Sadness

Giving the eulogy for Kurt on Monday was indeed one of the hardest things I've done, especially looking into the upturned faces of his six beautiful children on the front pew of the chapel. Oh my goodness. His wife, my friend Jonna, was radiantly beautiful, in the face of just so much heartbreak.

On Tuesday, six young women came to my home to learn to make pie. We had a great time and turned out two apple, two pecan and a coconut cream. Simple ingredients, super experience.

On Thursday, I experienced dramatic highs and lows, from the excitement of a crew of SeaWorld caretakers re-releasing manatees into the wild, to the depths of sadness at hearing the Rocky Mountain News had closed its doors. The mulitple Pulitzer Prize-winning paper was 150 years old. What a sad day for journalism and a sad day for Denver. The Denver mayor observed in this video, that it's better for a community to have "two newspapers voraciously competing for the news."

With my own newspaper for sale and our future uncertain, I cried -- several times -- during the video. Such a heart rending end for such a fine newspaper.

Tonight, I am making cupcakes, tarts and chicken salad for a friend's bridal shower tomorrow. But I just somehow managed to put together a cake with all purpose flour and no baking powder instead of self-rising flour like I intended. The new cake mix cupcakes look pathetic.

Monday morning coming down

I've finished the eulogy for Kurt. This will be one of the hardest things I've done, but hopefully I'll do a good job.

I missed church today because I hurt my back somehow moving chairs or something at church last night. Darned aging process. So annoying. After staying horizontal all day, we had Kathy and David for dinner tonight. Nothing fancy. Steve grilled steaks. I didn't even make homemade bread! How bad is that? But it was nice to visit with good friends.

Finished Rosie's new linen dress just before the dance Saturday night. She looked gorgeous in it. Hopefully I'll be able to find time to do some more sewing. I really love it. Rosie and I love watching the dresses people wear to these awards shows. I'd love to make some of those.

The gold finches and other assorted birds are going crazy at our feeders. I love to watch them.

What a week!

I'll be glad when the week is over. It started in an orgy of cooking: black beans and rice and smoked pork for 25, then pasta salad for 19, then a pound cake, marinara sauce and alfredo sauce for 40 on Tuesday. Last night Steve cooked hot dogs. They were divine!

On Tuesday nine people were laid off in the newsroom. How very stressful and sad. It's a miracle we had a paper Wednesday. The graphic artist who worked on all my projects and most of my big stories was one of the casualties. It broke my heart.

On Wednesday, we learned that our good friend Kurt Greene, father of six with the oldest 15 or 16, had died of brain cancer. We're happy that we know where Kurt is and that he will be eagerly awaiting to welcome each member of his family when they pass but our hearts hurt for his beautiful wife Jonna and their children. But Kurt is at peace and Jonna is one of the strongest and most peaceful women I've known. I'm sure Heavenly Father will comfort her.

Today is Friday, hoping to write at least one story if not draft two. Tonight Rosie and I are helping decorate for the youth dance. And I'm starting on the dress she will wear to the dance tomorrow night.

Then I guess over the weekend I'll write the eulogy for Kurt, since Jonna asked me this morning if I would give it.

Feb. 17

It's officially the 17th, 27 years since I gave birth for the first time. 27 years ago tonight I was SOOO excited. I was going in to be induced to deliver a baby. We didn't have a girl's name picked out. Steve was sure it was a boy. After a shot of pitocin every 15 minutes from 7:30 a.m. until around 6, he finally had his boy -- all 10 pounds, 6 ounces and 23.75 inches of him. We were so excited. And might I say how much we love this boy! Stephen David Pulver, Jr. He's been a great kid.

We pulled off another family dinner last night. A huge thank you to the person who stayed to wash dishes and help clean up.

Now I'm making spaghetti sauce for 40, working on a Jeopardy game board and baking a pound cake!

Kilz

I am a messy painter. I'm covered in Kilz and have no real clue how to get it off. Went to the beach today to watch a guy celebrating Darwin day by building 200 sea turtle sand sculptures on the beach. It was fun.

