Uncle David

Last Sunday, on Easter Sunday, my dear Uncle David passed away, surrounded by his wife, Louise, and all of their nine children. It has been a hard week for me, the hardest being yesterday, which was the day of the funeral. My heart was heavy. Last November, Jeff's grandma died and it was harder than I thought it would be, especially since I didn't get as much sleep as I wanted the night before. I cried a little at that funeral. I did get more sleep the night before yesterday, but yesterday was still no different. We got to the church where the viewing and the funeral were being held. I was able to see and briefly visit with many, many cousins, a lot who I haven't seen in a while. I loved briefly visiting the two of the nine children closest to me in age, Julie and Linda. Julie and I shared a couple hugs and an emotional conversation. I was surprised how emotionally strong Linda was (I know I couldn't be that strong). We had a good short conversation and hugs as well. I will never forget those moments. The funeral service was so special and so spiritual. All nine of the children spoke and shared wonderful stories and memories of their dad. They also sang "Come, Come Ye Saints" (with their spouses). At the end, they played a 1976 recording of Uncle David singing a song he wrote called "Through the Eyes of a Child". After the service, we went to the grave site where he was going to be buried... on a hill close to the mountains in north Provo. It was a beautiful place. There, we sang a few more hymns and children's songs. I haven't been in Primary since I was a Primary teacher for 2 years before my mission, so I forgot some of the words to a couple primary songs. I either hummed or listened, and I felt the spirit so strong. My uncle has been a great influence to me and many others, and his death and funeral has made me want to be a better person.

I do have one memory I would like to share about Uncle David. About 8 1/2 years ago, I was looking for a car to buy since the car my parents gave me when I moved to Utah had problems that would be more expensive to fix than the car was worth. I found these two Toyota Camrys that this older guy was selling. He also had a couple Hondas he was selling... he repossessed these cars from banks and was selling them. I was interested in the two Camrys. They were both 1995... one was beige/tan and had 92,000 miles and the other was black and had over 130,000 miles. The black one was around my price range and the beige/tan one was a little over my price range. Since my parents were still in Missouri, my dad suggested I call Uncle David to take a look at the two cars and test drive them. I called Uncle David to set a time to meet at the house where the cars were (which was on Canyon Rd. in Provo, not too far from where Uncle David was buried). Uncle David test drove both cars. We both could tell the black one was more used and the beige/tan one was taken very well care of and was in nicer condition. Even though the beige/tan one was a little over my price range, he suggested I get that one. With the help of my parents loaning me the money (which I was able to pay back very quickly), I was able to get the beige/tan car that is 16 years old now and that I still have. Uncle David had many, many great talents and his knowledge of cars was one of them and I will never forget the help he gave me with that.

Below is a picture of my Uncle David that was used on the cover of the funeral program. Below that is his obituary. I love and miss him a lot!


David Lee Higginson

1943 ~ 2011

Our Father in Heaven chose Easter Sunday to call our dear husband, father, and grandfather home. He passed away peacefully surrounded by his loving family from the effects of cancer.

David was born October 3, 1943 in Nampa, Idaho to John Detton and Merle Harris Higginson.

He was a valiant member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and served a mission to New Zealand from 1962-64. He had a deep faith in his Savior, Jesus Christ and shared his love for Christ with his family and countless others.

While attending BYU, he met and married his sweetheart, Louise Lewis. They were sealed for time and all eternity on June 2, 1967 in the Salt Lake Temple.

Music was the essence of his life. He was an amazing choir and orchestra teacher in Utah and Idaho, a musician, songwriter, and arranger. His children's treasured memory is singing around the piano on Sunday evenings. He was the creator of The Professional Chord System and touched the lives of so many people as he traveled around the country to share his gift.

He is survived by his wife, Louise and 9 children, David (Heidi), Michael (Marci), Amy (Brenden) Clements, Rebekah (Jim) Edwards, Brian (Lisa), Julie, Linda (Danny) Strauss, Robert, and Jared.

We're Still Alive!

We haven't dropped off the face of the earth... yet. This has been one crazy semester, but thankfully it's almost over (just a couple more weeks, I think)! Jeff and I are in the same math class (MATH 1050, or College Algebra). Some of it has been a struggle, but so far we're both doing really well in that class considering how hard it is. We just have one more chapter test left, then the final, so I hope we continue to do well. We have a really good teacher, which helps a lot.

I have loved doing taxes this year and last year. Because we're both going to school, we get a pretty nice Federal refund back. And the "Making Work Pay" $800 we got back this year is really helping us get our savings back up (school is expensive!).

