Best Friends Forever

This night will be one I will never forget. Last evening our best friends all congregated at Mike and Teresa's new home for our Christmas party. We had a wonderful soup in bread bowl and salad dinner. We played games and laughed our heads off until 1am!! I haven't laughed so hard in so long so it was so nice to get out and relax and have such a fun time with the worlds best friends. How blessed Roger and I are to have Steve and Deb, Lora and Scott and Mike and Teresa to hang out with. We all enjoy the exact same things and are so much alike.
When we arrived Debbie said that Steve was coming from St. George and would just be meeting us there so while we were waiting for him we were walking around looking at Mike and Teresa's new home. Debbie and I were looking out the window on the top floor and all of a sudden we hear this very loud noise and I see a helicopter landing in the street right in front of their home. Well, what we didn't know was that Debbie and Steve had planned Santa's arrival in the helicopter. I yelled "why is Life Flight landing in front of your home? And what's going on" We ran down the stairs and opened the front door and Santa Claus hopped out of the helicopter with a bag full of goodies for us. How many people can say they have friends who give their friends a ride in a helicopter?
This is what we saw when we opened the front door. It was so surreal. I couldn't believe my eyes.
Roger and I are getting ready to take off with Chad, Steve and Debbie's soninlaw. He's the instructor at the helicopter school. My heart was racing so fast because I swore I would never do this.

We were all screaming and yelling. I'm sure the neighbors were wondering what in the world was going on at the Eastman's home.

Mike, Steve (Santa), Scott and Rog. What a fun bunch of guys!! Love them to death.

Steve and Debbie had planned this whole deal. They are co-owners in a helicopter school. We've been best friends with them for 26 years now.

I couldn't resist giving Santa a big kiss

He made such a cute Santa Claus.

Mike and Teresa were the host of the party. They have a brand new beautiful home.

I've been best friends with Lora for 21 years now. She married Scott last April while we were in Hawaii. It's so wonderful to see her so happy. He fits right in with all of us and we love them both so much. I couldn't ask for better friends. Teresa, Deb and Lora. BFF

Just wanted to show you our best side. (unfortunately my butt's the biggest) oh well. Always has been and always will be. lol Love ya girls!!

What a fun time we had!! Thank you so much Steve and Deb! The whole Santa/Helicopter thing made our whole night. I can't wait to get together again. Next time it will be a game of Twister for sure!!

Random thoughts on another sleepless night

I'll start with the blessing of our 8th grandbaby, Adaline. What a fun night we had as her aunts, uncles and cousins and grandpa and grandma gathered to hear her priesthood blessing and be given a name. Troy did such a nice job. I love to see my sons honor their priesthood and what an honor it is for me when I've also been able to have a blessing by them.

Grandma and Grandpa love her so much.
Adaline is very blessed to come to a home where her parents and her big brother Colby love her so much.

Here she is all dolled up. She's 2 1/2 months old now. She loves to smile and giggle and is a great eater. She's growing so fast.

Grandma loves her sweet Adaline. I pray Heavenly Father watches over her and that she will always be healthy and strong.

It's now midnight Nov. 23. It's quite the habit now of being awake all hours of the night if I don't take something to help me sleep. I lay in bed thinking of so many things. I've been having a lot of pain issues for the past 6 to 8 weeks so I toss and turn trying to get comfortable. 6 weeks ago I started having a lot of pain in my hands. Almost arthritic like pain. I went to the doctor and she did some basic blood tests which didn't show anything. A few days after that I was at the gym and noticed a lot of pin like tingling going up my left leg. And then from there it progressed over the next few days to both my legs, up to my knees, hands , arms and numbing in my feet. My doctor referred me to a neurologist and I've been seeing her a couple of times now. I"ve had a brain MRI checking for MS and that came back with no lesions which was good. I had a neck MRI to check for a spinal impingement but other than some neck herniations etc. that was ok also. I"ve had a nerve conductive test on all my extremities and that's been ok. At 11am today I'm having a spinal tap. Spinal taps show a multitude of things if you have MS, Lymes disease, an infection, etc. I'm praying and praying that they find somthing out with this test. I"ve had so much blood drawn lately checking for everything. I'm so blessed to have a doctor who seems to really care and wants to find a reason for all of these symptoms too. I"m thankful for a loving husband who worries about me even though I keep telling him I"ll be ok. He gave me such a nice blessing and I'm so appreciative of the priesthood.

I keep telling myself I can't let this get me down. It's ski season coming up and I need to be up on that mountain. So until we find a diagnosis I'll just keep on keepin on..

I am so thankful this holiday season for my husband, my family, friends, job, the gospel, our home, my freedoms and for the men and women who give their time and lives for it etc. During all of this economic mess our country is in I have thought so many times how blessed I am to work where I do and the same with Rog. Even though we've been affected by company cut backs etc. we are still employed.

