Nya Stretching

This is a video (about 4 minutes) of Nya doing her exercises and stretching. Stay tuned to the end with special cameo by Katya. Cutest! Thanks to Jethro for hookin' a sister up with the video.

Nya

I just love Nya to death. She is such a cutie, but she will not give me the time of day. She is 2 1/2 years old, such a fun age. She likes to cling onto Rebekah, which drives Rebekah crazy. I am sure she will warm up to me eventually, but since I am impatient it seems like it is taking an eternity. I miss Sarah and Kate so much, so the sooner Nya will pay attention to me the better :)

I did however get this "lucky" picture of us together.

Of course she loves her Uncle Jethro, I mean what kid doesn't love Uncle Jethro

She likes to tease him

Nya has changed so much since I saw her last about 2 months ago. She is so talkative and intelligent. She is very particular about the way things are around the house. She doesn't like her room to be a mess or anything to be on the floor. She has to have a napkin when she eats and has to have her cup filled all the way to the top. If you don't feel it to the top she won't drink out of it. She also is very independent and likes to do everything herself. Except go to the potty. She always wants her Mommy to take her. It is tiring for Rebekah, but better than her having an accident. Nya also loves to run. We have gone on several walks around the block and she runs, runs, runs. She also loves to jump off of things. Here is a picture of her climbing on a rock and getting ready to "Jump"

She also loves to walk Daisy. It is funny because Nya doesn't understand that if she just pulls back on the leash that Daisy will stop. It is a hoot to watch Nya walk Daisy because she just runs and lets Daisy pull her. It is really funny.
I know as Nya gets used to me she will warm up and then will come the big challenge of having her spend the night. :) I know Rebekah is excited about that. I don't think I will become Nya's favorite "auntie" because I have stiff competition from Staci. In fact Rebekah said that Staci is about the only one that Nya doesn't give a hard time to. But that is o.k. because I love Staci to death and she is awesome. Katya and Staci get home from Oklahoma today and I can not wait to my hands on my little Katya!!!! That is when I am really going to be in 7th Heaven.

Memorial Day

Today I went over to Rebekah and Matt's house for a Barbeque. It was really good, we had chicken, steak, and ribs. Matt is a great cook and loves to entertain.

Getting everything ready. Jethro, Matt, and Autumn (Matt's sister)

Yummy salad the Autumn made, it was sooooooooo good!

Abigail (Amber's daughter) with a great smile.

Cute Demetrius (Not sure how to spell his name. I will have to check with Autumn)

David (Amber's son) He's a little cutie too, but he wasn't feeling too good.

Da-Da (Autumn's daughter) Yes, another beautiful child... I am loving it....

After dinner Jethro and I decided to take all the kids on a walk. Amber's two sons Thomas (check out the boots. I love it) and Matthew are so cute. Also "little James" (Autumns oldest) who isn't so little standing in the back. He is 13 or 14 and 6'3. He helped us out with all the little angels.

Of course we couldn't go on a walk with out Daisy!

All the kids took turns walking her. I only got a picture of Nya with her though.

One thing Utah has a lot of is "ANTS". I hate ants. Nya is fascinated with them and always picks them up. She will hold them between her two fingers and come and show Rebekah. It is really funny. Here are some ants that we saw on our walk. It looks like a bunch of dirt, but it is a ton of ants.

Nya really wanted to hold hands with Thomas while they were walking. It was really cute. I tried to get a picture of them from the back, but Thomas wouldn't hold Nya's hand for too long.

We made a quick stop at the church so the kids could tackle uncle Jethro on the grass. It was so cute!

It was weird not to have Scott and Christina and all their kids there. They were in Boise. I am excited for them to get back in town. It was also weird not to have Staci and Katya there. I can't wait for them to get back from Oklahoma. I can't wait to get my hands on Katya. Yeah!!!!

Going Away Party (Family)

On Wednesday I had a going away party. We had it at George and Amy's house. Sandra, Todd, Tyler (Amy's nephew) and Lena all came and so did Nathan. Gideon had school so he wasn't able to make it. Once again I didn't even get a picture with him. Heather and Ciana also came. I made chicken enchilada's for dinner.

