Hurst Family News

Dear Grandpa , It's been almost two years.  I still think about you all the time.  I did before you died too, just didn't call as often as I should have. I'm sorry. I'm trying to learn from that.  I see pictures that Mom posts of the cosmos and my thoughts turn to you.  Gazing up at things bigger than we can comprehend and the wonder of it all.  I think you you every time I see the vast amount of stars in our clean, clear, thin air.  It still surprises me.  You'd love it here.  The sky at least. We just got a chalkboard from my father in law and put it up in our dining room.  It reminds me of the happy hours drawing on the chalkboard on your porch and you and grandma doling out the chalk one piece at a time so they didn't all make it through the cracks in 2 minutes.  I hope my kids will have those kind of memories. I think of you every time I see my little Charlie Curtis.  He's almost two now. He just woke up from his morning ...

Can't vent on Facebook so I'll vent here.   You know what bugs me.  LDS Eliteism.   The idea that because someone belongs to the same church I do , they are somehow better than someone else.  (Please forgive me if I've ever done this.)  See, because here's the thing: WE ARE ALL HUMANS.  We all occupy the same Earth and breath the same air and while we may have different individual goals I think innately we are all striving for the same thing, live, learn, grow, and hopefully leave the world a little better than we found it.  (Terrorists and rapists are not exactly in the same realm- but that's a topic for another day. For now we're going with my idea- however Pollyanna it may be.)  Recent tragedy struck a team of elite firefighters.  19 of 20 of the crew died when winds increased and things just got out of control (like we can control fire! but they were trying to trench it and stop it from going that direction...) The one that surv...

In light of a trying week I'd like to share with you a few things I know that bring hope and comfort in my life. My sister in law and her husband lost their nephew this week to an accident.  A baby left in a draining tub for a few minutes.  He was 3 months younger than Charlie. My sweet little Charlie.  Their sweet little Kayj (pronounced Cage).  So much hurt. Pain. Longing. Loss. Hope.  Hope to see him again. To hug him again.  To see his smile light up a room. I know there is life after death. That we go on.  That our spirits commune with others.  That we are not alone.  I have always known this.  It speaks truth deep down to my soul.  And that gives me hope.  Purpose. Direction.  I believe God puts us on Earth to learn a few things.  Mostly love.  And sometimes with that love comes pain.  Sometimes unbelievable pain.  When we are swallowed up in sorrow we are surrounded by love.  W...

Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday. (Everybody's free to wear sunscreen) It was more like 9:30 am on what would become an idle Tuesday. My Grandpa died last night.   Suddenly and unexpected.  It's still rather shocking. I've come to the keyboard countless times today to try and figure out how to write.  I feel I NEED to write.  I don't know what to write because I don't know what I feel.  I think my husband is right though; sometimes you have to write to know what you feel.   Wise words, Love.  Wise words.  Memories float in and out of my mind- but I wish I could hold on to some of them long enough to see what they are. To re-live them if only for a moment: The money Grandpa gave...

Feeling a bit contemplative today and glad it's raining so I don't have to feel guilty about bumming around in my PJs at 10:30 am (which let's face it- PJS are normal around here until early afternoon).  Yesterday was a long and strange day for no reason in particular.  Just was.   Then I got on Facebook before I went to bed and saw that a girl in Visalia was shot by her boyfriend- murder suicide.  I went to high school with her older brother and really she was just a grade below us and had connections to our circle of friends too.  Instantly my mind flashes to the Halloween party we went to at their house Junior or Senior year.  Grant singing Mack the Knife on Karaoke.  Playing in the strobe lights in the "graveyard".   I didn't sleep well last night.  Kept thinking I was having contractions- which I might have been- hard to tell.  Nothing that gets things really going though ya know?  And then I was thinkin...

My brother in law just got home from Afghanistan! Thanks for all you do! Glad you're home :)

I woke up this morning from a dream and immediately thought of this scene;  the final scene from The Wizard of OZ.   You can watch it HERE .  Or the M&M's version.... All my dear friends were there.  You and you and you....  there was talk of babies and books and politics (Oh My!)  Lovely food and laughter.   It certainly felt like HOME.  To the lovely ladies of the book club: Dorothy said it best, "Oh, but it  wasn't  a dream! It was a place! And you - and you - and you - and you were there. But you couldn't have been, could you?" "There's no place like home." You are all loved and missed. 

