Grandpa Lewis

Last night around 2a.m. my Grandfather passed away while sleeping. He was diagnosed with Leukemia a little over a week ago. Because of this and other complications with his health he wasn't doing well. I hope right now he is holding hands with Grandma in heaven because he has looked forward to this day for several years.

I just wanted to take a minute to remember him.

My grandfather loved me and held me when I was a baby. This means a lot since my Grandma used to tell me that he didn't hold very many babies.

When I was young I would take long walks with him around the yard and help him with his big beautiful garden. He had a huge garden with gorgeous plants that he cared so much about. I would help by pulling the rocks out so he could till the garden. One day while walking alongside Grandpa I found an odd shaped rock. It was an arrowhead. He told me I was really lucky I found it. I still have it to this day.

We would take walks about a 1/2 mile behind his home to a house called the "underground house" It was this weird, yet modern looking home built back there and we would go check it out all the time.

He would let me play in the creek and catch frogs and actually bring them near the house a few times.

He had a real working well in the backyard and I loved working with it until I could pump water all the way to the top. He told me I was the strongest person because nobody else could get the water to the top. Then I found out later that he told all the grandchildren this, so it was funny every time he would say it.

One day my tooth was super loose, he got out the pliers and worked on my tooth, or pretended to, then with a pinch out that tooth came. Every time I had a loose tooth I said I needed Grandpa to get it out so I'd get money from the tooth fairy.

Grandpa loved playing the game Sorry and other card games. We would play and laugh till really late at night then he would tell me I was being too goofy and had to sleep.

He took me for rides in his beautiful classic car. Grandma said that it was a special treat to ride in that car because Grandpa kept it super clean and didn't take it out much.

I will miss him. I'm grateful to know he is now in the arms of our loving Heavenly Father.

Caleb had a voice competition this last weekend and recieved a superior rating. He was exhausted but very happy. We are proud of him. We video'd him singing but he made me promise that I wouldn't post it. I still might but a promise is a promise. He sang two songs. One was a piece in Italian that I had never heard before and the other was a piece by Vaughn Williams called the Vagabond. He has some breath support issue that are completely normal in HS aged singers but his pitch and rhythm are dead on. What a kid.

On a different subject, I caught a few minutes of the Miss USA pagent last night and happened to hear Miss California's response to a question regarding gay marriage. Did any of the rest of you hear it? What did you think. This is a somewhat touchy subject here in IA since the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that gay marriage is to be legal in IA as of about two weeks ago.

Easter Fun!

Every year we take the children to a commercial egg hunt somewhere in the city. This year the weather was so incredible that everyone in Iowa City must have been there so it ended up being super crowded and not that much fun.

We came home and hosted our own egg hunt in the back yard. Here are a few of those pictures.

Here is Daniel being super goofy with all of his candy from his eggs. Notice he is wearing his hat in the house. I have told him a hundred times to take that thing off.

Here are a few pictures of the children coloring eggs.

Today we went to church. There was a broadcast from Salt Lake City for our stake conference. The talks were excellent. This has been a very nice Easter. Only thing that would make it better would be spending it with some extended family.

Weather woes

I have had it!! I am tired of wearing a coat. I am tired of snow. I am tired of the tip of my nose freezing off as I ride my bike into work. It's April. It should be warmer than the miserable 30 degrees it is right now. At least tomorrow is supposed to be in the 50s.

Painted Front Room

Back in November of 2008 the day before Thanksgiving, my parents were arriving at our house so they could celebrate the holiday with us. In an effort to make my living room look better I ran to the basement to get the paint that matched the front room so I could touch up a bunch of scratches that looked horrible.

On the paint can it had paint on it showing the color and that matched the walls, and it stated on the can that the paint was for the front room. I began to paint and touch up all the bad spots in the room. When the paint was wet it looked just fine, then it dried and it never changed color, in fact it was much darker than the paint on the wall. All we could figure out was the paint in the front room must have faded from the sun that comes in that window, so the new paint would be darker. I lived with this for almost 5 months. See picture of Daniel on the couch with the streaks behind him.