We're taking the summer off school to recuperate before going back in the fall. And to save more money. We also need time to clean and organize our place since we really haven't done much since we moved to where we live now almost 5 years ago, so we'll be busy doing that during the summer. Hopefully we can have our bedroom, computer room, and exercise/extra room back since all 3 right now are sort of "junk rooms" with boxes and other junk.

Speaking of exercise, I just started a "Couch to 5k" thing this week. It's an app I got on my iPhone. It's for 9 weeks, 3 times a week. It's not too bad this week, but I was looking ahead a few weeks... it's gonna be tough, but hopefully I can do it. It'll help me for my first ever 5k in June (in 9 weeks from tomorrow!).

Anyway, we are still alive (barely)! :)

Photography Giveaway

Someone in my condo complex is giving away a couple free photo sessions (up to $150 value).

To enter, go to the Lee Taylor Photography website. I would love to win since Jeff and I haven't had any professional pictures taken since the cruise we went on over 2 years ago (and we don't really take our own pictures of us, so we'll just be nonexistent for the times we don't have pictures taken of us). :)

Out With the Old, In With the New

Well my resolutions/goals for 2010 didn't go as planned. Most of them fizzled out after about 2 or 3 months. I tried keeping up with my weight loss goal and was doing really well, with the help of the exercise program my work has every summer of getting in as many miles as you can by doing a few different things. But then the last few months of 2010, I gained some pounds back. But... I am still 10 or 11 pounds less than I was a year ago at this time, so I can't feel too bad, I guess. This year, I want to work even harder on that and will start back in on my treadmill exercising (at LEAST 3 times a week) tomorrow. I might even try a 5k run this year with my sister. And I want to eat healthier. To do that, I am cutting out all desserts, sweet stuff, candy, etc. So yes, even dark chocolate, which I love! I also want to get more sleep, but I'm making that goal realistic by making sure I get at least 7 hours of sleep at least 5 nights a week (tonight won't be one of those nights 'cause I hate Mondays, so I stay up too late, not wanting the next day to come sooner).

For my one spiritual goal I want to do better in is going to the temple once a month. We haven't gone very much lately (shame on us!), but this year will be better.

I don't want to make too many resolutions/goals this year, so I will keep it at that and see if I can do better this year with these ones I listed.

I hope everyone has a wonderful year this year!

November

Better get me in a blog post for November before the day is over in a couple hours. This month flew by. I don't even know where it went. I don't even know what happened during part of it... just school and work is mostly what I do these days. I had a cold the first part of the month and a cough for most of the month. The cough is pretty much mostly gone now, thank goodness! I am so ready for this semester to be done! Just 2 more weeks from now and I will be ALL done! I will make a new post after it's done about how I did, but right now it's pretty crazy... and I'm only taking 2 classes! Jeff's grandma passed away a couple weeks ago and her funeral was a week ago from yesterday. It was sad but it was a really good funeral service. Jeff and I had a 4-day weekend for Thanksgiving. We had my family over to our place on Thanksgiving Day and it was the first time ever that Jeff and I cooked a turkey and it turned out pretty good! The break from school and work was a much needed break, but it went by so fast that I wish I had more of a break already. In a few weeks, though, we'll have two 3-day weekends in a row with Christmas and New Year's. I can't wait! Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to everyone!

Tired Week!

I've been tired this week! I haven't been getting very much sleep so far this week. I work full-time, I take a couple classes, among other things I'm busy with. And I might be coming down with a cold. :( Being sick is no fun! Despite being really tired, I think I might have aced another math test. :) I really, really like this teacher, even though she goes kind of fast in the "lectures" she does (most of my notes look like chicken scratch) and she assigns a ton of homework, which takes me a long time to do sometimes. But her tests are SO much easier than the homework and she hands out a review before each test and goes over the review right before the test on test day, so the information is fresh in my memory. She's teaching the next highest math class next semester and Jeff still needs that class, so we decided we'd take that one together. It'll be the ONLY class we'll be able to take together because our majors are so different (he's in Elementary Education and I'm in Accounting).

Anyway, I am writing this post from my very own laptop! A couple weeks ago, Jeff's sister was shopping for a laptop since the one she had was 5 years old. Jeff and I went with her when she went to buy one from Best Buy. She got a Dell laptop with a pink cover. The past little while, I've thought about getting a laptop of my very own to use mainly in future classes I take. And I think the color of the cover sold me... PINK! We went back to Best Buy a couple days after Jeff's sister bought the last one they had in the store, so we had them order one in and we picked it up a week later (last Saturday). I now have my very own laptop that is a girl laptop. :D It'll be fun having my very own laptop.

