Keepin' Up with the "Jones"

Me and Meryl?

2012-02-11T21:59:00.009-07:00

It seems like everywhere I go someone is telling me I look just like their cousin, or their best friend, or their aunt's half-sister once removed.

I was in California for work last week. One of the admins came up to me at the end of the three days and said, "I've been trying forever to figure out who you remind me of and I finally got it". I said "Who, Roseanne?" (I used to get that quite often in my chubbier days!)

She said "No, Meryl Streep." I thought it was one of the oddest comparisons I've had. Can't see it at all.

She said, "You have her mannerisms, and you speak quietly like her, and your skin is so pretty like hers, but most of all your nose comes to this cute little point at the end just like hers."

I smiled and took the compliment and decided she didn't know the real me.

Happy 24th Birthday Baby Boy!

2012-02-11T15:04:00.008-07:00

Today marks the 24th year of the day Geoffrey "burst" into this world. There was no waiting for his due date 2 weeks away. There was no time for labor or contractions. He just decided it was time to come out. RIGHT THEN. And so he did....thanks to Jones' master skilled driving and running red lights we made it to hospital and he was delivered within about 3 minutes later. I laughed hysterically afterwards for about 1 hour. The nurses thought I was insane. I was insane...ly....happy about not having to go through my usual 12 hours of labor and delivery. I was euphoric. It was heaven!!! And Geoff's personality has been the same ever since. No time for waiting around or dilly-dallying. He's always movin' and groovin'. No sittin around for this big boy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY BOY! HOPE YOU AND KATIE CAN CELEBRATE AND HAVE A GREAT DAY!

Loves to you.

Happy Anniversary Mike Jones

2012-02-07T05:35:00.005-07:00

... although there have been a few rocky roads along the way...
... and some awesome, magical days ...

... it has been a great ride for 33 years ...

and i've come to appreciate my Mike Jones more and more each day...

...i couldn't have found a better man to share my life with

and to be my kid's dad and the most

awesome grandpa this town has ever known...

Happy Anniversary Jones. Love your guts!

Look "Whoooo's" Three!

2012-01-30T22:30:00.010-07:00

Look "Whooooo's" 3! Taylor Marie!

We celebrated Tay Tay's birthday last night even though it's on Jan. 31st. I'll always remember how she was such a good girl to be born just in time for Mike and I to visit her just before we were setting sail on one of our vacations. I couldn't wait to get back and give her hugs and kisses.

Britney made these darling owl cupcakes. She's so clever!
Candles were blown out...

Presents opened...

Ice cream cones consumed...

and the usual party proceeded.

Isn't she a doll! I love my beautiful blue-eyed baby girls. I love their beautiful smiles. Each one is a special miracle in my life.

Happy 3rd Birthday sweet baby Tay!

My Life Through Sudoku

2012-01-19T22:13:00.013-07:00

A few years ago, when I was going to have one of my IVIG treatments, Michelle brought me over a sweet care package to help pass the 8 hours I was going to be hooked up. It was full of lots of fun stuff; my favorite candy(s); puzzle books, etc. I quickly ate the candy and used all the great whatnots in it, and then set it aside.

When it was time to go to our annual trip to the ocean, I was gathering markers, coloring books, games and other assorted things for us to have in the condo. I found a couple Sudoku books she had given me and threw them in the bag. I had never even heard of it before.

When we got to the condo, I started noticing the kids were all playing in the books. They were absorbed in them. They would race each other. They started ripping pages out for each other to all play at once. They would tell each other secrets they had for figuring out how to find the numbers. So I finally picked up one when we got home...and I was hooked!

When I was furnishing the cabin last year, Michelle informed me you could get Sudoku books for much cheaper at the dollar store (say for about a dollar?!) I went and purchased lots and lots of them. I got multiple copies of the same editions so the kids could race each other at the cabin. But I decided to keep one home, just for me. Mike has his own too. Actually, I think he's completed two or three. He has become hooked even more so than I. I dare say it's even replaced his nightly games of Freecell before bed.

But, to make a long story short, I found I would doodle on the top of each page. I'd doodle the time it took me to finish the puzzle; congratulatory words; dates; events that happened that day, etc. Just take a peek at my life last year:

Yes, I labeled my name on the front. I also informed children (including in-laws (Aaron!) to keep their hands off MY BOOK!

One of the first puzzles. I wasn't happy with myself when I finished, obviously. And I'm still in awe how Geoff, Mike and Scott can do theirs in pen and not have doodles and erasures all over the page.

"February 5, (going on 6th) 2011. 12:15 a.m. At cabin w/Jones for 32nd anniversary." I gave myself a "Bad" rating. "P.S. Woke up with the BAD stomach flu...yes, that kind @ 4:30 and never went back to bed".

Sounds like one romantic anniversary!

Shellene Garner 6-6-11. (I must have not have completed it then because I have a #2 at top that also says 8-22-11. Monday Took a couple month's break I guess) "3:30 a.m. Pinedale 2 days. Rained and Rained. Quading in rain. Wallow Fire. Springerville Pre-Evacuation."

This one cracked me up. Little 6 year old Brodie Kana slipped in and actually tried to play. I love how he did the number tics at the bottom and crossed them off and how he used the #10 in squares. He even signed his name...like I had done throughout the book. Love it.

"Thurs. Mike left for Oregon today with Scott. Geoff's starting center on Saturday against Stanford."

"YUK!" I obviously wasn't happy with my performance on that puzzle!

"Home from cabin - Went there for New Year's 2012. Brian, Anna, Koston, Geoff, Me, Mike. (I forgot Scott.) Brit and Girls for Sunday night."

I finally reached almost the end of the book. The puzzles just kept getting harder and harder. Many of the books have stars by the puzzles. I'm sure I was into the 4 star puzzles by then. I found it REALLY hard not to look in the back after almost every answer to check if I was right. I left the book open on Jones' side of the desk with the following notation: "These are too hard for me now. You can finish this book. You're welcome. "

And so ended my year of that book. Funny -- all this year I've thought it was called SuDUko, and it's really SuDOku. Either way, the puzzles drive me cuckoo! The poor book has had water spilled on it (as exhibited by the poor wrinkled scans), has tattered corners and is pretty beat up! But hey! No one can accuse me of not journaling last year. It chronicles my travels, the kids visits, my illnesses, some very sad things that took place to dear friends in our neighborhood, what we had for dinner and lot's of different tidbits!

I should just throw it up in my closet with my other treasures and someone can find it someday and learn a lot about me in 2011! Especially the things I wrote after my Ambien set in....just be glad I didn't include those!

Kit Cookin' in Corvallis!

2012-01-14T22:21:00.004-07:00

You know what a baby Beaver is called? A kit!

It's official! Grandbaby Garner #7 is on it's way. We're excited for Geoff and Katie to break our tie - 3 girls and 3 boys! We'll find out next month what the newest edition will be. I've been baby hungry for quite awhile. We'll be flying to Corvallis for more than just football games this year!!

Happy Birthday to Two Great Gals!

2012-01-12T08:05:00.011-07:00

Today is my Mom's birthday. I believe it's # 74. She works like she's 24. She's amazing. I'm so glad she's my mom. She has blessed my life in countless numbers of ways. One of the things she did give me was her sense of humor. Although it needs to be bridled once in awhile, I'm still glad I have it. It helps me a lot when I can laugh at things, myself, or make others around me smile.

Today is also my firstborn granddaughter's birthday. Big #5! I think Allie Jo is beautiful. I love her eyes. They sparkle. They are blue. They light up when she sees me. She always has something to tell me. If I let her, she could talk and fill my ears with wonders all the way from Mesa to the cabin....and then some. She has beautiful hair. We've already had to cut quite a bit of it off. She loves to twirl and dance. She's especially good at posing for pictures.

I count both these young ladies as blessings in my life!

P.J. Fiasco

2011-12-24T19:59:00.012-07:00

I tried to be proactive and get Christmas taken care of early this year....BUTT let's just say, evidently sizes in China are definitely not equivalent to American sizes.

The adults sure had a good laugh at how horrible all the sizes turned out. We had our eyes full of plenty of bellies and bottom-tops for the evening.

Koston was displaying how they all truly felt about being forced into clothes two times too small and too short.

These pictures really don't do justice to how ill-fitted they all were. The kids were good sports about it though. There were definitely a LOT of green and red elf stripes.

... and all-in-all it was a real crack-up!! Hey - it's all about the memories!

I'm sure glad I didn't try to get the adults any matching attire!

Lesson learned - don't order PJs through the mail EVER again Grandma!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

My Special Birthday

2011-12-18T20:44:00.012-07:00

We had a 'quiet' birthday celebration today with family and a few loved ones. My daughther and d-in-laws made the yummy dinner. Mike provided the fudge chocolate cake. All 6 little ones provided I love you notes and entertainment. That's all I needed for a happy #53. I am blessed and love you all. Thanks so much for the hand picked goodies, the beautiful flowers and special gifts. I'm very blessed and spoiled. Loves to you all for making it a great #53 BD.

Happy Birthday Brian

2011-12-17T19:10:00.005-07:00

Koston (mini-Brian), Brian & Anna (fiance)

Happy 26th Birthday to my #2 Son!

I love listening to Christmas music every year. Not only because it's beautiful and about the sacred birth of Jesus Christ, but it always takes me back to remembering going to church right after Brian's birth and listening to the Choir sing the whole program and holding my new, precious baby boy. There's something about a new spirit from heaven that no one can describe the feeling of. That brand new sweet baby-"ness" that only lasts a few weeks ... and before you know it they are crawling, walking, running, smelling, shaving, laughing, joking, leaving on missions and moving away to Law School.

Happy Birthday Brian. I love you. We're excited for your visit again.

Sorry about the late post...had a little surgery thing goin' on.

December Fun

2011-12-12T22:43:00.018-07:00

My good intentions for keeping up on my blogging have gone down the drain. I need to commit to doing better in 2012. I need to try and catch up on things I've missed this year, as this is my only way of journaling anymore.

In the meantime...(while I was home sick in bed this weekend), Geoff and Katie flew into town, and most of the family made it up north to "Jones Lodge" for some winter fun....brrrrr! I was pretty sad I couldn't join in the fun.

Then tonight we had our December gingerbread house "contest". Griffen didn't think a kiss was much of a prize until we announced that it was a kiss from "Aunt Katie". That was all the fuel he needed. He is quite enamored of Aunt Katie. He's been her shadow the whole time she's been here. Aaron won(?) for "thinking outside the box". He actually made a Ginger - bread - house. (Yes, that is a piece of bread on both ends.)

I've always wanted to join in the fun but after completing tonight with an overdose of licking frosting off my fingers (royal icing is gross by-the-way) and eating the decorations I was pretty much in a coma and decided my designing skizzles are highly lacking. I doubt I'll join in the fun next year. I'll stick to the frosting making and candy purchasing. I pretty much got it out of my system. Best thing of all was in my close up shot holding my house, you could see a glob of green frosting in my ear where I had itched it earlier. I know....TMI.

The little ones have a great time though and hopefully we're building memories.

Happy Birthday LilyBell!

2011-11-30T07:41:00.002-07:00

Her real name is Lily Marie...I'll proudly claim the middle name...But somehow LilyBell has stuck. She's a delight. Never a dull moment with her around. She is a daredevil. Thinks she can do ANYTHING her big brothers try. She has no fear and will be unstopable some day! She loves to sing "All through the Town" with me and will for sure let you know if you're not singing the verse she wanted right then. "Love you More" Lily! Happy 2nd Birthday. Time is going way too fast!

