Birthday Bonanza Week

Thanks to one daughter-in-law planning an impromtu egg coloring event and inviting all the locals over, we decided to end the evening with a surprise b'day cake for a grand old lady.



The two older kids picked flowers from G'pas garden. We ended the evening with ice cream cake from Safeway.



We will continue the birthday bonanza (something we learned from our other daughter-in-law) all this week and make it special for our mom, grandma, and great-grandma.

Pic from the Desert

He'll probably shoot me, but here is a picture of our Bear and his friend. It was a very dark picture and when I lightened it up it is a little grainy, but much more visible.

They are both almost smiling (LOL)!

Field trips and flowers

Monday, we took Katie to the Sonora Desert Museum and met Gavin on his first grade field trip. There were almost as many chaperones as there were kids, so we had Gavin to ourselves.


We managed to find the animals in every one of the locations we looked. The cats were mostly sleeping, but they were visible. The wolves were up walking around. The otter was also sleeping, which was sad because they are fun to watch. The beavers were in their den sleeping on their backs.



We saw a hummingbird sitting on her teeny tiny nest. Katie walked a lot, but by the time we were at the hummingbirds, she was done. So we decided we better head home.

When we got home we noticed that our Lady Banks (Tombstone) Rose was in full bloom. So we got a picture of all the kids that were at the house.

Other than it being a little warmer than it should be this time of year, we had a good day.

Girls climbing walls

Today we met at the Phoenix Rock Gym to celebrate dacheese and Rhayn's b'day. JVA had decided that he wanted to pay for them to climb for their birthday present. Rhayn is an experienced climber as we have seen in a few blogs of the past.

dacheese is afraid of heights and was determined that she couldn't get very high. We also took Bethie for this climbing adventure. SLA and JVA have been here a few times climbing. Will also joined us for the climb.

All of the climbers made it to the top at least one time - even dacheese!!! Bethie started out climbing just a few feet up before she was done with the climb, but by the end she had made it to the top of three different places.

Afterwards we all met at leaner's house for Corned Beef and Cabbage and of course b'day cake from Costco. It was a great day, thanks JVA for the fun.

Golden Birthday

Since we knew this was the year of Rhayn's golden birthday we have been talking for months about celebrating this on her special day. The biggest problem is that it fell on a Tuesday so we couldn't be out too late.

When LVH said that she was coming to Arizona and her g-daughter Jules would be here we decided to make a date of it with the two girls and us. We had celebrated dacheese's golden birthday together so it sounded like fun.

Rhayn's favorite food is French Onion Soup, so we started our adventure at Claim Jumpers. Rhayn had her cup of soup and cheesy garlic bread. For dessert we ate an IDeclair, or we shared one and attempted to eat it all.

After eating way too much we went to Arizona Mills and rode the carosel. Rhayn picked out a pink bunny and Jules picked a pretty horse.

On to the photo booth for pictures of the two girls. Since the technology has changed a lot since LVH or I have sat in one of these we didn't realize the girls were way too low. The first set of pictures came back as big white squares. So we had them pose again. Let's just say that they had their pictures taken.

Our last adventure was at the IMAX theater. We asked the girls if thy would like something to drink and the kid behind the counter said he would give them a cup of Icee and some popcorn for free. So they both chose white cherry icees and probably marched into the theater.

They both decided that this was a really big movie. The glasses for the 3D were a bit too big for both of these little ladies and had to be adjusted several times during the Deep Sea Adventure (narrated by Johnny Depp).

This was a very Big day - Big food, Big movie, Big glasses and one very Big Birthday Girl. Happy 6th Rhayn! Thanks for sharing this day with me.

The presence of presents

I was planning on putting this on my blog a few weeks ago, but haven't had time.

Abe said that he can't ever think of anything to buy for me. Anyway, a co-worker of his found this Book of Mormon at a yard sale and picked it up. The lady didn't charge him anything for it. He offered it to abe, because he thought abe might want it. So abe decided to give it to me for my birthday.

The publication date is 1874. The leather cover is a little worn, but it appears like new on the inside. Okay, to get really corny, we met in 1974, 100 years after this book was published. What a really neat gift, and so much neater than anything you could buy at the store.

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Now for the other "notable" present from my birthday - yes leaner and hairball, you know what I'm referring to - your gift to me. Let me just say it came in a bag with the word Castle written on it. It is a modified version of my favorite game - Yahtzee. I can't even leave it sitting around as the picture on the front is too descriptive.

