Friday, March 21, 2008

My Dad




This post is dedicated to my Dad. He died 14 months ago in a hospital room in Athens, Greece. Today is his birthday. I miss him. 33 random tidbits about him.

1. Dad was born in Delta, Colorado to Era and Glen.




2. He had a brother named Jerry, who is 4 years older than him.




3. His father was a truck driver, his mother a school teacher.

4. He had a carefree, happy childhood with many exciting adventures with the neighborhood packs of boys in the small town of Delta.

5. His mother died when he was 14 leaving him to raise himself through the teenage years with his father on the road and his brother having left home.




6. He loved his dog, Laddie, who was his companion throughout the years.

7. He was a great wrestler.

    8. He served in the Navy where he joined the LDS church.
9. Then he served a mission in Australia.

10. He attended BYU, met my mother, was married and graduated in accounting.

11. When he was younger he had wavy, thick, auburn hair.


12. They moved to Grand Junction, Colorado where he lived and worked the rest of his life.



13. He loved music and to sing. Some of my fondest memories as a child are listening to my Dad sing and play the ukulele.

Dad as "Captain Martin"

14. When I was in Middle School he made me breakfast every morning and brought it to my room on a little tray. I guess he thought it was important I eat and I was to hurried to do it.


15. He worked hard. Hard at his job, hard at church and at having fun.

16. He was busy, but he never missed anything I did. He was always at my tennis matches and was the loudest fan, (at times, much to my dismay).

17. He knew the back roads of the Grand Mesa and Colorado mountain passes like nobodies business. He took us 4-wheeling to places that made my mother question his judgement (that's putting it nicely). He even let me drive. You should have seen my mother then.

18. He enjoyed nature so much. He's the reason I love to camp, fish, hike and climb 14er's. He climbed many of them, some even as an elderly man.

19. He was a fierce competitor. He never gave up. I remember the tricks he would pull out of his sleeve to beat me at tennis when I started getting good enough to beat him. He hated loosing.

20. He loved volleyball. I'll never forget beating the Lemon Family at Aspen Grove Family Camp. That is where the competition gets intense and my Dad was the leader of it all.

21. He was an avid BYU football fan. In the hospital on his death bed with all of his children we watched BYU beat Utah again with him.

22. He was silly. He always had a funny thing to say and made everyone smile. Everyone who knew him loved him.

23. He loved my mom. I never doubted it once.

24. He protected us. He provided for us. He was everything a father should be and more.

25. He taught me to be smart with money.

26. He loved Oreo's.

27. He wasn't afraid to tell me when he thought I was making a mistake, and pretty much always, he was right.

28. He loved my husband and my children.

29. He wanted to serve. He never desired to retire in style and relax away his final years. Instead he gave his money away to his children and served two missions.

30. First mission was to Thailand as the country director of welfare. He loved it.


31. Second mission was to Athens, Greece where he eventually became ill.


32. Most of all he loved the gospel and his family and pretty much everything in his life centered around those two things. He was a great example.

33. His final words to me were, "Magnify your talents. Magnify your calling." That is what I will try to do.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Home sweet home

KC here. It's hard to believe that we'll be leaving our sweet home in less than six weeks.



When we moved here we had been married just over a year, had no kids and had just graduated from college.



Now, less than five years later, we have three kids, a dog,
another degree and have been married almost six years.

This place has been good to us, that's for sure. We are definitely going to need a bigger moving truck!

Friday, March 14, 2008

Life list

I have a list here of things I want to do or accomplish in my life. I may not get to them all, but I hope to try. Listed in no particular order.

1. Learn how to surf and get good at it. This could happen sooner than I had even hoped, now that we will be living in SoCal. This is so me. I love the water.



2. Go Skydiving. This one I want to do with KC and he is all for it. I will be smiling the whole time. Don't worry mom, I won't tell you about it until we've done it.



3. Attend a US Open Tennis Match. I would have loved to see my Andre. He was my first crush. He is retired now though, so I don't know who I want to see. No one has really struck me in the tennis world of late.



4. Learn to drive a boat.

5. See a Broadway show.

6. Ride my bike over the Colorado National Monument. This is one of my favorite places.



7. Go on a week long backpacking trip with KC. We've only just done 2-3 days and it was the best thing I think I've ever done. What would a week be like??



8. Climb all the Colorado 14er's. I've just done 4. There are 54!



9. Become a certified Scuba diver.

10. Shoot a wild animal and eat it myself. (Not the whole thing). I know, weird. I guess I just want to know I could survive in the wild if I had to.

11. Run the Rimrock Marathon. This goes over the Colorado National Monument.

12. Become a certified yoga instructor. I've been so close to this for about a year now. I just need to do a final research paper that I keep putting off.




13. Learn to be a good photographer. I've always been interested in this, but I've never had that window of opportunity to pursue it. Someday.

14. Attend the Kentucky Derby and wear a crazy hat. The Belmont Stakes or the Preakness would be okay too.



15. Vacation with my family to our favorite Island, the Isla Contadora of the Pearl Islands several times.



16. Serve a mission with my husband, just like my Mom and Dad did.



17. Hike the Inca Trail into Machu Picchu.




18. I have a LOT of travel goals so I'll just summarize them in one. Firstly I want to return to my Bolivia. I want the family to go on an Alaskan cruise. I want to see Africa, Australia, Asia and Jerusalem and MANY MANY MANY more places.

I'm sure I'll think of more throughout my life.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Let me brag about my husband...





I just can't help it. I'm so proud of him. Let's hope the kids get his brains. Good job babe, you are awesome!

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Sold!


Yes! Just 2 1/2 weeks after putting our house on the market we have a buyer! We accepted the offer and they will pay just $1,000 less than our asking price. We are so relieved and happy! I can relax again. Now we just have to figure out how to buy a house in California while still living here. We can't take the whole family, but we can't leave our kids either. We'll have to think about that one.

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Faithful fish, "Lellow", dies at 13 months


At our basement, toiletside funeral Daddy said, "I liked to see your smiling face each morning."

B said, "I liked it when you flashed your gills at us when we put a mirror on your tank."

K said, "He's dead."

We will miss him.


On a side note, someone is coming for a second showing of our house today! We'll see how it goes.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Too cute not to post!



Here is our little man with his first smiling photo! He was smiling at himself in the mirror that is attached to his chair. And now, check out his big sis!






Gotta love the skwy!




Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Monday, March 3, 2008

Confession


Three kids in 3.5 years has done a number on me. I've really been in the pits about my self image and it's been eating me up! Okay, so it's time for some action! Starting today, I am doing the Abs Diet. It's nothing fancy, it just explains what is healthy and the science behind it with some exercise guidelines. I am now accountable to all 2 of you people who read our blog. After 6 weeks has passed (April 14th, 2008) I should be feeling much better and will report back on my progress. Feel free to ask me how it is going! :)


Sunday, March 2, 2008

I think I'm married to Syndrome




This was KC's way of telling me he needed a haircut. Now I know where they got their creative influences for the character Syndrome in the Incredibles!