Brock's First Triathlon

Brock has talked about wanting to do a Triathlon for years.

But between how much he works, his church calling, and everything he does at home he didn't think he'd have time to train for it. 

So I decided for his birthday, I would sign him up and then NEVER complain when he needed to train.

I thought it was one of my best gifts until I started telling people about it.

Apparently five-ish weeks isn't very much time to train for your first triathlon- especially if you're not a great swimmer. So not only did I have to keep from complaining anytime he got home from work and immediately went to the gym, I also had to worry for five weeks that he might drown.

But Brock's a Gamer, so I didn't need to worry a bit.

He trained like crazy and swam almost everyday.

And I knew it was a good omen when he picked up his packet and his race number was 435.

That's my old St. George area code- Represent Southern Utah!

I woke up early on race day and went to watch Brock start the race.

I was SO nervous- remember this whole thing was my fault!

But he did SO good! I was so impressed and SO PROUD!!!

The swim was insane- like a mile long-

But he came out of that water looking like a Champ.

After the swim, I saw him take off on his bike- that he bought like 3 days before.

I went home and grabbed the girls to watch him finish.

I was so relieved that he finished the swim that I didn't worry about the rest of the race,

but Brock said the bike was SO hard.

I found out after that this race is known for it's difficult bike section- I probably should have done a little better research- the hills were pretty insane.

 I made it back with the girls just in time to see him finish the bike, and he looked so tired!

He still had a 10K to run! He'd tweaked his hamstring a couple weeks ago running, so he'd pretty much only biked and swam since then. So I did what I do best and worried about him finishing.

But of course he finished- and finished strong!

I was so impressed and in awe of him.

It's crazy what a great athlete he is.

Super glad I married him. :)

Right after the race before he could even finish his watermelon I asked him the big question...

"So, would you ever do this again?"

And he looked at me like I was crazy and said,

"Of course."

So maybe it wasn't such a terrible birthday present after all.

Way to go Brock!!! Love you! :)

Ten Years.

It's been pretty much forever since I've written anything here.

I blame Instagram because it's so easy to share what I'm up to with pictures.

But today I want to share some words about Brock and what he means to me.

That's really what I love about writing here... it's how I'm feeling at that moment.

So in honor of being married to my favorite guy for ten years, I'm back to the blog.

<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>

The day we got married is a bit of a blur.  It was the first temple marriage I had ever attended, so I had no idea how it actually all worked.  I drove up to the temple with my parents so that Brock wouldn't see me before the wedding- you know me and my superstitions. Turns out they don't let you into the temple without your future spouse, so my parents and I sat in the lobby and everyone looked at me sympathetically like I'd been stood up on my wedding day.  After awhile I started to worry because he was late. Then our guests started showing up and I actually started worrying that maybe I had been stood up!

Then I saw him walk in through the doors. I was so relieved that he'd shown up, but then I saw his face and realized he was freaking out. He looked like he was going to be sick.  I looked at him and looked at my parents and I think everyone sensed that he was stressed. They took us through the paper work and I kept looking at his face hoping he would smile at me, but he wouldn't even look at me.  His face looked pale and he was NOT smiling. I remember feeling sick to my stomach. I started worrying that he wasn't sure about this- maybe he didn't want to marry me! What was going on?! I wanted to cry.

We went our separate ways to get dressed. The bride's room in the Salt Lake Temple was packed. One of the Temple Workers was yelling (in a quiet voice) at me because we were late and we were making a General Authority (President Bateman) wait on us and do we know how busy General Authorities are? And I stood there looking in mirror while my mom did up my dress worrying about Brock.  At one point after his mission, he had said he wanted to get married when he was 25 and finished with school- I had thought he was just playing hard to get, but what if that's really what he wanted and he doesn't want to marry me today? My mom could tell I was upset and kept saying things like, "It's ok. It's all ok. We're not late. You look beautiful. It's all ok." And yet it didn't feel ok. I wanted to cry.

Finally we were finished and the temple worker moved on to hound some other poor bride. I was led around a corner and saw Brock. I was a bundle of nerves. I was so close to bursting into tears and ruining my professionally done makeup, but then I saw him.  And he looked so, so GOOD. I looked up at him expecting to see that worried look on his face, and he looked at me and smiled. With that one smile, everything changed. Every worry, every stress, every fear left. With that one smile, he made me feel like the most beautiful and most punctual bride in the world. He held my hand and told me I looked beautiful and I've never been so happy in my life.

