Thank You

I just wanted to take a minute to say thank you to everyone who left loving comments about my grandpa's current situation. To be in your thoughts and prayers means so much to me and my family. It makes me so grateful to have so many loving and thoughtful friends. I am truly blessed to have all of you in my life.

Coming To An End

Some of you may know, and many others may not, that my Grandpa Fowler has been battling lung cancer for a little over a year and a half. This past week we were told that his condition is beyond helping any further. Hospice will be coming to his home to keep him comfortable until he passes away but treatment will be stopped. On the plus side, he has hung on way longer than most people with his same condition. The down side, of course, is that we are losing a huge part of our family. The diagnosis came as such a shock. Christmas of 2006 came and went. The entire Fowler family was together as usual and life was good. Shortly after that the news hit. Grandpa has lung cancer. My mom's dad had lung cancer and he passed away less than 2 months after his diagnosis. How much time would we get with my grandpa? The next year and a half was a roller coaster. In and out of the hospitals, being told that he had less than a week and then him pulling out better then ever, everything that goes along with having a terminal illness.

While I have never been as close to my grandpa as some of my other family members, this has still been so hard to take in. To think about him really being gone. There were always things that you could count on when you went to my grandparents. One was that my grandpa would be sitting in his recliner drinking his coffee. It's so hard for me to think that in a short time that will no longer be.

Definitely the hardest part for me is to see my dad go through this. No one is closer to my grandpa then my dad. He is the only son of the 4 children. My grandpa taught my dad so much and I see my dad passing those things on to his sons. In a way I guess my grandpa will live on forever. I just see how much my dad is hurting and I can't help but think "what would I do if I lost my dad?" I feel so fortunate to have my dad and the entire Fowler family in my life. My dad stepped up to the plate to take the role of my dad when I didn't have one. He is an irreplaceable person in my life. I don't know what I would do if I lost him.

Though my grandpa has not passed away yet, hospice really means that it's only a matter of time. As his life is coming to an end, I realize how blessed I am to have been a part of the life that he had. He is truly an amazing man. I just wish that he didn't have to go through everything that he did the last year or so.

Tis The Season

Bob Sanders

Joseph Addai

Peyton Manning

That's right it's officially Colts season in the Riley house! Preseason officially kicked off last week! I use to careless about sports but when you live with a sports junkie you can't help but get roped in. My options were to get angry that sports ruled our house hold or get into it. The second option seemed to cause less fights and be a lot more fun once I got into it. I've gotten so into it that even Moxley sports a Colts collar, tag and on Sundays, her very own Colts jersey.

Family stickers

I absolutely can not stand the family stickers that you see on the back of every mini van and SUV in this state. I don't know why, I just think that they are totally cheezy. Taylor and I always joke around that we are going to put one on the back of our Pilot that just shows us and our dog since we don't have any kids and you pretty much have to have these stickers to have an SUV or mini van. I just don't get them. If you are driving a mini van it's more than likely cause you have a ton of kids. I don't need to know all of their names and that little Billy plays football and little Suzy is in ballet. Since you'll never really see it on my car, even if I end up with a dozen kids, I'll post it on my blog. So here it is! Our very own cheezy family sticker! Just me, Tay and our dog.

Coaching Again

As many of you know, Taylor's passion is football. He loved to play it and even more than that he LOVES to coach. It's that time of year again and Taylor is coaching a little league team again. In the past he has always coached for Jordan High's little league program. This year he has moved on to a new program. This year he is coaching for Hillcrest High's little league program. After feeling for a while like Jordan's program was going down hill, he was very excited to get the opportunity to coach for Hillcrest. His old coach and very good friend, Brandon Plant, called him up and asked Taylor if he would coach his son's team with him. This is a new challenge for Taylor. This is is first year coaching the youngest kids. He's coaching 8 and 9 year olds. He has always been able to coach kids who have some experiance. Most of these kids have never played football. Some barely even know what it is. Though it is hard to give up my evenings with my wonderful hubby, it's really worth it. When I see the excitement and pride in Taylor, it makes the nights alone not seem so bad. He loves doing this. I think that he loves coaching more then playing because he gets to be a part of the kids lives. Some of them will leave the season never caring if they ever see Taylor again. But, there will be the few who will never forget the years that Taylor coached them.

