The Sargent Family Tree

Pictures!

2010-10-15T19:12:00.005-06:00

In an attempt to catch up on my blogging, I'm posting a bunch of pictures from this summer. Its been a great summer, but has gone by way too fast. And of course, these pictures are out of order because of the way I downloaded them, but you'll get the idea anyway, right? The next few pictures are from when we took Laura and Carl up to Salt Lake City to meet up with Joseph - who was so totally glad to see them again after three weeks!! The first is a cute picture of Creighton... I love trying to get him to smile! He's such a cutie! John and Cayden were the best of buddies... can you tell? And Carl was SO happy to see his daddy - and visa versa!!

Before we left for Salt Lake City, we got up rather early to see the hot air balloons take off. As is becoming our tradition now, we got donuts (and sodas, milk, etc), crawled in the back of daddy's truck with lots of blankets (its getting cold at night & early morning), and waited for the balloons to fire up and take off. When we got out there, the sun hadn't even come up over the mountain yet. But with the sun peeking over, it illuminated the balloons so beautifully!

We enjoyed our visit with Laura & Carl and were so glad they were able to get away for a few weeks. We also thank Joseph for being so patient as we kept them here for 3 weeks! Carl loved to be outside - the weather is great and warms up during the day!! He loved playing with John's trucks and the sand box and the puppy! (Hmmm... we don't have any pictures of our new boy puppy - Chloe's future husband). Every day we would sit out on our nice new lawn in the shade of our growing oak trees, and enjoy each other's company.

I will post more pictures later. I love my family... I'm so grateful for the time we're able to spend with each of you and the great memories that we create in doing so! Love to you all!

Our Idaho Trip

2010-08-13T10:48:00.003-06:00

Our Idaho trip the end of July was great! Before going to Rexburg to pick up Emily, we visited Laura and Joseph on their farm (or the farm they're working one) in Jerome, Idaho, and had a great time! Their home is nice, they had a sweet little kitten that Hannah and Bubba loved and Chloe (the dog) wanted to chase, and we loved feeding the sheep!!

Then we drove to Rexburg to pick Emily up from college at BYU-Idaho. We were all so happy to see her! We met her roommates and Jed, and had dinner in the park! It was fun, but short! Then we traveled north to Island Park, Idaho to go camping with Laura, Joseph and some of Joseph's family. They were so nice to let us come with them. We reserved a small cabin at what we thought was the right campground, but who knew there were two with similar names? Good thing they were only 4 miles apart! Our campground really wasnt what we call camping, but it did have an Antique/Craft fair going on right by us... so that was fun.

The "right" campground where everyone else was, was beautiful... tall pine trees, a river running right by it where everyone went canoeing (except a few of us who were a little chicken). Emily, Laura and Joseph delighted us with a bottle concert. We sat on this grassy spot next to the river and watched the canoers and floaters. The floaters on innertubes reminded me of the float trips down the Current River in Missouri. Oh, and by the way, I actually made a funny joke... really... it was the 24th of July and we were watching all the "floats" going by... like a parade! haha! It was a great trip! But it went way too fast!! I totally miss my family!! ALL of them!! But I'm glad to have Bubba, Hannah, and for now, Emily at home. Sarah, Laura, and Jen... you and your sweet families are in my thoughts and prayers ALL THE TIME!! Love you!!

INVICTUS

2010-07-31T21:07:00.002-06:00

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.

-- by William Ernest Henley

If you get a chance to watch the movie "Invictus" ... you should. I was very inspired by the determination of Nelson Mandela, and of the South African rugby team.

Good Things to Come

2010-06-17T17:06:00.001-06:00

Please pause my playlist (at the bottom of this page) before you listen to this video. My brother-in-law, Dennis McCrea, shared this on his facebook, and I thought it was really wonderful!! There is hope... always!

Weeds or Wonders?

2010-06-17T16:22:00.002-06:00

When I look outside lately, despite all the hard work we've put into our backyard, all I can see are weeds. Weeds have overtaken our back yard, and even part of our front. Last summer, we moved over 20 tons of dirt in order to level out our back yard, and laid sod just before the snows set in for the winter. The grass has come back beautifully, and that part of the yard looks really great. We now have three nice 4 x 8 garden planters, a fun chicken coop, a swingset, and strawberries that are growing beautifully! But why is it that whenever I go outside, all I see are weeds?

Yesterday while I was weeding, John J and I had the chickens out of their coop to "forage." John J also loved chasing them and actually became really good friends with "Goldie" - the chicken shown in these pictures. He had a blast enjoying our backyard and our chicken. Goldie tolerated John J enough to slide down the slide and swing with him too!
All I can think of when I remember the joy that John J felt (while I was weeding) is the scripture... "except ye become as a little child"...

When we look at our lives, do we see weeds or wonders?

There is Beauty All Around

2010-06-14T08:59:00.002-06:00

"God is the supreme architect. We owe all our inspiration, our love of beauty and the knowledge of how to express our views to the Father in Heaven."
--Brigham Young

Cayden's Baby Brother

2010-06-02T19:55:00.005-06:00

Creighton John Benson was born today around 2 pm. He weighed 8 lbs 13 oz, and measured 21 inches long! He's such a sweet boy. When they first wheeled Jen in from the OR, Creighton was snuggled in with Jen shown in this first picture. It was so cute... he was staring up at Jen - literally - like, "oh hi mom... it's so good to see you!"
Cayden got to see baby brother just before we left to go to their apartment. He was VERY concerned about the IV in Jen's hand, and wanted Jen to come home with us. When he realized she had to stay, he would only come to me, not even Daddy. Cayden's intrigued by this little creature, but sure not too excited that Mom holds the baby instead of him! The next several days should be interesting!! :) Jen will probably be coming home with baby on Saturday or Sunday. Adam will be staying there most of the time with her, so it's just the boys (including John J) and me! Is it time for bed yet? Just kidding!

Bubba Drummer Boy

2010-05-23T17:35:00.000-06:00

Spring Fever or Flu???

2010-05-18T09:15:00.003-06:00

Okay... for some reason the following post did not get posted... so here ya go. It was written a few days ago. We're all doing better now and gearing up for the big dual party weekend!

Yuck!! I just got through 2 days of the stomach flu, dehydration, that type of stuff... and just started feeling human, when John J gets it!! He was just sick 2 or 3 weeks ago too. He's feeling better today... thank goodness. It's beautiful weather outside and I'm hoping to get back outside to clean out the never-ending weeds!! Do you remember that scripture (the Lord speaking to Adam) that says something like "instead of flowers the earth will produce thorns and thistles"? Well our backyard is proof of that! The weeds we have are actually thorns and thistles. I think of that every time I weed!!

Another reason for us to all feel better... and NO ONE ELSE TO GET SICK... is that we have two birthday parties this weekend! Are we crazy or what? Yep, Hannah is having her 13th birthday party this Friday/Saturday... with a fun dance theme (she got dancing lessons as her big present)! Then on that same Saturday, Bubba is going to have a "Super Hero" party, where the kids come dressed up as their favorite Super Hero, and we'll have hero type games, etc. Hannah has done SO much research for fun ideas, made the invitations, etc. Her invitations are CD's with the invitation being part of the cover! She also made the superman emblem with a "J" inside for John's invitations. So cute! I'll post pictures of the fun times.

My second block of classes are wrapping up soon. My finals week is the same week as Creighton's birth, but the great thing about online classes is that I can do alot of the work ahead of time so I won't be so busy that week. Cool, huh? I will be receiving my Associates Degree on September 5th, 2011. Then I get to start my Bachelor's program, just one class per five week block. Interesting, right?

Hope everyone is doing great!!

I Miss My Dad

2010-05-04T15:33:00.003-06:00

I've been cleaning my carpets and upholstery for almost 2 days now... I'm beat and exhausted, but I've been able to think about alot of things while working. One of those things is my Dad. I miss him.

The other night, after reading before going to sleep, I had this thought... to go and start putting the different files together, in order, of my Dad's Life Story that he'd been working on for the past few years. I thought... you know... maybe 30 minutes tops, then I could go to sleep. I ended up working on this wonderful project past midnight (and you know that's late for me!!) - I just couldn't stop. This is a quote from the very beginning of his writings:

"Keep a journal, start in your youth, and don't procrastinate. I started recording my history and life events when I was in my 80th year (2006). It has been difficult to remember important dates and events that happened in my early life. I strongly encourage everyone to start recording their history NOW! Please don't procrastinate! We should all have started in our youth; please start now if you haven't started yet. And if you have started, good! And keep it up!"

I am so glad that he did write the things that he did. He had a list of the things that he wanted to write about, that he never got to complete. One of them was "Courting Miss Margene". I would have loved to hear about that!

Then my thoughts started taking a really interesting turn while cleaning carpets. I know that there is life after this. I know that my Dad is up in heaven or paradise performing work, maybe even missionary work, that is good and important. I know that he is able to associate with his dear family and friends. I wonder what it was/is like when he talked with some of his great ancestors who crossed the plains with handcarts, who knew Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon personally. I smile to think of Dad with his good friend Don Petersen, and so many other good people he associated with here on earth. I wonder if he has had a chance to talk with John's parents, Edna and John P., or with other great people that we knew who have passed on, but didn't really know my Dad on earth... for example, Ed Felker, Bishop Knoeppel, Brother Calbert, Brother Jarrett, even sweet baby Sanders (Jan Ellen & JK's daughter) who passed at such a young age. I hope that they look my dad up and give him good reports about me and my family!

Yes, I miss my Dad. I miss his phone calls, his voice, his hugs, his advice. I know I will see him again. I hope that I will make him proud in the life that I live and the choices I make.

Days in Dallas

2010-04-11T19:01:00.003-06:00

I've really enjoyed my last several days here in Dallas with Sarah and her family. Most every night the girls and I read a story together in their room before they go to bed. Bella is my cuddly girl and my little buddy. Aubree is a sweetheart too, just has a mind of her own! Which can be a good thing, right?
The girls love their baby brother, Jaxson. My favorite thing is when Bella and Aubree sing a primary song to Jaxson, like I Am a Child of God. A very tender sight!
Life is good at the Kirchmann home. They are such a cute family. Jaxson has a happy home to grow up in, and big sisters to always sing and dance for him. He especially loves chillin' with his mom, as you can see in the picture above!

Grandchildren really are the reward for raising your own children. They bring such joy. With my dad just recently passing on, and now this sweet little Jaxon Merlin Kirchmann being born into the world, just renews my testimony of the eternal nature of families and a hope of being together forever.

My Kindness Shall Not Depart from Thee

2010-03-30T08:32:00.003-06:00

These are three of the songs that we sung in our Stake Choir and Orchestra presentation March 21st, "Joseph Smith, the Prophet" arranged by the magnificent Rob Gardner. Sorry if this looks like I'm copying Sarah... but I wanted to share it with you. I hope it works. Before playing these, you will want to pause my playlist music at the bottom of the screen.

This Week

2010-03-29T09:36:00.002-06:00

I love spring!! I wish I could be outside working in the yard, but there are so many things to do, and besides, we'll probably have more snow in a couple of days... you gotta love spring! It teases you with beautiful 60 to 70 degree sunny days, then you get 3 or 4 inches of snow! That's okay, we need the moisture!

So this is an exciting week! Here are just a few highlights!

* I'm finishing up my first block of classes. This week is like finals week for me, but there are no tests, just final projects due. These final projects will just have to be turned in early, because I've got an exciting trip planned!!

* The kids are out of school Thursday and Friday. Hopefully we can do something fun together before I leave again. I've been gone quite a bit these last several weeks, trying to do my part in taking care of my mom. Yep, we've kept the road warm between Cedar and Vegas!! It looks like Mom will probably be moving in with Karen, so my trips will be fewer now.

* And finally, I'm going to Dallas on Saturday!! Yeah!!! Here's a great big huge ginormous thank you to Sarah and James for buying my ticket out there with their frequent flyer miles!! And yes, I actually have been able to buy my return ticket, so I will be able to come home!! :) Bubba and Hannah are dying to come with me, but we'll just have the make the trip later as a family. I can't wait to play with Bella and Aube, and to meet our new little grandson! And I'm excited to see Sarah and James as well. Funny how the parents tend to take the back seat to the kids... hum, I remember those days!! But you know we love ya, right??

