Our Holiday Letter 2009

As I begin this letter from Janurary of last year, it starts with very sad news. We lost my sister, Laura to stage 4 Lung Cancer. It was an awful time for our family. She was diagnosed a few weeks after my daughter Abbie was born in September and was told with Chemo and Radiation, she had a good chance of living up to a year. She barely held on for four months. She died suddenly on Janurary 3rd 2009. What a way to start the new year. Then to follow, a drunk ran through my mother and father's house totalling their car and a shed and part of the wall in my mother's bedroom. Thank the Lord above that the car and shed were blocking the house, or that would have been my mother's sleeping head the drunk's car would have hit! Then a week after that, my daughter got RSV, which is a very severe respiratory infection in babies which requires a breathing machine, antibiotics, and steroids. Lucky I caught it in time and she didn't have to spend time in the hospital. By this time, I was ready to throw in the towel. We had both Nico and Abbie baptized in April and it was very beautiful. They were baptized Catholic. Nico's Godparent's are Dave's Aunt Mary and Uncle Joel and Abbie's Godparent's are Dave's Dad and Stepmom(Mom). I couldn't have asked for better people for Godparent's for my kids!
My Mom had to have another surgery in June on her neck...this makes three! Hopefully the last! Can God please give this woman a break! She really did well considering she had a large blood clot in there and scared he hell out of us! I'll tell you, that woman is a trooper!! I am hoping this will be the last of the surgeries for a long time.
My dad is still the same only , you all ready for this...HE STOPPED SMOKING!!! Isn't that the best news EVER??? I am soooo proud of him. Keep up the good work dad!
My kids are getting SOOO BIG, smart and handsome!
David will be 10 years old in March. He is smart. Mostly A's and B's. He takes Karate and Jake turned 8 in July. He got his first Quad!!! He is a very responsible rider.
Nico will be 5 in May. He is over 4 feet tall and weighs over 80lbs.He is my little tank. He is so remarkably intelligent that sometimes it scares me. He will be starting school next fall. Abbie Cadabbie will be 15 months on the 4th of December and I am here to tell you, she is a PISTOL! She has an altitude to match her cuteness! She sasses and beats the crap out of Nico and defineately rules the roost here on Cedar Ave...I taught her well! You go girl!!!!
Dave and I will celebrate our 5th weding Anniversary on Christmas Eve this year. Wow, it's hard to believe that we have been together for seven years already. It seems like yesterday we met! We are re-newing our vows on June 12, 2010. We are having an actual wedding and reception. The kids will be in the wedding, which will be great. I am hoping everyone stays healthy and put until then! It will be a joyous occasion!
My niece Ashley got married on New Years Eve last year. It was kind of last minute, because she wanted my sister to be a part of her wedding. I am glad she did, because my sister passed away three days later. Ashley and Doug will be celebrating their one year Anniversary soon.
I hope you all have a wonderful, and happy Hoiday Season and I sure hope the next year is better than the last. It has to be for me and my family. May God Bless my sister Laura, up in Heaven. We love her very much. We miss you and it will not ever be the same here without you.

Happy Holidays...

Love,
The Kieta's
Dave, Shannon,
David, Jacob, Nico, and Abbie

Black Friday Blues

I remember when my sister in law Pam and I used to gear up and go shopping on Black Friday. We would have our coffee in hand, and Tylenol, and tennis shoes. I LOVED spending days with her, she was so much fun. We were like soul sisters. We kind of drifter apart over the years. And since her and my brother have seperated, we hardly talk at all. Not because of the separation, but because we have our own crazy lives. She has taken on the role of mommy to her two younf grandsons. And I have two babies myself. Back in the olden days, we would sit on the porch until the wee hours of the morning listening to music and talking about life. I remember when I got married the first time and left for my honeymoon, we cried for three hours because we didn't know how we would survive without one another for a WHOLE WEEK! Oh, Pammy Sue... how I miss you! I will always think of you as my sister...and I will always love you like one...no matter where the path of life takes us...Zat U Santa Clause????

