Thankful Tuesday: My Mom

With writing about my dad for Thankful Tuesday last week, I thought it would be great to talk about my mom this week.  Well what can I say about my mom, she's the best and I love her so very much. Even though she doesn't live close to me (I sometimes wish she did), she lives in Texas and I am here in Utah I want to thank her for everything she has done for me in my 40 years of life, almost 41 years of my life. I remember somethings with her when I was younger, like going shopping, seeing some movies, going on vacations, being there for me when I was sick, for taking me to get my driver's license, and well I can't think of any more things right now.  I do remember her taking care of my brother Tyler (he has Muscular Dystrophy), when I was still living at home she was so good to him, she knew how to take care of him and she still does so much for him and I want to thank her for all that she does for my brother.  I hope I can take care of my son Zach (he also has Muscular Dystrophy) like she takes care of my brother.  I do remember more things when I have been an adult, like the time she came when each one of my children was born, coming to see The Music Man at The Utah Shakespeare Festival, for sending me some Tinkerbell figurines (I love Tinkerbell), for sending me birthday cards every year, for calling me on the phone, for letting us come home for Christmas, for doing some cross stitch for me (I have 4 things in my house that she has done) and for just loving me.
Like I said I love my mom with all my heart, I just wanted to let all of my readers know that I have the best mom in the world and I am so glad she is my mom.

My mom with Zach and Ethan in 2002

My mom with Ethan in 1996

My mom with me, my sisters and sister in law in 2008

My parents, brother Tyler, my husband and kids in 2012

                                                    

My mom holding Connor in the background in 2004

Thankful Tuesday : My Dad

With Father's Day this past Sunday, I thought it would be good to write about my dad.  I am not a writer at all, so please bare with me as I write about him.  What can I say about my dad,  I love him with all of my heart and he means the world to me.  He is an awesome dad and I will tell you why.  He has been there for me my whole life, even though we live so far away from each other.  I live in Utah and my dad now lives in Texas.  He moved from California and that will always be my home, even though I haven't lived there for several years.  I just want to thank him for all that he has done for me, when I was still living at home and now that I am married.  He has helped him through the years and I just want to say Your The Best Dad and Thank You For Everything That You Have Done For Me Through The Years.  I am 40 years old and well you are never to old to still need your dad.  I know I don't talk to him often about what is going on in my life, but I just want him to know that I Love Him With All Of My Heart and I hope that I can visit him in Texas sometime this year, but I don't know when.  I want to thank him for coming to Ethan's blessing when he was a baby, for helping us move to Arizona in 2004, for coming to Utah to see Ethan become a Teacher at age 14 and a Priest at the age of 16 in my ward, for seeing Zach and Connor when they were baptized at the age of 8, for helping Ethan go to BYU Soccer Camp and for coming to see The Music Man at The Utah Shakespeare Festival with us.  There are many more things that I can mention about what he has done, but that would be a very long list.  Thank You Dad for just being there for me, You Rock Dad.

Nate,(Will's brother) Will and Dad

My parents and I at my wedding Dec. 17, 1994

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My Dad reading at his new house in TX in Dec. 2010

My parents and my brother in TX Dec. 2010

Taken after Connor was Baptized in Dec. 2012 with my dad and one of my aunt and uncles

This was taken in Kanab years ago and I know my dad is asleep, but I love the shirt he is wearing.

My Dad with Connor, when he was a baby.

Thankful Tuesday : Angels Among Us

If you are on facebook, you already know some of this, but I am going to write more about it.  Okay, so I took my boys to Spanish Fork on Thursday to spend a few days with my sister and her family and because Zach had an appointment at Shriners Hospital in Salt Lake on Friday.  My husband couldn't come with me, he had to work Thursday and Friday.  Anyway, we all had a good time and it was nice to get away from Cedar City for a few days.  On Friday Connor and Ethan stayed at their cousin's house, while Zach and I went to Salt Lake for Zach's appt.  All they did was check his wheelchair and made sure everything was working properly and the wheelchair guy did fix everything.  He said we have kept it in pretty good condition and we also talked about getting Zach a power chair, so we will see on that.  Then we ate lunch at the hospital and then we left and went to go look at a few places that I used to live at when I was younger.  We found 1 in the Salt Lake area, with no problems and it was nice to drive around that place, even though I only remember a few things about that place, well it was back in the 1970's after all.  My dad went to the University of Utah and so we lived in married housing, called The University Village.  I also walked to preschool and I found that preschool.  I got a little emotional about seeing it and I don't know why.  I wanted to take pictures of the preschool up close, but there were kids playing on the playground and so I didn't think it would be good of me to take pictures.  Then off to Sandy to find the other 2 places I used to live on Dimple Dell Road.  One was my grandparents house, we lived there while they were on their mission and the other one was right next door.  Well I couldn't find the houses and I did forget that the homes were back from the street, so that is why I couldn't find the homes.  Maybe I will try again soon, when I am up there again.

So on to Saturday, where I took the 2 younger ones with me to Riverton to see some friends that used to live in Cedar and they have kids Zach and Connor's age.  Ethan didn't want to come because he wanted to spend time with his cousins and I understood that.  We had a wonderful visit with them and then Zach was getting hungry, so we left and went to Wendy's for lunch.  Then on to Lehi to meet my best friend at the gas station and then we followed her to the Children's Discovery Garden at Thanksgiving Point and that was fun, well I have never been there.  We visited some and the kids liked it okay, but not as well as we had hoped.  Then we followed her to her house, since I have never been there before and it was nice to finally see where she lives.  The kids enjoyed that and then I had to get back to my sister's because Ethan wanted to go shopping.  We got to my sister's house and he changed his mind he didn't want to come with us and so we stayed a few minutes and then left for The University Mall in Orem.  We decided to eat dinner first because it was 7 pm and we were all hungry.  So here comes my title of my blog Angels Among Us and so most of you have heard some of this if you are on facebook that is.