Oh, and an update on pictures for Hannah's Seussical play... we brought the camera on the night that the cast did not stay in costume after the performance. But on the closing day, the Saturday matinee (the 3rd time I got to see the play!!), we didn't bring the camera, and of course, that's when they had the picture taking time after the play! However, a photographer in our ward, Karl Hugh, took pictures at one of the week day matinees, and hopefully we'll be able to buy some pictures from him... then we'll post them. And no, they didn't videotape this play. They didn't have the rights from the production people to tape it... it was part of the contract. Darng-it (as bubba says).

I can't tell you how much I enjoyed watching this wonderful girl perform on stage. It got me all choked up seeing her sweet face, and amazing acting ability!! She truly does "stay in character" the whole time, as her director had said one day to her. This is a new talent that is emerging and I hope that she can continue with it - she loves it so much!!

Well, love to all my sweet children and grandchildren!! And also to my friends and relatives that may read my blog occasionally!! Hope you're enjoying your spring and the Easter season!

Hannah's Who Hair

2010-03-25T07:48:00.004-06:00

Hannah is having her third performance of "Suessical" this morning, out of a total of eight. This play is part of the Shakespearean Festival's Education Department called Playmakers. She is one of the Who's... Queen Quincey Who, in fact... and this is her lovely hair-do!! (And her freakin'-awesome makeup job... says Hannah!!) We'll have many many more pictures of her later this week!!

A Warn-Out Welcome

2010-03-08T16:21:00.001-07:00

A Picture Tribute to My Dad

2010-03-03T11:20:00.003-07:00

This is a slide show from slide.com that I put together that contains lost of pictures from my Dad's funeral and burial. Hope you enjoy it! If you want to download any of the pictures, I think you can do that from slide.com... not sure.

http://www.slide.com/r/hH5H1FUP6T_DReI5ad5eg5EkPK3rlJNf?previous_view=mscd_embedded_url&view=original

Love you Dad!!

I Miss You Dad

2010-03-02T16:45:00.010-07:00

Merlin John Jones

September 16, 1926 to February 16, 2010

my dad, my hero, my friend

Dad loves all his children, grandchildren, grandchildren's spouses, and great-grandchildren!!

He loves his eternal sweetheart, Margene, with all his heart!!

Thank goodness we know that

FAMILIES CAN BE TOGETHER FOREVER!

Disclaimer

2010-02-13T10:11:00.000-07:00

Okay, so the "happy happy happy" feeling is not 24/7.

Filling My Plate...

2010-02-10T11:07:00.003-07:00

Yes, I do tend to fill my plate a little too much and a little too often (speaking of dinner... jk). But my plate (of life) is pretty full too. But you know what? I love it! I'm happy! Even though we are struggling more financially than we ever have, I'm happy! Can't explain it... just is what it is. Just to let you know what's going on in my life, not to get sympathy or in bragging, or whatever...

* I AM A PHOENIX! I am in my second week of school with University of Phoenix, Online Campus, going for my degree in Education. It's been really interesting and quite fun! My brain is actually working - what a surprise! I only have 2 classes at a time for a nine-week block, quite accelerated, and considered going full-time. Daily participation, reading, assignments, and homework are required. Discussions are held with the whole class and instructor by way of a "forum", responding to threads, etc. It's alot more than I thought it would be, and I'm glad!

* I am a substitute Speech and Language Aid at East Elementary, subbing for a lady on maternity leave. I LOVE this job!!! The hours are great (10 to 2 basically), the kids are amazing!!, and my supervisor is one the most incredible, down-to-earth people I've ever met. I'm learning alot, and have to study up on teaching and "eliciting" certain sounds - /r/'s being the hardest I've found. I've heard that Roni (the lady I'm subbing for) may not come back, as her husband was looking for work outside of Cedar City. A few people have told me that maybe this position could be mine later. Keeping my fingers crossed! I really should get a full-time job with benefits (we currently have no insurance of any kind), and I've been trying, but there's not much open here in Cedar that is full-time with benefits. But for the time being, this job works great for me and the family, and I still have time to do other stuff as well.

* I am the Choir Director for the Cedar City North Stake. We are preparing for an incredible program that we will be performing on March 21st, "Joseph Smith the Prophet," by Rob Gardner. I am trying to get the orchestra together as well to perform with the Choir. The music is so inspiring, testimony building, and true! It gives me chills!

* I am still a mom and wife!! The biggest and most important jobs of all! You know the usual: taxi driver, housecleaner, laundress, chef, bill payer, etc etc etc.

* I have been helping John with his business, sort of. I helped him put together a rather impressive presentation for The Church building department, hoping to be their local architect for this area. Using that presentation, I am also helping him create other proposals for more jobs too. Cool stuff!

* I am a FarmVille junkie! Yes, it is such a bitter-sweet thing for me. It wastes time, energy, thought... nothing like worrying about harvesting your crops when you're trying to sleep at night! But yet, it has taught me patience - you have to work and earn those buildings that are so cool! I also love to arrange and rearrange the Sargent Family Compounds... think of what it would take to be totally self-sufficient, etc. So, yes, FarmVille... good and bad. :)

* I am reading "The Great and The Terrible" set of books. I have to make myself take time to read my scriptures at night instead of this set of captivating novels... I'm finally on my last one - Volume 6. It's about the last days, and as I read this set again, I can see parallels to what's going on right now. But most of all, it brings to my mind the reality of the Savior and Father in Heaven, our life before we can, and the life we will have after this life. And that there are heavenly beings so close to us every day, helping us, guiding us, helping to bring more light into our lives.

So yes, I'm very happy right now... crazy... excited for the future (esp 2 new grandbabies soon)... a little worried about money (as always) but not totally depressed right now about it... but happy with hope, and thankful for the Great Plan of Happiness... that's what it's all about, right?

I Love Slide Shows!!

2010-02-09T09:21:00.003-07:00

Lately we have set our screen saver to "Slide Show", and we just love watching all the random pictures that come up out of the millions of pictures we have saved on our computer. Some of these have been hiding for a long, long time!! They bring a smile every time. Here's one ...

Christmas 2009

2010-01-27T19:57:00.005-07:00

Here is our famous traditional Christmas morning picture. It was a wonderful time with almost all of our family here!! We missed Sarah, James, Bella & Aubree SOOOO much!! But we know they had a great time with the Kirchmanns in Minnesota.

We got a GREAT surprise this year!! We were only expecting to have Laura, Joseph & Carl here for Christmas, knowing that Jen had to work. But a knock came at the door, Laura answered it, ran upstairs and said with a grin, "Mom, you HAVE to get the door!!" And there was our sweet Jen with her awesome husband Adam, and their sweet boy Cayden!! I was so surprised! Totally had NO idea!! It was great having them here, even if it was for a short time.

I'm having a really hard time uploading pictures and moving them around. It hasn't been THAT long since I've blogged, has it??

November Fun

2010-01-06T19:21:00.002-07:00

Oh, how I wish I would have taken more pictures of my fabulous vacation to Sarah's house in Grand Prairie, Texas in November!! These few pictures were taken at the Botanic Garden in Fort Worth. Even though it was November, and alot of the flowering plants were dormant, it was still SO BEAUTIFUL!! Bella and Aubree had fun exploring, even though they've been here a few times before. It's fun to watch little ones get so excited about so many things!!

Other than the "rolls" I've acquired (hummmm), I really LOVE this picture of me as grandma and my cute granddaughters!!

We had a picnic lunch on the grass (which we found out was wetter than we thought) under these HUGE trees. It was so beautiful there, and it was so fun having lunch with my girls!

Sunday at Grandma's House

2009-11-01T19:35:00.003-07:00

This is Caroline (I think)... doing what so many grandchildren did at Grandma's house... playing with all the fun and unusual toys found in Grandpa's garage!! So many memories came to mind when we drove up into their long driveway that was filled with cars from other family members! So many Sundays were spent at Grandma's house, kids playing, adults talking, everyone eating, and just enjoying the time together. There was a time when we all lived within a few hours of Sikeston, most of us in Sikeston or close by. And now we all live days away from each other! Still, we have our memories of those years together, and our testimonies of forever families!!Hannah & Olivia Carle... cousins & best friends when they were two years old!

These are the four cousins that were born the same year... within a few months of each other! From Left to Right - Sammy Harline, Aaron Hathaway, Hannah Sargent and Olivia Carle. Saying goodbye to Sarah and her sweet family!!

Mariah and Eric were so sweet to work with John J on carving his dinosaur egg to find the dinosaur bones!! This was a little gift sent with us from our Bishop's wife, Maureen Einfeldt. It was quite the fun treat!!

Laura and her sweet boy, Carl, sitting at the orange breakfast bar (or whatever you call it). So many hours have been spent sitting together and visiting in that very spot!

Family Pics - 3rd Time's a Charm!

2009-10-31T08:59:00.001-06:00

Working with camera timers can be tricky...

Edna Sargent's Funeral - Part 2

2009-10-30T10:29:00.007-06:00

This is one of my favorite pictures of the whole weekend! Grandma Sargent grew her hair fairly long before she died, and she was very proud of it!! I loved the way that Bella was so fascinated with Grandma's beautiful grey hair, and how she would softly stroke it with such love. It reminds me of stories that John tells of his Grandma Colton who had really really long hair that was always up in a bun, but at night she would let it down and brush it. She would let the Grandkids brush it as well. That is a precious memory of John's and this one is a precious memory of mine!! I also loved how Hannah was enthralled with Grandma's hands, and how she realized that this truly was just a shell, and that her spirit is up in heaven.
This is John C.'s favorite picture! Can you guess who's behind the bulletin board? John J has a few second cousins and a niece that are real close to his age. John J is on the far left, and Bella is on the far right. I'm not sure who's in the middle! :)
We have all had condolences passed our way because of the loss of our dear mother, grandmother, and greatgrandmother - Edna C. Sargent. And we will truly miss her and the influence she has had throughout all of our lives. She truly was a great example to us of family, service in church, service in the community, and enduring to the end. But when someone asks if we are sad about her passing, we have to reply "no". We know that she is with Grandpa and his handlebar mustache, with all her sisters and brothers that she missed so much throughout her whole life due to living so far away from them, with her mother and father who have been gone for some time. We know that she is happy, especially when she looks down upon the amazing posterity that she has produced and influenced. So although we will miss her dearly, we know that she is happy, and therefore we rejoice.

The Viewing - Edna's Funeral Part 1

2009-10-30T09:51:00.003-06:00

Fun at Shakespeare's and More...

2009-10-29T20:17:00.007-06:00

We took a break from our long drive to Sikeston, Missouri, and stopped at one of John's favorite pizza joints while attending college at MU in Columbia.... Shakespeare's Pizza!! There was a window where you could watch the guy roll out the crust and toss it up in the air! John & Bella loved that! Sorry I didn't get a picture of that though! And sorry, Adam, we didn't get a picture of you with this fun bunch either! We're glad you were there!

Waiting for the pizza wasn't even too much of a challenge... what a great time to chat and catch up!!

The conversation with stimulating!

Some of us were a little messy! Good going Gramma and Carl!
Cayden wanted to sit on Grandpa's lap!! They were pals!But when Grandpa got boring (haha), Cayden decided to crawl under the table and see what great adventures awaited him there!

After we all ate, and our tummies were full, John (daddy) wanted to go the the "Quad" and take a picture... or two... or three... or ten... while the rest of us relaxed in our warm cars!

Then we were back on the road...

Families Can Be Together Forever

2009-10-23T19:03:00.000-06:00

The Passing of an Amazing Woman...

2009-10-12T20:23:00.005-06:00

John's mom, Edna Colton Sargent, passed away to join her husband, parents and siblings on Friday, October 9, 2009. I am so thankful for the gospel and the knowledge of eternal families! Alot of women complain about their mother-in-laws... but I was extremely blessed by having Edna as mine. She was mother to 5 children, 27 grandchildren and lots of great-grandchildren (I'll have to get actual number later). Her funeral will be on Saturday, October 17th, in Sikeston, Missouri, at 2:00 pm. She will be buried next to her husband, John Pack Sargent, in Morley, Missouri.

Catching Up...

2009-09-22T09:39:00.002-06:00

THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

The day started out early... no one really slept well the night before in anticipation of the big day!! Hannah had her cutest outfit picked out. She had made plans to walk to the bus stop with her really good friend who just moved in across the street from us this summer! Yeah! Her name is Brooke.

