Let’s recap. I went to a funeral on February 28th for my cousin Natalie. Because of the weather in Dallas or rather the lack of equipment to deal with the weather in Dallas, the airports were crazy. I purchased a … Continue reading
On February 18th, I woke up a to a text message sent by my cousin Stephanie last Tuesday evening. The message read “I just wanted to let you know Natalie had a brain aneurysm today. She is being declared brain dead. She is gone.” I also had a voicemail and message from my father asking me to call him. In a state of panic and shock, I called my dad who confirmed Stephanie’s message. For some unknown reason, my cousin had a traumatic brain event causing irreversible brain damage and was only alive due to a ventilator. As the week progressed, we garnered small tidbits of information. Her condition hadn’t been caused by an aneurysm but potentially hyponatremia (low sodium) which can cause the brain to swell in excess resulting in death. Natalie was on life support until Saturday February 21st while matches were found for her organs. At 10:30 pm, she officially gave her life so that others could live. She donated her lungs, liver, pancreas, kidneys, and skin/bone tissue. Natalie’s funeral was scheduled for Saturday February 28th in Awhatukee, Arizona.
Brent and I decided to fly to Tucson on Friday night then drive up to the funeral on Saturday. However, nature had other plans. She decided to send ice to Dallas canceling school and flights on Monday that week. Then snow started again on Friday which caused the cancellation of almost every flight that night out of Dallas. Brent found a few flights that were still taking off to LAX and a Saturday morning flight to Phoenix from Los Angeles. He wasn’t hopeful but we wanted to try to do our best to get there.
The airport was an absolute mess. The motivation to support Natalie’s family and pay our respects was the only reason we braved the roads (no plows in Dallas) and crowds of an airport full of stranded people trying to get out. To our surprise, many people made the first flight out of Dallas. We weren’t on that flight, but we thought we might have a shot on the next one. We took the train to Terminal C for the next flight. As soon as the doors opened, I knew we were in deep trouble. Lengthy lines full of cranky passengers snaked across hallways. Brent checked our listing for the next flight when we sat down at the gate. We were #144 and 145 for the flight – Yeah, not gonna happen.
I was distraught at the thought of not making it to Arizona. I wanted to spend time with family to mourn the loss of my cousin. I was also speaking at the funeral, so I wanted to share Natalie’s influence on my life. After checking other options, we knew I wasn’t going to leave Dallas. I texted my family that I couldn’t make it but felt like I should keep on looking. We found a flight for $89 on Southwest the next morning that would get me in to Phoenix for the time of the viewing. This flight wasn’t available earlier when we looked but somehow it was available this time. The next step was to find a return flight home. Every airline wanted half of my arm or leg in return for flying with them. I checked Spirit because I had heard that they offered low cost tickets. We found a fare for $113 but the flight left Phoenix at 2:00 am. It was crazy but it would get me home in time for work. We left the airport after buying my flights glad to be out of chaos.
Being married to Brent has turned me into a complete airplane geek. I went on a date with a guy in Arizona in 2005 who really liked to watch airplanes land and enjoyed identifying the airline of the plane as it zoomed overhead. After the date, I mocked him and his enthusiasm to my family. I need to find him and offer sincere apologies as I now love watching planes land and identifying the livery. Cruel fate; cruel world. Because I’m a geek, I was super excited to fly out of Love Field (i.e, Southwest flies out of a different airport than the majority of airlines in Dallas). I even took pictures on my phone to share later.
My flight was delayed due to deicing, but I made it to Phoenix in time for the viewing. My dad and brother picked me up from the airport and drove immediately to the chapel.
It was wonderful to see family gather from various parts of the country. Even though it was so tragic seeing Natalie’s kids and her husband alone without her, it was heartwarming to know that our family could rally together and provide support. I was able to share some special moments with my Uncle Greg and Aunt Suzanne as well as my cousin Stephanie. The funeral itself was beautiful. There was a feeling of peace and love despite the deep sorrow.
That night, we gathered together as a family and enjoyed each other’s company. I am so grateful for family memories and bonding. Later, my cousin Mindi, Stephanie, and I would stay up late talking about life, trials, and “girl talk.”
I was able to spend Sunday with family again especially Stephanie’s three adorable and sometimes crazy kids.
Her husband dropped me off at the airport at midnight for the best flight ever. When I booked the flight, I thought it would be half empty. Who in their right mind buys a 2 am flight on purpose? I was wrong. Lots of crazy people buy flights at 2 am. I was crammed in back of the plane in a middle seat with no leg room. Of course, there was a baby across the aisle. I love babies but not at 2 am. Our delayed plane finally took off at 3, landed at 6, and waited on the Tarmac until 6:30. Brent picked me up, rushed me home in time for me to shower and head to work.
