Another Remembrance

I have only been writing this blog for 2-3 weeks and here I am talking about death for the third time. I promise this is the last for a long time, at least it better be the last. Today would have been my Mom's 60th birthday. Wow 60!!!! She died 13 1/2 years ago. It has been so long it is hard for me to remember life with her. I guess that isn't true, I very much remember life with her, but so much has happened since then. She didn't meet Bryan (or any of my siblings spouses) and life not being married or having kids seems so long ago.

She is a great lady, she was a great Mom. My favorite thing about my Mom was that she loved to laugh and to have fun like I do. She probably was a better Mom than I am and probably did household stuff better than I do. If I ever skipped school I always just came home and she would say, good now we can go do something. I have a feeling I might be that same way when my kids are older. One day I came home from school and she was listening to music a little loud. She said someone had come over to pick up something and said, "Oh my kids play their music loud too." She was so embarrased, but I think it is great.

One of the best things about living where I grew up is that people tell me things about her. It is nice to hear that people liked her or fun memories they had with her. I am glad that I have the knowledge that I will be with her again, it makes life bearable. I am glad for the heritage she left on this earth and the things I learned from her.

I am also glad that I got my hair done today and then went to a movie with some friends. That always makes for a great day!

Is it still January????

I am thinking I need to blog something today, but what to write about??? I started thinking about what has been going on around here. Well not so much has been happening. I attribute that to the fact that January is still here. January is the longest month, it lasts at least 3 months long. This morning my boys asked what day it was and I had to reply, it is stiiiiilllllll January.

I wonder if I lived in a warm, tropical location if January would last as long. I like winter and I really like looking at the snow. I know I couldn't live somewhere without seasons, but I could live without January.

Well onto my day and onto the last 4 days of January!

Baby James

Today marks the 3rd anniversary of my baby James' birth/death. I can't believe it has been 3 years already. I can still remember every detail so clearly. This year has been a little harder for me. I think it is because of the combination of my friend Megan's death last week and also because Jonah is not the complete focus this year.

I need to remember a few things for next year. I am going to write them here so that I will hopefully read it and not make the same mistakes I did this year. One of the things I lost after the experience of James dying was my brain. It just slipped out and hasn't returned. Because of this I get overwhelmed VERY easy, especially around this time of year. So next year I will remember not to try to do any kind of projects around this time, even small ones put me over the edge. I needed a babysitter for Jonah on Friday so I could go to Brandon's spelling bee. I was calling everyone I could think of and no one could do it. I about lost it completely! I can now look back on Friday and think, what was the big deal? So next year there will be no projects or no having to do anything that might make me lose it! The other thing I need to remember is to plan lots of fun things. I need to be out with friends for lunch or movies or just hanging out, not home trying to get things done.

Jacob always talks about baby James. Tonight he said the prayer and went on and on about blessing James to have a good birthday, and to have fun in heaven and for us to always remember him and to do everything because of him (he sometimes gets Jesus and James confused). We love it when he says the prayer, I have a hard time not bursting out laughing.

The day has come and gone again and I have made it through another year. Next year I will plan better, I think a nice tropical vacation will be good.

(I can not figure out how to rotate that picture. Sorry, and credit my friend Tiffany for getting that great shot)

Super Speller

Brandon has inherited my love of reading. He cannot go to bed unless he has a "good" book to read, neither can I. Well this love of reading leads to a natural ability to spell. I rarely ever have to practice spelling words with him. He just knows how to spell. I used to know how to spell.

Well a few weeks ago he came home from school and said that he took 2nd place in his class spelling bee and would now go onto the school bee. I was so excited for him, that is until he came home with a list of a bunch of hard words to learn. So here comes out the kind of Mom I am. The first few days I said, How about if we practice some of your words, he said No, I will later. O.K. whatever. I then decided he had enough homework, piano, scouts, and basketball we didn't need to add practice for the spelling bee to the list. Well today was the school spelling bee. He invited several people to come and watch him. He was excited and nervous. I was just nervous! He was #33 so the first round took a little time to get to him. His first turn and they say your word is "falsetto". I said "Oh crap he isn't going to know that". Well he did know it. Yea I was so glad he made it one round. A lot of kids got out in the first round and before his second turn. His next turn and they said your word is "diatribe". What is that word?????? He misspelled it. Dang it. Oh well, that is what happens. On the way home I tried to explain that spelling bees really are not fair. I understand that is how they have to do it, but the winning word was "tissue"!

