November Update (I know...the WHOLE MONTH)

I have been so terrible at updating our blog that I have to update you on all of November. :)

Grandpa's Funeral

At the be beginning of November, Shawn and I flew to Colorado for my Grandpa's funeral. He was diagnosed with terminal melanoma cancer in September and lived a week past his 80th birthday.  We were also able to fly out there in October to spend a weekend with him when we celebrated his birthday. He was pretty sick then, but Shawn spent that Saturday watching college football with him all day.

When we got there in October, Shawn told Grandpa that he wanted to watch football with him on Saturday all day. On Friday morning, Grandpa was so excited that he cut the sports schedule out of the newspaper.

I will always remember how fun my Grandpa was. He was constantly teasing and playing with his 10 grandkids. He really loved his family.

 Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving we flew to Montana to visit my family. We were supposed to fly out Wednesday night before Thanksgiving. Our flight left Salt Lake, got about 30 minutes outside Kalispell and was diverted back to Salt Lake because of the fog. When we got back to Salt Lake, they said that the soonest flight we could get out on was Thanksgiving afternoon at 3 p.m. We had to call our friend John to come pick us up (at 11:00 at night) and we went home for the night without any of our luggage.

We came back to the airport the next day and flew out on the 3:00 flight. When we got to Montana, only half of our luggage made it on our flight.  I went to file a claim and it had come in on another flight. It was a mess.

Once we got to my parent's house, it was so fun though. We ate a late Thanksgiving dinner Thursday.

These pictures are of me trying to teach my nephew Logan to eat whipped cream from the can. He did not like it. :)

Black Friday

We went shopping on Black Friday with my family. We split up into teams (Shawn & Jacob, Annie & I, Mom and Stephanie.) We split up the stores and took note cards with the items that everyone wanted from that store on them. We cut the pictures of the items out of the ads so that whoever was getting them would know what they were looking for.

Annie and I had Wal-Mart which was by far the worst store of the morning. They stayed open all night and it was so crowded that you couldn't even move.

We played a really funny prank on Shawn and Jacob with our note cards. We made them a fake note card for Bed, Bath and Beyond with really random items on it (a $250 vacuum, men's cologne, boot dryers, a dress mannequin, eggs and 15 pairs of pink panties that we wrote were for Jacob.)

We were sure  they would know that it was fake, but they went to Bed, Bath and Beyond and had the vacuum loaded into a cart before they saw the panties. Shawn called me and said "Are we really supposed to get panties for Jacob?" I was laughing so hard.

We laughed about it the rest of the weekend. When we asked them what they thought about the eggs, Jacob said "I thought that was they 'Beyond' part." It was hilarious.

BYU vs. Utah

We watched the BYU, Utah game in Montana with my family. What an AWESOME game with an even better ending. Go Cougs!!!

Worst Ever.

I am the worst blog updater ever. Will update soon I promise.

Tough September

It has taken me a while to post this month, but it has been a pretty tough month for Shawn and I. On the 12th of September, our nephew Levi died. He was 21 years old.

Levi was in Medford, Oregon at the time, installing security systems with his brothers Ben, Jeremiah and Matt. That Saturday night, Levi went hiking with two friends. During the hike at a place called Lower Table Rock, he fell from a 300 foot cliff and was killed. Shawn and I found out late that night. I had spent a really fun weekend with my sisters at a scrapbook expo (and hadn't had much sleep). I had been asleep for a short time when we got the call. Shawn and I went the next day and spent it with Shawn sister Tracie who is a single mother of 9 children (Levi was her fourth). We spent the next few days after his death with his mother and his sisters while the boys made the arrangements to bring his body back to Utah for the funeral.

We had the funeral on Friday the 18th and he was buried close to his mother's home in Murray.

This experience has taught Shawn and I so much. First, the importance of family. Shawn's family has been such a strength to each other through all of this. Also, the importance of the gospel. The knowledge that his family is eternal is something that is such a comfort to everyone. I can't imagine this experience without the church.

We also learned what great people there are in the world and how loving friends can be. That Sunday after he died, my nephews in Medford were struggling so bad. I was able to call a great friend who grew up in Medford and in a short time she was able to have her old Bishop get the missionaries there to give them blessings and give them a warm meal. Also, the love that was shown to Tracie by people she loved really touched my heart. I will be forever grateful for the kindness shown to everyone in Shawn's family during the experience.

Shawn's sister sent this video to us that week and it was very touching given what was going on.



During that same week, my sister Becky was in Las Vegas for a job interview when she got sick. She had gallstones and pancreatitis. She ended up having 2 surgeries within a matter of days. It was hard to have her out there without being able to be there with her.

The week after that, Shawn's grandma was hospitalized and is in pretty bad shape. She is 89 years old and has several health problems that seem to be compiling and making her more and more sick.

