Devan's 29th Birthday

Last week Devan turned 29. We celebrated his birthday last night by having some friends over, eating some panda express, eating some sushi, & eating some homemade red velvet dragon cake. Here are pics from our evening.

Sushi Nite

Last night we had a sushi party over at Cyndi and Price's house. Attendance included myself, Devan, Massiel, Sam, Cyndi, Price, Maggie (Petzl Girl), Ann and Reed (Ridiculously good climbers.) The fish was fresh and the company was great. Who could ask for more? While most of us made your typical sushi roll...Devan created what could possibly be the first meat lovers roll :) It included Salmon, Crab, Shrimp and Egg...that's it. Oh and did I mention that he then deep fried it. I made one with Tuna, cream cheese and then Kiwi, Mango and Strawberry. It was delicious. Then to top it all off we ate the strawberry birthday cake that I made for Massiel's birthday.

This morning we woke up and helped Garald take care of some trees in their front yard. Let me tell you...cutting trees and moving wood piles is exhausting. I forgot how tiring it was. I haven't done anything that regarded cutting trees down for a long time. This evening we had a last minute and very fun girls night for Massiel's birthday. She turned 30 today. She wanted to go and eat at Buca di Beppos in Union Park. It ended up being Massiel, Cyndi, Anna Louis and myself. Again, the food was great and the company was even better. WHAT A GREAT WEEKEND!!!

Devan learning how to make a sushi roll.





This is probably one of the biggest pieces of cheesecake I have ever seen.

Let There Be Fire

Today we finally got our wood burning fireplace. This past weekend Devan, Price and myself worked on the rock landing that the fireplace would sit on. We "borrowed" the rocks from a place in Utah that was named something like Large Type of Tree Canyon or something like that ;) Once we figured out how big it needed to be Devan went to work placing the big rocks just right...cutting them to size...and then filling in the other spaced with smaller rocks. Then after a little bit of cement and and whole lot of time we completed it. Here are some pictures of the process and the semi-finished product.

House Video

Sorry I have been such a slacker on the whole pictures of the house thing. Here is a video of it. Enjoy!!!

So Much Has Happened Lately

Within the last month we have been to Oregon and back, almost finished building our house, and spent lots of time with family and friends. Here are some pictures of our recent adventures.

Cute little Mason in his new chair the Grampy bought him.



Beer pong was the game of choice at the family reunion :) I participated...but with apple juice. We did well, but it is a lot easier when you can actually see how many cups at the end of the table.




After a long 16 1/2 hours on the road, we blew out a tire on trailer 15 minutes from home.



We spent quite a bit of time at the beach. Devan touched sea urchins and a starfish for the first time.






Sam, Massiel, Devan, Price & Cyndi got to go down Englestead Hollow in Zions. The first rap is 300 hundred feet long. Oh by the way...Price is now dating Cyndi. They are way to cute around each other all the time :)






While my parents were in town I went fishing with my dad and Garald. Another day we did the temple work for Charlie. It was really nice to have so many family members and close friends there at the temple with us. It was a wonderful experience...just too bad it had to happen under these circumstances.

House Progress

I hardly ever have to break out the whip and tell them to get back to work.



Behold my wire masterpiece. My job was to be the grunt and spend all day in the basement pulling the home runs to the panel.



Team Gregory arriving for a fun filled day of pulling wire and other electrical what nots.



On Friday we started roofing. By Saturday Devan, Price & myself had it all dried in. Let's be honest though...they did most of the work :) I just fed them and kept them hydrated.

I Think I Had the Swine Flu

Today, for the first time in a week, I don't feel like crap. Unfortunatetly though, Devan and Price are both sick now. Other than being sick, life is just moving right along. I will post some pics of our house. On Saturday Devan, Price and myself went down to put in the flew for the wood burning fireplace. A couple of hours in it started raining. First lightly...then the monsoon started. Pretty soon not one square inch of flooring was dry.



Here is our living room. This is where the gas fireplace will go.

A Mix of Emotions

A lot has been going on lately. Let's get to the good things first. Devan and I started building our house yesterday. I can't believe house fast it is going up. Our builder, Steve, is amazing. He has been at the job every day and lining up the subs as fast as he can. At this rate we will be at our part within a couple of weeks. Devan and I (along with the help of Sam, Lance, Price and everyone else who has volunteered) are doing the heating and air conditioning, electrical and roofing. It all hits at the same time...so we are looking forward to being incredibly busy for several weeks.

