Here's to you, Dad!

Gary James Stahl 1947 ~ 2009
Gary James Stahl, Beloved Husband, Father, Brother, Grandfather, Uncle and friend passed away unexpectedly September 25, 2009. He fought a courageous battle with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, and died after complications from a double lung transplant.Gary was born January 12, 1947 in Salt Lake City, Utah to Raymond LeRoy Stahl and Mary Yvonne James. He graduated from Olympus High School and attended Utah State University and Westminister College. He married Jolene Welch on June 4, 1970 in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was a member of the LDS Church. He was a sports enthusiast. His favorites included football, basketball, baseball, fast-pitch softball, pool and golf. He was considered one of the greatest all around athletes to come out of Utah. He earned a football (QB) scholarship to Utah State University following his 1965 graduation from Olympus. Gary is survived by his loving wife, Jolene; children, Kelly (Michelle) Stahl, Gary James Stahl, Jr. and Jaimie (Nathan) Shaw; siblings, Bonnie Vreeken, Robert (Lanette) Stahl, Raymond (Terry) Stahl and Maryanne (Don) Cremer; grandchildren, Ashley, Taylor, Braydon, Rylee, Joie, Kylan, Caleb and Hannah. He is preceded in death by his parents, father-in-law and grandparents. A special thank you to all the staff and doctors of Alta View Hospital, Woodland Park Rehabilitation Center, and University Hospital for all you did to help our husband, father, brother, grandfather and uncle. Please join us for a special service in honor of Gary on Friday, October 2, 2009 at 12 p.m. at the Valley View Funeral Home, 4335 W. 4100 So. Friends and family may come for visitation from 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. prior to the service. Interment: Valley View Memorial Park.


This is the poem that I found online for the back of my Dad's service program. It's perfect!


Ode To Golf Poem
In my hand I hold a ball
White and dimpled, rather small
Oh, how bland it does appear,
This harmless looking little sphere.
By his size I could not guess
The awesome strength it does possess;
My life has not been quite the same
Since I chose to play this game.
It rules my mind for hours on end.
A fortune it has made me spend.
It has made me curse and cry
I hate myself and want to die
I am promised a thing called ‘par’
If I can hit it straight and far.
To master such a tiny ball
Should not be very hard at all.
But my desires the ball refuses
And does exactly as it chooses
It hooks and slices, dribbles, dies
and disappears before my eyes.
Often it will have a whim
To hit a tree or take a swim.
With miles of grass on which to land
It finds a tiny patch of sand.
Then has me offering up my soul
If it will just drop in the hole.
It’s made me whimper like a pup,
and swear that I will give it up
And take to drink to ease my sorrow.
But “The Ball” knows…
I’ll be back...tomorrow.

Blessings in disguise

I just want to thank everyone who has given me support these last few days. It has really helped, it's been an escape to come on-line and read blogs or comments on facebook. It has definately been a struggle, but we are pluggin away. I love hearing that my children are being good for those who volunteered to watch them. It has been a blessing.

Another blessing is that now that I look back, I think my Mom was being prepped for this to happen. The surgeon told us on the day that he died, that he would not have made it very much longer with his own lungs. The lung transplant was his only chance. He actually said that he may have lasted a week, maybe a month. At least my Dad was already sedated and most likely didn't feel much pain. He suffered for a long time, even probably longer than we realized. He wasn't one to complain much, and when he did start saying he was in pain, it was probably worse than he let on. He wouldn't even take any pain medicine, even at the hospital. At least he still had his sense of humor, he was always good for a laugh.

I will really miss him, but at least I know that he's in a better place. Heck, he's probably trying to talk someone into letting him go golfing :) It's hard knowing he wasn't religious, but he told me that he was praying, at least it was a start, right? He was a good man and would do anything for anyone. He touched a lot of lives and left a great legacy! At least I can keep his memory alive through stories and pictures for his grandkids.

In Loving Memory....

My Mom and Dad had this taken last year, acually I pressured them into it :)

If any of you haven' t heard yet, my Dad passed away. We were hoping that things would work out differently, but our plans aren't always the same as Heavenly Father's.

Some of my thoughts on my Dad....

My Dad was born on January 12, 1947. He is the oldest son and has one older sister, two younger brothers and a younger sister.

He was a great athlete and played fast pitch softball for years. I have many memories of hours at the ballpark while Dad was playing games. He was great at anything he did, especially sports. He played football and basketball in High School. And he was a star quarterback for his team. He played football for Utah State Universiy for a couple years also. He even at the age of 23 tried out for the Kansas City Royals(baseball), but they said he was too old.

He made friends anywhere he went and was usually happiest when he was on the golf course. He even tried to teach me, on many occasions, how to play. He wanted me to play so I could make a lot of money :) I never really liked golf, so I didn't try too hard. He was a great man and I will miss him terribly. I will keep this short since it is still hard right now.

His High School picture, isn't he so handsome!

I am doing it!

So I finally decided that I am going to go see my dad.

