The loss of a loved one...

On the morning of July 4th my sweet Uncle Kris passed away. Just a couple of months ago he was diagnosed with refractory anemia with excess blasts / high grade myelodysplastic syndrome. It's basically a really weird form of Leukemia. They're still not sure what causes it, but they are pretty sure it's not genetic. His course of treatment was very involved and ultimately led to an intense course of chemo followed by a bone marrow transplant. Unfortunately his body just couldn't handle everything and he passed away early that morning.

I loved my Uncle Kris. He married my Aunt Krista shortly after Shane and I got married. I had Kelly a few months before their son John was born and so we all grew really close together since our children were so close in age. We also loved Kris right away simply because he was the most sweet and loving person you could ever meet. One of my most favorite memories of my Uncle Kris was from this past Thanksgiving. They flew in from Arizona and had reserved a small car to rent and use while they were here. Well, for some reason or another the reservation got mixed up and they ended up with a big, shiny, red Hummer. It was awesome! Kris took Shane and I out for a drive in it and we were having a little too much fun with it. We took it over to the church parking lot and had him drive over sidewalks and other stuff (sorry Mom!). It was like we were all dumb 17 year olds again.

I really miss my Uncle Kris and I'm so sad that I won't be able to attend his memorial service in Arizona. My Aunt Krista and my cousin John are doing as well as they can and have forunately recieved a lot of help throughout this whole process.

Mr. Monopoly's Loose Change

Once a week Shane teaches a night class at a local college, which leaves me and the girls to entertain ourselves. Usually I'm pretty grumpy and banish them to the bathtub (they've since learned to wash their own hair -- YAY!).

Maybe it's because the sun is out longer or maybe I was just in an extra special mood tonight because of the pork chops we had for dinner, but I decided to actually DO something with the girls. They suggested Monopoly Junior and I figured anything was better than playing "pet shop" with stuffed animals.

I learned something from tonight's game -- my daughters are very "special". What's even sadder is that they got their "special" gene from me.

These two couldn't sit still for more than two seconds. Kelly was in her own world singing some song and occasionally stepping all over the board (why?!?!). Isabelle was either chasing our cat or kissing Mr. Stinky Eyeball.


This is Mr. Stinky Eyeball. I'm sure you've already guessed that Isabelle named him. Remember her fascination with the word eyeball? Yeah.... "special". Mr. Stinky Eyeball played Monopoly with us too. It was great having another adult there to have civilized conversation with.

After 30 MINUTES of playing, I was getting a little restless and decided to try and "throw" the game. You see, in Monopoly Junior, as soon as the first person loses all of their money, the whole game stops. So, I decided to start sneaking some money under Mr. Monopoly's loose change square. This would have worked, if I hadn't landed on it two rolls later.


THEN, the girls kept landing on all THREE of my properties and having to pay me money! But I would not give up! Since Isabelle can't add, I paid her a LOT extra whenever I landed on her property and also continued to pay Mr. Monopoly a little money on the side. It only took 15 more minutes, but I finally prevailed in losing the game.

Here's a little video to give you an idea of what the game was like. Make sure you watch the end, Isabelle's pretty funny!

Catch-up post #1

So remember how we were serving in the Spanish branch for a long time? Well, we still keep in contact with several of our friends from the branch and several months ago we attended a baby shower for one of them. My friend Diana is from Cuba and for those of you who don't know any Cubans, you are missing out. First of all, the food is INCREDIBLE. There's always great food whenever Cubans are around. Second, they like to party. A lot. I'm pretty sure I was Cuban in a past life.

Diana & Henry

There was loud music, dancing, and all sorts of crazyness at this baby shower. Why can't we Americans have baby showers like that?

BUT you know what the best part was? There were more MEN at this baby shower than there were women!







And believe it or not, but that was not every man there!!!!! There were MORE!!! I even was able to convince Shane to come after awhile. How great is that????

Okay Okay Okay....

Alright!!! You guys have finally guilted me enough into updating this blog. I'll do my best to get to it this evening!

Sheesh! You guys are a tough crowd!

P.S. I've also decided to make the blog public again (for now at least)

**************************

Click here for
a little something while you wait

Guess who?

Isabelle decided that today was a great day for playing board games. After playing a couple of different games, she decided that "Guess Who" would be fun. I just have to say this -- she is a freak at this game. She will ask the most random questions and beat me within a few rounds. I always ask the standard: "Is it a boy?" "Are they wearing a hat?" "Do they have red hair".

She asks things like: "Does your person have red lips?" "Does your person have a big nose?"

Who asks a question like that? I never even noticed the nose sizes until she pointed it out and I've been playing this dumb game since I was her age. But yeah, she never asks the obvious, only the minute details and she can clear the board WAY fast. She thought it would be funny to take a video of us playing, so here it is:

Playing catch-up

Meeting Zak and Weezy

Playing in the snow/ice
(when it was here)

Making some home made chicken broth. Mmmmmmmm..

Tam's new tag

So my friend Tamara tagged me once again and for once I'm following through. Probably because it's so easy. So here's what she says:

"This one is simple, and all you have to do is upload a picture that is already saved on your computer. My life is in the FAST LANE these days, and I LOVE simple!

Here's what you have to do: Look in your pictures folder, and open up the fifth folder. In the fifth folder, you have to upload the fifth picture. (Why so many #5s???? Because what I say goes! HA!) It's really that simple. Then, underneath it, explain the pic and pass it on. And who am I to judge....really, even if you're NOT tagged...you can still do it, just b/c you can...just b/c I LOVE you!"

Alright Tam, here you go:


This is Trevor. He's the little boy that I used to watch full-time. He was super cute and very well behaved. I started watching him last year in January and I had him from 8-4:30, Monday through Friday until this past December. It was a great way to earn extra cash to pay off those student loans, and Isabelle learned a lot about dealing with someone younger than her. It wasn't easy watching someone else's child so much, but it was still a great experience. I love it that he and Isabelle still give each other big hugs every time they see each other at church.