Here is a link to Natalie’s obituary: http://www.bunkerfuneral.com/obituaries/natalie-zobell-miller/
One of the great privileges of marriage is that weekends no longer involve the eternal question – “What am I going to do tonight?”. You always have a perma date and companion. Even better, you don’t even have to leave … Continue reading
I have a lovely nephew who is battling cancer and the cancer might win. This past Christmas, after receiving terrible news, my sister and brother-in-law decided to celebrate life, family and memories. A very kind dentist helped to send their family to Disney so they could make more memories, and several of our family members decided to join them.
My sister-in-law Melinda is a Disney pro, so we were in the park bright and early which enabled us to ride key attractions multiple times. I also need the thank the measles for discouraging people from attending the park and helping us avoid nasty long lines. My mother-in-law also assited since her cane helped us use the “handicap” line. Basically, I became a diva by the end of the trip (i.e, um, I don’t wait in line more than ten minutes…)
I was Emma’s riding buddy for most of the trip.
I also saw these people 🙂
There was literally no line for Mickey or Minnie!!! (Ok, there was a 5 minute line, but that is equivalent to no line in Disneyland).
We had a great linner in Aladdin’s Oasis. They were incredibly kind and saved a spot for Emma in line so she could meet Jasmine.
Uncle Brent joined us on Saturday for California Adventure.
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We ate lunch at Ariel’s Grotto and met 5 princesses. I only have pictures with 3 though.
We saw a Parade.
Then we went to a Frozen Sing Along.
I tried to upload the video of Emma singing but I don’t have the “premium account” so I can’t.
The trip was wonderful but exhausting. I am just now barely recovered.
We now own two vehicles. I don’t know if I want to celebrate or feel defeated. I really liked the idea of being a one car family – we saved money (car payment, insurance, gas), and we saved the environment. But we finally succumbed. Brent’s motorcycle has been in the shop for two weeks and sharing the car has been “interesting.” Thank heavens for great co-workers.
Brent has been looking for a new car after we sold his in Phoenix, but he couldn’t find anything he liked (picky man 🙂 ). If he couldn’t get the car he wanted, well why not try out a beater truck? We liked the idea because the motorcycle could still get a spot in the garage (who cares if an old truck gets more “weathered” looking), we could pick of any item of furniture at Costco on a whim, and we could haul any/everything we wanted.
Buying cars on Craigslist is interesting. I have a rule for pictures viewed online – decrease your expectation by about 33% and that is what you will actually see. I think cars on Craigslist need a variation which decreases the expectation by 50%. Unfortunately, we lost some good finds because we couldn’t drive 45 to 60 minutes on a weekday to check out the vehicle. We did get the “privilege” of spending most of Saturday test driving trucks and waiting at Firestone to complete a vehicle check. In the end, it was worth it because we now have a ’97 Ford 150. She’s old and scratched and seen some better days, but she’s also in pretty good condition considering her age. It feels very strange to look out the window and see a truck in the driveway. I feel like grunting like Tim Allen from Home Improvement or maybe scratching my belly while belching. Truth be told, I’m super excited to drive it.
Here she is:
I am a slacker. Full on lazy bones. If I didn’t have the desire to print off my blog and use it as a scrapbook (i.e., lazy scrapbooking), I wouldn’t even write this post.
Brent and I don’t travel for fun anymore. Home ownership plus more church responsibility has sucked any free time/free money from our lives. (Disclaimer: Brent and I got to travel to DC for a nephew’s baptism in November. We were there for less than 24 hours so it doesn’t count as a real vacation). So it’s a good thing there are two major holidays at the end of the year so we can do some traveling.
Brent and I somehow settled into a holiday rotation giving his family Thanksgiving this year and my family Christmas. We went to Parker, Colorado for Thanksgiving to join his brother Doug along with sister Mary Kathryn who drove from Tucson, sister Audrey, and parents. Oh, and Aunt Sandi and Uncle Rod came too! It was a packed house. There were air mattresses and sleeping bags galore. Brent and I had the misfortune to sleep on the air mattress I’ll christen “The Titanic” as we had to abandon ship in the middle of the night due to inflation issues.
I don’t remember any particulars except for eating lots of delicious food, shopping for scarves, watching Mockingjay, and cheering for the Huskers. Thank heavens for pictures to help us remember.
We painted nails.
We posed for pictures.
I showed the following picture to one of my students. She said, “Wow, you are short.” I replied, “No, my husband’s family just happens to be half Amazon.”
On Thanksgiving morning, we participated in the first annual Absher Turkey Trot (A.K.A. a walk-run for people too cheap to pay $20 to walk/run).
We ate food.
On Friday, we toured Hammond’s Candy Factory.
Overall, we had a relaxing and enjoyable time.
