Monday, February 16, 2009

President's Day!

I only blog when I have a holiday off from work!

Happy President’s Day!!!

Memorable Events in the last few months (Kind of in chorological order):


Crazy Hair Day! A dear friend aka Sista, had me over for dinner in December and helped me come up with a ‘fancy do’ for CrAzY Hair day! Here is what we came up with: I had kids coming up to me all day asking how I did it! Thanks Kari!



Katie and Erich moved back to AZ! I have missed Katie so much! She has lived in Provo since she got married. Now she back for good!!! For about a month or so she when she first got back she had a lot of time to play. Since then she has started a job. Before the job, we went on so many shopping sprees, had crafty adventures, and went on dazzling double dates! It’s great to have her back! She helped me make fun bridal shower gifts and Christmas gifts!









Christmas: Christmas was marvelous! I love when all my brothers and their families come over! I don’t know if there is anything better! Early Christmas morning, I went and picked up my Grandma (not knowing it would be her last Christmas with us). It was a struggle to get her to come but she did! When we got back, I made some cinnamon rolls and the presents began! As a family, we had some very memorable moments with our Grandma. She quickly let me know that my cinnamon rolls didn’t taste very great (honesty is good)! After all the grandkids opened presents, the big kids began. I got the silliest hat from my mom, the best part is she LOVES it and really thought I would too! I thought we were all going to die laughing when I put it on. Landon was terrified to look at me so I knew it was bad! Julie, Valerie, Nick and I were almost rolling on the ground laughing so hard. Look at these sexy pictures! We got Grandma to model it for us! Grandma stayed for a couple hours until my other family showed up for lunch. I had to take her home, I will always cherish the opportunities I had to cart her around. The things you take for granted until you can’t do them anymore.



Bowling adventure with some friends: Friends reunited! Since everyone is hitched, have children, jobs, etc it is so difficult to get together and play! Right after Christmas, we planned to go bowling to catch up with some high school buds. Lara and Tyler came to town and we all wanted to see them. It was perfect timing for one of those adventures were you want to play with your friends and show off the new goods! : )





New Years Eve: Our final adventure of 2008! Katie and Erich had connections to get tickets to the Tostitos Bowl at ASU. Caleb and I went with him to the game. We took the NEW Light Rail! The Light Rail was packed, it had for an interesting experience. No doubt about it we were most definitely entertained by the mixture of people abroad! We watched the game cheering for both teams not really knowing anything about either of them. : ) That night we all pigged out with Barros Pizza, Native New Yorker Wings, and On the Border Chips and Salsa. The hours were long waiting for the new year to begin! We did our best to entertain ourselves.




Wii!!! I gave in! A few years late but I joined the Nintendo age... never thought I would do such a thing! My mom told me if I bought the Wii she would buy the Wii Fit. It was a deal! It has been so much fun! Kyle, Valerie, Nick, and I have spent so much time trying to break each other’s records! Waste of time... maybe not it is always a great family event!


Dad’s Cabin with Lillian and Landon: Road trip with L and L for Martin Luther King, Jr. Weekend! I took the kiddos with me to my Dad’s cabin in Payson! It is so much fun to watch him play and love his grandkids! Lillian loves everything about the outdoors! She will do anything to go fishing, camping, or to play at Grandpa’s Cabin. I love spending time with Dad. I wish we could spend more time together.
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ICU Trips to see GMA: On Monday, February 2nd I got a voicemail from my brother, Wade. He had gone out to see my Grandma to find her on the floor struggling to breathe. She was talking and he followed her orders and tried to help her out. She asked to lie in her bed. He took her to bed and then realized that the situation was worse than he thought. He quickly called the EMT and they took her to a hospital about a mile away. When he got to the hospital, she was in the ER and he could not go in because his youngest son was with him. 20 minutes later the nurse came out to tell him that she was put on a ventilator to help her. After I heard all of this, I was frantically trying to reach my mom to tell her. She started a new job and is very difficult to get a hold now. I talked to one of my friends and he had no idea how scared I was of these thoughts. I was kind of afraid to go see her in the hospital. It wasn’t until he mentioned something about going to see her that I realized the importance of going. That night I went to see my Grandma, it wasn’t much to see. She was there with tubes all over her and down her throat. She wasn’t very responsive. The nurses were everything but informative. I have never been so frustrated. I wish I knew more about the medical field. Even my mom with her background could not understand or figure out what was going on and why they were doing what they did. Almost everyday for a week I went to see my Grandma, there were no positive changes. Little things happened each day to get her further away from recovery. On Saturday, Valerie and I were hanging out and were going to go to lunch. Val decided she wanted to go see Grandma. We went down there to find she has an inflection. We had to wear gowns and gloves to go into her room. It was a very scary experience. All I could do was laugh to keep from crying. The other visits had been full of tears but I knew this was the worse she has been. Grandma opened her eyes and I was scared to death. I did not know what to say. She could only listen she could not talk due to the ventilator. I rubbed her head and looked her in the eyes, I was speechless for several seconds. I have no idea if she knew it was me or if she understood what I did say. I held her hand and could not spit out the three words I wanted to say... I love you. I know she knows and will always know I love her but I wish I could have said those words! After visiting her I knew, she probably wasn’t going to make it. We went to her house and tried to get house keys back from her neighbors. My Grandma never met a stranger. All her of her neighbors had house keys to her house. Not something you would usually do, when you live on Crismon and Broadway! Many “tender mercies” occurred that week. I would have never made it through without my family and a close friend.

