WOW the last few years have been a blur!!! I'm not even sure where to start! I guess with the kids is a great place!
Jake is now married to our wonderful Katie and they're expecting their first child in October! Baby Girl Hughes (BGH), as we refer to her in our home, is already so very loved! Picking a grandma name is HARD!!!! Harder than it needs to be really. I really wanted Mumzy, but all three of my kids shot that down! Then we tried other names, and they didn't measure up for me. My main thought, I didn't want to be called Grandma Missy...I'd settled on GG, which for me meant, Greatest Grandma, and then a few weeks later, picked MiMa, which is MIssy and grandMA combined. Cute right? Honestly, she could call me dumdum and I'll answer! Jake also graduated in 2020 in the midst of the plandemic as a Doctor of Physical Therapy. They now live about a half hour away, which is doable by Mima standards! He's running a PT clinic in Lake Stevens and succeeding! Exactly what you hope and pray for as a parent!
DJ is now 17 and will be a senior in the Fall, GAH! High school hasn't been the best for him, but the standards at a private school vs public school is HUGE! By my standards, he's doing okay and could do better if he'd apply himself. He's a smart kid! He's been working at Safeway since right after he turned 16 last year, and while it's not his fave, it pays for his gas and fun. He's also currently working the summer at Pro Club helping out in whatever camp they need him that week. After high school, he's still not sure what he's doing. He keeps threatening to join the Navy/Army and I'd prefer he didn't do that. By the same token, I also see how it would benefit him...still praying for him about it all. If nothing else, trade school is a definite option...but what trade? So many choices!
Samantha is now 15! I was reading an earlier post that said if I blink, she'll be 14...so true! She's driving and working and dancing! Ok, so she's not driving solo just yet, still has 7 mos to go for that, but driver's ed is done, and she has one more driving lesson before she can take her test. She's also working at Pro Club for the summer in the summer camp program with DJ and loving it! This week, she gets to be in dance camp, even tho Ninja camp has been her fave so far. And dance...this kid is PASSIONATE about all things dance!!! She's been on the competition team since 2016, and each year more and more dances get added to her dance card. I truly marvel at her ability to keep them all in her head. She'll be a sophomore this Fall and working towards doing Running Start next year which means she'll graduate high school AND college at the same time! Then she wants to go to the University of Washington to study psychology and become a guidance counselor. Love her drive!
Howie, he's SOOOO ready to retire! Like, last year! But the gubment says he has to wait til 67 and 8 months. Then our plan is to move to the west coast (even more west than we are now) and hopefully, he can set up shop as a Captain and charter fishing trips for people. Imagine, getting to fish as often as he wants!!! He and DJ are leaving this week to go to Port Hardy fishing. Since our freezer was just emptied due to lack of attention (the door got left open.) I'm anxious to get it stocked back up with fish! He had his left knee replaced last year, and I can now run faster than him...hahaha, if you know me, you know that isn't fast at all! But still makes me chuckle! He also had and beat kidney cancer in 2016. Thankfully he was one of the lucky ones and just had to have the kidney removed with no further treatment other than the MRI's for the following 5 years until he was declared cancer free!
And now me...there's so much to catch up on! It's been 8 years, so we'll just go year by year.
2016 was the year of the cancer, but also my first time getting to go the ACM's in Vegas with a dear friend who managed to get us 2nd row seats!!!! What an amazing time we had!!!
2017 I got my first work visa and got a legal J O B! I applied and was hired by Union Bank here in town and the commute was an absolute dream!
2018 I was denied my green card and had my work visa expire, which meant I had to quit the bank. Took a few months to regroup, and got another work visa 10 months later and the bank wanted me back! I wanted to be back! I loved getting to know that people of Monroe and my co-workers were the BEST!!!
2019 was a banner year for me in that I FINALLY got that elusive green card!!! OOH boy did we celebrate!!! Legal is a GOOD feeling! Such a weight off my shoulders that I'd been carrying around for 16 years! Yes, 16 years!!!
2020 was a horrible year for everyone as the plandemic hit and we were all forced to stay home. Literally, everything was cancelled as you well know. The kids switched to online school for 3 months after thinking it would only be 2 weeks to "flatten the curve" and I became their part-time teacher. Who decided kids could be accountable for doing their work online?? ha! What a joke! DJ graduated 8th grade with 3 kids in his class. Thankfully the high school we chose opted to do in-person school that fall, and after some fancy footwork, we got Samantha enrolled too.
2021 was almost as awful! The bank I worked for closed the branch I was at and moved us all over to Woodinville, well almost all, one of my coworkers changed jobs completely instead. After three months of commuting 45 minutes instead of 15, I decided to quit the bank. I then got hired at Cedar Springs Camp and loved it!! They didn't like me enough apparently to keep me on year-round, or even hire me back for the next summer. It's all good. In September my mom had her first stroke, and I flew home to help her recovery. Ended up staying 3 months as my dad started declining and was put on hospice. I left December 20th to be with my family for Christmas.
2022 my dad passed away on February 3rd as his body had had enough. My mom suffered a few more small strokes, sold the house they'd lived in for 20 years, moved to a senior complex, and basically started over at the age of 79! I flew back for his memorial in May so my mom wouldn't have to spend his birthday (also their 50th anniversary) alone. I also helped get rid of a TONNE of stuff she didn't have room for in her two-bedroom apartment. That summer, Jake and Katie got married in Index, WA literally days before the town was shut down for wildfires. Twas a beautiful ceremony and evening! In September I started a new job working in the office of a local company that makes screen printing framed and panels. Back to the nice 20-minute commutes! And lunches in the park!
2023 started off great! And then BAM it wasn't! March 17th the leprechauns tripped my mom and she fell and broke her femur in two places. Front and back, right up near her hip joint. Then she had two massive strokes, and we didn't know if she was gonna make it. I flew home on the 20th to be with her and the rest of my siblings around her bed. Now, I didn't go to medical school, but, given the location of her strokes, and what was affected, I'm pretty sure she had the first stroke that caused her to fall down from standing still. And then had the second one after her 6 hour surgery as when I spoke with her, thank you facetime, I noticed her droop was pronounced. It wasn't til the next day that it was confirmed she'd had two! I ended up staying for three weeks, once we knew she was stable and ready for rehab. She ended up being in hospital for almost 13 weeks before being discharged. It was determined that she couldn't live unassisted, so we found her a different senior place with 24 hour nursing care. Got her moved and two days later she was back in the hospital as they thought she'd had a heart attack. She didn't, but it was discovered she had 6 blockages in her heart that could close up at any time. It was also learned she has had 8 strokes total! She's a walking miracle. She was finally released on July 5th and is doing great in her new place!
That brings us to today, July 10th, and it's been a beautiful summer! With more fun to come! Samantha and I are going to see Six, the musical, in Seattle this weekend, and the boys are off on the 13th for their fishing trip. Howie and Samantha get to go see Taylor Swift the weekend after. We've got three weddings to attend in August and BGH will arrive in October. Whew! Oh, I also switched jobs (again) and now work for a lawyer here in town doing proof-reading and being a gopher! I absolutely love it!
I guess this is a long enough post for now!
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