Daisypath Anniversary tickers

Daisypath - Personal pictureDaisypath Anniversary tickers

Friday, May 31, 2013

Best gift ever

Tyler seriously just gave me the BEST gift ever! I recently started jogging again in the mornings, and Tyler programmed one of our old iPods with songs he likes so I can listen to 954 of his favorite tunes while he's on his mission. I already find myself smiling when songs come on that remind me of when he was a little boy.   I think every boy who moves away from home should do something like this for his Momma. LOVE it:) Plus it keeps me motivated to get up and jog when I really don't feel like it otherwise. This is a good thing:) 

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Riken

 He officially moved to St George on Thursday. 
I finally put away the walker, bouncer, tub, stroller, playpen, etc. last night. 
I'm super happy for Ashli and Mack and think they will have a FABULOUS life in sunny St. George, but, dang, I miss having Riken in my home every day. 

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Yankees @ Rockies 2013

Unless you are a baseball fan, you have NO idea how amazing this is. Mariano Rivera is unarguably the BEST closer in the history of baseball and he's retiring at the end of the season, so for us to have this view of him warming up in the bullpen and then taking the field to get the save is like almost an impossible life event. 
But to make it even MORE amazing, just as I was finishing taping the video, Yankees pitching coach Mike Harkey looked up at Tyler and tossed him the ball that Mo had been using to warm up in the bullpen. WOW!!! We've obtained a few balls from games over the years, but THIS one. Wow. Touched by only 4 people at this point. Mariano Rivera, Austin Romine, Mike Harkey and Tyler Allred. This is unbelievable. 
 The whole trip was amazing!!! I just threw these photos on blogger in random order, but it was awesome. 

 This was Ken's first MLB game EVER and Brett Gardner tossed him a ball during batting practice. AWESOME! 
 We were thisclose to Mo a few times this week. Awe. Life is good:) 
 Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame was great. 
 One of the highlights of our trip was meeting Tom Cortez. We stopped for lunch at a Jack-in-the-Box and this amazing guy was working. We were all in Yankees jerseys, so he came over to our table and introduced himself as a lifelong Yankees fan who didn't have tickets to any of the three games in the series. Well, we had two extra because Ashli and Mack couldn't make the trip, and we gave them to Tom. He met us at the game, and we had a blast getting to know him a little bit. Great guy. 
 Joba's still rehabbing from an injury and did some jogging in the outfield before Game 3.
 CC!!!
 Before game 3, we finally found the fun stuff out in the community surrounding Coors Field in Denver. Like the $1 hot dog stand! 
 On the last day of our trip, we went out to Golden to see the brewery 
 and the Buffalo Bill museum. 
 We got a big kick out of this. 
 Great trip, great memories made in the summer before Ty leaves for his mission. 
Am I a lucky girl or what? 

Friday, May 03, 2013

Tyler's Mission call

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zLqkji99_Q

I seriously hope you can open the link to Ty's mission call video, 'cuz it's really awesome!!!
I don't even know where to start to describe the amazing things I've felt and seen over the past few weeks as we prepared to receive Ty's mission call. Even going back YEARS, so much has led to this moment, it's hard to describe it all.
Let's start here. Every one of these guys has received his mission call. These are the kind of people my son chose to have in his life for the past 19 years. Amazing young men, on and off the football field, in and out of the classroom. Just a really great influence on each other. Most of them drove home from SUU the weekend before finals just to be there for Ty when he opened his call. They all love and support each other so much, it's a blessing to know that Ty has them in his life. 

