The Great Race continued....

It had been 8 months since I had been "home" to CA, and 8 months since I had been around my sister, Ginger's precious little family. The last time I was there was for her funeral. Don and I were able to leave our kids with our good friends and make a weekend trip to be there for the "Great Race". I was caught off guard with emotion when I walked into her home, being attacked by four sweet children wanting hugs and attention, and just being there....without her. I did the best I could to greet each one of my nieces and nephew, but eventually had to escape to a corner and allow the tears to flow. It was hard to embrace the fact that I was there for a visit, as I had done so many times before, but that this time, Ginger wouldn't be with us. Reality. Somehow, I pulled myself together and did my best to be strong for her children. It was wonderful to see them and be with them. They are amazingly strong and full of faith with an assurance that their Mom is in a good place and they will see her again. I loved that they talked about her all the time and still have very vivid memories as though they just saw her yesterday. Don and I stayed at their house and one morning, I poured myself a bowl of cold cereal in one of their huge mugs, instead of a regular bowl. Almost immediately, little 4 year old Brady said with a huge smile, "My mom always eats cold cereal in those mugs, too!" I could have burst into tears, but instead had to smile. She is still so close to them.

I love this picture with Ginger's girls, but I wish Brady would have been willing to be in the picture!



The Agoura Great Race was definitely a day of healing and tears, but also "happiness". In the weeks and months leading up to this run, I spent a lot of time running and trying to get back in shape after hurting my knee last year. During those runs, I found myself laughing and crying as I thought of my sister, her life, and our memories together. Sometimes I ran with my ipod and it seemed that every song would relate to her somehow. I shed many tears on those runs, but I felt that she was often right there running alongside of me. On the day of the run, it seemed all of that emotion came to a head and I bawled through most of the race. When I reached the finish line, I saw my brothers who had finished long before me. I couldn't help but think about my own finish line for this race we call "earth" and how happy I will be to be greeted by so many loved ones, including my little sister, Ginger! I embraced my brothers and Trevor immediately said to me, "What's wrong? Did you fall?" That made me laugh. Especially since he was really clueless as to why I was crying.


Don ran the 10K, Jason ran the half marathon, and the rest of us ran the 5k. What a blessing it was to be surrounded by my wonderful family.


There were so many people running in memory of Ginger, wearing the red "Happiness" T-shirts that represented her final blog entry (www.jasondgingerd.blogspot.com). It was really neat to see so many.
This is a picture of those in our family who were able to make it that day.



It was quite a treat to have so many adult siblings in town...without all the children! (Don't get me wrong...I LOVE my children and nieces and nephews, but it's nice every once in a while to have no interruptions!) It gave us many opportunites to go out together and just hang out and have that adult time. I love my family so much.

The Great Race....

Last year, my sister, Ginger, ran her first 5k in The Agoura Great Race and inspired coutless others to get in shape and start running, too. After she passed away last July, a group of her friends decided they would honor her by running this year and even created T-shirts in her memory. I don't think they realized how many would want to participate, but it has turned into a huge event. Don and I will be leaving for CA tomorrow to run with so many of our family and friends. I am anxious to be surrounded by so many loved ones, and know it will be an emotionally exhausting weekend, but healing at the same time. I don't know if I'll run or walk, but I do know that Ginger will be there with me, cheering me on!

My brother posted this comment on Ginger's blog a couple of months after she passed away. It made me cry. It was so inspired and it's interesting to think about how her run in the Great Race was similar to her time on earth. She was 30 years old when she past away, and ran the 5k in 30 minutes. He said, "Ginge, you ran a great race and you finished at 30 (at least this leg of the race). You didn't let anyone hold you back, but you definitely helped countless others along your way. You broke the tape first in our family and we look forward to seeing you when we cross the line and giving you a huge Ginger-style victory hug on the other side of the finish line. Until then, we know you will be watching us, cheering us on." She definitely is.

More visitors!

