Summer of 2012 has begun

Whew!  Summer has begun and boy has it been busy!  At the end of the school year, I opened up the curtains in front of our back door and was pleasantly surprised to see a mom and dad quail along with 10 or so of their brand new baby's following them in a straight line.  They were so adorable!  While David was trying to figure out a way to keep them in the back yard so they wouldn't run into the street,  a baby accidently ran into the house.  When David came back inside, he saw the poor baby running around with Easton eagerly chasing after it.

 In December, David and I purchased two nightstands off of craigslist.  It has taken us five months to refinish the dang things.  We rigorously tried sanding with a power sander, but after several nicks were taken out of the wood, we resorted to manually hand sanding and attempting to use stain remover.  I vowed to David that we would NEVER do such a laborious project again!  However, after David finished putting new stain on this week and we put on new handles, I have to say the final product is gorgeous.  I told David "Call me crazy, but I kind of want to refinish a dresser now".  The stain is a beautiful Mahogany color that perfectly matches our bed frame.

 Final Product

This week my sister Stacey was able to get several free tickets to the Diamondbacks vs. Rockies game so David and I seized the opportunity to spend some time watching good ol' baseball. The Diamondbacks won, 7-1 which made for a GREAT game. We even got to see a home run!

 I planned a playdate for several ladies in the ward (church) and we took our little ones to the San Tan Mall Splash Pads for some fun.

This past Friday, June 8th, David and I got to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary.  We started the morning by going golfing at Golfland-Sunsplash.  The golfing was free, sponsored by a local radio station.  It was quite warm, but we had a GREAT time.

In the evening, my mom watched Easton while David and I went to eat and play games at Dave N' Busters.  One of our favorite games to play there is "Deal or No Deal".  Well, on our second round of playing the game, we picked suitcases wisely (or rather we were lucky and picked good ones by change) and ended up winning the 300 ticket Jackpot!  We were elated!

We then went to Tempe Town Lake and took a romantic hour long rowboat ride at sunset.  Poor David's hand were nearly blistered and his back hurting by the time we were done, but he wouldn't let me take the oars.  How fortunate I am to have this handsome of husband of mine.  He makes me life so fun and interesting and he is a constant source of strength to me.  He is bright and funny and makes me laugh!  Happy 5 years my love!

Another room change

As the school year came to a close, I packed up my Speech Room, again (third time in two years), and started hauling my things to my new and bigger classroom (we will now by in a huge Kindergarten room instead of the Janitor's old closet).  This left me with bitter sweet feelings.  This room had lots of memories.  When I first started working at Islands Elementary two years ago, we (two SLP's) were in a TINY office room.  Only one of us could fit in the room with a table for 3-4 children and there was only one desk between the two of us.  We put our everything we had into fighting for a larger room, and the psychologist was kind enough to offer to switch places with us.  So two months into the school year, we switched to the psychologist's room, AKA the "janitors closet".  About a month into being in the new room, the water heater in our room exploded, flooding our floor and many of the rooms next to ours.  Dead cockroaches were displaced out of the water heater closet and we were told that we would have to leave the room for several weeks while walls were ripped out and new carpeting put in-just to be sure mold did not grow anywhere.

So back to our old TINY room we went-thankfully our psychologist friend again let us borrow her room.  After our room was cleaned, walls put it, painted, and furniture back to normal, life resumed as normal.  Last summer I decided to pay a chunk of money to paint one of the walls in our room a beautiful royal blue.  You see, the entire Speech Room was WHITE-and I can't STAND all white walls.  Makes me feel like i'm living in a doctor's office or insane asylum.  I pleaded to get a white board installed, which we eventually recieved.  I loved our cozy office which we had turned into our home. AND there was room for bookshelves, storage cabinets and TWO desks.

We just got a new principal at the end of this school year and some changes were made with classrooms.  He presented us with the opportunity to moved into a full sized Kindergarten room, since the Kindergarten census has been so low that less rooms/teachers have been needed for that grade level.  It will be great to have more space, but I feel like so much work was put into our old room that I don't want to leave it.  Plus our now old room was connected to the Reading team's room and what fun those ladies are!

