Feeling hot hot hot!

We're in ST. GEORGE!! We made it safe. It's 11:00 at night and it is already hot, tomorrow is going to SO crazy. I'll post details of our trip and things later (I forgot my laptop charger, and I don't have very much battery left.) I just wanted to post real quick and thank Mom, Gayla, and Sara for their awesome support today, and for basically ''talking me back off the ledge'' so to speak. I am greatful everyday to have such a great supportive family.

IKEA

A couple Saturday's ago Martin and I decided to make a trip down to IKEA. We didn't have anything in mind to buy, but once we got down there we couldn't pass up these desks.

Here's mine. (sorry for the crappy lighting) It is so perfect. My Cricut and cartridges fit so perfect. There is a magnent board, magazine holders, just space for everything! It makes me super happy. Now if I could just find the time and inspiration to actually scrapbook...

Oh, and this is my cute as can be chair. Here is Martin's desk(s). He loves all the space it has for everthing as well.

-Going to St. George on Thursday. SO excited! It's going to be Grandma, Mom, Ruth, Becky, Melissa, and me. We're going to go to Tuacahn to see Les Miserables and Sound of Music. I can't wait! Working this week is hard, I just want to go now.

-Monday is Makayla's date day, Wednesday is Allie's. I haven't had too many day's off lately, so I haven't been able to take the kids out, and with school only 3 weeks away, I'm stressing a little. Neither of them have decided what to do yet. Any ideas you have would be a great help.

..root, root, root for the RAPTORS

So Doug's work gave him free tickets to the Raptors baseball game on Friday so I went with Mom and Doug. We upgraded the free tickets so we didn't have to sit in the uncomfortable bleachers in the hot sun. The seats were actually very good, right behind our team's dugout along the third base line. I've only been to a handfull of baseball games before. The most infamous in our family is way back when the Trappers played here in Utah. (1985-1992) I was about 5-7 at the time so I barely remember, but it was Mom, Dad, Seth and I there with the Lunds. It's infamous because we were sitting along the third base line, and a foul came up and everyone stood up to try and catch it, Seth, being very short, couldn't see it coming and it hit him right in the nose. Blood everywhere. This is where my mind is a little fuzzy, I think Dad might have taken him to the first aid place. I do remember there being lots of blood and me throwing up pretzels in a garbage can in the parking lot because I was so upset at all the blood. The ball had broken seth's nose. We have some nasty pictures of it somewhere, but he got to keep the ball, and all the players signed it.

Anyway, the Raptors game on Friday was really fun! They won which was nice, but everytime a foul ball would go up over the stands it made me extremely nervous. Martin had planned on coming up and meeting us at the game after work, but had to stay late, and got to our house about the time the game was over. Doug had the great idea to go to get Farr's Ice Cream after the game. IT WAS PACKED! We called Martin and told him he had time to drive up there, so he did and got there a few minutes before we were served. The whole night was a fun one, and I'm glad I got to spend time with Mom and Doug, and that Martin could come meet us too.

Hey girls, I just checked my e-mail and found that Whitney sent me that picture we took outside Mimi's Cafe on our girls night. I just thought I would share.
That was so much fun!

My Memories

They say that time heals all wounds but all it's done so far is give me more time to think about how much I miss you. ~Ezbeth Wilder

Where you used to be, there is a hole in the world, which I find myself constantly walking around in the daytime, and falling in at night. I miss you like hell. ~Edna St Vincent Millay

If I had a single flower for every time I think about you, I could walk forever in my garden. ~Claudia Ghandi

Some people say that The Holidays are when they miss lost loved ones the most, but I think our family misses Dad the most this time of year. It starts with Memorial Day, and then May 28. Then there is Fathers Day and then Dad's birthday all within a month of each other.

I just wanted to share a few memories I've had the last couple days. This one might be a little weird, but it caught me completely off guard. I had a customer come in yesterday and was looking in our parts drawer and I was standing there kind of off to the side and behind him and his hair looked SO much like my Dad's. That's one of the things I remember most about my Dad was his hair. I'm not sure why. I had to choke back the tears because I didn't want to look like a crazy lady.

The second memory came while I was watching Mr. Hollands Opus last night. The song that the clairnet player plays while Mr. Holland is teaching her is the song that my Dad played on my clairnet the night that we went and bought it together. He had never played a day in his life before and he was just messing around and played that song. He was so proud of himself. I was impatient of course and wanted to play with my new toy and hurried him along, but oh how treasured that memory is now. I don't even know what song it was. That's another thing I miss. Seth has talked about it a little in his blog, but my Dad knew everything. Ok, not everything, but man, he could hear any song, and know what it was called and who it was by. Here is another memory. At a Daddy/Daughter night for church they had a name that tune contest and he won. It actually ended up being between Don Eisenbarth and my Dad. I remember he won a HUGE Sam's Club sized jar of Laffy Taffys.

Mom keeps saying how theraputic these blogs are for her family and I haven't thought of it that way before, until now. These little snippets of memories mean so much to me because I'm so terrified of forgetting him. It breaks my heart how much I've forgotten already. Also I have issues I guess you could say because I'm still mad at the fact that I'm the youngest and got the least amount of time to make memories of him. I guess that's all for now though. Perhaps I'll update when I think of more.

