I'm dreaming of a Blue Christmas

Something special for Alex's human.

Santa Blue wishing you a Very Merry Christmas!

Making Christmas

What is Christmas without baking? So we got all the grandkids together for a cookie making party. All the favorites: Peanut Butter Cup in a chocolate chip cookie, Peanut Butter Blossoms, and Chocolate Bear cookie dough with a candy cane kiss.

Putting cookie dough in mini muffin tins - Gwen and Madders did a good job. Melanie helped open candy.

Opening kisses and peanut butter cups but not eating any of them. (what a grinch for a grandma)

Hard at work with no breaks. After baking everyone was allowed to sample candy and of course eat a few cookies.

An artist at work while the cookies are baking - this is George Washington of course...

Three princess posing for a picture after all the baking was over

Tamales Part II

Wanted to share this email I got from the middle of the desert....

The tamales arrived yesterday. They were still cool, and tasted WONDERFUL! Thank you so much for all the time and effort. I was able to share with everyone in the unit, and even had enough for me to have a tamale lunch the next day. Albeit a painful one, as I selected habenaro sauce instead of jalapeno by accident.

It was nothing sort of a miracle; thank you so much for making it happen.

After all these years we finally found a Christmas Gift that was wanted and enjoyed - not an easy thing with most people, even harder with some.

These are the little miracles that make Christmas a special time of year.

Procrasti Nation

What country do you live in? I think that sometimes I reside in the Procrasti Nation.

We knew many months ago that we were going to have a girl baby. We knew that Brie would want a new dress for this new little girl. So why is it that with all the craziness that is my life I am not finished with this dress? First we decided to redo a bathroom - spending more time and money than we planned. We obviously didn't learn from my oldest sister that if you start a project it may take on a life of it's own. Now we do love our newly remodeled bathroom (except for the green bathtub and old medicine cabinet that we will hopefully redo in the spring). It was especially wonderful when abe's sister decided to come pay us a visit and get out of the land of cold.

So here it is Wednesday - with a blessing on Sunday - only three days away. One of which we will be helping with the Bishop's Christmas and then the Christmas program in the evening so that day is shot. Then on Sunday, it is my turn to give the lesson it is "Mothers who know stand strong and immovable in Relief". So sometime I need to finish up my lesson preparations. I may be finishing the last stitches in the middle of the night. But it will be done.

My most important other thing to do this week was to mail tamales to our Son-In-law serving in Iraq. We will see if he gets them and if he gets them and they are still edible that will be wonderful. They cost about $5 a tamale.

Here are a few pictures of a dress that according to the pattern is for an 8-13 lb. baby, but looks way too huge to me. I even cut it down a little because I think it may have fit Melly Roses older sister.

Smelly Rose

Tuesday - Oct 14th
As big sister calls her - melly rose

The last picture is less than one day old. She can already hold up her head for several seconds.

Getting ready for a party

Madison helped us clean with Scrubbing Bubbles to get ready for her third b'day party next week.

We gave her a mostly empty can and it was amazing how much foam she managed to get out of it.

Ah, the power of scrubbing bubbles...






After the bubble fest hairball showed us this wonderful Elmo costume. It of course ended up on Blue. unfortunately the body part was too short for his long self.

Degreening my life

Just wanted to post some really awful pics and hopefully some much better ones. The first two look like a room in a house that should be condemned. The second two are much more inviting. We should have taken a picture of before we took the built in desk and shelves out - but didn't think about it in time. I love the fact that the room ended up a slightly darker shade of the same color that it started out with before they built the desk. This is visible in the first picture. What you can't see is the beautiful wooden floor that needed ever so little TLC - it has been covered with carpet for years.

Painting by a famous artist

Just wanted to share my Fitzsimmons original with you....

Nothing political about it, even though he is a political cartoonist for the Az Daily Star in Tucson.

It even looks a little like me - long neck and all....

Tune o' Fish

Wednesday we had a piano tuner come to tune our piano. We moved the piano back into the living room where it had been for years. I decided to vacuum it out and remove any spider webs or various assorted other things that tend to accumulate in pianos. As I was looking around inside I noticed something that was in amongst everything. When I opened up the top of the piano and removed the item - a magazine - a miracle occurred. B flat had been an impossible note to play for years - along with a few other notes that you had to almost bang on to make a sound. Upon removing the magazine we now had all the notes back. When the tuner got to the house and finished his work, everything inside was right with the world. It may not be the most beautiful instrument - it has been pretty "loved" for over 40 years, but it does sound beautiful again.

