I'm back.....maybe

It has been a long time. I did write a very personal and quite opinionated post back in June, but I deleted it after I found out it had unintentionally hurt someone that I care about. So other than that post it has been a year. YIKES! Before that it had been six months and before that....

I used to blog almost daily. It was an obsession, or maybe an addiction is a better word for it. It became so much of an addiction that I had to stop. Cold turkey. All together. I had become busy with other things like being relief society president and going to school and being a wife and a mother and all those many other things that fill my day and I no longer had time to spend blogging or reading blogs. Reading blogs. That was another reason why I stopped. I felt guilty posting on my blog and having my dear blog friends read and comment and I didn't have the time to go read all of their blogs and comment. I felt guilty taking without giving back. So I quit.

Now at the beginning of a new year I am contemplating blogging again. One of my new years resolutions was to journal more. Blogging seems an effective tool for doing that as well as keeping friends and family updated on our life. I still worry about not visiting the blogs of my blog friends, and I will get around a little, but I can't allow myself to get sucked back into blogging. It truly had become a time sucker for me. I tend to obsess over each and every word, sentence, paragraph that I write and a post could take me hours to write. I can't do that. I think that is why I migrated to Facebook because it was a quick fix and it was easy to keep in touch with friends. I think I am ready to start blogging again. We will see how it goes. I make no promises or guarantees. ;)

Now, I just have to figure out this blogging thing all over again.

A loving tribute to a wonderful man

Summer 2009

It is unfortunate that it took the passing of my grandfather to bring me out of blogtirement, but I felt it was important to share a few thoughts about him and the impact that he had in my life.

My Grandpa Clawson would have been 98 years old next month. A few years ago he said he wanted to live to be 100 years old. After losing his second wife in 2006 I think he decided otherwise. Grandpa lived a full and happy life. He was able to live mostly all on his own until April of last year. He stayed active playing golf and walking as often as he could well into his 90's. He outlived 2 wives and 6 siblings. He left behind 3 children, 4 step-children, and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Grandpa was not one for warm fuzziness and lots of affection, yet I never doubted his love for me. I was always greeted with a loving "Mandy!" and a hug whenever I saw him. He was and is the only person that I ever allowed to call me Mandy. I will miss that.

I don't recall these moments, but he always spoke fondly of when I was about 4 years old and my family lived down the street from him. I would come to their house to visit and he rememberd me coming to the door. He remembered those times vividly, including the purple winter coat with the brown faux fur hood that I wore.

My early memories of my grandpa are of visiting for Christmas and being "locked" in the basement so we wouldn't spy on Santa, eating ice cream on his back patio, playing in his backyard with my family, eating his freshly grown tomatoes, and lastly, eating his not so secret stash of chocolate hidden in the basement refrigerator. It is with great pride that I declare that my chocolate obsession comes from his side of the family.

When I was 14 our family moved back to Salt Lake City and we would often go over to visit grandpa and grandma. I enjoyed hearing his stories of growing up. He was born in 1912 so he had lots of stories to share. Among others, he shared stories about his days as a boy scout and his time as a missionary for our church. I often heard the same story more than once but I never tired of hearing them. My grandpa had an incredible work ethic and his integrity is unmatched by anyone else I have ever known. He worked hard from the time he was a young man up until his "2nd retirement" at the age of 92.

As grandpa got older he lost more and more of his hearing. I know there were a lot of times when we would all gather together that he heard very little of what went on, yet he always delighted in watching us interact with each other. As we got older and started having children of our own he enjoyed seeing children playing once again in the backyard while we enjoyed ice cream on the patio.

Grandpa leaves behind a legacy of love, patience, long suffering, perseverance, and hard work. At times when I have struggled in my life I have often thought of my grandpa and the incredible person that he is. I know that I have a part of him within me and I try to reach inside myself and hold onto those same values and characteristics that have served him so well throughout his life.

I look forward to the time when I will be able to see him again and once again hear him say, "Mandy!" I love you Grandpa and I will miss you!!!

4th of July fun!

Scott and I decided to take the kids on a little road trip for the 4th of July weekend. We headed East to Pierre, the capital of South Dakota, and took a little detour through the Badlands National Park along the way.