John J was excited for his first day of 1st Grade -- to be in school all day! He picked out his Mario Brothers outfit we just bought at WalMart and had his back pack ready to go bright and early! He even had his lunch pack with a peanut butter sandwich (no jelly) and a bottle of water. Such an exciting day!

Then reality hit... oh dear. My shy little boy decided maybe being at home would be the better place to be! His teacher this year is Mrs. Riesen. She has curly brown hair, just like in the picture! When I was a Teacher's Aide last year, Mrs. Riesen was by far my favorite 1st grade teacher! She is really nice.

It was really fun for me to take John to his class and see so many of my little friends from Kindergarten last year. (I truly dislike this picture of me... hate the side shots... the face, the double chin, the pot belly... But this isn't about me, right?) John was a little hesitant to go to his chair, but he finally did! Yeah! I've heard many reports from other teachers that John is doing EXTREMELY well this year in his new class!
And here is John at his table working on his paper, doing "bell work" (keeps the kids busy until it's time for class to start).

Speaking of school, after lots of consideration and prayer, I have decided to quit my job as a Teacher's Aide. I really love that job, but feel that it is more important to help my husband John with his business, helping him to be more organized, put together proposals for future work, etc. I started praying about it, and soon after I found out that the little boy with special needs that I am responsible for is moving to another school the end of September. His parents are buying their first home - which is so exciting for them - but Collin will go to Iron Springs Elementary instead of East Elementary. That seemed like it could have been an answer to my prayers, but you know me, I have to have a pretty big kick in the head to realize I'm receiving answers! The final straw was that John J got really sick AGAIN! Yep, strep and stomach flu 2 weeks ago. We missed a whole week of school that time. Then, stomach flu and fever again this week... and I just found out that because of the Swine Flu scare, I have to keep John of out school for 5 days after the fever breaks - just be to certain. So here's another week of missed work. So, I'm going to become an Executive Assistant in John's architectural business! I hope that I can be of some help to him!

Sky Fest in Cedar City!!

2009-09-19T20:12:00.004-06:00

Early this morning we woke up and drove in our jammies to the Sky Fest to see the hot air balloons take off just as the sun was rising over the mountain. We snuggled up in blankets as we sat in the back of Daddy's truck, ate donuts, while daddy took a ton of pictures. Here are a few of my favorites:

Half-Done

2009-09-16T07:10:00.004-06:00

So today I'm feeling tired, achy, and discouraged. It's only 7 am, I need to go get ready for the day. But it's been such a long time since I've posted (I've been too busy taking care of my Farm at Farmville - way too addictive for me!!) - I thought I'd take a moment and post.

We have alot of projects going on... most of which are only HALF-DONE!! It's frustrating. The woodfloors still need to be sanded and sealed. The roof still needs to be put on the chicken coop and some parts painted. We have a "mountain of dirt" in our back yard that is actually HALF gone thanks to the help of my sweet husband who took time from work to help me, and Emily too. We're hoping to get it moved so that we can get another load the end of this week. We are trying to level the north side of our back yard so we can plant grass... before the cold weather sets in, and it's already starting to get down to 40 degrees at night! That's why the floors aren't done - gotta get the outside work done before it freezes over!

I should count my blessings, though, right? That we do have the money to do these things right now. And I should learn patience. All things get done in due time, right?

We DID get our entertainment center moved from the garage into our family room! It looks so awesome!! So there you go... something that is complete!

In the meantime, John and his friends are having blast on our mountain! This picture was taken on a nice warm day when Bubba had strep throat. It's amazing how dirt can make a little sick one feel so much better (at least for a while)!!

New Harmony Fire

2009-09-04T07:12:00.003-06:00

The town of New Harmony lies about 15 miles south of Cedar City, and they are on full alert. People who live there are still on a 1-hour evacuation alert... when they get the word, they have to be ready to leave their homes within 1 hour. Over 550 structures (homes) are still threatened by this fire. Only 3 homes and 10 outbuildings have actually burned. Hannah has a good friend that lives there. We've been really worried about them. They have over 700 firefighters on this fire - part of them being the Type I teams (worst case scenario national fire fighting teams). It has burned over 12,000 acres, and has been burning since July 25th, and was started by lightning. It was only in the last week that it has gotten out of control due to high winds. It is now, thankfully, 30% contained.

This was the view from our backyard at sunset earlier this week. All the smoke (nope, they're not clouds) made for a beautiful multicolored sunset, but it was still rather scarey. I know we are never in danger here... its just too far away. But it got really smokey - in fact we had to keep our windows closed at night for awhile, instead of letting the cool fresh air in, because our house was smelling like a fireplace! Anyway, such is life in a mountainous community.
For more information on this fire, etc. click here.

Then click on the "Mill Flat Fire" link.

Fires both scare me and intrigue me.

So I keep a close eye on these things. Silly woman, right?

Puppy Pictures!!

2009-09-02T11:58:00.006-06:00

I was talking to Laura yesterday and she said she'd been watching my blog to see puppy pictures posted... and that was a wake-up call to me (literally... haha) to get busy and post on my blog! This week's been a little hectic with my job at school starting up, keeping John and Hannah happy with school, and working out car schedules with Emily, plus all the other fun stuff and jobs and projects going on around here... :0

Oh life is such fun!

Anyway, here is a more recent picture of Chloe's big fat puppies. We call them fatty 1 and fatty 2. Just kidding. They are 3 weeks old now, and are starting to try to walk around, trying to play, finding their voices with their little puppy growls, etc. It's so much fun!! Their eyes opened at about 2 weeks, and that just makes them all that much cuter!!

This is Tiger chilling out. The fact that they sleep on their backs now tell you how comfortable they are with life!!

This is Taylor (or Timmy as Emily calls him). He is the sweetest thing ever!! His personality is so darn sweet and playful!! I think he's our favorite!
This is a picture of Sadie's new litter. They were born on August 25th. so they are just over a week old. She had a pretty quick pregnancy, since we didn't even know she was pregnant until a few weeks before!! However, her litter was the easiest ever to deliver!! No complications, no stalled labor (like Chloe), and all live births! I thought for sure she would have problems since the daddy (Tango) is like twice her size!! But as our vet put it, "Mother Nature usually makes these puppies so that they can be born without problems, no matter the dad's size."

So there ya go!

This is "Spot". I named him that because he has spots, of course, but there's a cute little black spot on his nose as well! Usually these guys are born with pink noses and gums, etc., but this guy has a black spot right on his nose - just like the ones on his back. He's a cuddler, and one of the smaller puppies. I'm watching his weight gain - he's not gaining as fast as the others.

This is Spot, and his little brother "Tyrell" (a good ol' fashion black name) -- haha. Not really. His name is Shadow.

Shadow was the last one to literally "pop out". He was born so quickly and so easily that I didn't even realize he was out until Sadie started doing her thing with him. I love the little stripe down his face, white muzzle, and white tummy too!

This cute little guy is Shilo. He is a lighter brown and white, and will probably lighten up even more to a tan and white. He's a sweetie too!

This is the only girl of the bunch. We named her Skyler - one of Hannah's favorite names. She was the first-born - I was SO excited to have a little girl... and a brown and white particolor puppy at that. I almost started crying - I was so excited! She is the biggest puppy of the litter - You know these girls, especially the first-born, have the pave the way, right Sarah? Anyway, we have a household FULL of puppies... at one time we had TEN dogs (including puppies). Bet our neighbors (the ones that turned us into Animal control) would love to know that, right??!!

We finally sold Tango!

He is now living in St. George with a cute lady, Charnell. She lives with her elderly parents, her father has cancer. When she took Tango home, the first person he made friends with was the dad with cancer. I really believe that some dogs have that 6th sense of when a person is sick, sad, lonely, or just needs some extra love. It was so cool to hear that. He is being treated like a king - the only dog of the household. Charnell has called me several times to say, "thank you, thank you, thank you!!" They just love him. I'm glad he is there... treated like he should be treated!

Now if we could only find a home for sweet Madison. She is such a good and obedient dog... just a good ol' gal, you know! Sadie will also have a new home with a grandma-type here in Cedar after her babies are weaned. I let them know about the successful puppy delivery, and they said they still want her and plan to buy her.

So that just leaves Chloe left in the household... but, we plan to buy a new beautiful male puppy!! Odin is his current name now, but we'll probably change it. He's 3 months old, is a brown/black and white particolor (my favorite coloring), lives in So. California (hey, dude), is AKC registered, and has championship bloodlines. Just exactly what I'm looking for!! We're in the process of working the details out with the owner... So yes, our household full of dogs will be absolutely CRAZY for awhile, but then we will finally be down to just two dogs - obeying Animal Control and City laws - AND making our neighbors happy.

Emily's BIG IKEA organizer

2009-08-23T11:02:00.006-06:00

So, in an effort to help Emily have a place for all her stuff while she's here, and because we don't have a dresser in her new room anymore, we found a Storage Organizer from IKEA on Craigslist. (I'm becoming a BIG fan of Craigslist.) It's HUGE!! Almost twice the size of Emily!!

(In the above picture you can also see parts of our entertainment center - which is STILL in the garage... yep!) We went down to St. George to pick it up (and also bought a couple of hens in Washington to keep Goldie company) and brought it all back a few nights ago... Daddy measured it, then measured to the ceiling in her room, and it is ONE INCH too tall!! SO... yesterday, daddy - being the talented carpentry man he is - was measuring and cut down the top, and it looks GREAT! Now Emily can organize to her heart's content. Let's hope she does it!

Emily is HOME!!

2009-08-20T12:29:00.003-06:00

Okay, so I'm really late in posting this, but I'm so excited because Emily is home from Texas!! It was just too hard to have her so far away - and I must admit, it is GREAT to have a driver back in the family!! Somehow, I really think this move back home is "meant to be"... don't ask me what that means... just a "mother's intuition".

I wish I would have taken a picture of my cute Emily has she was coming down the escalator to the baggage claim area at the Las Vegas airport... Talk about the biggest smile you've ever seen on a cute girl like that!! Then she literally skipped over to me and John J and gave us the BIGGEST HUG EVER!! I will remember that moment for a long, long time!!

Nothing warms a mom's heart more than seeing your children being happy to see you!!

John J Lost His First Tooth!!

2009-08-15T09:57:00.003-06:00

His tooth has been loose forever, and yesterday while sitting on the couch with daddy watching TV together, we started playing with his tooth, and IT CAME OUT!! Woo Hoo!! It came out so easily... didn't even bleed... even a little bit!He was so excited to put his tooth under his pillow for the Tooth Fairy. He was a little apprehensive about someone coming into his room at night while he was sleeping though... Daddy spent most of the night in there sleeping in his room. (Thank goodness there are two beds in there!) He was looking forward, though, to ALL THAT MONEY that the tooth fairy would leave. He had big plans... "the Tooth Fairy will bring me money, then we can buy a Wii, and some games..."

This is the Wood...

2009-08-14T15:23:00.004-06:00

This is the wood (red oak),

that created our floor.This is the saw that sawed the wood,

that created our floor. This is the stapler, that stapled the wood, that was cut by the saw, that created our floor.

This is the air compressor, that compressed the air, to run the stapler, that stapled the wood, that was cut by the saw, that created our floor.

This is the start, of the almost finished project, where we used an air compressor, that compressed the air, that ran the stapler, that stapled the wood, that was cut by the saw, that created our floor.

This is ALMOST the end of the finished project, where we used an air compressor, that compressed the air, that ran the stapler, that stapled the wood, that was cut by the saw, that created our floor.
We still need to countersink the nails, put this mud stuff on the floor to fill in the little imperfections of the wood etc, sand the floor, seal the floor, put new baseboards along the bottom of the wall, move in our furniture, and wah-lah!!

Our new living room

(in about a year or two - haha)!!

More Puppies?? SURPRISE!!

2009-08-13T19:41:00.005-06:00

We took Sweet Sadie to the groomers today because we were going to try to sell her. You know... get her all beautiful, have a photo shoot, post irresistable pictures....

She had gotten pretty shaggy and "FLUFFY" from being outside all the time...

She is outside because she and Chloe fight like crazy.

We picked her up from the groomers, all trimmed down so pretty... and SURPRISE!!! What I thought was her "fluffy" fur, was actually her "fluffy" (pregnant) belly!!

Please forgive the fuzzy picture above... she's so happy to be inside now, that she wouldn't stop dancing for me while I was trying to take the picture!!

