a good cloudy day

Today marks 23 years since my little brother passed away. It's crazy to think it's been that long. Sometimes the memories feel so fresh and that everything just happened the other day. But mostly it feels like another lifetime.

This picture was taken when Anthony was really sick and he passed away a few months later. My parents have a better picture from this sitting when the photographer was able to get Anthony to smile. He had a great smile with cute little dimples.

After he died we'd pick a cloud that was his. We'd usually look for those big billowy clouds where the sun was breaking through and decided that's where Anthony lived. As I was driving home from work today it was stormy and grey in the canyon, but as I approached the mouth of the canyon the sun was breaking through. There were big, billowy clouds everywhere. It reminded me of my sweet Tony.

(I'm the one in the purple plaid, if the big eyes didn't give it away. Also, I think my parents must have found the fountain of youth, because I swear, they still look the same.)

my welcome to arizona

I was going through some files and found this fantastic picture of me and my cousin, Tara. I can tell it was taken shortly after I moved to Arizona by the lovely shiner on my right eye.

Here's the story: I'd been to my new singles ward once where I heard that the following Saturday was the ward lake trip.

Tara and I went for some fun at the lake and to make some new friends. I was also able to make a new discovery.... if you catch the tip of your wakeboard and hit the water at the right angle with enough speed, you'll end up with a bloody nose, a black eye and a killer headache. It was embarrassing. For weeks, no months after, people remembered me as "the girl that got a black eye at the lake".

Being that I was in Arizona, most people assumed I got hit playing softball. One old guy at the gas station even stopped me and asked if I was okay. I'm not sure if he was expecting me to confide in him about domestic abuse or what, but it was cute that he was so concerned.

Yes, Arizona welcomed me with a nasty black eye (and it was nasty, half of my eyeball was solid red due to broken blood vessels).

my valentine

I came home from work today to find this on my front porch. It's my cute Valentine from my awesome parents. I seriously have the best mom and dad!