From the Mesa Tribune

Shane Cory Figueroa
FIGUEROA, Shane Cory 1983-2008 Our beloved Shane, "Shaner", returned into the loving arms of his Heavenly Father and awaiting family members early Saturday morning. His unexpected death was a result of a car accident while on duty as a police officer with the Phoenix Police Department. Shane started his mortal journey on June 21, 1983 in Mesa Arizona. He was welcomed to this earthly life by his parents, E. Cory and Jerilyn Skousen Figueroa. He was the loving husband of Melisha Pew Figueroa and proud father of three month old Kenzlie Marie, both whom he loved dearly. He was an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and had a firm knowledge that he is a son of God. His mortal life was a testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ and he confidently shared his testimony with everyone. Shane grew up in Mesa, where he participated in sports, camp outs with his scout group, and family outings and activities. He also loved music, and had a natural talent for playing the violin. Above all, he was a friend to everyone. His warm and infectious "dimpled" smile and kind heart captured and influenced many. Upon graduating from Mesa High School, he served a two year mission, sharing his love of the gospel of Jesus Christ in Maracaibo, Venezuela. Upon his return he pursued his life long dream of following in his father's footsteps by joining the Phoenix Police Department. Sadly, he was only allowed to serve and protect the community of Phoenix for three short years. During that time he made many close friends within the police department and the community. He was a true inspiration to all. Shane is survived by his wife, Melisha and daughter, Kenzlie, his parents, Cory and Jerilyn Figueroa, brothers, Austin and Bronson, sister, Kassidi, father and mother-in-law, Wade and Tamara Pew, brothers-in-law, Braden and Aaron, grandparents Lavar and Jeannine Skousen, Ernie and Kayle Figueroa, and many aunts, uncles and cousins that he loved dearly. Shane was blessed to belong to an incredibly committed, supportive and loving extended family. Shane will be sorely missed. He is separated from us for a while, but we know he is doing the work of our Heavenly Father. We know there is a plan that allows families to be together forever. Our family will hold onto this belief until we are together again. A visitation will be held Friday, October 31, 2008 at the Red Mountain Institute, 7126 E. McKellips (just east of Power Road), from 4-7 p.m. Funeral services will be Saturday, November 1, 2008 at 10:00 a.m. at the same location. Internment will be at the City of Mesa Cemetery. Meldrum Mortuary is handling the arrangements. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made at any branch of M & I Bank in the name of Melisha and Kenzlie Figueroa. Those wishing to share a special memory or influence can email it to rjcuriel@gmail.com . Published in the East Valley Tribune on 10/30/2008

Shane Figueroa Service Information

I just saw that they have scheduled the service. I had heard a couple different things so this is the official one from the family
Friday 10/31: 4-7 @ Red Mountain Institute Building will be the viewing.
Saturday 11/1: 10:00am if the Funeral

To make a donation to his family you can go to any M&I Bank in the name of Melisha or Kinzlie Figueroa.

Great Loss

I was watching the news last night and saw this picture flash on the screen then they went to break. I was thinking to myself that it looked just like Shane Figueroa. They came back and said that Officer Figueroa had been killed in the line of Duty on his way to a call and was killed by a drunk driver. I was in shock. I went to Jr High & Part of High School with Shane. Later in life I was in singles ward for a while with him then after Blaine an I where married Blaine was his home teacher. Melisha Shane's wife is the granddaughter of a lady that I use to work with. Ruth (Melisha's grandmother) worked at Ribbons and Lace for a very long time. She taught me how to make hair bows and when she moved to Idaho I took over teaching for her. When Blaine and I bought our house we moved into Desert Vista ward where I got to know Melisha's mom Tamara. I was the choir director and Tamara taught me so much. So our paths have crossed a few times during our lives. We where never what you would call great friends however he was a great person. He always had a contagious smile on his face, he always said Hi when you would pass him in the hall and even if you didn't know him all that well (like me) you know he was the type of person that you could call on and he would help you. My thoughts and prayers go out to Melisha his beautiful wife and his baby girl Kenzlie.

I know how hard it is to loose a loved one and you always say thank goodness for our knowledge of the gospel. Well that is so true. I am so grateful for this knowledge that we have of the Plan of Salvation even though it is hard and man it is hard to loose the ones that you love but to have that sure knowledge that you will see him again does give you comfort after the initial hurt has subsided.