The ceremony was a blur. All I remember is our family smiling at us and how I felt when I knelt across the altar from Brock. I've never felt joy like that. It felt like it was physical, somehow. Like it was pouring out of my fingers in a way. I've never felt like that before or since. I felt so close to Brock, but I also felt so close to God. It was absolutely amazing.

The rest of the day was full of love, laughter, family, and so much fun. It was not full of food and I remember being hungry the entire day and poor Brock's feet were killing him because his shoes were like three sizes too small. But he's tough and got through it and even danced at the reception with me- but his feet were probably numb at that point. :) Then it was time to leave and we hopped into the limo- we made a quick stop at the Wendy's drive-thru where we had to make a few 8 point turns to get through it and it turned out I wasn't hungry anymore because I was nervous... honeymoon nerves, you know. So Brock ordered a number 6 with fruit punch and I ordered a diet coke and we were off. 

And now it's ten years later. When I think about how young Brock and I were, it's amazing to me that we've made it. Marriage isn't easy because life isn't easy. We've been through so much, but have also been blessed more than I ever could have imagined.

When we were in Mexico on our honeymoon, I asked Brock about that morning before the wedding. I asked him what was wrong. Was he nervous? Was he having second thoughts?  I was actually nervous to ask- but what he told me made me love him and respect him so much more. It also made me realize I had a lot to learn from him. 

Brock told me that he knew this was the most important thing he would ever do in his entire life and he was taking it seriously.  He said from the moment he woke up he knew that getting married in the temple was the biggest decision he'd ever make and that it was something he wanted to thoughtfully. I was surprised because the Brock of 21 (almost 22) was a very fun loving guy, but it was just a glimpse for me of the kind of husband he would be. 

This means more to me today than ever because he has lived these last ten years this way. He treats his marriage and his family like the most important thing he's ever done or will do.  Brock is blessed with the ability to succeed at life- he's been blessed so much, but he turns it all over to his family.  He's an amazing father and I love him so much for that. 

I'm so grateful for him. I grateful for him everyday. I'm grateful that he takes his role as a husband and father so seriously. His dedication to us means so much to me. It makes me love him more now than I did the day I married him. And his smile... it still makes me everything else go away. And I feel like his beautiful bride, ten years later. 

Chicago

I had never been to Chicago, and it was top on my list of cities I wanted to visit list.

So when I was told I needed to go see a specialist for my knee- I thought it was lucky that he was in Chicago.

We flew in Sunday night and sat in traffic for an hour or two, but I was determined to eat pizza in Chicago- so we persevered until we arrived in downtown Chicago. The pizza was huge and so, so good.  Then we walked down Michigan Ave in the rain, and then we checked into our hotel room. The next morning Brock and I woke up and decided to walk around and explore. Since our hotel was so close to the lake, we decided to walk there.

It was FREEZING.

I have never been so cold in the sunshine in my entire life.

It is true...

Chicago=Windy City

We walked as fast as we could there and as fast as we could back- with a break for hot, hot chocolate.

And then I discovered the indoor mall, with the indoor Nordstrom's and I was much warmer.

The rest of the day was spent at my surgeons office waiting, getting x-rays, waiting, filling out millions of forms, waiting, going back to the exam room, waiting, talking to the doctor, waiting, talking to the PA, waiting, having a small anxiety attack, waiting, and talking to the Dr. again.

I hated it.

But I need it- so it is what it is.

But after all that, my dad texted me and said that there were two tickets for us for the Bulls v Celtics game that night.  Brock was so pumped. We checked out the famous Michael Jordan statue and saw all the Championship trophies. Brock liked telling people we got our tickets from D Rose... conveniently leaving out that it was actually David and not Derrick.  The game was super boring until the 4th quarter and then it was fantastic.

Brock decided that I needed a Rose #1 shirt- so we picked up a few souvenirs before we left.

We went out to eat after the game and watched it snow in Chicago.

Then we drove to our hotel by the airport and slept for about 4 hours before we had to catch our flight to New York. It was a short trip in the windy city, but fortunately/unfortunately we will be back very soon...

Nine Years.

This was us- nine years ago.

It really was the best day ever.

