Abby and Emmi in town!

 I always love it when Abby and Emmi come to town at the same time.  Seems like there is always a lot of activities planed with fun adventures.  I'm grateful at 80 that I can still run with the best of them.  They were all at the house and getting ready to leave and I wanted a picture with them.  I was sorry that Hayley wasn't with us at the time these pictures were taken.  There is always something done or said to make me laugh.

Finally getting a little bit serious.

The next day, Mallory need to run her car to Quans so Sprout and I drove out there to pick her and Brinkley up.  On the way back, Mallory snapped this cute picture of the boys in the back.  Can you stand it?!  How cute is that?!!

Counted Cross Stitch

I have a lot of counted cross stitch projects that I have done over the years.  Given many to family members and some to close friends.  When we had our house painted, we took down all the pictures from the walls including the cross stitch.  Our new decor' doesn't really adhere to the cross stitch look and so I had to go through them and decide what I would take to DI and what I would keep.  Here are some of the possible give aways:

 I love them all but just don't have room to hang all of them.  I did mention to the Gertson's that I was thinking about hauling them off to DI and I got a resounding "Don't do that yet.  Give us a chance to look at them."  I honestly didn't think anyone would really want them.  I was wrong.  Most of them were taken and the ones that they couldn't take, I've put their name on the back.  

Scrabble

 Neal and I have a standing weekly scrabble game that we usually play on Sunday afternoon barring any unforeseen events or visitors.  We do keep track of our wins.  The first game I ever played with Neal was when we were dating and I told him that I would beat him, which I did by one or two points.  Since then, it has been an ongoing contest.  Right now we are tied.  I had won about 7 games in a row and he has since caught up to me and yesterday was his tying win!  We like to play out on the patio if it isn't too hot.

Wicked!

 The night that we have all been waiting for finally arrived.  Lynda Ann had bought all of her family tickets to Wicked and Neal and I joined them.  The tickets were expensive but so worth the money.  Abby and Emmi both flew in from LA and Hawaii for this special event.  Antonio was supposed to come but it ended up that he had to work so Annie gave the ticket to Tucker.  

Tucker, Neal and I drove into town and had dinner at Gourmandise.  Fun place to eat and delicious food along with rows and rows of delicious pastries.  And yes, we bought some pastries as we were leaving.  Not possible to eat there and not buy one of their pastries that they are famous for.

We had a few minutes so we drove closer to the theatre, parked and walked over to the square to eat the delicious treats.  Then we headed toward Eccles Theater, which was only a couple blocks away.  It was a beautiful night!

We met the group at the theater and had this fun picture taken of all of us.

What an incredibly fun evening.  The play was amazing, as you would expect!  The company even better.  We had such a good time.  After the performance we wandered over to the Cheesecake Factory, which was about 1/2 block away, bought some cheese cake and then wandered over to some outside table and enjoyed our dessert.  Thanks to Lynda Ann for taking the time to get the tickets for everyone and arrange such an incredible fun evening.  

Fun and Games

 We had the Cutlers over for dinner last Sunday.  We couldn't get together with them on Mother's Day so we had them come the next Sunday.  They spoiled me with some very nice gifts.  

After I opened my gifts we sat down for a delicious dinner of grilled chicken, potatoes, veggies, salad, etc.  It was nice to have just one family there and be able to talk to each grandchild individually and find out what they are up to and what their plans are.  Taylor is just finishing her college degree at UVU in December of this year and is staying busy with all her traveling.  She had been back to New York and to LA.  She is quite the traveler.  

Brock graduates high school next week and is planning on going to school somewhere back East so that he can play college Lacrosse.  He also share that for the summer he is a life guard at a recreation center in Herriman.  He said that he saw two girls go up on the high dive.  The older one jumped in followed by the younger one.  He notice the younger one couldn't swim and when she hit the water she started treading to keep her head above the water.  Brock saw she was in distress so he blew his whistle three times and jumped in the water and pulled her over to the edge.  Very exciting to have a moment of positive reaction and saving someone's life.  