So to the weeks before his call finally came. Ty has been terrified that he'd go to Asia or a country where he'd have to deal with snakes (his biggest fear in THE world) or spiders or rotten meat hanging in the streets or any number of other challenges he could have faced. He would have served the Lord wherever,of course, but he really wanted to stay in the United States. Well, he got his papers in, and the wait began. 
Every Wednesday we walked out to the mailbox to see if that big white envelope was here. And week after week, it wasn't here. Just in case it was a day or two late, we did the same thing on Thursdays and Fridays, then by Saturday we had given up all hope of it arriving at all. Kurt was getting irritated, because we were planning to open it at Tracy's house, and she had a nice dinner, cute decorations and fun stuff planned, so they really needed to know WHEN to plan the event. We checked with the Bishop every Sunday, and for like three weeks, his status said "Call has been assigned", so we knew it was coming. On Wednesday April 24th, I went over to the Manti temple to do an endowment session. I wanted to pray in the celestial room about Ty and also about Ashli and Mack as they are in the process of moving to St George and I needed to accept the fact that I won't see them every day:( 
So, anyway.... as I left the dressing room at the temple, I saw sweet little Norma Bramall, from the old Nephi 3rd Ward. I love when I see 3rd warders in the temple. It is the ward where I raised my kids, and there are so many wonderful people there.  As I turned the corner, Sister Ora Mae Mellor was sitting at the desk. She is the wife of our former 3rd ward bishop, Chuck Mellor. So that was another amazing moment. Then I went to get the name of the person for whom I would be serving that day, and Sister Dixie Boswell, also from the Nephi 3rd ward,  was the one who escorted me through the new name curtain to begin my session. The new name that day was SO special to me. I cried before I even left the cubicle. Dixie hugged me and told me how much she loves our family, asked if Ty had his call yet and told me to be patient. Her husband, Lynn, was Tyler's cub scout leader when he was 8 years old. Ty was the ONLY boy in the den, and week after week, Lynn planned amazing projects for Ty, while Dixie made treats and handled it as if there were a den full of boys. They had a tremendous influence on Tyler's life. 
About two years ago, their son, Brent, published a book "Brother's Bones"and asked Ty to be the cover model for his book, so the family means a lot to us, and it was so great to share that moment with Dixie on Wednesday. As I entered the chapel, I saw Adria Packard, Tyler's first stunt partner from the Snow College cheer squad. I was struck by the fact that on the day I was there to pray about Ty, I was surrounded by people who have had a profound influence on his life in the past, present and future. It was an amazing, humbling feeling. In the world room, I looked up to see the painting of Christoper Columbus, which always reminds me of Ty because he played Columbus in the Nephi Elementary School 1st grade play (of which Dixie Boswell was the director). So it was an amazing temple session, and I was just sure that I would find a mission call waiting at home when I returned from Manti that Wednesday. 
But alas.... 
So by Thursday, Kurt was getting really upset. I quit texting him back, because I really didn't know what to say. The Bishop could only check the status and there was not much we could do beyond that except wait. So, what did I do? Took a nap, of course. And dreamed that the mission call was in the box for apartment B because we had put the wrong box number on his mission papers. I jumped up from my nap, called Ty and asked  him to come over to my place so we could just look online and make sure we had given them the right address. I called Ken and asked him to go over to the post office and see if Kevin Bright could get us into the box for B in case the call was there. Ty got online,and sure enough, we had NO box number on his mission papers. He emailed the church to explain what had happened and asked if they could send the call to our PO box.  He no sooner hit "Send" than his cell phone rang. It was the institute secretary, who told him that his call was over at the post office and if he didn't pick it up that day, they would have to send it back to Salt Lake. Kevin had been calling bishops from the YSA wards for the previous week to try and locate Ty, as his call had arrived with no box number. It just didn't click to him that Ty was mine, as Kevin has now been delivering my mail for over a year with my new last name, and just didn't register that it was Allred before. He didn't think to call home wards, because most kids in Ephraim go to singles wards, so our bishop didn't get a call from Kevin that week. Kevin finally thought to call the institute and see if they could locate Ty. So when they called, we jumped in the jeep and headed to the post office. As we turned the corner from  Main Street, Ken called my cell and said that he was holding Ty's call in his hands. He had gone into the post office just as all of this was unfolding and it all finally came together. We met Ken in the parking lot, and Ty finally had his call! Kurt was working in Cedar City, so we waited until Saturday the 27th to open it in Nephi. 
 We all showed up in Yankees gear, because that's what we do. When Riken arrived in his "New York fan" onesie, noone even imagined that Tyler would be called to the ONE mission out of 405 missions in the church where Yankee stadium is located. Sure, he had hoped that he'd go there, but never once did anyone think it would actually happen.
This kid LOVES New York. This FAMILY loves New York. Tracy's family loves New York. We love the city, the state, the Yankees, the whole works. When people talk about their dream vacations, this is ours. Not Hawaii or the Caribbean. New York. And Ty gets to serve there for two years. This is no accident. Our Heavenly Father knows my son personally. There is absolutely no place Tyler would rather go to serve his mission, and I am so grateful that this is the place where he gets to be. It's a blessing that Tyler deserves 100%. He is a good man and he will be an amazing missionary. 
 Lots of people were there to support Ty, but I was especially grateful for my beautiful sister and nieces for being there as I went to Tracy's house for the first time. Tami had run a half-marathon that morning, and the girls had a track meet, but they came to support Ty even after a long and crazy day for their family.
Ah, my amazing kids. I love them all so much. They all bring something different and beautiful to my life, and I look forward to the amazing things we will see from all of them in the years to come. Check out the baseball caps. Not planned. It's just what we wear every day. We are psychotic Yankees fans. In fact, we leave in two days for a vacation to Denver which has been planned for six months. To see the Yankees play the Rockies. We heart New York. His call is no coincidence. My heart is full.
Oh, yeah... and THIS guy. I am so blessed. 

MS Walk 2013

So my husband has 9 kids now. Three biological, three stepkids from his former marriage, and my three kids.  Last Saturday, we had the awesome opportunity to do the MS Walk with his two biological daughters. Jenny, on the left, is his daughter with his former wife to whom he was married for 24 years. And Mallory, on the right, he didn't meet until 2011.   
Mal asked us to join her team Rammer Jammer for the MS Walk this year, and we were thrilled to help her raise money for a cause she believes in, but I had no idea how moved I would be by the whole experience. 
  Mallory was raised by an amazing Mom named Becky and a wonderful man named Nick Michoff. Becky married Nick around the same time I married Ken, but they had been together for many, many years before that. Mallory was so happy when her Mom got married, and we were so happy for all of them. 
Nick passed away about a year ago, and it meant a lot to me to see Ken wear Nick's name on the back of his shirt for the walk.  

I was nervous about meeting Becky. Ken hadn't seen her for over 25 years and I just didn't know how it would go, but she was so gracious and sweet, and it was just a wonderful day where we all came together out of love for Mallory and to honor Nick.