PATTYCAKES

BEGIN AGAIN

2009-02-02T16:37:00.005-07:00

I am seriously malfunctioning as a blogger. I know only enough to get myself into trouble. I thought jazzing up my blog would be fun, be unique, find a different template than the norm. And so I did it and guess what?!?! I messed the template up beyond my ability to repair it. I mean, I know it can be repaired, but this is where my knowledge is only good enough to get me in trouble. So, I am starting a new blog. Fresh, where I will leave well enough alone.

So, come join me at my new address: patty-joyinthejourney.blogspot.com

But this one will remain, if you want to revisit old posts. Like visiting an old friend........

ORGANIZED CHAOS AND DING DONG, WRESTLING SEASON IS OVER!

2009-01-31T19:48:00.023-07:00

So here is what we spent this Saturday doing. It started with Tim's alarm not going off at 4:15 AM. Fortunately, Bailey needed to go out at 5:15 so when Tim let her out, he realized we were an hour late getting up and Brandon missed his carpool to Cottonwood for the Freshman State Wrestling Tournament. Had she not woken us, we may have still been snoozing way past too late to get him there. We had planned to go all along, but our plan had been to go later since they did not start the wrestling until 10:00 AM. But he had to get registered no later than 8 AM and since the tournament was two hours away and since he missed his ride, off we were in the car, with MY hair gone wild. (no time for fixing) It was tense moments as we drove, hoping we would make it in time for registration. Whew, we did it!
All that tension must have been good for him. He was able to win all his matches, pinning two of his opponents, and took first place in his weight bracket for the Freshman "state" tournament!

And his friend Gideon placed third so there were congratulations all around!

And now the season is over for another year.

Anyone as excited as me?

BRANDON AND RANDOM

2009-01-27T22:38:00.012-07:00

This is Brandon, at one of his wrestling meets, waiting for his match.

See how he is preparing? He is trying out his "tough-guy", don't-mess-with-me look. By the way, he pinned his guy in the first period. Happened so fast I didn't get a picture. Guess the look worked.

He developed that wrestling around with Cameron. Who, by the way, we recently discovered has been caught up with in the growing department!
And the randomness of doing absolutely nothing but occasionally moving about the kitchen one lazy weekend afternoon.

THE ERRAND OF ANGELS

2009-01-26T14:05:00.008-07:00

Yesterday the topic in our Relief Society meeting was one on "the ministering of angels". I am a firm believer that there are angels among us, both of the more heavenly nature as well as angels in our everyday lives as people live close to God and listen to the promptings that encourage them to reach out to help others, sometimes even when they don't know how much they really are needed. We listened to many stories of women yesterday, right in my own ward boundaries, who had been recipients of wonderful neighbors and friends that were "there" just when they needed them, often times not even knowing why they were there when that thought came into their head. Sometimes they are not even aware of the impact that they have had on others because it was not obvious nor ever told to them.

I remember a time during the 9/11 terrorist attack, when airplanes had to be taken down from the sky for a day or two or more. At the time, my sister was living in CA and I in AZ. A sweet little grandma she knew in CA had been back East to visit family and was in the sky when the attacks happened. Her plane had to be grounded in St. Louis. She was travelling all alone and in a city where she knew no one. A daughter of hers in CA knew my sister, Sharon, was from St Louis originally and wondered if she knew of anyone there that could help this poor woman. Sharon had not lived in St. Louis in nearly 20 years and so she did not know but called me in AZ, having recently moved from there just three years prior, and asked who I knew. And I knew just the person. My dear friend Billie Johns was still in St. Louis and I knew she would pick this lady up from the airport and take her home and take care of her until the time came that she could finish her trip home. And so she did just that! And Billie and her new friend from CA enjoyed a few days together and are now fast friends. What a wonderful angel this grandma was sent in her time of need.

And so that brings me to my thoughts today as I am grateful for the angels who took my son and his mission companion to the grocery store, stocked them up on food, a whole LOT of food, $360 worth of food for just two guys!! And his wife took their suits and pants and shirts in to be dry cleaned for them! Since these young men live on a pittance as they go out to preach the gospel, this was a wonderful blessing in their lives to have some of their temporal needs relieved for them. And as a mom of one of these boys, I am grateful to know that though they are away, they are being watched out for and that a loving Heavenly Father never forgets them.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY FIRSTBORN

2009-01-25T08:00:00.001-07:00

Happy 21st Birthday to Chris. While he is away in Tennessee, we did not get to celebrate in person, but in spirit! This one is for you, Chris, and all you are doing out there in your service to the Lord! We love and miss you, lots!

PUZZLING.........

2009-01-22T22:40:00.018-07:00

A winter past time in our family is building jigsaw puzzles.

We usually get at least one new one for Christmas.

This one was 1500 pieces; a piece of cake, right?

Until we had to do the lower part of sunflowers and leaves.

A royal nightmare! But Cameron finished that part up and put in the final piece today!

Dare we do another, or save it for next winter?

Perhaps They Were Right

2009-01-19T08:44:00.004-07:00

So, the Arizona Cardinals have done it! They have managed to get themselves into the Superbowl. I will admit to lacking a whole lot of football interest, and most especially in regards to the AZ Cardinals, but I have my reasons.

I am not sure the reason for while the original Cardinals, based out of Chicago, moved to St. Louis. It is usually about money, track record, and a stadium. But I do know that while football in general is a great pastime in St. Louis, baseball Cardinals were really the more popular team to root for. The football Cardinals shared Busch stadium with the baseball Cardinals and perhaps they felt they did not get enough of the limelight?!?!? I really don't know the answer to that but for years in St Louis, they asked for their own stadium. Over and over again, season after season. Sharing, apparently, is hard for football players. They never got their stadium in St. Louis. But maybe a better track record might have rallied more enthusiasm.

At any rate, the football Cardinals "left the building" so to speak and headed south for the winter, or perhaps, many winters, and became the Arizona Cardinals. I am not sure if they were missed by more than a handful, though my friend Pam, having been baptized by one of the players at the time, may have missed one in particular! Nevertheless, fast forward a few years and our family moves to Arizona and reunites with the Cardinal football team, still begging for a stadium of their own. And as things would be, they were no longer sharing with a professional baseball team for their stadium but had reduced to sharing their field with a college team! How low can you go?

Meanwhile, back in St. Louis, a new football team was gained. Football fans could hardly bear being without. And so the LA Rams became the St. Louis Rams and guess what? The taxpayers of the city agreed to help fund a new stadium for our new team! Ha! And soon after, they won the Superbowl!!! Maybe the Stadium WAS the problem!

And thus we see here, a 60+ year track record of no playoffs and Superbowls and finally Phoenix builds the Cards a stadium, and we are going to the Superbowl!!! I do think there is something to that Stadium theory and if you build it, they will win!!!!!

Monday Blues......

2009-01-19T07:57:00.004-07:00

I love Sundays. They are a day of worship and a day to forget the cares of the rest of the week. That is how we handle them in our house, relaxing after church and not worrying about the dishes so much, lazy meals, reminders to email Chris, board games, puzzles and general family silliness. I really like Sundays, except for the fact that the next day means Monday.

For some reason, Mondays have a bad rap. But they earn it in our house. Besides back to school and back to work, there are dishes and laundry that somehow managed to pile up on Sunday and now we have to face it all. Usually I am headed to work on Monday morning so there is often a scramble to throw some things in the dishwasher and get it running before heading off to work. When I return home, there are usually more things to organize and clear up. It is kind of a Sunday hangover thing. While we enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere of Sunday, the piper must be paid.

Today I am home on Monday. It is holiday. While our work place is open, it is also payroll Monday. But, since it is a holiday for some businesses, payroll cannot be done. Banks are closed. And so, payroll has to be done tomorrow instead. So, I am home today but will go in tomorrow, my usual day off, and do the payroll then. That means facing the Monday monster head on and digging in and getting some things done right away. But I am thinking of extending my Sunday a little longer and going and working on our family jigsaw puzzle...........................

Today will be sunny and 74 degrees.............

2009-01-14T07:20:00.004-07:00

But I am thinking about the rest of you.

My Laundry Room is Like Wal-Mart

2009-01-12T06:54:00.013-07:00

It is not because we roll back prices in there, or that everything in there is "made in America". Do they even say that anymore? Because I remember when Wal-Mart used to tout that as many items as they could carry were made in this great country of ours and then, when I would go there, I would never, ever find anything made in America! But, I digress. My laundry room reminds me of Wal-Mart for this reason:

Have you ever gone into a brand new Wal-mart? It is big, and clean, and shiny and most noticeable, ROOMY! But, as time rolls along, every spare square inch of space in that store starts to fill up with more and more merchandise until I start to wonder if anyone even bothered to measure the distance between stacks to make it wide enough for one, not two, simply ONE cart to fit through. My answer is often a resounding "NO" as I trek down the entire aisle to and back up the other side to get to the display I was trying to look at.

Before you know it, there is barely room for two strangers to pass in the night as we try to reach our shopping destination and the displays are stacked so tall that we cannot see over them to read the signs and figure out where we need to go. But, the good thing in that is that most Wal-Marts are designed similarly and if you shop there often enough, you have the layout memorized.
And so goes my laundry room. If it were not for a memorized layout, I think I would be in trouble navigating through all that has accumulated in there. And, yes, I do keep up with my laundry, mostly. It just so happens to be a catch all for everything else! Besides laundry there is my two weeks supply of water, food storage, the paper shredder, pool towels, board games, opened cans of paint (because the heat would ruin them in the garage) and every item of clean clothing that my children own since the dirty stuff gets washed, dried, hung or folded, yet never makes it down to the bedrooms! Who needs closets and dresser drawers. All the clothing they own is STILL in the laundry room. As time wears on, I find that the piles are taller and the walkway is narrower. Yes, reminds me of an aging Wal-Mart. When it happens to them, they just close shop and build a newer, more super-sized store! Do I need a new laundry room?

