*Monday Memos*

*MONDAY MEMOS*

   

 (If pictures are too small, just click to enlarge) 
Weekly recap of my rather crazy, insane, but fun and rewarding life!

dear mr. cat, someday I will have grandkids to take pictures of instead of you!  But for now, you are pretty photogenic, so what they heck.

The other day you jumped on my bed in the morning and sat on my chest and purred just like my cat Lightning used to do when I was growing up!  I had that boy for 17+ years!  When you did the same thing, it made me so happy...I can't even tell you!  I would love it if you would do this everyday, but that's never gonna happen! It didn't last long, but it was awesome.  LOOK AT THAT FACE!  L♥ O♥ V♥ E!

Then you laid down on my legs and went to sleep.  Ahhh.....

dear monday run, since it was Memorial Day, I decided to get up early and run to the cemetery and check things out before we headed back later on.  I got a great shot of the temple on the way.  Look at that sky!

I got there early enough that there weren't too many peeps around.  A few, but not many.

On my way back, I HAD to stop and swing!  I seriously need a swing in my backyard! I'd be out there everyday!  Seriously, swinging is one of the most relaxing and fun things in life.  How can I not have my own swing?  What I really want is one of those baby swings that are electronic, only giant size.  Someone is going to invent one of those one day and I am going to say I should have done that!

I found a penny (thanks Tyson), a dime (thanks Mae), and a marble.  No idea who to thank for that!  Hah!  There was no fork in the road today, just a knife.

When I got back, Mr. Cat was chillin' on the porch and so I gave him my marble to play with.  We took a selfie together.  He was impressed with my selfie skills.

dear memorial day.....we met my parents at Tyson's grave and set off some balloons.  I also took the Legos to add to some other stuff I took over last week.  He had quite a few flowers.  I'm not sure who some of them were from.

Just us this year.  My Mom asked where the boys were and I told her that Bryce was in Park City, Taylor in Lake Powell, Skyler in California, McKay in Russia and Tyson in heaven.  Boys all over the place. 

There were hardly any people at the cemetery this year.  In year's past it is just packed. I think more and more people go before Monday to pay their respects, because the graves were decorated, just not a lot of peeps.  With a three day weekend, I am sure many go out of town.

Memorial Day is always a a bit rough for me because I have Tyson on my mind so much during the few days leading up to it and on that day.  I think of him EVERY SINGLE DAY, but some days I am more intensely focused on him and those days my heart is a little more tender.  Just putting those Legos together last week made me feel like he was very near.  I felt him close by all week.  I usually just push through and "chin up" my way through each day, but there are those times when it really hurts and I miss him terribly.  Sometimes I wonder how I have survived without his funny, witty, spunky, and tender spirit in our home for over 10 years now.  Days like these make me miss him so much more and I just wish I could hug him or talk to him one more time.  In my mind, I always envision him with a big grin on his face and a sparkle in his eye.  He was a character to be sure, but he also had the most loving, tender and sweetest heart.  I miss his funny antics that brought so much laughter into our home.  There is definitely a huge hole there that will never be filled now he is gone.

This is the last picture taken with all my boys together in this life.  It is also the last day that Skyler would see him while on this earth.  Skyler left that day to serve two years on an LDS mission.  Tyson passed away three months before he returned home.

McKay idolized Tyson.  He wanted to be with him every minute. These two were inseparable.   I am so grateful for pictures. I only wish I had taken even more.

That blanket around his neck (bottom right), was well loved and nearly a rag.  He loved that thing until the day he passed away.  I keep it in my room now.

 What a fun person to be around...

I am grateful we have days that are set aside to remember our loved ones that have passed on.  I truly believe one of the things Tyson feared the most before he passed away was being forgotten after he was gone.  One thing that I can say without any reservation....YOU WILL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN TYSON!  No one could forget someone as great and kind and funny and Christlike as YOU!  You are loved and so very missed.

We headed over to Bert's for breakfast as we always do each Memorial Day with my folks.  After we sat down and ordered, in walks Robin and Grant.  We told them to join us and so they did and we had a lot of fun chatting away.  The bad thing was Grant said something about the dent in the car we bought from my Dad that I was keeping a secret from him.  Haha not anymore!  Cat's out of the bag!  Oh well. haha

dear run out west, I headed out west for my run on Tuesday because I really needed a change of scenery.  I saw some amazing purple flowers weeds that were so richly purple I had to take a photo.

dear international running day, Wednesday was International Running Day!  So in order to celebrate, I ran hill repeats.  Not intentionally, I always run hills on Wednesdays if I can and so that is what I did not even knowing it was a day of celebration. 

At least the scenery is pretty on my repeats. 

I only got in 12 repeats instead of 15 because I had to be to a meeting and I also ran in to my friend Susan.  I was so glad to see her because there were so many constructions guys working (or not) and it was nice to see someone else up there.  We chatted for a while about life and she told me, "You are my inspiration!"...meaning to get out and exercise, and one of the construction workers yelled, "Mine too!"  It was hilarious. I love Susan.  She is actually MY inspiration for so many things.  She is one of those people that you look at and think, "I wish I were more like Susan."  Her kids are so talented because she makes sure they work hard and practice.  Her daughter just played her violin at Carnegie Hall!  That is something not many people can say.  She is a great example.

A few quotes in honor of International Running Day....