Grandma is reunited with her loved ones who passed before her: The most “ridiculously rough” few days of my life... On Monday February 9th, I left school and went to Walmart to get things for my classroom. While there, I called my mom, to hear that my Grandma had a horrible day and the nurses had to resuscitate her. My Mom told me to call my brothers and to ask them to get to the hospital as soon as possible. Nick and I drove out there together full of emotion. While driving, we got a call from my Mom telling us to hurry because it was just a matter of time. When we arrived most of my family was there waiting for us. While we waited for Kyle and Troy, so many thoughts ran through my mind. My Mom was a mess and I think we all felt helpless. When the other boys arrived, My Mom, my 4 brothers, and I surrounded my Grandma and waited while she passed on to the other side. It was a calm experience, I will never forget. We all went to my Grandmas, order pizza, and enjoyed being at her house. Lillian saw her dad and asked “where is GG?” Kyle explained that she went to Heaven. Lillian replied asking if she could go with her. That night I realized how hard it was to be humble. We started planning funeral arrangements. I convinced the fam to have the services at our church building. I called the Relief Society President to get some numbers. When she found out she took to care of several of the things for us. Shortly after our Home Teacher called to see how my Grandma was. I told him the events of the night and asked him to help us plan music for the service. He and the RS president called several times each day up until the services to make sure everything was taken care of. It was the hardest week I think I have endured this far in my life. Once again I realized the tender mercies of the Lord and wouldn’t have made it through without my family and that one close friend.



I went to work the next day, it was class picture day and I thought I would be okay. My Mom and Troy made arrangements with the funeral home. I called to check in with them at lunch and lost it. A teacher came in to ask me something and I told her what had happened. Shortly after, I was sent home from work and my students were spilt into other second grade classrooms. I went home and helped with some of the arrangements. It was a neat experience. I had no idea about all the little details of a funeral or about all the outrageous costs! It easily costs $10,000. I took the next few days off work. I had only shared with a few friends the events of the last week. I am so grateful for their love and support. I received sweet cards and flowers from several friends. You all touched me greatly! The night before the funeral, an awesome friend stopped by my mom to leave some flowers and talked to my mom for an hour. She will never know how much that affected my Mom. My Mom needed that more than any thing. The morning of the funeral, much to my surprise I got a call and there was a special delivery to Diet Dr. Peppers from QT! Thank you girls! I’m so indebted to all my friends! The services were very special and helped put me a peace. When I returned to work on Friday, one of my students had brought me tulips. He said, “I felt sad for you and wanted to give you these”. There were several cards from my students. I’m extremely spoiled!

My Grandma, “Mrs. Pots”: I miss her so incredibly much! I had no idea how hard this would be in my life. I have so many extremely precious memories of her. Each day I remember more and more things she did for me. As well as things, we did together that I will never forget. Enjoy the time you have with your loved ones in your life her on earth!!!

What would I do without WORK: I’m so grateful for my job! I really think it’s the only thing that keeps me sane right now! I love teaching! I love my students and all their unique personalities! When other aspects of my life are not rolling so smoothly I can always count of my job to lift me up! Our school has a service club and one of their services projects in January was to collect valentines to give to students who don’t have the funds. As a class, we had talked about donating to helping other kids out. Well one of the girls wanted to give a speech... Side note * my kids love to give speeches, kind odd how that all started... One of my girls entered an oratorical contest and wrote a speech on Martin Luther King, Jr. I let her share it with us before she performed it in the contest. Ever since my students keep asking if they could share a speech. I don’t think I would have ever wanted to do that in Second Grade!!! Anyways, back to this Valentine service thing... Sarah got up to share a speech and it turned out to be great! She just reinforced us about the service drive but it started us on a conversation on the economy. I didn’t know if my students could say let alone know what economy means! We ended up having a class discussion on the economy and how it is affecting boys and girl and their families. My students were so insightful! Most of them were great but my favorite was when a girl shared that “Other kids can’t get Valentines because when they went to get money from the back in was closed”. She started saying things that lead to the fact that banks had an endless supply of money for all our parents. We quickly fixed those thoughts and several students chimed in saying that one of their parents had lost their job etc. These kids are growing up in a very different economic state than what existed 15 years ago when I was their age.


Valentine’s Day Party: On Friday when I went back to work, I was bombarded with hugs and letters from my students. It’s always great to know you were missed! I felt so loved! I have 26 sweet second grade valentines this year! We had a great day and ended it with a fun filled class Valentine’s Day Party!

Valentine’s Day:
I offered to watch two of my true loves: Lillian and Landon while their parents worked.
We trekked it to Katie and Erich’s for a yummy french toast breakfast just like Kneaders! Thank you Katie! It was amazing! Your skills are so impressive! Someday I will follow in your footsteps! Lillian steals the heart of all adults. She kept Katie’s Father in law entertained with why questions and he loved it answering every single one. He showed her all kinds of things at his house even bearded lizards while Landon tried to destroy their house.
We ran some errands to get something special for a Valentine. I felt bad for not planning something “cool” to send to Caleb. I ended up scanning a itunes gift card and emailing it to him. Once that was taken care of, we went to Chris’ to ride Handsome and swing on his sweet tree swing! We rushed towards home to get ready for our Hendrickson Family reunion.

Much to my surprise this is how my weekend ended... THANKS!!!

It was been a very pleasant weekend considering all the events I have gone through this week with the loss of my Grandma! I am so grateful for my amazing family and incredible friends!!! I love you all!

1 comment:

Brittany said...

Oh Lauren! I am so sorry to hear about your grandma!!! When I talked to your mom on Saturday it didn't sound good. I should have checked back with you. I am on the bad friend list. Let me know what you need. I am always here for you whenever, like you were for me when I went through heck with Eric and his mission. You were such a light in my life during that time. Your the best. Luv ya!!!