A day in the life of......

A new nephew.....

2011-12-04T14:02:00.000-08:00

Thursday December 1st I received a phone call from my brother Charles at about 5ish in the AM. I of course knew what this call was about. Debbie had the baby earlier that morning. I could hear the smile on my brothers face as he told me about my new nephew. I almost cried, it was so sweet.

Welcome to the family Logan Xavier Williams. Born December 1, 2011, 20" long, 7 lbs 12 oz.

Here is the first picture I received of Logan....

These were pictures Charles sent me the next day......

I can't wait until I get to see him!!!!!!

This is what happens,,,,,,

2011-12-04T13:36:00.000-08:00

When I was downloading my pictures from last weekend this is what I found in the middle of them. Cambria was busy with my camera when I wasn't paying attention.

I love how she took pictures of herself pretending to sleep.

Santa, Bowling and Fun!

2011-12-04T12:59:00.000-08:00

So the Saturday after Thanksgiving Santa comes to Brigham City, so I thought it would be fun to take all the grand kids to see him. Leslie was busy getting things ready for Paul's 30th birthday party and Jamie was going out to help her so this way I would be helping too.

I went out and picked up Leslie's kids and Jamie brought the boys and met me at the courthouse. We all went and got our free hot chocolate and cookie first thing. Jax kept calling it warm chocolate because, well it wasn't really hot, but they all drank it any way.

Here they all are waiting.......

Here is Jamie and Cambria hamming it up for the camera...

Jax and his mom...

The big man in red arrives!

Gunner and Trevon were so excited to be able to give Santa 'five'....

The first thing Cambria said about Santa was that he was too skinny. Jax who is now 12 knows about Santa and was playing it cool and was not going to sit on his lap.

Jax with his 'warm' chocolate people watching.

Gunner, I love the ~~mischievous~~ thoughtful look on his face...

Trevon listening to what Santa is telling him..

Braxton giving his list..

Miss Cambria.....

The current Peach Queen and her attendants were handing out the candy canes. Jax wanted one, I told him if he went over I would take his picture with them. He turned a little red and decided he didn't want one that bad :)

When they had all sat on Santa's lap, we were walking over to the car, Gunner stopped dead and with a look of horror on his face said, "I forgot to tell Santa one thing!' He wanted to go and stand in line so he could fix that. I had to do some fast talking not to have to stand in the line again.

We went to Wendy's for lunch..

They handed out coupons for free bowling and shoe rental while we were waiting for Santa and the nice lady was good enough to give me enough to take them all bowling. Yay for freebies!

Jax..

Braxton..

Trevon..

Gunner..

Cambria..

When Gunner would roll his ball down the ramp he would just lean on it

and watch his ball go down the lane...

Cambria doing the "I got the spare" dance..

The funniest thing that happened while we were bowling was that Trevon managed to get a gutter ball with the gutter guards up. Of course I didn't have my camera ready when that happened. Don't ask us how he did it, it is a mystery.

The last time I bowled with the kids was at Angel's birthday party. They all bowled better than me so they were all pretty confident that they were going to beat grandma. I beat them all! Yes, I really did, I tried to take a picture of the scoreboard but the glare was too much, but I really did beat them all!

As we were getting ready to go Jax found Gunner's shoe and put it beside his......

We then headed out to Leslie's where we all were going to spend the night. The kids went off to play and I watched Leslie and Jamie frosting cupcakes. Leslie made a root beer float cookie that was yummy.

Braxton, Jax and Cambria playing on the laptop and ipod,

is this considered multitasking?

Santa had told all the kids to make sure they were brushing their teeth. Well Gunner was not about to disobey Santa (even though it's the same thing his mom tells him) and he was quite upset when he didn't have any toothpaste in his bathroom. I told him we would find some later and he replied, "But Santa said we have to brush our teeth!" We found some toothpaste and both Trevon and Gunner went right in and brushed their teeth. They were not going to take any chances that Santa would not bring them anything.

Later we went downstairs and played Just Dance 2 on the Wii. Here is Gunner, Braxton and Trevon..

Here's the whole gang, I love how Braxton is going the wrong way and Gunner is just standing there..

Trevon and Gunner have become best buds, here they are in Gunner's

room watching Batman (of course) and doing puzzles.

Later we all were watching a movie and the next thing I knew, they had all gone and brought up their pillows and blankets. I was right beside Jax and once he fell asleep he started taking up the space where I was, plus Cambria kept stretching out and putting her legs on me, so I moved to Gunners bed.

Here they all are after a long fun filled day..

Thanksgiving...

2011-11-30T20:26:00.000-08:00

This year for Thanksgiving we had dinner at Jamie's since I had to work that day. Angel, Charles, Leslie and Paul and their gang were all there. Debbie couldn't make it because she has been fighting a virus for a couple of weeks now and she just wanted to rest. She wants to be well for when the baby comes.

Here is a picture of Paul opening his birthday present from me It was a little late in getting here but he was happy with it and that is all that counts. They are Steelers floor mats for his new truck.

Gunner was so excited about his dad's gift that he came running up to me and gave me a big hug and kiss for them.

Here is a picture of Gunner and Trevon. I love that they have their hats on the same way. They are becoming best friend. They just played together the whole time.

Paul and Charles talking football....

Jax and Angel...

Miss Cambria and her ipod...

Leslie and the magic pepper shaker....

Jamie and Leslie and the magic pepper shaker......

Okay, so I'm sure you are all wondering....what the heck is a magic pepper shaker? Well I'll tell you. Leslie was busy making her mashed potatoes and she grabbed this pepper shaker out of Jamie's cupboard. As you can see in the picture it looks like it has pepper in it (and it does but it is stuck to the inside of the shaker). Anyway she asked Jamie what was wrong with the pepper shaker...Jamie turned it around and showed Leslie that is was actually empty. The pepper is only stuck on two sides of the shaker so when you turn it around you can see that is it empty.

So when my girls get together they tend to get a little silly. They were laughing and showing everyone the magic pepper shaker. I guess you would have had to be there to appreciate it but they couldn't stop laughing about it.

Here is Cambria and her mom...

Charles ~~mutilating~~ carving the turkey.....When we asked him if he wanted to carve the turkey he said that he didn't know how. I told him all that mattered is that he got all the meat off the bones, and that he did...

Paul and Braxton talking about the Steelers Christmas ornament I had given him.....

Jax and Angel taking a minute from her ipad to watch the football game...

Leslie taking a minute to sit and watch the game.....

Angel playing on Cambria's ipod while Jax plays on Angel's ipad......

It was Jamie's first time cooking a turkey and she did a fantastic job. It was so moist and everyone loved it, in fact I don't think there was any left when we were done. We also had mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, mac and cheese, green beans, rolls, and your choice of banana cream or razzleberry pie with ice cream.

We had a great time and we all left very full.

Cambria, Braxton and Gunner spend the weekend....

2011-11-20T19:40:00.000-08:00

Last weekend Leslie took Paul to the U of U game for his birthday and I watched the kiddos for them. It also was the day of our first real snow storm.

When the kids come over there are certain items that Grandmas MUST have stocked in the house. They are macaroni and cheese, hot dogs, noodles (Ramen), cheese puffs and CHOCOLATE MILK. This last item is non-negotiable.

So I was fixing mac and cheese and hot dogs for lunch and when I opened the fridge Gunner saw the chocolate milk in the door. He ran up to me and hugged my legs and said, "I love you !", and then grabbed a bottle of milk. If that is what I get for having chocolate milk in my fridge then it is well worth it.

The snow recked my original plan to have the kids help me finish raking up all the leaves but we managed to fill our time doing other fun stuff.

They brought Gunners turtle tent.

Then Cambria and I decided to make some chocolate chocolate chip cookies. The recipe I used was so easy. You take a chocolate cake mix, a can of pumpkin and a bag of chocolate chips mix it all together and it makes 3 dozen of the best cookies. You don't even taste the pumpkin and they are moist and cakey.

Cambria ended up doing most of it.

Here she is with the finished product....

While we were upstairs baking the boys were downstairs playing the Wii..

Look at the concentration on Gunner's face in these pictures..

Here's Braxton and Cambria waiting for their turn on the Wii (Braxton is eating an apple)

Here they are playing "The Michael Jackson Experience".

You can tell who was being Michael Jackson by who has the glove on...

Cambria and Braxton dancing to "Dirty Diana"

This is how Gunner amused himself while they were dancing...

While the other two were playing Gunner invited me into his tent....

We decided to brave the snow and go to Pizza Plus for dinner. They have the best cheesy bread sticks ever, and their pizza is pretty darn good too.

When we got home the kids decided that they wanted to have a Christmas movie marathon. So they pulled out all my Christmas movies and put them in the order that they wanted to watch them. While we watched the movies we had hot chocolate, their favorite is the candy cane cocoa. They all fell asleep during the third movie.

The next morning Gunner was the first one up. I asked him what he wanted for breakfast and out of all the choices I gave him this is what he chose.

Candy cane cocoa and leftover pizza... Side note..he did decide to have cereal for lunch.

When Cambria and Braxton finally woke up they decided that Gunner had made the best choice for breakfast and had the same. I can't say that I blame them I have always loved leftover pizza for breakfast.

After they got dressed we continued the Christmas movie marathon and then they had ramen for lunch (except Gunner). While they were eating they decided that since it was Paul's birthday that they needed to make him birthday cards.

After the cards were done, Cambria and the boys made up a birthday skit to surprise Paul with. They had fun and he loved it.

Halloween weekend........

2011-11-09T08:34:00.000-08:00

Halloween weekend was so much fun. It started with Saturday morning. It was Gunner and Braxton's first wrestling matches. So I of course had to go out to support my boys. I wish I would have gotten some pictures but at that time the batteries in my camera decided to die.

This was Gunner's very first wrestling match and it was quite surprising. Gunner is a rough and tumble kind of kid and he is never afraid and is always attacking and wrestling his big brother and friends. But today I saw a very timid, nervous little boy. He didn't win his match but he lost by only a few points, he never got pinned. Towards the end of his match you could tell he was becoming his old self and getting a little mad about not winning. His face became all serious and he started throwing the other kid around.

Braxton lost his first match too, and the same as Gunner never got pinned and lost by only a couple of points. He fought the good fight though. It's amazing to see how much better and more confident these kids get with every passing year.

After the wrestling matches we hopped in the car and headed to Hogle Zoo.

Here is Braxton (the ghoul) and Spiderman (Gunner)...

Cambria, Sadie, and Braxton..

Here is Miss Cambria (zombie dancer) and her friend Sadie (zombie prom queen). They did their own makeup and looked quite good.

We met up with Angel and Jax and Trevon. Here are all the kids while we

were waiting for Angel to park her car.

Here they are again, Braxton the ghoul, Captain Jax Sparrow, Ninja Trevon, Spiderman Gunner, Zombie prom queen Sadie and Zombie dancer Cambria.....

The zoo was a lot of fun. After the first candy stop Gunner took off his mask and began eating the candy as soon as it hit his bucket. Instead of Trick or Treating he was Trick and Eating. Leslie finally had to take his bucket so he would quit eating all his candy. We saw some great costumes and I got to see my favorite animal- the tigers. They were outside and one was just roaming around but the other was taking a nap in the sun. They are such beautiful animals.

After the zoo we went to Village Inn for lunch.

Trevon and Braxton waiting to eat...(aren't they the cutest?!)

Spiderman getting a kiss from his Mommy....

Sadie and Angel...

Cambria and Jax...

When we got back to Leslie's the kids decided that they wanted to carve their pumpkins.

Braxton and Cambria waiting for Leslie to get their pumpkins open....

Time to take out the pumpkin guts! Love Cambria's face....

Sadie was helping Gunner with his pumpkin....

These where big pumpkins with lots of stuff inside,

I don't know if standing on the chair gave Cambria an advantage in cleaning out her pumpkin or not.

While the kids carved I went through the pumpkin guts and gathered up all the seeds for roasting. We had enough seed to cover two large cookie sheets. Leslie found some pumpkin seed recipes on the Internet and she tried two of them They turned out really yummy. I took a baggie of each kind home with me.

Here are the kids with their finished Jack-O-Lanterns....

After that we took Sadie to her grandma's and stopped at the store to find candles for the Jack-O-Lanterns. Then I helped Leslie get her goodie bags done for all her nieces and nephews and a few of her favorite kids.

She made smore's in a bag....she took a graham cracker and a fun size Hershey bar and a Halloween peep (she had ghosts and pumpkins) and put them in a bag. It is a very cute idea and you could do it for any holiday since they are making peeps for more than just Easter.

Sunday afternoon I went to Layton and took Jamie and the boy's to lunch. They picked Jimmy John's.

I had never tried this place but it was very good. They serve sandwiches and these great giant pickles, YUM!

Me and Jax...

Trevon and Jamie....

After we ate we went shopping for the boy's coats. I even bought me a few things. Then I just hung out at Jamie's for a while watching Jax kill zombies and enjoying their company.

Here is Trevon wearing the hat I bought him....he is just too cute!

Joe and Jessica get married.....

2011-10-30T20:25:00.000-07:00

So on October 23, 2011 my baby brother Joe married his soul mate Jessica. It was a great day. Here is a photo run down of the event...(I forgot my camera so I borrowed pictures from my family, Thanks guys)

The day before they had a rehearsal and Angel caught this picture of Joe having a beer with my parents. I so love this and Joe looks just like my dad....minus the tattoos and piercings ;)

Here is Joe on his big day, he cleans up rather nicely doesn't he?

Here we are the oldest and the youngest of the siblings...

My other brother Charles and I..my bothers are so handsome!

And speaking of handsome, check out my grandson Jax!

Here is Joe and my mom...

The cake...topped with a Zombie bride dragging the groom.

They had cupcakes topped with coconut and hazelnut,

with your choice of brain, skull or knife...

Here are the cutest and craziest kids ever passing time until the wedding starts.

Cambria, Gunner, Braxton and Trevon

Angel took this of us all waiting for it to begin..

Mom and Joe coming down the aisle with Dad right behind them..

Mom and Joe..

Father and Son....

The beautiful bride..

Joe giving his vows...

Jessica's vows...

Sealed with a kiss!

Mr. and Mrs. Joseph M. Williams!

I have never seen my brother look so happy, and yes, I cried....

Their new daughter-in-law...

Look at the smile on my brother's face!

The cake was cut with a machete (what else?!)

It was a beautiful fall day and everything went without a hitch. They served chicken salad croissants, with fruit and carrots and celery and of course the cupcakes. The yard and everything was decorated with a Halloween/Zombie theme including fresh graves with bones sticking out. Everyone received a little goody bag for coming. In it was a skull sucker, an eyeball ring, an eyeball bottle of bubbles, Halloween stickers, and some candy.

The people watching was awesome (I'm sure Joe and Jessica's friend thought the same thing of us). The best was when The Joker walked in....

Gunner is a HUGE Batman fan so on the way home I was asking him about the Joker and why didn't Batman come. His reply was: "Dramma, that wasn't the real Joker." I asked him how did he know that. He replied: "The Joker doesn't wear shoes like that and the Joker doesn't wear glasses." Of all the things his shoes were the LAST thing that I even thought of looking at, but that's Gunner for you.

The Ogden River Project......

2011-10-11T21:16:00.000-07:00

Ogden has taken on the task of rejuvenating the Ogden River area. They are cleaning up and landscaping along the banks, putting in trails and parks all along the river. It is going to be really nice when they are done.

Last Friday was a volunteer day on the River. Everyone came out to help weed, and plant and do their part to help the project along. Since our store has a section of the river right out our back door we joined in.

The day was cold and rainy but that didn't stop us from working and having fun in the process. We just bundled up and headed out.

Our first task was to pull weeds. Jeanell and I were wondering how we could get the volunteers to come to our houses, because we have lost of weeds to pull too. The rain made this job pretty easy. The down side, the creepy crawlies that we happen upon while pulling said weeds. There was one spider that Jeremy found that's body was as big around as a quarter. I quickly moved from that area and found a different place to pull weeds.

We were shown what plants we were NOT suppose to pull. One of them was mint and Josh our store manager said that if we weren't sure whether or not to pull it that we should bend over and smell it. If it smelled like mint, leave it. If it spelled like dog s--t, pull it. That's why he is the boss......

After we got all the weeds pulled along our section we got to plant some trees and bushes that they had so kindly placed in the spots they were meant to be planted. Now one thing you should know about the soil in northern Utah is that it is very rocky. We are not talking about little rocks but big rocks and you tend to hit one each time you push the shovel into the ground. So digging holes is very labor intensive.

I was working with Dave and he had dug quite a few holes so I told him to let me dig a few. Well he was more than happy to give me the shovel (which I found out was broken, it was a wonder he could dig any holes with it). While I was fighting with yet another rock, Dave thought it would be funny to start throwing rocks back into the hole I was trying to dig. Dave was the only one who thought that was funny......

After all the projects for our area were complete we all headed back to the store. Our shoes were so caked with mud and we were trying to scrape it off any way we could. We ended up washing them in the maintenance sink.

