19 nephews

Steve and I now have 19 nephews. In a few months, it will be 20. The girls are very much in the rear. We have 8 neices. Steve's parents have 18 grandchildren: 15 boys and 3 girls. My parents have 9 grandchildren (soon to be 10): 4 boys and 5 girls.

Congrats to Ryan and Melissa and their new baby boy, Dylan Robert Todd. They came to visit us today and I am trying to be better about taking pictures - here's a few.

Waking up...

What did you do with my binkie?

I love seeing Steve hold babies!

Uncle Steve with the new brothers.

Sisterly love!

Girl's Day Fun

Earlier this week my sister Ranna told me that she was planning to take our niece Anna downtown to try on a shirt she wanted to get for her for her upcoming birthday. She works at the Gateway JCrew and had the shirt on hold. I started thinking. Steve was going to be working on Friday night, which meant he would be sleeping all day. I could go too. AND, my niece Jade could come down and go with because Anna has been asking me when we could get together with Jade.

A little background side note there. Anna is my brothers "step-daughter" (this is a technicality). Jade is Steve's brothers "step-daughter". They are a year apart in age and a few years ago I thought it would be fun for them to both have a sleepover at my house and meet. They hit it off very quickly and get along very well. They actually have a lot in common, including having two dads. So occasionally I arrange for them to hang out.

Back to the story. We decided we wouldn't let Anna know that Jade and I were coming too. So Jade came down Friday night for a sleepover with me while Steve was at work and Ranna picked us up on Saturday morning to go surprise Anna. A few minutes before we left, we learned that Anna didn't even know that Ranna was coming. Her mom, Sarina, had kept it a surprise. Even better! We showed up and it took her a minute to realize really what was going on. And, it seemed that she really was most excited to see Jade, she got a much more enthusiastic "hi" than Ranna and I did.

We decided to take Trax because it was snowing and we didn't know how ugly it would get throughout the day. To do this, we had to stop at the bank for some cash. So we found an ATM and then stopped for drinks to break the $20s because the machine for Trax won't take anything larger than a $10. This was probably a sad site. We each had our own money and bought our own drinks. Anna and Jade bought the same thing. Sadly, Ranna and I matched each other as well. What a site, the "big girls" with one drink and the "little girls" with another.

We got the Trax station in very good timing. We only waited for about 5 minutes. It was a great way to travel downtown. It's easy and actually pretty fun. Plus, you can actually talk instead of stressing about driving. Our stop put us not far from the store, which was very good since it had started snowing harder while we were on the train and got pretty cold. We went in, Anna tried on the shirt and she loved it. Ranna let us use the staff bathrooms in the back and this is what the girls did...





Guarding the hangers

Playing cupid

They were having fun in Ranna's workspace and being quite imaginative. We finished up at JCrew and wandered around Gateway making a few stops, including Lane Bryant, a picture booth and finally Jason's Deli for lunch. By this time it was 1:30 and we decided to head back to the car, but not before some fun before getting on Trax.

Enjoying an after lunch airhead in the cold

A cool sculpture at the Trax station we hopped on to head home.

After reaching the car, we headed to Hobby Lobby. I had some yarn to pick up to finish a project and Ranna had a gift card she still needed to use. She hadn't ever been. Hobby Lobby is a very fun store and you can find almost anything there for crafts or for decor. Ranna and I both found what we needed/wanted and we even found a frog for my mom's garden that was 50% off and the last one available. We couldn't pass it up because it just fit so well.

Jade had some money left from what her dad gave her to spend and she and Anna decided they wanted something that matched from their day together (other than the pictures we already did). After searching the store, they decided on some Valentine's Day stuffed puppies (40% off is a beautiful thing). The cashier was very good with Jade as she paid for their gifts and she got on her eye level as she counted out her change. Ranna and I were very impressed, especially considering the lines were getting longer and crazier by the minute.

After leaving Hobby Lobby, we stopped at my parent's house to deliver the frog and borrow some sprinkles to make Valentine's Day sugar cookies. My mom agreed that it fit too well and was excited (I really should have taken a picture because it was so darn cute). And we headed to my house. Since it was after 4:00 I wasn't worried too much if we woke up Steve since he had been able to sleep uninterrupted all day. He still didn't wake up until after 5:00 because the girls did a great job of being quiet while they played on the X-box and helped with the cookies where they could/wanted to.
Later, when Jade's parents came to pick her up, I had a cookie thief.

He was quite sneaky...


















I think he had two whole cookies by himself.










Overall, our day was just a lot of fun.

Flashback Friday - Fun pics

We have someone at work who is retiring this month and part of my job is "party-planner". I have a bunch of pictures from past events and so I was assigned to look through my pictures to find some of her for a scrapbook. During the course of my search I found some of family members who have come to different fun events we have had at work.

Fall Festival 2006

Family Fun Night 2007

Long Time Coming

It has been a long time since I have posted. For this, I apologize. It's been a rough few months, to be honest. For those of you who have known me for a while, you know that I struggle in the winter and I am much more prone to depression. I wish I could say this winter was different...