Mama's Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys

2009-01-11T19:29:00.015-07:00

Why did this tune strike me in the middle of church today? I assure you we don't sing that kind of music in church. I guess one of the speakers spoke of being in the rodeo. His wife also spoke of being in the rodeo. That is where they met. They are young things, just starting out. She said she could not imagine marrying into a family that did not like horses as she grew up on a ranch. So did he. They live nearby but that is because the city grew around their horse ranch and rodeo set-up, not the other way around.
What the subject of their talks was about was how we can become more Christlike in our lives. They spoke of our commitments to each other and to the Lord by our very actions, by seeking out the will of God, and bend our will to His and not try to force His to ours.
And when they were finished speaking, I realized that those "cowboys" knew a thing or two for their youth and had some pretty inspirational things to say, and it was a joy to see them starting their lives out together in the same saddle, each having the same goals that they can work to accomplish together. And that they were taking the steps they needed to stay strong in the Gospel, and with each other.
And I thought about how my own children were growing up so fast and in a matter of a few years, might be just like that newlywed couple and I thought that if they had things together as well as this couple seems to, then I would gladly be fine with them growing up to be cowboys!

Real Men don't wear Mantyhose!

2009-01-10T07:57:00.007-07:00

I am serious! Be a man! Why do men want to look like women? Why do women want to look like men? I am just not getting it when I see men with eyeliner, and make-up, and hair products, and now...................Mantyhose! Change the name so it feels more masculine perhaps??? Cameron and I had a good, looooooong laugh about this and now, whenever any man in my house decides something is hard, I am going to ask them if they need some mantyhose! Man-up!
I especially like this pair, don't you?

And did you hear about the 140 year old lobster that nearly got cooked for dinner? The restaurant that was going to serve him decided to free him into the wild to live out the remainder of his days. I want to know how they know how old he is AND is the cost of lobster going to go up again because someone has to be paid to figure out the age of each lobster they catch???????? What is this world coming to?

The Roll of the Dice and then a Prize!

2009-01-09T14:50:00.012-07:00

Bunco is a silly, skill-less game, but a whole lot of fun!

I used to belong to a Bunco group. You have to commit for a year. There are twelve players and so we played once a month, and each player took a turn to host the Bunco party at their house. We were responsible for serving a meal along with our game.

Our old year ended in September and when the new year came along, I bowed out of the commitment. Not because it was not a whole lot of fun, just because I thought I was going to start school. So, while I have not done that yet, I did put myself on the substitute list and yesterday they asked me to sub!

So I rejoined my former players and had a ball playing again last night.

That is where the brainlessness of the game comes in. Aside from needing to know how to keep count, this game of chance rather than skill allows you much more time to talk, laugh, and be silly. And silly we were! It is fun to be in that kind of atmosphere with fellow ward sisters. Their fun side is exposed. And so last night I won the most games and won this amazing prize.

And Leann was jealous because all she won were a pair of movie tickets when she could have had so much more fun with an animal fur robe! What a diva I am, don't you think?

Returns

2009-01-06T06:29:00.005-07:00

The month of returns is here.

We return from snowboarding, we return from California, and we return to work! Everyone else in this country was returning to wherever they had been over the holidays to head back to California. By the traffic, you would think EVERYONE lived in CA. Just heading to pick up Brandon, meeting only across the border in what we affectionately call Blight, CA, we found many more going West than East. That was good for our return home. The traffic on the I10 was heavy and forget about using the rest stop! You could be where you were headed long before you got through this line!

Notice, the men are all returning, easily but the women just stand in line and stand, and stand. Has no one learned how to design women's restrooms yet?? More stalls!!

Finally we pick up our offspring in Blythe, load up the pocket bike, full of gas! Nice smell! Drive home with windows cracked the whole way!

But, we are all safely home. We are grateful for that. We return to school and work and the next return???? You guessed it, tax return time! Ugghh!

I Tried Something New

2009-01-06T06:18:00.008-07:00

During the week between Christmas and the New Year, Cameron went to Utah to snowboard and Brandon went to California to hang out with his cousin, Alex. He loaded up the pocket bike and away we went. Tim and I had the whole week at home! We cleaned up the decorations and we cleaned the garages. We also enjoyed eating this:
Mmmm, California Pizza Kitchen. I had never eaten there. Worth it! I had the Thai chicken pizza, Tim had some kind of Canadian Bacon with pineapple on it. Delicious! We ate at Gecko Grill that week too! Don't tell the kids. We ate at all the places we like since we didn't have to pay for them! ha ha Is this what retirement will be like???

And So Begins 2009

2009-01-01T17:48:00.004-07:00

Two things I heard recently that I really appreciated:

An unexpected life is no less a life

and

After all you can do, grace comes.

Words to live by.

I am going to try, anyway.

Looking Good, How Long Will it Last?

2008-12-31T15:35:00.003-07:00

The Decorations are Down...........

2008-12-31T09:20:00.008-07:00

The decorations are stored for next year, the carpets are vacuumed, the tables are dusted, the music is put away, the exercise equipment is given its place of honor again, the wrapping supplies are back under my bed, the garage is cleaned out once again, the movie is rented and the Martinelli's is chilling in the refrigerator! Ta Da! The new year must be coming!

What will you be doing for this celebration of saying farewell to the old and ringing in the new?

Irish Toast: In the new year, may your right hand always be stretched out in friendship, never in want.

Benjamin Franklin: Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man.

Anonymous: A new year's resolution is something that goes in one Year and out the other!

But this year I hope that we all will find more peace, health and happiness throughout the year!

Happy New Year!

It's That Time of the Year Again!

2008-12-30T11:38:00.003-07:00

Whew! The oldies are a sweatin'!

Cousins

2008-12-29T21:26:00.006-07:00

I am so happy that Brandon has a cousin, Alex, that is so close in age to him. They are great friends. Alex lives in California and so during school breaks, we do our best to hook them up to hang out together. They make lots of plans texting and talking on the phone and going back and forth on their facebook accounts. They sometimes seem like opposites, and yet it works because they are good buddies. We went to their house for Thanksgiving and they schemed to get back together for Christmas break. They had plans, like two dances to go to and taking Brandon's little pocket bike there to ride in their dirt tracks across the street from their house. So this afternoon we loaded the pocketbike into the back of our car and headed to Blythe, CA, the halfway point between our houses. Sharon, my sister, met us there where we transferred the bike into the trunk of her Toyota Camry. Now that was an impressive trunk because it fit right in with no trouble at all and some room to spare even! I think they are planning on some good fun!

Threat of a freeze

2008-12-27T09:45:00.007-07:00

So, it got cold last night, really cold. Only I did not notice it, all snuggled in my warm bed. It was not until I crawled out of that warm bed that I realized how cold the house was. I guess I will have to break down and turn on the furnace! How ridiculous is that? When I first moved to AZ, we laughed at how everyone thought it was cold, anything under 70 degrees. But, I must say, 10 1/2 years later, it IS cold under 70 degrees and so I will turn on the furnace. There is a threat of a freeze tonight. So we will go out tonight with our spare sheets and blankets and cover our tender vegetation, that cannot handle freezes. We have lost two trees to freezes in the past. This "global warming" sure has made Arizona colder these past few years. I am worried about my citrus, that took years to develop fruit. Now with its bounty, I want it to last. I do think citrus are a little hardy. Still, I will cover them up. Tim talks of removing the Christmas lights from the house and covering them over the trees and keeping them warm that way. Some years that has really worked, as long as the neighbors don't mind seeing the color of Christmas lights shining from our trees long into January.
Speaking of citrus, we ate our first lemon on Christmas Eve. we sliced it and shared it with our guests to put in their water if they wanted. I was not sure if it was ready for picking but it was delicious. Our trees are so heavy with fruit, some are bending and touching the ground.
Imagine my surprise, upon moving to AZ, to find citrus was a winter fruit. I never knew that. I have wondered at why lemons are ready to go in January yet we love to drink lemonade in the summertime!!! I guess that is why I thought citrus was a summer fruit!

Hmmm, maybe I will go pick a grapefruit. Sounds kind of good right now, refreshing!

Christmas Day

2008-12-26T17:01:00.032-07:00

Christmas day brought a few raindrops and a sleep in. I remember the days when I barely had the gifts wrapped the night before, dropped into bed, then before I knew it, three little boys were tromping into our room to see if they could go out and see if Santa had paid them a visit. They would climb into our bed and we would read the Christmas story from the scriptures and we would try to begin our day remembering the reason for our celebration. The excitement could barely contain them.

These days, they stay up much, much later than "Santa" and thus often have to be woken to begin the day. I awoke early, in spite of my late night, but allowed myself the luxury of just laying there. Eventually I got up and showered, even getting my hair dried and my makeup on before there were any creatures stirring. (Except Tim who had gotten up soon after I did). Brandon was next, crawling out of bed around 9 AM. He asked if we could wake Cameron. I asked him if he wanted a shower first. Brandon takes lots of showers. ( I am not complaining!) He opted to get his shower done and we finally got Cameron to come out of his room about 9:45.

With a chill in the air and overcast skies, we turned on our Christmas lights and gathered and read the Christmas story.

All of us commented on how different Christmas "feels" these days. I am quite sure some magic is gone when you mature and grow up. You start to realize that the holiday season is less about Santa and gifts and more about love and peace and family and friends. These are the things that bring true joy. As gifts are forgotten over the year, these memories live on.

Thus, it was with happiness, that after a very relaxing day, we were invited to the Gratil's house to share Christmas dinner with them and Susan's parents. It is great to have good friends around when we don't have family to celebrate with. We enjoyed entirely too much food again and learned a new silly card game to play with a large group of people.

All too soon we found ourselves watching the clock, waiting to for 6:45 to come so that we could receive our phone call from Chris from Kentucky. Since we knew he would call while we were at the Gratil's house, we planned for his call to come on Tim's cell phone and await we did. He said he would be calling at 8:45 his time. I have been waaaaay off with time zones these days and thought there was two hours difference and there was only one. So, we waited, and waited, for an entire hour and at 7:45 on the dot, Chris made his call home. The part of Kentucky he was in was only an hour's difference! We had all been sitting waiting and he was right on time! We passed the phone around and had lots of laughs as we listened to Chris' stories and his southern twang. He sounds just like his uncle Dave from Houston!

Thanks for the great family, friends, and food that made this holiday a special event in our lives!

