And Yet Another Week gone By

Hmmmm - It has been absolutely gorgeous shirt-sleeve weather out here. Not even all the leaves have fallen off the cherry trees in the back yard yet. Last Friday I raked the front yard leaves into the flower bed. But that was a mistake since I have now suffered with shoulder problems ever since. Larry has no sympathy for my whimpering in pain cuz I won't go to the doctor. Larry said he would rake the leaves in the side front yard on Saturday, but Suey, Ryan, and Abby came over that afternoon and watched the BYU game with us, so that gave him a good OUT for raking leaves. He cooked yummy hamurgers for us. I love having the kids over.

Oh, we also did something Saturday morning that we've been needing to do for a long time. I saw in the newspaper last week that a Scout was doing his Eagle project. He arranged for a Shred It mobile truck to be at a stake center in Springville where the public could bring all their documents to be shredded for free. We have had tax documents for ten years and bunches of Nanny's and Katherine Rader's documents that we loaded up in the truck and took down there. I really suspected there would be a long line of people waiting for free shredding, but there wasn't. We had a truck full of papers that would have cost us $50 or more to take to a shredding place. So we got it for free. I really like free.

Calley came home this weekend from school. She finished a little homework and then literally slept the rest of the weekend. She says her bed is so uncomfortable at the dorm that she doesn't sleep much.

Yesterday, Monday, I cleaned the garage -- yes, I cleaned the garage. I got rid of junk and papers and cardboard boxes and whatever else I could sneak past Larry to throw away. (just kidding). It looks so nice and clean out there. I hope that when my children come for Thanksgiving they will sing my praises about the clean garage and refrigerator room and food storage room. I was so tired after doing all that work, I could hardly crawl into bed last night. Larry hauled off loads of books to DI, paper to the recycling container at the high school, and cardboard boxes to the cardboard recycler. I didn't want him to help me cuz he would have wanted to save and store stuff just for the sake of keeping it. Love him bunches, but just keeping stuff for the sake of keeping it drives me nuts. He says we can tackle his office beginning tomorrow late afternoon and clean that thing out. I'm jut afraid he won't let me throw stuff away -- like stuff he hasn't looked at in the eleven years we've been married. We want to get his office cleaned up so it looks like an office and not a dust bunny collection that is belly deep. We'll be getting rid of computers and monitors and printers. Anybody want any of this stuff? It should be ready to give away to family members or post on Craigslist for sale by the week-end, I hope. I also have hard-bound copies of the Harr Potter series from Nanny's library that somebody can have it you claim them before I sell them. Her set is missing #5, I think. BTW, who borrowed my Harry Potter #4? I can't find it in my collection.

Tonight we had a real date. We went to the dollar show where the cost was 75 cents on Tuesdays. We saw Mamma Mia. Really cute. Liked it a lot, except for Pierce Brosnan's singing voice. What were they thinking??"?????? I came home and went to iTunes where I redeemed a gift certificate Suzanna gave me for my birthday in June for the Abba Gold album. It has all the songs from the movie, and I don't have to listen to Pierce Brosnan. Thanks Suey. I've been saving that for something special, and this was it. I'd really like to buy the Albert Finney CD of the Scrooge soundtrack, but it's not on CD. I love that Christmas music.

TTFN

Another Week Gone By

Not much going on around here.

Larry and I went out to Suey and Ryan's house to babysit Abby last Wednesday evening. Suey and Ryan went to some kind of UDOT dinner in Salt Lake, so we got to stay with Abby. She's such a doll. Love to keep her.

Larry quit day trading as of Thursday, November 6. Now he is looking for a job to keep us afloat. We'd like to keep the house,if possible. But if that doesn't work out, then it's just a house. He's applied to bunches of places and has a couple of good prospects so far. I don't think it will be too long before he's back in the work force. I'm looking around for something I can do from home that will pay a little bit. I don't want to go back to teaching. I am still so burned out with that.

Sunday Larry and I went to Pam's old ward to hear Matt speak for his homecoming from his mission in Russia. He did such a good job. It was great to be back with the extended family again. Our extended family is getting so large that we don't get together nearly as often as we used to. Pam had a little brunch at her house after Sacrament Meeting. I had my first flavored steamed milk. It was soooooooooooooo good. Flavored with sugar-free Irish cream. Mmmmmmmmmm. I want to be able to serve that over Thanksgiving when everybody's here. It was great. Laurel, is that the kind of stuff you buy at Starbucks? Abby had such a good time playing at Pam's house with her cousins that she didn't wsant to leave when Suey got ready to go. So she stayed and came home with Larry and me for the afternoon. You all know how cold my family room is, even when the furnace is on. Well, that didn't matter to Abby. She didn't want to put her skirt and stockings back on after a diaper change, so she just ran around in her diaper and long-sleeved shirt. She is so cute when you ask her if she wants something or if she wants to do something. Her response is, "OK." But she says it in a long and drawn out way.

Suey and Josh and his kids came over Sunday afternoon for dinner. Abby really had fun when the Humphreys cousins got here. I made a Southwestern Chicken Braid for dinner. It was my home-made bread made into a braid and stuffed with the chicken mixture. Good, and oh so easy to make. Ryan and Norky didn't come because neither of them felt well.

Tuesday night Larry and I went to Ward Temple Night. As I walked to the doors of the Provo Temple, I was searching in my purse for my recommend, which was nowhere to be found. I looked through everything in my possession but could not find it. I had last used it on Friday when Larry and I went to the temple and I was just sure I had put it back in my wallt behind my drivers license, but it wasn't there. So I went to the recommend desk to see if perhaps I had lost it in the temple and someone had turned it in, but no, it wasn't there. One of the recommend desk brethren phoned for the assistant temple recorder to come out and talk to me. Well, I see this man all the time when I'm working the phones at the temple, but I don't think he remembered me. He took down my personal information and then went to call my bishop to see if I was worthy to enter the temple for the session with my ward members. Of course, my bishop is so hard to get in touch with, so the recorder ended up looking up my recommend information on the computer (I didn't know they could do that) and saw that my recommend was active, so he let me in. I continued to look through my purse again several times while waiting for the recorder to return to where I was waiting in front of the recommend desk. Never did find it. But at least I got to go through the session with Larry and my ward friends. I just loved being there. I just love these people in this ward. It was so neat to see everyone there all dressed in white -- nobody had any more money or personal possessions than anybody else in the temple. While sitting in the chapel waiting to be taken to the endowment room, I wondered if the feeling I was feeling, the joy and gratitutde of being with such good friends, is like what it will be like in the eternities. I hope so, cuz it sure did feel good. One of the couples in the ward served lentil soup, bread, pumpkin pie, and ice cream at their home after the session. Almost everyone who was in the temple was there for the little dinner. Have I said how much I enjoy and love being with these people. They are all such good church members and a great example to me. The best part was being in the temple with my sweetheart.