Regardless, there were a few events I could have (and should have) posted, such as:

• My sister Amanda had her baby and we now have baby Lexi in our family. She was born early on Thanksgiving morning. This was also Ruthann's birthday, which made her very happy. This past Sunday she was blessed.

• Christmas came and went with little to report. Since Steve was not working we didn't have a lot of money. But we did spend some good time with family. The more time goes on the more I realize how much they really mean to me.

• My baby brother Joel (yes, I said baby) got married a few weeks ago. Ruthann is now officially part of the family and our total is now up to 25. It will be 26 later this spring, and Britta will again round out the grandkids making it an even five boys and five girls. Here are a few pictures from the wedding and reception.

I have been lost...

My nephew Zack says so. I'll share that story in a moment, but first...

I'm doing well. I know you wouldn't have a clue about that since I have not posted since my surgery. I apologize. I have no excuse. I just didn't feel like it. Also, I really didn't have much to share except having my gallbladder removed has almost been like magic! It has made such a big difference in my overall well-being. Don't jump too far ahead though. I still have my crashes, and usually allow my weekend to be that time. I was talking to my sister Ranna tonight and realized it is basically controlled crashing. I push myself during the week to get to work and be productive there, and on the weekend I let the crash happen, to whatever degree that may be. Some weekends I have felt great, others not so much.

I believe that the greatest difference I have noticed has been my mood. I have felt so positive and it is so nice. When I went back to work I came home and told Steve that there were two words that people said to me that fit so perfectly, "Welcome Back." I have truly felt that way, for myself. I have felt more like myself in the past month or so than I had for a long time. Optimistic, silly, spontaneous and happy. That is who I really am and it is nice to feel that way.

With that out of the way, on to the good stuff. My nephew Zack will be three in a few weeks. He is very silly and he knows it. His personality is so fun. Last week was my sister Amanda's birthday and he went to grandma's while she and Aaron went out. On their way home from picking him up he informed them he was sad. When Amanda asked him why he was sad, he explained "I lost my Charlene." He then proceeded to talk about me being sick and needing to go to the doctor. She explained that the doctor fixed me and that I am all better. He said, "Oh, Steve had to go to the doctor. He bumped his head." She and Aaron were quite surprised with this conversation and have no idea where it came from. But I sure felt special after she sent me the text telling me I was lost. I saw him a few days later and it was fun to have him be so excited to see me.

Last night my mom had a Lia Sophia jewelry party. I decided to go a little bit early so I could hang out. Both Amanda and Britta were already there with their kids. Amanda came into the living room as I was taking my jacket and my shoes off and hollered at Zack to come see "who's here". His excitement when he saw me was so touching. He ran up and gave me a big hug and kiss. Lately Zack has been afraid of the dark. A few nights ago he was crying before bed and Amanda thought this was the reason. Nope, he was crying because he lost his Charlene, again. While it is sad that he cried about it, I have to say, it is darn cute!

These stories make me feel very special. To put this all in perspective, Ranna watches him every Wednesday. Britta watches him about once a week based on my mom's schedule. Because of the regular visit he has with them it is natural for him to have a good connection with them. I don't see him at any regular intervals. But, now I know he likes to see me and misses me.

Basically, I feel very special and loved!!!!!!!

A whole lot of randomness...

I have several thoughts running through my mind right now. Can't say that this post is going to make much sense of anything but it is what you are going to get. I'm in the mood to tell stories.

Randomness #1
I don't post daily or even on a real regular basis but I definitely have blogs that I read daily. I come home from work, check my email, download my games (I am a junkie!) and rotate through the blogs. Some of them post nearly every day, some a lot less than me. But I get to catch up on stories from family and friends and some people I really don't know but for some reason I just really enjoy reading them. I don't comment often but know this, I read them, I love them! Often, I think about posting something and then decide I don't have the mental energy to do so. "I'll post later" I think. Yeah right.

As you can see, I did a pretty major overhaul. I've been wanting to do it for a while but again, lack of mental energy and "I'll do it later". I think the biggest problem is I do a lot of creative stuff at work and I don't want to do anymore by the time I get home. Now that it is done I think you are stuck with this layout for a while. The good news is, Steve loves it. Go me!

Randomness #2
Several weeks ago I was babysitting Zack for Amanda and Aaron while they went on a date. I had a few people come over and visit during that time and we all decided we were hungry. We piled in Steve's car, it fits several people and the booster seat better than my beetle, and went off to find dinner. Because of my silly and annoying dietary needs we ran to a few different places. But that is not the point. The point is we were in Steve's car. Steve has very eclectic taste in music. He has so many playlists put together on cds in his car it isn't funny. No really, it's not. They aren't labeled well, or aren't labeled at all. He frequently asks me to put a cd in while we are driving and when I put something in I have no idea what is going to play. Well, whatever was in that day was fine for my mood so we left it. The next thing I know we are listening to "Ice, Ice Baby" and Zack is mimicing right along. We all laughed so hard! He really loved that song.