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If these two presents aren't opposite sides of the coin, I don't know what are. I will not share my experiences with one of these gifts, but I may share from the other. You can just decide for yourself which of these is most like me.

Survival of the fittest

Yeah! it is Saturday! We survived this week. It was wild and crazy and pure chaos. On Wednesday, we had over 380 students touring the high school. Everything went well and even when the buses arrived late to bring the kids from the valley, we had enough time to adjust and allow each group a shortened time for their tours.

Thursday evening we had around 90 people at our expo. This doesn't sound like a lot, we were glad because we had over 15 8th graders and their parents there. I don't think we've ever had that many. We even had fabulous prizes, including a two-night stay for two at the Embassy Suites.

The best thing about this week is that on Monday we did manage our hike and geocache. On Tuesday there was time for a bike ride and on Wednesday enough time for another bike ride.

Not that fit, but yes, we survived.

It's all downhill from here

That should mean that it is getting easier to meet your goal, but if you are on a downhill slide that is a bad thing. This week that is what it was--a bad thing. Monday was great 30 minutes on the bike then a 2.5 mile walk with abe. Tuesday-- a late meeting then no time left to get anything done. Wednesday--to CG with abe for supper before the Stake Youth Valentine's Dance. We got out of here late and then of course everyone was eating out, so we didn't have enough time to go to a real restaurant. Supper at Filiberto's then off to the dance. I had planned on leaving him there and then returning home with ample time to exercise. Instead we stood around until 8 and we both left, bishop had finally arrived and we thought it would be okay to go. Thursday - well that is the blog prior to this one. Friday - my job is quite interesting, and this day I got to play bus driver so at 5:30PM I was on my way back from CG where I was picking up students. Saturday I actually had a meeting all morning and by afternoon I had to get home and clean the house. Can't convince it to clean itself unfortunately.

I am not looking forward to next week being any better as I have two huge events (my fault, I planned them) taking place at our school. Our annual 8th grade visitation, and our annual Career Expo. Since we are responsible for every aspect of this Wednesday and Thursday activity, not counting the two state meetings in Mesa, I also have to attend this week. I know Monday will be good as we will plan a hike or geocaching adventure, but the rest of the week does not bode well. If I gave up sleeping I may have time to get everything done. Needless to say, the last week in February I WILL SUCCEED!!!

Happy Birthday to me

To celebrate my very last birthday ever I took the day off work. I had decided that this would be the ideal time to sew the dress I was supposed to make for Rhayn's Christmas Present. We cut it out in January, and hadn't even sewn one stitch.

After pulling out my machine and having nothing but problems with everything I almost threw it in the trash. Finally I got the top done and realized that I hadn't cut out the skirt right. There were supposed to be two pieces and somehow I had cut only one. So I cut that one in half and also cut the band for the bottom in half. It made a shorter dress, but I really wanted to get it done. Abe called about 11 and told me he would be home at 11:30 so we could go do something. I managed to get the dress done before he got home.

We got in the truck and drove to leaner's house to give Rhayn the dress. We stopped along the way at Joanne's to see if they had any wonderful Valentine things on sale. They didn't but we found a wonderful pair of socks for Rhayn and a weird chicken thing for Gwennie that makes funny noises when you throw it. Rhayn loved her new dress and socks, but we told her not to wear them together.

Rhayn and I went for a drive and spent a little time together without g'pa and mom.

After that abe and I went to the theater and saw "the Work and the Glory".

Home by 8:30 so that we could both get some sleep (we are getting old after all).

No cake, but it was a nice day after all.

Weak too - or is that week two?

Were there really seven days this week? I think that this was one of those short weeks with only five days, no quantity, not much quality, and just barely meeting my goal- we got two walks in, plus a bike ride. I hope that next week will be better.

Lots of bubbles

Thursday I got to do something I haven't gotten to do in a really long time. Take a bath! Now that isn't as weird as it seems. We have two bathrooms, one with a shower, one with a bathtub. The hot water going into our "big" bathroom has slowly gotten worse over the past few years to the point that it wasn't much more than a drip. The plumbers came to replace the water pipes in the entire house on Thursday morning and by that night we had all new plumbing. Complete with water pressure that is amazing.

I told abe at 9 that I was going to take a bath, at 9:30 when I returned to our room he told me that I didn't stay in very long. So I explained to him that when you can fill the tub that quickly it doesn't take as long to take a bath.

We also have hot water to our kitchen, it too had slowed to a drizzle and was getting worse by the day. We had them replace the 15 year old water heater with one of the new tankless kind. It heats water as you need it and doesn't waste so much energy. They claim it can pay for itself in around three years.

