Memorial and Funeral Arangements

Michael's Memorial service will be Saturday, July 31, at the LDS church on 969 Gage Blvd Richland, Wa at 1 pm.

A funeral will be held on Monday, August 1st in Rigby, Id. There will be a viewing at the Eckersell Funeral home on Sunday from 6-7:30 pm. A second viewing and the Funeral will be held on Monday at the Rigby Stake Center 258 W 1 N (across from the Jr. High). The viewing will be from 9:30-10:45. The Funeral begins at 11:00. Then we will move to the Annis Little Butte Cemetery.

A trust fund has been set up at Beehive Federal Credit Union, and US Bank in his name.

This can't be real. Michael passed away...

He may be gone but we had an amazing life. We will be together again.

It is 2:30 in the morning. I can't sleep. I just can't stop thinking that someone has played a terrible practical joke on me. I will surely wake up in the morning to find this is all a big misunderstanding.

This afternoon Michael called me and talked to me for a few minutes. He had driven up to north Idaho to dive for golf balls with my Uncle Bob as a summer job for a couple of weeks. We were hoping he would earn enough doing this that he wouldn't have to work the after school program this year. I wanted him home at 4pm everyday instead of 6pm. I wanted him to spend more time with me and his new baby boy. He told me on the phone about how much fun he was having. He said the water was very clear and he loved reaching zero buoyancy because it felt like flying. The fish would swim right up to him and check out what he was doing. He was working very hard and he said it was very hot in his dry suit. We joked around about how the golf course was very ritzy and he didn't feel like he could go to take a rest stop because he was in sweaty clothes. He told me he had come back up because he used up his first tank of air and something was wrong with the second tank. He thought it was missing an 0 ring. Bob showed up to help him fix it. He told me that he loved me and would call me later. I told him I loved him too and to have a great time...

I went for a walk with Little E to my friend Tasha's house after her nap time. When I came home to start dinner my brother knocked on the door. Something was very wrong. I thought maybe Alan had been in an accident or grandma had passed away. I was on the phone with my little sister and he told her we would call her right back. Then he told me the worst news I have ever heard in my life. Michael was in an accident. He never came back up. They pulled him out of the water and took him to the hospital but he never woke up. He was called back to our heavenly father.

I just keep thinking of our last morning together. We were getting him ready to drive up to north Idaho. I made him a special breakfast of scrabbled eggs with all the fixings. Sausage, green pepper, fresh tomatoes from the garden. He ate one of the tomatoes raw and talked about how much better they tasted that way. While he got all of his stuff together Little E and I picked him a handful of our raspberries that are just coming on. She ate most of them but we did manage to get him a few as a special treat.

We took a family shower together. Little E loves taking showers with Mommy and Daddy. She enjoys taking turns snuggling us under the water and laughs when we use the "tickle soap", a homemade soap her grandma made us that has lavender pieces in it. It tickles her when we use it. Since Michael was going to be gone for 3 weeks I really wanted her to let him know she loved him. So I got her to tell him "I love you" over and over in the shower accompanied by a sweet kiss on the lips. She really adores her daddy. She woke up last night in the middle of the night because she had wet the bed (we are not worrying about night time training anymore. I can't do it now.) She came out and kept looking for him in our bed. She wanted to kiss daddy awake. I kept telling her daddy wasn't home but she wanted him anyways. She loves him so much.

We got dressed and went outside to see him off. He opened the garage door and pulled me in close for a wonderful tight hug and a very loving long kiss. He told me he loved me and wanted me to be careful while he was gone. He didn't want me to do something silly like lift heavy things while being so pregnant. I told him to be careful too and to be sure and eat and take good care of himself. He promised me he would. He got into the car and Little E wanted to sit on his lap in the drivers seat and play with the steering wheel. He let her for a minute and told her to be a good girl for mommy. Then he gave us both one more hug and kiss and drove away. I ran from the driveway around the corner to watch him drive until he was out of sight. It is a habit I have had since I was a little girl. I am so glad I did. Little waved after him and kept saying, "Love you daddy! Bye!"

I miss him so much already. But I still can't beleive he is really gone. There has to be some sort of mistake because things like this just don't happen. They just don't! He was young and healthy and we are having a baby boy in 2 months. The son he was so sure we would never have because he knew we were going to have all girls. I now know this little boys name. I could't make myself think of a name for this whole pregnancy. I just felt like it wasn't the time to worry about that. Now I know that his name is Michael.

I can't write anymore right now. I am crying to hard and my head hurts. Its hard to see the screen. But I wanted to record our last morning in as much detail as I could remember. While it was playing in my head.

I love you Michael. I know we will be together as a family again. We have been sealed in the temple and that is the most comforting thought I have right now. I love you. I miss you. Please call me and tell me this isn't real... that its a mistake... Please... please...