As I was leaving I was talking to another Mom. She said her daughter had studied so hard (she got out a few people before Brandon) and was upset. She then said between the Geography bee and the Spelling bee they were wiped out. I said "Oh, I am so glad Brandon wasn't in the geography bee". Her daughter then piped up, "Ya me and Brandon tied on the class geography bee and he said he didn't want to go on to the school bee". Hurray for not being in the school geography bee!

Do that thing with your arms Mom

So the other night I was shaking Jonah's bottle, you know when I add whipping cream to his whole milk! I was wearing a t-shirt and my arm flab was jiggling and jangling. Jacob and Brandon thought it was sooooo funny. A few nights later when our friends Megan and Luke were staying over, Jacob said "Mom, show Luke that thing with your arm". I politely said "No, I don't think Luke wants to see my jiggling fat". This morning I was doing a shoulder and arm workout and hoping that soon I won't be able to do that funny thing with my arm anymore. I may not succeed, but I will try, and if I don't then I will be able to entertain my kids for hours!

Remembering Megan

Today I attended the funeral of Megan Pysnak. I just want to make sure I remember her and also her funeral. Megan was a 15 year old girl in my ward and my young womens. I have watched her grow and was lucky to have known her. I was better friends with her older sister Melissa, but spent time with Megan also. Megan always had a smile on her face, she was the first to say hi whenever I saw her. Megan knew the gospel inside and out. If we ever needed help with a scripture in a lesson, we all knew that Megan knew it and could help us out. I don't know of a person more prepared to meet the Lord than Megan. She is a beautiful person both inside and outside.

This morning I was standing in line for her viewing and in walked President Thomas S. Monson. Wow, we all turned and stared. He started shaking hands with the people in the line. He got to me and I said, hello President Monson and he said, your hands are very cold. Well that was a step up from the last time I had that close of an encounter with him. About 13 years ago as I left the room from a Dr. appointment I about ran smack into him. Luckily I was able to pull myself back before I crashed right into him.

Anyways back to the funeral, so there was Pres. Monson, everyone was so excited to see him and to know that he cared enough to come to Megan's funeral. I knew that little Laila Welch was back in the chapel and she would love to see the prophet. I went to the chapel and got her. She held my hand and skipped down the hall and said, "I have never seen the prophet in real life". I got her to her parents and she gave Pres. Monson a high five. It was awesome.

Megan's family all spoke at the funeral. They were so strong and did such a wonderful job. It made me love her even more than I already did. At the end we were lucky enough to hear from the prophet. He made us laugh and cry and laugh again! By the end I felt renewed and ready to be a better person. He said he wasn't invited to the funeral, but felt like that was the place he needed to be today. What a great day to celebrate Megan's life and her graduation from this life. I will miss her smiling face, but am so happy to have been taught by her.

I won something!!!

Last night I finished reading the book The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. As I laid the book down I thought to myself, I have to blog about how I got this book so that I don't forget. On Christmas Eve 2008 I received 2 packages from UPS, I was waiting for 2 to arrive in time for Christmas and so I quickly put them in a closet and went on my busy way. I noticed one of the packages was addressed to me and came from Costco. I thought, oh Bryan must have ordered me something. Later that afternoon as Bryan got home from work I told him about the package, he looked at me and said, "I didn't order you anything from Costco" (he actually had, but this was not the package and so therefore doesn't apply to the story). I was busy cooking, but had to go and find out what this package was. I opened it up and see a book, I thought to myself, who sent me a book and didn't put a card in it? I then saw a letter in the book and started laughing. The letter read as follows:

Dear Connection Reader,

On behalf of the staff at The Costco Connection, I would like to thank you for your participation in our book drawing.

Congratulations on winning a copy of last month's book! We hope that you enjoy the book and will continue to look for other contest featured in The Costco Connection.

Sincerely,

Anita Thompson

Editorial Director

I then remembered how I saw a little thing in the magazine about a drawing for a book. Well why not enter it? It certainly paid off and I enjoyed a book I would probably never had read!