A Crazy But Great Weekend

This weekend was very busy, We began our weekend with a surprise party for Ryan's 30th birthday!! He was very surprised but I kinda gave it away when I came home with a huge cake for the celebration. Brad and Cathy did a great job relocating cars so there was not cars outside their house. To Ryan's knowledge we were just going over for dinner with his parents. To his SURPRISE!! our friends jumped out and we had a great time celebrating.
As any Dad might Ryan had some great helpers while opening his presents. Torianna and Daniel had them most fun though with a gift from my parents that had silver ribbon in it. They began throwing it up in the air, Tori began jumping around like a cheerleader. It was very cute and very funny! When the jumping around ended they proceeded to decorate some of the youth that joined us from Ryan's small group. My family is so blessed to have these boys in our home. They truly show my boys what a Godly young man looks like and of course we have some major wrestling going on all the time! (More to come see below)



Then came the big present! I had been saving my allowance since July, gave all my graduation money and then some to help build a gun for Ryan. Not just any gun an AR-15. While my grandmother was dieing, I made several trips to Pismo Beach. This of course cost lost of money, which we didn't have so we put it on a credit card (which we almost never do). When my grandmother past away, Ryan sold this gun to pay off the debt. I felt like it was only appropriate that with 30 being such a big birthday that I bring the AR-15 back in his collection. I did not do this alone though, Matt (Ryan's brother) and Brad and Cathy(Ryan's parents) helped me pay for it. I am so thankful that I was able to get enough together even if he was a little concerned as to how I paid for it.


Saturday:
Now for the best part of my weekend!! My friend Jenni called me on Saturday and told me about this estate sale that was going on that included stamps! I was very interested so before Steven's baseball game I went over. I walked into a whole living room full of stamps. Ed (the man who was selling the stamps) and I began friends during my three hours of time with him. His wife Lori passed away two years ago in March from Cancer, and she was a stamper! That is probably a huge understatement, but if you were not there, there is no real way to describe what I walked into. She had five rooms of stamps and craft stuff. When he began selling her collection she had over 20,000 stamps and that is not even considering the paper and ribbon and lace and . . .

When Ed first began to sell her things he sold enough to buy himself a mustang!! This was the end of his sale and this translated to big wonderfulness for me!! I spent an hour and a half before I had to go to Steven's game, when I got home I called Jenni (my crafty buddy:) and went back for more stuff. We spent another hour and a half, when we left I left with 198 stamps, 4 rolls of hand made paper, 3 sheets of hand made paper that Lori made herself, 2 tubs of embossing powder, and one roll of ribbon. . . Drum roll please. . .

For $38.74 total, yes that was a full rubber made tube of stamps! I made out!!

Sunday: Was another busy day, we went to church at 8:15, I left early to go to my friend Lora's, father's funeral. This was a very special service, Don Rooks was a long time community member and rancher in Buckeye AZ. The service was held on the Rooks(now the Heiden) farm, in the airplane hanger. It was beautifully done, all three of his children spoke with such eloquence and joy, there were many tears but also laughter.

On a personal note, this was the first non-family(although my team is very close to family) service I have been to since my sister died and I was very proud of myself. It was not easy, I started thinking about it and I have only been to three other services in the past 19 years. My Jeremy, my dear cousin; my great grandmother; and my grandmother. I really feel like the Rooks family, in their laughter and beautiful presentation helped me move past a hurdle that I have been struggling with for years.

When I arrived home from the service, I was informed that there had been an accident. Yes, the boys were wrestling and Daniel(my head injury child) had fallen and hit his head. This was the preparation that I had for the baseball size goose egg on his head. Daniel of course, hardly cried and Steven who had pushed him, cried more about hurting his brother then Dan cried about being hurt.

This was an amazing weekend with wonderful joy and terrible sadness all in one.