Earlier that day abe went fishing and finally caught one of the big cats he has been trying to catch for years. 35 pounds of fish. It was quite a great day all around.

Quirk Factor MeMe

The Rules
* Link to the person who tagged you.
* Mention the rules.
* Tell six quirky yet boring, unspectacular details about yourself.
* Tag six other bloggers by linking to them.
* Go to each person’s blog and leave a comment to let them know that they’ve been tagged.

I was tagged for this- the Quirky Meme, by desertratmama

1. I love words. We went fishing one time and I forgot to bring a book. so I read every thing in the vehicle I could find, including all of the car manuals, the maps, etc.

2. Speaking of maps, I have to have one where ever we go. I will pull it out and look at it regularly to try and figure out where we are. Even on an airplane I will pull out the airlines magazine and look for a route of where the plane flies then try and figure out where we are.

3. We don't go to concerts because I can't deal with the crowds. Abe would probably love to go, but he knows that I am really weird about this. If we go somewhere I spend quite a bit of time planning how we will be able to get out when we are done - including which exit to drive out of.

4. Yep, I deal with things by ignoring them. We have had quite a few fights because I didn't tell abe something - didn't tell him because I didn't want to talk about it. If you don't talk about it, it isn't real. Not the best way of coping, but tends to be my way.

5. I enjoy creating spreadsheets with excel - including formulas that are linked from one workbook to another. I use spreadsheets for everything. Most people would create a document, I create a spreadsheet.

6. Regardless of how bad they are, I can't delete pictures from my computer. I probably have hundreds of th em that I just can't get rid of. Maybe I will find some wonderful thing in each of them.

As I don't know anyone that leaner doesn't know, I can't link to anyone...

One special day in July

After the craziness that was June we decided to get away for the fourth of July weekend- It was three days off for both of us. So we went on a geocaching adventure up the Coronado Trail in Eastern Arizona. A night with LandD, one night of camping and a night with MLT's in their new home. No fireworks as we were in our tent early trying to keep warm near Hannagan Meadow. We were hot and we froze and got rained on as we found over 30 geocaches.
A Blue Dog trying to find his way across a cattle guard near Big Lake.

At the trout hatchery with MLT's family

catching crawdads and chiggers before the thunderstorms started.

But
as
much
fun
as
that
all
was...

it didn't compare to the 18th of July, when we spent the morning in the temple.

Followed by lunch at Golden Corral with the inlaws and outlaws. We did miss out on the CostCo Cake they had at the BBQ and swim party that night (they didn't even save us a piece). But we were there for the best part - watching Madders make faces at herself in the mirrors in the temple.

One crazy week in June

Monday - an unshower at Itchiban's for the bride to be and a few special relatives

Tuesday - temple session with one of the groom's friends

Wednesday - temple session with the bride

Thursday - pick up one B at the airport and our other B baptism that evening




All seven g'kids together with great grandma.

Friday - Shredding beef for the wedding - temple with Bri and Scott - setting up
for the reception



Taxi that hairball made specially for the reception.

Saturday - early morning wedding shoot before the heat was too intense. Temple wedding with lots of family -thanks to all who came, Lunch at Pacific Rim --Sushi, Dim Sum, Mongolian BBQ-- and then home for the reception.

All but one for a quick family pic with our newest member.

Thanks to the MLT's who were there to help set up and serve the food, and all the other's who helped us get ready for this special day.

June in Atlanta

Stone Mountain


The boiled peanut man. We had to stop and try some fresh hot boiled peanuts as this seemed to be the thing to do when in Georgia.

Georgia Aquarium

Appalachian Trail - we hiked the trail (well a portion of it, a really small portion)

Brasstown Bald - the highest point in Georgia - we made the climb from the parking lot up. What you can see from the top - North Carolina, Tennessee, and South Carolina then of course there are all the trees. You literally can't see the forest for the trees in the entire state that we visited.

Just a day away

Monday we both had a break from work. Originally I thought we could get away for the weekend, but bishop had plans to be away. Then he came into our RS meeting and asked if we would help put together a "little food" for a wedding that was happening on Saturday night. So much for getting away before Sunday afternoon.

Saturday morning CC and I went to town and bought a cake and some food at CostCo. Then back to the church to set up our wedding arch complete with blue material from leaner's wedding and tulle from dacheese's wedding. Plants from CC's house and anything else that we could round up for an impromptu event. The bride and groom were very grateful as they weren't expecting anything and to say so myself, the room looked really nice.

