Mom's Real Obit

You can only say so much in the newspaper. This one is much better.

Surrounded by her children, Margaret Ann Snodgrass took her final breaths in her Highland home Thursday morning, June 23^rd at the young age of 67. Her last moments were spent peacefully, feeling the touch and hearing the loving words of her daughter and three sons.

Margaret was born on April 4, 1944 in Santa Rosa, CA to Gladys and Arvie Laituri. She is the third of six children and is survived by each of her siblings Gloria, Joyce, Leslie, Janie, and John.  She left home at twenty to marry Jessie J. Snodgrass Jr. on December 30, 1964 at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii. Margaret and her growing family followed Jessie’s military orders to South Carolina, Taiwan, the Philippines, Virginia, Texas, and eventually settled in Southern CA in 1979. Margaret was always a fulltime mother and housewife and at times worked outside of the home. She worked fulltime as a front office clerk for Barton Elementary for 18 years, retiring in 2008. She spent her few years of retirement with family, her dog, and with the latest Alex Cross novel, by James Patterson. Margaret’s passing comes at the hands of metastasized kidney cancer.

Margaret’s most important work can be seen every day in each of her four children. She consistently made it clear that her babies were the most important people in the world and she gave her life to raising and loving these fortunate individuals. She is survived by her four children and nearly 6 grandchildren: her daughter Brenda, wife of Paul, mother of Steve; Her son Michael, husband of Karie, father of Andrew and Amanda; her son Joshua, husband of Christina, father of Gracen and Sayler; and her son Terry, husband to Susan, expecting father. Margaret spent her life teaching her family lessons of loyalty, unconditional love, and how to go overboard for Christmas and birthdays.

On Wednesday June 29^th at 1:15, Margaret will be laid to rest with her husband at Riverside National Cemetery. As per Margaret’s requests there will be a brief yet formal graveside service followed by a casual memorial service and picnic at Sylvan Park, 730 Chapel St. Redlands, at 4:00. All family, friends, and loved ones are invited to both events and will be able to share a memory, read, sing, or give a speech at the park. Margaret will supply all of the food and beverages, guests can provide memories, love, and support. 

Donations to her favorite charities, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) or the American Cancer Society may be made in her honor.

Remembering My Mom

Surrounded by her children, my mother, Margaret Snodgrass, passed away Thursday morning. All family and friends are invited to attend a formal graveside service at Riverside National Cemetery (staging area 7) on Wednesday June 29^th, at 1:15. Following the graveside service, you are also invited to a casual memorial service and picnic at Sylvan Park in Redlands CA, at 4:00 where anyone can share a reading, a poem, a song, a story, etc. Mom will supply all of the picnic fixins just as she would have wanted.

My mom and I have a very special relationship. She gave me unconditional love every day of my life and I only hope she knows I felt the same way. She was my greatest audience member and laughed at everything I said. She was the greatest listener and hung on every word. My mother taught me everything I needed to know about loving my children; I anxiously await my opportunity to show off what I’ve learned.  Thank you Mom.

This song was one of my Mom’s favorite and describes our relationship perfectly. We danced to this at my wedding.

Home Sweet Home

After nearly three months of hospitals and a nursing facility, Mom is home. She was so excited she didn’t really believe it was going to happen today. She is in her own room, with her own stuff, surrounded by her children. There are no restrictive visiting hours, roommates, or the constant beeps and sirens that accompany a hospital. There is only one nurse rather than a team, all her food will be prepared just how she likes it, and we control the A/C. After she got settled in I said “Welcome home Mom.” In between labored breaths Mom replied in a soft voice: “I am so happy.”

Picture Perfect Pregnancy

Susan and I had our first doctor's appointment of the third trimester. To quote Dr. O’Toole “You are an ideal patient having a perfect pregnancy. And your husband is very attractive.” What can I say? My wife is perfect. She has a perfect heart rate, perfect weight gain, perfect belly measurements, perfect kick count, and perfect husband. Susan is very proud of herself, deservedly so.

I believe we are due for a belly photo huh? Next time I see my wife I will take one and post it.

Hiccups Are Awesome!

 This was the third round of hiccups for Susan, but I was able to see and feel them for the first time this morning. It was awesome! Susan’ belly was doing the cutest little bounce every few seconds. I was driving at the time but I kept my hand on the belly. When I had to shift, Susan’s hand would take my place on the belly, then my hand would be right back on the belly. We were a smooth transitioning machine to soak-up all of the hiccup excitement possible.