The part about this that I love the most is this. We taught him to respond with "Ice, Ice Baby" any time we say "vanilla". When mom and dad came to pick him up he was dead asleep. I was afraid by this time that he would have forgotten but I really wanted them to hear it so I gave it a chance. He remembered and responded even though he was barely awake and it was so cute! He still responds, right on cue. Simple minds, simple pleasures.

Randomness #3
I have too many projects to work on. I just barely finished an afghan last night that I started 3 years ago. Too my defense, it was not an easy one. I had to change colors after every single row. That is a lot of color changing and working in ends. I could only take so much of it before I just had to put it down, for a long time. Well, I recently got a request for an afghan and decided it was not fair to start that one until I had finished this one that is long over due. It is a gift. A wedding gift. They celebrate 3 years this month. Again, in my defense, they eloped and we didn't have advance notice so it was started after they got married. I know, poor excuse. But, it is finished now and I can move on.
Now if only I can finish the 2 cross-stitch projects in progress, the ceremics I need to paint to complete my Christmas village and all the other miscellaneous projects I have I'll be in good shape. Of course if I got all that done the sky might actually fall.

Baptisms

Steve and I recently had a few baptisms in our family. Brayden was baptized on July 26 and Jaedyn was baptized on August 2. Both baptisms were fabulous but they were very different.

Brayden is 10 and was baptized after taking the missionary discussions. Scott and Debi were inactive until recently and it was very exciting for us to be there, especially because Scott both baptized and confirmed Brayden. It was fun to have the baptism completely dedicated to Brayden. We went to Golden Corral for dinner afterwards and then to Steve's parents for cake and icecream for his mom's birthday. We really had a good time and it was fun to just spend some time with family. We really don't see Scott, Debi and the kids often enough.

Brayden received a gift from the primary that I really liked. He received a white towel with his name and baptism date embroidered on it with the following poem, they use blue thread for boys and pink for girls:

My Baptism Towel

This baptism towel is to help remind you of your baptism day all the years through.

When you come out of the water all clean and pure, Dry off with towel and you can be sure that you are as cleans as this towel is white, And the Holy Ghost will be with you both day and night.

For the Holy Ghost is your gift after the laying on of hands, And will be comfort and a guide if you obey God's commands.

When your towel becomes soiled, remember that we too may sometimes make mistakes and we've been taught what to do. Just as you can be washed away and never again be seen.

Your Heavenly Father loves you; remember always to pary, And He will be beside you forever and a day.

Jaedyn turned 8 last month and her baptism was shared with another kid in her ward. Jade's dad even came up from St. George to be there. Ryan baptized her and that was exciting as well because it was only earlier this year that he was ordained an elder and he and Melissa went to the temple. Unfortunately for me, I had to leave pretty much right after the baptism to work for 2 hours. Steve stayed there and hung out with his parents until I finished. Then I met Steve, his parents and Ryan and his gang for dinner. After dinner, Steve and I went to see "Mama Mia" with his parents. I enjoyed it, Steve not as much. But it is a fun girl's night movie and the music was definitely enjoyable.

Mikey posing at dinner. He's copying dad!

Overall, two very different, important events one weekend after another and both very enjoyable days.

Double Feature - Pioneer Day & Flashback Friday

I have decided to write a double feature blog. Since it is Friday it is Flashback Friday, that was inspired by my Pioneer Day fun last night.

Pioneer Day

Before anyone else decides to ask me, no we did not go to the parade. Steve worked the night before and I slept in. The parade is not a tradition for us so it doesn't usually even cross our mind. If it does, we very quickly decide we would rather sleep in. As I was contemplating actually getting out of bed, Amanda called me and asked me if I could watch Zack. They had a friend who needed some help and didn't feel that they could take him with them. I hesitated slightly, only because I knew that Steve would be sleeping and I didn't want to wake him up. But of course I said yes. How can I resist an opportunity to play with any of my nieces or nephews?

So Zack came over and spent the day with me. Zack LOVES Thomas the Tank Engine and he got a new video while we were on vaction. He knows nearly all the names of Thomas and his friends but there are some new friends on this video. Zack will frequently play the "Who's that?" game. He asks "who's that?" and then answers his own question. He was playing the game and asked about the yellow flat bed truck on the front of the video case but he couldn't remember her name and Amanda couldn't either. So, we had to watch it. In case anyone wants to know, her name is Isabella...

Unfortunately, Steve's boss called him and woke him up during Thomas and then he heard us. My only consolation is that we weren't the ones who woke him up in the first place. We are just the ones who distracted him enough that he couldn't go back to sleep. So Steve got up and spent a little bit of time on his computer in the office waking up a bit.

