Happy Birthday Sharon

As many of you probably know, I am a massage therapist. I have been able to continue working at the clinic where I did my apprenticeship. My instructor is also the owner of the clinic, her name is Sharon. (She is on the left). Sharon has been through a lot of hard things in her life, including supporting her husband after he became a quadrapelegic due to a car accident. He eventually lost his life do to the complications of the accident. Sharon is a beautiful person who has sought healing in her own life, and gets joy out of helping others do the same.

We don't get to talk much because of our work schedules, but I sure love her. She is so flexible and understanding of my responsibilities at home in this chapter of my life and allows me to work VERY part time. I love that she gets that about me.

She loves Gracee and came to her birthday party last year, here is a picture of them at her party.
Gracee loves Grammy Sharon, even though she doesn't get to see her that much. Happy Birthday Shar! We love you!!

Hannig Adventures

Gracee had so much fun while we were gone to New York and Vermont!! Each day she got to play with Grandma and a different friend came to pick her up to play. Here's the rundown:

Wednesday - Thursday

Gracee went to the park with Rosie.

We took a red eye trip to Vermont.

see our red eyes??

That day we went to Joseph Smith's birthplace and then did a stake missionary fireside. We got to give out free CD's to everybody afterwards.

Friday

Gracee played with her cousins at Aunt Jenn's house. My mom said she was so excited when she dropped her off and clearly had so much fun!

As you can see, Russ was the trip clown. Though it was very tiring for him, I think he enjoyed his "role".

We drove to Fayette, NY where we saw the Whitmer farm and then did a performance at a local girls camp.

a. We got to mingle with the girls before and after the performance, it was really cool. That night we all played Pictionary at the hotel in a big conference room--very fun.

Saturday

Gracee played with Kimberlee, they went swimming at her neighborhood pool. They had so much fun together!

We went to went to see the Grandin Printing Press and did a session at the Palmyra temple and then to the Hill Cumorah pageant that night--such a powerful day!

Sunday

Gracee played with Pam after church this day. They went for a walk to the park.

We went to church and had a lovely picnic and then to the Sacred Grove for several hours. This was definitely a highlight of the trip. We had a testimony meeting at the top of Hill Cumorah. Then we had a BBQ at our host family's house.

Monday

Gracee got to play with Heather and Nora in the morning and the she got to swim with Lee in the afternoon!

This is the day we made our trek home. Though it was mainly uneventful, there were some fun things like people doing the worm and Russian dancing at the airport. And I got to share my testimony and a Book of Mormon with a really sweet girl from Taiwan on the plane ride home.

tonsil fun

I got my tonsils out on Wednesday.

This was after they blew out two veins and I witnessed my blood squirting all down my arm and onto the floor. It really hurt my pride in my view of myself that I have good veins. But hey, they told me to come dehydrated, so I did!!

Russ and mom have been so great. This is my first day weaning myself off the narcotics. I actually have color in my face again. Wish me luck. Just know, my uncomfortable state is the reason why I've been blogging and catching up on everyone else's blogs. So no matter how uncomfortable I am, I guess let's appreciate this time we have together. =)

"diss"??

Something we love about Gracee is that she is very affectionate. She loves to give "disses".

Here she is, starting very coy

(i'm walking backwards during these shots, she's coming for me)

Pucker time!

She came and kissed the camera lense!

Her cousin Susie

Grandma

I love it when she grabs his face like this, he gets more kisses when he's shaved;)

with "Bubba"

Mammallama

This is my mom. She's been helping us out this summer and has been letting us help her out a little too. We know she is homesick for AZ, but we're so glad to have her visit us. It's nice of the AZ family to share her with us a little these last two summers.

I was inspired my a blog post one of my friends put up about her mom's visit. Most of this visit she has been pretty sad most of the days because she is grieving the recent loss of her husband. But recently she's gotten to visit my brother's family up north a ways, we've had several more get togethers with the local grandkids, and just had a short visit from my sister Steph and her family. She has seemed more like the old mom. Lighter, easier to laugh, and more driven and energetic. I know she is still going through the grieving process, but it sure is exciting to have days where she laughs so easily.

And she catches fun little moments like this on camera, she's good at that.

And like this.

And this.

This is us with my adorable nephew Jarom when he visited. We took him to the Joseph Smith movie. We are both very touched by that movie and have a goal to go see it with Russ before she goes back.

Confessions of a loser

Written in the front cover of my scripture journal is the heading: "The first things I'll ask when I get to heaven". The first thing on the list says I will ask where my cell phone went to that I lost back in 2007. When I lose things, Russ isn't surprised. In fact, I even lost the ipod he gave me for Christmas one year. I recently found it in a discreet pocket of one of our duffel bags--it was lost for about 3 years!!

I've also broken 2 phones, 2 cars and 2 cameras now. So we don't have a camera. I don't really deserve to have one--but we've been saving up to get one. My mom let us borrow her camera when we went to Vermont and New York to tour church history sites with the Jenny Phillip's choir group we are blessed enough to be a part of. Guess what? I lost her camera. I didn't even get the chance to take even ONE picture before I lost it!! It makes me sick. Anyway, needless to say, we replaced her camera and are once again...saving up.

Luckily, a bunch of people in our tour group took pictures so I'll be able to post them. They didn't lose or break their camera...they probably never have. It's okay, I still have other redeeming qualities.

My sister Steph and her family are in town and then I get my tonsils out the day after they leave...so if I don't post for a while, that is why.

what I've been doing while I haven't been blogging vol. 2

A CRUISE!!! For our (very) early 5th anniversary, we knew we wanted to go to Hawaii or on a cruise. We went on Carnival to the Mexican Riviera. The alcohol bilboard in the background is VERY representative of the types of activities on the cruise! There wasn't a lot to do in the evenings--other than drink--so we just relaxed.
Here is my 9am ice cream cone. Waffle cones are one of my favorite treats. Everybody kept laughing at me. I was so excited to finally find one that I didn't care what time it was. Okay so I know everybody needs a cruise. There is not one person that wouldn't benefit from a vacation, right? So I am not claiming we were anymore deserving than any other hard working person...but I must say WE REALLY REALLY NEEDED THIS! It was totally worth whatever sacrifices it took us to get there. I am especially referring to Russ. He is such a hard lil worker. He is working full time with a lot of responsibility and working on getting his MBA too. He also has a taxing church calling and helps with the yard and is a VERY attentive father. I love nothing more than to see him relaxed and acting all crazy (a side few see) with family or close friends. It just fills my heart. That was probably my most favorite thing about the cruise(that and not having to cook, clean, or meal plan). We could have not done any excursions and just relaxed and played in the water and I would've loved it.
We played in the waves all day this day...it was so much fun!!!

They made us towel animals every night...the elephant was my favorite!

I GOT SO SICK OF EATING!!!!!!!!!!! ECKH!


En route to Long Beach--that was where we ported from.
We went with our good friends, Jason and Mackenzie

See, doesn't he look happy? Here's to making memories, worth every minute (even though it was so hard to be away from Gracee) and every dime.