Can't wait for one of those cold rainy days again, thats when I love doing dishes and soaking in a tub.

Super Bowl Sunday

After hearing that Superbowl is second in caloric intake only to Thanksgiving, I realized that we have been doing this right all along. We usually go over to our friends house and have hot-wings, chips, dip, potato salad, spinach dip, and on, and on, and on.

This year we missed the kick-off as we hadn't really gotten home from church early enough. But that didn't stop us from enjoying good food and good friends.

After eating an assortment of non-sweets we broke out the dessert around half-time: one Texas Sheet cake to celebrate mr. briep's birthday; a chocolate torte; and a cute cake decorated like a football field which included Peanut M&M players, a tootsie roll football, Hershey Hug's for refs and pretzel goal posts. We even turned off Prince long enough to sing Happy-Birthday to the birthday boy.


Then briep and SLA cleaned off the table and we pulled out the sewing machine, material, patterns, etc. To sew up a scrub top for SLA. Amazingly enough we were sewing the last seam just as the Bears bit the dust and the Colts came forth in a victorious miracle. Peyton Manning won that long waited for Super Bowl Ring.

After it was all over I realized that I didn't watch even a second of the game. Usually we move from the dining room to the living room off and on during the game, but not this year. So I just had to take the sad look on some of the faces that the Bears had indeed lost.

I forgot to ask abe this year who he thought would win, he has been right for the past 30 years, if we were just betting people we could be rich by now. Maybe next year? Nope we can't start now.

Ragged top

Yesterday we took JVA and SLA for a little geocaching adventure disguised as a hike. My thought was that we could find a geocache at the end of a trail somewhere. I found several in the Ironwood National Forest area down by Picacho Peak. The first obstacle we encountered was the Santa Cruz River, which had the nice sign "Do not enter when flooded". We stopped and talked about our options and about that time a truck drove up, and stopped to survey the situation. They too pulled out a map to see what their options were.

We told them that if they would drive through we would pull them out. They seemed a little adverse to swimming since it was less than 50 degrees out, and who knows how cold that water might be. About that time we saw a truck pulling a trailer driving quite fast towards us. He got to the River and went ahead and crossed. So we went ahead and drove through. The water was wide, and deep enough that it went up to the bottom of the doors on our truck.

We stopped at the Sasco ghost town. http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/az/sasco.html. Our friend Bob had told JVA about a really cool place to have a paint ball war. Abe and I knew where this was as we had been there a couple of years ago on another geo adventure. We took a pic of JVA in one of the Smelters. Climbed around in the basement of the old Rockland hotel and also walked along the Railroad platforms. Fortunately the river must have kept the paintballers away on this day as there weren't any at war. Last time we were there they were having a great time.

Our next stop was at the Big Bull Nose geocache. We got to within a half mile and decided to take another route since there was a deep wash between us and the cache. After driving down another road and getting to within a half mile we decided we could walk as opposed to driving around all day looking for the right road. After grabbing the cache we had lunch back at the truck.

Instead of finding the other two caches we decided that we would go over to Ragged Top (a huge outcropping similar to Picacho). We drove around looking for the closest road in and after three mis attempts finally found one that got us to within .43 of the cache at the Summit. JVA got really excited and wants to tackle this bad boy. It is about 500 feet taller than Picacho, there are no established trails to the top, there are no lines to help you attain the acme. He is now looking for any takers who want to go with him. We actually got out and climbed up to the foot of the cliff face. He got to within .10 of the cache, which is a little more than two football fields. Of course that was as the crow flies, and he hit an impassible point. http://www.localhikes.com/Hikes/Ragged_top_8520.asp While there was a lot of sheep scat around we didn't see any of the desert bighorn that live on this mountain. It is apparently their lambing season and not the best time to attempt the climb.

After climbing back to the truck we headed off towards Cortaro Road in Tucson for some Texas Roadhouse fare. Steak, and pulled pork and fresh hot rolls dripping with cinnamon butter. http://www.recipezaar.com/66307. What could be better?

TIF (thankfully it's Friday)

Week one:

Riding our new bike, while watching tv=2 nights
Walking for 2 miles in the rain with abe=1 night

Yup, I made it this week.

Here is a picture of me taken recently. I'm on your right (the left side of the picture) in the waffle looking dress. Bet you can't wait to see my "after picture"!!!