After Thomas, Zack wanted to watch Bee Movie, but when we opened it up he said "oh no! All gone!" So he chose Cars. I hadn't ever seen all of Cars so I was okay with it. Besides, it's a Pixar movie. How can you go wrong? I had seen the beginning so I decided to get some of our massive pile of dirty dishes done while Zack watched and played and then joined him. Steve eventually joined us and we ended up nearly rolling on the floor watching Zack. He was quoting the movie and singing and dancing during the songs. It was a lot of fun!

About 2:00 Amanda sent me a message and said she forgot to tell me about his nap and asked if I had put him down. Zack was in such a good mood that I totally spaced nap time, it did not even cross my mind. I was even going to take him shopping with me. Whoops! I put him down right then and then Steve took a small nap on the couch while I went to the store.

Amanda and Aaron came to pick him up about 5:00 and he was still laying down. Amanda and I went to wake him up and he was already awake, he just hadn't come out of the room. He got very excited to see mommy and when she asked him if he had fun he said "No, go home!" I had to laugh, we did too! He really was a good boy and we had lots of fun playing. They left to finish getting ready for the barbeque Britta was having for the family at her house. Steve got ready for work and after he left I finished getting ready to go as well.

Britta covers everything pretty well, so if you want details about the barbeque, go to http://nunleyfam.blogspot.com/2008/07/pioneer-day-barbeque.html.

Flashback Friday

While I was at Britta's for the barbeque last night I was able to see her nearly finished back yard. She has a hill in the back (on purpose) for her kids to play on. This is the inspiration for my Flashback Friday.

My parent's have a small hill in the front yard that we grew up playing on. The reason I say on purpose above is simply this: to this day, my mom hates that hill. It was there when they bought the house and she has tried several times to get rid of it. I don't know if we always talked her out of it or if other things just took priority, but it is still there.

Personally, I am glad. We had SO much fun playing on the hill growing up and the grandkids have fun now. I told Britta last night that she was missing something on her hill, the pot holes. She apparently decided that, regardless of how much we used them, she didn't want them in her hill. I do understand why because we destroyed the grass in that area by using them for our witches brew, which I have previously posted about.

In addition to witches brew the hill provided safety while playing tag, a castle for the frequently overturned king of the hill, a stage and many more. We rolled down the hill, we ran through sprinklers on the hill and sprained ankles on the hill. The fun was endless and still is. And lucky for us, if we had too many people and our hill was too small, we ran next door to the park. We always had plenty of space there.

In my adulthood, I am always reminded that I had an amazing childhood. Sometimes it is hearing how difficult someone else's childhood was and sometimes it is just spending time with my family and following the eternal memory lane. I am grateful for the family I have and I love you all!

Flashback Friday - Family Vacation, part 1

I am finally getting around to posting about my vacation. I have been waiting, hoping to get some of the pictures other members of my family took. I decided I had better not wait anymore, because it is already a "flashback". I mean, it's been a week!

Let me preface this entire blog with this...vacation is much better when illness is not a part of it! My stomach, back and ribs acted up the night before we left, so I really didn't get much sleep. We wanted to leave my parent's house by 8:00 a.m. (we run on Putnam time, so this means earliest 8:30). I was in pain, so I called my chiropractor, hoping to get in early so that I didn't throw things off for anyone else. Luckily, due to Putnam time, I didn't. Steve and I dropped all my stuff off at my parent's and got it loaded and headed to the chiropractor while everyone else finished up. We got to the office around 8:15 or so and was done just after everyone left the house at 8:30. Everyone met Steve and I there, since it was in the general direction we needed to go anyway and wasn't too out of the way. I said good-bye to Steve, gingerly climbed into Britta's Jeep and off we went!

I rode most of the day with Britta, with a few hours with my parents when I decided I really needed a nap. I couldn't get a nap riding with Britta because I was on kid duty - changing movies, getting books or toys, getting snacks, etc. After some rest I really started to feel better and kid duty was ok. I did find the Nevada/California state line quite interesting. The scenery became a lot more interesting very suddenly!

Monday night we stayed in a town called Grass Valley in California. It is off of I-80 about a half hour and the drive into town was absolutely breath-taking! We chose Grass Valley because it was in the general area that we needed to go anyway and Britta and John lived there for a summer for John's internship. My parent's found this fabulous place to stay which completely spoiled us. We all loved it, especially the memory foam beds and the pool. They were just what we needed after the long day of driving we just had.

Our cute hotel the first night

Tuesday was a busy, busy day. We started by having a trip down memory lane for Britta. She wanted to show everyone where she and John lived for that summer. It was maybe 5 minutes from the hotel. Then we headed toward Yuba City and did a little bit of backtracking through Marysville to Beale Air Force Base for me. That is where Steve was born and since he wasn't able to come I wanted to go there for him. We took some pictures and Zack and Abby especially liked looking at the plane. On our way back through Marysville, we stopped at Wal-Mart, for Britta's sake. Her DVD players stopped working. It was only the 2nd day of a huge road trip with a 3 year old and a1 year old. She didn't want to go the rest of the trip without it...

