Wonderful Grandma

We as a family had the opportunity to send our wonderful Grandma to heaven to reunite with her sweetheart (Grandpa) and other loved ones. On December 4th, I had the opportunity to spend the last few hours with my Grandma. She knew that I was there, holding her hand and talking to her. I hated seeing her suffer the way that she was. She was a wonderful human being. She would do anything for you, even if you were a stranger. She had a loving, kind, tender heart and she loved everyone. She has been through so much the last few years, from losing her soulmate to almost losing her life five years ago from a home invasion. She was a strong willed woman who wouldn't give up till her last breath. We will miss her greatly and we all loved her so much. I found a poem that fits my Grandma. We Love You Grandma!!


Grandma

Thank you for the gift of love,
now you're sharing it up above.
You had many things to say.
All in a caring way.
You always saw good in everyone,
No matter what they've done.
You were always the one we could all lean on.
Even though it must have felt like a ton.
You were always the strength of the family.
Now we must let you rest calmly.
As we say goodbye,
as tears roll down our eyes.
I know your place in heaven has a good view.
Because you're telling God,
I need to keep an eye on a few.
I know you will always be in our hearts and mind.
So Grandma,
I must go, but I'll never forget you're one of a kind.
Grandma by Augustine Perez

An Amazing Woman

I can't bring myself to blog yet, my emotions are still too strong. I have added some pics of Chris' grandma over the past few years. She was an AMAZING!!!! woman.

The Stone

It was Wednesday morning 7am, I was still sleeping and was awaken by the phone ringing. It was Chris, who I had thought was calling to tell me good morning. He sounded very upset on the other line. He said he had thrown his back out and it would not stop spasming and that he needed me to come and get him. I hopped in the shower and before I could even come get him some nice friends from work had brought him home. He was not even able to drive.

I decided to work from home that day - which I cannot be grateful enough to have a job that allows me to take care of my family. Chris laid for a few hours flat on his stomach in the living room while I took some conference calls.

It was about 11am and he said he needed to go to the doctor that he thinks it was more than his back but his kidney. I made him an appointment for later that afternoon, however he couldn't wait. We journeyed up to the ER and sure enough he was passing a kidney stone. This is the first one he has ever had. The doctor says the CT scan shows another one in his kidney. This may dissolve on its own or pass eventually.

He was in a lot of pain. I felt horrible for him. He is still feeling very sore in his back. He is a tough person and takes pain well.

I hate to see anyone I love in pain. I am grateful for wonderful medical facilities, insurance and the fact that we do have medication that can ease the pain.

Let's pray for a better week this week. This year has sure been a challenging one, I am ready to put 2009 to bed.

Feeling Crappy

I didn't know what else to name this post. That about sums it up. I have not been feeling well. It has really been for about 6 months and I just chalked it up to work and the stress that has been this year. However, the end of September I started getting a clicking/throbbing noise in my right ear. It doesn't hurt it is is just incredibly annoying. I went to the ENT and my ear this looks great, hearing is good. I went to the chiropractor, that didn't work either. I finally went back to my primary care doctor, which by the way has been my doctor since I was nine. He is running a bunch of tests to rule out some things. With the fatigue I have been having he has run numerous blood tests. I also have had a cartoid artery ultrasound as well as an EKG. I am hoping to get the results back this week. I can't wait to get my energy level back up so my house will get back to normal and maybe I can start exercising again.

I can't believe that it is already the end of October. Where has this year gone? When I think of things that have happened this year I tend to mistake 2008 activities with 2009, it is all blending together.

The boys are enjoying school. They seem to have good teachers. If Karsten could just learn some organization skills we would so much better off.

Chris is in Kansas City today visiting his best friend Jim. He is in the military and wanted Chris to come and enjoy a KC Chiefs and SD Chargers game. He is having a good time.

I got to spend last weekend with my girlfriends at a scrapbook 'holiday'. It was fun and I was very productive.

The first of October we decided to take the trailer out one more time. We went up to Garland to the Camperworld w/ the hot springs. It was a nice and relaxing few days.

Happy Anniversary Honey!

Well here we are 15 years later, 2 kids, a dog and a very happy marriage. I can't believe how fast time has gone. I have been so blessed to be married to a man that is so kind and gentle and has been a great father.

I know I do things that drive him crazy but he still loves me and I know it.

Happy Anniversary Honey!!

