A Hard Goodbye

Last week I lost my beautiful friend, Kenna. I’m still struggling with letting her go, but I guess that’s part of the process. I have really only lost grandparents in my life and what a different experience this was. I am trying to think about the last time I saw my grandparents before they died, and all I can think is that they were fine, then they were dead. With Kenna I watched her die. This has been one of the most difficult things I have ever had to experience and it continues to be very hard. Kenna was fine too, and then all of a sudden she had cancer. I watched her go from a beautiful vibrant young woman to beautiful young woman who struggled for the last breaths she took. I am thankful that she is not suffering anymore, but I still don’t understand why she had to suffer at all.
I met Kenna in May of 2006. She came out to Henderson from National City, CA to interview for the Youth Services Department Head position. I remember pulling for the other candidate (because I knew her), but being so thankful in the long run that we ended up with Kenna. She has truly been an inspiration to me. She came into the position so quietly. I joked that I had to jump out of my seat and into her path in order to get her to say hello to me! She took a little time to become accustomed to our family at work, but she eventually fit right in. She had an excitement for kids and for making our children’s department a more kid-friendly place. So, what did she do? She painted! She turned our walls from drab (gray) to fab (multiple colors, shapes, etc.) in no time. She wasn’t afraid to try something new. She was also so warm and sweet – things I will always remember with Kenna and work are the “storytime room” and her “okay boys and girls” during storytimes.
Outside of work, Kenna was a great friend too. She loved hosting game nights, going out to eat or whatever we happened to be up to – she just wanted to be a part of the action. Her sense of humor was great – we laughed a lot together. We were able to go to Chicago together to attend a library conference and I feel lucky to have spent that time with her. We hung out and really got to know each other better. We tried to take a train from our hotel on the outskirts of town to a theatre downtown where we were watching the musical, Wicked. This was the first night of our trip – we hurried to our hotel, changed into our cute clothes and walked the two blocks to the station. Well, apparently the train was undergoing some renovations – so we travelled at about 30 miles an hour into town. Then we exited the train and had to get on a bus to get the rest of the way. When we got off the bus, I led us in the wrong direction for about three blocks, so when we turned around we had about six blocks to walk – in heels – before we hit the theatre! What an adventure. Needless to say we hailed a taxi for our outings for the rest of the trip. Her go-with-the-flow personality made the adventure fun.
When Kenna was diagnosed with cancer in July of 2008, I thought for sure a mistake had been made. Then I fully believed she would get chemo, or a surgery, and the cancer would go away and she would be fine. I think it was in September when I came to the realization that she wasn’t going to be fine. She was so upbeat around her friends that it was hard for us to tell that she was hurting so much and that her body was being taken over by the cancer. She didn’t want us to feel bad or suffer at the thought of her pain, so she hid it. We never really had a serious talk about the fact that she had cancer and the fact that it really really sucked! I wanted her to scream out and be furious about it – but she wanted me and all of her friends to be okay, so she didn’t do that in front of us. For awhile I didn’t know if she had accepted her situation, but looking back now I believe she was aware of the fact that she was dying, she just chose to deal with it privately because she thought it would cause less pain for those around her. What a noble, beautiful thing. She was always looking out for us…putting others before herself.
We were able to have some fun times in the seven months after she was diagnosed before she left us. We had chats when I would take food over for her and her family; Kenna, Elizabeth and I went shopping for a wig when she started losing her hair during chemo; we had a pink wig picnic; decorated for Christmas; and celebrated her birthday. It was great to do these things with Kenna, but looming in my mind was always – Will this be the last movie Kenna sees in a theater? Will she have another Christmas? Another Birthday?
I have learned that life is precious. We can’t get so caught up in the things we do that we don’t enjoy our time on earth. I hope and pray that Kenna is in a beautiful place – looking out for all of us. I know that no matter what her beautiful spirit lives on. It lives on in everyone she touched and I promise to keep her memory alive. I love you, Kenna!

A Post Just To Post

So, I don't really feel like I have anything to blog about, but I'm trying to be a good blogger, so I'm posting. But, I'm also forewarning - this might be a boring one so if you have something better to do - go ahead, I won't be offended!

