Today I am Sad...

Allan James LaRue
June 18, 1941-July 30, 2009

My dad...The greatest grandpa ever!!!

Today I am sad. At 12:00 noon my hero, the man I have looked up to, respected and who has taught me more about being a good person than anyone, passed away from this life. My dad, Allan James LaRue had fought for too long the battle of cancer. But I know that he is in a good place with those he loves. I also believe that he received a warm hero's welcome upon arrival. My dad was always a gentle giant to me. He never said an unkind word or spoke ill of anyone. He was a man of integrity and honesty. He was a provider both spiritually and physically. He had a sense of humor that was so quarky you had to laugh at him not always with him. My dad served anyone and everyone, all of the time. He taught me to respect my mom and I have gained more respect for my mom over the last couple of months than I have in a lifetime! She is amazing!!! They shared a love for one another that was truly unique. My dad would do anything for my mom and did just that. I never remember them argueing, fighting or raising their voices at each other, they truly loved and respected each other all 47 years together. One thing that I could always count on with my dad was each and every night that I returned home from a date as a teenager my dad would be standing up, in front of the TV (so he wouldn't fall asleep) waiting for me. Just so I would know that he was there if I ever wanted to talk...about anything. There was never a doubt in my mind how much he loved me and my four sisters.

My kids have been blessed to have really great memories of my dad. My parents were able to travel with us on our vacations. We loved having grandma and grandpa along. We have some wonderful memories of these trips that we will always cherish.

What a great example to my kids that Grandpa and Grandma were able to serve a mission to Rochester, NY 2007.
We have been able to have some very sweet, tender, spiritual moments this last week, ones that I will be forever grateful for and will never forget. I am so blessed to have wonderful friends and family who have called, visited, dropped by flowers, food and cards. Thank you!

The Funeral and buriel plans are for
Tuesday, August 4th in Pleasant Grove.

You can read his obituary online at http://www.olpinmortuary.com

An Update...

My dad has taken a turn for the worse. The rehab center could no longer do anything for him. The decision was made to bring him home with hospice. We are not sure how much longer he has in this life. He doesn't communicate much, maybe a mumble or a wisper if we are lucky. His appetite is gone and he cannot suck. My mom just moistens his mouth with a sponge when she thinks he wants it. Chad, me and our kids have moved into my parents basement to help support my mom as well as allow my sister in law and her eight kids to have a place to stay in our house for the week. (it's just for a week) Lets just say life isn't what you always plan. It has been good for my kids to go into Grandpa's room and talk to him. Raegan will spend alot of time with grandpa, just talking to him, even though there is rarely a response, she is good to him. We are just taking it a day at a time. My mom is being so strong. She just keeps saying that they have had 47 really great years together and not everyone can say that! What a blessing that they were able to serve a mission just a year and half ago together. That was my dad's main goal in life. He was not able to serve as a 19 year old and always dreamed of someday serving a mission and what a better way than with his forever sweetheart! We had the sweet opportunitiy of having his mission president, President Layton and his wife (they are now the Oquer Mountain Temple presidents) come to my parent's house on Saturday to give my dad a blessing. What a special time that was for our family. This is such a difficult time for us. We go through so many emotions daily. But I am grateful for the knowledge of the gospel and to know that my dad who has always been such a great man, such a great example of faith, integrity, service and is the most ethical person I have ever known will be returning to a loving Father in Heaven. There truly is no greater blessing than understanding and knowing that our family will be together again.

Cow Appreciation Day

We did it. We all dressed like cows and went into Chick Fil A for dinner. It was great! Our bill totaled $51.00 and we got it absolutely Free! Yup...FREE! We will definitely be doing this next year as well. They asked us if we wanted kids meals and we said "um NO we want the Combo Meals, then they asked us if we wanted 8 or 12 nuggets...WHAT are you serious??? We will take the 12." We were even able to bring some home with us. What was even more funny is we went out to a Chick Fil A that was a little farther from our home because we weren't really wanting to run into anyone, but we ran into a family from our ward doing the same thing and they had been to another one for lunch too. It Was Awesome! Now my kids can look back and say
"Remember when mom and dad made us dress like cows for a free dinner?"

What $51.00 worth of Chick Fil A looks like

Max was loving it!

Come and Join Us!

Did you know that today is Cow Appreciation Day? That is right. If you dress like a cow today and go to Chick Fil A you will receive a FREE combo meal! Yup...Totally Free!!! So tonight for dinner we are dressing our kiddos up as cows and heading to the mall for a FREE dinner.
When You have eight mouths to feed and your family
LOVES Chick Fil A than what a great Friday night for all of us!
Click HERE to read more about it.

