One Hundred Years and One Day

I didn't get a chance to read my dad's blog yesterday, even though I knew it was up. I read it this morning. I wish I would have read it yesterday, because my dad mentioned how May 21st of this year would have been my Grandma Millburn's 100th birthday. That would have just been cool to think about during the day.

Grandma Millburn

I stole these pictures from my dad's blog. Yesterday also would have been my Grandma & Grandpa Millburn's 75th anniversary. I love this picture of my grandparents. Someone watched my grandpa hold the drinking fountain for my grandma and thought it was so cute they snapped a picture. She talked to my grandparents afterwords and sent this picture to them. How nice! When the lady complimented my grandpa for being chivalrous he replied, "I'm not being chivalrous. I just wanted the water to get cold." Haha! Grandpa Millburn was so funny!

Grandpa & Grandma Millburn

Anyways, I think I will copy what was written on my dad's blog here when I get a chance. My kids check my blog more frequently then my dad's, and I think it would be nice for them to hear some stories about my mom. Even the sad ones.

I also forgot to write about Mallory yesterday. Cassie went into the end of singing time because she was going to teach Trevor's class. Mallory was crying. Tears were streaming down her face. Cassie went up to her and asked what was wrong. Mallory said, "These are happy tears. We just sung a beautiful song." Cassie wasn't convinced so she went to the teacher and asked her if Mallory was okay. The teacher told Cassie that she just thinks Mallory was feeling the spirit. When we got home we asked Mallory what the song was and she said that she couldn't tell us, then she pointed secretly to John. Must be a Father's day song.

This morning Cassie and I went to Costco with Trevor, Brandon and Collin. We then stopped to see John at his work for a bit. The first picture I took of John you could see more of his office, but you could also see what he was working on on his computer screen. We thought maybe that wouldn't have been the brightest idea.

John

Mallory and Trevor had a baseball game. Luckily it wasn't rained out. Mallory got to be pitcher the first inning. The coach pitches, but Mallory got to stand on the mound. Boy did she love that! She would throw her arms up in celebration, sometimes even while the play was still going. It was so funny!

Trevor ~ shortstop, Mallory ~ pitcher

 Mallory

 Trevor just smacked the ball!

 Trevor was the last batter, so he got to have a homerun!

 Mallory

 Trevor got to be pitcher too, the coach is giving him pointers.

 I had Mallory recreate her pitcher's mound celebration after the game.

Cassie ran home during innings and put lasagna in the oven. After the game, John pitched to Mallory, Trevor and Brandon. They had fun running the bases. Mallory did a 'slide' into home. Really she tripped and had quite a fall. We cheered about her awesome slide, but she has been limping on her leg sense. Brandon also had an awesome slide. He was running to first after he hit it. He decided to slide about halfway to first base. He did a diving slide. What a nut! Cassie had a delicious lasagna dinner ready for us when we got home. My kids are never that lucky!

I read Goodnight, Baseball to the kids before bed. I don't think I have ever read the book before, although I have given it to three of my nieces and nephews.

Stephanie, Trevor, Mallory

Brandon, Collin, John

Tonight I'm sleeping in Mallory's bed. I will have slept in all three beds in the kids room. Cassie wanted to move Mallory's mattress down because she thought it would be better on my back. John and I convinced her I could sleep on the top. The memory foam does seem really comfortable.

John & Stephanie

John defeated me in 5 Straight, then I defeated him in Ticket to Ride. It was a weird Ticket to Ride game. Both of us concentrated on the East coast. I have never done that before. This is what the board looked like when the game was over.

I asked John if he had read Dad's blog. He hadn't. John looked it up and read it. We then talked about mom for a long time. Mostly about the day she died. What we were doing. Nice things people said. Weird things people said. Teachers that were nice to John. Like how John didn't do his big science project and his teacher just told him it was okay. Teachers that were mean. Like how one of Mike's teachers gave Mike a really bad grade and had no sympathy about what he was going through. Didn't matter that he had to spend his after school time getting ready for the funeral, going to the viewing, dealing with hard things that most adults struggle with. Didn't matter at all. Annoying because Mike was a junior in high school and his grades really mattered at that point. Anyways, we talked for a long time again. We went to bed around 1:30 in the morning. Cassie fell asleep on the couch before we started games.

John was telling me about something Stockton had written when he was Mallory's age and how funny it was. John showed it to me and we were laughing so hard. I was crying. It was so funny. I will need to show the kids when I get home.

Oh! That reminds me. John and I were talking about baseball. John wants to eventually go to all the Major League ball parks. He would really like to go to at least one new park a year. I told him we should make a tradition to meet at a new ballpark once a year with the six siblings. How fun would that be!?!