Happy Birthday Little Turkey

2011-11-26T17:47:00.003-07:00

Happy 5th Birthday to my #2 Grandson, Griffen Garner Yamamoto. He's so sweet to his little sister. He's her best friend. He's dashingly handsome and one heck of a soccer player!

Happy Birthday Griff. I love you!

Ya' Ever Wonder?

2011-11-21T22:45:00.003-07:00

I was hoping to get a picture of all 6 grandkids while I had them last night ... but I've decided getting a perfect shot of 6 children all at once is next to impossible. In the meantime...this photo cracked me up. Griffen had stalked off because he was mad at something. Lily and Koston can barely talk and they seem to be having quite the conversation. Taylor is giving us her "Grandma spiked the Crystal Lite" look...and the two in the background are in their own world. It just made me chuckle.

Mooooove over Cadbury Mini Eggs ....

2011-11-14T23:22:00.006-07:00

Michelle and I separated for a brief 3 mintues during our latest Costco trip last Saturday. We are usually Sam's shoppers and aren't all that familiar with the Costco layout. To speed up the process, I sent her to find toilet paper while I went on the hunt for some Benadryl. When we finally bumped carts again, we both burst out laughing. We'd evidently passed this at different times and figured we couldn't live without trying them.

Oh...my....goodness.....

A new holiday favorite.

The perfect little bite of salty pretzels dipped in white chocolate fudge with a hint of not-too-over- powering peppermint flavoring.

Do yourself a favor and ring in the holidays with this yummy snack. You won't be dissappointed...at least until the last two are gone from the bottom of the bag!! Happy Holidays have started!!

Trick or Treat

2011-11-02T06:51:00.018-07:00

The little one's and I made preparations Sunday evening to turn our mode of Halloween transportation into a spooky ride. Jones and Michelle added some finishing touches on Monday and we were ready to hit the town!

This hideous witch decided to stop by for the evening to drive the witchy wagon and obviously terrorize the neighborhood children. One child asked if they could touch my nose. He bravely leaned up and then stopped short informing me that he thought I had "boogers" in it. His brave sister decided to touch it and the thing fell off right in the yard and she screamed and ran (after receiving her candy!) Let's just say my extreme sweating problem and the latex glue didn't gel well all evening.

Two days later....and my fingernails are still green! Don't know if she's ever coming out of the costume drawer again...but thanks Good Will in Corvallis. You gave me quite the getup for under $10.00!

The five little characters were all smiles when they arrived and were ready for some candy action!
Lily had obviously had enough of her Sleeping Beauty costume she wore to the neighborhood party a few nights before because she was totally transformed tonight into a bug. It probably fits her personality a bit more.

Mr. Koston was handsome as usually, even as a bum!

We were also honored with the presence of the next iron chef!

Mary showed off her prize winning Kia Soul car. She made her co-workers hamster heads and they boogied down enough to win the best awards at work again. She takes it every year!

...and speaking of bums ... ewe-weee! Michelle was a "crack-up"!

Geoff and Katie were off playing Operation in Corvallis ...

While Aaron was predicting we'll have no more baby brothers or sisters for Geoff!
After all...who would want a green child with warts and boogers!

BOOOOO!

TV Time

2011-10-29T22:47:00.009-07:00

Tonight at the Garner home:

Adults in Family Room:

Watching this:

(Pre-game warm-ups)

Kids in Grandparent's Room:

Watching this:

Both entertaining....but I think the Smurfs had a better ending. Go Beavs! Proud of you Geoff!

Happy 2nd Birthday Sweet Koston!

2011-10-24T23:07:00.019-07:00

Happy Birthday Sweet Baby K! We love you and are so grateful you're part of our big crazy family! You are the sweetest little boy we know!

Who knew $2 at the Dollar Store could bring such fun!

Lessons Learned

2011-10-22T22:01:00.004-07:00

(Mike Garner, Bishop Bill Romney, Bishop Phil Chiles)

Today we attended the funeral of our dear neighbor, friend and Bishop, Phil Chiles. We have lived across the street from Chiles for many, many years. Our children have grown up together and we have grown from newly marrieds, to middle age (that's what I consider myself now) together. Mike served for almost three years as a fellow counselor with Phil under Bishop Bill Romney. They are all great friends. Bishop Chiles was called home way too soon. We love him and will miss him. He was an awesome man.

I still have his book that he lent to me a few months ago. He called me in to talk to him and spend one of his precious evenings, just because he felt I was having a hard time with health and other things. (He was always in tune with those he served.) I told him I was. I was kind of disheartened that bad or sad things can happen to good people. I was pretty honest on how I felt. I felt I didn't "deserve" some of the trials I was having.

Bishop just listened, cried, listened some more; talked to me for quite awhile in his soft spoken way and then he gave me a book with a marked chapter to read. I took it home and read it. He had highlighted almost every other sentence in the book and the spine was well broken in and the pages worn. You could tell he had spent many hours reading and pondering the words of wisdom in the book. The author is Henry B. Eyring, who is an apostle for our Church. I have loved listening to his talks for years in General Conference. His humility and deliverance always brings me to tears when he speaks. The book is entitled "To Draw Closer to God".

I tried to return the book yesterday, but no one was home at the Chiles. So I decided to open and re-read the chapter tonight. The chapter was entitled "Trials of Faith". Each word in it is beautiful and I would put the whole thing in here if I could.

But a few things stood out: "One thing you can be certain of in this life is that you will go through trials of your faith. For some it will be a physical or perhaps a financial problem. For others it may not be anything that an outsider can see as a trial. One of the reasons why you will be tried is that opposition is always part of being a faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You should expect that great difficulties will come to you in the pursuit of doing what the Lord would have you do. But you should also feel like these trials are a blessing, because "faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith. You need to understand that the escape will almost never be out of the trial; it will usually be through it.

The real trial of your faith is not necessarily that moment when disaster obviously strikes you. The real trial of your faith is anything that would divert you from doing what God would have you do."

These are great words to ponder.

I will miss Phil's smile, kind hello, and warm hand shake. He left the world a better place and I personally, have been blessed by knowing him.

Holy B(r)atmobile!

2011-09-25T20:20:00.004-07:00

my boyfriend ...aka jones...did a little bargaining/trading this spring and got me one of the wants on my bucket list. we are now the proud owners of this custom painted, restored golf cart. it makes me smile.

many evenings now that the weather is cooling down, and especially on sundays after dinner, you can find me burnin' rubber on the streets at about a high speed of 10 mph with anywhere from 3-6 grandbabies aboard. they squeal and delight as we avoid man holes, cats, parked cars and honk the horn at friends and neighbors. we've tried it out at the park and hope to take it in the future to "the property".

i love that we got to choose our paint color. bright yellow. makes me smile. aaron y. was embarrassed i was out and about tonight in my mumu, but hey - at least it had yellow in it to color coordinate! lily was quite fashionable with her yellow flower also!

also...another reason i didn't blog much this summer...if you look close you can see a new scar from carpal tunnel surgery this summer. has helped relieve my hand from falling asleep during each morning's putty and plaster session and working on the mouse all day. it's still quite tender...but time will help!

p.s. i have pretty grandbabies!

Smile on My Face ...

2011-09-24T22:34:00.003-07:00

'Nuff said!

Thanks girlfriend!

Love them ... and you!!!!

Knock Knock ...

2011-09-22T20:47:00.004-07:00

Who's There?

Lucky.

Lucky Who?

Lucky Ducky.....

That's me!

Lucky ducky is when your feet hurt so bad you can't let them touch the floor and you come home from work, and even though it's still 105 degrees outside you get excited when you see your spouse surprised you with a new pair of nice, clean, soft slippers for your owie-ish feet.

"I am satisfied that a happy marriage is not so much a matter of romance as it is an anxious concern for the comfort and well-being of one's companion." President Gordon B. Hinckley

Jones is the bestest!

P.S. Sorry about the absence....long summer....12 weeks of physical therapy...no Internet at cabin....working late....hurt too much to blog at night....

I'll try to catch up a few of our highlights this summer. It's nice for my kids away from home to be able to see and it's also my only form of journaling. Time flies!

P.S. Happy Birthday Aaron Y. alias Ping Pong King!

happy father's day ...

2011-06-19T11:54:00.009-07:00

to my own dad who raised 11 children....

and to Mike Jones...who his children love and respect...

and his grandkids adore!

Now to go make his favorite Father's Day meal ... meatloaf!

Wallow Fire

2011-06-06T18:50:00.017-07:00

My daughter-in-law, Britney, spent her teenage years growing up in Eagar/Springerville. We love her family and their beautiful, green property.

She has spent a long weekend up at her parent's home helping her mother pack and deal with the emotions of knowing a raging wild fire is close to their home. Her father, John, is a lineman, and has been at the scene of the fires since it's outbreak working on electrical lines. Her grandparent's home is just across the New Mexico border in Luna. The fire is very close to both of her loved one's homes at this time. The litte cabin her folks spent their honeymoon in has been destroyed.

It has given me time to reflect on the emotions they must possibly be going through. If you had to pack up your belongings and be on notice to evacuate, what would you really take with you? How would you face knowing you may be looking at the home of your memories one last time. Britney said the animals were all taken to the Rodeo grounds on Saturday. When the final word is given to evacuate, I can only imagine the thought of leaving your horses or pets that have become so much a part of your lives behind. What do you choose to leave or take? Where do you go on a moment's notice?

We watch the news and see hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, tsunamis, earthquakes and feel pretty complacent at times that we live safely away from these natural disasters in Arizona. We watched in 2002 as the Rodeo-Chedeski fire burned so much of our beloved forest land in, but unless we had property or lives in the way of danger it was just something else to watch in fascination each evening on television.

Eagar/Springerville was given pre-evacuation notice this evening to be ready to leave upon order.

(Today's map of the fire.) Winds of up to 50 mph hampered any efforts to contain the fire. We experience those winds over Memorial Day. They were amazingly strong.

Britney took this photo on Saturday on her way up to her parent's home.

The air is so thick in their town it is difficult to breathe. The day appears as night.

We drive past areas of devastation on the way to our recently purchased property in Pinedale. The fire came right up the home we purchased. It burned a shed on the acre, melted the tires on a trailer, and melted the weatherstripping on some of the doors and windows. It took down the fence along the whole street. It burned about 1/3 of the huge trees on the property. The Payson hot shots worked through the night to push the fire around the house. The homes across the street were not so lucky and have had to rebuild. 400 homes were lost in Pinedale in the fire. The devastation is amazing. Even 9 years later many parts of the land are still barren.

It gives me time to think and contemplate the reality of nature and natural disasters. It seems like we've witnessed way too many of them in recent months. But, it takes on a whole different meaning when ones you know and love may stand in harm's way. I hope and pray their property will survive. If not, I know they will rebuild and be thankful for not losing lives. But in many ways, their life will be forever affected.

was your 3-day weekend "memorial"?

2011-06-01T23:02:00.030-07:00

just when you think your body is really yearnin' for a break in your life, you get a 3 day weekend - you know, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, ... Personally I think they could revise these and think of much better things to celebrate (Snickers Day, Costa Vida Salad Day...) but they never ask my opinion.

Anywhoooo, we were all excited to finally have somewhere of our own to run up North to. It was extremely windy on Saturday. So much so that even walking with the babies was dangerous. The quads felt like they were going to get blown over the side of the cliff.

But we weren't going to let some mean ole' wind stop our fun!

I picked my Mom (Grandma Tom as the kids call her after her cat), and Brodie and Griffen and off we went to start the long weekend at the property. We took it slow and the little boys slept almost all the way there. Have I ever mentioned how sweet a sleeping child is? (A little like smelly doggies, but you can overlook that when they are being so angelic.) We arrived late at the cabin and they were up to stay for the night. We were ready to hit the sack. No one knows for sure if Griffen ever went back to sleep that night....he's always got a quarter in him!