Christmas Eve

2008-12-26T10:25:00.026-07:00

On the Eve of Christmas we celebrated our time with a huge dinner, with way too much food and lots of good friends. The day was busy, and chilly, and feeling a lot like Christmas. There was the hustle and bustle of working and food preparation, and worrying that the roast would be overdone, or underdone, or how the gravy would turn out. But it all came together and we enjoyed the feast, and the desserts, and the great company. Thanks to the Wightmans and Helferstays for helping us celebrate and ring in Christmas! PREPARATIONS

CELEBRATIONS

Afterwards, as is traditional in our family, we share our gifts we have each thoughtfully planned for each other and enjoy guessing what is wrapped in each box. Cameron is the champ at guessing and has a pretty high guessing percentage! And finally everyone is old enough to keep quiet their surprise until that night. So we all enjoy the suspense and excitement that comes along.

But we laugh as each of us opens a gift from Brandon he announces the great bargains he got on his gifts by announcing what he paid! It was hilarious if you were there! And it was so like Brandon to feel the need to share with us his thriftiness. And yet, he managed to select a perfect gift for each of us! And, in case you were wondering what was in the packaged that was labeled To Mein Mutter: Aus Dein Son: here it is!

Pinching Packages

2008-12-20T16:32:00.004-07:00

Is Brandon trying to disguise his presents by writing in German, hoping we cannot figure out who they are for, and thus not be able to guess what they are? Here is one of his gifts he placed under the tree. Who do you think it is for?

Happy Be-lated Birthday, Shannon!!!

2008-12-18T20:34:00.004-07:00

This video is my apology for being late in remembering your birthday, Shannon. Hope it was a good one!

New Look

2008-12-17T07:18:00.003-07:00

My blog is trying to get a new look. This is not as easily done as I thought it would be. I am impressing myself with my newly learned skills, but I am sure of one thing, and that is that the more I learn, the more I realize I don't know at all! I guess that is just how life goes, right? So, bear with the changes, and the missing pictures and hopefully we will see progress as promised, you know, like our Department of Transportation always says!!!!!!

PS I love these rainy days!

Tough Competition

2008-12-14T22:11:00.007-07:00

We all have our games, the ones we are good at. This game goes to Tim, who seemed to keep on winning! Cameron consistently wins at "Trouble"! I remember when he liked to play that and the game "Sorry". Wonder why?

A Little Package Arrived

2008-12-12T06:55:00.024-07:00

Yesterday, I opened my mailbox. Here in AZ, we have pods of mailboxes. Prior to moving to AZ, I was used to a box at the end of your driveway, no lock, and when you had outgoing mail, you raised a little red flag and the delivery person knew to take mail out for before putting yours in.

It was a simple and workable process.

Now our boxes are at the end of our street, a whole group of them, with little locks on them. Underneath the individual mailboxes are some larger boxes. When you get a package in the mail, and it is too big for your box but small enough for the larger ones, the mailperson (ours is a woman, I think) leaves a key in your box to open the larger box to get your package. This is what happened yesterday. I opened the bigger box and I discovered a box from Tim's parents. I had my suspicions as to the content of the box so I went home and quickly put the box in the refrigerator, assuming it to be something perishable. When Brandon got home from school, he wanted to know why a cardboard box was in our refrigerator. I said it was a package from Grandma and Grandpa Cox whereupon he immediately got a grin on his face and knew there was Oberle Dog sausage in the box! We opened it to confirm and when Cameron got home and discovered the sausage, he said, "Now that's what I'm talking about!!!" as his eyes lit up!

Thank-you for the sausage, Grandma and Grandpa! And I know somewhere in Murray, KY, Chris is enjoying it as well!

Beware of the Doghouse

2008-12-10T21:55:00.003-07:00

Ladies, have a good laugh!

On the Radio

2008-12-10T14:38:00.004-07:00

I heard a funny thing the other day on the radio. It just tickled my funny bone. I really don't know why. You know how things can be hilarious one time and the next time you wonder why? Well, the newsperson on the station I was listening to was talking about local rush hour traffic and he said that the 60 at Gilbert road was as backed up as a cheap toilet! ha ha ha That metaphor, and ultimate image in my head, just made me laugh.

An Old Fashioned Christmas...

2008-12-08T21:10:00.010-07:00

...Was the theme to this ward party. We ate ham, potatoes, rolls corn, green beans and a nice tossed salad. The committee had a menu and gave us the recipes for our food assignments. My assignment was green beans. Sounds easy, right? Well, this recipe called for an entire stick of butter, melted and turned into a glaze with almonds and brown sugar. Tossed into it was eight slabs of cooked bacon! The healthiest part of the meal was turned into a buttery, glazed veggie! Wow! I guess this is the old fashioned way to eat. Here is what it looked like when it was done, and it tasted pretty tasty! See the shine from the butter and bacon! Wow! Old fashioned heart attack more like it! Activites included an old fashioned sing-along and a couple of fun performances by people. Of course in the end was that very special visitor that all the children wait for each year!
Our ward does this really great thing at their parties. They take pictures and download them to a ward website where we can go and get a picture if we want to. So, if you like pictures of yourself, this is great! The rest of us tolerate it for posterity!

Old Friends.........

2008-12-08T07:10:00.009-07:00

Yesterday some old college friends dropped by for a visit. They live in St Louis but happened to be in Phoenix for the weekend. I was glad we were on their list of places to see and visit while they were in town. Isn't it funny how you can go years without seeing people, but when they are good friends, and you get along well, you can just pick up where you left off? And, you don't have to spend your time living in the past reminiscing. You can just talk about life and how things are today!

Where was my camera? Well, it was sitting in the drawer in my kitchen the whole time they visited and it was not until they walked out the door that I realized we were having such a good time that I did not think about this blog once! Therefore, I did not think to pull out the camera and take a picture.

So, you will have to trust me that Chris and Kim dropped in for a visit and the visit was good! And no one mentioned the few pounds we have all put on.

May your landing be safe today and you find your 4 children well when you return home!

Sleep Deprivation

2008-12-06T15:09:00.011-07:00

Sleep deprivation has been the norm in this household since about 1987. So you can imagine that we are rather used to it. But, for two days in a row, I have been able to sleep-in! I think I can count on one hand how many times in 2008 I have slept in. But since Tim worked from home yesterday, and I had an unexpected day off yesterday, he kindly agreed to awaken Brandon and get him moving out the door for school and I slept in. But, of course, though I did not set my alarm, I woke up at the EXACT time I would have had the alarm gone off. The wonderful thing was, however, that I was able to roll over and fall back to sleep, after a quick trip to the bathroom. Here is the odd thing about sleeping in. You never really go back into a deep sleep. You just sort of hang there in a twilight zone of sorts but you still dream! For the past two mornings, I have had the strangest of dreams upon waking up after "sleeping in". They were so strange that I am thinking that getting up at my usual time might be a better option.
Cameron, of course, is NOT sleep deprived. He sleeps anywhere. Often it is the couch we find him asleep on when we get up in the morning. He has the most comfortable bed in the house. Clearly he plans to sleep on the couch because he will go down to his room to get his comforter and pillow. Then he gets comfortable and settles in to watch a little TV until he falls asleep. He sleeps on the couch through the banging around that goes on in the kitchen as people prepare breakfast. He sleeps through the dog walking by and licking his face. He sleeps through all the normal daily household sounds that happen while he is sleeping and the rest of the world is awake. No, Cameron is not sleep deprived. He sleeps whenever he wants to. Enjoy it now, Cameron, for that time in your life is soon to come to an end!!!

The Announcements Are Arriving

2008-12-06T10:32:00.021-07:00

It is December. The wedding announcements are arriving. What makes December such a popular time to wed? During the busiest time of the year, a wedding is being planned as well. I am amazed and surprised at the number of wedding announcements we get each year during the month of December. I wished I had saved all the announcements I have received in December so that I had a count. It would startle you. Didn't it used to be traditional to marry in June? I am curious at the trend towards December. It must have something to do with the fact that it is a "break" time whether from work or school, and likely a great time to plan a wedding with some decent time for a honeymoon.

My niece Emily was married in December 2006. December 26 as a matter of fact. As she married in CA, we traveled on Christmas Day in order to attend her wedding the next day.

Chris nearly did not go in protest of a Christmas Day travel day. But, the lure of two days on the slopes of Big Bear got him moving in a pinch and in the end, it was all worth it. Her wedding was beautiful and she married a great man.

Cameron dragged a friend of his, Kyle, to the reception knowing they had the reward of a ride to Big Bear the next day. So, even wedding announcements in December can be rewarding to a teenage boy.

Brandon did not mind at all as he is great friends with his cousin Alex and any trip to see him is a great time!

Wrestlemania season

2008-12-05T15:39:00.009-07:00

Here is Brandon, wrestling 125 for the Highland Freshman team. Complaining about the practices, thinking wrestling is not for him, until that moment when he gets out on the mat. Then he is a maniac! And then he is proud to wrestle. And he is good! Pinning his man in the second period, after playing with him the first period. (His words!)
Ain't he cute????

Eternal Thoughts...........

2008-12-05T14:22:00.018-07:00

How blessed we are to know so much about this world we live in. As time goes on, scientists discover more and more which make our lives more comfortable and convenient and easier. This planet we have was not some coincidence but a carefully designed and planned place for God's children to come to this earth to gain bodies and live out our callings here on earth. I am grateful to know this is not all happenstance and that there is an eternal plan. I am glad to have that eternal perspective on things, that helps us cope with the struggles we find on this earth. I am happy to know that after life on this earth, our lives are not over but that we just enter a new phase with a different purpose and plan for us. So, when we lose people we love so dearly, I am grateful to know a plan is in place by our Heavenly Father which enables us to see these loved ones again, for eternity. While our loss is great on this earth, the knowledge of eternities makes the loss endurable and hope for a sweeter reunion. Our family's thoughts and prayers go out to those that are struggling or suffering right now with the hope of tomorrow, a new day and a recognition of God's eternal plan!

Wrapping things up!