Then our store was providing sandwiches, chips and drinks for all the volunteers. So we drove up to where that was happening to have some lunch. They had all kinds of booths about the river and the things you could do on it. They even had kayaks and were letting people go down the river in them.

Here is a picture of our little volunteer group..

Front: Erin (ICS) Neil (Pets, Paper & Chem) Paul (Asst. mgr) Josh (store mgr)
Back: Val (Frozen/Dairy) Jammie (HBA/Cosmetics) Jeremy (OTC) Regina (Assist. mgr) Me, Dave (bike builder/assembler) Jeanell (personnel) Sarah (ZMS)

When it is all done the Ogden River will be a beautiful place to be. It will be fun to watch it evolve.

2011-10-05T19:55:00.000-07:00

So here it is....October....I really need to be a better blogger.

I have a new ~~way to waste time~~ website that Leslie introduced me too. It is called Pinterest.

It is just a website that you can browse and it has recipes, quotes, decorating ideas, craft ideas, and it just goes on and on. Then you can create boards to "repin" your favorites to so you can access them easily. You can even follow what your friends are "repinning" and they can follow your "repins". It is amazing as to how much time I can ~~waste~~ spend on this website.

So here is a sample of what I found on Pinterest and for lack of anything better to blog about, I'll just share this.....

And there you have it....food for thought.

My sister the black belt.....

2011-09-04T14:50:00.000-07:00

My sister Angel started taking karate years ago. Karate is something that I've personally never been interested in doing, but I thought it was cool that Angel liked it. She has worked very hard at it and that hard work has paid off in that she is now a black belt.

So on August 13th (yes I am very behind in blogging) I went to watch her black belt ceremony. I rode down with Charles and Debbie. The dojo were she goes to is way out in Pleasant Grove. It is in the backyard of her Sensei, Master Davis.

Here is a picture of Angel still in her brown belt.

I had never been in a dojo before (I've only seen them in the anime I watch) so I was really interested to see what one was like. I don't know that this was the traditional dojo because besides have all the martial art memorabilia and weapons it also had a lot of kids toys and an air hockey table. I guess this where Master Davis' many grandchildren come to hang out.

Before the ceremony started Angel gave a few demonstrations of her abilities. My favorite was of her breaking bricks. Here it is, don't mess with her....

This is a picture of Sensei Tom (in black), he is a 3rd Don in the Kinshindo Style karate that Angel has mastered. The one with the white top is Master Davis, the Suko of the Kinshindo Style. This means he developed this style of karate.

Angel waiting for the ceremony to begin....

Master Davis requesting the start of the ceremony..

This is Angel presenting her brown belt to Master Davis...

This is Master Davis severing the brown belt in half with a blade. This represents that Angel is no longer a Senpai (student) but that she is now a Sensei (teacher)..

Angel receiving her black belt..

Presenting Angel as a black belt.

Receiving words of advice from her Master, she also received words of advise from Sensei Tom..

My sister the black belt..

Posing with her Master..

Me.Angel and Charles..

Debbie and Charles with Angel...

After the ceremony we had refreshments. I went home with Angel and we had dinner at Joe's Crab Shack. Can you say YUMMY!? Then we just hung out and watched movies until I fell asleep. The next morning I went with her and Puddy to the dog park and then we went to Mimi's for breakfast (yum again).

I am very proud of my sister. She has worked hard to reach this goal.

Here is the video of Angel breaking a brick for your viewing pleasure.

Angel's 50th birthday bowl.......

2011-08-22T20:08:00.000-07:00

For my sister Angel's 50th birthday my brother Charles' wife Debbie planned a bowling party. We had it the Saturday after Angel's birthday at Orchard Lanes in Bountiful. To start out our adventure I drove to Jamie's and then we went together from her house. We weren't sure how to get there so I punched it in to my phone's GPS. Well the 'girlfriend' took us to the wrong place. We had to call for directions from Debbie, but we finally made it.

A friend of mine made the comment, "Nothin' says fashion like a snazzy pair of bowling shoes", thanks Becky. That being said this place had the wildest bowling shoes I have ever seen. Here is a picture of Cambria and me showing off our matching shoes.....

Leslie and Paul..

The bowling alley gave us a bowling pin for everyone to sign to give to Angel..

Jax..

Braxton ready to bowl...(love his face)

Trev enjoying his pizza...

Paul helping Gunner, Gunner would pick up the heaviest ball on the rack to use..

Leslie taking her turn..

Miss Cambria...

Angel giving some pointers to her friends son....

Charles helping Trevon....

Angel's friend Roxanne....

Jax, he had this shuffle that he would do going up to the line, it was great....

Charles and his wife Debbie (and baby) who planned it all.....

Roxanne and her husband..

Some of Angel's friend..

I love how everyone manages to look everywhere but at the camera except Debbie that looks like a deer caught in the headlights.

Les, Angel, Debbie and Jamie..

Cambria 'patiently' waiting for her next turn. By the last game Gunner and Braxton had quit playing and Cambria was very happy because she would take their turns too..

More of Angel's friends...

This is Master Davis and his wife. He is Angel's Sensei...

Roxanne's family..

This is a picture of how the bowling ally spelled mine (Junati) and Jax's (Jay) names. The kids started calling me grandma Junati (ju-na-tee). It sounded like an anime name...

Cambria and Braxton......

Jamie sporting Jax's hat....

Me... (check out Leslie's neon shoes...)

This was my favorite moment of the afternoon. Charles was taking his turn and was going to go over the line so to avoid that from happening this is how he ended up.....at least he didn't foal :)

Mmmmmm, birthday cakes.....

Everyone singing to the birthday girl..

Blowing out the candles...

Me and my sister..

I was beat by pretty much all of my grandchildren, who all loved to rub it in. It was a very fun afternoon. Thanks Debbie for making it happen

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?

2011-08-20T10:24:00.000-07:00

So my first vegetable garden went from looking like this......

to THIS.....

I have 5 tomato plants, 1 zucchini, 1 summer squash, 1 spaghetti squash, 2 cucumbers, 3 green peppers, 1 jalapeno, 5 red potato mounds, a small strawberry patch and 8 raspberry starts of which only 3 survived, and 2 rows of green beans.

here is a picture of the first harvest I made from it....

Since that first pickings I have continually been reaping the benefits of growing my own veggies. It is true what they say, NOTHING tastes better than vegetable picked right from the garden. It has been fun watching everything grow and going out daily to see what veggies are ready to pick. There is something very satisfying in eating what you have grown yourself.

Besides the new adventures in gardening I have now for the first time in my life tried my hand at putting up veggies to eat later. My first attempt was Dilly Beans. My friend LeAnn had me try hers and they were so yummy. I love dill and I had a ton (well maybe not a ton, but still a lot) of green beans so I thought why not try it? LeAnn came over and coached me through my first try at canning. It was fun having her there and it wasn't hard at all.

Here is the finished product, 12 jars of dilly beans......

Every jar sealed, now the wait. For the best tasting beans you need to let them age so the flavors soak in. So around Thanksgiving I should be able to taste my work. I can't wait.

My tomato plants have so many tomatoes on them that the plants have bent the tomato cages so badly that I can't get them to stand up. I have already given tomatoes to my niece Heather and Dave from my carpool. I have broken off two branches trying to move the plants around to harvest the ripe tomatoes they are so heavy with fruit. I now have a bowl of green tomatoes because I didn't want to throw them out. I will have to find a recipe that calls for green tomatoes so I can use them.

I'm sure my next try at preserving vegetables will be with tomatoes. I'm thinking salsa and my own tomato sauce.....we'll see.

I Saw A Mighty Angel Fly!

2011-07-17T17:13:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday July 12, 2011 the Angel Moroni was put on top of the east spire of the Brigham City Temple. Because this is a once in a lifetime opportunity I left work early so I could watch.

When I got home it started raining, so instead of walking I drove and parked as close to the Tabernacle as I could. Here is a picture of the Temple as I was walking down 2nd South.

It was raining pretty steady by the time I came around the corner of the Tabernacle. There I ran into my friend Trina and her boys. They had been there for a while and they didn't bring an umbrellas because it wasn't even cloudy when they got there. So I sat with them and shared mine. Here is Trina, Isaac (in front) who I taught in Primary last year, her youngest son Garrett, and Steven was taking the picture.

We had the best seats right on the Tabernacle front steps, here is our view of the Temple.

They say "The Heavens weep when the Saints meet". I say they were tears of joy. A little rain never dampened our spirits. Everyone that could came to watch. If they didn't have umbrellas they didn't seem to mind a little water and everyone was happy and enjoying each others company and the spirit that was there while we waited. The Tabernacle had their speakers outside and had music playing. Here's a picture of the sea of umbrellas in front of us.

I told Trina the the weather would clear up in time for the raising. About 10 til noon the rain stopped and we could see the clouds starting to break up.

It was suppose to start at noon, so a few minutes after the basket with a few men went up. It was so funny because the guys in the basket were taking pictures of the crowd as they went up.

They got to the top and had to hold on to the spire as the crane lifted them up the last few feet to the top so the basket wouldn't hit the spire. They were up there for a little bit and then they came back down.

We all of a sudden saw the big crane start to come done. We waited for a while and then it started going back up. It took the basket of men up again and then it brought them down. We didn't know what was going on. We all just waited. At about 12:30 they announce that they couldn't raise the Angel at the time because of the wind that had picked up. We had a group prayer for the winds to stop and then we waited.

The skies kept clearing up and I kept watching the trees and waiting. I guess to be honest at first I thought we would see a instant calming of the winds. Then I kept thinking that is not how the Lord works. I kept remembering things like, it's not our will but the Lords, nothing can stop the work of the Lord, and that we just need to have faith. So while others were getting discouraged and leaving, thinking it wouldn't happen today, I just sat there patiently watching the winds blow and waiting.

At about 1:34 I notice that the back crane (the one that was going to lift the Angel) started moving again, and then the driver of the front crane got back in. For the third time the men went up in the basket, this time they started doing things to the top of the spire. Then the sun came out all the way and the winds died down. Here is the second attempt.

Then we heard the signal, the air horn blasted twice, a cheer went through the crowd. Next thing I saw was this sight. If you stand at the front of the Temple there is a window above the doorway and right now it looks all they way through the building and out a matching window at the back. There hanging in the window was the Angel...this is the best picture I could get of that.

As the Angel came up over the Temple, the Tabernacle started playing the song "High On The Mountain Top". It was worth the wait.

Then came the process of hooking all the cables from inside the spire to the Angel. This took a little while and because the sun had come all the way out it went from about 70 to 90+ degrees in a half hour. The umbrellas started going back up for shade.

Here they are turning the Angel so he faces east

Lowering him onto the spire

Unhooking the cables

The Angel Moroni is in place, the air horn blasted three time to signal it was done. Another cheer went up through the crowd.

It was well worth the wait, an awesome afternoon.

I played the tambourine.....

2011-07-09T14:34:00.000-07:00

This last week has been pretty uneventful....

I had to work on the 4th and then I just came home and was lazy. Jamie and the boys were doing stuff with her friends and Leslie's gang was camping. I didn't even stay up to watch the fireworks from my bedroom window. I know....BORING! But that's my life when I have no one to do anything with.

Tuesday I had to have a root canal. It went smoothly, although they had to put this wedge in my mouth because I couldn't open it big enough for him to see the tooth. Not pleasant and my jaw is still a little sore. I woke up Wednesday at 2am with the most horrific headache, and when I called the dentist he told me that sometimes instead of the tooth hurting from the procedure it will manifest somewhere else. Lucky me. It lasted until about 6 that evening. I have to go back Monday for the first appointment for the crown. Fun times.....

Conly was working overnights to set the back to school mods so I was by myself for lunch everyday. I got to know some of the new people I work with better. I had lunch with Amie our GM receiving clerk and she is great. On Friday I went to Applebee's with her and Beth our UPC/Claims clerk. So although it was quiet without Conly, I got to know some new people.

Last night Jeremy's band American Attic was playing at the Smithfield's Relay For Life. I asked my friend Cathi is she wanted to go. We headed over early and had dinner at Olive Garden. Then headed out to Smithfield. Forgetting that we were heading further north we forgot jackets and it got a little chilly by the time we headed home, also the grass was soaking wet and our toes were numb because of course we had on sandals.

I have still yet to hear the whole band play together. Last night two of the members couldn't make it, their drummer and other guitarist.. But one of the old members-Robert was back from his professor gig in Iowa for a visit so Jeremy had him play keyboard. He is very good too. Their other guitarist, Jesse, was there. They were very entertaining. The first thing that happened was the announcer got the bands name wrong when he introduced them and called them "Attic Attack" instead of "American Attic"......

There is not a big crowd at these things because everyone is either walking or shopping the booths but when Jeremy started to play these little teeny bopper girls came over in their pajama pants and sweatshirts (see they knew it was going to be cold). So Jesse handed them their tambourine. The little girl giggles and starts to play it.....I looked at Cathi and we started to laugh. The girl had NO sense of rhythm at all. They finally got tired of the tambourine and handed it to us.

After Jeremy had played a couple numbers the teeny boppers shouted out if he knew any Eminem (sp?). We started laughing and then Jeremy being the good sport he is, did his best at rapping, hilarious! Then they shouted "where's the Bieber?!" Cathi and I lost it at this point and couldn't stop laughing. Jeremy had the weirdest look on his face, we found out later that he thought they had shouted "Where's the BEAVER?!"
Oh My.......:)

Weekend with Jax and Trev......

2011-07-07T19:10:00.000-07:00

So this last Friday I invited Jax and Trevon to spend the night Jamie brought them to the store and they came home with me.

After we got home and changed we headed over to the city pool. I have a Lego fairy that Leslie and her kids brought back for me from their vacation last summer and it hangs on my rear view mirror along with the Shamu tail that Jamie and the boys brought me back and and an " I love Grandma" beaded thing that Cambria made for me. Whenever Jax gets in the car he feels the need to give this fairy some kind of weapons, today was no exception. Here she is with a sword and a giant bone, looking pretty scary ;).....

Jax actually let her keep the sword and it is still in her hand and she is protecting my car as I type this.

We spent a couple of hours at the pool, It wasn't too crowded considering it was a hot Friday evening. Jax had his goggles on and was swimming under water seeing if his Lego submarine was water tight. Trevon loved the slide. I just sat and watched them and of course the people.

I just have to say that even at my biggest I knew better than to think I looked good in a swimsuit, or that I would torture anyone else by them having to see me in one. That being said, I was about ready to throw something at the big middle aged man with the huge beer gut, half bald head with the scrawny pony tail and bad plaid shorts, that kept sitting down in front of me and exposing most of his hairy backside.....get the picture? Ugh!

After the pool we headed to Arby's for some dinner. We ended the evening watching movies and having ice cream sandwiches. Trev was the first to fall asleep, I was noddling off around 10, I don't know how late Jax stayed up. He can be a real night owl.

The next morning we just hung out watching cartoons and playing games on Jax's laptop. Trev loves to sit and watch Jax play.....

Here are my cute boys......

Saturday we went to the matinee and saw Cars 2. It was so good. I heard so many mixed reviews about it, but we loved it. Jax and I laughed all the way through it. We had Wendy's for lunch afterwards and then I took them home. It was a lot of fun. They are growing up so fast that I need to make sure I spend as much time with them as I can, before going to grandma's house is not "cool".

Weekend at Leslie's.........

2011-07-01T21:27:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Leslie and Paul were celebrating their anniversary by going to Park City, so after work on Friday I headed out to Tremonton to stay with Cambria, Braxton and Gunner.

We started out the weekend by having dinner at Subway. After that we played Dance on the Wii. It was great fun, especially watching Gunner try to keep up with the dance. At one point Cambria and I were doing a duet and Braxton all of a sudden shouted, "Grandma can dance?!" Well of course I can dance, I haven't lost it yet. Then we played Guitar hero.

Cambria decided to put on a show for me. She and Braxton and Gunner danced and sang songs with her ipod, very entertaining. Then we put on a movie and popped some popcorn on which I broke a tooth! Lucky for me that it didn't hurt, but it took off the front of one of my molars.

I tried to get up early enough on Saturday to workout before the kids woke up but just as I started my video both Gunner and Braxton woke up. Gunner then tried to do my workout with me :).

Then we just hung around the house. Braxton was trying to teach Gunner how to ride his bicycle with out training wheels. When I came out to watch, Gunner would only let him push him on the grass, he was too afraid of falling on the sidewalk, but he did ride it for a minute and Braxton was so proud of himself for teaching his little brother something.

For dinner Saturday night we went to Taco Time. I got my favorite, the chicken casita burrito.....boy do I miss our Taco Time. Gunner polished off a large cheddar mexi-fry all by himself, and then wanted more. Here are the kiddos waiting for our food....

When we got home we made strawberry shortcake and watched movies until we all fell asleep.