My house is all put back together - well, mostly. The pipes are done, the holes are patched, and the walls are painted - and I'm working on getting things back in cupboards, cabinets, etc. This little project did assist in the streamlining and simplifying though - I am the Queen of Tupperware Storage Bins at this point in time. I'm hoping eventually I'll get rid of enough stuff so that I won't have anything to put in my bins! :) Also, I did take some pictures of the holes and new pipes, but I've been too busy/lazy (I'm not sure which one) to get them onto the computer thus far.

We went to a couple of Superbowl parties this past weekend. The first one was at Jimmy's old fraternity advisor's house, Jeff. He had celebrities there - Carrot Top, Louie Anderson, and possibly others! :) We left that one early though - it was packed and we stood through the first quarter of the game and part of the second. Then we headed to my mom and dad's house for the rest of the game. My mom was stoked - she's a big Steelers fan so the game went nicely for her. Jimmy, Corey, Mom, Saydi, Heidi, Abbey and I spent a good portion of time singing our hearts out in the Florida room though. I love building memories with my nieces - I hope they look back on them someday and remember they are loved and they had good childhoods. I feel so blessed to have come from such a great family and I hope they feel that way someday too!

Other than that it's pretty much been the same old, same old for me. Work has been busy for both me and Jimmy. We wanted to go skiing over President's Day weekend, but now it's practically upon us and we haven't made any plans...we might be out of luck on that this time!

Until next time...

Bored at Home...with the Plumbers

So - I have very important things to blog about (namely a new baby niece), but let me start with where I am and what I'm doing. Actually, let me back track to a couple of months ago when we started receiving letters about how the pipes in our house are most likely bad and going to start leaking down the road, so the builder has contracted with a plumbing company to refit all of our pipes! Wow!

So after calling last week to schedule our appointment, we had our walk through on Wednesday and work began today. On Wednesday I met with our project manager (Maria from Plumbing Express - very nice) - she informed me that the process would take about four days (Day One: Cutting holes and actually doing the repiping work, Day Two: Await inspector's approval and start patching drywall, Day Three: Finish patching drywall, mudding, and texturing, Day Four: Painting and completion) and I have to move half of my life into various corners so it's out of the way of where they need to cut into the walls to repipe.

So, I spent Wednesday and Thursday evenings moving everything out from under the cabinets in my kitchen and bathrooms, removing everything from the tops of the cupboards in the kitchen and on top of the fridge, clearing out our coat closet (for access to downstairs bathroom), and the biggie - moving Jimmy's work table and our big shelving unit from their normal places in the garage to the middle of the garage (no parking in the garage for me for the weekend!).

Jump to this morning - Maria rings our doorbell at 6:50 this morning and work is about to begin. I was watching TV while the guys start bringing some of their things in - one of them mentions they will need to move our couches, so I say sure no problem, I'm going to head up to our office - please let me know if you need anything. So they work their way upstairs - laying down drop cloths, putting plastic down, making sure that they'll catch any mess and keep my house clean. Well, I balance my checkbook, upload photos on flickr (of the aforementioned baby niece), chat with Nicole at work, check e-mail and play a little TextTwist - all to the background noise of holes being made in my walls, pipes being run and shouting between workers of instructions to each other (I think that's what was happening, but I'm not proficient in Spanish). Things seem to be going well, all in all.

About a quarter to eleven it gets really quiet - and I think, ah, perfect time to run downstairs and get the books that Elizabeth let me borrow (I forgot to check some out on Thursday and I'm about 25 pages away from finishing The Memory Keeper's Daughter, the bills I need to pay, my keys (so I can run down to the pool to use the restroom), and something to drink. Well, I start down the stairs and everything is completely encased in plastic - taped down, sealed up - I'm not getting in. That's okay, I think, I'll head back upstairs and wait for them to come back. At this point I decide I'm pretty bored and wish I had more to do. More importantly - I wish I could cozy up on the couch and watch All My Children!

