Family

I wanted to take time and write about the funerals that I've been to this past month. I'm so glad that I was able to go with Bertie and Georgia to Idaho to Aunt Velma's funeral. I haven't seen so many on that side of the family for awhile. I have to admit that it was so noisy in the family room. I'm sure that the Bishop wondered what in the heck was going on in there. In our defense...Aunt Velma had lived such a long life (94 years)and had lived without Uncle Chance for since 1982. What a blessing for her to finally return to her family and our Father in Heaven and to be released from her aging body and it's problems. We were enjoying each other so much as a family, It was wonderful!! It was so great to see my Gisler cousins that I hadn't seen for probably close to 30 years. And of course my dear cousin Lisa Lackey. I grew up with these cousins and have such fond memories of my time with them in California. I also loved seeing my other cousins of course, whom I see more often. It felt so weird to think I wasn't seeing any aunts or uncles...we're now the next generation. It makes you think about how precious life really is and that family is such an important part of that life.
I then went in the very next Saturday to Salt Lake to my Aunt Eileen's funeral. She was married to my Uncle Lee for 18 years. It's a long story but even though they were divorced the reason for that being so didn't change that she was my aunt. Again I saw Roberta and Keith and I told her that we had to stop seeing each other for this reason. I was glad that we could support my Uncle and his children. What a special lady with special understanding with her health problems which made her have such a childlike disposition. It was great to see a few more cousins on my mother's side of the family. So between the two deaths I was able to see many from both parents families. What a wonderful week even with the sadness of the occasions. I couldn't feel bad for either one, that they had finally been relieved of these bodies that had kept them back. What freedoms they must feel at this time, and what wonderful reunions are going on in the next world.
Family is so important and I hope that my nieces and nephew will feel the importance of that also. I see what importance the Lord's plans of families being linked together really is. "FAMILY" What a wonderful word!! I love my family!!

An End to an Era

The first picture here is a picture of my wonderful portable that I lovingly call "The Ghetto". It has become my tightly packed yet wonderful new home away from home. I still want Brenda and I to take a picture sitting out on the stoop with our old lawn chairs, maybe grilling on the Hibachi. However, this afternoon after school, I went over to the old school, my GES, to get a brick and a piece of the gym floor. When I got there and saw it coming down before my very eyes it was rougher than I thought. The 3rd grade hall was all the way down and they were working on the gym. What a great old gym. It was the oldest part of the school. I believe it was built in the 20's and so it was about 80 years old. They don't make gyms like that any more. It had this wonderful balcony and really took you back in time. As I smelled the wood that I got from the floor it smelled just like being in the gym. I was amazed at the feelings. I've done 6 wonderful 4th grade programs in that old place. It is so much more than a building. It was like a family home. I had a wonderful family there. People that I trusted and worked with that I would have done anything for. I'm so thankful for the memories that I've been able to make there and it feels totally like an era has passed. As my fellow teachers and I talked and walked around it was wonderful to share our memories. I have to express some unbelief at the waste though. I went around to see my room for the last time, because I'm sure that it will be coming down tomorrow. In the window of my room I could see an expensive Califone CD/Cassette player just sitting there waiting to be plowed under. I could also see my box of Legos and many other things sitting there. What a waste of things. If I knew then what I know now I would have emptied my room and taken it to the junkyard myself rather than let it be plowed under like that. Like it meant nothing. When I think of all the time, effort, and money that I put into that classroom and the things in it and to know it is just about to become rubble I just shake my head.
I know that I must just take it in stride and move forward. I thought I had moved forward, and I think I have very well....but going back over there really took me back to this past summer with all the feelings that I had back then. The future is so uncertain, who knows where I will be the fall of 2011. Seems as though the district office just dumps the feathers in the wind and lets them fall wherever they will. Last week they moved our principal from being over with the 5th and 6th grade to a new school. I couldn't believe they would move him especially right before CORE testing after all these kids have been through. If I were retiring this year I would definitely be over to the district office at the end of the year giving them a piece of my mind of all the things they've done wrong. Making me feel less than a great employee which I know that I am.
However there will be a beautiful new building there come the fall of 2011. I think I'd like to be there when all is said and done, however I guess at this point it depends on who's the new principal and many other factors. I don't think I'll have a lot of choice of where I'll be since that is what the district has been doing anyway. Time will tell I guess. Wow that felt good to just get off my chest.
Not to have this blog be a total downer..I am so grateful that I have many wonderful memories there with many wonderful people. I'm also grateful that I still have many of those friends with me now and that we are getting through this year together. I'm sure that will only continue to go on and the bond be even stronger. Thanks for all the good times at G.E.S. and the people that I appreciate so much!! Good bye old friend.