No Less, No More

The past month or so, I really haven't been trying to lose weight, like I did earlier this year and this past summer. I just eat almost whatever I want now. I've weighed myself maybe twice this past month and haven't gained a pound. That makes me happy that I don't have to lose pounds I've already lost. Jeff has told me before something that's called a "set point" weight... a weight which your body maintains. I lost about 25 pounds a couple years ago for the cruise we went on with Jeff's family. After the cruise, I ate very horribly and gained it all back, plus 5 more pounds. I hated being the weight I was when I gained it all back. So the beginning of this year, I weighed myself and made a New Year's resolution to lose that weight again. It's been a slow process (because I still like food!), but I've been about to lose about 20 pounds so far this year. 10 more pounds and I will be at the weight I was on the cruise. I'd love to lose that before the end of the year, but we'll see if that happens or not (maybe 5 pounds will be good enough). Then next year, I'll make a new New Year's resolution to lose a little more. I would like to be around 130 pounds, so I still have a little ways to go still. :) Anyway, I'm wondering how I am maintaining my current weight. I haven't exercised regularly for over a month and I just eat whatever. I'm wondering if it was all the exercise I did over the summer... over 100 miles of running/walking on the treadmill between May 31 and the end of August. I wish I had time to run/walk more these days, but I'm so busy with work and school and I still need my sleep!

I'm hoping this post will motivate me to lose at least 5 more pounds before the year is over. We'll see .... :)

Only Post for September

I should probably get in a quick post before the month is over (so I can have at least one post per month). Life has been crazy! Good, but crazy! School started the end of August. I'm taking a math class (Intermediate Algebra) and a computer class (learning about computers and different programs on computers and stuff). I've taken 3 tests in math so far, making 100, 98, and 100. We get to drop 2 out of 8 tests for the semester, so I'm doing very well so far! In my computer class, they said if we're in the school of business (which I am with my accounting major), we need at least 80% on every test. I was so nervous getting ready for the first test which we took this past Monday. But I studied as much as I could (I probably could have done a little better, though) and I made a 91.8%. I was so relieved and so happy that I did that well on it!

I became team leader again at my work almost a month ago. I've been enjoying it (on the most part) so far and still enjoy the flexible hours with my job so I can go to school.

It's been 11 years ago today since I entered the MTC (Missionary Training Center) to train in becoming a good missionary for my church. If I had the time, I'd find and scan a photo taken of me in the Carson Valley area in Nevada (an area a little south of Carson City, which is a little south of Reno) during winter with snow on the ground. That one was probably my best picture of me from my mission. Maybe I'll find it sometime and scan it to put on here. But it's crazy that it's been 11 years! I'm getting old!!!

Well, one more long day of work with an evening class, then a shorter work day on Friday, then the weekend! I look forward to each and every weekend and especially looking forward to this weekend with General Conference!

I'm a slacker!

I haven't used the treadmill since my birthday 2 weeks and 1 day ago. I guess I needed a break. And I won't be doing a 5k in a couple months, either. I know, I know... I'm a SLACKER!!! School just started this past week and I'm taking a couple classes, along with my full-time job. But... I did a Turbo Jam workout this morning. I haven't used Turbo Jam since I started using the treadmill in early June. Maybe I can run a 5k with my sister next 4th of July (which is the Freedom Run, I think). We'll see what happens.

10 miles in 2 days

Wow, my legs are tired and sore! After being gone camping a week, then taking most of the next week off from the treadmill, I have a little bit of catching up to do if I'm going to hit 200 miles for my work thingy by Labor Day. Can I do it? We'll see. But here are my times for today and yesterday's 5K and 5 mile times on the treadmill.

5K (3.1 miles)

Yesterday - 48:07
Today - 44:36

5 miles

Yesterday - 77:59
Today - 77:22

A little bit of an improvement for the 5 miles, but I was happy with the 5K time. I don't think I want to try to improve that tomorrow (I may just go 3 or 4 miles tomorrow). Today was really hard and I got tired a lot. Better not push myself too much.

I'm thinking (just thinking) about running a 5K with my sister Rebecca later this month. I'm not sure I want to do that one since it's still summer and I hate the heat. There's one on October 30 that I will probably definitely go for with Rebecca. Better keep it up on the treadmill, even after Labor Day! :-)