Five Funerals are no Fun!

I have been to far too many funerals in my short 22 years of life. And this month has been my busiest month for funerals. I've had five funerals. Three were for people that I didn't know too well, but two of them hit very close to my heart.

My parents have had many friends over the years all over the world in their travels with my dad's career; and one of his very best friends passed away just after Christmas. Gordan Daley was such a wonderful man who brought so much life to everything. And he fought a hard fight for his life, but he was finally called home. He was also a Chief in the Air Force just like my amazing father, and my daddy was asked to speak at his funeral about the meaning of being a Chief. It was such a good talk; and I know that my mother, brother, sister and I were all in tears listening to him speak. One of the things that we took from another speaker was the fact that a group of them had a tradition to go to the local Sonic weekly and get a drink and spend some time with one another. My sister Stormy and I really liked that idea and we started our own tradition to go to Garcia's every Tuesday and get drinks and an appetizer. We have really enjoyed it because it's getting us to know each other better and spend some good time with one another. We even have our own waitress and we are her regulars now! She is awesome!! At last weeks outing, Alyn came with us and she got a drink in one of those fancy glasses, and I had mentioned how I wanted my Dr. Pepper in a fancy glass; now I didn't mention this to Natalie (our server), I had just mentioned it cause I thought that it would be cool. Well, Natalie had heard me and the next time she came out she brought me my Dr. Pepper in their biggest glass! it was huge!

The next funeral that hit me hard was one that came completely unexpected. I got a text from my old high school best friend saying that his nephew had passed away. So I called him and found out that his nephew had committed suicide; and my heart just sank. Dylan was only 12 years old and he was in 7th grade at Syracuse Jr. High. This was hard for me not only because I have known Dylan since he was 4, but it hit hard for me because my own nephew is his same age going to the same school. With a heavy heart, I went to his viewing and gave my condolences to the family that I had spent so much time with and had come to love like they were my own family. And then I went to the funeral the next day. No one knew of the hurt that was in him, no one knew of the sorrow that he had. His death was completely unexpected. His family was completely taken by surprise by it, and they are having such a hard time.

I don't even know if anyone really reads my blog, but it makes me so sad that there are so many who feel like death is their only option. Coming from my complete depressive state, I understand that that option is there. I felt for a long time that everyone around me would be much better off without me, and I sometimes would pray that I just wouldn't wake up. But I knew that there is so much more to life than the sadness that I felt right then. I saw my family and friends who loved me and knew that I couldn't do anything to jeopardize myself because of them. I remember in jr. high and high school, it seemed like that was all that mattered, and that the things that happened then were everything. But they are not. Life goes on after high school, who you dated or didn't date doesn't matter. What part you got in a musical doesn't matter, who you were friends with or wasn't friends with won't matter. Because you will find people who will love you no matter what. I remember thinking that my life would be much different after high school. I thought that I was going to marry someone completely different than who I actually ended up with, but I needed those experiences in high school to be better prepared. God has a plan for each of us, and there is no saying what will happen. We must have faith in him and know that his plan really is the Plan of Happiness. We may go through trials and struggles, but we always have to remember that what we go through is teaching moments. We must be humbled to become better.
I love that story of the footprints in the sand, and Christ promised that he would always be there, and in the end the person looks back and sees that there were only one set of footprints during their hardest struggles and they question why and remind Christ that He promised he would be with them forever. I always cry when the last part of this story is read and Christ tells them that when there was only one set of footprints is when He was carrying them. We were not sent to this life to fail, we were sent to this life so that we could be tested. I love that I have my knowledge of Heavenly Fathers love for us. We will see our loved ones again, family is the most important unit in the Gospel, because Heavenly Father wouldn't want us to be without our family, because He doesn't want to be without us. We are His Children, and He loves us and He wants us to succeed and be the absolute best person that we can be.

Time Flies when a Baby Crawls!

I have been trying to figure out where to start this post, and after much deliberating I'll start where my last post ended off... Post Partum Depression has been the bane of my existence. I hate it, I hate not knowing how I'm going to feel the next morning when I go to bed. I hate being scared that the next day is going to be a bad day, I hate waking up and trying to make it a good day. My medication is working because it's making the bad days less frequent and less severe, but it makes it so that I don't know when I'm going to have a bad day. It also freaks me out when I have several good days in a row because I know that it's the calm before the storm and it's just one more wake up til I have another bad day. I am making progress, but it's difficult. All I can do is just keep praying that Heavenly Father will help me through the bad days when they come and put it in His hands. It's up to me to make the most of it, but I know that He helps me. I am able to lay down at night and as Jon and I are going to sleep I can talk to him about how the day has been, and I can tell him if it's been a good or bad day. Then I thank God that He sent a wonderful man to be my husband. I honestly don't know what I would do without Jon, he is so incredibly perfect for me and I cannot imagine life without him.