Since this day we:

Went to Mexico on a Honeymoon

Graduated from BYU (me)

Graduated from SLCC (B)

Taught 3 years of High School (me)

Had a Baby Girl (me)

Graduated from BYU (B)

Went to Greece

Got a job (B)

Moved to Idaho

Had another Baby Girl (me)

Got a new job (B)

Had another Baby Girl (me)

Got another new job (B)

Had one more Baby Girl (me)

Got another new job (B)

Moved to Washington...

And here we are nine years later.

Dear Brock,

Thanks for marrying me.

You are the best.

These last nine years have been amazing-

better than I EVER expected.

I am the luckiest wife in the world.

But what do you say in the next nine years

we have a few less babies

 and a few less new jobs-

and a few more vacations.

Happy Anniversary!

I could not love you more. 

-Chanell



The Hunt.

 Easter Saturday was pure excitement at our house.

The girls wore their new outfits.

The were not weather appropriate, but I refuse to dress my kids like it's winter on Easter.

It's the principle of the matter.

 We went to the neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt.

It's the best thing about our neighborhood.

You drop off eggs on Friday and you show up to the hunt on Saturday.

 Before it started, I gave Annie some strategy pointers- just coached her up a little.

I told her to sprint past all the other kids and she'd have all the eggs to herself.

 Brock had to keep chasing Tessa down because she kept jumping the gun and running towards the eggs.  The kids would all start screaming hysterically that she wasn't supposed to go yet! So Brock would go grab her and then Tessa would start to cry.

(Please ignore the guys with his hood on and the kids with parkas and gloves... it wasn't too cold to put your two year old in shorts. It was downright balmy.)

 FINALLY... they let the two year old go- and she was off!

 Past the eggs...

 Past me...

 Heading straight for the park.

 Up the stairs... past more eggs...

Straight to the SLIDE!!! She didn't pick up one egg. The entire time she was running she was just trying to get to the slide... I was laughing so hard- I was crying.

 By the time I caught up to Annie she was finished.

My strategy tips worked perfectly.

I told her to throw an egg on the ground and pick it up so I could take a picture.
She rolled her eyes. She does that now.

(By the way, the only downside to the neighborhood hunt is that they count the kids and divide the eggs among the kids so each kid gets the same amount of eggs- all fair and equal in our neighborhood.  Fair and equal is nice, but not exactly as much fun as a competition. There was one big problem and that was that each kid was allotted 12 eggs, so our family allotment was a total of 36 eggs. But we dropped off 96 eggs, so some of those kids were free loading off of us. Brock gently suggested I not ask any kids if they were sure their mom dropped off eggs before the hunt.

 Kate protested this injustice by gathering 38 eggs.

I started panicking when I saw her basket and I heard some mom say, "My little boy only has two eggs."  So I started throwing her eggs back onto the grass and she started crying.

Then I remembered that Tessa didn't pick up any eggs at all, so I let a few extra slide. 

Annie had twelve eggs on the dot in her basket. She follows rules like her mother. 

Kate quickly forgave me for throwing her eggs out of her basket because she's a sweetheart like that.

She wasn't as forgiving when I made her give 12 eggs to Tessa in the car.

Did I mention that Tessa and Kate fight now?

Brock and I spent the rest of the morning arguing about the Easter Bunny.

I told him that the Easter Bunny needed to go shopping.

He told me the Easter Bunny already bought the girls new clothes and new dresses.

I told him that the Easter Bunny was bringing treats and toys and an Easter Basket.

He told me that the Easter Bunny was buying a new house this year.

I told him that the Easter Bunny was going to look like a jerk if he brought all the other kids Easter Baskets and didn't bring anything to our kids.

He relented and took the Easter Bunny shopping.

Plus I think sometimes he just thinks it's fun to argue with me about stuff like this.

He's hilarious like that.

And Eve slept through the entire morning in the car.

But don't worry she had a new Easter outfit too. 

Weekend Warrior.

So I had a bit of a hard week last week.

By the time Friday rolled around, I was a wreck.

My house was a mess.

The girls were sick and tired of being and the house and they were going crazy.

I had decided that my knee was going to hurt for the REST OF MY LIFE.

And the thought of going up, or even worse, down the stairs was enough to bring me to tears.

That is what Brock came home to on Friday.

Four crazy kids and a tearful wife.

I told him that I wanted to move.

He said, "OK... Where?"