Seven is a party animal. She kicks and punches and rolls like you wouldn’t believe. It must be so much fun in there.

Third Trimester

As of Tuesday of this week, Susan and Fetus have made it to the third trimester (And the crowd goes wild!). The “Glory Days” of pregnancy are over. From what we understand, Susan should now experience unrelenting torture for the next three months. Feet swelling, back ache, constant potty breaks, and a husband who still leaves socks every where will surely do her in over the summer. For me, I only expect the discomfort of a huge pain in the neck, but that should go away someday. I’m just kidding of course. Susan, can I get you anything my love? Water? Ice Cream? A delivery room?

Terrence Junior Female has a lot going on now. She can even handle the outside world if she had too, but she’ll probably hang out another few months just for funzies. Everything essential should be working pretty well by now. She can swallow and blink and hear and has more taste buds now than she’ll have for the rest of her life! She can hear our voices and may even be able to recognize them. Just the other day I told her to give her mother a kick and she Van Damned her mother in belly button. One cool trick we read about but have yet to try is to shine a flashlight right on the belly and see if she’ll kick it away. Sounds mean, but that is the kind of dad I am.

Here is a pretty cool video to see what she has in store for herself the rest of her prenatal time. Come September do we call it post-natal?

 

Burn the Floor

For Susan’s Pre-Natal Mother’s Day, I bought her tickets for a hot new ballroom dance show called Burn the Floor. It was just awesome. We thoroughly enjoyed the entire show. The dances were amazing, they had Swing, Waltz, Rumba, Quick Step, Salsa, and so much more. The music was very impressive. As much as Susan and I loved it, Baby Snods may have loved it the most. She was dancing up a storm to the beats. Susan’s belly was a rockin’ and I kept knockin’! Although Susan and I aren’t some great dancers, dance has always been important to us. The first thing we did together at Woody’s was dance. After our first date I had to watch So You Think You Can Dance so I would have something to talk to her about on date number 2 and SYTYCD became one of our favorite shows. One of the best parts of our amazing wedding was our choreographed first dance (see video below if you haven’t seen it before or it has just been too long since you last saw its glory). Now my favorite part of so many evenings is our after dinner and dishes dance in the kitchen with the dogs at our feet. What can I say, Claire and Cliff Huxtable are my relationship idles. Soon to come will be a Dance themed nursery for our baby girl. Anyway, Burn the Floor was awesome. 

We still love to watch and show this dance

I always loved when Claire and Cliff would dance at the end of an episode. This isn't exactly it, but this is a classic clip. What an awesome family show.

Intermission at Burn the Floor. Susan's jazz hands and my jitterbug finger!

Mi Familia! We picked up the dogs from the baby sitter after the show and the pups were happy to share Susan's lap.

Blog Back Log

Hello faithful readers! Sorry for the delayed blogging. I just added a bunch at once. To keep you in chronological order, you may want to skip down to “Tough Times for the Snodgrass Family.” Thanks again for reading!

And the fight goes on . . .

My mom continues to fight the good fight, but stage IV renal carcinoma is very serious. Over the past two months we have had some highs and lows with Mom. During her six-week stay in the nursing and rehab facility she had some great days in her wheelchair, knocked out some impressive workouts, and enjoyed a very interesting roommate named Agnus. On Mother’s Day we brought a full on picnic to the facility with sandwiches, macaroni salad, and Mom’s dog Micki. During this period we also had several scary trips to the ER and a few long nights. As of now she is in a long-term hospital in Rancho Cucamonga. I’m happy to say that she doesn’t seem to be bothered by severe cramping in her legs any longer. Either the pain has subsided or the drugs are doing their job. She is consistently surrounded by dear friends, her adoring children, and the 5.66 grandchildren who love her dearly. She nearly completed a round of chemo but it was stopped a little short due to infection and her overall weakness.  She currently rests most of the day, tries to fight off infections, and still manages to laugh at my silliness. Today, her doctor recommended bringing in some non-hospital food. I was so happy to finally oblige her week long request for a bologna sandwich on white bread with a little mayonnaise. Anything for you Mom.

