Bees Game

So a friend of ours gave us some free tickets to last night's Bees game. Wahoo! Free is always good and I love baseball games. The Bees games hold a special place for Nate and I as that is were he proposed almost 3 years ago. There is a post about that one earlier in our blog, can be found here . It is number 6. Anyway, last night happened to be the night that The Chicken was at the game. I have never seen The Chicken but I had heard that he was a riot. We had a really good time and The Chicken really was hilarious. Here are some pics from our night at the ballpark.

Nate got sprayed with silly string by The Bee.

The Bee teasing the dogs from the Humane Society

The Chicken and his little chickies

Cleaning up the Umpire, must have deodorant!

Must have good eye sight to be an umpire

The Chicken got in a fight with the opposing teams players and...

Was stripped of his feathers and ran off in shame!

A pre-healing of sorts

So as I said in my last post, my grampa is not doing well and we could be saying goodbye to his earthly presence soon. It was his 75th birthday yesterday and the family planned a birthday party for him with ALL the family, well almost all, a few couldn't make it, but there were a ton of people there. Anyway, ever since Tuesday when I heard about the situation with my grampa, I have been having a real hard time keeping it together. I would just have to think about him for a second and tears would well up. I decided to make a slideshow of my grampa's family and life and put on a dvd for him for his birthday. It was emotional looking through all the pictures, but so much fun at the same time. There were close to 300 pictures I looked through, I didn't use all of them, but I used a lot of them. It took me until 3 am yesterday morning to get it completely done. Then I had to wake up at 7 am to get ready to go meet my parents and drive 2 1/2 hours to my grandparents house in Mayfield, Utah. I was really tired. When we got there, we ate lunch. There was tons of food. We took pictures with grampa, sang "Happy Birthday" , ate cake and socialized with family we hadn't seen for awhile. It was fun. Later, after everything was cleaned up and all had gathered back at gramma and grampa's house, we watched the dvd I had made. It was a lot of fun, everybody really enjoyed it. Now I just need to get everybody's addresses so I can send them a copy of the dvd. They all wanted one. We then headed home, very tired, but happy that we had spent the time with grampa. I realized on the way home that this past week of reflection on grampa's life, the trip through time via the picture slideshow, and the visit with grampa at his birthday party has had somewhat of a healing affect on me. I now feel more at peace about grampa leaving, when he does eventually pass into the next life. I know there will still be pain, and I will always miss him, but I am more at ease with the idea of him not being around anymore. I believe I will now be ready to say goodbye when that time has arrived. He is deciding this week if he is going to stop Dialysis or to continue with it for a bit longer. So I guess it is all a waiting game right now to see how this all plays out and how soon we really will have to say our goodbyes. But for now, I am grateful for my grandfather's life and example, for the opportunity I had to see him yesterday, and if it is the last time I see him alive, it will be a very happy memory.

Mixed Emotions

I am on kind of an emotional rollercoaster today. Yesterday I was told by my mom that we were going to be having a 75th birthday party for my grampa on Sunday and that he requested that everybody be there. Now Grampa of course always likes to see and visit with everybody, but he also understands that we are all busy at times and can't always get together. This time it is different. It could be the last time we see him on this earth. The story actually begins 14 years ago when my grandfather got very sick. It was discovered that he had Cirrhosis of the liver due to bad blood from a blood transfusion years earlier. He needed a liver transplant. So he was put on the list. Within a week he was moved from the bottom of the list to the top, he was getting worse. Not even 24 hours after being placed on top, he was able to get the transplant. Miracle #1. Shortly after the surgery, he had a stroke, he had to learn how to walk and talk and all that all over again. But he came back tremendously from that with hardly any ill effects. Miracle #2. There were a few rough patches along the way and a few times we thought we might lose him. But he is a fighter. About 3 years ago, he fell and broke his leg pretty bad. He had to have a rod placed in it. But he recovered fairly well from that too. Miracle #3. The next year, he fell and broke his other leg. This one was pretty bad. They tried to save it, it got really infected. In the end, they had to amputate before the infection spread anymore. Miracle #4. Then around 2 years ago, his kidneys started to fail due to all the medication he was on for anti-rejection for his liver and medications from all the other stuff he was dealing with. So he went on Dialysis. Now it looks like Dialysis isn't really doing much and he is too weak and sick to go through a kidney transplant. He asked my Mom and her sister if he should go off of Dialysis. If he goes off, he could live anywhere from 1 day to a couple weeks. I know it is probably time. He has been through a lot and his body is just so worn down and weak. We think he was actually asking permission to pass on rather than advice for if he should keep going with a treatment that is basically keeping him alive. I love my grampa. I am pretty close to him. After hearing this news last night I've just been going over memories in my mind. I remember spending the night over at gramma and grampa's during the summer, getting up early and watching the classic cartoons with grampa and swimming in their pool. Chasing the ducks and chickens around the yard, collecting their eggs. I remember grampa teaching me how to play horseshoes. They had a horseshoe pit in their back yard. I remember watching him work on this old car that they had sitting in the back yard. I don't remember what kind it was, but it was pretty cool looking. He never did get it running again though, sad. One day he decided he wanted to learn to paint. So he took some community classes and watched Bob Ross, I remember watching a lot of Bob Ross with my grampa. He was really talented. He did some beautiful paintings. I remember going camping with them every summer. I am the oldest grandchild. He gave me one of my nicknames, potatoebug, because of how I would sleep when I was younger, curled up with my butt in the air. (Nate says I still sleep like that sometimes ! ). He would also call me Matilda, for some reason. He had a nickname like that for all of us granddaughters, Matilda, Gertrude, etc. Grampa had a lot of different types of jobs throughout his life. Security Guard, Ski Patrol, he worked laying wood floors, and some others that I don't remember. The job he had most of my growing up years was an Engineer at Hercules, which is now ATK out here in Magna, Utah. He was also a really good cook, he isn't so good at it anymore since his second stroke took a lot of the use out of one of his hands. He has lived a really good life, quite a bit of adventure from the stories I've heard. I think alot of his pain, other than the obvious physical stuff is the emotional. Grampa has always been a pretty proud person, so having to be in a wheelchair the last 2 years and having to have help with things, has really weighed heavily on him. It has been hard for him to accept help. I know he will be happy and well if he left us. He wouldn't be hurting anymore. I think he knows this, but he is concerned for us he will leave behind, which is why we think he asked my mom and her sister if he should stop Dialysis. I will miss him when he is gone, but I know I will see him again. Last night my Mom, Dad, an old friend of the family, and Nate and I went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. It was beautiful and it reminded me that we are an eternal family and will see each other again in the next life. But it is so hard to think about him not being here anymore. It still hurts and probably will for a while, but I am very grateful for the knowledge that we are an eternal family and can be with each other again after our life on this earth is through. I am looking forward to Sunday, but also nervous and anxious about the days to come if he does decided to stop treatment. Grampa, I love you.

