Andrew’s earwig!

Lynda Ann sent me this picture of an earwig that Andrew made out of rice crispies!  Disgustingly real looking and yet the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.  Annie said that she help with the shape but turned the frosting and colors over to Andrew.  The eyes were gob stoppers and the legs were fruit roll ups.  The earwig was the size of a cookie sheet.  He had to have it for a school project.  Everyone had to make an insect at home to bring to school.  Two creative minds and look what you can come up with.  Can I just say I’m thankful that I’m in a different season of my life!!

Building or Creating a Snowman

Saturday afternoon James brought River over for me to tend while he went to work.  Lyndsy was in Las Vegas running a race.  It had been snowing most of the day and we had a lot of heavy wet snow.  The first thing River wanted to do when he got here was build a snowman.  So he and Pa quickly got to work.  It was interesting to watch the two of them working on the snowman.  Each had their own concept of what the snowman should look like and how big it should be.  As I watched, I think Pa was most definitely in charge of how to build it, where to place the arms and how to arrange the face.  But, River did help a lot and both were very pleased with their handy work when the stepped back to survey.  The only comment River made when it was all done was, “Pa, it isn’t very big.”  Neal told him that it was as big as he was and that seem to satisfy River.  When he came over he didn’t have any snow boots or gloves so I had him put on my boots and my gloves. 

The Las Vegas Ragnar

Tucker and Lyndsy, along with some Maxfield cousins ran in the Las Vegas Ragnar Race this past weekend.  From all the comments on Voxer they seemed to had a fun adventure and one that they will long remember.  Tucker was good enough to send me some pictures so I could vicariously be a part of what they were doing. 

Not sure what the hairy leg tattoo is but it does belong to Tucker . . . .

Mallory’s first band concert of the year.

Thursday evening was Mallory’s first concert.  She called me and asked me if I could come.  I told her that I would do my best to be there but with my Tuesday through Thursday commitments I just didn’t know if I could make it.  As things worked out, I was able to be there and surprise her.

Winter has settled in.

This was a picture taken on Wednesday, driving into Stansbury Park.  The temperature was about 65 degrees.  I love how the trees line the main road going to Annie’s home.  They are particularly gorgeous in the fall.

These pictures were taken this morning – two days after the above pictures.  The temperature dropped dramatically into the 30’s and I would say that we are officially into winter.  But, in Utah, one never knows for sure.  I did hear the weatherman say that we would be back in the upper 50’s by next week! 

As You Wish!

Emmi said that she and (we can offically say) her boyfriend went as Buttercup and Wesley for Halloween.  She then told me that there is a girl’s choice dance coming up so she asked Derek to the dance.  She sent me a picture of how he answered her. This was all lit up and sitting on her front porch.   I thought it was very clever.  Huge points for Derek’s thinking!

Annie sent me a picture of Hayley’s birthday cake.

This is the new movie character that just came out.  This is Wreck-It-Ralph.  He is a video game.  He is a bad guy in a video game but he wants to be good.  It is a new Disney movie that just came out.

I have to teach a RS lesson this Sunday in one of the wards.  The lesson is on “Live Up To Your Privilege”.  I’m going to use the quote: “ If you live up to your privilege, the angels cannot be constrained from being your associates.”  Joseph Smith.  So I created (all by myself – without Lynda Ann’s help – which is a miracle in and of itself!) these angels that I’m going to pass out in RS to go with the lesson.  I am actually pretty proud of me!  They are not quite finished.  I still have to tie a white ribbon around their necks with the quote and a tiny gold bell attached.  I made a total of 43 and only burned two fingers with the hot glue! 

Two more Halloween pictures. Tucker, River and Lyndsy

Halloween costumes

I just never got into dressing up.  I can go clear back to my earliest memories and I just don’t remember getting into Halloween.  Maybe because I always want to look my best and looking my best is being more matching and tailored.  Who knows.  I have no explanation for my dislike of this holiday.  However, I’m glad that my posterity enjoys it.  Here are some fun pictures.  The first two pictures are me and my co-workers.  Nancy on the left is a squirrel, I’m a witch and Megan is a chipmunk.  Ron Lund just stepped into the picture. 