So I hear them come back around 11:30am, I wait until about 12:30pm and head downstairs. Of course, Hannah has barked and growled at them when they came in and then spent the rest of the morning on my lap at the computer. At this point (when heading downstairs) she's in my arms. I head over to where a couple of the guys are working in the kitchen and say - Do you think it would be at all possible to get my keys and purse so that I could run out to get some lunch. The nice man replies, sure, sure. I say I'm sorry to bother him. He has to cut into the plastic and stretch to retrieve my purse and keys from the kitchen table. Next, I say, also I think my flip flops are on the floor here. He grabs them too. I apologize profusely - he insists it's fine.

I work my out between ladders and tools and call Corey from my cell phone in the car. Luckily Jarvus is home and I can run over and use their bathroom since I didn't want to make the workers search for my other set of keys with the pool key on it. So, I drop in on Jarvus and the girls - who are happy to see Hannah - and use their restroom. Next stop - Del Taco for a Number 4 (I think - two chicken soft tacos, fries and a cherry coke - ask my about my caffeine consumption later) and a bottle of water. My fridge is taped up too so the yummy Fresh and Easy food (a couple of soups and pastas) will do me no good while I'm home with the plumbers.

Then it's back to the house - by now it's raining pretty good by the way - I love the rain. When I get back home I try to have Hannah go potty, but of course she will not since it is raining. So, we head back in through the garage and snake our way through ladders and tools and return to our safe-zone - the office! I eat my tacos and start my blog entry.

As I am writing right now they are cleaning up and I think testing my faucets. I swear I hear water running. I think this is a good thing. I was supposed to have them here until 4:30 this afternoon, but it looks like I might get to watch some of my recorded episodes of All My Children this afternoon after all. I'll pictures of the holes when they're gone and post them later!

On to the important stuff - my little sister Ashley gave birth to a beautiful little girl, Layla Mei on January 14th. Jimmy and I headed out to see them (and proud papa Kelly) this past weekend. For anyone who doesn't know me very well, let me tell you - I love newborns. The newer, the better. I think they're perfect up until about six weeks or so. They sleep so much, and are used to the warm quarters of the uterus, so they snuggle right into you when you pick them up. I love them.

Little Layla Mei is beautiful. I'm only posting a couple of non-identifying photos here since my blog is open to all readers. You can check out more photos on flickr (note to my family who doesn't use flickr - these photos are mostly set so just friends and family can view them - if you set up a free flickr account I can add you to my friends/family list so that you can see them). She weighed seven pounds one ounce and has the most perfectly round face you've ever seen. I snuggled up with her over the weekend and didn't want to leave her when we had to go. I swear if they would stay that little forever I would have twelve of them! I can't wait to see her again. Ashley and Kelly are doing well - they are adjusting to parenthood and I hope they continue to rely on each other as they continue this journey.

In another interesting aside - we stayed at the Abbey Inn while we were in St. George visiting. My parents had stayed there while Ashley was in the hospital and said it was nice. They particularly said the suites were nice. So, we get into town about 5pm or 5:30pm and pull into the Abbey Inn. We walk up to the desk and Jimmy tells the lady that we don't have reservations, but would like to get a room for two nights. So she asks if we want a king bed and I ask if she has any suites available, to which she responds, oh like an Anniversary Suite? We ask what makes it an anniversary suite and she tells us it has a fireplace and a hot tub - Jimmy makes cracks about a Honeymoon Suite and the deal is sealed. We book the room. It was fun - here's a picture. The dresser and night tables were all mirrored, there was a zebra throw on the bed and lots of fluffy feathery pillows. It was a hoot!

I decide to try out the hot tub on the first night. So, I start filling it up and hop in - only to have to wait seriously about 20 minutes before it's full. When you put the hot and cold water on full force it comes out way too hot - so I would run the hot water for a while then turn it off and let just cold water run - it took forever to fill. While I'm waiting for it to fill, I'm trying to figure out how to turn on the jets - there are little round things on the edge of it and I am sure you have to turn them to get the jets on, but it doesn't seem to be working. So Jimmy comes over to check it out - at this point it's about half full - he sees that one of the little round things can be depressed - he does it and the jets start shooting water out right at my face! Eeek! So, by the time the tub is actually full and the jets are functioning properly I am so hot because of the water issues and I am ready to get out. I get out and can't cool down, but luckily a quick cool shower under the dual shower heads helps - along with the 50/50 ice cream bar that Jimmy got for me from the vending machine!

