Tuesday, September 16, 2008

High School Tag

High School: Highland High

1. Did you date someone from your high school: Yeah. Eric Anderson and then D.

2. What kind of car did you drive? : I am a champion because I rode the bus all the way up to my Junior year. I freakin' LOVED my bus mates, I'm not joking around. And the bus driver for that matter because he would pump up the radio. Anyway then when I decided to drive, the vehicle was sometimes the white station wagon, sometimes Mom's Mazda if I was lucky, and then I got a beautiful blue '83 Honda Civic to call my own towards the end of high school.

3. What is your most embarrassing moment in high school?: In body conditioning I let one rip while doing a clean. That's bad enough. I totally couldn't help it. Not only that but it was test day and guess who was grading me? The student body VP or some horrific thing like that. He was even wearing his sweater. It was ladylike, I promise, because it was quiet.

4. Were you a party animal?: No. But like Caitlin, my friends and I had our own wild parties like lip-synching to Salt N' Pepa! Or doing dumb stuff like trying to look really snotty for pictures that we'd take of each other DURING class:



Gotta love the white fingernails; I thought that was amazingly cool. Blechhh!

5. Were you considered a flirt?: Probably.

6. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir?: No, I decided to bring my flute-playing to a halt in Junior High.

7. Were you a nerd? : You would think so from the info I'm leaking out (no pun intended). But I was a little bit of everything. A little nerd, little jock, little cool, little weird, exchanging hi's all the way down the hall... so I was lucky to fit in kind of wherever. This was an invitation to a breakfast from the pep club for our basketball team that I had in my scrapbook:



8. Were you on any varsity teams? For basketball, yes. And I played lacrosse.

9. Did you get suspended/expelled? No

10. Can you still sing the fight song? Proud to say that yes I can! I just wish I could do the Highland Fling. Too bad I wasn't a pep-clubber. Codi, I need a tutorial!

11. Who were your favorite teachers? Jill Sorenson for Creative Writing. Oh my gosh, she was a complete space cadet so that must be why I identified with and liked her so much. She was so much fun and I remember at the end of Senior year she gave me a journal and wrote a message in it. She nominated me as a Lit Mag editor my Junior year and then for Head Editor my Senior year. Our Lit Mag group needed a private spot to get our work done so she gave us the key to a storage area off the hallway that we called "the closet." We would shut ourselves in there and had SO MUCH FUN mostly talking but also looking through writing samples and creating the Mag. Oh man, the bell would ring for next class and we so never wanted to leave! This was my Junior year LitMag group:



12. Where did you sit during lunch?: I was BRAND new to Highland my Freshman year and didn't know a SOUL. First week or so I walked to Sugarhouse Park, sat under a tree with my measly lunch, and just... sat alone ): Then it was by the lockers on the top floor with friends, then in the "commons." Then after D and I met we would hop in his little teal Samurai while rocking to Led Zeppelin and go to Big Apple bagels (gone now, dangit) or to his house since he lived so close. Yeah... lots of extreme tardies that year!

13. School Mascot?: Ram

14. Did you go to homecoming and with who?: My Junior year I went to Brighton, Jordan, and East homecomings but not my own. I don't remember my Senior year what happened. This was a Halloween dance and I remember I was SO mad at the guy w/me because he insisted on being in the picture but he wasn't necessarily invited to the dance that I wanted to go stag to!



So in the above picture, the girl in the 2nd row all the way to the left, is literally a Playboy Bunny these days, my friend Googled her once and... yeah no joke.

15. If you could go back and do it again, would you? : Like Caitlin, I LOVED high school but I wouldn't go back to change anything. Well, maybe the clean incident.

16. What do you remember most about graduation?: I was mad at D and that's all I could think about it so looking back too bad I wasted time worrying about him instead of just having fun with family and friends. My mom got me an amazing Congrats cake.

17. Where did you go senior skip day?: My house and we all made mini-pancakes

18. Have you gained weight since then?: Let's just say I gave birth in February and EVERYTHING's changed bodywise.

19. Who was your prom date?: D. I can't believe I'm about to do this:



20. Are you planning on going to your 10 year reunion?: No. Our historian died in a snowmobiling accident and it was horribly tragic. Seriously... I don't think there have been any reunions.

21. Looking back, what advice would you give yourself?: Do your homework

*** I tag whoever made it through this whole list of questions! ***

Monday, September 15, 2008

Run For Her Life

Saturday my mom, C, and I rolled out of bed to make it to the 8 am 2nd annual Susan Sandoval Run for Ovarian Cancer.

The Susan Sandoval Foundation for Ovarian Cancer was created to increase awareness of the signs, symptoms and risk factors for ovarian cancer as well as other gynecologic cancers (uterine, cervix, vulvar, vaginal and fallopian tube). The goals of the foundation are to educate and improve the care of women diagnosed with gynecologic cancers and focus on innovative research in this field. Susan Sandoval was diagnosed with stage three ovarian cancer in May 2005 and died May 2007, at the age of 50. She worked as a nurse at LDS and Primary Children’s hospitals for 21 years. She had many friends, talked passionately about patient care and rights, and had incredible strength within her to always look at the positive in life and make the best of every day.

