Justin

Justin put chewed up gum in his pocket because he didn't know where the garbage can was at his friends house. After struggling to remove it I finally cut out the whole pocket, only for him to inform me that he also put gum in another pocket.

Justin frequently eats cold cereal without any milk.




Justin loves fish sticks. He dips them in his cup of milk before each bite.

Justin plays his guitar and sings along with his Alvin and the chipmunks cd.

I call Justin my best boy, and he calls me his best mom.


Justin gives the best hugs and kisses.

Justin tells me all the time " I love you Mom."

Justin is training to be a Ninja.

Justin loves to play video games, and he is great at it.

Justin thinks the F word is referring to fart. He is quick to tell me of anyone using the F word.

Justin loves playing baseball. He is very coordinated and can really whack the ball.

Justin is in bed asleep for the night. All I can think about is how much I love him and his sister, how I can't even imagine life without either of them.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring. I can hardly wait.

Tomato Soup & Chocolate Milk

Tomato soup and chocolate milk remind me of my friend Doris.

Doris came to live at the rest home about 4 months after Eric started working there. Eric and I had only been married a short time by then. Doris liked Eric right off. She would tell Eric several times a day “ I think your cute Eric. “ She would give Eric cards or notes on the holidays and Eric’s birthday. Sometimes she would make crafts and give to us. When I had Nicole, Doris became our adopted grandma. We kept her room stocked with family pictures and artwork of Nicole which she proudly displayed for all. We would visit Doris frequently. She had no family that visited regularly. Doris had never married nor did she have any children. Occasionally her brother would come to see her, but for the most part we were her family.

A few years passed and Justin was born. Doris immediately loved Justin. Although Nicole always had a special place in her heart. Doris continued with her infatuation with Eric. Eric’s coworkers liked to tease him about that. I thought it was sweet.

Then in the summer of 2007 I decided to get my C.N.A working at the same rest home . I worked on the same hall the Doris resided. Doris was truly a sweetheart. She had the most contagious smile ( missing a few teeth ). Her laugh was even better. It was a quiet giggle that I looked forward to hearing. I loved taking care of my Doris. She had long white hair, as soft as a newborns. We kept it pulled back in a braid. She loved to have a coffee ensure, a glass of chocolate milk and a little tomato soup. I never saw her consuming anything different.
Eric was no longer Doris’ main squeeze , she had turned her affections to another resident named Tom. Whenever I couldn’t find Doris I knew she must be over visiting Tom on his hallway. Doris was so good to Tom. She always gave her winnings to him from the weekly junk food bingo game. When I would get Doris up in the morning, I would always ask her what she had planned for the day. She loved to make me laugh by saying she was going to make mad, passionate, love to Tom. I would just shake my head and giggle with her.

Doris knew two songs, Down in the Valley and Rudolph the Red nosed Reindeer, which she would sing to me often. In fact every time I would go to get Doris from visiting Tom she would sing Rudolph with me as we returned to her hallway. We got a lot of strange looks ( Doris sang really loud ). Down in the Valley was her favorite song to sing to me.
Down in the valley, the valley so low.
Late in the evening, hear the train blow.
Hear the train blow love
Hear the train blow
Late in the evening, hear the train blow.

Roses love sunshine, violets love dew
Angels in heaven know I love you
Know I love you dear
Know I love you
Angels in heaven know I love you.

Send me a letter, send it by mail
Send it in care of Tijuana jail
Tijuana jail love,
Tijuana jail
Send it in care of Tijuana jail.

She would sing this to me when I was helping her get ready for the day, or when I was laying her down to rest tucking her in bed with her favorite stuffed animal, a dog named Jasper. She would change the words though, in the second verse she added my name to I love you.

Doris told me so frequently that she loved me. It wasn’t out of place to hear her hollering down the hallway, “ I love you Becky “ and of course me answering “ I love you Doris.” The first thing she would say to me in the morning was “ I love you Becky “ and again when I laid her down after lunchtime “ I love you Becky “ and of course before I went home for the day “ I love you Becky “. Giving her a hug and a kiss on the cheek was probably one of my favorite things to do throughout the day.

Friday February 1st Doris’ roommate called to tell me Doris wasn’t doing very well. Later that night our family went in to visit Doris. She was laying on her bed very peaceful.

