One Big Giant Blog Post!

Okay, so I am a slacker. SOOOOOO much has happened in the past month, and I just haven't gotten around to "blogging" it. So, here ya go!

Spring break was the week before Easter for Blaine & Quinten. So, we packed up the fam and headed south to St. George with my family. It was a blast. The kids had fun having a five day long sleepover with Brigham and Porter - not to mention the hot tub and swimming pool. We did some hiking, arts festival-ing, and outlet shopping as well. I really love St. George, and can see this as a place we spend a lot of time. We also spent Easter there, and had an Easter Egg hunt for the kids too! Here's some pics from that adventure!

Two days after we got back from St. George Matt got a call that his father had suffered a heart attack while riding his bike, and died on the scene. We immediately made plans and headed down to Texas for the funeral two days later. We went with Bryce, Sally, Bentley, Brad, Savs, Reese & Lauren met us there from Portland. We flew into Dallas and drove to Austin because it was a lot cheaper that way. We had some flight delays so we didn't end up getting into Austin until about 1 or 2 in the morning! Late night driving makes for some sillyness!

The funeral was on Saturday, and it was....different, but nice. Vern and Donna attend a small-town bible belt church. I can't remember if it's Lutheran or Methodist, but either way it was very different from anything I've experienced. The part that struck me as most different was that they called the family into another room for family prayer and then said "okay, we are going to go close the casket so you don't have to see". All the other funerals I've been to they take the casket IN to the family and let them say their last goodbyes and close the casket there with them. Just different, not bad, just different. The service was a good tribute to Vern. It was hard for Matt, as he was the closest of the four kids to his dad. That night we went to Aunt B.J's house - which used to be Vern's parents house. It's in a small texan town called Buda. I always say that if Matt's parents hadn't divorced he would have lived a VERY different life! They had a brisket cookin' on the home-made grill. It was a lot of fun to spend time with Matt's family. This is only the second time I've met most of them.

Sunday we made a 1 1/2 hour trek to the middle of nowhere. It's a town called Round Top. It is the smallest incorporated city in Texas - population 77. Bryce and Matt had both spent time living there when they had lived with Vern. Bryce knew the owner of this little restaurant called Royers Round Top Cafe. DUUUUDE - it was AMAZING. Seriously some of the best food I've had in a long time (and not just cause it was free either!!). We spent a couple hours just roaming the streets and playing football in the park before we headed back to Austin. That night we went out to dinner at Hula Hut with J.P. and his wife Jamie Lynn (JP being the Royers guy!).

Monday morning we went to breakfast with Donna, Anne, Bennie and the boys. We missed Heather, but understand why she couldn't make it. These people are the sweetest, most genuine people I have ever met. Donna is so strong in the face of all this. I really admire her and her faith, and it rubs off on her children as well. I sincerely hope that we do not lose contact with them.

So - now here's some pics from THAT adventure.

BUT, the fun doesn't end there - of course not! We got home monday at about 4:00pm. I went back to work Tuesday, and at about 3:15 started having a strange pain in my stomach. A half-hour later I was on the floor barely able to move. It hurt SO bad. I called matt (from the floor of the bathroom with my cell phone that was in my pocket). It was about 10 minutes before Blaine got home from school so he told me he'd get blaine home and then come get me. I decided to wait it out in the "comfy chairs" in my uncle's office since he wasn't there. My little brother walked by and saw me and said "uh, no - i'm taking you in right now". So he took me to the ER.

Some pain meds, a REALLY painful ultrasound and about two hours later I was wisked into emergency surgery to remove my appendix. Owch. While in there the doctor discovered a hernia (probably left over from my last pregnancy), so he fixed that for me too. I now have three little laproscopic scars on my belly - one of which is in my belly button. Weird. They kept me overnight to monitor blood clots and that sort of thing, and I came home Wednesday morning. But, I seem to be healing well and feeling much better now (two weeks later).

And in other "Cantwell Family" news - Matt got a job! A day or so after my surgery he got a call from our neighbor who works at overstock.com. He had a position open up that he wanted Matt to come interview for. Matt went down the next day and they offered him the job that night. He is the Logistics Manager or soemthing along those lines....I just know it's in Logistics. Yay for that stress reliever!

So, last weekend I had Thursday and Friday off, and Matt hadn't started at his job yet, so we decided that with all the hoopla that had gone on lately, and all the upheaval the kids have had that we'd make it a "fun weekend". We went to the Aquarium, The Planetarium, Ikea, Bowling, Mini Golfing. We even spent Saturday night in a Hotel in Salt Lake that had an indoor pool so the kids could go swimming. They loved it all. When I got Blaine up Monday morning for school he said "what are we going to do fun today?" LOL. But, I didn't take many pics, and I haven't uploaded the ones I do have yet - so you'll have to wait to see those!

***ADDING PICTURES NOW*** I told you there wasn't very many, but still fun!

We've had a few other random "surprises" happening, like the dishwasher leaking all over, and cars acting wonky - but nothing too "post worthy".

Hopefully now things, and life, will settle down and fall back into some sort of normal for a little while. I'm a bit "surprised" out!