Grief and Loss – SteeleLife

10Nov 2008 by Kaylene 1 Comment

Sweet Mac, Sad News

Animals, Grief and Loss, Life in Texas, Me, Memories, Pictures

Our Zoo's prize elephant baby passed away lastnight. This is truly heartbreaking. He's been a big source of joy for us in our family, and regularly one of the things we have to visit at the Zoo. Today's terribly rainy weather suddenly seems very fitting. Houston Zoo Mouns Passing of Beloved Elephant Mac (click for zoo's article)

02Nov 2008 by Kaylene 3 Comments

ICE or In Case of Emergency

Family, Grief and Loss, Health Concerns, Polls, Pregnancy

OK, I deleted the chain email, but people are doing this "ice" thing, where in your contacts on your cell you put "ice" in front of the names of the people you'd want contacted in case something happened and you weren't able to respond about who to contact. Ice Husband, ice2 Husband desk, ice3 Mom, ice 4 Mom cell, ice 5 MIL, etc... While I was pregnant I was especially concerned about this and put "husband" in front of Kevin's numbers, and "Mom," and "OB/GYN," and "Ped, Dr. ******," etc... So hopefully if anything had ever happened that they'd be able to contact the right people, and get necessary records, as well as wished doctors for my care. Thankfully it was never used, but I was happy to know that…

05Oct 2008 by Kaylene 1 Comment

Visiting Graves

Grief and Loss

I had a chance to visit 4 graves that I hadn't been to before a couple nights ago. My Uncle Lorin's grave, who died on my 25th birthday, his two children's graves who'd died at birth due to the same kidney problems that took his life, I'd been to their graves before, but they'd been moved when Lorin died to all be together. His oldest son announced their first baby about the same time he passed, and their baby is just a couple weeks younger than Joey, so he missed holding his first grandchild by just a few months. His sweet wife Aunt Analee, seems to be doing pretty well, I love her and wish her the best. I also visited Paula's grave for the first time. It was…

14Sep 2008 by Kaylene 3 Comments

Still Sinking In

Aiden, Grief and Loss, Health Concerns, Life in Texas, Me, Memories, Michael, To new beginnings

I don't think people realize how much this storm has effected this community. I'm grateful there are not more deaths, but it will take us a while to recover from all of this. There's a very somber mood about. People are panicking as they run out of supplies that they hadn't thought of. I've seen a lot of alcohol, which isn't normal to me. We need to boil water for a while, but have enough water pressure to do dishes and laundry again. We still have a bit of bottled water though we are starting to ration the boys on that. We're still "stuck at home" and Michael and Kevin are off the school and work hook tomorrow, well unless Kevin needs to run a short update. We feel so…

13Sep 2008 by Kaylene No Comments

Ike Photos

Grief and Loss, Life in Texas, Me, Memories, Pictures, Slide Shows, The end is near, To new beginnings

The "Tree" Aiden left his window open, AgggggggHHHHHHH! For more, here's my Flickr, so you can see a bunch of our photos, there are a few more that are a little more location specific on my facebook profile if you want to go look there.

13Sep 2008 by Kaylene 7 Comments

Our Ike Experience

Aiden, Baby Joey, Family, Grief and Loss, Kevin, Kevin and I, Life in Texas, Me, Memories, Michael, The end is near, To new beginnings

Hand written at 7 this morning~ At 10:30 we lost power lastnight, it came back on but our cable and internet never came back. At about 11:45 we lost power for the night. It would flicker on for a few seconds, but ultimately continuously lost power. Kevin and I finally made it to bed at about 1, and didn't get to sleep because of the noise for a while longer, well and Joey was busy kicking each of us, but in that noise I couldn't just leave him in the other room... Around 3:30 AM the wind REALLY picked up and Kevin had another coughing fit. He and I both got up to explore what's going on. We managed to accidentally wake the boys, decided to move them into the…

30Aug 2008 by Kaylene 4 Comments

Hayez; The Kiss

Dreams, Grief and Loss, Kevin and I, Me, Memories, Pictures, The end is near

Image from Wikipedia Moved? I am. I LOVE this painting. It means more to me than any image I've ever seen. It was painted in Italy by Francesco Hayez in 1859, as I understand, it portrays a goodbye kiss of two lovers as he leaves for war. How passionate, loving, tense, sad, electric, and compelling. What would it be like to kiss your husband knowing it may indeed be the last time you kiss, last time you touch, last time you see? So sad, but you want sadness so badly not to be the memory of the moment. The colors are just vibrant enough, yet subtle enough, the shadows deep yet well placed, the cloth and texture of the stones. The shadow of a waiting soldier in the background. I…

28Aug 2008 by Kaylene 3 Comments

Updates.

Family, Grief and Loss, Health Concerns, Memories

Last I heard lastnight Grandpa still had not gone into surgery, he'd been continuously bumped out of the OR by more important procedures, but today he's at the top of the list, and they'd be informed with morning rounds today about when his surgery would take place, but it definitely should be today. It's sad for him, he so wants to stay independent, and wants to keep doing so much but his body just won't let him anymore, that's got to be one of the most frustrating things we go through in this life. Update (early afternoon), surgery is scheduled for this afternoon, thankfully it now looks like instead of an entire hip replacement that they'll be able to just put a few pins or screws in and sew him…

27Aug 2008 by Kaylene 3 Comments

My Grandpa, My Parents, and My Brother

Aiden, Church, Family Fun, Grief and Loss, Health Concerns, Me, Memories, Pictures, The end is near, To new beginnings

My 80 somthingish Grandpa broke his hip lastnight and fell, they're not sure what happened first. He was carrying a BIG watermelon and Grandma seems to think it landed ON him and that's what broke it... So I guess there's three options. He was supposed to go into surgery earlier today but it kept getting knocked back. So I'm not sure what's happened. My parents are currently at a neighborhood/stake (gotta love Utah) meeting concerning a woman in their neighborhood who was badly beaten this week in her home by a door to door magazine salesman, who'd been to my parents home earlier that day. I'm not sure if it's so much concerning the actual incident, local emotional control, or information to help protect themselves. The hazy details I have…

16Aug 2008 by Kaylene 2 Comments

Adorable Stray Cats Need a Home

Adoption, Animals, Cats, Family Fun, Grief and Loss, Humor, Life in Texas, Me, Pictures, Pregnancy, The end is near, To new beginnings

They have a home! Someone's coming to get them! OK, these are some of the adorable cats that hang around my neighborhood, they can't stay long because well, we're in apartments and it's not the safest environment for them and I think there are legal issues... So these little guys are free to anyone willing to catch them, take them to the vet, and care for them. This is a Mama, probably not more than a year old, and her final kitten left from what we believe is her first litter, born earlier this summer, 6-8 weeks old. I don't know where the other two kittens are, hopefully people were able to take them in rather than having them found by predators or hit by cars. The girls downstairs have…