In 2007, the Foundation hosted the inaugural Susan Sandoval Run for Ovarian Cancer and the event raised over $13,000, with over 400 runners and walkers.



The walk was at Sugarhouse Park and there couldn't have been a more gorgeous morning for it! Here we are at the Finish Line, baby! It's symbolic, right Mom? You are finished with uterine cancer. My mom is probably rolling her eyes right now. But I think she is amazing. She underwent detection, surgery, AND recovery in a matter of about two months and that is INCREDIBLE. Sometimes it feels like the twilight zone to think that my mom went through this and it all happened so fast.



Croz was cozy in his sweatsuit; he was jammin' to the loud music they had playing.



My mom's mom, my Nana, had ovarian cancer and died so young (in '97). As they blew the starting whistle we both started crying just thinking about her and how much we miss her; she was there with us though. It's wonderful to feel that. Mom, we did this for all of us! I loved it, and I love you. I am so happy you are healthy! Let's get that leg/knee/ankle/foot healed up now and you will be good to go (;



Here is the website for more info:

http://medicine.utah.edu/obgyn/ssrun/index.htm

Friday, September 12, 2008

Couldn't Resist

Jess gave these boots and poncho to C... I promised her I'd post a picture of him in them.



While I'm at it then, here come some more Lucy and Crosby photos...

Setting out for the day. About the cutest things we've ever seen, right Codi? All packed in right next door to each other. *Sigh*



And then we came home to have a look at the ads. Well... Lucy did as Crosby longingly looked on (;

We LOVE these get-togethers! And Luce you are a barrel of fun, girlie!



These are the outrageously cute PJ's Nan and Grandpa got for C's cold Fall nights. Obvious to see he LOVES them!



My neighbor and I ventured out on a rainy day for some shopping and guess who came with us? You wouldn't believe it... our babies. Yep, and they fell asleep on the long ride back; look how adorable.



Okay yes my baby is my life right now... can't help it!

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Happy Birthday to... D!

This is the gist of D's life right now:



Literally I can say he works night and day. Sleep? That's not much a part of his life nor has it been for the past couple months.

):

This is not something we're proud of, don't get me wrong... it's just I have felt so bad that my husband has had to work SO hard lately. Harder than he normally works, and this guy has the most extreme work ethic I've ever witnessed (besides my dad; love you Dad!)

Soon we will celebrate as a family and have a getaway somewhere... can't wait!

'Til then...



LOVE YOU D!

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Eliza



When going to school @ the U, I got involved with the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and Nikki Norman was one of the older girls when I joined. I remember one night they had all of us gather in a circle outside the house and no one really knew what was going on. There were all of us girls forming a tight circle on the lawn and all of a sudden we saw Nikki's face get red and her eyes really sparkled and into the circle waltzed... a guy! Callahan Williams. With the world's largest bouquet of red roses and... a ring. On bended knee he proposed to Nikki and I remember the feeling that night; I could sense the love oozing from this couple and there was really something about them that was different.

Anyway, that is the memory I have of Nikki and Callahan but I haven't really seen her since she got married around 7-ish years ago. I just got an email from a friend who sent a link to a Desert news article about Nikki, Callahan, and their little girl Eliza. I have been in a complete wash of tears; this story is heartwrenching but incredible... their daughter Eliza has been diagnosed with late-infantile Metachromatic Leukodystrophy. There is a lot to this disease and so instead of trying to explain all of this, I will provide the link to the story from the Deseret News this past June:

http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,700234571,00.html

I post the newspaper article first because it is a segue into the family's website and story. If you don't visit the above link, at least PLEASE visit this one:

http://www.elizaswish.org

There is a way to contribute to this beautiful family; to Eliza and her cause. Because Eliza loves to read, they've started "Eliza's Library" to gather thousands of books in her honor to be donated to special needs classes throughout Utah. Here is cute Eliza:



Honestly I have been fascinated by this story and despite it bringing on a ball-fest it has once again turned my thoughts to what matters while we are here on this earth. We are here to love first and foremost. If you view the pictures at elizaswish.org you can sense the angel that is Eliza! You can tell she is full of patience and love and so are her parents; they are outstanding! You'll see what I mean!

Not only can you purchase books to donate but you can also snag one of these awesome ** COURAGE ** bracelets at $1 each, with the proceeds going to purchase more books.



To Eliza and the Williams family... you are an inspiration... here's to many more days spent reading with Mom, painting nails with Dad, and blowing bubbles into the great wide open!

Monday, September 1, 2008

Being Home

I love how D mesmerizes Croz when he plays the guitar. Crosby's attention span isn't long for really anything, but D breaks all kinds of records when he plays for C!



It's funny the groups of toys Crosby ends up with sometimes. Just needs new things constantly, ya know? Wind chimes? Check. Ribbon? Check. Huge teddy bear? Check. Hanger... sure, whatever! That second bottom tooth is almost as tall as the first one now so he has to gnaw on EVERYTHING.