So I went to bed last night, and before I went to sleep, I remember thinking, "Heavenly Father, you know where my recommend is. You can tell me where to look." Then the thought occurred to me to look back in my purse again for my recommend. What I visualized in my mind was looking through my wallet again, but I was too dang tired and sleepy to get up and look so I just went to sleep. First thing I did this morning was to remember the impression to look in my purse again. So I went through my wallet and saw nothing that even closely resembled a temple recommend. I thought it was just my overly active imagination telling me to go look again. But I looked reluctantly through the middle zippered section of my purse and low and behold, there was my temple recommend inside an opened Orbit gum package. I know that it was NOT there last night. I took every little thing out of my purse when I was looking for it, and it was NOT there. I was so glad and grateful I had found it, regardless of how it got back in my purse. small miracle, but a miracle nonetheless. Thank you, Heavenly Father. I LOVE BEING A MORMON!!!!!!

Well, now. Let me see . . . . . . since my last post . . .

1. I had my eyes checked by the ophthamologis whose in our ward. I was very pleased with his overall examination -- very thorough. When I made the appointment with him two weeks earlier, I could hardly see a thing, especially close up. Two days before my apointment I went to Costco and had them tighten my glasses and replace a lost nose thingy. Voila! I could see again. If you look at the whites of my eyes, you'll see yellow stuff on them. The doc told me that that was caused by too much sunlight. I had never heard that before. But I haven't worn sunglasses since I started to wear glasses full time, but then again, I think I've always had that yellow stuff in my eyes.


2. We got our flu shots at Costco. Iwonder if the nurse really gave me mine cuz I didn't feel anything.


3. One of Suzanna's childhood friends was given a baby shower on Oct. 25 -- Natalie Bullock. Remember her, Jenni and Laurel? Suey and I went. It was fun to see how all of us have changed over the years. Karen Foster was there with her daughter who is Suey's age and whose name I can't remember. Both Suey and I were so surprised when we found out who she was because she was so totally unrecognizeable. Evah is still Evah.



4.We celebrated Chris's birthday on the 27th by going out to dinner with he and Anne at Famous Dave's Barbeque in Midvale. We were there with Suey, Ryan, Abby, and Mawmaw. Calley caught the Trax down to Sandy so she could be with us too. My boy is 27. Man oh man oh man. We drove back down to his house and had cake and ice cream. Anne continued the tradition I started when he was about 4 years old -- a pumpkin birthday cake. Chris Mann, Ashley, and Mylee came over to celebrate with us too.

5. On Oct. 29, Matt Farmer returned from his mission. Larry, Mawmaw, and I drove up to the airport to be there with his family when he came down that escalator in Terminal 1. I love being there when missionaries return. I think he's taller and thinner than when he left for Russia. We drove back down to Pam's house where we had Navajo tacos and fruit. Yum! Dave made arrangements with the MTC president for Matt to visit with David in the MTC for a few minutes on Saturday, Oct. 29. Mawmaw sent her camera with Matt so we could have a photo of the two of them together. They spent about 20 minutes together. David flew out to Connecticut on Monday, Nov. 3.

6.I have continued to substitute on the phones at the Provo Temple a shift or two a week.

7. I also continue to attend a Book of Mormon class that is fantabulous.

8. Halloween day and evening I worked continuously on the ward newsletter, which I haven't even done since the issue I put out in September. Halloween is NOT my favorite holiday. In fact, I don't care for it at all. So I holed up in my office so I wouldn't have to answer the door for the Trick or Treaters. Larry loved doing that. I heard him commenting to the children in their costumes. He's such a fine man!!!!

9. Saturday, Nov. 1, Larry spent time at the stake center helping some people get set up for a funeral (projector, tV, etc) He really loves to help and do all he can for people. That is part of his stake high council calling -- to be in charge of the technology in the stake.

10. Sunday, Nov. 2 Larry was released from his calling as a high councilman. We were quite surprised because he has only been doing that calling for 3 1/2 years. But we'll just look at this as his having other opportunities to serve the Lord, although he was a little disappointed.

11. I've been listening to my Christmas music sin the week before Halloween.

12. Oh, we voted early. I didn't want to stand in line on election day.

13. Oh, oh, oh, oh! I harvested the pumpkins I planted in June. I was so excited. I planted them for the grandchildren, but since mine were still a little green Suey didn't want any except a little bitty one that Abby picked out that rotted a day or two later and I forgot to give Josh's kids one each when they were here for dinner on the 26th of October. I read on the internet that if a pumpkin is pulled from the vine while it is still green or partially green, it will not turn orange. Well, mine turned orange a lot faster after I took them off the vine than the last three weeks they were on the vine. I made a little display of them on the front porch.

14. I got the cleaning bug on Monday of this week. I cleaned off the patio and got it ready for winter. I cleaned out the refrigerator room downstairs, and I cleaned and organized the food storage room downstairs. I'm so proud of myself. That was a big job. I really wanted to get the food storage organized so I can see what we have and don't have. Larry promised that on Saturday we can clean out the garage, and at that time I'll go through all the food storage out there, especially to see if any of it is any good. I'm really on a food storage and emergency preparation kick right now. Too many bad things are happening in this world. Scares me to death.