Then, last night I received word that my grandpa, who lives in Denver was again hospitalized. He was diagnosed with terminal cancer about 3 weeks ago. Last night they gave him his 3rd blood infusion in the past several weeks. They sent him home to do hospice care and he may go at any time. I grew up pretty close to my grandparents and visited them often growing up and have so many good memories of him. I am going to get out there sometime in the next two weeks to spend a little bit of time with him.

Through all of these experiences I have learned that family is so important. I knew that I loved my family before all of this, but I can't imagine going through life without the family that I have. I love the last line of that video that says "Never let a problem to be solved become bigger than a person to be loved." Always tell people you love that you love them. You can never tell them that enough

3 New posts in ONE NIGHT!

I know I have been terrible about posting lately, but I posted 3 posts below this one. I am catching up and promise to do better now. :)

4th of July

We spent the 4th of July with Brian, Annie, their family and some friends of theirs. It was really fun. We went to the Pleasant Grove fireworks and then went back to their house and lit off fireworks with them. It is becoming tradition to spend the 4th with them every year.

Montana Trip

The first week of June Shawn and I went to Montana for my little sister's high school graduation. She graduated from Flathead High School. It was such a fun week.

Annie with my nephew Carson.

This picture makes me laugh so hard.

While we were up there, we played with dad's slingshot that he made from posts from his log beds. It went in the back of his pickup and we shot waterballoons out of it.

The next day we stepped it up and attached the slingshot to two posts in the yard. It was a pretty fun game.

Jason and Logan on the 4-wheeler.

Yard Work

I haven't updated in a while, so I am going to have a few posts to update my life in the last little while. We launched the new site at work at the end of May, and that has kind of taken over my life. I love the new site, but it has taken a lot of hands on work to get it going. You should check it out www.heraldextra.com. It is starting to calm down a little now.

For a lot of the summer, I have worked in the yard. It has been a lot of work, but I really do enjoy getting my hands dirty a little bit.


Love these irises. Though they are only
I love this old stump, so I planted some flowers in it. I think they are so cute!
There was a cute flower bed with bark in the front of the house, and I built it out so that it goes around the side too.
I rebuilt this brick path. Most of the bricks were broken, so I replaced them with ones that were not.
The orchard. I got this cute bench from Bonnie. I love it in that little corner. Shawn and I sit on it at night. The only problem is that the light back there is motion activated, and so one of us has to occasionally stand up so that i will turn back on.
I also planted a garden, and will take pictures soon. I have tomatoes, watermelon and cucumber plants. There are also apple, pear and plum trees, strawberries, grapes and blackberries.

What keeps me going day after day...

This is my drawer at work.... my hidden stash of ibuprofen and caffeine.

Now for Grad School!!

Shawn graduated from Utah Valley University on Friday with his Bachelor's of Science degree in Behavioral Science. We are so proud of him!!! Now on to grad school!

Processional Video.

Can you see him in the crowd of graduates??

President Monson was the commecement speaker. (I got these pictures from the Herald photographer :)

When Shawn was in the tunnel waiting for processional to start, President Uchdorf and his wife walked in. Shawn shook hands with his wife. She held Shawn's hand until she could put it in President Uchdorf's so Shawn could shake his hand too. It was pretty cool.

President Eyring and his wife were also there.

That night we had a party at our house to celebrate!

New Car

I am so behind on the blog. I thought I would update the tree on my car story. We ended up having $2500 in damage, and so we took the $2000 insurance check and traded the car in for $3000 and get a new car. It ended up working out pretty well. We ended up getting an '05 Nissan Altima.

Crappy morning.

I woke up this morning after a spring snowstorm. It was that heavy snow/rain. We ended up with quite a bit outside.

When I went outside to leave for work, there was a HUGE tree branch on my car. The heavy snow had broken it off and it landed on the top of my car. I went and woke Shawn up and told him that a tree branch fell on my car in the middle of the night. We had to call Brian to help us pull it off. It was so heavy.

We got an estimate on the car. $1200 in damages. Sucks. Could have been worse though. The really heavy end missed Shawn's car by about 3 inches.


One of the three dents on the top.

This is the branch after we pulled if off my car. IT is GIGANTIC!!!

Brian helping pull down a different branch that broke off.

These bushes are normally 10-12 feet tall. The snow pushed them down so they are shorter than me.

This poor little tree. When I came out it was smashed to the ground. I pulled the snow off. I will have to tie it to a post to see if I can get it to go back to normal.

Incredible

Last week Shawn had 2 students tell him he looks like Mr. Incredible. What do you think? (I picked a picture where Shawn was wearing red so that you can picture it a little better, though shawn is pretty sunburned in that pic.)

At least I have a good idea for a Halloween costume for next year!