My uncle passed away at the age of 35. He was 7 years older then I. I remember being fascinated with him as a child and following both him and my aunt Trudi all around. I'm sure at times it was annoying. I remember my uncle playing football in the front yard with his neighbors, Chuck and Pete Salazar, and wanting to join him all the time, probably the best. He'd eventually get annoyed and throw me and my brothers in the bushes as his way of getting us to go away. I never really rough housed with him much after those days. When we did see each other it was more of the casual conversation, "what you been doing? How are things going? Are you staying out of trouble?" and of course the occasional teasing, the big bear hugs, but other than that, there just wasn't much of a connection. To be honest I really had not felt much of a connection with my mother's family for years. Probably since around the time my parents divorced. It was almost like they had looked at me and my brothers differently, like we were more guests then family. Though I guess it never helped that we just weren't into the same things as they were. It seemed like most of the conversations had to do with hunting, camping, guns, fishing, and diesel trucks for the most part, and though I love camping, there just wasn't a lot to the conversations that I could contribute to.

Anyway, I knew that my uncle would see an early end. He had struggled with Type I diabetes since he was a kid. I know after studying the subject a few times between physiology classes and Nursing that not many did live long lives without many complications. At times I know that he also didn't take very good care of himself. Though I can't say that I always take good care of myself either. A few years ago it had finally taken hold of his kidneys and he was placed on a kidney and pancreas transplant list.The first time he had a transplant I went with my mom down to IMC to visit and be with my family during his surgery, though I never got to see him. I then heard the next day or so that he had rejected that transplant. He was then placed back on the list, and I guessed he had another one, though not sure when. But then when he went into back surgery a few months later, had caused problems with that transplant. Not too long later was doing dialysis for a few months. I guess around the time he was suppose to go back on the transplant list was the time he met his end.
Though I knew he was dying, I didn't think it would come this soon. I guess I was hoping to make a connection again before that had happened. I knew though I hadn't been close to him, that I would still feel a loss. I mean, I'll miss his teasing and hugs, but I think I feel more a loss for his children, and for my aunts and uncles, grandparents, and his friends that were closer to him. My tears came from the memories I had once shared with him as a younger child, that were finalized with his death. I know we weren't close, but I will miss you Uncle Jeffy.

Memorial Obituaries Rawson, Jeffery

Memorial Obituaries Rawson, Jeffery

Riverdale – Jeffery Allen Rawson passed away Monday, May 16, 2011 unexpectedly at McKay-Dee Hospital. He was born August 9, 1975 in Ogden, Utah, the son of Darold and Florence Rawson.

Jeff struggled with diabetes and its complications for over 20 years. Jeff loved his family and always wanted to be with them.

Through his struggles his goal was to live long enough to see his children grown and to protect them from life's challenges.

He loved his pets, John Wayne movies and his favorite pastime was camping and fishing.

He was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and he loved his Bishop and ward family.

Jeff is survived by his wife, Tasha Marie Rawson, daughter of Sherry and Richard Jensen; his children, Jessika, Zack, Jefferson, Cheli, Afton, Ethon, Dakota, Mya and Alec; his parents, Darold and Florence Rawson; brothers Darold (Marie) Rawson, Mike (Grace) Rawson; sisters, Tammy (Paul) Byrd, and Trudie Robinette; 20 nieces and nephews and his Grandmother, Etta M. Dawson.

He is preceded in death by his grandparents, Ray and Rhea Rawson and George A. Dawson.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that well-wishers make a donation to Myers Mortuary for the funeral expenses.

Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. on Friday, May 20, 2011 at Myers Ogden Mortuary, 845 Washington Blvd. with Bishop John Sandberg officiating. Friends and family may call at Myers Mortuary on Thursday, from 6 to 8 p.m. and Friday, from 9:40 to 10:40 a.m. Interment, Ogden City Cemetery

Mother's Day 2009

My Mom decided to take reigns of mother's day and took us all to Antelope Island. It was definately a blast. Still a bit chilly. Definately memorable. We played in the sand and had a pinic on the beach, and went rock skipping and searching for rock treasures.

