The Bird

On Sunday, we got up and were getting ready for church. We were all in Jacob's room. Jake was going to finish getting Jacob ready and I was going to take Shyla in her room and get her dressed. She and I left the room. Turned the corner. And started down the hallway. We were about halfway to her room when I turned around and screamed like a little girl. There was a bird flapping around in her room. I screamed not so much because of the bird, but it scared me, and that's what made me scream. I ran back (and Shyla did too) into Jacob's room. Jake was wondering what happened and I told him. He says, "An actual bird?" I told him I'd finish up with Jacob because he had to tend to the bird, who was now in the kids bathroom. Jake went in and let the bird out of the window. For days after this, every night Shyla wanted to make sure the bird wasn't in her room. She wanted the windows and doors open so the bird could get out. After about 3-4 days she forgot about it, until now, when she saw the pictures on the computer screen and says, "Hey, that's the birdy that was flying around in my room!"

The only way we are thinking it came in, was that earlier in the morning, I had woken up and decided to open the front door to let some cool air in before it got too hot. Our screen door has a little couple inch gap in the bottom and I'm guessing the bird hopped in underneath it???

June 26th

Most of you reading already know that June 26th is a very special day for me. It started with being my grandma's birthday many years ago. Years later I came along on the same day and thus began our combined birthday celebrations. I'll save the long version of the story for another time, but I arrived 5 weeks early and unexpected. My grandparents were away on a cruise and my mom told my grandma about the best birthday present she could get... me! Each year, I'd go to my grandparents in the summer and spend some time there bonding with them and grandma and I would celebrate our birthday's together. To be honest, there was a point in my life where I felt like I would get pushed aside and it was more of a "her" celebration, than a "us" one too. It was never intentional. It never happened that way. But my feelings were real... and it hurt.

Eventually though I got over it and as I got older I grew to honestly cherish that day. On June 26, 2000 I got the worst news to date. My grandpa had been sick with several health issues his whole life, but in January of 2000 the news came that he had liver cancer. My mom used to make the comment along the lines of, "How is that fair, he didn't even drink." Sometimes it just doesn't make sense. From what my memory recalls he was given 4-6 months of life left. Leave it to grandpa John to go until the end of the 6th month. I am so grateful for the time that I had with him. The memories I have of him will stay in my heart forever. My favorite ones are:

-He could fall asleep anywhere. A lot of times, he'd rest with his eyes closed, but he was still awake listening, even when it didn't look like he was. You'd be having a conversation and all of a sudden he'd pipe in with some quippy comment.

- Grandpa was a pipe smoker. During the summers he'd come outside to watch me swim in their pool. Sometimes he'd let me sit on his lap and he'd draw letters on my back with his pipe and make me guess which letters it was. Seems like a silly game, but I remember playing it a lot and having fun!

- He had such a quiet disposition. I never heard him complain. Talk back. Talk about anyone negatively. Just nice company.

-Every year when I went to Visalia for my yearly stay, he'd always take me out to get a Thrifty ice cream cone.

-The blue Volkswagon. There was a button on it that he'd tell me to push and it would make the car stop. I believed him. YEARS later I realized that there was no purpose to the button. It didn't work. When I pushed it, grandpa would just press on the brakes.

The night we got the call his life was ending I'll never forgot. I was getting ready to go out to dinner with my boyfriend at the time and my parents to celebrate my birthday. The phone rang. I answered it. Uncle Bob. He said hi and that he hoped I was having a good birthday. I don't think I ever got a call from him on my birthday so I knew something else was going on. After a few minutes of hi's and how are things going, he told me. He said that grandpa wasn't doing well. He said that grandma was convinced he was going to leave us, but that he (Uncle Bob) wasn't convinced. I never told him this, but after hearing him say those words to me, I knew it was the end. There was such sadness and scaredness in his voice. He's such a strong man that to hear his voice quiver like it did, it was all the confimation I needed.

As he was talking to me, I remember I couldn't talk anymore and I couldn't hear what he was saying. I heard him talking, but not the meaning. I went outside to get my mom. She was smoking a cigarette and she looked up at me. I just stood there with the phone. I guess the look on my face told her something wasn't right. She asked who was on the phone. I couldn't answer. She asked what was wrong. I couldn't speak. She said, "Is it grandpa?" I nodded yes. I cried. She took the phone and talked to my uncle.

Dinner was good. That's really all I can remember about it. When we got home that night I was on the computer. It was a little after 10pm and the phone rang. It never rang that late... unless something was wrong. My parents were already in bed and I heard my mom answer the phone. I stopped what I was doing and cried before I knew what happened. When my mom got off the phone she came to talk to me. We hugged. We cried.