It's 1:08, still not doing so good on this early to bed thing. I'm going to go outside and run some limbs down to the street for the yard man and then hit the sack!

The sunset

Tonight the sun set was fabulous! Rows of rippling cirrus clouds airbrushed with pink. It was just so pretty while we were driving west on I-4. We went to the Temple and I was able to have 2 hours of peace. It was quite wonderful.

Meanwhile, my to-do list for the next five days seems quite daunting. Only two days until we get Katelyn though!! I can't wait!

Can we please go on vacation again?

I can't stop talking about Capital Reef and Canyonlands. I keep telling everyone how gorgeous it was there. Today the LA Times named Arches one of its top 10 places to go this year. What a gorgeous, gorgeous place. So travel... it's good for the economy.

The moon was so beautiful tonight. It often reminds me of the times that I would sit in my window as a young girl and watch the moon rise over the pines and think I would actually GO there someday.

Finished a game show quiz for our Relief Society workshop next week. Now it's 20 minutes til midnight - have to see how much more I can get done!

It's past midnight ...

I promised Steve I'd try to go to bed by midnight. It's just so early! I love being up in the house when it's so quiet. And I have so much I'm trying to do.
I sent out the calendar today that we've organized for members of our church ward and friends to take meals to my sister-in-law and brother-in-law and people are wonderful. They quickly e-mailed me back to add their names to other dates! It helps that Mike and Brenda are such great people. Everyone wants to help.
The moon tonight was absolutely gorgeous. Big and full. It really made me want to walk on the beach, even more than I've wanted to recently.
Bought beautiful pink fabric over the weekend to make Rosie a new dress. I can't wait to get started.

Watching a baby sleep

It doesn't matter if they're 9 months or 15, there's something so sweet about watching them sleep. I have one of each in the living room right now. I love it.

It was so thrilling to walk out to Brenda's van tonight and see Mike sitting there smiling and talking. We're so thankful for all the blessings associated with Mike's recovery.

We have friends helping with a rotation to take a meal to Mike and Brenda's three times a week and it's wonderful to see people so willing to help and producing incredible meals. It's just great.

The shed has plywood on the roof now. Wow!

Stories

I actually used the phrase tightie whities in a story tonight. I can't believe it. The story was pulled from a thick stack of documents for firefighters who were discplined after a five month investigation, that I'm not sure really answered as many questions as they raised. The funniest thing is one of the male night editors didn't know what tightie whities were!

It rained today. A lot. Should have helped with the whole fire danger risk thing. I am working on trying to clean this filthy house. I don't know how it gets so dirty.

I saw more than a dozen deer beside the road tonight on my way home. They were all over. The FWC sent me a beautiful photo of a mom and baby right whale tonight. People saw them off the Pier today. I'm so totally jealous.

Food

Oh my goodness. I made chocolate chunk cookies this weekend. Big mistake. They were so yummy. I've eaten too many. On top of that tonight I made strawberry shortcake parfaits. But only Steve had room for his after we ate hamburgers, French fries and deviled eggs at our Superbowl supper just for the three of us. We never get invited anywhere, so we just have our own fun! (It's OK - we couldn't stay anyway since Steve has to get up so early.)

Still hoping to put away this one last box of Christmas decorations. Why does this always seem to take so long. I wonder if it's some subliminal thing that we just hate to put away the last bit of that magical season.

I think the lesson went OK today. The sisters in church seemed to really have fun with the topic of getting rid of the clutter in our lives and homes. Now if I could just work on that. Unfortunately I did lose a dish this week. I dropped a small old platter from Grandma's and broke it and I cried. ( I know that's ridiculous. Sometimes it's easier to cry about stupid little things than the big overwhelming issues.) It was one of my favorites. Two little bluebirds with a pink ribbon. I really love dishes.

My Princess House party here is Thursday. Must get ready this week.