Canada Trip

We just returned from a great trip up in Canada. We had such a great time. We can honestly say it was a very relaxing trip, even though we put over 3,000 miles on the car. We met up with some friends that live outside of Edmonton and shared a two room condo with them. It was great! It is such beautiful country up there. The mountains are incredible and the water is crystal clear. We went on a tour of a glacier and got to drink the water. It was cold and refreshing. The boys were soooo good on this trip. They just played their DS's and watched movies. They seemed to have a great time. They have turned out to be very good hikers. They both love to hike and see all the different things.
We spent some time up in Glacier National Park in Montana. That was beautiful! We got to see all sorts of wildlife. Mountain goat, sheep, deer. We even got to see a grizzly bear on the way down from Canada. She was a big one!
If you have the opportunity to ever get up that way, do it! It is well worth it. It is great to see what God has given us to enjoy in our lifetime.

Flaming Gorge

We had the opportunity to go up to the "Gorge" the last few days. It was a great time. The lake was very high this year and it washed out the beach area that we were going to take the kids. They were bummed. We talked to the local Ranger and found out the lake is 12 ft higher than last year. It's the highest it's been since 96' she said. We found other things to do of course like boating, wakeboarding, tubing and a little R & R. Parker tried knee boarding for the first time and stayed on for about 10 seconds. Did I mention about 6 of those seconds were being drug under water? He came up crying. He didn't do it again. He did happen to get on the tube and manage to do a full backflip into the water. He had alot of water time.
It was great just to get away and enjoy nature. Enjoy the slide show!

Yuba Lake 2009

Fun in the sun

Our family had a chance to get away for a few days down to Yuba Lake. We had many friends and their families come down and play with us. We had a great time even though it rained a couple of days on us. We went tubing, played on the beach and even took a quick trip down to Capitol Reef. It was good to get away from work and have a little R & R.

The End of School

Here is Parker and all his buddies at the end of school. He was really glad for school to be over and so was I. I think he will miss it though.

Here is Parker at his end of the year program. They did great. Both of the boys had really good programs this year. I was very proud of both of them. I didn't get any pics of Karsten's because we had lent our camera out.

I posted a few posts ago about my pots that I had the nursery babysitting for me. Well, here they are. They look great. I love all the color. She does a great job.

The purple ones are my favorite.

My Big Boy is 10!

I am a little late posting this, haven't wanted to spend too much time on the computer lately. Karsten turned 10 on May 17th. I can't believe it has been a whole decade, where does time go. I let him have his first ever sleep over. We took the boys to Hungry Bear Pizza and then to the park and back to our house. He has such good friends. They behaved themselves, went to bed at a decent time (for a sleepover) and then we had a great pancake breakfast.

We then celebrated his birthday with my family on his actual birthday. As always he was spoiled with gifts.

I am so proud of Karsten. He is such a loving person and friend to all. I hope I can say that on-going as he has started to show signs of a teenager.

Goodbye and Hello

Goodbye old scooter and hello new motorcycle.

Yes, you guessed it. Chris has made the exchange. He has always really wanted a motorcycle and when gas prices were so high last year I gave in and let him get a scooter, or as I say a training motorcycle. I guess he has proven he can be responsible and I have given in yet again this year (remember the dog), and let him get a motorcycle. I just pray that he will be safe. It really isn't him I worry about, it is all the other idiots out there that don't pay attention to what they are doing.

I am actually excited about the 'hog'. We have some good friends that got a bike last year and have really wanted us to go riding with them. It will fun to enjoy the outdoors, just the two of us.

Too Busy Enjoying Life

I haven't blogged for awhile because I have been too busy enjoying life. Life has been busy but things have been good. I am actually starting to feel more comfortable with my new position at work, the people I work with are great.

School is starting to slow down as it comes to an end. Karsten is just finishing up the last of his county project. I am looking forward to summer.

The deck is almost finished, just the railing on the stairs left. Chris has done a great job. We got the picnic table out last night and had some friends over. The neighbor brings her dog because Sarge and Cooper love to play together. We had put Cooper's food on the table and Sarge decided she wanted some. She is such a funny dog. She thinks she is human. Now if we can just get the barking while she is outside under control I would like her that much more.

The boys are enjoying the nice weather. They love to ride their bikes. The T.V has been off a lot more lately, it has been nice. I hope their bikes make it through the season, they are pretty worn out.

Karsten earned his Bear 2 weeks ago. I am very proud of him. He is excited to go into Weblos. He loves scouts.

We got a new van. I love it. Drives just like my car did. I just love Honda's.

I got my flowers planted and I can't wait to pick up my pots from the nursery. I planted them about a month ago and she is babysitting them in the green house.

This week is going to be crazy. Karsten is having his first ever sleep over for his birthday. My baby is going to be 10 next Sunday, it makes me sad. He is getting so grown up and already getting a teenage attitude. It should be fun. I will post again next week.

