A day that makes me smile

There she is. Asya Rae. The rag muffin. We found out today that she has bronchitis and there were times today when she was beyond cranky. But I there were times to day she was just a charmer. She makes me smile.

It kinda snowed, kinda rained all day in Logan(no surprise) but Asya and I needed to get out of the house for a little while so we bundled up nice a warm and headed out.
Don't be fooled by the different outfits, this was all today but someone decided it was funny to spit all her juice on her first outfit of the day. Little did I know it was just the beginning....

Does her face not say in that picture "Why Aunt Crystal are you making me sit here with these blocks? Can I throw one of these at you?" Which she did just a second later :). Oh the joys of taking care of a 20 month old. lol.

This picture is from last night when I was "attempting" to get her into her PJ's. Check out the hair.

I could probably write a LONG list of things that Sharla is just going to LOVE me for teaching Asya. The newest and cutest (in my book) is finger and toe nail polish. Check us out.

Interesting enough though Asya only wanted some of her fingernails painted. A thumb nail on one hand and a pinkie nail on the other. I don't even pretend to know why....funny little child. I don't know where she comes by it at all.

And there you go...a day in the life of....until tomorrow night I guess. By the way as you may have noticed there has not been one photo of me. That has not been by mistake. I have not yet mastered time management and this childcare stuff is a full time thing therefore I look like a homeless woman. A scary one that is starting to smell. JK. I've showered....and done my hair once this week....then Asya did my hair three times. :) And alas I find time to blog...priorities. I've got them figured. :)

This day came sooner than I thought

Well this day came a lot sooner than I thought. I'm Momma Crystal. At least that's what Asya calls me. She runs around saying Momma Crystal do this and Momma Crystal do that. If it's not Momma Crystal it's Crystal Momma. It's fantastic....I think I need to put that word in quotations. lol.

Anyway, things are going well. Asya has been a little sick lately and has a doctors appointment in the morning but overall we've just been busy doing little girl stuff. Oh and she is in love with puppies and wants to watch Bolt when she gets tired, which in the last few days has been every couple of hours. I had never seen that movie and now I hate it. I need to find another movie with puppies in it before I go crazy. :)

Also Asya finds my "grown up" only drink, coffee, very interesting. Every morning she asks when I'm going to make coffee. Which when she says it comes out sounding like copy. So it's "Momma Crystal making copy?" or "Crystal Momma loves copy?". Makes me laugh. So to keep true to form I've been taking a million pictures and I'm going to share a few because I think she is just so darn cute.

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Sometimes....

Oh my goodness....there are times...when life gets crazy...or is it that I get crazy? I don't know but I am SO glad to be done with the tax project that turned out to be SO MUCH more than I thought. I thought it going to take me like 5 hours at most to go through fixed assets. Well, 90 hours later and no sleep and very little fun and loads of hair pulling I'm done. I thought I was done yesterday at 1 am but tonight at midnight I can finally say I for sure that I am done! YES!! I am totally excited....or is that all that coffee I drank...whatever it is, I'm moving on to all the other work I have on my desk!! Overwhelm. Overwhelm. Breath. Okay...I'm okay.

I can't believe it has been so long since I posted. A lot has happened lately and this week is going to go by really fast. For one it's already Tuesday(I think.. :) ) and with the high school play, Sister Alieen's memorial on Saturday and me getting ready to be gone for a week time is already flying by.

I feel like we need a little recap of what's going on so we don't get lost. First for those who don't know I am training to become a firefighter. Yes it does sound crazy. I don't know why but I've always wanted to be fit enough, strong enough, smart enough, and brave enough to be a firefighter. So I'm going to give it a try. I'll keep you all updated on how that goes...even if what I find out is that I'm a scared little 3 year old that can't climb a latter. I'll keep ya posted. :)

Second I got me new glasses! I think I love them?!? I haven't had enough time to really tell...or really time to look in the mirror since I got them. I know I can definitely see better with them(watch out Kenneth, I'm going to kill you at baseball now).



















On Saturday I went to Hidden Canyon Ranch for a wedding reception for Nick and Tiff. It was fun to relax and take pictures and talk to people. Here are some pictures and can I say again that I love my camera. I love it.

I need to go to bed. I know the text is all weird in there with the pictures but it's really late or early how ever you want to look at it and I want to go to bed. So that's all I have for tonight. Laters and good 'marow. I


After a few hours sleep morning edit to post: So as you can tell from this post I started off the post high on coffee and by the end the two nights of going to bed at one in the morning hit me. But hopefully today I work "normal" people hours and I get to go home and play the Wii...I mean play sports. I need a good workout. I'll keep you posted on my winnings.

A Day in the Life of.....

Kenneth.

I don't know why but Kenneth sometimes helps me do my jobs. Actually let's put it this way, he has always helped me when I've asked and I don't really know why. It's not like he gets paid or anything but all I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you Kenneth.

