She wouldn't have belonged

I am so glad that I had the opportunity to come and visit David and Arbras home. It is beautiful, full of all the wonderful things that any woman would want. Stainless steal appliances in a gorgous kitchen, 5 fridges and 3 freezers, a spacious food storage room, a nook for the grandkids to play, a bose surround sound hooked up on both tvs, new car, 3 car garage, beautiful view, and decorated to the nines, with seasonal decorations galore that are stored in her massive yet organized storage room. Crafty little displays of fall, hay, and wagons and little picket fences, plush lether furnature, $400 mounted fish....Just a stunning home, full of all things beautiful.
She wouldn't have belonged, she wouldn't have known what to do with all this space, she never could have decorated it, she couldn't have ever let herself go financially to spend money on such tomfoolery. NONE of this mattered to her! She would have been uncomfortable in such a place and she would feel so wrong about putting her money into things rather then people. If she ever had a dime, she would have given it away. This is not for her. I see my father in law, a changed man, a man whom is now ruled by the woman in his life. A man who has learned to bite his tounge, and eat his words. He is much more tender and carries a completely different spirit. It is quite unfortunate that mom missed out on that aspect of this life. However I am sure that she knew that side of him, and that is why she put up with so much garbage. She knew the real him, and she had to pass away for him to drop down his walls and let others in to see him for who he is. As for Arbra, I know she will love my children, and for that I am greatful. I have concluded that she is a common woman, who struggles with the same stuggles as anyother woman who is learning and growing and trying to be more like the savior. Her only vice is that she is following a woman who wasn't common, and who rarely struggled to be Christ like. Shirley was someone who I aspire to be like, Arbra is on the same plane as I am, she is learning, and growing. She comes across as quite materialistic, but any woman when compared to Shirley is (including myself). Really it is quite a shame that she never knew mom, for she is a wonderful example of a woman who serves God. I am sure that as Arbra grows the Lord will let her meet a woman like mom, so that she too can see what is truely important.
In short, She is nice enough, I need to try not to pick out her flaws, for we all have so many. I am at peace, and I am suprised. I cried a few tears as I rocked in moms chair, but she is not here..... this is not her home.... She will forever be in my heart, and i will ALWAYS aspire to be like her. I miss her love.

Time to face the music

This morning, I am suffering from much anxiety as today is the day when I meet the "other woman". David (Brent's Dad)has been married nearly 2 years, Brent's mom passed around 2 and a half years ago. I have never met Arbra, and quite honestly, I am very very scared. I am going tonight to stay the night at their home. (I really think I am going to vomit) I am so nervous. I see the necessity of a grandmother for my children, and I want them to have the most normal life possible, but this woman and I have butted heads in the past and I have some really difficult feelings to deal with. I resent the fact that this after noon, I am on my way up the canyon to see their newly built home. My dear mother lived in this old house, with no dishwasher, no storage space, heating and cooling that worked if you tweaked it just right, a kitchen that was built in 1950, (metal cupboards and all), a garbage disposal that backed up on a regular basis which landed her in the "crawl space" digging threw sewage. She had toilets that refused to flush down poop, toilets that backed up all the time, a wood kitchen floor that was never sealed and to her embarrassment was never ever clean because it was full of dirt that wouldn't come out of the woodwork. She wore dresses from 1970, t-shirts and pants with holes, sewed her garments back together again, tailored her families clothes, and watched her family go deeper and deeper in debt and she finagled every last penny around trying to be wise about her money.
I feel so much resentment about the fact that she lived like that and this woman has the house, the dishwasher, the clothes, and the dream!! I know that mom doesn't care, I know that she would tell me that it is okay, and none of that matters, but I am just so upset about it and I can't imagine going there and being able to not show those emotions. It is going to be a rough 24hrs. Coming back to SLC has been a little difficult, but so far I haven't been to the East side, so it hasn't been too bad, but soon I am going to have to go over there and realize that she is gone. Maybe today I need to go to her old house and her grave and take a little closure before I meet this woman. I don't know.... AND to top it all off, I have to go with her to women's conference tonight! ummmm, don't know if I like that idea. :-(

Now I am going to get really mean!

