Salute to where I come from

Anyone who knows me well also knows that I’m pretty much the queen of pictures. At any event I’m at, whether I’m with my family, friends or even co-workers, I like to document it with pictures.

So, I was distressed to discover that I seem to have a serious shortage of pictures of my grandparents. While I was home for Labor Day weekend, I set out to fix this problem! I love my grandparents very much and they’ve always been an important part of my life, especially since we lived so close to both sets of grandparents. (My parents’ choice, which has benefitted me for my whole life.)

Anyway, it was my Grandma’s 88th birthday while I was home. Here we are helping her celebrate. With the cake and with the girls. Lou-Lou, on the left, is actually named after her (her middle name Louella).

My other grandparents know this grandma as well, and when they heard it was her birthday, they wanted to come wish her a happy birthday too. So, we had to get some group shots with them in it. Each family had their children have a picture with them. Since I don’t have kids, I saw with my cute little shadow, KK.

And at breakfast the next day.

I give a lot of credit to the person I am today to my parents who taught me, loved me and encouraged me to always be my best. However, they learned it from somewhere. I know at least some of it came from my  grandparents who have always lived exemplary lives … and who are the ones who taught my parents in the first place.

It’s a pleasure to have captured some important history while I was home. And it’s even better to be able to share it here.

An eventful week

It's pretty much been all week since I've written anything and although I just posted something, I'm feeling the need to write more. This is partially because the last post is kind of depressing, frankly, and because this week has been full of events that I want to talk about in my blog.

First of all, we said hasta la vista to George W. Bush as our president (many people cheered at this and even booed him off the stage, but although I think he made some bad decisions, I don't think he deserved that kind of treatment) and we swore in the first African-American president ever, Barack Obama. He seems to be making waves already and doing his best to turn our country around from the bad situation it's in. I haven't always been an Obama supporter, but I respect him for stepping right up to the plate and starting in the government offices (with salary freezes) to turn things around. I'm holding out hope, like so many other million Americans, that he can be true to his campaign promises and really bring about change.

This is also the second week of American Idol. Yes, I know this is not nearly so groundbreaking as the first item, but it's foremost on my mind, so I'm going to discuss it. Honestly, the auditions were not so great this week. I thought it was really sad that the judges spent two days and saw 11,000 contestants in San Fran and only 12 made it to Hollywood!! Louisville, Kentucky wasn't much better; only 18 made it there, although I did see a couple of promising people. Idol's doing more of a touchy-feely thing in the audition round this time and while it adds a humanistic touch to the show, it's also early in the competition for them to try hooking viewers to a contestant. Within the next week they're going to be showing the auditions from our very own Salt Lake City!! I'm pretty pumped to see those.

I guess nothing else too historic happened today. However, I received a confirmation once again today of just how screwed up Utah's weather is. For the last few days it's felt more like March than January and it rained on both Saturday and this morning. I was pretty surprised when I got out of church today to see snow falling like crazy!! And it continued for most of the day. It's a very wet, heavy snow and if it freezes tonight, conditions will be treacherous tomorrow, even though my drive to work is pretty short. I must admit, though, that I am delighted to see precipitation because it means we're finally rid of the haze and the terrible air! Yay!

My very dear Speak discovered she had a bad gallbladder this week and had it removed on Friday. The surgery went well and she has been feeling pretty good, until today. She is receiving the best possible TLC from her parents, but I must admit that I'm having Speak withdrawals! I hope she feels better so she can come back soon!

Oh yeah--I know what else eventful happened this week. My friend and I bought tickets to Washington, D.C. in March!! Wa-hoo! I'm really going! I've never been back east before, and I think this will be a great opportunity! Plus, I get to see my very dear Kathryn who lives there now. I promised her I would visit her wherever and whenever she settled and here is me fulfilling my promise! Washington, here we come!! (well in three months anyway) :)

My sister and my niece are coming up for her doctor appointment tomorrow, and I'm excited to see them! In fact, I'm going to include a picture of my sister and my niece because it makes me happy. Enjoy!