15. Now, in response to Jenni's tag:

8 TV shows I watch

a. Evening news with Brian Williams

b. The View

c. Good Things Utah

d. Music and the Spoken Word

e. good speakers on BYU TV

f. Channel 5 news

g. Today Show

h. tonight I'm going to watch the election returns

8 things I did yesterday

a. cleaned the patio

b. cleaned the refrigerator room

c. cleaned and organized the food storage room

d. crocheted on a baby burp cloth

e. laundry

f. made my bed

g. ate too much

h cut back on my Dr. Pepper drinking

8 places where I like to eat

a. Mawmaw's house

b. Apollo's

c. Dorothy Goesch's house (an elderly lady in our ward)

d. Tahitian Noni Cafe

e. China Garden Cafe

f. Cheesecake Factory

g. all my daughters' and daughter-in-law's houses

h. anywhere with the whole family

8 things I am looking forward to

a. more grandchildren

b. return of the Savior

c. spending the eternities with Larry

d. losing weight and wearing a size 8 (I wish!)

e. getting all my food storage and emergency preparation stuff together

f. being with my children, grandchildren, and Larry at Thanksgiving and Christmas

g. having enough money so I can make digital scrapbook pages using every single photo

I have and then printing the pages at Costco

h. going to Forgotten Carols in December

8 things on my wish list

a. Jim will join the Church

b. Jim and Laurel will go to the temple

c. lose 400 pounds

d. Larry will decide to discard most of the junk in his office and let me clean that place

up

e. get my gutters replaced so we can stop having floods in the downstairs bedroom

when it rains

f. be so well off financially that we can help our children and other people who need

financial help

g. serve on a mission with my sweetheart right here in Utah so I can stay near my kids

and grandkids

h. my house payment was as low as my first house payment was -- $300.00

I tag whoever wants to do this.

It's Time to Catch Up on This Blog

It has been so long since I've written on this blog that I have to go back and look at my calendar and the photos I've taken since my last entries to even remember what has happened. So here goes a summary of the past couple of months beginning after we took Calley to the U of U for her first semester at college.

August 24 - 30

1. I got a cortisone shot in my right shoulder in August. I have been having so much pain in it. Dr. Peterson says it's arthritis as of right now. The shot helped sooooooooooooooooooooo much. I was pain free for about five weeks after I got it. That felt so good, even though I nearly passed out when I got the shot. Jenni was in the doctor's office with me when I got the shot.

2. I don't know whether I mentioned this earlier or not, but I am no longer working a permanent shift at the Provo Temple on the phones. I am now on the substitute list, but still get called to help out about once a week or so. I didn't care for the four-hour shift of sitting in the same place and letting my back and knees get so stiff it was hard to walk later.

3. This might be a gross entry. I've been having a lot of trouble with I guess it's post nasal drip. It clogs me up so bad that I have to cough and hack and cough and hack to get stuff up and out, especially early in the mornings, and throughout the day. Dr. Peterson thinks I'm psycho cuz everybody has post nasal drip, but I keep telling him that it's so thick and gooey and pasty that it won't go down -- it just sticks in my throat. So he finally sent me to a GI doc to have my throat scoped. As I lay on the table with the sleepy stuff dripping into my IV and right before I konked out, the doc said that what he was going to do was probably worthless cuz I needed to get my post nasal drip problem fixed. Well, he didn't find anything wrong in my esophageal and upper stomach area. So I'm still dripping and hacking and coughing and hacking and . . .

4. We had a big stake super activity this month. I took some really cool photos of the hot air ballon they had tethered to the ground so people could go up in a balloon and then come down -- no riding across the air currents. I really like this photo of the balloon shot through the tree leaves.

5. I get tired of paying so much money to get my hair colored. So I bought myself a box of Frost and Glow, and Mother frosted my hair. However, it was quite a bit too frosted. In fact it looked like I had bleached my whole head. We did this on a Saturday afternoon, and I didn't even go to church the next day because my hair was such a drastic change from what it had been. YELLOW YELLOW YELLOW I needed to buy some Roux temporary hair color that just covers up the bleached areas and then washes out with the next washing, but it was late Saturday night, so I waited until Monday to buy some to tone down my hair. The only bad thing about using that kind of hair color is that it has a tendency to make the overall frosting job fade really bad. Oh well.

September

1. When Jenni and Don were up at our house in August, something went wrong with their new car, so they put it in the shop in Provo and was provided a rental car by the dealership. However, her car didn't get fixed by the time she had to go home, so she just drove the rental car home and left her car here in the shop. When the car was finally fixed, Larry and I picked it up from the dealership and drove it to Beaver, where we met Jenni, Don, and the boys and traded cars. They took their own car back home and Larry and I drove the rental car back to the rental place.

2. Calley came home from school every weekend. She catches the Trax by her dorm on Friday afternoons and travels on it down to the Sandy Trax station where she catches a UTA bus that brings her to the University Mall Transit Station. We pick her up there. It takes her a couple of hours to get home, but that sure beats spending $50 for round trip gas to go pick her up and then take her back up on Sunday. She does the reverse trip on Sunday evenings when she catches the bus about 7:30 PM. She really likes the U and she loves her classes, but she doesn't care too much for the people on the Honors floor where she lives. Calley really isn't an outgoing person, so it is hard for her to make friends sometimes. She doesn't like the marijuana smell and drunk kids who live on her floor. She especially wanted to come home on the weekend that the Utes had their first home football game because she didn't want to be around all the drunk people that day. It just kills me that her dorm room is on a co-ed floor. That was UNHEARD OF when I went to college. I had to sign out and sign into the dorm every time I left my room after 6 PM. And boys were certainly not allowed in the living areas of the female students -- only in the lobby.

3. Suey takes Abby to her therapy appointments on Wednesdays, and sometimes we get together and go to lunch and then just hang out at my house. I love having them with us. They want to sell their condo and get into a real home, but things just aren't working out right now. They especially wanted to be able to move before the baby comes in January. If they can see their condo soon, I think they'll move in with us for a while until they purchase their own home. I would love that. Abby is so cute when she comes over here. She comes up to me and lets me hug and kiss her, and then she asks, "Where's Granddaddy?" He tickles the fire out of her and she just loves it.

4. I am again taking a Book of Mormon class on Tuesdays. I just love it. I learn so much. We're studying the last half of the Book of Mormon.

5. I had lunch with my former Relief Society presidency friends, and then we went shopping. Now, I don't have any money, so I rarely ever, every go shopping. But I spent most of the afternoon with them and had a good time just looking around at all the pretty stuff. I miss being in the presidency with them. We don't spend the time together anymore that we used to spend together. So it was nice to be with them for a few hours.

6. I made Anabelle's invitation to her baptism and luncheon. Norky's friend, Nidia, took some gorgeous photos of Anabelle in her baptism dress, and then I used them to make her invitation that Norky wanted to send out to everyone. I thought it turned out great and so beautiful.

