Category Archives: Remington

10 Things Tuesday

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Decided to join Carla over at her blog for this  10 Things Tuesday.

  1. We had our last “swim meet” of the year today. Next Saturday, we will participate in our county swim meet. I am really glad to see the kids all enjoying a sport that encourages physical activity.
  2. Both Lily and Kendall attempted to swim the “butterfly” stroke today, unfortunately both were disqualified because of their feet but I am so very proud of them for trying!  Lily is now able to swim all four strokes, in fact she earned a first place in the breast stroke today!
  3. My work schedule this week is awesome, I get to work a day and have a day off.
  4. Today, I spent the majority of the day running errands for the kids. Our stops included the orthodontist for Lily, Public library, Education store in town, piano lessons and finally the swim meet.
  5. Lily and Kendall both have become excellent readers this summer. They are spending about an hour each day reading for pleasure!  Kendall has been work on the”  Junie B Jones” series.  At the library today, we were able to find another 10 of these chapter books for her to read!  Lily is reading a series called “Baby Sitter Club” in addition to some of Laura Ingles Wilder books!
  6. The stop at the Education store today has been the excitement. The kids enjoyed a train table and shopping area while I was in search of some Math work books. I am really disappointed to not be able to find a work book of addition and subtraction problems on a first grade level. I will be using flash cards instead to work on this skill.
  7. I made a quick trip to CVS tonight after reading about a great deal on Pantene Hair products. I was able to purchase 9 bottle of shampoo for $10.03 including tax. This is great timing as we were running low on shampoo!
  8. The little kids have been attending Vacation Bible School at my brother’s church this week. The church is providing a meal for them each night. Because of this we are still eating leftovers from Kendall’s party. I hope this will help to reduce our overall grocery budget for the month as well!
  9. Matt was able to make some repairs to  my car last week and it is currently driving like when we first bought it. The even better news is that he spent half of what we had originally thought the repair would cost.
  10. This weekend marks the anniversary of Amanda’s accident and Remington death    I know that it will be hard for both of the older girls so prayers are appreciated.

The Night I Prayed

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Disclaimer:  Amanda- DO NOT READ any further!
Haley DO NOT READ any further!
Everyone else can proceed with caution but be warned I am sure this will contain a lot of raw emotions. I have refrained from putting some of this information on paper because of the pain it causes me and but at this point I just want to get it all out in an attempt to try to not let these thoughts and images cause such sadness and pain.

If you are not aware or can’t figure out what I am talking about today July 13th is the anniversary of the wreck that kill precious baby Remington Lee.

The weather was much like it is right now, stormy with heavy rain at points. I remember a lot about that night or should I say I have tried to forget a lot about that night. Matt and I had a disagreement about something stupid, I have no clue what it was but I remember I was upset as I went to bed. I had laid out clothes for the next day as I was supposed to work at the nursing home half a day. Haley was going to watch the kids. I answered the phone to Amanda crying “I killed my son, I killed my son”  I do remember telling her that I NEVER wanted to hear those words again.  The clock read 10:15, I quickly got dressed, explained to Matt that Amanda had wrecked and head to find her. I didn’t even know where I was headed, as I turned on to Beck’s Church road, I called back the number on my cell phone to find out where she was. I was so disoriented at that time, I had to ask the kind person on the other end of the phone how do I get there.  I remember as I passed under the stoplight of Beck’s Church Road, the song “Jesus is a Rock in a Weary Land” ran through my mind and I had a peace that can not be explained.  I don’t remember anything else about the ride to the accident scene but I was driving Matt’s company van, and I left my keys with a Firefighter who could not figure out  how to crank and move the van. My brother, after waking up and explaining what was going on to my parents brought my dad to the hospital. When asked how he could help, I sent he and my father to retrieve the van, that is how I found out that it had not been moved.  I will never forget looking at Amanda’s car, when I had arrived it had been flipped up on it wheels; however the windshield remained intact except for a small hole at the top of the passenger’s side. I have always been grateful that this was really not seen by Amanda. When the car was towed, the windshield cracked to the point it was unrecognizable. I could not give you a timeframe of how long I was present before they located Remington, however I do remember that on several occasions during the time on the scene, we were asked if they could call our pastor or the Chaplin, to help pray with us.  I have never been one to pray out loud in fact I usually avoid it at all cost but this night, I knew that I needed to pray, I didn’t care who heard me or what I said, I was talking with my Savior.  I also remember telling Amanda that we are so lucky to know and understand that we don’t need someone to help us pray/talk to God, we have an open door of communication. One thing that I still don’t understand but remember distinctly is that at one point as I was walking and praying around the ambulance, I heard a baby cry….  When they decided to transport him, I knew that I was not letting Amanda out of my sight, so I informed the state trooper that I was riding with them.  I am going to end at this point with the powerful message that has been a comfort for these past three years. First as the state trooper opened the door, his radio was the loudest I have ever heard a radio being played, the station K-Love.  As we travelled to the hospital, I distinctly remember the song “My Savior Loves” was on the radio, I see in my mind, my daughter, Remmington’s mother, with her hands raised in praise to God, singing this song.  We did talk with the state trooper and I even asked him how we could pray for him. Yes, I am praying out loud again and this would not be the last time either.  His request was that we pray for his family as well because “most people forget that we are people too.”  I have been praying and will continue to pray not only for this state trooper but for all because they are people and must remain professional no matter the circumstance.