I gave her a hug and told her that I loved her. I washed her face and her eyes, and then she opened her eyes for a bit while I sang to her…
Down in the valley, the valley so low.
Late in the evening, hear the train blow.
Hear the train blow
Hear the train blow
Late in the evening, hear the train blow.

Roses love sunshine, violets love dew.
Angels in heaven know I love you Doris
Know I love you Doris
Know I love you
Angels in heaven know I love you Doris.

At five am the following morning Doris passed away.

I will miss her.

Moo

I'll tell you it is never a dull moment with Justin. Everyday he does things that just crack me up.
Today for example, I took him to Harmons grocery store to pick up a few things.
He loves to ride in the special carts that have a truck attached to the front for kids to ride in.
I was pushing the cart along in front on the dairy section. At Harmons a cow moo is heard when you are over by the milk. Well Justin started mooing back, LOUDLY.
Then I noticed several people turning and giving me weird looks.
Justin kept mooing along everytime the cow sounded.
Then I realized then the other shoppers thought it was me mooing.
They couldn't see my cart or Justin in it because we were in front of a big refrigerator case in the main aisle.

Next time you're in the store and the cow moos I dare you to moo back !

Do you ever have a day where you just wish you had stayed in bed ? Well I recently had one of those days. In fact I am sure that plenty of others had wished that I would have stayed in bed on Saturday.
The day started out as any other hectic day. The phone rang off the hook, children were not feeling well, and so they were not getting along and then Dad had to go to work. So I thought it would be fun to go to the movies, you know to kind of break up the day.

I called my sister and asked if her and her 4 kids would join us. They were up for it. We decided to go see The spiderwick chronicles down at the new megaplex in Ogden. The megaplex is a great place to go. I really like the fact you can pick your seating and have it reserved, so that you don't need to go into the theater so early.

We also chose to eat dinner down there as well which was a huge mistake. Kids can't eat all at the same place. So I had to get in 3 different lines to order from 3 different places. Then they gave you a number that would be called when your order was ready. So I had three different numbers, I don't know what I'm complaining about cuz my sister had to do it for 5.

Pretty soon we got all the food and all 8 of us proceeded to go into the theater.
With all eight of us we practically took up a whole row, and of course I had to take the seat next to the strangers because no one else would.

The poor people who sat by me.
It was a couple about my parents age. The man was sitting next to me.
We all finally got situated and I was really enjoying my enchiladas and refried beans.

All of the sudden I had to really sneeze.
Have you ever had the kind of sneeze that really blows out all of the pressure in your whole body ?
Well this was a sneeze that blew everything out at the sametime.
Yes at the exact time I sneezed a let the biggest FART ever !
Talk about embarassing.
I turned and looked at the man next to me and begged pardon.
Then I looked at Nicole sitting on the other side and she was laughing her head off.
Just about that time Tom came back with a big bucket of popcorn.
I pulled out my lunchsacks so we could all share the popcorn and get a free refill to.
The movie started and I had my little lunchsack of popcorn and I was really enjoying myself untill.....
All of the sudden something jumped out on the movie and made me really JUMP.
In all of the excitement my bag of popcorn flew from my hands and landed all over the man sitting next to me.
Popcorn was everywhere ( on him ) .
I couldn't help but start laughing and I tried to apologize, but do you know that man did not say one word to me. Can you believe that ?

After that I sat as still as I could. I despertly tried to control all bodily functions and thankfully nothing else happened.
After the movie ended I planned on apologizing again but the older couple left before the lights even came on.

It will probably be a while before I will go to the movies again.
Or maybe not..... I do like living on the edge.

Sledding

Rhomer park is the perfect place to go sledding.

Eric took Nicole and our cousins Tom and Andrew. Justin and I came later.

Justin had great fun cheering them on as they went down the hill.

Eric was pretty daring. I still don't know who had more fun,

Eric or the kids.

Nicole was the bravest of all. She went on the jumps.

Justin and his grandpa

Justin's Grandpa Paskett cuts his hair.

He does a great job.








Justin holds really still for Grandpa.



When Grandpa is concentrating his tongue sticks out.




























The finished look is so handsome. In fact Justin loves to say " I gotta look handsome for the ladies. "