Yep, she must have been in heat, and Tango had his way with her at some point in time, because now it is very obvious that she is pregnant. Now, keep in mind, pregnant dogs don't even start "showing" until like 2 - 3 weeks before their due date. Yeah! More puppies around the first part of September!

Isn't it ironic... while I was picking her up from the groomers and going through the shock/surprise of having another pregnant dog... at that very time we got a phone call from someone who was EXTREMELY interested in buying Sadie for her Mom as a constant companion, best friend, etc. They are even willing to wait until after Sadie's puppies are weaned, and she has a good bill of health from the vet, to buy her!

Puppies!!

2009-08-11T22:10:00.006-06:00

Chloe caught us off-guard and had her puppies on Monday, Aug. 10th. We weren't expecting them until midweek.

But that's okay!

She started to show signs of labor at 2:00 am Monday, and two puppies were born at 1:50 pm and 2:00 pm. Then Chloe's labor stalled, while a 3rd pup was still inside. After two hours I started calling the vet, who was out of town, got advice from the receptionist (bad idea), then called our old vet who is OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive (hence the reason for switching). $250 later we confirmed by x-ray there was a 3rd pup still in there. He gave her an Oxytocin shot to get labor started again, and sent us home with another shot to give to her around 9:30 pm, which we had to do because there was no pup at that time. If the shots didn't work, the only other option is c-section which is WAY way expensive, and there would be no way we could do that!! So... with a great deal riding on getting that puppy out, I spent another night of no sleep as I waited for the shot to do it's work, and hopefully help resuscitate the pup when it's born, after enduring the stalled labor. Poor Chloe had contractions all night and all morning today (Tuesday) and puppy 3 finally came out at 2:00 pm. I worked with the puppy for about an hour trying to get it to breathe, but it was no use. BUT... I am glad that Chloe will be alright now, and that we have two beautiful puppies. I will post more picture later.

A MIRACLE...

Literally... I just have to share this with you. Added to the stress of the 3rd pup being stuck, Puppy #1 started having problems too. I noticed he was making gurgling sounds when he was nursing, and I picked him up, and he had milk coming out of his nose. Two definite signs of a cleft palate, which is fatal for a puppy. We were all really sad, especially Hannah. She said many prayers that night (we all did), and GUESS WHAT!!?? The puppy has absolutely no signs of gurgling or milk coming out of the nose today.

Prayer DOES work!

SOMEONE is in DEEP DO-DO

2009-08-07T08:36:00.005-06:00

So I set my DVR to watch SYTYCD, right? I LOVE that show!! Emily got us all hooked on it!! I sat down in a very quiet family room this morning to watch the finale - results show (the kids were still sleeping - I love the quietness). And TWENTY MINUTES into the show... the DVR stopped recording!! I was SO MAD!! Did someone stop taping it inadvertantly? on purpose? My DVR had PLENTY of time left on it... what happened???

AAAHHHH!!!!

Does anyone know if they are going to rebroadcast last night's (Thurs) finale? Did anyone happen to record it other than on DVR? :() I'm at least glad to see that Jeanine won!!

Make Someone Happy 51 & 52

2009-08-06T09:01:00.000-06:00

Idea #51

Stop thinking in terms of doing things that are important to you and start doing things because you know they are important to someone else.

It is easy to get locked into our own little sphere, to focus solely on our own needs and responsibilities. For many of us it requires a conscious effort to extend ourselves, to find time to help, express concern, or perform a service. Yet these are the things we can do to help life someone else and, curiously enough, secure our own happiness and sense of worth.

Idea #52

Practice the Gold Rule. No, not the one that says "He who has the gold makes the rules," but the original one: "Do unto others are you would have them do unto you." Treat others the way you would want them to treat you. That's the great secret to happiness.

Make Someone Happy 49 & 50

2009-08-05T08:46:00.005-06:00

Idea #49

Reach out and touch someone. Most people love to be touched. There is something wonderfully comforting about holding hands, receiving a warm hug, walking arm in arm, or even getting a gentle pat on the back or shoulder.

It is connecting.

Idea #50

Think of strangers as family you haven't met yet. Be excited to meet new people. Being genuinely interested in other people makes them feel special, and they will feel closer to you. If it is difficult for you to extend yourself due to shyness, think how you would appreciate someone befriending you if you were the stranger. A smile, a warm handshake, and a friendly greeting cost you nothing and may make all the difference to someone struggling to fit into a new situation.

August, the Eighth Month

2009-08-04T09:47:00.002-06:00

Named for Augustus Caesar, the month of August once had the Anglo-Saxon label of Weodmonath, or “weed month.” If you haven’t been weeding your garden all along, now’s the time! One of the finest pleasures of August is stargazing, thanks to warm nights. The Sky Watch highlight of this month is the return of Jupiter which is the brightest "star" in the evening sky. (Read about a recent Jupiter discovery here.)

Hannah's Hair Cut

2009-08-04T08:03:00.003-06:00

Doesn't she look good? I'll have to get a picture of her from the side too. She looks so grown up, and her eyes just really "pop" with this hair cut for some reason. And notice she's wearing some earrings (yes, they're mine... we will be working on her collection).

Miley Cyrus???

2009-08-04T07:59:00.001-06:00

Okay, okay... I know...

but I REALLY like her song, "The Climb".

Listen to the words.

Make Someone Happy - 21 & 22

2009-08-04T07:28:00.005-06:00

Idea #21

Keep track of birthdays of friends and send a card or telephone them. I like to call and sing "Happy Birthday." My sisters and I have been doing this for over thirty years. I always look forward to the phone call, and it's more dependable than the mail.

Have cards on hand (and stamps) to send for any occasion, so when you want to send a card, you can. I keep about 25 cards filed in a shoe box with index cards separating them into categories: birthdays, sympathy, thank-you, get well, hospital, baby, wedding, miscellaneous. Keep a supply of blank cards in which you can write your own message. There is something lovely and gracious about a handwritten note, personalized to fit the situation. You might also send a funny card for no reason, just to let your friend know you are thinking of her. Remember, cards are "hugs" in the mail!!

Idea #22

Everyone has a birthday, and the way it is observed can be quite predictable. If you really want to do something extraordinary for your friend, give her a card on her birthday with a note in it telling her that this year she will get to celebrate all year long. Then, each month, on the day of her birthday, send a funny card, visit, take her out to lunch, or bring a yummy treat (homemade is even better). I had a friend do this for me once, and I really looked forward to the 9th of every month.

Make Someone Happy #10 & #11

2009-08-03T08:59:00.006-06:00

Idea #10

Pay a compliment. Think about the qualities you admire in the people you know, and tell them. When someone looks good, say so. But don't go overboard on this. If you walk up to a group of friends and say to Judy, "I love your hair," and to Jane, "I love your dress," and to Andrea, "Cute shoes," you may come off looking as though you are trying to hard. If they all look great, you can say, "You all look so good!" It is better to make compliments one on one. Above all, be genuine and sincere. People quickly see through and resent false expressions of admireation. When someone compliments you, learn to say, "thank you." Don't tarnish the compliment by saying, "This old thing?" or "You need to have your eyes examined," or some other self-deprecating remark.

Be generous in your praise. When someone helps you with a project, compliment him for a job well done. if a friend gets a promotion or recognition of some kind, send a congratulatory note praising her accomplishment.

If you happen to run across a photo or a mention of one of your friend's children in the local newspaper, clip it out and send it to her. If one of them enjoys some success in school or athletics or church, send a note or make a phone call congratulating the parent. People love it when you praise their kids.

Keep your jealousy in check. It's hard to congratulate a friend who has just won the lottery, but a true friend gives support both in time of sorrow and in times of joy and celebration.

Idea #11

If you are a religious person,

pray for those about whom you are concerned. By just doing this simple task you will feel more love for them. Later, when you are able to do more, you will do it with even greater love in your heart. This is a wonderful thing that can be done by people who are not able to get out to serve others.

F - I - F - T - Y ! ! ! !

2009-08-02T10:31:00.007-06:00

Yesterday, my dad said in an email, "Don't wear black tomorrow just because you're halfway to 100!!" haha. I hadn't thought about wearing black, but seems like a fun idea!!
I woke up this morning (after sleeping in - yeah!!) to a table of gifts and cards, hugs and kisses, on my fiftieth birthday. So very nice!! I have to share some of the text of a couple of cards John bought for me. (I had no idea there were SO MANY "turning 50" cards!!)
Wow! 50 years is a long time! Do you realize that when you were a kid...

* Remote meant a secluded spot off the beaten path.

* Cable was something that supported a bridge.

* A video game was trying to make out what the fuzzy images were on a snowy, black and white 10 inch TV screen.

* A cell phone was what you used to make your one phone call from jail.

* A calculator was the accountant who did your taxes.

* An airbag was some guy who talked too much.

* Digital computing was counting on your fingers.

* High Speed Access was an on-ramp to the freeway.

* Surfing was something done on a board in the ocean.

* And a birthday was something you actually looked forward to!

And this one is my favorite...

On Turning Fifty...

The most precious gift

that comes

with time and experience

is the ability

to appreciate the

beauty

of the world

in its infinite variety,

and yet to embrace

the freedom

of Being

one of a kind.

This is the joy

of becoming

Fifty.

So here's to being half-a-century old,

and the wonderful blessings that it brings!!

Nice Things 8 & 9

2009-08-02T07:00:00.002-06:00

Nice Thing #8

Take your old magazines to someone who could use them (a shut-in, someone in the hospital, someone who loves to read but can't afford magazines, or a teenager who might like to clip photos or phrases for a scrapbook). A subscription to a magazine you know your friend will enjoy makes a welcome birthday or Christmas gift.

Nice Thing #9

Forgive. Decide today that you will forgive that person who has offended you, even if he has never apologized. Forgive and forget it. Replace those feelings of anger, resentment, or revenge with the sweet, peaceful feeling that accompanies ridding your heart of such negative thoughts. Get over it and then do something nice for your former enemy. Your apology and gesture of reconciliation may not be reciprocated, but the act of forgiving will lift the burden from you.

Harboring ill will is bad for your health. It takes a lot of time and energy to ignore and/or avoid people. Just because the other person behaved poorly doesn't mean you have to stoop to his level. Be the better person. How you do it is up to you. You can call, visit, meet for lunch--whatever is most comfortable for you. You don't even have to apologize (unless you caused the rift in the first place). You just need to say something like, "I've been feeling bad about what has happened to our relationship and would like to put our issues behind us. Do you think we can agree to disagree and not bring up that particular issue again? I'd still like to consider you a friend. Is that possible?" Try to talk it out without hashing over the old hurts. Rather than saying, "You did this and you did that," say things such as, "I felt hurt because..., and I miss..." It's easier if the other person never knew you were upset. In that case, you don't even have to bring the issue up. Just forget about it and go back to treating the person the way you did before. Make peace. You'll be glad you did.

How Long Will That Take?

2009-08-01T18:20:00.004-06:00

Let's see... 52 nice things to do to make someone happy... divided by two "nice things" each post... that will take TWENTY SIX posts to get through the whole book. So from this point forward I will post only the ones that I think are ESPECIALLY good, okay? I really like the one that is coming up tomorrow, Sunday, August 2nd.

Nice Things 6 & 7

2009-08-01T07:00:00.001-06:00

Nice Thing #6

Borrow something (sugar, eggs, etc., but not money). This gives you an opportunity to check on your friend to see how she is doing and allows time for comfortable, nonthreatening conversation. Don't forget to return the item. If you borrowed sugar, eggs, or milk, it would be a nice gesture to return it along with a home-baked goodie for your friend to enjoy. It's a thoughtful thing to put your goodie in a throw-away tin, so she doesn't have to remember or bother to get a dish or plate back to you.

(This is a picture of my mom and her buddies in high school. My mom is the cool one in the middle.)

Nice Thing #7

Show up at your friend's house and say, "I'm yours for two hours, what have you got for me to do?" She probably won't dare suggest a thing, so be prepared to be specific. "Let me do your ironing," or "Let me wash your windows." Or you could bring over some spring bulbs to plant in her garden. This is an especially nice gesture if you know your friend is expecting house guests or is planning a wedding and could use some extra help getting ready for the event. If you are still at a loss for something to do and your friend won't suggest anything, say, "Okay, then, I'm going to the market to get some fresh vegetables, and I'm going to make you a big pot of homemade soup." Who can resist that? It's likely she'll join you in the kitchen, and the two of you can chop and talk to your hearts' content, and her family will have a nice soup for dinner.