After our shopping we decided it was time for lunch. We found a great park close by and stopped. It had a great pond and a bunch of ducks and geese that Abby truly enjoyed feeding. I'll tell you what though, those geese sure were pushy. You could even say they were the bullies of the bunch. When they found out that the ducks were getting food that they weren't, they charged right in and pushed the ducks out. It was very interesting to watch.

After lunch Seth pretty much ran the show. This was the day spent in his mission area and there were a lot of people he wanted to visit and some places he wanted to show us. Most of us stayed in vehicles when he went in but in Orland we were able to stop at a park so the kids could play. We ended up eating dinner pretty late and by that time the kids were ready to be done. After getting to the motel in Corning some of us went swimming, some of us went to bed and my parents and Seth went to visit more people. My stomach acted up Tuesday afternoon but swimming helped a lot.

Wednesday was the day for the Redwoods. Unfortunately for us, to get there from Corning, we had to drive up and over the mountain. This meant a lot of twisty roads, and quite a bit of car sickness, which lead to a lot of passenger swapping. I was already feeling slightly off so I got quite sick where I normally would not have. By the time we actually got to the Redwoods I could barely move, but got out of the car anyway. I wasn't about to miss the redwoods in the Avenue of the Giants.

The first place we stopped was the Immortal Tree. This massive tree has survived lightening, floods, pests and the axe. They even have year markers for each event. We spent a good amount of time at the gift shop there and I found the perfect gift for Steve, aside from the fun shot glass to add to his collection. We got back on the road and found a place for dinner in a gorgeous grove with a picnic table. It was here that I realized we did not have nearly enough time for the Redwoods. There are so many trails and other sites off the main roads that days could be spent in just the Avenue of the Redwoods. I laid down in the van for a bit before getting up to eat. I needed a chance to rest without being in a moving vehicle.

My parents chose to visit this specific section of the Redwoods because we all wanted to see a drive-through tree. We couldn't see one on the map, but the internet stated we would find one. We decided to turn around and go ask someone at the visitor's center where we could find one. They said it was off the main road but there were signs on the main road. We just didn't drive far enough. We found it and it was so much fun! I could not believe the size of these trees. The drive-through tree was large enough that Aaron could even drive his big truck through (Seth was actually driving, Aaron directed). They also had some play houses and a children's walk-through stump. Everyone had a blast, especially the kids!

The cute tree houses

Silly, silly Seth Sack - in the cute tree house

Aaron with Zack on his shoulders in the walk-through tree
Perspective - Aaron is about 6'8"

Anna in the walk-through stump

Getting out of the car was actually the best thing for me, and by the time we got to our motel I was feeling pretty good. We stayed at a tiny motel in Garberville, a small town just south of the Avenue of the Giants. We got to the motel Wednesday night much earlier in the evening than we did any other night. We went swimming before dinner and really had a good time. We planned to go to a smoothie place we saw as we came in, but when we got there we discovered they were only serving the fire fighters that were fighting the mostly contained fires on the mountain. So, we kept walking until we found an open place that looked family friendly. Overall dinner was a lot of fun. It stopped being fun when half of us got our food and finished it and still no pizza for the others. Luckily, the kids were still in good moods. Some of us headed back with the kids and some stayed to take care of getting the pizza to go (which was now free) and taking care of paying. Aaron brought the pizza back, but unfortunately not before Abby went to sleep. Don't worry, she didn't go to bed hungry. She had chocolate cake at the restaurant! Britta saved her a piece for the next day.

This is about all I am going to post for now. I will finish blogging about the trip later. Check back for more pictures...

Hiatus

It has been a while since I posted. We've been busy. Believe it or not, we really didn't do much of anything on the 4th. My stomach acted up and I was up all night in pain the night before, so I slept until 1:00 p.m. when Steve woke me up saying he couldn't in good conscience let me sleep anymore. The rest of the day I really felt lethargic and didn't feel up to doing much of anything at all. We did go get ice cream and watch the valley fireworks from up on the hill with Josie and Jaslin(we were going to go to West Jordan Park, but parking didn't exist, so we drove instead).

This week and weekend I have been getting ready to go on vacation. While I was at work I was busy trying to make sure I had all my loose ends tied up so that I didn't have to worry about anything not being done. When I was home I was cleaning up the house so I didn't leave a disaster. Yesterday I went with my mom to Sam's Club for snack food and then Ranna and I went to Good Earth so I could get some specialty food to take with me.

Today I have been quite busy getting things packed and organized. We are planning on leaving my parent's house at 8:00 a.m. which means getting up early enough to get everything in the car, go get some ice and get to my parent's house in time to get everything loaded up. I will be riding with Britta, Abby and Landon for most of the trip. Then my parent's will have them, Anna(a niece), Ranna, Seth and Joel. Then Amanda, Aaron and Zack will be in their truck. Unfortunately there are several people that are unable to come. Britta's husband, John, Steve, my brother Dirk and his wife Sarina all have to work and Eric, Dani and their girls were going to come but they are moving in a week and a half and now are not able to.

