This Is It

[m] 01.24.11 grocery shopping at walmart... canceled my lvac gym membership... mackenzie is no longer in computers... she's now in P.E... except they had an assembly today, so they'll start tomorrow... madi got to go see the eye doctor today... she was nervous but much braver than last time (especially when she had to get the eye drops)... her eye sight has gotten worse since last time... and she had a freckle on her eye that he checked out but didn't seem too concerned about... we just got the rx and we'll go pay a visit to wal-mart's glasses... max and kenzie hung out with the meltons while we were gone...

 

[t] 01.25.11   darric left for st. george at two this morning... he's got some work to do there today and tomorrow... madi's teacher was out last week because she was having some kind of surgery... she's still not back and today the sub read a note from her saying that she ended up having three surgeries... madi misses her... went to jodie's for a meeting... mom and jen were there too... laying in bed tonight stunk... no man to help me feel protected... the tv is half out in our room (sound but no picture)... and the smoke alarm in my bedroom has decided to start chirping... max ended up coming in before i fell asleep...

 

[w] 01.26.11  max asked if he could start walking to school... um, no... but i let him walk a little further by himself this morning... instead of walking through the parking lot, i watched him walk along the curb and to the sidewalk... for lunch today max had 2 apples and pb... i had ramen noodle... day 3 of spend less, save more... we dropped madi off at dance... her teacher's still not back... darric was home from st. george when we got back...

[the result of a late afternoon bath and shower]

[th] 01.27.11  this week is going by fast... after max got out, we went to old navy to get darric some new jeans... i got me 2 shirts... then over to costco to pick up the kids' valentines i had printed... max hates going here... he hates going anywhere he's not going to see one of his friends at... we went straight home... no stopping for lunch... that was hard... mackenzie had to change into her P.E. uniform today... it works out good that she wears tank tops under her shirts everyday... darric got off a little early and we all went to sign up at fitness19. for less than what i was paying for myself at lvac, me, darric and kenzie have memberships and max and madi are free in the playroom (a room with some toys - they were not impressed)... me and madi, along with her eye rx, went to walmart to find some new glasses... i was getting nervous because she tried on almost every pair of frames and we weren't finding anything... finally found a pair that will do... i miss the old ones... paid and came home... darric took kenzie to her volleyball practice...

 

[f] 01.28.11  max crawled into our bed when my alarm clock went off at 5am... he wanted his back tickled... i swear i heard the smoke alarm beep twice... and that was it... i wore my new shirt from old navy today... when madi saw me, she said "i like your shirt" and then she got closer to me and said "ohh, it has stripes"... max picked burger king for his friday lunch... jodie and the kiddos came over to play for a bit... that night, darric and i watched a perfect getaway... it was pretty good... max came in our bed around 11:00, complaining that the lower part of his leg was hurting... i rubbed it for a bit... darric asked what the big bruise on his thigh was from... then it finally hit me, he fell while climbing up to the top shelf in his closet this afternoon... so the rubbing was probably not helping... we tried ice and the heating pad, but neither seemed to help... but it didn't take him too long to fall asleep...

[he had burger king and i got l&l - the einstein's cup was from breakfast]

[sa] 01.29.11  woke up at 6am to get ready in time to take kenzie to her violafest at coronado hs... picked up breakfast on the way home... went to cade's awesome 7th birthday party... it was mario bros theme and they got the game van... not just the boys had fun... us girls had a blast with the dancing game... us big girls... at 4:00, all of us went to kenzie's violafest recital... the 6th graders played one song... yesterday (beatles)... we picked up dinner on the way home... weinerschnitzel for max and madi... l&l for the rest of us...

[su] 01.30.11  today we all went to look at some model houses... yes, all of us... we looked at two different kb communities... i didn't care for either... darric thought they were nice... we drove around looking at other houses for sale in our area... picked up lunch and came home... that night the kids made corn starch with water and a mess to go with it... 