I left work and headed right to Maren’s.  Horrible time to be on the freeway.  5:00 o’clock traffic south bound traffic is very slow.  It took me over an hour to get there but I arrived safe and sound.  I didn’t get to see Jaden and Taylor as they were already out running from house to house.  Maren had some delicious soup prepared.  Maren told me that Taylor told her she was too old to be dressing up and that she was embarrassed to have anyone see her mom!  Maren went to the school and took pictures and apparently Taylor was mortified. 

Random pictures

These are of Neal that were sent to me from Tucker.  Tucker said this a Neal sleeping while in the middle of texting!  Amazing, isn’t it?  He could have been driving!!  I’ve also got some cute pictures of Neal and Tucker at the game but my lack of computer skills gets a little frustrating some times and I’m not having any luck getting them on to my computer from my phone.  I was able to get these three but for some reason can’t get the ones from Derek or the others from Tucker.  I’ll figure it out or get Mindy or Lyndsy over here to show me what I’m doing wrong.  Don’t you just hate it when your kids are smarter and quid

Sunday–a day of rest?

Sunday is always a very busy day for Neal and I.  Between his Bishopric meetings and my RS assignments we seldom get home much before 4 or 5 and usually start the day at about 6:00 a.m.  By the time evening rolls around we are pretty much spent!

This Sunday had two bonus meetings that I was able to attend both of them and Neal was able to get to one of them.  The primary programs are always in the fall so we usually find ourselves bouncing from one to another.  Today was a perfect example.  I’m just grateful that the meetings were not at the same time. 

I went to Grayson’s this morning at 9:00 a.m. and then hurried to River’s at 11:00.  The meetings are across the Valley from each other but with it being Sunday and few cars on the road I was on time for both.  Like most things in the church, the outlined programs were interpreted differently in each primary but the message was the same.  Choose the Right.

River also pointed out that he had lost a tooth that very morning, so we had to take a picture of that.

Friday night and Saturday

Friday night I hosted a dinner for my Stake Relief Society Presidency and spouses and also invited Linda Knight and her husband.  She was my secretary for over a year when they called her to be the RS President of Farm Hill Ward.  I always worry when inviting guests for dinner.  Of course, I want every little thing to be perfect from a spotless clean home to a delicious dinner and an enjoyable evening.  I think everything went as planned and the dinner of roast, potatoes, carrots, salad, fruit and home made rolls seem to be liked by all.  The dumb thing is that I had my camera sitting right on the side counter and didn’t take any pictures of the group gathered!  I was so disappointed when everyone left and I realized that not one snap shot had been taken.  I did take a picture of the table setting.  Neal and I laughed at how much that dinner cost us.  Well, it wasn’t really the dinner it all started with Neal buying a Tommy Bahama table cloth with matching napkins and finding out that we didn’t have one set of dishes that we could use with the table cloth.  That is when things begin to get expensive.  So I told Neal it wasn’t really the dinner that cost us so much it was his obsession with Tommy Bahama!!

Saturday I went to the gym to run my almost 3 miles.  I ran home and picked up Neal and we went to the farmers market. The picture shows a few items, we actually bought boxes!  This was the last day of the year.  As you can see we bought a little of everything!  Plus they had bakery products so Neal bought two different kinds of breads and a variety of sweet rolls.  From there we stopped at Fresh Market and he bought a fresh scone!  Can you tell, we had not eaten breakfast yet!

ThNext on the agenda was projects and Jaden’s football game. We were supposed to go to bridge at Howard and Tibby’s that evening but Neal was way behind on his school papers so had to choose between Jaden’s football game or bridge and he chose the game.  That was a big choice because Neal LOVES playing bridge.

Later that day I ran some errands and stopped in Macey’s go get some corduroy pants that were on sale.  I ran upstairs to the china department just to see if they had anymore accessories for our ‘new’ china and ran into this:

 

This is a punch bowl that Spode has just come out with.  I was so excited that I had to take a picture and send it to Neal and see if he was OK with buying it.  He loved it as much as I did so we now have a beautiful punch bowl to go with our Christmas dishes.  Can’t wait to use it during the holidays. It turned out to be an expensive weekend with the dinner, Farmer’s Market and shopping but it sure was a fun one.  Oh yes, I might add that the topper was that bothy BYU and the Utes won their football games. 

