoon we all had a special British tea time which was quite lovely.
And again to the Empire Dining Room for dinner with a twist. A magician showed up to our table and put on quite a show for Jacqui, pulling balls and candy out of her ears. We were all laughing so hard at her amazement and then her belief that she was indeed magical. She was making items disappear and reappear the rest of the trip! During dinner we also were surprised to see our waiter come out of his shell... They put on some music and he hopped on a table and danced for the entire room. It was GREAT and so memorable!~ After dinner we went to a hypnotist show that was a hoot, and then back to bed for a good night's rest...

Cruisin' Crosses

On deck of the CARNIVAL SPIRIT... What a trip!
Our first dress up night... Our family cleans up pretty good!
Well, Hello all! We just debarked from our family cruise with the grand'rents. It was fantastic. What a fun family and special, memorable time!. I will be posting some of our stories over the next few weeks, but wanted to put a few pics up for everyone to enjoy. The rest of you all were absolutely right... it was a fun and wonderful trip. Beautiful Acapulco with our Taxi Driver Alexandro
I think one of the best parts was that there was no internet or phones, so there wasn't the opportunities for distractions for those of us attached to our work (dad!). Anyways we had a great trip and are dreading returning to the freezing conditions in Washington at the end of this week... Bah Humbug! Hope you enjoy the pics. Love you all!
The last dress up night with our Amazing waiter Arman

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you all are enjoying our snow across the state! We are having 'almost' record lows on the eastern side of the state with -5 this morning taking Jacqui to school Brrrr! We've got about 4-5 inches of snow right now, with expectations of more all through the weekend. Hope you all have a safe, happy, and healthy Thanksgiving. We have you all in our thoughts and our prayers. Please pray for us that we have a safe trip with all this inclement weather, and you will hear from us and get pics when we get back! :) Love you all!

Happy Veteran's Day

Once again it is that time of year. Please thank every veteran you know for their service and sacrifice for our country.

Thank you Grandad and Granpa Spence for your service, and thank you Hank for yours... Our nation is made great by the sacrifice offered by so many for the rest of us to live in freedom. Once again, thank a vet and appreciate everything they have fought for that we often take for granted. Thank you Veterans!

Coach of the Week ~ Sean!!!

Just thought you might be able to put this up on the Cross Blog. We are so proud of Sean. And we will miss him...a lot. Sometimes he becomes the actual glue that holds some of us together. We love him. Anyway...here is the link. What a cool picture! Maybe they can get to the play offs again and can play Will Smith's son, Wayne Gretsky's son, and Joe Montana's son. :) They have a play off game tonight at home. But tickets are of course unavailable. Matt and I wanted to go so badly. Vic

Check out the link below to see Sean's team and him as Coach of the Week. Way to go Sean!

http://www.skylinegridiron.com/index.php

Coach Sean

http://www.skylinegridiron.com/index.php
Here is the link about Sean!

STOMP

Hey all, just had to post a quick note. Hank and I went to STOMP last night and it was phenomenal! I absoluetely loved it. If you ever have the opportunity to watch this show, take it! It is an 18 year old Broadway production created in Britain from a street percussionist. Working and living on the street you use anything you can find to 'beat on' to get the rhythym going and this show combines different random objects to put on a heckuva show; garbage cans, sinks, lighters, match boxes, plastic buckets, paint cans, innertubes, etc. Just wanted to sing its praises and encourage you all to see it if you can. NEAT!

Check out the link if you'd like to see a brief video of them in action...
http://www.stomponline.com/tickets.php

Trick or Treat

We had a pretty fun day. I took Hank and Jacqui to a surprise date at the FOX theater to see Bugs Bunny and the Symphony. It was a fun show and lots of the audience were dressed up for Halloween. Jacqui chose to dress up as Hannah Montana this year, complete with long blond hair and sparkle boots. After the show we picked up Lyrik, Jacqui's friend and went to the Gonzaga dorms to go Trick or Treating. Lyrik was a cat, and soon into the evening turned into 'Hannah Montana's cat' and that is why she had the gloves and feather boa ~ MEOW! I love that Gonzaga provides trick-or-treating for the kids inside the dorm. It is safe, warm, indoors, and there is not so much walking around outside. The girls loved it and came home with a haul of candy... As usual. They also got to make their own cookies in one of the girls' dorms. What a treat! Jacqui started out with her long blond wig, but tired of it quickly as it was itchy to her neck. It was a fun evening and we enjoyed the family time. They were both worn out by the time we finished going to just 3 different dorms. They sure were cute explaining how they are Hannah Montana and her cat and how they are both 6, and all the other things only 6 year olds can explain to undergrad college students.

Also, just for fun I encouraged a bunch of my coworkers to dress up in Star Trek theme with me on Friday and included a pic of 2 of us. We had all kinds of fun running around with phasers, communicators, and tricorders. We have a great crew and now the ongoing joke is that they all tease me as the 'Captain of our Starship' and I assign out 'the Con' when I'm off. FUN!

Fun fall days

Sorry we haven't posted anything in awhile. It has been busy busy busy here! We finished installing windows in our house, as well as the rental up here... 16 new windows total. It was a fun project and interesting to install. We took out all the old ones and had to figure out how to make the new ones fit! The rental house at over 100 years old, is not quite square, so despite our measurements to buy windows that would fit; it was not necessarily that easy... What a learning process!

Jacqui has been doing wonderfully in school. She had a presentation this week that her whole class worked on about the Day of the Dead and celebrations in Mexican culture. She is learning a lot and really getting into reading now as she becomes more sure of herself. She has been excited about getting to have music class and PE. She is super excited to pick out a book from the library every 2 weeks. She doesn't have much to say about school but "I just learn reading and writing and math, that's it" but she's happy and enjoying it so I count my blessings!

She has taken on learning to roller skate as we have 'skate days' at school and her friends from her old school and new school love skating. She is getting a little more comfortable walking on wheels, but it is a process :) She is finally brave enough to keep trying when she falls though, and for that I am grateful! We took Hank with us the last time, and it was HIS first time skating also. So we all had a ton of fun!

Hank and I went to watch the Broadway South Pacific show. It was fantastic and a great show! We had sushi that was delicious and got to have a grown-up night out. I love the old musicals and Hank liked the show since it had military stuff. I'm getting him into some of the 'finer arts' type shows that come to Spokane, he's not crazy about it, but he tolerates going with me and is a good sport.

We've been blessed to have friends and family up to visit us now that we are not traveling around the state with school back in session. Grandma Quack Quack came up and spent her birthday with us. We went to Green Bluff to have cider, pumpkin donuts, and caramel apples. It was a gorgeous day and we had so much fun Jacqui has wanted to go back every weekend I have off. So the next time we took Lyrik up to the corn maze and her and Jacqui played around for a couple of hours and of course had caramel apples. Then this weekend Hank and I were craving a nice Green Bluff grilled cheese sandwich, so we headed out in the wet, rainy weather; only to find out they didn't stock bread this weekend. :( So we had some of their homemade chili and of course Jacqui had another caramel apple. :) It was wet and cold, but it was a fun day and we enjoyed spending family time together.

I finished my 1st class back for my Master's and ended up getting 101% out of the class ~ not bad! My new class is a little more challenging, but there are some great assignments and I'm excited about some of the books we have to read.

Jacqui, Hank, and I are going to Gonzaga to go trick-or-treating at the dorms tomorrow, so I will post some pics for you guys of this year's Halloween.

Love you all and hope all is well and you have a safe Halloween!

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