"Anywhere."

You see I was in crisis and so when fight or flight set in- I pretty much chose flight.

He decided we should talk about it over dinner.

So we went out to dinner with the kids, and they were so thrilled to be out of the house that they were good.

Saturday came and he and I hung out at home and he brought me ice while I propped up my leg.

He brought me stuff, let me choose what basketball games to watch and made me laugh all day.

I went to Costco because you can only send your husband to the store so many times before your house ends up being filled with snacks and Gatorade- and he cleaned the house while I was gone.

Sunday we were on time to church-

Everyone had naps except Tessa- 

We ate dinner- 

Brock did the dishes-

And then gave Tessa a bath in the sink because she was covered in spaghetti- 

And THEN he made me the best freakin' orange smoothie-ish drink on the planet-

And made me laugh some more.

And that's when I realized that I am one lucky girl.

So before he fell asleep from utter exhaustion, I told him that maybe I didn't really want to move.

I guess we can stay here.

After all I really like living here with him.

Maybe I could fight a little more and flight a little less.

It's worth a try.

p.s. I am not writing this so that anyone feels like they should have called to see if I needed help. I promise if you did call I would have said I'm fine and I don't need any help. That's pretty much how I roll. And I know that I have fantastic friends that would help me and family who would drive up in a second if I needed them. At all times I understood that this wasn't really a crisis- it just FELT like one.

Plus I think Brock likes playing the part of the White Knight- every once in a while.

A White Knight with a jihad-ist beard.

Midnight Patrol.

I've decided that having 4 kids in 6 years is fun and tiring.
If I was going to break it down into numbers,
I would have to say having 4 kids in 6 years is like, I don't know-
Maybe 95% Exhausting and 5% fun.
Especially around 4:00 pm- the ratio at 4 pm is more like 101% exhausting and -1% fun.
So last night I decided that I was going to get a good nights sleep.
So here is a report on how I did.
10:00 pm- in my bed, but Brock is on the computer- so I can't sleep.
10:15 pm- Got out of bed to show Brock the Hunger Games Preview.
10:30 pm- Still telling Brock about the plot and can you believe that Lenny Kravitz is Cinna- and he is saying all the appropriate questions to show that he listening, but I can see that he is wondering why in the world I am talking about a movie that comes out March 23- that is so far away right now. We might as well stay up and talk about our retirement plans.
10:45 pm- falling asleep, but with one eye open because I am worried that someone is going to kill me in my sleep.
12:45 am- wake to hear someone POUNDING on our door. Trying to figure out what the crap that was- then more pounding and then the doorbell. I wake Brock up and say "GET THE DOOR! EMERGENCY!" He does not wake up quickly. He is confused. He gets up and slowly and very confusedly makes his way downstairs. The POUNDING AND RINGING continue throughout all of this. Brock makes his way to the window and peeks out. He then stands there in front of the door- while yet again there is pounding and ringing. "OPEN THE DOOR!" I say and then finally look at him to see he has no "official" shorts on- he does have "unofficial" shorts, but not "allowed to answer the door in" shorts. So I proceed to tell him NOT to answer the door. "I'll get it." I look out the window and see it's a Lady Officer of the Law. I open the door and she goes on to tell me that our garage door is open, and she doesn't want anyone to steal all of our stuff or walk into our house. "Oh, thank you. We will go shut it now." Watching her carefully as she holds her giant flashlight. Was she pounding on our door with that bad boy? I shut the door. I shut the garage door. We go back to bed.
12:50 am- I cannot slow my heart rate. I cannot close my eyes.
12:55 am- I make Brock double check all of our doors to make sure they're locked.
1:00 am- I cannot turn my back to the door.
1:05 am- I try to remember exactly what the lady cop said. I wasn't sure if she said she thought she saw someone go into our garage. Why didn't I ask her why she was here. Was she looking for someone? Did they look in our garage?
1:10 am- I make Brock go check the garage.
1:15 am- Still cannot close my eyes. I start to imagine a crazy guy is in our house. I come up with a plan. I will feed him. That's all I got. I realize I have nothing to use as a weapon. I make a mental note to put a baseball bat under my bed. That should suffice- I used to hit home runs.
1:20 am- Brock scares the crap out of me when he comes back upstairs to give me the all-clear. Realize it's probably a good thing I don't have any weapons under my bed.
1:30 am- Now I am positive that there is somebody in my house. I can hear him walking around. I make Brock bring the girls in our room.
1:45 am- Brock makes me go downstairs with him so I can check all the hiding spots where I think this intruder may be hiding. Once the lights are all on downstairs, I realize I'm being silly- but I still check the coat closet.
2:00 am- Back in the dark, I realize I didn't check under the kitchen sink. Maybe he is a very small intruder. Now I actually realize I'm being ridiculous. Make myself close my eyes. Eventually fall asleep.
3:00 am- Baby Eve wakes up because she's hungry.
4:00 am- I have a dream I'm answering questions from the Lady Cop at Kneader's while we eat french toast- maybe I am hungry too.
5:00 am- Brock gets up for work.
5:30 am- Brock leaves for work.
6:00 am- Tessa wakes up. I give her my phone so she can watch Dora. I am soooo tired.
7:00 am- Girlies wake up. I let them play games on the computer. Still sooooo tired.
8:00 am- Eve wakes up. Time to start my day...
So much for my good night's rest. And somebody tell me why the Lady Cop didn't just shut my garage for me. She could have just pushed the button and ducked under the door while hopping over the laser. I'm sure the do drills for that kind of stuff all the time. But I do appreciate her looking out for us- glad we have the law on our side.