I will end this post now since I have to get up at 4:30am for work. At least I'm off at 10:30 which then I'll head to the "big"hospital for my spinal tap.

Good night...

A fun night at Gardner Village

Jared and Kristi and Kids, Kori and kids and Roger and I all went to Gardner Village the other afternoon. We had a fun time walking around and getting some fun pictures of the kids and the witches. Gardner Village is a place that's hard to take kids if you want to shop and look around in all the stores so next time we'll just have to go with the girls. Plus, I don't think it's too exciting for the guys but they were good sports. We went to dinner at Archibalds there and that was tastey. What a fun night to spend with the kids and grandkids.

Makinley, Gentry and Colby had a fun time laughing at the witches there. Easton was such a good sport. He never made a peep. He just loved sitting in the stroller and never fussed at all.

Since all 3 of us love chocolate this sign was appropriate. You can't see the witch behind us but it was cute.

This little witch loved Jared and Rog. Of course Roger had to give her a big kiss. There he is again. Can't keep his lips off the cute little witches.

Colby and Kori. He actually wasn't too afraid of them. I was suprised.

I hate spiders!! ewwww 4 of my cute little pumpkins. They were fun to take up there and have them see all the fun things there are to see this time of year.

Thanks for the fun night out!! We'll have to do this again next year.

Sweet Adaline

Here is our sweet little Adaline Denice P. She was born on 09-09-09 to Kori and Troy and Colby. What a fun day to be born on. She's a little sweetheart and we love her so much. She's the 3rd of our 3 grandbabies born in the last 5 1/2 months. She's got dark hair and the first day just loved sticking her tongue out. She weighed 6lbs 12oz. Each grandbaby that comes I know comes straight from heaven. I truely believe that mine and Rogers parents are up there taking care of our special spirits and getting them ready to send down to us. I'm sure it's hard for them to let them go but they know they are coming to very special families here on this earth. We are so blessed that each one of our grandbabies have been born so healthy. Thanks to our Father in Heaven for that.

I'm so lucky that some of my grandkids have been born at the hospital where I work. I know most of the nurses etc. and when I found out they had Debi as their nurse I was so happy and relieved. She's an excellent nurse and took care of my kids and grandbaby.

Colby isn't quite sure what to think of his little sister. He needed a love from his mom. He didn't pay much attention to her for several days but he's now finally given her a kiss. They're only 18 months a part so Kori and Troy will have their hands full.

Here's mom and dad making sure that Adaline has a dry diaper. Daddy is always ready to pitch in and help. He's a wonderful dad and Kori is a great mom.

Adaline is our 8th grandbaby. We now have 4 girls and 4 boys. We love each one more than life itself. We treasure our time with each one and pray that we can be some kind of an infulence on their life.

Babies are straight from heaven. They're so innocent. I always wonder what the future holds for our little ones. Grandma can't give her enough kisses.

I don't know how to rotate this ..

Troy and Kori with their two adorable kids. Colby is 18 months and Adaline just a few minutes old.

Will They Remember These Times?

Roger and I are going to try and make a tradition of taking the grand kids camping one time without their parents. I figure it gives them a break to have time to themselves and with each other. The grand kids love it and so do we. We took the oldest 4 since the others are still too small. But we look forward to the day that we can take them all. Hopefully, we'll have a bigger trailer by then. One morning as Roger and I were still laying in bed he asked me if I thought the kids would remember these times and I had to tell him I doubt it. I'm sure Brayden will since he's 8 but the others are still so young. It makes me sad but at least we have these pictures and blogs to prove how much fun we had together. We camped at Payson Lakes and while we were there we fished, hiked, roasted marshmallows, rode bikes, spotted deer (Makinley spotted a 2 point buck) we swam in the lake too. I"m so thankful that our grand kids love doing this with us. I told them I hoped they never grew up because I was afraid they wouldn't want to do this with us and Brayden said "no way, I love camping!" That made me so happy. We had a wonderful time and I can't wait to go again!

I called them Nerds!! lol...They were up on the table performing for us. And of course Brayden and Dax have to goof off. That's why I love these kids so much!!

Brayden is our oldest grandchild and the oldest cousin. He is such a big help now when we do things together. He loves helping the other kids and carrying Gentry around. He loves playing games with them.

Makinley was making sure she had double floaties on. Even though she didn't get in the water too much she was going to be prepared. She's such a cutie!!

This was our early morning snuggle buggle time with Granny who is hiding by the way. Early morning pictures are not good for me. Each one as they woke up would come and climb in bed and we'd laugh and snuggle tight.

We loved just hanging out at the trailer camp spot and talking. We told stories and laughed and laughed. Papa loves that his grand kids love to camp and to spend time with us.

Grandpa is so patient and kind as he helps the kids with their fishing poles. We had like 5 poles in the water and only a couple of tangles. We got skunked though! No one on the lake was catching fish so I guess we shouldn't feel too bad. I wonder when the last time was that they stocked the lake???