A Busy Week.

Well last week was quite the week. With me being in the hospital all week Chad took over all mothering duties. Included in that was having two birthday parties, driving swim team carpool every day and going to the swim meet plus everything else that come up with six kids and summertime. So I had him take lots of pictures so I wouldn't miss out. I don't think the kids skipped a beat.

Sydney had a great birthday with her friends at the Lindon City Pool. Taylor, Olivia, CeeCee, Natalie, Sydney and Abbie

Her cupcakes were a hit! My friend Andrea made them and brought them for the party...one less thing for Chad to think about!

A Success! Way to go Chad!

Next it was Kalli's turn. She did out door games, a movie and of course dinner. Chad made the kids pigs in a blanket, with chips and carrots...What a guy!

Games started on the trampoline.

I love Kalli and Raegan's sister relationship.
They really are greatest of friends!

Does 101 Dalmatians ever get old? The girls had a ball!

Tyler got to pass out the popcorn and licorice.

Saturday morning brought early swim meets. Tyler and Kalli's first meet ever. They did awesome.

STRIKE A POSE BATHING BEAUTY!!!

What the heck...Now??

I find myself sitting in a hospital room about 45 minutes away from those I care about most. This has been a tough time in our little families life. We are so blessed and I am so grateful for opportunities that have come our way. Some for fun and others for tremendous growth. (I think I like the fun ones a little more). As you all know from my previous post we just returned from a magical family trip to disneyland. As we were there I started not feeling great, you know just a small cold some chest congestion...really no big deal. Well I guess mixed with the dirty Anaheim air my asthma didn't like it. I don't have bad asthma, just occasional usually set off by allergies and pollutions. It does seem to affect me quite a bit more when I am pregnant. Maybe a puff or two from my inhaler but really that is it. Well by the time we got home I was pretty sick. I didn't feel great throughout the weekend but by monday morning I knew something was wrong. I woke Chad up at 4:00am and told him I was going to drive myself to the emergency room but was concerned about having to pay the copay. My debate was "Am I ok to just wait a few more hours and see my regular doctor or do I pay the $75.00 emergency copay that I really can't spare right now." Chad immediately made that decision for me and sent me to the ER. While there I received three breathing treatments, well because I am pregnant they were concerned about doing anything else for me and didn't really know how to handle my situation. So they sent me home and told me to call my OB by noon if I wasn't feeling better. Well by 10:00am I knew I wasn't feeling better. So a phone call I made and off I was to my OB who is 45 minutes away but worth the travel!!! Well he took one look at me, listened to my breathing and was ticked that I was ever aloud to leave the hospital. He immediately admitted me and told me later that I had him quite concerned, I was not moving any air in or out of my lungs. The hospital staff hooked me up to monitors and IVs and breathing machines. So now almost five days later I am still here. Doing much better but still here. While I have been here all of my sisters have been in town to be with my dad, which I have not been able to be apart of and the rareity of all 5 sister together is real. It's very hard for all of us to be in one place. But I am forever grateful for my sisters and their ability to help my mom out at this time when I have become unavailable. Since I have been hospitalized Chad has put on two birthday parties one for Sydney with 10 little girls at the swimming pool. (thanks to Andrea and Lisa for their help with cupcakes and supervision) and a party for Kalli with 20 little girls playing games and eating dinner at our house. (Chad is an over acheiver. He over compensates for things that are out of his control so his kids don't feel left out. I told him that the parties could wait until next week but for him the thought of the kids not only having their mom in the hospital but to not get to do their birthday parties was just too much for this kind, loving over acheiving father.) Chad has also been running around town trying to figure out work since the company he has been working for, Beneficial Financial Group is shutting their doors as of August 31. He has some great possibilities out there and some options but needless to say this has been weighing on our minds. Not to mention that he is the bishop of our ward and has many responsibilities waiting for him in that area. We have been so blessed with lovely, wonderful friends and ward members who have just helped out in so many ways, from helping with parties, to cleaning our house, to bringing in dinners and helping with kids. And for me, I am going NUTS just sitting here listening to the craziness of our lives and not being able to do anything about it! Plus the meds they have me on make me incredibly emmotional, I cry every time the phone rings. The doctor says I need to treat myself as if I am an infant with RSV, he told me to not go to church for a while, advoid any smoke (fireworks) and stay inside as much as possible. Sounds like a fun summer huh! I am just so grateful to have a husband who is a doer and does not let anything get in his way, he may have a few panic attacks before this is all over but he does it all with a smile and he does it all for me and our kids. What a blessing he is to me.