First Day of Vacation

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Today, was the first full day of our family vacation it was peaceful, relaxing and awesome. I am sincerely glad that we chose this date. Today is also the anniversary of the saddest day in our family history. One year ago today, Amanda had a wreck and baby Remington left this earth. I am more convinced today than ever that God has a plan for us and his plan is ALWAYS better than our plans.

We started off today with an trip to Cracker Barrel. We came back to the hotel, changed and spent the next 6 hours on the beach. We have borrowed a canopy from a friend and it was awesome today. It was very easy to set up. We enjoyed lunch, snacks and naps under it. The ocean was calm and both the little girls LOVED jumping, slapping, and even karate chopping the waves. The temperate was lower today and at one point Lily complained of being cold in the ocean. We came in, eat and decided to go on a shopping trip. We purchased the little kids some new shirts, a new chair to replace the one that broke today. Our plan was to go to the pools this evening but the water were too cool for our likening so after less than half an hour, we came upstairs. The kids were in bed. How did Matt and I spend the next 2 hours of our vacation? working on coupons of course. I plan to explain this in detail in the next post!

Wordless Wednesday

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It has been hard for me to decide what to post about Remington and when. I have a long post that I want to write for myself floating in my head but this week I found these pictures on the computer that neither Amanda or I remembered. With all this heavy rain it is impossible not the think of him. My precious grandson angel..


A Dime

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My intention was to place a picture of a dime at the top of this post, unfortunately I could not figure out how to do it so just pretend…

I had never really thought a lot about a dime or even find one until the Sunday after Remington’s funeral. My parents (Granny and Paw paw) came over to see the little kids. They had been to the cemetery earlier and were excited upon returning to the car to find a dime in the front seat of the car. Why were they excited? Granny proceeded to tell all of us that she had been told by her mother as a young child that when someone died that if you found money in unexpected place that was a sign from them that first they were safe and happy then secondly that they loved you and wanted you to know this fact. I was kind of skeptic at first. Haley was the first to find her dime, Amanda also found one the next day. Lily found 2 which she happily says it was one for her and one for Kendall. As you can see, we believe that it is a dime that Remington chooses to leave for us. Matt found his first one in the washer. I have currently found 3. The first was on the end table in the living room, the second was at the foot of our bed on the covers and the third was by far the strangest and the most unexplained. I was working with a patient at the nursing home and she decide to remove her jacket. I had her clean out her pocket before folding it up. Her pocket contained 3 things.. a safety pin, a Kleenex and the dime. Patients do not usually have any money with them and a dime what are the odds. I personally don’t believe in odds or fate so this was my sign. We all keep our eyes open for dimes and each one puts a smile on a face as well as a tear in some eyes. Small things help me remember and go on!

Update

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I am going to use this post as a short catch up list and also some explanations for the future as to the events that have been happening the past week.

First I will not be posting a Monday Menu this week as we will be consuming left-overs and several other meals that have been offered and planned for us.

Last Tuesday night around 11:15pm, I received a call that Amanda and Remington had been involved in an accident. I rushed to the scene. At around 2:00am, Remington was pronounced dead. I am not including any other details at this time due to how this is currently a very sorrowful time and I am also afraid that anything I post could be taken out of context and used in a hurtful manner. When I first started this blog, one of the things I did not think I would have a problem with is total and complete openess. I still do not have a problem with this and but I do have to show discretion to also protect my family. I may at some point in the future include more details of this awful night but they would not add anything to this post.

Over the past 5 days several things have stood out in my mind:
1. My strength and faith remain in the personal relationship I have with Jesus Christ. Without this, I could not have survived any of this.

2. I am blessed with not only an awesome extended family but also an awesome church family. They have picked us up and carried us in loving arms over the past days.

3. The media as a whole are solely concerned with ratings and getting people to watch. Out of the 4 organizations that I have had to talk with last week, only one was human enough to not only honor our wishes but also to remember that we are grieving and not attempt to “imply” anything to make the story more interesting.

4. The kindness of strangers still exists and in my own mind outweighs the evil mentioned above and the evil that is lurking in alot of our society.

5. Life will never again be the same for anyone in this house but not all changes are bad.

6. God is in control………