Water Tower

I had 'Mommy cereal' before church today. It is 'Pumpkin Flax Granola' that Cassie gets at Costco. Dad introduced Cassie to it. Her kids call it 'Mommy cereal' and that makes me laugh. We had early church today. I went with John to Gospel Doctrine. Cassie was asked to substitute Trevor's class, so I was going to help her. Turns out that the primary got a substitute because they didn't know about Cassie. Cassie couldn't be in there during sharing time because she teaches Sunday school. So, Cassie and I were able to go to Relief Society. It was quite the show. The teacher was really good. She was doing some weird game with two of the women and their husbands. They were trying to get papers smashed between themselves. I didn't really get what was happening, but oh well. Anyways, the lesson was on marriage. The comments were super weird. One lady said, "When we were married 17 years I decided I was done with my husband. Just done. So, I decided to look around. And guess what? Everyone is just like him! There is nothing better out there, so if you get frustrated in your marriage; just realize there is nothing better so you might as well stay where you are at." Then later she said, "I hope I don't offend anyone, but I decided to have an affair." What? At this point she paused then added, "An affair with my husband." Weirdo.

Cassie made a delicious roast for dinner. I worked on my blog for awhile. I wanted Saturday's post to be finished before my kids came home from church. Cassie thought it was funny to see John and I at the counter with both of our computers.

John & Stephanie

 Stephanie & Collin

 Stephanie hiding Collin's binki

Mike sent me a picture of his train. He made a water tower to fill drinks. He sent a video of the taco train. I showed the video to Mallory, Trevor and Brandon. They watched it about twenty times!

Mike's new water tower

Taco truck

Maysen sent me the first chapter of the story she is working on. That was fun to read! I'm so glad she is planning on spending this summer writing. John and Cassie taught me a game called Bohnanza. It was a bean collecting game. We were pretty close the entire game, but John won on the last turn. We then stayed up talking until almost 3:00 in the morning. John is going to be so tired at work tomorrow! Cassie has to get up to get Mallory to school too. I can just get up when I want. Suckers!

Collin Conference

I absolutely love General Conference. I love listening to the messages. I love relaxing and working on a project while we listen. I love that my entire family watches all the sessions if they possibly can. Jorja had to miss the first session. She had softball practice. The pitchers and catchers went early. That meant Jorja started at 9:30. I picked her up after the first session. We stopped by Harmon's on the way home and picked up a few more treats.

I finished Collin's stocking during the afternoon session. I am so excited to have it finally done! I was procrastinating doing the cording, but it wasn't so bad once I started. I think the stocking turned out great!

I watched the priesthood session with Mike and Stockton. We were all surprised that it only lasted about an hour. Mike and I went to the store to pick up food for tomorrow's dinner. My dad wanted to do breakfast for dinner. Mike and I are in charge of omelets, crepes and some kind of breakfast casserole. I picked a peach, croissant casserole. While Mike and I were at the store a foreign lady that didn't speak English very well stopped us and asked if we could help her. Of course I said yes. She said that she needed us to pay for her food. I was confused as to what was going on. I had a few dollars in my pocket and tried to give them to her. She said she didn't need money, she needed someone to pay for her food. I wasn't sure what to do. We had just watched conference and I want to help people who are less fortunate. At the same time, Mike and I are super tight on money right now. We have been wondering how we are going to pay our bills this month and talking about needed to take out more on our loan, which we don't want to do. We have several huge bills coming up, so it is quite scary. Anyways, it didn't look like that lady had too many things, I thought it would be about $50, which is a lot of money right now for us, but I agreed. I walked with her to the cash register silently wondering what I was doing and hoping she truly needed the money. In Georgia there are people that do this thing all the time and that is what they do for a living, just get people to pay for their food. I knew this, still I wasn't sure what to do. I was stunned when the bill came to $130. Still, I put in my card and paid for this random lady's food. I felt like sitting down in the middle of the isle and crying. I know people have it worse off than me, but I would much rather pay for one of my brother's grocery bill than someone I don't even know. I wish I knew if she needed it or if I was just scammed. Next time I will say that I can pay for one can of formula, but not for their entire bill. I'm not even sure how it exactly happened. I guess people can tell I'm a sucker from a mile away. I was just so shocked about the entire thing I wasn't sure what to do. I wish I knew it was going to be $130 from the beginning, because I knew we couldn't afford that. Hopefully something will work out. Anytime money has been tight in our marriage, it eventually gets better. The cabin has had more bills than we anticipated so it feels like we have just been holding on for quite awhile. I'm sure it will get better, but we might have to take out some more on our loan. I probably shouldn't have bought a ticket to Virginia. At least I found it for $160 round trip, which is only $30 more than I paid for a random lady's groceries!