Alright! So I have Christmas Eve, Christmas, Boxing Day, New Years Eve, New Years Day and Liam's six month to cover.... so here we go!

We have been pretty sick at our house over the past couple months! First off, I got sick with a horrible, wicked cold. It was pretty bad. Then Jon got whatever I had got, and about two days into his illness I got better. Then I was good for probably three/four days and then I got sick again. Two sick parents and a busy baby is not a fun combo. Especially when all we wanted to do was sleep and all Liam wanted to do was play.
We have a couple traditions that we do for Christmas that Jon and I started while we were dating. The first thing that we started was going on a Hayride through Layton Park to see the lights. We have done it for the three years that Jon and I have been together and so we got Liam all bundled up and we went to the Burger Stop on Gentile and we purchased our tickets and then went and got on the trailer. Liam loved it!! He got super excited and was bouncing up and down with happiness. We also took him to see the Santa Claus at the mall, and we got some really cute pictures of that.
Christmas Eve, we went to Breakfast with Barb, originally we were going to go to Jeremiah's, but when we got there the wait was an hour and so we weren't about to wait that long. So we went to Ihop and we had a good time. Liam was happy to see Grandma, and he got showered with presents, which he enjoyed. After we came home and Liam took a nap and so did I as I was still feeling pretty sick. Then Rod, Sheri and the boys came and picked us up and we all traveled down to South Jordan for Christmas Eve with the Mosher family. We had quite the fun time. Grandma Mosher had set up a Christmas Program for the evening which included me singing Mary's Lullaby, and the reading of the Nativity. We ate food, enjoyed the awesome company of the family and then finally it was time for presents. Grandma gave Liam his present and we opened it up for him and it was a soft, giant, stuffed Elephant. Liam loved it! He grabbed onto it and cuddled with it and he had a blast wth playing with it. Rod and Sheri drove us home and we opened our Christmas Eve pajama's and our Christmas Eve Movie which was the Dean Martin Variety Show: Christmas Episode. Liam got a bath, and then he snuggled into his Christmas P.J's and then he went to sleep. Jon and I got into our P.J's and we watched our movie and then we went to bed. The next morning we woke up and we opened our Christmas presents and then we got in the van and drove off to Rod and Sheri's for Christmas Morning Breakfast. Liam got to open his presents there and fell in love with all of them. Then we went to my parents for Christmas Dinner: Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding... YUM! We opened up our presents and then relaxed for the rest of the day. Then the final present from Jon to me: Les Miserables tickets!!! We went to the movie theatre and we watched the movie. It was brilliant. Oh my gosh, I love it! I was not a huge Les Mis fan til a little bit before Liam was born, but we watched the 25th Anniversary Concert version and loved it. I was actually watching that in the hospital when Liam was born. Then we came home and all snuggled into bed.
The next couple days were slightly uneventful. Rachel, Matt, Jon and I hung out New Years Eve and then New Years Day, Rachel and I went to Les Mis.
 Liam turned six months old on January 3, 2013! And so this is a run down of things that he can do.
* He can roll over tummy to back and back to tummy.
* He can sit up all by himself
* He eats very well and can feed himself finger foods
* He holds up his own bottle
* He sleeps through the night
* He smiles and flirts with every girl within his immediate surroundings
* A Week before his half birthday, he learned how to crawl.
* After learning how to crawl he now will grab onto whatever he can and use it to stand himself up
Yes, my baby boy is mobile! Life has been crazy since that revelation hit our home. Now everything that Liam can get into he does. He crawls all over the place now, and he is super fast. I cannot take my eyes off of him for a minute because the next thing I know he's on the other side of the room! It's crazy! But way fun!
Then on January 10, I had such an amazing experience happen. I got LASIK done. I am finally able to see without glasses or contacts. It was so crazy!! I went in and they got me prepped with booties on my shoes and a hairnet, and then I was given a valium which definitely calmed my nerves. I was taken into the pre-op room and they told me to take off my glasses for the last time. I removed my glasses and everything was fuzzy. Then they led me into the room and had me lay down on the chair/bed. Then they put tons of numbing drops into my eyes and proceded to create a flap in my cornea and reshape my eye with the laser. Then he put the flap back down and it was remarkable! I could see!! I was completely in shock! It was amazing! Modern technology is definitely awe inspiring! It's a new experience to be able to wake up and not have to put on my glasses or put in contacts. I can just see. I was really nervous for the procedure but then Jon and our neighbour Glen gave me a blessing the night before and I knew that everything would be good.

well that's about all that I have for now. I will write more soon I promise!