All in all we had a great time. We are so happy for Ashley and Kelly and their growing family! We know they will be wonderful parents and I look forward to snuggling more with Layla!

What Is 2009 All About

So, while working out the other day with Elizabeth (and coincidentally, her brother Seth came along), we were talking about New Year's Resolutions and so forth. Well, everyone knew what they wanted to do in 2009, but I couldn't figure out what 2009 meant for me. So, after finishing our workout I returned home and started to clean my bathrooms. It was when I got almost through the third one (we have two and a half, actually), and I was tired and smelling of bleach that I decided there had to be a better way - a better way to keep things clean, a better way clean them when needed, just a better way in general...so hatched my idea of what 2009 is all about for me - Streamline & Simplify!

I am not making a resolution because I honestly think that resolutions are easily forgotten, and even more easily broken. So, instead I have a focus for 2009 - Streamline & Simplify! Over the course of the next year I plan to pare down the things I don't need. I have decided that it is a reasonable goal to throw away, give away, or donate at least one thing every week. Once I have everything pared down, it will be easier to keep track of what I have. Also, by cleaning things out (for example the makeup under my bathroom sink) I can make room for organization and efficiency (storing cleaning items under said bathroom sink so I don't haul my cleaning supplies up and down the stairs every time I need to wipe down my sinks!). I'm looking forward to lightening the load and having a more efficient outlook.

I have asked Elizabeth to ask me what I get rid of every week as a way to keep me on top of the game - but feel free to ask me too - or give me pointers or fun tips on how you stay streamlined and simplified! Happy New Year!

2008 - A Year in Review

Wow...we're at the end of another year! I can't believe how fast the time goes by. My mom tells me that the older you get the faster it goes - if that's the case I'm going to start missing whole months because they fly by so quickly!

So, I thought I'd do a post recounting the events of this year...I'm not sure how many noteworthy events I have to recount, but I'm pulling out my calendar to take a look and see what I have to talk about!

I started my New Year in 2008 with a Zumba class through the City of Henderson Parks and Rec. It was so funny!! I took the class with a group from work, and our instructor was a crack up! He was a belly dancer at heart, but really just liked to watch himself in the mirror! What a hoot! We had fun participating though.

In February Jimmy and I participated in the library Read and Run for your Health 5K run. We didn't actually run the whole thing, but we finished it! That felt really good! Here we are with cousins, DJ & Stacey.




Also, at the end of February and into March Elizabeth and I went to Winnemucca, NV for the Summer Reading library conference. Winnemucca is a very small town. We had fun though. We took a plane from Vegas to Reno, then a cab from the airport to the train station, and a train from Reno to Winnemucca, then called a cab again to get to our motel. The train station in Winnemucca was really just a bench - kind of like a bus stop. When we arrived in Winnemucca it was night and the cab driver said he had to drop a kid off at his grandma's house, so we had to wait a little bit. It was pretty cold out and we saw a horse tied up at a bar across the way - how funny! Here's Elizabeth at the train station on the way out of Winnemucca - you can't really tell, but we were freezing!! She's looking very cosmopolitan in this shot.


While we were there we found a little Mexican restaurant called Chihuahuas - it had THE BEST Mexican food. In the two days we were there we ate there twice! Here's me and my Chihuahua posing out front. Elizabeth's mom, Caryl, has Chihuahua radar and picked this one up for me so I wouldn't miss my real one while I was on my trip!

April is a month of birthdays for Jimmy and me! Jimmy turned 30 this year - wow, what an old man! I took off from work early on his birthday and didn't tell him - instead I surprised him with a pineapple upsidedown cake! He had given me a bad time about it for ages - I had baked one for a coworker's birthday when we lived in San Diego and he didn't get to eat any since I had to take it to work. I hadn't heard the end of that one until I finally baked him his own! He got a Juno for his birthday which was the next step in his music hobby - it's a synthesizer/keyboard/thing. A couple weeks later I turned 29. We went out to dinner at China Grill in the Mandalay Bay and I got a beautiful ring for my birthday. I also took the last week in April off work and indulged in a day at the spa! Bliss!