And They're Off!

Like a dirty shirt!  That is what my mom would say every time we went on a long trip.  Usually to Idaho.  We would be driving down Columbine Way and she would say, "We're off like a dirty shirt!"  We took a lot of pictures with these guys before they left.  It is sad not knowing when we will see them again.

Grandpa & Collin

 Mallory, Collin, Grandpa, Brandon, Trevor

 Stephanie & Collin

 Stephanie & Brandon - ha!  love that face!

 Stephanie and Trevor

 Stephanie & Mallory

 John & Stephanie (and Ella)

 Stockton's head, Trevor, Collin, Stephanie, Brandon, Mallory

 Stephanie & Cassie, don't mind breakfast in the background

Once John and Cassie were off, Mike and I took Bubs' kids to the Springs while they packed up.  Mike, Preston, Matt and Anne came with us too.  Matt was able to go down one time on the sled with Anne, then she wanted to go back.  He convinced her to ride the 4 wheeler for awhile.  I rode with Millie the first ride down.  We were going so fast and I hit a bump and landed hard on my tailbone.  It hurt the rest of the day.  Matt ended up walking back to the cabin with Anne and Millie.  He took a sled with a rope and pulled them.  We kept going for awhile.  The kids were frozen when we called it quits.  Ella could have kept going for hours though.

Now all that is left at the cabin is Matt's family and my family.  Matt took Jeff sledding.  He hasn't been able to go outside before today because he has been so sick.  Jeff loved it!

Matt & Jeff

 Jeffers!

 Matt & Jeff

We came in from sledding to find Anne and Jorja making slime.  Cathy gave all of the kids slime making kits.  I'm sure glad they didn't get them out before this!

Anne & Stockton's half face

 Anne, Sam, Jeff

We watched Anne and Jeff while Matt and Sam went to the cabin temple.  Jeff was up most of the time, but Anne slept for several hours! I guess she was saving up all of her sleeping to use now.  Mike decided to keep the foosball table upstairs.  He rearranged the furniture for it to be in the back corner.  This should be fun!

Stockton & Stephanie

I reclaimed my foosball title over Stockton.  Apparently I have to crouch down super low to see the ball though.  I'm getting old.

Chelsea sent me this picture of Weston wearing the clothes we gave him.  They are made out of bamboo.  He looks adorable.  I hope he loves it for the two weeks it will fit him!

Jackson & Weston

I wanted to play Dominion with Matt, but he was asleep.  I told Sam to wake him up early so we could get one more game in before we leave tomorrow.  This trip has gone fast.  It always does at the cabin.  I sure do love it here.

Eight to Eight

I wasn't feeling so well this morning.  I was pretty nervous about that because Cassie and I had a long day ahead of us.  Luckily, by the time we had left my stomach had calmed down.  Cassie and I left around 8:00 this morning and drove to Utah.  We would have liked to have left earlier, but we were waiting for the sun to rise.  The roads were not the best.  Not super horrible, but not wonderful.  After we were on the freeway for awhile it wasn't too bad, but it is about an hour and a half to the freeway.  Sherry met us at my house around 1:00.  Sherry got there a few minutes before we did.  There was so much snow!  I couldn't make it up the driveway.  Poor Sherry was wearing sandals. Sherry met us to do Collin's handprints.  (Collin was with us too, obviously.)  Collin was great on the ride down.  He did not cry at all. He also did not cry when Sherry was pushing on his hands and feet getting them into the clay.  He didn't even look distressed.  Wow! Cassie has some pictures of that on her camera.  If I get them, I will post them later.  I also have pictures I need to get my family member that were taken six months or so ago.  Hopefully Cassie is more on top of things than I am!

I brought some garbage and laundry home.  I unloaded those things and picked up several things we wished we had.  There were a lot of neighbor treats on our porch, so I loaded those up too.  I think we were at my house a total of thirty minutes.  Maybe forty five.  We left for the long ride back.  I stopped at Harmons to pick up more sleds.  They were out.  The Harmons sleds were the best and most durable sleds of this trip.  I wish I had bought more than two!  I also grabbed some gatorade for the ride back.  I was worried I was getting dehydrated.  The gatorade helped a lot.  I sat in the car while Cassie grabbed some things and then we headed to Rod Works.  I wanted to get more wall hanging things for her handprints.  The parking lot was a nightmare!  I had to go around an accident to get out of it.  Plus, Rod Works didn't have the piece we were looking for.  As I was pulling out it dawned on Cassie that we didn't stop at the bank.  We were planning on doing that after handprints, but I went down a different road to get to the correct stores.  Cassie had mentioned several times on the way down how it would be nice to get those checks in the bank.  I was willing to go back, but Cassie didn't want to.  We were both anxious to get back on the road.  I was not looking forward to that last part of the drive at night.