Sunday Cambria decided she wanted to make her parents a surprise for when they got home so I helped her make some brownies. Then she made a cute picture and taught the boys a cheer to do when their parents walked in the house. It turned out very cute.

Well I went to the dentist Wednesday and he was able to fix my broken tooth without having to put on a crown, but it was close enough to the nerve that he said I have a 50/50 chance of it turning into a root canal. We'll just have to hope for the best. The bad news...I do need a root canal on a tooth that had started bothering me on the other side, I'll get that done this Tuesday.

American Attic.......

2011-06-11T07:16:00.000-07:00

It's no secret that I LOVE music, all kinds, if I like it I listen to it but my heart is in rock. I always have music playing, even at work. A few years ago I became friends with Jeremy H. He was our produce department manager in the Perry store and then he became an APC (Asset Protection Coordinator). He is now also in he new Ogden store, and I now 'get' to go on shrink reviews with him.

He is a musician and MANY of our talks always end up about music, what we listen to, or are playing. When he hears something he thinks I would like he is always telling me. Jeremy has a band, in the beginning they were called The Flocked Cows, now they are called American Attic. Here is a picture of them on their latest CD....... Jeremy is in the rebel tshirt......

So I've never heard his band play, I have the Flocked Cow CD so I've heard what they sound like, but they have had some member changes since that CD and of course changed their name. They have played a couple time promoting their new CD but I have missed seeing them. They have had their songs played on on the radio but it's not the same as hearing them live. Well last Friday night I found out that they were going to be playing at the Brigham Relay For Life. I was so excited. It was right here in Brigham, no reason I couldn't go down and see them play.

So when I got to the park I met up with my friend Sarah C. We found Jeremy and he was a little stressed. All his band members weren't going to make it. Doug was there (the guy at the end in the picture), but the rest were too far away and stuck in traffic, they also had the rest of their equipment. But Jeremy is a professional and he played solo.

Here he is getting set up.....

He sang several of our favorites and then had fun with some cover songs...

He even played the song he wrote about his Grandmother who had lost her battle with cancer a few years ago. It was soo good and there wasn't a dry eye to be had among us when he was finished....

Doug even got on stage a couple of times and danced for us, the picture I took didn't turn out good though. It was very entertaining.

After he was finished I bought his new CD and he gave me a bumper sticker and a tshirt. Then Sarah and I got to be roadies and help him and his wife Laura carry his guitars and stuff to his car. I am so glad that we have become friends, he is a good person and very talented. Now I can't wait to hear the whole band! I'll be able to say "I knew him when" when he becomes famous.....;)

Memorial Weekend.......

2011-06-03T17:14:00.000-07:00

I had the best Memorial day weekend. It started out with Trevon's birthday party at the Layton Family fun Center.

My dad was there and he hadn't seen me in over a year. I now refer to it as my "Biggest Loser" moment. You know when the contestants have their makeover and then their families get to see them....Well I didn't have a make over but it was just as special. The look on my dad's face when I walked in was priceless. It was very emotional for the both of us.

He has been a huge support during this lifestyle change. He reads my WW blog and sends me emails and calls me. Here we are...I'm not sure whose smile is bigger.....

Trevon's birthday is actually this weekend but Jamie was gong out of town and so she decided to throw his party early. Here is the birthday boy and his Star Wars cake....isn't he the cutest?!?!?!?

The kids love to have parties at the fun center. They can ride their scooters, roller skate, and there are a ton of games for them to play. But the kids are not the only ones that have fun.......

Here is Paul (in the grey) and Charles (in the black) busy playing some of the video games......

Here is my sister Angel going around the rink on a scooter....

and here is my daughter Jamie on roller skates....

After the party I went home with Angel because I was spending the night at her house. We stopped at Charles and Debbie's to drop off dad and Charles. We stayed until Mom and Debbie got home from my cousin David's wedding luncheon. We visited for a while, then Angel and I left for her house.

Angel took me to dinner at Zupa's. We had their Cream of Asparagus soup and their Chicken Summer Salad. It was sooooo good.

Sunday morning we met mom, dad Charles and Joe at IHOP for breakfast before mom and dad headed back home to St. George.

Angel insisted on taking a picture from the other direction because she said

I'm always taking the pictures and I'm never in them.

Angel brought several of her photo albums for us to look through. It was a lot of fun seeing all those old pictures of us. Good idea Angel!

That afternoon Angel took me to see Les Miserables at the Capital Theatre. It is the first time I have seen it and yes, I cried at the end. It was so good. Oh, by the way,the Capital Theatre has the BEST oatmeal cookies at their refreshment table. Just sayin' if you ever go there. After the show we went to Olive Garden for dinner. I had their Venetian Apricot Chicken...very good...a must try if you get the chance.

It was the best weekend even if I had to cut it short to go back to work on Monday. There are more pictures here and here on my FB page if you want to see more of my weekend.

It's never too late for change......

2011-05-27T19:56:00.000-07:00

A year ago on Mother's Day I had what I lovingly refer to as "The Intervention". I had reached an all time low. The events over the past 17 years had taken their toll on me and between that and recent happenings at my job I was on antidepressants and addicted to food. I had reached an all time high in my weight and and all time low in my depression.

My health was a mess, I was on two different pills to try and keep my blood pressure under control and even then it was still high. I was feeling like if I never showed up anywhere again I wouldn't even be missed, not suicidal, I just become reclusive when I'm depressed. I figured I was just going to always be fat and alone.

My family was worried about me, especially my girls. So on Mother's day they sat me down and we talked. It started out kinda shaky at first but it ended up okay. They said things I needed to hear and I left it with a promise to them to look into some programs.

My friend at work, Connie had joined Weight Watchers that last February and was having great success in losing weight and she really liked the program so I went and checked it out. The result...On May 26, 2010 I joined Weight Watchers to help me change my life.

I was (embarrassed to say) 303.4 pounds (and I had lost 14 before I started). Here is a VERY rare picture of me that was actually taken a year before "the intervention". The smile is fake because I was anything but happy. I was drowning and didn't know how to make it stop.

I keep this picture on my phone and look at it to remind me of where I have come from.

So a year later I have had great success in changing my lifestyle. I am no longer on antidepressants or high blood pressure medications. I have lost 116.8 pounds with Weight Watchers plus the 14 I had lost the month before for a grand total of 130 pounds. My doctor is thrilled.

Weight Watchers is a lifestyle not a diet. It has taught me to eat correctly and take better care of myself through proper diet and exercise. It has helped me to learn how to handle my emotions without food. Do I still slip once in a while? Yes, but I just get back up and get myself back on track. I am genuinely happy now and I feel great!

Every spring Weight Watchers has a Walk It Challenge with a 5k. Last year at this time it took me over 10 minutes just to walk around my block and I was winded. This year I walked/jogged the 5k!

Here is a picture of myself and my dear friend Fran before the walk. She is also a WW member and works for them.

This is Lorrie and LeAnn.....

The 5k was around the Mantua Reservoir. It was the first sunny day we had had in weeks. The reservoir is nestled in the mountain and it is a beautiful walk. My time for my first 5k......48.10. Not going to break any speed records with that but I was proud of it non the less. That time was actually 5 minutes faster than the Saturday before when LeAnn and I had come up to give the route a trial run.

We could order Walk It shirts from WW and you could have one of their sayings on the back or put one of your own. On the back of mine I put "Because I Can!". One thing I have learned through this journey to get my life back is that I can do anything I put my mind to! It is never to late to change your life around, just look at me. I have a blog on the WW site here if you want to read about my journey more.

I still have a ways to go to get to my goal, but I will get there. I have made a lot of changes in how I eat and live and deal with life in general, but like all projects it is a work in progress and it is something that I will always have to be aware of. I'm not proud of where I've been but I'm proud of where I am and where I'm going. I don't ever want to be that person I was a year ago again.

What can make a long day at work even longer........

2011-05-16T20:17:00.000-07:00

THIS!

This is my friend and fellow carpooler (word?) Conly, changing the flat tire that we got just as we turned the corner by the store to head out to the freeway, at least it blew before we got on.

We were right off Wall, and this is not the better part of town. While Conly was changing the tire this guy kept riding by on his bicycle, nothing happened but he made me nervous.

Then to make it an even longer day....you can only go 50-55 mph on a donut so we had to take the back roads home with the emergency flashers on. Fun times!

While we were enjoying the scenery the Steppenwolf song "Born To Be Wild" kept running through my head. I think it was torture for poor Conly to have to drive Jean Claude (his car) that slow. I did my best to entertain him while we coasted along. I won't go into what was going along faster than we were.....it will just make Conly and Jean Claude feel bad ;).

When we got to Brigham, we went straight to the Walmart so that he could get a new tire before the TLE closed. We just barely made it. So while I waited, I ran (by ran I mean I walked to the other side of the store) to the Subway and got a salad for dinner. I tried to buy Conly something but he wouldn't let me.

By the time I finally got to my car (we meet at the Flying J off the 1100 S. Exit) and got home it was 7:00. It's never a dull ride when you're with Conly. It's also good to know that he can change a tire, of course he said that if I get a flat tire he will just sit in the car and make me do it. That's what he says, but he really is a nice guy, I might have to pay him, but he would change the tire for me.

Ducks, Hot Air Balloons and Dance Competitions.........

2011-05-08T13:40:00.000-07:00

Friday morning when Conly and I got out of the car right there walking in front of us was a male Mallard and it's mate. They were just walking across the parking lot. We came up behind them and they didn't even fly away, just kept walking around. I tried to get a picture with my phone but it wasn't good enough to really show them. Who would have thought I would be seeing wildlife in the parking lot on Wall Avenue in Ogden. Conly just wanted to shoot them but unfortunately they were not in season and he didn't have a gun.

We have a week and a half before our grand opening so things are really starting to pick up. We had a week long bake sale to raise money for CMN (Children's Miracle Network) more specifically Primary Children's Hospital. There were all kinds of goodies all week long. We also had luncheons everyday. Monday-Pizza, Tuesday-sloppy joes, Wednesday-pot luck, Thursday-breakfast burritos, and Friday we had hamburgers and hot dogs and invited the local police and fire departments to join us. Sure beat bringing a sandwich everyday.

Saturday I went with Leslie and Miss Cambria (no boys this time) to Roy High to watch her compete with her dance studio. On the way down we saw a hot air balloon just floating along by itself. I caught a picture of it as we drove by.

Here is a picture of Cambria right before they came out to do their Cheer routine. She was showing a little stress because she had to do a back hand spring right as they came out on the floor and she has just gotten them down this last year and it still makes her scared that she will fall on her head or just mess them up.

But she did them just fine (was there any doubt?) Here she is at the top of the pyramid (on the left) at the end of the routine....

All smiles and confidence......

They did their big show number, which is all of the classes coming out and dancing. It is pretty impressive, especially since they have a lot of girls.

Here is Cambria doing her scorpion..not to brag but look at hers compared to the other girls...perfection!

Then she danced her lyrical.....once a gain another perfect scorpion.....

To end it all was her hip-hop.......

In case you hadn't noticed I just love to watch Cambria dance and there are more pictures on my FB if you want to look. She just lights up when she hits the dance floor and she is REALLY good. She reminds me of her Mom and her Aunt Jamie, they were the same way. They danced their hearts out and loved it.

Today is Mother's day and I just wanted to mention the Mother's in my life.

My mom.....is the smartest person I know and very artistic. She has been a great example to me and because of that I feel like I have been a better mother.

Jamie and Leslie....their lives haven't always been easy and I haven't always been the best mother but they turned out to be great mom's and I couldn't be prouder of them.

So Happy Mother's Day to all my friends and family, I hope this day turns out to be a happy one for you all.

May 1st, or....where is Spring?

2011-05-01T13:12:00.000-07:00

Well here I am in a quest to journal more often. I thought about it during the week but just didn't get around to doing it. I did, however, have time to watch the new Bleach episode and try out a couple of other new anime's (I'm sorry my geeky side wins sometimes).

April to a lot of people means springtime, but if you live in northern Utah it usually means an extension of winter. The last day we had in the 60's was back in February, what's up with that? It has rained and snowed most of the month. We are used to that but one of our store planners is from Arizona and he is always coming into my office and complaining about the cold. I keep telling him that it is not really that cold but I don't think he's buying it.

Today is the first of May and it is a LITTLE warmer than yesterday (in which I was driving over to Logan where it was snowing). All this rain and snow is causing my grass to green up nicely and it has reached a height of about 6 to 8 inches. This made it really easy to hide the Easter eggs last weekend. It won't be so easy to cut when it dries out.

The other thing that is happening with all this rain and snow is that the rivers and stream are reaching the tops of their banks and the snow pack hasn't even started to melt yet.

The Ogden river runs right behind the store and my office is on the back corner of the building. My boss keeps coming in and tells me to watch the outside corner of my office for water. He laughs but this is not something I want to see. We actually went out the fire door right by my office door and looked at the river with a guy from the city.....when the snow starts to melt it could get a little damp I'm not gonna lie

The city is actually building a nice little park behind our store in front of the river. In the summer it should be a nice place to go back and eat lunch, if it's not under water :).

One of the guys setting traps by the doors informed Jeanell and I that because of the river and the fact that there is space at the bottom of the doors we could possibly get snakes in from the river. We just looked at each other and cringed.

Carpooling with Conly has been very entertaining. I just love him. When he drives I get to listen to Bulgarian rock music and when I drive he keeps changing my radio stations.

We've started packing our lunches in an effort to save money that we now need for gas. Because we are in store set up there are a lot of employees working at the same hours. This means everyone goes to lunch at the same time. If you don't get to the break room fast enough you don't get a place to sit. Also if you bring something that needs to be heated up you will be standing in line at one of the two microwaves for the first half of your lunch.

In order to combat this, I punch out for lunch 15 minutes before the others (I can since I'm in the office) and I go to get a table and if Conly, Sara or I have anything that needs to be heated up I hurry and use the microwaves before the rush comes. This has been working out nicely. Conly really likes this because he just has to come in and sit down, his lunch is all ready for him. I'm such a nice person sometimes.........

I got to spend two days getting MTR's (merchandise transfers) ready to go out to three different stores. Our store was traded incorrectly in apparel and we had to get rid of the excess. Vanessa (asst. manager) asked me to help her (I told you I was a nice person). I asked our Claims associate....Mr. Benjamin...to help me. He is crazy and we are going to get along just fine. He asked me how he got stuck helping and I told him if I had to suffer so did he. I think that's fair, don't you?

Then there's Fernando. He is one BIG man. Last week he came and sat at the table with Conly, Sara and I. To be honest I was a little scared but that has now changed. I asked him if he was a transfer from another store or a newbie. He is a newbie. He also told us he works another job...I asked doing what.....he replied...a bouncer at a bar. I'm sure he is very good at that. I told him that he probably had some very interesting stories to tell and that I would love to hear them. Sara asked him if he had any kids and he said no and then she asked him if he was married and he told us "I am NEVER getting married!" I told him that was the kiss of death to actually say those words.

We now call him Nando and he really is a nice guy, a gentle giant. He always is smiling and is nice to everyone. When I see him I think of the children's story "Fernande the Bull". Everyone thought he was a big mean bull and all he wanted to do was sit under a tree and smell the flowers.

I really love my new store. The managers are great and it is so much fun. I am on the promotional and safety committees now (I had quit being on them at my old store). This really has been a good move for me so far. Josh, the store manager, keeps giving me more and more responsibilities. It's nice to have people think that you know what you are doing and they trust you to do it. It has given my self confidence a much needed boost.

Grandma's Easter party 2011.......

2011-04-24T12:42:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm sure people have quit looking at my blog because I am such a slacker at updating. I will try to get better I promise!

Friday night I was getting things ready for my annual Easter party. I decided to make pies. Yes, I said pies. I have NEVER in my life made a pie, really. But I found this recipe for strawberry pie and I just had to make it for my Easter party. I honestly don't know what possessed me.

So Friday night I sat cutting up 4 pounds of strawberries (2 pounds per pie). They were so easy to make (especially since it called for graham cracker crusts that I could buy all ready to go). Here is a picture of the finished products. I have to say they looked great and they tasted as Leslie put it "delish!" I was quite proud of myself.

Saturday afternoon the gang came over and we started by coloring eggs. Here is everyone...

(this is what I get when I say "Everyone look at Grandma!")

Gunner took off his shirt so he wouldn't get egg dye all over it and I had to give Cambria an old shirt of mine to cover her white clothes. Cambria's eggs were covered in glitter and sequins (I know you are all surprised by that) and Jax's eggs all had crazy faces. Gunner told me that my party was the best part of Easter. That's all I need to hear to keep this tradition going.

We had Hawaiian Haystacks and rolls for lunch. Very yummy. The kids just wanted to get to the egg hunt part of the party so we had to do a little 'convincing' to get them to eat.

They found all the eggs, and it was really great to see the older ones (Jax and Cambria) making sure Gunner found all his eggs. I gave them each a little gift, Jax, Trev and Braxton got Lego sets, Gunner got puzzles and Cambria got a jewelry making kit. They were all happy with their 'spoils'.