We will be coming home late Saturday, so there will likely be no communication from me online for a week, as I have no lap top. I will prepare to share our adventures when we return...

Flashback Friday - Life Story question

Steve and I have been planning to continue our story because we had fun doing it. We've been told that some people actually enjoyed reading it too. Here is our dilemma. We don't really see each other much during the week. In fact, this week it really has been very little. We usually have all day Saturday and Sunday, and this weekend we don't even have that. So, I am going to do something else for this week and then we will try to work on something during the week so that by Friday it will be ready to post.

I decided to cheat a little this week and pull a question out of my Life Story jar that would work for my Flashback Friday. The question is "Tell about any conditions surrounding your birth that you are aware of. Tell any interesting stories about your beginnings (how your name was chosen, any close calls)." Boy what a gem this is!

When I was 11 my mom wrote me a letter as part of a mutual project. It shares some about when I was born, but not all the really good stuff. But, I would like to share a little of it because it is in her words.

"I would like to tell you a little bit about the day you was born. It was a bright, sunny, early spring morning - March 26, 1977. We already had 2 little boys and were hoping to get a little girl. We were, of course, very please when we found out you was indeed a little girl. We were a little bit scared at first because you wasn't breathing right away, but it sure didn't take long to get you breathing. Once you started breathing, you started crying. What a set of lungs! You have been very quiet since then! Just kidding." (She really isn't kidding. I am a self-admitted loud-mouth!)

"You was one of the prettiest babies ever born at the Valley West Hospital in what was then called Granger, Utah. Things have really changed so it is now Pioneer Valley Hospital in West Valley City, Utah. The nurses made a fuss over you because you had so much long dark hair. At one time Dr. Astle, who delivered you, said, "One day she'll knock some young man for a loop." He thought you looked like you would really be pretty some day."

The next paragraph I am leaving out because it is very personal, but she mentions having health issues before and after I was born. When she was 4 months along, she started having contractions due to an asymptomatic urinary tract infection. This was obviously way to early to give birth so the hospital did what they could to stop the contractions. The way that was done at that time was through an alcohol drip. Yes, my mom got drunk due to this alcohol drip, this explains everything! She was a difficult patient and kept trying to get out of bed (very unlike her, she is a nurse and knows better), but in the end it worked and I was born only 3 weeks early.

Just after I was born they were not sure what my name would be. They knew my first name would be Mary because they wanted me to have that family name (it goes back to my great-great grandmother). Their inspiration for my middle name, what I would actually go by, came from an interesting source. When I was born, they still had shared hospital rooms and she was sharing with someone who also just gave birth to a little girl and also had a little boy. When her son came in to visit he was disappointed. He said "I wanted you to have a boy so we could name him Charlie Brown." They decided that would be a cute name for a girl, except as Charlene. So, I am named after Charlie Brown and I did not learn this until my friends gave me the nickname of Charlie (against my wishes) which ended up as Chuck (which I was okay with...go figure). Ironic.

What they didn't know at the time I was born was that part of the placenta had scarred next to the uterus due to the premature contractions. Since that part stayed behind her body didn't get the clear signal that she was not pregnant anymore and her milk did not come in. Therefore, I was not breast fed like my 7 siblings. I personally find this curious as I am the one in the family with the most health issues. It simply re-affirms to me the importance of breast milk. Anyway, about 5 weeks after I was born she started having issues due to the part of the placenta wall left behind. She ended up in the hospital with severe bleeding and the doctors gave her until a specified time to pull out of it or she would have an emergency hysterectomy. It looked like it was going to happen, but she was blessed and a half an hour before the determined time she pulled out of it and did not need to have the surgery.

She had 5 more children after that, all with very little or no complications. So, I say that I started out as a problem child and unfortunately I don't think much has changed. But I can say that I am truly grateful my mom was able to have more children for all the siblings I have. I would have been the youngest child and the only girl and if that had been the case I would have been a spoiled brat - no questions!

I have an amazing family and I am so blessed to be a part of it. I consider some of my siblings among my best friends and I can not imagine my life without them.

A busy week...

I can hardly believe it is already Thursday. We have had a lot of events this week so far, some fun, some not so much.

Monday started with a phone call to Britta. Abby went in for surgery to fix a hole in her heart. Being the worry wart that I am, I had to make sure she knew I was thinking about them and to express my love and concern. Also, I wanted to find out if they had received the e-card I sent for Abby to wish her luck. They did and Abby had already watched it over and over again. Britta told me she would let me know how things went and I mentioned that I would like to come up to visit later if Abby was up to it. It was a simple procedure, done in the catheter lab instead of the operating room, and everthing went well.

