Grandpa Storey...

Harold Leon Storey, 91 ESCONDIDO -- Harold Leon Storey, 91, passed away Tuesday, June 23, 2009 after a long battle with cancer. After a 38 year career, Harold retired from United Airlines in 1980 as Manager of San Francisco Maintenance Base Inspection. Harold and his lovely wife, Doris, moved to Escondido in 1982 to the Escondido Country Club area. Harold, or "Hal" to his close friends and family, is survived by his wife, Doris; sister, Clarice Gibbs; children/spouse, Gary Storey and Betty Martinez, William and Maureen Storey, Carole Schubert, Patricia and Frank Tuitele, Richard Devenney and Dr. Nancy Jadallah and Denise and Brad Wolf. Harold is also survived by 18 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren. Born and raised in Wowila, South Dakota on February 23, 1918 to William and Gladys Storey. Harold was a remarkable high school football player. Later on during his career, he enjoyed traveling, playing softball, bowling and water skiing. He was also an avid golfer. Harold attended the University of California at Berkeley, took management classes at Stanford University and the University of Michigan. Harold was an active and sought-after "Toastmasters" speaker and very often was called on to give presentations to the upper management of United Airlines. Harold was very active for years in the Escondido Country Club, having served as the president of the Men's golf club, and also served as the president of the Escondido Country Club Community Association. In the past few years Harold and Doris enjoyed lawn bowling with the nationally ranked "Oaks North Lawn Bowling Association." Memorial services will be held on Thursday, July 2 at 10:00 a.m. at the First United Methodist Church, 341 South Kalmia St., Escondido

Bad week?

So when you take a loved one passing away, 3 days of migraines and very little sleep, finding out that your insurance company took 750.00$ out of your checking account without your knowledge, causing a snowball effect of fees to occur and they( your CREDIT UNION) dont care and actually loves it, refuses to refund ONE of them( the 25$ fees), having to explain your cause to them over and over once the insurance company refunds the money to prove that it wasnt your fault, but again they dont care...finding out that my ALMOST perfect credit score(over 800) had taken a nose-dive of over a hundred points( now 690) due to a reporting error from COMCAST cable saying a modem hadnt been returned ( which it had and now dealing with COMCAST over this ) and I found out about my credit score because we were so enraged at said CREDIT union not refunding ONE of the fees that we promptly took several hours on friday to close out our accounts and move our business to another CU and they had to run a credit score, and thats how I found out about my credit rating and supposed collections issue.....

After such a terrible week we had hoped for a better weekend. Saturday was a beautiful day we had high hopes of a lovely hike and repeat of last summer where we could pack Tristan and enjoy the outdoors.....

Who are we kidding? Do we forget what child we have? He actually cried and screamed about 70% of the entire time. Unless he wasnt in the pack. However thinking that he would be stop screaming once he was out of the pack near the bottom we took him out and Jonathan carried him the rest of the way crying and screaming till we reached the car. I cant imagine what people must think of us. Jonathan and I scratched off another beloved summer activity off our list. No camping, and now no hiking until Tristan is older. Needless to say we got the screaming devil child in the car held on to eachothers hand and looked at one another and for the 1000th time and said " will he be our last?" We now dont attend Church on sundays and wont until he can attend nursery, ( unless its our week with Elijiah and then its tag team or one of us stays home) and its all we can do to keep it together when hes not in one of his "angelic" moods.

Saturday night things just got better. I got a call from our dear friend Kate who also happens to be one of our renters informing us that there was a leak, or something as our basement was flooding. Well after talking to her and figuring out where the leak was, it was determined that in the moving in of the last renters they stacked their many boxes into the furnace room, moving the drain tube from the drain and causing the overflow to run from the furnace room to the basement living room. So we trekked down to SLC ( not what we were excited to do on a Saturday night ) to rent the necessary items pulled up the carpet, sucked up the water, and left them with a fan going to dry out the pad and carpet. We are just hoping no lasting damage will have been done. We just put the house up for sale again two weeks ago so I say the timing couldnt have been more perfect huh? An honest mistake and good thing Kate is like family, but not fun. On another note about RENTERS - it came to our attention that while we left several items at our home including some outdoor furniture - one of the more expensive items (the fire pit) was intentionally destroyed by the guys we evicted. Note to self. While doing background checks, references and employment checks - and all of them coming back GLOWING- never rent to single guys again.
I put this photo of Tristan up because it is one of him that will remind me during weeks and weekends such as this --- We do love him so so much!!!!