Then there was this moment....

Yes, there is a story to go with it....

I couldn't post this picture on FB with the rest of them because Jamie was sick and said she looked horrible (which she didn't) but she didn't say I couldn't put it here on my blog (of course I didn't ask her either). :)

The story....
Cambria had said that she had stepped on a nail (not at my house) and so she was showing her foot to Leslie. When Leslie was done looking at it Cambria was sitting on the couch with her foot pulled up looking at the bottom of her foot. Angel was shocked and asked Cambria how she could twist her leg around and look and the bottom of her foot like that. Surely no one else could do something like that. Well my girls and I all said that we could do that and to prove it.....we have a picture.

After everything had settled down we had the pie. Yes, they were yummy but I had let one sit out on the counter and so when I cut into it, it didn't hold together well when I took it out of the pie tin. It kinda was a big pile of strawberries and graham cracker on a plate not really resembling a piece of pie. But no one seemed to mind because they all cleaned their plates and Angel took my other pie home to share with friends.

Today in church I was the "music lady". It was my turn to play the organ, I love it when I get the holidays cause I get to play some of my favorite songs. Then I had to fill in at the piano in Junior Primary (Letty had to take her visiting daughter to the airport). Then I had to rush in to Relief Society to lead the music. Whew!!!!!

I hope you all have a Happy Easter!

Highlights of the past 2 weeks......or I am a slacker..........

2011-04-03T08:20:00.000-07:00

So it's not like I haven't had anything to write about....I just haven't done it. So a quick recap......

It's a small world.......
A couple of weeks ago a vendor came to my office window, like he has for the past 2 years, to get a P.O. number from me. I was giving him a bad time when he stopped and looked at me and said "Didn't you used to work at Grand Central?!" I stopped and just stared at him. I worked at Grand Central over twenty some years age. Who would possibly remember me and better yet HOW (as in good or bad) did they remember me?

I said cautiously, " Yes.....Why?" He said, " You don't recognize me do you?". I said "Nooooo.". He said, "I'm Jim Shores!" I said "Oh. My. Hell!" and started to laugh. Connie who was in my office was just staring at us. I told her "He was my first boss when I started with Grand Central!"

We talked for a little bit more and then he had to go. Who would have thought someone would have remembered me from that long ago. Heck I can't remember people from yesterday sometimes.......

Cambria's school program........
Last Friday I took off early from work to go out and watch Cambria's school program. I love school programs, kids are so much fun to watch. I went out early and had lunch with Leslie and Gunner. When I got to their house Gunner was waiting for me by the door. He had his Buzz Lightyear backpack on and said the minute he saw me, "Grandma, I'm all ready to go to scwool!"

Gunner has wanted to go to school since his 3rd birthday last summer when Angel first gave him that backpack.

So the whole time I was there he kept that backpack on. Even at the table while we ate lunch. I was waiting for Les to get done doing a client's nails and looking through some photo albums she had made when Gunner saw a picture from Christmas with him holding the Batman lunchbox and water bottle I had given him. He had to have me get it out of the cupboard and fill it with water for him. Then he asked me it it would spill if he put it in his backpack. I told him no because I had put the lid on tight.

We went to the school, yes Gunner still had the backpack on, to see the program. Cambria played the recorder, sang songs, and said her line. She was of course perfect (okay, so I'm a little biased). I would at this time show pictures but the batteries in my camera decided to die at the moment the program began :(.

When the program was over Cambria and Braxton came out and I was just going to say goodbye when Braxton begged me to stay "just one more hour!" How can I resist that? So all the kids jumped in my car and I went back to Leslie's.

I was sitting talking to Les when I looked down at Gunner. He was eating a sandwich. I asked him where he got the sandwich and he proudly said "It was in my backpack." I asked him if he made it and he told me that he had. Then he pulled out the Batman water bottle and another bottle of water and showed me those. I told Leslie she is going to have to check his backpack every morning when he actually does start to go to school. But at least he will be prepared.

Then I sat on the couch and watched Spongebob with the kids cuddled around me until I had to go.

Martin Harris Pageant Auditions......
My friend Carrie has been involved the the Martin Harris Pageant in Logan for the last 7 years. This year she is once again the choreographer. She asked me back in January if I would be the pianist for the auditions. When I asked her what that involved she just told me that I would play for the people for the singing part of the audition and that it would be no problem for me because I had great sight reading skills. Right, no pressure there....... She said that most people would just be singing songs from the Hymn book, but that a few people would bring something different.

So auditions were last Friday, Saturday, and this last Wednesday. Well just like American Idol, there was the good, the bad and the ugly.

I was put in a room with Rhonda (the director) and small groups of people would come in. She would have them read for her and then they would sing. I think I played "I Am a Child of God" for 90% of the people trying out that night. Really people.....be original......... A couple of the people brought their own pianist (whew....took the pressure off of me).

I have to wonder how people hear themselves.....I mean, I know that I don't have a great singing voice and I would NEVER think of having to make anyone listen to me sing. I will sing in choirs, but that is because I can blend in or at home or car with the radio where no one can hear me. Anyway....there were a few people that when they started to sing I just cringed. They were so off key it was scary. I would even play the melody notes louder to try and help them get on key but that didn't work. I had to keep reminding myself that this wasn't Broadway.

There were a few that were wonderful though. I love to play for someone that can sing and do it well.

Last night were the call backs. There were only 3 women that Rhonda was trying to choose for the lead woman's role as Lucy Harris. Carrie was one of them, yeah Carrie! So they all had to read a scene with the guy that she had chosen to play Martin, and then sing solo and in a duet with him. So I got to play the music from the pageant. Al three ladies could REALLY sing! I loved it. So now Carrie is waiting to see if she gets the role or not....Good luck Carrie!

After they were done Rhonda asked me if I will come back for rehearsals to play the piano. The music is "canned" for the production but they need someone at rehearsals to help people learn the parts. So I will be doing that in July.

Rhonda and Carrie were also trying to get me to audition. I told them that I didn't sing, but Carrie said I could just be part of the extras for the town scenes. I don't know, playing the piano in front of people is one thing....getting up on stage to be part of a production is another. I've never had the desire to be on stage (acting and singing). So we'll see what happens with that.

At these tryouts I had another "it's a small world" moment....Carrie introduced me to this man who had rewritten the script for the pageant. We were talking when all of a sudden he stopped and looked at me and asked me if I had gone to Box Elder High. Again I just stared at him..I only went to Box Elder my junior and senior year. Who would remember me...and how would they remember me?

I told him that I had. He then asked me what my name was again. I told him....he asked what my maiden name was, so I told him. He just kept staring at me then he asked me my age (okay so now you are getting a little personal) I told him. He all of a sudden smiled and said that we had gone to school together. I just nodded my head. I really don't remember many people from my high school years. Mostly because I went to 2 different high schools.

So when I got home I looked in my year books but I can't find him. I wonder if he knew me from my brothers or sisters.

Out with the old, in with the new......
This was my last week at the Perry store. I am taking vacation next week and then I start at the new store on the 11th.

I am excited for this change and the challenges it will bring. I will miss my friends but not so much some of the memories. Some things that happened to me at this store were not great, which is some of the reasons I went for this transfer. It's time for a fresh start!

My friend Connie got my job, so I've been training her all week. She is nervous, but she will be great.

Last night Connie called me, her husband had gone to the Priesthood Session of conference, we went to this little boutique they were having at the Crystal Inn. Then we went to Wendy's and had our favorite....their chicken/apple/pecan salad. It is the yummiest! You all should try it! I went over to her house and we watched "Tangled" She hadn't seen it so I brought over my DVD. I still love that movie!!!!!

Dinner at Jamie's........

2011-03-20T13:48:00.000-07:00

Tuesday I got a surprise at work. Diana had come up to get her taxes done and she stopped by the store to see me! We had a great talk and I was so happy she stopped by. It made my whole day.

This week I had to go over to the North Logan store to help with their pre-inventory audit on Wednesday and Thursday. I learned a lot and the girls that came from the other stores were so much fun.

Wednesday we decided to go to Olive Garden for lunch. We had the world's worst waiter there. He started out with the attitude that we were just annoying him to be in his presence. Then every time he brought stuff to the table he would set it down in front of me and the girl across from me and tell us to "pass it down" (we were in a booth). No "please" or anything nice like that.

Usually when they bring your meal they put it down in front of you and then ask if you want grated cheese or not. Nope not him, he would leave it all on the tray and just say not ask if we all wanted cheese and then start grating, not even letting us say how much we wanted or anything. I had to shout out that I didn't want cheese on mine and he looked at me like I was retarded. But hey, it's my meal and if I don't want cheese on it I don't have to....jerk!

When he brought back our bills with our credit cards and change in them he just dumped them (really just dropped them) all in front of me with a pile of pens and walked off. I had to sort them all out and pass them out to the girls. Needless to say he did NOT receive a tip from any of us!

Thursday we went to Chili's. We had a much better experience. The waitress was so good to us, and yes we all tipped her!

Friday I took off early and went down to Jamie's to spend time with her and the boys. Jax was out of school early so I just hung out with him until Jamie got back from helping at another site. Then I went up and hung out at her office until she could get off work.

Jamie, Jax and I went shopping . We stopped at Old Navy and then went to the mall. Jamie was trying to find things for them all to wear to a friends wedding she has coming up. She found clothes for the boys but nothing for her. I picked up some white tanks from Old Navy.

After shopping Jamie picked up Trevon and dropped us all off at her apartment while she went to get groceries.

She made tilipia and salad for dinner. Very good!

After dinner Jax showed me how to play Plants vs. Zombies. This was probably a big mistake because I ended up playing it past midnight. Jax helped me along the way, giving me pointers on which plants to use and when.

The boys fell asleep and I took the movie "The Brother's Grim" to Jax's room to watch. I didn't see the whole movie because I fell asleep half way through it. Jamie was down loading pictures on to her computer when I went upstairs.

Saturday morning I went downstairs and watched cartoons with the boys. Is there any other way to spend a Saturday morning? When Jamie woke up we watched "Ice Age 3".

I took Jax home with me so that he could go to his dad's. Johnny was at work so Jax stayed at my house until he came and picked him up. We went to Arby's for lunch and then just hung out and watched TV and talked. He is growing up so fast, he will be in Junior high this next year.

Dinner at Leslie's......

2011-03-12T07:19:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning at work I received a text from Leslie saying that Paul was working grave and that I should come out and she would do my nails, make dinner and watch a movie. Sounded good to me...

So after I got done with my workout I headed out to Leslie's. I kept getting texts from Miss Cambria wondering when I was going to arrive. I was greeted at the door with huge hugs and kisses from Cambria and Braxton (this is honestly one of the best things about being a grandma). Gunner had fallen asleep on the couch.

So I went over to Gunner and started whispering in his ear to wake up. I noticed by his head on the couch was a pile of change and when he rolled over a penny a dime and quarter were stuck to his face :). He started to wake up but wouldn't open his eyes. So I asked him if I could give him a kiss and he just shook his head yes. Then I asked him if I could give him a hug and he just shook his head yes. Then I asked him if I could pick him up and hold him and he finally opened his eyes and held up his arms.

When he was fully awake he told me that the money on the couch was out of his jar and he wanted to show me how he could count it. Braxton was watching and when Gunner started counting the coins (not the value of the coins but the number of coins) Braxton said that he was doing it wrong. Gunner just ignored him and kept counting.

Leslie made cabbage rolls and strawberry shortcake for dinner. Very Yummy!

After we ate I had a quick tour of the house so she and the kids could show me the things they had done since the last time I was there.

Then Leslie took me into her salon (which she now has in her house) and did my nails. She has this new polish called Shellac. It isn't acrylic so it doesn't build up or lengthen your nails. It is like a gel polish so that you have to file the tops of the nail a bit to roughen them up so the polish will adhere better but it doesn't thin them out like when you get acrylic nails. Then you put a bottom coat, 2 coats of the polish and a top coat. After each coat is put on you have to put your nails under a UV light for 2 minutes to set the gel. It took about a half hour for her to do my nails this way. Acrylic takes an hour to do. When they are done you have a VERY shiny polished nail and the best part is they were dry and hard the minute they were done. No having to be careful because you might mess up your newly polished nails.

This is really perfect for me. I love to have nice nails. With the acrylic it ads thickness and length which is nice for a while but then my nails get too long and they get in the way of many of the things I do. The main one being playing the piano. Pianist CANNOT have long nails. So the Shellac is perfect, I can have my short non existent nails and they look pretty and the Shellac lasts a lot longer than just regular nail polish. Cambria picked out my color for me, a nice pink.

After that Braxton had decided that we should play a game, so on the couch he had laid out 3 games for us to choose from. We played Trouble. Gunner just wanted to push the bubble that rolled the dice and tell us what number it was. At one point in the game Braxton kept moving his piece the wrong number of spaces. Leslie said to him, "Braxton, you don't know how to count!" He replied, "I know mom, it's cause I'm color blind!" How do you possibly reply to that?!?! :)

Cambria won, I came in second and Leslie came in third. The "color blind" kid came in last, he was more worried about trying to send us all back to the beginning then getting all his pieces home.

If nothing changes...nothing changes...a new challenge.........

2011-03-06T12:50:00.000-08:00

So after a weekend of torturing myself with the pros and cons of taking a job back in Ogden I had my interview on Monday. It went so smoothly! I had 4 managers there and they each asked questions. It was Josh, who will be the new store manager and he was an assistant at the Perry store, Vanessa, who has been an assistant manager in the Perry store, Paul and Chris. They asked the questions and I shot the answers right back at them, no ums, or awkward pauses. It was even FUN!

I was at peace for the first time in about a week. I knew then that if they offered me the position I would take it.

Then the wait....I am not a patient person and waiting for the phone call to tell me if I did get the job or if I ~~sucked~~ didn't was almost worse than trying to decide if I should go or not. I just wanted to know! So Thursday afternoon I got a call from Paul telling me the position was mine if I wanted it! Yay!!!!! I will be starting when they take possession of the new store on April 11th. My friend Jeanell is already down there at the hiring center, she is the new personnel manager!

The present store management was not happy with my decision. They are losing a lot of key and good people to the new store.

Don't get me wrong.....I will miss the Perry store and my friends that I leave behind, but this is something I have to do for me on so many levels. I am not the same person I was a year ago and it's time for a change.

So I will be a commuter once again. It will not be a long drive and when the bad weather hits I will just have to put on my big girl panties and do it! I've done it before. There will also be the possibility of car pooling with some of the others that will be going or maybe I will check out the bus routes and see if one will work for me. Who knows what adventures await!?

Happy Birthday Diana!

2011-02-27T16:40:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning I woke up to what I love about winter. It had snowed during the night and everything was covered in beautiful white snow! The sun was just coming up over the mountain and everything was glistening. The sky that was showing was already a brilliant blue. So I got out my camera and snapped some pictures to share.

Here is a look at my backyard, even the wires to the house were coated with snow....

This is my maple tree....so pretty......

This is looking down my driveway at the mountain. The plows had already been out this morning so as you can see my work was cut out for me. Oh well, a great way to burn off some calories.......

I had just started shoveling when Carol and her husband and their son-in-law Troy came over with their 4wheeler and shovels. We made quick time of the almost foot of snow in my driveway and the 2 feet the @#%^ plows had left at the end of the drive. The 4wheeler is light so Carol (who probably weighs in at 110 on a good day) had to sit on the back to add some 'weight' for traction. She looked like a rag doll every time Bill hit the pile of snow left by the plows. I told her she was going to be suffering from whip lash by the end of the day.

While they were finishing my drive Troy went over to my neighbors (whose husband just had open heart surgery) and started on their drive. The neighbor on my other side was just coming out and putting her little girl in the car so she could go to work and looked at the end of her drive and then at her car. Carol and I went over and started shoveling her out until Bill came with the 4 wheeler.

I'm not sure how many more people they helped out but I'm sure glad they were there to help me, I would have been at it for hours (okay a little exaggeration).

At work it was inventory week. I got to work the marathon from last Monday to Friday this week. Inventory was Wednesday. We did great, my shrink number came down from .40 to .31! The market goal for us was .39. This was my second inventory but my first of me being in the office the full year.
Bob was very happy with me.

Speaking of Bob.....he has been our store manager for 8 years now. His last day was Thursday. He is going to manage the Chubbock Idaho store. It is a promotion for him and a move that he has needed to make. That being said it didn't make it any easier for us to say goodbye to him. He is a great friend and I've learned a lot from him. In the world of retail he is one of the best bosses that I have had.

Sooooo I am thinking of transferring to the new Ogden store. I have an interview Monday at 1pm with Josh Bambrough, who used to be one of our assistant managers but will be the manager of the new store. I've been praying and pondering this move for the last couple of weeks and it has been on my mind all weekend.