A post script to the Tough Mudder Race.

Lynda Ann talked to some of the doctors in ER and it was reported that over 450 participants of the race were taken to the medic tent and some from there were transported to the ER room.  I think that gives you a more realistic idea of how incredible hard that race really was.  Maren made it through with flying colors.  I talked to her a couple days later and she said she was a little sore but not as bad as she had anticipated. 

Lyndsy finished our 2010 family reunion book!

The book was delivered tonight and I’ve gone through it a dozen times already.  Lyndsy captured some great pictures taken by all the family members.  Nice that we all have cameras and are busy taking pictures for posterity.  Thank you Lyndsy for putting together another wonderful reunion book for the family.  I’m sure as people gather, this book will be looked at over and over.  It is fun for the grandchildren to look at the books from the past and present and see how much they have changed over the years. 

I was tending Grayson for an hour this evening and this is a picture of him looking through the book and finding pictures of himself!’

It’s official

For the first time in my life I finally gave in and bought a membership to a gym.  I’ve taken up jogging again and for safety reasons and weather issues in Utah, I became a gym member.  I used to jog years ago and then gave it up.  But I’ve noticed the older I get, the more my body seems to soften, like butter left out at room temperature.  Everything starts dropping and spreading, thus, I’ve entered the serious jogging world again.  Because I’m a county employee and a senior the year pass didn’t cost a huge amount.  I bought it just in time because we’ve had snow on the ground for the past two days.  Can’t jog outside in that.  It is nice to be on a nice track in a nice gym, safe and sound.

New stuff!

We finally gave in and went to RC Willy for their weekend sale and bought a new front loading washer and dryer.  It isn’t as if we’ve needed it or anything.  Just about every time I did a load of wash the washing machine would dance across the kitchen floor.  Do you remember the scene in Overboard where Goldie Hawn is using the old wringer washer and it starts coming at her and she went after it with a plunger?  Well that is close to what mine did.   I would often have to run downstairs when I heard it banging against the dryer or the wall, stop it and push it back in place and then start it up again and let it finish spinning while I sat on top of it to balance it!! Seriously.  I’m sure it would have been quite a sight to behold.  Half the time I thought the tub was going to bang its way right through the shell of the washer!  Then when the cycle was finished I would take the clothes out to put them in the dryer only to discover they were still very wet.  Not much of the water was spun out of them.  So, consequently the dryer worked harder and longer to get the clothes dry.  Yup, that was my life every Saturday!  Finally, I had had enough.  I went to RC Willy on my lunch hour and checked out the front loading washer and dryers and then had Neal go with me on Saturday to look at them.  He knew it was time and we bought them.  The day before they were to deliver them, I had Neal pull out both washer and dryer so that I could clean underneath them.  Wouldn’t want anyone to see any dust or dirt!  (I put that in for Jeff and Mindy)  Anyway, when we pulled out the washer the whole area was covered with grease and oil!!  Black as could be.  It took some serious scrubbing to get the floor clean.  I think that alone convinced Neal that we had done the right thing. 

There is a little more to the story.  When they were delivered and as they unpacked them we noticed there were two small dents on the side of the dryer and one tiny paint chip on the top.  RC Willy said they would give us 10% off and I said, for 3 dents we should get at least $100.00 off and they agreed!  I don’t care about two tiny dents, I just care about a good price, which we got and two working machines that I don’t have to sit on top of! 

Saturday Evening and projects!

Annie asked me if I would help her with a couple of projects.  So after I got home from the race we tackled and finished two major projects that she had.  Quilt tying always goes so much faster when you have someone helping you put the quilt on the frame and then tying them.  I had not eaten all day so I had a nice hot bowl of home made chicken noodle soup that Annie had waiting for me.  With projects done and one game of Shanghi I was on the road to home at about 9:00.  I put a movie on to relax and promptly fell asleep.  I have to admit, it was a busy and rather exhausting four days.  But all was accomplished and it was a great four days too.