Our Saturday Morning

I was so excited to sleep in a little on Saturday Ryan stayed in his bed till about 8:30 and I thought that I was doing good. Ryan came in our room and said hi then he went downstairs to watch NOGGIN nothing out of the ordinary. So my plan was to stay lounging in bed till around 9 then I would get up and tackle the down stairs mess. All of a sudden Ryan yells upstairs for "daddy it's broken" usually when he yells this it means that he can't find the NOGGIN channel. This morning it was way different Blaine went downstairs to find water all over the floor. We have a water cooler by the kitchen and Ryan usually doesn't do anything with it except fill his cup when he wants a drink. This time it was different he took his water cups and decided to dump it on the floor. The nice thing is the entire downstairs is tile and we got a throw rug down but that was it. Then he looked at the TV and saw this.
You can still hear the sound just no picture. So Blaine sent Ryan to his room and yelled at me to come downstairs. Yep their is a puddle of water in front and coming out of our TV. So I went upstairs to talk to Ryan and found him in his room with a box of wipes washing all of his cars individually so after I picked up about 10 wipes I took him downstairs and set him on the couch and asked him what he did to the TV? "I clean it" that is what I thought. For some reason he was in a cleaning mood and so he decided to dump his cup on the front of the TV so he could clean it. I think I am doing good at this point becasue I am not yelling or screaming at my son. He could still hear the TV and was saying "fix it" I said it's broken no more NOGGIN. Then the realization of what he did hit him. NO MORE NOGGIN? I said nope it's broken and mommy and daddy can't fix it. By this point he was crying thinking that his world was over without his Noggin.
I had to go to Sams Club to get stuff for mutual Wednsesday night so we decided to look at their TV's while shopping. Everytime we go we drool over the TV's we alwyas say someday we will have a cool flat screen TV. They had some good deals but we decided we wanted to look around first. So we dropped the grouchy Ryan off at my mother in laws house. Oh ya forgot that part of the story. Before we left the house I asked Blaine to take something out to the garbage. Ryan went with him but on the way back Ryan fell and cut up the top of his foot in the crease where your foot meets your leg and his knee and he was crying a bleeding and he never wants us to touch his boo boo or put a bandaid on it. So everytime he walked or looked down he saw his boo boo's and then started crying.
Anyway we decided that the grouch wouldn't let us shop so we took him for a day at gmas and he was okay with that becasue we left his train tacks there so he was happy.
So Blaine and I had a day date of shopping would have rather gone to a movie but it was still fun.
After going to 4 or 5 stores we decided to go back to Sam's Club and talk to them agian becasue they had the best deal and by far the best warrentey.
Yes we now have a new huge TV. Blaine says its not that big 42" however in our very small living room its that big. Blaine and Ryan and mommy fight over who gets to watch it. Ryan usally wins. Every time we come home he says Big TV" then turns it to Noggin. We have told him no more touching the TV he has to point instead of touch the screen and then I sat him down and said NO WATER if you use water it will be broken agian so if you want to clean you have to come and get mommy or daddy.

Our new toy to fight over although Ryan usually wins.

Camping Day 2 & 3

So camping didn't happen the way that we all though that it would. We had everyone show up. My sister in law and her family came and set up their tent. My husband's Uncal and cousin cam and set up their tents. We always sleep in the trailer Chris sleeps in his truck because he sores really bad and it's covered so it's not bad for him. My father in law sleeps in the back of his truck to help with the snoring as well. His truck on the other hand is covered and has a nice carpet kit so he stays nice and comfortable. Blaine and I usually sleep on the pull out bed, Ryan sleeps on the table. Normally this all work out however Friday night it was very windy and cold winds about 50 mph and it was about 30 outside. The wind wasn't that bad and in the trailer it stays very nice because we have a heater. The bad part was when 2 in the morning hit and so did the rain and the hail. Yes hail it was hitting the trailer so hard and the wind was blowing the trailer around and it got very loud. Ryan woke up and didn't go back to sleep for three hours and then I didn't go back to sleep at all. So as you can image I was not in the greatest mood. So we had about 15 people piled in the trailer trying to eat and stay out of the rain. So I was getting really fed up with people. The weather report was saying it was only going to get worse. So I told Blaine that it was time to go and get a hotel room. So we had stayed in the Holiday Inn in Showlow and then Sat we stayed at the Holiday Inn in Pinetop. Both very nice by the way. So I got a very good nights sleep while everyone at camp decided to ruff it out in the 24 degree weather and 70mph winds.