My Valentine

Today, I just want to tell my sweetheart how much that I love him. I've been so blessed to have him in my life. I told Larry last night that today we will have been married for 80 months. That sounds like such a long time when you put into months. We're coming up on 7 years June 14th and I'm so happy that he asked me to be his eternal companion. Even though there has been the normal ups and downs that come with marriage he has been my wonderful knight in shining armour. I love you Babe and you'll never now how much I do or it is going to take you forever to really know!! All my love,

New Cabin Decor

Just wanted to write about a few things. Christmas time Santa gave us this beautiful new addition to our cabin decor. I just love it and wanted to share how cute it looks up on the wall. It really did fit in to our color scheme and decor so well. I was excited to make that find.
I also got a great book for Christmas from Larry. It is The Undaunted by Lund. I totally enjoyed that book. I'm almost sad that it is over. It's a book about the pioneers that were sent on a mission to settle the San Juan region of Utah. What a great story of how much they went through. Of course it has that fictional story happening amongst all the history (which I also loved) I think I'd like to take a ATV ride down in the area that they traveled. It would be so cool to see the evidences that are left of their courageous trip. If you liked the Work and Glory books you'd like this one too.

At long last and update......

At long last and update......
Wow...at long last I'm going to update. I haven't tried for quite awhile because I felt like it would take too long and I haven't had the time. Today I had a day off from school with no pay...you know the cutbacks... and so today I decided to at least update about the last few months. This way you'll at least know that I'm still alive.
So I'll start with Thanksgiving. Georgia, Richard and Jordan came out to spend it with us since we were going to be by ourselves. We appreciate the fun we had together. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner and had Larry's dad over for dinner. We played games and of course since the paddle boat was still out we had to try a little early winter boat ride...well at least Richard and Jordan did, and then they made Georgia so she could get some pictures of the ice. As they started out they thought they'd make it out of the inlet and we could all see a little skim of ice on top of the water. I thought they'd just crash right through it, but they tried and tried and finally had to make a return trip. So it was a short ride.


And they're off...


Just can't make it through....


Of course the next day was Black Friday and Larry and Richard had really been looking at the adds for place like Harbor Freight, Home Depot, etc. So at 6:00 am they were off to do some shopping. Georgia and I slept in a little...maybe she would have liked to have gone out early too, however that isn't really my thing. We did go to Kholes and picked up a few things. Then after we all got home we went to see a great movie, "Blindside". It was one of the best movies I've seen for awhile. We also went into to Temple Square the that night to see the lights on the 1st night. It was a beautiful evening and it wasn't even very cold. Even though we've done this numerous times it is always a beautiful and inspiring activity.








We of course also found some time to do a little GEO hunting. We just did some right around here in Stansbury, so the ones we found were all micros. We could have used another GPS, but we had fun anyway.





All in all it was a wonderful weekend. Thanks Milletts for coming to spend some time with us. We love you.

Christmas 2009
We were off to the cabin again this year. We left on the 23rd of December with plans to stay through the new year. This year our oldest daughter, Shannon and her husband and daughter Chris and Jennsen came with us. Not only that, our son Devin and Charity and Kylee also came up and stayed at the cabin close by that belongs to their grandparents, so we were able to see them a few times while we were up there.









We also had Sadie and Brandi, and also Shan's Abby and a new addition of Maggie, Jennsen's new Mini Pin. So we had a ton of etertainment.






I was shocked at how Maggie wasn't even afraid of the big dogs. We had to keep an eye on her for her own safety if you know what I mean. Even if they played with her they are a little big when they get playing.
Even though we were there for a week and a half, we found plenty of things to do and enjoy. We were a little concerned that we wouldn't have all that much fun with the lack of snow. We did fine on the trails, but couldn't get off the trails with the lack of the white stuff.






We still took a few rides on the snowmobiles and had a great time playing games, reading (I got a great book from Larry for Christmas) and we watched a lot of movies. Chris and Jennsen brought up all three movies of "The Lord of the Rings" so we marathoned with them.
New's Year Eve was spent at the traditional burn pile bonfire. Our Grand daughter,Kylee, was with us also and I think she had a lot of fun. Someone had built a snowbear down at the bonfire. We had to take a picture because it was melting fast with the heat from the fire. After the bonfire we went home and got out the goodies, played games, and watched a movie to bring in the New Year.








It was a wonderful, fun, and relaxing holiday. We were especially happy to have a few of our kids there to enjoy too!! Happy New Year 2010