***Grandpas funeral will be this week in San Diego on Thursday. I will be leaving Tristan with Jonathans mom as there is no way I can travel in the car with him 11 hours by myself as Jonathan cant take the time away from work. Elijiah and I will have ( I hope) some good quality time together**

Update

Grandpa slipped into a coma yesterday morning and passed away around 2:20 pm yesterday afternoon. It has all happened so quickly and while one part of me is glad he didnt suffer and went quickly, another part is upset that I didnt get to see him again. I had planned on leaving today to see him, had hoped to sit with him, hold his hand, talk to him, share memories, tell him how much he meant to me and how much I loved him. We had no idea that when he was admitted to the hospital this weekend and released on Sunday, that it would be two days. We thought it might be a week or two. Ive been an emotional wreck, had some peace yesterday but feeling somewhat numb at the moment. Im hoping that spending some time going through photos and thinking about the memories I have of him and writing those down, with help sort through my grief, but for now there is a lot of sadness. I know hes free of pain, and with the knowledge I have of the gospel, there is comfort of where he is, but there is still a lot to process with someone dying. Jonathan has been my rock as usual, made it possible to fly on a moments whim without a thought of the cost, and understands how difficult it is to loose someone you love dearly. What would I do without him? It reminds me of my grandparents. Where you found one you found the other....
(on my sisters raegans blog ( see blog roll ) she put up a couple great shots of him...this is just how I remember him...full of laughter and love...)

Fathers day and stuff

WOW- things are crazy around our household...so much going on that Ive been having a hard time keeping up on the blogging. But a quick recap...a few weeks ago it was announced that my company was going around the country doing a promo for the upcoming "Christmas carol" movie and would be stopping in Utah. As it so happened they would be coming to Ogden and I was thrilled to have such an event coming through our ghetto town!!! So I got Elijiah all excited and dragged us out after work for this one day event. It was going to be a blast. Well we happened to arrive at the same time as everyone else in town, and what was going to be a fun evening turned into a complete disaster as the wait to tour the trains and see a clip of the movie, was almost two hours!!! So instead of standing in line, we let Elijiah jump onto some of the older trains in the yard and we headed home. Night not so fun...but we tried. :(


Over fathers day weekend I had my best girlfriends over for a swim party on saturday hoping that the rain would cease...however it was a constant downpour. While we did our best to enjoy eachothers company and let the kids play in the pool Jonathan spent 10 hours at the house completely re-doing the front landscaping in the yard...in the pouring rain. He bought plants, pulled out old yucky bushes, took out rocks, brought in soil, leveled the planters, hauled in these bricks, (this is just one side of the house- and the smaller side of it too) he worked all day on saturday and then all morning sunday as well...It looks soooo much better than before and I love it. As we mentioned before-we put the house up for sale again and while the inside was completely redone in 2007 the outside needed some updating...and so the projects have begun!!
On Sunday I got up to assemble my burgers and fries for the dads and grandfathers in my life. (see bakerella on blog roll) didnt turn out as cute as hers did, but it was still a lot of fun. We stopped by and spent some time with my dad before heading down to see Jonathans parents in Lehi for a few hours in the afternoon. All in all it was a busy day, but wonderful day, spent with the men that mean so much to us. I want to send a special shout out to my husband for being such a great father and step father. He is such an incredible man and example to our sons and I am so lucky to be his wife.
**I will add that while we have had some great things going on over the weekend my grandfathers cancer returned and he was hospitalized. He decided to refuse treatment and signed a DNR. He returned home for what little time he has left which the doctors estimated could be days to just a few weeks at most. I will be headed to CA tomorrow to say goodbye to my beloved grandfather for the last time.**

Swimming Anyone?