2008-12-04T14:03:00.010-07:00

Since Chris is out of town, I need to prepare a box of gifts to send him. Then I need to send it to the mission home address. (See Monday's post!) They will then forward it on to him as I do not have his new address given he just moved there on Tuesday. Since it has to go through so many loops, I have to get prepared earlier and so I spent some time this afternoon wrapping his gifts and listening to Susan's playlist with her new Christmas songs on it. You can listen to it here and enjoy her playlist as well. I am really glad at this time of the year that Chris is serving in the United States. It sure makes it easier than sending things to say, Russia or Brazil! I hope you find wrapping gifts to be as much a part of the festivities as everything else. I like to decorate my packages a little fancier than you see here but because I have to box it all up, I soft wrapped everything and just stuck a little stick on bow on it. Too bad it has to be so boring. After working my high school years in a department store gift wrap department, wrapping like this is a let down. But even with fancy bows and ribbons or simple paper, neither are as important as remembering the gift we were given by a loving Heavenly Father, when he sent his Son to the earth for us! That is the greatest gift of all and it came very plainly wrapped!

Food for thought

2008-12-04T07:05:00.009-07:00

Last week I made butter toffee. I did not take a picture of it. How could I? It was gobbled down way too fast! It was delicious! I want to make more but it took one pound of butter!

One pound of butter and two cups of sugar!

One pound of butter, two cups of sugar, boiled to a hard crack, poured on a cookie sheet (one with sides) and then sprinkled with nuts and chocolate chips!

Holy cow! No wonder it was sooooo good! I want to make it again. But I am afraid I would be the one to eat it. At least this last time I had a place to take it and so many of us shared in the butter toffee. MMMMM it is sounding so good right now. I suppose I could make some more and share it with you, right?

Christmas makes me feel emotional

2008-12-03T07:29:00.017-07:00

Well, here we are, December, and the decorations are going up. I remember as a child being so excited to help my mom get the decorations out. My sister and I put in the Gene Autry album and sang along to all his songs while we decorated, baked cookies and got in the festive mood. I remember, too, when we were so happy on the rare occasion that St Louis got its first snowfall in December. It usually waited until January to happen. We would play outside, get soaking wet, dry our gloves and hats and coats on the old radiators or lay them over the heat vents (depending on which house we were living in at the time) then warm ourselves with some hot chocolate prepared in a pot on the stove.

I also remember the excitement as school drew to a close and we were anxious for the break we got. Of course, back when I attended school, the semester did not end until January so we always had the finals and things to look forward to upon returning! It is nice now that there is a fresh clean slate and new semester, grades and classes to go back to for my children.

So, this year we have begun our decorating. It is an interesting phenomenon how I have noticed that during the day, the decorations are plain and the tree and outdoor lights do not look that great. You can see the extension cords and the flaws. You can see the tree is artificial. BUT, when the sun sets and the lights go on, all becomes magical and the holiday season takes on a dreamy quality that reminds us of simpler times and past traditions that bring us back around to the emotions they stir in us and help us to remember the reason for the season~

Kentucky, here he comes........

2008-12-01T22:19:00.005-07:00

Chris has been transferred, temporarily, for six weeks, to Murray, Kentucky!

If you want to say hello or wish Chris a Merry Christmas, you can send a card to:

Elder Christopher Cox

105 Westpark Dr Ste 190

Brentwood, TN 37027-5010

They will forward his mail on to his KY address as long as it is sent through the US Postal service!

Thanks for family

2008-11-30T16:05:00.024-07:00

We had a great time in California. The weather was perfect. The hills were excellent for walking up and down to burn off the feast, and most importantly we enjoyed time with some of our family.

David and Lily

Sharon

Ben, enjoying some cookies and milk.

Brandon, Alex, and one of Alex's friends, Josh, trying to figure out what they are going to do next.

Brandon, with Alex, who loves to make faces when you take his picture.

This is Lora and Dan baking cookies. Don't they make a cute couple? We are all awaiting an announcement, aren't we Lora???

And here is Chris, who spent Thanksgiving in Tennessee but someone kindly took his picture and texted it to Tim's phone so we could get a Happy Thanksgiving message from him!

Hope everyone had a wonderful and thankful holiday!

Thanksgiving day travels

2008-11-30T10:25:00.008-07:00

On Thursday, we traveled to Sunny California to feast with Sharon and her family. We left our home at 8 AM, which was 7 AM her time. We avoided the mass exodus of the day before by waiting to travel on Thanksgiving day. Believe me, the route from Phoenix to LA is a nightmare on a holiday weekend! While we were on the road, we saw some interesting cloud formations. Usually as we drive along the 10, there is nothing to see but blue skies and desert, more blue skies, more desert. But today we were driving after a rainstorm and there were actual puddles in the desert! That was quite a surprise. There were also these amazing clouds. And when the clouds cleared, there was snow on those mountain tops!Of course I could not pass on commenting on California's wind energy! This state has some of the highest electricity costs in the country even when they are doing all the alternative stuff our new president elect is suggesting as the answer to our economic woes. Hello! Take a look at CA and see if that is really the answer!

Two boys I won't be seeing for Thanksgiving this year.

2008-11-26T19:38:00.008-07:00

Our boys are growing up. Chris is in Tennessee so we won't be seeing him this Thanksgiving. Cameron opted out of a trip to California to dine with his friend Taylor and family here in Arizona. We will miss them. But Bailey is staying home to keep Cameron company and so it is how our holiday will go this year. Kinda sad.

It never rains in sunny Arizona.......

2008-11-26T17:24:00.028-07:00

Today was one of those days where you just wanted to stay in bed and sleep until noon. It was dark and rainy and cold. I had to use my headlights to drive to work at 7:30 in the morning.

I had to use my seat heater to warm my cold bottomside.

I had to figure out how to turn on my windshield wipers since they are only used a few times a year.

I had to run from my parking space at work into the building because it was so wet.

This is where I work, by the way. It is the view out of the window my desk sits under.

The sky is normally this beautiful blue color. I actually miss the gray skies and the rain so today was a nice change.

But I would have preferred it if I were in bed enjoying it.

The weather cleared off for a little while. The sun came out.

But tonight, we got another deluge and I thought these pictures, taken at twilight, were fun with the raindrops coming down in my backyard.

Click on picture above to see rain! Cool!

Twilight at the Breaking of Dawn

2008-11-21T15:59:00.030-07:00

Okay, so it was not quite as early as the breaking dawn when some friends and I went to see the new Twilight movie but we did go see it this morning. At 10:20 AM. I have never gone to see a movie that early but I am not knocking it. I mean, a movie before noon is only $5! Wow, like Loretta's gas prices from 1981 which you can see here on her Nov 21 & 28, 2008 post, we are practically seeing movie prices nearer that decade too at $5. This, by the way, is the ONLY picture I took during the time we were in the theater, unlike a certain girl in this group, who shall remain nameless for fear of legalities, who tried hard to get a picture of Edward during the movie. I am not sure if she captured that before security from the theater came and told her a thing or two. I am not sure what was said as I was listening to the movie and sitting on the complete opposite side from her! She will probably be telling you a little bit about it here, never mind, I don't know if she is going to post this or not so stay tuned.

Oh, did you want to know about the movie? The movie that is making a very, very successful and rich author even more successful and rich? Well, to tell you the truth, I was pleasantly surprised that I liked it. I have read all the books. But, I really was not "getting" the rage behind them. They were OK, but not all that interesting. I mean, vampires? I have heard there is a whole genre of vampire books and fans out there. I have never been one of them. I was surprised to hear that anyone at all was! So, I guess I don't get out much. Never-the-less, given this particular author is from Phoenix, perhaps she got a lot of extra press around here and therefore I was sucked (get it???) into the whole trilogy + 1 (what do you call a group of books that are more than a trilogy?) and read them all. I am sure Stephanie Myer is thanking me about now as I contributed $2 to her fortune since I learned she makes $.50 on each book sold.

So, I actually did like the movie, as far as it goes. It has not created in me a Twilight series maniac or anything, but I was sufficiently entertained. I liked the music and I liked the stylistic way the movie was portrayed. But, I must say, as much as I miss rain here in the desert, I sure think it is way too muddy and rainy in Forks, WA.

Little Irritants, Big Rewards........

2008-11-20T15:01:00.033-07:00

Did you ever notice it is often not the big things that really drag us down, it is the little irritants. If a big crisis comes along, we rise to the occasion. We are of tough stock and we endure. We stretch ourselves in unknown ways. After all, we are children of God, Deity, so our heritage gives us the power and ability to do this. But, sometimes the little irritants in life can really drag us down. These irritants come in many forms, and cause us to stew inside, feeling a sense of frustration that looms in the back of our minds but we cannot really put our finger on what has got us feeling down. It might be the new fees added on to your phone bill, you know the ones that are the state sales taxes, then the county sales taxes and of course the local sales taxes. Don't forget the federal universal service fund, which is nothing more than another tax. There are the delivery charges and the energy charges and the monthly service charges and so forth as well. We find these on all our utility bills and when we get notice that each of these charges is going up, "to better align with what OTHER people are paying on their bills" you gotta wonder! Or maybe it is the drop of spaghetti sauce you dribbled on your clean white shirt and you are out in public with nary a thing you can do about it. Perhaps you just feel irritated that the replacement phone, that was replacing another replacement phone because your original phone stopped working properly after a few months, is once again, not working properly. Maybe the six visits from the appliance repair store to fix a two year old range is the thing that is getting you down. Maybe your favorite TV show is off the air or the one you were rooting for to win Dancing With the Stars has been booted off. At any rate, these things, left unchecked, can really drag a person's spirit down "faster than a cat on a hot tin roof"!

But, lest this post turn into a sobfest, or a pity party, there is hope. There are the small things in our life we must learn to appreciate and recognize and when we create the habit of doing so, there are big rewards. This positive attitude is difficult for me, but I am working on it. I liked a talk I heard recently in General Conference where Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin spoke about "Come what may, and love it!" We don't need to find blame for our misfortunes or waste time feeling sorry for ourselves. There are always going to be ups and downs in our lives and we are going to hit lots of bumpy roads. People that are the happiest in life are those that learn from the difficult times and become stronger and wiser for them. For me, I am trying to learn that less is more. That having all that our family needs is WAY more important than our family having all that it wants. And, we do have all that we need, way more in fact. Really what it all comes down to is that we need to have GRATITUDE. I have written about gratitude before but since we are moving towards celebrating Thanksgiving, I thought I would mention it again. Gratitude is a sign of maturity. President Hinckley told us that to be grateful means we have humility rather than pride, and generosity rather than selfishness. So, I get to the big reward; to have joy in this life. It is in our power to do so for it is all in our attitude towards the little irritants, and also toward those small but powerful joys!

