San Diego

We finished the month of May with a last minute family vacation to San Diego. Brad had a conference in San Diego, and it was my last week to fly so we thought, "why not?" 

We enjoyed the zoo and the Safari park.

And Sea World. 

My one pregnancy shot with this little gal. 

Pennsylvania

We had an unplanned visit to Pennsylvania in Mid-May. When my Grandfather passed away, Brad got the Little Lady and me tickets to go back so I could attend the memorial. I try to avoid mushy love stuff, but really he is the greatest person on the planet for getting me those tickets. I was so happy to be home. To be with my family to mourn and to laugh and to reminisce. 

Funerals, as sad as they are, an event that bring people together. My grandfather's memorial was on Mother's Day. This was the first time my grandmother had all four of her children, all eight of grandchildren, and two of her great grandchildren with her on Mother's Day. I don't know a better Mother's Day gift my grandfather could have ever given her.

The night before we had a wonderful evening with my family. We celebrated my aunt's birthday. It's been years since she celebrated it with her siblings and her children.

 Here is the memorial. It really was beautiful, touching, and hilarious. It is exactly how I would want my funeral to be. I am sure he loved it, however, he would prefer to be the one telling the stories.

My dad officiated the funeral, and he did a wonderful job. All my dad's siblings talked and told stories about their dad, and they were funny. Then while my dad was on the phone talking to someone, I learned I was to say a few words. Luckily, I had made that blog post earlier, so I had material. 

 As nervous as I was, I am really grateful and honored that I got to speak and tell my stories about my Pop. Of course, I was the most emotional out of everyone, I blame this on pregnancy hormones. But as I got up there to speak, I was touched by really what a wonderful grandfather he was, and how lucky I am to have/had him as my Pop, and well, a over hormonal human being can only take so much emotion before it comes out in tears. 

His death, has been harder for me now than it was when the news first hit At first, I knew he was really sick, and this was for the better. But now that the dust has settled, I have forgotten his sick days (because they were so few compared to his healthy days) and I only remember him vibrant and so alive. It's the little things that get me. We make this garlic parsley butter that goes on corn on the cob (my SIL actually introduced me to this) which I in turn introduced to my family. And my Pop who loved butter, LOVED this stuff. He would put it on his hamburger bun. As I made it, I smiled at the thought of it; visualizing him sitting at the end of the table with his very own little bowl of garlic butter as he would spread it on his food, then teary eyed because I knew I would never see it again.

I am glad to hear my grandmother is doing well. She has been continuing on with life, sad at times I know, but as a whole doing very well. Nanny, now you can get on a plane and visit finally ;) My Pop always talked about driving here (he loved to drive) however, I can't blame my grandmother for avoiding a 2,000 mile drive - after my grandfather got a prosthetic leg he hated flying and I mentioned he was stubborn, right?

It's June, already?

Playing Catch up. May flew by. We were busy from start to finish. Made the 8th month of pregnancy go fast though. 

We started the month on a romantic getaway to (be prepared to be blown away)... Boise, ID. 

My dear friend got remarried after being widowed for 15 years, and she is like family to me so we went up to support her. 

We tended our neighbor's kids last month so they repaid the favor and offered to take B for a weekend. This was our first time away from her. I am fairly certain it was harder for us than for her. But it was nice to just have one on one time with each other and not have to drag a diaper bag around. 

Here is a picture of my work gals and the bride.

Stay Tuned....

A Bittersweet Good-bye

May 21, 2005

He had no idea I was going to take this picture. I told the photographer, "I want to give my grandfather a kiss can you capture it?" His response is real and genuine. My favorite picture.

 

 

 

 

My Pop passed away this morning. It is bitter sweet. He lived a beautiful long life and was only sick for the last 6 months and especially sick the last week of his life. He didn’t suffer pain this week, for this I am grateful. However, it is bitter because I will miss him.

He often made me laugh, he may have made me roll my eyes a time or two; he was a stubborn and opinionated man after all. And I say that with love.