May began my long-standing programming run at the library with Valentino Crespo, Master Butler Extraordinaire! He's great. He comes to the library monthly now to do presentations on various subjects (etiquette, shoe shining, packing, etc.) and ends each class by teaching the steps to a dance. He's great fun and I really enjoy working with him and his crew!

In June AJ graduated from Foothill High School and a group of us went to see Video Games Live! I've been dating Jimmy since AJ was about eight years old, so I've really seen him grow up! I can't believe he's a college student now - how crazy!

We spent the July 4th weekend in Brianhead, UT with my family. We stayed with Uncle Rance and Aunt Kathy in their cabin, but my parents, Ashley & Kelly, and Corey, Jarvus & the Girls all went up too! It was a lot of fun to just get away for a couple of days and still spend the time with family. You can see an earlier post to get more info on that trip! Also in July I had a teen program at the library where I did Henna tattoos on the attendees. It was so much fun and I'm hooked. Here's a sample of my work. I have since purchased my own stuff and love doing henna tattoos.





August was somewhat quiet - we finished up summer reading program at work and Elizabeth and I went to our second annual Daughtry concert.

In September Jimmy and I took our big trip to Korea! His mom and dad went too. I had a fabulous time and hope to be able to go again someday. It was so neat to meet the rest of Jimmy's family and spend that time with them. I have a previous post with more photos and stories from the trip - check it out!

In October Jimmy and I celebrated our five year wedding anniversary. Our trip to Korea in September was our gift to each other. Also in October were the pumpkin carving contest, pink wig picnic, and the 6th Annual Halloween Extravaganza at work!

November proved to be a busy month at work! I got a promotion and am now the Head of the Youth Services Department at the Gibson Branch. I also manned the department with help from only Seth (19 hours a week) and Rita (8 hours a week) for two weeks! Whew! I was glad when November was over! We also threw a Baby Shower for Ashley (and attended her other one in Utah). And, of course, had a lovely Thanksgiving!

December brought a massage to work out November's kinks and gear up for the holiday madness! We attended my holiday party at work, Christmas dinner at Grandma's (the week before) and Christmas Eve celebrations at Corey & Jarvus's house, as well as at Crystal and Troy's house! We had a lovely Christmas day - and spent time with both of our families. We also had a Christmas Adventure...it was a dark and stormy night - really! I looked outside because it had been lightening and thundering and raining and what did I see - but our fence had blown to pieces. So, Jimmy and I bundle up and go outside to fix it, well in the process of going out the back door, we bumped the pole and it came down on our slider door and we were locked out! Yikes! In a hurricane! So, Crystal and Troy showed up and I said we could just go to my mom's house and get our spare key, but Jimmy was able to jiggle the door and the pole fell out of place and we made it back in! How exciting!

I hope everyone had a fabulous 2008 and here's looking forward to an even more spectacular 2009!! Happy New Year!!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!

So, who would've thunk it, but we're snowed in! Here in the Las Vegas area we experience a little snow every once in a while, but it is really coming down today! Here's a shot of me at the library (it was wear a hat to work day at the Gibson Library - and it ended up being functional!) when the snow started sticking. At this point the snow had been coming down in flurries for a couple of hours...as the day progressed it snowed harder and harder. By about 3:00pm or so, someone from the city courthouse across the street came in and told us they were closing down the courthouse and sending everyone home because it was getting unsafe for people to be out on the roads. So, we contacted our main branch and our director said we'd probably remain open. A few minutes later he called back and asked how the access was to our front door - at this point in time Kevin and Maggie have gone to get more salt and a better shovel and have been shoveling and salting to try to avoid anyone slipping and getting hurt. A few minutes later Tom calls back and says to close down when we can get everyone out, or by 5pm, whichever comes first. Needless to say, we were able to clear the building out pretty quickly!