Some of my joys are found below!

Lemons and grapefruit, ripening and turning yellow in November getting ready for harvest when we ring in the new year!
Cracking nuts during the holidays, a family favorite! Sparkling water in the desert. Palm trees on a winter's day.
And while some of you are experiencing even greater joy in this than I am, we are thrilled to see the first sign in our area to drop below $2!

What is your joy?

Counting Down

2008-11-18T08:06:00.008-07:00

Do you see all the countdowns I have posted? Ridiculous, isn't it? It looks like I am counting down my life away! Really, I am not, we just happen to be at THAT time of the year! I wanted to point out Chris' countdown, however, because it was a disappointment. I had been using a different counter previous to yesterday. Then, yesterday, I got an email from Chris and he said his day of release would be Aug 12. Well, that is quite a bit later than I anticipated. He went there on Aug 8 so I though for sure at least no later than that. It is all in the timing of their six week transfer blocks and all. Anyway, he did say he would be able to get that moved a little earlier for school timing and getting to cross paths with Cameron. But, since he gave me a more "official" date than the one I had set on the calendar, I decided to change out the counter to the correct date in order to have the most accurate possible countdown for now. At the time I believe there were about 230 or so days left. Upon changing the counter, it went to only 19 days left. I fiddled and fiddled with it and the counter would not move off of 19 days left, even when I took it back to the original date! So, rather than really mislead you, or cause you all to wonder if he was going to be home by Christmas, I had to delete that counter. I put a new one up, with the Aug 12 date, and it took that time to 267 days (yesterday)! Well, that was a significantly bigger amount of days than the previous counter at around 230 days so then I went through and actually counted them out, and the new counter is the accurate one, bummer! I have been falsely led all along. But this one is right as well as the 36 days left until Christmas!

Are you ready?

Another Post for Judy.........

2008-11-17T20:08:00.004-07:00

I couldn't go without telling Judy thanks for being a good sport and for reading the part about sending me a new picture, which she had her son Dennis take of her just to email for my blog! If you don't know what I am talking about, see Nov 12. Judy wanted the world to know that she was 12 years wearing nothing but Catholic school uniforms and did not know how to dress but I am here to tell you that she, Paula (her cousin), and I worked at an amazing department store, Famous-Barr, which offered an amazing employee discount, and so we were really very well dressed! She is crazy. We had way too much fun getting to know the people in the departments we liked to shop in so that they would hold clothes for us we wanted to buy during the deep discount days! Woo hoo. But, of course, Judy did not always spend her time shopping since she liked spending much more of it flirting with the boys on the dock! Hey Judy, don't you just miss a store like Famous-Barr??? (Macy's bought them out, not the same!)

Judy says I have too much free time. Maybe so. Today was not one of those days and yet I posted twice in one day! I got up, got Brandon off to school. Went to work. Came home, checked email, walked and hour on the treadmill, took Brandon to a 3:30 doctor appointment that we did not get out of until 5:00. Then I ran a meal to a friend's house who has been out of town nearly two weeks caring for her father-in-law as his wife just passed away 10 days ago or so. She was zapped and needed a break. And she kindly brought me a meal a few weeks ago when I was zapped. What a lifesaver someone else making a meal for you can be! Thank you Pam!

And Judy, I know if we were closer to each other, I would bring you a meal with all my extra time! Love Ya!

Baking Cookies

2008-11-17T06:49:00.009-07:00

When my sister and I were children, we often asked our mother if we could bake cookies. She always said yes and we would skim through the cookie cookbook she had dreaming about which delicacy we would create. But those creations called for unusual ingredients, not ones we normally had on hand, and since we were baking on impulse, we usually had to settle for snickerdoodles or chocolate chip cookies. That was everyone's favorite anyway so why break from a good thing?

I guess due to the cooler weather, I have been in the mood for baking. Also, I have been burning a Gold Canyon candle with the fragrance of sugar cookies. Those candles are so real that you might truly believe someone is baking sugar cookies. Let me tell you, I never knew a candle could create a craving so Gold Canyon candles can be dangerous to your diet! So, on Saturday, I baked my heart out making three different types of cookies and trying to plug them to any takers just to not have them in the house, where I am the greatest consumer! Yesterday at church we were reminded to teach our children to be producers, not consumers. Ha ha ha, I produced and am trying not to consume!

Now I will break into this post to tell you I just got a text from Brandon, who is on the school bus as I type, to tell me that he just saw a coyote run across the road (well populated area) and head for the entrance to our neighborhood! ha ha ha This was amusing to Brandon and I am glad he shares stuff like that with me. Aren't you proud I am such a tech savvy mom that I can text my kids?

So, back to the cookies.......What cookies? They are nearly gone. But I saved a few for you and I plan to bake more before the winter is over! Yikes, come help me eat them!

NOSTALGIA WINS, I CAN'T HELP BUT POST THESE TURN OF THE CENTURY PHOTOS!

2008-11-13T14:33:00.012-07:00

Those sure were the good old days!

JUDY, JUDY, JUDY...............

2008-11-12T14:22:00.014-07:00

Ha! I got a chain letter today. From the aforementioned name above! Thanks, Judy! I HATE chain letters. I bet you do too but since someone did it to you, you had to pay it forward, right?? Well, a side note in your letter said you wanted me to blog about them. So here I am and I am dedicating this post to you, my dear North Carolina friend. To top it off, the chain letter has a lottery ticket in it. I mean, what the heck does a non-gambling Mormon do with a lottery ticket, or the request to purchase six more? Yikes! I will send it back to Judy and I hope it is a winner! I might regret it forever and ever if it is, but, alas, I don't do lottery. Thanks anyway. Sounds like you could have fun with it. Judy, my dear Catholic friend from high school and college days never met a Mormon until she met me! Ha, until then, I do believe her upbringing may have given her the impression of horns and pitchforks or some such thing. She told me, when she met me, that she thought EVERYONE was Catholic. Well, St. Louis might give you that impression, right? But, it doesn't matter, we learned that we had a great time together and Judy made me laugh, all the time, and she can sing and makes one mean Lucy from the peanuts characters! And something everyone should know about Judy is that when she finds an item of clothing she likes, really, really likes, she buys one in every color! She always has had cute clothes, and lots of them. Thank you Famous Barr!

My scanner does not work and Judy lives so very far away. She has been all over this country, living from coast to coast, and all I get is a chain letter!!!! Just kidding, so since my scanner does not work, I took a picture of a picture and we all know how great that works out. So Judy, if you don't like the pics I posted, please, please, email me a new one! But here she is, my dear friend Judy. If any of you want an address to send a chain letter to................... Judy 25 years ago, and now with her hubby Dennis.

DOESN'T REALLY MATTER.....

2008-11-11T14:01:00.007-07:00

Wow, I never, no never, thought I would hear these words from one of my son's mouths. I think finally I have made progress in the whole phrase about "Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without!" In these times of throwaway and disposable everything, I see some thriftiness in my youngest son. Today being a holiday of sorts, Veteran's Day, where we honor those that serve our country and kids are free from the confines of school, Brandon decided to go with one of his friends and check out the new ice rink that has just opened near our house. He is a thrifty sort and recognizes the value of a dollar and asked me where those old ice skates of mine, which had actually been my mother's, were stored so he could use them. I let him know that not only would they be too small for him, but, they were women's ice skates! And do you know what he said, who cares? They are white, so what. I can save $3.50 on rental so it is worth it! Now I thought that was funny! Clearly, that $3.50 is more precious to him than his ego and he was willing to wear them to save a buck. I love it. I am a proud mother. I mean, fashion has been so much more important for his brothers. It was heartwarming to see where he placed his value. Thanks Brandon! And thanks to all those that serve or have served our country to keep it free!

THINGS JUST DISAPPEAR!

2008-11-10T06:33:00.001-07:00

I used to have a slide show of Chris' mission pictures at the bottom of this blog. One day, over the weekend, it just disappeared. I thought I had the website where I got the slideshow saved in my favorites but it is not there. I cannot remember the name and have looked all over the files in my computer to try to find it in the history and/or in my saved back-up of my blog. (Do you have a back-up to your blog?) Anyway, it could not be recreated. I know this because Tim couldn't do it and since he is the resident expert in this household, it cannot be done. So now I have to find a new slide show or do something completely different.

This is not a new concept for me. Things are always disappearing. When I go to grab a chapstick out of my bathroom drawer, gone! When I reach in the refrigerator for that last can of diet A&W rootbeer, gone! When I look in my bank account for some money, ALWAYS GONE!!!

Yes, things just disappear and sometimes they are never to be found. Youth, friendships, waistline, and for some, a hairline.

But, as the old saying goes, when one door closes, another opens. And while some things disappear, other things come to the surface and take their place. New friendships are formed and new challenges greet our day. New experiences lend some excitement and new ideas come into our heads.

I think maybe when things disappear, we are forced, then, to improvise and learn something new. The old way no longer exists and so we move forward, stretching ourselves a bit more to try something new out for size and we just might find out we like the new, improved better!

EXTREMES

2008-11-08T21:55:00.004-07:00

Back in February, 2005, we had the delight of Extreme Makeover Home Edition came to the Town of Gilbert. This house was built about a mile from my home and so occasionally some of us from the neighborhood would take a walk over, join the crowd, and participate in the festivities that surrounded the building of this massive home! Interestingly, living in the desert as we do, rain is rare. Yet, during the construction of this house, that took only one week, it rained nearly the entire week! But we got pictures of Ty and Paige and it was great excitement and fun to watch and be there for it all. After all, it was only one week then the extreme fun in the Town of Gilbert was gone.

The Town of Gilbert Stinks....

2008-11-05T07:24:00.001-07:00

Quite literally. I mean it with the greatest affection for this once quiet farming town gone suburbia. Never-the-less, though it is the bedroom community capital of the world (at least it feels like it) there are still some remaining dairy cattle lingering. When the cool breezes blow in November, the doors and windows are flung open and we finally breath fresh air for the first time in months! My A/C officially was switched off yesterday! Finally! It has been running since May! However, that fresh breeze comes at a price because you have to bring with it the fresh smell of cow excretions as well. It stinks. Ten years smelling it and I am not used to it yet. I used to hear as a kid that those farm smells were the smell of money. Someone around here has a lot of it!

