May 8, 2010...

Grandpa Bob passed away on December 20th and we had his funeral on December 26th, but Iowa's winter was terrible so we put his burial off until this last weekend. The date was chosen in honor of his birthday which was May 10th and because it was Mother's day weekend. As I said in a previous post I  made a very last minute decision to come home, because I just couldn't stand being the only one who missed it. The following pictures are from his burial. It was a cold dreary morning, but we were all their huddled together as a family. I'm so glad that I was able to be there with everyone.

Grandpa was cremated and my cousin Scott made his urn.

Some of the family huddled together, sharing stories, and hugs.

The gravestone. It's carved from a rock found out on the farm. My parents have the other half of the stone and they plan to use it as their headstone one day as well.

The local veterans came and did the traditional gun salute. This was an especially emotional moment, because my grandfather was one of them. I remember watching these same men and my grandfather with them doing salutes over the years, but this time the salute was for him.

Grandpa asked my father and my uncle Paul to dig the hole. They did a beautiful job. Then when it came to burying him my brother and their brother, my uncle Steve stayed behind to help.

Crazy Hair Day...

J

Jesse & Jared

Jesse's brother Jared posted this picture on his Facebook a while back and I just couldn't resist posting it on here. There aren't many pictures of either of us when we were little, so we cherish the ones we can find. This picture was taken in Jesse's grandparent's house in the late 80s. We're assuming this is one of the many times their aunt Kathy did their hair. Maybe when we're all in Utah again later this month we'll have to try and recreate this picture.

Thank you...

Thursday I was thinking a lot about how the upcoming weekend was a big one for my family and I wasn't going to be there. I had recently learned that I was pretty much the only one who wasn't going to be there and that was beginning to weigh on me heavily. Thursday night I had 2 dreams that upon waking up I remembered (this almost never happens to me). One dream was bad and one was good. The good one was that somehow I figured out the trip home to be with my family. I won't go into the details of the bad one, because it's not relevant and it's not going to come true. I kept thinking about my dream more and more as the hours went on. Finally I text Jesse and told him I had a wild idea that probably wouldn't work, but I was enjoying day dreaming about it. To my surprise he encouraged my wild idea, so from there I went into research mode. I did everything I could to figure out the best and the cheapest way for me to make a last minute trip home. I looked into driving, taking the train, and flying. Flying seemed to be the only real option if I wanted to make this happen. Unfortunately it's always $500 more to fly into Des Moines than it is to fly to Omaha. Des Moines is 45minutes away & Omaha is almost 2hrs away from Stuart. If wanted this trip to be a surprise especially for my parents I needed help. I needed a ride. I found two co-conspirators in my brother David and my cousin's wife Gina. I booked my flight and packed my stuff. By 3pm I was all ready to go. Jesse came home from work 30minutes early, picked me up, and drove me straight to the airport. Though my plane was slightly delayed I had a smooth trip. I made it into Omaha around 11:30pm where Gina and her sister were waiting to pick me up. We got into Stuart just before 2am. I went straight to bed @ the Sherman's house hoping to catch some Zzzz's before having to get up and get ready for the big surprise. Of course it was hard to get to sleep, because my mind was racing. I was on a bit of a high from the fast paced last minute decision that had landed me there. It was hard to believe it really happened, my actual dream was coming true. What a weird and exciting feeling. For those of you who don't know my grandfather's burial was scheduled for that next morning. The date was chosen because Monday, May 10th would have been his birthday and it was mother's day weekend of course which meant we could all be there with Grandma. I am so grateful that I was able to be there and that it was a surprise to my parents and my grandmother especially. I wouldn't have missed it for the world. Of course I have pictures to post and more to write about my trip, but for now I just wanted to say a special Thank you to Gina, David, and Jesse for helping me make my dream come true. It really meant a lot to me. Love you guys.

Videos 4/29/10...

I recorded a few videos of the Hi Dive show. Most of them are too long to upload on here, but we may try and upload them on Youtube sometime. You can find other videos of Ideal Father's on Youtube as well. Here is a random sampling of their show from April 29th.

*WARNING! It is loud and slightly static-y, because I was standing next to the speakers (don't worry I wear ear plugs). If you choose to watch the videos do so with caution and turn the volume down lower. 


Untitled from Erin Wilson on Vimeo.

Hi Dive Show 2 from Erin Wilson on Vimeo.

Hi-Dive 4/29/10...

