Happy Anniversary - late

TJ and I celebrated - well, not really, our 11th anniversary on May 10. My Grandpa's funeral was on May 10, so we weren't even in the same town on our anniversary. That's ok. I am married to a wonderful guy if you don't know already. I know 11 years isn't too long in the grand scheme of things, and to us it really seems like it has flown by. This is the first year we weren't together on our anniversary. All the NAVY deployments never interfered with it for some reason (unlike birthdays and Christmas!). I love him so much and I still can't believe at the age of 14 I knew he was one special guy - pimples and all :) I wish I had some pictures to post - I am still in Colorado. So I will have lots of pictures to upload when I get home next week - and hopefully we can celebrate our Anniversary then. Just a little reminiscing now... I know some of you have heard this, but for those of you who haven't here's the story. I saw TJ for the first time right after 8th grade ended - we were watching our sisters play in an all-star little league game against each other. He was sitting in the bleachers in front of me with his parents. I told my friend I was going to marry that kid although I'd never seen him before. I never saw him again that summer, until school started and we ended up at the same High School. We have been together ever since. Fast forward to April, 1996 - TJ calls me and tells me he's joined the NAVY - I say "what's that?" Colorado isn't a very NAVY town! I now know all too well what the NAVY is - and I LOVE it!! I know it was the best thing that could have ever happened to us and I am so grateful to the NAVY and all the opportunities it has given us. TJ can retire from the NAVY in 8 years! Although I am hoping we end up staying in for longer than the 20 years required for retirement. So TJ went to boot camp in Great Lakes, IL in October, 1996. He came back on May 9, 1997, for us to get married on the 10th, then left again on May 11, to go back to IL. He was gone for like a week and he came back to get me and we drove off to San Diego, where he was stationed for the next 10 years. But, when we got to San Diego in May 1997, he left for 6 months in August 1997. He came back in February 1998, and left AGAIN for 6 months in June 1999, and returned in December 1999. I like to tease him that he hasn't done a real day's work since sometime in 2000, and he hates it when I say that! But, since starting flight school, he has definitely been putting in his time. I love you so much honey! I'll see you next week - do you think you can pick us up at the airport??? And, I think I need a little vacation from our wonderful children when I get back from this vacation with them!

Grandpa Whiting

Last Monday I got a call from my family. My Grandpa Whiting had passed away in his sleep sometime early Monday morning. This is my first grandparent to pass away and it was really, really hard on me. I grew up with my grandparents all around me. We were with my grandparents a lot. They live on a great ranch and it was so fun to go out there and play. The last time I got to see my Grandpa was last August when I was here visiting. I am so sad and I am still having a hard time believing he is gone. It just doesn't seem fair he was only 75 years old, we should have had more time with him here. I had to do lots of juggling to get my flights changed so I could make it to the funeral, but it was worth it. We had the funeral on Saturday and that was the hardest thing I have ever done. I loved my Grandpa very, very much. I know that I will see him again, but being without him now is what's hard. I am so grateful for the knowledge I have of families being forever, but it still hurts. I am the 4th oldest of the 38 grandchildren (I thought there were more of us than that!!). He was very active in church and politics. The local paper did a story on him, but so did the Denver Post! We all thought Grandpa would get a chuckle out of that. All of my pictures of him are at home on my computer, so I will have to add more pictures of him when I get back. Here are the stories if you want to read them:
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_9219598
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2008/05/05/050608_1b_Whiting_obit.html

Before and After

I still can't believe I did it. It feels WONDERFUL. I think I love it, but I have only had it done for a few hours now. I have been wanting to post, but I haven't been able to do so lately. I will write more on that later. But, I figured I had to post these pics. Please be kind in your comments :) I donated all that hair to locks of love, it's the 4th time I have done that. I was trying to take these pictures by myself today because TJ wasn't around to do it, so the pictures are a little weird, I think.

100th post!

This is my 100th post! I would do something special - but I'm not that creative - so let's just look at more pictures of my kids shall we? Yesterday Tyler decided to give himself a hair cut, so check out this great hair cut. I can laugh and take pictures because it wasn't Brena giving herself a hair cut. Had it been Brena I would still be crying today. But we will just go shave Tyler's head and all will be well.

We have tons of wild berries that grow around here, so last night the kids went berry picking and ate the berries, here is a big one that Tyler found. Last year I got so excited seeing all these berries, we went all over the neighborhood picking berries. I had plans to make a pie with them, but never did. So now I just let the kids eat them when the find them.

Chipmunks?

Have you seen the Chipmunk movie? Brena loves it and she imitates the part in there when the chipmunk throws something at Dave and he throws it back, but misses. Then the chipmunk says "chick-a-wa-wa, chick-a-wa-wa" she cracks us up and she does it all the time, so I tried to get her to do it for camera, it's not as cute as she normally does it, but it is still funny. Enjoy!

Also, I haven't been posting much lately - I have actually been very busy on a project and it is almost done! But, I can't share it with you because I don't want a certain lurker to see it yet :) I will post on it when I can - I am so excited to share it! Hopefully in a few weeks. On another note, I had my last piano lesson today :( I am leaving out of t0wn, and I know I won't be able to make lessons in the summer, so hopefully in the fall I will start up again. I have a wonderful piece almost ready to play in church - I think my teacher is putting me on the program for when I get back in town. I might try to record the song so I can post it for all to hear.