Nice Things 4 & 5

2009-07-31T07:00:00.002-06:00

Nice Thing #4

Get in touch with old friends. E-mail your old associates. Write a letter or send a card to friends that you haven't heard from. Let them know you still think of them. If you hear good or bad news about a friend, send her a note. Don't know what to say? Get a copy of Joyce Landorf Heatherley's book, Special Words: Notes for When You Don't Know What to Say." She'll put some appropriate words in your mouth.

Nice Thing #5

Ask a friend to do you a favor (drive your carpool, take you to a doctor's appointment, etc.). I know, none of us likes to ask people to do anything for us. But if we don't, we are denying them the good feelings that come from helping others. We can't always be on the giving end; we need to allow others to serve us. We need to learn how to graciously receive as well. A simple "thank you" is a gracious response and so much better than protesting about why she shouldn't have done it. Think of the chance to accept help as a bonding opportunity. Your friend will feel closer to you because you asked her and not someone else.

Nice Things 2 & 3

2009-07-30T07:00:00.002-06:00

Nice Thing #2

Listen for specific needs people have and then figure out a way to meet them. I prefer to do nice things anonymously, but if you are trying to develop a friendship, you probably want the person to know that you are the one who is making the effort to help. Helping others brings people closer. You can't help but feel closer to someone who has done you a favor. The same goes for the person who is doing the favor. It works both ways. Nice Thing #3

Find a way to tell the person how much he/she means to you. Explain how he has influenced your life and what you admire most about him. If this is too uncomforatble for you, go on to #4 and express your feelings in a card or letter. Life is short - and unpredictable. A common regret among mourners after a friend has passed away is that the mourner neglected to express appreciate to the deceased person before it was too late.

52 Nice Things to Do

2009-07-29T09:41:00.006-06:00

For the next few weeks, I'd like to share some thoughts

that I really believe in.

They are taken from a book called

"52 Nice Things to Do to Make Someone Happy"

by Jeri-Lynn Johnson

PREFACE:

There's an old saying:

"If you want to have a friend, you must first be a friend."

You may never do anything more important than extend a kindness to another human being, especially if that person sees no light at the end of his tunnel, has given up hope, or has no expectation that relief is available.

Alexander Pope suggests that such an eact may even have eternal significance:

"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us.

What we have done for others and the world

remains and is immortal."

Nice Thing #1

I've found that the number one nice thing you can do for a friend is listen to her. Really listen to her. It sounds easy, but the next time you and a friend are talking, pay attention to your conversation. Who is doing all the talking? And while listening, are you thinking about what you are going to say next? Resolve to let your friend do the talking and you listen. Ask questions. Be genuinely interested in what she is telling you.

Bloggin' in My Head

2009-07-22T19:16:00.002-06:00

Yep, all day long... bloggin' in my head! It's been one of those days. Good thing I've calmed down a little bit about things before blogging... or I would have surprised you all with words never heard coming from my mouth before!!

The day started off normal, wake up, shower, THEN while drying my hair, Hannah comes running into my bathroom, panicked, and yelled "Chicken!!" That's all she could say. Okay, so we've been raising a little chicken in our kitchen again, one that we rescued when it was less than a week old because the other chicks at this guy's house had pecked it almost to death. The chicken was getting to be a good size, could hold her own against the dogs, as long as she was on the card table and the dogs were on the floor. Occasionally she would get brave lately and jump onto the floor, but we were always around to rescue her before the dogs got too brave. Well, not so today. I come running downstairs and see a bloody chick-still alive-on the floor, feathers scattered everywhere. I kicked the dogs, grabbed some paper towel, wrapped up the chick, and picked her up to lay her gently in her little box. She hung in there until just about a half hour ago, when once again, Hannah rushed into my room where I was resting from this stressful day (yes, maybe hiding), and with tears in her eyes, said "Molly just died".

But that's not all... yep, the day gets even better! About an hour after finding the chick half dead and bloody on my floor, I get a visitor from an Animal Control officer. Yes, our dear, dear, old neighbors to the south of us called in a complaint, for the barking and the fact that we have four dogs - over the limit of two. I kind of knew this for some time, and knew that the dogs bothered her (heck, they bug me - and I like my dogs), from the way she would scream out the window "Shut-Up!!" The officer said that she wasn't going to do anything this time, but that the next time a complaint is called in, they will have to "do something". SOO... if you know of anyone who would like to buy a Lhasa Apso - male or female, let me know. We also have a great ol' dog - Madison - who we would give free to a good home. This makes me sadder than you can imagine.

John J's been on the couch all day - his tummy isn't feeling good. Daddy's working like crazy and needs me to help him. And Hannah keeps asking when we're going school shopping. What part of "we have NO money" don't we understand? :)

It's gonna get better... it's gonna get better... it's gonna get better...

Power Tools Baby!

2009-07-18T16:46:00.005-06:00

After spending several hours chipping away at the stuff under the tile, and only making a tiny bit of progress, I decided to rent a power tool to finish the job.

That was $30 WELL WORTH IT!!

It's hard to see on the end of this thing, but it has a nice chisel end about 2 inches wide, and this tool is like a mini jack hammer. I was able to get the gypsum board and cement stuff up in TWO HOURS... something that would have taken me DAYS by hand.

Thank you power tools!

I think it looks pretty good...

ready for the wood floors too. I'll probably coat the subfloor deck with some primer sealer first, then put down the cushion stuff, then comes the floors!! Yeah!! I'm hoping by next Saturday to be ready for my hubby to help with the actual floor laying. I can handle the power chisel just fine, but an air gun nailer?? A little intimidating to me!
Hannah would come into the living room/entry area where I was working to check on me, and she said
"whew, it's really foggy in here!"
Yes, it was a little dusty.

Pictures from the Past

2009-07-17T08:57:00.006-06:00

Last week I had the privilege of spending a whole day with my Mom, my sister Karen, and my brother Larry. We were able to go through all of mom & dad's photo albums and "rescue" the ones that were in harmful albums, to put them in beautiful safe albums for posterity. While we were busy with our project, my sweet Dad and bro-in-law Marty took care of my little ones, Hannah and John J (not so little anymore), swimming, playing video games, etc. Thanks to these lifesavers!

While Karen and I went through the albums, Larry was scanning a select few to put on a CD for us. It was an all day project, and we ended up scanning about 140 pictures!

Mom hung in there with us for about two hours, telling us about the pictures and some stories that went with them. I wish I would have brought my little recorder. She was a little concerned about us taking her albums apart... "Now what are you doing with my pictures?" Because of her Alzheimers she ask me that question several times throughout the day. My heart aches to see my parents getting older now. But our time together was priceless!

This is a pictures of my mom at age 10 - year 1940. We thought it was Karen at first, but then learned it was mom. I see a little bit of my mom in Hannah now.

This is my mom at age 14 - year 1944.

She's so pretty!

This picture amazes me!!

My mom is STANDING on the back of their horse!!

What a daredevil!! :)
This is my mom and dad when they were engaged. On the back of the pictures mom had written... "He's almost all mine!!" What a beautiful couple!

This is my mom with Karen and I. This must have been at the Twin Lakes home before we moved to the home my parents still live in on Gabriel Drive.
This is one of my favorite pictures. Karen and I are sitting on my Grandma Hopla's lap. She was so much fun! I loved spending time with my Grandma! I love my sister too!
Karen and I would spend time at my Grandma's house each summer. Obviously, we liked to play dress up!! When we got a little older, we spent most our summers with Grandma by ourselves! Some of my best memories of my youth are from those summers... like helping Grandma shuck the corn and making "silk mustaches" and giggling. Or playing touch football with the cute boys across the street!!
And what would this blog be withough a picture of my cute little brother, Larry. He looks so sweet and innocent here... :) I love my brother!We were able to scan SOOO MANY pictures!! But there are so many still to do! In another post I'll show you some pictures of my Great-Grandma Ida Bell Wood, some of my own family in our younger years, etc.
But I've got to get back to work...
See ya later!

Taxes, Taxes, Taxes...

2009-07-16T19:53:00.004-06:00

Yes, we're still struggling with our taxes,

hoping our accountant pulls off a miracle.

I'M SOOOO TIRED OF TAXES!!

So I'm letting the chicken take care of it for now!

What a relief!

Can you believe she's getting this brave?

At least she's smart!

The Tile's Up, BUT.....

2009-07-16T09:05:00.003-06:00

I knew it couldn't be that easy, right? The tile is up, thanks to my honey's help!! BUT under the tile is a gypsum board, cemented to the particle board beneath it. Yeah.

Patience... I'm learning patience...

Earplugs anyone?

But it's gonna look SO GOOD when it's done, right?

Rip the Tile Too?

2009-07-15T10:54:00.003-06:00

Okay, you interior designers at heart...

Should I try to rip up the tile too?

Then put the wood flooring throughout the whole entry way and living room together?

Has anyone ever taken up tile before?

Any suggestions?

Progress on Painting

2009-07-12T19:19:00.004-06:00

It's a little hard to see here, but I've used two different shades of light brown for dimension. It's been really fun to be creative with this project. I have curtains ordered from JC Penney that are the thermal/energy efficient type to help with extreme cold and these warmer days we're experiencing as well.

The "wall" has turned out pretty good. We tried the "frottage" method (putting scrunched plastic over the wet paint/glaze) but probably should have practiced somewhere else first. After sponging a couple of layers of color over the frottage, it turned out pretty well. This is what the wall looked like when we had the plastic on the wall. Our mistake was brushing too hard in some areas and not hard enough on the seams. But we'll probably try this technique again somewhere else in the house.

This is a close up of what the frottage and a little sponging looked like. I sponged over this again with a cinnamon-y color which gave it the finishing touch I was looking for.The big drawback in painting and remodeling, is that I can't resist sales and buying MORE things to go with the new paint. This metal pantry sign is one of my favorite and least expensive things I bought! 65 percent off at Roberts! Yeah!

But then I blew past all budget boundaries and found an amazing deal on Craigslist... only $200 for a solid oak 3 piece entertainment center with glass doors, lighted shelving, etc!! These nice people said they paid over $1000 for it - used - about 3 years ago. I am so excited to get it into our family room!! When we get it in there, I'll take a picture and post it!

Rock Climbing Hannah

2009-07-04T14:23:00.006-06:00

Today was the 4th of July Family Fest at the City Park. Some of the many fun things they had there were inflatable jumping things, a rock climbing wall, a singing contest (winner gets to be an opening act in Branson, MO with The Hughes Brothers Family). It was so nice to sit in the shade and listen to some really great music, while Daddy and John J were bouncing, and Hannah was standing in a lllloooonnnnngggggg...... (long) line for the rock climbing wall. But she did it!! She really has quite a talent for rock wall climbing! No fear!! Here are some fun pictures of her and "the wall".

Now she wants to try the wall at SUU! Next... Zion's National Park... :)

Redesigning - Progress Report

2009-07-03T09:30:00.002-06:00

Hannah is a huge help in our "redesigning the living room" project. Daddy thinks we should hire her out for other construction jobs!! Here she is "rippin it up"! She loved it!

Okay, all I can say is "oooooohhhh"!

So after a long day of ripping up carpet, cleaning up the floors, and painting two coats on a few sections of the room, here is how it looks. It's gonna be so cool!!

Shopping List - Wall Repair Kits...

2009-06-30T21:25:00.004-06:00

Okay, so we're remodeling our living room. It all began when I was cruising CraigsList and found some hardwood flooring for only $1.50 per square foot!! Wow! What a deal! We drove to the big town of Rockville (a TEENY town near Zion's National Park), and the lady showed us the finished product and I was SOOO excited!! We paid her the money and started loading it on the truck, when we noticed it is not the manufactured type of hardwood flooring (where the surface is prefinished). Soooo... we're gonna learn how to not only LAY the hardwood floor, but SAND it and FINISH it as well! Oh boy!!

Now before we can lay our beautiful hardwood floors, we have to paint the walls FIRST, right? So the adventure begins... This is our sparsely furnished living room BEFORE...

In the last couple of days, I've made a few trips back and forth to The Home Depot to get color swatches, get the little sample jars of paint color, paint parts of the wall, etc. I think we've decided on the colors. I'm going to go a little lighter shade of the green on the far wall, and the other walls a lighter shade of the tan. We're going to do some fun Faux Technique on the wall between the Living Room and the Kitchen. Not sure which kind of technique yet though... sponging, ragging, Bellagio Faux... hummm....