ETA (edited to add) I found that song that Dad would have known. Here and Here. The second one sounds better, but the first is the original. He even shook the clairnet to make the vibratto.

Girls night

Friday night was our girls night out. It was Grandma, Mom, Sara and Allie, Gayla and Kayla, Aunt Ruth, my three cousins, Keri, Becky and Melissa. We also invited Amanda, and Whitney came along too. It was a lot of fun. We got two hotel rooms at a hotel just here in Layton. We all had a great time, talking, eating, and swimming. I don't know what it is about my sisters and I and hotel rooms. They inevitabley turn into therapy sessions. It was very nice though. Healing I think. It was great to see everyone and spend time together.

Our airconditioner broke on Thursday night. It has been miserable. It got up to over 95 degrees in our house. The airconditioner people couldn't fix it when they came out on Friday, so they loaned us a portable airconditioner that has made it bearable, and we have a couple fans to help as well. Abbi has done ok, but always has to lay in front of the fans, while I was out today Martin took these amazing pictures.

wet dog with a hint of coconut

I honestly cannot remember the last time I gave Abbi a bath. At the very least it's been 8 months, probably more like 18 months. Poor puppy. She's actually pretty clean I haven't thought she's needed one. Martin has been complaining lately that she smells. So it was time. I wish I would have waited until Martin got home so he could have got some mid bath pictures. She was pretty good in the bath, but once I let her get out of the tub she went CRAZY! Shaking ever five seconds running away from me while I was trying to towel her off. Then when I opened the door she was off like a speeding bullet....right onto our bed!! I quickly herded her outside onto our balcony to dry.

She was rolling around on that towel trying to dry off I was laughing at her. She was not amused. She wouldn't even look at me when I was trying to take her picture. I went back to the bathroom and found this in the tub. It was so gross I had to share. She sheds like CRAZY, but it's gotten better after she lost her winter coat. Apparently it's not all gone yet.
This is where she's been laying ever since I let her back in the house when she was dry. Bath time makes her sleepy. But look how white her coat is now!
It took about an hour from start to finish. WAY too long. I really want this. A little expensive, but way worth it I think.

...and another one down

Sara finally gave in and made a family blog. I'm really excited about it. Check it out. (Mom it's your turn!)

Mom and Doug had Gayla's kids today and invited me to church to help with them. Sara and Jason stopped by just before we left and their kids wanted to come too. So there were 9 of us at church today. It was actually very enjoyable. Sam fell asleep on my lap while I rocked her even before the meeting started. The all were brave and went to their own classes. After church Gayla and Brandon were waiting at Mom's house. Back from their wild top secret adventure. I'll let Gayla fill you in on the details, I'm still waiting to hear all about it myself. We had dinner and then I took Allie and Nathan home, and answered some of Sara's questions about her blog. I have to end this post now though, I've been gone all day and my flAbigail is in serious need of some attention.

July 4th

Seth and I both had to work so we started our celebrations at about 7:30pm with a bbq at Mom and Doug's house. They had it decorated all cute, they also bought a bunch of those little flags and put them up around the whole neighborhood. It was very festive.

Seth brought the mascot. This was the yummy food. The fruit was fantastic, I'm still craving it!
Sara made this desert. It was a cookie type bottom with frosting and festive marshmellows.
I made jello popcicles mmm.


Pictures of us.
Seth brought his friend Shylah and her little girl Alliyah. Alliyah was the life of the party. Everybody wanted to play with her, and she would make the cutest faces when we would light off the fireworks.

Doug and Jason getting ready for fireworks to start.


The rest of us. Jason's family
Alliyah loved Martin. Shylah said that Alliyah doesn't go up to new people and want them to hold her, but she did to Martin several times. It made my heart melt!
Fireworks.
Pucky didn't like the loud ones. He would go hide under Mom. It was pretty cute.

Fourth of July Eve

I love the Fourth of July! It's my second favorite holiday after Christmas. I love everything about it, the meaning behind it, the red white and blue, fireworks, just everything. I am loving my background, it might stay up all of July. I love having a theme. Today I bought red and white shirts for Martin and I to wear tomorrow so we'll be all festive. I'm also making red white and blue popsicles. The only thing ruining tomorrow is the fact that I have to work. So not excited, but I don't think it will be very busy so it shouldn't be too bad. I'm charging the camera now, so there will be pictures!

Fun Day

Gayla and Brandon's 10 year anniversary is today and they are off on a top secret vacation. Very jealous and a little grumpy that they won't tell anyone what they are doing or where they are going, but it sounds like a ton of fun and the secrecy is half the fun of it, so I'm happy for them. I had today off, so I took the kids last night and I'll have them until tomorrow afternoon. We watched a little Jon and Kate plus 8 last night before bed. Then we went swimming this morning. They had a lot of fun.

So far no sunburns so we did fairly well. Once we had lunch Martin had the awesome idea to take them all to see Wall-E. We all loved it so much! He's a very cool uncle. Then we took Grandma some popcorn and she fixed us dinner. We've had a very fun day. We're all tired now so it might be an early night, but we're planning on swimming and a picnic tomorrow before I hand them off to Grandma Reyna.