Ketchup

Where to begin? I really don’t want this to take you an hour to read and me 4 hours to type and upload images! So, I’m thinkin a summary is in order as we ‘ketchup.’

Well to start off, I am an official aunt all over again! My brother Michael and sister-in-law Becky had their guy on June 3rd. Luke Joseph Martinez. What an absolute cutie! A good mixture of the two of them… hard to determine who he looks like more.  Michael and Becky are already doing a fabulous job as parents, if I do say so myself. Just look at em!

The house! Well we had camera issues, so we were not able to get evidence of moving day. We’ve figured out the problem, so those pictures should be coming to you next time. It’s a good thing we have friends who are willing to spend a day (or two or three) unloading all our crap and cramming it into corners and crevices! Being a homeowner is a blessing beyond words… just to know you can paint, nail, damage, add-on, and claim as your very own every part of the house, in addition to plant, mow and fence our very own yard? Well it’s something I hope all of my friends and family can experience one day.  Sure our old, rickety, quirky home has its problems, but you won’t hear me complaining… for at least a couple months. By the way, our mailing address changed. It’s now PO Box 602, Green Mtn Falls 80819. And for those of you who feel inclined to send UPS/FedEx, our physical location is now 10374 El Paso Ave, Green Mtn Falls 80819.  Yes we moved from El Paso Trail to El Paso Avenue on the other side of town. Sounds like someone got lazy with the street naming.

Well we moved JUST in time for Micah to start crawling! He was just waiting for us to provide him ample floor space. Although he had been somehow moving from point A to point B erratically, Micah finally got his legs and arms in agreement with each other and can now move intentionally towards his toy box for playtime! Today it was so sweet… he was on the other side of the livingroom. Looked right at me, swiftly crawled to my chair and reached up one arm for me to pick him up. He got a huge grin on his face when I did. Before he had to whine from where he was to get my attention. That’s gotta give him some relief to have control over those things now. Here’s a video of some of his first moves:

This boy has grown into some personality in his 9 months of life! Courtesy laughs have become common, along with his laugh to get attention. His new smile causes him to bare all teeth (all SIX of them!), and snort in and out of his scrunchy nose. We captured a half-way version of it.

When he gets giggling, sometimes the smallest things will set him off.

In Tony news… he is now an official certified EMT! Those classes seemed endless, but alas they are complete! His next move once his state cert arrives, is to apply for the local ambulance service for a shift every week. He’d love to work part time in that field. Or full time one day, Lord willing. In the mean time, he enjoys working on his very own lawn and installing random appliances in our house. I just think he likes having an excuse to use his tools.

In Tawni news… I began working part time for some friends of ours who are very successful realtors; the ones who helped us buy our house. The office is BUSY and very challenging, but you know I like that type of atmosphere. I work all day Mondays and Fridays while my Mom watches Micah. I feel like I’m finally making a contribution to society again! And it’s nice to be able to help our financial situation now that we have a mortgage.

Although the good times are rollin, we’ve had some really hard times affect our friends and family lately. There just seems to be quite the spiritual battle going on with SO many people I know. To mention just a couple… my good friend from high school, Lynae, had a horrible ordeal a little while back. Her son Ian (the one born just hours before Micah down the hall from us in the hospital) suffered a brain injury while at day care. To make matters worse, all evidence points to Shaken Baby Syndrome. When it first happened, we were hearing a prognosis of ‘If he wakes up, there will be severe damage to his mobility, eye sight, behavior, and many other functions.’ We had family, friends, and friends of friends, even strangers praying for this little 7 month old precious boy. There was a prayer covering over him like I’ve never seen before. Some friends went to the hospital to pray over and annoint him one day. Within the hour of them leaving, his vitals immediately improved, at a level that shocked the doctor and nurses! Minute by minute, Ian began to improve to the point where the hospital staff began referring to him as their ‘miracle baby.’ Ian woke up, breathed on his own, moved all of his limbs, and slowly started regaining his old personality! He simply is a miracle. Of course Lynae and Kevin are dealing with the aftereffects of this incident. Ian requires therapy to regain full use of his right side and eye sight. But Lynae told me that every day she sees a visible improvement. They must now live through the ordeal again however, while going through the justice system. The state of Colorado does not take child abuse lightly, and they will prosecute accordingly. Your continued prayers are greatly appreciated, as the woman who caused this injury may not be telling the entire truth to the authorities. I don’t know how many details I’m allowed to divulge, so I’ll leave it at that for now.

Another sad incident happened with the death of Tony’s dad’s wife. Yvonne and Jim were married this last September. Didn’t even make it to their 1 year anniversary before she passed. Yvonne suffered from a very rare form of cancer, in her bile duct. Interestingly enough, her first husband died of the exact same rare cancer. Jim is trying to process all of this with a positive outlook, saying that he very well could have been put in her life solely for the purpose of encouraging and comforting her through the death process. At the funeral, Yvonne’s family spoke of this time with Jim being the happiest they had seen her. They lived their lives to the fullest. Yvonne was a believer, so there is comfort in knowing where she ended up! Tony and I took a quick weekend trip to SoCal to attend the memorial service and family events surrounding it. We were both glad to have been able to make the trip.

The rest of our past couple months have been filled with lots o’ friends, family and fun. I’ll just tell you about some of the events through pictures.

Superman PJ's

Like Grampa Like Grandson

Good times at the park

Micah's dedication to the Lord

De Fam

First baseball game!

He can officially sleep anywhere!

Fun at the zoo

1st Rockies Game (and vs. the Dodgers)!

But his Daddy and Grampa made him rep the Dodgers too.

That about sums it up for now. I’m sure I forgot a ton, but there’s always the next blog. As you can see, I finally figured out how to add videos to this site! So I’ll be creating a page devoted entirely to videos… they go back as far as Micah’s birth date, so stay tuned!