We left a rainy Rapid City late Friday morning and enjoyed some sunny weather at the Badlands. By the time we got to Pierre we had time for dinner and swimming before we hit the hay.

The next morning we went in search of Perkins for breakfast. We got stuck in parade traffic and even got to be in part of the parade. Next time we will bring candy to throw out to the onlookers. Evidently there is only one road leading from one direction to the other, so the parade was on one side of the street while they allowed through-traffic on the other side of the road. Very strange, but we got to be in the parade. Sort of. Next we visited the state capital in Pierre and enjoyed touring the building as well as the grounds. I even got to sit in the Govenor's chair. We headed back to Rapid City and were able to see the fireworks Saturday night. It was such a great weekend!

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"Start packing, we're moving to Florida!"

***Scroll down to see the rest of the story***

So, Scott and I got home late Tuesday from our 8 day get away. I am still trying to get back into real life mode, especially since Scott has this whole week off. It still seems like we are still on vacation, except for the fact that I have to make my own meals, make my own bed, clean my own house, and wash my clothes. Other than that, it is just like vacation.

I am also still trying to shake the feeling of riding on the cruise ship. You would think after 5 days of not being on the ship that I would no longer feel like I was rocking and sailing in the ocean.

I've been trying to decide the best way to blog about my vacation without boring anyone or sounding like I was bragging about our fabulous trip. I figured since it is my blog and I have no other current methods of journaling other than this blog that I should take full advantage of the opportunity and write it all down. So forgive me if I seem to go on and on and get boring, just skip ahead if you want. I promise not to get my feelings hurt.

Day One: Monday June 8- Scott and I dropped the kids off at school and then Scott's mom dropped us off at the airport. We began our day long journey by airplane to Pensacola, Florida. The flight was uneventful with the exception of Scott's self-fulfilling prophesy of lost luggage. He kept asking, "Are you sure our luggage will make it to Pensacola?" I kept assuring him that each time we switched to a different airplane, so did our luggage. Turns out I was wrong. I got my bag, he didn't. Luckily by the next morning it was waiting for us at the front desk of our hotel.

My first thought upon arriving in Florida was loving the heat (and the humidity) and knowing that I was going to soak up every last ray of sunshine while we were there (did I mention it has been particularly cold and wet in SD the last several months?). In case you are not familiar with Florida and Pensacola I will fill you in a little (I was clueless until last week). Pensacola is in the panhandle of Florida and Pensacola Beach is an island off the mainland. It was late by the time we got to Pensacola Beach where we were staying so we just enjoyed dinner at Flounders Chowder House and waited until the next morning to head to the beach.

Day Two: Tuesday, June 9-


We awoke to a beautiful sunny day and were anxious to head down to the beach. We started by walking down the beach to the fishing pier. Before we got in the water though we saw some suspicious black shadows in the water. A lady was standing nearby and said they were some type of ray, manta ray or something. She also mentioned in passing that she had seen a shark that same morning. Lovely! Later, after we spotted a few dolphins swimming nearby, we decided that she had probably seen a dolphin and mistaken it for a shark. Regardless, Scott and I were a little bit nervous about swimming too far from the beach.

We did finally get enough courage to actually go further out into the water. However, on more than one occasion we did swim/run very quickly back to shore (some screaming may or may not have been involved) after eyeing something suspicious in the water. I did find sort of a sick comfort in seeing other people swimming near us but further out in the water, thinking that surely the sharks would eat them first, right?

After swimming for awhile I decided it was time to make one of my dreams come true.

I'm a simple person with simple dreams. Chillin on the beach with a good book in hand is one of my dreams. Although, once I sat down I fell asleep before I could get any reading done.

Later Scott and I decided to drive around the island a little. I assumed that Pensacola Beach was little more than a tourist island with hotels and stores. I was surprised to find homes and communities. I wasn't surprised to find houses that look like this...

Even the elementary school, located only a couple hundred yards from the ocean, was built on stilts.

We drove back to the mainland for dinner at a cute little Italian restaurant, then we made it back to the island in time for sunset on the pier. All in all it was an excellent day.