I am going to miss Sandra, Todd, and Lena. They are such great people and I really love them.

I will miss everyone so much.

I am going to miss my brothers!

I am going to miss Amy too! We always had so much fun together. I've got to convince them to move to Utah!! Notice how Sarah is peeking in between our legs. So cute!

Of course I am going to miss Kate - Don't you want to just reach in and give her a big hug!! She is so dang cute!

I am going to miss my little ballerina Sarah too.

I had the girls spend the night for one final time on Wednesday. We went to go and pick up Rebekah and Nya from the airport on Thursday morning. For breakfast I took the girls to Jamba Juice.

Judi's Last Day cont

Here are some more pictures of me on my last day at Judi's. Unfortunately I didn't get pictures with everyone. Sorry you have to see me wearing the same thing in all the pictures :)

Heather the office manager and my best friend. I would not have survived without her. She is the best!

I loved working with Kim. She was such a cool person and so flexible with her schedule. She saved the day many times.

Terrence always kept me laughing.

Albino, Antonia, and Patti. Patti has been the dry cleaner at Judi's for almost 10 years. She starts each day at 4:30 a.m. I don't know how she does it. She is one of the hardest working people I know.

Alterations Department. These ladies are amazing. They can do anything. Luba, Olga, Natalya and Linda.

Eric first started in Carmichael as a presser, then moved to counter. Now he is back pressing in Carmichael.Shirt Laundry Department. A great group of hard working people. Maria, Maria, and Tai.

Hiep - Oh how I love Hiep. She was here when I worked for Judi's over 10 years ago. She is one of the nicest ladies. She is so dedicated and hard working. I will miss her so much.

Prudencia

Here are some pictures of some of my counter staff. Here is Chelle who has been with the company for over 3 years. She certainly did hold down the fort at the Fair Oaks store.

Trent a.k.a my favorite employee as he liked to refer to himself. He really was a great employee, always willing to stay late or come in early. He never called in sick and in the year and a half he worked for me only asked for one day off of work! What a champ!

Julia, who works in the Carmichael store has the best smile ever!

Tye, another one of our Route drivers.

Gideon is working for Judi's now and I can't believe I didn't get a picture with him :(

Salt Lake City

I made it!! It feels so good to be in SLC. I love the mountains and I feel like I am "Home". I went and looked at my apartment and I love it. I will get the truck unloaded tomorrow morning.

Bitter Sweet

Today is my last day of work. I can not believe that I am on my way to Utah tomorrow. I am very excited to move to Utah and I can't wait to see what the future brings. I already have some good leads on jobs for the summer. I really will be happy when I get some interviews to teach for the upcoming school year. After all that is why I am moving to Utah.

The past two years have been challenging. I remember my first day of work and going around to the stores and meeting all the employee's. There were some real losers working here at the time and I knew that my first task would be "clean-up" It took me about a year of lots of hard work, long hours, and firing and hiring to clean this place up. I am so happy that we have such a great class of employee's working for us now. I put in way too many 60+ hours a week shifts, but I think it was all worth it. I have learned a great deal from this job and I can leave holding my head held high. I am sad to leave all of the friends I have made at work. I sure do work with some great people. Monday night they had a party for me. It was really nice. Not everyone was able to make it, but I enjoyed my time with those that were there. I took my camera with me so I could take pictures and then forgot about it. Here are some pictures I took yesterday. I will take more as I go around to all the stores to say goodbye and post them later.

Me working in the Granite Bay Store. Ready with a smile for the customer that walks in.

Getting customers clothes off the rack. As you can see there really wasn't a customer, but it was a fun pose :)

Owner, Ben Combs. What a great man. He first hired me when I was 20 years old back in 1996. I worked for him for about 1 1/2yrs. He has also hired all four of my brothers. Gideon worked for him for 3 years before he went on his mission. Now Gideon is working at Judi's again, but just for the summer. When I originally left Judi's he tried everything he could to get me to stay. 10 years later he succeeded in getting me to come back and work for him. Perhaps in another 10 years I'll be back again. Who knows...

