Just some pictures...

First we have Kyri watching General Conference with me and Eric. She is fascinated by the computer and conference was no exception.

Next we have our bookshelves! Our house is finally coming together (we moved at the end of August) and we are very excited to have our bookshelves full of books rather than random stuff.

Last, we have my hair in a bun. This is only exciting to me, but the fact that I can use a pen to keep it up means that it is getting long again! I've had it short for most of the last 4 years, so long is fun!

Grandma Norma Jean Orton

I've been putting this off for well over a month, perhaps in the vain hope that I would wake up one morning and things would be different.

Grandma Orton passed away just after midnight on August 10, 2012.  She had been doing poorly for some time and it was certainly not unexpected.  The Wednesday before she died was the last day I spent with her, trying to get her to eat (which she was having none of) and coaxing her to drink (which she wasn't having much of).  Our last conversation was about Eric.  She asked where my hubby was.  I told her that he was at home, and she smiled at me.  "He is wonderful!"  I agreed and told her that he loved her so much.  "I love him back, and you too!"  She smiled and went back to sleep.  She was still sleeping when I left.  The next day, she didn't get up at all.  She stayed in bed and slept.  Eric and I went over about 9 pm-ish to say goodbye.  We were still awake when we got the call at about 12:45 that she was gone.

I found this on Pinterest, and though I did not write it, it is as close as it gets:

We love her and we are so glad that she got to go home, but we miss her all the same.

Grandpa Irwin Pete Jacks

Yesterday, just before midnight, Grandpa Jacks died from kidney failure.  Our lives will never be the same; WE will never be the same.  In the last 18 months, he has been a focal point of our lives.

We knew it was coming, he had been in severe pain for the last few days and eating less and less for the last month or so.  Dan made the choice to take him to the ER, where blood tests told us about the kidney failure.  We were told he had between 24 hours and 1 week to live.  That was yesterday morning.

We will miss him, but he is whole and back with his sweetheart now.  We can only hope that we did as much for him as he did for us.

Complications

If life wasn't already complicated enough (and believe me, at the moment it is) we have a new complication: Celiac.

I got tested a few weeks ago, and while I haven't gotten my results back yet, I went gluten free anyhow, just to see if it makes a difference.  IT DOES!  I have less anxiety (or rather less anxiety for no reason) and seem to have fewer headaches. 

I have also learned a new way to lose weight, it's called the "I have nothing I can safely eat in my house that won't take at least an hour to prepare and it's already 9 pm, so I'm going to drink a bunch of water and just go to bed" diet.  I've lost about 4 lbs in the past 2 weeks!  I am working on fixing this problem though, seeing as I really don't have much weight to lose. 

The sad thing is that my metabolism has decided to kick into a higher gear (between the no gluten and a lovely thing called Spark) and so I eat little meals, but eat more often.  This is the more healthy way to do things from what I have read (been doing research) but it is hard for me to come up with things I will actually eat, that I CAN actually eat. 

As hard as it is to work around, I am glad to have something to work at that I KNOW makes a difference in how I feel.  Is complicated, but will be worth the effort.

So, funny story...

For the last week Karen has been gone on a trip and Diane has been taking care of Grandma during the day.  I have been going over every evening to help get Grandma into bed and give Diane just a little social time.

We discovered that the easiest way to get Grandma all the way onto her bed is for me to stand on the bed and help her slide back.  I pick her up under the arms and we go back about 10 inches.  So far this has worked quite well with no problems.  Tonight we had one small difficulty:   When I placed my feet, I put them farther forward than usual.  The result was that, as Grandma came backwards, my balance shifted and I fell on my butt behind Grandma with a loud squeak!  We were all fine, although I was sure Diane was going to die from laughing at me.  Grandma wanted to be sure I was alright and then laughed as well.  It was an adventure for sure!

Mother's Day

I will be honest, Mother's Day is hard for me.  I am not going into all the details here, but suffice to say, I usually spend the day feeling like I've been kicked in the stomach.  This year was different for two reasons:

1.  Reid called.  Having that to look forward to gave me a bright spot to look forward to all week.  I kept reassigning Sunday from "Mother's Day" to "The Day Reid Calls" in my head.