My mom had everything prepared. She fried chicken for lunch with all the accessories, then suprised the kids with shovels and pails. Isn't she the one who's suppose to be spoiled?

Amelia definately got the hang of dumping sand in the bucket, and then after a few times of dumping it back out, she decided to see what would happen if she dumped it on her head. She thought it was very entertaining. The sand stuck to her shirt because she had spilt Sprite on herself. And she definately has sandy cheecks when we changed her diaper.

On the way over to the farm after we visited the visitor site and looked through the gift shop, and at all the cool pictures they had hanging up from an artist, we ran into a heard of bison crossing the road. I had taken some pictures with them on the road, but they didn't turn out. Here were some not too far off of the side.

Over at The Fielding Garr Ranch the kids had fun with the farm animals. They fed chickens with grass through the fence.

I love this picture of the horses. The were huddled together. Like I had mentioned it was chilly. They did come and visit us, but not for very long until the huddled back together.

This is one of Faith's posings for the picture. I love doing her hair in french braids. She has such pretty hair.

I love this picture as well. Amelia was sharing kisses with us, though sometimes she was just teasing. She ended up giving grandma Byrd a nice big wet one.

Of course the kids had to revisit the chicken coup. Carter just loved them too much. They all loved teasing them too.

Thank you mom, for an awesome Mother's Day. Definately one that we will always remember!

Easter 2009

I know, I'm always catching up. Anyways we had a pretty good Easter. As usual Weber State threw an Easter Egg Hunt for the kids. So Being a wildcat ( and getting a good opportunity for something free) we decided to take them. So we go there, and there of course is hundreds of people. We're sitting in the crowded entrance to the Student Union building on the mezanine.

It's not too bad waiting, the kids make friends, and they actually stayed next to us. Until right before the event started. It drives me nuts how inconsiderate some people are. We're crammed and waiting, and a whole bunch of people (namely a few with a certain ethnicity) have apparently saved spots for all of their family and they cram in even further, pushing and shoving their way to the front.

That wasn't the worst of it. They not only were the first ones in when they opened the area for the kids to hunt, but most of them were scooping up everything they could find, and when their buckets, bags, etc. were full, they started to fill pockets, or other things. And the parents of these kids were the worst offenders, taking their kids' buckets because apparently they weren't good enough themselves. The sad thing is there were so many who did wait in back of the line when they arrived, and these little kids had nothing, many went home dissapointed.

This is were this whole story gets good. Even though Faith (as well as the rest of the kids) didn't get alot of stuff, as we were walking by others who didn't have anything in their basket/bucket, she would look at the kid, and give them something appropriate from her bucket. Then Zander and Carter (and Amelia, kinda) followed her example, Until they had almost nothing left for themselves.

Though we didn't come back with much stuff. I was sooo happy with my kids and their generosity! Not only did they take my lessons of sharing, but they knew how to put that in action, even when they were not asked to. Faith told me that she didn't want other kids to be sad that they didn't get anything. I'm glad that she understands how to think with Empathy. They took a lesson far greater then just getting some Easter Eggs and toys would have given them. I am soooo proud to be their mommy!

Zander's 4th Birthday

My Dear Boy Zander! I can't believe how fast you're growing. You're growing leaps and bounds faster than I can keep up. Zander's favorite TV Shows: Charlie and Lola, Little Bill, Spongebob, Max and Ruby, Little Bear,
Favorite Movies: Polar Express, Monster's Inc., Matilda, Shrek, Monster House, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,

Favorite Foods: Mashed potatoes, pizza, burgers, peas, fried chicken, oatmeal pancakes, crab (both to eat and to watch), noodles (almost all kinds), mussells (seafood portifino), strawberries, red grapes,