6. Chris and Anne bought a home and moved out of our basement on September 23. We helped them move all their stuff from our house and out of the storage unit. They have a really cute house, and I'm thrilled they were able to buy their own, even though now the only people in my house are Larry and me, and Calley when she comes home on the weekends.

7. Lary and I planned a trip to Albuquerque, Lewisville, and Norman. But first we had to get new tires on the Expedition. Man, oh man. $800 later, we have new tires. The price of living now a days is absolutely ridiculous. We left for our trip on Thursday, September 25, and drove to Albuquerque where we stayed overnight with Laurel and her family. Larry wanted to do some stock trading before we left there and drove on down to Texas. Laurel has a new living room sofa and love seat that are just gorgeous. I love to see my children being able to purchase nice things.

8. On Friday we drove to Lewisville, Texas where we stayed with Jessica Cook and her family. Bailey's baptism was scheduled for the following Saturday afternoon, and we were so glad we could be there with them for that special event. Russel's mom and dad were staying with them too for Bailey's special day. Larry and I slept in Jackson's room, and Russell's folks slept in Garrett's room. Even though we had seen and spent time with them in July, we were so glad to be with them again. We didn't care to really go anywhere and do anything. We just wanted to be with family. So, Bailey's baptism was held on Saturday afternoon. I can hardly believe she is 8 years old. She looked so pretty. Larry's ex was there with her husband. She was so nice to Larry and me. In the past she wouldn't even speak to Larry, but now she has mellowed out , or maybe we have mellowed out (I don't know), but it was nice to be with all Larry's kids and their mom for a few hours. (except Josh's family which stayed in Utah). After the baptism we went to Jason's Deli for lundin (lunch and dinner) and then back to Jessica's house. As I was walking out of Jason's Deli, Kathy was standing there and I asked her, "Are you going over to Jessica's?" I don't remember what her response was, but a few minutes later Jessica called me on her cell phone (we were in the car on the way back to her house) and asked me if I had invited her mother over to her house. I was kind of stunned. I hadn't invited her, but I guess Kathy thought that my question, "Are you going over to Jessica's" was an invitation cuz she told Jessica I had invited her over. I guess I really have to watch what I say cuz my words can be misinterpreted sometimes. Everything turned out OK. I'm glad she is on speaking terms with Larry again. I think he is too. She even agreed to let me borrow family photos and make copies of them so some day I can make a photo album for Larry of his children. Now I just have to get those photos scanned and then mail back the originals to her.

Here's something really cute. Garrett is really into dinosaurs. He goes to the refrigerator and gets out an egg and carries it around in his hand all day. Sometimes Russell or Jessica will put the egg in a plastic bag, and sometimes the egg is even hard boiled. He says there is a dinosaur in his egg. He is so dang cute.

Julia and her family were in Lewisville from San Antonio where they now live. She brought me a Dr. Pepper Slurpee and it was wonderful. Those kids are so good about remembering personal things about other people --meaning their likes and dislikes. Her children, Brenden and Natalee, are so dang cute.

We visited with Jarah and her family and Jonny and his family also. Their kds are all getting so big. I wish we could be around them more often.

9. All too soon we had to leave Texas and travel to Norman, Oklahoma to visit with Larry's sisters, Kathy and Lisa. We stayed in Lisa's beautiful home. One reason for our trip to Oklahoma was to take Nanny's clothes and other stuff to Lisa. She didn't want us to give all that stuff to DI because the ladies of her church would use Nanny's clothes to make quilts. I was glad to get it all out of the garage. Also while we were there, we put the Expedition in the shop at the dealership where we bought it to have some big expensive check-up, tune-up,rip off work done. We thought we could probably get a better price on doing this since Kenny is the big dog at the dealership. I guess we did, but $1200 later makes me want to gag, especially when $800 of it was for labor. We ate out the whole time we were at Kathy's: Cracker Barrel and Charlestons. We celebrated Sheryl's brithday at Charlestons. Kenny is such a generous, generous man. He ususally pays for our eat out meals when we're with them. I really enjoyed being with the Oklahoma bunch. We also visited Nanny's and Granddaddy's graves while we were there.

October

1. Thursday, Oct. 2, we drove back to Albuquerque for the balloon fiesta. Laurel let Jessie and Brady stay home with us on Friday while she and Jim went into work for a few hours. When they got off work we went to a pumpkin patch to let the kids select pumpkins. That was fun. Later Friday night Anne and Chris arrived. Laurel rented them a hotel room fairly close to her house cuz there really wasn't enough room for everybody to stay at Laurel's house. We all went to the balloon fiesta on Saturday morning, arriving about 5:20 AM. The weather wasn't very cooperative that weekend, so many events were cancelled. But Chris and Anne got to take a balloon ride on Laurel's company sponsored balloon. Larry was lucky enough to get to help the balloon pilot and his crew set up the balloon and get it inflated. He also got to ride in the chase vehicle and help put the balloon away. I call that work, but he had fun. Since the weather turned really yucky, Larry and I didn't go back to the balloon fiesta. We stayed at Laurel's home and watched General Conference. We saw all the sessions except the first hour of the first session when we were returning from the balloon fiesta. All too soon it was time to say goodbye, pack up and leave for home. Anne and Chris left about two hours ahead of us on Monday morning, Oct. 6. We really enjoyed being with Laurel, Jim, and our grandkids. Love them all so much.

2. I attended the most fabulous HFPE in October. It was done by a couple of ladies who specialize in bread making. I learned how to make over 50 different kinds of bread in one hour using one bread recipe. I'm serious! From the time you begin mixing up the bread to the time you take it out of the oven is one hour. I won a DVD that night of them making bunches and bunches of different kinds of bread: cream cheese braided bread, pizza, Italian loaf, French bread, and innamon sticks, calzones, etc. Everyone who attended was so excited about this. The next day it was funny to see sisters from the ward out buying up the ingredients and utensils to make that bread recipe. Now, food storage isn't so overwhelming to me. If I can make this bread into meals to keep my family alive, I can do this. And I know what to store in order to be able to do it. In fact, I've made the bread recipe up three or four times since our HFPE meeting. One night I made Navajo Tacos and scones and they were absolutely fabulous. Each recipe makes four loaves of bread or whatever you choose to make with the dough. I'm anxious to share my newfound skills with my girls when everybody is here for Thanksgiving.