We flew back on Saturday to avoid getting trapped in Denver and made it to a continuation of a Black Friday sale at Ashley’s Furniture where we purchased three new couches. They have yet to be delivered, but soon we won’t have a barren wasteland inside of our house. Behold the beauty about to enter my home!
In December we went to a recruiting event for Brent’s work which basically involved an adult version of mini golf along with catered food so it was a win-win for both Brent and I.
I also was able to wear my favorite Christmas sweater to work.
For Christmas, we flew to beautiful Cheyenne, Wyoming and spent the holiday split between my mom, dad, and Brent’s sister Audrey. Audrey and Jason had just learned of the reoccurrence of their son’s tumor so we wanted to spend as much time with Noah as possible.
And we got to see some old friends too.
Brent needed to get a crown fixed so we flew to Arizona on the night before New Years Eve. I took Brent to the dentist, occupied myself at Trader Joe’s, picked him up from the dentist then took him back to the airport. I stayed a little longer so I could eat lunch with my Aunt Suzanne, her sister Lisa, my cousin Stephanie, and my cousin Josh plus wife Katie. So fun! I thankfully caught one of the last flights back to DFW (the later flights were cancelled) just in time for New Years Eve.
Brent and I spent New Year’s Eve in Texas eating tater tots and watching football. I fell asleep at 10:00 – I’m a real party animal.
Now I’m ready for a brand new year with a desire to have a clutter-free, organized decorated home!
A few months ago, Brent and I made a list of the top 5 places we wanted to go for our 2nd anniversary. Brent then took the reigns and planned from there. He chose to take me to Asheville, North … Continue reading
I don’t know where October went. I blinked and suddenly it is November. The tragic fact of October is that I had a great month and didn’t take a single picture to remember anything. However, as I am trying this electronic form of journaling for posterity, I am going to recount the events anyway.
1. Catch Me If You Can – Brent and I flew up to SLC to “catch” (ha ha) our last show of the 2014 season at the Hale Center Theatre. The show was super fun with tons of extravagant costume changes and chorus-filled dance numbers. Brent and I didn’t know what to expect but it was tremendously fun. I think it’s over now, but if it’s not and you happen to live in SLC, check it out.
2. Weekend Parent Retreat – Brent flew to Grand Island to play 27 holes of golf with his dad and watch the Nebraska game at a sports bar. The first part of his weekend sounds truly terrible to me, but at least he got some golf out of his system since he hasn’t been able to play much in Texas. I flew to Denver on Saturday and had the BEST day with my mom. Work has been tough, and there’s nothing that a mom cannot fix. This is the text from my mom after she dropped me off at the airport “so here’s what we accomplished we did brunch we took a drive and saw the fall foliage we were able to go to an outdoor fair we went clothes shopping for jewelry shopping we had a silly wild fries we had See’s chocolates” Translation = moms soothe all problems in life. The only picture I took on my phone in October was during clothes shopping. I always send a picture to Brent while shopping, so he can give me his opinion that way I don’t have to go back to the store and return the item (I don’t always trust my own clothing judgment). Ironically, his phone died, so I actually sent the pictures to his dad while they were golfing. This way I had three opinions on the outfits. Best of all, they all agreed on the same shirt. Hooray for technology and quick trips with moms.
Note: My cell phone camera is lame and I can only take selfies (the camera on the other side is broken)
3. Second Anniversary – Brent and I have survived two years of marriage. Woot. We actually couldn’t celebrate this week since Brent’s work schedule has required him to work extremely long hours. This year both my birthday and wedding anniversary fell on Monday, which is by far the most tragic day for celebratory events. At least we are going away for a fun anniversary trip this coming weekend.
4. Work Survival – When I lived in Cheyenne, one of my friends greatly disliked her job. I remember reading one of her blog posts which only contained the words “I love my job” about 40 times. She then commented that she hoped this would help her actually love her job. I’m not sure that I feel this negative about my job but I haven’t found sublime happiness either. Many variables have contributed the difficulty of the school year – a new district, new schools, a caseload involving students with abilities ranging from the language ability of a 3 month old to a 14 year old student who stutters, so much paperwork, different procedures from all other states, and different acronyms. I think I am finally out of survival mode (cross fingers). I have only cried once a week for about two weeks now which I consider a victory. I know it will get better but sometimes it’s hard to see the good in the midst of the trial.
5. It’s a Lemon- Brent and I may have bought a lemon of a house. We experienced the joys of a plumbing leak. It’s a good thing my mother taught me to clean baseboards or we may have never caught this leak. As I was cleaning the baseboards in our kitchen, I noticed some gunk kept on growing on our baseboards and that they felt spongy. I would wipe of the gunk, but invariably, it would return. Brent and I speculated that maybe it was termites from our termite incident of July, but the bug man said no. The plumber came, easily ripped away the baseboard, and diagnosed a broken pipe entering the slab. Hooray! Thankfully, I have a great work friend with connections in the area. She recommended her plumber, who fixed the leak for 1/3 of the cost of the first plumber. On top of that, our fridge fritzed out for a day; then our washer broke down after 3 weeks of procrastinating laundry. I’m not sure that I recommend home ownership after October.