Our "adventure" yesterday started with him helping me take the doors off the dishwasher so I could get to all the hard water deposits(one of my most favorite jobs in the whole wide world). Oh and what made this job so much more fun was the fact that both of Kenneth and I had sports injuries. Yes Kenneth plays sports and he totally kicked my trash, except at bowling. I can't believe I just said that...I'm going to cry..ouch I just moved my right arm...hummm. Anyhoo, back to the dishwasher.... :)
And there she is all clean. What a beauty!

Off to the next job. :) I've been asked, told, commissioned, or how ever I get my jobs working for the community, to take pictures of all the fixed assets for Shiloah Communities, Inc which actually has been kinda fun but at times frustrating.

Well I needed a vehicle to go to Petra, Bethel, and West Side Ranch so I asked Kenneth. :) But if anyone, in particular John, asks we didn't take his vet truck and drive it through the mud(which thank goodness we did because if we hadn't we would still be walking home after getting stuck and swimming our way out). Oh and if anyone, in particular Johnny or Steve, asks who made the ruts in the roads around the fields I don't know...oh and Kenneth doesn't know either. :)

















At the end of the day all I can say is Kenneth thank you for the company and the help and if you need help with anything just let me know. And I'll say no. Just kidding I wouldn't....unless it's about taking the lights out of the trees...then maybe I would. :) lol. JK. I'll be there.

Oh and I made some coffee at the office. Good morning everyone.

Vera Anderson

There are moments in life where I wonder if time should stop. The last few days have been made up of moments like these. I find myself saying "What? Is this real? I'm lost.". Let me explain.

I've been helping take care of Vera for about 6 months now and on Monday we had a graveside service for her because she passed away on Sunday. Over the last few days I've quickly found out that I have developed a pattern of approach and thought throughout my day that surrounded taking care of Vera.

Example: When I cook I always think about all the foods that she would eat or shouldn't(wouldn't) eat and so the question was what was I going to get for her. The not so fun days were days that we were having ANYTHING with tomato products, which I found out a lot of menus here in E-dale did. But then I knew she would be so happy on days that we would have her favorites such as coleslaw, sugar of any kind :) , or corn bread(or anything with beef...just don't tell Myrle:). Now when I get in line at the Center I have a difficult time getting food for myself, odd considering that six months ago it was just the opposite.

Example: lol...I say these things with all the love in my heart and a smile on my face. In Vera's world everyday was Saturday. Chandra and I would get almost daily "talking's to" about doing her dishes and working on the Sabbath. She would sternly say "I respect the Sabbath and we do not do things on the Sabbath and I wish you wouldn't either. There are just a few dishes, they can sit in the sink for one day." To which I would sometimes say "Today isn't Saturday it's Tuesday. But I'll remember on Saturday." Or "I respect the Sabbath too." Or just smile and nod. Oh the moments I will remember.....

Random moments that I would have never had had Jerald not asked me to help with his mother and I had not said yes. Moments that were not always at the time easy but now can be looked upon with fondness and a smile. Even the memories of me getting my hand poked by a long thumbnail seem precious. I always knew this day would come but I guess I had no idea how all of a sudden not having her here would affect my life.

Just a few things that will always be reminders of Vera to me.

Grandma's Birthday Party

Happy Birthday Grandma Elaine!!

She wouldn't let me take her picture at first, but I kept telling her that I'd get one sooner or later...why fight :). Happy Birthday Grandma! I love you and you are a fantastic woman!!

Laundry

Laundry...a little over a week ago I set a goal. The goal was to NOT do laundry until I had worn everything in my closet. This would help solve two issues I've been having lately:
(1) I hate hauling my laundry over in the snow/mud/ice, etc...I'm not only lazy but it really makes things more difficult.
(2)My poor closet is so over crowded that I can't see what's in it. I've also been in a mood lately where everything I do pull out of the closet I hate. And since I spent all my money on a camera(and I'd do it again) and have no money to buy new clothes I'm just going to have to find something new in the closet that I've forgotten about. At least that was my hope. Dream on Crystal.

Well, as you might guess, that didn't turn out to be one of my more bright ideas. Let's just say I did laundry in a week....the same as I always do because let's face it I have some really really ugly crap in my closet. What I did end up finding was A LOT of clothes that might work if I gained back 50 lbs, it was summer, I was working all day at the dairy, or I needed to paint a house. That was my Christmas in February. Yes very helpful. :) Oh well....back to doing laundry.

Life

Well I've decided my life is SO full of excitement that I MUST blog about it! HA! Actually I'm a little worried that this may fizzle out before I post more than twice. :) But I was thinking the other day, as I was writing down everything I was physically feeling on my headache calendar, that I needed a positive balance to that exercise so I thought I'd blog. Maybe this will work and maybe I'll find that I really do lead a life that can even bore myself. Only time will tell and if you're reading this you are my test subject. :) Congrats.

Most of my life is about work right now but I've been super excited because I moved my office around(thank you Kenneth for the help....okay for doing all of it as I stood there and told you what to do).And YES that is a coffee station in my office!! LOL! It makes me happy. :) Oh and here are some pictures of Kenneth, who works in the office next door :) He's going to love me but I was playing with my new camera....who can blame me? Love you too Kenneth.