Desiree trying to stay dry.

Our Wet West Camp

Ryan and daddy trying to fish during a rain break. Notice the fishing poles

Ryan and daddy walking back to camp. It's starting to rain agian. So you didn't think that you would see the moon during the day. Now you can say we are truly camping.

Ryan warming up in the hotel. Finally out of the rain.

Ryan wanted to go anywhere Blaine went. He didn't want me he wanted to be a daddys boy.
Now this is how mommy likes to camp. Nice bed takeout and Ryan watching his movie and Happy.

Camping day 1

So I guess it's not really camping yet. Blaine had two vacation days that he needed to use up by the end of the year. So as we looked at our calender we really didn't know when he was going to use it becasuethe next two months at work are going to be really crazy. So Wednesday when Blaine got home from work he said that we should leave tomorrow (Thursday) and come to Show Low and use his hotel points and get out of town. So that is what we did.After we got into Payson we decided to find a park and let Ryan run off some energy. WE found a really nice park by the Payson Library and Ryan was making daddy go down the slide and run around with him. I think Blaine was very excited when he saw another little boy coming over to the slide so Ryan could chase him around. We weren't on any time frame so we stayed for about and hour and a half. Ryan and the other little boy had a lot of fun.

On the way to Show Low the park really worked.

Nathan Blaine's brother Nathan is here doing a month long rotation. So we went out to dinner with Nathan to JB's (DON"T EVER GO THERE THEY ARE SOOOOOO SLOW) the the boys came back to the hotel and went swimming. Ever since Ryan got lost at Sunsplash and had to be rescued he is afraid of the water. So he likes to stay on the stairs. I got a few cute pictures before the batteries died in the camera. So we are going to really start camping tonight. Or at least our style of camping. Gary and everyone else are coming up this afternoon. I am telling you I think I will be very grateful for the trailer rather than a tent one because we don't do the tent thing the other thing is that it is going to get down in the low 20's at night.

Road Race

We usually try to have dinner with my grandparents on Friday nights. Going to gma & Gpa Birds house is one of Ryan's favorite thing to do. You see my grandpa as a scooter. Ryan use to like riding it and sill does every once in a while however since we have moved he doesn't get to ride his bike as much as he use to so the new game is chase. He wants anyone to ride the scooter and chase him while he rides his bike. It is so funny to watch and Ryan is very fast.

Baby Update

Yep five toes.
So yesterday we had another ultrasound. I am now fifteen weeks and doing pretty good. The really great news is that they didn't find any blood pockets this time. So we are hopeful that everything is going the way that it is suppose to be going. We still don't know that the baby is and that is driving us crazy becasue we usually know by now however this child is not cooperating with us becasue it kept its legs crossed. I go in to see my Dr. next Thursday and then I will schedule the big 20 week appt. So I am hoping that things go better then. So back to the waiting game for three more weeks. Blaine, Ryan and my grandpa as well as one of Blaine's sisters still think that we are having a girl. Even though we did't find out what we are having we did get some good pics.Our little alien baby. You can make out the head, face and the arm is under the face the two things pointing up at the bottom are the knees.A better picture of alien baby face and belly

Sorry

So I am not doing so good on the blog front lately. Life has been a little crazy and we are still trying to get caught up. It is nice that it is Conference weekend so I don't have any meetings that I need to go to. I did have another ultrasound three weeks ago but never got around to posting any pictures. So far so good she said that my blood pockets had gotten smaller and that I could come in for another ultrasound when I wanted. So instead of going the two weeks I am sticking it out and going three 1/2 weeks. I am very much looking forward to my ultrasound on Monday. We are hoping that we might get a look at what we are having. Ryan keeps saying that we are having a girl. Blaine and one of his sisters have both had dreams that we are having a girl so I am hopeful. So I will make sure to update and put some pictures on Monday.