why we love grandpas

Scene: Greg's parent's house last night. Commercial starring Fergie on the TV......


Papa Willis: "Who is this lady?"

Grandpa Willis: "She's a hot mama. She might even be a man."

Greg: [Speechless]

Wendy: "Uhhhh, her name is Fergie."




Classic.

absentee

I've been absent of late. I returned home last Tuesday after spending 11 days playing mom to these three babes in Pennsylvania. I miss them like crazy. They call me "Sissie" although, technically, I'm their aunt. I started tearing up at work last week when someone asked how my trip was. We had so many fun adventures and it's just plain hard to not be near them all the time to watch them grow. Stop growing up so fast my littles!

Photos and stories to come...

mother's day

For Mama Wilson (Wendy's Mom):

For Mama Willis (Greg's mom):

No explanation necessary, right? Ha, ha. :)

Love you both!

letter

My mom found this letter (written on a leftover valentine envelope no less) while going through some things at her house recently:

Was I a funny kid or what?!?

I wonder what I used for the 7 very small pieces of love...

california dreamin'

A few additional California highlights:

The beach.

Two of my favorite boys all dressed up.

Nephew Ethan and my sweetie.

shuffle

Shuffleboard, anyone?

We went to California* for a few days in February with the Willis crew and Grandpa Willis taught us to play shuffleboard. IT'S HARDER THAN YOU WOULD THINK. (Read: I wasn't very good at it :) It was fun though and as Grandpa would say, there's nothing funnier than a bunch of 80 year old men swearing up a storm while they play. These people are serious about their shuffleboard. I wish we could have seen one of their tournaments. Matching team outfits and all. Hilarious.


*Sadly, the reason we went was for Grandma Willis' funeral. It's times like these when we lean on our beliefs for comfort. We know Grandma is in a good place and we will see her again.

two years ago

We sat in the room adjacent to the one where we would be sealed for all eternity as our Sealer asked us how we met and what our plans were for the future.

"Do you have any questions about the ceremony?"

Greg and I looked at each other and shrugged.

"Let's do it!" Greg said.

The Sealer and I erupted with laughter (quiet laughter that is - since we were in the temple :)

"Ok then, let's get this done." The Sealer said.

We walked into the room where our family and friends were waiting. I was sooo nervous to see everyone. Not nervous because I was about to make eternal covenants, no, just nervous to see my loved ones waiting to witness the ceremony.

We walked out of the room 15 minutes later (estimation) man and wife for eternity. That's including the chat before the ceremony, the ceremony, and hugging everyone in the room after. I do believe we may have set the record for fastest wedding at the Bountiful Temple.

We had family members who were unable to attend the ceremony who missed the majority of the picture taking on the temple grounds after because the ceremony was so quick.

What can I say? My man knows what he wants and there's no waiting necessary.

Happy two years my Gregory Allan.

doppelganger 2

How about one a little closer to home?

Jack Black

My brother Adam

(I may or may not have stolen this off his Facebook...)

Take a look at this picture posted by my sister Kate of her daughter who has a striking resemblance to the Gerber baby...

forgotten

I'm about to tell you something really embarrassing.

Last week I was visiting my parents and it went as it always does. I tell my mom so-and-so is engaged/pregnant/promoted/maimed/etc and my dad asks if so-and-so is the child of older-so-and-so. I never know so we turn to Facebook for answers. We search through wedding photo albums until we determine, with the aid of dad's high school yearbooks, that so-and-so is in fact older-so-and-so's offspring. How does the man do it? His ability to recognize familial ties astounds me.

Now to the embarrassing part. While looking through the photos we came across one that reminded us all of a funny video involving a man, a destination, and a fox hat. (If you don't know, I won't pollute your mind with the details.) My dad discovered this video at least 5 years ago and was so thrilled with it that he shared it with anyone who visited (Love you dad, but we both know this isn't an exaggeration). Upon seeing the aforementioned photo I recited the punch line and dad replied with, "I don't get it". He and mom laughed. In my confusion I asked what was funny...

Dad: Remember when your friend [so-and-so] didn't understand the movie and said, "I don't get it"?

Me: [So-and-so]? I've never had a friend named [so-and-so].

Mom: Yes you did. Remember, you dated him?...

Me: What?

Dad: What was his last name...[so-and-so], [so-and-so surname]!


That's right, I totally forgot that a person I dated even existed. I'm getting old; I also need to get my thyroid checked.


P.S. Every guy I ever dated with any amount of seriousness has seen the video so there's no need to worry he would know this was him if he were to read this.