This is the hide out the kids made in the trailer. They had their barbies and stuffed animals. They had blankets and pillows all over. It was fun to watch how creative they were and to listen to their conversations. Oh the joy of being a little child.

My cute toothless Brayden sitting with Granny at Payson Lakes.

Papa was so cute to go out with the kids in the cold water. I wish it would have been warmer because they would have had a lot more fun but the wind was blowing a bit to make it chilly.

It's treat time! They loved the otter pops, candy bars and fruit snacks.

Rog and I are the papa and granny to these 4 cute grand kids. I'm very blessed to have this handsome husband that loves to camp and take me with him.

Gentry was the toe dipper in the lake. She didn't dare get in. I think mostly because it was so cold. She's such a cutie pie!

Daxton is our fire bug. That's where you could always find him was right next to the fire pit.

The Big 5-0

Ok... so it's hard to admit I'm 50 now. I've had a really hard time accepting that fact. And it didn't help by having to turn 50 on a rainy, gloomy day either. But here I am. The day started out by Shana and her family and Troy and his family giving me a European Facial at a day spa. So Shana and I both went that morning and spent an hour having our faces massaged with wonderful cleaners, scrubs and moisturizers and a mask. Oh that felt so good. She also rubbed my feet with lotions while the masked dried. I will for sure be going back to that place!! Then all the kids and grandkids came over for a fun barbeque. We had to hurry though because it was starting to rain. While I was sitting there eating Shana brought out a bunch of papers and handed them to me. She said that she had had people email her thoughts, memories etc. about me. Well, I immediatley started to cry. I couldn't even start to read them for a few minutes. But I got through them with lots of tears and lots of laughter. That was the best gift of all!! She's going to make them into a book for me. I opened gifts and we were going to go to the Strawberry Days Rodeo but it rained and poured down like no other. Daxton was going to do the mutton busting but we ended up not going. We were heart broken but hope to have him in another rodeo soon. So we ended up going downstairs and the grandkids put on a dancing show. Hip hop, country swing etc. We were laughing so hard. That was a highlight of the day too. They always make me laugh!! I just want to say a big thank you to my hubby, and all my children and grandkids for making this transition day such a fun one for me. I was really not looking forward to it but it ended up being a such a fun day. I love you all so much.

I finally have all 7 of my grandkids with me. I'm so proud of them and I love being their grandma. We almost don't fit on the sofa anymore. They're growing so big and so adorable and I love them more than they will ever know.

Here's the "old fart" Wrinkles and all. Everyone keeps telling me it's not as bad as it sounds. So we'll see..

I hope what I wished for comes true!!!

Wow!! Hard to believe that really says 50!! But it does.

I had mentioned several times to Roger that I would love to have an ice-cream maker so that's what he got me. I can't wait to taste it!! I made some today for fathers day.

Shana was giving me pages and pages of comments that people had emailed her about me. Of course, being a ball baby I started crying as soon as she gave them to me. I hadn't even started reading them yet. We were all together for a barbeque before the rain started. We had hamburgers, bratwurst, steaks, hotdogs, yummy salads, and chips.

Why?

My heart is so heavy tonight. Have you ever been angry at God? Have you ever wanted to scream out your frustrations so loud that he could hear you? I know in the scriptures it tells us that he won't give you any trial or trials that you can't handle. But... there has to be a limit!!
As I watch each day, my beautiful daughter and her wonderful husband, struggle to get enough sleep, struggle to function each day, I see him nauseated from his chemo, sleeping the day away because of the affects of it, vomiting, and Shana by his side. I can't stop asking myself when is this going to stop? They shouldn't have to be dealing with such heavy burdens and decisions at their age. They should be having the time of their lives raising their children, happy, traveling, and just trying to live a normal, common day life. But instead they are dealing with cancer. I HATE it!!! As a parent I can't stand to see them day in and day out trying to be happy, putting on smiles when I know they are hurting inside but just can't say it. I have never seen two people so positive, so uplifting, so upbeat, never complaining about their life. For that, God needs to be on their side and get them through this nightmare.
Tonight after Priesthood blessings were given to them, Roger and I sat outside on our swing. No words were spoken as we sat there and cried. Our hearts ache as we see Shana and Jakes love for one another. What an example they are to me.
I want them to know how much I love them. How I wish I could take this all away. If we could wake up tomorrow and have it all be over that would be my dream. I pray to God that in the next couple of weeks when Jake has his PET scan that the chemotherapy will be destroying all the cancer in his body once and for all!! I pray he won't have to go through a bone marrow transplant. If there is a God I pray this prayer will be answered. I know there are hundreds of people of all different faiths praying for this same prayer as mine. So..that said..please continue to pray in his behalf. For him and for Shana as they are both affected by this disease.