Happy Turkey Day

Gobble-Gobble...
It's Thanksgiving already! My husband is hunting and I have the house pretty much decorated for the Holidays. We have yet to go out and chop down the tree. Maybe the weekend after next. I don't want to do it too soon for two reasons:
1. I don't want it to rot too soon.
2. Abbie...Need I say more?
This is our first Thanksgiving without Laurie. But she HATED Thanksgiving. She never got to donner on time, or anthing else for that matter! She was defineately never stressed herself out getting anywhere. But don't we all wish we could be like that?

My brother was supposed to be released from jail for the Holiday. Nobody has heard anything from him. I truly hope he straightens his life out. For my sweet mother's sake. For the love of God, my mother has been praying for 40 some years that he straighten's up! It is so sad to waatch your family fall apart over drugs and alcohol, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it.

I went to my Rheumatologist yesterday and he is doing some extensive testing. More blood work and xrays. Hopefully I will have a diagnosis when I go back in Janurary.
I am so sick and tired of being in constant pain.

I hope everyone has a delightful Holiday and does not eat too much turkey and pie! What am I thankful for?
My healthy family and that I DO NOT HAVE TO COOK DINNER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mangia! Mangia!!!!!!!!!!!

Let the festivities begin...

Well, yesterday was the first day for alot of things!
1. First day of West Virginia rifle hunting.
2. First day I started decorating for Christmas.
3. First time ever my son actually tried to eat Buck meat! Bleh! He ate a slim jim Dave had made from the doe he shot a few weeks ago. YUCK!!!
4. First time I actualy threw sets of lights away when I plugged them in and the didn't work. Usually I make Dave fix them fo hours, only to have to take them back offin a week and put new ones on again anyway. So, plug them in, don't work. THROW THEM OUT!!! By new!
So, I got a good bit done last night, but Abbie was being so clingy, I couldn't work the way I wanted to. So hopefully today, I will get a little more done. BAhhumbug!

Oh Christmas Tree...

As the Holidays come creeping up on me, really fast, as they always do. I go and agree to have a Tupperware party on Sunday. Amisdst the craziness of everything ELSE I have to do, clean the house in particular for the decorating of the Christmas Tree, we have decided to start a NEW family tradition this year. We are going to bundle the kids up, venture out and chop down a 9 foot, Blue spruce tree. I am sue it will be worth it, but I am afraid my littlest munchkin won't leave it alone. She is only 15 months old! A perfect age to ransack all my decor. Which is why I am usually decorated by now, but this year I am waiting a few weeks longer. It's a few weeks less stress, RIGHT? I am sure the tree will be beautiful when it is done, but the question of the day is, How long will it stay that way? I remember when Nico was her age. My tree only had decorations on it from halfway up. It was the most hiddeous looking tree you would ever lay eyes on. We will see hoe it goes...like everything else, wish me luck!

Off to see the wizzard...

Well, today is the day...
We are FINALLY getting the kids their H1N1 vaccinations!! HOORAYYY! I honestly didn't think we were ever going to get them. I was so worried about it, I couldn't sleep. Everynight you hear of more and more kids dying of this disease. It is awful. Nico will get the mist,and Abbie will get the injection. Then I believe in 21 days, they have to get another one. FUN!
I can't understand why they let things get so out of control before they actually do anything about them. Shut the schools down until it get's under control. I am a firm believer in keeping the disease isolated. Oh well, who the hell am I guess, just someone who worked in healthcare for 20 some years...
Wish us luck!

Everyday is more sad news

Seems to me that everday is more sad news reguarding this horrible H1N1 outbreak. It's become a huge epidemic around here. Now they have confirmed two definite deaths, a 31 yr old and a five month old. It is so rampid it's not even funny. My kids still are not vaccinated because no one has the shots available yet. You literally have to drive to Pittsburgh to get them. Being that both kids have to get two of them 21 days apart, that makes it a little difficult! I won't take the kids anywhere because it scares me too bad. I will be a happy camper when this is all over. Please, let it be soon!