Two of our great Route drivers. Jen and Sergio. Jen has been with the company longer than any other employee. She knows it all. Sergio has a lot of family in Salt Lake and I told him he better come visit me when he is there :)

Good Old Ali. Not that he is "old" but he is such a kind man. He is so devoted to his job and always has the best interest of the company in mind. He is the one that gets all of the clothes to all the stores. He is always on the go and being pulled in a million different directions by about 40 different employee's. Everyone thinks that their request is most urgent, so he really has to multi-task and he does a great job. I will really miss him.

I am going to post this for now. I will try and post more tonight after I get more pictures.

ARL

I am very excited because I found out yesterday that I got accepted to the Alternative Routes to Licensure (ARL) program in Utah. I was surprised that found out so quickly. It will be great because now when I meet with principals I can let them know that I have been accepted into the program. That way they know that I am serious about getting my licence. The good thing is that I have quite a few EEC (early childhood education credits) from when I was at BYU. That was my original major, so I am sure that helped expedite my acceptance. So I am giving myself a pat on the shoulder. When I arrive in Salt Lake I have to immediately go and get my fingerprints taken and get a background check. The ARL program only gives me two weeks to do this from the date of the letter. The letter was dated 5/15 so it will be down to the wire.

Wish me luck this next week as I prepare to make the move to Salt Lake. I get the truck on Thursday, we are going to load it up Thursday night, and I will leave Friday morning. Rebekah and Nya are flying in on Thursday morning. Rebekah is going to drive my car up to Salt Lake I will drive the Uhaul. I am so excited to get to Salt Lake. I can't wait to go hiking........

Insomnia ......... Tooth Drama

I have really been suffering with a bad case of insomnia lately. I know it is because of everything I am going through right now. While I feel calm and excited about the decision I made to move to Utah, I think deep down inside I am feeling a great deal of stress and anxiety. The fact that I made this decision so quickly and suddenly hasn't helped my stress level. There is so much to do and so little time to do it. But that is just the way I work. I have always done things this way and I work well under pressure, but that doesn't mean I don't suffer some along the way.

