First Part of April....

Well...let me start from the first part of April. I got an email from my mom saying my grandfather was passing. We waited and waited, and he passed on April 11th. My mom called to tell me and asked me to call my brothers/sisters who lived at a distance to see if Wednesday or Thurs worked better for a funeral. I called and we decided on Wednesday. I called Nick Walker, a friend of mine, and asked if he could bring his laptop cuz mine was at Fry's being repaired. He brought it over and after trouble with Southwests site, I finally got it booked. I left first thing Monday morning... Yes, first thing..before the sun... at 4:30am I was at the airport. I checked my luggage and got in line for security. There was a guy behind me in line when I was checkin luggage who kept watching me. I was tired and annoyed as he walked up to me in the security line to talk. I lightened up and talked to him thru security, then til both our flights left. Turns out the dude is moving to San Diego so I have a new friend who text me a lot during my trip to Idaho. I got to Idaho Monday afternoon. My sis picked me up at the Boise airport and we went to a fun place something and other Trailer Park Trash or something...lol. Nah, it was cool. It had a couple old cars in it and the bar stools were made from old beach cruiser bikes, and just everything was just country bumpkin style. It was a good time. That night I introduced my sister to Just Dance on the Nintendo Wii. If you haven't played it...get it. Its the best game EVER. We laughed so hard, I though we'd die. Greg told us we looked like the Special Olympics Synchronized Swimmers. We probably did. hahaha... Awesome time. We got in the hot tub later and looked at stars. I have an app on my phone that shows all the constellations and I gotta be honest, its pretty sweet. Tuesday I spent the day getting my hair done. It was a rough day because I was just trying to get it cut...and this chick totally ruined it. The way I do my hair...I only do blonde in the crown of my hair. Well, the girl cut the 1st layer in the back really thick and literally cut all the blonde off about 3 inches long. So I have blonde through the side..but not the back. It looked AWFUL. So then I go get it done at a salon. I told her I wanted to blend in the blonde...but while she was doing that, I wanted her to touch up my highlights too. Well...she thought I meant blending in the blonde was further cutting my hair. Thank God she didn't cut too much before she showed me my hair and I said... it doesn't look blended at all. Unfortunately my highlights had been touched up so then I had to sit through another coloring for the blend. As soon as I was done, I picked up Sherise for lunch at Texas Roadhouse and we headed to Rexburg for the funeral. We got there late Tuesday night and talked to Dad for a bit. Mom came home later and we chatted it up with her for a minute too. We went to bed so we could prepare to lay Grandpa in the ground on Wednesday. We woke up pretty early and went to the church for the viewing. A bunch of my nieces and nephews were there and they were VERY happy to see me. I was happy to see them too. I chilled with the kids during the viewing. I wasn't sure I wanted to see Grandpa in the casket. I don't do well with death and never have. I held off pretty well until they asked for the family to come one last time. My mom started to break down so my sister and I went over there to comfort her. I looked in the casket and there was my frail grandfather that was almost unrecognizable to me. He had gotten so skinny and frail over the past 3 weeks as he stopped eating and didn't drink much. I actually had to fight back tears for a second. After the family prayer, I grabbed Whitney and Aspynn and headed into the chapel for the funeral proceedings. It was good to hear about my grandfather but the most enjoyable thing for me was to sit next to Aspynn and Whit and play. I taught them how to play quiet games that I used to play in church. Aspynn ended up falling asleep in my arms and soon after, Whitney fell asleep in the other arm with her head lying in my lap. I love my nieces and nephews and there is nothing that makes me happier than holding and cuddling with them. The service was just over an hour and a half. It was nice. After the service, we headed to the cemetary. My grandpa was in the Army so they did a military gun salute. It was nice. After that we went to dinner with the family at the church. I sure was the first out of my dress! =) haha I actually forgot socks and had to steal Erin's. I felt bad cuz I forgot to give her some so the next day she had to borrow Olivias. oops. Wednesday night was mostly spent at the church with family, then Sherise and I hung out at Jody's. I hadn't seen her house and DAMN... its extraordinarily spectacular. I loved it. We played with the baby chickens for a while. They were fun. Halle freakin loved them and we literally