I've got my flight all squared away and now I need to work on the, "who's watching my kids" part. I have some great people who have offered to help out and hopefully it will all work out with their schedules too. I guess we'll see. I do feel really good about having the plane ticket and the fact that I am going to spend some good quality time with him......

I just feel really bad about leaving my kids for so long. I will be gone for a whole week and two days. Part of that is over the weekend, so my husband will be in charge then. And luckily two of the three kids have school, so it won't be too much of a burden. Maybe.

I also feel really good about going because my mom needs me and she is really excited for me to come. I'm hoping to be able to cook up a storm for them and freeze a bunch of stuff so they'll not be eating fast food all the time. It's good to know I'm good for something :) At least they like my cooking!

It should be an adventure for sure, for me and for the people who will be helping out with my kiddos :)

At least they are all somewhat independant. I mean, they can feed themselves after the food is in front of them :) haha I guess I'll be freezing meals for my own family in the next week! I can't let them live off of mac n cheese the whole time, they already did that while their dad was away for two weeks!

Anyway, I just feel that I need to go spend time with my dad, since he'll be having the lung transplant sometime soon and who knows what will happen after that. This will be the only chance to go have one on one time with him. I can't remember the last time that happened, probably before I was married. So here goes nothing!

A perk of parenting...

Last week, when I went to pick Caleb up from preschool. The director of his program was in his class, just checking things out I guess. Well, she stepped up to me and said, "This guys teachers say he is the little gentleman." At first I was shocked, so I said, "Well at least he's learning something, right?" She just laughed and said, "It's always nice to hear those things as a parent." So I thanked her and tried to wrangle the kids down to the car. The funny part is as soon as Caleb was out the classroom door, he was booking it down the hall. Then after many reminders of not running inside the building, he and Ian went running down another hall. My little gentleman sure likes to push his mommy's buttons! :) It was short lived, but at least I had a parenting high for about 5 seconds. At least I have the memory of it, right? It wasn't just a dream! haha

Checklist...

Our new towel hooks in the bathroom, I really like it! Not too shabby! :)

I thought that instead of writing a list in the morning of things I needed to do, I'd report at the end and write it out. That way I wouldn't have anything left and feel bad :) I actually got quite a bit accomplished this weekend, but I'll just do today.



One load of laundry washed/dryed/put away


Two loads of dishes


Made and put up a towel hook plaque in the kid's bathroom (that's it up above, you can't really tell, but it's a rubber ducky on there and bubbles. And it says squeaky clean.)

Un-picked part of Kylan's quilt I am going to get tied this week

Hung some shelves in Hannah's room

Hung a trophy shelf in the boys' room, which actually required the drill coming out :)

Cleaned both the toilets, just not the whole bathroom, a pregnant woman can only stand so much bending over ;)

After looking at the list, it doesn't seem like much, but for someone who has to lay down and put her feet up every so often so her baby doesn't fall out....I feel like I did pretty darn good! I thought I had done more, but I guess that'll have to do :)

First day of preschool

Pardon the picture quality. Nate has my camera with him in Wyoming. I got stuck using Kylan's mini digital camera that we found on clearance for his birthday :) This was Caleb all excited for his first day of preschool. He was asking me every day for the whole week before and of, "Is it time for me to go to school today?" And when I told him no, he would freak out and start crying like it was the end of the world. Oh, the life of a kid!

He did have a good first day and was talking about it the rest of the week. It will be really good for him to be off on his own and have his own place to go. I look forward to seeing what he will be like at the end of the year.

Laundry overload

The kids were bored the other day when I was doing Hannah's laundry. So this is how they spent some of their time. At least they can make us laugh sometimes, it's either that or cry :)

Mr. T...

You can't tell from the picture, but his hands were both blue too, and his face was much worse!

For trouble! Kylan decided it would be wise to get into my Wilton's gel dye for cakes and frosting. He tried out the blue. It was actually quite funny, but I wasn't too happy about it at the time. This picture was after I put him in the tub and scrubbed him with baby wipes and a magic eraser(do you think that's abuse?). The stuff around his mouth would not come off, until I used the magic eraser. This was the night of his first day of 1st grade. I told him he had to go to school with a blue mouth and he looked scared :) We were able to get most of it off, but it wasn't fun.

On Thursday night of last week, the boys were being trouble makers with not going to bed and staying in bed. After threatening to turn of the light, and shut the door, which had already been done.....I still heard sounds coming from the room. I go in to check and Caleb informs me that Kylan had peed on his(Caleb's) bed. So I check out the pants and there is no wet mark. I ask him how he peed without getting it on his pants. So Caleb tells me that he had peed off of his bed, which is the top bunk, down onto Caleb's bed. I then ask Kylan what gave him that bright idea. He had no answer for me. I take a deep breath and ask, "What made you think that would be a good idea? He just kept saying, " I'm sorry mama". Anyway, long story short, I was cleaning the carpet with my Bissell at 9:30 at night and fuming! They're supposed to bring us joy, right? Maybe someday!