3. Anabelle's baptism was help at 11 AM on Saturday, October 11. It was a very nice meting. Josh did the baptizing and Larry did the confirmation. Norky gave a fabulous talk. She is a spiritual giant. One unusual thing happened during the service. Anabelle's bishop said a few words at the end of the meeting and then sang the song Remember from The Fantastics (I think) a capella. He did such a great job. That song fit so well into the theme of the meeting about remembering our covenants. A luncheon was held after the baptism at Josh and Norky's home. Good food and lots of friends and family. Oh, I forgot to mention that I had a bad cold, so Anne gave me a surgical mask to wear at the baptism so I wouldn't make anybody else sick. I got a lot of funny looks, and one little girl came up to me and asked, "Are you a doctor?" I cracked up.

4. David Farmer was set apart as a missionary on Tuesday evening, Oct. 14 at 7 PM at Pam's home. Man, he is a handsome young man. His stake president set him apart. I was flabberghasted because the stake president can't be older than 35 or so. He must be one very special person to be a stake president out here in Utah where there are so many spiritually strong men. David is going to the Connecticut Hartford Mission. Larry and I met the family at the MTC the next morning where David entered the Missionary Training Center. Mother still works at the MTC on Wednesdays in the health area. She always said she wanted to continue to volunteer there until David came through the MTC and left for his mission. Well, she made it. Matt comes home from his mission in Russia on Wednesday, Oct. 29.

5. My sweet Larry had his 59th birthday. He wanted a new set of scriptures, so the kids went together and purchased him a new set. Thanks bunches, kids. He picked out the ones he wanted. He said his old ones were just worn out. That's good. Wearing out a set of scriptures is a good thing to do. We went out to dinner on Friday night at the Olive Garden with all the kids who were in town. Josh and his family had gone to Disneyland earlier in the week and they hadn't returned by the time we went to dinner. Then we went to Mawmaw's where we had apple pie and ice cream. I think Mother enjoyed having us over at her house cuz we all stayed for a while and just chatted. Mother likes to do that. Sure do love my Larry.

6. Last Saturday we cleaned the front yard and got it ready for winter. I harvested my first pumpkin harvest. I was so proud of those pumpkins, even though they didn't have time to turn completely orange. I grew them in the front yard flower bed outside our bedroom window. I didn't do too bad for a first harvest. I made a display on the front porch of what I grew.

That about catches up the news. I took lots of photos of most of this stuff, so I'll get my scrapbook pages completed soon and post the photos that show these activities.

More New Pages

I really, really, really, really like doing digital scrapbooking. I made a couple more pages this afternoon. The first one is of Cody on the day we put him on the plane to fly back home after staying with us for a few days. The second one is of Larry on the day we took Calley to the U of U to move her into the dorm. Photo shot after moving all her stuff up and down two flights of stairs several times. Ain't he a cutie?

New Scrapbook Pages

Well, I wanted to do these scrapbook pages so badly that I couldn't sleep for thinking about it. So I got up and here I sit in the computer room at 2:30 AM with my pages of Calley's going off to college all done. I think they turned out dang good. See blog entry below which tells about these photos.

My Baby's Gone

Eighteen years have come and gone, but it seems like only yesterday we brought Baby Calley home from the hospital. Now my baby isn't a baby anymore and has gone off to college. Let's go back to yesterday.

Anne and Chris were both off from work, and they wanted to take Calley to lunch for the last time before she left for school. So, Chris, Anne, Suey, Abby, Calley, and I went to lunch at the Pizza Factory in Pleasant Grove. We went there so Suey wouldn't have to come all way into Provo and Abby would still be able to take her afternoon nap before it got too late. Larry didn't go because he was home working. We had a great time together.

Calley packed most of her stuff for college yesterday too. She packed huge rolling suitcases so it would be easier to transport up to the third floor of her dorm. I think she did a really good job of packing away everything in her room and packing up things to take to college. She had been in contact with her new roommate through email, I think, so it was decided that Calley would take the bed against the window. That much was decided before we left home.

So, the plan was to leave on Thursday (today) about 1 PM so we could be there when the new roommate arrived cuz I wanted to meet her. But Calley had everything read to go by 11:30, so I quickly got dressed, Larry, Calley, and Chris packed the car, and then Larry, Calley, Anne, and I left for the University of Utah. We stopped at Sonic in Orem for lunch on the way out of town. Then on to SLC. We got to the Chapel Glen dorms about 1 pm or so. Calley got herself checked in and got her room key and her U of U id card, which she will use for everything including opening the outside door to the dorm. Then we began our two or three trips from the parking lot,traipsing up the sets of stairs to her room. Her roommate had not yet arrived, so after everything was in the room from the car, we helped Calley unpack her stuff. Larry and I wanted to take the suitcases back home with us cuz there was nowhere for Calley to store them. The room was of a nice size with two beds, two desks, and two chests of drawers, a single big closet, and a bathroom between the two rooms of the suite. Of course I had to go into the other room of the suite and introduce myself to the people over there. Calley came with me and introduced herself to her suitemates -- Kate from Cedar City and Catherine from Logan. We continued to help Calley unpack. I'm sure she really wanted us to leave, but we hung around and helped her anyway. She bought a mini refrigerator and also took a microwave from home to keep in her room. Larry, Anne, and I went to Smith's Marketplace and bought her some extra storage containers she could slip under her bed and took them back to her. Just before we left to go shopping, her roommate arrived -- Briahna Mounteer from Taylorsville. She had only brought some of her stuff with her, so they unloaded what little bit they brought and then went back home to get more.

When we returned with the storage containers, Calley had everything all put away. Her room looked cute. By that time it was after 4 PM and time for the new student / parent reception in the Heritage Center dining hall. When we got there, we were encouraged to go on in cuz the luau dinner was free for everybody. That was quite a deal. We stuffed ourselves. Calley met up with her friend Macey, who she was originally supposed to room with before she decided to enter the Honors program and live on the Honors floor with the other Honors College students. Only thing I don't like about the dorm is that it is co-ed. There are some guys that live down the hall from Calley's room. When I first entered college and lived in a dorm, guys had to stay downstairs in the lounge area. And when I lived in an apartment at BYU, no guys could go past the kitchen area -- definitely not into the bedroom area. So this co-ed stuff is quite a shock to me.

