"Even bugs think their babies are cute." - Grandpa

This past week has been a roller coaster of emotions for my family and I.  My loving, sweet, and beloved Grandpa Craig passed away after several months of declining health.  Back in November my family and I had the great opportunity of celebrating their 70th Wedding Anniversary with them.  It was truly a monumental event.  How many people do you know who have married for 70 years.  Another great achievement is that they've lived in the same home for over 65 years in Bountiful.  Three months ago when my Grandpa's health was declining very rapidly, the family decided to move my grandparents to my Aunt's house temporarily in Mapleton because they had the best accommodations to for my Grandpa's health.  It was hard for them because they have lived independently for so long and now that was coming to an end.

Two weeks ago on Sunday, my Grandpa fell and fractured his hip.  Knowing the hospital wouldn't do any type of surgery to fix his hip, we knew then and there that the only thing we could do is to make him comfortable for the inevitable.  That next day, my family and I drove down to Mapleton so my Dad could give my Grandpa a blessing and be able to say our goodbyes.  He was in a morphine induced coma so he wasn't responsive at all.   It was a very emotional visit for me.  Knowing any hour or any day, my Grandpa, who has been in my life for over 25 years would no longer be here.

My Dad and my uncle gave my Grandpa a beautiful blessing. I don't remember much of it because I was I had tears streaming down my face.  I do remember my Dad saying that he would feel peace and joy when he is rejoined with his family and loved ones.  There wasn't a dry eye in that room, as we watched my Grandpa struggling to continue to breathe.  Each family member was able to take their turn and say something to Grandpa.  I didn't know what to say because I have never had anyone so close to me die before.  I held his worn and wrinkly hand and told him I loved him so much and am so grateful he was my Grandpa. I told him that I will miss him so much and promised to watch over Grandma.  I said some other things, but the thing that meant the most to me was when I said, "Grandpa, watch over Amelia and tell her how much we love her and can't wait to meet her in a few weeks."  Amelia is being named after Grandpa's mother.            

That next Tuesday I received a text from my Dad letting me know that Grandpa had passed away.     

  

The next few days, I was in denial.  A couple days later, it really hit me that Grandpa was gone.  I was asked by my Dad to help write his obituary.  I never knew how hard it would be to write an obituary for someone you care and love so much.  I'm so glad my Dad helped me because it was one of the hardest things I have ever had to write because I wanted to convey the best way I could his life and what a great friend, brother, father, husband, and grandpa he was.

That Saturday was the funeral and I was doing pretty good.  As soon as I saw him in the casket, I lost it.  He looked so peaceful and almost looked like an angel.  My younger brother Cameron mentioned to my Mom that Grandpa didn't look like himself because he wasn't wearing his glasses.  My Mom mentioned this to one of the mortuary guys to see if they has his glasses.  They came back with them in hand and we decided to put them on him; he looked more like Grandpa.

The funeral ceremony went really well.  I used up an entire box of Kleenex.  My Dad talked about Grandpa and what a great example he was.  He talked about some his great sense of humor and how witty he was.  One of my favorite things he would say is, "Even bugs think their babies are cute."  When asking him how he was doing he would say, "I'm doing better then I deserve."  Or when he heard someone was getting married, he would say, "I didn't know she was pregnant?" 
 

This is a quote my Dad used in his talk and I think it expresses how I feel about the passing of my Grandpa: 

“I have a testimony of death.  It is that without death we not fully understand how much we love those who go; and this is equally true of our dying: we know when we are dying how much we love those we are leaving behind.  And I wonder how many of us sufficiently feel how profoundly grateful we should be to death for the way it intensifies our love as nothing else could do.  And how many of us realize that it may intensify our love, not only at the moment it comes, but all our life, if we remember when we are with people that we may not, after all, be always with them.  This thought comes to many people in old age, but it should be with us all our life.

Now, for Mormons, death is not much worse perhaps than a visit to an airport to say goodbye to someone for a long time—every absence is a little death, and death is just a long absence.”

