Sad News

Cindy had some very sad news the other day.

Last Saturday 11/8, Cindy received a phone call from her brother Mark saying that their mother was very sick and was taken to the emergency room in Eugene, Or. Cindy called me and told me she didn't know what to do. I was at work and I called my mom and told her the same thing. My mom called Cindy and told her to book a flight the next day and get up to see her mother, or she would regret it the rest of her life. She also told Cindy that she was coming down to help with the family and not to worry. Cindy, teary eyed, called me and we had her on a flight the next afternoon to Eugene.

She got to the hospital that evening and her mother was not conscious. Her kidney's had failed and she was on morphine to kill the pain. Reyna, Cindy's mother, refused any further care and didn't want to put her self through dialysis. She only had a few hours/days left to live. Cindy spent the night in the hospital and waited for the time to pass.

Brendan had made a hot pad from learning how to crochet. It was a small triangle about 3"x3". He gave it to Cindy to give to Grandma Reyna. Cindy placed the hot pad under Reyna's hands and told her that Brendan made it for her. Reyna gripped the hot pad and would not let it go. It was very touching to listen to Cindy tell Brendan about it.

On Monday morning around 7am, I received the phone call from Cindy that her mother had passed away just moments ago. She was in tears. I told her to call me back later when she could talk more.

Cindy spent the entire week up in Eugene, OR cleaning up her mother's things and sorting out what she wanted and didn't want. She has brought many things that are great memories of Reyna home with her. Many of her writings, and pictures, and crafts that her mother loved to display and keep with her.

Back in Las Vegas with my mom and Stacie (my sister) we spent the time cleaning up the house and making it spotless for Cindy's return. My dad also came down on Friday to help with some additional cabinets in the kitchen.

How blessed we are to know of the gospel and what it means in our lives. Even though she is 8 1/2 months pregnant and her emotions can get the best of her, even if this event hadn't occurred, Cindy is doing very well. She has her moments, but knows Reyna is happy now and is not alone.

I am sure Cindy will add some things to this when she has a few moments to her self.

Brendans' Forms Competition

Brendan had an exciting evening tonight. He participated for the first time in a Karate forms competition. We have had many "issues" with trying to get him excited about karate.


These were the top three competitors for his age group. And yes that is Brendan in the top three!

As you can see he received a medal! Can you tell what color it is? And don't ask who the girl is, she just got in the picture and wouldn't get out. And I thought Lance was a ham!

Well tonight he placed FIRST! So hopefully this will get him back interested in karate. We are SO proud of our guy!

We have some video, but our computer is acting up and with my track record for getting things posted, I thought it best to at least post the pictures.

Tomorrow night he tests for his High Blue Belt. Black will only be three levels away!

Kitchen Remodel~3~September 20, 2008

We've had a few requests to see some pictures with the cabinet doors on. Although we only have one section done, here's what they look like. We think they look totally awesome and a VAST improvement on the previous cabinets.

Kitchen Remodel ~2~ September 2008

Here are some pictures of our kitchen as it was tonight. Still alot of work to be done.
We have to sand all the cabinets, then stain them.
The walls and ceiling still need to be finished and the floor needs to be retiled.
Not really too much but it's time consuming. But the good news is all the appliances are functional!













Yes, that's Brendan hiding under the sink...he couldn't resist being in the picture...what a ham.
It might be difficult to realize where we extended...the old kitchen sink wall ended even to the window in the above right picture. Or if you can imagine a wall right in front of the now sink/dishwasher area. We added about 2 ft. And it really makes such a difference!


Unfortunately we can't really move in all the food and dishes, etc until the cabinets are done and the doors are back on...still too much dust around.
But it's looking so awesome! I can't believe how beautiful my kitchen will soon be! Let's hope I can keep it that way!
Thanks so much to my dad, Eric's dad, Eric and the kids for all their help!

Remember to scroll down to the first kitchen remodel entry to see the before and during pictures.

Waiting in Lines

OK I just need to vent a little, so if you don't want to read it just skip over this entry.