P.S.S. Greg had a big smile when I told him about this.

in response

Comment from this post:

Dear Wendy,
I love your posts. Thanks for always making me smile.
Love,
Amy
PS- I found my writing portfolio the other night- Including a book we started writing together based on the Baby Sitter's Club. The catch phrase? Eight girls and their eight stories from their seven weeks of haunted summer. Who wouldn't want to read it?

My response:

Dear Amy,

Thank you for reading. I figure I owe you at least one smile since I threw a brick at you as a child. I'm still relieved I missed. I remember running in fear as my brothers yelled "Run Wendy, run" from the back deck as your mom chased me around the house. Then I hid under my bed until our moms finished their conversation on our porch. I believe that was the day I sealed my fate of playing soccer, as opposed to softball. I'm glad we could remain friends.

Love, Wendy

PS- In a recent effort to overcome my own genetic pack ratness :) I found copies of two stories you wrote. I think they were for our "club." What did we call it again? Something about crafts and dancing...I forget. I'll post a picture of one of the covers, including Bob's signature. Yes, he desecrated one of the covers with his kid handwriting. Typical. Also, I need your address because you should certainly be in possession of these stories, not me.

Elder Bob

We (Mom, Dad and I) took our Bob to the MTC yesterday.

Curb-side drop off is ideal.
I no longer harbor resentment towards the MTC.

So proud of my baby brother, although he's being a goon in this picture.
Typical. But the power tie makes up for it.

Say hello to 'Winston' in the background.
He's Dad's English Bulldog (I'll probably get corrected on that) yard sale find who now takes a prominent place in the living room.

Love you Dad.

proof

I prepped Greg pretty well for the first time he was to meet my family (December 2007). Love you fam, but you can be a bit intimidating to the outsider. Don't get me wrong, I knew they would love Greg, but with five very unshy brothers and the Dad to match, I wanted to be sure Greg knew what he might experience. No worries, it took all of two minutes for him to be laughing and joking with the crew.

I really love this about my man.

He loves my crazy family just like I do and always looks forward to spending time with them. He is often the one to suggest we make a trip (it's really only 20 minutes away) to visit Mom and Dad. Want proof?

Actual e-mail received by me, from Greg last Thursday at work:

Subject: I need a nap

And I really want to play Xbox with Bob right now too.

Funny eh?

The next night found Greg and Bob playing Xbox until I fell asleep on the couch.

bob

Video coming soon of Bob (my not so little, anymore, brother)

opening his LDS mission call to...

the Canada Edmonton Mission

He's ecstatic.

And not just because we have family in Edmonton that will make sure he's well fed :)

So proud of you my little Bobby-poo (How embarrassing :)

oink

What happened to the swine flu hysteria? Is it bad that I honestly hoped someone I knew would get it? Just for bragging rights, of course. I've been waiting my whole life to see a pig fly and all for naught :) What can I say?-I have always had a thing for pigs, or so my piggy bank collection would reveal.

My favorite part of this epidemic was the World Health Organization trying to get people to call the flu by its "real name": Influenza A(H1N1) or H1N1 for short. H1N1? As my ever so clever younger brother pointed out, doesn't that look like it spells "hiney?" I'm pretty sure no one will admit to having the "hiney flu"...

Oh the irony - I just picked up today's paper (Standard-Examiner) and the top article is about swine flu.

Back by popular demand

Yes Allie, I am alive.
I have at least four drafts of really excellent posts sitting in my queue (several date back to March *gasp*). Why haven't I finished and posted any of them? I have a problem. I get grand ideas that require lots of time to flesh out to their full potential (aka "post worthiness"). The result? As far as you can tell, nothing. The reality? I obsess over the best way to say what I'm thinking/feeling/experiencing until I burst from over-analyzation (more about this later). Then, when I regain strength to revisit the idea, I've lost the fire for its blogific presentation.

So, what's a girl to do? Lower my expectations? Give up altogether? Maybe I can have neither. And so, I present Wendy's Blog Bits (working title). This means forcing, when necessary, myself to post something about what I'm obsessing over. Be it the beginning of an idea or a complete thought, you'll find it here. Scary, right?

Let me warn you in advance, I have lots of bits to expose. That wasn't meant to be provocative, unless you're my husband. Sorry Mom-I know you're reading this.

Just tell it like it is.

Bob's 15 seconds of fame.

P.S. You're awesome. Maybe Hope Woodside will be on the scene next time (just to make Dad jealous).

To my Daddy,

I love you!