January Hike

After 1.5 miles we reached our destination and found our third geocache. The hike wasn't too hard, just enough uphill to make it fun. Rhayn walked almost all the way, the babies both slept along the trail. Between work and Soccer JVA and G'rat's families weren't able to join us this time. The weather was perfect by the end of the hike, it was a little cool at the beginning and as we were hiking along the ridge, it was fairly breezy.

Afterward we went to leaner's house and had hotwings, some good artichoke chili dip, fried mushrooms, and potato salad.

Can't wait to see wher we go next month!

One expensive bike

So we have finally done it. We purchased an exercise bike. Yes, we have had one in the past. We have actually purchased many different pieces of exercise equipment that have become great clothing racks. Those wonderful things that they advertise on TV that look so easy, but when you get it and actually try to use it, you realize that the people demonstrating them are in amazingly good shape. You (or me) on the other hand are probably not. The only piece of equipment that we have seen advertised on TV that actually worked was the Total Gym. It is easy to use and even fairly easy to put up and take down (guess you know we bought one of these too)

Anyway, thanks to leaner's family we realized that we really liked using recumbent bikes. The kind that sits really low and you peddle forward on. Now understand that this is not something that will ever leave our bedroom. It doesn't have a wheel, and it keeps track of your heart rate, calories burned, etc. It also has programs built in that make it simulate riding up a hill then down, then back up. The best part is that it makes no noise.

We may be a little crazy, but if we are going to continue to climb up all these mountains in Arizona and keep up with these youngsters in the family, we need to do something. If you ever want to check out our expensive new toy, just drop on by.

Blue Monday

Yes, this is apparently a song by Fats Domino made famous by some other group. But it is also listed as "Blue Monday: the most depressing day of the year"

Monday, January 22, 2007
Bad weather, credit card bills and the failure to keep up those good resolutions make today the bleakest of the year. So if you feel down, you are not alone - but help is at hand, reports Richard Garner
The weather is bad, the nights are still long and your Christmas overspending has finally caught up with you.
On top of that your New Year resolution to give up smoking has just gone out of the window as you strive to cope with the pressures of having gone back to work after the holiday break.
So welcome to "Blue Monday" - Monday, 22 January - officially designated by a psychologist as the most depressing day of the year. It has been singled out by Dr Cliff Arnall, psychologist and former tutor at Cardiff University, who has used mathematical equations to reach his verdict.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/features/health-and-beauty/article2175825.ece

No wonder we've all been in a "Blue Funk" We've even got a holiday to celebrate it!!!

The rest of the story...

For months (literally) we have been trying to solve a puzzle cache in Casa Grande. This team took another teams idea and then modified it a little. Anyway, we have driven to CG on at least three different occasions with the 4wheelTaco's to find this elusive cache. Once we were in a paking lot of a bowling alley and it would have been a perfect place for a cache, but after looking for 30 minutes we gave up. Another time we drove into a part of town where you wouldn't want to be after dark. The third time Ms. Taco knew she must have the solution, so we drove to the end of field and searched around there for quite awhile. Anyway, we had decided to ignore this for awhile, maybe it would disappear or it would solve itself. As I was emailing another team about one of our caches, we asked them if our newest solution was accurate. They then told me we were off on one number. With a little nudge we found our error and then called the Taco's to find out what they were doing Friday night. Ms. Taco told me that they were finding a geocache and going out to eat.

The best laid plans of mice and men. We left Cooltown around 5 PM and headed for the perfect location for a cache. A few minutes later, abe had a little box in his hand. We opened it feeling quite proud of ourselves. But alas, this wasn't the cache, just a well placed decoy. It did tell us we were close. So we continued looking. One more little box later, and one more decoy. It was cold, it was rainy. Mr. Taco told us he was hungry. So we decided to go get something to eat and then regroup. After dinner we went back and tried one more time. Not finding anything new we ended up driving home empty handed.

On Saturday we had a B'day party for Beth in CG. After eating Pizza and breadsticks and fried zuchinni, watching the kids (big and little) play games - leaner was quite good at skee ball. We gathered up the Tomb Raiders and Fowl Powell's to try one more assault on the cache. Our method was for them to find the ones that we had already found to see if there was one more clue. I grabbed the little box to see if we had missed something the first time. And sure enough, there was somthing we had failed to notice. Signing our names on that log was quite an accomplishment.

What a grouch!

I had one of those days yesterday, the kind where you want to throw the phone across the room. The kind where you really don't want to deal with anyone or anything. I wanted to blog about it, but that was yesterday, so I didn't have time to do it then. I even had to apologize to someone about a phone call, because even though I was not in the wrong, I can't stand people thinking I am normally a grouch. I got everything done I needed to do and it really wasn't a bad day. We even had an adventure in geocaching that I will have to write about at a future date, but since we haven't finished "the rest of the story" I can't write about it yet.

