Seussical: The musical

I went to go see Seussical: the musical at the Scera theater last night. Directed by my friend> David Whitlock. It is all of Dr. Seuss' stories crammed into one colorful and delightful world of singing and thinks! oh the things you can think! The actors were chosen so well for their parts that you couldn't take your eyes off what was happening on stage, everyone was engaged into their characters and it could not have been more enjoyable.

I recommend anyone who lives with in a easily accesible distance of the scera theater should go and see this cute show. I believe it runs until the 14th of October. Or somewhere around there!

A pile of dirty dishes...

About 10 minutes ago I just finished cleaning probably the most disgusting and revolting pile of dishes i have ever seen in my life. So being on my period and all was more irritated with the dishes than normal. So what did i do? I jumped right in and started cleaning them...at midnight. The smells that came out of that sink i have only imagined could be associated with something dying..and by heck something had died in our sink. There was moldy milk, 10 day old ramen noodle (never want to smell that again) and various other trinkets i found as i dug my way through it all. And after it I made a spiritual or religious connection...humor me.

The pile of dirty dishes could symbolize us/me of when we slack off.. i.e. (not reading scriptures, skipping church to sleep in, not saying prayers..etc) and as time goes on the pile gets higher and higher and we get more and more discouraged to want to dig our way to Christ. But what i found out is that during the whole process of cleaning your dishes (your sins) they may stink, and the things you may have done may even repulse you they smell so bad. But when you get it all clean and smelling like oranges because you crammed a few into the drain, then you take a step back and tell yourself, that wasn't too hard, or difficult. Why didn't i do it before?

So sometimes when our dishes get to high, don't get too discouraged, because there is always a clean sink under there somewhere, you just have to go digging for it.

God be with you till we meet again...

So, as you all know my grandmother passed away last week. The viewing was on thursday. It was really nice. She looked absolutely gorgeous. With her in her temple clothes and her big smile it looked like she was going to sit up right in the casket. The night was two hours where friends, family, or acquaintances could come and talk to the family and say their last goodbyes. It was a nice experience. Everyone was laughing and joking about things that grandma had done, times they remembered with her and how much they loved her.

On Friday it was the funeral. Before it was to start at 11. The siblings decided to have a small viewing before the closing of the casket, for people who could not make it the night before. Promptly at 11 they closed the doors to the relief society room and had people that worked for the mortuary stand outside to make sure no one came during the blessing of the casket. Darcy, my uncle, said the prayer. It was beautiful. Up until then i was doing a pretty good job at keeping my emotion at bay. Then when Darcy said amen, and they let the family say their last goodbye before they closed it. As i passed grandma i touched her hand one last time... walked over to Ashleigh and waited and watched as the men put the veil over her. I snapped. Tears just started flowing, ones i had kept in since th viewing... i couldn't stop to say the least. Luckily Asheigh had some tissues on hand. We then followed the casket down to the chapel. The family sat in the first 4 rows with everyone else to the side.
The funeral was wonderful. Soni, my aunt, was first with a life sketch. She was crying...and my uncle behind me was crying ...so i continued to cry. My grandma was quite the charmer, and tom boy. I found out she would shoot guns with my grandpa and was just as good as the best. My grandma had 5 brothers all of which grandpa had to go through before winning grandma's heart.
Next was Ashleigh doing a tribute to grandma, saying things that remembered, and loved and things that grandma had done that had helped her in her life and such.

Me and James then read off Grandma Joy's joy. Basically the things the grandchildren loved about grandma:

Grandma’s Greatest Joys!

BRIANNA: I loved whenever you were telling her about your day, and even though half the time she couldn't hear you, she would smile and nod her head as if she could.

JAMES: She always smiled when I came over, and all the jokes she would make even though sometimes they would not make sense, but I would still laugh to make her happy.

KIRI: I remember whenever we would visit Grandma she would always give us Tootsie Pop suckers, which she kept in her top cupboard, and we would always get a cup of water to dip our suckers in.

SHELBY: Well, there is too much to say, but here are a couple...whenever our family would be in need she would always be there for us and willing to do anything to help out and make things better. Whenever I was around her there would always be a sense of love and never contention. She was sooooo loveable to everyone, especially her family. One time when we went over to visit her a couple of weeks ago, we were laughing and she said something about us laughing. We thought we were bugging her with our loud laughing, so we said to her, "Is our laughing bugging you?" She just smiled the biggest smile in the world. That made my day. To make a long story short, she was the best Grandma in the world.

ANDREW: Grandma was always a friend and a loving person. She always cared for everyone and everything. Also, her sense of humor was the best.

GRACIE: I loved her sense of humor. Whenever I would come over she'd say, "Hi Gracie-gray!" Once, a couple of weeks ago, my dad said to her, "What ya doin'?" and she said, "Trying to get better." Then my dad said, "Is it working?" and she said, "No." That made me laugh so much!

