I can has cookie?

Hello everybody. My name is Lisa and I have officially ignored my blog for over 8 months. I believe that such an accomplishment deserves a plaque, or a cookie or something. While I have no good explanation for never updating, I will just claim laziness and move along.

I'm kinda tired at the moment, and my eyes are burning like they're on fire, but I'm going to try and cram 8 months worth of updates into one concise post. Wish me luck.

~ Last summer was pretty fantastic as it was filled with concerts, girls camp, bike rides and hanging around with Jake.

~ Work has been good. Crazy, but good. Despite the fact that I'm a foodservice slave, I really do enjoy my job. I work with fun people and I love the daily interactions that I have with my eccentric regulars. Perhaps I'll continue being a sandwich slave for many years to come.

~ The holiday season was great! This was the first time that I've ever had to do two different family Thanksgiving dinners, but I really enjoyed both of them. I had a great time getting to know Jakes family even more as I hung around with them at their Thanksgiving and Christmas parties. I also really loved that he came to my family Thanksgiving and that he spent Christmas day with me and my family. Another special treat was that my Grandma and Grandpa Lewis came down and spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with us. I'll always have the awesome memory of sitting around the dining room table teaching Grandma how to play Apples to Apples. :D While they were down Ryan recorded Grandpa telling stories and recalling memories from WWII. These recordings are so incredibly precious to my family now.

~ As most of you know my family experienced a loss like we've never felt before this January. January 6 my younger brother Ryan passed away. He had turned 24 just three days before, and it came as a complete surprise. I miss him so much that even as I type this I find myself tearing up. My family is doing ok though, because we have the plan of salvation and we know that as an eternal family we WILL be together again. While we wish that we could still have him with us, we know that he's doing important work on the other side and we rejoice in the fact that he is finally free from the debilitating and chronic pain that he had to suffer with for so long. LOVE YOU RY!!!!!!!!

~ On to a happier subject. It's been one year since I was put in as a worker in the Special Needs Mutual and I cannot imagine a calling that would bring me greater joy. I love each and every one of my kids and I am so grateful to be able to hang out with them each week. We're working on our play for this year, which is going to be FANTASTIC! It's called The Magic Bus and it's a 60's musical revue :D So far it looks like it'll be on April 30th, but if I remember I'll post the final date when it's decided on.

~ Well, that's about taken it out of me for now so I'm gonna sign off for tonight. Hopefully I'll get over the blog-apathy and post again soon, but I wouldn't hold my breath. ;)