An Angel's Landing

While we were in Michigan, my siblings and I discussed where our Mom would want her and Jimmy's ashes to be scattered. In a month, some of us would be heading out west for our brother Joel's wedding at Zion's National Park. At the park is a beautiful and very high peak called Angel's Landing. Because Jimmy and my mom met in souther Utah while traveling with the carnival, we thought this location would be a perfect resting spot for "Angel" and Jimmy Urquhart.

This past month has been a crazy time in our life. Running scout camps, an overhaul clearing out of the house, keeping the kids busy, a quick trip to PA, etc...Having so much to do has been a blessing and has helped me to put my focuses elsewhere. However, often times I've felt this sudden and overwhelming feeling of emptiness and sadness. No tears, but an aching feeling, wishing I could just pick up the phone and call my Mom and not really wanting to think about saying goodbye.

So as we went through security in our way out west, I was caught off guard by my emotions. Because we were carrying two bags of ashes, our bag needed checked and tested for suspicious substances. The TSA worker was very professional and apologetic, but while she performed the test the reality of saying goodbye hit me. And I started to cry. The finality of it all. I know that I will see my mom again. But knowing that I won't see her or talk to her again during this life is hard.

After Joel and Jamie's wedding, Jeff, Tara, Rob and I set out for the 5 mile hike to and from Angel's Landing. Knowing my fear of heights, hiking to the top of Angel's Landing would not be a reality for me, but we heard there was a good spot before the last scary part that was beautiful. We wound our way up the mountain, switchback after switchback. It was so hot and our legs were feeling the burn if the climb. Once we got to the top we realized that there were too many people around, so we sent Rob off to finish the hike to the peak while Jeff, Tara and I went further up the west rim to find the perfect spot for our Mom.

A little further up we found a small tree on the edge of the steep cliff (over 1000 feet up) a little off the beaten trail. The view of Angel's Landing from this spot was spectacular! It was dramatic! I imagined my mom flying off the cliff towards Angel's Landing. She would have loved the beauty of it all. Jeff offered a simple and touching prayer. We then scattered Janet "Angel" and Jimmy Urquhart underneath this little tree.

We took several photos of the location so that we can come back and visit it again with hopes of leaving a little Angel memento there one day.

As I hiked down to meet Rob, I was so grateful for this special moment. I know that my mom was pleased and happy with her resting place. Truly, this was a beautiful day.

November 26, 1953-June 5, 2012

Janet Sue Sluyter Urquhart “Angel”, a resident of Breckenridge, MI and beloved wife of the late James “Jimmy” Urquhart passed away on June 5, 2012 in her home at the age of 58. She was born in Detroit, MI on November 26, 1953, the daughter of Winfield Josiah Sluyter and the late Marjorie Evelyn Hobbs. Janet is survived by her father Winfield Sluyter of Petoskey, MI; sister Jennifer Bellairs of Charlevoix, MI; brother David Sluyter of Petoskey, MI; daughters Andrea Kunz of Manassas, VA; Audrey Jacobson of Mapleton, UT; Kymberly Haswell of Ithaca, MI; sons Joel Chiapelli of Hatboro, PA; Jeffery Chiapelli of Getzville, NY; Dana Haswell III of Ithaca, MI. Janet was affectionately know as “Granny Janny” by her nineteen grandchildren.

Janet grew up in Troy, MI and attended Troy High School. Janet spent most of her life in the state of Michigan, but also lived for short periods of time in Utah, California, Pennsylvania and Florida. Janet loved animals and had several pets over the years.

A Memorial Service will be held on Tuesday June 12^th at 10:30 am at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 927 Union Street, Ithaca, MI 48847.

**I do plan on blogging more regarding my mom, but the reality of this has been extremely overwhelming.  Ever since being home, I've been busy, busy, busy and the past few days I have felt a heavy weight pressing on me.  Like an aching pressure in my chest.  Like I'm on the verge of crying my eyes out all over again.  I have so many thoughts and feeling that swirl around and for my own sake, I plan on getting it all out...just not right now.**

I'm Famous...

For looking like a dork, that is!

It looks like I'm ready to catch a piece of shrimp at a Japanese steakhouse!

Really!  Of all the pictures this lady could have chosen (and she took a lot), she picked this one?  I was having a really good hair day, but come on!  I'm sure the photos of the cute kids singing turned out better than this one.

On a serious note, I do love my "job".  And I say "job" because I hardly would call it that.  It kind of just fell into my lap, and I jumped at the chance to take it.  I don't even enjoying singing!  Unless it's with a bunch of energetic and happy 4 year olds.  I look forward to music time each week and seeing the love and excitement in the children's eyes.  It seriously is the best job EVER!

We are so proud of Tyler for taking on this adventure.  He's not a center of attention kind of kid and prefers to be behind the scenes.  He went in to the play tryouts with the intention of being a stage tech, but ended up scoring the role of John Darling in one of the two casts of Peter Pan.

And what a great experience it was for him!  He was able to spend lots of time memorizing lines and songs and choreography.  Hours and hours of after school play practices and time spent with good friends.  All of the hard work in the end was worth it.  And he's already talking about doing it again next year (this time he doesn't even want to do stage tech, too boring).

