An M&M Christmas

My family decided to do a tree for the Festival of Trees in honor of my mom. Of course we had to do an M&M tree since she loved M&M's. It was so perfect for her. We have been collecting things for it the last few months. We were able to buy some M&M candy tins to use as ornaments. I also bought some clear ornaments and stenciled an M on it and filled it with M&M's. We also bought some stuffed M&M's for it. Total this tree ended up being a little over $450... but it was so worth it.

Today was decorating day at South Town Expo Center. It was pretty crazy there and it took us most of the day... but we got it done. I think it turned out pretty well. I am interested to see if it sells and how much it sells for. I am glad we did it though. It is the perfect way to honor my mom. The picture I have isn't the best... but it works. So here it is... our masterpiece!

It's hard to tell, but there is a nutcracker on the top of the tree. The M&M on the chair is reading "The Night Before Christmas", and the green M&M is standing on a ladder putting an ornament on the tree. So yeah... there it is!

What an incredible person...

Marylou Epperson.... what an incredible person. She was so sweet, but also knew how to speak her mind. She had a really great sense of humor. In the short time I have known her.... she has definitely made an impression on me. Mike and his family are very lucky to have had such a great person in their lives. She will be missed.

Yesterday started out like any other Thanksgiving... in the kitchen baking. I spent the morning making rolls.... then we headed over to Linda's for my family's Thanksgiving at 1. We had the Turkey, the cheeseball, and all the fixings. As odd as it sounds.... we even had a rubber ducky fight. Shelley had done a game where she had all these Thanksgiving themed rubber duckies on the table. They each had a number. She then drew numbers to see who would get a prize. It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun afterwards chucking rubber duckies at each other. We also wandered over to Walmart at one point and finally bought the actual Christmas tree we are using for the Festival of trees. It was fun.

So at about 3... Mike and I headed home to grab the goodies we were taking to his family's Thanksgiving at 4. Well we got a call shortly after we got home saying Mikes Grandma was not in good shape, and they didn't think she was going to last the hour. So we went to the Care Facility she was at. The family was all gathered around her when she passed.

It was really hard. I have never watched someone take their last breath. There were a lot of tears... but we all knew that she was going to be reunited with her husband (who passed away 23 yrs ago on Halloween), daughter, and countless others. It was still hard none the less. After she passed, we all decided to go and still have Thanksgiving dinner at Mike's parents house. It was a nice dinner.... but it had that underlying sadness to it. After the incident with the flames shooting out of the oven (the marshmallows on the yams caught on fire), we sat down to ate and said the Serenity Prayer. I didn't know that prayer, but it was a nice prayer. We then watched family videos from the 40's-60's. It was neat seeing her as a young mother.

Something that blows my mind is when we were at the Care Center, Mikes mom asked me how I was doing. She was concerned about me since it has only been a year since losing my mom. I didn't expect her to be so worried about me when it was them that were getting hit the hardest with losing their mother/grandmother. That's when I lost it. Heather gave me a hug and told me that the other day she went to the cemetery and stopped by my moms grave. That honestly means the world to me that she took the time to stop and visit my mom. Mikes family were incredible last year with their concern for me. I honestly have the best in-laws ever! I love that they have really accepted me into their family.

My heart goes out to them all. It is not easy losing someone. I plan on being there for anything they need. They are my family and I really do feel like part of the family. So I will be a shoulder to cry on, as well as I know Mike is still going to be a shoulder for me to cry on. I guess in a sense I am still rather fragile right now. It honestly brings all the memories of losing my mom back up to the surface. I know we will all make it through this, and Marylou will never be forgotten.

Thankful

I am currently working on putting all of 2009 blog postings into a book so that Mike can order it for me as a Christmas Gift. I honestly had no idea it would be so hard! It's crazy to read through these entries that took place in the last year of my moms life.

I keep thinking to myself how I would have done things different if I only knew it would be the last little while with my mom. Especially my 2009 birthday spent in St George. My last birthday I got to spend with my mom. Mike had a very good point on it all. He said that I couldn't have made that St. George trip any better. If i had known it was the last time with my mom... I would have probably spent the whole trip worrying and stressing about it being the last time. It is so true! I read thru that entry, and remember back to how much fun that entire trip was. I couldn't have made it any better... even if I tried.

