Happy Birthday Blog!

I can't believe it! My blog is one year old. I just can't believe how time flies!

Happy Birthday Dustin & Isaac!

Today is my brother, Dustin's birthday and his son Isaac's Birthday. Dustin is my closest brother and we are great friends although it wasn't always that way when we were little ;). But, I just love him to death now! I look up to him in so many ways and he is so much fun! Isaac is such a little cutie and he's so smart! Hope you both have a great day!

In Loving Memory

Vearis Anderson Orgill Lisenbee

June 22, 1917 - January 17, 2009

My sweet little grandma passed away during the night. She was 91 years old and had lived a long and wonderful life.

She was born and raised in Grantsville, lived in Wendover for a while, where she met my Grandpa. Together they had four sons. They later divorced and my Grandma raised those four sons by herself. She did an amazing job and was such a wonderful mother. All four of her sons served missions and married in the temple.

My memories of her are so precious. When we were little Sharon and I spent countless hours at her house playing dress up, playing on the typewriter, sleeping out in the camper, helping put up Christmas decorations, helping in her garden, and making tapioca pudding. She was always so sweet to us and never raised her voice. She'd always make us "Granny Bags"- which was a little treat bag full of whatever cookies she had around the house, usually animal crackers and marshmellows. But, the thing that sticks out in my mind the most is when she would dress up as Santa Claus on Christmas Eve and give us gifts and sing songs with us. We called her "Grandma Ho Ho."

My grandma was one of those that really encouraged me to serve a mission. She said that she always wanted one of her granddaughters to serve, and I'm the youngest granddaughter and that I was her only hope. How could I let her down? I'll never forget saying goodbye to her before I left for my mission, we hugged and cried for a good while in her driveway.

When I returned home from my mission Grandma was not in good health and soon after she moved up to an assisted living center in Tooele. She always had hopes that she would get better and go home, but we all knew it was not possible.

When I got married I wanted her to be there, I didn't know if she would be able to make it. But, I was overjoyed when I walked into the sealing room and saw my little Grandma there! What a tender mercy. She didn't know at the time, but I was wearing her temple clothes. I'm the only granddaughter small enough to fit in them, so now they are mine.

She had a love for geneology. In her later years she dedicated her life to doing temple work. I will never forget one time when I visited Grandma and spent a good while with her. She showed me a binder that had a record of every time she had gone to the temple. It had the date, which temple, the name of the person she went through for, and any special experiences. There was page after page of names... thousands of names! I told her how amazing it was and she said, "Well, this is only since the 1970s... who knows how many names I did before that!" I can only imagine the great welcoming she is recieving right now from the thousands of spirits she served!

She was an unwaivering example of faith, patience, and charity. She was completely dedicated to the Gospel. Truly she was an elect lady.

Savannah, Georgia

We are in Savannah, Georgia! We came back to visit Brady's mission. I wanted to post and let everyone know that we were leaving, but I didn't have time before we left. But, we arrived Thursday afternoon and it has been WONDERFUL! Here's an overview of what we've been doing.

Thursday- survived (barely) a long day of flying with two stops along the way, topped off the day with some good 'ol southern fried chicken.

Friday - We toured the historic part of Savannah, which is gorgeous! We spent most of the day shopping on the famous River Street. It was pretty cold and breezy, so I had to buy a sweatshirt right away. We even bought little gloves.

The historic sites are so neat and the trees are beautiful! They hang over the streets and have spanish moss hanging down off of them! Ther e are tons of squares and parks with monuments and fountains.

We then went out to Tybee Island and checked into a darling hotel. Then we went out on the pier where Brady had caught a 6 foot stingray while he was on his mission. We ate an amazing dinner of oysters, shrimp, and crab legs at the Crab Shack! It was a great day!

Saturday- It was a lot warmer today. It got up to about 70 degrees. We got up and went down and got our feet in the water.

We checked out of our hotel and stopped by the Tybee Island Lighthouse before heading back into Savannah.

We ate lunch with a family that Brady taught and had macaroni and cheese, black eyed peas, greens, and fried chicken. Some good southern cookin'!

We visited a few more people then went to the church for a "Low Country Boil." What is a low country boil, you ask? It's shrimp, corn on the cob, sausage, and potatoes all boiled up in southern spices (The picture is not a picture of our low southern boil, it was just a random one I found on the internet). They just dump it out on the table and you just pick out what you want. I'm a big fan now!

Tomorrow we are headed to Tifton for a day then we leave to come home on Tuesday morning. It's been a wonderful get-away!

Yup, that's me!

So, everyone lately has thought it is there duty to tell me how HUGE I am getting. After the Holiday break just about everyone at work had to let me know that I'm getting so big! Yes, I know I'm big, but please don't tell me! So I was talking to my sister-in-law RoShawn about it and she had a great analogy. She said that most women are like mini-vans with plenty of cargo room. So when they get pregnant they have a place to put the baby. But, I started out as the compact car and have no where to put my load, but out where everyone can see it! So, when you see that huge little woman comin' at ya, yup, that's me.