Zander's favorite Drinks: orange juice, grapefruit juice (yep), orange soda, pink milk (strawberry), milk shakes,

Favorite treats: icecream, cookies, red grapes, suckers,

Zander's Favorite Things to do: Ride bikes, play with friends, play games on the computer, play board games (candy land, cherrio, sorry, and memory), Go to the Zoo, Go to Lagoon, petting kitties, playing with puppies, digging in the dirt,

Zander's favorite toys: Remote control train, leapster, daddy's tools,

Zander's Nicknames: Nanu, Nano, Zanu, Zanderman, Blankey McDougal, Mr Monkey man, Silly Head, little man, Mr Conductor, Louis

When he grows up he wants to be: a cook, a daddy, a superhero, and a train conductor.

Important Life Lesson # 122. RTFM!

So in Chemistry today the Professor starts off answering questions with the homework that students may have had. Anyway, so it's nice to get the professor to help you out with what you don't understand. Well, there is a group of girls that sit not too far behind me that don't pay attention in class and can get rude and disruptive talking to each other during the lesson. The professor had already gotten a little annoyed with them a couple of weeks ago when they were talking for the first 10 mins of class (not whispering) and told them that if they wanted to talk then to take it outside or at least to the back of the room, and not to waste everyone elses time and money being disruptive. At the end of that day one of them had the nerve to start asking questions in which the whole lecture for that day was leading up to explaining, in which the professor did several times and in several examples so that it became pretty understandable. You could tell the professor was pretty irritated with them and said that in order to get the explination they'd have to see her during office hours or make an appointment. So anyway there are things that indicate that they still aren't paying attention or doing their homework, but they try to make it seem like they do so they asked her to work out on of the questions from the homework in which was pretty randomly picked and I really don't think they were paying attention. The problem in which they wanted her to explain went like this.
"Select the quantity that contains the greater # of atoms in each of the pairs of substances"
a. 0.100 mole C atoms or 0.200 mole C atoms
so you really don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure this out. It's pretty self explainatory even if you don't know what moles are 2 is obviously bigger than 1. So needless to say the professor said something somewhat like this, "you know, if you just read the question you might know how to get the answer." She kind of laughs to herself, then asks the class, "Does anyone know what RTFM means?" She then explains that this term was told to her by a former student she had who had a teacher in high school that was proper, and often got frustrated with some of the students who wouldn't put effort into figuring the problem then came up with the term RTFM (Read The F*^%ing Manual). The Professor then went on to say that she wasn't smarter then the rest of us in what we can comprehend. The difference between her and the average joe was that she put effort into learning and finding out things that she needed to know, and where she wanted to get. The only reason that she could remember all these fancy terms and relations in Chemistry and Math, was because of years of teaching and repitition, but at one time had been a struggle for her.
It reminds me of this news broadcast a while back showing the increase need of Technical support, those so called "Nerds" that you knew back in high school that were now making the good money. When interviewing one of these "Nerds" he said his job is simple. He reads the instruction manual to the computer or electronics and puts effort into understanding them, which the majority of the population doesn't want to do, or claim they don't have enough time to do and that you don't necissarily need a degree to work with computers, just the want to learn and read the manuals that come with them, most things come with a pretty explainatory manuals, and those things that are hard to understand you can now just look up on the internet.

So anyway, I know what she's talking about. Most things aren't rocket science to understand, just the act of reading the manual, question, etc. just one time makes a huge impact in understanding. Though to get full understanding usually it has to be read a couple of times or more (at least the important things).
So remember to RTFM!

Warning, Dumb Drivers in Snow.