 (Arthur Henry King, The Abundance of the Heart, pg 79-80)



After the funeral we drove over to the Bountiful Cemetery where the burial ceremony took place.  As soon as I walked out of the car and heard bagpipes playing, the flood gates of Niagara Falls came.  I don't know what it is, but whenever I hear bagpipes I get emotional.  They had significant meaning to me today because of Scottish heritage the Craig family comes from, but how Grandpa would have loved to see and hear them be played. 

 

Grandpa was buried with full Military honors.  The burial ceremony was short.  afterwards I found it hard to get up and leave Grandpa there. 

After the funeral I felt like I was able to get all of my emotion out on the table and I've heard people say funeral's help bring closure. I felt this way.



I knew my Grandpa was a good man, but I didn't realize until he was gone how Christ-like he was.  One story that gets to me every time is how he treated everyone he interacted with with love, compassion, and respect.  My Mom notified the housekeepers who've helped clean their house for the past two years know that Grandpa had passed away.  The housekeepers are a husband and wife who own their own cleaning business and are from Mexico.  The husband was so upset and emotional when my Mom told him the news. The husband told my Mom how Grandpa was one of the most gracious and kind man he had ever met.  He said that a lot of their clients treat them like strangers and workers.  But whenever they would come to my Grandparents house, my Grandpa would greet them at the door, shake their hands, and ask them how they were doing.  The husband was so emotional because he never had a client treat him the way Grandpa did.  The husband told my Mom Grandpa treated him like a friend and that meant so much to him.   Another story I heard was when my Grandpa was in the Military, he was over a black convoy back in the day when black and white people were segregated.  There were a handful of these black soldiers who continued to stay in touch all of these years because of the respect and love he showed them.

Thank you for being the best Grandpa a girl could have.  I can't wait to be reunited with you again.  I love you so much and I'm so lucky to have you in my life for so long.

          

Happy 4th of July

Our 4th of July was a busy one indeed, but we were able to squeeze in some much needed R&R and cleaning.  That morning McKay got up at 5:00 a.m. and met some friends from work to go on a bike ride that started from the mouth of Emigration Canyon and traveled through East Canyon, Morgan, South Weber Canyon, and back to Kaysville.  Crazy guy.  I had some other plans that morning.  My work has a parade float and they like to enter into local parades, because I'm in charge of this great endeavor I was able to be in two parades and throw candy and trinkets at people.  I took it easy by riding instead of walking.  

When I got home from the parades, McKay just got home from his bike ride.  We ate some lunch and watched some History Channel about Valley Forge and the the Revolutionary War, we like nerdy shows.  McKay and I both fell asleep for 2 1/2 hours.  We spent the rest of the afternoon tidying up the house.  We went over to my parents for a delicious Baby Back Rib BBQ complete with Fat Boys and other delicious foods.  Of course I ate like I was in a hot dog eating contest.  Did you hear about that on the news?  This guy ate 68 hot dogs and buns yesterday at the Nathan's Famous July 4th International Hot Dog Eating Contest.  How disgusting, I bet that guy was feeling some heartburn later that day.

Here are some pictures of our little growing family.      

After our BBQ we watched the Oak Ridge Country Club's fireworks on my Grandma's deck.  The best part about the day was going to bed early at 10:00 p.m.  Love holidays where I can take a nap, clean, and eat some good food.   

No theme post

I have no theme for this post.  It consists of a bunch of my photos on my phone of what I've been up to.

I was able to Skype twice with my little sista on my phone.  Isn't that amazing?  I can talk to her all the way from Germany for free.  Love it. 

Tried to get Winston and I in a good shot, he wouldn't stop moving.

This was Sunday morning, don't judge me.

Gosh, does my nose look that big all of the time?

We had to give Winston his last round of vaccinations.  If you do it yourself you save almost $70.  McKay was kind of nervous about giving Winston the shot.  I held him while McKay did the deed and he did a great job. Winston didn't flinch and McKay was the hero of the night!

This weekend McKay was gone Friday night and most of Saturday because he riding in a 100 mile bike ride for MS up in Logan.  He ended up placing third on the L-3 team and he finished in 5 hours and 20 mins, burned 6,500 calories.  I want to burn that many calories :( I spent most of the weekend sewing.  I haven't done that for so long.  It's been my goal to make Amelia's baby bedding because I can't find anything out there I really like that doesn't cost $300.  This was the first time I used a pattern since I was in Jr. High.  I was kind of scared to start because I didn't want to mess up.  I did a lot of googling of sewing definitions and was able to figure it out.  