Clash of the Titans.

Last Week's Hi-Dive show was an especially rockin' gig. Jesse was really feeling the beat and he definitely brought the energy in the bar up. The guys got more press (check here & here) and even got recognized by the headlining band, Solar Bear. Below is a picture of Jesse and the lead singer of Solar Bear (whose name currently escapes me, sorry). In the middle of the Solar Bear set they let there singer take a slight breather and do some talking. Apparently he was inspired by Jesse, so he called him out and had him come up on stage with them. Talk about an ego boost. I think Jesse was on a high after that. Afterwords the two got to talking and became fast friends. Solar Bear even invited the Fathers to preform at their CD release this month, too bad they can't do it since we will be out of town that weekend. Oh Well! The guys have agreed on doing more shows together in the future. This should be great for the Fathers since Solar Bear is a pretty popular band in Denver. It never hurts to have friends in high places.

 

I had a couple videos to upload with this post, but they're taking too long for me. I'm kind of impatient sometimes. Anyhow... I will be posting them at some point in the day, so look for them in a later post.

9 Health Fair...

In the last couple months I have found myself to be among the uninsured Americans, so this year Jesse and I decided to attend a 9 Health Fair. What is 9 Health Fair? you are probably asking. Well, 9 News is a local News station here that 30yrs ago decided to educate the public about their health and offer free or low cost medical screenings to anyone, not just the insured. Since it's humble start the 9 Health Fair has turned into it's own non-profit and expanded to cover the entire state and it's even beginning to trickle into neighboring states. While working at the museum I had an idea about bringing a Health Fair to the Children's Museum put on by older kids. I had the pleasure of partnering with the 9 Health Fair education department on making my dream a reality last June. I'm hoping they keep up the relationship and start educating the kiddos about their health from an earlier age. Anyhow... Since I am with out insurance this year we hit up the Health Fair in Golden (and yes it was @ the Coors Brewery). For $45 each we had 2 blood draws for intensive special screenings that should give us a full range of results and a good idea of our current health. We also met with a nutritionist, did the height, weight, & BMI testing, blood pressure, and a few other things. All of our results will be sent to us in the mail in the next couple weeks. There are many people here in Denver that have benefited from this wonderful program and I'm so glad that we could take part in it too. A friend of mine and her husband went a few years ago and he learned he was diabetic. He had been speculating that he was, but he had lost his job and they were with out insurance at the time as well. I am happy to report that he has a new job, insurance, and has is diabetes under control. 9 Health Fair is mainly volunteer driven program, so next year or maybe even later this fall when they do their family fairs I can give my time to help others with the program as well. I've also been really lucky in that one of the family's that I do childcare for has offered me essentially free health care. The father is a cardiologist and he said as soon as I get my results in he would go over them with me and help me out in anyway. If I am ever feeling sick and in need of a prescription he will write me one, but of course I will be paying full price for the actual prescription. Still... it's a really good deal and I feel lucky to have such great support and resources. Luckily though, for now at least Jesse and I are both feeling pretty healthy, but it will be nice to have the extensive results to prove it.

Another new toy...

Last weekend Jesse and I went for a walk to the local bike shop. I was told he needed to get a new light for his bike, but we ended up coming home with him hell bent on buying a new bike. He almost bought one at the shop, but they didn't have the one he wanted in stock. I naively thought that was the end of it, but later that night he told me he had bought a bike online. He sold his old bike to one of his band mates and went all out on his new one. It wasn't cheap, believe me, but he's never had a new bike and he really loves riding bikes, so I guess it was worth it. The bike arrived in the mail yesterday with some assembly required. Of course Jesse could not wait, so last night I dropped him and the big box off at Mike P's, the IF Drummer, house. Mike is an avid bike rider and he used to work at bike shop, so he has all the equipment Jesse would need. Here is a picture of Jesse's fancy new ride. I am sure there will be more pictures to come as he plans on getting his money's worth and riding it as much as possible this summer. He's even looking into what bike trails he could take if he wanted to attempt to ride it to work. That would be a ride that's just over 10miles one way. Yikes!

P.S. He's such a giving guy that he bought me a new basket for my bike. I've been wanting a clip on/off basket, so I can ride my bike to the grocery store & just use my basket forgoing bags & their not always clean baskets. I was thrilled. As a team we attached the basket to my bike which was actually kind of fun. I honestly think we couldn't have done it alone. Team work was essential.