One Year

One year ago today Greg and I went on our first date. It's been on my mind today so I thought I would recount the night. It went a lot like this (for me at least):

I already knew I had a huge crush on him and was therefore quite nervous. So nervous, in fact, that I don't even remember what I wore (this is unusual for me--being nervous as well as not remembering what I wore to an "event"). He was very punctual. And sooooo good looking. The theme of the night was uncontrollable amounts of talking/laughing. We went to dinner at the Macaroni Grill in SLC and quickly realized that we have a lot more in common than we previously knew. I had serious butterflies. Not just thoughts of "oh, he's cute," but actual flutterings in my stomach that made me wonder just exactly what I had eaten for lunch that day. My food was literally cold by the time I got around to eating it. I kept thinking to myself, "I can't wait to tell Caleb how right I was about this one." You see, I had been telling my brother Caleb for months that Greg totally wanted me, he just hadn't realized it yet. BUT, someday he would wise up, ask me out once, and it would be GAME OVER for both of us. Caleb had summed it up to total self-absorption, but that soon changed...

After dinner, we went to a Jon Schmidt concert that was sponsored by our shared employer. Greg's boss (aka my previous boss) was there with his wife and I could tell they were wondering about us. We accidentally sat in the wrong seats and an usher had to show us our real seats which were situated in the middle of all our fellow co-workers that were also attending the event. This, of course, lead to more questioning glances. Or so it felt. I had a really hard time keeping quiet during the performance. How could I not point out the atrocious holiday sweater being worn by the man two rows in front of us or the hilarious dance moves of the guest performing break dancers? I knew Greg would appreciate such things. Needless to say, I'm sure the people around us were annoyed by our whisperings.

As the concert neared its end, I began to dread the thought of going home. The night was going far too well to ever end. Greg seemed to be enjoying my company and was at least pretending to laugh at all my jokes. Then I began to worry I was seeing the situation through rose colored glasses and in came such self-destructive thoughts as, "I wonder how many other girls he tried to ask out before me? I'm sure I was at the bottom of his list. Do I have something in my teeth? I knew I should have looked in the mirror after dinner...."

We slid around on the icy sidewalks of the U of U as we made our way back to Greg's car which led to the idea of going sledding. A rather clever thought considering neither of us were wearing sledding appropriate clothes or in possession of a sled. So, we ventured back to Ogden. After many failed attempts to "sled" on the wake skate Greg happened to have in his trunk, we found an abandoned sled and continued the fun until we were completely frozen. Then, instead of getting in the car where it was warm, we slid around on the ice in a parking lot until 2 a.m. I was really feeling the inklings of "GAME OVER-ness" at this point. We talked about everything. I confessed to getting thrown out of the Grand America Hotel (a story for another day) and he talked about his mission, etc., etc,. etc. It was pretty much all on the table by the time we got back in the car.

Then for everyone's favorite, "the doorstep scene." I'll admit, it was a little awkward. We had worked together for almost a year at this point and I really had no idea what he was thinking. The doorstep for the apartment where I lived at the time didn't help the situation either. I just remember thinking (like I always had) that it was the guy's job to lead the doorstep finale. All I really remember is that we didn't even hug. I felt really stupid after for not initiating something but I didn't want things to be weird if he wasn't that into me (although I REALLLLLY hoped he was). It turned out just fine considering he kissed me only 4 days later, not to mention the fact that we have now been married almost 8 months :)

I still get butterflies when I think about that night. Thanks for taking a chance on me my Greg :) I love you.

Memoirs of Thanksgivings Past

I have Thanksgiving on the brain.


Is it possible to not completely LOVE this holiday? Granted there was the Thanksgiving when I was 4 and was relegated to Grandma Billie's to spend the holiday by myself (with no shirt on as I recall) while everyone else partied next door at Grandma & Grandpa Hancey's. Oh no, I wasn't bitter; granted this banishment was due to no wrongdoing on my part but rather a consequence of contracting Chicken Pox. In my parents' defense (so as not to paint my childhood as one of neglect and them as the guilty offenders), two babies under the ripe 'ol age of 4 months were present.


Other Thanksgiving memories:

• Hoping one of my cousins drew my name for the family Christmas gift exchange so I knew I would get something cute. Don't get me wrong, I love my brothers BUT I found out quickly that other girls knew what you would want better than boys.
• Wondering what they talked about at the "adult table" in the other room.
• Laughing at my Dad for spending more than one feast at the kid's table.
• Winning the family challenge by gaining 7.5 lbs. (All weigh-ins are monitored by another participant to ensure adherence to the rules.)
• Dominating the "Rootbeer Float Pie Contest" of '07. Ok, so "dominating" is up for debate but those pies certainly were tasty.
• Writing what I'm thankful for each year in the gratitude notebooks.
• Loving being with family.

What will tomorrow (my first Thanksgiving as a married woman) bring?

Happy Halloween!

And Happy Birthday Kate!

We hope PA "treats" you right today :)

Love you!