We made a daring trek to Walmart to load up the groceries for the next few days. Grandma Tom had given the boys a few dollars for doing some chores for her and they picked out some fun little trinkets.

We then stopped at Wendy's and the boys got some cool "Minute to Win It" toys. I think Griffen entertained the folks in Wendy's more than their greasy burgers and fries did. He should have stood by the door and begged for coins to be dropped in the red cup on his head when they left!

... We did a little bit of this ...

... and a little bit of that ...

... and a tiny tidge of dis ...

...and more swingin like dat!...

... even TayTay figured out how to pump her legs and get herself airborne!

We had to use a whole whoop-A can of this ...

.. to spray continuously from poisonous gasseous eruptomous from two of the big boys...who shall remain nameless and possibly un-invitedbackness if they can't control themselves!

...We had some fierce dance off competitions ... ...which caused the spectator to cover her nose before the air spray could be administered)...

...The little kids gathered some "small (not)" rocks for their rock collection...

...while Scott enjoyed catching up on his sleep he missed by sleeping with his babies all night.

...while inside games were ensuing ...
... a heated and competitive game of cornhole ensued. my, they had fun! I was trying to lay down in my room and kept getting jolted up with their laughing, hoots and hollers as they'd hit a hole in one or knock some challenger's bean bag off the board. I believe Geoff and I as a partnership took two games, even facing Aaron's skilled fore-shot positioning and pointing. I mostly just shucked the thing across the yard. I either got a hole in one (4 times for 16 points) or didn't even land on the stupid thing. But I held my own and we were that round's champs!

Don't be jealous ... you can come some time and become the new cornhole queen!

Or this lil' gal may find a future in professional cornholing!

My mom always makes a huge bowl of good-goodies mixed together. Therefore we always tell her to get the "mix" for the games. It went in 3 days from the largest stainless steel bowl, down to a baggie. There was hardly a drop left. Just a few peanuts. Next mix request: Add a bag of double, double chocolate peanuts in also please.

And of course, we got in some of this...

We hope your 3 day weekend was celebrated with a few war stories retold from our favorite fighters. We have some pretty scary stories of Darrell (Jone's dad) being a gunner on the tip of the New Zealand island. It was his job to get the Japanese plane before they got him flying in with their rolling belts of rapid fire bullets. He tells another of finding one of his bunk mates outside of the tent. He didn't show back up and they walked out of the tent to find a boa which had eaten him whole. They finally slit the snake's belly/guts to let the man out. Although he was dead, they were able to retrieve his dog tags and mementos for his family.

My Grandfather Lines (PaPa) Lines did not like to speak of his war days. He was injured in the Battle of the Bulge. Since he had just recently returned from his mission to Germany, he was used in the control room to translate the German plans into English picked up over the air waves.

After reading the Children of the Promise series I got a much better feel how lives were changed forever by the war, both those who fought, captured, killed, and those left behind. I hope our children are being taught to love and respect the people who have fought to ensure our freedoms.

My mom and I had a blown out tire way down a dirt road about 4 miles from our property. It was Monday evening and most everyone had gone home. All in our cabin had left except for Mary and she was off helping friends shoot bridal photos. I kept trying to get roadside assistance and had been holding for 15 minutes with no luck. I figured we'd be there well into dark, and if you've been in the mountains, you know how quickly it gets cold and VERY dark. Three cars passed us. My mom was in the car but I had the trunk up and was trying to get through to someone to try and come help me. I figured it wasn't going to be easy on Memorial Day. All of a sudden one of the first cars that had passed us turned around and rolled down his window and asked if I needed help. My mother let out a squack and about gazelled herself out and over the car and ran over and started hugging him. She kept laughing and crying. It turned out to be her niece's husband. He had just been at Mom's house 2 weeks ago picking up some genealogy so she recognized him right away. He had his teenage son put on my spare. We were able to get to Walmart before it closed and get a new tire that evening so I could get on my way the next morning. It was a tender mercy for me but especially for my Mom. She loved her father very much and had a special feeling that he had prompted them to go that direction and help us. So it was a pretty special Memorial Day for her and something she'll cherish for a long time.

...and now I end this Memorial Day Weekend adventure with my new favorite motto on the cabin wall ...

"tree" at last!

2011-05-25T07:27:00.015-07:00

remember this post in february?

after jones planted the two new trees one of our smart aleck children came in and asked if that was a joke? why had jones planted dead twigs in our yard?

within weeks they burst forth with beautiful multi-colored leaves -

and look at them now, just 3 months later!

guess they were fur rizzle! (bishop caught me taking these this morning in my nightgown and housecoat out front. how come when you're only outside like that for 2.5 seconds someone times it at the exact same time!)

...and i'm just thinkin' ...

wouldn't it be nice to always have life this care free?

i got meself some culturization...

2011-05-11T08:27:00.008-07:00

who needs les miz? a few weeks ago (before my unfortunate tripping incident) i had the pleasure of attending my kid's old stomping grounds (johnson elementary school) to watch Brodie perform in his first musical.

he played a penguin and did a mighty fine job!

who knew there were penguins in "little red riding hood" hidden in the forest!

Brodie was the understudy to the big bad wolf. he had every word and song to the whole play memorized and i would watch him on the back row performing with exuberance! (that's one of them big words...ya know)

Lil enjoyed playing in the water fountain afterwards. She had to cool off from so much dancin' in the aisles during the play.

Love you Brodie! You were super duper!

happy mother's day ...

2011-05-07T22:28:00.001-07:00

...still on my fridge....

april's done ... time to catch up

2011-05-04T21:51:00.034-07:00

jones and i finally made it back up to "the property" the last weekend of april. much to my surprise, nature had done her job and these little tulips had pushed through the snows of winter to bloom all over. i love flowers. i love nature.

the weather was yummy and the evenings were beautiful.

much to my surprise, i found that the easter bunny resides in pinedale. i assisted him filling eggs while jones fixed my dryer vent (thanks dear....it involved climbing under the dark, cramped crawl space under the house) and pulled out some dead tree stumps with his quad.

he managed to get in a game of pool ...

and we went for a long, long, fun quad ride. the mountain is beautiful and we're discovering what a slice of heaven we acquired. it's sad to get on top of the rim and see the devastation the Rodeo–Chediski Fire caused in 2002. it will take years for the forest to recover. the undergrowth is green, but the scarred and barren trees are heart breaking. we found out that the fire came right up to our home. it burned about a third of the trees on the property. thanks to dedicated volunteer firemen, they pushed the fire right around the house. some of the neighbors weren't so lucky and lost their homes. many have rebuilt.

i have really scary hair when i get back from riding ... but it's usually pretty scary even when not riding.

i got cleaned up and we returned to our loved ones for a great Easter dinner.

michelle especially enjoyed the cheese! oops, i mean ham.....(yes, she is!)

allie jo really liked the strawberry jello (thanks, brit!) and was kind enough to share with lily.

we went out back to find the e.b. had hopped down from pinedale and deposited his (or would it be a her if it lays eggs?) goods throughout our backyard in mesa.

...and the race was on. of course the oldest always get to the spoils first. the young ones take a little while to catch on what's happening. they are happy to stop and open and gobble (wrong holiday) before finding the next egg.

easter bubbles!

koston arrived a little later, but the e.b. laid some fresh eggs and his cousins were very helpful in making his egg hunt a success!

would you rather?

2011-04-27T21:14:00.003-07:00

let's play a little game (come on humor me...yes...i'm whining)

would you rather:

a) have an Intramuscular EMG (Intramuscular needle and fine-wire) EMG?: To perform intramuscular EMG, a needle electrode or a needle containing two fine-wire electrodes is inserted through the skin into the muscle tissue.

Some (SOME?) patients can find the procedure somewhat painful. The muscle or muscles being tested may be slightly sore for a day or two after the procedure.

Really - what freaks WOULDN'T find this test extremely painful?

b) trip hustling to get grandchild from running in street and fall extremely hard on concrete. Break ring finger, end up covered in strawberries. Cut of half of big toe. Have bruised ribs and extremely bruised ego. Ruin beloved pair of black work pants (the only pair that fit really good and I wear at least 3X a week) and now have to replace them....harder said than done!

c) go to MRI apt. at 11:30. Stress to leave work on time to be right on time. Be taken back into the MRI (i.e. torture chamber) at 2:30 (yes 3 hours later..and didn't eat lunch) to be put in the claustrophobic tube for 45 minutes. Come out sweating like a fat kid going to prom and shaking severely. After prying the exam paper off your body and going in to change back into street clothes, being called back into the torture chamber because they didn't get a clear picture and would like to repeat the process. REALLY! Then being so cold from sweating through underwear that you freeze during the second exam. All-in-all - 4 hours at the MRI place with over an hour in the tube.

or

d) leaving work at 6:00 to try and make it to last part of grandson's T-Ball game only to be diverted off the 101 onto the 60 Westbound. First turn off is on Rural and then onto Southern, only to finally hear on the radio that the whole 60 is closed from the 101 to Country Club both directions due to an oxygen truck roll-over. Every car going home to Mesa is on Southern Ave. evidently. Finally get home 1 1/2 hours later.

Fun week. Maybe I'll just chew on tin foil for a really good time!

Happy Birthday Sassy Pants

2011-04-26T07:49:00.003-07:00

Happy Birthday #1 D-I-L.

We surprised Britney and had her birthday celebration a couple days early. She was a little peaved at us that we hadn't warned her so she could be "cute" for pictures.

Now wouldn't it be sad to not be this "cute" all the time.

Happy #29 and holding...sassy britches!

dinosaurusrexomania...

2011-04-20T22:50:00.002-07:00

...me thinks the little ones have been here!

dem bones ....

2011-03-27T20:14:00.016-07:00

We celebrated two weeks of Spring Break around here. First, Brian and Koston stayed for a few days. We ate and partied with relatives... Koston is the sweetest little boy. I love to cuddle him and kiss his chubby, warm, soft cheeks. We really enjoyed the beautiful spring evenings.
Then Michelle and I and her three little ones headed up north to the "property". Jones Lodge was in full swing for 3 days. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera. We went for walks and paid Griffen and Brodie a penny each to bag up pine cones. They got to spend their earnings at the Dollar store. We attempted to fly kites but between too much wind, impatience, and the rough landing the kites didn't last too long.

Next, Geoff came to town the following week. Our house is always loud and full when he's in town. Between the grandkids and his buddies, there is never a dull moment (except possibly between 2 a.m. and about 7 a.m.). Katie flew in a few nights later. The babies love to come visit Aunt Katie. They take a little while to warm up to Uncle Geoffy (you know - because he can be a little menacing to a toddler) but that doesn't last long and they soon are rolling around together all over the floors.

The last night they were here I came home to a table full of hot wings. Scotty had to give Allie a lesson on how to eat them.

She was quite proper about it.

But little Taylor didn't need any coaching at all. She chewed and sucked on one wing for 15 minutes. I've never seen so much sauce from just one wing end up on a face before.

This was the spoils from her eating. She sucked that meat right down to the bone and then chewed on them awhile. The only reason there is any meat on this plate is because we made her spit it out. I was afraid she was going to swallow the bones whole.

To contrast, in the same amount of time, Uncle Geoff had no problem with his wings ...

'nuf said!

oh my cuteness...

2011-03-22T19:28:00.004-07:00

allie jo showed up to visit tonight wearing these ...

where were you when I was growing up old navy?

rugrats~~

2011-03-15T07:28:00.004-07:00

I love these six little scampers. It's hard to get them all in a good mood at the same time and all agreeing to sit still for 3.5 seconds. This was be best we could do on a beautiful spring evening when all they wanted to do was run and play.