So we start heading out after pushing inches and inches of snow off our windshields, mirrors, and windows. It takes me about 20 minutes to get two and half miles or so when I get a phone call from AJ (Jimmy's little brother) saying he's stuck. He left the library the same time as I did and he drives a little Mazda Miata. He got stuck and couldn't get up a little hill, his car kept slipping and slipping. So, I turned around and headed back to him, swooped him up and headed for home. The progress was slow going. I talked to Jimmy off and on on the way home and I swear he wasn't taking me seriously about how much snow was on the roads and how scary it was to drive.

I drive an Infiniti FX35, which apparently is equipped with a snow feature. I turned it on and it seemed to help. Jimmy drives a little Hyundai Tiburon, so I was nervous he would get stuck, but he made it home! When he pulled in he was so excited to play in the snow that he jumped out and starting playing in his suit - he's a goofball! When Hannah heard him, she ran out to meet him, but she sunk all the way up to the tippy top of her legs! Poor thing - she hates the cold! I coaxed Jimmy in to put on appropriate attire and he and AJ went back out to play. I was trying to make a contraption out of a plastic bag to put over my camera to photograph them without getting it all wet - but they came in before I was done! I did see Jimmy try to do a slip and slide type maneuver in the snow - to which my mom said - he's too old for that! No kidding!! Here's a picture of what the snow looked like after Jimmy had been home for about two hours - check out the accumulation of snow on his car (the red one) in just that amount of time.

I saw on the Channel 3 News website tonight that the Clark County School District schools will be closed tomorrow for a snow day - in Vegas! Crazy!! I hope I get a snow day tomorrow too! We're supposed to get more snow throughout the night, so I guess we'll see what's out there in the morning!

Our friends from San Diego, Amber and Lorenzo, are supposed to come out to Vegas tomorrow. Amber's little sister is turning 21 so it's a Vegas Vacation - but the freeway is closed between Baker and Primm right now...I hope they can make it out!

In other news, we finally got our Christmas tree up - so no grinches here! We put it up on Sunday after many temper tantrums thrown by myself (sorry Jimmy!). Here's a photo of the tree. When we moved into our house we went from getting a real tree each year to our artificial tree (it was also the same year I got a new car and I couldn't see leaving pine needles in my car or in my house!). Every year since we have had the artificial tree we've decorated it in some sort of theme. The tree is pre-lit with white lights and we theme our colors. We've done a red and gold tree and a blue and silver tree. This year for something new, but still economical, I thought we'd do a silver and gold tree using ornaments from both of the previous themes. Well, as I'm going through my ornaments I find that all I have that are silver and gold are bows. No ornaments. So, I debate with myself for a while on if I should just put bows on the tree and call it good, but decide I can't do that! So, instead we reverted to our hodge-podge tree and I love it! I am feeling quite sentimental because growing up we didn't have themed trees - we had favorite ornaments, ornaments we laughed at and ornaments that had to absolutely be hung on the tree by ourselves. So, decorating the tree this year really brought back childhood memories of Christmas. AJ and Autumn were on hand to help us decorate, but I didn't take any photos while decorating...and had to have them pose afterwards instead. But, I love the finished product - this picture is one of my favorites! Luckily they were around - so Autumn got a really cute picture of us too...check it out. So, with only a week left until Christmas Day I still have most of my shopping to complete, some crafting to do and I would love to bake some cookies. If only we could have a snow day tomorrow, I might at least get some crafting and baking done!!

I've Been a Bad Blogger

I don't know what else to say, but I've been a bad blogger lately! I've done some fun things...complete with pictures and all, but I haven't blogged about any of them! So, I'll back-track to fill you in on what I've been doing and I'll make a December Resolution to be a better blogger!

Pumpkin Carving - In late October we participated in my family's annual pumpkin carving contest. I'm still not sure why we call it a contest, since no one wins or loses, but that's what we've always called and it, and that's what we'll keep calling it. Here are some photos:

This one is Corey and Jarvus's. It's the grim reaper.






Here's Ashley and Kelly's. They did Frankenstein after much deliberation this year. They always come prepared, but they were the last ones to start this year because they just couldn't decide what to do!