EMMA: I love when we would go to Grandma's house and she would always give us candy.

WILLIAM: I loved when Grandma would give me Happy Meal toys.Darcy’s Kids

KADEN: I like the stories Grandma would make up and tell to us and I remember how funny she was. Before I would leave the house, I always tried to give her a hug and tell her “Bye, Grandma - love you.”

ZACH: I remember she’d always offer us “Kids Meal” toys when we’d visit her. And, when she was living with us and she had to go somewhere, I’d help my parents by carrying the walker down the stairs. I loved her nickname for me – “Zackie”.

ERIKA: When Grandma would go to bed at our house, I would carry her Sunny D and crackers to her room and turn on her lamp for her. And I love her and I miss her already! Shaun’s Kids

ASHLEY: I always felt very welcomed in Grandma’s home and my favorite memory of her was sitting down and watching The Brave Little Toaster every time I went to visit.BO: I remember her sense of humor. I always looked forward to her comeback to what my dad had said.

SAVANNAH: I’ve always liked her hugs. I can’t wait to see her in heaven cuz now she’s a pretty fairy. (Meaning angel) Soni’s Kids

BRAXTON: I remember Grandma was famous for remembering your birthday. She would call first thing in the morning of your special day and sing the whole birthday song to you. Sometimes it was in tune. I will miss that about Grandma.



SHANIYA: She was always happy, and had a welcoming smile on her face. I never saw her feeling down.



SHANDI: I always remember going to Grandma’s house and eating key lime pie or orange cream yogurt. She had the best yogurt! And, she wouldn’t let us leave without giving us a piece of watermelon bubble gum and a Tootsie Pop for the drive home.

Next up Myself, Shelby, and Ashleigh sang "Be still my soul" The whole you could feel that maybe grandma was listening, i had strength to sing and didn't break down crying. It was wonderful

My mom and the Eddie both gave tributes after which were both beautiful and described their mother to a T.

We then all headed over the grave site, there the grandchildren got to take a few roses off the top of the (pink) casket. Mine our drying in my closet at home at the moment. We took pictures with her brothers ( the three that were alive, were all there) and then headed back to the church building for a lunch in.

Grandma Joy was a wondeful woman, who the opitomy of charity, love, and devotion to family. The funeral was beautiful and was a wonderful thing for the family. Hopefully Eddie won't go to timeout FOREVER when he dies and sees grandma...hahah just kidding. :)

Grandma LaJoy Dove Simmons

December 26, 1934 - September 8, 2008

Grandma Joy...the one who invented the silent laugh

So as most of you know my Grandma Joy is within her last days on this earth. Which for some reason seems so impossible to me. I always told her since I was little that she was going to live till 116! Apparently I was off by a couple years...

I'm not going to say that this is a hard thing that myself and my whole family is going through but at the same time i'm depressingly sad that she will passing soon. I will probably cry buckets and buckets of tears when she leaves but after I have had my cry I will ok. Ok, in a sense that I i know I will be seeing her again. Not for awhile, but i will see her again. And while our family wants her to stay so badly, it is keeping her from others that love her just as much. The other day when Ashleigh, Shelby, and myself went to go visit grandma we saw something peculiar. The room that we were in was lit very dimmly so that she could get to sleep easy. And every so often her eyes would shoot open and she would be staring diagnol to the ceiling. And when we went to look at her eyes her pupils were completely undialated. As if there was a huge amount of light in the room (which the wasn't)... so all three of us made an assumption that maybe she was seeing someone who was encompased in light.

Another thing that interesting was one time we asked her if grandpa Jim was here, (and at this time she could only respond with a little nod or shake of the head) and she almost instantly nodded her head. It was quite eye opening. So grandpa had come to see her, i'm sure many others have to. There is this book that the hospis nurse gave the family to help through the dying process and at one point of the book it said that the person dying could and most likely had one foot on each side. One in the living world, and one in the spiritual.

So even though our family will miss her dearly her other loved ones are waiting for her on the other side. She is just going on a long vacation. And we just have to get tickets in a couple decades.

Grandma Joy is someone who always would be laughing no matter if she heard your joke or not. Who would smile and act like she was listening when her hearing aids just weren't working that day. Who was the start of the Simmons "silent" laugh. Who always had a piece of gum or lollipop just for you. Who would always be willing to help in anyway she could. Who would tell you if you were doing something she didn't approve of, but love you still the same. Who made the most fantastic food, especially that chip dip! Who would always try to make it to every grandchilds event depending on how much energy she had that day. Who would always wait up at the airport terminal with my mom itching to see one of coming home. Grandma Joy is the epidimy of Joy. That's why her name fits so well. I will love her, and deeply treasure every moment I got to spend with her.

You will always be in my heart grandma.
Love you