Little E's New Big Girl Room

Man, I can't beleive how long its been since I posted on here. Sorry about that folks, but we have been busy little Beavers in this house the last couple of months. We have been working on one project after the other. First we finished up the bathroom (well, I still have a couple of finishing touches like silicon caulk on 2 walls and a small area to paint but its finally usable!) My dear husbands parents came for a visit and didn't even complain that we spent half the time finishing the bathroom up. We had a really great time with them and went to the museum of Idaho to Wolf to Woof. We also went to the zoo for my birthday (almost a month ago! Holy cow I am behind). Little E really likes the zoo and we had a great time there. I will post before and after pictures later for the bathroom. I have to be on the other computer to do them.

The next project we did was a trip to Alaska. I will let my dear husband post about his amazing experiences up there for your enjoyment later. He and my dad flew up my dad's little airplane and had a great time catching enormous fish and chasing down bears. While they were gone my Mom and I spent the whole time going through all the baby clothes and getting them organized. That was a ton of work but I am so glad we did it. There was way to much laundry and it made my house so hot using the dryer that much! I am so grateful we didn't put it off until August! That would have been miserable.

Once the man got back from his mountaineering trip we worked on getting the garage all cleaned out. I couldn't beleive how many boxes we had just shoved in the garage and never unpacked when we moved in last August! lol Just goes to show you that you never really move in until you have spring cleaned for several years in a row! We also finally got the drywall put up on the wall between the garage and the house. My Mom and younger sister came and helped hold up the heavy pieces and we are so grateful! We needed to get those up to help fireproof between the garage and the house. It gives me just a little bit more piece of mind that we have that done.

Once we got those projects finished we started on my favorite project so far! Little E's new big girl room! My older sister came up and helped me to figure out the cutest ideas for her room. We based it all around the bed spread we found at target. I also scored on a clearance bean bag chair and decals to match. We painted it a beautiful sunshine yellow and we were going to do a blue stripe around the middle. But once my sister saw the cute decals she came up with an amazing idea to use the blue to frame in the little creatures like a picture over her bed and reading nook. It turned out a hundred times cuter than I could have imagined! I am so grateful that she came and helped me do all the taping and thinking for measurements because my brain couldn't have handled that while pregnant. lol

My whole family has been so kind and sharing during this whole process. My parents have loaned us a twin sized mattress and my older sister is passing down her little girls (ok, not so little she is almost a teenager I guess.) bed, side table, and some sconces. :) It is such a huge blessing right now! Since we have been doing so many projects at once (trying to get it all done before baby arrives) it really helps to not have to buy all this furniture too!

Here are some cute pictures of Little E's new room!
There will be a day bed and two side tables on this wall. We will probably also have a sconce light on each side of the bed.

Here is her cute little reading nook. There will be a tiny book shelf on the right side of the bean bag chair. It came from my grandmas house when she was first married and has been passed down through the family for a long time. My older sister told me that she used it as a barbie house when she was a little girl. I think I did the same thing. :) We just have to paint it white to match the rest of the furniture in the room before it can be moved in.

I love the cute little squirrel on this wall. He looks like he is watching the flower fall from the sky. :) I am going to make cute curtains from some matching sheets for the window.

Not much on this wall yet. But we will have a white dresser (just need to finish painting it) and I am going to hang her blessing dress up above the dresser. I think it will end up being very sweet.

We tried her new big girl bed for a nap today. She protested a little and then stayed in bed for 1/2 hour. Finally she quietly came to the door and called for me. (I had a baby gate up in the doorway). I asked if she wanted her nap in the big girl bed or her crib and she chose crib. We will try again later but I think it was a good first try. She seamed to enjoy being in her bed for a short time and just couldn't fall asleep because it was too new. We just need to give it time. :)

Little E

Potty Time!

Please not that this blog is all about the potty. If you think that's gross I am sorry but I am so proud and want to remember how well Little E is doing in the future. So now you have been warned. ;)

We have been working with Little E for the past few months on going to the potty. She thought it was fun every once in a while and probably really went in it only 3 or 4 times. But she knew all the words and was willing to sit on it and that's all I really wanted her to do. This last week she has really shown an interest in it! We have been making huge strides in getting the whole potty thing down and I couldn't be prouder.
About 3 days ago she wanted to go potty and sat down and we read books. She went after about 15 minutes of playing and got a "Big Treat!!" She was so excited and the next day she went in it twice! Sunday was most impressive to me. She wanted to be on her potty before church but nothing happened. Then we went to church and she grabbed her little changing bag and looked at me and said "Potty!" grabbed my hand and dragged me down the hall. I showed her where the bathroom was and said "They are big potties. Lets try one." She sat down and instantly went to the bathroom! Then stopped for a second and said "more!" and peed some more. She was so excited and ran back to tell her daddy all about the big potty.
Today we tried the potty before nap time (I still just ask her if she wants to try the potty and don't push if she says no. But I make a big deal if she wants to try it). We went in and she wanted to try our big potty. So I put the potty chair on and we started a book. About halfway through she did #1. I got all excited and tried to take her off to get a treat but she said, "NO! Potty!" and sat back down. So I waited and she did a little other business. I got even more excited and tried to take her off again but she still said "NO! More potty!" So I waited and she did a whole bunch more business after a few minutes. I was so proud of her and couldn't beleive how well she was able to know what was going on with her little body. I hope our good luck streak continues and that she keeps improving, but I am already just so proud of my big girl!