Connor wanted pizza, so he ate at the table with Zach, while I got Zach and my dinner at Chick-fil-a.It took a little while because for some reason there was a problem, but I won't get into that.  We finally got the food and started eating and at this point Connor was already done eating.  We were just eating and then this guy  walked up to us and I would guess he was probably in his 50's wearing a red shirt.  He was asking me how I was doing and I said okay and he said it like he knew me and I was trying to see if I could place his face, but I couldn't.  He then slipped me something in my hand and just left.  I opened my hand and there I saw the $40 and well I looked up to see if I could see where he went, but I guess I looked up to late.  Well, I was speechless and my eyes started tearing up and I just couldn't believe someone would do this for me.  Maybe someday I can do this for someone else, but I don't know when I will be able to.  After we ate, we looked around a few stores in the mall and then off to Kohls, so I could get a few shirts.  I will always remember the guy in the red shirt doing this for me because he will always be an Angel to me.  I am so Thankful right now, so thank-you to whoever you are.

Thankful Tuesday : The Gold Nugget

On Sept. 11, 1972, when I was about 6 weeks old my Grandma and Grandpa Gold wanted to try something with their daughter and 4 sons.  My grandma and grandpa wanted to try a family newsletter because everyone was scattered and they just wanted to keep everyone up to date of what was going on with everyone.  My grandparents wanted to try this experiment for about a month and see how it would work with everyone, well it is June 4, 2013 and so I would say it has worked very well.  Everyone that is married, going to college(it was great to get the newsletter, when I was away at college) or been on a mission, has gotten a newsletter.  I have been going through old newsletters lately, well the ones that were from my family and it has been great to see what I did when I was a child, where we lived ,what kind of things we were doing and where we went on vacation.  My sister(the one who does the newsletter) gave all of us siblings a big book back in 1994 for Christmas and it has all of my families letters that we sent in for the newsletters from 1972-1994, plus if we were mentioned in my grandparents or aunts and uncles letters, those letters are in there too.  It has been great to find out when babies are born, who was having a birthday, when everyone's anniversary is, when someone moved, when cousins went to college and when cousins got married.  We did do The Gold Nugget weekly for quite awhile and now we do it once a month.  One of my sisters does the newsletter and all of my aunts/uncles receive it, my grandma receives it,  my parents receive it, my siblings receive it, all of my cousins that are married and go to college receive it.  My sister is so good at this, even though I haven't put a letter in for awhile.  I just want to thank my wonderful Grandma Gold (my Grandpa died in 2003) for starting this newsletter back in 1972, it is so wonderful to read what we did back then and just to be more connected with my aunts/uncles and cousins and my cousins children that have been on a mission or gotten married or that have been away at college.  It has been the greatest thing to have in this family and knowing what has been going on with relatives.  I feel like I know them a lot more, then I would have if we didn't do The Gold Nugget.

The first year of The Gold Nugget.

The book, my sister did for us for Christmas 1994.  This is the book  that I have been reading

These are all of the newsletters from everyone, since Sept. 1993.  That is when I was away at college.

Thankful Tuesday : For Everyone That Has Served Our Country

With Memorial Day yesterday, I thought I would thank every man and woman that has served our country.  What they do is the greatest thing I think any person can do.  They do it for their country and they make this country free.  They make so many sacrifices, they leave their families for months at a time and I don't know what that would be like, my dad and husband have never served in the military.  I want to say Thank You again for what they do for me and for everyone else.  I found these on Pinterest and I thought they were perfect for my blog post.  Enjoy.
                                                                                               

           

Prayers to the victims of the OK tornado

With the tornado that happened in Oklahoma yesterday, I am at a loss of words of what to say to everyone that lives there, so I am not going to be doing my Thankful Tuesday for this week; instead I am going to dedicate my blog post to them.  Everyone that I know that lives there, which isn't that many are all safe and I am thankful for that.  I have never been in a tornado before and I hope I never experience that.  Just from seeing the reports on the news about this tornado and past tornadoes, I am just so sad.  I am praying that they find more people and pets alive in the next few days and that people there can start rebuilding there lives.  Hugs to everyone there.

REACH OUT IN LOVE AND PRAYERS TO THE VICTIMS WHO LOST THEIR LIVES AND PROPERTIES IN THE MIDWEST STORMS ! JUST A CALL WITH A WORD OF COMFORT OR PRAYERS CAN GO A LONG WAY IN COMFORTING THE VICTIMS !

Thankful Tuesday : My 11 year old son's aides

With my son's last last few weeks of elementary school left, I thought I would write somethings to say thank you to his 2 wonderful aides who I love so very much.  I am not so good with words, but I will try.  You both are awesome in taking care of my son, you know what he likes and what he needs.  You know when to say No to him, even though he will probably have a meltdown, I know what those are like because he has had meltdowns at home.  You know how to make him smile and that is pretty easy to do, especially when he is able to talk to Siri with his morning aides Iphone 4S.  I tell him when you hurt and then he wants to do something for you and flowers are always the first thing he thinks of to give to you.  He also knows what cars you drive to school because well he loves cars and well he asks every adult at the school what kind of car they drive and he remembers what they drive.   Over the years of being his aides, you have helped him with science fairs, math, reading, spelling, dances, taking him swimming once a week and everything else you do at school.  I thank you both for all that you have done for him, I couldn't ask for anything more.  I will miss both of you for all that you have done for him, but thank heavens for facebook because I can let both of you know how he is doing in middle school, but you can always visit him anytime.

Zach with his afternoon aide