Here is a list of things I learned last night.
1. Brock is not to be relied on if there is an emergency in the middle of the night. He did not even put shorts on.
2. I am a wimp, and I worry a lot.
3. I should not think about Hunger Games before bed.
4. There is a chance that Brock is hiding a secret criminal background from me. When I asked him today why he didn't answer the door- he said, "I saw the cop car, and I thought they were coming for me." I asked him why they might be coming for him. He said, "That's why I was confused. I didn't think I had done anything wrong. I do have that one parking ticket I haven't paid..."
5. Brock is a good husband and put up with all of my freaking out and still got up and got himself off to work. I am impressed.

And so now, it is 4 pm. I have to say that today I am pretty much 200% tired and -100% fun. But I do have a safe family and a garage full of stuff- except I am missing a bin filled with 5T girls clothes. Maybe the very small intruder that hid under my kitchen sink was a girl and she took off with that bin... That explains it...

Brock is my Husband.

So, I've decided to post interviews with my favorite people on Fridays. We'll see how long it lasts. I guess it depends on how people like me enough to put up with an interview...

So to start off here is an interview with Brock because he is obligated to do stuff like this for me.

***



Me: Thanks for agreeing to this interview. You are such a nice guy.

Brock: Anytime. I would do anything for you.

Me: Really...Anything?

Brock: Well...

Me: Do you know that I write about our family on a blog?

Brock: Yes.

Me: Have you ever read it?

Brock: Sometimes.

Me: Why haven't you ever commented?

Brock: Because it's YOUR blog.

Me: Do you think you are too good for my blog?

Brock: Absolutely not.

Me: Now that we got that out of the way... State your name and relationship to the author.

Brock: Brock Reichner- the author is my lovely, beautiful wife.

Me: Wow. Lovely AND Beautiful? Nice! What's it like being married to me?

Brock: It's pretty sweet. I'm a lucky dude.

Me: Ha! Sure. Do you know some people feel bad for you because you have four daughters? What would you like to say to those people?

Brock: Back off! If Ty Detmer can do it- so can I. Let's see... Why would I feel bad? My four girls could take anybody's boy. Having these girls is really fun. Plus we don't have to worry about having any daughter-in-laws.

Me: Speaking of in-laws... what do you think about my parents?

Brock: (eye roll) They are the coolest in-laws ever.

Me: Do you think you are a good son-in-law?

Brock: Well, I'm the only one so far- so sure.

Me: You're not going to mention the super low interest rate you got my dad back in '03- or the 20 games you won for him in '06? How about a couple months ago when you scheduled his team to play against the Greek and Italian National teams... and then they got trounced- maybe you should just mention the interest rate...

Brock: Well, until Taylor get's married, I've got a lock on the favorite son-in-law.

Me: Speaking of favorite...What was it like being the youngest/favorite child of your family?

Brock: I wasn't the favorite- Mark was the favorite. It was fun because my family was a very adventurous and active family. We had a lot of good times.
Me: Mark never had a Cadillac to drive in high school.
Brock: Mark didn't go to Timpview High School. You needed a Cadillac at Timpview. Plus Mark went to high school at Lakewood- if he had driven a car to school- somebody would have stolen it.

