Supermoon Eclipse

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First Day on the Job

Sahara was at work for her first day and being the helicopter parent I guess I am, I had to go get a picture.

Yes, you can have a tootsie roll treat on your way out.

Staff tonight is Sahara, Brittany, and Daniel.

Ohhh, she gets to help with a customer!

 there's her car ^ :)

Right next to Planet Fitness is Midtown Coffee.  It opened it's doors this week and her friend from kindergarten, Ty, is the owner.

So I had to pop next door and get the girls their frappe order.

Selfie she sent me later.

Looks like a fun easy job :)

Habitat for Humanity

I signed us up to volunteer at Habitat this Saturday.  It's good to give back and something we don't do enough of.  However, it wasn't what we were expecting.  I knew going in we were not building houses.  We were to clean up the outsides of 9 homes on a certain block for people disabled, elderly, or vets.  The lack of organization was too much.  I wanted to take it over and get it rolling smoother.  We ended up washing windows....

and clearing out debris from 1 house.  Lots of twigs, branches, and raking. 

We only stayed 2 hours because after that there was a lot of sitting around because the lady who was the go-to person disappeared.

We may volunteer again sometime, but not on that block.  I won't go into detail as why not on that block, but it's just one of those things that I have a pet-peeve about.  Some people put themselves in situations and expect others to help all the time.  That's not why we signed up.

Work It Girl!

Sahara was wanting to get more hours working with Canyon as his waiver, but we can't just add hours to his schedule. So on a whim she decided to go try Planet Fitness and see if they were hiring. She filled out an application and a couple hours later her friend sent her this picture. She's on the employee contact list! She hasn't even had an interview yet! Hahahahaha

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Science Fun

Canyon and a couple of his classmates have been doing a lot of experiments lately.

Looks like Jello cell models, cell drawings, and dissolving egg shells with Pancho and Lucas last week.  

Tint Job Complete :)

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Labor Day

We drove to Roger's near Fayetteville today.  We took a look at the Crystal Bridges Museum.  I don't remember if this giant 8 legged freak was there last time.    

It was 95 today...the last of the really hot days.  We hiked a bit and did some walking trails, but didn't have drinks so we we only lasted about 45 minutes.

I'm sure Jared stood like this on purpose to look like a dork.  He dorks well.

I liked this bridge the best.

This was not a sad old museum goer, he was an exhibit!  So lifelike it scared Canyon.  He did not want to be near this guy or even in the same room.

Next we ate at Steak-n-Shake  Ours will open next month :)

Then I found my new favorite place in Arkansas, Pinnacle Hills Promenade.

We walked and shopped for hours and didn't make a dent in the stores.

Then back home for dinner, showers, and bed.

A Teenager No More

Sahara is 20!!
Where has the time gone??!!

We are off to dinner at La Villa.

After dinner, we strolled through the Art Walk downtown.

Next we hit Starbucks for her birthday Frappe.

Back at home for her cake.
We're just gonna pretend that it is spelled correctly.  I guess in a way it is, they just did a funky job on the 'cy' at the end.  It looks more like only a 'y' or a 'c' and backwards 'y'.

Gifts included what she was wearing today from Jared.

A beautiful tennis bracelet from Aunt Kristy, Caleb, and Emily. 

Cards.

A Chick-fil-A gift card and other goodies from Nana and Papa.

And tinted windows for her car.  Hopefully they will be done next week.  They were supposed to be done today, but we got bumped for a contract job that was taking longer than expected.  Bummer!

I had a video, but it won't load :(

Saturday, Jared's mom took her out to eat at a new Thai place and shopping.  She got a purse.

Then on Monday, She received a gift from Jared's dad and step-mom.  The anchor light is so cute!

Happy Birthday Sahara!!

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Lost A Friend Today

I took Mila to the doctor the day before the cruise. I planned to take her home too, but they were running a lot of test on her stomach pain and 3 hours later she texted me and told me to go home. Another friend drove her home later. I found out several days after vacation that her appointment led to a hysterectomy which led to the discovery of cancer in her uterus. They then did exploratory surgery and found the cancer had invaded nearly every organ. I went to visit her at home. She was heavily drugged and scheduled to go back to the hospital in a few days to start chemo. A week later I found out her cancer was too advanced to even bother with chemo and she was sent to a hospice. I visited her there on Saturday. She was awake, communicating, and sitting up, but not very cognitive. She was on a morphine push every 20 minutes. Two days later, another friend told me it was now family only for visitation. It turns out the last thing she had eaten were the pancakes she had the Saturday morning that I visited. Today, Wednesday, I called the hospice at 4:00 and was told she was still able to have family visitors. As soon as Sahara came home from class, I was going to head up there, if nothing else but to support the family. At 4:20 her niece messaged me that she had passed. I went up there anyway. There were at least 30 people there still over 1 1/2 hours after. Joe had gone home but I talked with Zach. He seemed to be at peace with it. It may hit him later, but he seemed ok for now. She is to be cremated and her ashes spread over the White River. It's so unfair. She had been going to the doctor's for years with stomach issues. It just seems this should have been caught earlier. 2 months ago she was working 60 hours a week. 5 weeks ago she found out she had cancer. 1 week ago she found out she had no chance of surviving. Now she's gone.

The service was Tuesday, September 8th.  It was hard.  The church was packed.  So many people touched by her.

Zach gave a 10 minute talk about how important his mom has been in his life.  We were not strong, his guy friends were not strong, Zach did great!  

It all still seems so surreal.

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