The Call

Taylor's brother Cooper received his mission call this week. We all went to his parent's house today to watch him open it. Cooper found out that he will be serving in the Independence, Missouri mission. Cooper will be heading to the MTC on October 8th. We are very excited for Cooper and wish him luck on his mission.

One Bad Week

If there was ever a week with a series of unfortunate events this was it. Nothing really life altering but just a lot of bad luck. It all started last Sunday. Taylor went out to wash the cars only to find out that civic had a big crack in the windshield. We have no idea how it got there but it now has to be replaced. Taylor then informed me that his Xbox had died. While playing it he heard a "pop" and then he got the "red ring of death." For those who don't have an Xbox, the "red ring of death" happens when your Xbox breaks. It's just a red ring that comes on the screen and you can't play anything. The Xbox now has to be sent away to be fixed. Then on Friday Taylor calls me at work to tell me that he dropped his Ipod in the sink. Luckily it is still under warranty but also has to be sent away to be fixed. As if that wasn't enough about an hour after the news of the Ipod Taylor called me at work again. This time he told me that our laptop was having problems. The anti virus software was booting us out of everything saying that we had 41 viruses. 41! We started to get a little freaked out because Taylor has finals coming up this week. There is no way that we could be without a computer. Luckily Taylor called Toshiba and it was an error with the software. After about an hour on the phone the computer was fixed. That was a huge relief. Once the computer was fixed I went online to check the bank account. I was surprised to find out that we were in the over draft. When I checked the account I found out that the DMV had taken out $188.00 from my account. I could not for the life of me figure out why. My cars get registered in December and January so why would the DMV take money out of my account? By this time it was too late to call the bank to try and figure it out so I had to wait until Saturday to check. Saturday morning Taylor went to the credit union. He found out that the money was for the registration for the civic. We wrote the check in January. The DMV got paid in January but the credit union never posted it to our account. I told Taylor that after this week if one more thing breaks or we end up being out anymore money I think I'm going to lose it. Thank goodness it's Sunday and a new week begins. We couldn't possibly have another week like this. Could we?

Another Semester Gone

As Taylor finishes another semester of school, I've been thinking a lot about this whole school situation. I know that you have all heard about how hard this situation has been for me. From living with my in-laws, being the main source of income, and giving up a lot of things that I wanted for Taylor and myself. I've done a lot of complaining and feeling sorry for myself. Rarely do I stop and think about how hard Taylor is working and what effect this is having on him. His job may not be bringing in the dough but he still works hard to do his part. On top of that he is busting his butt at school, all to better our future. I just wanted to take the time to make a post and tell him how proud of him I am.

Taylor, I love you so much and I am so proud of you. You are doing an amazing job. Keep up all the hard work. I know that it will all pay off in the end for all of us.

Fun At Jungle Jim's

Aurora and Courtney on the Swings

Taylor and Aurora

Courtney

Courtney and Aurora on the bumper cars

Aurora on the space ship ride

This past Saturday Taylor and I took his cousins girls, Aurora and Courtney, to Jungle Jim's. We had so much fun hanging out with our friends Jeremy and Tiffany and their two nieces. All of the girls played so well together. Courtney and Aurora had so much fun playing video games, winning tickets, and going on all the rides. Poor little Courtney is scared of a lot of things. She went on a ride similar to the music express at Lagoon. The ride operator sent the kids around in a circle going forward. He then stopped them and asked if they wanted to go backwards. All of the kids screamed "yeah" in excitement. Courtney hesitated and finally said "yes" with a look of fear on her face. I felt so bad when he ride operator turned around and said "that poor little girl is terrified." After that she was done with that ride but had a ton of fun on the rest of them. I think that Taylor's favorite part was watching the girls on the bumper cars. They could not figure out how to get the car started. The first time that they went they just sat there staring at us and yelling "ours is broken." The second time we sent them with Tiffany and Jeremy's nieces, Natalia and Ashlynn, in hopes that they knew what they were doing. That time was even better. They could only figure out how to go in circles over and over again. All in all we had a really good time.

My Husband The Super Trooper

So Taylor decided that he was going to grow a nasty mountain man beard. After a while it started driving me crazy. Besides the fact that it was totally uncomfortable to kiss him, he looked like a hobo. After weeks of nagging he finally shaved it off. In the middle of shaving he stopped to take this picture of his awesome super trooper mustache. Now don't everyone be jealous. This hottie is MY husband!