Before I can start painting, I needed to remove the baseboards. I think I may take the carpet up as well before painting. Well, John has been extremely busy with work (thank goodness for the work!!), so I'm really doing this myself with the kids' "help".... :)

Did you know you can punch holes right through that wallboard when prying off the baseboards if you use too much pressure?

So, off to The Home Depot tomorrow morning again...

On my shopping list is at least FIVE wall repair kits. :)

We learn as we go, right?

FYI... at 3:15 PST...

2009-06-26T15:13:00.004-06:00

Cedar City is actually more humid than Grand Prairie TX... we are at 42% humidity, GP has 29%. The only difference is the temp here in Cedar is 71 degrees, and it's a whopping 100 in Texas!! Today I'm reminded how much I don't care for the humidity... my hair has flopped, and I work up a sweat just going upstairs!! :)

Saying Goodbye to Laura & Emily

2009-06-26T09:19:00.004-06:00

These are some great pictures from awhile ago... visiting Grandma & Grandpa Jones before Laura went back home to her sweetie in Idaho. I just love this pictures of my dad... he's always been such a wonderful Grandpa (and daddy too)!!

My mom, Laura, Carl, Emily, and my Dad... what a cute shot!!

We love you guys SO MUCH!!

Carl is all tucked in and ready for the trip!!
Saturday morning, Emily and I left bright and early for the airport, on a beautiful Las Vegas morning! Emily is SO ready for her big adventure in Texas!! We love you Emily and miss you terribly!

Fun Times with Jen & Cayden

2009-06-24T09:13:00.005-06:00

I am slowly but surely catching up with all my blogging, and posting pictures of alot of our fun activities this summer. We were VERY excited to have Jen & Cayden come down for a few days during her mandatory 5 days off from work. I felt so privileged that she would want to spend part of her "vacation" with us!! Yeah Jen!!
Ohh, she's gonna kill me for posting this picture of her... Jen does NOT like her picture taken. But I thought it was SO cute... with her sweet little boy, Cayden!!
And Cayden LOVES his grandpa!! It was SO cute to see how he would cuddle up on his lap.
And silly me, I didn't get my camera out until like the last day... But then snapped a few before they went home. We went to this little park by our house to play a little bit... you know, try to wear Cayden out so he'd sleep most of the way home. You can tell he's a little tired in this picture. Normally he didn't carry his cute bottle around with him wherever he went, but he was extra tired here in these pictures.

Uncle John J and Aunt Hannah had fun playing with Cayden too!

It seems that every time Cayden comes to Grandma & Grandpa's house, he leaves with some bumps and bruises. We still have not figured out where he got the scrapes on the backs of his legs! Maybe scooting down the cement stairs by the front door? I'm sure Adam is thinking, you can't go down there anymore... Cayden is hurt everytime you come home! haha!!

Thank you Jen, for coming down and spending time with us!! Thank you, Adam, for supporting Jen in her trip down here, sharing your sweet wife & son with us ... and for being all alone for a few days!!

Oh BOY!!!!!

2009-06-23T14:52:00.007-06:00

We have had the privilege to experience five BEAUTIFUL and WONDERFUL young ladies as part of our family, three of which have their own families now. Hannah is the only girl left at home, and is loving being the oldest at home. She has actually become more helpful and loving towards her little brother. She's been painting her fingernails and toenails non-stop, doing her hair - practicing for school, and sleeping in!And OH BOY!!! It is really quite a change to have a little boy in our home after those five girls! As you know John J was born when I was 43 year old. He is now 6 years old, going on 16.

Today, we were on our way to Home Depot and other errands. We drove by the High School soccer field (oh, fun memories of Emily there), and there were several girls soccer teams just finishing up. John surprised the heck out of me... when he said very seriously... "I love girls. They are so pretty. I wish I was 16 so I could date them." Oh BOY!! This little boy has many different sides to him. He loves Transformers... fighting the bad guys... and can't WAIT for Transformers 2 to come out TOMORROW!! But then he is so sweet and asks me from time to time, "Mom, are you OK?" He has a very compassionate side for anyone who is crying or hurt. He loves to dance, and is starting to even love LOUD MUSIC! As long as he can dance and shake his little bootie! He has definitely been a fun little guy to have around!

Midsummer Day - June 24

2009-06-23T14:47:00.000-06:00

Although Midsummer Day occurs near the summer solstice, or what we think of as the beginning of summer, to the farmer it is the midpoint of the growing season, halfway between planting and harvesting, and an occasion for celebration.

Midsummer Eve (June 23) is considered sacred to lovers. On this evening, pick seven different wildflowers and then walk home silently and backward. Place the flowers under your pillow and dream of your future husband or wife.

In the ancient Celtic calendar, Midsummer Day was a “Quarter Day,” one of the days that marked the four major divisions of the year. Read more about “Quarter Days.”

By tradition, today was the earliest day deemed safe for swimming, because of its connection with St. John the Baptist, who blessed Jesus in the Jordan River. Also, most lakes and swimming holes will have warmed up by now. Celebrate with a dip!

Emily's Graduation Quilt - Revised

2009-06-19T17:36:00.005-06:00

So the quilt started out as individual quilt squares. Each square has been written on and signed by alot of the many people who love Emily and have been important in her life. We thank those of you that participated in this fun project for Emily!Each square was then backed with a tye-dyed square (thanks to Emily), and sewn together with a piece of "Warm & Natural" batting in between! After figuring out how to lay out the quilt, I put the block into rows, leaving the seam exposed (for the rag-quilt look), then sewed the rows together to make the quilt. Little John has been sick for he last couple of days and wanted me to sit by him on the couch. So, I used that time to snip the raw edge seams. Below is a picture of the finished quilt.
Today, John was feeling a little better, so I was able to work in the kitchen to create a fun edge binding to finish up the quilt. Yes, the dishes are STILL in the sink - but the quilt is finished!! Below is a picture of the back-side (tye-dye side) of the quilt.
This is a close up the back and front. It was so much fun to make. It was also fun to see what people have written on their squares, too. Again, thanks to those who were able to participate!

I hope Emily knows how much we all love her and appreciate her influence in our lives! Congratulations on your Graduation Emily!

Camping at Zion's Ponderosa

2009-06-18T08:47:00.006-06:00

Our big camping trip this summer was at Zion's Ponderosa Resort, on the east side of "the park" - Zion's National Park. We got off late (surprise?) due to alot of little things that came up. We took two separate cars because Laura & Carl were with us (yeah!!). Laura, Carl, Emily & Hannah went in my Jeep, and Daddy, John J & I went in the truck pulling the trailer. Laura & company left about the same time we did, however just after they left, Daddy remembered that he needed to download some work onto his laptop so he could work at camp. So that took a little bit of time, plus airing up the tires on the trailer, having to wait for the air pump... etc etc.

THEN, the most exciting part of our trip, was that we arrived at the "tunnel" in Zions after it was closed to trailers. The tunnel was made in 1930, and is rather small. Trailers and big trucks have to be escorted by a ranger - traffic coming from the other side has to be stopped, and the ranger & trailer ride down the middle of the road in the tunnel so the trailer doesn't scrape the sides of the tunnel. Did I explain that okay? So, we arrived after hours for an escort. They had to call a ranger - who had the option of telling us "NO" and then we would have to go the long way around to the other side of the park (like going through Arizona). But the ranger was nice, it cost us extra, but we were able to get the escort. To make a very long story shorter, Laura and company were waiting for us for about two hours at the Ponderosa. We finally made it around 10:30 or 11:00 pm. Setting up a trailer - even the bare minimums - while trying to be quiet and not wake the neighbors, is really quite a challenge.

We were rather disappointed with the RV section of the resort. No trees, unlevel driveways (pads) to park the trailer on. They have a lot of work to do on that part of the resort!! Most of the people who come here rent cabins, or even these beautiful huge vacation houses! I learned that Hiliary Weeks owns a house there and I saw her cute little blonde girls by the horses! The rest of the resort is BEAUTIFUL!! One of our favorite places was the POOL! A double-decker with slides that look like they were carved out of rock!! The kids loved it, I loved being in the sunshine and relaxing, and we all loved the hot tub!!

Our other favorite place was where the horses were!! They had a small petting zoo (if you could call it that) with puppies, goats, chickens, geese, a colt, and dogs!

We all went on horseback rides. The girls went on a two-hour ride Friday while I watched the youngin's (Carl & John J). Then Daddy and I went on a one-hour ride on Saturday. It was really great to be back on a horse again! (Oh, how I love horses!! The ride itself was okay - just walking in a straight line, following the horses' butt in front of us... but the scenery was beautiful, and the wrangler was really nice and talkative. It was great just to be with my sweetheart too!This is Emily stretching out her legs (and rear end) after her two-hour ride! Two hours was a little long!!

We went into Zions National Park, took the shuttle up into the canyon and went on a couple of hikes. There so much to do and see! A great place for anyone who likes to explore, hike, and take pictures!! Trails were from the really easy .25 mile paved hike (Patriarchs), to more than 5 miles on rather scary paths with over 800 ft. drop offs on both sides (Angel's Landing). Emily and Hannah want to go back and try the Angels Landing trail. We actually went on two separate days. On our first trip, Daddy needed to work, so Laura, Carl, John J, Hannah & I went. Emily stayed back at camp to read and sleep. Our favorite stop was Weeping Rock. Then on Saturday we all went for awhile. Then it rained!!

Carl did really well on this trip! He is so darn cute!! His sweet personality just oozes out, especially when he smiles or laughs!! I was really impressed with Laura, being brave enough to go camping with her 4 month old son, sleeping in a tent no less, without Joseph around to help! We were really happy to have her and sweet Carl with us!!

We sure wish everyone could have been with us!! Maybe one day we'll have to have our own little family reunion!! Who knows, maybe we could rent one of those huge vacation homes!! haha!! We have so many more pictures, wish we could post them all! Maybe I'll even have them scrapbooked before the end of the summer!! We can wish, right??

Emily's Graduation

2009-06-10T20:35:00.002-06:00

Can you believe our sweet little Emily has gone

from this sweet little girl...

to THIS beautiful young woman??

Yep, that's our Emily... a graduate from Cedar High School, class of 2009, now living in Texas with Sarah to work and earn money for college. Although we will see her again at Christmas before she goes to college, and she's only been gone a few days, we miss her sweet influence and bright peppy smile in our home. I missed having her with me in Church last Sunday. I miss her help around the house and with the kids and running to WalMart for me. I miss her hugs after family prayers. I even miss having to re-adjust the drivers seat of my car after Emily has used it!

But I know that she is ready. Ready for the new life ahead of her and the new experiences that await her at work, at church, at college. Ready for being able to serve new people, in a new way, in a new place. Ready to stretch, and to grow, and to shine.

We love you very much Emily!!

Some Humor in Life...

2009-06-09T13:28:00.003-06:00

During Primary sharing time last Sunday, Sis. Green asked if I would participate in a role play - first about being really bored to go to Disneyland (sleepy like), then getting really EXCITED to go to Disneyland (wake up your senses)! John J was in the Junior Primary sharing time, and got really upset during the role play... "I wanna go too!!" It took him awhile to calm down and stop crying about it. :)

Monday morning, Daddy and I were sitting on the back stairs talking before getting ready for the day. It was a beautiful cool morning, the dogs were playing, the chickens eating, and our big rooster (Dexter or "fatty" as Emily calls him) was crowing his COCK-A-DOO, waking up the neighbors, and we just chuckle. He's got his crow down pretty good - nice and loud, and is even looking like he might get the whole COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO in there pretty soon. Then we heard a rather soft Cock-a-Doo from elsewhere in the pen. I looked really close to see who had just found their new morning wake up crow... and low and behold, it came from one of the few chicks that I just KNEW was a female (hen) - Toni. We originally bought 8 chicks thinking we would get at least 3 or 4 hens, and then find a home for the roosters, right? Well, the way it's looking, after Toni has now started with HIS crow, we will for sure have ONE HEN, and maybe two. What terrible odds!! 1 or 2 hens out of 8!! So, I'm ordering new pullets (baby hens) that will FOR SURE be females directly from a chick hatchery in Missouri. So here we go again!! Chickens in the kitchen... :)

Haircuts & Ears Pierced

2009-06-09T13:19:00.002-06:00

A rite of passage... getting your ears pierced at 12 years old. Although some of our girls actually got theirs done at 11 years old. Hannah wasn't ready then, but is now -- as she is becoming a beautiful Young Woman! It's great to be 12!

