Kristy R. Langstraat-Bolte

Easter seems like a millions years ago! First I have a picture of my baby bunny, Dutch, who I miss sooooooooooo much…… This is the picture I used for my Easter cards:

I got a new bunny hat, and I couldn’t wait to take a picture of me wearing it while holding my bunny!

Darrell, dad and I went to Easter at my grandpa’s house. Here is the lamb cake my aunt made:

Here is a picture of my grandpa and I.

February 15, 2013 was one year since my mom died. But we wanted to do something on February 10, 2013, which is the day she had her heart attack and went into the hospital. I just really wanted to do something for us in honor and memory of her, but I wasn’t quite sure what. My dad and I thought about it and he helped me get some roses and make up some tags with her picture and dates on them, that we attached to the roses. We woke up early on a Sunday  morning and basically walked through her ‘final moments’ of the year before on that day. We drove to Elmhurst College like she would have done and then to the hospital etc.

Mom’s car loaded to go.

A sample of what my dad made.

1st stop: Mom’s tree and plaque – where mom would have passed on her way to work that morning.

2nd stop: Mom’s brick.

3rd stop: Goebel Hall – where the Advising Office is.

4th stop: Emergency Room entrance at Elmhurst Memorial Hospital.

5th Stop: Entrance at Elmhurst Memorial Hospital we used when we came and went while my mom was in ICU.

6th and final stop: Mom’s final resting place…..

We love and miss you mom very much!!!!!!!

This is going to be a post of a little bit of everything. These pictures are from February and March, and it wouldn’t make sense to do an individual post for each one! So enjoy this mas-match of STUFF!!

The first picture is of my hand wearing 2 of my  mom’s rings and her watch. The reason I took a picture is because, when I put my mom’s watch on, having already been wearing her rings, it just shocked me how much my hand looked like my mom’s hand. I have always been told how much I look like my mom, and it’s true, I do. But for some reason, it was just a shock, but in a good way, how true it really is. I’m so glad I look like my mom, if not, I might forget what she looked like, and I just don’t want that to ever happen…..

I got some highlights!

Darrell hung up some pictures for me, which I really appreciated. Like a picture of my mom and me at my wedding, and a picture of my Grandpa Pete.

One morning when I was getting to pull out of my driveway to go to work, I saw this owl or hawk or whatever it was, in my tree!

While I was still working at Girl Scouts, we got in a new product, and I decided to try it out!

Flowers I got from my boss before I left my job.

Dad and I went to a husky rescue place in DeKalb for an open house. I loved it! I want a husky dog SO BADLY!! They are toooooo cute!

One day I subbed in a class, and I got to take care of the classroom pets!

A year after my mom died, I got a real surprise at home. A friend of my mom’s, Helene, sent this to my house! What a surprise! It was so nice!

Darrell and I went to a wedding. I think Darrell looked so spiffy in purple!!

Got to see some cute baby ducks and baby chicks at Farm and Fleet! I love going when they are there!

Darrell and I at Hollywood Palms!

I took dad to Medieval Times for his birthday!

Some decorations we put for mommy….

The tulips Darrell and I planted starting to come through!

Darrell made this really nice floor for Dutch’s play pen. He worked really hard on it, and I think Dutch really did like it. Plus it made clean up so much easier!

A couple pictures of dad’s neighbor, Pastor Paula’s, daughter Anjali, playing with his tulips!

In February dad and me went to an RV show. We had gone 2 years before with Darrell, and decided to go back. It’s huge and it gets so tiring walking around and walking in and out of all the campers but it is fun to see what new things they have. We really like the new 5th wheels where the living room is up top where the bedroom usually is! Here are some photos that we took while there! 

Every year for many years now dad and I go to the Chicago Auto Show on one of the media days. Thanks to my brother and his car websites, that is how we get the passes. It’s always a good time, because it’s not crowded and you get free snacks everywhere you go! Enjoy the photos from this year’s show! 

January 30, 2012 was dad’s last day at Sear’s and dad’s last day working EVER! That is because he retired! He started his retirement on his birthday 2/1/12! He decided that after what happened to mom, it just wasn’t worth it to work anymore. Mom never got to retire. You just never know how much time you have left, and why waste your days working? I couldn’t agree more.

So I spent the day with my dad and Oreo on his birthday and official first day of retirement! 

We had a really fun day! We went to a movie and had krakus ham and cheese at Hog Wild and got Coldstone for dessert, among other things that day. Plus I got to wear another one of my awesome Christmas presents from my daddy bean! 

Happy Retirement dad! I hope you get to enjoy a really long one!

I can’t believe how much time has passed, and with my life going the way it is, I have been unable to keep up with my posts. So it is July but I am finally getting around to write about Christmas. It was my first Christmas without my mom, and it was very hard to get through. I feel like we just kind of went through the motions and didn’t truly enjoy the season, although we did try. I had my husband and dad and then of course my babies. Unfortunately at the time I had no idea it would be Pepper’s last Christmas and Dutch’s first and only Christmas. (More on this in other posts to come…..)

My dad, Darrell, Grandpa, Aunt Judy and Uncle Ken and I went to have Christmas brunch with my Great Aunt Ann. We had done this last year with my mom and had a good time and the food was good so figured we might as well do it again.

I found this ornament that I thought was really cute, because it’s for Twitter but we also used to have a bird named Tweets, too bad he was yellow and not blue….

We decorated mommy’s grave:

My dad decorated his house in honor of mom: 

Dad and I went to the Bensenville tree lighting. Darrell, dad and I went to Bass Pro Shop, the Bolingbrook Promenade and to the Phillips Park Christmas lights: 

Just showing off some of my Christmas presents! 

Dad got to hold Mary on Christmas day in a box. That was her present to him since normally she just swats at him, hisses and bites! 

I thought I did a pretty good job with Darrell’s Christmas present! 

This gift my dad gave me was really something my mom had bought me and wasn’t here to give me. I love my bucket of snowballs, thanks mom! 

This was Dutch’s first Christmas! That was about the only exciting thing about Christmas this year! We went all out with his gifts, and I think he really enjoyed getting them, even though he didn’t know it was Christmas! I hope we were able to make his only Christmas special…. 

Well it was the first Halloween without my mom. I definitely was in no mood to celebrate any holidays this past year, and wasn’t going to decorate or do anything. However, when dad and me went to the Fisher Farm open house they were giving away free pumpkins, so we each took one. Here is dad’s pumpkin, his black cat light he put up in the front window, and his pumpkin w/ the kitty light!

I decorated my pumpkin as well and dedicated my pumpkin to my mom and Frisky!

I was out taking a walk one day in October and I ran across this awesome decoration. I really wanted one!!