It is hard to imagine that we are finally are building our house. It seems like we have been trying to get to this point forever. We started this process 3 years ago. That is when we started looking for our lot. Crazy!!!
Something not so wonderful going on is that tomorrow is Charlie's birthday. He would have been 25. This first year of holidays has been really hard. Plus, Sunday is Mother's Day...another not good day. No matter where we were or what we were doing, I ALWAYS talked to Charlie on his birthday. I'm sitting here trying to figure out what to write, but I can't seem to find the words to express how sad I am.

On Sunday Devan and I are giving talks. How do you talk about Mother's Day in a positive way over the pulpit when you know your own mother is having the worst Mother's Day of her entire life. I think I am going to stay away from anything personal...I'm not quite ready for all of that yet. Devan and I are going to go to the temple tomorrow. I hope afterwards I feel a little bit better.
Thanks to everyone for all of your support still. I might not show it all of the time, but I am still sad a lot. Just hanging out with friends and family help me out. Life is not as sad when I am around great friends to share my experiences with.

Come On...Seriously

Today while in Sacrament meeting something happened. It happens about every other Sunday. No one says anything about it...in fact, I'm starting to realize that these events have happened so frequently that most are starting to accept them. There are justifications as to why it happens: "It's the trendy thing right now," "What if there is an emergency and someone needs to get a hold of me," "You can't actually see my thighs." What am I talking about you might ask...

MINI SKIRTS & CELL PHONES

I have learned over the past couple of months that it is totally okay to turn your back on modest dressing if you are wearing non see through tights. Women and girls of all ages come to church every week wearing itty bitty mini skirts...but it's okay...they have tights on. It is as if they feel they have found a loop hole in the gospel contract. I don't care if everyone else is doing it...I don't care if it's super trendy...can't we all at least try to dress as we should at church. There are 168 hours in the week...we can't put the mirror down long enough to obey gospel standards for 3 of those. It is quite sad.



My next beef is cell phones. I have major problems with cell phones on 2 levels. The first is at church. If you are super paranoid and think that you have to have a link to everyone you know every minute of the day...PUT IT ON VIBRATE!!! Devan and I go to church every Sunday and we leave our cell phones at home. This is what most people I know do. I know some that choose to take their phones with them to church, but they put them on vibrate. Today in sacrament meeting yet another obnoxiously rude, completely retarded, ridiculous human being had their phone go off. It interrupts the talks and spirituality of the meeting.
My other problem with cell phones is when they are in the possession of young kids. Ten year old children have no reason to own a cell phone. "But I always need to know where they are." Guess what, so did my mom. It was my responsibility to call her from my friends house to check in. How about we reinstate that little rule.

If I had to sum up my hatred towards mini skirts and cell phones I would say this. When we all pass from this life...we will not be able to take our trendy clothes and our little gadgets with us. They are mere conveniences and luxuries that we have here on earth. It is nice to treat ourselves with them now and then...but more and more we becoming dependent upon on them to help define who we are.

That's it.

Las Vegas

This past weekend Devan and I went to Las Vegas with Sam and Massiel. We left Thursday after work and stayed in the booming metropolis of Mesquite, Nevada. Friday morning we woke up and drove in to Sin City. We couldn't check in to the hotel until 2ish...so we stopped by the outlet mall off of Charleston and did a little bit of shopping. Once we checked in to the hotel we all took a nap. Well, everyone else took a nap while I watched Big. When everyone woke up we had a choice...go see a show...or go to the BYU/SDSU game. Since I was there with Devan and Sam, we ended up going to the game.



It is amazing how much I don't know about basketball. I also realized how much I really don't like basketball. Every now and then Devan would explain to me why the players shooting the number free-throws they were throwing and I would then tell him what the dancers were doing wrong and the difference between a liberty and scorpion move done by a cheerleader. Up until half time I couldn't see much going on because the idiots in front of my sat on the very edge of their seats trying to find people they knew. This is the view I had for the first hour of the event.



After the game, which by the way BYU lost, we ate a little In & Out...watched the TI girls hooker it up in front of the hotel...and called it a night.



The next day we went were killing time before we could meet up with our friends Jesse and Lindsey and thought, "Wow, Vegas has a zoo. Let's go check it out." The next picture is one I took through the fence. After we discovered that the zoo actually consisted of pigeons, chickens and fake plastic animals we decided not to go. Plus it cost $8.00 to get in.



