Grandma Winder

Grandma Winder passed away last night. The nurse said she probably wouldn't make it through the nigh and just a few minutes later Grandma took a deep breath, leaned her head back and left. 

We were so grateful to have the 4 months to live with her. I learned so much from her in that short amount of time. She had a hard life, living in poor conditions, working on a farm, and growing everything they ate. She never really had much, and on the day she died she didn't have much, but to her she had everything. She had family that is sealed in the temple,  a testimony of the gospel, and love in her heart. To her the Church wasn't something you believe in, she just knew that it was true. Whenever she spoke about the Church you knew that she knew for a fact everything was true. She was always very generous with the few things she did have.

I am so happy that Grandma was able to reunite with her family members, especially her husband who has been gone for 13 years. She talked about him a lot. She wondered if she would recognize him when she saw him again. Would he be in his younger body or his older body? Again, she just knew she would see him. 

She is out of pain and is rejoicing over all the people she is now meeting that she only knew on paper. She did a lot of genealogy work on the earth so I'm sure many people are thanking her right now. 

Even though I am happy Grandma is in a better place, it's hard to think that she is gone. Next time I go to Utah she won't be in her lazy boy waiting to see us with her huge smile. She is the first person I've really known to have passed away so I'm having a hard time grasping the idea that she is gone. I know I'll see her again, but it's going to be a long time from now. 

The thing that makes this all harder, is that I wrote her a letter earlier this week thanking her for her example and expressing our love for her. She didn't get to read it. I waited too long to write a letter that was very over due.  My tears are tears of joy and sorrow. I wish I didn't wait so long to write the letter. I thought I had more time. I pictured her lying on the bed reading the letter with that cute smile on her face.  I hope that she can somehow know what was in that letter and still have that smile on her face. 

So one thing I've learned from this is to never think I have more time. I need to do everything I want to do and say everything I want to say now. I'll never know when I'll be saying goodbye for the last time and I never want to have this feeling of regret again.

Goodbye Grandma Winder. We love you dearly and will miss you terribly.

Amgen Tour of California

We found out that Lance Armstrong was going to riding right through our neighborhood on Saturday so of course we had to watch. This race is similar to the Tour de France as it starts in Sacramento and ends is Escondido equaling 9 days in all. The 7th stage was going through Pasadena, making up 88.2 miles in total.

The race was going down Angeles Crest which is the major street by our house. There were signs on the street that said "Special Event Saturday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m." So we carry our gear uphill to the corner to watch the race at 10 a.m. This was especially hard for me since I couldn't breath through my nose and my throat felt like it was closing in on me. I finally made it to the corner and set up camp and this is what we saw. No one and nothing.

Luckily we had our handy dandy iPhones to look up the race details. We found out it didn't start until noon up in Valencia followed by a long climb uphill in the mountains. We decided to go home and try again later. I'm glad we did because we would have been sitting there for 3 1/2 hours.

On our second attempt we drove down to a neighborhood to watch the race. Here are some pictures we took. I got some good pictures of Lance Armstrong even though I didn't know it was him at the time.  He is the last one in this picture. 

Here is one with his whole team in front of the peloton.

The riders flew past us bringing lost of wind and dirt with them. My hair was blowing all over the place. Just after the riders were the cars carrying extra bikes and tires. It was pretty cool to see the cars racing down a neighborhood hill at 40 miles per hour when the speed limit is normally 25. 

After this part of the race we drove down to the end of the race at the Rose Bowl. Luckily for us they rode around the Rose Bowl 5 times so we were able to see them 3 of the 5. Apparently after a rider is done with his water bottle he throws is off to the side. The first time around Ja was struck with one which surprised him. We got another bottle the next time they came around.  Lance Armstrong is the third man in this picture.

Here are some other cool pictures I took. If you want too see all of them you can go to our Web Gallery.

It was really fun to see a professional bike race in person. It really wore me out though and I was on the couch with a fever the rest of the night trying to get comfort but to no avail. I'm still glad I went to the race, it might be a once in a lifetime experience.

