Utah Bar Admittance pictures

My friend, Cheri, mentioned a way to send pics from my phone to my e-mail. Here are the three we took at Jake's Utah Bar Admittance ceremony. The pics are a little blurry, but at least we have something to remember the afternoon.

Class of '99 Reunion- 8.1.09

This post is for any who graduated with me. The reunion planning committee has scheduled our 10-year reunion for August 1, 2009. It will be held at the McMenamins Cornelius Pass Roadhouse. For more details make sure to check the reunion blog at www.glencoe99reunion.blogspot.com

Hopefully with this already reserved 14 months in advance, classmates can clear their calendars and plan on coming. We hope to have a great turn-out. The committee has a lot of fun ideas planned for the reunion. It will be a wonderful night! We will start getting RSVPs next May and more details will be coming over this next year. Make sure to check the reunion blog often.

Life is fragile.

Last night I was up late making a card for a friend and decided to check an online board I frequently lurk and post on. I've been a member of this LDS bulletin board for over 5 years and have had a couple moments where I have read something that made me laugh, feel angry, and even sometimes cry. Last night was definitely a cry moment. I read that a board member, Aaron Reed, an LDS 25-year old mom of three was killed in a car accident over the weekend. Her family lived in Missouri and her husband got a job in Utah and left two months ago to start work and find a house. She was moving over the weekend to Lehi, Utah to meet up with her husband and get settled into their new house. I guess a friend and student of hers was helping her with the drive and it sounds like the 18-year old girl might have fell asleep at the wheel. It was very shocking to read about, especially since I remember Aaron posting just last week. I know I didn't know this woman in real life but it still rocked me to the core, hearing the news. I feel so badly for the girl who was driving, Aaron's husband, and her three little boys who will never have their mom to take care of them as they grow up. That is one of my worst fears, to die before I can see my children grown. I have looked over Aaron's blog this morning and I keep thinking "Wow, that could be me." Just the thought of not being able to raise my three kids and be together with Jake until we are old makes me sick to my stomach. Life is fragile so live every moment to the fullest and squeeze your babies a little tighter tonight.

Here is the online article explaining the accident: http://www.9news.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=92385

Also, Aaron's sister posted her blog so everyone could remember her and her family. It makes me sick to my stomach to see these three beautiful boys and know they have lost their mom. Their family is in my thoughts and prayers. How horribly tragic.

http://reedsinmo.blogspot.com/

Memorial Day & Utah Bar Admittance

Today is Memorial Day and Jake's family has a tradition of going to Jake's grandparents' graves each Memorial Day. (Check out the first picture of Jake's step-grandma (Feikina), Jake's grandpa Jack Schipaanboord, his grandma Irene Carling, and his grandpa Grover Carling with us at our wedding.) This year Jake's parents were on vacation and his sister, brother and Grandpa went yesterday but we still wanted to go. So after the kids' naps we headed up to the Salt Lake City Cemetery, where Jake's grandparents and great-grandparents on his dad's side are buried. I love this cemetery. It is very beautiful and has a great view of Salt Lake. Many church leaders and their family members are buried there (Pres. Hinckley, Hunter, Grant, Kimball, Lee, McKay, Woodruff, Taylor, etc.) The picture below is of Jacob "Jack" Schipaanboord's and Jane Hart Schipaanboord's grave. I never met Jane, Jake's grandma. I've seen pictures and videos of her though and I know we would have been good friends. She was very kind and loving, always in a skirt and had a way of getting her kids' attention by just clearing her throat. I did meet Jack Schipaanboord, Jake's grandpa. I knew him for about 3 years before he died. I've been told I don't know the real Jack because he started going downhill around the time that I met him. He was very sociable and sweet. One of my favorite memories of him was playing the piano at Christmastime and having him come up right behind me and sing the songs. He had a very good voice and I could tell he loved music. I was honored to sing at his funeral in January 2004.

After visiting the SLC Cemetery, we headed over to the Memorial Estates Cemetery, where Jake's Grandma Carling (his mom's mom) is buried. As you can see, it was pretty bright when I took the picture. The kids had to squint or close their eyes when I took the pic. I knew Irene Carling for about 1 1/2 years before she died. I've been told she was the one always willing to help those in need, passing out fudge to neighbors, making a meal whenever it was needed. I remember the first time I met her was at the Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert in December 2000. Jake and I were nearly engaged and we went with his family to the concert and I sat next to Irene. She was a talker and by the end of the night I felt I knew her very well. :) It was hard to see her get so sick over the next year and a half... and then it was even harder to see Jake's grandpa go on without her. Grandpa Carling lives at Jake's parents' house now and we see him every time we go over there. I'm glad my kids know who their Great-Grandpa Carling is and hopefully they will always remember him.