On to welcoming the new changes and hoping for the best!

Graduation

This past Thurday, May 24th, we got to celebrate David's little sister Sharilyn's high school graduation from Highland High School.  I got off work early that day, since I work in the Gilbert School District and it was the last day of school/early release, and we went to David's Aunt Julie's house.  Sharilyn and her two cousins Nathan Shaw and Brett Judy were also graduating from Highland so Brett's dad put together a slide show of the kids growing up years.  It brought up many laughs and good memories for several family members in the room.  All of David's siblings, their spouses, and children along with Brett and Nathan family members were there.  Afterwards, we got to eat a yummy Mexican dinner.  We then headed down to the high school to get seats.  Unfortunately we went to the high school later than I suggested and therefore many of the seats in the bleachers were already filled.  We were able to squeeze our way in and after a short time of wresting with Easton, the little guy fell asleep on me.  The weather was absolutely beautiful with a cool breeze blowing.  Early in the week we were experiencing 108 degree weather so this cool down into the 80's was a pleasant surprise.  About a million speeches were given and then students all walked and received their diplomas.  Sharilyn also graduated from EVIT earlier in the week and so she now has her Dental Assistant license. Smart girl.  We are so proud of her in putting forth so much hard work!

Summer is beginning and I only have one more week of work!  This summer I plan on doing mommy-infant swim lessons with Easton at a public pool close by, doing play dates with friends and their babies, dressing up as a cow again with Easton (for Chik Fil A day), going to Utah/Idaho for a family reunion/go zip lining in Provo/play at Lagoon amusement park/get pictures taken by David's amazing photograph cousin Kate, and making a stocking for Easton.  Let's hope that I can finish the stocking by the end of the summer rather than taking two years (like my mom's) to complete.

I will also get to spend a little more time with this guy (he's my most favorite person in the world):

What are your plans for the summer?

Heaven is here

Have you read this book?  Perhaps one my greatest "idols" that I look up to, secondary to my own mother, is Stephanie Nielsen.  I recently read her biography entitled "Heaven is Here", and I don't think I have ever sobbed as much while reading a book.  You see, around 2007 (not sure of the exact year) Stephanie was enjoying a beautiful life with her four young children and husband.  Her husband, Christian, was taking flight lessons in order to get his pilot license.  At the end of his training, he needed to complete a significant flight.  He decided to take a day trip to New Mexico with his instructor Doug and his wife Stephanie.  On the way back from New Mexico, Christian stopped to refuel the plane in St. Johns AZ, just 30 minutest (flight time) from their home in Mesa.  Shortly after the plane took off, their were complications with the plane and it crashed.

Stephanie recounts her experience coming to consciousness right after the plane crashed and being engulfed in flames.  She couldn't see a thing and could not get her seatbelt off.  It was her angelic grandmother that helped her get her seatbelt off and guided her to where the door to the plane was so that she could get out.  Stephanie saw the skin melting off her arms.  She was taken to the AZ burn center where she was placed in a medically induced coma for 3 months.  When she awoke, her life was forever changed. 

Her children were scared to see her.  Her daughter refused to look at her for months. Her youngest son who was about a year old at the time of the crash, didn't even know who she was.  He kept crying for his "mom" who was Stephanie's sister that took care of him while Stephanie was healing.  After a year of excruciating pain, surgery's, and difficult trials just trying to complete basic functions (bathing, toileting, eating), she was able to hike "Y" mountain in Provo Utah.  I can't even properly share all that Stephanie went through-go read the book! My heart ached for Stephanie.  She is a beacon of hope in my life.

