Ramblings

I just had to add this picture cause it's soo dang cute!! It was one of those that I caught her off guard. Keighlee's ears are very flexible. When she gets tired she plays with them, twists them and tucks the tops into her ear canal. It's so cute. Well, we put these earings on and they totally pulled her ears down. I was taking pictures trying to get her to look at the camera and she did this. I just fell in love with it!
I had to add this picture too. This is what we found between our screen and our back sliding door tonight. I am so thrilled. They must be attracted to the dogs food. And now with the dog we have to be careful what we put out back, we can't just set poison out cause he could get it. And we can't just set those humane traps out cause he'll chew those apart. So we are trying to figure out our options tonight so we can get rid of the problem soon.

On a lighter note, the kids go back to school Monday so tomorrow we are going to try something new. We are going to go to the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy. Jared and Ems told us about it. They love it! And the year membership is pretty cheap. It would only cost us $57. That's about $100 cheaper than a year membership to Discovery Gateway. So we will go explore it tomorrow and see if it's worth the years membership.

The past week or so since I last posted has been good. I'm slowly progressing on my training for the 5K. By the end of next week I should be able to run for 2 miles without stopping.... supposedly. We'll see if I do that! On Saturday I went and helped my mom, brothers, uncle and various cousins clean out my Granny and Grandad's house. For those of you who don't know, my Grandad died almost 2 years ago from Alzheimer's and my Granny is in a nursing home with Alzheimer's. So we went to dejunk the house so they can rent it out for some extra income. It was a lesson on what not to do!! It was so ridiculous! We couldn't just throw things away. Everything had to be gone through because my grandparents thought that organizing and storing important things was to put them in suitcases and stick them anywhere they would fit. I found so much family history stuffed in suitcases under various old sheets and blankets. It was a neat experience to read some of my great-Grandad's letters when he lived in South Africa and worked in the mines there and to read letters sent to my Grandad on his mission. I also found some letters that my Granny sent to a cousin in South Africa about my birth. My Granny was a secretary and knew shorthand and she transcribed my baby blessing. I found the typed copy of it hidden with a bunch of old bank statements! Absolutely crazy. My aunt has been going through things every week since my Grandad got sick so if she hadn't been doing that, we wouldn't be done for months! As is it we spent 5 hours there on Saturday and that's after spending about 3 hours there a few weeks ago. I'm glad I know how to really organize and save important things. I also found a whole suitcase full of family group sheets, so I am excited to start looking at those and to see what work has been done, if any!

As hard as it has been to realize that the house that I grew up knowing as my grandparents house will no longer be available to go to and to see them in and to visit cousins and aunts and uncles in, it's good to have this stuff done. I miss my Grandad so bad it still hurts sometimes, and I have such a hard time going to see my Granny knowing that she doesn't quite remember me and knowing that I have to explain who I am and how many kids I have over and over and over. I miss her so much too. She was such a lady. So elegant and refined. It was from the age she grew up in. Her hair was always perfect and her nails were always perfect and her eyebrows were always perfect!! It's hard to see her when I do when she looks disheveled. My dad's dad, my Grandpa died almost 5 years ago from Alzheimer's too. Him and my Grandad are buried in the same cemetery. I should really go visit their graves more often. I wasn't as close to my Grandpa as I was to my Grandad. I have more vivid memories of my Grandad. The best memory I have of my Grandpa is when Tiaree was born. They came up to see us in Logan. He was holding Tiaree and she opened her eyes and just looked at him for the longest time. He talked about that day until he got the Alzheimer's. It was such a special thing for him.

Wow I've gone on and on haven't I?! Well it's nice to be able to put down my feelings. I keep a lot of how I feel about my grandparents quiet, I guess cause it's too hard to think about. But I do miss them, tremendously. And it does hurt that they are gone. And it hurts to know what my Granny still has to go through. I know my grandfathers are watching over me. They each died about 8 weeks before my last 2 children were born. I like to think that they helped them come. I was with my Grandad hours before he died and when I had to leave I kissed him and asked him to watch Keighlee and bring her safely to us and I believe he did that! Ugh, now I'm crying!! I'm going to go now so I don't drudge up more painful, but beautiful memories. Night all!