Me: I remember when we were dating  and you drove that cadillac to our house and parked it in the driveway- then you opened the trunk and pulled out a piece of cardboard to put under the car so it wouldn't drip oil on my parent's driveway. I think my dad fell in love with you that day. Oh ya, and did I mention that it beeped like a dump truck when you put it in reverse. Oh and it had an old school cell phone with a chord. That car was awesome. Whatever happened to the Cady?

Brock: I sold it right before I went on my mission. There are many books that could be written about that Cadillac.

Me: You said your family was adventurous. What kinds of stuff would you do with your family?

Brock: My dad had a sailboat and we would sail off the coast of Oceanside. We also had a motorhome and traveled a lot in the summer time. We would go to different basketball camps so my dad could work. Then we would tour around the different national parks. We liked fishing and hiking and spending time at the beach.

Me: It's been a little over three years since your mom passed away. What do you miss the most about her?

Brock: I miss not being able to call and talk to her and find out what she's doing and telling her what I'm doing. She was such a huge support in my life.  I'm sad that she can't see her grandchildren. And I miss her Greek cooking.

Me: Your dad turns 70 this year. Do you have anything planned to celebrate?
Brock: Yes. We are going to Las Vegas. Just him and his boys.

Me: Wow. Vegas huh. Sounds like the perfect place to take your dad for his Bachelor party- I mean 70th  birthday... What is a favorite memory about your dad?

Brock: When he was coaching at a junior college, he would have these summer basketball camps that I would go to. I loved seeing him coach and being apart of his camps- winning different awards and stuff. It was a lot of fun.

Me: Now let's finish up with a few more things about you... Favorite food.

Brock: Lasagna.

Me: Favorite Song or Artist. Brock: Coldplay.

Me: Favorite color. Brock: Blue.

Me: Favorite Team. Brock: Laker's

Me: Favorite Girl. Brock: You.

Me: Thank you for letting me interview you. You are the bomb.com babe.

Brock: Let's go get some Cafe Rio.

***

Can you see why I love this guy so much?

If you have any other questions for Brock- leave a comment and I will ask him for you...

Except Brock- because he doesn't comment on MY blog.

Post Season Post.

Remeber when Jimmer scored 52 points?
Me too.
We were there.

So officially that was the best post season ever.
And officially I am crazy.
After driving to Provo to see them beat Wyoming to be Conference Champs,
I drove to Vegas to watch the LAST, EVER tournament in the Thomas and Whack Center.
It was a fantastic trip because my girls were in Provo with Brock's sister.
And it was warm.
And remember when Jimmer scored 52 points?
Me too.
Awesome.

And from there the traveling gets a little trickier,
and I get even crazier.
We took the whole family to Denver for the NCAA's.
It was fantastic because the team won and then won AGAIN.
And me and Tessa had some quality bonding time while she hung out on my lap.
Annie documented our fun with Brock's phone...

And then just for the FUN of it...

Tessa and I flew to New Orleans for the Sweet Sixteen.

So she got to sit on my lap on the plane AND at the game.

She pretty much hated it more than anything else in her entire life.

But I am so glad I went because that is one ridiculous accomplishment for those dudes.

To carry those expectations all year.

And then to meet and excede them- unbelievable.

I do have to confess that with four minutes to go in the game I started to cry.

I was not prepared for the PRESSURE.

I wanted them to win- I wanted them to make shots.

And then when it went to OT- I started crying again.

Famous guy, Chad Lewis saw me crying and asked if I was nervous.

Uh, more like having a nervous breakdown.

Too. Much. Pressure.

Not. Enough. Baskets.

My mom was frantic trying to find me some anti-anxiety medication

that I am sure pregant women should not take without a prescription.

But I managed to get a grip- without the medication,

but then Tessa tore her lucky flower out of her hair and then we lost.

I partly blame the loss on Tessa's missing lucky flower,

but mostly I blame the refs.

'Cause I'm a ref-blamin' kind of girl.

Always have been- always will.

But I really love that team.

We all do.

Annie asked if we could drive down to watch Jimmer, Jackson and Logan graduate.

I am positive she doesn't know what graduate means.

That sounds fun though-

Hopefully I would get to hold Tessa on my lap the whole time.

