When it rains, it pours

Not much to update about, when I get the house to a place where I'm happy with it I'll take and post some pictures but I am side tracked again. Eli, Dave, and I were driving home after a late dinner out last Thursday and got rear-ended. We're fine but our backs are sore with some whiplash but over all we're doing fine. We were feeling good enough to have some friends over Saturday morning and show of our work in progress house (we still have boxes in just about every room that need attending) and Sunday had one of Dave's old buddies over for dinner with his new wife. We're pretty excited to have them in our ward. Ah but I forget Saturday night I realized I was getting mastitis yet again. Ah the joys of motherhood. I'm pretty tired but have a ton to do this week so I hope I can get to bed early enough at night not to delay healing. I'm grateful to learn but I hope I can relax one of these days, but we're getting Eli's 4 month shots tomorrow so it could be tough. Speaking of Eli, he's crying some big ol crocodile tears so I better go.

Linda

So I've been feeling like I needed to write since we've moved but didn't know what to write about. Then I read my friend Shasta's blog and how she lost a dear mother figure by the name of Linda. How could I have wondered what to write on . . . .

So we moved in last Saturday and I had a goal of getting all unpacked by Thursday, the day my sister would be coming in to town with her family. Her husband's mom had pancreatic cancer and things weren't great. I got a phone call Sunday evening saying they were moving things up and flying in that night because Jason's mom, Linda, was not doing well.

Back up a little, I moved to Texas in May of 2005 because I felt prompted that this was where I should be. I knew no one, and my only family was my sister and her kids and husband. Shortly after I moved here I became better acquainted with Russ and Linda. Linda even let me come and stay at her house for a few days and do some work around her house when I hadn't found a job yet. In my first year here I went on 2 family vacations with them and met up with them in Boston on my own personal vacation. It was nice to have such generous people to welcome me into their home and into their family. I met my husband to be a little over a year after moving here. Since then I have not seen Russ and Linda much but Linda was kind enough to quilt a Christmas tree skirt I had made. I saw them periodically when my sister still lived here. Then she moved away and I didn't see Linda much (except when Bonnie & Fam were in town) although I knew Linda had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. I thought of her often (usually when I was making my quilt as she was an avid quilter).

So last Monday I talked to Bonnie and told her to let me know if she wanted me to take the kids. Then I talked to her in the evening and she said she was at home as her almost 5 year old Jeremy could not be quiet enough for a hospital. After asking if she wanted to drop off the kids I had an epiphany and told her I was coming to get the kids. I came and got them and they spent the night because Linda was being brought home in an ambulance that evening and Bonnie didn't want her kids to have to see that. I brought them back to their grandparents house the next day and spend some time with Linda's family who had all come in to town to say goodbye. I was reminded what a wonderful lady she was. Always serving others in many ways and often making them quilts (she had several unfinished ones still in her sewing room).

Linda passed away Tuesday night/Wednesday morning with her sons, their families, and
husband in her home. I took my nephew the following night while his sister was at her cousin's house. His parents had explained that grandma was in paradise and he said he didn't want her in paradise but wanted her closer to them in Chicago. He and I talked a little bit about grandma while he was at my house and he said he was sad but that grandma could see him now with her spirit eyes. He prayed that night for grandma to be happy where she was.

I was able to attend a memorial service for Linda last Friday (her funeral and burial are today in Utah) and it was a tender meeting. Mark (her son) gave a wonderful Eulogy where he discussed her and how she exemplified the young women values of our church: Faith, Divine Nature, Individual Worth, Knowledge, Choice and Accountability, Good Works, Integrity, and Virtue. He talked of her service to others. Her friend gave a wonderful tribute as well and I found myself sad that I hadn't seen her so much. I should have . . . not for her good, as she had many wonderful people who cared about her, but for me. I missed out and I will always be sad about that.

So I guess this is a testament to all, there are a lot of people in our lives who are wonderful. Don't let yourself miss out on knowing them better. You never know how short their time is and you don't want to regret it. You may be missing out on a valuable lesson they could teach you.

Oh, and for those of you wondering why I haven't invited you over, all of this last week is the reason we're not quite settled yet.

Looking Forward to

I've been intending to write this post for a while but these are a few of the things I am looking forward to being grateful for in our new house (that we will own in a week).

1. Not having to haul the stroller down a flight of stairs in order to take Eli out in it (I think we will have more walks in the house.

2. No more obnoxious neighbors in the next apartment over whose kids are outside all day screaming.

3. A garage to park in (and we will once we get an opener for it).

4. Storage space! An attic, a garage, and closets! Our current apartment only has two closets (one in each bedroom) good thing the master is large enough for our linens too.

5. Two bathrooms! Now one of us can go to the bathroom and the other can bathe the baby without interfering.

6. A big kitchen. Now it's not big by anyone's standards but ours seeing as our current kitchen is smaller than our master bedroom closet.

7. A separate office from the nursery. Maybe now Eli can take naps in his crib more than once in a while.

8. A fridge with an ice maker! Now that is not the house but the fridge we bought but I'm still totally stoked!

I'm sure there are more and I will post them as I think of them. Thanks for letting me share the excitement!

Never forget

It's been 9 years since the attacks on the world trade center and it's crazy to think it was so long ago. Though my memories of that day have faded some, I still remember quite a bit.

My roommate Kirsten turned on the radio as she always did while doing her make-up. It was strange that the music station wasn't playing music and it wasn't commercials. There was some agitated talking. We heard something about a plane crashing into a building and I remember not really understanding what was going on. I was only 19 and really didn't know much about the world outside my comfortable life as a college student. We started to understand that 2 planes had crashed into the world trade center towers and that it likely wasn't an accident. While we were listening a plane also crashed into the Pentagon. I called my brother Mike to find out who had such hatred for the US to do this and it was the first time I remember hearing the name Osama Bin Laden. How naive I was at such an age, thinking no one really had such hatred towards America and Americans. I had no idea about world affairs. I wanted to know it was real and since I did not have a TV in my apartment at college I knocked on peoples doors until I could find a TV so I could see what was happening. It was one of the most surreal things I have ever seen, it seemed to tear at my soul. I had always felt so safe as an American. People weren't dumb enough to attack America any more, right?

My first class of the day was a religion class (I was at BYU-Idaho) and my professor just turned on the news in the class as we sat silently watching. I still remember exactly how I felt and what a scary thing it was to feel like my safety was gone. He turned it off and we read from the Book of Mormon about wars in those times. I can't remember anything that we read but I know that there was some peace in something we read (in fact I probably have it marked, I should find that).

There was a TV in the lounge at my apartment and I watched it constantly for a few days, still shocked and trying to make sense of it all. It felt like the last days. A neighbor of mine had a family member in one of the towers and I remember she could not get through on the phone to anyone to find out if he was okay.

Sometimes I feel like we forget that day. For the first few months afterward it felt like our nation was united. It didn't matter what political party you were affiliated with, or how you felt about abortion, we knew that Americans had been murdered in a political move by al-Qaeda. Our hearts were broken and we felt the weight of the tragedy universally.

Do you still remember?

Cousin Pictures

Dave's parents have a friend across the street who is a professional photographer. We caught up with her the other day and got these pictures of Elijah and his cousins. (They were all born in a 16 day span). Elijah is on the right, Remington (Dave's younger brother's son) is on the left, and Jamison (Dave's older sister's son) is in the middle. Enjoy!









If you live in Houston area and want a good photographer check her out at www.k4photography.com