 

 

max says

when he wants to eat at burger king, he tells me to get "portable subs" because i don't really like burger king. if he wants pizza, it's "little tweezers".

he asked kenzie one day if she "lost her identity".

now, when he gets mad, he says he's going to puke. he hasn't actually puked yet. thank goodness.

and "that's convenient" has been heard lately too. ;) 

 

happy birthday mlk jr

no school today. which means kids wake up when they want and take forever to get ready. and because they took forever, i left them all home while i went grocery shopping. 

later we met jodie and her kids at the park in anthem. it was sooo warm out today. the kids had fun running around. madi kept watch over piper most of the time. probably because kenzie wasn't there and she could. (kenzie's ear was still bugging her, so she stayed home.) 

i don't think quincy was feeling too great and max was getting ticked about everything, so we left. making a quick stop at the 7-11 for drinks.

[w] 01.19.11
kenzie has half days the rest of this week because of testing so she gets to have lunch with me and the crankster mixter... madi had dance... darric took kenzie to the practice with the older girls... the coach was very strict... darric was worried she wouldn't like him... she ended up loving it... 

[th] 01.20.11
we went to get jason's deli for lunch and it was gone... ??? :( we went and got l&l/weinerschnitzel... max wanted a hot dog... kenzie had her regular volleyball practice tonight... darric took her to that one too...

[f] 01.21.11
darric and i were going to watch a movie, but we both got sucked into the bubble buster game on our phone/tab... we only stopped when our batteries died... 

[sa] 01.22.11
kenzie had a volleyball game at 9:00... for some reason there were a lot of younger girls on the other team and they served from the middle of the court... when mackenzie was up to serve, she'd only get to serve it once because her team couldn't get the ball back over the net... it was very annoying...  

[su] 01.23.11
went to billy's 6th birthday party at pump it up... madi and max had a blast jumping... kenzie's too mature... realized the overpass to town square (up sunset) is completed... i had no idea that's where it was going to come out at...

[snapshot] 01.20.11

we don't know why duke climbed up on the bench today. but he did and he balanced up there long enough for me to grab my camera and then some. then him and kenzie played peek-a-boo with each other until max went running towards them to join the fun. 

[snapshot] 01.19.11

because of testing, mackenzie has half days this week (wed-fri) so she gets to have lunch with me and max. today, we had el pollo loco. the centerpiece is a paper sack snowman max made in class.  

[snapshot] 01.18.11

this is the picture that gets drawn on the back of our receipts 99% of the time when we leave costco. usually it ticks him off. but today, he smiled and said "she was nice". (his hair had fallen down quite a bit since the portrait had been drawn.)

01.18.11

today is... tuesday

..........................................................................................................................

back to school for the kids. at least max was excited to take in his snowman today. even if his twig hand fell off twice on the way there. 

after picking up max, we went to costco to get a couple things from the photo lab and some groceries. of course, i couldn't pass up the cheese danish tray for $4.99. some lady even stopped me to ask if they were as good as they looked. uh, yeah. on the way out, the lady drew a mohawked stick kid on the back of the receipt. max didn't get mad this time. he smiled and said "she's nice".

we went and got a car wash before picking up some lunch. they changed the prices and car wash names and i thought i was getting rainbow soap and an air freshener, but i was wrong. the car is mostly clean and shiny (on the outside) though.

later that afternoon, i left the kids and went over to have my hair done by janie. it was about 4:30 so darric was going to arrive shortly after. i only got one call from kenzie before i went back saying that max was being a brat and not listening to anything she said. i told her to try and ignore him and make sure he didn't hurt anything. and when i knew darric was home, i enjoyed my alone time so much more. 

i was there for about 4 hours. first the color - chocolate cheesecake - and then the cut. i ran and got janie a diet coke before heading home to hear about the good news darric kenzie received while getting their volleyball pictures taken. the coach wants to put her on the older girls team. those girls have been playing longer and should be better. she said there's also a team that travels and does tournaments, but that will cost a bit more. that made darric kenzie really super excited. and she was happy to hear one of her teammates tell her she was pretty too. she said she told the girl she was pretty too, but she doesn't know if she heard her.