No Baby YET!!! Yesterday we did the second round of Blue and Black cohosh, and nothing! I also took her on a brisk walk which was nice and hilly! We had her running up and down her basement stairs throughout the day. I believe all total she did 25 laps on the stairs. Now it is 7:30 am on friday morning and nothing! Today I shall make her eat Thai food.....lots and lots of Thai food. More stairs, and another brisk yet LONGER walk!!! My little neice has met her match, she may be stubborn, but I am more stubborn then her!!! :-) We are having fun though, Tori has truely enjoyed her visits to see her Auntie Anne in the hospital. She absolutly loves her, and asked all day yetsterday when we were going to go and see her. Does anyone have any more ideas? or posibly a really long, pokey crotchet hook????? I'll Keep ya posted.....

The Push is on.

So I am in Utah right now, waiting for my little sister (in law) to have her baby. She is due tommorow, but we were all so so sure that she would go very early!! I can't believe how big she is, she looks so terribly uncomfortable, I feel so bad for her. Not too bad though cuz I am determind to get this wee one out of there, and home before I have to go back to Maryland. Today I made her lift my 55 lbs suitcase into her trunk, and also my 40 lb one! She did very well after I held her purse for her. She had an ultra sound today and found out that the baby really isn't as big as they orrigonally thought, but she is for sure due to have this baby! I spent some time cleaning up and helping out around the house while they were gone. When she returned we headed over to visit Anne (brents other sister) in the hospital. They finally figured out that she that swimming pool desease that has been going around in Utah. Unfortunatly though, since she is handicapped, she ended up with quite the bum rash / infection from the diareah, and is still in the hospital because now she is on iv anitbiotics. Poor thing. Her room is however on the 5th floor of the hospital and apparently the main floor where one enters is called A, so I made Andrea climb 6 flights of stairs. HE HE. Then we went back down the 6 flights, and up another flight into the parking garage. Then I took her to the grocery store where I made her hold onto the cart while I pushed it really really fast!! Now she has had a warm tub and now we will move on to some pressure point massage and a pedicure, so that her feet look cute for the day. :-) Which btw I have decided is TONIGHT! I will keep you posted, my post tommorow better include a weight and time, or elce it will be all the ways I tortured her.... sorry for my "creative spelling" but i can't get their mac to spell check this for me. :-)

SCATTERGORIES

*Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following... *they have to be real places, names, things...nothing made up! Try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same 1st initial. You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl name question.
What is your name? Christie Cook (maiden name) (double points)
4 letter word: Cock (as in a rooster... Double points)
Vehicle: Chevrolet Corvette Convertible (triple points)
TV Show: Charles in Charge (double points)
City: Coal Creek (Colorado)
Boy Name: Charles
Girl Name: Carly
Alcoholic drink: Chardonnay
Occupation: Chef de cuisine (double points)
Something you wear: Cashmere
Celebrity: Charisma Carpentar (double points)
Food: Chillie Cheese Enchiladas (double points)
Something found in a bathroom: Charmin
Reason for Being Late: Children
Cartoon Character: Chuckie Cheese
Something You Shout: COME ON!!!

I had to do this cuz I love Mendys competitive nature. :-) HE HE. I was suppose to go to bed, but I wanted to see how many doubles I could come up with. Keep watching for Mendys Do Over. :-) LOL!!

Field Trip Prep

Today I went out to a special 2 hour class on how to help with a very special field trip for Liza's class. I knew that I was going to a place with water, so I took my camera. We had the coolest experiences, I learned more tonight then I have learned in many many years. I am so excited for the field trip and the opportunity to go back. I got to see the basics of fishing with a net, crabbing, oysters, and micro organisms. It was SO cool. I am so glad that I got to go. Thank you Jeri for being a superstar and watching my kiddos for so long. (it was an hr drive there and an hr drive home too) I tried my hand at scenery, I don't think I had a high enough f stop, but here's a couple shots anyway... I will do a much better post when I go with the kids in October.
This is a shell of a "blue crab" we pulled up a trap and found a Large crab and this smaller empty shell. Apparently he (and I learned how to tell if it's a he or she) grew out of his shell right there in the trap. It was cool, the big crabs shell was still really soft and we got to poke him a bit. It was really neat. I just loved the colors on this guys claw.