Who would have thought that even though our closest relatives are 11 hours away, that we'd have so many visitors when we moved to Texas?! Don's brother, Ryan, and his wife, Keri, came with their four children and stayed for almost a week! We hadn't seen them in 2 years, so it was wonderful to have that time to spend with them. The weather was perfect for them, and coming from COLD Nebraska, they loved being able to spend their days outside.



Don and I went out with Ryan and Keri while Ginger and Gillian watched all the kids....just what they do best. The kids enjoyed every minute with their long lost cousins and the adults had fun with some intense fusbol and Wii tournaments!

Keri and I ventured out to Dallas one day to take the kids to the Observation Deck at the airport to watch the planes come and go. It was definitely a hit with the boys!

Mother/Daughter Luau

I got to go to my first Mother/Daughter Luau with Ginger, now that she is a young woman! We had so much fun. We had Hawaiian Haystacks for dinner, Ginger took 2nd place in the Limbo, and we played games that tested our knowledge about each other....and we did really well!

Boys and Girls

One of the Young Men in our ward that Don works with, had a swim meet in Austin (3 hours away) and he thought it would be fun to take our boys on a road trip to see it. They went out to eat, stayed in a hotel, went to the swim meet and did "boy stuff". The boys LOVED every minute of it. (It was all they could talk and think about in the weeks prior.)
And since the boys were having a special weekend, we planned our own special weekend for the girls at home!


We went out to dinner and to see the movie "Tale of Desperaux". We painted nails and had a sleepover in the family room watching another movie, eating junk, and staying up way too late. In the morning we did what girls do best.....we shopped 'til we dropped! It was a great time for all of us.

We LOVE visitors!

My sister, Summer, traveled 16 hours with her husband, Clint, and three children to come and stay with us for a week! Clint is in Medical School in VA right now and had a break , so they figured, why not take a road trip and visit family? We're so glad they did! We went out as couples to dinner and the temple while Ginger and Gillian watched all the kids. The weather was perfect and the kids loved having time to spend with their cousins outside all day.


They were here on Valentine's Day, so we spent the day making and decorating Valentine's cookies.


I even got adventurous and highlighted Summer's hair! In our family (my sisters) we are always doing each other's hair to save a dime, and have never had any real training. But, I have some seriously talented sisters when it comes to doing hair. We all cut our husband's and boy's hair and are always experimenting with highlighting. I didn't ever want to try highlighting, but Summer was confident I could do it, and obviously was willing to take the risk if I completely destroyed her hair! But, since I've seen it done a million times, and Summer was willing, I tried it out. I was so amazed how it turned out!


Doesn't her hair look amazing?! It was a wonderful thing to have a sister around for an entire week. We talked and laughed and cried and reminisced about our beloved sister, Ginger. How blessed I am to have five sisters that I can do that with, who know exactly what I am going through. I love my sisters!

Happy 12th, Ginger Dee!

Yes, I have a twelve year old daughter, and yes, that makes me feel very old. I cannot believe my little Ginger Dee is a young woman! Her two requests (besides the ear piercing, of course) were homemade potato soup in bread bowls....


.....and, a Bitty Baby. It's the baby doll from American Girl. Can I just say that it makes me very happy that my twelve year old still wanted a doll, a baby doll, for her birthday? No cell phone, no laptop, no Nintendo DS, just a doll. I love it. I love that she loves to babysit and practice her motherly role.
I love my Ginger Dee.

A trip to Claire's for Ginger's Birthday

In our family, you have to be 12 years old to get your ears pierced. I actually had mine pierced when I was 12, and also again about 10 years later, but both times they got infected and were so sensitive that I had to let them close up. As Ginger's birthday was getting closer, I considered trying again, but almost chickened out. Ginger basically forced me into it and I'm glad she did! It was a bonding experience for us. We had so much fun and I'm happy to report that three times a charm!

Our 1st Visitors the Day After Moving In!