Sunday afternoon we drove to Tucson and then on Monday we went geocaching south of there. Graveyards and a ghost town along with a box canyon and a few little hikes up hills. The weather was perfect for being outside. The sun shone brightly but it wasn't too hot. We took a picnic lunch with us and enjoyed each other's company. It was an almost perfect day.

efiL sI dooG

The day before the last day of April I went into the hospital to have a minor procedure done. While I would like to state that I had augmentation or something lifted, that would not be the truth. Fortunately the tissue that was removed came back benign. It took a few more days to recover from this than I thought it should. I managed to have the flu for a few days after that. Anyway, by Mother's Day weekend I was finally recovered. Work on Monday was great, I accomplished so much. Family home evening that night with G'rat's family.

Then Tuesday hit.

I left my phone in the car as I was going to just run into my office for a minute. 30 minutes later the phone rang, I noticed the number and wondered why abe was calling me. I started to explain that I forgot my phone in the car and he told me to just listen for a minute. He then told me that our Maddie had been air-vac'd to the valley. I locked my office and headed home to change vehicles and clothes and then down to the hospital. What a tough few days for our poor Brie and our littlest girl. It is so hard when all she wanted was a drink of water and we couldn't get her that. She wanted us to take her home. A late night Tuesday, a late night Wednesday, and Thursday they were able to bring her home. We watched her so that mom and dad could get some food and a prescription filled. She was so much happier and wanted to be a dog like Haley. So we played dog for awhile.

Tonight it is dinner in and some dumb movie on TV. efiL sI dooG is my new motto - I try to tell myself this all the time. Sometime it is easier than others to believe because truly "Life is Good" when you take time to reflect.

Thanks

For those of you who missed the grand event of helping me celebrate turning old, here was the hi-light of the weekend.....


Thanks so much to my two great sisters who planned everything. I was so surprised and really didn't expect anything. Thanks also to the rest of you who came all the way to cool town on Sunday.

I really thought that I had managed to turn old without too many people noticing, guess I should have known better.

Kid's eye view

Last week was the annual Father and Son's outing. We borrowed Bethanie and SLA and da bear's girl and I went to CG on a geocaching adventure and then to the Cracker Barrell as that is what Beth wanted for supper. As we were driving around we looked up at the sun and noticed the "sun dogs" on both sides of it. I remembered that abe told me when he was growing up that his grandfather was quite a weather guy, using the sky and animals to help him know what the weather was going to be like. Of course this was in the great state of wet SD, not our desert terrain. But it was fun to see them. The guys called us from the mountain and we asked them if they could see the sun dogs. They said they couldn't and we decided they must be looking at a different sun than we were.

Saturday we went to the lake and JVA was making fun of me when I told him that the sun dogs brought the clouds that covered the earth. I told him that I didn't dream them up and that his great g'dad would have told him all about them. abe didn't defend me though so JVA continued teasing me. I finally got abe to agree with me as we were sitting at Dairy Queen having a cone. abe said that his grandfather would have said they were a sure sign of rain.

JVA told us that he gets his weather forecast from channel 10.

I told him this was before Channel 10.

About this time, Gavin pipes up with, "So they only had nine channels?"

Ah, to be young.....

Happy Bri-Rhaynny day!

Any good reason to have a Costco cake.
Besides, Bri was in Hawaii for her 21 b'day so we had to wait to celebrate. Everyone was over including a few Simpers.

Missing pictures

So here is a picture of Brie and SLA cleaning my disgusting dirty kitchen cabinets for my Christmas present. Or anyway, it is where the picture would be if we had thought about taking one. We should have taken the before and after shots, but I'm not sure how we would have done that. They did remove every cabinet door, pull everything out of all the cabinets and drawers, scrub and throw away stuff, then line the cabinets and drawers, repaint and touch up what they could and put it all back together. It was quite a process, and took a lot longer than the day that they had planned. Anyway, as I don't have a picture. all I can do is let everyone know how great of a gift that was. Something that no one in their right mind will ever volunteer to do again. But then, I'm not sure anyone in our family is truly in their right mind...

Pictures from a day at the zoo and paint

A little bit of cheese


Here stingray, stingray....


How many girls can fit on one camel?


Nothing better than riding a tree


Lastly, a picture of leaner painting our room.