I Couldn't Resist

My aunt sent me these funny pics of my Grams and Papa. I could not resist posting them to the blog. Recently, my Grams lost her hearing in her left ear, they are not sure if it will ever return but they have put her on some steroids. If anyone has ever been on steroids it does weird things the mind and body. So here is my Grams on steroids:

As you can see this was taken at the local Wal-mart. They frequent that place, along with most of the world. My Papa likes to wander around the store. He has found himself some new hair there, or my aunt said this is Papa on dialysis:

They are such good grandparents. I wish they didn't live so far away.

It Has Been A While...

So I haven't blogged for a few weeks. It has been a crazy few weeks. I went to my grandmother's funeral, which was beautiful. I was able to visit the graves of my great-grandparents, which I have some very fond memories of my Nana. We were blessed to have missed the large snow storm that Denver received the night before flying in, however, we came home to the big one in Utah, it was a bumpy flight home. You would think after traveling as much as I do I would be used to it, but NO! I was a nice visit with some of my family that lives in Denver. I still have an Uncle, a Great-Aunt and my mom's cousins. It was also nice spending time with just my parents and brothers, we figured we hadn't done that for 20 years.

Work is still as crazy as ever. I think I really need an attitude change. It has been hard to get engaged in my work when there is SO MUCH TO DO! I am so thankful for a husband like Chris who allows me to do what I need to do to be successful.

Our family has had the luxury of being sick over the past few weeks. Someone has either thrown up or had a cough since the end of March. I think we are finally getting past it.

This week is spring break. I took Monday off work but was sick, that was a lot of fun. I am off today and then again on Monday. It is very much needed but I am sure I will regret it come next week when I am so far behind. I don't think I have really caught up since Chris and I took our cruise.

Sarge started her puppy school this week. She is such a good dog. I am so glad that we picked her.

Karsten had his first pinewood derby a few weeks ago. I have posted a pic of him and my dad. My dad brought the one he made when he was a scout, they raced. Karsten that was pretty cool. He will be getting his Bear at the end of April.

Goodbye Grandma

Today, my Grandmother Fitzpatrick has returned to our Heavenly Father. She would of been 90 years old this June. She has spent the past 7 months in very poor health and living in either a nursing home or an assisted living. Over the past few weeks she was placed on hospice and taken off any life sustaining medication. She passed this morning at 7:15am, my dad, mom and aunt had the opportunity to be with her as her spirit left her body.

It was 6 years ago that my dad felt the need to move her to Utah, after she had lived in Colorado her entire life. My dad had a great patio house built for her. My parents diligently took care of her and for that I look up to them.

She will be laid to rest on Saturday in Colorado, next to my grandfather who passed 24 years ago.

I am very grateful for my faith and am comforted that she will be in a much better place.

Goodbye and love you Grandma...until we meet again.

What on Earth....

So this week has been extremely stressful, which was a carry over for last week. As you all know, Citi has been struggling just like 99% of every company in the world. We had yet to see any real impacts in our little Layton site, until last the week before last. It was very unfortunate that two of peers that I have been working with for years were laid off. I also was given an expanded roll, which I am scared to death about, because I still feel very 'green' in the job I have now, I have been there about 1.5 years but still so much to learn. This week was very emotional, I cried at home, in front of my friends and the worst of all in front of my boss. I am confident our company will pull out of this and I am just so grateful to have wonderful employees and a great peer group and boss to get through this. This week started our 2 week audit, gotta love the audits. There is always this feeling of what are they going to find. All I hope if that our preparation has paid off. I keep telling myself "It is what it is" at this point and if they find something we deal with it and move on.

So needless to say the past 2 weeks I have gotten very much sleep with work and the fact that the dog loves to sleep with us and mostly on my side of the bed. On Thursday night Sarge started getting some weird looking bumps on her fur. We had just assumed that she had been scratching herself after Chris had given her bath. They almost looked like when dogs scratch and the hair stands up on end. Friday morning she had more and when I walked in the door from work on Friday she was covered, she looked so weird. She looked like a leopard, strangest thing I have ever seen. I called the vet and they said she was probably having an allergic reaction and to give her some Benadryl. Well, I think that made her a little agitated. She hardly slept and either did I. I feel like a new mom all over again, worrying about my baby, not knowing what is going on and that there is nothing I can do about it.

She looked a little better on Saturday but I wanted to take her to the vet just to be safe. Yup, an allergic reaction is what the vet told us. He said it appears she was bite by a spider or stung by a bee. By Saturday night she really only had a few on her head but Sunday morning she looked normal again.

Tomorrow starts week 2 of the audit. I hope this week is a little less stressful than last.

Happy 33rd Birthday !!

Just want to shout out Shannon's birthday! She is 33 today!

