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.

Grandpa...

I waited all day before posting this. I wanted to make sure that none of the family members who read my blog learned from my post. Now that I'm positive they all know...

Sometime between 1 and 3 this morning, my grandpa passed away. I have very mixed feelings about this sad blessing for him. Ever since my grandma passed away last October, he has just gone downhill. Recently, he hasn't had any kind of life at all. He missed my grandma tremendously (although his short term memory wouldn't allow him to remember that she was already gone). I'm happy that he was able to pass peacefully, and that the "burden" that had been on my parents and my mom's siblings since September of last year is gone. They had been visiting my grandpa (and my grandma before she passed away) every single day for the last 13 months. The only exception to this was vacations (which they all felt horrible going on with). A strain that definitely took it's toll on my parents & my aunts and uncles. With the blessing of peace for everyone that this brings, I'm very very sad that I no longer have my grandpa. I'm not sure it's hit me yet, though.

One of those days...(in a good way!)

Do you ever have those days that just randomly get off to a good start? Today is one of them for me. I'm not sure why. I got up easily, I got to work 10 minutes early, and I've been productive so far this morning (which for me? is huge! I'm almost never productive first thing in the morning!)

I guess what I'm trying to say...is that I actually feel good this morning. Every once in a while, I've noticed a difference with how I've felt since surgery, but it's really obvious to me today for some reason.

It's now safe to ask...I'm very happy I made the decision to have surgery :-)

Pictures...

I've been meaning to post for a few days now. Last week, I had my birthday, we went to the zoo, and my cousin's wedding was Saturday. All fun stuff, I have good pictures that I wanted to share...and I never got to it. SO...here's a link to pictures from the zoo:

Hogle Zoo

Here are pictures from the wedding:

Billy & Cindy Marquardt (I hope I spelled that right...the invitation is in the other room...lol)


Enjoy :-)

The weekend

Most of Saturday was spent volunteering for the corporate games. I'm not sure what possessed me to sign up for so many hours...but I was volunteering from 8:30 am until 2:30 in the afternoon. I volunteered for longer than that, but they were done with me. I volunteered to help with the softball tournament (where as you can see, eBay took 2nd place :-) ). It was a lot of fun. I ended up running up and down stairs all day, which means that I'm STILL sore...but very much worth it. I was able to read while in between registration rushes, so it all worked out :-)


I then babysat my Dominic the rest of the night while Julie and Roger went to a Bees game. He walked around with his tongue out like this for most of the night, hehe. It was fun, though. I love being able to have him around!

Sunday, I forced myself to go to church (I was in LOTS of pain...and wanted to stay home to read...but I've been doing well for 2 months and I'm not about to give up now!). It turned out to be a really good thing, as one of my friends from when I grew up showed up! Her mom is in my ward, and it was nice to see her. It's been more than 10 years since I'd seen Emily...and...she hasn't changed a whole lot. We had some interesting conversations, got caught up, and I'll leave it at that...lol.

Over the weekend, I also went to my friend's house to help him make sure it's all ready for his custody evaluation. We then lightened things up by going to see Rush Hour 3. It was actually funnier than I thought it would be...but not much of a story to it. I was entertained for an hour and a half, so it all worked out, hehe.

Work today was BUSY! I'm in charge of getting a meeting put together for Wednesday, and I was assigned 15 new *very* high profile accounts. They're assigning more tomorrow...so we'll see how it goes. Tomorrow is going to be even worse as far as being busy, as I have appointments and meetings almost all day. At least that means it'll go by fast :-) I'm going to head to bed and try to make it so that I'm in the office by 6 tomorrow morning. I have some reports that HAVE to be done by about 8:30 am. We'll see if I can make it, hehe.

(I also just realized that I'm going on over a month without a single comment on my blog. Oh yeah, I'm feelin' the love :-P)

2 posts in a day...don't be too shocked, hehe

Last week, one of my friends and I decided to start walking on our 15 minute breaks. Neither of us were taking our breaks like we were supposed to, so it was a good way to force us to take them as well as a way for us to get some exercise in (as I have been quite lax about my exercise habits lately). Last week, we walked around our building once a day. We were only using 1 break (because she comes in so much later than me, I didn't want her to have to take her 2nd break so early as to get it in before I went home for the day). Well today, I suggested that we use our 2nd break, also. Mainly because if she's not taking her break anyway...what's the harm in taking it earlier? Also, I suggested that we pick up the speed a bit. We ended up making it around the building twice in one break instead of just once, then bumming around for the last 5 minutes. YAY!! We had time to grab a cup of water, then head back to our desks. We have also set up that we will be doing the same thing at 3. This will be SO helpful for me!! I really hope that this can help me pick up on my weight loss. I have a certain goal that I'm trying to reach by the time we go to Disney World (September 5)...and I will be so close!