Day Three: Wednesday, June 10 -

We decided to do a little sight seeing away from the beach. We headed back to the mainland again to the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola. This museum was awesome, filled with hundreds of planes and exhibits.It was amazing to me how quickly technology advanced in such a short amount of time. We could have easily spent hours taking it all in, but we were anxious to get back to the beach.

We ended the day by walking along the boardwalk and looking at the fun (and over priced) stores. We also discovered a new pier that we hadn't seen before and decided to come back the next morning when it was light outside.

Day Four - Thursday, June 11 -
We awoke Thursday with mixed emotions. We were excited for the next part of our vacation, seeing our friends and getting on the cruise ship. But it was sad to leave Pensacola Beach behind. I've been wondering how I managed to survive my entire life in land-locked country. I have been to the ocean only two other times in my life. Once in high school when we went to California on a choir trip, and once last year when I met up with some blogging friends in Oregon. I could definitely get used to living by the ocean and being a beach person. It was hard to leave it behind.

We had the pleasure of picking Brian and Chrisi up at the airport in Pensacola and driving with them to Mobile to meet up with the rest of our group. I enjoyed the drive with them and catching up. By the time we got to Mobile we were all pretty excited. We heard from Janene and Sarah by phone and planned to meet at the Mobile airport so that we could return our rental car. I don't know about everyone else, but I was feeling a little giddy. It was great to see Jon and Janene and Joe and Sarah again. We also got to meet some new friends, Daryl and Nikki. They know Jon and Joe from school and had gotten to be good friends with them. They were fun to have along, though they barely made it on the ship. They booked at the last minute and literally got on the ship without knowing where they were going to sleep. Luckily it all worked out for them and we were able to enjoy a great few days all together!

Dinner time was always fun. We all sat at the same table each night for dinner and had the same servers.

top l to r: Daryl, Sarah, Joe, Amanda

bottom l to r: Nikki, Janene, Chrisi, Jon, Brian

We were usually one of the last groups to leave the dining room because we all enjoyed talking and visiting so much. It might have had something to do with the fact that we all indulged a little in the food too. Unlimited amounts of food (including dessert) is always a good thing!!! I am wishing that I would have taken some pictures of some of the fabulous food that we ate. Maybe next time! For the record, my favorite dessert was the Warm Chocolate Melting Cake! Yum!!!!!

Sunset on the first night. I was a little surprised at how windy it was. I guess I didn't equate a moving ship with wind. Duh!

The ladies all tried to do our best "Titanic" pose, but we weren't allowed at the very front of the ship. We had to make due with this location.

Day Five: Friday, June 12
I am not an early riser. In fact I loathe mornings that I have to get up before 7 or 8, or even worse, before the sun rises. However, for some reason on this trip Scott and I both were up early and anxious to see the sunrise.

When we left from Mobile the water was a dirty brown color. By the next morning we were further out in the ocean and the water was beautiful!

After breakfast Scott and I headed back to Jon and Janene's room. Our room was directly below theirs. This is their window.

This was ours.....

I am just grateful that we had a window at all!

Thursday was our "fun day at sea" day. The ladies sat on the deck soaking in the sun, drinking virgin pina coladas while trying not to lose anything blowing in the wind. The guys were less content sitting and had to keep moving. They enjoyed a game or two of basketball and later shuffleboard.

I don't know what was worse, the stickiness from the humidity or the stickiness from the sunscreen. Either way it was always nice to clean up before dinner. Friday night was the night of the elegant dinner night.

It was fun to see everyone dressed up and ready to enjoy dinner together once again.

One of my favorite memories of this trip was the evenings spent out on the deck with all of us. Whether we were playing games or talking, each night was so much fun. I will treasure those memories for a very long time.

Stay tuned for the rest of our trip.....

Cozumel or bust

PART II-

Day 6: Saturday, June 13

This was the morning of our arrival in Cozumel. It was nice to see land again. We arrived right on schedule at 8:00 am.

Scott and I as well as Jon and Janene and Daryl and Nikki had signed up to do a shore excursion while Joe and Sarah and Brian and Chrisi opted to tour the island on their own. So Saturday morning we separated.