I, sadly, am a creature of habit. Change is not easy for me. My life has been so full of changes, not all of which were in my control. So when I am in control I tend to settle in and get comfortable. So in my head I keep going over the pros and cons to this move and really the main argument against going is the commute. It is not a terrible drive, it is only going to be a little farther than when I worked for Fred Meyer and drove to Ogden, it will probably take me 25-30 minutes. But when we have those bad weather days the drive can be torturous. The price of gas is not helping the argument either, but I could get a little raise if their base hiring rate is more than ours.

I'm intrigued at the prospect of going in to a new store and proving myself as a Invoice/UPC associate. The challenge seems to be calling me. I have gone through a lot of changes both physically and personally this last year and I feel myself getting restless. Our store could be in for some huge changes because there are several of us that are interviewing this week.

"If nothing changes....nothing changes!"

So I find out that I'm not a dog person.....

2011-02-13T13:48:00.000-08:00

Everyone said how I needed a dog. That I'd have something to walk with. That I wouldn't be so lonely. Blah Blah Blah Yadda Yadda Yadda........

So I got a dog. She was a good dog, house trained, crate trained, smart, what more could you want in a dog?! She was even a double champion. I tried for over a month to form some kind of bond with her. It just wasn't happening.

I couldn't take the mess of her tracking up my floors, and shedding all over everything or finding accidents when the dog door was right there and I was in a hurry to go somewhere (like work). I couldn't take her being under my feet ALL the time. I felt like I was being tied down to my house, not being able to go whenever I wanted to, for as long as I wanted to because I had a dog to worry about.

I have lived alone for 10 years now. This last spring/summer I was walking at least 2 miles a day, and I didn't need something to take for a walk to get me going. I was happy walking on my own. For one thing I walk for exercise not to be social, so I push myself and to tell the truth a dog would slow me down.

As far a dog helping me not be so lonely.....She couldn't carry on a conversation with me, couldn't go to the movies or shopping, or anything with me. Just having her in the house didn't help the loneliness I sometimes feel. My sisters both said that there is nothing better that a warm dog in your bed at night......I can think of A LOT of better things.

Maybe I'm just too OCD to deal with a dog, maybe it's because I've never had a pet (other than birds) but whatever the case I took Chris back to Kathy yesterday. Chris and I just were NOT giving each other what the other needed. When I got back home later that day I immediately felt more zen.

Don't get wrong, I love dogs, I just can't live with them at this point in my life. So don't think poorly of me. Kathy was very understanding and I do appreciate everything that she and Mike did for me to try to help the situation.

So yesterday after I dropped off Chris I went over to Leslie's. Jamie and Leslie and all the kids were there. Jamie and Leslie went shopping Friday for things for their homes and then Jamie and the boys spent the night at Leslie's so that they could do some decorating of Leslie's new house. I went over to see the progress they were making and to give the kids their Valentines goodies.

Leslie's house is looking very cute. The kids loved their Valentines and I got to spend time with my family (much better than sitting at home with Chris). Cambria has been sick for the past couple of days so she was not her usual active self. But the boys were loving having each other to play with.

Gunner was at the counter drawing and I heard him complaining of his elbow hurting so I turned around to see what was wrong and as I did he said again, "my elbow hurts" while grabbing his RIBS. So Leslie asked him what these were (pointing to her ribs) and he said elbows. So we had a little anatomy lesson and he finally got it right.

Utah FIRST LEGO League Championship......................

2011-01-30T19:25:00.000-08:00

So Jax's Lego League competed in the first annual Lego League Championship this yesterday at the University of Utah. This meant that I had to get up at 4:30A.M. on a Saturday morning to be down to the University of Utah by 8:00 a.m. What I don't do to support my grandchildren.......:)

At the beginning of the school year Jax joined the Lego League. It is the first time that they have had it. To get in he had to write an essay about why he wanted to be in the league. Then he had to be at the school EVERY Saturday morning from 8 until 11:30.

This league is sponsored by Lego and everything they use to build their robot must be Lego items. They design and build a robot then they have to program it to do certain tasks. They also learn how to research and work together as a team and other assigned tasks. It is a great program and Jax has really enjoyed it.

Here is Jax in the 'pit' waiting for things to begin.......

They had a parade of teams to start out the event. Here is Jax with his team, The Atomic Inventing Mindbending Scientific8ors...or AIMS.

The competition consisted of several events.
Core Values-where the teams are observed as the complete a hands on teamwork activity, participate in an interview with judges and are observed throughout the competition.
Robot Designs
Project-where their teams identify an existing problem in the scientific specialty related to the Challenge, and find a solution to that problem.
Robot Games Match- this is where they put their robots through specific tasks and receive points for completing the tasks in a given amount of time. Each team had three matches.

The Matches were the only things we were allowed to watch. They didn't want the parents to be in the other events as to not influence how the kids responded to their other tasks.

Here is Jax's team in their first match..I think Jax was a little nervous.....

Here is a closeup of their robot.....

Note the referee in the funny hat. All the refs wore crazy hats. The teams all deigned their own team t-shirts and outfits. It was very colorful and crazy. Only two team members at a time were allowed at the game table to run the robot. In the last match Jax had his chance to control the robot.

There were 56 teams from elementary and junior high schools that came to compete. It went until 5 that afternoon. They did a great job of keeping everything running on time and smoothly. At 4 they handed out the trophies, unfortunately Jax's team did not receive one. Everyone did get a medallion. These are a smart bunch of kids. Jax would talk about things and I was amazed at what he knew. I have a few more pictures on my FB page it you want to look.

Meet Ch This Is All I Ask...........

2011-01-26T21:07:00.000-08:00

My friend Conly's parents raise and show dogs. They have a dalmatian and 3 smooth fox terrier. Kathy (Conly's mom) wanted to get a new dalmatian puppy to raise and show. Mike (Conly's dad) said she could get the puppy but only if they got rid of one of their dogs. Four dogs is his limit I guess.... so they needed to find a home for Ch This Is All I Ask...aka Chris.

Chris is a 4 year old champion smooth fox terrier. Her parents are Ch Tudex Raybill Doubloon and Ch Honky Tonk Angel. For some reason show dogs have the most interesting names. She no longer competes in shows and they tried to breed her but she wouldn't cooperate....

So me...being the ~~sucker~~ kind hearted person that I am told them that I would take the dog.

This is Chris.....I could barely get her to stand still so I could take this.....

Such a cute face.......

Everyone seemed to think that I needed a dog. Don't get me wrong, I love dogs but I've never owned one. I have been living alone since Leslie got married (10 years ago). That being said...it has been a challenge to get used to having a dog around. I've had her for 3 weeks now and I've had to make several adjustments to the house.

She is a good dog, crate trained and house trained. Mike, Kathy and Conly have been great helping me. Mike and Conly came over and finished the fence in the front of my back yard and doggified the back yard for me. Then Mike and Kathy brought over an extra dog door that they had and Mike installed it and put up a move able fence so she can go right out my side door and into the back yard and then I don't have to worry about coming home and letting her out, and then I can roll up the fencing if I need to use the backdoor.

I've bought 3 gates, one keeps her out of my living room, I needed a dog hair free room for company. One keeps her out of the back hall and bedrooms. I had to put Pesto in Leslie's old bedroom that I've turned into a computer/work room. Chris wanted to eat him and then she knows he is in that bedroom and kept trying to dig her way under the door and I didn't need my carpet being tore up.The last gate I put up to keep her out of the family room while I'm at work or away. This way she doesn't have to stay in her crate all day, and she can be in the kitchen or outside. These all may not be permanent once we get more accustomed to each other.

She has had only 3 accidents in the house, 2 downstairs and one in the kitchen. The one in the kitchen was, I'm pretty sure, because she was mad at me. I'd been in the computer room for quite a while and she can't come in there because of Pesto sooo she peed in the kitchen instead of going out the doggy door.

She loves to play ball and will keep bringing the ball back to you even if your arm is falling off and her tongue is dragging the ground.

She sleeps in her crate because I just don't want dog hair in my bed, plus the fact that I don't like anything touching me when I'm really tired and want to sleep, but she is used to that. She's used to spending a good part of her day in a crate coming from a house with 4 show dogs, so here she actually has more freedom then she used to get.

Last night she decided that maybe the couch in the family room would be a good place to stay the night. I turned off the light and called her and she just sat there looking at me, so I went over to get her and she rolled over on her back. I gently pulled her off the couch and headed towards the stairs. I turned to see her jumping back onto the couch. But guess what? I won........

When she eats, she gobbles it down so fast that she lets out a belch when she is finished.

I watched Braxton and Gunner Saturday night while Leslie and Paul went to dinner. They loved Chris and she had a great time playing ball with them. Braxton at one point said "Chris sure likes her cousin Braxton".

So do I like having a dog? Well the jury is still out on that.....we'll see.

Happy New Year and Happy Birthday Jamie.......

2011-01-21T21:51:00.000-08:00

So I spent New Years Eve watching Braxton and Gunner (Cambria had a sleepover to attend). We celebrated by watching their favorite movies and having Munchies (this is what they are called, Braxton picked them out), Chips Ahoy cookies (picked out by Gunner) and pizza and bread sticks.

Braxton tried to stay awake until midnight but didn't quite make it. He fell asleep around 10:30. I stayed up as always so that I could give Jamie her "Happy Birthday" call at midnight.

New Years day the boys helped me make Jamie's birthday cake. Then that afternoon we had a little cake and ice cream party for Jamie. Angel, Leslie and Paul came (Cambria was still at her friends), Jamie's friends Paula and Lisa showed up too.

Jamie requested confetti cake and Neapolitan ice cream. Here she is blowing out her candles..

Ignore the fact that her cake said she is 35....I had a mental moment and bought the wrong candles (I had Braxton and Gunner with me when I was shopping) she is really 34 this year.

I have been released from Primary and I am now the Relief Society's music leader. Yes I still have to play the organ and accompany the choir. I've been a little nervous about this new calling. I have always played the music NEVER lead the music. That being said....

When I went to church the next day, the heat was not working properly and the Primary room was only 50 degrees so they moved the children to the cultural hall (gym). They also decided to take the piano out of the Relief Society room so the kids could sing. That's just dandy, but what about the women? Don't we need a piano so we can sing?

So my first Sunday leading the music in Relief Society was done a capella. I wanted to cry. I don't sing...not unless you count what I do with the radio in my car.... Yes I've sung in choirs, but when I do that I can just blend in. So after having a small panic attack I got up and led the opening song. I just picked a note and started singing and they all joined in. After the meeting several of the women came up to me and told me that they loved the key I started the song in because they could actually sing the melody because it wasn't too high for them. I was amazed that they actually thought I knew what key I was singing in......That's what I call being led by the Spirit.

Christmas Eve and Day...(almost there...)

2011-01-14T20:39:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve...

When I woke up I could here the kids giggling in the family room. When I went downstairs, they all pretended to be asleep. When I got to the bottom of the stairs they all jumped up and yelled "Merry Christmas Eve!" They were all dressed and ready to go for the day (too bad I wasn't yet).

Here they are eating breakfast.....

I took them all to the matinee to see "Tangled". Cambria, Braxton and Gunner had seen it before (except Gunner fell asleep during it), but Jax and Trevon had not. They all loved it and Gunner stayed awake all the way through this time. It is my new favorite Disney movie.

Jamie came and picked up the boys after we got home from the movie. We didn't do our traditional Christmas Eve because Jamie had her party to replace it. So Leslie had invited me out to spend the night at her house so that I wouldn't be alone.

When we got out to her house we went over to their new house so that Paul and Leslie could put one last coat of sealer on their hardwood floor. Because it has been rainy the last little bit it was soo muddy that our shoes were caked with it. We had to leave our shoes on the porch when we got to Paul's Grandma's house for dinner. It was buffet and lots of good food. His Grandmother always makes me feel so welcome.

After dinner we went back to Leslie's. The kids opened their Christmas pj's and then they opened their presents from me.

Here is Braxton ......

Gunner.....

And Cambria......

I slept in Cambria's bed and she slept on her beanbag. Christmas morning I was awakened to the sound of Cambria leaning over me saying "Grandma wake up it's Christmas!" Then she proceeded to wake everyone else up. they couldn't go downstairs until Leslie and Paul actually got up. I forgot how early kids get up on Christmas morning.

Here is Cambria waiting for everyone to get up..

Braxton, he looks excited doesn't he?

And Gunner finally making his appearance...

Santa did come! The Lego's on the floor say "Thanks Santa". Cambria did that before they went to bed the night before.

Paul opening his stocking...he pretty much just laid on the couch the whole time......

Obviously it was just too exciting for him..........The Steeler's blanket is what the kids made for him.....

After all the present opening we went over to Paul's parents house for breakfast. Blake cooks the whole thing. He made home made biscuits with sausage gravy, scrambled eggs, ham, and the best potatoes I've ever had.

When I got home around noon I just laid around and watched TV in between naps. It was fun to finally get to see Leslie's kids open their presents on Christmas and Paul's family always makes me feel a part of things.

Christmas Eve Eve.....(almost caught up)

2011-01-02T16:29:00.000-08:00

So for the second year in a row I was able to have the Grandma's Christmas Eve Eve sleepover with my grandchildren.

When I got home from work that day Cambria, Braxton and Gunner were already there. Jax and Trevon came shortly after.

We started out by going to McDonald's for dinner and play...they all were very good and ate first with no fussing.

Here is Cambria and Trevon playing games at the computers.....

Here is Jax taking a break for a minute.....love his smile....

Here is Miss Cambria quenching her thirst..........

Gunner loved the coloring program they had...red seemed to be his favorite color (good choice to me)!

Jax gave the keyboard a try (note the sign...then his feet...he he).

For a minute I couldn't find where Cambria went, this is how I found her. She was complaining about being the only girl and how the boys didn't want to do anything she wanted to do (sniff, sniff).

Here is Braxton doing his air guitar......

When it got dark we went up to the Christmas village by the courthouse.

It's not big but the kids love to walk through it.

After seeing the village we drove around and looked at all the lights on the houses.

When we got back to the house everyone put on their jammie-o-days. I gave them each an m&m stocking stuffer which they all were very happy about......as I took this picture they were all shouting,

"Grandma is the greatest!"

We watched "Despicable Me" and had chocolate milk and cheese puffs. Cambria was the first to fall asleep (as always). I'm not sure how late the boys stayed awake because I was tired and went to bed around 10:30ish.

Jamie's Christmas Party...(still catching up)

2010-12-31T23:12:00.000-08:00

Wow, I am so far behind. It has been a busy month.

On Saturday Dec. 18th Jamie hosted a Christmas party. It was attended by Leslie and her family, Angel, Charles and Debbie, Jamie and her boys (of course), Patrick, myself and JOE and his fiancee Jessica!

I have not seen Joe in little over 10 years. Here is a picture of our meeting.....he actually cried (yea, and so did I)...

We've chatted on FB but it was so good to actually see him and meet Jessica. They are so twitter-pated with each other. We teased them about how mushy they have gotten on FB.

Jamie made a Vietnamese spread....spring rolls and beef salad, rice and french bread (okay so that wasn't Vietnamese). Yummy!

We had fun exchanged good conversation and of course gifts. Worst part...I FORGOT MY CAMERA!!!! I never forget it and both girls were surprised. So I have stolen from Debbie's pictures from her FB page. Jamie and Leslie haven't posted theirs yet.

Here is my present from Jamie....a copy of OUR movie "Mommy Dearest". We watched this together when Jamie was a teenager and since that time she has aways called me Mommy Dearest and I call her Jamie Darling. What can I say....."no wire hangers!"

A good time was had by all and Jamie did a great job!

Still catching up.....

2010-12-19T07:35:00.000-08:00

Tuesday Dec. 14th.....

I had made a hair appointment last week for today at 4:15 forgetting that the Relief Society Christmas program was at 6. So I called Jen and asked her if she could move it up any ( I REALLY needed to get my hair done) She said she could have me come at 2:30, YAY! My bosses are so great and they let me burn a couple of hours of vacation so I could go to my "appointment" (that's all they needed to know).

I love going to Jen's salon "The Best Little Hair House". They had it all decorated for Christmas and they were all wearing Christmas tshirts with funny sayings on them. When she got done with the color and cut she asked me if I wanted her to style it....duh....of course I did. My hair looked fabulous. If I had all the money in the world I would hire someone to do my hair and makeup everyday.......oh and of course someone to clean my house. But if I couldn't afford both I would definitely hire someone for hair and makeup.

The Christmas program was very nice. Carol asked me to play Christmas music (anything I wanted to) for a half hour while the ladies looked at all the Nativities that were on display. There were some Nativity sets from all over the world that the ladies had brought.

I love playing 'background' music because I do not get nervous because I figure no one is really listening to me play. But as they all got done looking at the Nativities they came into the chapel and sat and just listened to me...then I get a little nervous.

We have some very talented people in our ward. Mary R played "O Holy Night' on her sax with her brother in law on the piano. I played for Jodi and her sister Amber as they sang "When Mary Sang Her Lullaby". Rhonda played her guitar and sang "In the Bleak Mid-Winter". My favorite was Martha playing the piano and singing "Silent Night". She has an absolutely knock out voice! There were several other performances all very good. Those were just my favorites.