Today the little stupid things, including the migraine that was getting worse, are all washed away with the rain that has cleansed the earth. It is cold and wet for real this time. The sun has peaked through the clouds a few times today and my spirits have been lifted. Today I think that I could conquer anything (except Picacho Peak briep). Today I was patient when things didn't go the way they should have (and I even had a reason to be upset). Today was another day, that grouch from yesterday is only a memory.

Cold and wet

So when you read the title of this, you would assume that it is raining in sunny Arizona. Not so, it has been extremely cold the past two nights - in the low 20s. Some of our plants outside have frozen and there was frost on anything with a wee bit of moisture on it.

Today, abe and I went on a geocaching adventure (surprise! surprise) afterwards we decided to go see a movie and enjoy our day off. While we were in the movie we both received a phone call - of course our phones were turned off to keep from disturbing others around us. Both calls were from home, both from Jesse, telling us that a water line had broken outside the house. On Sunday when I got up ready to take a nice warm shower I realized that the water was frozen. This happens at least once every winter. This morning when it was frozen again we didn't think anything of it. As it was still frozen when we left there was no problem, as the day progressed the line began to thaw and that was all it took.

So here we sit, JVA and abe worked on the line, but there is still some problem. So, if we want a shower tonight it will be across the street at the kids house.

Life is such an adventure!!

Speaking of Birthdays

Here are some of the people who have birthdays in January in our family.

The first was on the first, then there was a young man whose birthday was on the third.

Next we have two birthdays in one week - the 11th and the 12th for two really old people.

Then there is a special girl born on the 21st of the month, an easy day to remember as her dads birthday is the exact opposite (12).
Happy birthday to these five special people!!!

Okay, so there is an extra picture. Just wanted to show how cute this guy was as a little boy, back before he ran out of energy.

More desert fun

This weekend we went to baby Max's blessing. We got to Safford in time to eat lunch at our favorite place - the Casa Manana. Then we found a few geocaches while we waited for the Taylors to get ready to go for a drive. We drove East of Safford to the area known as the Gila Box. None of us had ever been there before and other than the geocaches that were along the way, there were a lot of neat things to see.

We got this wonderful ice cream cone antenna "ball" at our 600th geocache. Abe had been complaining about having a vehicle that is too hard to find in a parking lot and that we needed something to help us find it. So when we found this bright pink ice cream cone, we knew it was the ideal thing.

Sunday morning we went to church for the blessing and then over to the T's for lunch. We crowned the oldest of the Taylor children as the King of Guacamole and then after taste testing it and the salsa, some of us weren't extremely hungry. The family photographer showed off his new $10 camera. Don't know if it takes great pics, but it is small.

It was sad that leaner wasn't able to go with us, due to her illness. We did have a nice time, but it was cold and their house is pretty small for the crowd that was there.

More on the 1st day of the Year

We went with SLA and JVA into the desert. We also took our friends the Carpenter's with us. After climbing to the top of a couple of hills finding geocaches, we went back to the main road and built a fire. G'rat was going to meet us there and bring the food. We had sliced potatoes and onions and he made hamburger patties. We put all of that together and made foil dinners. While we were busy cooking, SLA got a chance to try out her new camo shotgun that Santa had brought her for Christmas.

We also made some dutch oven Peach Cobbler, forgetting that SLA doesn't really like Peaches. But she ate some anyway. Sadly, Katie wasn't feeling well, so G'rat just brought the two kids out and wanted to get back home after a short visit. We did manage to take them to one geocache that was close by so the kids could find it.

After we cleaned up everything, we continued into the desert on some more geocaching adventures and the rest of the group went home. We finally got to try out our new truck and add a little more Arizona pinstriping to the paint. One more hike up a hill and a few more nice flat walks were part of our adventure.

For the first time in ever we actually remembered all of the food and all of the other essentials for our meal, along with enough water, chairs, a table, to make it a nice day. We normally forget something, so this was a good way to start the year.

Happy New Year!

Our Bear called last night at 12:04 to wish Happy New Year to everyone. Just wanted to relay the message. He told us that Verizon had set up a free call center for the troops to use over the holiday until January 2nd.

He called to talk to us, then hung up to call Crissa, then he called back, just as we were falling asleep. But anytime we can hear from him is fine.