We met our guide and headed off to our destination. We had signed up to do snuba diving. I had never heard of this before and was quite intrigued. Snuba is basically a simpler, less complicated form of scuba diving. It is a cross between snorkeling and scuba diving. After about 1/2 an hour of instruction (which managed to freak me out just a little when he was talking about some of the things that could go wrong) from our new friend Blas we got into the water with our guide Puerto.

I didn't anticipate any problems and was quite excited to begin. However, the first time I went under water with my mask and breathing apparatus I suddenly developed a case of claustrophobia and began breathing very heavily. I was wondering how I was going to make it 25 feet underwater when I could barely last a few seconds under the water right now. Luckily Puerto was very patient with us and we had plenty of time to get used to it all before we ventured out further and deeper. I was relieved that I was able to calm myself down and relax and actually enjoy myself. Scott and I both had a few issues with getting our ears to pop, but otherwise it was a wonderful experience. We were able to see a ton of different fish underwater. We saw a sea horse, a ray, an eel, and many other cool underwater creatures. I am hooked and would love to do this again sometime. Unfortunately there is the small problem of living so far from the ocean that I don't know when that will ever happen again. After we got back to shore we were able to snorkel as well. I had never really snorkeled before and it was a lot of fun.

We are expecting some pictures from Daryl, who was the only one with an underwater camera, when he gets them developed. I am anxious to see how they turned out.


After we were done with snuba diving we decided to ride around the island. We rented 2 scooters and an old Volkswagen buggy and headed off.

Our first stop was at a beach down the road. Our time was limited and we weren't sure how long it would take us to get around the island so we didn't stick around long.

We all really wanted to see some Mayan ruins while we were in Cozumel so we pulled off the road when we saw signs for ruins. We were a little disappointed to find out that it was actually a small replica and wasn't even the real thing. Our "tour guide" said that it was some sort of religious building where the people would come to pray. He said if you touched it you would have "Mayan baby". Scott touched it several times. I don't know where exactly he plans on getting any Mayan babies, but they aren't coming from me! lol Sadly we didn't have time to find any real ruins.

Much of the area that we had been driving through at this point had been very thick with trees and greenery. After awhile it opened up and you could see the ocean. It was so beautiful!

We found this little shop out in the middle of no where. The man had some beautiful handmade blankets. We stopped to take a look and ended up buying some souvenirs to take home.

We had to be back to the ship by 4:00 so we didn't have much time to stop anywhere else, but we did enjoy the ride around the island. We did encounter a small rain storm, lasting under 5 minutes, but we felt each raindrop as it hit us.

By the time we got back to the boat we were all pretty well worn out and ready for a shower, and of course dinner!

Day 7: Sunday, June 14-

Sunday was another beautiful day aboard the ship. Our group tried to observe the sabbath as best we could while being in a constant party environment. Speaking of a party environment, we learned quickly that most people were there to eat, drink, and be merry. Most adult "activities" had that in mind. When we heard that they were having a hairy chest contest we all encouraged Joe to enter. He finally consented which was a big mistake! It turns out it was more like a sexy many contest complete with a provocative dance down the stairs to 3 women "judges". Joe admirably bowed out as soon as he realized what he had gotten himself into.

Anyway, so the atmosphere was less than desirable for observing the Sabbath day. We did manage to find ourselves a quiet corner on deck where we could spend some time sharing stories, testimonies, and experiences. It was a neat experience to find our own peace and quiet despite all the craziness around us.

We did have the privilege of being witness to some of God's creations. Right in the middle of our devotional we saw this....

We were grateful to have been able to see the dolphins as up to that point we had seen no evidence of life out in the big beautiful ocean.

Sunday evening we once again gathered out on the deck. After the hairy man incident we had decided to come up with our own entertainment throughout the week. We all submitted questions in the newlywed game fashion and enjoyed hearing everyone's responses over the course of a couple of nights. By Sunday we were out of questions and were looking for something else to do. Sarah and Joe had some fun games that we played. We were also very entertained by Sarah and Janene's monkey calls.

Sarah and Joe have a motor boat and we have had the privilege of going water skiing with them a few times. Each time Sarah is in the water and is ready for Joe to take off she makes a monkey sound. It has become her signature sound I guess you could saw. Janene gave us all her version, monkey taking in water when it goes down. We were all laughing so hard I am sure that people thought we were drunk!