So as far as my insomnia goes, it is terrible. First of all I couldn't sleep because I was so stressed out about work. I wouldn't be able to get to sleep until 2:00 a.m. on a regular basis. My alarm goes off at 5:30, sometimes earlier depending where I am working. When you are tired, you don't handle stress as well and that sets off another series of events. Well, when things got really bad was a few weeks ago when I started getting this really bad tooth ache. It actually started when I was down in San Diego on 3/28. It would come and ago, but it was on a tooth that I already had a root canal on. Once you have a root canal the tooth is basically dead. They remove the nerve and there is no longer a way for the tooth to survive. Well, this tooth drama with tooth #3, my molar on the upper right, has been going on for years. I mean years, at least 8 years. It all started with a cavity. I had it filled, then I was still having problems so I got an onlay put on. A few years went by, still having problems and they put a crown on. Still years went by, and it still bothered me, so they had to do a root canal and another crown. Time goes on, it starts bothering me. The worst time was when I was in Palm Desert visiting Rebekah. I think I had Sarah or Kate with me, I can't remember which one. Anyway, Rebekah had a doctor's appointment in LA and on the drive out I was dying. I was in so much pain from this stupid tooth!!! Having worked in the dental field for seven years, I was fortunate to have never experienced major tooth pain. Sure I had times where it would bother me, but then I would just hop in the dental chair, the dentist would check it out, do something... and I was good to go. I would always get so impatient when people would call and complain about a toothache. I just didn't ever understand how it could be so bad. People would call all the time and say they just wanted the tooth out of their mouth. I could never understand until that time on the way to LA. I seriously wanted to take a pair of pliers and rip that tooth out of my mouth. Rebekah can confirm that! Anyway, Rebekah used to work for a dentist by the name of Dr. Kim in Glendale. She called him and as a special favor he agreed to meet us at the office that afternoon. I had gone 24 hours without sleep because of the pain I was in. He numbed the area for me to give me some relief and took an x-ray. Once he developed the x-ray he said "No way I am touching this tooth" You have got something major going on and you need to go see a specialist. He gave me some anti-biotics and painkillers and off I went. Within a few days I was feeling much better. Did I make an appointment to see my dentist in Sacramento. No, because I felt better. Well a few months later the same pain came back. So I broke down and went to the dentist and he said the same thing "No way am I touching this tooth. You need to go see an endodontist". So I went and saw an endodontist and it turned out that instead of the three canals that showed up on the x-ray, I had a hidden fourth canal. That was what was causing me so much pain. Additionally, because the infection had been present for so long (and I did nothing about it) I had a lot of bone loss. And there was some random black mass the the endodontist had no idea what it was. Great!!! :( :( :( So I had the retreat of the root canal and was told all should be fine from now on. I went back to my dentist to get yet another post put in my tooth. Thankfully, he was able to save the crown that I had, which meant that saved me $850. Even though I had to pay $1000 to the endodontist. My dental insurance sucks, it only covers 20%. Anyway, after all that about 2 months had passed. Then the same freakin pain came back. I called the endodontisit and he said that sometimes that can happen, lucky me. I had such an infection that sometimes it flares back up. He called in some antibiotics for me. I took them and all was well again. Until my recent trip to San Diego. The pain came back, along with the sleepless nights. I just couldn't understand why I had all this pain. After about a week I broke down and called my dentist, who said "No way am I touching that tooth. Call the endodontist" I did and he said to come in right away. Well, I went in, they took x-rays and guess what? That black mass was still there. They told me I needed surgery. Great, small problem Dr. I am moving in two weeks!!! Well, they worked their magic, rescheduled a few patients and fit me in on Tuesday. To the tune of $1200!!!! Anyway, they had to do an apioectomy. That is where they cut off the tips of 3 of my canals. They also removed the tissue that was infected, which the endondist said was "a massive infection". He is surprised that it didn't heal and he is going to send it in for a biopsy. Anyway, the procedure was about 2 1/2 hours and included 8 stitches. The night before my surgery I was really stressed out about it. Having been in the dental field I know what this consisted of and I knew it was going to suck and it was going to hurt like heck!!! That night I couldn't fall asleep to save my life. I finally fell asleep around 3:00 a.m. and my alarm went off at 5:00. I worked from 6:30-1:00 and my appointment was at 1:30. When I was on my way home I was talking to Amy and told her I would stop by Sarah's school and pick her up. I was driving right by. Amy asked if I was o.k. to do that and I said "Sure, I am numb". So I went and picked up Sarah and told her that we had to go to Jack in the Box to get a milkshake for me. Sarah said "But Auntie, that is not on your diet. You can't go off course". I had to laugh. She is such a little cutie! I told her it was "Doctor's Orders" Since I had the surgery he said I should have a milkshake because it is cold and soft and will help in slowing down the bleeding. So I went and got myself, Sarah, Kate, and Amy shakes. It was yummy and even though I know it was off my diet, it felt dang good to eat it. I dropped Sarah off at home and came home and fell asleep on the couch. I woke up a few hours later. I felt like really beat up and out of it. I had taken some vicoden and I don't like to take it. Usually, it makes me hyper, which is why I don't like to take it, but I think everything I had gone through and the lack of sleep really was starting to affect me. I took a Benedryl that night because that always makes me sleep. When I woke up the next morning I felt really groggy. My mouth hurt, my head hurt, I couldn't seem to think straight. It just really sucked. I had to work 11-C that day. Don't ask me why I didn't take the day off. Anyway, I went to work a total Zombie. I was so out of it. Thankfully, I was in the slowest store and was able to sit down most of the day. I was pretty much zoning out. That night I went to bed around 10 or 11 only to be awoken by my cell phone at 1:00 a.m. I looked at the number and it was an 800#. I was thinking "I am not answering that. Who knows who is calling and I swear if it is a telemarketer I am going to be livid" I waited to see if they left a message. They did. I listened and it ADT, the alarm company from work, letting me know that they were receiving a "low battery" signal. Good grief, did they really have to call me at 1:00 a.m. Well, since I have been suffering from Insomnia, once I am awake I can not go back to sleep. I tried really hard, but I couldn't. Finally at 2:00 I got up and started packing. I got a lot done. By 5:00 a.m. I was feeling sick because I was so tired. I laid back down and my alarm went off at 5:30. I snoozed until 5:45 and then off to work again. They cycle has repeated itself and I am going crazy!! Last night I took a benedryl again because I had to take the CSET (like the MSAT). I had to be at the testing center by 7:30 a.m. I knew I had to get sleep last night. Thankfully, I did sleep through the night. I was so tired this morning and suffering from the effects of the drowsy feeling I always feel the next morning after taking Bendryl. But I knew, if I didn't take it, I wouldn't sleep. We were allowed 5 hours to take the test. I finished in 2 1/2hrs. I have always been a super fast test taker. You either know it, or you don't. I don't think I did too well. I didn't even study for it. Too much has been going on. I tried to withdraw a few weeks ago but I was 3 minutes too late. The test is $250 and I didn't want to not take it. At least I tried. Oh well, I am not going to stress over it. It was a test that I needed to be accepted to the credential program in California, but I don't think it would do any good for me in Utah. Who knows, anyway what is done is done!