My grandfather was indeed a family man. Family was important to him. He came to every grandparent day I had at school, every graduation, every play or musical I was in and just supported me.

I have a lifetime of memories of my Pop. After all he was a very prominent person in my life. However, my fondest memories of him will always be my college days. When I came to Utah for college I would get calls from him reporting my local weather. The calls particularly came when there was snow in the forecast (which was all winter long). He would say, “Jules, it is snowing in Utah today. How are you getting to class?” It always made me smile. It always made my day.

My Pop taught me many things. One of those was being proud of my heritage. He was a proud German. He was proud of his family, and the pride was passed on through the stories.  I loved my maiden name. It represented this heritage. How far my family had come. The sacrifice that was made so my life would be better. When I was married I had planned to change my name and take on Brad’s name. However, I didn’t realize how hard it was going to be for me. It meant so much to me. I changed it nevertheless, but there are a few documents that I have kept it on.

Pop also taught me endurance, whether it was listening to the same story for the 100^th time :) or completing a job thoroughly. He taught me hard work, all those spring-clean ups at the country. He taught me to value hard work, he compensated very very well. He taught me you can never have too much butter, and it makes everything and I mean everything better.

He was a lover of soups, msnbc, and driving.  He only bought American cars, and when I say that I mean only Fords. He detested raisins. His heart belonged to the Country.

My grandfather does not believe in life after death, he thinks death is the end; but I don’t. I know I will see him again. And I look forward to the day when I get to see the recording of him opening his eyes and realizing it isn’t the end and hear his reaction which I can only imagine is probably this, “Dammit to hell”.

I love you Pop. I will miss you greatly. Until we meet again, xoxo.

August 31, 2011

My Sister-in-Law could beat up your Sister-in-law

That's what I would say if I was still in grade school. 

Because really she is my hero.  

With the nursery furniture needing to go to a new baby, Miss B needed big sis furniture. I searched everywhere, then went to our local classifieds and found the perfect set. Brad and his brother had been planning to work on the basement tonight, so I knew they wouldn't be of any help (and really the basement is very important that was not a project I wanted to hinder for furniture). So I called up Andrea. They as always tweaked their plans  so she could come with me and help load up furniture in Chris's truck we borrowed (especially since me being pregnant I would be slightly worthless, even not pregnant I am so weak).

We loaded up 3 kiddos. By the end the littlest ones were in tears.

 Also did I mention the battery died while we loaded furniture so we needed a jump?

Here is Andrea carrying out the heaviest piece of the set.

And then it was she, who tied it all down so it was nice and tight. (Because let's be honest I have no idea how to work the ratchet straps).

And then I made her drive the truck, because she is a better driver than me. And we made it home! Nothing damaged. 

We also may have said a prayer or two :)

So if you haven't figured it by now, it was all her that did this. All I did was find the furniture. Why she still agrees to help me is beyond me, but boy, am I glad she does :)

My Pop

My Pop is undergoing an emergency surgery at this very moment. He has been sick since Thanksgiving. As I was looking back at photos and videos I came across this one. Healthier days these were.

The Raw Unedited Me

 

I was challenged this week to share who I am, so here it goes:

I often speak and act before I think things through and this gets me into trouble and has cost me us money on more than one occasion. Trying to overcompensate for not thinking things through, I frequently over think things and it still ends in the same result of trouble.

 I wish I were more assertive and less of a doormat.

I am a wannabe granola.  I wish I could be more homemade, more health and environmentally conscious, I wish I could be a naturally birthing mama but I am not ashamed to admit I was made for modern medicine.

I feel extremely blessed to have married into a wonderful family. I have no sisters, and I married a man with three (beautiful) sisters whom welcomed me right in.

I would love to live next to the coast.

I live 2,000 miles away from my family and I miss them every day. I talk to parents daily. So I figured if I am going to live far away might as well be next the ocean, right? 