This and That

So much has been going on lately that I just have a lot of things that I needed to write down. Last week Liza had her first moral dilemma, she was invited to a birthday/sleepover on a sat to Sunday. She has had Sunday invites before, but nothing that was Saturday night to Sunday morning. She has always been so quick to say, "oh, your party is on Sunday, I can't come on Sundays that is the day that I go to church." I thought it would be the same, but when we told her that she was old enough to make that decision, she had a really hard time. At one point she was asking me if we would still love her if she chooses to go, and what would Heavenly Father do if she chooses to not keep the Sabbath day holy. We assured her that she would always be loved, and advised her to pray about what would be the right thing to do. She was so torn, it was sad, but good to see her struggle with with a real life application to her years of primary. She cried because she knew what was right, and she really wanted to find a way to make what she wanted right. After much trouble, she decided, on her own to go to the party until midnight, and then come home to sleep and be with her family on Sunday. I was so proud of her and happy to know that when she prayed about it, the spirit whispered to her, and she heard it. :-) On Saturday as we walked her up to the neighbors for the party, Tori wanted to carry the gift and then Alex said to Liza, "Here Liza, I'll carry your bag, cuz you're a girl." They then had a whole conversation about how a boy is to carry a purse. Alex has watched closely and noted that a boy isn't supposed to put a purse on his shoulder, he carried the pink purse on his fore arm to be sure that it was not mistaken as HIS purse. LOL!!! So funny.

On Saturday we got a phone call from Brent's Dad telling us that Brent's Grandmother passed away. She has been ill for quite some time, and was ready to go, it makes it a bit easier to let them go when that is the case. I know that I will miss her SO SO much as she always patted my back and told me what a great mommy I am. She would even talk to other family members about what a great mom I was. (boy did I have her fooled eh?) She will be dearly missed and I really wish that I could have seen her one more time. I am going to Utah on Sept 26th so I missed her by about 11 days! What are the odds? I loved her like she was one of my own grandmas. She made awesome bread, and yummy yummy cookies, which we had to sit at the nook and eat them while she poured milk and stood on the other side of the counter talking to us. She would feed you till you blew up, she loved to feed her guests, and was always asking if you were hungry. I remember once when I was there I had some stomach problems and I was warned by family members not to tell Grandma or she would try to give you and enema, apparently they cure everything. (AHHH) She did see me wince once and she said "what's wrong Chris, does your stomach hurt? Are you hungry honey?" I quickly replied that I wasn't hungry, and it didn't hurt that bad. I was offered her advise on enemas, but I didn't get one! Thank Heavens. Grandma had a lot of funny phrases, that I want to write down and post for my journal, I'll have to do a post called Grandmas Wisdom. We spent the next 2 days tring to get Brent time off work, and leave from the army and an airline ticket. Brent is set to leave tomorrow for the funeral on Thursday.

We got word today that Brent's Downs Syndrome sister (who is 32) was take to the hospital today. She is living in a home since mom passed away and they took her in because she was in pain. Anne has a very high pain threshold and has rarely complained about pain, so I am worried about her. She has a very limited vocabulary, and wouldn' t be able to tell you too much about how she is feeling. I am sure that if they asked her if she was pooping she would just giggle at the word poop. She is a funny girl, but that sure doesn't help when you are trying to diagnose someone. They ran test all day today and all they can guess is Pneumonia, but she is complaining of abdominal pain, and that wouldn't be where you would feel pneumonia, I don't know if they are going to let her go with that diagnosis or not.

Today while I was running around doing homework stuff with kids, Tori did something so cute, I really wish I would have gotten out my camera to catch the moment. She spread out a blanket and propped her baby up on the blanket and then got our her camera and started shooting pictures from all angles, and levels, it was so funny to see her getting low and then standing up, and switching side to side. So Cute!!! I wonder where she has seen that done before. :-)