My Husband the Model

Of all the photos I took, 364, while on vacation, I think these are my two favorites.

LIFE

Life has been SO busy lately....I will blog soon...hopefully tomorrow

Life

I haven't had the time to blog as I would like these past 2 weeks. Even now I don't think this will cover everything I want to say but hopefully during the next few days, I will be able to catch up.

August 30th - We decided to stay home from church. It was the last day in our old ward. Our stake added a new ward and realigned the boundaries making it so we were part of the new ward. This has been very exciting for us as we would now have ward members actually living next to us rather than a mile away. I know that outside of Utah it could be like that BUT we live in Draper, Utah not somewhere else. We didn't want to go and have people gushing all over us for leaving, cause we really aren't leaving. Well it is a good thing we decided to stay home. While we would normally have been at church, Rick received a very important phone call. After a bunch of telephone tag, Rick was speaking to his son Jeff. I have never met Jeff and Rick hadn't spoken with him in about 6 years. Jeff called to let us know that his mom, Jana, had died. Not only that, her boys were the ones to find her.
Jeff turned 23 on Sept 1st and his brother, Stephen turned 21 back in May. Suddenly our lives were all turned upside down.
We spent Sunday afternoon with them at the home of their grandparents. Rick has since talked with both boys every single day and they have together and separately spent time with us at home.
We had their mom's funeral on Sept 5th. It was a lovely day. There was a viewing and a memorial service here in Salt Lake and she was buried in Trenton, Cache County. It was a perfect day for everything. The talks during the funeral, some were good, some so not. I could go on and on about the one that wasn't. Let's just say, I almost got up and walked out and Rick did later on during the same guy's talk. Yes, it was that bad!
Now let me tell you a few details - I have this morbid curiosity about dead bodies. I didn't used to have it. I avoided funerals and all that a funeral service entails until a few years ago when my grandparents died. Rick didn't want to have anything to do with the dead body but I sure did. I wanted to make sure she was really dead! So I crept into the viewing room and checked her out. She looked gray! Seriously, I haven't seen many dead bodies in my time but never have they looked so horrible. Not only that she looked SOOOO old. The only thing missing was that she didn't have the gray hair. She had wrinkles that were horrendous. Ok I should say the body looked like that because I do not believe that the body is the same person as when they were alive. It is a vessel for the Spirit.
Anyway, back to the point - not sure what it really is.

On Friday the 5th we received another phone call - this time it was from Rick's sister telling us that our niece, Michelle, had committed suicide. She would be 40 next month. She left behind a husband, 4 children and a step son. I had only met Michelle once about 3 years ago, but I know her dad fairly well.
Michelle had been having a very difficult time with life and had tried earlier this year to end her life. We know that she is now at peace but unfortunately her children have to learn to grow without their mommy there for them.
Michelle's funeral was held on Friday the 11th. It was good to meet some nephews and their wives who I had never met before but it was obviously a very sad occasion. Michelle's cousin, Amy, passed away 5 years ago. They were only a year apart and we know Amy was there to welcome her with open arms and the love she felt she didn't have in this life. I am sure Amy was there to take her cousin to Heavenly Father and Jesus where she would also have their love. (Along with all our other family members.) - Photos - Rick and his dad. Sharron, Rick's sister, Amy's mom, holding her Great Nephew Ryker who Rick blessed back in February.

On Monday the 7th, as we were walking out the door Rick got a call from Steve telling him that Steve wants to live with us. WHOA! I really didn't see that one coming. I figured he would want to live at his aunt's. We live in a 2 bedroom apartment. Not a house. Heck I don't even want to live with us in such a small place some days. So for the last week we have been trying to figure out what to do with him and Jeff because Jeff has just as much right to live with us, as long as either abides by our rules.
Yesterday Jeff and Steve had a family meeting with their mom's family trying to figure out what they are going to do. We haven't heard the results of that meeting yet. And yes, it bothers me that they think they can get together and decide the fate of these boys without their dad being there but let's not get into that.
We should know in the next day or two who will be living with us, if either choose to do so. I told Rick that it can only be one cause if both move in, I am moving out!

My genealogy stuff has been really good lately. I am finally on the New FamilySearch website which has made it possible for me to generate many cards with names of family members whose Temple Work needs to be done. I have learned that I can make it to the Draper Temple and back, along with a session of initiatories in 1 hour. I have been trying to do this every week lately and it makes such a difference in my outlook of life.

In the mean time, we decided to try and move forward with building. That's right, we are building a home! We signed our reservation agreement on Saturday to build a home in Stansbury Park. I will write a separate blog about that entire circus the ensued. In the end though, we are VERY excited.

We have a lot of changes going on in our life right now and are very excited about them. Some more than others obviously.

Things I Like

I just had the idea, while in the bathroom (the inspiration room as some may call it) about a blog. I want to tell you about some of the things I like. My list could go on and on and on but I will try to keep it short and to the first things that come to mind. These are in no particular order either.

The one that started this blog - being the first one to use a newly cleaned toilet. I love it when I am the first in a public bathroom, like at the airport or at work. There is something satisfying knowing that the seat is still up because it is clean.

A good NASCAR race - yes I admit there are bad ones. The bad ones are ones with no passing, not wrecks and they are especially bad when Jeff Gordon is in the back or worse yet, out of the race. There is just something about the rumble of their engines and seeing these cars go 200 miles an hour!

Newly vacuumed carpet, A well kept lawn, A well groomed outfield in baseball - All of these are essentially the same. I like to see the lines in any of these surfaces after they have been "groomed". I like to see the patterns in grass because the person mowing the lawn took the time to do it both directions. Yes I know this takes a lot of time and trust me, when I lived in my home I took the time to do it, every single week. There is nothing better than a both directions diagonal cut.

A good book or a good movie - I can't tell you how many times I have watch any of the Harry Potter movies, Ever After and Twilight. They give me a happy tingly feeling just thinking about them.

Having a husband who is cleaner than I am - it is wonderful to know that my home will always be clean when I come home from work. 'Nuff said

Having great friends - I am so blessed to have some very close friends. Friends who accept me for who I am and understand that I like to hide out from time to time and home but they are still there to listen to my crazy stories.

Music that makes me want to move or sing. Here I am listening to some Ricky Martin with my feet tapping away while swaying to the beat with the rest of my body. Last night for example I spent 3-4 hours organizing music in my iTunes and playing Guitar Hero. I am always amazed at how many different types of music I like. I miss having a grand piano in my home to play whenever the urge hits me but at least I have GH to feel like I am creating the music. Maybe I need Darci to give me some refresher flute lesson.

And last but not least my "Shel Cave" - You have heard of the "Man Cave" well I have my Shel Cave at home. I have all my dvd's (over 200 of them), my computers (cause I claim Rick's as mine too since often I am doing projects on both at the same time) all my other computer equipment (mics, software, dvd burner, webcam, etc), my stereo and other countless things in my Shel Cave I couldn't live without. The only thing that would make that room better was if I had the big screen and surround sound in there rather than in the family room.