Today we are going on a grand adventure. Hopefully it will be fun and we will write about it later. Hope your year started off as well as ours did, and continues that way.

Last hike of 2006

We met at the trailhead at nine thirty and started up the trail a little before 10 AM. Babies in slings and camel backs with water on many backs. Trail mix (m&ms, reeses pieces, raisins, mixed nuts and fresh pecans), jerky, granola bars, pop tarts, and many other delicious treats in back packs and fanny packs.

4.5 miles from the trailhead to the top of Fremont Saddle, overlooking Weaver's Needle in the Superstition Wilderness. Although the sun was out, it is amazing how cold it was sitting and eating our trail snacks.

Here is a picture of the three biggest kids with Weaver's Needle in the background. The air wasn't as clear as it could be due to fog that was rolling in.

The kids made it all the way up and most of the way down. Both babies were carried by everyone and both took a nap during the four hours of our hike. By the end they were done and wanted to walk so they got to walk a little.

Hiking has been something we have enjoyed so much through the years. The first time we did this hike we were badly out of shape and it was so much further and steeper than it seemed this time. Years ago LVH and Alex's Human hiked this trail with me. It was much warmer that day. The trail is well worn and is one of the favorite hikes for the locals. Unfortuantely that means that there are always a lot of other hikers along the trail. You have to stop and let the faster people pass.

It was so much fun getting to hike with all of our kids - minus the bear- Not too much complaining although G'rat did tell us that he expended all his energy as a child and doesn't have any left. But even though his fingers are strong from WOW, he and his couch potato self did a really good job making it to the top. It was a good way to end this year.

Ready for Christmas?

Abe put the star on top of the tree, but this year we sang We Three Kings, instead of our traditional Oh Christmas Tree, simply because we really don't know the words.

Our bear was home and helped put the lights up, he was also there to add some great Bass to our song. I doubt if we are ready for any grand choir, but we sound better than I thought we might.

This wonderful addition to our front yard was given to our bear in Texas when they greeted the troops. We are hoping that the tomb raider's on the other side of town don't decide it would look better in their front yard.

Are we ready for Christmas? Tomorrow night we will read the Christmas Story and bake some cookies. Hopefully on Sunday we can take a few things around to some of our friends. The gifts will happen, they always do, but what I really want this year is that feeling on Christmas, the one you feel so much love for everyone around you. When you follow through on those thoughts of giving and sharing with others.

I hope this year we are truly ready for Christmas.

Bear News

According to G'rat, da bear called from Iraq on Friday to let us know that he had made it back safely. I was working on the beginnings of a cold and had taken some medicine. So I was asleep most of the day so I don't really remember the phone call. I sure hope that I spoke nicely to him!

Some pics

Here are a couple of pictures of Connie Mitchell and me on our trip to the ACTE Convention in Atlanta.

Six weird things

THE RULES: Each player of this game starts with the '6 weird things about you.' People who get tagged need to write a blog post of their own 6 weird things as well as state these rules clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment that says 'you are tagged' in their comments and tell them to read your blog. I'm not so sure what the definition of weird is so here goes:

1. I can't say simple words like Butt, and Fart so I use other words like Bum and Fluff.
2. I like to eat in the bathtub - okay, maybe not weird, but really gross if you think about food in the bathroom.
3. I don't like it when my kids say anything bad about each other or their spouses.
4. I would rather eat dessert than food so if I go to a restaurant I often get a small salad and then dessert instead of a meal. Here is a picture of some creme brulee that we had in Atlanta.
5. I only listen to music at Christmas time- starting in mid-November, the rest of the year I listen to talk radio.
6. Since socks seems to be a family thing, my weirdness is that most of my "dress" socks are seasonal - Fall, Christmas, Valentine's Day, etc. I noticed that the pair I had on the other day actually aren't a pair, they are just two similarly colored snowmen socks.

It was hard only choosing six things because I have so many weird things to list.....Okay, this isn't fair tif-do as I can't tag anyone- will something bad happen to me?????

Thanksgiving

After too much food we all went to one of the green areas near leaner's home. JVA remembered to bring the whiffle balls, and a couple of bats so that we would have something to do besides lay around watching football. They managed to come up with two four person teams, Rhayn on one and Gavin on the other. There was one base and home plate so after hitting the ball you had to run past the pitcher and possibly another membe of your team on your way to the base. Needless to say, a good time was had by all.

The automatic watering system was apparently set for about the time we were there and so we had to keep moving game locations. And when the sprinklers hit the last dry place we had to make a mad dash away before we got wet also.