This one is Mom and Dad's. Dad kind of took over though and drew and carved all by himself - with an electric knife no less! It's a fire man!





This one is mine and Jimmy's. It's Jack Skellington from Nightmare Before Christmas!






But wait, there's more. It wouldn't be Halloween with the White's if we didn't have some of these photos to show for it!


Ashley "eating" pumpkin guts. We weren't positive if we'd get this photo this year since she's pregnant - it would have been a good excuse if she didn't want to do it!




Corey and Jarvus being goofy...that's a natural state of being for Corey, but it's fun to get Jarvus that way too. Sometimes we get pictures of him with pumpkin tops on his head, but we settled for fake eating pumpkin guts this year!





Pink Wig Picnic
On Halloween day a group of friends met at Cinnamon Ridge Park for our Pink Wig Picnic. We had lunch and played wiffle ball, we blew bubbles and sat and talked...but most importantly, we showed our love and support for Kenna. Kenna was diagnosed with cancer in July and has been undergoing chemotherapy since probably July or August. As a result, she has lost her hair. Kenna has some beautiful wigs - she puts them on and you can't even tell that it's not her real hair, but she wanted to have some fun with wigs too. So we all got pink wigs - being Halloween time, they were easy to find. We donned these wigs and enjoyed each other's company for our Pink Wig Picnic!


This one is Elizabeth, me, Jen & Kenna.




Here's Kenna and me. Kenna is such a wonderful person and I have really struggled with the battle she's been fighting. Everything came on so quickly and I feel like there hasn't been time to process it all. I just want to scream out that it isn't fair and she is such a patient and wonderful individual who is looking this fight in the eye and taking it on so gracefully. It's impossible to put yourself in her situation, but I think I would hide under my covers and be miserable, but Kenna has been out and doing the things she wants to do.

Kenna was the Youth Services Department Head at my library (so not only is she a fantastic friend, but she was also my inspirational boss), but due to her illness she is not able to return to work full-time. She was coming in for a couple of hours a day in October, but she's been having a bad go again and hasn't been in lately. Because she can't be there at work, she was not able to keep the department head position. When the position was posted, Kenna encouraged me to apply for it, but it was a difficult choice. I was selected to fill the position and while part of me struggles with it because she was such a breath of fresh air in our department and made so many wonderful changes that make me think of the department as hers - I hope to continue to move the department forward and make her proud.

Ashley's Baby Shower
My baby sister Ashley is pregnant and due with her first child in February. She and her husband, Kelly, are expecting a perfect little baby girl, Layla Mei. My mom, Corey and I hosted a Baby Shower for her in Henderson in mid-November. Mostly I just took pictures of her opening gifts, but here's a cute one with the cake:

From this picture you can't even tell she's pregnant! She does have quite the little belly growing though - I love to sit with my hand on it and feel Layla move around in there! The weekend after we had her shower here, her friends in St. George (where she lives) hosted a shower for her there. We attended that one too. She got some great gifts and I think is still in the process of getting her nursery ready! Congrats Ashley & Kelly - I can't wait to meet Layla!


Thanksgiving
I can't believe I didn't take any pictures on Thanksgiving! Yikes! We had a wonderful one though - we ate way too much and spent the time with our families - what could be better? We started at my parent's house around 1pm. It was a little weird because Corey and her family celebrated with Jarvus's family in Salt Lake this year - so there were no little girls running around under foot! Mom made a delicious meal, as usual. And we ate and ate and ate. We headed over to Jimmy's parent's house afterwards (around 4pm or so) to do it all over again. Sun also did not disappoint with her Thanksgiving meal. All the food was delicious. I love the fact that we have both our families right here so that we can spend the holidays, and just any old time, with them!

Mom's Birthday
Again - no pictures! Yesterday was Mom's birthday so we went out to dinner with Mom and Dad on Tuesday night. We ate at Remedy's which is a new little restaurant/bar just up the street from our house. We had good food and good fun! Happy Birthday Mom!


I think that encompasses most things that have been going on. I am going to try to promise to be better at my blogging now...so hopefully there will posts soon with all the upcoming holiday parties and get togethers!