The movers came and unloaded our truck on New Year's Eve and my sister, Brandi and her husband, Alan, arrived from Kentucky on New Year's Day. (Yes, they drove 16 hours each way to be with us for just a couple days!) Some people would think that would be hard to have company when everything is in disarray, but they're family and we were thrilled to have them here to celebrate with! We tried not to put them to work too much, except for making Brandi do all of our hair, and we enjoyed just hanging out and visiting. It was so nice to have my sister to laugh and cry with and I enjoyed getting to take Brandi to Babies 'R' Us to register for the birth of her first baby!

Home Sweet Home for New Year's Eve

The week between Christmas and New Year's was probably the longest week of our life. I am not even going to go into detail about all the issues we were facing with the new house we were trying to buy, but we finally did it! We closed (after so many prayers we lost count) on New Year's Eve and got to move into our home with the moving truck coming the next morning to unload. We were so excited to finally be in a home, even if all we had was a few outfits and a couple of sleeping bags!

Christmas Day...In the Hotel

Christmas in a one and a half bedroom hotel room was a bit tricky, especially since Santa Claus would be making a visit. So, Don and I had all the kids sleep in the beds in the bedroom and we slept in the front room in the really comfortable couch bed, just in case Santa made too much noise. Thankfully, he didn't even wake us up!

It was amazing to realize that it doesn't really matter where you are, just as long as you are together with the ones you love, it's perfect.


Grandma and Grandpa gave us the Wii for Christmas and boy was that the perfect gift to receive being stuck in a hotel room for 2 weeks! We loved it!


We spent the entire day playing together as a family with all of our new toys and even got to spend some time swimming in our private pool and hot tub, since the hotel was empty! We also went down for Christmas dinner in the lobby. A cook, and a maid. I could get used to this.....

Christmas Eve...in the Hotel

We liked to pretend that this was our Christmas tree! It was a huge tree in the lobby of the hotel and nobody was ever around, so it was kind of like our very own tree, right?



Thankfully, we knew of ONE family in the entire state of Texas and they just happened to be 10 minutes away from us. They were our friends that were in our ward in Moorpark over eight years ago and when they heard of our woes, invited us for Christmas Eve in their home. (They also brought dinner to us on another night) Can I tell you how wonderful it was to be in a real home, with a real meal for Christmas Eve? We had a delicious ham dinner with all the extras. We sang carols with the piano and the kids dressed in costume as the story was read from Luke 2. It was the first time it actually felt like Christmas that year. I don't think our friends realize how nice it was for us to be there and share that night with them.

The Adventure Begins....

After telling the kids that we would be in a hotel for Christmas and maybe even New Year's, Davis burst into tears. Poor little boy. I wanted to burst into tears, too. But we all decided to make an adventure out of it and make it a memory we would never forget. And that's just what we did. Thank goodness I have the world's most optimistic, positive person for a husband who was so good about making everything fun and spontaneous. He immediately broke out papers and crayons and put us all to work to decorate our room for Christmas. We covered the walls with pictures of stockings, wreaths, Christmas trees, and baby Jesus beneath the star. Ryan's teacher had given her a fiber optic Christmas tree that stood about one foot tall when she heard we would have to be in a hotel for a few days before Christmas. Little did she know that it would serve as our actual Christmas tree to place presents under and light up our room at night. Each night before bed, we would dim the lights, turn on the tiny tree and gather for scripture study. We talked about Mary and Joseph and how they hadn't planned to be in a stable, just as we hadn't planned to be in a hotel for Christmas. They were discussions that my children will never forget.


Here we are in our hotel room where we lived for 12 days. Don was definitely inspired to choose this hotel which had a kitchenette, a complimentary breakfast every morning, and complimentary dinner Monday through Thursday night! That not only saved us a whole lot of $, but saved me all the hassle and headache of trying to shop and plan dinner every night, with only a stove and a microwave.


Don's boss and co-workers took such great care of us when they heard of our predicament. Don's boss told him to let the kids pick a place they never get to go and dinner was on him! The kids picked Cheesecake Factory and were in hog heaven. I don't know about your kids, but my children don't get to eat out at nice restaraunts very often. They were thrilled to get to order a drink instead of water, dinner off the adult menu, AND cheesecake for dessert. It was a great night that the kids will always remember. And it was a great break from the hotel dinners!