After the game we went back for pie - too much food earlier to eat dessert. JVA found a recipe for a pumpkin pie with a cheesecake layer that he wanted to make. Brie made two apple pies from scratch - a lot of peeling went into those pies. We also had a regular pumpkin pie and a pecan pie. SLA made half of the crust, JVA made the other half. Brie rolled it all out. JVA mixed the roll dough, and SLA made it into butter rolls. I just supervised and cleaned while they did most of the baking.

The powell's and G'rat's had to move on to their extended families, so we all settled in and watched some Christmas claymation movies.

We ended the evening on a high note as the girls took on the boys in Trivial Pursuit. Since the powell's and G'rat's family weren't there, it may have been an unfair advantage. For the first time in ever the game ended in a tie. With the girls almost winning, even SLA earned a piece of pie with a correct answer.

The picture shows our three sons and one grandson.

Two calls and a wall

What an interesting day yesterday was. It started bright and early at 5:40 AM when abe's alarm went off. We had been called by the Stake Exec Secretary and were asked to visit with the Stake Pres at 7 am this Saturday morning. Knowing that they were planning on splitting the ward on Sunday, this was a real nerve wrenching phone call. Abe, true to form, had some inkling as to why we needed to visit with the SP. So we both put on our Sunday best and drove the 20 miles to the meeting place. We knew that he wasn't being called to be the Bishop as our current Bishop was still going to be in place. He thought that it may be the 2nd counselor, and he thought that may not be too bad. When the SP told him that he was being called as the first counselor, the full magnitude of what he was asking began to sink in. After we left the Stake Center, we drove to Cracker Barrell for breakfast. Sitting there we discussed how we thought this may change our lives, and how the ward was going to be split. Knowing it was all speculation, we discussed who would be in which ward. Would Suzy and Morris be with us? What about the Powell's or the Carpenter's? We had to wait until today to find out how the line would be drawn.

Later, we drove to Phoenix to go to Rhayn’s school. They were having a Winter Faire and so Grandparents and other family and friends were invited to join the festivities. As we approached the school we all noticed the 30 foot climbing wall set up especially for the occasion. We all thought it looked like the National Guard was there recruiting from the really young crowd that was attending. But there weren’t any recruiters anywhere. Just a lady taking tickets for a climb up the wall. We asked Rhayn if she wanted to climb and at first she didn’t seem interested, but soon she was ready to go. That is after her daddy told her that he knew she could do it. She climbed into the harness and was hooked to the rappelling rope. She began her ascent very confidently and other than a couple of short pauses she was on her way to the bell at the top. With a group of admirers oohing and aahing below, she made it to the very top. Pretty amazing for a such a little lady.


Then to cap the day off, our bear called and told us he would be here on Monday. And when and where he should be picked up. So we'll all be together for Thanksgiving for the first time in four years.


Sunday: The Coolidge Ward became two independent wards. The people who live within just a few miles of us, who have watched our family grow; the people who have become such an important part of our lives have now been moved to what seems like hundreds of miles away to the other ward in town. We are now members of the Coolidge Second Ward, Suzy, Morris, Brie and Scott are all part of the Coolidge First Ward. Split almost directly North and South along Coolidge Ave. New and old in both of the wards, which is how it should be. Although a lot of the members were hoping for old in one ward and new in the other. This is a better mix of young families and older families.

The man

Happy Birthday to one of the best men in the world!

We won't discuss which birthday it is, just that it is one of those landmark ones.

(Notice how much this picture looks like our Madders)

abeNanna Split

Our disclaimer is that the title of this blog is the name of our newest geocache. What more appropriate title than a banana split???

Now this is one way to prove just just how our "addiction" is advancing. Today abe and I went out into the desert and put out three new geocaches. We started by planning on putting out one by this really cool rock that the Priesthood used to have activities by. Then we found another neat place and put a micro cache. After that we stopped and put our last cache out. When we got home, between conference and lunch, we logged them all in and are awaiting final approval from geocaching to see if they will be activated. Oh, and I forgot to mention the puzzle cache that we put out just specially for those Taco's who live right outside of town. The fun part of this is waiting for the caches to appear on the geocaching website. Then you just sit back and see who gets there first.

Celebrate

10 years since this picture, which was taken around our 20th wedding anniversary. Where has the time gone?

I was trying to remember little things about the actual ceremony. I don't even know what time it was, or if we ate anything at all that day. I do know that all we had at the reception was cake and mints and nuts. But where the mints homemade or not.

