Remembering

Tuesday evening Steven and Andrew stayed overnight.  All the boys get along great and it really is an easy thing to have them over.  The best part of the evening was during dinner (that was conveniently delivered).  When the boys start fighting during dinner we pull out this jar of questions to keep ourselves from getting out of control.

Here are some examples of the questions.

"What is your favorite thing about being a brother/sister?"

"If you could be an animal, what would it be?"

We came upon one question that seemed innocent enough...I would never have guessed where this lead.

"What is your favorite holiday?"  We had some of the expected holidays; Christmas, Easter, etc. We asked everyone to give one reason. Then it was Andrew's turn.

Andrew: "My favorite holiday is my birthday, because I get presents."

James: "Well, wouldn't you pick Christmas then, because you get more presents."

Andrew: "No, because on my birthday I get presents, and no one else does...(mischievous smile).

Then it was James turn.  He said his favorite day was March 10th because it was awesome (also happens to be his birthday.) We decided to check March 10th for any "awesome" holiday.

This was a mistake.  For the next 30 minutes we checked everyone's birthday and what special holidays were celebrated.  There were some great ones, and you can check out yours here 

http://www.checkiday.com/ 

I would bore you listing all the great holidays we found, but by far the best/worst one we found was on March 10th.  

International Day of Awesomeness! - no joke.  read all about it (we did)

 http://dayofawesomeness.com/

James is never going to let us forget this.

That really was the highlight of our week.

Things aren't perfect though.  

Luke told me we needed to go on a vacation, to the Oregon coast, because Alisa always wanted to take us there.  I told him we would.  I can tell he is having a bit of a tough time.  He isn't excited about doing much, but does seem to have fun once he gets going.

Sam was having a hard time deciding if he wanted to go to scout camp this week.  Really??? Sam???  This kid loves the outdoors, scout camp should be heaven for him.  He is going and will do fine, but we are starting to see signs of strife around here.

I think James is doing the best.

I yelled at the kids yesterday (first time, since...not sure when, but it has been a while) for whining about helping around the house for an hour.  I apologized, they bucked up, and we got the garage clean.  This might be a little sacrilegious but sometimes I find myself thinking I should submit Alisa to become a saint, then I realize I am a member of the wrong religion for that.  I think I just want to talk to her again, and don't you pray to saints?  I am happy passing my messages to her through Heavenly Father, and I am sure she can hear me gripe all day anyway.  

I finally got up enough courage to listen the Alisa's funeral service.  It was hard, but also refreshing to listen to that celebration of her life.  My favorite part was when Brittany sang Amazing Grace at the graveside.  Here it is for those that were not there.

I also watched a slideshow Alisa's sisters made for the funeral.  It is awesome, made me cry (I guess lots of things do these days, but this especially)

Alisa's sister Kirsten also made this video, which is just beautiful.  Thanks Kirst.