This was taken a little over 2 years ago, the summer before Nate and I got married.

This is my favorite picture of my grampa. It shows his humor and fun loving personality!

The Dude Made Thriller...

So, I was sad to hear about Michael Jakcson passing away yesterday. All I could wonder about yesterday was if he was really innocent of those infamous sex scandals that had against him....or for him....depending on what you believe about him.

Anyway, today I feel really sad now. When I was a little kid, like before my sisters were born a little over 24 years ago, my parents had some vynil records that I, Nate, as a child listened to so much on our old record player, that they were un-playable and never worked again.

The first album was the Soundtrack for the original Rocky. I had a toy punching bag, and I loved to punch that thing with my little toy plastic boxing gloves while listening to the soundtrack. It was amazing. I even bought it on CD on my honeymoon to California.

The second album, that I loved just as much was "Thriller". When that album came out and the origianl 25 minute long music video hit MTV, (It still holds the music video for the best video of all time, by the way), being the only people in our small Magna neighborhood with cable tv, we had cool teenager after cool teenager coming over to our house and watching the video, which my dad ended up recording, get this, on Beta Max, ha ha ha.

Anyways, with how popular that record was, my parents bought it, and I had worn it out in a year. I had actually listened to it so much that the grooves in the record were no longer readable by the needle.

The funny thing is, is that I also bought the CD to that album on my honeymoon.

So, while I am not a related, serious fan of Michael Jackson, he was a part of my childhood. It isn't hard to know why he was so talented. With all of the weirdness about him, those childhood memories alone compelled me to at least write something up about how sorry I am that he is gone, and happy that he helped shape my musical talents by inspiring me with his music.

Gibberish Opera...

This is a video of a new improv game that we have been playing lately. It is called Gibberish Opera, and this particular performance was performed by Blake Heywood and Jake Harenburg. The scene suggestion was a mix between Hairspray and Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde. Blake's "Italian" gibberish at the beginning of the third song is my favorite moment of the game.

The best invention since........ well, a long time!

So, Cosmo has always had a problem with walking on the leash. He is constantly stopping and sniffing while out walking. Which really isn't the bad part, besides, that is his nature. His breed is a hunting dog and they have one of the best noses out there for it. The problem is that we will be walking along and he will stop VERY abruptly, but I keep going due to momentum. Usually resulting in me doing some sort of leap or hop or something to keep from stepping on him and falling on my face. The other thing is when he sees someone or something that he wants to greet he will try to run up to greet them, or if he isn't quite finished checking out the area, he splays himself out and is very difficult to get him walking again, especially in the direction I want to go. Well, after talking to the trainer about it in our puppy obedience class, he suggested we try using what he called a "sensitivity harness". It is a harness that goes around the dogs girth with a breaststrap that has a "martingale" on it. The "martingale" is an extra loop on the strap that goes along the chest area of the dog. The leash attaches to the ring that is hooked into this extra loop. What it does is that when the dog tries to pull, you give a gentle tug in either the direction to pull them facing you, or to get them to keep moving or go in the direction you want them to. The extra loop tightens up against the dogs chest, creating a gentle pressure, but strong enough that they will follow where it is pulling them to go in order to release the pressure on their chest. I really like this because the harness/collar isn't around his throat so if he is being stubborn and pulling on the leash, it isn't hurting him. Going on walks is so much nicer now. It is so easy. I'm no longer having to tug on him to get his stubborn body to keep moving, so I'm no longer hurting him and I don't have to grimace and feel so guilty when he starts hacking and coughing because he isn't getting pulled at the throat. He walks so much nicer now, right at my side or just in front with plenty of slack on the leash. Whoever invented this harness is an absolute genius and I love them! I would recommend them to anybody out there with a dog that pulls on the leash. Actually, I think it would even be great to use to train them to walk on a leash from the beginning, that way, it prevents them from ever really becomming a "puller". The only thing is you don't want to use this kind of a harness on them if you are taking them running, it could cause some rubbing with that kind of strenuous activity, but for walking it is amazing!

One of my favorite improv games...

Here is some video of a "Pieces of Paper" game we played in our Jesters Royale show a couple weekends ago. It was one of the best ever. I love our new shirts to, courtesy of my good friends Nate Mulford and Thomas Gasu.