5. Lord’s Blessings – I haven’t been the happiest person with whom to live for the past few months. Bless Brent. This week was particularly hard as I experienced some more unexpected heart ache. I read a talk by Elder Maxwell entitled “Plow in Hope.” Although I felt the spirit of peace, I still wanted to wallow in self-pity a little longer. It’s a good thing the Lord looks out for us and hears our prayers. On Thursday I had two doctors appointments to check in on some long-standing health concerns. At both visits, the doctors commented on how the progression and symptoms of my conditions were exceptionally good and even expressed surprise that I had been given a certain diagnosis. At that moment I realized that even though we don’t always get the blessing that we really want and think we need, the Lord takes care of us. He is constantly blessing us, but we need to open our eyes to see the blessings He sees fit to send.
Brent had a work convention in Philly last week, so I flew out Friday night to join him. It was strange to actually leave the Philadelphia airport as I have spent many a long layover there. I procured a rental … Continue reading
This summer flew by. I don’t know what happened, but I need to document the major events before I forget (well, forget even more).
AUSTIN
Brent and I took a quick weekend trip to see what Austin was all about. We only had one day since we wanted to be in our congregation on Sunday. We walked around Lady Bird Lake, which is probably one of the neatest parks to which I have been. It felt like half of Austin was walking the path with us, and I love that a whole city embraces outdoor activity.
We visited the University of Texas campus. Now I’m no longhorn lover but it wasn’t a terrible campus. I will say that I am still partial to Memorial Stadium.
We also took in the state capitol building and ran into a fellow Husker fan.
This is where legislative magic happens.
We also visited the largest Whole Foods I have ever laid my eyes upon containing an underground parking garage and policemen to direct traffic. We may have found Brent’s favorite lemonade here, and that is saying something.
Of course, we also ate BBQ. It was ok. I think that I don’t really care for BBQ except for really good ribs, and my favorite ones are my grammie’s recipe. I guess I’m not a true Texan after all.
GULFPORT
Brent and I also went to Gulfport/Biloxi, Mississippi. Brent visited Biloxi, Mississippi two years ago to take it off his list of states to visit. He thought the white sand beaches were pretty and loved the lack of people; thus, he was eager to take me back. We took a quick day trip to visit this less than booming metropolis.
The water was incredibly shallow in the gulf. We waded about as far as we could go (probably 1/2 mile) and the water only came up to my chest. While the beaches were white and sandy, the water was a little murky. Brent had warned me not to get too excited about the water or to expect the beauty of Hawaiian waters. He was a smart man. It was nothing like Hawaii or the Florida beaches of which I heard much about. However, I liked that it wasn’t crowded and that the water was warm. I will say that if we have children and want to take them to the beach, this place is the right place. They could splash all day long and walk fairly far in without worrying about a sudden drop in the coastline or pummeling waves.
We tried to get some typical southern food. We found a po’ boy place, which made po’ food. I was not impressed. But maybe we didn’t find the right place to visit.
LINCOLN
While the boys are away, the girls will play. Brent went to Charlotte for his annual NFL Fantasy Football Draft, so I went to Lincoln for some Starr Time. I have always loved Lincoln, but it has really changed since I was there for grad school. The Haymarket area has been built up and gained more restaurants. Whole Foods has moved in as well. If the husband’s job were here, I think I would be super happy to move back.
The Starrs indulged me on a trip down memory lane.
My grad school house. (You can’t see the man who lives there now hiding behind the main door. Melissa creeped him out by parking our car in front of the house (twice) with Theresa and I staring at him without actually getting out of the car. )
My grandparent’s house of glorious memories. If I could, I would buy this house back from the current owners. 
We went the Haymarket area twice. Once for the Farmer’s Market and once for Ivanna Cone. We were “lucky” enough to catch the zombie fest during the second trip. 
The night ended perfectly with roller derby at the Pershing Center before it is demolished. Unfortunately, both Lincoln teams lost proving to Theresa’s dad that roller derby isn’t a fake sport with predetermined results. 
The last of the Pershing Center.
MISCELANEOUS
I went to a mega church for my school’s convocation. Holy Pageantry.
LABOR DAY
We went to Lincoln for the first Husker game. I’m pleased to say that we won. I think Brent’s favorite part of the weekend was flying out of Grand Island, something he was supposed to do since 2001 but was foiled as his flight was leaving on September 11th.
In other news, I am officially a Texan.
Just Call Me Zabsher 