I remember going to buy my wedding dress. Mom had made both of the other girls, and I thought she would make mine. But she had been so sick earlier in the year (we almost lost her) she didn't want to try it. I knew what I wanted my dress to look like. They had the perfect dress, but for some reason I don't even remember I didn't try it on. I ended up with a different dress. One I really didn't like, but mom did.

I made one of the bridesmaids dresses, but when it came time to put the zipper in, I chickened out. Mom was still not steady enough on the sewing machine to do it, so she sewed it in by hand.

Our cake had a banana nut top layer that we ate on our first wedding anniversary. I don't know if the rest was chocolate or vanilla or what. I wanted my sister-in-law to sing at our wedding, but instead we had one of the other members of our small branch sing "Annie's song" (John Denver). We were married by our bishop, whose name was Tom Jones.

We invited family and a few friends to the actual ceremony and then later we had the reception, I think we invited the whole community (of course, that would only be about 350 people). Abe's best friend and his whole family were there. Several of my aunt's and uncle's came from all over the country. One of my uncles was a professional photographer, so he took the pictures.

The invitation we chose had a picture of a flower on it, with the inscription "Love is the flower, marriage is the fruit." This was because my dad explained plants in almost that same way. It made me think of him and his wisdom.

Now so many years later and I am so glad that regardless of the ups and downs, we have made it this far. When we spend time alone together we relish every minute. We love our family, but the main thing is that we love each other so much more than we did then. He IS my very best friend.

Message from our bear

Last night came with a phone call from our middlest of children. It was good to hear his voice from those thousands of miles away. Although I wasn't home he did leave a message on my phone and he was able to talk to dad, Jesse and Brie . When he was here in July he mentioned a girl that he had his eye on. She is in his unit and would be in Iraq with him. He had talked to her a few times at church, but hadn't gotten up the nerve to ask her on a date. The good news is he finally took the step and she told him she had been hoping he would. Is there love in the air in Baghdad? We'll keep you informed, who knows, maybe we'll have to start planning another wedding.

Attack of the caterpillars

On our visit to The Valley we decided to stop by the Cemetery where my great parents and great-great grandparents are buried. Leaner and SLA had never been there and it seemed like a good thing to take up a little time. The usually barren cemetery was covered with all sorts of wild ground cover but we entered anyway. After walking in a few feet dacheese noticed the caterpillars that were crawling everywhere. SLA pushed at one with her foot and it curled up and gooed at her. A weird green goo out of it’s mouth. We also noticed that each one had a horn on it’s back. We trudged through the growth and the caterpillars until we reached Mons Larson’s grave, where he rests peacefully next to his two wives. By this point the girls had reached almost panic mode from these scary pillars.

We tried to find a way out where the undergrowth wasn’t as dense and the caterpillars weren’t as numerous. This was impossible as they were everywhere. At one point we reached what looked like a dead end, the brush was probably four inches deep, which meant that your foot could actually be below the plants and a pillar could attack you. We found the one area that we could get through and headed straight for the exit. While waiting for everyone to get out alive SLA noticed one of the pillars was actually coming towards her. As the area echoed with her screams, the rest of the group hastened to escape from the terrors of this daytime cemetery.

With one final act of defiance, Leaner told anna to kill one of these ferocious pillars. So, being such a good mom, anna took her at her word. As anna stepped on the pillar, the head of the beast curled up onto her sandal as if to attack. This did not stop anna from fulfilling her motherly duties. She again lifted her foot and placed it squarely on the monster. What was left of the poor innocent critter was an empty skin and green juice.

Were these really something from beyond the grave? Or were they just blameless caterpillars fulfilling their lifes purpose on the greenery that grew in this old cemetery? We will never know, but we will always remember the horrors in the graveyard.

Afterward

Driving home dacheese looked down at her foot and spied one of the pillars that had tried to hitch a ride. She placed it on the arm rest next to SLA, who was driving. SLA almost swerved off the road, but managed to regain control of the vehicle and dacheese threw the offensive critter out of the window.

Out with some fun guys or is that fungi?

Thanks hairball for inviting us to the mountains for your celebration. It was cool and wet and we had a really good time. The rain has done some wonderful things to our forests between the wildflowers and the grass there are things growing everywhere.

We took Chester Copperpot with us for a little geocaching and hiking. Along the way we managed to take a few pictures of the "plethora" of mushrooms/ toadstools in the undergrowth.




We even managed to find one of the mysterious red dotted fungi from years past. In the same general area - and also on the reservation - maybe they are only found there???