Tribute to Elizabeth

The woman in the room.

We noticed that there was another woman in the room. When news came in that our daughter was born with two tumors we noticed another woman in the room. When the news came in that our house had burned down we noticed another woman in the room. When a loved one awoke from a coma we noticed another woman in the room. When life got unbearable for many we saw another woman in the room. The other woman in the room will no longer be seen, but we now know the importance of just being in the room with the ones we know and love.

We miss you Liz and know you are waiting for us just in the other room.

Elizabeth Brooks

Nov 24, 1977- Jan 17, 2008

Please leave comments of your thoughts, or a fun story for Foster to read. Thank you.

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Elizabeth Anne Brooks (Mitchell) passed on January 17th. She was 30.
Liz was a vivacious spirit who loved children, competed in triathlons and traveled extensively. She held her friends and family close to her heart. She will forever be remembered for her love of life and the passion she brought to it.
She is survived by her husband, Foster, mother Rosemary Mitchell, father Mark Mitchell, stepmother Sue Mitchell, brother Ryan Mitchell and her beloved fat boy, Sherman.

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New additions to the house, no not a baby or puppy!

In one of my friends house growing up there was a picture that she had colored when she was young and her parents framed it and put it on the wall. I always thought that was a great idea, but had never done it. Well Grandma Mary took it to a whole new level! She had the kids paint a picture for us and then went and had it framed. I just love it. It is proudly hanging on our wall. To me it is the best painting ever done.

Another new addition to our walls:

This is our new motto: We may not have it all together; But together we have it all. We like it!

**** We looked so good in the first few minutes of the game, our hearts swelled with pride! Yes the Hawks, the underdogs were going to rule the game... then ooops we got knocked down! I will live with the wounded pride but in true Hawk fashion I will say - next year we will go all the way!! ****

Go Seahawks!

Two years ago I planned our cruise that left on the day of the Superbowl... who would have thought the Seahawks would have been playing in that Superbowl... so I am thinking in order to secure the Seahawks place at this years Superbowl I will now make reservations for another cruise on that weekend?

This is what I will be pitching to Derrick? Think he will buy it? Cruise anyone?

Em

Binkie Ferry

Those of you that our around our daughter at all know that she is attached to her binkie. Well I knew it was time to get rid of the binkie (no thanks to the lovely lady that I didn't know who decided to point out that she is too old for a binkie. Yes I had a woman actually stop me and ask how old she was and then go into a whole ordeal about how bad binkies are for their teeth, yada yada, yada... etc. etc. etc. as you can tell I tuned her out. Kindly smiled and said well, thank you for the advice I will take appropriate actions with your advice... well what did I do with her advice... ok I laughed at the poor woman... duh I am not an idiot I know what it can do to teeth. Who really stops people and points things out like that? To me it is up there with the person on the street corner waving a sign saying you are all going to hell unless you repent. There heart my be in the right place but the execution is all wrong! So I filed her with the crazy christian in my rolodex in my head and well went on with my life!) OK now back to my story.....

The final farewell!! Here they are the last we saw of them before the binkie ferry came!

So for a couple of months now we have talked about how the binkie ferry will come and take all her binkies and then leave her a prize. We have talked about it enough that she was more than ready for it to happen. The night of her birthday she was still sick and went upstairs and fell asleep by herself so I couldn't just take it that night! So I waited for New Year's Eve and had her line up all her binkies so the ferry would find them. Lo and behold the binkie ferry came and left one of those big eraser pads you write on. She was one happy girl, and has done great ever since with out the binkie. . . the binkie ferry is great!

Party for our Princess ~ 3 years old!

Josie celebrated her 3rd Birthday. She is growing up so quickly. It is fun to watch her turn into a little girl, but hard to watch my baby grow up. She is definetly not a toddler anymore. She likes to keep up with John. I can't talk about her birthday and not tell you all just how happy and grateful we are to have Josie in our lives. As you probably know Josie was born with two tumors and one was blocking her airway causing her not to breathe correctly. After 5 days (I think it was 5?) She was moved to Children's hospital and within an hour of us being there she was heading into surgery. Quick story: Derrick was holding Josie as we walked down to the surgery area. There was a nurse carrying oxygen becuase her breathing was so erratic. I remember all of a sudden the nurse picked up pace, then looked at Derrick and said "you need to run". Due to just giving birth I couldn't keep up and I remember looking at Derrick and saying "just go". The emotions that went through me were so overwhelming it is hard to describe. I remember it like it was yesterday. Obviously the outcome was good. But it is very hard to trust sometimes, this was one of those times that you just had to trust that everything would work out. I'll never forget how helpless I felt as they took her away. It is crazy that her life started out with such a traumatic event. However we quickly learned that Josie even at 5 days old was a fighter, and a survivor. Those great qualities are still with her today. She is now into all things "girly" yet still holds the heart of a fighter, and she is our little princess! My favorite thing to watch is Josie fight "UFC style" with her older brothers then go put on her Cinderella dress! Got to love girls! Happy Birthday Josie~ you continue to inspire us all!

Josie was loving tearing all the gifts open. John did really well and helped to hand her the gifts. It is tough at the age of four to see someone else getting lots of gifts!

Detrix and John

A princess cake for our little princess! This picture doesn't do the cake justice. It was just perfect! We don't have any pics of Josie's friends ~ they made her day very special.

A little out of order - this pic... but I thought it was cute!

This is Liz and Josie sleeping on the couch. Liz and Foster had flown in Christmas Eve, and so they were a bit tired Christmas Day. Josie wasn't feeling well, so she was more than happy to take a quick nap with Liz.


Wow what a last week! Poor Josie got sick the day before Christmas, all the way through her birthday. She decided to share a bit of it, so Derrick got hit too. We missed a 40th B-day party too! Darn it. Happy 40th Leonard! We love you.