Lots of stuff

Today turned out to be a pretty good day. It started with going up to North Salt Lake for Justin's baptism. Man, these kids are growing up!! Justin is Lindsey & Dennis' 3rd child. It was a lot of fun to see family again (especially under more exciting circumstances than last time, hehe). It was nice to spend some time with Lindsey, and we even made some plans to get together in about a week and a half here :-) It should be fun.

Did I mention what while we were at the baptism...it snowed?!? It's September still!!! There should be NO SNOW!! Luckily it changed back to rain...but still!

After the baptism, I had to run to Costco to get the cake for my dad's birthday tomorrow (ok...today? I need to stop writing stuff after midnight! lol). It actually turned out pretty cute with a little skateboarder kid on it. Perfectly appropriate for a 64 year old, right? I was also able to pick up my dad's main birthday present. No one has been able to think of anything to get him. I finally came up with an idea while I was at Costco, and quickly called my mom and siblings to go in on it. It should work out well :-)

After Costco, I was just hanging out at my mom's for the rest of the night. We watched the rest of Women's Conference while I played with my new laptop :-) Yup, I got myself a new one! I know, trust me, I know I can't afford it. Luckily one of my friends owes me enough money that she will be paying for it AND she'll still be paying me back some cash. I figure with all of the projects that I've been trying to work on...I'm going to need the new one!! (Not that any of you care, but I'm geeky enough that I *have* to include the info on it. You can see the laptop I got HERE. :-)

Well, that's gotta be all for now. I really need to catch up and post my Disney World entries, as well as some of the stuff that's gone on the last couple of weeks. Things have just been INSANE to say the least.

Home

I just wanted to do a quick post to say that yes, I did make it home yesterday. I'm just *exhausted*. I'm hoping to blog about it all soon...but I'm still trying to pull my life back together. Work today was horrible! I hate coming back, because if things don't get taken care of completely while I'm gone...it's just a mess. That's what happened this time. It's also the busiest time of the quarter...the end. I have this week and next to finish everything up. Yeah...we'll see how it works out. I have about a million things that people want me to do for them, too...so I'm gonna be a busy girl. Right now? I just want some sleep!! So...I hope I can update soon...but forgive me if I don't :-)

Turn Around...

So, the funeral was today (Ok, it's 2am, so technically...yesterday?). I felt very numb at first. With the viewing and funeral...it just...didn't look like my grandpa in the casket. It is, of course...but it felt surreal. Things started to hit more as the funeral progressed. It was really nice to hear Grandpa's best friend speak. It was a lot of fun to hear stories that I never would have heard, otherwise. Grandpa siphoned gas from someone else's tank to get home from a scouting activity?? When he was first ordained to be a bishop...someone spiked the punch at a fellowshipping party?? Even better...Grandma knew, and didn't tell Grandpa!! How great is that!! There were also the stories I had never heard about the war. With working on the video for grandpa (which, for those cousins that read this, I *am* making copies of...I just didn't want to sacrifice the little sleep I got last night in order to make them in time for the funeral, heh), I saw a LOT of WWII pictures. I saw Grandpa with lots of other men in the service. I did not realize that he was the *only* survivor on a mission where 8 were sent. When I see older men around who fought in the war, I never really thought about how lucky it was that they were still with us. Grandpa, especially, never talked about the war...so the naive part of me assumed he was always in a "safe" place (if that's possible). To hear that his life was spared *so* closely more than once...it's a miracle. I'll be eternally grateful for his life being spared.

I now leave in about 3 hours to go to the airport for my Disney World trip. I didn't pack until WAY too late...and now I wanted to get things updated, and pictures posted. We'll see how that goes. I'm very happy to be one of those who can sleep on planes. It'll be interesting to see how I can just turn around and be excited after such an emotional day today.

Also...the pictures from the viewing can be seen here, and the pictures from the funeral can be seen here.

Also, today was my mom and dad's 42nd wedding anniversary. How sad to have to bury your dad on that day. Tonight Lys, Scott, & I ran to Costco and picked up a cake and got my parents each their own container of cashews. It's not much...but I wanted to make sure that they weren't forgotten in the shuffle of it all.

The viewing...

It feels like forever ago that I got the call letting me know that my grandpa passed away in his sleep. In reality, it was just 9 days ago. I made it through the viewing last night, though partially because of the fact that his body didn't look like him. I *just* saw him 2 weeks ago, too...so it's not like he's changed all that much (besides the whole being dead thing).

I meant to post his obituary yesterday or Sunday...but Ive been pretty busy with trying to get stuff done for the funeral.

Last night was a little surreal. As I did with my grandma, I passed over the body at first, and didn't go up until much later. My 4 year old niece, Cami, actually dragged me over to it. She just stared at him, then placed her hand on his. Very cute. She then looked over and me and said, "He is freezing!" It was quite funny. Her next comment was, "Coco, why did his spirit have to go to heaven?" For lack of a simpler answer, I told her that his body hurt really bad, so he needed to leave it here so that he wouldn't hurt anymore. She then said "It was a long time ago when Grandma Astle was in there. Then we buried her!" The "then we buried her" part was said in a louder voice while swinging her arms back and forth, almost as if she were marching. I just giggled at her, and let her know that we would be doing the same thing with Grandpa "tomorrow" (today). She then went on to talk about her excitement for Disney World (as we leave tomorrow).

His passing is still bitter-sweet. It's SO good for him to be able to be with my grandma again. Someone at my work made a comment about "deep love," and about how studies have been done regarding the passing of 2 people who deeply loved each other happening within a year of each other. In this case, I really think it came down to him not knowing *how* to live without her. I envy that feeling.

After picking up my brother from the airport at midnight last night...we're up and going, and on our way to the funeral.