A Sad and Happy Day...

Yesterday really was a Sad and Happy Day.

It was sad...

because my last grandparent passed away in his sleep.My Grandfather was suffering from Alzheimer's and Dementia, and lost his sweetheart about 6 months ago just as suddenly. I am happy for them to be reunited in heaven and I imagine that my Grandfather is having a glorious family reunion above. I love him and will miss him and all his memorable stories and lessons he tried to teach us.



Some of my favorite memories about him was every Christmas, he told us grandkids that we had to give him a $20 kiss. In other words, we had to give him a kiss to get $20 and box of Andes Chocolates. When your 10 years old, $20 is a lot of money. He also resembles President Monson (an apostle in our church) and when he was on a temple mission in Salt lake City, people would greet him as President Monson. One day, my grandfather finally meet President Monson in person, and Pres. Monson laughed and said, "Oh, your Brother Astle...people keep greeting me as Brother Astle." Other fonds memories I have are sleeping over at grandma's and grandpa house with my cousins and putting on skits and songs for them. One my favorites come from when he was older, and we all learned to never say that we were "proud" of anything, because you would get an earful about how "Pride is the root of all evil", and that it's okay to be "pleased" about something, but never "proud." It always made me laugh when someone else who didn't know would mention being proud of something. ;)

The only bummer thing is that I was just in Utah last week for my sister's wedding, and now I need to fly back to Utah again this weekend. I will only be able to bring my little Bella with me due to that it's also Labor Day Weekend and flights are expensive. I will also be missing Ben's first day of Pre-school. *sniff,sniff* But John and I have at least worked out having him take Ben and picking him up and then we'll need to find babysitters until I return.


Yesterday was also a happy day...

because my Brother and sister-in-law gave birth to their first son. (3 new nephews within a month...how lucky am I!)



He was born on August 25th at 8:40pm, and he was 7lbs. 12 oz. He didn't have a name for about a day, but I believe they have chosen to name him Carlo Petrini. I know they gave him a Chinese middle name, but I don't dare try to spell it in case I butcher the name. So for now, he's Baby Carlo! Congrats to Shange and Vicki!