Rainy Day Ponderings

Do you ever think back to a time when...

...You stood at the bottom of the Twin Towers in NYC and looked straight up?

...You had never heard the name Paris Hilton?
-I miss that time.

...You saw or met someone for the first time and had no idea how this person would affect your life?

- Brad was walking up an aisle across from me in a chapel

- Debbyee was sitting in a room at a church with her youngest daughter

- Chris was sitting at a triage table at ARUP

- Whittney was sweeping the kitchen floor at Wendy's

- Dixie was running on a treadmill... So was Janae...

- Tam was conducting a meeting

- Dawn was sitting with Paige next to us at church.

- I don't even remember the first time I met Daph, Kelly, Nic or Sina...

Seriously, I don't know what the point of this post is except that today I was thinking about the first time I met Chad (the friend who died last week) and it would have never occurred to me that in six short years, I'd be mourning the loss of him. I have been so lucky in my life to have people who I absolutely adore, who I admire in so many ways and who make me a better person just because I know them.

So, if you're a friend of mine, thank you for making my life richer, happier (and sometimes sadder), funnier, and just so much more worth living.

Makes me wonder who I'll meet next?

One Great Guy

This is the guy that replaced me at work when I had my daughter. I hand-picked him from hundreds of applicants. We worked side-by-side for the last month of my employment getting him trained and ready.
Lucky for me, we remained friends...
His name is Chad. Three years ago, he found out he had cancer. Yesterday, after 3 years of brave, good-humored, faithful fighting, he passed away.
He will be MISSED

Family Reunion and First Weeks of School

Most people around here are dying for the weather to change, cool off. Not me. Since it snowed into June, I'd be fine with another month in the 90s - especially if they left the pools open. Unfortunately, this is Utah and it ain't gonna happen. The last few weeks of summer have been jam-packed with school, reunions, and play. We're year-round, so Anushka has already been back in school for more than a month. D-man started pre-school a couple weeks into August.

I love the fund raiser they do at Anushka's school. A fun run. That's it. The kids run 2.2 miles and get people to pledge. The goal is for each child to raise at least $20.00. All the money goes to the school, we don't have to sell stuff, and the kids get exercise.

The end of August brought some good times in the forms of Lagoon Day, High School Reunion and FAMILY Reunion with BB's fam. I am lucky enough to have some of the greatest in-laws on the planet - so family reunions...even with HIS family... are super fun events, not times to endure. This year we hung out in Logan Canyon...






Then, yesterday, we hit the local Sniagrab - so now we're set for the inevitably long Utah winter...

Happy 40 Years

Then:
Now:
I don't think my parents ever read my blog - even though I tried making it their home page; but I wanted to shout out to John and Karin for 40 very happy years of marriage. They have been a great example to me of how spouses ought to treat each other. My only frustration is that I wish two such attractive people could have passed some of their genes to me (and not just my brother and sister:) Way to go mom and dad...

He Stopped Traffic.... Literally

His dad's favorite animal is a monkey - I think it runs in the family.

btw - None of the bigger kids watching him could duplicate his feat. Only my girlie girl even came close (yep I'm proud:)

Some Catching Up

End of K - Beginning of 1
The last day of Kindergarten was 'wild animal' day. Each child chose an animal to dress up as and report on. My wild child chose rainbow trout. I never knew they had red stripes running along both sides of their bodies. The mural the girls are in front of was painted by all the children in Anushka's class.

Anushka and her good buddies Leia and Emily have all lost their bottom two teeth...

As soon as school was out, we headed to Big Cottonwood Canyon for some good camping with good friends...
Diggity with his buddy Ben.
Anushka is quite the climber

Leia is one of Anushka's best best buds - we all love her!
Hangin' with Cousins
With so much of our family living in Europe, we don't see all the cousins as often as we would like. It was great to have them all visit at the same time
Anushka with {almost} all her girl cousins - we missed you MINDY! ~sigh~
More climbing...

Girls Camp

Another year, another camp. This might have been the most fun yet. We had a great group of girls - I had a blast gettting to know the new ones and teasing the 'oldies' :)

Such a great group of ladies to tent with for a week (Whitt and I had the best mattress thanks to my back)
At the very least, we amused ourselves...
'The fun one' - Chilly taking a break from keeping the girls entertained...

A handful of you will truly appreciate this picture and why I find it absolutely priceless!
We upheld the tradition of introducing caffeinated beverages to the visiting infants
So wrong...
We burned our BRAs (bad rotten attitudes)

After fun hikes...
and crazy activities...

The Girls pampered themselves...

Or ate the pampering tools

I was so glad to get to go again this year. Thanks to all the real leaders who had babies just in the nick of time.

Back Injury

I've had a lot of people ask me about references they've seen on facebook to some strange back injury - so here it is:
*I'm not as flexible in my leg muscles as I should be (I know - they always tell you to stretch and I never do)
*I guess those muscles are pulling in opposite directions against some of the lower vertebrae
*In the spring I had a pretty hard collision in a soccer game. I came away with some back pain that I attributed to a pulled muscle but in reality it probably was a cracked vertebra
*At the zoo in June, I awkwardly picked up Diggity over a fence and felt something give in my back - at first the doctor thought it was a herniated disk. It was some of the worst pain I've ever experienced
*X-rays and MRI showed it was actually a fracture in said vertebra
*I am now in physical therapy, in very little pain and hopeful that it will not be a major problem in life - there is even the possibility of soccer (my mother cringes as I say this)
Lesson Learned: Stretch stretch stretch - and strengthen those core muscles!