darric and i watched some howard stern interview (i mostly looked through blogs on the tab) and then we watched tosh.0 before we were both scared to death when duke knocked one of my glasses off the table, shattering it into lots of pieces. well, i'm guessing it was lots of pieces. darric's the one that got up to clean it. :)

[snapshot] 01.17.11

it was crazy warm today. with the day off, we knew it was a must to visit the park. we went to the one in anthem. jodie and the kiddos met us there. max jumped on the swings and swung himself for the first time. he just needed to figure it out on his own. on the way home, we  felt the need to stop for slurpees. (kenzie stayed home because of her problem ear.)

01.14.11

today is... friday

before my cousin, derrick, left my mom and dad's house at the pre-christmas party, he said to me "we need to get together sometime before easter."

i never ever imagined this would be our reason to get together.

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i woke up at my normal early 5:30 wake up time. got ready, then darric and i dropped the kids off at school. he walked max up to his gate. we came home and threw together the beans in the crock pot. and he then drove me to my parent's house, so i could ride out with them.

verna and her sister and brother were there too. they drove down from utah. we eventually left and drove over to david and cindy's. we took the freeway to rancho and next time we'll have to take the 95 all the way around, because my dad is 100% sure it's faster.

jennifer and jodie were there. cami, jennifer's friend, was nice enough to come stay at the house and get the food all ready.

we drove over to the place where the funeral was. i was nervous. we went inside and my grandma was there. my cousin ben, who i haven't seen in a long time, was there. my uncle donny and aunt gloria. they were all standing outside the... chapel? as soon as i saw the guest book with the photo of amber next to it, i started to tear up. that's why we were there. it's real. 

it took the three of us sisters awhile to go in. my aunt wendy and her husband arrived. my cousin carrie. then my uncle david walked out. he took my mom over and talked to her for a minute and then we walked in. i was crying when david hugged me. he held it together and told me "we're not crying today", then made sure i was alright. i told him yes. (if he could be strong, so could i) then i went to sit down. 

sandy, steve and ryan arrived. then bobbie + scott and calie + kyle. and the service began. every seat in the place was full and there were people standing along the back of the room too. it was a big room. full of people that amber has touched. the service was beautiful. derrick, rayann and kayla all wrote poems for amber. and derrick read some traveling tips that amber had kept while on her travels. one of their good family friends, cindy, read a few things about amber and her very adventurous life. and grandma dee got up to say a few things she remembered about amber when she was little. then we watched a slide show. most of us never knew that amber went sky diving. she did a lot.

brody came and hung out with us girls as the people in the room came by to see david, cindy and the other family members. once the room was mostly cleared out... family stayed inside to say their last goodbyes before closing the casket. by this time, everything felt so surreal to me. it was like i was looking in from the outside at everyone and would eventually wake up. they closed the casket and the pallbearers gathered along the sides with their white gloves and wheeled it over to the grave site with all of us following behind. a few more things were said, including the indian poem that was printed on the back of the memorial card.

the casket was lowered a bit and the pallbearers placed their gloves on top and then family members placed flowers on top of it too. the piece that would eventually go over the casket had photos of amber on it. it was beautiful. 

we all made our way back over to david and cindy's where there was a living room full of food. so many people brought food by. we stayed there until that evening. we had lunch and dessert. we watched pieces of the slide show again and visited with family. so many of amber's friends traveled here. friends she made in san diego. and friends she made in pocatello. family members and family friends traveled far to be here today too. it was hard to say good bye. 

i rode home with my mom and dad. we took the 2-15 all the way around this time, since they were taking me to my house. it was a long drive, but nice to hang out with them a little longer today.

pizza had been ordered at my house, the house was pretty clean and darric didn't forget to pick up any of the kids from school. (although he went to the wrong kindergarten class, at first, to get max)