Popcorn Popping ...

2011-03-12T09:19:00.017-07:00

(start the music please!!)

I spy a little bee!

Remember this picture last fall?

Well look what 5 months produces!!

Happy Spring!

it's a wrap ....

2011-02-26T23:21:00.006-07:00

...on February birthdays at the Garner household.

We'll finish up the month with Scotty bringing up the rear. It's interesting to me that he's a grown man....(31 Years Old to be exact), and I still hear of friends/relatives with children that age and think...."What the devil...how can you have a child that age??!!"

In other words, how can I be so old? I still think I'm 41.

Scott's my oldest. I think he has the dryest sense of humor. He's REALLY funny. I mean really. You should spend a day or two with him. He ALWAYS can make me laugh. And if you weren't aware, he's pretty much a genius with numbers. He is always the designated scorekeeper when we play cards, as he can do all the math in his head. And he is one of the best base sliders I've ever watched. (Just thought you may want to know that.)

I've had some good heart-to-heart's with this eldest child of mine recently and it's interesting when the child becomes the advisor to the parent in times of need. He's reached out and taught me and touched my heart these past few months.

But ... I digress ... it's time for him to make me laugh again, because any time I talk about tenderhearted things involving my kids (a.k.a. adult children) my eyes start to water again...over and over and over.

He adores his two little girls. He's a great dad!! He goes the extra mile to do things for his cute dollies that I still marvel at each time I watch him in action with them. He knows how to touch their hearts right when they are having a little "something".

HAPPY 31st BIRTHDAY Scrottop. I think you will be 80 and I'll still call you Scotty. It may be from the heavens shouting down at you, but I know you'll hear me....("Do we need that in our hearts?!")

Love you!

hb to my bestest ...

2011-02-23T07:24:00.005-07:00

... daughter in the world. you amaze me. you bring me laughter. you bring me joy. you bring me happiness. you bring me diet cokes with crunchy ice.

i look up to you in so many ways. you are truly my friend ...

and we have a dang good time together!

Happy 29th Birthday Michelle!!

Hope you have a great day!

brodie ♫ it's your birthday ♫ brodie, it's your birthday...

2011-02-20T20:37:00.007-07:00

♪♪♪

happy, happy birthday brodie dear

i hope all days are GREAT this year!

you've been the BESTEST kindergartner this year!

you're so smart.

you can read amazingly well already.

you worked SO hard to get on the math club.

you love other chidren.

you've been such a big boy helper to your mom with lily.

i love how you still get excited when you come to visit me ...
even if it was yesterday.

i love how you tell me that you pray for me to get better.

i love your blessings on the food.

what can be more sweet, truly, than the innocence of a little child?

i keep wondering at what age they actually won't want to climb in the car and come to see grandma?

i hope never!

happy 6th birthday, brodie! we love you so much!

ode to a tree ...

2011-02-16T23:12:00.024-07:00

Its branches stretching in the air

To catch strewn rays from heavens lair

Anchored by its massive trunk

Roots spread out, in the soil sunk.

Years passed from when it was a seed

Surviving rain, the drought, and choking weed

It’s seen young boy’s turn to men

Their ode to love carved into its skin ...

huh?? this was Michelle's ode to love~

We've had this massive bottle tree growing for about 26 years now.

(Note very large tree in left side of photo.)

Mike (a.k.a. Jones) has carefully pruned and shaped it nearly every Thursday (garbage day is Friday) or Saturday. He has blown the leaves and vacuumed them up for years. About 2.5 minutes after doing so, leaves began to clutter up the lawn again.

It has been very much a part of our life.

It grew these little, very sticky flowers that fell everywhere. Many large, growing boys came in and out all day and the flowers stuck to the bottom of their feet and got deposited all along the ceramic tile in our entry way.

I've cursed it for years and years.

Then the flowers turned into these hard, brittle pods that fell everywhere and hurt really, really badly when you stepped on them in bare feet.

I've cursed it for years.

Especially when grand babies began to get hurt on them.

So I guess Jones was finally tired of hearing me curse all the time.

I got up a few Saturday's ago to find this...

a driveway full of branches and a large, ugly stump in the front yard.

Jones (a.k.a. animal...in that he works like an ox...he's really amazing!) had finally decided to chop it down.

Notice two large bottle trees in neighbors lawn. Our tree and their trees were pretty much lovers. They would cross-pollinate and add more and more to the little sticky flowers and brown, brittle pods in our driveway and lawn.

Jones made a nice cut in the correct place and hooked it up to the bumper. Neighbors and friends stopped throughout the day to add their 2 cents.

The first piece of nylon rope snapped right in mid tug.

A huge piece of yellow nylon tree-tugger thingy took it's place.

After many tries of revving engine and leaving plenty of new tire tread in the asphalt the mighty oak, whoops ... bottle tree, finally gave way.

At least the top portion.

Then Mr. Work-A-Holic got busy trying to get rid of the large portion of the tree. He sawed and sawed the chain just about off his pole trimmer. (I think he was really sorry he left our large, new chain saw at the cabin this week.)

He finally decided to get serious and got out the axe. And he chopped, and chopped, and chopped. He would try to pull it down (again...ouchy on the tires) and then he'd get out and chop some more.

The big, bad bottle tree lost it's fight.

And what was really weird, was in a sort of way, I was sad about it all.

It had been a part of our life and it kind of made me feel old.

A lot of things have done that lately and can I just say, I HATE IT!

So Hercules spent the next hour cutting up the trunk into pieces and rolling it away. He had spent about 8 hours laboring over the d**n thing.

But lo and behold, within a week a new little guy was there. And he also had a friend planted on the other half of our front yard.

So the story of life begins again at our home.

I wonder if I will be around ~26 years from now to see how big it's become.

I wonder if I will have given up my swearing habit by then.

But honestly, wouldn't you cut your tree down if you found this living in it?

Its enough to scare the s* ... oops ... crap out of anyone!

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T20:06:00.009-07:00

We made some yummy goodies for our nice Valentines dinner yesterday with the whole fam damily that live in Mesa.

And used this yummy chocolate coating we found at Sam's... (It's awesome!)
... to coat these mouthwatering strawberries.

But the best Valentine's treat arrived on foot tonight!

Happy Valentines Day!

happy birthday baby beaver boy

2011-02-11T00:01:00.001-07:00

oregon took away my youngest child, geoff, a couple years ago. geoff. (that's pronounced just like jeff...for the girl in the doctor's office who humiliated us both about 15 years ago when she loudly called for the next patient, Gee-off-rey Gard-ner... hard g, long double e)

but we've been able to see a lot of him since. and when we get together, most of the talk is centered on football ... well at least for the men. the girls just want to play Nertz. but i digress......

happy 23rd birthday geoff! you came into this world according to your own timing (two weeks early). nothing was going to stop you. you were blasting through and jones made world record time getting to the hospital. i'll always remember laying on the hospital bed and laughing like a person who'd just robbed a bank after i had you. you were delivered about three minutes after we arrived and i didn't have to survive 12 hours of labor like with the other three children. thank you ... in case i've never told you that.

you've handled life the same way. you've done things according to your own timing and nothings been able to stop you

we hope you have a great birthday in that beautiful state. i'm sure katie (that's pronounced kendra for those of you not privy to her birth certificate) will take good care of you.

we're very proud of you!

happy birthday ge-off.

Happy Anniversary to Us

2011-02-07T19:03:00.004-07:00

32 years. That sounded like forever ... forever ago. But today .... yeah, it still sounds forever.

Remember this post?

http://shelleneandgang.blogspot.com/2010/09/i-mike-jones.html

Makes 32 years great!

Happy #2 Tay Tay

2011-01-31T22:41:00.004-07:00

Happy Second Birthday Taylor Marie.

Time has sure flown since you were born!

You are blessed to have a family who loves you so much.

...especially your goofy older sister, Allie Jo, who just broke her arm and was awarded a sweet purple cast with sparkles all over it for her dismount off her new 2-week old birthday bike while spinning donuts on the front driveway!

I sure love you two little girls!

Always look upward....

sweet blue-eyed girl.

Before and happily ever After...

2011-01-25T20:37:00.058-07:00

A few posts previously, I mentioned some property that Mike and I purchased this fall up North. There is always a story (right K?!) involving things, but I won't go into that. Mary (my baby sister) and I headed north to Heber area one day after lunch to look at a listing I'd seen. There were no photos. I called the realtor and she said the owners had been unable to clean up the place so they were unable to take any pictures. She told me to come and see the "potential" the property had. We hopped in my little red car and took off.

I immediately fell in love with the covered bridge and the nicely kept red road leading to the place.

The listing was for an acre of land. I was excited to see it was full of trees and the home was set back off the street. I had to really use my imagination, but Mike and I both saw the potential when he went up the following day with me. We made an offer that evening and it was accepted the following day. Then the work began!!

The "property" had old turquoise carpet throughout...including the bathrooms. I decided with some new floors and about lots of paint we could transform the place. Mike and I went up as soon as it was ours and he ripped out all the carpet. I hired some great workers that were friends of my son-in-law Aaron, to install the floors. Mary, Scott and I went up for a few weekends and painted...and painted ... and painted. Not much sleep was involved. I found some great buys on Craigslist and the inside transformation was completed in about a month. So far, we're really happy with it!! By summer we hope to have a few more ceiling fans purchased and installed, and we're good to go!

"Will work for food and pull a 12 hour all-nighter" (while we were trying to sleep on blow-up mattresses in other bedroom. I have a great story about me that night on Ambien, but I'll keep it to myself for now. Let's just say these two guys think I am one crazy lady!)

New laminate flooring. We love it!

Mary is the hardest worker! She was so much help. Besides painting, she was the master driver, shopper and entertainer. She also installed all the new baseboards throughout the house after the floor was complete.

Living Room - Before

After. Mike purchased this pool table at Sam's Club about 4 years ago when all the boys finally were gone. He hoped to knock out a wall and put it in the front bedrooms of our home. It never made it past the sharp turn in the hallway. It was too heavy and too large to fit through the front windows. It has had a home in it's original box on the back porch since then. It was SO excited to finally find a home...and so was Jones and my boys!!

Before.

After.

Before.

After.

(We had to put stuff up in this nook and cranny so Aaron Y. didn't think he could sleep up there!)

Dining Room - Before. (Loved the curtains made from a quilt. I hated to take them down from the sliding glass door. The snow shovel was a nice touch also.)

After. (Slightly used table and chairs - $100.00. Great bargain.)

Master Bedroom - Before.

After. Mary surprised me and picked out the pain for the bottom third of the room. It was a deep maroon. (Merlot was the acutal name.) I'm not sure if she regretted it after about her eighth coat of paint trying to get it to cover every little peek-through.

Bedroom #2 - Before.

After.

Bedroom #3 (Still using that imagination!!)

After.

Family Room - Before.

After. Leather sectional - super Craigslist find. (Again, it's all about the stories, but too long to tell. Thank you Britney for rescuing me on this one!)

Family Room - Before.

After. (Love that Craigslist again.)

I love my circle rug. Also that new carpet smell!

I'd never seen this touch before. It was an octogon china cabinet in both uppers and lowers. I asked my manual laborers before they started the floor how hard they thought it would be to remove this. Need I say more? I think men love demolition projects. They had it ripped out in no time and spackled my ceiling right up. (That Subway works every time!!)

Kitchen Area - Before.

After. Before. (Still using lots of potential imagination.)
After. It's amazing how much it opened the area up!

I added a few nick-nacks for warmth and to make it feel like "us".