Happy Auntie's Day

and Happy Mother's Day too! I didn't get a chance to make a post yesterday, but I do want to tell my Mom how much I love her! She is such a wonderful woman and I love her so much. She is so patient and listens to me go on and on and on and on about whatever is on my mind. You think I have a tendency to ramble in my blogs, you should hear me on the phone :) Anyway, I really admire my Mother. She not only raised seven children, but somehow found the time to always make bread, pancakes, cookies, cake, and everything else from scratch. One thing that I am most thankful for from my Mother is that she always had us eat dinner as a family. It was hard at times, especially when all we did was complain about what she made. But it was nice to sit down as a family every night and discuss our days. I know as a teenager I barely would sit through an entire dinner. I remember all of us kids raiding the table, eating our food as fast as we could and off we would go. My Mom would just sit at the table slowly enjoying her meal. As I look back on that I feel bad that so often we couldn't even find the time to say "Thanks Mom". Well here is my time to say "Thanks". Thanks for just being you! I love you so much and I miss you terribly. I have always said "If my Mom doesn't make it to the Celestial Kingdom, then none of us will" That is how wonderful my Mom is. In Relief Society we had a special panel of woman. Some were mother/daughter and others were just asked to share some stories about their Mom's. I was asked to participate in the panel. One thing I focused on was my Mom's ability to serve others. Not only serve others, but to do so silently. Every Sunday I call my Mom on the way home from church. She often will answer her cell phone and say "I can't talk, I am visiting my little old ladies". I am always amazed at how faithful she is to go and visit them every Sunday. One lady she visit teaches and the other lady is not a member and my Mom has just befriended her. I know these ladies look forward to every Sunday when my Mom is going to come and visit. I love you MOM!

Yesterday I went over to George and Amy's after church to celebrate Mother's Day with them.

I really wanted to get a nice picture of me and the girls, but I may have to try again next Sunday. I am my own worse critic.

Kate was being goofy in this picture with this foamy sticker on her head. I love her smile in this picture. It is so typical Kate, full of mischief in her eyes.

Here is a really nice family picture of George, Amy, Sarah, Kate and new baby. Amy looks so dang cute pregnant!

George made a wonderful dinner for all of us. He made egg rolls, bread, kung po chicken, and a very yummy cake for desert.

Hopefully, he will post some pictures of the food he made. He also made a very good breakfast for Amy. He is such a good cook!! He made everything from scratch! Go George!