In a sad situation there is always a bright side, you just have to find it. Three years later on June 26, 2003, Cameron John was born! How wonderful to have a reason to celebrate and be happy again. How intentional is it, that within the same blood line, you have a birthday, a granddaughter birthday (the only granddaughter :), grandpa passes on, and another life is born! I mean, if that's not intentional and meant to be I don't know what is.

Each year now we all celebrate together and we always make sure to remember grandpa John. This year was extra special. Grandma turned 90!!! There was a little party planned for her that she almost didn't make it to.
In the end my uncle had to tell her what was happening just so she'd show up! As much as she complained about it I know in her heart she was greatful and happy. She looks good for being 90 and you definitely cannot tell her age. She's always go, go, go! She makes me smile.

Random Stories

I didn't get a cake for my birthday. Someone had told me that I should eat all my cake and not share with anyone, but then said it was okay to share with the kids. I told her I didn't get a cake for my birthday. So the next day at church she brought me a large cupcake! As soon as I got home I opened it up to eat it. I was almost successful enough at not sharing, but then Shyla came along. And well, at least she let me have a bite! She ate most of it. I got some of it. I was happy to share it with her because she was happy to eat it. That's part of what being a mom is about, right?One afternoon I was putting Jacob down for a nap. Shyla had come upstairs with us and I told her that she had to play quietly while I was putting Jacob down. She said okay and trotted off. After I got Jacob to sleep, I came out of the room quietly, but there was no Shyla around. I went to look for her downstairs, no Shyla. I checked outside, still no Shyla. In the garage? Nope. I went back upstairs and checked in our bedroom, and around the corner, ever so quietly playing in my drawer that has makeup, this adorable face looks up at me, and just smiles. The makeup was definitely darker in person. She's got on black eye shadow under her eyes, lipstick on the outside of her lips, and as always, blush on her cheeks. I have a bag of old makeup that I want to give to her to play with. That way I don't care if she breaks the lipstick or mixes eyeshadow colors. I guess now would be a good time to give it to her. Jacob is learning to feed himself with a utencil. This started off with me feeding Jacob some carrots with a fork. I wanted to see what happened if I gave him the fork. At first he just looked at it, then at me, then back at the fork. I showed him how to poke the carrots and then put it in his mouth. That part will take some time, but I'd give him the fork with carrots on it and he put it in his mouth on his own. Then he'd hand me back the fork. He's learning to take something, hand it to you, reach out, and take it back, hand it back to you, and again, take it back. Or maybe he's giving it back to me and thinking, "I wish mommy would poke those carrots faster, I'm hungry!"When Shyla was a baby, she used to scream when the vacuum was on. I'd push it towards her and she'd run away. Jacob is quite the opposite. Lately, it seems when I vacuum, I'll turn around and he's sitting there watching me. He likes to get in front of me too and sit and watch. I'll vacuum all around him until he eventually moves over about a foot to let me vacuum in the spot he was just in. He's becoming my little helper.

Found A Hearing Aid In A Sandbox

No needles here! So here's the story: I saw on Facebook a friend (Nick) post an invitation to help him look for some hearing aids for a friend. He said "their son, who has autism, lost his hearing aids in a sandbox at the park." I knew right away who it was. Our friends from church. Our kids like to play together. And they live a block away from us. I gladly told Nick that I'd help him look, since the kids could play while we searched. He wasn't going until Thursday and this was a Tuesday. So the next day, Wednesday, Jake and I went to the park by our house. Since we were able to get a hold of our friends to know for sure which park it was at, and Nick didn't know the name of it, we decided to just search at the park by our place. We only searched for a little while and then played with the kids.

Good thing too, because as it turns out, it was the wrong park! On Thursday we all met Nick over at the correct park. We searched while the kids played. Jacob would climb the mounds of sand and just slide down, while Shyla enjoyed the swings and the "twisty" slide. We were about 1 1/2 hours into it and all agreed that we had about a half hour left in us. It was getting warmer, the kids needed drinks, food, and a nap, and by this point we did too!

About 15 minutes into the last half hour... JACKPOT! We found the earpiece to one of them (The parents had already found the other earpiece). Then one hearing aid. And seconds later, the other hearing aid. It felt like it was all worth it. We were all joking around about how leave it to Heavenly Father to work us hard, sweat and all. Then in the last half hour, during the last few minutes before we stopped, it's like he says, "Okay, you showed your willingness to help another, I'll show you where they are." Whatever the reason, it was a good feeling to find them for the family. They were happily shocked to hear that other people were willing to go and search the large sandbox just to help them. That's what we're all expected to do. Help each other. Carry one another's burdons. Make someone else's load light.

The area on the right with the little white thing sticking out of the sand is where I was working. The area on the left by the seive and big snow shovel is where NBick and Jake were working. The area just to the right of the seive, the area that we said we'd finish before packing up, is where we found the aids!