HOW I AM FEELING RIGHT NOW........

2008-11-04T21:43:00.002-07:00

ELECTION DAY! SO FULL OF HOPE....

2008-11-04T08:24:00.001-07:00

WE VOTED! This was Cameron's first time to vote. It would have been Chris' first presidential election but he is busy serving his mission, teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and not focused on politics. We will get him in 2012!

YOU LOOK BOOOOTIFUL TODAY!

2008-10-31T07:14:00.001-07:00

Halloween sunrise! ooooooo

So Happy Halloween!

MY DOG IS CRAZY!

2008-10-30T20:36:00.001-07:00

Bailey is a crazy dog. She ate Cameron's pack of gum earlier this week. An entire pack of about 18 pieces, with Xylitol, which is supposed to be poisonous, but apparently did nothing to her. We were waiting for bubbles to come out the other end, if you know what I mean, but nothing. Darn, we were hoping to be entertained for our troubles. She has been guilty in the past of eating an entire stick of butter and a whole package of chocolate chips that were sitting out waiting to be made into cookies when the stick of butter softened. But, the only cookies we had that day were the ones she "blew" when she threw up chocolate goo all over the place. Chocolate is supposed to be toxic too, but not for this dog! No wonder she has kidney problems. She ingests all the wrong things!! She is particular about her bread. I often have both a loaf of wheat and a loaf of white bread in the house. Before purchasing a bread box, she would occasionally, when no one was home, get the bread. If she got hold of the whole wheat, the loaf would remain intact on the floor. If she got hold of the white bread, that would be gone with nothing but the wrapper left to show us she even had gotten it. One time I was canning, (see previous posts) and while the jars were left on the counter to cool, she managed to pull one off the counter where it fell crashing to the tile floor. She ate all the meat inside as well as the glass!!! I know she must have because I did not find enough glass to make an entire jar. We were waiting for an interesting outcome there, but no, she was fine. Then there was the day she attempted to eat a lizard. She was outside in the backyard when I heard a bark. She rarely barks and this was one of distress or frustration, like she does if she sees a piece of popcorn under the couch and can't quite reach it. So, I opened the back door and saw that she was staring at something cornered on our patio. Upon moving some patio furniture, I flushed out a lizard about 6 inches long and rather fat. It started running and Bailey placed a paw on it to stop it then scooped it up in her mouth and ran out into the grass. The tail of the lizard was hanging out of her mouth, flapping around. Well, lizards are a good thing around here as they eat other bugs so I wanted her to put it back. Besides, our luck, she would be barfing lizard all over our bedroom carpet in the middle of the night. So, I told her to drop it, and she did, and the lizard got away by hiding under a big rock. Bailey has never forgotten that lizard and she digs around that rock constantly now! These crazy eating habits are a result of being on a diet for the past 5 years of her life. Poor dog, low thyroid and zero metabolism. (Welcome to my world, Bailey!) After my most recent canning, I placed the completed cans in a lower cabinet. I had room there but the pantry was full. She must have been able to smell it because she walks over that cabinet now, every day, and paws at it hoping to get at those jars!

She is a crazy dog. So we made her try on some Halloween costumes. After all, our kids are too big to do the whole trick or treating thing anymore so I tried dressing her up. She did not appreciate it a bit. But, she is crazy so she tolerates craziness as well! Oh, and this is where we find her when we come home and no one had been home all day!

VOTE YES FOR MARRIAGE: ONE MAN-ONE WOMAN!

2008-10-27T19:53:00.001-07:00

Tonight Cameron, Brandon and I went door to door for 50 homes in our neighborhood hanging door tags. (Tim would have joined us but is enjoying San Francisco as we speak.) We had a job to do and we were brave enough to do it. We were not alone. We were only assigned 1/3 of the neighborhood. Yes, we were hanging tags promoting a YES vote on proposition 102, which in the good state of Arizona amends our state constitution, defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman while maintaining the current statutory law of the State of Arizona which prohibits marriage between persons of the same sex.

This is an important vote for AZ because, when it amends the constitution, it leaves the ability for a judge to overturn it less possible unlike the case that happened in California that caused three judges to overturn the people's vote and thus the need to put the definition of marriage on the ballot all over again.

(Not actual car!)

This is serious stuff and so we decided to do our tiny part, besides VOTE YES, and hang these door tags. It was all relatively easy to do until one woman chose to call the police on us saying we were violating the "no solicitation" rules of the neighborhood. Okay, so I hate the door hanging junk on my door as much as the next guy but no one, not a single person has had that enforced nor does the town of Gilbert attempt to enforce it. I just have to pick the junk up off my front door or walk and throw it away. Still solicitation is more for selling things, right? So when the police officer stopped the three of us, he asked us what we were doing and if we lived in the neighborhood. I showed him our door tags and told him we lived two streets over and that I was aware that there were no solicitation signs but that they were not enforced. I also told him we were not selling anything so I did not think we were violating anything. I think he agreed and actually said that he did not know why he was called as there was little he could do. I really secretly think that once he saw what we were hanging out, he must have been in favor and therefore chose to send us on our merry way. What a sweet man officer Sweet (yes, that was his name!) was! And what a ridiculous waste of our tax dollars sending him on a wild goose chase on account of a cranky old lady with a beef but no law on her side.

For her trouble, I think Cameron gave her three hang tags!!!!

STYLIN'

2008-10-27T16:21:00.000-07:00

For those of you who know me well, you will know that I never let myself be in a photograph if at all possible. It just puts me in a bad mood. But, I swallowed my pride and took a couple of pictures and had Cameron take a couple, so that I could show you my new haircut. Have you ever noticed how people who wears glasses don't look right without them? Actually, you probably can't tell it is all that different but it is, really! And here is the back! And I am back to having bangs! I like them. I feel more youthful! What do you think? Oh, and I threw in a picture of Cameron, trying to grow that same moustache he grew for graduation. Thought you might like to see that too!

RIGHTEOUS TRADITIONS

2008-10-26T18:12:00.000-07:00

This week our Relief Society lesson was on having righteous family traditions. Upon thinking about this subject, many of us thought we did not have specific traditions. But, upon further observance of it, many of us discovered that the very way we live can be a righteous tradition that is valuable to our family's growth and development and the love we have for each other.

The lesson began with some music from "Fiddler On The Roof" where Tevye does his monologue about traditions. He is not aware of where the traditions come from but he knows why they are important for they tell him who he is and what God wants him to do.

I thought that was very profound. For really, we all need to know who we are and what God has in store for us.

And so I want to share some wonderful traditions that some shared in this class today and maybe, you can share some wonderful traditions your family has that lets them know who they are and what God wants them to become:

Aside from the standard ones we know, like praying together and reading our scriptures together, one person said that every year her father writes each child a letter. In the letter he expresses his love and admiration for each of his children but also bears testimony to his beliefs, the ones they were raised with, their traditions.

Another example was from a woman who said that her husband has begun "interviewing" their children, who are very young at this point, asking how they are and what their dreams and goals are, based on their ages. The really sweet thing is that he is video taping them. What a wonderful opportunity to stay in touch with where your children are in life as well as a delightful memory in years to come!

One woman's mom kept a running list of family and individual accomplishments and blessings that the family had received throughout the year. On Thanksgiving day, after dinner, she would read the list. It was a great reminder of all the blessings received that year.

When we don't compromise our principles, when we stand up for what we believe in, even if it is not the popular thing to do, or the politically correct thing to do, or the most comfortable thing to do, we are giving our families a wonderful tradition of being principled during times of world and moral decay. We may have to "suffer shame for his name" (Acts 5:41) but in the end, we will have established those righteous traditions that will bring us all home, together!

CANNING AGAIN!

2008-10-25T09:46:00.000-07:00

I decided to give canning meat on my range another go. Here is the reason why it has been a BIG deal. The control panel for the oven is on the front of the range rather than against the back wall. As a result, there is a sensor in it that detects heat and when the front burners are used, this thermal sensor triggers a disconnection and the control panel no longer works. The manufacturer is aware of this overly sensitive sensor and has developed a new one that is not so sensitive. The first time it was triggered by some power surge that flipped our power off for a fraction of a second, not even enough to reset all our alarm clocks. The first time the repair people were out, they simply reconnected the thermal sensor but when it happened again, they replaced it with the newer and better one. This required an additional visit from the serviceman as the part had to be ordered, then installed. So, by this point we had had a repairman in our home three times over this range. We plugged away again but, because I have to use the front burner for my canning as it is the bigger burner, I tripped this sensor again. We called, said it was the same thing and please just order the part first! Well, according to the warranty, they have to come out and diagnose the problem. By this time, I felt I could do the diagnosing myself. Still, they came out and this time ordered the parts and had them mailed to our house. Now i was wondering when the parts arrived in the mail if they were expecting me to install them. Hmmmmm That had me worried as the entire range has to be taken apart from the back in order to access the front panel!!! Nice job engineer guy! Anyway, they did come back, installed the new sensor as well as some fan that they said should have been running but was not. I never noticed a fan before so I am guessing it has never worked since we bought this range two years ago. Thank goodness we decided to buy the extended warranty or all of these trips would have been about $125. At this point they have now been out 5 times! So, now the fan is working and that is super except that now this fan never shuts off, just runs constantly! We called the manufacturer and asked if this should be happening. They said no and so we had to once again get the warranty people to send a service person out. They are coming next Friday. I decided to save them an extra trip by heating up the front burner that seems to trip this sensor to see if using this burner would once again cause troubles. I figured if they were coming out anyway, they could order the part then! ha ha Sad, I know. So, as I set to work doing my canning, I had meat cooking on one burner and water boiling on another to add to the canner. I had another pot boiling to add to the meat once it was in the jar and the third small pot was set to boil for the seals to go in.If you do the math, you can see I needed all four burners, which I have never needed since the last repair job so it was then that I discovered that the knob on one of the rear burners, one I rarely use, does not even move! I am guessing this nifty fan they installed in the control panel is blocking the knob's ability to turn. It used to work! Holy Cow! Now they have another thing to fix when they are out here on Friday! Ahhhhhh!

So, now I have completed another 20 jars of extra lean ground beef and the thermal sensor has not been tripped. I guess that constantly running fan is doing the trick together with the inability to use the burner behind it. Big Sigh!

