Remembrance

Chad's grandpa on his mom's side passed away a couple weeks ago now. Last weekend we made the long treck to Idaho for his memorial service.

The gravesite service was beautiful. Chad's grandpa was in the military so local veterans came and did the military service at the gravesite. They spoke and read a poem about the American flag. They also did a gun salute and played the trumpets. It was very moving. I hadn't ever been to one before and I was very impressed.

Below is the palbearers placing the flag on the casket.

Here are Grandpa Clawson's four daughters. Chad's mom Michelle is second from the right.

The rest of these pictures are from the gravesite service as well. I really love this one.

We also took an opportuniry to take some family pictures while we were all together. Parker(our nephew) really didn't care for taking pictures.

These are Jill's two kids, Parker and Dixie. Dixie was eating after the funeral and just kept stuffing green bean after green bean in her mouth. It was pretty hilarious. Meanwhile Parker was trying to balance a water bottle cap on his nose.

Overall it was a beautiful service and a good time for Chad and his family to commemorate their father and grandfather's life. I didn't really get to know him much at all which is a dissapointment but I still get to hear great stories from Chad. Chad definitely got his sense of humor from his grandpa. We will all miss Grandpa Clawson.

Doggy entertainment

(I have a lot to post about. But no time. So this short post about our dear Oliver will have to do until this weekend.)

Oliver often entertains himself which is great for us because we don't have the time or energy to play with him 24/7 like he wants.

But most of the time he is so hilarious that we end up watching his antics instead of getting anything done. I will pull out my camera at anytime and shoot a video and be dying of laughter in the background. Here are a few examples of Oliver's self-entertainment for your viewing pleasure.

FYI: There was a annoying mosquito eater in our house all day and I couldn't seem to get him out. I finally cornered him in the kitchen and swatted him to his death with a dish towel (don't worry, I didn't use that dish towel again). This is Oliver coming to investigate the situation.

We bought Oliver a new dog tag because his other one was cheap plus it had our old phone numbers on it. So we bought him a manly stainless steal dog tag with bone graphic and everything. Well what we didn't anticipate was that the stainless steal dog tag would weigh more and be a little big on our miniture dog. So it took Oliver some getting used to.

Sunday afternoon

We had a wonderful Sunday.

Started with church which included wonderful (short) sacrament talks, 2 musical numbers (one was a quartet of Poor Wayfaring man of grief- just beautiful), roudy 5 years old in my primary class (they were extra hyper, and I didn't even give them sugar in their snack), a CTR shoots and ladder game and finally a tantrum from one of the kids in my class because his team didn't win the CTR board game.

He declared, "I hate this game and stomped in the corner." I had to try really hard not to laugh becaue it was so cute.

Then later, when we were back in primary with the other classes, and the same boy who was upset for not winning says in a small voice to himself while looking at a picture of the temple, "I hate the temple." Again I tried hard not to laugh. Then the girl next to him, turns to me with a shocked/disgusted/worried/sad face and says, "he just said he hates the temple." I turned to her and whispered, "I know."

What else do you say to that?

Another boy in my class who I make sit next to me or else he tends to 1) get in the other kids faces or 2) fall on the floor, kept pretend biting my arm but was really slobbering on it. Yay. Fun.

But despite their rowdiness and the fact that I want to pull my hair out sometimes, I wouldn't ask for another calling. Even though they say things like I hate the temple occasionaly, they also light up when they get an answer to my questoin right. I really love teaching in primary.

Then it was back home for some lunch. And then we decided to take a drive. It was so beautiful and it seems like Springtime is a great time to take the windows off the jeep and drive somewhere pretty.

And pretty we found. We were going to drive to Knights Ferry but then opted somewhere a little closer. I'm not sure even what it was called but it was beautiful. There was a nice little path created that parrelleled the Stanislaus River.

Oliver was in heaven exporing. He literally didn't stop running and barking the ENTIRE time. At first he wouldn't get too close to the water but then slowly he worked himself up to it. Then he realized that the water was very cold and he could drink it, so he didn't want to leave the water's edge.

The trail was just so beautiful. It was nice and shady with trees on either side and the water level was pretty high in the river.

It was such a nice family outing, perfect for a relaxing sunday. And by the time we left Oliver was dragging and panting so I think that he got his fare share of exercise.

Then we went home and BBQed some Filet Mignon. It was mouth watering. I had some asparagus and homemade applesauce while chad had two huge corn on the cobs. This was the first meal since going on my diet that was actually filling! Thank you to Chad for a wonderfully cooked filet mignon. That meal will definitely be in our diet at least once a week (who am I kidding? At least once a day) until I can eat more normally.

Dreaming of May

May is a good month. A great month really.

It's the first month usually where it starts to get really warm in CA.

It is the start of summer.

It means, shorts, boating trips and watermelon!

Maybe even some harvesting from my garden? Not sure about that one...

And...May just so happens to be the month I was born in.

It was a close call, just a few mored days and it would have been June. But obviously I was meant to be a May baby.

Sooo...in light of my birthday being only a month or so away (May 28th)...I thought I would dream up a wishlist (This post may or may not be a hint to my husband).

1) Tickets to the Fray concert. We have already seen them twice and I am determined to make it a third. They play at the Ironstone Ampitheater on June 18th. We WILL be going, mark my words. They are AMAZING live.

2) Gerald Lund's (Author of the Work and the Glory Series) new book: The Undaunted. This author always produces a good book.

