Remembering...

The holidays always seem to be hard.

Why do we have to lose loved ones around the holidays? I am having a difficult day. Steven Ellis passed away 9 years ago today. My life was forever changed 9 years ago. I continue to love and miss him, that hasn't changed at all.

My life is great and I'm happy, that makes me feel somehow guilty and confused. It doesn't make any sense to me! I wish there was a book that explained it all, or at least made it make sense. I worry about hurting Chris, while grieving for Steven. It just doesn't seem fair to either one of them. I don't know how to act or how to feel on days like this...

Leno!

Chris and I went to California for a few days before my Evolution of Psychotherapy Conference in Anaheim. I got tickets to The Jay Leno Show. You can watch the episode we were in at http://www.thejaylenoshow.com/video/episodes/#vid=1183083/?__source=recent-eps-module. I'm wearing an orange sweater and Chris is in a military-green jacket. We got to stand up and shake his hand when he entered, then we sat on the 3rd row. If I wasn't so short, you could see me. It's easy to see Chris and his blond hair though. If only our tickets were for this Thursday, we could've seen Matt Damon!

We had such a good time. We went to the L.A. Auto Show, stopped by Disneyland, saw their Christmas parade and the fireworks. For my 1st time in California, it was a great time! I've never seen so many adults in Disney apparel. It was almost freaky. As you can tell by the Tower of Terror photo, I don't do well on free-fall rides! I was terrified!! Chris is lucky I didn't kill him for putting me on a ride like that.

Utah State!

Go Aggies! We're headed to the USU vs BYU basketball game tonight. I hope BYU can handle playing in the Aggie Spectrum. This is our court!

Turkey Day

For Thanksgiving we went to my brother, Rich's, house to have lunch with a small group, just his family and Chris and I. Then we went to Chris's Uncle Dave's house for a Harding Family Thanksgiving Dinner. It was fun to see everyone. We took Maverick to Dave's. His dog, Brody, didn't like Maverick much. He attacked him any chance he could. Mav held his own, until Brody got on top of him. No surprise since Brody is about 3 times bigger than Mav.

After all the dinners, we headed to Lisa's house to stay with the kids while Lisa, Matt, Brad, and Lori hit the Black Friday sales EARLY in the morning. I can't see myself getting up that early to save a few dollars. Sleep is WAY too important to me. :) We had a fun time with the kids Friday morning though. We watched "Up", played with Maverick, had pancakes, and looked through magazines for gifts they'd like from Santa.

I love the Christmas season! I've pretty much gotten all of Chris's gifts already. He's so hard to surprise, but I still try.

Jewelry Give Away

Check this page out: http://littlevenicedesigns.blogspot.com/

You can register for free jewelry, made by a friend of mine.

Family Photos

We took family photos. Chris and I haven't changed much, but we still take yearly photos. HA!













Oh wait, we had to take a 2nd photo, cause Chris thinks he's so funny!


Here's the whole lot of us. The Mortensen Family is getting bigger every year. Thanks Lisa & Lori!

Happy Trick-or-Treating

Chris and I had his mother's family over for the annual Harding Halloween Party. It's always fun with the Harding's. We ate pizza and laughed most of the night. The picture of Pat in a penguin suit says it all!











Dave, Trevor, & Brett














Emma & Landon















Erica, Shawn, Wendy, & Alexis
















Danielle & Pat














Lyla was dressed as a cow earlier, but now she's just showing off her sitting all by herself.













I didn't get to see Ryan, Blake, Ashlee, Kaylynn, & Natalie for Halloween, but I got a picture.