How our New Year is starting out...

...or maybe it's how 2009 is ending. Hopefully that's the case rather than this being a sign of things to come in 2010.

On December 29th, I found out that my youngest brother, Matthew (32), left work to go to lunch, got something from McDonald's, then decided to jump off the Deception Pass Bridge in Washington near where he was stationed in the Navy. His funeral will be on Thursday in Bountiful. It's been very sad, yet interesting to somewhat go through this ordeal with my mom and my sister, Julie, who lives in WA also. They've had to deal with the Navy's NCIS, two ex-wives, a current girlfriend, my mom's ex-husband (Matthew's father), funeral arrangements, DVD creation issues, travel arrangements, etc. My brother leaves behind his cute ten-year-old daughter, Alyssa. He'll be missed.

My Matt's been sick for the last week but is doggedly going to work every day. He hasn't used any sick days for a long time and is trying to keep his streak going.

Yesterday, Kayleigh, Tara and I took Jenny back up to Idaho. This is where the DVD issues come into play, but there are too many to mention here. We are creating one for Matthew's funeral and, needless to say, are cutting it close. Jenny is having to FedEx it to me. We had UPS delays, power outages, and timing issues, but I'm crossing my fingers that it arrives tomorrow as scheduled.

On the bright side, K and I are headed to lunch with Grandma Cathy today and then to my mom's to see my sisters from WA who arrive this afternoon.

Amid all of this, some good news...I'm being released from Young Women's!! I've really enjoyed it, but I'm ready for a change. I'm curious to find out what's next.