It's been a heck of a couple of weeks!

Sorry I've been AWOL for a while. It's been a crazy couple of weeks and I'm only now starting to feel like my life is getting semi-back to normal.

On the same day that my grandmother passed away (March 19), my oldest nephew married the love of his life:



(James and Tabitha Julian)

Tabitha had a daughter from a previous marriage, so I became an instant great-aunt, my sister became a grandmother, and my parents are great-grandparents. So cool. Anyway, how adorable is she?

(James and Olivia)

My grandmother's funeral was last week. It was lovely. All of my sisters attended:

Left to Right: Cassie [youngest], Stacey [next to oldest], Tara (me) [middle child - explains a lot, huh?], Andrea [next to youngest], and Leslie [oldest]

This was probably one of the best days I've had in a really long time. I am happiest when I am around my family, and to have my parents and all of my sisters close by was just simply wonderful.

Two days later, I flew to Colorado to attend the temple with my nephew who was receiving his own endowments in preparation for his mission (he's going to Trinidad Tobago West Indies French speaking) and to hear him give his farewell talk. Another weekend full of family and friends and it was lovely.

Left to right: Me, Jake the missionary, and Cassie in front of the Denver, CO temple.

When I flew home on Sunday night, my mom came with me to stay with Andrea's kids while Andi goes through some surgery. So my mom is around and has decided there is a reason why women are mothers in their early years. Here's why:

This is a picture of my 2-year old niece's leg and foot after she found a container of red nail polish this weekend. When my mom saw this picture, right before she was to get on the airplane to watch these kids, she got a little nervous to watch this particular 2-year old, a 2-year old that is REALLY good at being 2.

I can report that so far, Grandma and kids are alive and well and are enjoying each other immensely. Mom told me last night that if I was able to stop by each night this week, she wouldn't be unhappy about it. That's nothing but a treat for me.

Anyway, life is crazy and good and busy and all that good stuff.

The debt is still there. It's ALWAYS still there. But it's not being ignored. Sometimes I would really like to pretend it went away and use that money for fun things, but I quickly realize if I were to do that, it would take that much longer to get out of debt, and that much longer to NOT get a house that my family can come and stay in when they're in town.

Sure wish I had that house last week.

Someday...