My Day.

All day yesterday, I told my kids the top ten reasons why this was the best Mother's Day ever.

10.  I woke up to hugs and kisses and Mother's Day wishes.  They were earlier than I would have liked, but they were initiated by the kids and that made my morning wonderful.

9.  Jared, Evan and Anna all created special Mother's Day cards for me and they were so excited to share them.  I loved all of them and the thoughtfulness behind them.  My children know me well!

(I do not smack Evan!  He likes when I playfully push him.  Geesh--I wonder what his teacher thought??)

8.  My parents came down for the weekend and helped me with the kids.

7.  The kids and my Dad made a yummy pancake brunch for us!

7.  I was able to spend a lot of time with Tyler prepping for his school play.  He also presented a talk during our Sacrament Meeting at church.  The topic--his mother. :)  He wrote and prepared it all on his own.  I am so proud of him and all of the hard work he put into the past week.  "What doesn't kill you makes me you stronger!"

6.  Rob came home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  And we were back together again as a family.

5.  Rob came home!!!  With a beard.  And muscles.  

4.  The children sang a beautiful song during church to all of the mothers.  And of course, I cried.

3.  We all lounged around in the evening, watching the video recording of Tyler's performance of Peter Pan since his Dad missed it.

2.  Then we watched the season finale of our favorite show to watch as a family...Once Upon A Time!

1.  We were all finally home under the same roof.  Best.  Mother's Day.  Ever.

I hope yours was just as great.

A person's a person,

We just loaded up the kids backpacks with blankets and flashlights and lots of Dr. Seuss books to help them celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday tomorrow.  Jared will be reading to a Kindergarten class with the added bonus of wearing pjs to school.  Evan is having a lights out read-a-thon.  And Anna will be celebrating with green eggs and ham.  Sounds like they will be having a fun day!

Dr. Seuss has so many great quotes!

I love this poster, a list of the best of the best (although one of my favorites and most used quotes is not on the list...).

"Teeth are always in style!"  I need to make a poster of this quote for the kids bathroom!

"A person's a person, no matter how small."  I don't need to explain why I love this one.

"You do not like them. So you say. Try them! Try them! And you may. Try them and you may, I say."  I use this one often when we are trying something new at dinner, with the reminder that when he tried green eggs and ham he actually liked them.  A LOT!



Do you have a favorite Dr. Seuss quote?

Do you do anything special to celebrate his birthday?

Little Me

Anna and I have been best buds over the past 2 years.  Since Evan headed off to Kindergarten, she has been by my side every day.  Needless to say, she mimics the things I do and say and she listens to everything I'm saying and doing.  Because a lot of my days consist of church callings and responsibilities, they have become a big part of her life, too.

But she's now having a hard time with the separation of church and state...

On Friday I asked her what she learned about at school. "Well, we don't have school on Monday because it is Stake Presidents Day!"

Earlier this week she wanted to know who our missionary is.  I was confused by this.  Did she mean our friend Kyle Lee who is on an LDS mission to New Zealand?  Nope, that wasn't the right answer.  I asked her who our missionary was (before this new one came that she was referring to)..."Barack Obama."

Oh, of course.

Silly girl.

Anna as Mary at her preschool Christmas program.

Tour de France, Lance

Funnest school project in the world.
For me to attend anyways!

For a language arts report the kids in Mrs. 6th grade classes pulled together a wax museum. Each child chose someone to research, prepared and memorized a 1 minute presentation and found a costume to represent their famous person in history.

Tyler chose Lance Armstrong! Which I felt was perfect for him since he is beginning to love biking and is studying French at school. And as an added bonus, I'm quite a fan of the guy (Lance and Tyler).

Tyler borrowed his dad's sunglasses and bike gloves. We found him a yellow jersey that we attached USPS and Tour de France logos to. He refused to wear bike shorts, though. Something about looking like I dancer in tights...

Once at the school, the kids posed as if in a wax museum. We would walk around and tap a character and they would come to life, sharing the information that they'd prepared and then freeze until the next person came around.

So impressive were these kids! We were able to meet Muhammed Ali (in a full on boxing ring), Marie Antoinette, JK Rowling (with a British accent), lots of soccer stars, Jackie Robinson, Albert Einstein, etc...

Tyler was rather impressive himself and I think he's got a bit of drama underneath that shy exterior!

P.S. Have I ever mentioned here that when I lived in France as an LDS missionary (back in 1997, gulp), the Tour de France started in the area that I was serving in--Rouen! What great memories I have from that time of my life!!

P.P.S. Thanks for the idea to blog through the Blogger app. Don't know if I love it, but I'm going to try it out!

Why I Don't Blog Anymore

I blame the iPhone for my lack of blogging.

It's so easy to take and post pics on Facebook or Instagram.  Just one simple click.

We went to a fun event tonight at Tyler's school and I was ready to to post about it on Facebook and realized that it would be a better blog post.

So I came home and finally took the 1000 images (from the past year) off my phone and imported to my computer.

Hopefully more blog posts to come.

We'll see...