So today was not a very good day. I was sick over the weekend and still wasn't feeling very well this morning when I woke up. So in looking out the window and seeing how bad it was snowing, I just knew that if I dared venture out that something bad would likely to happen. Like Car accidents, slipping on campus, getting stuck inside a building, etc. But my husband wakes me up at 8:30am and says that I NEED to get out and pay some bills, and that it would be best to get them done in the morning. So not very happily I leave my warm bed.
I have a small talk with my mom, who's currently living with us, and munching on a donut, explaining how I need to leave for a little while to get things taken care of. On my way out to Ogden I notice that several lights between 29th and 36th are out on Washington Blvd. I know that at some point they're will be an accident, probably several accidents. There's accidents on good days, and with the snow and down lights, this just increases that likelyhood, because.... well I think many people on the driver ed test get this answer wrong. It's not like you need to get all of them right, right?
Yeah, I wasn't too far off.
I got through them fine the first time, and in 2 of the lights, of course I see people who don't treat them as a 4-way-stop, but fortunately for them, others were either being cautious, or weren't there. On my way back though, and get this the second light (you would think after the first down light that someone would know what to do), this girl slows down, but starts to go through with the car ahead of her, with all of the lanes full of people needing to go. So yes, a car going the perpendicular way that vision was blocked by a boxed delivery truck, get's T-Boned by this girl. luckily they weren't going at high speeds, there were some cuts from shards of glass hitting the guy in the face. But other than that, they seemed to be fine. It kinda irked me that someone who said he saw the whole thing, but that he vision was blocked from the boxed truck as well, said that he saw the girl stop, but wait... I thought he vision was blocked from her point. Oh well. I guess that's what he though he saw.
Anyway, after I get done helping with that. I'm coming back, being cautious, and as I'm stopped at a red light coming left onto 1900 from Riverdale (in Roy), everythings fine, then.....wham. I'm hit from behind.
At first I thought that maybe the guy behind me was hit from behind him and he then hit me. But as I put the car in park, and go to check on the guy, he looks at me kinda confused, puts his car in reverse then accellerates and hits a van behind him. This guy is in his late 80's -early 90's. I can tell that he feels bad and that he's concerned, but I'm concerned about what else he may do. So I call 911(again) and let them know. It was kinda funny because the cops didn't know where the accident was, not to say that it looked like an accident besides my hazards being on, but they must have circled the intersection a few times before me calling 911 again and waving them down finally caught their attention. The guy appologized, but I didn't see him leave with the rest of us. He had mentioned as my mom came to get me (just because I wasn't feeling good, and was a little shocky) that he didn't want to loose his driver's licence. I feel bad, but I really don't think he's coherent enough to be driving. Anyway, that's what's up today. I just wish people knew how to drive in bad weather and downed traffic lights.

My school update

So I met with my academic advisor to see how far I am (offically) at getting my Associates degree. I'm trying to figure out a plan that would suit me best on getting my goals accomplished. Apparently the last Pyschology class I took (Interpersonal relationships) didn't fulfil my social science catagory. I need to take classes from 2 different sub-sections from social sciences, so it's kind of a bugger. So I think I'll go into either an Anthropology or a Sociology class. I still need a Humanities/Creative art credit from another category I haven't taken like dancing, theater, foreign language, leterature, or music. I'm having a hard time figuring that one out. Then last of all I need the last section (c: spreadsheets) of computer literacy, which I think I'll try to test out of. Other than that I think I'll take the Pathophysiology that is a prerequisit for almost all the Nursing programs. I was able to get a "academic renewal" and take off the UW (unoffical withdrawl) I got from my Introduction to University class I took 8 years ago, but I'll have to wait another 3 weeks for it to become offical on my transcript. Other then that I think I'm going to submit an application for the PN (Practical Nursing) program over at the DATC for the Spring semester. That way I won't have to wait until the following fall semester for the Weberstate program, and they have a continuation into the RN Program with WeberState, which you won't have to compete for. I got an absolute yes to use 2 of my 3 professors as references, the last one has just been really busy. But I'm not on too much of a time crunch because the application for the nursing program for the spring semester at the DATC isn't open until April through June. Anyway that might seem like some boring stuff, but It's taken a bit to figure out. Oh and I still need to renew my CNA license. Hopefully that won't be too hard.