I forgot to mention that during this whole adventure, Gillian got sick on our last day on the road and was quite ill for about 4 days. It was not fun for her to be sick and stuck in a hotel bed for that long.

Closing Day...or so we thought

To make a long story short.... we arrived at our new home at the arranged time, 10:00a.m., to do the final walk through and get the keys, etc. The moving company was prepared to be there the following day to move us in. It was all going to be perfect so we could have four days to get settled before Christmas Day. The door was open so we all walked in. The kids went tearing through the house squealing with delight as they found their bedrooms and looked over their new home for the first time. But, nobody came. Don made phone calls and we were told that Sotherby Homes (the builder)was having financial problems and that we would not be able to close today. They told us it could take months and could cost us even more $ down the road. We were sick. The kids had no clue what was going on until they found me crying in a corner of the house I thought was mine. It was devastating, but I still had hope that everything would be fine, that we'd be in before Christmas, that it would all work out. We went to the Title office to see what could be done. My Realtor was crying, I was crying, the Title lady was crying. Nothing looked good. It was awful. We checked back into the hotel hoping Sotherby might be able to do what they needed to do to be able to close on Monday. Don was ready to walk away and look at other homes. I was not. This was the home I already loved and decorated and moved into in my mind! I would not give up. Well, Sunday came and we fasted and prayed about what to do. We were to walk away and find something else. Hard to do, but so much easier once you received an answer to prayer. Don started looking at homes on the internet and he found an amazing home, even better than the one we lost, which I didn't think was possible. It was in a different city, but still good location for Don's work and proximity to the airport. Itwas Sunday, but the ox was definitely in the mire as we were homeless with only 3 days left 'til Christmas Eve. We left the kids at the hotel and went to look at this new home. It was incredible and the yard was the biggest one we'd seen since we started looking at homes! Things were looking up, but now came the realization that we would not be able to be in the home for Christmas. We would be spending Christmas Day in a hotel.

Ethan's 4th Birthday....On the road!

We finally hit the road on December 16th, with 3 days (40 hours) of driving ahead of us. And I must mention that we were driving two cars so we both had to drive the whole way! Our plan was to drive Tues, Wed, and Thurs and arrive in our hotel in Frisco on Thursday night so we would be there to close on our new home on Friday morning at 10:00am. Thursday was Ethan's birthday so we celebrated by stopping at McDonald's for 15 minutes. He got a Happy Meal and the rest of us got a couple hamburgers. He was thrilled. Best Birthday ever! When we got to the hotel, I made him a cake out of Krispy Kreme donuts and he opened a few presents that I had packed. He seriously thought it was a great day.

Don's Birthday

The day before Don's birthday, the movers had already packed up most of the house... so we didn't do a whole lot of birthday celebrating. Poor Don. We were busy! The girls made this cake for Don with Mrs. Miller, their school librarian, whom they grew very close to over the past four years at South Colby. It was so sweet of her to offer to help them bake a cake, especially since my kitchen was packed!

Farewell Port Orchard

Farewell Party

A few great friends of ours put together this farewell party for us. It was a bit surreal for me, though. I don't think I allowed myself to accept the fact that we were really leaving. I think that's the only way I made it through that night without bawling through the whole thing.
December was such an emotional roller coaster ride with so much anticipation and excitement for our new life in Texas, but so much sadness to leave behind so many loved ones. We were only there for 4 years, but have made friends that will last a lifetime. Luckily, we have lots of family there so we will definitely be back to visit. To our friends and family in Washington, thank you for your love and friendship, for your hugs and comfort in times of sorrow, for your prayers and faith in our behalf. We will never forget you.

Don's face says it all...

You couldn't even talk to Don in that last month before we left without him tearing up. It was such an emotional time for all of us! Here he is with his two great counselors who he grew to love and admire.