Missing Person Case Solved: the answer to "Where have I been?"

Wow! Time flies when life gets CRAZY. And I emphasize CRAZY!! I realized that it has been 2 months since I last posted to our blog. There have been a few reasons. (I'll get to them in a minute...) but one of my goals for the upcoming year is to keep up on our blog. Now it's mid January and I still haven't made any updates. Well, here's what I've been up to:

• My grandpa Arrington died and we buried him on Nov. 13. This came as a shock to everyone because it was grandma who had been rapidly declining over the last 3 months. He told us he couldn't watch her die, and the merciful Lord didn't ask him to. He developed a bowel blockage and never regained his strength from the ordeal. He died peacefully in his sleep in a rehabilitation center. Grandma rallied and looked and did better than she had for months. This allowed her to be able to attend his services. It didn't last long however.

• My sister Kristen came into town for thanksgiving and we packed a months worth of activities into 5 days.

• Dasha woke up at 3:40 a.m. on Nov. 30 to go to the bathroom and discovered water covering the floors. The result: major flood! Here's what happened... under the kitchen sink, the cold water line literally blew in half and gushed water for several hours (we guess). Over the next week, disaster cleanup tore out my kitchen, family room and several other spots damaged by water. This little adventure made it impossible for us to live at our home. No kitchen and a construction zone sent us to my parents to live for the next several months while every thing's put back in order. We hope to be back in by the end of Feb. (cross fingers.)

• My grandma Arrington died on December 7th. We buried her on the 12th. Her passing was a sweet release for her, and a sad and difficult event for us to watch. We were grateful she didn't have live without grandpa for very long. I miss her greatly.

• Lots of time was spent making decisions regarding the remodel of our house. The fun part was working with a designer to make sure the end result was more reflective of my tastes and style.

• I was in charge of the entire Sacrament Meeting program for Christmas. I'm choir director and spent a great deal of time rehearsing the choir and special musical numbers, writing narration and working with speakers to bring it all together. The result was a fabulous program that was everything I envisioned. We even sang the Hallelujah Chorus!

• With the program behind me, I finally had a little time to get ready for Christmas. Thankfully, I still had three days to do it! Forced simplicity has its benefits.

• Christmas! We were at my parents, which was nice. All my siblings were at their in-laws this year, so it was particularly low-key and quiet. The snow storms during the week gave a good excuse to stay home and take some well deserved naps.

• A couple of days after Christmas, we decided to escape to Mesquite, Nevada for some desperately needed R&R. I took the computer and my pictures with the intention of blogging and found I'd rather spend quality time with my family and sleeping at every opportunity.

• New Year's Eve was spent with a cousin and aunt and uncle who live in Hurricane, Utah. We had a great time. I haven't spent time with them for at least 10 years.

• During our trip down south, we visited the Valley of Fire State Park, Zions National Park, and went down to Las Vegas for some sightseeing and to take a look at the housing market.

• Holidays and our Vacation ended too soon. School started up again for Dasha and work resumed on our house. Now I'm once again playing catch-up and running a little crazy.

• But hey! I made it to the gym three times this week! (hooray for me. I have to take pleasure in life's little victories.

My intention is to construct lengthier posts for each of the items on my list of reasons for being a missing person. I have pictures to substantiate all of my claims, I promise. However, I have to take baby steps. I've been asked to teach the Relief Society lesson this Sunday in Church and I need to spend my spare time this week preparing. Good thing there's next week to shoot for.


Until then, Adieu and God bless you with less adventure than my life has seen the last 2 months!