Afterward we had refreshment....everyone was asked to ring their favorite cookies. I live in such a fun ward and have some great friends. It was a nice evening.

Doing some catching up............

2010-12-19T07:07:00.000-08:00

Sunday Dec. 12th.......

So my Sunday mornings are pretty lazy with church not starting until 1pm. I rarely am dressed before 11. So today I laying around in my jammies. I had just finished my preparing my Primary lesson and had checked the music schedule to see what songs I would have to play at the organ today (Christmas songs...piece of cake) when my phone rang at 10:15ish. When my phone rings on a Sunday morning it is usually not a social call and this time was no exception.

I looked at the caller ID and it was Carol.....and yes I answered it (I can be a glutton for punishment sometimes). She then proceeded to explain to me that she got a call telling her that the person that was doing the musical number for Sacrament meeting was sick and could her family (all her kids were home for Jed's mission homecoming talk today) provide a musical number. So then she continues saying they were singing an arrangement of Silent Night and Hanna was playing the violin, and Jed, Caleb, Emily and Jenny were singing. Her mother was trying to play the accompaniment but she only plays by ear.

By now I was giggling and told her that is sounded like she had everything under control. I do love to torture her. So she ~~told me to~~ asked if I could come over right now and play for them today. I told her I was still in my jammies, she said they would be waiting for me. Whatever happened to that shy reserved Carol that I loved so well?

So I had to hurry and get ready for the day. Yes I know I could have just thrown on some clothes and pulled my hair into ponytail but....Her family (knowing them the way I do) were all dressed and ready for church looking polished and beautiful and I became a little vain and did my hair and makeup and put on my church clothes.

I walked over and I was hoping it was an arrangement I had played before but no I could not be that lucky. So I put my super powers of sight reading to use and we ran through it twice. It was beautiful and I do love playing for Carol's children when they perform. Carol's mom came up and thanked me profusely for saving her from the piano (it can be a vicious instrument).

Jenny wasn't there so Emily asked if I would be able to run through it again right before the meeting. Well since I was playing the organ that day and would be in the middle of playing the prelude, that was going to be a little difficult. I just haven't mastered being in two places at once.

Well as I was just setting up the organ to begin, Jenny and Emily came in so I quickly went to the Primary room so that Jenny could run through it once.

The musical number was absolutely beautiful. They are so talented. It gave me goose bumps while we performed.

Church went well the rest of the afternoon. I managed to conquer the organ once again, taught my Primary class (love those kids) and played for choir practice after the meetings.

Gary and Bill, my home teachers, came over that evening and brought me a pretty poinsettia. Then Jodi and her sister came over so we could practice the song they were singing Tuesday night for the Relief Society's Christmas program.

And they say Sunday is a day of rest.......

Annual take the grandchildren Christmas shopping.....part 2

2010-12-11T14:33:00.000-08:00

Today started out with our ward Christmas party. We usually have it in the evening and have turkey with all the trimmings but this year they decided to have a breakfast instead. Don't they think any of us like to sleep in? I love a good breakfast but I usually have it for dinner. I sat with Carol H. and her family. The company was good, the program was good. I got to accompany Carol's daughter Emily while she sang (beautiful song, beautiful voice).

The food........not so much as far as a GOOD breakfast is concerned. They served french toast sticks (the one you buy in the big boxes in the frozen section), scrambled eggs (powdered eggs) with ham and cut up red and green apples.

Today was also the day that I was taking Jax and Trevon to do their Christmas shopping. Jamie and the boys got here about noon. We went to lunch first at Subway (sniff, I sure miss Taco Time, sniff). Then I took Jax shopping first.

He is growing up so fast. He is almost as tall as I am. He knew exactly what he wanted to get everyone. Once we were done getting every one's gifts he of course wanted to look around to see what HE would like. This was very helpful when it came to helping Trevon decide what to get him. Every time we saw anything Justin Bieber he would tell me that he wanted it so he could run over it with his bike :).

Then it was Trevon's turn. He was a lot quicker than last year and knew pretty much what he wanted to get everyone. He wanted to get Patrick a movie so we went over to the electronics department. He told me to go over to the $5 movie dump (he was riding in the shopping cart). So I pushed him up, expecting him to start digging through the movies. Nope, he just stood there, staring at the bin. He did this for a couple minutes, didn't move just stared at the bin of movies. I'm pretty sure he was using his super powers in hope a good movie would pop up magically.

When we got done with his shopping he then told me that he wanted to buy his present now. I think I had this conversation with both Gunner and Braxton too. He (also like his cousins) immediately told Jax what he got him the minute he saw him....... Does no one know how to keep a secret?!

We came home and they split up to wrap their gifts. Jax wrapped by himself. He does a really good job to. I want him to wrap all my presents. Trevon needed a little help, but he was great with the tape.

They had to leave right after that because Mister (their dog) had surgery and Jamie needed to get home to him. Poor puppy :(

So now all the Christmas shopping is completed. Except....... I still have Paul and Patrick, they are the hardest ones to get gifts for.

Annual take the grandchildren Christmas shopping....part 1

2010-12-08T20:00:00.000-08:00

So a couple of years ago I started a tradition of taking my grandchildren Christmas shopping for their families. It has been so much fun and I get some one on one time with each of them. This last Sunday I took Cambria, Gunner and Braxton shopping.

I took Gunner first because it was his first year to get to go shopping. He was quite excited but he's 3 and he doesn't really get the 'giving' part of the season. Leslie had given me list to help me help him choose gifts for everyone.

So we started off with getting his mom's present. She wanted new drinking glasses for her new house. So I asked Gunner if he wanted to get his mom glasses, and he of course said yes. We go over to the housewares aisle and I find the glasses that Leslie had told me that she liked. I picked up the box and showed them to Gunner. This is our conversation:

ME-Do you want to get these glasses for your mom?
GUN-No those aren't glasses!
ME-yes they are
GUN-no they're not
ME- Yes they are (and I pulled one out of the box to show him)
GUN-those aren't glasses those are CUPS!
Now I am getting the problem we are having, he is thinking glasses, as in what you wear.
ME-so do you want to get these CUPS for your mom?
GUN-No I want to get her glasses!

Oh My!

When we had picked out a present for everyone I told Gunner we were all finished and now we could pay for them and go home and wrap them. He gave me the saddest face and said "We didn't det(he says d for g) my plesent!". Oh dear.....So I remind him that he is getting presents for his family and that they will get HIM presents when they go shopping. That didn't help. So I asked him if he wanted a treat. That made him smile, little did I know that it would take us almost a half an hour for him to pick out what candy he wanted! Talk about pushing my patience to it's limit......

When we got back to my house Cambria was waiting in the kitchen for us and Gunner went right up to her and said "Tambia, I dot you a shirt!" I told Gunner that it was suppose to be a surprise. He just proceeded to tell everyone else what he got them. He told Leslie that he got her some glasses and that she could drink out of them and then wear them.......we are going to have to work on that :)

I left Gunner with Leslie, so she could help him wrap his gifts and I took Cambria next. She and Braxton had been fighting and she was mad at him. I told her he was just being a normal little brother. Her reply; "if my mom has another boy, I'm running away from home!" First just so you know Leslie is not having another one right now. I asked her where she would go. She told me probably my house and then she said that Gunner feels the same way. Poor Braxton.....nobody appreciates him.

When we got back home Cambria was showing her mom what she got Gunner and Braxton and Gunner walked into the kitchen and saw his gift. He was so excited and told Cambria that he wanted to help wrap it. She is such a good big sister that she took it in stride and let him help her.

Then all that was left was to take Braxton. So Braxton and I were talking about the new house that they are building. His and Cambria's bedrooms are going to be downstairs and Braxton is a scaredy cat and Leslie doesn't think he is going to sleep in his own room. So I asked him if he was going to sleep in his own room. He told me yes because he was going to have DISH TV! He really is asking for DISH TV for Christmas. I asked him why and he said because if he had DISH he could change the channels instead of watching movies. I'm not sure why that is better, but of course I don't think like a 7 year old.

I asked him what he wanted to get his mom and he said that he wanted to get her a new frying pan. I suggested that we look around a little bit. We were walking down the gadget aisle in housewares and he picked up a whisk. He held it up and looked at it and said "my mom needs a new one of these" and just threw it in the cart. I put it back and told him we needed to keep looking. He kept picking up the oddest gadgets and I kept telling him to put them back so we could keep looking. He did end up getting her a frying pan....

While we were shopping for Gunner's present, Braxton would say Gunner would really like this. Then he'd look at me and ask me if I would PLEASE just buy one for him too. When we finished his shopping we stopped at Subway for some dinner for everyone. I was ordering the sandwiches and turned to ask Braxton...
ME-Braxton what do you want on your sandwich?
BRAXTON-turkey and crumbly (shredded) cheese
ME-okay, what vegetables do you want on your sandwich?
BRAXTON-pepperoni..
ME-that's not a vegetable (pointing at the vegetables) which one of THESE do you want on your sandwich?
BRAXTON-I just want mayonnaise.....

Braxton and Cambria wrapped their presents by themselves this year. Braxton did have to come out and ask me to help him wrap his moms. Frying pans can be tricky to wrap......

Gunner wanted to open his presents right now and we had to keep telling him he had to wait for Christmas. Leslie left all the presents at my house. She didn't want to worry about them if their house sells and they have to move out before Christmas.

Monday I got a call from Leslie. She told me about the conversation she had with Gunner that morning.
GUN-is dramma at wort?
LES-yes
GUN-can we go to her house and det my plesents?
LES-no, not till Christmas
GUN-if dramma is at wort then I can get my plesents.
LES-no Gunner not until Christmas

Somehow he is thinking that it is my fault that he couldn't open his presents the other day so if I wasn't there he could get them and no one would stop him. Don't you just love the mind of a 3 year old?!

I'll be taking Jax and Trevon this Saturday....stay tuned for more shopping adventures!

Girls day out..........

2010-12-05T08:25:00.000-08:00

So yesterday I went with Jamie, Leslie and Cambria on a girls day out. We met Jamie in Riverdale and shopped all afternoon. The reason behind the shopping trip I came to find out (on Thanksgiving) was because my girls, Angel, Charles, Debbie and my parents had gotten together and given me $3oo to spend on new clothes for Christmas. Mainly because all the clothes I have are now too BIG for me (that's a good thing by the way)!

Honestly I just have not been clothes shopping for myself in eons, mostly because it was never fun for me. Nothing ever fit and I would just get frustrated and not get anything. This being said Jamie, Leslie and even Cambria took the situation in hand and were busy finding outfits for me to try on. The best part is I had to keep getting SMALLER sizes than what we thought would fit!

Here I am at Maurice's...........

After Maurice's we went into Cambria's favorite store Justice. I needed to get her Christmas present and I wanted her to show me what she wanted. What I found out is Cambria shops like her mother. She just keeps looking and looking to make sure she has not missed anything that could possibly be better. Even as she is telling you she likes what she has picked out she is still scanning the store to make sure she hasn't missed anything.

Here is my little fashionista with her Auntie Jamie at Justice......

After we had hit a couple of other stores with no luck finding anything good we decided to grab something to eat. We ended up at Souper Salad. It's just a little place with a huge salad bar and soups (kinda like the name.....).

Here is Leslie and Cambria standing in front of this poor unfortunate silver tinsel tree at Souper Salad. I don't know who decorated it but I was embarrassed for it........

Here are my two beautiful daughters (now blocking the poor tinsel tree)..........

Then it was off to do some more shopping. We went to Old Navy next. Here we are (I think at this point we were all getting a little ~~silly~~ tired).............

We finished up at Ross's and then called it a night. I finished up Christmas shopping for all my grandchildren (YAY!) and came home with (for myself) a pair of jeans, a pair of brown pants (for work), 3 shirts, a vest, a light jacket, a really cute sweater dress, a black skirt, a pair of shoes, a sweater, a pair of sweat pants, and a pair of slippers. I still have money left from the $300 that I stared out with. Jamie and Leslie are great at finding the best deals. We had a great time and I love them so much!

THANKS to Charles, Debbie, Angel, Mom, Dad, Jamie, Leslie, Paul and all my grandchildren for the great Christmas present! I love you all!

Thanksgiving and other stuff......

2010-11-27T09:03:00.000-08:00

Wow! The month of November is almost gone and I have been a huge slacker on my blogging. Not that I've had much to blog about, but I could have tried a little harder I guess. My life has been focused lately on making some necessary changes and I do have another blog that I update at least once a week if not more. I have only shared that link with a few trusted friends and family members. I will try harder to pay more attention to this blog.

Like I said before not a lot of anything really happened this month.

Friday (the 19th) Braxton had a school program. So I took the afternoon off (I know, I make such sacrifices) and went out to watch. On my way out I called Leslie to see if they had eaten lunch yet, and they hadn't so I stopped at TACO TIME (yes they have one) and bought us lunch.. Aaaaaaa that Casita Burrito was sooooo good, not as good as the (sniff) Brigham Taco Time's but it will do.

Braxton's program was very cute. Braxton loves to sing and he didn't miss a beat. There are more pictures that you can view here on my here on facebook

Braxton is right in the middle of this picture (right below the kids in the orange shirts). Isn't he so cute?

Last Saturday (the 20th) was the dreaded Bear River/Box Elder Wrestling Meet. So of course I had to go and cheer Braxton on. He unfortunately lost his first match but he did win his second match. For all of you that would like to watch it, I have it right here for your viewing pleasure.......

He came in second place for his age/weight. Here he is proudly wearing his medal.....

After the meet I took Cambria, Braxton and Gunner home with me so that Leslie and Paul could go Christmas shopping. On the way home I was telling the kids that I had driven out to Tremonton 3 days in a row. Which brought on this conversation:

Braxton- You should come out tomorrow too

Me- Why?

Braxton- to watch the Steelers/Raiders game!

Me- Go Raiders! (Paul and his kids are HUGE Steeler's fans)

Braxton- no way go STEELERS!

Me- Your grandpa Kelly was a huge Broncos fan

All the kids- ewe!!!!!!!!

Me- I even have his Broncos jacket still hanging in the closet

Braxton- Well don't show it to me or my eyeballs will fall out!

This last week we had our first major storm system come through the area. All day Tuesday there were high wind and blizzard warnings and the temperatures dropped into the single digits. I made it home just as the storm hit us. It was snowing sideways for a while and we got about 6 to 8 inches of the fluffy white stuff. The down side-there was a layer of ice under the snow. It was actually more scary to walk across the parking lot at work than it was to drive there.

Because of the storms Dad did not want Angel to come down (to St George) for Thanksgiving. She came to my house instead. She got here Wednesday afternoon and when I pulled up to the house she was busy shoveling my driveway.

She had made a crock pot of potato soup that she brought with her for dinner. It was very yummy and I wrote down her recipe so I can make it. Then she went and got us dessert, an apple pie!

We watched movies that night until we fell asleep. During the night I kept hearing her dog Puddy get up and he would come up and check on me then go back downstairs. I don't think he slept at all that night.

Here is Angel on Thanksgiving morning proving to me that Puddy is a lap dog......

Here is Angel and her 'baby'....

Jax was in town spending Thanksgiving with his dad. We were sitting in the kitchen when I saw these two kids walking up my driveway. I didn't recognize them (they were all bundled up). I told Angel that I didn't know who they were, but when they walked up to the side door and started just coming in she said that they obviously knew me. It was Jax and his friend! They were over at John Adams park sledding on the hill and he had come over to say hi. He is such a good boy!

We actually had our Thanksgiving dinner on Thanksgiving this year. Leslie and Paul always go to his family's but Leslie said that they would do both. I was very excited for everyone to get here, we ate at 5:00. I cooked a spiral ham, mashed potatoes, a yummy sweet potato dish with orange glaze and pecans, made a green salad. Leslie brought a berry pie and a banana cream pie, corn and rolls, and Jamie brought her famous macaroni and cheese and deviled eggs.

Everyone was here except for Jax and Patrick. Leslie and Paul brought their nephew Tyson along. We had good food and lots of fun! At one point Gunner came up with a sad face and an empty plate, Leslie asked him if he wanted more and he told her in a sad voice "the dog ate my dinner!" Bad Puddy :)

After everyone left I cleaned up and went to bed early since I had to be to work at 4am. My assignment for Friday morning was checking and marking receipts at the doors. It was fun and went by very fast. I even managed to get the printer I wanted, Yay me!

Today's plans...clean up the house and I think I will start putting up my Christmas decorations.

Halloween weekend.....

2010-11-01T21:03:00.000-07:00

In the state I live in when Halloween falls on a Sunday it is celebrated on Saturday. The kids don't seem to mind, just as long as at some point in the month they can go trick or treating........