I thought these last two were appropriate considering my last marathon.

dear boys adventures, I found this on Facebook of Taylor and his friends at Rainbow Arch.  He is in there, but kind of being hid by another person.  Crazy kids!

A few of his Snapchat posts I got from when he went wave running to Mantua and then four wheeling on our mountain. Like I said before, I am grateful for social media so I know what he's doing.

I got these from Bryce's snapchat.  He has been hiking a ton lately and he camped at Farmington canyon this week as well.  This kid loves to be outdoors!  Actually, all of my boys do.  But Bryce seems to always be either working outside, camping, hiking, climbing, four wheeling, wake boarding, wave running, snow boarding, long boarding, disc golfing, playing soccer, and on and on.  He loves nature.   

Taylor came home with quite the whiskers from Lake Powell.  I think he looks cute with them and so I tired to get his picture again this week.  This is as good as I got.

dear lunch with mona and bonnie, after my harp lesson, I met Bonnie and we took Mona out to lunch. She was so excited.  We picked her up at the nursing home she is staying at and she was cruisin' around on her walker like she was in the Indy 500!  I have not seen her with as much energy and stamina as today.  Every time I see her she seems to be feeling even better.  She feels good, she looks good, and she is happy.  We took her to Chuck-a-Rama because she wanted fruit.  :)  It was good, but I ate way too much!  And I'm not talking about fruit!

dear holy hamburger!  I put Dave in charge of dinner on Thursday because I had my harp lesson, shopping, and lunch with friends.  He made burgers.  Boy did he make burgers!  Those were the biggest burgers ever!  I told him I wanted a baby one, and so you can see mine compared to his and the boys!  Feast-a-rolla!

dear friday run, oh man, it was SO HOT!  I had to walk off and on because I was not feeling too great.  I know it was the heat. My body is not used to it yet.  It came pretty fast and even though I thought all my running on the cruise in the heat and humidity would help, apparently not.  I need to get out earlier now.  I found some interesting things though.  A nose....who "nose" what that was doing in the street.....and the pretty yellow flower I took a picture of last week, I discovered it turns into those weeds that I collected a couple years ago to make the RS centerpiece for the 4th of July.  I honestly find weeds very beautiful! 

dear bridal shower, I went to a shower for one of my past young women girls on Friday. It was a riot because her mother-in-law to be sent her a huge sack from Victoria Secret with a lot of little bags and a very funny poem with each one as well as a pair of undies.  It was hilarious.  The one she is holding in the photo was a giant size pair of Granny panties!  We were all dying laughing. Hysterical!  Her mother-in-law to be is a hoot!

dear long run, UGH!  I went early on Saturday with Robin to get in 10 miles.  I didn't think it would be any big deal, but holy heck, I was weak!  I struggled!  I think I got heat exhaustion yesterday on my run and it affected me today.  I was even worse after the run and felt sick all day.

I did find this cute little purple Converse shoe. The crazy thing is I already have one just like it!  Kim gave it to me a while ago and there right in the road was another one!  Isn't it cute?  We didn't find any coins in the high school parking lot today.  I guess we got them all last week!  But I did find a penny on the road.

dear baby shower, me and Cheryl gave a shower for Kim's daughter Marie who just had a baby.  She's decided to keep the baby.  Our ward is amazingly supportive and she got a lot of nice things that will really help her out.  We did a Mickey Mouse themed shower and so I made the fruit bowl into a Mickey.  Cheryl did Mickey Mouse cupcakes and a couple of the RS presidency brought pasta salads. 

This is kind of a Pinterest fail because the ears were supposed to have part of the red watermelon on them and no cut from the sides.  Oh well.  I seem to be doing more "fails"  than successes any more!

We had a great time and the little baby is adorable!  So cute! 

The outfits on the bottom right are the ones I gave her. I already gave her a gift but I had to get those because they were too cute not to.

dear purple club party, well okay not really, but at church on Sunday Julie and I were both wearing our purple dresses and so her hub took our picture. Just as he was taking it, one of the young women walked by and she was in purple too, so we made her jump in for the photo.

dear random, this little guy is Matt's baby.  Matt was Tyson's best friend.  When Tyson's friends have babies, I always give them a Hawaiian shirt or something with a Hawaiian print on it since that was Tyson's trademark. He came to church today in the outfit I gave him and so they showed it to me.  Stephanie sent me the picture after so I could post it.  Isn't' he a doll?

After seminary graduation Sunday night, the Hollingsworth's came over.  There little guy Mont loved our hammock.  Isn't he adorable? I need me some of these!  Little's I mean.

I ordered these because they had a 60% off sale and I thought I "needed" them. I already have a shirt that says this but then they came out with a purple one and so I really "needed" that one!

I am in charge of the family reunion this year and so I got the invites done and sent!  I decided to do an Army Theme this year!

Dave's garden I helped plant is growing!  Yay!  That's saying a lot because I have the world's blackest thumb!!!

This is a photo of one of my ancestors.  Someone shared it with me on Facebook.  It is of some VanDenakkers.  Pretty cool picture too!

dear mckay, you got to do splits with Elder Bodily who is also from our town.  He only lives about two miles away from us.  What a small world!  With all the missions in the world and you get to serve with someone for a short time that you know and went to school with!  Crazy!

Here is a link to a youtube video that McKay is on at the very end.  They do service for this man quite often.  I thought it was cool.  Go HERE to watch.

dear quotes,

Re-posting these just because: