The Matthew Record Park & Trail

This afternoon, Dan, Megan, Nathan and I went up to the Progress Center to check out the park & trail named after Matt. I hadn't been there in a long time and no one else in the family had been there at all. It was really nice and peaceful. At the entrance, there were a couple of bowls filled with a bubble mixture, and there were several wands to blow bubbles with. The kids both blew lots of bubbles, we walked along the path and they sat on the swing for a while. I love the plaque they have there with Matt's picture on it.

Afterwards we drove over to the cemetary to see Matt & Freddy's graves. Dad takes care of the plot so well. It was the greenest plot in the cemetary. We didn't have any flowers to put on today, but I'll bring some up soon. I really wanted it to be tradition to go there on Memorial Day weekend. I remember always going to Freddy's grave every Memorial Day as I was growing up. I think it's a good way to remind us of them.

Only 2 weeks left!

Okay, it is time to get some words and pictures on this blog. So much has been going on lately. I'll start with today and back up. This was ward conference and lots of people were hinting around that Dan was going to be the next bishop. Our current bishop has been in for almost 7 years, so everyone thought this coference would be the time for a change. Surprise! No change. Dan and I were chuckling all morning as we were getting ready for church. I bet there were lots of surrpised people in our ward. I'm sure Dan will be bishop eventually, but not today anyway.

We got some awesome news today. Darcy and Gus are not moving to Utah, after all! They changed their minds and decided to stay just an hour before he was supposed to leave with the U-Haul yesterday. I am so excited because I just felt like Nathan was losing his best friends. Branson is definitely his best friend. They play almost every day when the weather allows it. I hated to even think about what it was going to be like without them in the neighborhood. Now I don't have to worry about it. Plus, I'll get to see their little girl now, too (Due in August).

Megan and I tried a new game I bought recently called Scattergories: The Card Game. It's similar to the game Scattergories, but you have to try to be the first person to come up with a word that fits the given category and letter. Megan loved it and did really well.

My presents from Amber & Nathan

Mother's Day

So much for the lap-band surgery. My insurance will cover 0%. Nice.

My Mother's Day was really nice. Dan made me a special meal on Saturday night. Chicken on the grill, mashed potatoes and corn. He also bought me two matching hanging flowers for the porch. My mom's first comment to me when she saw them was, "I hope you water them this year." Uh, thanks Mom. Anyway, the next day, which was actually Mother's Day, Amber and I sang a duet in church. We've been singing this song (Mother, Tell Me the Story) for years together, but we'd never done it at church. We got lots of compliments on it, so I guess it went well. We went down to my Mom and Dad's for supper. I made enchiladas, Dad made a potato salad, and mom made a macaroni salad. Weird combination, but it was all really good. I gave Mom a CD we had ordered from Deseret Book.

Amber and Nathan both gave me presents. Nathan gave me three cards he had made at school. Amber wrote a poem, and framed it. She also gave me a pretty pair of earrings. I felt so loved.

Slacker

I've been such a slacker at blogging! Here's my attempt to catch up.

Last weekend my mom and I went to the Creating Keepsakes Convention in Manchester, NH. Heaven! That's all there is to say about that. Pure heaven! It was a weekend I had been looking forward to for a long time. It was great to just spend time with my mom, see all the new product, and even buy some (I didn't go overboard, though).

Nathan is finally better, although his feet and hands are still peeling. There is a disease whose symptoms include this peeling, plus the rash and fever that he had a few weeks ago. The doctor wanted to rule it out, so we went to a pediatric cardiologist to get his heart checked out. Kids with this disease can have some heart trouble. I didn't really feel that he had this disease, but I was okay with getting him checked out. He does have an innocent murmer, which is normal, nothing to worry about. He doesn't have the disease. Yay! The coolest thing was watching the echocardiogram. It was fascinating! It is basically an ultrasound of his heart. You could see the valves opening and closing and the heart pumping. It was so awesome!

I'm looking into lap-band surgery. I'm done with being so overweight. I want to feel good and have lots of energy. I want to enjoy buying clothes. I want to play tennis and ride my Mom's horse. I'm not going to live the rest of my life like this. Dan is going to go with me to an informational meeting on June 2nd. I feel good about this.

Amber's friend, Lacey, is investigating the church. She is the perfect investigator and she's just been so fun to watch. She gets excited about everything related to church: seminary, Young Women's, the New Era, BYU, etc. She's had all the discussions now and she's going to have her baptismal interview tomorrow.

It's kind of ironic that Lacey is doing so well at the same time that Amber is slipping further away. In order to keep her here, where at least she's relatively safe, we gave her her freedom regarding church. The funny thing is, since then, she went to church the next week and to seminary once, too. We're singing a duet on Sunday, so she'll be going then, too.

I'm done with another class for grad school. 5 more seven week sessions to go! Woohoo!