Today I was thinking about how many bridges I've burned with friends and family I love.  How much pain  I have caused.  I also thought of how much others have hurt me and hurt my husband.  I started feeling sorry for myself.  I thought if the opportunity presented itself to move out of state for schooling, maybe I should look forward to the chance to start over.  Then I thought, life is much too short to dwell in self pity.  I can ask forgiveness of those I have hurt or offended.  I can not make them forgive me.  I can't ask them to change their ways so as to stop hurting me or my family members.  And to me that is the hardest part-watching family get continually hurt.  I look at Stephanie and see all that she has suffered.  All that her whole family has suffered.  How much her siblings and extended family members have reached out to support and carry her.  How incredibly loving her husband is, no matter how depressed she has gotten, no matter the tattered scars on her body.  In her book, Stephanie closes by saying how her scars are a continuous reminder of how much God loves her and how precious life is.  They are a reminder that each day is a gift, not to be wasted.  And so with that thought, I resolve to try a little harder, to do a little better.  To be grateful for what I have, and to share my love and service with others.  To make the wrongs I have committed, right.  I am grateful for my life and all I have been given. Heavenly truly is here on earth.

Brinkley's blessing

This past Sunday 5/6/2012, our family got to see the newest addition to the family receive a precious blessing by her father.  Cody gave the sweetest blessing to little Brinkley and it was neat to see the tears in his eyes after giving the blessing-a sign of a father's true love and best hopes for his daughter.  I also had some tears in my eyes, thinking of all the blessings our Heavenly Father has in store for each of his children.  It was only two short months ago that Brinkley decided to leave the presence of her Heavenly Father to join her mortal family.  How greatful I am to be her aunt!  Here are some pictures of Brinkley's special day, courtesy of Brinkley's mommy Rosalee.

Mommy and daughter

All of Brinkley's family  

12 of the 13 grandkids

It's April!

Time to do my once a month blog posting :)  At the beginning of this month, our family enjoyed watching General Conference at my brother Chris' home.  The week after, my two brothers and David loaded up our small Corolla and headed to California.  My littlest brother Kyle was turning the big "10" and had never been on a roller coaster before.  My oldest brother Chris decided to suprise him with a trip to Six Flags.  The boys enjoyed the cool California air.  Kyle initially was freaked out by the roller coasters and by the end of the day, decided they weren't so bad after all.  Upon returning to the parking lot, the boys discovered that some jerk had backed into our car, leaving a nice dent on the side of the car and a shattered side view mirror on the ground.  Did I mention he also left a scratch?  As soon as the boys returned to AZ, it was time to rush to Grandma and Grandpa Bunzell's house for our Sunday Easter festivities.  While backing out of the garage, David refused to tell me what was on his mind.  He just said "don't look in any mirrors"-which naturally I did anyways.  I saw that the car he took to California was not my beautiful black Corolla anymore.  We took it to a nearby auto body shop and they estimated repair costs to be 1400$.  We have to pay 750$ as our deductible if we want insurance to pick up the extra fees. Ouch!

Strawberry season is now in full swing and I decided to take advantage of the 2/1.00 packages at the farmers market.  I also picked up some squash, apples, and a HUGE bag of tomatoes.  Total cost=7.20$  I was quite pleased with my purchase.  I ended up making baby food for Easton, 11 jars of strawberry freezer jam, salsa, and will be using the rest of the tomatoes for pasta salad and hamburgers this week.  Yum!

David's dad has been working on promoting his Jackalopes Archery Tag business.  As such, David's cousin Kristi was so kind and generous and came over this past week to take pictures of "the boys" in their camo outfits. Thank you Kristi! I think I've got a good lookin' group of boys in my family.  What do you think?

This week, David started trying to gather letters of recommendation, typing a letter of intent, and trying to decide which Physician Assistant programs to apply to again this year.  Last year he had no patient contact hours, which I think is the reason he did not get accepted.  Since January of this year, however, he has accumulated several hundred hours working as a Certified Nursing Assistant.  I just pray that this will be the final thing he needed to get in.  Arizona only has two PA schools and I am terrified of going out of state. More so for having to put Easton with some stranger while I work to support our family.  We have been so incredibly blessed to have mine and David's mothers watching him for us.  In the end, we will go where David gets accepted-otherwise, we don't move forward with career goals.  May the odds be ever in our favor this year.  Wish us luck this round!