The Park Is Not A Garbage Can

My parents are great examples of keeping their community clean. I don't think they still do it, or maybe they do, but once a week or every couple of weeks they would go a few blocks from their house to his main steet corner and clean it up. It's state owned and there's no business or anything there. Just a section of city that no one maintains. They cut the weeds and pick up any trash that's been left.

This is something that I've been interested in doing, but have never really found the right spot I want to "adopt". Well, I think I've found it. The park right by our house has lots of teenagers that loiter there. In the afternoon after school gets out they use it as their hangout spot. During summer or other breaks they have they just hang out and drink, smoke, cuss, hang out on the playground, yell on their cell phones while on the swings. They have no decency for children being around. And I really think their parents need to keep a better eye on what they are doing and how they are acting. Although, now that I think about it, the parents probably don't care and allow their kids to act in such a manner. I'm not saying they have to act perfect, but they have no respect for children or other adults that may be there.

One day we took the kids there in mid afternoon and there were probably 8 or so teens on the playground, talking to each other loud, rude, and cussing every other word. We only stayed about 15 minutes and then left. Poor Shyla was sad because she wanted to keep swining. I felt really bad having to pry her away from the swings that day, but someday she'll understand (I hope).

I don't know if or how I can make it happen, but maybe once a month, or even every other month, I want to go to the park with gloves and a bag and just pick up the garbage and messes left from unruly teens. Perhaps I can't do anything about the graffitti covering the basketball court, but at least I can do something, seeing as the only upkeep at the park is to keep the water on, the grass cut, and sometimes they empty the garbage cans.

A Day At The Park

I thought I was going to teach Shyla how to wind up the swing and spin around, but turns out she showed me how to do it. She even corrected me when I wasn't winding up properly. For the record, my way still would've worked. Jacob enjoyed the swing as usual. I wanted to get a shot with both kids in it. Shyla is usually off running around somewhere so with her in the swing it was my perfect opportunity. Or so I thought. Neither child wanted their picture taken. Whenever I put the camera up, or said "smile", one or both would turn their heads. *Sigh* I outsmarted them though and took a picture from the back! On our way back home, the sprinklers came on! It was a warm day so I told Shyla she could run through them. At first she was scared of them. Then she wanted to get wet. When I told her they moved and she had to run around to "catch" them, she didn't want to at first, but after I showed her that it was fun, she did it. I even misjudged when one of them was coming and Jacob and I got "hit".

Anniversary Stay-cation

This year we did things a little different for our anniversary. With all we've had going on lately, we wanted to just spend some quality time together. We asked my parents if they could watch the kids on Fri night, but since Father's Day was on Sunday, and we were going to be getting together for that, we asked if they could just keep the kids until Sunday and they gladly said yes. It's just enough time for the kids to tire out the grandparents and just enough time for the kids to miss us and want to come home. (We discovered that after about 2 days, Shyla starts missing us and talking about wanting to come home).

FRIDAY- With the kids gone, the first thing with did was TAKE A NAP. It was so nice to be able to take a nap, for as long as we wanted, without anticipating one of the kids waking up and screaming, thus pulling us out of a restful nap. It was the first time, in I can't even remember how long, that I actually felt rested.

For dinner we ate in and had BBQ'd tri-tip (marinated by moi and BBQ'd/smoked by Jake (below is a shot of his homemade smoker in the BBQ)), fresh mashed potatoes, and corn. The tri-tip turned out better than we both thought it was going to. We set up the TV trays and ate dinner in the family room while we watched a movie. After dinner we laid on the couch and relaxed while finishing the movie. Now, that may sound booooorrrring to most of you, but for us it was a rare occasion. We are always constantly on the go with all the happenings going on in our lives, so to be able to just sit, eat, and watch a movie... *singsongy voice* *ahhh, Heaven!*
SATURDAY- We set out to walk around Antioch and take pictures of our pretty city. We walked around by the delta and along the traintracks. DID YOU KNOW THAT ANTIOCH HAS A TRAIN STATION??? I sure didn't. At least that's why I think it is. Perhaps, the traintracks are a new favortite subject for me to take pictures of. There are many reasons why I think they make a nice subject: 1- Strong, 2- Old/vintage, 3- It doesn't move, 4- Worn and aged, 5- Not commonly photographed. (A lot of photography I see from friends are portraits.) Lombard Street in Antioch??? No, just a random pathway. The news is saying that the reason the bridge tolls just went up (July 1, 2010) AGAIN, is to go towards retrofitting the Antioch bridge. So, here you go folks, here is why it's "necessary" to raise, yet again, the bridge tolls, and why carpooling is no longer free. Now you have to pay $2.50 to carpool to work. Part of why people carpool is so they don't have to pay a toll fee. I'm all for retrofitting the bridge, but come on, find another way to fund it than to "take" it from commuters. It's expensive enough as it is. Perhaps listening to my grandparents and parents generation would be of some good for you: SAVE YOUR MONEY WHEN YOU WANT TO BUY SOMETHING AND BUY IT ONLY WHEN YOU'VE SAVED ENOUGH.