After we had dinner, it was time to say good-bye. So here Larry and I are at home in this big old house. Thank goodness Chris and Anne are living with us. But that won't last forever.

I am in the process of making scrapbook pages of all the photos I shot yesterday and today. Will post as soon as they're done.

Cody Left Today

Well, we got to keep Cody with us for a little over a week after Jenni and her family left for Logandale. It was so fun to have him up here. He's such a good, good, grandson. He and Calley get along so well -- they're just best buddies. Calley and I took him to the airport this afternoon to catch his flight to LV. Worried grandma that I am, I went into the building with him and made sure he knew everything about getting through security and making it to the correct gate. He probably was rolling his eyeballs into the back of his head behind my back thinking that he was big enough to do this on his own, which he was. But I'm his grandma and wanted him to be comfortable on this first flight by himself. I even had him call me from the gate so I knew he found it alright. Could I be overprotective?

I had to talk in Sacrament Meeting yesterday. I was given the choice of The Eternal Nature of Life or Opposition in All Things. So I chose to talk on The Eternal Nature of the Opposition of All Things in Life. I sweated that talk all week. I wrote it twice, revised it once, and then when I gave the talk I added different stuff. I think it turned out OK. Lots of people said they enjoyed it. One man even wanted a copy of it, so I gave him my talk.

I got a new calling yesterday too. I will be the Visiting Teaching Coordinator -- not a supervisor, but the coordinator. I think that's the person who gets the reports from the supervisors at the end of the month, but also ends up calling lots of people who don't report to their supervisor. I'm glad to do it. I think it'll be a fun calling.

We fed the missionaries dinner yesterday too. Elder Liau from Singapore and Elder Hickmott from Abilene, Texas. It was fun to have them here. I cooked a roast beef dinner for them. They were terrific elders. We enjoyed having them in our home.

A Little Update

I've decided that I don't really like blogging. And the only reason I can think of that I feel this way is that I'm lazy and forgetful. Too lazy to write about something when it happens, which isn't often, and too forgetful to remember to write about it later.

Cody stayed here with us when Jenni and her family went home last Saturday. He is such a good boy. I have enjoyed having him around so much. It is hard for me to believe that my first grandson is now in high school. He's tall and just a handsome young man. He fixed dinner for us on Monday night and then he made crepes last night. Guess I have to say that my Calley helped him. They are such good buddies. Most nights they make a run to Barnes and Noble. I don't know what they do there except I think they always get an Italian soda. Some nights after they leave B & N they go get ice cream too. They're having a blast being together. Chris, Anne, Calley, Cody, Larry, and I went to breakfast at Ihop with Mawmaw this morning. MMmmmmmmm. love those pancakes. Then since I felt like it was Saturday instead of Friday, I came home, took a nap, and finished the 4th book of The Great and the Terrible series by Chris Stewart. Good story, but kinda scary. The series is about the last days from an LDS perspective -- fiction. Sure makes me wanna get my ducks in a row.

I got released from RS, and I don't remember if I put that on my blog or not. No other call so far except for the newsletter. I wonder how important it is for me to slave on the newsletter like I do cuz this month after I sent the internet address for where I uploaded it to about 80 people in the ward, only one person has downloaded it. Yep, it has to be downloaded to even see it. Guess people are super busy. Oh, well.

As you can see, I'm just rambling. Don't know what to say. TTFN

Three New Digital Scrapbook Pages

On August 1, Mawmaw wanted to have a girls lunch with her children and grandchildren. But since Chris wasn't working and Larry had finished work, they went with us, as well as the great-grandchildren. She gave us a choice of going to Chuck-a-Rama or Sizzler, so we chose Sizzler. The occasion was to celebrate the fact that Amy's baby is a girl. She had a sonogram that confirmed it. We eat to celebrate anything. After lunch we went to Mawmaw's and picked hundreds and hundreds of little green apples off her apple tree. The limbs were weighed down by the weight of the apples. We made a little headway but there are still tons of apples left to fall off in the fall and be picked up then. Larry also checked on a leak in Mawmaw's sprinkler system.

I finally made a scrapbook page for Jessica and Russell's visit with us in July. Even though we didn't do much, we really enjoyed having them here.

On July 24, Chris. Anne, Suey, Ryan, Abby, Larry, and I went to see Kung Fu Panda. It was the first movie Abby saw in a theater. She was so dang cute. She giggled at squealed in delight at all the right places. She saw on my lap and just concentrated on the movie a good portion of the time. After the movie I tried to get the gang to stand in a Kung Fu pose, but alas, only Larry and Ryan cooperated. The rest were poops.

Catching Up

I'm behind again already. Didn't I just write on this blog yesterday???

Well, the water problems are finally fixed, well kind of. We still haven't put the bedroom back together, and every time you turn on a faucet, at least in the master bathroom, the water pipes sing. Don't know what that solution is.

Still didn't get released from RS on Sunday. Maybe tomorrow.

Last Monday I went to Dr. Peterson for my annual check up. I absolutely hate stirrups. My mother, get this, even asked when I visited her after the doctor's appointment if I got the "ol two fingers". I couldn't believe my momma said that. My health is OK except for my exceptionally high cholesterol levels. So now I'm going on meds for that. I sure like Dr. Peterson. I've been with him since I was pregnant with Jenni. Even though he is a family physician, he took care of me for all my pre-natal visits with all my kids. That's about 33 1/2 years he's been my doctor.

Larry had a diabetic check up with Dr. Peterson recently. The doc sent him for a heart stress test, which Larry took on Tuesday. Everything turned out find there -- no heart problems for Larry. We just both need to get out butts in gear and do some exercise so we can lose some weight.

Jessica and her family came from SLC on Saturday to spend a few days with us. It was great to have them here. Those three kids are growing so fast!!!! Garrett is especially fun to watch. They are all so precious. Larry went with them to Thanksgiving Point to the dinosaur museum, and they did some other stuff while they were here. All too soon they had to leave on Friday about noon. I watch them quite a bit online as they travel on the Blackberry GPS.

Friday afternoon Mawmaw took a bunch of us out to lunch at Sizzler. This was to celebrate the fact that Amy is going to have a baby girl. Mawmaw says that when we find out what Suey is going to have, she'll take us out to lunch again. After lunch we went back to her house and pulled hundreds of apples off her apple tree. The limbs were almost touching the ground from the weight of the apples. We only got those we could reach from ground level, but with so many of us doing the work, we got done really fast. Even Calley, Memphis, and Dax helped.