As the school year comes to a close (can you believe it??? Only 5 more weeks!), there are many events we are looking forward to.  Two of my best friends are graduating with their doctorates!  Yes, the soon to be Dr. Melissa Galbraith, Au.D and Dr. Julie Pena M.D. will be graduating this May.

David's little sister Sharilyn will be graduating high school (the last graduate in his family).....Gorgeous isn't she?

......and my great Aunt Karen is getting remarried!  Hopefully more pictures to come.  Congrats to my wonderful family and friends for their accomplishments!

Random Thoughts

In no specific order, here are some recent thoughts and events that have run through our family in the past few months:

1. Baby Brinkley:

This past Saturday, Cody and Rosalee (my brother and sister in law) welcomed their first beautiful baby into this world. Baby Brinkley weighed 7lbs and is completely adorable. It's been hard to watch Rose endure the hardships of nursing, no sleep, and recovery. I was just there 7 months ago and it is still VERY fresh in my mind. I wish Cody and Rosalee the best on their new journey of parenthood.

Home at last!

2. Hiking:

For President's day, my family kidnapped me and we went hiking in Gold Canyon. Ok, they didn't kidnap me, but they would not stop hounding me about going until I finally said yes. You see, I strongly dislike hiking and camping. I feel like i'm in a Dr. Seuss book, "I don't like hiking. Not with a fox, not in box, not in tree, family just let me be! I do not hiking Sam I am!" Alas I went and though the scenery was beautiful, Easton was miserable and screamed the entire way down the mountain-which led to me being miserable. Poor little guy had a high fever that night. Don't think we will be hiking for awhile. As a side note, I do like easy nature walks on paved roads during sunset ;)

3. Kiara turns 5!

This past Sunday, we celebrated my niece Kiara's fifth birthday! I can't believe how fast time has gone-seems like just yesterday she was Easton's age. This girl is incredibly smart and talented. She knows all of her colors, numbers, is starting to read, and has the vocabulary of a 16 year old. What a joy she has been to have in our family. Happy Birthday Kiara!

Did I mention how fortunate I am to have such adorable nieces and nephews. These are the three on my side of the family, and I have twelve others on my husbands side.

4. Easton

Of course I have to give an update on my little baby! Easton is a busy body. He loves to stand ALL the time. In order to sit him down you have to swipe your arms under his legs. He wants constant attention and if he sees you, he starts fussing until you pick him up. Lesson, if you want to get anything done, don't let Easton see you! The boy is eating small bowls full of food during meal time along with a bottle. He is not too fond of most veggies, but if you stick applesauce in the veggies, he will eat it. He LOVES his applesauce! Every night at bedtime, he listens to Enya or baby lullabies....this he does from our beloved Ipod.

At his sixth month checkup, he weighed close to 17lbs and was around the 45th percentile for heighth, weight, and head size. His growth has slowed. I keep trying to figure out how my baby went from this:

To this:

......in just a few short months. Happy 7 months to my sweet little Easton!

Where to start

I have slacked on my blog for 3 months now-that is a record for me and something I am not proud of. I have tried, in the past, to diligently blog so that I could have all my blog entries printed and made into a book. This would serve as both a journal and a scrapbook. Hopefully I can do a little catching up. For Thanksgiving, we spent the whole day with my family. We got up early and ran the turkey trot, then played tennis at Mountain View High School. We rested and waited for the Thanksgiving Feast to finish. This year, we were fortunate to have mom Bunzell (David's mom) have the feast with us as the rest of the Bunzell bunch were either working or at the other side of the family's. Friday, I did my usual Black Friday shopping, although having a young baby this year changed things a little bit. I slept in until 7 and figured if the stores were out of what I wanted, then I would wait for new shipments to come in. There was nothing I was willing to lose sleep over (getting up at 5a.m. this year would have been a joke).

