The past two weeks

The past two weeks have been fun.  Last week John took Avett off to Colorado by himself, his grandfather passed and he went out for the funeral. (Obviously that was not the fun part)  Grandpa John will certainly be missed. ❤️ While Evaleigh and I were here at the house we had so many dates and did so many fun things together. I enjoyed being with her alone so much even though I was missing the boys. We made cookies did glitter nails went to target and bought a few new toys went on a movie date and to party city for birthday supplies for this weekend and read a lot of books and snuggled together for naps.

Sunday night I went on a midnight run to the airport to pick up the boys. I was so excited to see them and when they got here I got a huge surprise. John's Mom came for a visit! We were so happy to have her here since we don't get to be with her very often. We had a great time together and the children enjoyed her so much. She is the most incredibly helpful and wonderful Grammy! 

Last night was her last night here and John played guitar and we sang music for a couple of hours. It was so good to hear him play and harmonize together. Of course he played my favorite Avett Brothers song, Murder in the City.  I always tell him that I want him to play that at my funeral if I go first. If not somebody else better do it! 

"Always remember there is nothing worth sharing like the love that lets us share our name."

My mom and her husband left on their mission to Independence Missouri. We are so excited for them and so happy that they get to go off on this adventure and serve the Lord. We will miss them terribly but are keeping up with pictures and videos and face time.

61 years

I just spoke with a woman who lost her husband yesterday morning.  She called to speak to me about singing at his funeral.  The moment I answered the phone she could hardly make it through her first sentence.  

They had been married 61 years.

She said, "I don't know how I am going to make it through this," and then jokingly she said, "of course we didn't talk much any more because we'd already said it all."

I couldn't finish our conversation without being in tears my self.  I couldn't imagine loosing your companion after a lifetime together.  I feel so honored to go through this life with John by my side.  He is my best friend.  

In two months we will be married 4 years.  With 4 moves and two babies, loosing loved ones and celebrating successes, making and writing music, many date nights on the couch and rocking and singing and bouncing to babies to sleep together I feel like our four years is a lot.  But when I think about what our lifetime together will bring I know we've just begun.  

Today I am grateful for our life together building and raising a family and being husband and wife.

grove.

We've been pretty busy around here as of late.  

Our Uncle Grover (the one we recorded these songs for)  passed away two weeks ago.  We have been to Colorado and back for the funeral.  We are still shocked and so sad that he is gone.  He passed away from a very fast moving case of Pulmonary Fibrosis.  He left behind his wonderful wife and two little girls ages 2 and 5.  We owe much of what we have to Grover and Sally.

Uncle Grover offered John an internship here in Atlanta in 2009 after he returned home from his 2 year mission in Mexico.  He took it with plans to stay only a few months and then go out to BYU in the winter.  Grover and Sally invited John to live with them.  It was during that time that we met, fell in love, and got engaged.  John lived with them for a year.  When we found out we were having Evaleigh they passed down everything to us from their little girls; the crib, all of their clothes, shoes, toys, high chair, car seats, strollers.  The list could go on and on.  They would invite us over all of the time to have dinner and play music together.

If it weren't for Grover, it is possible John and I would have never met.

Thank you Uncle Grover.

(a little something John wrote)

Here is a poem Grover wrote last year:

Once I'm dead

And gone

My girls will carry on

My name

My blood 

My dreams my hopes my love

Because they 

Are everything to me

And I'll say 

The same 

to anyone

Its all about family

When I'm dead

Don't cry

Or compose a sad goodbye

Because I

Have lived 

to see my life completed by

My girls

My world

Is complete 

It's all about family

Matilda you

Have my heart

Ruby you're my art

And all I mean

By that is that I love you

When I'm dead

And gone

My girls will carry on

G Mundell Atlanta 2012

(If anyone feels like helping out, a college fund has been set up for the girls here.)

Dearest Papa

Dear Papa,

Tonight I went over to Nanny's house.  We sorted through dozens and dozens of family albums.  I missed you as I saw pictures of you smiling and laughing.  I loved seeing memories of your life that still remain.  I loved hearing stories about you and feeling the love that we still all have for you.  You died when I was 5.  You were a man that I never really got to know well here on earth but I have felt your loving spirit close to me throughout my life.  I have thought of you so many times.

I remember when you died the cousins and I went out to your beautiful garden out back and we picked the vegetables.  We tried to sell them to people to try and make money to help with funeral costs.  In our young minds it was the best we thought we could do.