I no longer work at the temple on Tuesdays. I might have mentioned it in another blog that getting up so early and sitting for 4 hours was a killer on me. So I asked to go on the substitute list instead. That will suit me better, I think. I really enjoy being in the temple at the phones.

Laurel called earlier this week and said she could get Girl Scout cookies for $1 a box if we wanted any. I told her no, that I'd pass this time cuz they just go onto my rear end anyway. I mentioned it to Larry, and he immediately said to order a case of Samoas and a case of Thin Mints. I didn't know he ate GS cookies. I thought I was the only one. Oh well, can't wait to get those cookies delievered.

I bought Breaking Dawn today when we were at Costco. I really wanted to go back and reread all the previous Belle and Edmund books before I got this one, but couldn't resist the urge to buy it. So I'll read it, along with the two other books I'm reading right now, Plain Truth by Jodi Piccoult and Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale. I love reading.

If We Didn't Have Bad Luck, We Wouldn't Have Any Luck at All

or Water Problems come in Fours.

A few blogs ago I wrote about how our basement flooded when a valve on our sprinkler systerm blew during the night due to a faulty repair and gushed water that flooded our basement for five hours before we found what had happened at 3 AM. That problem finally got taken care of and all was well again. Well, that was #1.

#2 Chris and Anne reported about three or four weeks ago that the carpet in their bedroom closet was wet. We found that something in the utility room right next to their closet was leaking, either the water softener or the water heater. But we couldn't find the problem to fix it. So the water would dry up, and then the carpet would be wet again. I finally realized that the water softener was leaking water every time it recycled. That is when it would cover the utility room floor and run under the wood frame into the bedroom closet. But then #3 happened.

We found that water was leaking down the side of the water heater and we had no idea how to fix that. Larry kept towels applied to the side of the water heater to soak up some of the water until we could get George, our frendly plumber up here to check everything out. In the meantime, Larry had the water softener people, from whom we had purchased the water softener system right when we moved into this house seven years ago, come out. The repair guy said that the softener was cracked on the inside and it was because the water pressure valve failed and the water pressure coming into the house was too high, so the pressure broke the softener. AND we would have to buy a new water softener. That didn't set too well with us because we paid too much for the system when we bought it, and a replacement was going to cost between $350 and $400. That was puzzling to us that the softener only cost that much because we paid much, much, much, much, more when we bought it the first time. Larry pointed out the the water people that they had put on the water pressure valve and it wasn't our fault it had failed. After going to the top man in the company we finally found resolution with us paying a $50 deductible to have a new water softener put in.

In the meantime, George came out to check on the water heater, which we found was out of warranty by one year. He told us that he would change the water pressure valve for us and then we would see if that solved the leak in the water heater. So, $131 later, with a new water pressure valve installed, the water heater still leaked. So we asked George to please get us a new one and come install it for us, which he did to the tune of $691. That wasn't too bad a price because the water softener people were going to charge us over $900 for the same thing. Anyway, we now have a new water heater and water pressure valve and we're waiting on the water softener people to put in a new water softener on Thursday. Larry was told to get a water pressure tester and check the water pressure going into the house every so often. He did that today and checked the pressure. Guess what??? The water pressure was the same as it was when the water softener man told us the previous valve had failed.

Larry called George to find out about the pressure problem, if it really was a problem, but before I could find out George's answer, #4 occurred.

Larry and I went to dinner with Jessica's family and Josh's family tonight at Red Lobster. (mmmmmmm cheddar biscuits). While we were at the restaurant, it began to rain cats and dogs. We haven't seen a rainstorm like that in a long, long time. I asked Larry when the rain started if he thought the downstairs bedroom that has flooded in the past when a bad rain came would be OK. He said Yes, that he had cleaned out the gutters above that bedroom window. Ya see, the downspout right beside that bedroom window always gets clogged with leaves and debris in the fall. Well, he said he thought he had cleaned it out and we didn't need to worry. NOT!! Calley called us before we got home and said the bedroom was flooding. So we hurried home and sure enough rain water was pouring into the bedroom through the window well. It was a mess!!!! Sweet Calley had gone to work immediately to help staunch a mess that could have been worse. She had stuffed towels everywhere to catch the water. So Larry climbed up and cleaned out the gutter and downspout. Problem solved, except for the clean up. I didn't say too many cuss words, but I certainly do have to repent. We spent the next couple of hours cutting out carpet pad, moving furniture, sucking up water, etc. Chris came home from Anne's mom's house with Howie, Anne's brother-in-law, to help us. As of right now, things are kind of normal, except for the fact that Larry has to speak in two different Sacrament Meetings and a Priesthood meeting tomorrow and he hasn't had time to finish his talks yet.

My Sweet Hubby

Not much going on around here. A couple of blogs ago I wrote about not being able to sleep one night. Well, it took about two nights and two days to get back on my feet. I felt so lousy after losing all that sleep. It's gotten to where I take a pill to go to sleep and a caffeine pill to wake up and stay awake during the day. That's gotta stop. But today I finally felt good.

My sweet hubby bought me two PedEggs. Ain't that sweet of him? I'm always complainig about my horrible feet but can't afford to get pedicures as often as I'd like, so he bought the Ped Eggs for me. It works pretty good. I think it'll work really good after I get a good pedicure and then just keep my feet in shape with the Ped Egg.

My sweet husband also fixed dinner tonight. He came in from church about 4:15, changed clothes, and went straight to the kitchen to fix dinner. I didn't even go down to the kitchen until he called me to eat. I stayed in bed, where any good wife should be on a Sunday afternoon. Dinner was so good -- I think it was Swiss steak over rice. Yummy. We didn't have company for dinner today since it's the third Sunday. Calley and Anne made some yummy chocolate chocolate chip cookies for dessert.




Here's my latest scrapbook page.

Not One!!

No, not one wink of sleep did I get last night. I couldn't go to sleep to save my life. I was on the computer until about 12:30 AM watching Russell and Jessica's GPS moving along the map as they drove from Crescent Junction to West Jordan. I was so fascinated by watching that. Then when they finally arrived at Russell's mom's house, I got off the computer and went to the famy room to watch TV until I got sleepy, which never happened. I lay on the couch and flipped channels until 7 this morning, when I went and took a shower and lay down on the bed for a few minutes. I finally began to feel sleepy, but couldn't sleep long because I needed to get some stuff done today. So I've been dragging around here all day. But I did get this new scrapbook page done. Cute, huh!