After work I had a chiropractor appointment. It was a consultation from my most recent re-exam(I am now on a maintenance schedule) and it was in and out. So, I headed up to Primary's after the appointment. Abby was very antsy and ready for something different. She was exhausted and struggled with her emotions for a little bit but overall did amazingly well. I read her a few stories and chatted with Britta some. We also took a picture of her silly glowing thumb.

Eventually I felt I needed to go help my parents and she didn't want me to go. But she had dinner on the way, pepperoni pizza(her favorite) and a cupcake with sprinkles, so she was ok.

My parents have been remodeling their bathroom downstairs and were also getting the house cleaned up in preparation for my brother Seth to come home from his mission on Tuesday. For those of you familiar with my parent's yard you will be glad to know that it is now tub free! Shortly after I arrived at their place, they realized that their a/c was no longer working. The compressor quit. I was trying to help clean, but it wasn't very easy to do while being miserably hot. Overall, Monday was good and busy day.

Tuesday morning Seth came home, bright and early. I did not go to the airport. I planned to be at work all day. That morning, my body had a different idea. I did not feel well and stayed in bed. I thought I just needed more sleep and that I would make it in later. Then I woke up later. My throat was screaming at me! I called in sick because I thought I may have caught something that Ranna had been sick with for days already. I felt very yucky and almost stayed in bed. Then Steve said he wanted to go see Seth before he had to go to work. I figured I could lay around at my parent's house just as easily as I could at home. So, we got out the door and visited for a bit. Then Steve went to work and he left me there. It was quite the busy house! I still felt rather yucky all day but it was definitely better than staying at home.

This is of course the Reader's Digest condensed version, but you get the idea. The past two days I have been very busy at work and have come home exhausted. Maybe I will actually have the energy to post a Flashback Friday tomorrow....

Flashback Friday - Christmas Traditions

My sister Britta posted her Flashback Friday and it was so complete I asked if I could send people to her blog. She said "Sure, you can even copy and paste it if you want." So I did, with a few changes. Thanks Britta!

On Christmas Eve night, we always read the story of when Christ was born. All season, my mom had her nativity figures on the piano, but she kept baby Jesus hidden. As we read the story from the scriptures, we would put the baby in the stable, to symbolize that being the night of his birth. Then we had family prayer, picked a spot on the furniture for our stockings, then went to bed. Now, going to bed was not necessarily going to sleep. The excitement was always tremendous. One year, Britta and I couldn't sleep, and we decided to both sleep on the top bunk - my bed. This became our little tradition for a couple more years, until we were too big and it was too uncomfortable.

My mom is a nurse, and she almost always worked on Christmas Eve until 7 am Christmas morning, but she usually didn't get home until closer to 8. We weren't allowed to look at our presents until she got home. Until I was about 10, we had the presents in the living room, which you could see from the stairs coming up from my room. So we had to stay in the basement. Around my 11th birthday, my parents added on to the house, building a room above the garage. This made it easier to hide the presents, but until we were a little older, we still had to wait downstairs because it was too tempting to take a peek behind the blanket covering the doorway. My youngest brothers were escorted downstairs to wait with us until she got home. I remember meeting in Amanda and Ranna's room to play games and peeking out the window watching for our mother to come home - Britta and I shared a room which was in the back of the house. Dirk and Eric were old enough to want to stay in bed as long as possible, but the rest of us would huddle together, squealing with excitement. Even when she got home we had to wait a few minutes for mom and dad to hug and kiss and for them to come down and tell us it was okay.

One of our favorite things on Christmas morning was breakfast. We all got to pick our own box of cereal to eat that morning. The entire box was our own, and we only shared if we wanted to, which we frequently did. It was always a big decision to make when my mom asked what kind we wanted. As soon as my mom got home, we broke open the Christmas cereal, and ate as a family. This was my mom's sneaky trick to make sure we ate something healthy before attacking the candy. Thinking about these breakfasts brings back many fond memories. There was rarely a time besides Christmas morning with quite so much laughter and love in our house.

Me, Britta (in front), Ranna (in back), Amanda, Mom

After everyone was done eating, we lined up, oldest to youngest. We waited while my dad took the camera upstairs, exclaiming over the wonderful surprises, teasing us with his new knowledge of what Santa brought. We'd finally file upstairs when the blanket was removed, and rushed to our stockings. There was usually one present from Santa under the tree (Santa always left his unused wrapping paper in the kitchen for us to finish off next year), but the rest was unwrapped next to our stockings. Oooing and ahhhing over our gifts and showing them off to everyone else took several minutes. Then we gathered around the tree to find some more treasures. We would grab one gift and wait for everyone to have one, then open them all at the same time.

Dirk, Eric, Britta, Me

Mom, Joel, Me (the dark hair hiding behind the chair), Britta (in the stripes), Amanda (kneeling), Seth (hiding behind the tree)

We always drew names, then went to the mall together for Family Home Evening one night before Christmas. My mom split us up as best she could so she took half and my dad took half as we searched for the perfect gift for the person we drew, without letting the person in question see what this perfect gift was. This sometimes took some creativity because it didn't always work out perfectly when splitting in 2 groups - we frequently had triads. The triads required meeting in the middle to swap people. These gifts were under the tree, and were often some of the favorites.