3) Shorts- These beauties from Downeast basic definitely need to be added to my collection of long shorts.

4) Chad and I have ALWAYS wanted a Christus, but they are a little pricey. This one is on SALE however @ Deseret Books. It would look beautiful on our bookshelf next to our temple and the framed Family Proclamation.

5) Deseret Book is also selling this beautiful set of classic books. You know my obsession with classics lately, well this set includes MANY of my favorites that I would love to add to my collectoin. The books that are included in the set are: Little Women, Pride and Prejudice, Ann of Green Gables, The Secret Garden, Jane Eyre, Emma, Sense and Sensibility and the Scarlet Pimpernel.

Hurry up and get here already May!!

New

New is always fun right? I am by no means a shopaholic but I do like to shop. I do like the feeling of a bag in your arm on the way into your home. I love the excitement of pulling your new finds out of the plastic and then making plans on how to use your new additions.

Well, my friends, if shopping makes me happy, shopping for books puts me over the moon.

I needed to pick up a small book from Barnes and Nobles, (the red one pictured below) and ended up leaving with 6 new books instead of 1.

I don't think it is humanly possible for me to go to a bookstore and just buy one book. Just like it isn't possible for me to get a mini yogurt. It just isn't enough. I must have 6 books and I must have a medium yogurt (not to be finished in one sitting of course.)

Maybe I'm a nut (I am a nut) but just looking at those books makes me excited to start reading them. There are so many new stories and characters to get to know. Knowing I am the first one to read that particular copy makes me happy to. I am not really a library kind of gal. I like owning it, knowing I can go back later and read it again if I please.

I still haven't finished "Wuthering Heights" (pictured 2nd from top) but I will this week. That's my goal. It's not that the book is boring, cause it's not. It's just not an EASY read by any means. It's one of those books that sometimes I can't figure out whose talking and so I will spend 5 minutes on one page until I really understand. But the book ia great. It's different than i expected, but aren't all books like that? Mostly I just think how did this woman write this? How did she know how to make it a good book? Did she know that 200 years later we would still be reading it and thinking, "wow, this is a good book"? Probably not.

I have managed to fit the small red book into my reading schedule as well. I am starting another "new" thing in my life. And I hesitate to write about this new thing at all until it's not so new and I am more comfortable with it. But I will anyways. I am starting a new plan to get myself on track, healthwise that is. I have been sudying the HCG diet. And I really HATE to call it a diet because that word has a bad stigma attached to it. But it's what it is. Again, I'm not going into details yet, but I will let you know how it's going in a few weeks. Let's just say I am really excited about this opportunity and I think it is really going to change a lot in my life. (hoping at least, but let's think positive thoughts)

I also started Harry Potter a while ago and got into Chapter 2. That's where I've been for a while. I will tackle that series soon...sometime soon...Coma is a book my mom recommended. I bought it for her to pass her post-surgery recovery days. So that's on the list for sometime in the future.

Fablehaven is a series I have had multiple people recommend. I did feel a little silly when I asked the Barnes and Nobles employ where I could find that series and she firected me to the kids section. Literally. It was embarassing. But my view on reading is who cares what "age" group its for. Harry Potter was meant for Middle Schools kids and adults everywhere fell in love. So why not read a book that was written for age 10-14. Who cares? After "Wuthering Heights" I am definitely going to need an easy read.

With that said, FableHaven, Ender's Game and Graceling are all on my soon to read list. They are fanatasy type easy read books.

And while I was at Barnes I couldn't help but pick up a few more classics. Their hard bound classics are only 8 bucks! So I chose a few off my reading list: The Count of Monte Cristo(James Caviezel anyone? Love him in the movie.) and The Picture of Dorian Gray (The league of Extrodinary Gentleman anyone?).

And lastly, my wonderful mom picked up that last book, Growing Vegtables, for me a few weeks ago. It's wonderful! And what a nice segway into my next "new" topic.

MY VEGTABLES!
(These are the peas. They have grown the most and the fastest.)

ARE GROWING!
(These are the watermelon. Coming in @ #2 for fastest and most grown.)

FAST!
Don't those wonderful little green sprouts of life make you happy? No? Well they're not yours, they're mine. So they make ME happy. I was suprised at how fast they shot up. Soon enough and we will be harvesting! Can't wait!

And last but not least. Ladies and gentlemen, please help me give a round of applause and warm welcome to Mr. Anemone.

He joined the fishtank in April of 2010 and has been loving his stay there.

He is huge! The biggest one we've owned and was a smal price ($30) for his size.

Also welcome Mrs. Red. She and Mr. Anemone are currently a couple and love to spend their time with each other. Red feeds Anemone and also likes to rub her fishy fins against his long tenacles (too much?).

Anemone offers protectoin to Red from the other wildlife in the tank.

And as you can see, there is quite the population of fish now. We currently have 8 residence and hope to add more in the near future.

And we can't forget to welcome Mr. Arc eye and Mrs. Hammerhead. The former is from the hawkfish family and enjoys perching on rock (thus the hawk part of the name) like a bird. The latter is the purply-green hard coral in the bottom of the picture.
Okay, WOW. That turned into a way longer post than I imagined. I won't feel offended if you skipped over most of it and are now just reading the last sentence. Really I won't.

"New" things in life are great. Exciting. Enjoyable. Especially Books, Plants and Aquarium friends.

But do you know whats even better than new things?

Old ones...(This is what love looks like. That will never get old.)