Utah-Part 2 Friends and Family

After the marathon we spent the day with our friends the Jenkins. We have been friends for 8 years and they moved away from us almost two years ago.  Cynthia and I didn't get a picture together during the race so we took a post race picture...

We went to a church fair and then Pat and Cynthia took us on a tour of Logan. 

   

Patrick showed us his new office and we took advantage of another photo opportunity...

Maya and Hannah have been friends since they were three. They loved spending time together.

Here are some other fun pics with the Jenkins...

(Easton and Camden)

(Ava, Eden and Kennedy)

We also got to spend some time with my friend Jen. We've been friends since high school and our kids just so happen to be the same age...except now she has a number 4! Baby Ella was only four weeks old.

We spent a day making some freezer meals so Jen won't be so stressed out at dinner time. No pictures of that, but here are some fun pictures of the kids. The girls also got to go back for a sleepover later in the week. They had such a great time!

We spent an afternoon in Orem with my cousins Monica and Leah. We had lunch at Monica's and then played at the park.

Monica (AKA: Mahkimah) and Camden are pretty tight.

Here is Mahkimah explaining to Camden that she is rolling up his shorts so he won't get them wet in the water...

Yeah...he pretty much didn't listen.

It's amazing how many people I that I love live in Utah! It's impossible to see everyone I want to in a single visit. I'm just grateful that it worked out that we got to spend time with these loved ones.

Still lots more to come...

Live and Let Live

So my blogger buddy Natalie has some eagle eyes. She noticed that our family pictures were taken at a cemetery. At first I was surprised that she figured that out. I tried hard to make sure that we weren’t by any graves but those eagle eyes spotted a couple religious artifacts and tombstones that snuck into our pictures…

I realize that a cemetery is not the normal backdrop for family pictures so I thought I would share my thoughts on the subject…

I LOVE cemeteries! I always have. They don’t freak me out at all, unless it’s like 2am and I’m fourteen running amuck with my ballsy friend who wanted  see if we could find anyone else who liked to hang out in the cemetery as much as we did…ahh adolescence…anyway…

There are many reasons I love the cemetery. I love the manicured grounds. I love the colorful flower arrangements. I love the gray stone and red brick. But mostly I love the words and dates engraved in the stone.

I grew up going to the cemetery on a regular basis because I had grandpas and a tia who were buried there. My abuelitas would cut roses fresh from their gardens and put them in mason jars with water. We would take them and put them on the graves of our loved ones. From a young age I felt a sense of family and history. I felt like going there was a way to show my love and respect. I’m pretty sure this why cemeteries  a don’t freak me out.

As I got older I became fascinated with other tombstones outside of my family. I like trying to figure out who was related to who and how. I wonder what these people’s lives were like and I think of who is missing them. I love reading the names and the dates. From them I can see how long a wife was a widow before she got to see her husband again. I can see just how short a child’s life was on this earth. Every time I see an infant/child’s grave I instantly think of their mother and her grief. I wonder how those parents handled their grief. There is definitely a sense of sadness, but ironically I feel more alive when I am there. I feel a real sense of my mortality.

“Life is not  measured by the number of

breaths  we take, but by the  moments  that

take  our breath away.”

When I am at a cemetery I think about my life and I recognize the gift that every breath really is. I think about how I am using  my life and how I am nurturing my relationships. I am grateful for my faith in Christ and what his resurrection really means to me.

I believe that there is life after death. Not a life where you sit on a cloud and draw rainbows across the sky, but a life where we are with our loved ones, enjoying the relationships that we nurtured and cherished in this life. So when I read the death date, I see the end of one chapter and the beginning of another.

When my beloved Abuelita Tina died I experienced real grief for the first time in my life. But before she died I also had very sacred moments that confirmed to me that just as she had family holding her hand on this side of life, she also had loved ones waiting and welcoming her on the other side. Those same people are the people who I honored by visiting their graves as a child.

I still feel the loss of her. I miss her. In my mind I can hear her voice singing to Camden. I hear her talking to my girls in Spanish knowing full well they don’t understand a word she is saying. Someday she will see them and they will here her voice….but for now they know her because I keep her memory alive. It’s not that hard because I think of her often. I think she is around me more than I realize. In fact I think she was hanging out with us last weekend at my cousins baptism. I know she is not in that cold ground, just her body. Her spirit is very much alive and aware of me and my life. Just like all of those people who are represented by rows of stone.

Losing a spouse, a child, a sibling, a parent….I can’t even imagine the grief that would follow an untimely death. I’d like to think that through that intense pain I would still feel the same way, I would still find peace. I have watched dear friends lose their parents at a young age, I was with a boyfriend at the hospital when he found out his mom was killed in a car accident. That moment still grips my heart. His pain was more than I could understand. We did not share the same faith so my words of comfort didn’t help him.

His mom is represented by one of those stones. Those stones don’t just represent death, they represent a life. Someone who got up everyday and went to work to support their family, someone who made dinner and helped with homework, someone whose life still has meaning and a purpose.

So having family pictures taken at a cemetery may not be for everyone, I understand that. But I saw the beauty in it and I made sure that we were respectful so I’d like to think that the spirits of those people were okay with it.

Livin' on the Edge

Our summer has been full of some fun stuff. (Except when C decided to walk into the pool yesterday...not fun) The long summer days and nights have been quite full. Here is a sampling of our summer fun.

swimming. Swimming. SWIMMING! 

The girl's can't go enough! Thankfully we have generous friends who don't mind us pool crashing.

 

Camden mostly likes snacking while everyone else swims...