She also got her hair trimmed. Her goal is to have her hair reach to her rear end.
Bubba did really great while he got his hair cut too! He LOVES looking at himself in the mirror anyway, so this worked out really great!

The hair stylist sat John on a booster seat. I looked up at him from the back while she was working and he looked so TALL! I had to do a double take to make sure that was my boy, and not a grown up 10 or 12 year old!

John also loves trying on sunglasses and doing his "cool" pose. This is what he was doing when Hannah was getting her ears pierced.

So with haircuts, ears pierced, shopping done, and a huge list made of things to do... life has been rather productive, although a little lonely without Laura & Carl, and Emily!

We miss you and we love you all!!

May Pictures

2009-05-20T07:06:00.004-06:00

John J is now SIX... in case you didn't know... :)

Hannah had her birthday party (sleepover) early this year, since we are leaving on our camping trip the day of her birthday (27th). She had seven girls attend... an unexpectedly great turnout! They had a blast, ate candy, decorated pillowcases with permanent markers - then decorated balloons, then styrofoam cups... they had a great time!

Emily's band concert was wonderful! I was choked up through most of it though, thinking, wow, this is it... her last high school concert! Then John & I started thinking about how many YEARS we've been going to band concerts... wow... the band did great. And Emily received the "John Phillips Sousa Award"... the top award given each year. Yep, we're proud parents!! Go Emily!!

Seminary Graduation was last Sunday. The festivities begin!! I really think that THIS graduation is almost more important than the graduation this friday from high school. What I love, is that Emily LOVES seminary - especially when she has had an awesome teacher!

So... I'm SIX??? Today??????

2009-05-12T12:52:00.008-06:00

John woke up rather slowly this morning, sitting on the stairs. I sat beside him and whispered "happy birthday John - it's your birthday today!" A smile stole across his sleepy face, and he said "So, I'm SIX?? Today???" Yes, the long-awaited day has finally come! He has smiled all day long!!

For the last few months, everytime I would say to him, "it looks like you've grown taller", he'd always ask, "so am I six yet?"

The big cupcake is signed by all his class members. Daddy made a nice poster with pictures on it of John J of all ages, all activites, etc. It was cute! We also gave out Spiderman Fruit Snacks to everyone in the class!! What a fun day!

Now we're off to make a cake. That's the second thing he asked this morning after "so I'm SIX today?" ... "can we make a cake now?" No John, it's 8:00 and time to get ready for school! Now that we're home from school, it's DEFINITELY time to make a birthday cake for John J!!

Crazy May...

2009-05-11T20:16:00.003-06:00

May 3 - John C.'s birthday - the love of my life

May 10 - Mother's Day

May 12 - John J.'s birthday

May 15-16 - Hannah's birthday party

May 16 - John J's birthday party

May 22 - Emily's Graduation

May 24 - Laura's birthday

May 25 - Pick up Laura & Carl at the airport in Las Vegas - maybe stay the night in Las Vegas visiting with family... especially since the flight comes in the evening.

May 27 - Hannah's birthday

May 27 - Leave for camping trip to Zion's Ponderosa Resort

And...
* Clean carpets BEFORE the birthday parties!

* Prepare for the camping trip BEFORE going to Las Vegas to pick up Laura & Carl!

* Finish up taxes (yes we filed another extension this year!)

* Finish building the chicken coop to get the chickens OUT of the kitchen!

* Help Emily get ready & packed for her Texas adventure (beginning June 6th)

* Finish up Emily's graduation quilt??

* Plant the garden

* Reconfigure & repair the water drip system

* Find the Education Department Counselor and Financial Advisor at SUU - cause I'm going to college this Fall!! And, get my FAFSA completed... :)

Have I forgot anything??? Whew... You should see the list of to do's in my black book!! Just kinda fun to list all these activities - I'm sure everyone else is just as busy! Have a great May Day!!

P.S. Don't 'ya LOVE spring??

Our Fun Weekend

2009-05-04T13:52:00.004-06:00

We left fairly early Friday afternoon (about 90 minutes after we planned - not bad) and luckily made great time while driving up to Orem for Emily's performance for State at Utah Valley University. This is a picture of John in front of the Sorenson Student Center's Wolverine statue. Pretty cool.

Emily and the rest of the Cedar High School Band did an amazing job! I'm pretty sure they got straight 1's, however I haven't heard the final outcome. They received a standing ovation that night. What an amazing band! And I could hear Emily's bassoon many times - beautiful!!

We really enjoyed visiting with Jen, Adam and Cayden overnight and the next day too! Cayden has grown SO TALL!! Wow!! And Jen's apartment was so darn clean!! I want her to come work her magic on my house now!! :)Saturday morning, Cayden helped his new best friend (grandpa) in making pancakes. It was so cute! Wish I could have gotten a better picture!!

Then we went to the Hogal Zoo in Salt Lake City. It had been raining most of the morning, but looked like the clouds were breaking, so we decided to go try it... Then after being there at least an hour, the clouds settled in again, and a nice cool drizzle began again! Time to go... but we had fun!! Emily and Bubba were fascinated with "the globe"!! We hope to go back this summer, when the weather's better, and all the attractions are open!

Do you remember the show "Zaboo mafoo"? Well, Hogal Zoo has a lemur that looks just like him!!

There was a really cool playground, that was rather soggy, but still fun!! Cayden made his way down the "snake slide" with the help of Auntie Hannah!

These are some of my favorite animals... giraffes!! I love how they move, and the cute little knobs on top of their head!! Thanks for posing Hannah and John J!

Speaking of posing, this big guy sure liked getting his picture taken!!

I'd say the Apes are a little bit bigger than Hannah! Good to know, right?

Look at these cute monkeys... holding hands! :)

Isn't this female peacock beautiful? John got some better picture of the gorgeous males, but I was amazed at how simply beautiful this female was... a rich chocolate brown with white... and some beautiful coloring around her neck. I love the little plume thing on top of her head too!

I will definitely post some of John's picture when we get them transferred over to the computer. We sure enjoyed our weekend... watching Emily, visiting with Jen & family, and going to the zoo!

My Friend Midnight

2009-04-24T22:12:00.004-06:00

This is the only chick that will fall asleep while roosting on my hand. As much as I like these chickies... I'm SO READY for them to go outside!! Only a couple more weeks... yeah!!

Celebrate the Earth

2009-04-21T10:55:00.002-06:00

April 21 is Earth Day.

Go outside today, no matter what the weather!

Take in the "tonic of outdoor air, the healthy influence that comes from contact with the soil, the delightful companionship with nature"

(Eben E. Rexford, The Home Garden, 1909).

Here are some ideas:

• Plant wildflower seeds. See our article, Wild About Wildflowers.

• Start landscaping using native plants. See our article, The Natural Garden.

• Bring nature into the garden with plants that attract butterflies.

• Grow your own vegetables. See tips on starting an organic garden as well as what to grow in a beginner’s vegetable garden.

• Did you know that the average person spends over 90 percent of his time indoors? Take a walk, go to a park, pick up litter, visit a farmers’ market, or just breathe in fresh air!

• Unplug. It’s estimated that 75 percent of electricity used to power our TVs, computers, and other electronics is consumed while the power is turned off. Unplug your electronics.

The "green things growing" whisper me

Of many an Earth-old mystery.

–Eben E. Rexford (1848–1916)

Today...

2009-04-20T22:12:00.002-06:00

... was ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL day in Cedar City, Utah - highs in the 70's and believe it or not, NO WIND!! Our sister city is Chicago, you know, the other windy city!

... I found out that when Miranda (the special ed girl I work with) is not in school (she's in Disneyland for 4 days this week), I only get to work one hour per day. Kind of a good news/bad news thing... good news is I have time off! bad news is I don't get paid!

... our turtles woke up from hibernation, and I re-worked the turtle habitat, got a little sunburned and so did John J.

... I'm getting tons of quilt squares back for Emily's quilt and we're all getting really excited about it!! Emily went to WalMart tonight and got the tye-dye that will match the quilt and is going to tie-die the material for the backs of the squares! Cool! I'll be sure to post a picture of the finished product!! :)

... I'm grateful for my family and my life!

This just cracked me up!

2009-04-19T08:24:00.001-06:00

And no, I didn't do this... :) nor did anyone in my family! :) I just saw it at the high school and had to take a picture. How funny! (Probably not for the student who was driving at the time.) Have a fun day!

Happy Easter

2009-04-11T19:17:00.011-06:00

Tulips from my sweetheart!

Wishing you all a beautiful Easter day,

remembering the great sacrifice of our Savior

and His great gift of eternal life!

A little note from Hannah...

HAPPY EASTER!!!!

(\ (\ (\__/) /) /)

( '.'=)(='.'=)(='.' )

(') (') (") (") (') (')

BUNNIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Spring Fever

2009-04-11T13:54:00.005-06:00

So, we have definitely had a nice taste of Spring, followed by snow again this morning, but more sunshine this afternoon. We have had spring break this week (off from school Weds, Thurs, Friday - nice!) and I've been able to do some of my favorite things.

Wednesday was spent doing some "spring cleaning" and it always feels good to get some areas of the house cleaned out... should have continued doing that, but instead I went outside to "play". Thursday and Friday, we spent most of the day outside... weeding, digging around and fertilizing our little trees (thought about the scripture about "dunging" the olive trees and had to smile), preparing our planting garden boxes, and just lots of fun stuff. I LOVE to work outside!! My hands are sore, my hips are sore, my leg muscles are sore... but it was so enjoyable. While working outside, the kids were also outside playing with our neighbors, the Groves. It was SO entertaining to listen to them laugh and play, and the games they would make up... like "American Idol"... "You're going to Hollywood!!" Stuff like that. It was great.

One of the things I did was trim a couple of limbs off my neighbor's raspberry bush gone wild, and I'm trying to root it. I have a place all prepared outside next to the strawberries to plant these... if it works! Anyone have suggestions on how to root branches like this? I hope it works because I really want to make raspberry jam one day!

The indoor garden and chickie condos are taking up a good part of our breakfast nook. We can still eat around the table (barely), but mostly we end up eating down in the family room on trays anyway... The green beans and pumpkins are getting rather large... and we won't be able to plant them outside for a few more weeks. Bigger peat pots and potting soil are on the WalMart list...
This is Stella... Hannah's chickie. She has the most beautiful feathers coming in... My favorite chickie is mine - Goldie (lower left corner) - she loves to get all the way IN the chick feed. She actually likes to cuddle in my hands too...
Shown below are Dexter (the huge one) and Tony (the smaller black one - John's chick). Notice the size difference?? Dexter is a Cornish Hen. They are bred to grow alot faster, then will end up on someone's table for dinner. He is just HUGE!! He (or she) freaks Emily out. I've had so much fun with these chickies. I know, weird... The dog groomer from California told me all about her chickens and how much she loves having chickens. Hannah's friend has chickens out in New Harmony and was telling me how much she loves having chickens... So I'm not the only one. But to add to the weirdness for those of you who visit my blog and wish to know more about our chickie adventure, I'm adding a "Chickie Cam" on the right side of my blog, along with a "Garden Cam" too. I know, I know, I should be posting more pictures of the things that really matter, like MY FAMILY!! I will do that too!

Emily's Senior Prom and MORE

2009-04-05T08:46:00.007-06:00

I love my Emily. She is just so fun! I can't believe she'll be graduating next month!!! Then moving to Texas to live with Sarah for several months, then going to school in Idaho in January 2010... She really is an amazing young woman!! She has grown up so fast! So, I looked at her pictures on her "My Pictures" file, and found some amazing pics! Here's some fun ones, starting with last night's Senior Prom pictures (she went with Alex Wilson)...

The day before Prom (Friday), the Jazz Band left after school and drove up "North" (Salt Lake/Provo area) for their State Jazz Competition. They performed Saturday after warm-ups and clinics, which Jen was able to attend for awhile until Cayden had had ENOUGH!! :) ... And the judges gave them STRAIGHT ONES!! And... for the second year in a row, they are State Champs for the 3A schools!! Go Redman Jazz Band. When they got back, there was a sign waiting for them. Emily, being the Jazz Band president, got to hold the plaque... They got home just in time to get ready for Prom. I'm still waiting to hear about all the details!! yeah!