Tidbits of Life

For Valentine's Day I bought Ja tickets to see the Harlem Globe Trotters. It was a pretty cheesy show but we had a fun time. 

Last Wednesday we went to Disneyland for the day. We went with the girls from Dr. DeVore's staff, but we split up once in the park. There wasn't very many people there and the longest we waited for a ride was 20 minutes for the Nemo ride. We were able to take things slow and have fun. These are the only pictures we took on the Pirates Island.

 

The other day I went with Dale (who is the 70 year old man I work for) to visit his mom . Yes his mom is still alive, and a very alive 100 year old woman. She walks without a walker or cane and she still drives. We went around lunch time and as soon as we walked in she asked if Dale wanted a sandwich. She asked if he wanted the bread toasted, what he wanted to drink, if he wanted zucchini bread, and if he had enough food. I guess no matter how old you are or how old your mom is, moms will always be moms. (I brought my own sandwich otherwise she would've made one for me too.)

Ja gave me a gift certificate to a Spa for Valentine's Day. I used it on Friday for a facial. I had already experienced a massage so I wanted to try something different. A facial is not as relaxing as a massage. She put different kinds of creams/gels/moisturizers on my face, some of which tingled and burned. She said it was removing the dead skin from my face. Although it was a fun experience to try once, I think I'll stay with the body massages. 

After my facial I started to feel sick. Luckily I took some medicine and went to bed at 9 p.m. feeling all right. But Saturday morning came and I was burning up but cold at the same time. I tried to take some medicine but nothing was helping. I took a bath and felt a little bit better, but not fully better. I didn't sleep well last night because I woke up every couple of hours due to extreme heat. My cute husband has been taking great care of me. He gets me cold wash cloths, smoothies, water, medicine, and anything else I need. He didn't even complain about me waking him up a lot last night. I hope I can start feeling better soon. 

Sometimes I think to myself, I wish I could be sick so I can stay home and sleep all day. Then I do get sick and I'm so mad at myself for even thinking of such a thing. Thank goodness for husbands and people around us to take care of us. 

Trapped in the Drive Thru

Make sure you have 11 minutes to watch this funny video.

Yay for Kenny!

More news on my little brother; he was accepted into BYU with a half scholarship! We're so proud and excited to have another BYU student in our family.

My New Goal

For the first time in my life I am setting a goal. Today I actually found something that is worth setting a goal for. As I was driving around, I saw a man drive past in an old fashioned convertible car and I loved it. So that is my new goal, one day I am going to own, and drive around, an old convertible car. I don't know much about cars to describe what year or model, but it's going to be old and a convertible. By the time I can afford one the 80's will probably be old so I should say I want one from the 60's or earlier. How cool with I be?!

What's Wrong With This Picture?

This is the same picture of me that's shown up in random places. My friend sent this picture to because she saw it in an Avery Office Supplies Magazine, but something is wrong with it. Can you find the 3 differences from the original picture, one of them being something that is wrong with me?

Answer 1. the pink binder was a white book 2. the background was trees 3. I don't have long hair! Do you think I should grow my hair out?

Man Bags

Last Saturday Ja and I went out shopping. Ja was complaining that guys have too much stuff to carry around in their pant pockets (i.e. phone, wallet, chapstick, pen) and that it's not fair women get to carry around purses. He decided that he wanted to bring the "Man Bag" back into style and if it wasn't ever in style, he would make it so. 

I told him there is no way is he wearing a purse around because only gay guys do that and I don't want people looking at us and thinking, "Oh poor girl, her husband is gay." He said that man bag's aren't gay and that he really wants one.

As we continue walking around that day we see a guy with his "man bag" and he was TOTALLY gay. I was excited because this man very well proved my point. Ja wasn't totally satisfied and said he still wants one.

Only a few minutes later we see another guy with a purse, and he was totally gay too! I think Ja finally realized that maybe man bags are for gay guys and I never heard anything else about it. I love it when I'm right.

Sorry, Ja, but we will find a solution to your pocket problem. What about wearing a cell phone clip on your belt? Those are much more attractive than those bags :)

Beatboxing flute to the Super Mario Brothers theme

Man he is good! He must have practiced a lot.