On the left is the before picture of the room. On the right is the new color. It took me 3 days to get it all completed, but I'm much happier and there's no streaks!

Thankful for so many things

My sister in law Lindsey actually inspired me to this post today. In her blog she stated several things she is grateful for and it got me thinking. I have so much and need to give thanks for all those things more often and not take for granted anything. So here it goes my list of Thanks . . .


1. My husband, Jason is so awesome and does so many nice things for me. I can be so grouchy and downright mean when I wake up. I am a night owl and he is the morning person. Somehow he puts up with me.

2. My children. How did I ever get so blessed to have 6? 6 pregnancies and 6 children. Those odds don't happen very often. I have a dear friend who just lost her baby at 17 weeks and my heart just hurts for her. There was a time back when I was pregnant for the 5th time in 7 years that I complained and was really sad. I couldn't understand why I was yet again pregnant. I wanted a 3 year space between children and only 4 children. Now that they are all here and are close in age and I grateful to have have them and wouldn't give any of them back.

3. My Church. Every day is a witness to me that the Gospel is true and Jesus lives. Today I had the wonderful experience of visiting teaching. I went over to the girl's home and realized that it wasn't talking or a message that she needed, she needed help around the house, so Emily(my companion) and I cleaned for a while. This brought the witness that God loves us all and helps us when we are in need. This girl thanked us over and over for our help and she felt like the Lord answered her prayers. She said she was going to ask for help because she has been so overwhelmed, but didn't want to ask.

4. My jobs. I am so glad to have several jobs that I just love to do.

Being a Mom--that's like 20 jobs all by itself

I absolutely love watching Bella. I have her here 3 days a week. I guess I'd be considered her Nanny since I won't take any other children except for her. She is 8 months old now and starting to scoot around the room. She is a doll and is so happy all the time.

Pampered Chef. 11 years this month I have been doing that job and it's still fun. I absolutely have a great time cooking for others and creating wonderful recipes. This last Saturday I was doing a show in a gorgeous home by a lake. I loved just seeing her beautiful home and meeting her fun friends. I made a pineapple upside down cake that was so incredible. In preparing for this party I found out you can plant the top of a fresh pineapple in dirt and in 2 years have your very own new pineapple. How fun. I'm going to do just that!

My aerobics jobs. Teaching others to become fit is awesome and seeing them find joy in changing their bodies for the better. If only everyone could know how awesome it is to feel better they would work out every day. I currently teach Body Step, Body Pump, Body Sculpt and Zumba. All super fun classes that are keeping me in great shape.

HyVee, now they don't see much of me these days. Usually only once a week do I get to go there. I have fun seeing everyone I know while cashiering or demoing food. There are times I get to go catering. Such fun!

Lastly and I do consider this a job, donating Plasma. I've been doing that for over 7 years twice a week whenever my hematocrit and protein numbers are high enough. I love knowing that I'm helping others. I consider this a job because I'm there for about 3 hours a week and it takes me away from home.

Funny how even with all these jobs I still only work about 30-35 hours a week.

5. My health. For some this is a struggle and I'm glad that when I run I feel great and not pass out.

6. Running vehicles. I know as soon as I post this something will happen, but for now I'm happy that they both work.

7. My running dishwasher. I was just thinking on Saturday when I had to run it 3 times with FULL loads that I'm super glad to have that.

8. A piano that is tuned. A couple months ago I finally got it tuned again after 8 years of out of tune. It sounds so nice and love to sing with the children.

9. Being able to balance the checkbook. This is a talent I feel I truly posses. I'm glad I'm able to balance it to the penny and know where everything goes. Math is a strong point for me. Science, well don't ask.

10. Today the sun is out and it is absolutely gorgeous out. The rain is gone for today.


I'll end that there for now.