We enjoyed yet another beautiful sunset knowing that by morning it would be time to say goodbye.

Day 8: Monday, June 15-

Morning brought new views out the window. Gone was the beautiful blue ocean. We were back in Mobile and ready to dock.

I was surprised actually how orderly it was getting 1,700 passengers off the ship. But judging by this picture, most people were as reluctant to leave as we were.

While we waited for all of our group to leave the ship we were able to watch the reloading process in preperation for the next cruise set to leave later that day. During a tour of the kitchen a couple of days eariler we were told that they spend around $80,000 on food for a cruise our size with about 14 semis bringing food and supplies.

See the tiny round windows at the bottom? That is where our room was.

After we all made it off the ship it was time for goodbyes. Scott and I and Brian and Chrisi headed back to Pensacola while the others returned to their homes in Montgomery.

Brian and Chrisi flew out that afternoon but Scott and I weren't leaving until the next day. We decided to head back to the beach one more time.

Later we drove around Pensacola a little more. We were quite familiar with where we were going at this point and ventured away from the same 3 streets that we tried to stay on before. We found a scenic highway along the coast. There was a walkway leading to the beach that we decided to walk down. We were both surprised to find pinetrees so near the ocean.

Having grown up in Utah I had never thought I would ever go to Florida. I always figured that if I was going to go to an ocean it would be on the West coast, not the East. Both Scott and I were pleasantly surprised with Florida. Of course we only saw a small portion of it, but what we did see was lovely. I asked him several times if we could call his mom and have the kids start packing so we could move to Florida. Granted vacationing somewhere is far different than living there. There is the pesky problem of hurricanes to deal with if you live in Florida.

Day 9: Tuesday, June 16-

By Tuesday morning we were both feeling sad about leaving but were excited to be home and see our kids again.

We had a long day ahead of us which included a nearly 7 hour stay in the Denver airport. We could have driven home from Denver and still beat the plane. Next time I will pay more attention to times as well as cost when booking flights. A 7 hour layover in Denver was really very loooooong!

It was a happy moment to arrive safely back in Rapid City and to wake up our sleeping kids to give them hugs and kisses. I am pretty sure they missed us as much as we missed them.

Saying hello

Well it has been over a month since I last wrote on my blog. I figured it was time for an update. Where to begin?

I am not sure if I mentioned before, but we had a lot of snow this winter. Below are a couple of pictures from our fun in the snow. I know it is a little late, but....

We live in a cul-de-sac and this is the pile of snow the snowplow left in the middle of the road so as to not block any driveways. My kids loved it!
Okay, so did I....

Snow angels: Kimberly, Me, and Megan

This is me, attempting to jump gracefully off the trampoline into a pile of snow. Yes, it hurt the next day. I'm not as young as I used to be.
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Scott has been working on a project for the last year. He has been restoring an old Mustang for a friend of ours. I can't say who because it is a surprise, so you will just have to wait and find out. Maybe it is you!
This is what it looked like not so many weeks ago.

It has no engine in it at the moment so it has been a family affair moving it back and forth from the garage to the shed so that he could use the garage for this....

It is almost finished. I have a better picture of it, but it has someone in the picture that would definitely give away the surprise, so again you will have to wait. You never know, maybe it is for you! lol

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Kimberly and Kaylynn celebrated a birthday since the last time I wrote on my blog. They turned 9 on April 20th. It is unbelievable to me that they are that old! If you are new to my blog and/or have never read their birth story, which I love to share, go here .

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I am still trudging along on my medical transcription training. That is where I have spending most of time lately. 115 reports done, only 685 to go. I was hoping to be done by June, but it is looking more like this fall sometime. I am not stressing about it, when it happens it happens.

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Last, but not least....Scott and I are heading

here.....

and here....


...next month. We are headed to Pensacola Beach for a couple of days and then going on a cruise to Cozumel for a few more days. As you can imagine we are totally excited for this. We have been wanting to do something like this for a long time and we are finally doing it! I am sure I will have lots of pictures to share when we get back. We are meeting up with some church friends of ours that have moved away, so it will be nice to see them all again. I can't wait!