 

I have an inner feminist and an inner fairytale Princess and they are often at war with each other.

I can’t drive manual, and it terrifies me when Brad wants to do (another) practice session. We have had a manual car for 6 years and I still can’t drive it, pathetic.

I love my husband with every bit of my heart but I am not afraid to admit that there is no other human being on the planet that can make my eyes roll more than him. At the same time, there is no one else on this planet that can make me smile more than him. We have days when we just get each other, and then there are days that he is obviously from Mars.  Also I think we can never get divorced… because he knows too much. :)

I hate being wrong [period]

I hate snakes and the winter. I love my dogs and summer.

I love being a wife.

I love being a mother but hate being a homemaker.

I hate horror movies, the last one I ever saw was May of 2003 and it was The Ring it took me a month to sleep again and years to forget.

 I often have flawed logic, but it doesn’t stop me from believing what I do.

I hope every person who walks into my home feels welcomed and loved and comfortable to be who they are. 

And I'm a Mormon.

A Day in the Life

We had quite the "I-definitely-have-a-toddler" kind of a day, and I thought I would write it down so when we look back we can laugh and laugh at how curious this little Miss is.

It all started when I was trying to make dinner (of course).  She now knows how to open the pantry door, or so I learned. She got into the pantry climbed up the shelves (she rarely shows fear for that kind of stuff) and got a hold of the box of baking soda. Yes, I just keep my baking soda in the box it comes in with the top open. She grabs it and shakes the baking soda all over the pantry and I mean ALL OVER. A lot of it got into our recycling bag which was full of shredded pieces of paper. I put that to the side to just take outside. As I finally got it all cleaned up I turn around and see she got a hold of the recycling bag (which remember has a ton of baking soda and shredded pieces of paper). She promptly turns it upside down. I give her some chalk and direct her to her art easel.

I get the second mess cleaned up and go back to dinner. When I realize I am hearing an odd noise I turn around (the art easel is in the kitchen) she has used the chalk and colored all over the floor (our floor looks like a chalk board and it didn't sound any different than her chalk board) what I heard was her coloring on the walls. Yes, at least it was just chalk and cleans easily but it was still another thing to clean up. I took her chalk and gave her rag and sent her to work to clean her mess. Which really she cleaned it as well as any two year old could.

I then decide to put her in front of the tv and watch Curious George. I go back to dinner. She maybe watches it for 2 minutes and gets up, and goes to get the broom. Seeing that she is just sweeping and it is entertaining her I let her go. I go back to dinner. Once everything is cooking I look up to see how the sweeping is going. I realize she is no longer sweeping but mopping... with the dog's dish water.

She went to bed early that night and I went and got some ice cream before I thoroughly cleaned everything again.

I am glad she is curious. I am glad she is busy. It means she is alive and healthy and growing, albeit at a ridiculous rate.

Signs of Spring

Nothing exciting but life...

As I was looking through my pictures trying to find what exciting things have we done I could blog about... really it's been nothing except life. So here are a ton of pictures of my kid :). 

Enjoying a sunny Saturday.

I have been a little afraid to go anywhere as I am trying to keep us all healthy for the last leg of winter.

Uncle Chris crashed at our house one night. She loves him. 

Our neighbor's went to Disneyland, and they found the exact Minnie shoes!!! Now she insists she wear one red and one pink one :)  She accessorized herself in the below picture. A big bow and red shoes for church. I don't fight these battles. 

 We experienced some mild temperatures and when I say mild I am talking 45 degrees so we spent it outside. She kept going to our neighbor's house and knocking on the door but no one was home except the dog, who B would blow kisses to through the window.

 Brushing her "beebee" teeth.

She loves to watch ballet (she does not get that from me). She particularly loves to watch Swan Lake while wearing fancy shoes and dancing along with it.

First time licking the beaters. Chocolate frosting.

And our biggest/exciting project... finishing the basement. Here is a sample of some carpet.