Well, more happened...but I'm too tired to type about it right now. Peace Out :)

Warning: Icky Pictures Displayed

Devan has been doing a bit better lately. In the past couple of days he has been able to go a couple places including the library, grocery store, and of course...the hobby shop. His recovery has been very slow. We were released from the hospital a little over a week ago and just can't keep complications from haunting us. Exactly one week after the surgery we removed the surgical tape from Devan incision. Under orders from the surgeon we were told that at this time for him to go into the shower and slowly peel away the tape. The first problem occurred when Devan almost passes and had to call for me to come in and help him. Once we got him seated down on the toilet he start to take the tape off. All seemed to be going well; the incision looked clean and healthy, not red or swollen in the slightest. Then we got to the bottom...this is the part that gets really gross. When the tape was finally peeled off the bottom of his incision starting gushing with puss. The pressure coming was so much that it actually blew out a stitch. We guessed that approximately 4 to 5 tablespoon came out in the initial "explosion." Of course we initially terrified. Devan looked at me like his guts were about to come falling out.
After consulting with the surgeon over the phone and picking up a heavy duty anti-biotic...the situation became quite a bit less dire.



A couple after the "puss explosion" incident we went in for a consultation with the surgeon for him to look at Devan incision. He said that his hole would heal and that in a couple of weeks he should have a basically normal looking stomach. Here is what his stomach looks like right now. The redness has gone considerably and the swollen has gone down also. It also isn't pussing as much any more. However, he does have a hole about the size a dime located just below the belly button.



On the bright side...I did give Devan a haircut and he looks much better.



Another great thing going on right now is that Buffy is in town with her cute girls. For her birthday we went out to eat with Kendra, Nyla, Massiel & Danna Lee...we went out for SUSHI!!!! I loves me some Tsunami. While eating out was fun, the best part about having her in town is just generally hanging out. I have been able to make cupcakes with the girls, read them books (many, many, many books), watch movies together, and eats lots of pizza. In fact, I think we might get more pizza tomorrow :)

This past Friday the whole family came over for homemade Cafe Rio salads. We have a night of good food, great company, and lots of loud kids. Whenever we all get together we always end up busting out the rock band. Here are my cute nieces rocking out. I love this picture for several reasons...Kai looks like she is really rocking out, Mya is always concentrating so hard to not miss a note, and for some reason that only she understands...Afton is eating the drum sticks.



Life just keeps throwing me curve balls. It seems like just when things start getting better another bad thing happens. I wonder if what I'm doing right now is handling whatever Heavenly Father feels like throwing at me or if I am just starting numb out. It is hard to feel so good about Devan getting better only have my heart broken again. At some point all of the madness needs to end. I hate ending on a bad note...so here are some things that making me pretty happy right now:
*Devan *Family *Friends *Salt and Vinegar chips being dipped in sour cream *Diet Pepsi *Movies that don't completely suck.

Back At The Hospital

Yesterday was a horrible day. All morning Devan's pain kept getting worse and worse. Then he started vomiting again. At about 11:00 we had to rush him back to the emergency room. After some x-rays they were able to tell that nothing was internally wrong with his surgery sight. The first thought was that maybe one of his internal stitches ripped because of the prednizone that he is on. After the happiness wore off of knowing no stitches ripped we received the bad news...he had to have the tube put back up his nose and in to his throat. Lets just say that yesterday morning was filled with a lot of frustration and crying...from quite a few of us...and not just me. We were lucky in that his surgeon came down and oversaw everything that was going on in the er. He was the one who put the tube back up his nose...MUCH BETTER THAN THE FIRST TIME!!!
Then he admitted back in to the hospital. All of our favorite nurses welcomed us back and we fell in to a feeling that we just couldn't get ahead of the game. Once he got all settled in we all just sat around and waited for him to start getting better. Sam and Danna Lee stayed with us almost all day along with Garald and Nyla. I went home last night to try and get some much needed rest. One Ambian and 11 hours later I woke up and got ready for work. After work...I came back to the hospital to spend the afternoon and evening with my cute hubby again.
He is doing much better today. The surgeon says that the pain and vomiting might have just been caused by an air bubble and that is was a total fluke thing to have happen. Hopefully we will going home tomorrow (again). Till then...here are some shout outs...

Danna Lee - Thank you for giving me the sleeping pill. Without it I would have been up all night worrying about Devan. Also, thank you for staying with us all day yesterday and taking me to go get food.

Sam - Thank you for staying with us most of the day. Also, thank you for staying late with Devan last night and then coming again today while I had to work.

Garald & Nyla - Thank you for everything!!! It is too much to write down, but know that we appreciate it all.

Price - Thank you for coming last night to visit and just generally being one of the best friends we have ever had.

My Mom & Dad - Thanks for letting call and cry to you (about 4 times yesterday.)

We are so blessed to have the family and friends that we have.