On Friday Jake was admitted to the Utah Bar. The ceremony was short and sweet. I brought Ben and Emma and we cheered dad on (my sister-in-law, Katie, watched Josh for me... thanks, Kate!) Afterward we had lunch at the Olive Garden to celebrate. I asked Jake if this was as monumental as the first time he took the bar in Oregon and his response, "Sure." :) We are excited to have that behind us and now Jake can officially practice law in Oregon AND Utah! He has been talking about maybe taking the Nevada bar too because his firm has a branch there and does quite a bit of environmental work in Nevada. He's going to ask one of the partners if this is something they are wanting him to do. I know taking another bar is not exactly Jake's idea of fun (to say the least) but at least the material would be fresh in his mind from just taking it a few months ago. Also, I'm pretty disappointed in myself. I used my camera earlier in the day and forgot to put it back in my purse, so the only pics I got at the ceremony were taken with my cell phone. I haven't figured out yet how to get them downloaded onto my computer (I'm assuming I need bluetooth but I'm not sure.) Maybe someone computer savvy can help me. Anyway, the day was great and I'm again, very proud of Jake. I'm so lucky to have such a smart and HOT husband!

It's BBQ time!

We had a monumental day today... we bought our first gas grill. Jake scoured the internet for reviews and checked Consumer Reports and finally was satisfied with this Char-Broil 4-burner. It's a Consumer Reports "Best Buy" and we felt good about it. So, thank you President Bush. Our stimulus check purchase will be well-used this summer, cooking up tons of hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken and steak! Now, what about some patio furniture??! :)

Back to real life

We got home from Malaysia 6 days ago and the kids and I are really wishing we were still there. Jake left for a mining conference in Denver on Sunday so I've been going solo the past few days. He will be back late Friday night. All three kids are sick, Josh has it worse than the others. He has a temp of 101.5, runny nose, bad cough and just doesn't feel good. He's not my usual happy little boy. I think the drastic weather change might be the cause of their colds. We are almost back to normal, as far as jet lag is concerned. Last night Josh was the only one who woke up which I was very happy about (and he only woke up once.) I played with him around midnight and then put him back down around 1am. The poor guy is miserable. It will be nice once we are finally back to normal. I feel so lazy. I'm sitting here still in my pj's and it's 1:20pm. Josh and Ben are in their pj's too. I don't want to take the kids anywhere until they start feeling better, especially Josh, so I guess I better accept the laziness for now. I should look on the bright side, all this down time is giving us a few more days to recover from our trip. It will be nice to have Jake back home for good (at least until his next business trip or his NYC trip in August.) The kids and I really haven't seen him much since before our vacation, 3 weeks ago. We have a few home projects put on hold until Jake gets back. We will be planting our garden soon and getting a BBQ. I'm excited for summer nights on our patio, BBQing and enjoying warm nights together.

I had to mention one more thing before I end my post. While we were gone in Malaysia, Jake worked really hard making the yard look good. It also rained a lot and so everything looks much greener and beautiful. The trees have leaves now and the bushes down in our scrub oak on the side of our house have leaves as well. I thought our yard looked good when we first bought the house with all the fall colors, but now I think it's more beautiful and I've fallen in love with our house all over again. We are so lucky to have such an amazing house. I can't wait until we can make the inside as beautiful as the outside. We plan to eventually redo the kitchen, the three bathrooms, the office, and put new carpet in downstairs. By the time we are done with this house it will be amazing.

Princess Tutu and a Schip Update

So I saw a post on my sister's blog and my friend, Heather's blog, about making a princess tutu. It looked so easy I decided to give it a try (I already had leftover tulle from Emma's birthday party in March and elastic from Jake's grandma.) It took me about 30 minutes and was definitely easy. Emma loves it (as long as she has pants on underneath because she says it's itchy without.) Here is the website with step-by-step instructions on how to make one:

http://www.gophotography.com/tutu/

We are all still messed up with our sleeping schedules, especially Josh. Here it is, 2:40am, and he is wide awake playing downstairs. Usually I would be exhausted and trying to get him back down again, but I'm not. Emma is awake too but I sent her back to bed. Hopefully she will get a few more hours sleep. It doesn't help that Josh has an ear infection (found that out at his 9-month appointment on Thursday) and I think he is teething too. Also, Ben has a cold and feels pretty miserable. I'm just glad none of this hit us while we were gone.

As for Josh's 9-month stats, he weighs 18 lbs. 6 oz. and is 29.4 inches tall (75% for height and 12% for weight... definitely a Schipaanboord with those tall and skinny genes.) I can't believe he is 9 months already. He has been standing on his own for a couple seconds at a time now. I know it won't be long until he is walking, getting into more trouble. He's my sweet and mellow baby and I'm so lucky he's mine. I told my mom I would have never tried to take the other two kids to Malaysia when they were Josh's age because it would have been miserable. Thank goodness he is such an easy-going kid.