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So I asked for suggestions on what I could write about, and I got a couple of great ideas. Lucky says that I should write about my childhood, but I don’t have interesting stories like getting run over by a taxi while laying in the middle of the road on a speed bump like she does. Really you should ask her about it sometime.

Compulsive writer suggested that I write a year in review, and since it is New Years Eve I thought that wasn’t a bad idea. The problem with that idea is that we had a really REALLY horrible year that I have so generously spared you the details of.

I think a year in review is the perfect way to say goodbye to a horrible year. If you choose to click away now I would totally understand. If your still with me here we go.

January started out as a total whirlwind. January is our busy season (we do wedding trade shows) and we worked even more than usual. My hubby travels about half the month, but this year he was gone the whole month except for a few days when he was home in passing. So I spent the month playing single mother, while putting out fires at work. Ash spent the month in airports, and hotels.

January spilled into February, and although life was suppose to slow down we found ourselves working 7 days a week through all of February. Ash was asked to speak at conferences so he ended up out of town about half of February.

March came, and we were ready for life to get back to normal for a while, but it didn’t happen. While going to the doctor for a physical so she could put in her mission papers, my mother in law found out she had breast cancer. When they went in to do the surgery they found that it had spread through her lymph nodes and was worse than they thought.

By April we decided that we were in desperate need of a family vacation. There was a huge divide between us and the kids because we had been in survival mode for so long. We set off for southern California to hang out in the sun, swim in the pool, and be with Ash’s mom while she recovered from surgery and began chemotherapy. The day after we got there I received a phone call that my dad had passed away.

My dad left before I was 2 years old, and only made brief appearances in my life for the next 18 years (that is probably a post for another day). I never realized how much pain and grief I could feel for the loss of a man a barely new. I grieve the loss of opportunity to spend what little time I had with him. I find myself angry at those who kept my dad from being part of my life (his second wife). I once read another bloggers post about her dad, and she said she felt like she had “a dad shaped hole in her heart”, and that’s how I felt.

The next few months are a blur, as I put my head down and avoided life. I trudged through every day until the dark skies finally parted.

In June Ash got me a new puppy, that I love.

In July my mother and father-in-law moved to Utah, and I threw myself into taking care of her to distract myself from my own pain and problems. I cooked, cleaned, and ran errands for her while taking her to many appointments for her cancer treatment. We also had 3 teenage nephews come and stay with us. Two of them came for 10 days and the third stayed for 6 more weeks until mid August. We had a great time, and it was a wonderful distraction, but was also very tiring.

August was spent entertaining the nephews, and showing them all over Utah. I went to Cub Scout day camp with my Wolf den. During lunch I got a phone call that my mother-in-law had a seizure and was on her way to the hospital by ambulance. She ended up ok she had a few stitches and a huge black eye but over all she was fine. They did take her license away for six month so we started having to drive her everywhere.

At the end of August we decided to try another family vacation since our last attempt was a total disaster so we left for Hawaii. Ash and I have promised the kids a trip to Hawaii for years (Ash is from Hawaii). We can’t mange a family vacation without a major disaster, and this one was no different. We had a earthquake, and a hurricane during our trip.

Is anyone still with me?

Well next comes September, and September is our second really busy season so Ash was gone the whole month, and half of October to. By September I realize that we need to make some major changes and I started doing some serious soul searching.

October brought still more craziness, but attending the temple while Ash was out of town, and a lot of scripture reading brought a little peace to my life.

I got a phone call in mid October from Ash’s brother in Iraq asking me if I knew what had happened to his friend Ben. I will spare you the details, because I wrote about it here and here, but after a little detective work I found out that Ben had been in an accident, and was now a quadriplegic, and I spent the next few weeks at the ICU helping out as much as I could.

November was spent at the hospital doing what I could.

Mid November the bishop called me in to let me know that he was going to release me from my calling because he thought I needed a break.

In December family relationships came to a full boil (because of the family business) and we decided that it is time to leave the family business and do something else. I know this is the right thing to do, but it makes our future a little unsure. I have faith that the Lord will take care of us, but I don’t know what the next few months will hold for us.

If this whole post isn’t pathetic enough I’m spending New Years Eve taking care of my hubby, who is horribly sick.

I’m sure by now I have lost you all with my whining, but on the off chance that anyone is still reading this I need to throw in a few good things that happened this year.