Boston is finishing up his school year and didn't have any particular plans except to hang out with his friends and enjoy his summer vacation.

Maren is in the middle of school and working.  She is getting her bachelor's degree in nursing and is hoping to travel around and teach nursing.  Proud of her for going back to school to get more education and advance in the nursing field.  

Greg is still working at the car dealership but is interviewing with Pella Windows company.  He may change, if the I interview goes well, and work in the sells department for them.  

Jaden wasn't able to come and he was missed.  He is busy working full time selling bathrooms and seems to be doing well.  He and his friend have bought a small houseboat and are spending every moment they can remodeling and fixing it up to take it to Lake Powell.  Jaden also has a ski boat and a truck to pull it.  

Seems as though the Cutlers are all busy and happy.  Loved having them over for dinner.  

Lots of Excitement!

My Saturday started out rather routinely.  Started the laundry, cleaned the floors and bathrooms and ran some errands.  About 1:00 p.m. Neal was out in the front and back planting more flowers for the patio and the front porch.  The temperature was perfect with a slight breeze so I sat down on one of the patio chairs and closed my eyes for a minute when I heard jets flying over the house.  Apparently Hill Airfare Base Pilots were out practicing maneuvers and what a show they put on right over our house.  There were four jets and they kept circling around and coming back in different formations.  You can never get tired of the jets.  I just love them.  It was almost like being at the 4th of July parade.  The event last for about an hour.  I was able to capture a couple pictures.

They were so close that sometimes I almost felt like I could reach up and touch them.  So exciting!!

Not long after the jets were gone and I was just settled back in my chair when Sprout started barking like crazy (nothing unusual there) but this was much more intense.  All of a sudden we saw four policemen come across our lawn and jump over our 6' fence!  It was quite a sight to see.  There were patrol cars going up and down the area behind our house and one out in the front.  The police also jumped the pool fence and had their guns drawn and their bullet proof vests on.  Two of them stood on either side of the restroom door and with their fingers counted off one, two three and then burst open the door.  They did the same thing on the other side of the pool at the storage room.  Wow, just like on TV!!!!  Well this search when on for nearly 4 hours.  They asked Neal if he had seen a girl with a white long sleeve t-shirt come anywhere in the yard of over the fence.  Neal told them that he hadn't seen any thing.  The police told us that they were chasing down to people.  They had captured the guy but the girl had taken off and got away and they were on the lookout for her.  They didn't say she was dangerous but their intense behavior led me to believe that she could be.  I don't know if they ever caught her or not but we sure locked our doors that night.

I walked with my friend Mindy and told her what happened.  She was gone all day Saturday so missed out on the excitement.  She commented that we are now living in the "Hood".  We laughed and laughed!!  Our quiet little neighborhood certainly had a busy and exciting Saturday.

 

Many Beautiful and Thoughtful Surprises

 Mother's Day rolled around once again.  It seems to do that every year.  :-).  Lynda Ann told me about a talk that was given at their RS by their Stake President.  She is going to try and get a copy of it.  But, this is the essence of the talk as she remembered.  And now as I retell it, it may lose some of what was said but I think we will get the gist of the message.  It was good for me to hear and probably good for every parent who feels at a loss when their children don't stay close to the gospel of Jesus Christ.  

The Stake President talked about how a light house is a permanent fixture that doesn't move or go looking for the ships out at sea.  I shines its light and as the ships find the light they can follow its beam to safety.  He then related that to mothers (and fathers).  We are the lighthouse in our children's lives and can shine our light and hope and pray that our children will follow it to safety.  But, our Heavenly Father has given us all this wonderful gift of free agency and everyone has to use that free agency how they choose.  He also reminded us that Our Father in Heaven is the perfect parent and he lost 1/3 of his children.  We, as parents, can't be playing the "what if" game.  We just have to be steady in shining our gospel light and let our children have their free agency.  