had to drag her from the garage. Oh..and Shaylee was bustin out cheer moves with the lil girls... like literally throwing Aspynn in the air! Then Whitney joined in and they actually caught Aspynn. WTF?!?! I was scared! Thursday I went shopping then got Kiley and Kyson from Sandra. I played with them outside and had a good time. We just hung out for a while. Later everyone started coming over. We hooked up Brett and Eraleighs Wii and played Just Dance all night. It took me A LOT OF CONVINCING to get Dad to let us use his big screen for video games, but finally he caved, still with reluctance. After we started though, he loved it. Dad kept telling me to turn it up...and go get the video camera...and he was laughing. He enjoyed it as much as the rest of us. I got Eraleigh and Erin to dance with me. By the end of the night, nobody cared if they had remotes. There was like 20 of us on that floor dancing away. It was probably the most fun I had in a really long time. A great way to spend time with all the kids. Friday I took Stetzen and Taylor pizza for lunch. I got to see Jay Miller, which made me want to stay there, but I had to pick up Ashleigh. I took her shopping. It was good for her and fun for me. I got her two new pairs of shoes and I think like 5 new shirts. We had fun. We went to dinner that night and it just ended up being Taylor, Sherise, Me, Ashleigh, Dad, Mom, Jody, Whitney, and Aspynn. It was fun though. I got an alcohol free daquiri and shared with the kids. Taylor and I also decided to dip our fingers in the whipped cream and be nerds. Whitney and Aspynn are so girlie they thought we were crazy. We are hilarious. I love that kid. Ashleigh, Whitney, Sherise, mom, and I played Wii for a little that night before taking Ashleigh home. Whitney camped out in a tent in my old room and there was literally no room to walk. Saturday morning we got up and headed back to Boise. Every morning we got to eat a fabulous breakfast that mom cooked. It was exciting. Dad's comment was... "You know, there is always one thing I can count on when you girls are here and thats having big breakfasts waiting for me when I come in from the cows." I laughed. I love my dad. Such a Daddy's girl. I only got in one big fight with my mom, but I am pretty sure she was annoyed with me the entire trip. Sherise drove all the way back from Rexburg. I slept almost the entire time. On the way back, we got bad news about our Aunt Krystle and her difficult battle with cancer. More tumors, growing tumors, less treatments left to do, not much surgery left they can do... it was very sad to read. And the bad news didn't end there...just wait til you keep reading. We got back and had a quick lunch before heading to Candi's show at Whitewater. She has an awesome voice. I wish I was musically inclined, but I SUCK AT MUSIC. She sang "Grandpa, tell me bout the good ol days" and it almost made me cry. =( We went back to the house and had some wine that night. We just chilled in the hot tub but I was exhausted so we went in pretty quick. Sunday we went to watch Trey (Candi's husband) play in a softball tournament. I was pretty stoked when we pulled up and I saw dark skin. There was an entire team of Dominicans and I sure did talk to one of them. Not without a little convincing though! Candi and all the girls there..and even a couple dudes were pushin! And one guy went and asked if he was single for me. Lol...HILARIOUS. I love those guys. Later we went to get Erin, Liv, Navee, and Halle to go make dinner with us. We had a veggie pizza that turned out totally delicious. It was a cold pizza with cream cheese as the sauce. Totally bomb cooking. We had a campfire after that. Went to bed pretty late and made it home Monday morning for work.

When I arrived at work, I found out one of my fave cousins who I had been so freakin happy to see when I was in Idaho had lost her baby. I had just met him two nights prior!! I was totally bummed and worked all week to try to change my flight to New Orleans to leave from Salt Lake versus San Diego. It didn't work out, which was almost a good thing because I was so completely exhausted that I am not sure I would have survived New Orleans had I made that second trip to Idaho. And that was something I would have really missed out on.

I worked three and a half days of mind boggling hard work so that I could be ready to leave for New Orleans on the weekend. I actually should have gone to work and done some OT on Friday, but I kinda refused. I did my laundry, packed my shiat and went to a rodeo. I barely made it in time to go to the rodeo. I was totally and completely exhausted. But it was fun to see. The riders kinda sucked. Wasn't much competition cuz nobody could stay on! Oh well..it was still fun. And there wasn't as much white trash as I thought I would see. I ain't been around that many white people in quite some time. It was a good evening with Shelley and Larry to relax before my trip.