Moving on up to WA

We packed up a 52 ft Ludtke truck on February 18th and realized we had way to much stuff and had to rent 12 ft trailer from uhaul. At first we had it behind the Tahoe but then we decided to let Jon take off and get to WA asap while Papa, me and the girls road in style in the RV. We took off on Saturday morning for the long trip from AZ to WA. It's about 1600 miles. Something was wrong with the plug in on the rv so the lights on the trailer wouldnt turn on which meant we we could only drive during daylight hours! Needlessly to say it was a long trip. 4 nights and 4 1/2 days of driving. (I drove 2 hours of all that) Jon made it in 2 days! The kids were exceptionally good considering that we were stuck in a 40 ft winnebago. There was a 36 hour period were the kids didnt even get out of the rv!

I let Sam sit at the table and color until the twinks thought they should be able to too. This was the first trip that I did let them out and they could lay on the bed and watch movies or read or whatever but they couldnt walk around!! That helped out a lot but they did like to sit up front in their carseats.

the twinks watching something. They did spend a lot of time in that position!

Our second night we stayed at a KOA near Lake Shasta in CA. I didnt pack for snow but that didnt stop the kids from playing in it! They were out there for 20 minutes or so until they got cold!

perfect shoes for walking in the snow!

playing with all the technology...ipod touch, mobigo and my first leap pad

Papa wore that outfit for 3 days!

Welcome to WA!

My best friend, my mom

Kay Ludtke
March 3, 1939-March 2, 2011

On March 2, my mom passed away from pneumonia. It was really quick and very unexpected. I am still in shock and a little numb about the whole thing. I miss her so very much. 7 1/2 years ago she was diagnosed with aplastic anemia. They tried a bunch of different things until finally in January of 2006 she got a stem cell transplant from a woman back east named Debbie. For the past couple years she has been fighting grafts vs host disease in her legs and of course taking a ton of pills. Last month was her last treatment in AZ and she was excited for us to all be in Bellingham. She left AZ the 2nd week of February to start packing. They were moving to the condo out at Birch Bay and my family took over the ranch. She was so excited to finally live full time at the bay. We were stressing about all the stuff we had. We were both downsizing and we way to much stuff. We talked about how we'll have a big garage sale in the spring and sell stuff on ebay. We got up here on February 23rd (after a 5 day journey in the RV with my dad driving the whole way...I did drive for 2 hours one afternoon) She wasn't feeling to hot but she came out to tell me what to do with some of the stuff. We didn't go see her that weekend because she was sick. We talked a lot on the phone though, that's what we did! Really early on Monday morning my Dad ended up calling the ambulance to take her in. That's when we found out she had pneumonia and she was in septic shock and her white blood cells were gone. She was in ICU. On Tuesday morning she woke up and was doing as dad put it 189% better. I went to visit at 4 that afternoon she was coughing and they were trying to figure out what was going on. My dad decided to go get a hair cut and then head home so he could organize the heavy stuff before she came home. At 4:30 I helped her to the bathroom and her heart started pounding hard. I got her back into bed and called the nurse and dad. The next thing we know a bunch of Dr's were there. It looked like things were calming down so I left at 5:30. My last conversation with her was about Charlie Sheen (she wasn't a fan) and these pewter cups that she had. We laughed about these cups because when I was a kid I finally got to sit at the grown up table one evening and she was using these cups (think knights of the round table big pewter goblets) and I was so excited until I drank out of it and my water tasted all metallicy! We laughed about it. She told me to pack them up and we'll ebay them (I think I'll keep them now) and she apologized for not talking so much. At 9pm I called my dad for something and he said things werent looking so good and they were talking about taking her back to the ICU. At midnight he called and said she was going. My brother Lance is living here to so we raced into town. My other brother Lex met us there. He passed out in the ICU and ended up in the ER and he had pneumonia. He was gone for an hour or so. The Dr talked to us and told us that she had been on 6 different antibiotics and nothing was working. My dad and the Dr talked to her earlier and she didn't want any heroic measures taken. She wanted to go with "God's plan." That's the one thing that brings me so much comfort is she was so strong in her faith. It was truly the hardest day of my life. At 5:20 am on March 2, 2011 she went to be with the Lord Jesus Christ. She was and will always be my best friend. We talked up to 6 times a day on some days and life just isn't going to be the same without her. I am sad that my kids aren't going to grow up with Namy. But as Sam told me one morning that "she is watching us Mom, she is everywhere. She is my Angel!"

The ABC's of Dreaming Summit

Samantha's class made a book...Sam was chosen to make the cover! It's her and Mrs. Nuesse.

and the letter Ii!

and I even made an appearance...brought a tear to my eye!

Samantha had her birthday party yesterday. She invited the whole class but only the girls showed up! Good times! Kimba the clown rocked and spent the whole two hours face painting!

Poor Courtney

After school today we picked Sam up from school in our wagon. The wagon has a trailer so its perfect for all the kids. Courtney was riding in the trailer and we were in front our neighbors house on the way back and some how the trailer got loose. Courtney wasnt sitting in it properly so when it got loose she went a tumbling. Blood everywhere! Scary! I scooped her up and told Sam to get the wagon. Sydney sat there and screamed because she wanted me to pick her up too. I left her there and made Sam go get her while I tried to clean Courtney up. The bottom cut looked like it needed a stitch so I got everybody in the car. I tried to call a Amy and Kim to see if they could watch Sydney and Sam but neither answered. I drove by Amy's house and thankfully she was there so I left them there and headed to urgent care. I went in and the lady at the front desk said that it would be over and hour wait and she thought the ER would be a better bet. I called the pediatricians office and for some stupid reason they don't do stitches so I had to go to the ER. I didn't want to run all over the west valley trying to find an urgent care that had a shorter wait. The ER is so much more expensive, we have $150 copay and if I would have gone to the drs office or urgent care, the total bill probably wouldn't be that much! I hate that they have to charge so much but that's where the people with no insurance go and they end up having to make up for all the no pays somehow! I digress...back to the story. We got right in. Had to sit in a room for a bit before the doc came in then we had to wait a little more for the nurse to come in to put the gel on it to numb it then we had to wait for it to numb then the doc came back and said that it didnt need any stitches just butterfly bandages so then we had to wait for another nurse to come in and put those on and then wait a little more for the discharge papers...so we were there for 1 hour 35 minutes total which I didnt think was bad for being an ER!

before

it's numbing (she thought it tickled)

after

we got back to Amy's and Courtney really wanted to play for a bit so we played for a half hour. Our plan this afternoon was to go grocery shopping but since that didnt happen "whataburger" it was for dinner! On the way home Sam asked why everything always happens to Courtney...she is the one who broke her arm and has had plenty of bumps and scratches on her...she is my crazy one!

A secret

Today I took the twinks to Walmart so they could pick out a present for Samantha's birthday. After picking out about 10 different things and telling me what they want for Christmas over and over they picked out this mermaid bathtub toy. At dinner tonight Courtney told Sam that they bought her her present.
Sam "what is it?"
Courtney "i'll tell you when we get to washington"
S "what is it?"
C "it's a secret but I'll tell you one thing when you open it up it will be a mermaid!"

Courtney can't keep a secret!

The twinks sing

The Twinks preschool class sang in front of the church today. If these videos dont put a smile on your face well then I dont know what would!