Cassie and I had a great time talking while we were driving.  The roads were great and everything was working perfect.  Until Tremonton. That is when I ran out of gas.  I felt the car pull weird and looked down.  That is the first time I noticed we were on empty.  I managed to make it to the side of the freeway.  I saw we were one mile from an exit and I was willing the car to make it there, but no luck.  I don't know why it didn't cross my mind to get gas.  Especially when I was sitting in the car with Collin while Cassie was in Harmons.  There is a gas station in the parking lot!  I don't like where the gas gauge is on the van.  My left hand covers it and I have to go out of my way to see how much gas I have.  Well.  There was nothing to do but get out and walk.  Cassie and I were laughing so hard. I have only ran out of gas one other time.  That was when I was driving to Wyoming with Sam and Maysen.  Sam flagged down a truck then.  No way was I doing that!  I figured we were just over a mile from a gas station.  This could be my exercise for the day.  Cassie took a picture of me walking away.  I'm the little dot.

I had walked quite away when I noticed a truck backing up.  He had his window down and I walked up to it and said, "Hi, I ran out of gas."  He asked if I would like a ride.  I said, "That depends.  Are you a scary guy?"  He laughed.  I noticed a loaf of Kneaders bread on the front seat and said, "You can't be a scary guy if you have Kneaders bread."  So, I hopped in the car hoping for the best.  I asked the guy his name, but now that I'm typing everything I can't remember it.  We will call him Hero.  Hero took me to the gas station and I bought a gas can and filled it up.  As I was filling up the can I told Hero that my sister-in-law and her baby was in the car.  He said, "Oh @$%&*!  We need to get you out of here!"  I told him I could walk back but he said, "There is no way I'm letting a little thing like you walk back on that busy road.  It will be dark soon."  Okay.  We drove away from the station and Hero said, "I just need to warn you.  I'm going to go through Bear River City to get to the freeway from another direction.  I'm not taking you somewhere else."  I'm glad he mentioned it because I might have gotten a little nervous going through all these back roads with no freeway in site for five minutes.  Hero said that because of cell phones you don't see people walking on the side of the road that much anymore.  What stood out to him was I wasn't talking on a cell phone.  I told him everyone I could call was really far away, so there was no point in making other people worried.  Once Hero and I got back to the van he filled up my tank.  I stood by the corner of the van with his flashlight waiving it back and forth so other cars would see us more easily.  Most of the cars noticed us and got in the other lane.  I thanked Hero and told him that my birthday is tomorrow and he just gave me the best present I could have.  The car started up and Cassie and I headed to the gas station.  I kept telling myself, "Don't forget to stop at the gas station, you do not have a full tank of gas!"  Hero followed us there.  He hopped out of his truck and brought me his Kneaders bread.  I told him he helped us enough.  He said he was a bachelor and it would go to waste.  Wow. Talk about a nice guy. Cassie and I got back on the road one hour later. Yikes.

I was worried that we would have awful roads now that we were even more behind schedule.  We didn't.  The roads were great all the way to the cabin.  They were much better than when we left.  The only thing that was bad was the fog.  As soon as we crossed the Utah/Idaho border fog was everywhere!  It didn't last too long though.  When I was around Swan Valley I drove into a patch of fog that was so thick I couldn't see beyond the hood of my van.  That was scary!  Luckily that didn't last too long.  We arrived back at the cabin at 8:00.  Yay!  Left at eight, back at eight.  Long day, but I'm really happy we were able to get Collin's handprints done.  My dad was here when we got back.  Glad he didn't fall asleep when he was driving up here.  I get nervous when he drives by himself.  I played two Dominion games before bed.  I won them both, I'm pretty sure.  I was completely exhausted when I crawled into bed.  So happy to be back safe and sound!

Meeting Collin

Cabin day!  I love, love, love the cabin.  John and Cassie got here around 10:30.  I can't believe they drove all night long.  They pulled over twice for a quick hour rest.  I'm glad they are here safe and sound. Plus, now we have met Collin!

Collin & Stockton

 Collin & Stephanie

Sledding was fantastic today.  We decided to sleds from Harmon's were the best.  The one from Scheels were a close second.  Mostly the hill was nice and slick.  The sledding was so fast! We were out there for a long time.  Mike, Matt, John and I took turns driving the 4-wheeler. Everyone went in right as Bubs and Ange came, which also happened to be around dark.  The little kids had fun playing Sleeping Queens. Matt, John and I played two games of Dominion.  We finished a little after midnight.  John must be completely exhausted; still he managed to win both games.  Lame.