We threw in some fun ...

...named the place

and gave it a motto.

Laundry Room - Before.

After....minus a gallon of paint. This is the last painting project on the inside I have yet to tackle!

We feel so blessed and we love it already!

grandkidsh are the besht!

2011-01-11T07:48:00.006-07:00

I love my grandbabies...each one of them. They are all different in their own special way. This blue-eyed princess will be turning 4 tomorrow. Allie Jo was our first granddaughter. She looks just like her daddy and has the beautiful hair of her mommy.

I love how they pronounce words ... until they finally get speech therapy or corrected enough or start school and hear they've been saying things wrong. For instance, Griffen (Gwiffy) has to have about 1/2 of his sentences translated to us right now. Of course Brodie knows exactly what Gwiffy is saying to Gwaympa and Gwaymma, so we turn to him or Michelle with that look on our face like, "what just came out of his mouth?!"

Sunday night when they were all over to dinner I pulled a hot fruit cocktail cake (minus the fruit cocktail, add pineapple, topped with brown sugar and pecans) out of the oven and then spooned boiling hot butter sauce over the top. (Which quite frankly, would make even a baked shoe taste like heaven.) We then had fun squirting the whipped cream between little one's mouths and onto the cake. One for you, one for the cake. Next.

Anyway, Allie had been waiting (not so) patiently for her piece. I was telling them we had to wait as it was probably still pretty hot. Especially with the nuts on top that hold the heat. They were told to blow and blow on it before they took their first bite. I wasn't paying attention to those served as I was still going back and forth between the whipped creamed mouths and then to the pieces of cake. All of a sudden I heard, "Grandma, thish cake burned my whole mouth, but it is O-KAY becaush thish cake ish sho DE-LISH-OUSH."

OOOPs...giggle.

Let It Snow...and snow...and snow...

2011-01-03T21:58:00.021-07:00

Jones and I fulfilled a lifelong dream of ours and purchased some property up in the White Mountains this fall. I've spent lots of weekends up there beginning in November working away on transforming the inside. Lots of blood, sweat, paint and tears went into the work. But I'm really, really happy with the results.

(We call it "the property" because no one can decide on a name yet. I'll let you know if and when we ever agree. We received a nice sign for Christmas from Brit that says Jones Lodge. That one may stick!)

Since we have forced shut down during the Christmas holidays at work I decided I would stay up there alone for a week (after all visitors left) to finish the final paint job in the bathroom and then read, meditate (fancy schmancy word for lots of thinking), hide, and play Sudoku, etc. for the remaining week.

That lasted one day. My wise husband called and informed me to get in the car and head for home before THE storm hit. I hesitated for awhile and then packed up fighting, screaming (to myself) and crying the whole way, but I obeyed and came home. And I'm glad I listened to him. THE Storm came during the nighttime and it didn't stop snowing for about three days. The temperatures were in the teens most of the time and I would have been stranded. That would have been quite a terrible ordeal seeing how I only had about 5 cans of Diet Coke left.

The roads were finally passable today and we drove up to check out "the property" and make sure there were no broken pipes and all was in order.

This is what really sold me on "the property". It is a lovely covered bridge you drive to enter the town. This is what it looked like a few weeks ago before they decked it out in Christmas lights.

A few weeks ago ...

Today. Notice the path my kind husband shoveled all the way to the front door for me.

A few weeks ago ...

Today.

A few weeks ago ...

Today.

I bet you thought this was going to say a few weeks ago...gotchya!

I decided these could have been the weapons to defend myself being alone and all....

View out the back door two weeks ago ...

Today.

And yes, if you remember this post, our little cedar castle has a new home. We've purchased plenty of wild birdseed for the windowsill when the snows finally quit.

baby, oh baby

2010-12-07T07:16:00.008-07:00

Michelle and I took Koston down with his family for a little photo shoot over the turkey holiday. As luck would have it, he was gone, gone, gone when we pulled up to the photo place. Isn't that the way it usually goes with babies?

(Look how pretty he is!)

But with some gentle, loving and kind coaxing he snapped to in no time and was posing away...

...still half asleep, but cooperating none-the-less. Yeah, he's that great of a kid!

Happy, Happy Birthday ...

2010-11-30T23:45:00.006-07:00

this past week to Griffen (4) and Lily, who turned 1 today.

It's hard to believe it's already been a year since this little squirrel came into the world and has been demanding attention ever since. She's a spit fire for sure...and always has a bruise on her forehead from falling or running into something.

I love you both! (Now stop growing up!)

BLACK Friday

2010-11-26T23:49:00.009-07:00

I'd never done Black Friday before. I can't stand masses of humanity lowering themselves to push, shove, yell, elbow, etc. that I had viewed on television before. We went to a delicious dinner of Thanksgiving at my sister-in-law Pam's house. They always do Black Friday and have always raved at how they would get a system down, split up at different stores, play cards all night, grab the best bargains for one another and then go home and share the spoils. They said it was "fun".

Since Walmart opened at midnight this year for the specials I coaxed Mike Jones into going with me. They had some great buys like appliances (Belgium waffle makers, griddles, crock pots, etc.) for $9.97. When you go to as many wedding receptions as we do at this stage in life, those prices look very attractive. We got there about 15 minutes late so we didn't see the doors open or if anyone stampeded each other, but there was a mass of humanity in there when we walked in. I looked at the cashier lines and said "this doesn't look so bad". Jones said...."take a look down the aisles". Wowzers. Heads weaved and bobbed everywhere.

There were no carts to be found so we held our breath and dove in. We both started walking quickly to where the appliances were. Being a novice at this, I didn't realize that the specials weren't where you think they would be. They are in the middle of aisles wherever the forklift dropped the palette with black, heavy plastic wrap surrounding the product. They had red mylar balloons floating high in the sky with the prices on them. Mind you, this was not for the TVs and electronics. Those specials took place at 5 a.m. and people were already forming a line for those.

If someone put something down you wanted you grabbed it quickly. Mike would hold 5 or 6 of something with his foot on them and fight off the crowds as I would run looking for a cart. It all wasn't quite that dramatic, but pretty close. You really did have to grab it if you saw it, because if you went to think about it for 30 seconds it was literally gone.

We ran into Pam's kids there and they gave us the "business" on how to get even better deals at Kohls. Heaven knows we had 1 1/2 hours in line to strategize with them as we stood politely in a line that went clear back to the garden center. After a long wait we were informed by the people in front of us that he had checked it out and there were only 5-6 people in all the other lines. We had just all assumed this was the line that someone would kindly direct us to an open lane in and were all standing like good doobies. We took our two carts and made our way through to the other lines and were finally on our way. It was 2:30.

We dropped off our loot at home and met up with the Garner kids right when the doors opened at 3 a.m. so I didn't have to stand in the cold. We ran to where the piece of furniture I was looking for was and Mike grabbed the only one. It was huge. Then we had to find some kind of very large cart to haul it on. I grabbed some sheets and a few other things I had on my list and went to find a worker for help. I found my niece and nephews in line right at the front by the registers so I hopped in and went to pay for my items I'd found on the way up to the front and my niece Mandy whipped out a 15% coupon she'd printed off the internet. She gave it to me to use as she had a another 15% card in her hand. I used the $10 coupon from the front of that morning's ad. They took that off everything ...the sale price, the 15% and the extra $10 off. It was exhilarating. Then I went to find Mike. He hadn't moved from the furniture section and the line to check out at that point had reached clear around the store to where he was. We stood in line for about 2 1/2 hours to make our purchases. That part was no fun! But in the process the kids joined up with us in line and had many other $10 stickers that they shared with us.

Here's the run-down:

Spent: $260.58

Saved: $628.38

I say it's really worth it.
I did find out what the meaning of Black Friday is ... you black out for 8 hours when you get home from shopping and wake up and one of your vacation days is gone! But if you find things you are really needing or want for Christmas gifts, I decided it's totally worth it.

P.S. It REALLY helps to have Mike Jones along to do all the manual labor and holding place in line while I keep looking and also to have Thanksgiving at Pam's house!

better late than never...

2010-11-22T09:12:00.032-07:00

The holidays are coming WAY too fast this year. I've been involved in an out-of-town weekend(s) project that has me all discombobulated. I am so confused about time. Honestly. Where did this year go, let alone the 2000's? I feel like I can't connect my body/thoughts/actions with the actual time of year.

So, forgive my tardiness, but I'm finally posting Halloween photos before Thanksgiving is over. And I'm digging in my heels trying to stop Christmas from coming, but it is NOT working. The signs of it are everywhere and I'm afraid I'll have to give in soon. But if I don't post my Halloween photos and start to give thanks for truly all the blessings I have in my life, I'm not even going to be able to start with the green and red festivities.

So for my record, here is the 2010 Halloween Garner Gallery:

A lovely ladybug.

Mario & Luigi (sans mustache)

A beautiful ballerina fairy.

An ice cream cone (Britney is so creative!) The outfit had this cute swirl with cherries on top but Tay Tay was NOT having it. She wasn't happy about the whole costume thing but she did love the rewards!

The Chiquita Banana lady. She somehow made this headdress stay on all night. It was heavy. Brit does a great job with her craftiness. Loved the Runts necklace.

...and she somehow had time to show up with these delicious cookies, warm and freshly frosted!! Who doesn't love soft sugar cookies?!

I laugh out loud every time I see this photo. It is my niece dressing up as Psycho Mom. (It's pretty much me every morning...sans the lipstick and about 2/3rd the hair...and your point?)

And remember Otto the Simpson's bus driver from last year ...

This year he showed up as a Penny. It was so clever. Split right down the center and 100% reversible. Lots of work and imagination!

And far, far away in cold Moscow, Idaho, our sweet little Koston was dressed up as a China Man.

Boo!

Vinyl Letters "Writing on the Wall"

2010-11-12T08:44:00.003-07:00

My cute daughter-in-law has started a vinyl cutting business. She has tons of cute fonts and embellishments and is very creative. Right now she is having a BOGO.

That means buy one get one free. Here is the link to her blog page: http://lieslslovelylettering.blogspot.com/

Have fun....buy one custom, get one pre-designed.

Happy First Birthday Sweet Koston!

2010-10-25T09:31:00.008-07:00

Happy 1st Birthday to our sweet Koston! Time sure has flown. I'd love to give him a kiss on his large-and-in-charge soft cheeks but he's living in Idaho getting smart while he attends law school with his dad and mom.

Eat a piece of cake for me, K. Grandma loves and misses you!

my favorite halloween decoration...

2010-10-20T07:19:00.002-07:00

..this year are these fun, fun, fun wooden candy corn I bought at my favorite shopping stop on the way to Los Angeles area (Tai Pan). Love them!

...and ... I just looked out the window and I think it's going to rain today. Looks like a possible real, fall rain...not one of those nasty ones that have come through lately and ripped trees out of the ground and torn roof shingles off in 30.2 seconds, but possibly a nice, soft fall rain that welcomes in autumn and makes you sad you're sitting at your desk at work because it feels like you should be home making cookies and cuddling up in a ball under some blankets. Last night I went out to water the flowers and thought, "wow, I think it might really be here".

My mom used to say that Halloween usually was the first night we really needed a sweater in the evenings. Let's hope these 99 degree days are gone, gone, gone!

it's flower time!

2010-10-14T19:47:00.004-07:00

I love this time of year when it finally cools down (or it's supposed to!) and my flowers don't die in one day if I forget to water them.

Brodie helped me purchase them with a trip to Home Depot, Lily had a super time stacking and unstacking the empty containers, Allie helped me pot them, and Tay Tay had a great time coming in and out and in and out and in and out and in and out and in and out (get my drift) the front door to check on the progress.

