Photo Journal - Josie Boettcher

Today was a very relaxed, nice Monday. We did BJJ midday, but came back and finished up school afterwards. I cleaned and played my game, and that was about it!  *This photo came up on my memories today. Soooooo sweet!!! Little baby Clem. 

It's Mother's Day! Ben and the kids did a great job with all of their planning and presents to celebrate me. I made my own breakfast in the morning because I'm so picky about my eggs, then we went to Meadow Park for Sunday service. Afterwards, we went to Taj Palace for lunch, which was wonderful. I got a few dishes to share with everyone, which helped keep costs down. Of course, everyone loved the tikka masala and everyone hated the saag paneer. I ended up taking a ton of that home and I honestly can't imagine I'm going to actually eat it all. 😅 I typically love it! But I didn't love it today, so I guess I can't blame everyone else for hating it. I talked to Marme a couple of times throughout the day today, but I didn't send anything because I just cannot send things in the mail.  It's the worst. Takes forever and costs way too much.  We chilled at home in the afternoon and I opened presents. I played the new video game that Jonas bought me for a wh...

This morning, we went to the Autism Speaks walk to support Liam (Ruby's forever crush and vice versa). Lots of people from small group were there this year, so it was a lot more fun than last year! It was mostly people from Christina's mom's job last year. We walked around to all of the different vendors and got hundreds (it feels like) of fidgets and lots of pens for me. :) The walk was easy and I got to talk to Tim, the youth pastor at Meadow Park, for a while. I appreciated that opportunity because I've never really gotten to talk to him. I got a chance to explain Jonas and Clem's half in/half out situation there and he seemed to understand and take it in stride.  Ben got home from Marietta in the afternoon and he just kind of crashed when he got here. He didn't sleep well while he was there, of course, so he's exhausted. And he's stressing about mother's day tomorrow. I wish he wouldn't! I don't need much. Just some acknowledgment would b...

Ben had to head back out to Marietta today. Things are looking really bad for his dad right now. They're not sure he'll survive the weekend. He left early this morning and Bumper joined him this evening. Patrick and Ali are supposed to come tomorrow, and Dawn doesn't think she can make it out at all...but nobody can understand why or what's going on with her. Ben is distraught. I wish there were something I could do to help him through this. He doesn't want me to come out because he feels like it's too stressful to have the kids here and he'll be too worried about them if we both go out and leave them with someone. I get it, but I don't think the kids would be upset to hang out with friends for the day. I'll just wait until he wants me out there with him, though, then we'll figure it out.  We had planned to have a little birthday celebration for Ruby with the small group tonight. I had considered enlarging it, originally, but she said she'd b...

Today was pretty fun. After we finished with school, we went to the playground with Christina, Sarah, and Mackenzie. I tried to talk Christina into going on a hike and she agreed! But then she asked if we could just switch to a playground, so we did that instead. But the kids had an awesome time, and I had a pretty good time too, so it's all good.  In the evening, Clem had her choir concert. Christina brought her kids, so they were there for her solo and Jaxon brought her a dozen roses!!! Clem was blushing so hard. It was very cute. She did a great job singing again. I'm so proud of her for being brave and giving herself 100% to her choirs, to learning her music, and to practicing daily. She's a good kid. 

Ben went out to Marietta yesterday to be with his dad. His surgery got moved up, so he was hoping to be there for it. But they ended up not doing the surgery until nighttime, which I thought was so weird. So Ben decided to come home because he had a meeting he couldn't miss this morning. Dennis didn't get out of surgery until midnight and the docs said they'd have to bring him back in today to finish things up because it was more complicated than they were expecting. He's actually still in surgery now. Really hoping this fixes what's been going on! Ben was not feeling positive or optimistic after his visit with him.  Today was our typical Wednesday, really. BUT it's the last one like this. Ever. Clem is aging out of the Westerville choir, so we won't be going back. She had her nursing home concert today and it was very sweet. I wish we would have stayed and talked to some of the residents for longer, but Clem was clearly uncomfortable. I feel like those folk...

* Jonas showing off his new glasses. :) I got a text from MJ today, telling me to call her when I get a chance. So, I called while we were all in the car and I could tell she was just wasting time until everyone else got out. I sat in the car and talked to her for a long time as she explained how dad fell for a scam, contacted a hacker, and forwarded all of their money to him. They have nothing left. I'm just at a complete loss right now. I'm so angry, flabbergasted, and desperate feeling for them. There's nothing at all that I can do to help. They've already spoken to the police, the bank, and everyone else they can think of, and they'll never get the money back...at least that seems to be the general consensus. Of course, Ben and I feel like if we'd had some idea of what was going on in their everyday lives, maybe we could have stepped in and told my dad not to respond to that initial text. But they're 500 miles away and we talk to them a couple of times a...