Well, I haven’t actually written a post in a while, so here ya go. :)

Our house has been a little crazy the past week. My Uncle Ted moved in last Thursday because he’s not doing very well at all. He’s in one of the upstairs bedrooms and we have a hospital bed here, and he’s on oxygen. Most of you who read this probably already know all this, but... I’m gonna write about it all anyways.

Shortly before Christmas Uncle Ted was diagnosed with Stomach cancer. We then later found out that it had spread to the liver and lungs. He decided he didn’t want to do any chemo, since it had spread. Up until last Tuesday he was going up and down stairs, playing games with kids, and besides some pain, he wasn’t doing too bad. But Wednesday he started declining. Fast. He’s on oxygen full time and is so weak, he can’t do anything himself. He asks to get up a lot, but he’s only up a few minutes, and he’s ready to get back in bed. Because he’s so short of breath and so weak, he can hardly talk and when he does, he’s very difficult to understand.

So, the past week has been filled with Hospice, Friends and Family coming in and out.
My job is to keep the house looking decent. I haven’t been getting much school done, which is so not good. :

If you want to read more and get an update, Ted has a Caring bridge site.
Just go to Caringbridge.org and type in tedschick.

Thanks to all those who have brought food, and just pray that he can go to his new home before having to suffer any more!

Jenny... Engaged?!

Yep! So happy for ya Jenny(& Bob) :) Don't fall off the face of the earth now.... especially with your blogging, now that you have more important things to do. :)

Since you're one of my blogging buddies (and my friend...:), I had to post about it!

My only January birthday!

HAPPY 40th BIRTHDAY, AUNT DAWN!! Hope you had a good one! Love you lots, you're an awesome aunt!

Florida!

Here's some pictures... and hopefully I can post some more sometime. There was too many pictures, and I couldn't decide which one's to post. Here's just a taste:



One of the many meals we ate out. This was "Crabby Bill's" and it was sooo good.
The first show at Sea World. Notice we're all freezing and holding and drinking coffee.
A lot of these pictures are Heidi's. This one is, and I love it!
Cute and funny seal/walrus show.
Us Kids at Sea World
Peguins(spelling? The spell check won't pop it up) make me laugh.
A baby nursing from it's mother.
SHAMU!
Amazing!!
Heidi and Adam riding the roller coaster that I wasn't brave enough to go on.
Luke took a picture of a picture. It's a little blurry, but I love Adam's face!
Dolphins! I love them.
Heidi took my school pictures while we were there. It was really windy, so most of them didn't turn out. This was the only good one.
Family Pictures! Here's 2 shots. The one on the beach, all our faces are a little shadowed.
I think this is my favorite. Except I don't really like the background that much...

That's all for now! (If you want, you can look at Heidi or Luke's... you can see more pictures there)

Home.

Yep, we came home to a really windy, snowy, and drifty Illinois Saturday night. uggg... I hate it.

A week in Florida was good, but not real warm. Everyone's been telling us that it was better than here... Which, it was.. but it was still cold. It was usually in the high 50's, low 60's most of the time.

I didn't blog in Florida(like Heidi..) because I'm not that pathetic. It's vacation for goodness sakes!


HIGHLIGHTS:

--We got to go to Sea World in Orlando, which was amazing. I've been to the California one, but that was like 8 years ago. The Shamu show was awesome!! Although I dressed like it was 75 degrees outside (it was only 57 out with no sun) and was FREEZING the whole day, it was still great!

--Morning walks/runs on the beach!

--The super warm pool

--Going to the sweet mini golf course

--Flying!

--Going out to eat lots.. :)


NOT HIGHLIGHTS:

--Freezing while taking Family pictures

--Just the cold weather in general

--Not getting very tan :

--Having to share a pull-out with Luke (at least it wasn't every night.)

I can't think of anything else right now...

but, I'm going to post pictures sometime this week...I hope!


Have a great day, and KEEP WARM!

TOMORROW!

WE GET TO GO TO SUNSHINE STATE!!!

I'm kind of dreading the traveling... but definetly not Florida!!

This week has been a little busy. I need to go finish packing, actually....

Anyways,
Have a great week, and I'll be back posting Florida & Christmas pictures!!

see ya!


p.s. I wanted to post one last time to make you all jealous again. :D

Happy New Year!

Well this year (or I guess you could say last years) New Years Eve was not so great. I was sick with a cough, fever, headache, and sore throat type stuff but took ibuprofen and went to church anyways. Afterwards I was going to go to Uncle John & Aunt Jeanne’s with my parents, Jill & Larry (Jill’s my cousin from KS) and some others from my Schick family. But, Elle & Haley convinced me to go with them to the young group thing even though I was sick.... they didn’t care. We just ate, talked & played games, and it was pretty fun. But I was kind of unsocial after about 11... because I felt awful! We didn’t leave until 1:30, and I was soo ready to go home. (Not because I didn’t like the people!:) So, I think it would’ve been fun if I had felt normal.

I’ve been sick since then. I think I’m better today, except for my cough. I was looking so forward to my break, but all I’ve been doing is lying around and sleeping. It seems like this weekend is never going to end! It’s like 3 Saturday’s put together! Usually we do something with family on New Year's Day... but we didn't this year. So it was kind of boring.

One more week of school... and then FLORIDA!!!! We fly out in a week from today! :) We’ll be there by now in just ONE week! I’m excited. :D

(I hope this post makes some sense...)

Merry Christmas!

Here's our Christmas picture(s) and our letter. It's a little belated. :)

It's so good at this time of year to go through our list of family and friends and remember each one of you. Our year has been busy, and has had its share of both joys and difficult times.

Heidi & Luke sold their condo in June, and moved to a rental house we have in the country. They are learning more than they ever wanted to about home maintenance (remember our heavy Sept. rains?) We celebrated with Heidi when she graduated from college on Dec. 13 with a degree in nursing. She is very glad to be done with school, and is excited to start her job at Methodist Hospital in postpartum/nursery.

Adam (17) has spent a lot of time this year working for my brother Tom, and helped him all through harvest. He also does a lot of hay baling, guitar playing, and hunting, and so far this year has provided our family with a deer and some pheasants. He bought a black and tan coon hound puppy this summer that he plans to train to tree coons, although so far she's just dug holes and chewed on our van. We are very thankful that he began repenting in September.

Wendi (16) keeps very busy with schoolwork, piano, violin, orchestra, and babysitting. She loves kids! She is the house organizer, and without her many things (including these cards) would not get done. She got her license in August, so I have a new driver eager to run all the errands I don't like doing.

Luke (11) loves to PLAY. Whether it's in the sandbox, his fort outside, farm toys, or legos- as long as it doesn't involve chores or school he is very enthusiastic about it. He and Max took a hunter safety course this fall and he can't wait to get out and hunt.

We took our usual week vacation to northern Wisconsin in June with Max's family. All his siblings were there for the whole week, and it was a special time for them to be together.

Max has kept busy at work, either doing it or trying to get more of it! My days are full at home. My mom’s health has been a big part of my life this year. She had many complications after surgery in June for stomach cancer, and for several weeks we didn’t expect her to survive. Miraculously she did, and is living by herself and doing well at this time. The future is unknown, but just to have her here living a good quality of life is such a gift to us.

We wish each of you a Christmas filled with the joy and peace that only Christ can bring.

With love,

Max, Mary, & family