Halloween Eve (Saturday) my day started out by going to Braxton's first wrestling meet. It was at Bear River high, in Tremonton. It was also at 9AM (did I mention it was a Saturday?) Personally I wouldn't pick wrestling as one of my favorite sports to watch. In high school I did have a crush on a guy my junior year, and he was on the wrestling team. His mother talked me into joining the wrestling boosters, which of course I did. Hey, he was really cute.....I know we went to the meets, but I don't seem to remember too much about them (except when Ron was out on the mat).

So I wasn't sure what to expect when going to a match where the boys ranged in ages 7 to 12. When Braxton's turn came up he showed no fear and was all business. He was only on the bottom once and he almost pinned his opponent twice. In the end he won his match. All that wrestling with his brother has apparently paid off :) Here is a picture of Braxton in his new wrestling shirt (still beaming from his victory) You can go to my facebook page and see more picture of the meet.

Later that evening our ward had their Trunk or Treat. Of course it decided to rain but we still had a stellar turnout. In fact we had a ton of people that most of us had never seen before and almost everyone ran out of candy.

You are always hearing me talk about how great the kids in my Primary classes are. So I took some pictures of a few of them.

This is Parker W. I actually taught him 3 years ago. His Sumo-ballerina costume was a hit with everyone.....

This is Chloe W.(Parker's little sister). She is one of the cutie-patuties in my class this year.

This groovy chick is Sydnee P. She is another one in my class this year.

This is Amelia N. She is also in my class this year.

And this Micheal Jackson wanna be is Zach H. He was in my class last year.

So you can see that I'm not exaggerating when I tell you I have the cutest kids in my classes.

The sad part of the day was that I did not get to see any of my grandchildren in their costumes. Jamie was good enough to send me pictures of her, Patrick and the boys which you can see here.

Today at work I got to help decorate our two 12 foot Christmas trees in the front of the store with Jeanell, Dave and Tiff. Bart had put them together and he will never be allowed to do that again without supervision. When we went to connect both of the trees to the power cords only one section would light and then poor Jeanell and Dave would have to try to figure out how to get the whole tree to light. They had to do some very creative extension cording to get them to light properly with out taking them apart and starting from scratch. I pity the person that has to take them down.

We had a lot of fun (good thing the ornaments were plastic). But after the first tree was done, I wanted to take a gun and start shooting people if I heard "Ugh! Christmas already!" OR "When you get done here you can come over to my house and put up my tree." To the second one..yea, only if they paid me more than Walmart and then only maybe would I do it.

What I am reading now... "Before my Heart Stops, a Memoir" By Paul Cardall.

A sad sad day.........

2010-10-26T21:15:00.000-07:00

Last night around midnight the Brigham City Taco Time caught on fire. The inside of the building was gutted by fire and the roof collapsed. I am sad not only for the fact that Taco Time is my favorite fast food restaurant but the memories of the place.

Taco Time came to Brigham the summer of 1975. I was hired on as part of the crew that would open the place for business. It was my first job after my graduation. We trained for one week at the Ogden Taco Time. It is owned by the Bigler's. I went to school with their son's Dean and John who were good friends.

Mr. Bigler and his wife both sang in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir at that time. He used to sing to us at work. In fact every time I came in to work if he was there he would sing the song "Juanita" to me.

I worked there until March the next year. I was made a shift manager and I really loved the people I worked with. Jeff B. was (and still is) our manager and he and his wife Claudia would have parties at their house for us. It was like one big family.

Mr. Bigler and Jeff were great to work for. I remember Mr. Bigler talking to us in a meeting the day before we opened. He was telling us the importance of first impressions and how he expected us to keep the place clean at all times. Some how it ended in him talking about how even the little things like the space between the tines of a fork should sparkle when we got done cleaning. He was good to work for but he expected perfection from us all the time.

I got married in March and went to work for American Greeting Cards until Jamie was born. After she was born In January of 1977 I went back to Taco Time and was made the closing manager. I worked there until September of 1978 when I went to work for Grand Central which started my career in retail.

Kelly would bring Jamie in while I was at work in the evenings. He would get some dinner and Jamie started eating Taco Time before she was even one.

I remember the Indian students from Intermountain Indian School, which was across the street, coming over for their meals. It was always fun to talk to them. It's where I learned about the connection between the Navaho's and the Eskimo's.

One time a group of bikers came in and no one wanted to wait on them (sometimes they were a bunch of prudes). I had no problem with it, in fact I wanted to wait on them, I have a soft spot for the bad guys. I took their orders, and got to talk with each one of them. When they left they all came up and gave me a tip, which included some beer bottle caps. I was a little puzzled by it at first, but later learned that it was considered a compliment. Some were worth money because they were rare.

So I hope that the Bigler's will rebuild our Taco Time. I don't know what I will do without my weekly Casita Burrito fix. Here is a picture someone took last night while they were trying to put the fire out. I asked my boss if I could take some bereavement because Taco Time was like family. He just laughed at me....sometimes he can be so insensitive......

It finally is looking like Fall.....

2010-10-20T19:35:00.000-07:00

We have had a warmer than usual Fall and so the trees have not been changing color as soon as I would like them too. But in the past couple of days....wa-la.

This is a picture of my friend Carol H.'s yard. It is one of the prettiest yards this time of year. This picture does not even do it justice as to how bright and colorful her trees are.

This is a picture of the Quakies in my yard, they are starting to turn yellow. But as you can see my Maple next to it (at the right) is still very green.

At this rate I'll be raking leaves in December....

It's already October.....

2010-10-08T17:41:00.000-07:00

Well last Saturday Braxton played his last football game of the season. They unfortunately lost :(
When Braxton came off the field after the game he was so upset about losing that he was crying.

During the game Gunner got into a fight with a bigger kid who was bothering him and his little friends. He is used to fighting and wrestling with his older brother so when this bigger boy kicked Gunner, he came back at him with fists a flying! The look on the bigger kid was priceless. After that Gunner and the other kid just steered clear of one another and gave each other "the eye". I have the feeling that Leslie's going to get called to the school a lot when Gunner starts.

I've been pretty busy at work too. Last Wednesday I went with Jake (from Logan) to do a quarterly audit at the South Ogden Neighborhood Market. Then Thursday I covered GM receiving. It was my first time doing it solo and I managed not to mess anything up. Good thing, because I would have had to yell at myself when I did invoicing the next day, and that would just be embarrassing.

This week I've just spent the last two days going down to West Valley for Invoice/UPC training. Jake (North Logan), Steph (South Logan), Audra and I all went down together. I learned a lot and was glad that Audra was there so that I could ask her things when I got a little lost. I'm still pretty new to this so I'm still learning. We made a new friend, Dawn from the Centerville store. We all sat on the back row and were basically the 'bad kids' in the class. It was great fun!

I also have started going to the Adult Religion classes again. They started up in September and they are every Thursday. I'm going with Carol and Letty .

Right now I'm reading the last book in the Shadow trilogy by Brent Weeks, "Beyond the Shadows". This is the serious that Mo brought to me to read.

Well that's about all I got.....hope every one has a great weekend!

Last weekend football, this weekend soccer. Does this make me a well rounded person?

2010-09-25T14:29:00.000-07:00

So this weekend I went down to Layton to watch Trevon play soccer. It was a beautiful day, around 74 degrees with a slight breeze. Here is a picture of the mountains, I wish it had turned out better, but you can still see the fall colors. It must be time for a drive in the canyon......

Here is Patrick out giving Trevon some pointers, so cute.......

Of course after we sat down the breeze stopped and we were just left with the 74 degrees of sun with no shade. Here is Jax trying to make some shade for himself.....

After a while he gave up and went behind the tennis courts to those trees back there and sat until the end of the game. He said he could see the game from back there....u-huh......Here he is coming back.....

Here is Trevon practicing.......

Here is Trev throwing the ball in.....

Go Transformers (yellow) beat the T-Rex's! I don't make up the team names I only cheer for my grandson...........

After the game here is Trev (number 2) with his team doing their cheer before they go and high five the other team....

I'm not sure who won, no one really keeps score for this age group. all the counts is that the kids learn the game and have fun, which they do.

After the game I came back home, Jax came with me so I could drop him off at his dad's house. We stopped on our way home and got some drinks and something to eat. I love having one on one time with my grandchildren.

Braxton is playing his football game as I type this over in Logan. I just can't be everywhere at once :(.

I forgot in last week's Bears VS. Bees blog to put in a conversation that happened....

This was right after Braxton had just gotten called for an off sides. When the defensive line was pulled back in to let the offensive line go out, Braxton came running over to the bleachers and yelled...

B- "Mom, Mom! I have a loose tooth!"

L- "Braxton! I don't care! Get back over there and WATCH THE BALL!

B- "But mom, I have a loose tooth!"

L- "I don't care if you have a loose tooth! Get back over there and listen to your dad and WATCH THE BALL!"

My daughter has turned into a football mom.......:)

BEARS vs. BEES......................

2010-09-18T19:48:00.000-07:00

So today Braxton's football team played the Bees. He has been waiting for the chance all of his short life. Paul played football for Bear River High. Leslie was a Box Elder Rockette. A match made in heaven. :) Since my family moved here when I was a Junior in high school there has always been a rivalry between Box Elder and Bear River.

Paul has conditioned his children to follow in his footsteps as Box Elder 'haters'. Poor Leslie. One day the kids were fighting over who was going to kill a bug and if they didn't they were 'Box Elder'! Oh my.

I love to tease Braxton about this and always tell him I'm going to buy him a Box Elder tshirt and that he will have to wear it. Last year at the county fair parade, the Bear River High football team had just gone by and Braxton turned to me and asked, "Grandma, when I play football will you be Bear River?" Well how can I say no to that?

One of my favorite pictures that Leslie sent me on my phone was of her wearing her Bear River tshirt and her Box Elder Rockette sweatpants. She said when she came downstairs in them Paul asked her if she was neutral. So that is what she labeled the picture she sent me, "I'm Neutral".

So today was the big game. I donned my red Bear River tshirt and went out to Tremonton. Leslie told Paul she was going to wear purple eye shadow (Box Elders colors are purple and white) with her BR tshirt. He told her that was okay, but if they lost it would be her fault. So she didn't.

Here are the Bears coming onto the field.....

Here is Paul (black tshirt) out for the coin toss....

The face off.........

Braxton plays defense and he was on the field the majority of the game. Bear River and Bees held each other off all through the first two quarters of the game. But that all changed after the half. Bear River made the first touchdown of the game! Here is a very excited Paul, Braxton is #49......

After that touchdown it just went back and forth until the end of the game when they were tied 12 to 12. So they went into overtime. With this league of football overtime means that each team gets four tries from the 10 yard line to score. Well, BOTH teams scored so we had to go into another overtime. After the second one it was still tied 18 to 18. That is how the game ended, a draw. But Braxton played hard and made some very good plays. It was a good game.

Here is Leslie with Braxton after the game.........

Here I am with my Bear River Bear! Red has always been my favorite color, really it has!

Bear River youth football......

2010-09-07T14:03:00.000-07:00

Saturday I went out to Tremonton to watch Braxton play football. When I got to Leslie's house they were all busy getting ready for the game. Paul (who helps coach) and Braxton were already gone. Cambria is putting on lip gloss (which we all know is an important part of getting ready to watch a football game), Leslie is attacking Gunner's hair and Gunner is popping bubble wrap (or at least trying to while his mom does his hair). I too was wearing a Bear River t-shirt.....sorry Box Elder but my loyalties are having to change.

Here is Braxton's team warming up ........

Here they are running through the banner onto the field.....Leslie is out there holding the banner and Gunner.....

#49 (black gloves)...That's my boy, ready to start playing, he's on defense.

Paul giving instructions to the boys...Braxton right up front listening to his dad..so cute....

After the game the mom's form a 'tunnel' and the team runs through it after they shake hands with the other team.....Leslie is in there somewhere.

Braxton played hard and made quite a few tackles and recovered a fumble, which he proudly told me when he came off the field to let offense go out. Unfortunately they lost this game, but they played hard and had fun.

The game was at 5:15pm and it was still 94 degrees and no shade with the sun right in our faces. I came home a little pinker than when I went out (yes I forgot sunscreen).

I don't know much about football, because my girls did not play :). When I was in high school, football games were more of a social thing than actually watching the game. When Leslie was in high school I went to the games long enough to watch her perform in the half time and then I left. So this will be a learning experience for me. Every time the ref's threw a flag up I had to keep asking 'why?'.

Birthday Weekend.....

2010-09-01T16:25:00.000-07:00

Sorry this is late, I tried to post it a couple of days ago but my internet was freaking out on me.

This last weekend was Cambria's and my birthday, the 28th is mine and the 29th is Cam's. We have started when possible to have a birthday sleepover.

So Saturday Miss Cambria came over and we went to see "Despicable Me" in 3d. It was very cute and Cambria really enjoyed it. Then Cambria wanted to go to Walmart to look at board games. We bought Yahtzee (I used to have it but I don't know what ever happened to it). Then she wanted to check out the DVDs to see if there was something good for us to watch. We found "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squequel" After that we of course had to find a snack for later, we got ice cream. Yes I know, I'm a sucker. But what are grandma's for?!

After a quick trip home to drop off our goodies we went to Beijing Buffet for dinner......YUM!

When we got home we played Yahtzee. I have never rolled so many Yahtzee's. Cambria only rolled one. When we play we fill up a whole scorecard. By the end of the game Cambria was getting quite creative on how she shook the dice, with just one thing in mind....GET A YAHTZEE!

After our game we got our jammies on and put on the movie and ate our ice cream. I'd like to tell you if I liked the movie or not but Cambria fell asleep about 20 minutes into it and I fell asleep shortly after.

The first thing Cambria wanted to do the next morning was have a rematch at Yahtzee. She declared because it was her birthday, she would get ALL the Yahtzee's. Right off the bat I rolled a Yahtzee. After that she was trying everything to roll one.

She said the kitchen towel on her head gave her good luck...who knew? She did roll 5 Yahtzee's.

Then we got ready for church. Here she is looking quite cute, if I do say so myself.

Afterwards we went to her house were Leslie was having a family birthday party for Cam. Cambria didn't want a regular birthday cake, she wanted either peach cobbler or apple crisp. Leslie made apple crisp with vanilla ice cream....heaven!

When everyone went home, Leslie and the kids invited me to go to Denny's for dinner with them. Denny's is not one of my favorite places to eat, but to spend time with my family I made the best of it. :)

My Weekend.....

2010-08-15T19:20:00.000-07:00

I keep getting stuck watching Mister (Jamie's dog). Friday Jamie came into town because she was getting together with her Brigham friends and their kids to have a BBQ/Birthday party for Jax (whose birthday is the 18th). She came by the store to pick up a few things and told me I could come over to have some dinner.

Hey, I'm always up for a free meal. I headed over to Lisa's house and got to see Jax and Trevon. A lot of Jamie's old friends from when she was in high school were there. It was fun to see them all grown up and with their kids.

But I never got to eat. They didn't get the kabobs on the grill until 8:30 and I was getting tired and they were still waiting for a few friends to get there so I went home. But Jamie made me take Mister with me.

First she didn't bring his leash (my yard is not completely fenced in) and she said that he wouldn't run away, and if he did he always came back when he was called. WRONG! He ran away every time I had to take him out and he didn't come back when I called. I would have to chase him, he would let me almost get to him and then he would start to run again. D@#* dog!

I tried to get him to sleep on a blanket on the floor (because Jamie said he would) in my room but he would have none of that, so he slept with me. Jamie and the boys came over about noon on Saturday. We just hung out and watched movies and talked. It was nice to spend time with them.

They are doing some remodeling to our church house. Today was my turn to play the organ for Sacrament meeting. When I walked in Brent W. our 1st counselor in the bishopric stopped me to tell me that there was NO ORGAN to play today. They have torn apart the pulpit area and the organ was sitting in the cultural hall. Aw shucks, I was sooooo disappointed.........(not). I would so much rather play the piano than the organ. So they had a make shift podium and the grand was still in the chapel. So I got to play the piano for the hymns.

I also had to provide the musical number, I played Paul Cardall's arrangement of "Book of Mormon Stories". It went well. Before they tore up the pulpit area when you played the piano you were facing the congregation. It was a little unnerving to try and play a musical number being able to see everyone staring at you. Us much as I tried to block it out I could never quite do it totally. Today the piano was turned sideways! Yea, I didn't have to see hundreds of eyes staring back at me while I played. It truly helped my nervousness (word?). I know I have played A LOT of piano solos in my lifetime but I still get nervous, I try to get in my "zone" and block everything out and pretend like I'm playing in my house. But that is a little hard when you have faces looking back at you around the music.

It was also my week to teach my cute little Primary class. I love them to death!

Bill (Carol's husband) and Gary (Maron's husband), my home teachers, just left a little while ago. We have a great time talking, and they are the best.

I am currently reading "The Way of Shadows" by Brent Weeks. My friend Mo from work who reads constantly (he even reads as he walks) came by my window the other day and dropped this book on my desk and said that I should read this. It's not too bad, fantasy/adventure, it's the first book in a trilogy.