After everything was opened, we played with our gifts for a while before heading off to Grandma's house. We usually went to my mom's parents' house in West Valley first for a while, then drove to Coalville to my dad's parents' house. By the end of the day, we were exhausted, but content. And we had the day after Christmas to look forward to, when we ate more cereal, candy from the stockings, and played with our new gifts most of the day.

This was at my mom's family Christmas party 2 years ago. We have added 4 kids since then! The adults were still expected to sit on Santa's lap until just a few years ago.

I have very fond memories of spending Christmas with my family. I love them all dearly and look forward to seeing them all in a few days for another Christmas together.

Flashback Friday - growing families

It's time for my first addition to my Flashback Friday blog. I've been thinking quite a bit about what to write about over the last week and didn't have anything...until tonight while I was babysitting my nephew Zack. He is my sister Amanda's son and just turned 2 last week.

I started thinking about the other nieces and nephews I have. I didn't have any until Steve and I got married and then all of a sudden I had 5 nephews and one on the way, all on Steve's side of course. At that time, only my sister Britta was married and they didn't have any children yet.
A month after we got married, my brother Dirk married Sarina, and we got Anna. Anna was 2 when they got married, and seemed to take to our family very quickly. This was a fun time as there were no other grandchildren, so Anna was very spoiled!

We have been married for 6 1/2 years now and Steve's parents have about 16 grandchildren, all boys except for 2, and my parents have 8 grandchildren, 4 boys and 4 girls. As my sister Britta pointed out, this matches my parent's 8 children, 4 boys and 4 girls. Some of Steve's siblings are done having children while others are really just starting their families. The oldest grandchild on his side is in high school while the youngest is about 2 months old. On my side, everyone is at beginning. We have Anna at 8 and now Samantha at three weeks or so.

My nieces and nephews mean a lot to me and are a lot of fun. Some of them we don't see often, for different reasons. But when we do see them, sometimes I think I get along better with them than some of the adults!

It has finally come!

For those of you who have been aware of my grandmother's health....

Grandma Pace passed away tonight at 7:40. She has been very fragile for a while. She has lived with my parents for the last three years and it has really helped me to develop a strong relationship with her. I have been one of the few people that she consistently recognized. Dementia and pain were her biggest issues and the last few weeks it has been especially difficult.
Last Saturday my parents wanted to go to a family reunion in Wyoming but grandma was not up to the trip. They asked me to be with her at the house since I am one of the people she has responded to the best. I got there at 7:00 a.m. so they could get on the road early. My sister was home all day, which was lucky for me. Grandma slept all day, didn't even get out of bed to use the restroom (she has been wearing Attends so I wasn't too concerned). Hospice has been in place so I just kept checking for breathing.

At about 4:45 I spoke with my parents and they said they were on their way home and should be there at about 9:00. Somewhere around 5:45 grandma woke up and was very confused. She kept trying to get undressed and we couldn't understand what she was saying. My sister called my mother to find out what we should do. She said to give her the anti-anxiety medication she had. She was so confused she didn't remember how to drink or even use a straw. We got it down her in tiny sips.

Finally, after about an hour she settled down enough to go back to sleep. For a while we were preparing for her to go on us then, although I didn't know if I could handle it emotionally. I wanted her to be able to go so she wouldn't suffer anymore, I just didn't necessarily want to be there when she did.

She gradually went down hill each day from there. This morning my mother called off her shift for work (something I don't know that I ever recall her doing, even for herself) because she was really struggling and didn't want my dad to have to deal with it by himself. She wouldn't have been home from work yet when she passed if she had gone.

I was at my sister's house (along with all my sisters) for a jewelry party when my mother called the house. That changed the mood of the party pretty quickly. None of us were overly emotional, as we knew it was going to happen sometime soon, just needed to step away for a bit. I called Steve to let him know. He offered to go to the house and help in anyway that they needed it until I was done and could get there. My mom said they didn't need it. Things were calm.

I decided to go to the house before the mortuary came. I wanted to deal with things on my own, without the rest of my large extended family around. They weren't around for most of her last three years, why should I have to share that time with them? The first thing I noticed was the quiet - no oxygen running. Apparently they stopped it a few days ago but I hadn't been there since Saturday. That's when it really hit me and I broke down. I went in and said good-bye and stayed there until after the mortuary came and went. It helped a lot for me emotionally to be there for that.

I know that she is finally at peace and my grandpa (he passed away 5 1/2 years ago) probably came to get her and likely said something to the effect of "It's about time you let go and came with me!" She's been a stubborn one, that is for sure. I am very grateful for the time I had with her, to hear her stories and get to know her sense of humor. She was a good woman, although could get rather ornery at times. I will miss her laugh and her smiles, but I feel good knowing she is in a better place and finally happy again.