Baby Moon

We have to get better at this camera thing before the baby gets here. Can you believe it? Susan and I went on vacation and didn’t take a single picture! Before the third trimester arrives along with a little more discomfort for Susan, we wanted one last getaway as a young married couple with no kids. We were a little limited in options since we didn’t want to be any further than a quick drive from my mom, regardless we still managed a beautiful weekend. We stayed two nights at the Lake Arrowhead Resort in Lake Arrowhead. The first night was much colder than we expected, but we made due. We walked from our hotel over to the shops and relaxed on the grass and enjoyed a lovely concert. That is how I’ll remember it anyway. I’ll try to forget the freezing cold, accidentally arriving an hour and a half early, and the closed taco bar that I longed for. Regardless, I was cuddled up next to my wife and coming daughter. That night we sat on a couch in the lobby and read to each other.

Day two was BEAUTIFUL! No clouds, sunny, and the perfect temperature.  We started by driving over to Big Bear Lake for breakfast. We walked through the town and settled in at Teddy Bear’s Café. It was a great little place with a good little history. My omelet wasn’t the best but you can’t have everything. Susan and I enjoyed our breakfast sitting outside on the patio, sipping coffee, and leisurely soaking in the morning. Going out to breakfast is one of my absolute favorite things.

Afterward we headed over to the Big Bear Lake Discovery Center to find a good hike. We may not have clipped along at our hiking pace of last summer but Susan did pretty well. I can’t wait until her “hiking” turns into “waddling.” We must have covered well over a mile round trip. It was beautiful and peaceful. After my wife and fetus had enough of the hike, it was back to the resort for some R & R, good books, and a lounge chair by the pool.

That night we went classy style. We snuck into the bar at the resort without the bartender noticing the belly bulge. We took shot after shot of tequila without any dirty looks for once. JK of course. We did sit at the bar though. We both had an O’Doul’s Non-Alcoholic Beer.  Delicious. Dinner was great but dessert was the best. We went back out to the resort lobby, snagged the chairs by the fireplace and read to each other for a couple of hours. It was topped off by the room service delivery right to the fire of a skillet baked cookie and ice cream. It was an perfect little getaway. 

We strongly recommend the resort:   
http://www.laresort.com/lars/default.htm

4 Year Meet-aversary

I have the best wife. 4 years ago today (May 5^th) Susan and I met at Woody’s in Newport and our lives would be changed forever. This morning I rolled out of bed and headed toward the kitchen to find a fresh pot of coffee, flowers from our rose bushes, and a beautiful card from my wife. I love that Susan and I know as important as big events are (babies, weddings, vacations) it’s the little things that make a marriage so wonderful. I am a lucky man.

Another Bonus Ultrasound

This blog goes back to the week of our moms b’days. But this is a good one. For Susan’s mom’s birthday Susan surprised her mom by walking her and the family into Ultrasound Me. This is the awesome place Susan and I have gone a few times to get our bonus ultrasounds. The room is set up with couches and flat screens to include the entire family. We watched the baby dance and flip and act dramatic for about 20 minutes. We walked out with two DVDs that I immediately took to my mom’s hospital room.

Hopefully a video will be up soon.

This is the a perfect profile. From right to left you can see head, face, ribs, legs and feet, and her bottom!

Tough Times for the Snodgrass Family (Written Mid-May)

Susan and the baby are perfectly fine. I want to get that out of the way first since I know many of you tune into this blog to get baby updates. This is more Snodgrass family, than baby news. As most of you know by now my mom has metastasized renal cancer. This basically means the cancer she had removed (with infected kidney) in 1994 had been hiding for 17 years and finally came out to start trouble. The cancer cells are in her lungs, adrenal gland, and spine. Her spine has taken significant damage which causes severe pain in her legs and hips. The medications are doing their job pretty well and the majority of her day is filled with comfort, bedside visitors, physical therapy, and good books. She had 10 days of radiation treatment that ended about three weeks ago. The latest update we received stated the tumor was stabilized, and not moving. Good news for now but we won’t get the full assessment until next week. We are still waiting to start chemo. Mom is currently staying at a nursing and rehab facility until she gets strong enough to go home. Mom and the nurses are still working to find ways to deal with the pain and difficulty of life with a fractured spine. Once Mom can manage a little on her own, she’ll be back in her condo with Micki at her feet.  This life will include a back brace and most likely a wheelchair. Fortunately it will also include being surrounded by her children and grandchildren.  It is not an easy road but we have really come together as a family and our love along with my mom’s dedication are putting up a strong fight.  She was in hospital for three weeks and the rehab facility for another three. We’re hoping my mom’s progression in physical therapy and an increased understanding of her pain meds will get her home soon.  Our love is with her always.