Adventures in babysitting.....

2010-08-04T20:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday as I was driving home from work, Leslie called, she was coming into town and was wondering if I could take Cambria to gymnastics because she was watching her friend Jamie H.'s two little boys, Bode and Braken, plus she also had Gunner. She would stay at my house with the boys and besides Cambria wanted me to come and watch her. So I of course said, "sure".

I still hold true to an earlier statement I said about kids....."they are better than TV!" This day was no exception.

First when they came into the house I of course got my hug and kiss from Cambria and Gunner (Braxton was at football practice). While I was picking up and hugging Gunner, Bode (who is 4) said "I can hug and kiss too!" So I put Gunner down and turned to Bode and he jumped in my arms and about strangled me with his hug. I thought he was not going to let go of my neck. I told him he was a very good hugger and that made him very happy. Braken just stayed in Leslie's arms, he was too shy for a hug and kiss.

Here is Leslie and Braken.....

Everything Bode said he could do, Gunner had to say he could do it too. At one point Bodie asked me if I wanted to see his muscles. Of course I want to see his muscles, so he pulled up his shirt and flexed his arms. Well Gunner, not to be outdone, wanted to show me his muscles too. So he tried to pull his shirt up and do exactly as Bode was doing. It was so funny because Gunner couldn't quite figure out how Bode was keeping his shirt up without his hands.

Here is the picture I got of them....Gunner, looking at Bode trying to figure out how to hold his shirt up, and Bode. Can I just say....LOOK AT THAT FACE!!!!!!!

Then we went downstairs so the boys could play with the toys. First Bode would show me how fast he could run and the of course Gunner would have to run too and so it went on and on. Leslie and I just sat and laughed. The boys starting getting louder and rowdier just in time for me to leave with Cambria and go to gymnastics.

Cambria is quite the tumbler. Plus she has so much energy I don't think she ever gets tired. Leslie and the boys came up for the last half hour of her class. While we were there, Bode and Braken's dad came and picked them up. Gunner was very upset that Bode was leaving and stood there with his arms folded with a big frown on his face.

It has begun!

2010-07-31T11:10:00.000-07:00

This morning I attended the Ground Breaking Ceremony for the Brigham City Temple. It is the first one I've ever been too and was quite excited to attend. It was being broadcast in all the Stake Centers and the Tabernacle but I wanted to be there to see it in person.

Each ward received 20 or fewer tickets for the seating on the Temple site. I was not lucky enough to get one but my friend Connie and her husband got one. We even waved at each other across the street (she's such a brat). I was happy were I was sitting, right on the park strip in front of the Tabernacle. I could see the stage and they had the sound so it went across the street. So other than seeing every one's backs it was okay.

This is what it looked like at about 7:30 this morning. Everyone just starting to get there and still setting some things up.

Here is President Boyd K Packer and his wife arriving.

Everyone standing while he was being seated.

Just a picture of the Temple site with all the people waiting for it to start.

We sang "High On the Mountain Tops" for the opening song. So cool to be singing it with the mountains behind us.

This is Elder William R. Walker, the Executive Director, Temple Department. He conducted and spoke.

This is Elder Steven E. Snow, Presidency of the Seventy.

This is Elder Allan F. Packer, of the Seventy.

This is the choir that provided the music. They were from Malad, Fielding, Garland, Tremonton, and Tremonton South Stakes. They sang "Let the Mountains Shout for Joy" and of course "The Spirit of God".

This is Sister Donna Packer, Pres. Packer's wife.

This is President Boyd K. Packer, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

He and his wife are from Brigham City. He spoke and then gave the Dedicatory Prayer.

Shovels ready..........Pres. Packer is the 3rd one from the left.

Posing for the photographers.

The man on the end is my friend Mayor Dennis Fife. He also used to be our Bishop.

This is all the Stake Presidents of the area in the Temple District.

They also had all those who had been Stake Presidents come up, then all the Bishops, then all the city officials to participate in the ground breaking. After that they had children come up and shovel some dirt. Then anyone could stay and shovel some dirt too and take pictures.

When I first arrived another lady came and put her chair by mine, her husband was working the event. She had brought an umbrella and shared it with me through the whole thing. We had nice conversation, she was very friendly, but I never got her name.

The weather stayed in the 70's with the sun going behind the clouds periodically to give us a reprieve from the heat and there was a nice breeze to make it perfect.

I enjoyed the talks and the spirit and was very glad I went to be a witness to history in the making.

Vacation....Day 6.......

2010-07-25T10:54:00.000-07:00

Saturday started out with Debbie making us scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast. Then we headed to the Farmer's Market at Pioneer park. I didn't know such a thing existed. It completely surrounds the park, one side farm produce the other side crafts and things and a huge section of food vendors.

Can I just tell you the people watching was at it's best. Everyone from bikers to yuppies and dogs were there. It was just fun walking and looking. I forgot my camera and was so mad at myself because you would have loved the pictures I would've shared.

There were assorted musicians all around with their instrument cases or hats out in front of them for tips. There were several violinists, several guitarists, a few folk singers. But the two most interesting to me were the harpist (with at full sized harp) and this guy.....

They say the piano is not a portable instrument but this guy proves that fact wrong. He had made a makeshift cart on which the piano sat and pulled it with his bicycle. You can see it in the picture. I took this with my phone so it could have been better but I could NOT pass this up without recording it on film.

He was actually quite good and he had another guy that was with him and they took turns playing. You can see the big tin on a pedestal for his tips, it was pretty full. Hmmmm wonder if I should give this a try....... I'm sure there were even more musicians to see but we only walked through the produce part of the market.

The fresh produce was wonderful and the selections were plentiful. I picked up 3 zucchini, 3 yellow squash, 2 Mexican zucchini, a bundle of garlic and a pound in a half of baby red potatoes for under $10. Charles and Debbie got some sweet corn and shared it with me.

If I lived closer I would go to this every Saturday morning. Debbie says they do and now the market is going to be open on Tuesday evenings too starting this week. It is the ONLY way to buy fresh produce and a lot of it is organic.

When we got home Charles and Debbie had to take Puddy to Angel's condo so that he would be there when she got home later that afternoon. They also had to go to the grocery store to pick up some things for the dinner they were planning. I stayed home while they did this and just relaxed and read my book.

When they got back we just hung around and talked and watched TV. For dinner they made a great salad, grilled the corn we got from the market, and grilled black bean burgers and mushrooms. The black bean burgers were really good.

Earlier Deb and I had gone to the red box and picked out a couple of movies to watch. So we watched "The Blindside"...Awesome movie! We also watched "Sherlock Holmes", I loved this one too. I have always been a fan of Robert Downy Jr.

This morning they brought me home and now I get to spend the last day of my 'stay-cation' relaxing and probably not doing much of anything (unlike the rest of my week?)

Here is my 'little' brother and his cute wife Debbie. Thanks again guys for the invite and the company!

Well it's back to work tomorrow..a little mixed about this. Ready to get back to work and out of this house, but also Jamie and Leslie are back so now I have them to see and at work there will be a lot for me to have to catch up on. Oh well, life goes on!

Vacation......Day 5.....

2010-07-24T12:46:00.000-07:00

So.....I started out my day with a doctor's appointment. It went well, he is cutting back my high blood pressure meds. YAY!!!!!! He was very happy with the lifestyle changes I've been making.

Then I ran to Kent's to pick up a couple of things. I have always made it a policy of mine that when I'm taking time off from work I do not go into the store at all. That means even if I need something I go somewhere else. Plus Kent's is 3 blocks down from my house verses W'mart that is across town.

I watched some more of "Jack of All Trades" while I did my laundry.

Then I packed up a bag and headed to the bus stop. Caught the bus to the Ogden Front Runner station. On the way we got to witness a car wreck on Wall Ave. So the bus driver had to pull over and wait for the police to come. I have yet to have an uneventful bus ride to Ogden.

Even with the delay I did get to the Front Runner station on time for the 4:15 train. The train was pretty full with it being the 24th of July (a Utah holiday) weekend. Debbie picked me up at the Woods Cross station.

I was greeted by Charles and Angel's dog Puddy, who've they have been watching while Angel has been on vacation. We mostly just sat around and talked, Puddy fell asleep on my leg.

Debbie made us a great dinner of BBQ chicken breasts, roasted red potatoes and a yummy green salad. After dinner we watched "Harry Potter, The Half Blood Prince". Charles ended up going to bed before it was over and I think Deb fell asleep a couple times too.

Everyone went to bed and I fell asleep reading my book.

Vacation.....Day 4......

2010-07-23T07:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went and had my hair trimmed and colored. I usually go towards the darker colors but this time I've gone blonder. After much discussion with Jen and her boss we decided that because of my ongoing battle with my gray that if I went lighter it would blend better. So Wa-La, I'm blonde. Not totally blonde, but it is a shock every time I look in the mirror. They do say, "blonde's have more fun". I guess I'll find out.

It was great talking to Jen. I just love her. She told me all about their recent honeymoon to Mexico and what they were doing now. After her first disaster of a marriage it is so good to see her so happy.

After I was through at the salon I took my 2 bulging bags to the D.I. Then I decided to go inside and see if they had any books I'd be interested in. Shopping at the D.I. is always an adventure. You never know what you will find. Today's visit was a bust though, so I came out empty handed.

While I was perusing the paperbacks for the third time (just to see if I missed anything that screamed "READ ME") a lady carrying a metal shelf (something you would probably see in a kitchen) under her arm so that it stuck out in front and behind her,came around the display case behind me. As she did she hit the glass display case with the shelves making quite a clatter.

She was heading right for me (there was not a lot of room between the book section and the display cases). I looked at her with surprise and she simply said "Oops" and kept coming towards me. I had to jump back out of her way. I moved down further and was going to go back to reading book titles when she swung those shelves around almost hitting me and managing to hit the display case AGAIN!

So I moved a little further down and then she swung around and hit the display case a third time and then she hit the book shelves. Every time she hit something I'd hear her say "oops". Picture those comedy sketches where they are carrying the ladder and everyone is dodging it. That's what this was like....I just stood there watching her wondering just how stupid she was or if she was drunk.

After my comical visit to the D.I. I returned home. I was going to go to the matinee but I was feeling light headed and decided to just relax on the couch and I watched more of the "Jack of All Trades" series.

I've been making some huge changes (good ones) in my life and I think some of that is catching up to me. I've been light headed a lot this week. So I made a doctor's appointment for today. I think some of my medicines might need tweaking.

I went visiting teaching with Sharon in the evening. We had a nice visit with Kelly (the only one we could get a hold of this week). After I got home I called Charles and Debbie to talk about when I will be there (I am spending the weekend at their house). Then Leslie called a little later and I got to talk to Gunner. They were at Sea World again catching some of the things they missed yesterday.

Wow! Can you stand it?! My week has been so exciting.....I can't wait to go back to work Monday.

Vacation....Day 3.....

2010-07-22T07:54:00.000-07:00

Well it was another fun filled day in the neighborhood.

As you can see I've revamped my blog page.

I watched the last movie from Conly, "Sundown". FYI it's about vampires. It was entertaining and made me laugh. Very low budget and cheesy.

Then I watched the first disc of the series "Jack of All Trades". It is funny, full of one liners and a lot of sexual innuendos. I can see why it only lasted one and a half seasons.

I talked to my cousin Audrey on the phone. She is in Salt Lake right now visiting her son and his family. We were trying to see if we could find a time to get together but that was a bust. But I had fun talking to her.

I went through some things in my craft/scrapbook/office room and now have 2 bags of things to take to the D.I.

Last night my friend Juli came over and we talked til 1am. This seems to be the norm for us. We don't even realize how long we talk for. I started the book "The Swan Thieves" that I picked up from the library.

I received a call from Cambria, they were at Sea World waiting for the Shamu show to start. She told me all about what they have been doing so far. Then I talked to Leslie for a while. It was good to hear from them. I miss them.

Vacation....day 2........

2010-07-21T07:59:00.000-07:00

So here I am again to report on the second day of my "stay-cation" as my sister puts it...good name for it. Thanks Di!

Yesterday was probably not as exciting as Monday but here is my report.

I watched 3 more of the movies Conly loaned me..."Evil Dead", "Evil Dead II" and "Army of Darkness".

By the time I finished watching "Evil Dead" I didn't think I was going to watch the others. It was to put it plainly, GROSS! Not gorey like most horror movies are because it was so low budget. When I got done I text'd Conly with what I thought and he ended up calling me and talking me into watching the other 2 in the trilogy.

"Evil Dead II" was not quite as gross as the first. Conly had told me that I HAD to watch this one so that I would get some of the things in "Army of Darkness". I think he said that just so he could torture me more since I wasn't at work where he torments me all day long.

"Army of Darkness" was by all means the best of the three. The gross level went down considerably and the one liners from the character Bruce Campbell played were abundant. As Conly puts it, Bruce Campbell is king of the "B" movies.

I called Jen and have a hair appointment for Thursday morning. Yay for a much needed color and trim! Plus I'll get to hear all about her recent wedding and honeymoon.

On a not so exciting note (like what I've already told you was exciting?), I cleaned up my family room.
Later in the evening after it cooled down I went for my walk.

So ended day 2.......

Vacation...day 1.........

2010-07-20T12:53:00.000-07:00

So here is the report of the first day of my week off.....

I called my friend Maron to see what she was doing. Well she was laying flat on her back in bed, in a lot of pain. Saturday she'd had a 4-wheeler accident and was thrown from her wheeler. They took her to emergency where after many tests and x-rays found out that she had 7 hairline fractures along the bones in her spinal column. There is not a lot they can do for this other than give her pain meds and have her stay in bed for 4-6 weeks. OUCH!!!!!!!!

So I spent the afternoon at her house keeping her company and giving Gary (her husband) a break. She really is doing pretty good all things considering. We had fun just talking about everything under the sun. Around 4pm she was starting to look tired so I left her to get some much needed rest.

I watched 2 of the movies Conly loaned me...."Man with the Screaming Brain" and "Alien Apocalypse". They were very entertaining.....okay some of it was just plan retarded and very low budget. But I was entertained for a couple of hours. One of my favorite lines from "Alien Apocalypse" was..."Stupidity is terminal...and you've just been cured..." after he shot a bounty hunter. You know we all have a few stupid people we have to deal with that we would all like to cure....

I also finished reading "Zen the Art of Vampires". It was good and made me laugh so I will have to see if I can find more of her books.

Later around 9 in the evening, after it had cooled off and a nice breeze was blowing, I went on a walk. It was very nice and even saw a few of my neighbors out doing the same.

So that is the first day of my vacation......you all probably have to go lay down and rest now from all the excitement.

Vacation.....................

2010-07-19T09:26:00.000-07:00

Okay so it's been YEARS since I took a week of vacation from work. The last time I was off work for a week, I was in the hospital for 8 days. I don't go anywhere and don't have a lot of money to do anything, especially since they have cut our hours for the month of July! Plus I'm a little bit of a work-a-holic. I have a tough time just staying home for the weekend. I go crazy in the house all by myself.

So the girls planned this vacation to San Diego. I was planning on going but because of the doctor's advice I decided to stay home this time. It made me sad but I am making some important life changes right now and so I am good with my decision not to go.

The only problem is....I have this week off. I tried to see if they would let me work but because I hardly ever use my vacation (I usually lose most of it every year) they wouldn't let me. So here I sit with a week off from work...the girls and the grand kids are gone, my friends are working......I just might go crazy!

So I was talking about this to Conly last week, so on Friday he brings me this bag. He's all grins as I was opening it to see what he had brought me. Well Conly is a huge fan of Bruce Campbell. In this bag was the following Bruce Campbell movies:
The Evil Dead
The Evil Dead II
Army of Darkness
Man with the Screaming Brain
Alien Apocalypse
Sundown

Then also in the bag was the complete series of Bruce Campbell's TV show "Jack of All Trades" and Seasons 1, 2, and 3 of "Burn Notice". I've already borrowed Season 1 and 2 of "Burn Notice" from Conly before and was needing to watch season 3. I do really like "Burn Notice".

I've also been trusted with "the Bag" pictured above. It is Conly's only souvenir from his mission to Bulgaria. He was more worried about the bag than he was all the DVDs he loaned me. He is a sweetheart and such a fun friend.

I went to the library Saturday because I was all caught up on the books I had either bought or borrowed. I picked up "The Swan Thieves" by Elizabeth Kostova. She is the author of "The Historian" and I really liked that book. I also got "Zen and the Art of Vampires" by Katie Mac Alister. I'm and currently reading this one. So far I love it. It is very funny, I might have to see if I can find more of her books. I tried to find some books by a couple of authors that Audrey recommended but I couldn't find any. I'll have to keep checking for them.

I'm done with the Christmas music from Dale J. and right now he doesn't have anything to send me :(.

I may have to go to the music store and find something new to play.

So I'm going to try to blog once a day this week and report on my vacation. Hopefully this will keep me looking for things to do so that you won't be too bored reading it.