Unfortunately, we forgot to bring our camera on Christmas day, so we have no pictures. Christmas this past year fell on a Sunday, so we hurried to my parents and ate our usual French Toast Casserole and Quiche breakfast then rushed to my parents church. My brother Chris and has family also joined us. My mom's ward choir never practiced the song they sang during church and it sounded terrible, :(. It was off key and at one point the piano kept playing and the choir didn't know where the pianist was so they stopped singing. We all had a good laugh afterwards. David spoiled me this year. He bought me SO many things, including three new outfits and three matching pairs of shoes! I was quite impressed. Santa gave David a new Kindle which David has been religiously using to read books, every day! Easton was too little to really enjoy Christmas, but he was sure cute dressed in his Santa pajamas! I can't believe it was one year since we had announced on Christmas day, that we were expecting a baby!

For New Years, we went to my brother Chris' house and ate lots of goodies and played Just Dance 1 and 2 as well as other games on the Wii. My brother got us so addicted, that when a sale came on for Just Dance 3 a few days later, David and I HAD to get it. We have been using it a few times a week as means to get some exercise on the days that we just can't go to the gym. We have thoroughly enjoyed it!

For Christmas my parents and brother had gotten fishing poles, so in January, we all went down to the Salt River and tried to fish. We went to a spot where several people said they caught about 4 fish. Well, they must have caught all the fish, because we didn't get a single bite all night! Fishing is something my mom really wants to do more of. This is the first she has had a fishing license, since fishing is something my dad doesn't like doing. She is determined to use that license and catch several fish throughout the year. We plan on joining her as it is nice to spend some time in the good old outdoors.

Our sweet Easton is growing and growing. I now know his routine and generally understanding why he is crying. He will be six months old in the next week and has started eating solids. His body has had a hard time adjusting to the change in food and we have been worried about his lack of being able to have good bowl movements over the last few weeks. We are hoping this is a temporary thing and that he will not have to take a visit to the doctor! We have been so lucky to have my mom and David's mom watch Easton while we are at work. It so great knowing he is in safe and loving hands all day. We couldn't ask for better! Easton loves to take baths-he is totally a water baby. Grandma Bunzell had to give him a bath one day since he got too messy. He is a drool bug and we have to change his bib around 3 times ever day-think of all that SLOBBER!

It's off to get some goodies ready. We are heading over to my brother's house tonight to watch the Superbowl! May the best team win! (not sure who is even playing this year lol, but the half time show is generally fun to watch!!)

October-Early November

So this post is fairly late, but life has been so busy for us! I started back to work full time on October 24th. We have been so lucky as both David's mom and my mom have graciously offered to watch Easton for us. We know he is in loving hands while we are off at work! The beginning of October was General Conference. Every year, since we don't have cable at our house, we head over to my brother's home and eat breakfast/lunch while watching wonderful messages from our prophet and other church leaders. Between sessions, we busted out Twister and had some good old fashioned fun! David kicked my bootie, but largely because he kept cheating and stealing the spaces that I should have landed on. It made for some fun though!

For Halloween, David bought some swords and nunchucks and all three of us dressed up as ninjas! We went to my mom's Halloween party, then to David's parents Halloween party, and finally to our own church Halloween party on the Saturday before Halloween. Such a busy busy night, but we had fun and Easton was so good! On Halloween night, we went to my brother's church Halloween party and enjoyed our 5th meal in a row of chili. After that bowl, I told David I never wanted to eat chili again lol. We also walked to our friends home, the Booths, and shared a nice fire pit in their driveway while handing out candy to trick or treaters.

On the first Sunday in November, we were spoiled to have so many family members share Easton's special day with us. David blessed him at church, and then afterwards, we had all of our family members over to our house for a light lunch.

As Christmas time is approaching, I think of how grateful I am for so many blessings in my life. I think back to a few years ago when David, my mom, my sister and I secretly left a Christmas tree on the door step of a co-workers home. The co-worker had told me a few days prior that they had no tree, no money, and would not be having Christmas that year. She was worried about her children and not having gifts for them. The next morning (after delivering the tree), my co-worker greeted me that morning with tears in her eyes. She said "Lynette, you will NEVER believe what happened. God answered my prayers. There was a Christmas tree left on my doorstep. My children and I were SO excited!" It makes tears fill my eyes when I think of that experience and how such a simple thing brought so much joy. I am keeping my eyes and ears opened for ways I can secretly bless the lives, or at least bring a little Christmas cheer, to my family and friends who are struggling this holiday season!