I want you to know that I have a happy life.  I am proud of the woman that I have become and I think you would be too.  I wish you could meet the man I married, he is wonderful.  His name is John.  We try to live the gospel the best we can.  He treats me with so much respect.  We have such a happy life together.  I know you would love him too.

Some times I feel mad at you for leaving us so early.  I feel sad that you never got to hear me sing.  I feel sad that you weren't at our wedding.  I feel sad that you will never get to meet our babies.

But whenever I feel that sadness I also feel you, comforting me.   I know you see us all growing and learning.  Someday we want to name one of our sons Aaron, after you.  I hope we make you proud and that you know we love you.

Thank you for marrying an incredible woman and raising 5 strong children.  I am particularly grateful for my mother, Evelyn. She loves you so much and I know she misses you too.

Thank you for working hard to give your children the best that you could.  My mother turned out to be the best mother anyone could ask for.  Thank you for teaching her the things you did.

Nanny is happy as she is surrounded by her family.  She lives a love filled life and we adore every ounce of her.  Tonight it took me an hour to teach her how to put all of her scanned photos in to one folder on her computer.  I thought she was going to wet her pants laughing so hard about it all.  You should have seen it, she is a riot.  She is just as quirky as ever.  She is so lovely, I wish I could be there to see the two of you reunited.

I hope you know that we think of you.  

We speak of you.  

We remember you.

We love you.

I can't wait to see you again.

Love your grand-daughter,

Rachel

A Sad Day.

I suppose this post is more for me than anyone else.

Saturday was a very hard day.  I have not been exposed to death many times. I still have three grandparents and my Papa died when I was 4 so I didn't really remember the emotional pain of that loss.


Let me first say, loss is loss.  No matter what or who you loose, it still hurts, there is still shock and sadness, and grief to be felt.

Saturday morning John left early to do his Spanish/English Leagal Interpreter Certificate course. He will do that every Saturday this month. My mom came and woke me up at 9 and asked me to go on a walk with her. I felt a 'prompting' and knew I needed to go with her. We took our dog Honey. Honey is my mother's life.  She is her companion. She has said to me on several occasions , "if anything happened to Honey, it would kill me.". They are so attached, we have had her for 10 years. She is the most humble, sweet, and precious dog.

So, we set off on our walk and mom and I shared some great conversation about what John and I would name our babies, we talked about John's mission, and we talked about how seasons of life are much like the seasons of the year. 


Mom said she had never seen honey so excited to go on a walk before.  She was pouncing like a kitten through the fields.  She was absolutely elated.  I've never seen a little dog so happy. On our way back we were picking flowers to go in the house.  The sun shone right down on Honey and it was the most beautiful I had ever seen her. Her soft fur shone like gold in the sunlight.  I picked her up as two cars passed slowly (we do not put her on a leash because we live on a small country road). I felt her little heart beat in my arms so strong as she had just finished running through the field.  As the two cars passed I put her down and immediately a teenager in a huge SUV came barreling down the small country road at about 55 mph. Honey ran over to the other side and we were nervous and called her name to come to us. The speed was far too much and as she came towards us, the car did not slow at all and ran her over as she almost made it to the other side.

It was the most traumatic and horrible thing I have ever experienced. I was screaming and crying and my mother went over and rubbed her as she died. She went very quickly.  I am glad she did not have to suffer too much. My heart broke as I looked in to the eyes of my mother as she watched her little companion die.  We cleaned her up off of the road and the girl gave us a plastic box to take her home in.  The girl drove us to our house and dropped us off. 


My mother and I grabbed two shovels and went deep in to our woods to burry her. I thought of how the pioneers must have felt when burying their deceased children on their journeys west.  I cried as I shoveled the dirt to make her grave.  We talked about how grateful we were that we were safe but how sad it was to loose her. When John came home we all went out to where my mom and i had buried her and John said a very comforting prayer.


I cried all day Saturday. I didn't shower. My face was swollen and John still kissed me and loved on me as unattractive as I was. I hope we will see her again. She brought us so much love and happiness.

Dear little girl, we hope you are happy and running in the fields of heaven.  We hope you are doing the funny little things you always did.  We hope you know we loved you so much and feel better for having had you in our lives.  We hope we can follow your example of following your master and in turn follow our Master, Jesus Christ. We hope to follow your perfect happy childlike example. We will miss you.