Cutting fabric pieces for the crib skirt.

This picture was taken at 12:30 a.m.  I was trying to get this done before I went to bed. I was a zombie the rest of Saturday, but hey, I got it done!

Sunday night we enjoyed the cool weather on our backyard porch.  Winston was so tired from playing frisbee and going on a short bike ride he collapsed on me and feel asleep.  I love it how his two hind legs are spread out over my tummy.  I know Amelia and Winston are going to love each other very much.  I think he can sense her, that's why he loves to lay on top of me.  

Nursery fabric

 I found these two fabrics on Etsy and am in love with them.  I'm planning on making some of my own bedding for the crib.  What do you think?  Now that I think about it, why am I even asking that.  I like them and that is all that matters.  

Love productive weekends

I'm very happy today.  Why?  Because this was the first time in over two months we were actually home all weekend.  We didn't go anywhere.  And I loved every moment of it.  We did have some good times, but this weekend was D Day for us.  We have a lot of projects we've been putting on the back burner and with the baby coming in 70 days we're in crunch mode.  

The beginning of the week we were able to view the Venus Transit of the Sun for one whole minute before the sun went down.  My dad purchased this film that filters out the sun light, so you can see little Venus.  He had this film on his telescope and binoculars.  He took this photo below with his telescope.  You can see the little black dot in the bottom left corner of the moon.  That is Venus.    

One of our projects was to tile our fireplace.  We were finally able to agree on a tile, got it ordered, and when we got it, it was the wrong color :(  A couple weeks later we got the right color and we were ready to start tiling.  Thanks dad for coming over and supervising to make sure we did everything correctly.  Now the next step is to paint the walls, you can see we tried out a color sample on the wall, but we didn't end up liking it.   

Another project was to pull off the leftover wallpaper that calls the staircase wall its home.  When we first moved in I started ripping things off the wall because it bugged me and I knew eventually I would be taking it down. I didn't know it would take us a year later to actually get it down.  For mother's day, McKay surprised me by telling me he was going to take off the wallpaper for my present.  The best present ever is honey do's.  Thanks McKay. 

The next project for me was the nursery.  I found this fabric, all 4 1/2 yards of it at the DI for $4!  I liked the woven texture and thickness of it.  I made them into curtains.  While my Dad was over helping us with the tiling, I asked him if he could help me put up the curtain rod.  Why do little projects like this that should only take 15 minutes take a hour?  Anyway, I like them, of course McKay doesn't.  He told me it reminded him of a 1970's living room.  Oh McKay, if you could only see the whole picture. 

We have a vacant house to the west of us and they have a really nice cherry tree.  This is the same vacant lot McKay dug up bulbs and got in trouble by the fake Detective Nelson from the Kaysville Police Department. We're going to have a hard time when someone eventually purchases this house because its been nice not having neighbors and from all of the free fruit and flowers.  McKay has had his eye on those cherries for a while and this weekend was the perfect time to pick them.  When McKay got back from picking he had a huge tube full of cherries.  McKay started to think of all of the ways we could use the cherries.  Cherry pie, cherry jam, cherry bars, cherry stuffed chicken, and etc.  We decided to make a homemade cherry pie.  Below is the pie filling McKay made.  He was so proud of it he took a picture.    

I found out where McKay's favorite new spot in the house is.  It's the glider we bought for the nursery.  I couldn't find McKay in the house, so I had to resort to a house search, by going through each room.  The last place I thought he would be in was the nursery, and there he was, in the glider, gliding away with his head phones and ipad.  I asked him what he was doing in there and he said, "I'm watching videos on how to make a cherry pie.  Hey do you know this chair is really comfortable?"   

Sunday after church we went to the park next to our house and threw the frisbee around a bit.  Winston had such a great time because he could run until his heart was content.  Here are some pictures.  

Good job for bringing it back Winston.

McKay trying to teach him how to follow orders.

  I love spending Sunday's at home. This is a rarity when were able to do this because lately we've had so much family stuff going on.  We cooked dinner, ate our cherry pie, played with Winston, and took a nice stroll around the neighborhood.