The other day I was doing a little shopping at Big Lots (a discount store) at the end of shopping with an uncooperative Lance...he insisted on being held practically the entire time and holding him while pushing a cart, shopping and being 6 + months pregnant is not exactly fun. Although while holding him I noticed that he was a bit warm and since the other kids have been having bouts with colds I figured that it was his turn. So I'm trying to "hurry", I finish up with not too many things in my cart maybe 20 smallish items, barely filled half the cart...and get in line at the checkout. There are about 2 people in front of me and a few behind with only 1 checkout line open. The people in front don't have too many items so it's moving fairly quickly. The lady behind me then asks if she can go ahead of me since she only had "2" items. I roll my eyes and make a comment under my breath about being pregnant and dealing with a toddler. She must have heard some of it because then in very sarcastic and rude voice mentioned that she was disabled and don't mind her. I turned back around and said (sarcastically), "Why don't you go right ahead, please!" She made comments on my pregnancy and said that she was only permanently disabled, blah, blah, blah. I then repeated, "Please go ahead, I'd rather you go first so that I don't have to listen to your rude comments any more." She then started making comments again about my pregnancy and something about if I had used birth control I wouldn't be in that condition, or something of that sort. At which point I REALLY stopped listening and left the line, saying "that it wasn't worth standing in line listening to her."
Now I realize I was a little rude too. I mean I know I'm supposed to be nice and considerate of others, but this isn't the first time someone has asked to cut in front of me just because they have a few items and I have more. Lately it seems to happen at least once or twice a month. (And I'm not exagerating) And remember I am noticably pregnant and generally don't go to the store alone. I feel like I must have a big sign over my head saying, "Please feel free to cut in front of me, I'm only pregnant, dealing with 4 kids, my back hurts...blah blah blah!"
Whatever happened to a little common courtesy? I don't know if this is a common occurrence, so if it's happened to you please let me know that I'm not the only one.
As far as I'm concerned, if you're planning on going to a store you should plan on AND be willing to stand in line...which will most likely happen! Everyone HAS to wait in line at some point in their lives, indeed it's actually a daily occurrence. GET USED TO IT! And in reality, it probably only would have made a difference of about 2-3 minutes. I have NEVER asked to cut in line, I consider it rude and basically against the "rules". And when I have not been in a rush, pregnant or dealing with kids I have let others of "those" natures go ahead of me.
Now my story does have a semi happy ending. So as I was saying I left the line and decided to roam an aisle or two, to calm down (I was on the verge of tears ~angry tears~ chalk that up to being pregnant and emotional, ugh!) and wait til she had "left the building". An employee caught up to me, having heard part of the conversation and apologized for the "woman" and offered to ring me up. As we chatted through the transaction about the "episode" she mentioned how someone else had told her to stop spreading her bad mood onto everyone else.
Of course I am also not the type to think quickly on my feet and come up with good comments to these situations at the moment. Those come afterwards and they did on the way home in abundance. One not so nice comment I thought of was in response to her "birth control" comment. "Too bad her parents didn't use "BC" when she was conceived, or that I guess it didn't work since she was conceived". Bad I know. But who is SHE to make a comment LIKE THAT! Jeez!

So anyway, that's my rant. If you want to just chalk it up to being pregnant and over emotional. Fine by me...I know that it wouldn't normally bug me like this if I wasn't pregnant.
Thanks for listening.

Kitchen Remodel

Since this has been on going for the past few weeks I've decided to separate it into "phases" instead of waiting until it is *completely* finished to post it. 'Cause that might be awhile before it "happens".

Late last spring while Eric was at choir practice he was chatting with a friend and he (the friend)mentioned that he was remodelling his kitchen. Eric asked if we could have the cabinets if it turned out to be something that we'd want. He said to come and get them, but it had to be that week. So the next morning I went over to take a look and found that they were good quality oak, heavy duty cabinets. Sure they were scuffed up and needed a little TLC but still in great shape. And for the price we couldn't beat it. So that week we helped him tear them out and put them in our garage...I lost my parking spot for the summer but the sacrifice was worth it.

Their kitchen layout was basically the same as ours just larger, so we figured we'd have a little extra to play with.

So the summer passed with the van being super hot in the daytime and the cabinets being nice and cool sitting in the garage. Eric had a few weeks off at the end of August and we hoped to get it done then, but his dad couldn't make it down until this last week, luckily Eric did have last week off, but had to return to work this week.

So hope you enjoy these first pictures. I'll post more when it is done.

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Thanksgiving Point Gardens July 2008

Second half of the day we stopped at the Gardens at Thanksgiving point...this was to fulfill a requirement for one of his Cub Scout Wolf achievements. We've been working hard this summer so that he can earn the remainder of his Wolf achievements and as many arrow points as he can before advancing to Bear. He's been doing a great job and it's been alot of fun for him.
The boys had a lot of fun at the Gardens and the children's gardens. It was a hot day, but they made it fun. Even though they had to tote along a pregnant woman with them.

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