I also sewed her some training panties yesterday. After hours of work I finally got them done and tried them on her. (Hours of frustrating work I might add! I had the wrong size on my snap press and didn't realize so the snaps kept breaking. I was also using the wrong stitch so the fold over elastic didn't work right either... sewing is hard!) Anyways, they were like elephant panties!! I am not kidding! They were twice as big as they needed to be. I really should have taken a picture of her running around with them falling off as she moved. I was so frustrated because I didn't know how to go about fixing them. But this morning I just printed the pattern off at like 70% and cut them back down to that size. I sewed them back together and tried them on her. They were a little tight (ah! sizing is just so hard!) but I figured out that I could sew a little tab of jersey stretch fabric on the sides so she would be comfortable moving in them and they could be easily pulled on and off which was the whole point! I will post a picture of my final product when she wakes up and I figure out my final measurements for the tabs. Anyways, I guess the moral to the story is, Sewing is really hard! ;)

A funny story about bathroom shutoff valves...

As you know we are remodeling our upstairs bathroom. We are installing a new tub and surround and redoing pretty much everything else too. Beleive me, the bathroom really needed to be done. It has been a real learning process. Some of the lessons we have learned the hard way. Like how you should use a cardboard cutout instead of your surround when you make your first cuts to make sure that it is in the right place and is the right size... that's right. Big bobo. We cut our third surround wall wrong and had to order a new one. So we couldn't do anything for about 2 weeks until the part got here. It finally arrived last weekend and we got it cut (right this time!) and installed on Wednesday! Hallelujah! That means we can finally move on to the next stage of the project.

I wanted to tell a funny story about installing the wall though. It was really hard to get on there because the plumbing sticks out too far until it is in the proper hole, so we really had to push and pull to get it in place. There were also a couple of tabs on top that had to be lined up. I decided to get up on the tub to make sure they were in line and then stepped down to look at the bottom. All of a sudden I was being sprayed by what felt like a really cold fire hose! I started screaming and jumping around. Luckily my loving husband kept his head about him and quickly reached over to turn off the toilets water shut off valve. It was only on for a couple of seconds but everything was soaked! Especially me! It got the inside of the wall, floor ceiling, and my entire back side. lol Who knew that one little step could do so much damage?

But before you think that I am the only one to learn my lesson about water shut off valves let me share one more story. :D

A week ago my dear husband got to work taking out the sink and vanity. Unfortunately one of the shut off valves was broken, so he had to turn off all the water in the house until he could replace it that afternoon. We finally got the valve replaced and he sent me downstairs with a cell phone to turn on the water in the house. I asked if he was ready and then slowly turned it on. Then all I heard over the phone was spraying water and yells. I quickly turned off the water and asked what happened. He said "Nothing! Its fine go ahead and turn it back on." So I warily followed orders and ran upstairs to see what had happened. It turned out that the new shutoff valve worked great, but he had forgotten to turn off the second one that he hadn't replaced. Once again, ceiling, walls, and floor were covered in water. lol We have sure had an interesting time with this project!

Ninja Baby!!!

Ok, so yesterday I went to a doctors appointment with My loving husband and he got to hear the baby for the first time! It was fun to see his face light up as he listened to that little heart beat. Then the midwife asked if I had been feeling the baby yet. This is our second time and so I should feel it sooner than the first (which was around 17 weeks). I am almost 17 weeks now. I was pretty sure I had felt this little baby fluttering like crazy during the Muse concert (who wouldn't rock out to music like that?!) But since then I wasn't sure. I explained that I was feeling something but it felt a lot more like punches and kicks than "flutters" like it was supposed too. She just laughed and said, "Yup, your feeling the baby."

It made me happy to finally be able to admit to myself that I really was feeling this baby punching and kicking like crazy at a time that I wouldn't have even felt anything the first time around. But I got even more confirmation last night. I had My Loving Husband put his hand on my tummy during one of babies workouts and HE TOTALLY FELT IT KICK! How crazy is that? This baby is one strong little thing and we couldn't be happier! lol So we are thinking maybe it is destined to be a ninja master! What do you guys think?