14-YEAR OLDS

2008-10-22T18:51:00.000-07:00

What goes on in the life of a typical 14 year old? Aside from the time when they are in school, or socializing, or playing football or going to his various activities, this is what a typical 14-year old might be found doing when they finally stop for some "down" time:

GOING GOING GONE!

GNOBODY GKNOWS WHY THERE ARE SO MANY GNOMES IN TENNESSEE!!!

2008-10-21T06:17:00.000-07:00

GNOPE, GNOBODY GKNOWS!

TO ALL THOSE WITH TRIALS....................

2008-10-20T06:52:00.001-07:00

In the quiet few moments of the morning, when some are off to work, others off to school and some still in bed, I have a minute or two to sit down and think. And what comes to mind is the trials that my friends and family, and myself seem to be getting an abundance of. And as our lesson in church yesterday reminded us to be grateful for our trials and to learn from them and to be of good cheer regarding them, I just wanted to let you all know that I am thinking about you as you deal with your teenagers, and your adult children, and your chemotherapy and your poor health and your jobs you would rather not be doing or the fact that you feel crazed over this election year. Whatever it may be, and we all have them, I know that we all endure them as well as we can because we have to and because we have experiences in our lives that teach us that there is a great reward at the end if we endure them well. So, to all you with trials you are dealing with in your lives, your are not alone or forgotten and I wish you well and am thinking about you! And Happy Birthday if you are a year older today!!!! You know who you are!

LIVESTOCK APLENTY IN RURAL TENNESSEE!

2008-10-17T16:38:00.000-07:00

We are not really surprised that Chris would be exposed to rural living when he headed to Tennessee back in August of 2007, but he has sure seen and experienced his fair share. Here are a few samples of all he has gotten to see and do:

He has milked goats, ringed pigs, and tipped the fainting goats found only in Tennessee. He has a hilarious video of them making the goats faint, if only I could figure out how to load it on here.

Wow, and to think I was just picturing him out there in his suit talking to people!!!

MY BOOK IS NOT YOUR COASTER.....

2008-10-15T16:44:00.000-07:00

For those of you that live in a household of boys, I know you will understand what I am talking about. Like, for example, today, I look over at my boys, playing video games, which I have allowed to be moved to the "main" TV for the duration of fall break. Because of this allowance, I now have no place in that room whatsoever. My book, which I was reading as I have no access to the television to mindlessly watch instead, was being used as a coaster. No doubt I will later find myself moving the empty glass, with dried on milk, into the dishwasher myself because it will have long been forgotten by the offender.

And so it goes when it is a break from school. My orderly house becomes teenage zone with the waving of the pantry doors opening and shutting a hundred times a night, after I am in bed, and get up wondering what the infernal slamming noise is that I keep hearing over and over again. They skip breakfast, eat a very late lunch, then they are never hungry for dinner and suddenly, starting about 10 PM, the pantry and refrigerator go on overtime.

Some day, I suppose, all this will end. No more breaks, real life will kick in. I will never have empty glasses and cups and bowls and plates scattered about the house, and I will miss it. That is what everyone keeps telling me. I have been skeptical about this phenomenon until recently.

Suddenly I find that the years of having my children at home over a break are few and I am beginning to realize that I WILL miss it. I hope the years in the future still allow the feeling of freedom to leave their cups on my books and fan the refrigerator like they are air conditioning the whole house with it and that, when the time comes, their children will come stay with Grandma and Grandpa and keep them up all night doing the very same thing!

A BIT PEEVED RIGHT AT THE MOMENT.....

2008-10-10T14:15:00.000-07:00

Let me tell you, I am getting worried about myself because I think I just pulled a stunt that, in my previous experience was reserved for the "old people" of this world. The CRANKY old people of this world.

Here is what happened. I came home from work. On my way home, I gave Cameron a call to see if he wanted to go to Panda Express with me for lunch. He said yes so I picked him up and away we went, to the one on Higley and Elliott about a mile from my house. It is the only Panda I know around here with a drive through. But we went inside to enjoy our dining experience.

We got in line behind two other customers. They were served and their orders rung up. In the meantime, the guy working the drive through was finished filling his order so he came over to wait on us. But, then a cook dropped off a tray of fried rice so he had to pause in his helping us to get that new batch of rice into the heating tray. Fine. Then we were ready to order and guess what, someone showed up in the drive through and with that, he was gone! To serve them. The customers that showed up AFTER us!

So, okay, no problem. The guy ringing up the two prior customers was finished so he helped us and we got our food. Upon ringing us up, we ordered one soda and one cup for water. He informed us that the soda machine was broken so I asked for another cup for water. He gave them to us and then when we went to fill the cups, no water came out!!! I looked around at all the other customers and they all had bottled water. I guess you had to buy the bottled stuff if you wanted a drink today.

But, later, though the soda machine was still not working, water came out of the water thingy and we were able to get a swallow in with our last bite of food.

During this time, there were about six boys that were hanging out there with their scooters and their skateboards. This was annoying as they were very disruptive of the diners and the manager said nothing. But, this is not the time when I turned into a cranky old person. No, I bit my tongue though I did think they were a bit annoying. But, I remembered that I have a son that age who can be annoying like that so I did not even think disparaging thoughts on their mothers at this point.

But they soon left the restaurant as we enjoyed our pseudo Chinese sans water. They went outside to toss a football around. To those that do not understand AZ, there are planned greenspaces in all the neighborhoods that are really there for water retention when we get a lot of rain but since that happens so rarely, they are mainly greenspaces that are great for playing football. There was one directly across the street from Panda to both the west and to the north. They could have chosen any number of spots to toss a football around but they chose to toss it OVER my parked car in the Panda parking lot. So, as I ate lunch, I watched them, just waiting to get a football dent in the fender or door. Finally, I had enough. We were finished eating and headed out to the car and I just couldn't do it. I could not bite my tongue, get in the car and drive off. I just had to ask those boys why they were playing football in a parking lot over my car instead of one of the numerous greenspaces surrounding them. They told me this, "We can play here because we are not going to hit your car." Well, I can tell you having raised three boys that I have HEARD THAT ONE BEFORE! HA!

So I told them that indeed they could not guarantee my car would not be hit but that until they paid for a car themselves, they could not possibly understand the pain of looking at a dent every time you write out the check for a car payment.

They assured me that THEY lived in Circle G therefore their mothers could pay for any damage they would do so it didn't matter!!!! (For those that don't know, Circle G are custom home neighborhoods scattered around Gilbert, AZ and full of filthy rich kids! ) Well, I nearly blew my top at that comment. I mean, if I were a mom, filthy rich or not, I would certainly NOT want my kids having such a 'who-cares" attitude. So I told them I did not think their moms would appreciate having to pay for damage to any one's car simply because they chose not to play football in the right place, even if she could afford it! (This is the point where I starting having disparaging thoughts towards those mothers.)

I will give these boys credit, they did not curse me or make rude comments to me. They were simply, matter-of-factly stating that they basically could do whatever they wanted because they lived in Circle G and their parents would cover the cost of anything they did. Holy Cow! Is this how our youth view the world??? I am scared.

Nevertheless, I was more mad at myself that I even had that discussion with them because that disturbed me more than a dent in my car!!!

DINNER, ANYONE?

2008-10-09T21:56:00.000-07:00

Wow, I was thinking about food storage today. I was thinking about how we should store food that we actually eat. I was thinking about how chicken and the extra lean ground beef have been on sale all summer long. And I was thinking how happy I am that I learned how to can it when it was on sale and when my stove did not decide that canning on it was much too big of a task for it. (Don't use this kind of range for canning, it doesn't like to be heated up and trips some sensor or another. I need an old electric coil range out on my back patio or something for canning.)

Then I remembered someone saying something about taking the rings off the jars after they seal. I remembered that I had not done that. I remembered that I did not feel like digging them all out of the pantry and doing that tedious job. Then I remembered all the hard work I put into canning and if leaving the rings on would in any way affect my jars, well then, I would do that tedious job!

So I dragged out the jars and took off the rings, and lined all my beautiful bottles up and guess what, I have 104 pints of meat! My original goal was one pint per day for three months. One pint equals a pound of meat and a good amount for our ever dwindling family size. I figured one meat a day (dinner) and I have three months of already cooked main ingredient for dinner!
Now I just need a month's worth of recipes to keep my family happy with chicken and ground beef. I canned a few jars of pork but I really don't like it all that much and when you see the fat that will need to be skimmed off that when opened, well, ewwww!

A few necessary pieces of equipment, like a pressure canner, some jars and some food AND a stove that won't give you grief, and voila! Canning is easy. And we tested out the food after a few days and we all lived to tell about it so I must have done it right. And it tasted good too!

Rings off!

ARIZONA FALL!

2008-10-08T14:10:00.001-07:00

The weather is cooling down here in AZ but for those of you who are gearing up for the winter, brrrr................here are some pictures of the "fall" folliage we experience here this time of year. This is what we live for. Citrus starts to ripen and many plants, gulping and gasping for water in the heat of the summer blossom and bloom when they are not being drained just to survive. So while you might be shoveling snow, we will still be mowing our winter lawns........................

AN ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE

2008-10-06T19:53:00.001-07:00

I started a post about my complaint that my garage door opener decided to stop working today. Aarg! Frustration. I complained about it then, soon afterwards, I realized that I was once again having a complaining voice and that I wanted to work better on a gratitude attitude. So, I have decided, then to list a few things I am grateful for:
I am grateful for the years of service this garage door opener put in before deciding it was tired. After all, our family uses the opener like a traditional door, raising and lowering it several times a day not only for cars, but for foot traffic as well because with a keypad on the door, it is easier to use than keeping a key around.

I am grateful for the good neighbor who came and helped me get the door opened manually so that I could at least get my car out for use this week while Tim is out of town.

I am grateful for the wonderful letter I received from our missionary son who is out serving and doing the Lord's work and loving it and doing good things with his life.

I am grateful for my other two sons, who try hard to make things easier for me while their dad is out of town, again.

I am grateful for the cooler weather we are starting to see here in AZ which gives us much needed relief and a break on our electric bills!

I am grateful for friendships that endure time and distance, and where we are able to just pick right up where we left off.