Kyle eating minnow at Woods Canyon - 10/14/11

First Camping Trip

Being stuck at home for the last few months has really done a number on me lol. Thank goodness for my mother who has let me come hang out at her house nearly every day just to be around people! For those that know me best, they can quickly tell you how much I really don't like camping. I don't like sleeping in the cold, I don't like not showering, and I don't like bugs! But as I just mentioned, being stuck at home has changed my mind about some things. I finally decided that I WANTED to go camping with my family over Fall Break as means to break up the monotony of staying at home. So little Easton and I rode up with my mom to the rim, about 30 miles past Payson, on Friday afternoon. David met us the following evening as his work would not permit him to take the day off.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous (when we first arrived) and the leaves were changing into their Fall colors. My two brothers had gone backpacking the day before and so they met us at camp. We followed the boys to the lake and watched while they went fishing. Kyle, my youngest brother, ended up eating a live minnow on a dare/bribe for 1$ from my older brother. (See last blog post for video). My mom and I were disgusted :) My sister in law and her three kids as well as my sister Heidi came in later that evening, just in time to go to bed! I did not sleep well at all that night. The campgrounds were filled with people and they were all so noisy! I hear people next to us throwing up and later in the night, several Elk were bugeling. Factor in the coldness (40 degrees) and a baby to feed (once during the night) and little sleep was had.


Saturday, my mom made a yummy egg-mcmuffin breakfast and after cleanup, my mom, sister, and I decided to take a nap while everyone else went to the lake. After the nap, everyone went to collect firewood and shoot my brother's airsoft gun. I also ended up seeing my good friend Kim and her boyfriend riding bikes right where we were shooting the guns-talk about a small world! We later enjoyed a wonderful dutch over dinner/dessert consisting of chicken pot pies and brownies. I was so excited when my David arrived with my dad, shortly before dinner. Boy did I miss my David!

Sunday, we had yummy breakfast burritos, cleaned up camp and went to the lake. No fish were caught again but we enjoyed the beautiful weather. David and I had a nice chat on the ride home about setting goals together. We want to get in shape and start eating healthy. We want to really start getting into joint hobbies. David wants me to get a bow so that I can start doing archery with him :)

This is my last week before I have to go back to work! I enjoyed spending Monday at my mother in laws house, Tuesday visiting the school I work at and later in the evening playing a co-ed soccer game, Wednesday with my family playing a soccer game with my dad's 9 year old team that he coaches, and today I will spend with the baby. I am going to attempt getting some last minute cleanings done and then I have enrichment tonight.

I can't believe how fast the last few weeks have flown. David is doing his CNA clinicals at Springdale West nursing facility just a few miles from us. Today is his last day, then he will take his final exam tomorrow and State Board exam Sunday-then he is done! Wohoo! (Can you tell how excited I am!!). He is considered doing job interviews with this nursing home as he has enjoyed his experience, they like him, and they are hiring right now. The pay is not very good at all and would be a decrease from what he is making now. Plus I don't know about benefits (Wells Fargo has AWESOME benefits). We got a letter this week stating that David did not make it into the PA program at the University of Utah. We are both sad about this but are hoping doors open down here for him. If nothing else, hopefully working as a CNA will significantly boost his ability to get into one of the schools!

Easton has started chatting a lot more and smiling in response to people talking to him. I am absolutely loving this stage he is in. He will be 10 weeks tomorrow, weighs 13.8lbs, is 23inches, and has a huge head! The doctor said he is in the 70th percentile for height and weight and in the 90th percentile for head circumfrence! I will miss my little buddy once I go to work, but I know he is in good hands with my mom and mother-in-law watching him!