Had a special moment with Ian today.   So this blog is mostly to document that- so it doesn't get forgotten.  Ian has had a really hard time with Grandma Great's death.  He didn't want to talk about it.  He was a grump when we were there for the funeral and didn't even want to look at her body in the casket to say goodbye.  (Though I don't blame him- as I kid, and even as an adult it always felt weird to me.)  He knew her spirit was already gone to Heaven.  He didn't know how to express what he was feeling.  That much was clear.  The other day he mentioned giving Grandma and Grandpa some money that he was playing with "to help them so they won't be sad about Grandma Great."  He treasures/hoards money so the gesture of giving it to them freely was quite a significant statement for this 3 1/2 year old.   Then today. Another somewhat grumpy day. He won't eat and didn't want to take a nap.  So I sat down with him on his bed...

For Spring Break we made a little road trip to Blanding.   Here we found one of Ian's favorite things: Ian is saying "chugga woo woo!" I've been workin' on the railroad, all the live long day.  In the car again... It's important to switch drivers in order to stay alive, awake, alert, enthusiastic.  TAKE A HIKE!  So we did. To White Rock that is. What you can't see here is that big brother just made this drop and fell right into an unforeseen hole.  Landon ended up getting down a different way. It's important to keep the wild animals corralled:   At Granny H and Grampa's house the boys got a thrill out of the wheel barrow.  Ian watching a movie or maybe watching us play Wii.   (*Sorry I didn't get pictures of him playing wii.  It was awesome. ) Aunt Tiff caught this boy drinking the milk off his cereal.  Something he loves to do right away THEN eat the cereal.  Looks like we have an AWOL Cheerio....

Today is my friend Katie's birthday. She would have been 28. She died almost 5 1/2 years ago.  Travelling back to BYU from Oregon after Thanksgiving with her mom their car hit a patch of black ice and crashed.  While she was trying to get her mom out of the car another car hit the same patch of black ice spun out and hit her. They left behind her dad, and two brothers. Sean and I were driving back to Cedar from spending Thanksgiving in California with my family.  We were just engaged.  We had pulled over in Moapa Nevada to sleep for a bit when my phone rang.  Micah told me the news.  Surreal.  I hadn't seen KT in a few years but we kept in contact through email.  I couldn't focus at school very well- which was bad timing.  Finals were coming up.  Ended up taking an incomplete in a class that I finished a year later. One of my favorite memories of KT was a youth trip to the beach.  I was 12. I remember sitting in the back of so...

Last week we had the chance to go to Farmington NM to honor SFC Jim Thode who was Sean's Squad Leader for a while.  It was an emotional day for all of us. Also knowing my brother in law is still over there in Afghanistan lays a shadow on life and we'll await his safe return home before we really can breathe freely again. Sgt. Thode was a good man in every way.  He had his faults like we all do- but where it really counts with his family and friends and brothers in uniform- he was among the best of the best. We won't soon forget. Two Ladder Fire Trucks flying the Stars and Stripes for Jim Thode After the funeral service all the police and military personnel stood at attention to honor their fallen brother as the casket was loaded into the hearse.  The blonde in the right corner is actually Sean's cousin. But I had never met her before so I didn't know.  Her husband was on the police force with Thode. The view of the flag from where I was in the crowd out...

How do you describe emotions at a funeral?  All over the place?  Happy. Sad. Longing. Learning.  Grandpa Wittwer was a good man.  He was a hard worker.  He loved bees.   Too bad his kids hated them.     Didn't stop his love for good honey.   He loved to travel.   He loved God.   He loved my Grandma.  Of this I am SURE.   He loved to sing.   I will always think fondly of him walking around the house humming to himself.  Ladeedadeedum.   He would wind up the grandfather clock (and a few others) every Sunday.   He carried a stepstool in his big ol' truck for my little ol' grandma.   He loved bacon and eggs and toast every Saturday morning.   He loved watching Lawrence Welk (probably for the singing).   He loved war movies.   He liked essays to be "like a girl's skirt: short enough to be interesting but long enough to cover the subject."  He loved to...