If you look carefully you can see a hint of her green & purple dress coming out the door even as we "snap".

Happy Birthday!

2010-10-13T07:52:00.004-07:00

K to the T to the diddle diddle E.

Like my song?

Happy Birthday Katie! Glad you're a Los Garners now!

think positive!

2010-10-06T10:00:00.010-07:00

i'm driving to work today on the freeway thinking positive about all my blessings ...

something hits my passenger's side window (i thought i was shot) with a positively mighty force and shatters my window into a million pieces.

it positively scared me to death.

i'm positive i'm thankful i kept my wits and didn't get into a wreck.

i'm positive i'm thankful I had aftermarket tint on the window so it kept the million pieces into place and they didn't fly in and cut me up.

i'm positively sad that they can't get to it today because they have over 100 calls already this morning from the storm yesterday...

but ...

i'm positively thankful i have glass insurance!

our brains are going to pop ...

2010-09-26T15:29:00.002-07:00

... if we get any smarter!

Add another degree in the Garner family. Congratulations to my oldest, Scott, for getting his bachelor's degree from University of Phoenix.

We're super proud of him!

Happy 30th BD Aaron Y.

2010-09-22T20:05:00.002-07:00

May your thirties be as bright as your twenties. And may you ever survive playing sports with my three boys. I pray for you every time you take the court with them. Brave, you certainly are.

Happy Happy Aaron Kahele Yamamoto. We're glad you're a part of our family.

Compliments of Allie Jo ...

2010-09-19T20:59:00.003-07:00

Allie Jo drew a picture of me tonight to leave on the refrigerator. I didn't get a good look at it until they were gone. I started laughing so hard. I love little kids!

She obviously doesn't know how to draw my big calves yet.

But I'm diggin' the hair!

I ♥ Mike Jones

2010-09-11T23:46:00.007-07:00

Tonight when I drove in the garage at 10:15 p.m. from getting my Saturday grocery shopping done, the house door flew open and my husband came out to carry all the groceries in. He does this every time I come home from getting groceries. Always. No matter what he's doing, watching, or how tired he is. He had told me he was going to bed when I left at 8:00 because he was so tired. He spent most of the day down at the church getting the sound and video ready for an upcoming important conference in a week. He has to get up for a 6 a.m. meeting tomorrow morning. But he waited up to make sure I got home safe and help me with the groceries.

We've been married over 31 years. That's a long time to be with someone. That's a long time to take things for granted. It is easy to overlook little things he does in our marriage that make my life easier and fuller.

I started thinking of all the things that are great about him tonight:

He always helps me bring in the groceries
He still opens the car and other doors for me
He is very strong. He's always willing to open something or lift something for me
He fixes things for me that I have no clue how to
He always does the dishes on Sunday after everyone is here and we have a huge mess (and lots of other times too)
He cleans his own bathroom. He started using the small extra bathroom in our house years ago so he wouldn't wake me up in the mornings by using ours after I'd been up with the little ones
He takes out and brings in the big garbage cans every week. Always. I never have even had to worry about doing it
He does his church callings with vigor and always goes the extra mile serving others. He's usually one of the first to a meeting to help set up and the last to leave making sure everything is put away and clean
He waves at everyone as he drives down the street
He scalps many of our neighbors yards each year and helps them prepare their lawn for winter or summer grass
He keeps our front yard very, very groomed. None of us even offer to mow it because we can't do the lines straight and perfect enough for his liking
He loves my mom & dad and my siblings and is always kind to them
He lets me go on girlfriend trips and never complains about it when I surprise him that I'm taking "another one"
He lets me try crazy things on trips like parasailing and even runs after me to hop in the boat because he wants to protect me from strangers
He always carries my heavy luggage in the airport and puts my bag in the overhead bin in the plane. I really miss that on my business trips. I usually about drop the suitcase right on my head getting it down after I arrive
He is a good missionary and supported my sons on their missions both spiritually and emotionally
He lets me watch whatever I want to first on the TV and waits to watch his DVR shows until I'm done with mine
He lets me have drinks of his pop ... even right after he's refilled it and has to top it off again after I grab it and drink a third of it in a big slurp
He is an awesome father-in-law
He always drives the whole way on a trip and lets me just read or sleep
He always asks where I'd like to eat first before we make a decision on eating out
He keeps me safe and protected
He loves me unconditionally
He is an awesome grandpa. The babies always run and look for him first before they acknowledge me
He lets me completely take over the whole medicine cabinet/shelves/etc. on the cruise ship or in a hotel with all my putty and plaster and never complains about the tiny space I leave him for his stuff
He has put up with a lot this last year with my health and is very concerned for me and cares for me in many ways

and

He plays one mean game of Ms. PacMan!

I'm grateful he's mine...even though I don't always act like it or express it to him enough.

Bag Lady?

2010-08-25T07:19:00.003-07:00

Ready to go shopping with Grandma....or showin' off her new teefers!

"ding dong ding dong..."

2010-08-11T21:26:00.004-07:00

What's that I hear?

School bells ringing?...

or my biological clock moving much faster than I want!

My ba ba Brodie started school today - kindergarten.

First grandbaby....(he's still a baby to me). I'm shocked every time I see him and how big he's getting.

Last night when he came over for loves I told him to tell his teacher this: "My grandma said to take good care of me because she loves me so much!"

When he called me to report today on how the first day went he was really excited. He had lots and lots to tell me. I asked him if he gave his teacher the special message. He said, "Yes, I told her I take care of my grandma because I love her so much!"

He said she said, "that is the most wonderful thing I've ever heard!"

I ♥-ily agree!

Love you big boy!

Apropos...

2010-08-08T16:03:00.003-07:00

Friday's calendar page had a message for me... It was pretty good timing. It made me ponder for sure!

We'll miss this little family!

2010-07-24T17:43:00.008-07:00

Last night Brian & Liesl dropped off Koston for us to tend for the evening. He is such a sweet baby and so easy going.

He luv, luv, loves his food. I laugh the whole time I feed him because he opens his mouth SO wide in anticipation of each bite!

I feel such a bond to him because he looks, acts, and feels just like Brian did as a baby. His dark brown eyes, chubby cheeks, slobber, and marshmallow legs and feet are just like Brian's were.

Brian borrowed a pillow for his trip they left for this morning. He even modeled it for me. (He is the biggest nerd!)

Soon, the whole flock of scragglemuffins showed up and it was party time at Grandma's as usual.

And then I realized it will be last time we have all six of these kids together for a long time. Brian, Liesl and Koston are leaving in a week for Idaho to start a new life going to law school. We will miss them a lot and the hugs and slobbery kisses from chubby K.

But we're so proud of them and love them so much. I know they'll do great and make new friends. It's so awesome to know we can stay connected so easily through the internet, webcam, phone calls, plane flights, etc.

P.S. Did I ever mention how much I hate goodbyes....

i can relate ...

2010-07-14T19:29:00.004-07:00

to this!

I know it's beautiful 7 other months of the year...

but summer in Arizona just about does me in!

how did you spend your three day weekend?

2010-07-07T10:16:00.010-07:00

The first few days of our vacation were spent stripping wallpaper, painting and moving furniture. It wasn't so enjoyable, but there were some long overdue projects that needed to be attacked. It seems when you work full time there never is enough time or energy to do big projects.

On Monday my husband took me to the latest movie craze...you know the one involving the wolves and the vampires...and then we tended the 3 Yamamoto little ones so Aaron and Michelle could go.

We enjoyed watching Lily work on her crawling skills....

...and Griff work on his winking skills...

...and Brodie work on just being Brodie.

I do have to say....they were having a SpongeBob SquarePants marathon on during those

4 hours. By the end of listening to it in the background and occasionally watching it with them,

I decided ...

a) this really wasn't written for kids. The humor is really mostly aimed at adults.

b) the music gets really annoying FAST.

c) I was about to take desperate measures if the marathon hadn't ended when it did. Really, who writes this stuff and makes tons of money. Where did Sesame Street, Electric Company and Mr. Rogers go? I feel a real generation gap here. (Also...I really use the word really a lot here.)

And speaking of generation gaps ... my whole body is sore from the tiny bit of manual labor I did. I really mostly stood and watched as my strong husband moved the furniture. And then, of course, I'd tell him it wasn't really in the spot I wanted it so he'd move it again for me.

But I did decide one thing...I'll take being a Walmart Greeter any day over

being a painter, a mover or a stripper in my old age!

family togetherness

2010-06-22T16:26:00.064-07:00

For the past 10 years we've tried to take a trip to Oceanside, California with the kids for a summer vacation. It used to be A LOT easier when they were all teenagers and would be happy to sleep on blow up mattresses all across the floor of a small condo. It's been a challenge to find something economical for the ever growing family, but with much searching I was able to book a place about 6 months ago for a week that all the kids were able to take off and be together.

I just want to know where this kind of traveling was when I was a kid...

We started off our adventure with a walk to explore the grounds.

Which led to these steep stairs and drop off cliff at the back of the property...

..and also a pretty rocky beach that the kids couldn't wait to run into...barefoot (ouch), clothes and all.

Geoff and Katie flew in that evening to the San Diego airport while I took the girls shopping at Ralphs for the week's groceries. It was quite the adventure. We'll leave it at that. Each of the girls chose a menu for their evening and we divided up the cooking and everyone pitched in with the kitchen cleaning. They were such troopers and we had some good grub.

We spent lots of time at one of the two pools in the community. They were never busy and if some people did come...we soon scared them off with our noisy crew.

We played lots of card games in the evenings. They were competitive as usual.

One evening a bunch jumped over to LegoLand which was only about 5 minutes away. Michelle discovered a great secret that if you go for the last hour of the day they let you in for free.

Geoff, Scott and Koston all got hair cuts. Koston's was his first ever.

The next morning we woke to 2 surprise boxes of yummy donuts from the Leucadia donut shop. Mike had ventured down early to have them bright and early for all. They were rich and yummy.

Others a little more health conscious went jogging.

The following day a couple cars headed up to the happiest place on earth, Disneyland. The kids had all done service projects and earned free certificates to Disneyland admission. That really helps make it a happier place! Mike and I stayed back with the little babies and Brian, Liesl and Koston went shopping and sight seeing in San Diego.

Allie Jo loved Minnie.

I hear this Woodsy (Woozy as Griff calls him) character really had a thing for Katie and found her in the crowd. She'll have to fill you in on their special adventure that morning.

Back to the condo for more cousin bonding and treats.

Thank heaven for these bumbos. Why couldn't I have ever invented something like that?

Lots more grandpa bonding going on after evening baths.

We made our annual stop at the T-Shirt Shop in Oceanside. Since this is the week that Geoff and Katie tied the knot 1 year ago, they decided to get custom made t-shirts (which also happen to be made in Beaver colors) to commemorate their 1st year together - officially June 13th.

On to the harbor for fish and chips. We saw a seagull fly out of the air and steal a complete cheeseburger out of a man's hand. I would have been ticked!!

We went to one of our nice sandy beaches in Oceanside and the kids got right in. 2 years ago Brodie screamed and wouldn't get near it but we couldn't get him out of the waves today. He loved it. He's turned into quite the fish in the swimming pool also.

Baby Lily is all happiness in the fresh air.

Griffen goes boarding,

Liesl ... just looks really cute.

Little Taylor's tu tu swim suit was way cute also.

Twice she was so tuckered out she passed out face down in the sand.

Hasn't everyone been buried at least once on the beach? It seems as if it is always Geoff.

Little Koston is so good natured. He smiles all the time.

I love this back shot of their legs. I'd like to frame it for beach artwork. So cute.

Look at Allie go. She's getting so tall and grown up.