I'm sure I haven't done justice to the Stake President's message but what I gleaned from what Annie told me, it is a wonderful message for me.  I've spent many hours playing the "what if" game with the Maxfield children and it doesn't lead to any solution, just a lot of frustration with no answers.  This talk was a good reminder to me and to Neal that we have to let our children have their free agency, love them unconditionally and keep our light shining.  

Back to Mother's Day.  When Mallory, Annie and I were in Tennessee I saw a sweatshirt that I considered buying and then talked myself out of it.  I love it and have regretted not buying it ever since we left Tennessee.  Unbeknownst to me, Lynda Ann found her receipt, got the phone number of the shop and ordered the shirt for me.  I was thrilled - beyond thrilled.  To think that she would take the time to research where we had been and at what shop that shirt was at was certainly going beyond the extra mile.  

Don't you just LOVE it and it is my color!  This is the logo on the front of the shirt.

Then to my surprise, there was another gift with it.  This is a sewing needle holder!  Yup, it holds your sewing needles so you don't have to put them down every time you have to leave your stitching to do something, which happens to me often.  You put this little magnet (about the size of a quarter) on your sleeve or somewhere on your shirt and when you have to put the needle down you simple put it on the magnet.  That way you don't lose them and you don't drop them, etc.  Could there be a better gift?  I doubt that.

The back side.

This cute card from Mallory.

My next surprise was a card from Neal with a pedicure in the future!  

Then I had another surprise on top of that.  Emmi had Mallory get me a gift card for the Habit!  I love that place and Emmi remembered that.  What a sweet heart to think of her Gam.  

I am a truly blessed and loved wife, mother and Gam!!!  And the message that Lynda Ann shared with me from her Stake President just made my day a very happy and calm one.  

A Nice Mother's Day Surprise

 Found this on the front porch this afternoon.  A beautiful bouquet of flowers from Jamie with this note:

I'm so grateful that Jamie and I can still be close to each other and be able to talk and be good friends.  I miss her greatly.  

New Visitors

 I really should have a little farm of my own where I can take care of animals.  I love going out in the morning and filling up the peanut holder for Chip, Dale and Nancy (actually we've counted up to six squirrels!) scampering through the trees.  Also filling the two bird feeders for every kind of bird and taking care of Quick and Quack who come by every morning and evening for some bread and duck food.  Thanks again Emmi for the duck food.  They love it!  And I'm sure it is much more healthy for them than bread.  And to add here that Sprout goes out with me to feed the animals and he thinks when I'm feeding the two ducks he should also get a bite of bread every now and then.  He gets very anxious.  

In case you are wondering, this is Dale.  You can tell by the anatomy!

Quick and Quack

And we also have two new visitors that have taken up their home in the Chip and Dale's tree nest!  Yup two woodpeckers, which are Ozzie and Harriett (and if you don't know who Ozzie and Harriett are you can look them up). The moved in some time a couple weeks ago and it has been so interesting to watch the battle going on between the squirrels and the woodpeckers.  The woodpeckers have quickly won the battle for the nest and, I think, have already laid some eggs.  The male sits on the nest all night and then some time mid morning the female come and they trade places.  I've loved watching this whole scenario.  It was also very interesting watching them clean out the squirrel nest and building their own inside the tree.  They were throwing all kinds of leaves and twigs out of the nest.  Fascinating.

These are the Northern Flickers which are common for the State of Utah.  Woodpeckers are protected.

This is Ozzie, the male.

This is Harriett, the female.  If you look to the right of the tree you will see Chip trying to get to the nest but Harriett will have nothing to do with it!  First bird I've seen the squirrels not have the upper hand on.

The female guarding her nest.

Often times in the beginning and they were cleaning out the nest we would see them taking a rest and just guarding the entrance.  It took the squirrels a couple weeks to finally get the idea that they weren't going to get the nest back for a while.  

I love Spring and I love nature!