Elijiah loves to spend his time swimming especially now that he as become an "excellent" swimmer. (his words not mine) HOWEVER, he gets all bent out of shape if he cant find his beloved goggles and has come inside to yell at me on more than one occasion to find them for him if they are missing, Or to call grandma to see if she knows where they are, or to tell me Ill need to buy him new ones if he cant find them( yea right.) Because he cant swim if he doesnt have goggles you see! But really, I am very excited that he is fast becoming a little fish, and loves to hop in and out of the pool. It helps that the pool is heated to 90 degrees too. Its been especially lovely with all the rain and cold June weather we have been experiencing dont ya think?? :)

Cute Things Tristan

Tristan has been doing some really cute things and I wanted to make sure I didnt forget them:

• when blowing on some hot pancakes the other day Tristan tried to do the same but hasnt mastered the art of blowing out..all he does is put his food to his nose and inhales and exhales.....


• he fell down while running around the pool naked and scraped his knee. while in the car today he discovered his "owie"(sp?). instead of the morning screams in the car, his "owie" was quite entertaining for most of the commute..he kept touching and poking it.


• Tristan has mastered the two arm hug. Anytime you pick him up he will now wrap both arms around your neck and squeeze tight. Ahhhh there really isnt anything like getting hugs from our baby.


• Now that he is feeling better he is like a different child again. Laughing and playing...case in point...He stands at the end of his crib crying or (screaming in his case) for you, but when he sees you coming he will immediately fall to the floor of the crib curl up in the fetal position and bury his head. (thinking that he is hiding from you) Its hilarious! All you have to say is" Where is Tristan?" and play peek a boo! and the game begins...


• He loves books. His favorite thing to do is get a book and have you read to him. Any book. Any time, anywhere.

Jonathans Bday!

We had a little scare with our camera earlier in the week where we thought we couldnt download and I was worried! All the photos that I had been taking and I wondered how I was going to keep up my blogging! But not to worry! My fabulous hubby figured it out and so now Im catching up! I couldnt let another day go by without documenting our weekend last week and filling you all in on Jonathans lovely birthday! As previously mentioned it also happened to fall on the most miserable weekend for us with Tristan being so ill --so all in all, Jonathan kinda didnt get the hoopla he deserved, but we did put in a valiant effort to make his day special. I got up early in the morning, making sure to take the crazy sick child with me to the store so I could gather the necessary ingredients to make him a triple layer red velvet cake....with homemade cream cheese icing. Yummy.

However from the photo below I think I made quite a bit dont you think? I never did capture a picture of the cake completed because the day got a bit crazy as it went on....however here it is just out of the oven, or two of the three layers....

Now when these two are wrestling with eachother I cant help but get happy inside. It brings true joy to my heart when Jonathan makes the boys giggle and laugh....(this has nothing to do with his birthday except that it did occur on his birthday......)

Now for the grand opening of his ONE present- TA-DAH....(dont feel sorry for him...with his starting a new job he went out and bought himself a ton of new clothes so we agreed that would be his bday presents)...but I couldnt let the day go by completely without a birthday present to open...and low and behold what could it be....?????

....a new shirt! But let me say its not just ANY shirt...no its a shirt that I looked high and low for. He as you may know has a love of music and the trumpet. So I found this piece and knew Jonathan would love it. And he did.

We had planned to go out that night for dinner and a movie - a date night just the two of us so I had my mom snap a picture of us before we left. However we had a few things to get done before we could enjoy our evening. As I mentioned we left our sick bugs and headed down to deal with a few housekeeping items with our rental house - one being changing out the locks on the house, the other was dealing with the left furniture from the evicted renters. Well we thought that we would just rent a truck from home depot and take the stuff to DI. It wasnt so simple. We waited two hours for a truck to become available and once we got the stuff loaded and to D.I. they wouldnt take it. So.....we had to haul the crap out to the landfill and pay to dump it. All said and done the afternoon chore that we thought would be a simple task took us 5 hours to accomplish. Good thing Jonathan and I were looking forward to spending some time together huh?! But sad...what a way to spend a birthday....

Anyway we headed down to the gateway after returning the truck and spending way too much money on the ridiculous afternoon to eat a lovely meal and see a totally awesome movie- STAR TREK! WE LOVED it and we had a great night. I hope that Jonathan, in spite of the ups and downs of the sick baby, and crazy afternoon, managed to enjoy his birthday. I want him to know that I love him with all my heart, and each year that passes I have more and more fun with him and can hardly believe that we havent been together our whole lives. So even though this post is now a week late....Happy birthday honey!!!!!