Jake was kind enough to allow me to practice taking portraits with him as my subject. I thought I did a good job, no? Isn't he handsome? I took a ton of pictures and had fun practicing with the lighting, here are a few of my favorites. After walking around the water, we walked a bit into "old downtown Antioch". I was a little disappointed. I thought there was going to be more to take pictures of. If I looked around I'm sure I could've found more. A lot of places were for lease, for rent, or vacant. We did see some shops that were open. There was the medical supply store (where I got Jake his $60 crutches, which I could've saved had we known he was going to have surgery and they give you a pair if you don't already have some. Hindsight is always 20/20), some tattoo shops, and vintage/second hand stores. We did come across large mural, I'm not sure of who painted it or what's it's really supposed to be about, but it made for a nice picture. It's across the street from one of the two locations Shyla has her dance classes. I don't think I've ever noticed it before. Proof that my brain is preoccupied. SUNDAY- We woke up, got ready for church, actually got there on time, and had a quiet time in Sacrament. While Jake was with his Primary class, I got to enjoy Sunday School. This is typically the time Jacob gets fussy because he wants to be sleeping so I have to walk around with him hoping he'll nap before Relief Society. I really enjoy Relief Society and I hate it when I have to take Jacob out, but that's just a side note.

Thanks sweetie for a fun, relaxing couple days! OH! And we supported our community by going to the library and checked out some videos and books that we thought Shyla would enjoy. It doesn't cost a lot of have a "vacation".

5 Year Anniversary

I cannot believe that it's been 5 years since we got married. I really do feel in a lot of ways that it just happened. I still remember the day very clearly. Five years of giggling ourselves to sleep, sharing great food, exchanging a million billion kisses and 3 1/2 years of staring at and being entertained by those hilarious children of ours.

In those five years we've:

-Moved 3 times (2005, 2005, 2008)

-Lived in 2 different cities (Concord, Antioch)

-Added 2 children (2007, 2009)

-Added 2 dogs (2005)

-Started our own business and have been self-employed for almost 3 years (2007)

-Been sealed in the Temple (2008)

We've had our fair share of ups and downs as all couples do. We've laughed together and cried together. I know I don't always appreciate what Jake does for me and this family as much as I should. It's a challenge I'm working on. He's there for me what I'm going through trials and I support him in his challenges with school, Reserves, work, or whatever is needed. I believe as the years continue that we'll continue to build and strengthen our marriage. I know I married the right person. He takes me for me, and all my quirks (even if some of those quirks get on his nerves), and accepts me and loves me just the same.

Happy Due Date (1 year later)

June 17, 2009

June 14, 2010

What a difference a year can make.

Shyla Hearts Lipstick

Oh these pictures don't do it justice. Shyla has a big facination with chapstick, lip gloss, and lipstick. She even mistakes mascara for lipstick, though I don't blame her. The makeup manufacturers DID make different makeup in the SAME tube style. When she was younger she used to call chapstick "chap". "Mommy, where's my chap?" One day about a week or 2 ago, I went in to get Shyla after her nap. I opened the door to a bright pink face! OH I WISH I GOT MY CAMERA FIRST!

For some reason I decided to wipe off her face and then I thought I should've taken a picture, which is so unlike me! I'm hoping to either recreate the scene or capture it by accident. She's done it about 4 times since, but each time I open the door to a stained pink face. She takes blankets in her room and wipes the lipstick off her face with them.

Why don't I take the lipstick out of her room? Because I know she's only going to draw on her face (at least so far).

Why did I give her lipstick in the first place? Because I know she likes it. It keeps her occupied. And it prevents her from knocking endlessly on the door because she doesn't want to take a nap.

Why don't I get mad or tell her not to do it? Because she's practicing. She's being creative. She likes it so why not?

I show her how to put it on and she takes it from there. I even showed her how to take a tissue and clean around her mouth so the lipstick is just on her lips. If I can remember the next time she plays makeup with me I'll take a picture. It's amusing to let her put makeup on me. She makes such serious faces and she's so close to my face. Sometimes I laugh and she tells me I have to stop or she'll mess up. She is my child afterall so I'm not surprised she tries hard to do well. She's getting really good, so if anyone wants to have their makeup done for a party or something, give Shyla a call! She also specializes in blush, eye shadow, and mascara.