Grandma's Fire

hello all
I am sorry it has been a little while since I posted last.  We have been busy with work, the boys and had a small tragedy in the family.  I do say small only because no one was hurt and all are ok.  So, it was small compared to what it could have been.  I am not going to go into a lot of details, because I am not sure I know exactly every part to the story, so I will just update you with the basics.
Last Friday, Paul and I received a phone call from Paul's sister, Loy.  She was hysterical and screaming..."Zane burnt down mom's house and is on his way to the er"  My stomach instatnly dropped, I was literally sick to my stomach.  We were so scared for Zane, he just had to be ok.  Loy had talked to him and thought he was ok, but was on her way to Minot.  Paul decided to leave right away for Minot.  He was pretty upset and scared.  I couldn't imagine how his mom was going to take this news.  I was not only worried for Zane, Dorothy, but also Paul.  I felt bad for him having to drive alone when he was upset.  I prayed and prayed that everyone would be ok. 
I will give you a little bit of what happened.  Sorry if I get something wrong, but I have heard the story from a few people.  Zane lives with Grandma while he goes to college in Minot.  Last Friday, he was going to make lunch for him and Zach.   He put the oil on the stove to make french fries.  Zach called and told him he couldn't make it.  Zane decided to go in and lay down for awhile before Grandma came home for lunch.  He had forgotten that he had the oil on the stove.  Within 15 minutes he was awakened by the sound of the smoke alarm, which he orginially thought was his cell phone.  Dorothy also says that it is very odd that the smoke alarm worked, she doesn't know when whe had it checked last. When he opened his bedroom door, the house was already full of smoke.  There were flames in the kitchen.  He immediately called 911, aunt Nancy, Zachery and his mom.  He began to take things out of the house.  First thing he grabbed was Grandma's dog "Cooper".  He got all of the wedding pictures off the wall and things that were Great Grandma Lee's.  He made several trips in the burning house to grab what ever he could.  All this within 10 minutes!!!   When the fire department arrived, they wouldn't allow him back inside.  He didn't even want to go the hospital. 
He was taken via ambulance to the hospital where he was met by most of the family.  Everyone very happy to see him and most of all very relieved he was going to be ok.  Zane had to stay overnight in the hospital because he has asthma and they wanted to be sure all the soot and smoke was out of his lungs.  Dorothy said he was black from head to toe.  The house was a total loss, she will not be able to move back in. Some of her things were able to be saved, but compared to what she had, it doesn't seem like much. I can't imagine what is must feel like to have EVERYTHING you own, you have worked hard for gone in the blink of an eye. She is just so relieved that Zane is ok, nothing else matters.   She is very lucky to have almost all of her children living so close, she has somewhere to stay, food to eat and alot of support.  Alot of people have been asking what she needs.  Right now she really just needs your prayers.  Things are already settling into place. She has had some laughs and a lot of tears.   It has been a lot of work trying to itemize everything in the house.  In the end, she will have a new house and lots of warmth just knowing all the people who helped out and were there for them. 
Thank you God for keeping Zane and Dorothy safe.  We know that it was you that sounded that smoke alarm and kept Zane from being hurt.  In a scary and sad time like this, we take comfort in knowing that you will protect us from harm and you will bring good things out of bad times.  Continue to watch over Dorothy and Zane as they grieve for their loss, but give them the peace of knowing that everything will be ok again.  In your name we pray  Amen!

the kitchen

more of the kitchen

the dining room which is right off the kitchen

more pictures of Maddy

 sweet little Maddy  7 weeks

 Maddy at 4 months, she is growing fast

 Maddy sleeping, she loves to sleep

 Maddy at 6 months, such a pretty baby

 Maddy at 7 Months

Maddy at Christmas

Jack wanted to have a Christmas card with Molly and Maddy

Madelyn Kate !!!!!!

Madelyn Kate at 7 weeks

Jack had wanted a puppy for a long time.  He always said he wanted a dog that would play ouside with him and follow him around the yard.  Some friends of ours had puppies they were selling.  I brought Jack up there to see the puppies and decide which one he wanted.  He originally wanted a male, but little Maddy followed him around and she is the one that he picked.  The first night we had her home, she cried ALL night.  She was very lonely.  She missed her mom and her sister.  The next night we put her to sleep in Molly's kennel and she did much better.  The next day, Paul, Jack and I went to Bismarck to get "stuff for Maddy.  He was so excited.  She loves toys, rawhide bones and Molly.  Molly isn't too sure about Maddy, she let her know who was the boss right away!

Maddy has turned out to be a very swwet little girl.  We all love her, she was trained pretty easy.  It is funny to have such a big dog around.  She doesn't realize how big she is aand tries to sit on our lap or sit in the smalled space.  She loves Jack and we often find her sleeping on his bed.  She is not allowed on any other bed in the house!  She actually wasn't going to be allowed upstairs, but when I was home alone with her, I didn't trust her alone downstairs.  I thought she might go potty or chew on something.  she has been up stairs ever since.