There was plenty of lallygagging going on at the condos. The beach wears everybody out.

There were some mighty fierce Mario games between Brian and Brodie. I'm still not sure who won. Is that another lallygagger I see in the background?

Katie brought her Just Dance Wii game and we started "shakin what our momma gave us." One of us (unmentioned) had to sit out between each round so 911 didn't have to be called.

Geoff even threw down the gauntlett and I have to say Brodie and Allie were quite impressive also.

The kids played outside while the big boys played a fierce game of Basketball.

After a week of togetherness, we gave our goodbye hugs and put the Oregonions back on their plane. We started the 6 hour drive home. Most were just tuckered out from having a great time. I'm glad every one took lots of pictures. It makes fun memories for us all to share. Thanks to all my great kids for going and trying really hard to get along and have a good time. I'm really proud of all of them and we had a fun time! I know I loved the cool weather the most!

don't worry..we survived a big one ...

2010-06-18T09:23:00.004-07:00

An earthquake measuring 5.7 on Richter scale hit parts of California in America today. (Monday night.) It was centered 5 miles southeast of Ocotillo, California.

The Earthquake was felt at 9:26 p.m and was followed by a 3.9 magnitude quake at 9:26 p.m. As per USGS official website numerous people have reported the earthquake from parts of Southern California too. People have been quoted to have said the recent earthquake resembled the Easter Sunday quake in Baja that happened earlier. The reports are coming in that this might be a prelude for a strong and damaging aftershock which is expected to hit in another 7 days. And the people from these areas have been advised to be bit more cautious.

No injury has been reported so far. The shocks from the earthquake were so high that the baseball match between the San Diego Padres and the Toronto Blue Jays was momentarily stopped during the earthquake. ***

Yes, it's true. We were all sitting quietly in Southern Cali with the children all tucked in bed for the night, watching one of our favorite TV shows involving a rose (true...even the males in the family)...when I thought Geoff was walking heavily across the floor or pushing the back of my chair. I looked over and saw every one was still in their seats except Aaron Y. and I knew he couldn't move the chair or floor that much. I exclaimed "I think we're in an earthquake". It was the freakiest thing. It felt kind of like being on a roller coaster ride. The floor was buckling and shaking for about 5 seconds. When it quit we all just stared at each other like "did that really happen"?

Within a few minutes the scrolling bar across the bottom of the TV screen reported the earthquake and even had footage of the baseball game coming to a halt.

Yes, we all survived, including Kasey, who was the last to receive a rose after getting a nice rose/shield tattoo on his wrist that week (WAY stupid!) to proclaim his love for the Bachelorette.

It was a nail biter though for sure!

'nuf said!

2010-06-11T07:48:00.002-07:00

Oh Brodie...

2010-05-30T21:09:00.003-07:00

... you crack me up.

One of my BFF's (Vicki) daughter - Alisse, and her husband Scott - taught Brodie in Primary this past year. She shared some of the things the kids have randomly said in class on her blog. I had to steal some of them from her blog because some of them made me laugh out loud when I was reading them.

I especially enjoyed this photo of Brodie. I'm not sure if he is thinking really hard or if this is his "I'm too cool" for this photo shoot. But it also made me chuckle.

(Brodie is the one in the blue striped shirt.)

Olivia: “Last week I went to…” (pauses)

Brodie: (completely serious) Heaven?

SRB: Where do you go to school?

Brodie: Well, Grandma has a trailer by her house, but I go to school past the black house.

SRB: Did you guys know it’s Sis. Baldwin’s birthday this next week?

Brodie: Well, are you going to have your birthday at my Grandma’s or at your Grandma Vicki’s? Because I’ll come if you will just invite me.

SRB: Giving a lesson about what we’d do to help others Choose the Right.

Brodie: I’d tell my Dad, but lie to my brother. (He mixed it up- I think he meant “I’d tell my Dad if my brother lied”)

SRB: Should we still be friends with people who do naughty things and don’t choose the right?

Brodie: Well, I’m friends with my brother Griffy & he is naughty.

Me: Who remembers what we’ve been talking about? And here’s a hint: It’s the name of our class…

Brodie: Yes, of cooooourse we already know. TCR! (we were going for CTR, so I guess they didn’t really know!)

SRB: Does anyone have a story about Choosing the Right that they want to share?

Brodie: Well, it’s actually about Choosing the Wrong…Griffy took our pet fish out of its water & squeezed it and stepped on it. He was NOT Choosing the Right, huh?

SRB: Is Heavenly Father our father?

Brodie: (raises his hand & Scott calls on him) Oh, that question I don’t know, but I do know that Griffy put me in the toilet once.

SRB: (shows a picture of the 3 wise men) Do you know who these men are?

Brodie: Yep, the 3 camel riders.

SRB shows a picture of Joseph leaving to Egypt

Brodie: Oh, easy. That’s the one when he played the flute. (??)

SRB is explaining how people lived in Jesus’ time & how they used donkeys.

Brodie: Is it the same donkey that we used at my birthday to pin the tail on?

(Thanks Alisse. I really enjoyed this!)

Top Ten Things I Loved about my Hawaii Trip ...

2010-05-20T16:11:00.057-07:00

...in no specific order.

1. Outdoor eating with ocean views. This little cafe (Bongo Ben's) was one of our favorite spots. The salads, coconut fried shrimp, fries, etc. were awesome.

But the best thing I tasted there was Karen's Tropical Fresh Fruit Belgium Waffle topped with fresh bananas, strawberries, pineapple and chopped macadamia nuts. Then it was topped off with a coconut syrup that made my eyes roll back in my head.

2. Ocean. We love to snorkel. I love to sit on the beach and read or just listen to the waves.

3. Scenery. Wish I had taken more shots.

4. Sunsets.

...or walking into them. (here's "that" photo Karen.)

5. The Kona Temple Session. The temple is peaceful and beautiful and I'm so glad we attended a session.

6. Fresh, hot malasadas. Clint told us about this little place that makes these fresh, hot doughnuts. They are then filled with different flavors and rolled in sugar. Enough said!

7. Donkey Balls i.e. chocolate covered macadamia nuts. We went crazy eating them!!!

8. Nature. So amazing.

9. Dolphins. We went back to one of our favorite spots for a second time and ended up snorkeling with a huge pod of dolphins. There were about 100 of them. They were completely surrounding us. We were there for over 1/2 hour and they just would surface and jump and go down again in the ocean. It was really a once in a lifetime experience. They are beautiful. Can you tell I'm a little nervous though? Look how tightly I'm holding Jones' hand. Luckily, Jan brought her underwater camera this day and we were able to document our day.

10. Scooters. We rented scooters and for two days just "tooted" our way up and down Ali'i drive. It was SOOOOOOOOOO much fun. I highly recommend it. Wish we would have some action shots from the scooter ride, but we were too busy having fun...and it doesn't make for good hair shots at all after you've stopped first to snorkel.

I feel so lucky and blessed that I'm able to travel. It was always something I dreamed of as a young girl. Mike and I have made some wonderful memories. I am glad I have friends that can go with us and are so easy to get along with. Special K always does a wonderful job of driving. Karen watches our possessions when we're snorkeling and is always so calm and positive. Clint knew all the great spots to snorkel and visit. Jan brought the Jordan almonds and Sun Chips and made me laugh. She loves to pull practical jokes.

It was a magical time and one I'll always remember.

A Phoenix, a Beaver and a Sun Devil

2010-05-18T21:53:00.010-07:00

Our family just got a whole lot smarter....

Congratulations to 3 of my kids for graduating this month with their Bachelor's Degree.

Aaron ... University of Phoenix.

Katie ... Oregon State University....

and wake up Koston...you're going to miss your daddy's big day ...

there you go!

Brian ... Arizona State University.

Couldn't say it better ...

We're extremely proud of each one of you!

Knock, Knock ...

2010-05-15T23:13:00.005-07:00

who's there?

anonymous?

anonymous who?

anonymous, "I can't think of a rhyme"

but anonymous who rings the doorbell

and leaves a plate of hot, delicious, homemade,

perfectly round and tender

refrigerator cookie recipe

with cinnamon, chocolate chip and almonds

added much to the delight

of me, Jones and Helena (photo taken way after we inhaled many of them)

during todays IVIG infusion sesson

that was supposed to end at 7:00 p.m.

and got extended to 10:00 p.m.

due to my body freaking out again and

having to stop for more steroid and benadryl injections

to fight off throat closing and much wheezing and itching.

But line of the day was by Jones,

" I think this is getting to be as good as Christmas"

between all the goodies and well-wisher visitors

and love. And I agree. Really cheered me up.

Loved Brodie saying he hoped the needle worked good for my toe.

Allie Jo thanked Helena for taking good care of her grandma.

The one that melted my heart had to be a text message from Koston:

"Good luck Grandma!"

with attached picture:

I do so love my grandkiddies and all my kids and friends.

I've certainly been blessed with the best!

Let's hope tomorrow's session stays on track for 5 hours!

Happy Birthday Britney Britney bo Bitney

2010-05-09T22:52:00.011-07:00

Britney had her birthday while we were out of town. We hope she had a great day.
I love my daughter and three daughter-in-laws. They each hold a special place in my heart and I know they all gathered the Sunday before for some dinner, cake and celebration. Britney is pretty much a perfect daughter-in-law. Just today for Mother's Day she volunteered to make the whole meal. I pray each night that my boys treat them with the love and respect they so dearly deserve and vise versa. Happy Mothers Day to each of them and thank you for how much you love and care for my sweet grandbabies I adore.

So Happy Birthday Britney...I think it's number 28??

IVIG Infusions ... not so fun!

2010-04-21T15:30:00.011-07:00

It's taken a few years, lots of investigating and pushing on my part, and my body being poked, scraped, and having about 22 tubes of blood extracted, I finally was guided to a neurological specialist who diagnosed me with an autoimmune disease of my nervous system.

He called it Chronic Inflammatory dyemyelating polyneuropathy. You can read more about it here if you'd like. Basically the way he explained it to me is some of my antibodies that are supposed to be helping my body have turned on me and are attacking my nerves. So we got insurance approval and last weekend he started me IVIG treatments which started with a special packaged dropped off by Arizona Home Care. I felt really special to get not 1, but 2 bags of goodies...you know IV Pole, IV bags, needles, tubes, bandages, sharps containers, medications etc. Basically each IV bag is the gamma globulin which is spun down from 20,000 screened doners. Um...it's really expensive. Let's just say the two bags I had this weekend cost more than my Nissan Altima.

I am grateful that there is an option for a home health infusion nurse who came to my home instead of me having to go sit in a recliner in their center with other people for 7 hours. It's nice to be surrounded by my loved ones, my own bathroom, my own mumu, etc.

My least favorite part of any thing....IV. I hate it. First night took a little digging because the vein rolled but the next day she was spot on. I'll give her a 10 for that one.

I had a scary allergic reaction the first night and we had to stop after two hours but the next two treatments this weekend went without a hitch. I've had a little bout with major migraine and headache following which I guess is common but we're working on that also.

I was overwhelmed at the love and care from so many of my family and friends

like...

care packages and notes from my babies (and Michelle who knows exactly what I like!)

A whole ice chest full of the most soft, crunchy shaved ice along with 6 diet cokes. After my throat shut the first night the next day I pretty much ate diet coke snow cones the whole day. Just what the doctor ordered!

Warm, soft wedding cookies right out of the oven and dusted with powdered sugar after I texted a friend I was craving sweets. I barely had time to get the camera out before they were devoured. They were full of butter, pecans, and they melted right in my mouth.

A beautiful, yummy, fluffy strawberry cake...along with this gal going the extra mile to teach my primary class.