I am grateful that we have heard good words this weekend that help buoy us up and give us courage and hope as our life progresses.

I am grateful that we live in this great country, flaws and all, and that we have the freedoms we have and I hope we continue to have if we live worthy of them.

There are so many other things but I fear that this list would get too long so for now, I will close and say that this felt much better than my previous post, that just whined about a broken garage door opener.

WHAT IS LOVE? OUT OF THE MOUTH OF BABES

2008-10-05T18:09:00.001-07:00

Tim told me that yesterday's post was a real downer. I was trying to be silly, make something that has been a source of irritation into something funny. But, I guess it was too close to home for him and he did not find it at all funny. Therefore, I decided to add a cute little list of what some children in a school, when asked what they thought love was, gave as their answers. These are so sweet and hopefully a more uplifting thought for the day.

WHAT IS LOVE?
A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, "What does love mean?" The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what you think:

"When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love." Rebecca - age 8

"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth."Billy - age 4

"Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other."Karl - age 5

"Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs."Chrissy - age 6

"Love is what makes you smile when you're tired."Terri - age 4

"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen."Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)

"If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate." Nikka - age 6

"Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday."Noelle - age 7

"Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well."Tommy - age 6

"During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore."Cindy - age 8

"My mommy loves me more than anybody. You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night."Clare - age 6

"Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken."Elaine-age 5

"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford."Chris - age 7

"Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day."Mary Ann - age 4

"I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones."Lauren - age 4

"When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you."Karen - age 7

"You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget."Jessica - age 8

And the final one -- Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child. (Now this will melt your heart.) :)
The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his Mother asked him what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, "Nothing, I just helped him cry."

ONE INGROUND SWIMMING POOL FOR SALE!

2008-10-04T17:10:00.000-07:00

OK, so I know I should count my blessings, and really I do, but I am really hating pool ownership. The honeymoon is over between the pool and me. When we first moved to AZ, we thought we did not want a pool. Our youngest child was only 4 and it seemed a scary thing to be responsible for. But, one summer in AZ and we understood why probably 75% of the homes here have one. It is miserably hot and if you want to be outdoors in July or August, you want to be wet! Of course, being wet does not mean being cool, because in July and August the water temps in the pool average 95 degrees. Amazingly, if the humidity is low, it is actually chilly when wet skin is exposed to the air! So, we caved in and put a pool in. The boys played in the pool a lot. There was a really cool fountain that they would turn up high and the neighborhood kids would take turns trying to jump over it. There were next to no problems with this pool so we liked pool ownership.

Then we moved to this house a little over five years ago and have had nothing but troubles. The vacuum never functions and it has been taken in a half a dozen times for repair. The cost of the vacuum later and it still doesn't do what it is supposed to do, which is; walk around the pool all on its own and suck up the stuff that gathers on the floor. (I really would like one of those for inside the house as well but after my experiences with the pool vac, I have lost faith in vacuums doing the work on their own. They are lazy.) We also have had many things flake off the pebbletec finish of the pool and thus have had to drain it on several occasions for patch work to be done. All this is not without a price. This summer we had to pay $40 just for a little plastic screw on lid!!! It is highway robbery but they charge it because they can! Every pool store and online store does! The smallest of parts cost a fortune and apparently the vacuum has 27 moving, and constantly failing parts. The water seems never to be in balance and the only one that uses it is the dog!!!!

So, as you can imagine, I am putting this pool on the market and if you can get it out of my yard, you can have it! The fun pool is on the top, the one for sale is on the bottom. EMPTY

THE BIGGEST JOB I HAVE EVER DONE

2008-10-01T07:17:00.001-07:00

We bought our house in 2003. I hated the color of the paint but you know home owner's associations and their tight restrictions not to mention the big job of repainting. Though the house was built in 2001, I always thought the brown trim on the house was from back in the70's. But we lived with it until we started seeing paint flaking off the stucco and patches of fading stucco all over the house that gave it a sort of camouflage look. We are the oldest house in the neighborhood as we were the original model home so we knew it was a matter of time before the association gestapo came around with a letter telling us to comply with keeping our house paint up. Oh how I lamented my days in MO where you had vinyl siding and brick and very, very little exterior paint!!! Stucco is so hard to paint!!! Well, Tim and I thought this would be a good learning experience and decided to do it ourselves. OK, so we are cheap. In the end, though, while it took about two weeks of pretty much nonstop work, I think we did a pretty good job. We set a trend for the neighborhood and others are following with painting of their own. NO one, not one other person, has attempted to tackle it themselves. In the end, when asking people what they paid, I realized we saved virtually nothing in cost doing it ourselves but what we did get out of it was two coats of high quality paint that hopefully will last more than seven years like those that sprayed a thin coat on. But, I like the color better considering color restraints.Guess how many gallons of paint it took? 45!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MISSIONARY MOMENTS??

2008-09-30T07:26:00.002-07:00

Have you ever wondered what missionaries do in the MTC during their "down time"? I know they have very little of that, but I guess there is an occasional chance to show off your unusual talents .....Click to enlarge the photo and see the details better. Then, later, they are still playing around in their apartment. Really, I did teach him not to play with fire, though this is not actually Chris doing this.

THE FUNNIEST OF COINCIDENCES...

2008-09-29T16:10:00.001-07:00

Okay so my friend Loretta just got her blog up and running. Congratulations Loretta! Check out her blog down below. But, I wanted to tell you about the funniest of coincidences we share with each other. Sorry, Loretta, I beat you to this story~

So I met Loretta back when we both lived in MO. Now neither of us do and we could have been two ships passing in the night if it were not for my mom, who told me she knew of a girl in her ward that she thought I would really enjoy getting to know. So, one day after the birth of my second child and her third, we were introduced and the rest is history! So, Loretta, I guess this means we have known each other about 18 years! Wow!

Anyway, upon getting to know each other, we realized we had some amazing things in common:

Her first child was a boy, born before Tim and I had started our family. But, our first child was born a few months after her second and both were boys. They were in the same grade of school together. Our next children, her third and my second were born within two weeks of each other. This is when we met so her second and third were instant friends with my first and second! Then, amazingly, we started discovering this crazy phenomenon, like that we are both left handed. Both of our husbands are named Tim and both are computer geeks of sorts, (and I mean that in a very good way!), and by the time we discovered we were pregnant again, we found that her fourth and my third had the very same due date!!!!!! ( I beat her to delivery by three days as I was two days early and she was one day late!) Now it was getting quite freaky. Her husband Tim and I share the same birthday and my husband Tim and she share the same birthday. Our only sisters each share the same birthday as well!!!

Loretta, the brave woman that she is, went on to have two more children and got two girls out of the deal! Great job. It has often made me wonder what would have happened should be have gone on to have more ourselves, hmmm..............

We have had many a laugh about that and as our years have progressed have shared very parallel lives.................It has kept us laughing and crying together often. I only wish we lived closer so we could take a picture of the two of us together. Hey, Loretta, do you have one and could email me?? :)

BRINGING YOU UP TO SPEED......

2008-09-28T17:06:00.001-07:00

So, I got an email from my great friend Loretta after she read my new blog. She said that her husband, a real computer genius, asked her if she would like to set one up as well. She said she was afraid she would not have anything interesting to write about. I am hearing her loud and clear as I, too, really wonder at anyone wanting to read my ramblings. However, I enjoy reading other's so, maybe it won't be so bad. C'mon Loretta, give it a shot. I resisted and resisted then decided, what the heck so now you get a rundown of my family for now, just to bring you up to speed.

Tim is currently working for a big bank, which name I will not mention just in case I say something negative about it later! hee hee Of course with all the banking and investment situations happening in our country of late, working there seems a bit precarious. We will see. This particular bank, however, was very conservative in its subprime investments and have seemed to have recovered nicely as a result. So, for now, he plugs away doing his auditing thing and wishing, as do I, in our middle age, that we could change careers midstream.

I currently work two part time jobs doing bookkeeping and payroll for two completely unrelated small businesses. I am certainly hoping NOT to make a career of it but have been doing it a while so I am wondering..... In actuality, I want to go back to school. I think something in the medical field would be a good choice, but oh how I wonder if I can handle the gross stuff!!!!

Chris, our 20 year old son, has just over 10 months left on his mission. (Check out the countdown to the right!) He is serving in the Nashville, TN area and doing really, really well! We hear good things and have actually heard twice from his mission president telling us how grateful he is to be able to count on Chris to put forth 100% effort in everything he is asked to do! I am grateful to hear that. It gives us more peace of mind. Christmas is just three months away and we get our third phone call! WooHoo!

Cameron is attending community college and doing well. I think he needs a job and tell him it every day, so I am a big nag. But at least he is in school. He stays busy playing dodgeball, skateboarding on a friends half pipe, playing softball, and watching UFC fights. I hope he is doing some preparations for a mission as his 19th birthday is only 9 months away! I try not to nag, I just have learned a thing or two since getting Chris ready.

Brandon currently plays football for a league team. He loves football but the poor kid is too small for high school football. However, he is an excellent wrestler and so the wrestling season will be upon us in less than a month or so and then he will really shine. He started high school this year and seems to be "into" it and happy enough. The work is not too hard for him.

Bailey is doing well with her treatments for her renal failure. I mean, I am NOT going to pay out to put my dog on dialysis. Sorry about that to all you that would do so. I love my dog but going into debt to treat a chronic disease for a dog I won't do. So, we are grateful that her overpriced prescription dog food and the pills she was given are doing the job for now. She is also being treated for her thyroid and amazingly she is not the lazy lump of a dog we have always known her to be. She actually has a bit more energy!

So, there you have an update of things in a nutshell! I really need to take more pictures. I am hoping this blog will get me back in the mode of doing so. In the meantime, Loretta, give it a shot so I have another blog to follow............

RHEA, THIS ONE IS FOR YOU!

2008-09-27T18:55:00.002-07:00

Okay, so I am finding myself posting on a blog, though I highly resisted doing this. It is hard for me to come up with what to write that would interest anyone. But, for you, Rhea, I have decided to give it a try. This may be my one and only post. We will see how inhibited I feel about it all!!! ha ha ha

I am only just learning about the fancy things that can be put on here so don't laugh to hard at how amatuerish it all looks. Those of us that are out of our 20's and 30's are waaaaay behind on these sorts of things. Sigh..................