That would be fantastic.

And for a quick sidenote:

I am so glad that I went to the Big Easy because how else would I have known that
New Orleans stinks.

Literally stinky- but luckily I was able to REALLY appreciate it

because I was pregnant so every smell was magnified by a thousand-

(pee + BO + rotting garbage) x 1,000 = New Orleans.

B.rock's my socks.

Brock with his two of his "ladies" at the Boise State basketball game.

Dear Brock,
Happy Valentine's Day!
I hope you know how much you are loved by
Me.
And all your other "ladies" as you like to call your girls.
Thanks for being the greatest guy ever.
Like the time you took me to PF Chang's on Friday for a date and ran to meet me on the on ramp so we wouldn't miss our reservation and the lady in the car in front of me almost called the cops but then you waved at her to show you weren't car jacking anyone.
Or like the time on Saturday you took the girls to the jumping place by yourself because I won't go because it smells like feet there. And Annie and Kate got into a massive argument over the purple socks and then Kate had a massive meltdown and Tessa started hitting everyone in the face just to be apart of the action. And you took them anyway and even got them frozen yogurt after. You even brought a frozen yogurt home for me and I didn't eat it because I said I didn't like chocolate that day and you didn't even get mad about that.
You are one of a kind.
And I love you so much!
Have a great day!
Love,
Chanell

My grandma.

My Grandma Lang passed away in October. I have not mentioned it because honestly she deserves words that I can't write. She was a huge part of my life and I owe her so much. I flew down for her funeral and arrived just as a "cousin meeting" was finishing. All of my cousins had told a story about my grandma and what she meant to them. I literally walked in the door and my mother, who was at the microphone, said, "Oh good, Chanell come up and tell us a story about Grandma Lang." I was not prepared and mumbled out something about grilled cheese sandwiches and canned peaches. It was lame.
Today, Tessa got on top of Brock's desk and threw everything she could reach onto the floor- this coming just a few days after Brock spent hours organizing it. As I was stacking up papers I came across a letter to Elder Reichner from my Grandma Lang. I knew this letter existed, but I had never actually seen or read it.
But it goes like this:
***
Dear Elder Reichner,
I really enjoyed your letter and hearing about your mission. It sounds like you are having some great spiritual experiences. I am sure it was an interesting experience to work with the people in Africa and with your special spirit you accomplished much good.
I have a pretty quiet life. Go to the temple whenever I can and do water aerobics everyday plus baseball games. Zach and Jordan both play so we spend quite a lot of time at the ball field but it is fun to watch them play. We are fast approaching summer. It is starting to get warm. Everything is green and beautiful. I love this time of year.
I guess you have probably heard that Chanell's wedding is off. After much thought and prayer she decided it would be a huge mistake to go through with it so they called it off.
I was a little relieved since I had hoped maybe you and Chanell would get together. I don't know what the future holds, but I want you to know I will always think of you as part of our family and would be honored to have you call me Grandma.
Keep up the good work and may our Father in Heaven bless you as you serve him and the people of Portugal. I know you are a great missionary.
Love,
Grandma Lang
***
Now I knew she had written Brock. I knew he had received her letter before he received my letter. I also knew the only reason I had written Brock was because my Grandma wouldn't let me leave her house until I did and when I came out for breakfast I found a notepad, pen, envelope and stamps. She even had his address for me. I of course was a little embarrassed and didn't intend to write because I was SURE he didn't want to hear from me.
But little did I know that my Grandma had written him and told him she was "relieved" because she "had hoped" we would get together!!! How in the world did she have the nerve? And the wording, it's absolutely perfect. She's a matchmaking genius!
Brock has always said that if it wasn't for my Grandma, we would have never ended up together. But I really had no idea.
I love my Grandma Lang so much. I cannot express what she means to me. She was such an amazing example for me growing up and such a strength in my life. I am thankful for every gift she gave me, but especially for Brock... and all those grilled cheese sandwiches and peaches too.

photo booth.

This picture is awesome.
So are the 900 others we took on my parent's computer.
How sweet are my bangs?

And then there was this one.

And this one.

Here's one of my dad. He's a super funny guy.

And the Birthday girl.

But it does not get any awesomer than this shot of G.  Seriously.

Oh wait. It does. Awesomest.

Well, that was fun.
Goodnight.