It just makes me so thankful for all the time that I had with my mom. I am so glad that I got to have all of these great experiences with her. I am so grateful for the time I had with her, and so thankful that I got to call her "mom". I honestly couldn't have had a better mother.

So as hard as it is to go thru all of these blog entries knowing what its all leading up to.... I can still look at it all and be grateful for all the memories. I am glad I kept such good track of things and wrote on my blog often that year. I regret that I haven't written on my blog as much this year, but I think last year really mattered. I never would have know last February that I was recording all the details of my last birthday with her. It has turned into such a cherished memory... I am glad I have it all recorded. And if I were ever given the chance to change the way I lived or spent the year of 2009... I wouldn't change a thing!

Good thing Mike was paying attention...

We went grocery shopping at Walmart today. This is one of the items we bought... a 5.5 oz bag of Trail Mix. Who would have thought this one little bag of Trail Mix could cause such a headache. So every time we go grocery shopping, Mike keeps tabs on the prices and makes sure we don't go over our budget. He is good at keeping tabs on things... so imagine our shock when we got to the check out and our total was $30 over what we had budgeted. Mike asked to see the receipt to find out why... and there was a charge for $30.94. Nothing we had bought would have even come close to that amount. So the cashier looked over what we had and scanned some things to see if she could find out what it was that had that cost but finally gave up and said she would just remove that charge. So we finished up there (after having another problem with a gift card and a manager having to come over and everything else). I'm sure that the cashier was just happy to have us out of there.

Anyways, we got home and Mike decided he wanted to check all the bar codes as we put stuff away to see what in the world would have possibly rang up that high. We were a bit shocked to see that it was this dinky bag of trail mix. So obviously whoever put it in the system.... probably added an extra zero in there. So Mike, being the good citizen he is, called walmart to let them know that they have their system wrong and they need to change it. He didn't want someone else to buy it who might not pay so much attention and realize they were totally getting overcharged. Walmart really didn't do much. They thanked him for calling but they didn't really seem to care. It makes me wonder how many people are getting overcharged every day and never realize it. It makes me definitely want to double check all my receipts now. I just thought I would share that so we can all be aware that its easy to get totally ripped off without even knowing. So always check your receipts!!

Yup, I fell off the face of the Earth...

I use to be so good at this whole Blogging thing.... but for some reason, I one day woke up just not feeling it anymore. So I have not posted since September.... which is sad because a lot has happened that I can't remember. So I will try my best at remembering.

The last post was about the Mesa Falls half Marathon.... well I did another Half marathon in October. I did The Other Half, which is a half marathon in Moab. It was a lot of fun. We had a big group of us that ran it. Mikes Dad ran it, along with his sisters Holly and Heather. We also had Heathers girlfriend Julia run it. So we all ended up renting a house in Moab which was actually a lot of fun. It was a tough race but we all finished so that's good.

October 25th I started a new job with a new company. It was scary leaving the company I had been with for 6 years... but I needed out of the position I was in. So I am still in training with this new company, but I think it will be a good thing. It seems like training has been using up my entire brain so I'm pretty well brain dead at the end of each day. I forget how tough it is to cram a ton of info into my head each day.

I survived the one year anniversary of losing my mom. I actually took that day off work because I wasn't sure what type of condition I would be in. I spent the entire day with family... so it was nice. We had a nice turkey dinner, visited the cemetery, as well as worked on the M&M tree.

The M&M tree is the tree we are donating to the Festival of Trees in honor of my mom. So we have been scrambling to get as much M&M themed stuff as possible. So far it is coming together well. We have two - 2ft M&Ms that will be standing next to the tree. One of them we are thinking we will pose so they are hanging an ornament. We also got some colorful tin M&M ornaments and I was able to find clear plastic ornaments that were M&M shaped. I stencilled the M on them and we filled them with M&M's. So that's what we have so far. We still have not bought the actual Christmas tree... but we know which one we want to use. We still have a bunch more we want to buy for this tree. Its getting a little stressful actually, but it will be neat. I am excited to see if the tree will sell and how much it will go for. I think its neat we are doing this. My mom LOVED M&M's so its just so perfect for her!

I think we are about caught up. I know a lot more happened, but I really cant remember. I need to get back into blogging, but I tend to keep myself busy with other stuff. Hopefully I can get back into the spirit of blogging. I also need to get working on my blog book for last year so I can get it ordered and printed up. Maybe that will be today's project... we'll see.