I am back!!!!!

hello to all my blog friends! I am not sure how many of you are reading this since it has been a LONG time since I posted anything on here. I am back to blogging, hoping to blog frequently, notice I didn't give an exact #. I do not want to promise anything I can't fulfill. It has been almost a year since I last posted. I know most of you probably gave up on me. Let me tell you, We have been very busy, I know, I know, who isn't busy there days. We finally got our computer back from the dr. We had to have our motherboard replaced and a few other things which I really do not understand. Oh well, I know it works again. I had to reformat by blog, I had done something crazy and it looked weird. It took me 2 days, but I finally got it up and running. So, here I am today blogging to all of you.
I am not even going to try and fill you in on the past 9 months. Gosh, I could have had a baby! no that is not why I didn't blog, but it would make sense. We had a lot of fun, visited a lot of people, played a lot of sports, did a lot of homework, everyone in the family celebrated another birthday and we got a new puppy. That is just to name a few crazy things in our life. I will do a blog just for the new puppy. Our new puppy is still a puppy, but not the size of a puppy! More to come soon.
Well, I better go for now. I don't want to bore you, please if you are reading my blog, leave me a comment so I know I still have blog friends.
Hope to hear from everyone! Talk to you again soon
Tammi

April is a busy month

WOW!!!!!!!!
what a busy month this has been already. We have had so many things going on and so many things still to happen. The first weekend in April we had a baby shower on Saturday afternoon, a dinner in the evening and Easter Sunday mass and Kynlee Plienis' baptism. Jack was asked to be Kynlee's godfather. He was so proud and so excited. The boys had so much fun on Saturday as we colored Easter eggs. They each had 18 eggs to do. Charlie had his finished in no time, so Will gave him some of his. I love to watch them color eggs. What an awesome tradition! They had fun with their Easter baskets and even had plastic eggs to find. The Easter bunny hid eggs around the family room. Then off to our church and then to the Methodist church for the baptism. What a beautiful day. The sun was out! Later in the day, we even cleaned out our garage. That was a project that was long overdue. What a gross job. Last weekend we had state wrestling in New Salem. Jack did awesome. He pinned 2 of his 3 matches and took 2nd. He was very proud to bring a home a trophy. Saturday night we went to the Martina McBride and Trace Atkins concert at the civic center with Cassie and Kameron. I wasn't to sure about Trace, but did recognize some of his songs. He sure has a deep voice. Martina was awesome, I have always loved her. She can sure sing. She is so tiny. She is older than I am and I know that I could not keep up with her. She is all over the place. We had a great time.
Sunday morning was our good friend Ryan Brown's first Holy Communion. We had mass at our old church in Bismarck and then to Sarah's for lunch. What a great day, he looked so cute all dressed up . Thanks for letting us share in such a special celebration with you.
Monday morning, Paul and I headed to Fargo for our annual Funeral Directors convention. It is always so nice to see everyone and learn new things. Paul was elected to the National Funeral Directors Policy Board again for another 3 years. YEAH! He really enjoys this position and has met so many wonderful people. We will enjoy 3 more years of traveling and attending funeal director functions. We got home on Wednesday and met Shannon, Sarah and their families and went to "walking with the Dinosaurs" What an incredible show. The dinosaurs were so life like and so loud. There were times that you jumped back in your seat. T-Rex was very big and had a very scary growl. If you get the chance to go, do so. It was a great show, everyone we were with had a great time and loved the show.
Today is it back to work. I am finishing up on things for a funeral tomorrow. I am going to go to Bismarck tomorrow and do a spring burial for Paul. This weekend we have lots of company coming for Jack's first Holy Communion. He is very excited. Once he does this then he can be a mass server. Keep Jack in your prayers as he is finally able to take part in the body and blood of Christ. We are so excited for him. God Bless you Jack!
I will update on our weekend later and post pictures of his special day.
thanks for checking in on us.
Tammi

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to my friend Sarah! I hope you have a great day! We have been friends since 9th grade. How crazy is that. I hope you liked your flower arrangement....ha ha. I have more presents for you when we get together. Hopefully we can get together soon for a birthday dinner.
Thanks for being such a good friend, we always have fun together and can make each other laugh. I am always impressed that we can communicate with each other without even saying a word, or we can change the subject quickly without missing a beat.
Have a great day!
love Tammi

Refridgerator Saga!

I am happy to report that the refridgerator was able to be fixed. The repairman said it was the motherboard. He ordered the new motherboard and put it together last night. This morning everything was very cold! YEAH! One nice thing about this whole ordeal is that everything is very clean, it almost looks brand new.
I don't even want to fill it up again. I want to keep it looking new and clean. While I was out to dinner last night for a birthday party, Paul and Will put everything back in the fridge and a few things in the freezer. That was nice, since I had the pleasure of cleaning out the thawed mess. Thanks Guys!!!
I also want to wish my good friend Lori a very happy belated birthday. We finally celebrated with dinner last night. Lori's birthday was March 8. we were a little late, but had a great time. Lori, Cassie and I went to the Harvest for an awesome dinner. thanks girls for a fun evening. I hope you had a very happy birthday. Thanks for being such a great friend/sister. Everyone thinks we are sisters, sometimes we act like sisters too. I am glad I have such great friends. We always have so much fun together.
Tonight Will and I are attending "Safe Night". Safe night is a presentation put on by the Emmons County Interagency for grades 5th , 6th and 7th. We will have supper, divide into groups and sit in on several presentations, and last they have a dance for the kids. The presentations range anywhere from facebook/internet safety, the national guard is bringing down their helicopter, a drug dog, and lots of other interesting and fun topics. I am part of the interagency and because Will is attending, I decided to help out. We are excited to go and hope it is as fun as it sounds. Will wasn't too sure that he wanted to go, but I talked him into it. He isn't a big fan of large crowds. It is kids from Hazelton, Linton and Strasburg. I know he will have fun once he is there. Jack, of course, wanted to go too. He is game for anything. I told him, his turn will be coming.
I tried to sign Charlie up for preschool for the fall of 2010 and they are FULL! Yikes, It took me a little while to call, I am not sure I wanted him to go yet. He is my baby, you know. I am going to keep bugging them and hopefully someone will drop out. We are not sure yet if he will go to Kindergarten when he turns 5 or wait a year. So many descions. It just seems to get worse the older they get.
talk to you later!