Uncle Jimmy's Funeral

Me with my auntie Joyce (mom's sis) and my cousin, Aftan (uncle Paul's daughter)

Huck, Lilly (Mikie's kids) Aiden (Aftan's son) and Junior
Look everyone, I'm flying!
Uncle Paul with Grandma Arneson and Lyle

On our way back from mom's weekend @ WSU, I found out from Mikie that our uncle Jimmy passed away that morning. Jimmy was my mom's youngest brother and only a couple years older than my brother...he spent a lot of time at our home when I was growing up. I have lots of fond memories with him. I remember taking a road trip from SD to Denver, CO with him, mom and Soren in his little black Porsche when I was about 10 or 11 - we went to visit my uncle Ed & his family. I'm still not sure how we all made it there in that tiny little car and with his crazy driving on the mountain roads. I would sing along with him to the song, "I want my MTV" I thought the song went, "Money for nothing & the shakes for free" and didn't believe Jimmy when he said it was actually "chics for free". Soren & I had lots of fun with Jimmy cause he always acted like a big kid, which he was. We all stopped along the way and built a little damn somewhere in CO. In March of 96, I was with Jimmy @ Mikie's house in HI for 3 weeks. I thinik Sloan was about 18 months at the time. We had many adventures there, he would always carry Sloan when we went on hikes. I will always remember his huge smile and generous loving attitude. He also met Marcus a couple times when he drove to WA from SD & CA, once with uncle Dan and once by himself. Marcus and Jimmy got along great of course both of them are such gently giant's and Jimmy and O (Ollie as he called her) had a special bond together the last time he was in WA - that was at mom & Adrian's home on the island when I was pregnant with MJ (August 06). O and him were down on the beach for hours, she sang for him while he made jewelry to her music. We're going to miss you Jimmy!!

So, Marcus x 2 and I flew along with mom & Adrian to NE on Thursday, 4/17th @ 5am and landed in Omaha, NE later that afternoon. We rented a van and drove to my uncle Paul's home in Whiting, IA. Mom & Adrian stayed there with her brothers, Paul & Dan and Paul's wife, Cheryl. Junior sure loved uncle Paul - he even cried when we left their home to go stay with Soren, Jaime, Sarena & Moya. We stopped in Sioux City, IA to eat at our favorite Mexican place...La Juanita's then got to Hartford, SD around 7pm after a long day of traveling. It was so nice to see Soren & family, Sarena is so hilarious and Moya is the sweetest baby! She has this laugh that's just the cutest thing I've ever heard! She cracks up @ her sister and loved Junior too. Jaime looks great, she has lost so much weight and runs everyday. Soren looked good too, he works so hard at work - he leaves between 6-7am I think and doesn't get home until between 7-10pm. I don't know how he does it. Jaime is the best cook, it's nice to eat the different recipe's from the Midwest where everyone is so into family and cooking. I ate so much while I was there, I gained 7 lbs. The best was the pheasant dinner and peanut butter bars, I'm getting hungry just thinking about it! We had fun seeing the little cousins together and Mikie got there with Lilly & Huck on Friday evening. Dana wasn't able to come because she had business out of State. I seriously don't know how Mikie traveled with 2 kids under 4, he's good. That was the first time, we've all met each other's littlest ones. Sarena was the big cousin and she did a really good job, Lilly & her are really cute together and Moya is sooooo sweet and cute laughing at all her cousins running around with "Rena"...it was pure craziness at times but still so nice to be with everyone! Saturday, Jaime, Mikie, Marcus and I took all 5 kids to the zoo in Sioux Falls, SD and it was so fun - the kids did great!! Soren had to work so we were sad about that but Mikie made friends with a couple bears throwing the kids fruit cup leftovers in to them. I'm surprised we didn't get kicked out - he had both bears up on their back legs begging for food. Jaime left me to scold him by myself and Marcus just laughed. Yikes, you gotta love my crazy brother. On a different note, I do enjoy seeing him as a father...he's really good at it too. Soren is too!!

The funeral was nice and my mom's uncle Roger Barcus who's a Pastor performed the service. Junior saw Jimmy there and kept saying, "Jimmy night night" and the family smiled in between their tears listening to him talk. I really enjoyed one of the songs that my mom's cousin's and daughter sang, "Standing in the need of prayer". Everyone tried to leave there with a positive attitude and message.

It was nice to see my family and some of them I hadn't seen in almost 12 years, way too long! It was fun talking, sharing and crying together with everyone after the funeral. My auntie Joyce who lives in Redding CA gave me a Coach bag, wallet and some Tiffany & Co. charm jewelry. I've never had any of this stuff before, I was really excited about the bag...it's really pretty!

