Preschool Graduation

Mommy and her graduate!

Parker and his good buddy Devyne

Teacher Tanika, Teacher Vanessa and Mrs. Marnie (head of Nicholas Parks and Recreation)




Okay, so I have been a very naughty little blogger lately, I won't make excuses. However, I would be very amiss if I didn't write about today. It was the end of an era for Parker and Mommy; it was Parker's preschool graduation! Mommy is sad because every Tuesday and Thursday while Parker was in preschool mommy got to workout in the parks and recreation gym while reading or watching TLC’s "what not to wear." How can you beat that! In our crazy lives those 6 hours a week were a highlight for mommy.
Parker's teachers were awesome! Tanika who was Parker's main teacher did a great job teaching Parker his letters and helping him learn to write them. We will miss all the kids in Parker's class Devyne, Isabella, Anna Marie, Camilla, Jesus, James, Kalia, Alex, and Marilyn! Off to Kindergarten they go!

Pedicures

Josie wanted to do Mother/Daughter pedicures today. She wanted us to paint flowers on each others big toes. It didn't turn out so bad, actually it was quite helpful since I can hardly bend over now.

Another trip to John's Incredible Pizza

My sister Krista was here from Cedar City for two weeks while her husband was in tech school for the air force. We really enjoy having Porter and Ruby around. Parker wanted to be with his buddy non-stop. We had a good time going to the beach, having Porter spend the night and finally go to Incredible John's.

Saying Good-bye to Good friends is hard

Josie's best friend Jade, along with her sister Lily and mom Chris moved to Colorado today. We will miss them all terribly! We went to the park across from school with them everyday. I really enjoyed chatting with Chris and getting to know her better. She was a great mom and watched over all the kids with a hawk eye. Parker and Lily were the same age and played really well together too! I liked to eaves drop on there conversations. Lily: "Parker I am not coming to your birthday party because you are going to have two pirates on your cake, I will come if you have just one." Parker: "Okay Lily."
Last night we went to John's Incredible Pizza to celebrate Lily's 5th birthday and as a going away party. Josie and Jade had so much fun riding the little roller coaster, Twister, and bumper cars together. Josie and Jade giggled, screamed and laughed so much I couldn't help smiling right along with them.
We wish them the best of luck with there new adventures and hope someday that they make it back to California. You have to go where the job is, right??

My Grandpa

Since I use this as my journal I need to write about my grandpa, who peacefully left this earth life on Saturday, April 4th. I will never be able to write a fitting tribute to the man who I called my "fun grandpa", however I must write something as opposed to nothing at all. I will forever be grateful for the opportunity I had of seeing him a little over a week ago. Everyone knew his body was not going to last much longer, hospice was involved and he laid in a hospital bed in the formal front room. On one occasion the sun was filtering in the plantation shutters and my brother-in-law was playing beautiful music on the piano in the background. It was such a calm and peaceful moment that I will always remember and cherish! The first two days I was there (St. George, UT) we had some wonderful visiting time. I teased grandpa about going for the Guinness book of world records for the largest medical file. He proudly told me of just one of his doctors having a whole bookcase filled with his files. If you didn't have the chance to know my grandpa he was a lot like Job. It was one medical problem after another, (a heart transplant and West Nile virus just to mention two). If there was ever someone who endured to the end it was my grandpa! I also enjoyed being able to do small acts of service for him while I was there. I got to shave his whiskers and make him bread and milk to his specifications. He in turn told me stories of being in the armed forces and having to eat spam for every meal.
When I was younger, my grandparents house was magical to me. From the toys in the basement to my grandpa's huge movie collection. Grandpa would keep a catalog of all his movies and he would rate them. The scary thing was sometimes we would start watching a movie and it would become apparent that grandpa's ratings were very generous like a G rating that really should have been an R. One thing I always looked forward to was going shopping with grandpa. He introduced the concept that I could have whatever I wanted. We would walk into a store and he would say "pick whatever you want." My mouth would drop open and I couldn't believe how lucky I was.
Not to sound prejudice but my grandpa was one handsome good looking guy when he was younger. He played professional baseball and was a fire fighter. Once I showed my sister-in-laws a picture of my grandpa and they both said "Man your grandpa was a hottie!" He is obviously the reason I am so good looking myself, HA!
My grandma never liked being away from my grandpa and I know she has been waiting anxiously for him to join her. It makes me smile to think about that reunion. I will miss him, I will miss him telling me "You are a good girl!" I know he will tell me the same thing again some day when we are all together again. I love you grandpa, I hope to endure half as well as you did!!

Busted Camera

The image sensor on our Canon Powershot went out, so we are offically without a camera. Parker and Josie have been so cute together recently, I really wish I had a camera. Josie made Parker a picnic lunch today and they ate it outside the patio on a blanket. Josie kept saying "it is such a nice day, I just want to lay outside on a blanket and listen to nature." So it might be a while before new pictures. Hopefully, my mom will have pity on me and let me borrow her camera for Parker's upcoming birthday and party.

Stake Women's Conference

Today was our stake women's conference which Sis. Nelson and Sis. Sheri Dew spoke at. It was truly an amazing time, I hardly realized it was three hours. The theme for the conference was "Spiritual Preparation for Times of Tribulation." I loved Sis. Nelson's talk, she spoke about the power of questions. She challenged all of us to take a question we needed answered to the upcoming general conference. She also said to take one question to the scriptures daily for 30 days. She told funny personal stories and I was just really impressed with her.
Then it was Sis. Dew's turn to speak. She started with telling us a story about when she was recently in Hawaii with her 5 nephews. One nephew who attends BYU was going to jump off a cliff and he wanted her to take a picture, so he could send it to all his friends and look cool. So she was preparing to take the picture and then a large wave came and knocked her down into the water. She said at first it was no big deal, until later, she realized that her blackberry was in her pocket and it was now water logged and not working. She said she had emails about work, she needed to access and others with whom she had to communicate. She became desperate and ended up standing in line at a local store for hours until she was able to obtain a new blackberry. She then asked "are we as intently interested in communicating with the Heaven's?" I thought that was a very valuable point and one that I hope to apply in my own life.
Anyway, I thought I would just jot down how grateful I am that I was able to attend this conference and fill my spiritual reserves.