This is Emily just having fun. She's taking these picture by herself - her new camera must have a timer or something. What a fun, crazy girl!
I love all the self-portraits she takes of herself! And the cute poses... facial expressions... so fun!

I'm so grateful for such a wonderful daughter, such a wonderful FAMILY!! Wow... I must have done something right in my younger life to have been blessed with such a wonderful family... although I can't think of what that must have been... :)

April "Snow" Showers...

2009-04-03T18:42:00.002-06:00

...Bring May Flowers??

(and Mayflowers bring the Pilgrims, right?)

hahaha

Meet Fred the Snowman...

Yes, this is such a lovely sight, when we're all experience EXTREME Spring Fever!! Can't wait to plant our garden... can't wait to mow the lawn... can't wait to plant pretty flowers... can't wait to build a cool lookin' chicken coop... go on lovely spring walks... AAAHH!!

But... this was the best snow to build snowmen...
and eat snow...
Hannah even got some lemonade flavored mix and made yummy yellow snow...
hummm....
John J just ate it straight up...
That big black blob next to Hannah is Madison... a TRUE snow dog!
Mush, Madison, mush!!

So, those of you enjoying the sunshine, warm weather, and sandy beaches (uh-hum... Sarah and family - you lucky ducks!), we'll be thinking of you!! Just come visit us in August when you're dying of heat and humidity, okay?
Just come visit anyway, anytime, anyone!!
Love you all!

Seedlings and chickies...

2009-03-31T13:07:00.003-06:00

So I'm pretty amazed... (yeah, I know, it doesn't take much to amaze me lately). This is the first year we've started our garden indoors... we put two or three seeds in each peat pot section (about 200 sections in all) - so about 400 seeds - and ONE WEEK LATER - we have all these little seedlings sprouting up! Wow!! They'll be two feet tall before it's warm enough to put them outside in the garden beds (late May)!! I think alot of it is that they get great sun, sitting by our breakfast nook's bay window (my favorite place in the house too)... AND... they get lots of warmth and light from the heat lamp that is over the chickie's box next to the seedlings.

I know this is a little lame, getting so excited about seedlings... and blogging about it!! BUT, this is like a little experiment for me ... especially the green beans

(like my own little science project!!).

The two rows of taller ones to the left shown in this picture below, are from the seeds that we harvested from last year's garden. The next two rows are the seeds from a packet left over from last year. They're coming up, but alot slower. I should have gotten a packet of fresh seeds to see how they would come up compared to the harvested ones and the older ones. Hummm... Maybe later... ? :)

We stopped by McDonalds on the way home from school today and of course, John got a Chicken McNugget Happy Meal. The Happy Meal toy is from the movie "Monsters vs Aliens" - and has these long stringy antennas. John and I thought it was funny that the little chickies loved to peck at the strings - maybe they thought they were worms!! What smart chickies! And how nice of John to share, right?

Well, that's it for our exciting news today!

Hope you all are having a great day!!

EXTREME SHEEP ART

2009-03-31T13:03:00.001-06:00

John sent me this on email. I thought it was just great!!
Hope you enjoy it....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2FX9rviEhw

Getting Ready for GARDENS!

2009-03-29T08:29:00.002-06:00

Did you know that Hannah can be handy with power tools? GO HANNAH! She and John (daddy) built another garden box for our garden this year. Since the soil here in Cedar City isn't the best, and because our house is on the "hill" we have a tremendous amount of rock, we have to create spaces to make our own good gardening soil. Hopefully we'll be able to have four garden boxes eventually (just one at a time - they're expensive to build), and maybe even get the rest of our backyard in - like grass for the kids, more fruit trees and shade trees, a nice gravel area for the dogs & their pen, and our playhouse chicken coop! haha!These are the seeds that we are getting started inside this year - to get a jump on the gardening season. Our growing season is rather short... last year we had snow the first week of June and the snows come back sometime in October. I am totally amazed that the little seedlings are already starting to pop up their little heads!! In less than a week! It may be because of the heat lamp that we have over the baby chicks who are sitting next to the seedlings. Yep, it's summertime in our breakfast nook!! haha.

What's kinda cool about this year's crop, is that the seeds we're planting were "harvested" from our garden and veggies last year. Most of them. I did save seeds from jalapenos and poblamo peppers that I bought to can salsa. So we're gonna have tons of salsa this year!!

My dream has always been to have horses (reminiscent of my early years) and to have a small ranch/farm for all of our animals, being self-sufficient. That may just have to wait until the next life, but you never know - miracles can happen, right? When we get our current home just the way we want it... grass, full grown trees for shade, a covered patio, etc... then it will be time to move to the ranch... where we will start all over again.
Such is life right?

E-I-E-I-O...

2009-03-27T16:55:00.004-06:00

The Sargent Family has a (backyard) farm...

E - I - E - I - O!!

And on that farm we have some chicks!!

E - I - E - I - O...

With a peep, peep here,
and a peep, peep there...
here a peep, there a peep
EVERYWHERE A PEEP PEEP!!

(And in about 6 months we'll have fresh eggs all year long!)

This is the house that John will build for our new babies sometime in the next 2 months...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULvlZ94aZN4

Oh.... (sing along!).... E - I - E - I - O!!!!!

Here's to THIRTY YEARS!

2009-03-23T14:11:00.007-06:00

Here's to my best friend, my lover, my confidante, my husband... who has been patient and loving and kind with me - such an imperfect wife - for thirty years! The years have added a few wrinkles, grey hair, and a few pounds... but our love has grown stronger and deeper with each year. I just hope and pray that our children will find such love and happiness and fulfillment in their lives! So here's to 30 years, and to the eternities to come!!

And this is our legacy - our pride and joy - our amazing posterity...

Have I said how thankful I am for my husband, my family, and my life??

Yes, life is GOOD!!

Way-Back Memorable Music

2009-03-23T13:14:00.002-06:00

In preparation for our 30TH ANNIVERSARY tomorrow ... March 24th (yes, John I remembered the right date this year) ... I have posted some memorable music that was popular back in l978 (when I met John) and 1979 when we were married. Enjoy!

Way Back Wednesday

2009-02-18T11:35:00.004-07:00

I've started this HUGE project of scanning all of our old pictures so that we have digital files of all of them. I started the year that we were married (1979) and have gotten all the way to 1981! Yeah!

As I go through these really old pictures, I just have to smile at how skinny John and I were... and what a HOTTIE John (Daddy) was!! And still is... you know... in a mature sort of way, right? Anyway, here are some cute pictures that I thought would be fun to post.

One for the road...

2009-02-18T11:33:00.003-07:00

Our computer is hitting the road, going to the computer doctor. Both our computers (the family one and John's business one) have had major problems, and we found a great computer store here in town - Red Rock Computers - who "clean up" computers for a reasonable price. They did John's first, and it now works without going blue-screen! So we're going to take our family computer in... Therefore... we won't have any access to our email (unless we sneak into John's office... haha), or blogs, for a few days. Just so ya know!

Woo Hoo... I Passed!

2009-02-11T19:23:00.003-07:00

Yep, I passed that stinkin' test... got a 480 out of 500... had to have 460 to pass. But now it's buggin' me that I actually missed some of them... I mean, which ones did I get wrong!? No, I'm not a perfectionist... not one little bit... !! But now I have to wait 4 weeks to find out which ones I got wrong!! I mean, I aced the practiced test... so what happened?! AAAAhhhhh!!!! Okay, enough of that... I passed, I get to keep my job. Yeah! I'm having serious second thoughts about going back to college... :)

This is a test... It is only a test...

2009-02-10T13:07:00.002-07:00

Tomorrow, Wednesday, February 11th at 4:00 pm, I get to take the ParaProfessional Assessment Test, in order to keep my job as a special education teacher's aide. Yep, my job depends on it! I've been so worried about this... I bought a $25 book to study for it, then couldn't find it for awhile (yep, I freaked out a little)...

When I originally applied for my job last year, the stated requirements were that the applicant have two years of college. Well....... I did ATTEND for an equivalent of two years (do summer semesters count? I think yes!), but did not have the required number of credit hours to fulfill this requirement. So I get to take THE TEST!

Do you realize how many YEARS it has been since I've been in school? Let me give you an example of some of the information I have forgotten...

Preposition, predicate, subject-verb agreement; mean, median, & mode; how to find the circumference of a circle, xy-coordinate planes, comparing two fractions by cross-multiplying... get the idea?

Okay, but yesterday I started feeling a little bit better about the test, after taking the pre-test in this $25 book I bought... and passed it with 100% (even guessing a few). We'll see how it goes tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Carl Acer Booth is HERE!

2009-01-22T12:41:00.005-07:00

Carl Acer Booth,

son of Laura (our second oldest daughter),

& her husband Joseph Booth,

was born Monday, January 12, 2009 at 6:05 pm.

This picture (below) was taken when Carl was one week old - on the day that I returned home to Cedar.

A little note on his name... CARL is Joseph's middle name, and a prominent Booth family name as well. ACER is the name of a maple tree (Joseph is a horticulturist). Had Carl been born in February as expected, his middle name might have been Lindon - which is a tree with heart-shaped leaves. Acer is also mentioned in the baby name book, so there may be other Acers out there! Acer also means "unity". So there you go!

Laura holds the record for the fastest labor on a first baby in our family (not that it's a contest, girls!) - only 5 1/2 hours!! Carl decided to come 4 weeks early (even though we think it was closer to 2 to 3 weeks early), weighed in at 6 pounds 8 ounces and was 18 1/2 inches long. At his first doctor's appointment soon after he came home, he weighed 6 lbs 2 oz (a reasonable weight loss) and was 19 1/2 inches long. The nurse said he was probably longer than 18 1/2 inches at birth, but sometimes they have a hard time getting their legs stretched out all the way right after they are born.

One of Laura's favorite things to do, besides holding and kissing her sweet baby boy, is playing with his feet as you can see in the picture above! And Carl loves it too! He can be fussing away, and then Laura will play with his feet or legs and he will just calm right down! And speaking of his feet, Carl has Joseph's pinkie toe (it kind of overlaps the next bigger toe). I thought that was cool!! The picture below is just after Joseph & Laura gave Carl his first bath. Whew! What an accomplishment - which deserved a kiss!

It's not really fair that I post this next picture. It was taken just before I left last Monday. Laura and I had both been crying. It was so hard to say goodbye! So if Laura's eyes look a little red, that's okay, right?

What a darling little family!! Congratulations Laura & Joseph!

Fifth Disease

2009-01-08T08:18:00.004-07:00

When all our older children were growing up, I never heard of "Fifth Disease". I think it's a new one. The real name for it is Parvovirus 13 (or 9)... I don't quite remember the number - you know me and my memory! However, I did ask the doctor if this is related at all to the Parvo that dogs get (which is bad, very bad), and NO, IT IS NOT. Whew! The fun thing about this disease is you're extremely contagious BEFORE you know you have it! Yeah! That's why there is a small epidemic of Fifth Disease going around the schools here in Cedar (as well as Mono). The good news is that once you have it, you'll never get it again. The bad news is I can't remember if you guys (Sarah, Laura, Jen) ever had it! And also, if you're in the early months of pregnancy, it can be really bad news!

This disease is very mild, starts out with flu like symptoms, then your face turns bright red, very flushed looking, like someone slapped you on the cheeks. (That's why it's also called the Slapped Cheek disease.) You may or may not have a fever with this. Then the next day, your body breaks out in a "lacey" rash all over your face and torso. It's not itchy - usually. Once the rash starts to fade, you're no longer contagious.

So we're home from school today, but John J actually feels great. The picture above was taken yesterday - and my phone camera didn't pick it up very well - but his face had a BRIGHT RED rash, and a rash all over his back and tummy (and other parts). I don't want the kids making fun of him (even more) - thus we're at home today. Yes, I'm an over-protective mom, and like to find any excuse to stay at home!! :)

Favorite Tunes - Just a Note

2009-01-06T13:25:00.003-07:00

I LOVE MUSIC!! I love the way it makes you feel, how it can calm your troubles, lift your spirits, and make you dance!!

I hope you like the rendition of "Once there Was A Snowman" that is the first song playing right now on my Favorite tunes. It just cracks me up. Too bad I can't use that for Singing Time in Primary!! haha!

Also, one of my favorite gifts (besides Bella's necklace) is the CD that Emily burned for me of tons of Michael Buble songs!! I love the mix of Jazz and his voice!! So, if you scroll down on my playlist, you'll see some of my favorites. Enjoy! and DANCE!