Has It Really Been a Week . . .

. . . since I last wrote on this blog? Oh, well.

I must be a sick, sick, woman, or I have too much time on my hands. I love digital scrapbooking -- or do I? I have digitally scrapbooked about 30 pages, but here's the kicker. I really like searching for and downloading freebies. So far, this is what my sick mind has done: 521 separate background pages, 626 page kits, 724 photo frames, and 372 ploppers or quick pages. That means 35 gigibytes of computer space, 28,951 files in 983 folders. Is that sick or what???? I think I gotta put all my digital scrapbook stuff on an external hard drive and quit cluttering up my computer.

Hmmmm, what has happened in the last week? Jarah and her family were here, but they left on Saturday morning. Funny thing happened. Jarah and Ty thought their flight to Dallas left at 11 AM. Larry asked to look at their itinerary at about 7:45 AM or so, and he found that the flight left at 10 AM. So they panicked and hustled really fast to get out of here. It was fun to have them here even though we weren't with them much.

Also last week I finally got the newsletter for the ward done. It was a week late, but who's putting me on a schedule? It turned out really good, I think.

Monday Calley went to the University of Utah for her day-long orientation that she missed last week with the Honors College. She went with her friend Macey and her mom, so I didn't have to go up there and kill eight hours waiting for her.

Ryan's parents are in town for a visit from the Chicago area. Since Monday was Abby's 2nd birthday, they went to the zoo and then came back to Ryan and Suey's house for Abby's birthday party. Larry, Calley, Mawmaw, Chris, Anne, and I went to the party. Ryan grilled fabulous burgers and we had salads and chips with the burgers. Suey and Ryan had made a monkey cake for Abby since she is now fixated on monkeys. The party was a monkey theme with monkey decorations too. Greg and Deb, Ryan's parents, had taken Abby to Build a Bear Workshop where she made a stuffed monkey (see Suey's blog). She got lots of presents from her loving and adoring family. Suey and Ryan gave her the cutest little Schwinn tricycle. Larry and I gave her a digital piano on a stand, but the darn thing was broken and never played a note. Abby wanted to play on it so bad. Fun party.

The busted piano above.

On Tuesday, Suey and Abby came to our house and spent most of the day. Suey took the digital piano back to Toys R Us and got a really cute one with a stool in its place. Abby played on it a lot at my house that day. She's so funny. Chris had a huge stuffed Yosemite Same in his old bedroom closet that Abby found a few weeks ago. She started hauling it around and calling it a monkey. Suey and I transferred a VHS movie to DVD for her mother-in-law that afternoon.

Abby singing and playing on her new piano.

Russell and Jessica and their children are on the way here right now from Lewisville, Texas. They are driving, and I've been following them on Russell's Blackberry GPS tracking device that identifies their location on the internet. It's been fun to follow them on the map. I think Russell must be driving like a bat.

Gee, am I rambling or something. There really isn't anything really interesting to say. Well, I guess I could say that our health insurance is expiring on August 31 and we have to find some other coverage. Anybody know of a good company that won't make me sell one of my children and will cover Larry's diabetes?

I guess I'm gonna go find more digital scrapbook freebies now. TTFN

Ain't It Something . . .

. . . when you have to look at photos to remember what has happened within the past week. Getting old is the dickens!! Here's a photo of the Adams boys and Abby in my living room. They liked to write on the whiteboard. Cayden and Abby kept my living room in an uproar. They loved to take the cushions off the couches and make forts and just lounge around on them. Cayden insisted that the lights be on in there all the time. They had so much fun.
Calley and I went to SLC on June 30 for het to meet with her Honors College counselor and plan her class schedule. The counselor's name was Gretchen Wilson (no joke!). She was very knowledgable and did a good job helping Calley evaluate thing to put together a schedule. At that time Calley did not know what her AP test scores were, but when she found out the next day that she had scored two 5s and one 4, she knew she could skip some lower level classes. YEA!!
. What happened the first two days of July? I don't know. But on July 3, Jenni and Suey made craftsy thingies for the 4th -- a star necklace, a wand, and a hat. They turned out so cute. They even coerced Calley, Cody, Connor, Caleb, Cayden, Abby, Don, and me to help get the things cut out and put together.





Here are the end results, and yes, I "borrowed" these pics from Suey's blog.


. We went to breakfast at Village Inn the morning of July 4th. Chris and Anne spent the day with us but went to her family that evening. We were at breakfast about the time the big jets from Hill Air Force Bay were supposed to fly over for the parade, and we all know how Larry loves airplanes, so Don, Larry, Connor, and Cayden went outside the restaurant to wait for them. I took Abby outside so she could see them too. But they never flew over. Huh!!?? In the photo below, Larry is fake pointing. There were no jets to be seen. Mawmaw didn't go with us because her foot was giving her so much trouble.



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Sometime during the day on July 3rd and 4th Jenni made freezer pops and pudding pops. Here's a cute scrapbook page of that activity.

We didn't go to the parade or do much of anything else except eat, eat, eat. We had a barbecue late that afternoon and then went to Mawmaw's to shoot off fireworks since they are illegal to shoot off east of Canyon Road. But of course, I don't guess they're illegal for the next door neighbors, on whom we had to call the police because of their fireworks. Here's my scrapbook page of everybody wearing one of the Fourth of July hats the girls made. Cute, huh! Chris and Anne aren't in this because they were with Anne's family.

Fairly early Saturday morning, Jenni, Don, and the boys left for Logandale. About the time they left, Ty and Jarah and their kids from Lewisville, Texas got to the airport in SLC. They flew in for a vacation and to go to a Lewis family reunion in Bountiful. They stayed with Josh and Norky for four nights and now they are here with us until they leave on Saturday. They've been doing a lot of sight-seeing. Larry and I went to a barbecue at the southern Humphreys' home last night and spent time with all of them. Good food, Good company. Look at this cute photo I got of Alan and Anabelle and Jason and Sabrina.

I guess I have to begin posting more often because I can't remember squat. Calley had something happen to her on Tuesday, but she'll have to tell you about that. I don't know why these sentences are underlined, and I can't find how to turn the underline off.