1. Sadie went to the temple to do baptisms for the first time.
2. I discovered weight watchers, and have lost 22lbs
3. Ash met one of his idols Seth Godin (who shaved his head)
4. We went to Hawaii
5. My mother in-law finished chemo and radiation and appears to be doing well
6. My mother and father in-law got a mission call to London and will be leaving in February.
7. My children are healthy
8. We had a very generous friend donate a $200 gift certificate for Christmas to Ben and his family.
9. We raised about $2,000 at a benefit dinner for Ben.

Here is hoping for a better new year.

Happy New Year everyone!

I often tease my hubby when he talks about growing up here in happy valley, and the drug problem at his school. He would tell me about kids stealing prescription pills from their parents, or even one kid who would throw himself down the stairs to get pain meds.

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This was incredibly funny to me because were I grew up (in the ghetto) we had a crack man that set up shop on the sidewalk in front of our school, armed security guards, metal detectors, and weed might as well have been sold in the vending machines. It was really that accessible.

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A few months ago while taking a trip to hell Walmart with my new puppy, I was approached by a girl who was interested in asking questions about Bailey. There was nothing in particular about her that was alarming, but every bell and whistle in my head went off. I knew she wanted to take Bailey. When she got closer I could see signs that I was right and she probably was a meth head. Meth isn’t a drug that I’m really familiar with. It wasn’t as readily available in our area, but I saw how twitchy and jumpy she was and just knew. Then she asked if she could hold her, and the red flags really went off. I told her no, and made an abrupt exit into the store.

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As soon as I got into Walmart the annoying nice greeter told me that Bailey would have to wait in the car. I turned around and marched right back to the car. When I got out front I saw two guys chasing down the same girl for trying to steal a bike from the bike rack out front. She was yelling “I’m sorry I’m sorry” and running off. They chased her away, and returned the bike.

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I knew it, I wasn’t crazy that lady wanted to steal my dog to sell for drugs. (Bailey ain’t cheap, she would have been in meth heaven for awhile) I have always prided myself on being street smart and on that day it paid off. When I got home I told Ash all about it, but he didn’t seem as surprised as I was. I guess there really is a drug problem in happy valley. I need to do more to warn my kids.

A friend of mine Lucky Red Hen, told me about the worlds greatest dog groomer in our area; Precious Pet Paradise (I know it’s a mouth full). So yesterday I took my little puppy in for her first hair cut. Her hair had grown so far in to her eyes she couldn’t see wear she was going, and she was one big ball of fluff, which I admit I think is adorable. One of the reasons I picked this kind of dog was because they are so fluffy cute.

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When I got to the groomers, I was a little freaked out because there were a few dogs having a really hard time, and not wanting their hair cut. They looked like they were being hurt although I know they weren’t. Then the groomer came out to talk to me and to take a look at Bailey, and all my fears were put to rest. She was amazing! She scooped Bailey up and cuddled and loved her, and made both Bailey and I feel comfortable.

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I let her know that I didn’t want to cute Bailey’s hair to short, because I liked the fluffy look. As we got talking and she realized that Bailey had a lot of really tangled hair from being really loved, and she thought it would be to traumatic for her on her first visit to have all the tangles brushed out, and then have her hair cut. She made 2 suggestions either we brush her, and bring her back in two weeks for her trim, or we could cute it all short today. Against my better judgement I told them to go ahead and cute it short. BIG MISTAKE! I love my little princess, but she is UGLY!

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This is her before picture, look how cute and sweet and fluffy she is.

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This is her after picture isn’t it sad!

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I do need to say, that the groomer did a great job, it isn’t there fault that I’m not happy with how she looks. They did exactly what I told them to do, and they were so good to her and took great care of her. I will definitely use them again.

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Now on the bright side it will grow back, and at least I didn’t do this to my pet. (Notice how pissed the cat looks in the second picture)

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P.S. A friend of mine says that Bailey looks like the dog from Never Ending Story. What do you think?

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I just realized that with all the business in my life lately I neglected to tell everyone my big news. (Unless you read Ash’s blog then you already know) I’ve been teasing Ash for a few years that I need to have a new baby, or a puppy because my kids are getting older and I need something to cuttle. Of course I said this knowing that he would pick the puppy, and not a baby because we don’t have a lot of luck having healthy children, so a new baby is out of the question.

Finally Ash gave in, and I got a new puppy. She is a 9 week old female Maltese. She weighs 2lbs. and will top out at around 4-6lbs. We named her Bailey (sorry to everyone out there who has a child named Bailey, no I didn’t name my dog after your kid.) Here is a picture of her, and you can see more of them on Ash’s blog.