Flowers from friends we hardly knew, but heard and came for a visit.

And lots of other calls,visits from friends and family letting me know they love me and care for me and want me to feel better.

It's been a long year with a kind husband caring for me and being patient with me and always blessing me and encouraging me to try and make it through each day and feel better.

I think we're on the right path now.

Maybe something like this will just be the cure!!!

love letters from the heart ...

2010-04-09T21:28:00.003-07:00

...always make you feel better.

Interpretation: I love You Grandma (twice) Love Brodie

I especially like the one going up the right side of the paper!

spring break

2010-04-02T21:31:00.029-07:00

Geoff & Katie came to visit us during Spring break. I've tried to find 1/2 hour to blog about it which has been difficult.

We started out the week with a visit to our lovely (sarcastic) desert for quad riding. We didn't know Katie had never been on one and we placed her on one and she tried to stay with the pack. Let's just say it was a scary adventure for her and as of now, she's not a huge fan of it. We'll have to break her in more slowly next time.

The little ones enjoyed a little kite flying also as it was a lovely, windy spring day. I do have to admit, our springs here are lovely. It's too bad the allergies have to kick in the same time when all is in bloom.

Michelle took Geoff down to her salon to clean the burly fellow up a bit. He had never had a "professional" shampoo before and he enjoyed it immensely.

He cleaned up well...hair and beard.

We had a special visit to Ranch Market.

It was late in the evening and let's just say the smells were....disgusting! Took Geoff right back to his days in Panama though! It's too bad the horchata bar had closed down already when we were there.

We played TONS of Nertz.... (also a special thanks to Steve and Julie Shepherd for a fun game night at their house)...

had lots of family and food ...

... and it's amazing how quickly we've multiplied in the past few short years.

We graced Geoff's favorite eating establishments....such as Neds, Pirates and my favorite (NOT!) Panchos...

...where Jones got reacquainted with one of his old girlfriends (Ms. Pac-Man)...

... and my children had a lively discussion on why the woman in the painting on the wall had 5 fingers ... and Christmas colored M&Ms in a bowl behind her....(I say the artwork matches the food!)

Brodie had his first T-Ball game ever. I have a feeling there are lots of games in store for us in the next few years. The little guys are really cute ... but gee whiz it is sure hard to go back to watching that level of ball after advancing through high school and college with my boys. We've come full circle for sure!

He had lots of athletic supporters there to watch the game, enjoy the snacks and beautiful weather and cheer him on.

The week ended by Katie trying to give us a coronary with these AMAZING cupcakes.... made from scratch with a Reeses Peanut butter cup in the center, peanut butter/cream cheese frosting and pretty much just homemade goodness in a cupcake liner!

We had a crazy, busy time filled with fun and laughter and look forward to this summer when we all can be reunited again.

Hair Do's Needed??

2010-03-24T22:15:00.004-07:00

Michelle will be doing hair again on Monday evenings at a cute little salon over off of Baseline and Val Vista. It is right behind the Big O Tire Shop in L'Image Studios. She will be stylin' in Couture Lane 3479 E. Baseline #14, Gilbert, AZ 85234. Give her a call on her cell if you'd like an appointment. 480-329-8936. I've heard she's giving a 15% discount to friends, families and referrals. (I highly recommend her!)

guess who spent the night?

2010-03-13T15:49:00.011-07:00

Clue #1. He loves his blankee.

Clue #2. He sleeps with his blankee over his head.

Clue #3. He loves to hide his face under his blankee.

Clue #4. There he is! He doesn't like the morning light.

It's Koston!

and ...

speaking of grandbabies ....

blow this up and check out the eyelashes on this little beauty!

It's amazing how much they can morph and change in just 3-4 months!

beautiful blogger .. or whatever blogger

2010-03-12T21:45:00.011-07:00

My daughter-in-law, Liesl, nominated me with this award. I could certainly come up with some double words besides Beautiful Blogger...but that will held off for another time.

By being so nominated, I get to share 7 things about myself for all my loyal readers and then pass the award on to 7 other lovely ladies ...

1. I played the violin from 4th grade on. I was pretty good. I was in strolling strings, took private lessons and really excelled... I gave private lessons at Milanos and played a few years with the Mesa Symphony orchestra. It all came to pretty much a screeching halt when my grandmother asked me to play a slow solo in her church one Sunday. I had never really played a solo up to that point and it was one of the worst performances and experiences of my life. I was literally shaking so hard I couldn't control my bow. The song went on for an eternity and my whole body and legs were shaking. A man in the choir stood up to try and calm me. I finally finished, packed up the violin and left, crying, swearing I'd never play another solo again in church and I haven't. My loss.

2. I hate sticky. When I would sit down to eat breakfast with a houseful of younger brothers and sisters and we had had pancakes, there were always hidden globs of the sticky, sweet syrup deposited on the table. If I got any stuck on my arms I had to leave the table, clean up my arms and then go clean the table before I could continue eating.

3. I can play the piano....but not very good. Primary songs are okay but if they asked me to play in church I'd faint and crawl under the piano. My dream is to play in the next world like Stephanie Romney or Valarie Green. They are amazing!!

4.I desire a few things "rewarded in heaven"
a. My body and hair will be reversed. I will have THICK hair that can be cut, combed, pulled back, curled, bobbed, swirled, or anything it's heart desires. It will grow past my shoulders and look stunning that way.
b. On the other side of the coin, I will have a THIN body that I won't have to worry about dieting all the time.
c. I will have a beautiful soprano voice. I have a nice voice now.....if I was a tenor. Really doesn't do well in Primary in the high range. Kind of sounds like a dead cat.
But here's the deal about heaven....will any of this stuff matter anyway??:

5. I could never eat Campbells Tomato Soup when I was a kid. It made me ralph. Also, if I bite onto an egg shell when eating a boiled or scrambled egg I immediately gag. Just random things.

6. I was in the top 20 of my graduating class at Westwood High School and got a medallion for it that I've never worn. Maybe I should consider getting it pierced somewhere?? Me nose?

7. My parents moved me about 15 times growing up. I changed neighborhood, schools and wards each time and had to acclimate to finding new friends. It was a challenge indeed and something I really didn't love. We've been married now for 31 years and have moved about 5 times...one of those being back into our original home. I've pretty much set my roots right here in this neighborhood and we've made pinky swears with all our friends we are going to be the old ladies with the red hats and purple dresses at restaurants in a few years. But I have an idea if we really do, Steph, Vicki and Karen will make them really purty for us to strut our stuff in! (p.s. who decided red and purple go good together?)

8.I am hooked on all the shows like So You Think You Can Dance, American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, etc. and especially cooking show contests like Chopped, etc. I LUV Teevo. I find myself wising I could hold up the clicker and rewind radio and people's conversations I don't understand the first time.

Whoops, that was 8. So I guess I could add Bossy Blogger to my list.

Now I have to nominate 7 bloggers:

Amelia Johnson
Shalae Price
Peggy Moffat
Stephanie Romney
Bobbi Rogers
Karen Hatch
Lori Hamblin
Amber Hansen

Whoops...there I go with 8 again. I guess I'm a disoBBedient Blogger too.

The end.

all i wanted for christmas ...

2010-03-05T22:13:00.004-07:00

... was a new toilet.

Our home we built is now over 25 years old. So is everything in it. For Christmas, my only request was a new toilet.

My husband not only purchased and installed a new one for me, but replaced the other two in the house tonight.

I'm elated. They are awesome.

And my thoughtful husband got me the "comfort height" model. He's that kind of guy!

Thanks also to Aaron for giving his time so willingly to help install them.

I'm stoked!

speaking of time ticking on...

2010-02-26T23:18:00.006-07:00

February 27th is the day my firstborn child, Scott was born...30 years ago.

No one can explain how you will feel when you hold your first baby. No one can tell you the joy and the heartache you will feel through the years with each child's successes and struggles. And no one can tell you how much your heart can be full of love for each child.

Scott doesn't like to be in the spotlight so I'll not go on too much about him...

other than to say ...

he is a great son, brother, father, uncle and husband...

and if you need to laugh until your face aches you should just spend an hour or two with him.

He really is one of the funniest people I know.

Love you Scott. Happy 30th birthday. (I know, I know ... you're thinking..."he looks way too young to have that old of a mom!)

time is ticking on...

2010-02-25T09:06:00.003-07:00

I've been waking up and doing my regular "putty and plaster" routine with this couple for about 18 years now. I don't always agree with their politics or their point of view....but one thing is certain, they've made me laugh and chuckle and brighten my day as I've listened to their antics each morning on the radio.

Bill announced he is retiring today and it was his last day.

I'm feeling really old now ... and I'm a little jealous... and I will miss his laugh.

becoming a mother-in-law ...

2010-02-24T06:27:00.008-07:00

can worry any woman...especially if she has 3 boys.

So far it's been a piece of cake.

Especially with sweethearts like Liesl.

Liesl is having a birthday today. She turns 23....and she's pretty as can be (that rhymes you know.)

Liesl is one of the sweetest, kindest people I know. She is always in a good mood. She never raises her voice. She is patient and loving. She never talks badly about anyone. She's fun and stylish. She's talented and she loves and supports Brian.

She's fit into our family just perfectly.

And she made a perfect mini-me of Brian to make him SO happy. She is such a good-tempered mom and treats Koston so sweet. She also made really good milk and now she has to have strong arms...the little chunk is up to 19 pounds at 3 months!

Have a great birthday Liesl. We're so delighted you're part of our family. You're as beautiful on the inside as you are on the outside and you make being a mother-in-law a joy!

P.S. she plays a mean game of Nertz and Catch Phrase!

my only daughter...

2010-02-23T07:51:00.003-07:00

michelle marie, is turning 28 today.

Michelle is kind, patient, funny, amazing, talented, sweet, spicy, spiritual and a wonderful mother and daughter. She's never given me an ounce of worry in my life. She's one of my best friends.

I was so excited to have a baby girl after having 7 brothers and a baby sister who was a tomboy and thought she was a little boy.

I made her pink rosebud everythings...sheets, blankets, bumper pads, doll clothes, infant chair pads, dresses, etc. Everything was made out of pink rosebud material. I put bows in her hair as much as I could.

As she got older her hair grew and I would figure out ways to braid it as she had to sit still while I practiced. At night, I would braid it in sections and then roll it up in socks or foam rollers and make her sleep in it. In the mornings we would take it all out, fluff it up, puff up her bangs, and wah lah, she had hair to the heavens. The bigger the better. And I'd end the amazing coiffure with the biggest pink bow I had made.

Then one day about 6th grade she told me to stop. She didn't want to wear pink ever again she pronounced. And she didn't want me to touch or do her hair anymore.

I think I was heartbroken a little that day.

After she married, she paid her way through beauty school. She worked full time, went to beauty school each evening very pregnant, and finished two days before Brodie decided to pop forth a month early. (Did I mention she's awesome?)

But I get my revenge now. The poor girl gets to do my hair. About every 5 weeks I point to my head. We go sit in front of the mirror in my bathroom because I'm paranoid about my few strands of hair on my head. She takes my thin, fine strands and cuts off about 1/8th of an inch all over my head. I break out in sweat across my nose because I have lots of anxiety about my hair. She stops at my bangs and I tell her about how much she can take off of those. Then she helps me sweep up about the tablespoon of hair on the floor and I tell her it's perfect the next day when I fix it again. She's very patient about the whole thing.

She doesn't put a bow in my hair. She's tried to fix it to heaven but she can't get it big enough for me.

But three months ago she finally got her own sweet baby girl ...

lily marie.

And so the cycle continues...although the bows have become flower headbands.

Happy Birthday Michelle. All my love!