Marcus x 2 & I stopped @ my high school on Tuesday and visited with some of my teachers who are still there! We also went to the Omaha, NE zoo before our plane left that evening. It was the best zoo we have ever been to. I'd been there before but it's really changed a lot in the last 10 years! It has the largest indoor rain forest and desert dome in the world. Awesome aquarium and monkey and cat complexes too! Marcus taught MJ to beat on his chest when he sees a gorilla, it's too funny! We all missed the girls soooooo MUCH! I wish they could've all gone with us! We did drop off homework and picture cd's to Sara, it's always so nice to see her and she was so impressed with everything about Linni. (Linni's foster mom in Sioux City, IA) We left pictures with Sara for Linni's sisters Meagan & Cassandra and her mom, Terri too.

I could easily live there, it's so CHEAP to buy a nice home and I miss Jaime, Sarena, Moya and Soren already! Marcus really loves it there too, we always look at the real estate magazines and dream when we're there. Maybe someday we can live on a lake there close to my SD family or they could live closer to us!! :)

Mom's Weekend At WSU

Matt invited me to join mom @ the college for mom's weekend this year...I'm so glad I decided to go - even though it was hard to leave Marcus & the kids behind. Turk rented us a car for me to drive there and Jackie picked out a brand new Dodge Caravan, it was super nice. I was most impressed with the buttons that automatically opened/closed the side doors and the huge side windows that went down instead of just venting. Jackie & I had a good time talking, laughing, and crying on the drive about 5 hours each way there & back. She made great food to take over to Matt and his roommates & all the mom's for our weekend. She put cinnamon rolls in a pan before we left and they were giant by the time we made it to Pullman.

Matt & his roommates bbq'd burgers for dinner on Friday night, we had Jackie's famous potato salad too and the drinking games began. We played beer pong and surprisingly both Jackie & I were pretty good for our 1st time. We also played a game they called survivor and all the mom's & their sons were on a team together, long story short...my team lost and Jackie & I had to do lots of drinking. We left to the bar, can't remember what it was called but we danced for a few hours and I was impressed that Jackie danced the night away with all of us. I was so tired by the end of the night...I kicked my shoes off in the street as soon as we stepped outside the bar. We spend a beautiful Saturday afternoon watching the Cougar baseball team whoop up on Arizona. I was impatient to get back to Marcus & the kids on Sunday morning, especially b/c he had been home with an extra little one (Jeanette's - foster son, Christopher who's 2) and Marcus got the flu on Saturday night after Christopher left. Thanks for being a great host Matty - we love you! :)

Great Wolf Lodge

We had a ball at the Great Wolf Lodge, hotel & indoor water park! We had decided to do this mini vacation for the kids during their spring break on 4/6 & 4/7 with our tax return present to ourselves. They just opened this hotel/water park on March 18th and spent millions on construction and we had been seeing tv commercials and I was sold as soon as I checked it out online. Marcus & I were planning on keeping this a secret for the girls, which lasted only a few hours. I couldn't hold it in anymore, I was more excited than I thought they would be. After we told them, they screamed and were so excited - they couldn't fall asleep that night. The next day, I made a chore chart for them to earn money for the arcade and kids spa in the hotel. After Marcus saw how hard they were working in the house, I think he was glad that I couldn't keep the secret. We had 3 weeks of coming home to all 3 girls cleaning from windows to toilets, it was great!! We had our 2 days planned 3 weeks before we left. The girls saved the money they had been earning and also received donations from Grandma Jackie & St.Denis...enough for each of them each to pay for a luxury manicure, arcade money, (deal or no deal was most of our favorite game) and O even bought a shirt that says, "I would trade my brother for another trip to the Great Wolf Lodge". Pito lasted 3 hours max at the water park before he needed a nap. After his nap, we were in the arcade and he was having a great time but the girls were asking if grandma & grandpa could take him overnight so we could all go back to the waterpark and go on rides together...so we called them and they were right there to pick him up, they live about 10 mins away. I was a little sad to see him go but he was excited to see grandma Jackie and papa Turk so that made it easier.

So about these rides, there was one called the "howling tornado" and it was so scary! 4 people would go together on a raft where everyone faced each other. You traveled down an enclosed slide (when it was dark outside, the ride was pitch black) and after just a few seconds, there was a 70 foot drop that shot you on the tornado part, back & forth the walls! It was a lot of fun but I said a prayer that we wouldn't fall off the raft each time we stood in line. We all had such a wonderful time, the room was awesome, food was great and I went to the spa and got an awesome massage from my friend Nikki's best friend Heather who is a massage therapist there. Hopefully we can go back again next year!