We had the opportunity to spend some time with Shannon's Grandparent's from Las Vegas. We went to Shannon's favorite place to eat, yes, Garcia's. I love that place too. We celebrated her Papa's birthday also. We had a good time. The employees came and sang to them, made them wear big sombreros and brought out fried ice cream.

Shannon is the greatest wife anyone could have. She is the best mom any child could have and she is a great all-around person. We all Love You!

New Edition

The pressure was on from the boys to get one of these things. I have been doing alot of research on these types of dogs. They are very smart, clean, well-mannered dogs. We haven't read anything negative about them. We found one of KSL for only $50.00. We thought we would give it a try. We planned on getting a male and calling him Sarge. We ended up with a female and the name stuck. The boys picked out the name. She has taken a liking to myself. I'm a sucker for a cute face! It's been hard the last few days at night. She will come around soon. She just loves the boys and they love her. We made a contract for them to sign saying that they need to do their part to help (pick up poop, walking, feeding, etc.). They have sone good so far. We will see how long it will last. She is a good pup. We should enjoy her for many years.

Cruise Pictures

Our "Holiday"

We have returned from a much needed 'holiday'. We had a FANTASTIC time. We can't complain about a thing. The trip was seamless. How can anyone ever complain about being able to see other parts of the world, have the bed made for you everyday and all our meals cooked to perfection!

We got to see some amazing places. Our first stop was San Juan, Puerto Rico. It wasn't my favorite spot but it has some beautiful views. We then ventured over to St. Thomas, this island was as beautiful as everyone said it would be. We snorkeled and kayaked during this excurtion. It was wonderful. It was my first time snorkeling and it kinda freaked me out. Once I got my breathing down I was ok. We saw some great sea life.

Next stop was Antigua. This had beautiful coast lines and blue water. We did a town tour. The people live very simple here, except for the movie stars and singers (Eric Clapton) that live there. We did a catarman sail and snorkel tour. They took us out to the middle of the ocean, so I was too chicken to get in the water. Chris got in and saw a turtle and lots of colorful fish.

We then went on to Tortola. This was my favorite. We actually took a 35 minute boat ride to another island called Virgin Gorda. This was absolutely breath taking. We hiked down to a beach and then through some very narrow rocks to get to the 'baths'. The water was better than anything I had ever seen.

Bahamas was our last stop. The weather was not cooperating so we had to cancel our sting ray tour. We went on a city tour which wasn't much of anything. We decided to take a ferry over to the hotel Atlantis, this was an amazing hotel.

We met some AWESOME people on our trip. Our dinner mates were great. One couple was from Virginia Beach and the other from Alberta, Canada. We had a great time, laughed alot, played cards and enjoyed each others company.

The couple from Canada had a car after they got off the boat so they asked if we wanted to hang out with them back in Ft. Lauderdale. We had a great time with them. We had many things in common. We are seriously thinking about taking the boys up to Canada this summer and hopefully meeting up with them again.

I feel so blessed that Chris and I had this great opportunity to be together and take this vacation.

My Wife

I just want to take a few minutes and let my wife know how much I appreciate her. She is the best thing that has happened to me. She is the best wife that anyone could have. I have been on many lows and she has brought me back up.
She is the best mother that any child could have. The boys just love her to death, even though they don't act like it sometimes. I always remind them that they have the best mom in the world.
Shannon and I have the opportunity to teach the Family and Marriage class at church. We feel so blessed to teach. We wonder why they called us to this calling. We believe that it is for us to strengthen us both in our marriage and our family.
I love my wife dearly and I could not ask for anyone better. I hope she feels the same about me. We are not perfect, but we strive to be the best we can through example to our children.
I love my boys to death! I have the two best kids in the world. I would do anything for them! They can be little brats sometimes, but what do you expect from two LOVING brothers!
Here is a quote that I find fitting:

Families are like fudge - mostly sweet with a few nuts. ~Author Unknown

A Farewell

Today was the missionary farewell of our cute nephew Casey. He will be leaving on the 14th to start his 2 year adventure as a missionary. He is going to Bogota, Columbia. He will be such as awesome missionary. He has the greatest personality and he is not afraid to share his testimony. His farewell brought together family that we have not seen in years. Most of Chris' mother's side of the family came up from Bountiful, even their great-aunt Trudy. She is Chris' grandma(Oma) from Germany's sister. Trudy is the one that AnnaMarie(Chris' mother) lived with when she came to the U.S. Trudy's husband Werner just died a few months ago. We thought it would be nice to get a picture of our boys with her and send over to OmaI have also posted a picture of Chris' cute Oma that Todd took when he went over to Germany this last year.



Chris' sister Tina also drove over from Fresno and surprised his sister Wendy. It was nice of her to come and support Casey. We are so proud of Casey and our thoughts and prayers will be with him daily.