...but he does enjoy the water as long as he is attached to me.

Or being thrown in the air.

The girls love swimming with Papa Joe because he turns into the tickle monster.

hOme ImProVinG

 

The kitchen is so close to being done...so close. I just need two days kid free, but that will never happen so the white paint sitting in my garage for my cabinets will continue to gather dust.

DoOrbeLL DiTChinG

We started a tradition many years ago of doorbell ditching. Sometimes we leave treats, sometimes we leave gnomes, sometimes we leave giant paintings of mountain lions.

FriENd CeleBraTing

YAY! Jessica R was born!

FrieNd & fAmiLy HosTinG

My dearest old school friend, Jen, came for a very quick visit.

This is how we have multiplied and replenished the earth.

It's awesome that our kids are the same age and gender. We couldn't have planned it any more perfect!

 

GraNdmA VisItinG

GK came for a chemo visit.  We are sad that she has to come all this way for chemo but we are so glad that we get to spend some time with her when she comes. This time we got a whole week with GK. I hope our crazy life served more as a distraction than more drama. We love her and she is one tough grandma!

EcliPse WatChinG

Can you believe it took me almost a month to see it!? It was awesome...so much better than the previous ones.

CouSiN PlaYinG

Having built in playmates is pretty cool. (I love that they all have the same summer haircut.) Yay for sleepovers and the playdates that last all day long.

There are never enough hours in the day. With all of our summer fun I still have to tutor, run and work on my book, which makes for very little of this...

...napping only happens when I stop moving enough to realize how tired I am. This day Eden was having a melt down and needed to take a rest. She wanted me to snuggle her...well how could I resist! Clearly I needed a Sunday nap...too bad Sunday can't be everyday. Now I'm off to feed my children and attempt to clean the bathrooms...I get easily distracted on bathroom cleaning days, so not a summer fun activity.

Mothers Intuition and Other Stuff

First of all...sorry I have been absent. I will explain later...
So last week Maya got a bug bite of some sort, actually she got two of them. I'm no expert but they looked like the run of the mill mosquito bites. After a few days one went away the other looked a little puffy and red. Two days after looking puffy and red I took her to my backyard neighbor, who happens to go to my church, and also happens to be a dermatologist. He said it looked like an infected bug bite and to watch it over the next 24 hours to see if it spread or if Maya got a fever. The next day it didn't look like it had spread but the bulge definitely felt bigger. Maya was complaining of the pain and I just didn't feel right about it. So I called our doctor friend and he got us in the next morning.
After two other doctors consulted they all thought it looked like an infected bite and thought that doing a biopsy was a bit much but they couldn't give me a true diagnosis without one. The last thing I wanted to do was a biopsy. I hate taking the kids to get their shots, and A was out of town so I had to be brave. I told doctor friend that we were leaving for Hawaii in three days and I needed to know what was going on with her leg.
He agreed that we should do the biopsy. Oh it was awful. I will spare you the details but I was sweating, feeling woozy and I was holding on to Maya just as tight as she was holding on to me! Thankfully she was on her belly so she couldn't feel what was going on but when they stuck her multiple times with the needle to numb her up she was as still as could be but was her huge tears were killing me. She was the most amazing patient.
So the doctor did a cookie cutter slice (about the size of a pencil eraser) and started squeezing and it was GROOOOSSSS. There was definitely an infection. He thought it was staph but sent it to the lab for further testing. I was dying, I couldn't believe it. I was so grateful that I took her in.
Well today I got a call from doctor friend telling me that he was wrong. It wasn't staph. Oh no...it was MRSA! Seriously! He said the only way to get rid of it is to drain it, which is what he already did. It is resistant to most antibiotics. Thankfully Maya is recovering fine and has no symptoms that MRSA is still in her body.
I am a huge believer in mother's intuition, but what I really think is that is the whisperings of the spirit. I pray everyday, as any good Christian mom would, to know how to keep my children safe from harm, accident or evil. That is part of my prayer every single day. I am so grateful that my prayers were heard and that I was able to protect Maya from the harmful effects of MRSA.
Say your prayers sisters....say your prayers and more importantly LISTEN when you receive a prompting.
Okay now on to the very, very short version of why I have been absent...

Spring soccer has officially begun

I had a wedding dress that needed to be altered...

...for this sweet girl...

I had to say good bye to this sister...

Sister Bailey, she's on her way to Nauvoo to finish her mission.

I also had to say good bye to this sister...

Amy has left me, but we are meeting up in Hawaii...YAY!

We've had piano recitals...

...and sweet Mari's big 8th birthday celebrations...

I was honored to speak at her baptism.

This fabulous sister of mine has kept me busy with her kitchen reno take three...pictures will come someday.

And this little crazy cocoa puff is keeping me EVER so busy!

My Mother-Daughter dinner with Maya was definitely a highlight. She made the whole dinner with her Activity Day group. It was delicious!

I've also been busy with my dyslexia tutoring. I got to go here Susan Barton give a 3 hour seminar last week. It was amazing and so worth the time. I will do a post on that soon.

I've been busy sewing 16 dance costumes for the girl's dance classes. I am so done with that hobby for awhile.

Last but not least my marathon training has become a part time job. I am happy to report that I ran 20 miles today in 3 hours and 30 minutes. It was fabulous and I am so ready for my marathon!

Okay I'm done. Notice the time. I have to get on a plane in 2 hours.  I will be in Hawaii enjoying 6 days of sunshine, alone time with Aric, and fun times with the Sampson's. I will give a full report soon.

Mahalo!