2.  My beehives.  Two of them gave me Mother's Day cards "To Mommy Claire".  They made me cry.

Eric and I didn't stay for the last hour (I can't do Relief Society easily, there are a number of people who use the Doterra oils and while most are fine individually, more than one or two tend to make me get migraines) but before we left I popped into the YW room to say hi to my girls.  When I opened the door they all saw me and demanded to hug me before I left.  So I stood there, trying not to cry, as Rachel, Kayla, Bella, Ang, Megan, and Natalie all gave me hugs.  So cool!

 So, I can say that I am the proud mother of about 8 (Merilee and Hailey were gone on Sunday) 12 and 13 year-old girls.  =D

Eric's present to me:

This is a REALLY old piano (Okay, maybe not that old, but at least well-loved and last serviced, that we know of, in 1969) that Eric's friend was going to get rid of and Eric (knowing I have been wanting a piano) said that we would take off his hands.  I will admit that it needs some TLC, but overall it is actually in pretty good shape and works well enough for my level of skill to get me going.  He also got me a card (HILARIOUS!) and pink roses!

We had dinner with my parents and Joslyn, which was lots of fun, especially dessert!  Dad claimed the privilege of putting together the individual sized cheesecakes and here are his creations:

This was mine!

This one was for Jo!

And this was dad's!

Mom's was not as exotic looking (or rather normal enough looking that we didn't think about it much), so it didn't get a picture and Eric was late to dinner and did his own. (No mint and more berries!)

It was a good day!

Up To Date

So, I keep thinking that I need to update this thing... let people know what we have been up to the last two years.  I get overwhelmed so fast though, and nothing happens.  So I am starting from scratch (ish) again.  Hopefully things go better this try (forth or fifth time the charm?) and I actually post updates on a more frequent basis.  Here are the highlight of the last two-ish years:

1.  We moved home.  We were at the point where anymore school was a waste of time and money.  So we are back in Richland, and (usually) happy to be here.  No where is perfect, but for the time being, we would rather be here than anywhere else.

2.  Eric has a Grandma and Grandpa who are on opposite sides of the family (His Mom's Mom and Dad's Dad) who both are at that stage of life where they need more help.  Grandpa mostly needs some company and to have meals made for him.   He will eat on his own, but not very well.  Eric goes over twice a day to check on him, make a meal, and keep him company for a few hours.  Grandma needs 24 hour care, so I go over a few times a week to give her full time caregivers (M-I-L Diane and her sister Karen) a break.  Mostly we watch TV and nap.  (She naps, I watch TV.)  Sometimes we talk, sometimes we have lunch (depending on the napping situation) and sometimes we just laugh.  Eric and I have found joy in our service to them.  I can say that the time I spend with Grandma is special for me.  I have a few hours in which to focus on someone else, and everything else fades for that time.  It is a pleasure to me to be able to be there for her when she is less able to do things for herself.

3.  We got two kitties!  Cassandra and Kyri, sisters from a litter my sister's cat had.  I had to be cruel to get Jos to give them up, "The kitties who stay at the farm will either be run over or eaten by coyotes.  Mine will live in a house and be spoiled rotten till they die of old age.  Take your pick... run over or die of old age."  She is glad now that we have them both, as my prediction was correct about the rest of that litter.

4.  I currently serve as the beehive adviser at church.  I can say that I am the proud mother of about 10 girls, all between the ages of 12 and 14.  =D  I love my calling and I love my girls!  Eric is the Sunday school teacher of everyone 16 and older.  He is not as proud of his kids and I am of mine, but he does a good job at teaching them.

I will admit that this is really the last year, not the last two.  From Aug 2010 to Aug 2011 we were is school still and there is really nothing more to say about it.  It happened, but either because of the time issue or simply because we are boring, I don't remember anything noteworthy about it. (EXCEPT meeting David and Amie, who are fabulous!  Sadly, they moved to Maryland the same time we moved back to Washington, but we keep in touch!)

So there is is.  Our life in a nutshell.  And now, we are moving forward, because that is really the only way to go.  =D