Photos From Our Whopper Storm!

Here are some photos from our WHOPPER of a storm on Thursday, Aug. 28th, 2008. It was quite an awesome storm! I found these photos online and they are taken by different people around the Valley.

Look at these AWESOME anvil clouds!! Aren't they beautiful?


Something out of a Frankenstein movie!


The dust moving in:

One HUGE lightning bolt coming down there!! Makes you wonder what got hit!

Just had to share those with you. There were trees down all over the place as well as power poles and lines. I saw several photos of cars with trees on top of them. It was really a bad storm.

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Went to Church today. Speakers were good and classes were too. Now we are home just being lazy. Colebe called to talk to Grandma before we got home so I called him back. He wanted to know when we were coming to see them. Killer question!!! I'd sooooo love to be up in Utah with my Utah kids. It would mean leaving my Arizona kids behind and still not being with my Idaho kids. I told them all a long time ago that they were forbidden to move away from us. They didn't listen!! Now we are spread out all over the place and it's hard on this Grandma's heart to not have her grandchildren near by. Even the Arizona ones are far enough away that we don't get to see them very often. Especially now that gas is so expensive.

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Well, I hope everyone is taking the time to enjoy the Simple Pleasures. They are all around us. So keep an eye out for them. You'll be surprised how many neat things you will find. Happy Sunday!!

Whopper Of A Storm!!!

We had a WHOPPER of a storm last night!! Imagine standing outside and looking up at the sky and seeing lightning flash from one end of the sky to the other. Nonstop flashing!! And every little bit a cloud to grounder coming down from the clouds. Well, that's how it was. It was such an awesome display. And then the thunder rolling constantly without letting up. Just this constant rumble in the air like an airplane taking off only it never quits.

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I was over at the church helping with the genealogy computer lab and that's what I came out to see when it was time to go home. I was really glad to get in the car and leave as it was pretty eerie watching that lightning. About ten or fifteen minutes after I got home the wind and the rain started. And the rain came in sheets that almost obscured our view of things across the street from us. I was so glad I got home before that happened as driving in it would have been really dangerous. It was such an awesome thing. The rain and lightning and nonstop thunder went on for about an hour before there were signs of letting up. Kind of scary!

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On the news they said that some of those storm clouds were topping out at 50,000 feet! And after things calmed down and made you think the storm had passed, we got hit with another wave. I had seen it on the radar screen on the news and wondered if we were in for it again. We were!

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Anyway, it was pretty exciting. There was a lot of damage done around the Valley. They said there were recorded winds of 100 miles an hour in some areas. 75 and 80 miles an hour in other places. We are okay here at our house. It's VERY humid outside today which makes it miserable, but we sure love having the good rain! So we can't complain too much over that.

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Not much else going on. Enjoy the Simple Pleasures today!

New Scrapbook Layouts!

I have a couple new scrapbook layouts to show you. Both are in the 12 x 12 and the 8.5 x 11 sizes. And both are of Kyran. The first two are of his motorcycle injuries and the second two are of him when we lived in Show Low and he was about a year old.

Have a great day and don't forget to look for the Simple Pleasures!!

Stephen Keeping Up With The Boys!!

I think Stephen is trying to keep up with the boys in our family. He was drilling something at work on Friday and the drill bit broke off. The part that was still left in the drill got his wrist and took a big chunk of skin off and went into his wrist about half an inch. He said it really hurt and bled like crazy. Blessings - he missed all the veins! Of course he won't go let a doctor take a look at it and they would probably give him a tetnus shot if he did. But he isn't going to go in unless it gets infected. MEN!!!

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We went out to Stephen R. and Karma's for dinner and Michael's birthday party this afternoon/evening. Most of Karma's family was there and Chad and Heather and the boys came. It was a happy crowd! We enjoyed being there. Got to hold Cydney. She's such a cutie. Slept right through all that noise and confusion without a problem. And she was passed from one pair of arms to the next the whole time we were there. Everyone loves new babies. Isn't that great?!!

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Well, Stephen and I celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary in two weeks. 40 years!! And we still love each other so much. I sometimes wonder if our children realize how blessed they are to have parents who love each other like we do. When I think of all the hard times we have faced and all the challenges we have been given I'm grateful our love is strong. That we stood and faced it all together and didn't allow anything to tear us apart. A lot of marriages would not have survived some of the trials we have had. So I'm grateful for our love and for our committment that we have to be a Forever Family. I know I would not be complete without my Stephen.

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I wore my hair pulled back on the sides and clipped in the back and left the back straight today for church. It's soooooo long!! Almost to my waist!!! I wish it had some curl in it. And some body. But it doesn't. It's just long and straight. Needs to be trimmed some.

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I hope you all have a great day tomorrow! Remember to look for the Simple Pleasures in life. They are all around us just waiting to be loved and appreciated!

New Scrapbook Pages!

Yay!!!!! I got some scrapbooking done today! I like the way the layouts turned out too. Very summery and cheerful. So here they are! The first layout of each one is a 12 x 12 and the second one is 8 1/2 x 11. I take the 12 x 12 and size it down to fit the smaller page so I can print them out for our scrapbooks. I love the added top and bottom trims and backgrounds. They add a lot to the layouts.

This one is our little Katie Bug in her Ariel swimsuit. Sooooo cute!

This last one is of my Aunt Mary K., myself, my sister Kathy and our cousin Karen down at the beach in Pedro Point, California.

I really love the way these all turned out.
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It was hot today. 106 degrees. I'll be so glad for summer to be over and our cooler temps to arrive. That probably won't happen for another month or two though. Unless the weather decides to surprise us.

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Tomorrow morning I go help at the computer lab over at the church house for a couple hours. I don't know if anyone is even going to come or not. But we have to be there just in case.

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Take care and have a great day tomorrow! Enjoy the simple pleasures all around you!!

TIMBER!!!

Yes, that's what I did. I timbered flat on my face a couple days ago. As of yesterday I was still finding sore spots and bruises. Don't know how I did it, but I did! Just hope no one saw it happen. I can laugh at it and Kodi sure does. I have to admit that the mental picture of my latest adventure is rather comical. But it does HURT to laugh!! No broken bones though and that's a great blessing. It could have been so much worse. And someone could have seen it happen. I'm really glad no one was around. LOL OOOOWWWWWW!!!

New Take On Hailey's Scrapbook Page Layout

Okay. I decided to try this layout again and I think it's much nicer than the first one. The colors are so much softer and I like that. Tell me what you think and which one you like the best.

Yay Hurray!!

Well! I got two new layouts done using new grandbaby photos!! The first one is of Hailey who is now about 7 months old. And the second one is Cydney who is about two weeks now. Come September I'll have another new baby layout to show everyone! I had fun experimenting with fading layers into each other on Hailey's layout. Tried something I never tried before. Doing a freehand effect rather than a shape that is already in the computer.

It was humid today because of the rain we got last night. But that's okay. Getting that rain was such a welcome thing and so very badly needed. We can't complain.

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Then tonight we thought our water heater had quit on us. I noticed there was no hot water when I did the dinner dishes. So Stephen went out to check and see what was going on. Of course we didn't get the in home warranty for it so this wasn't good news. But it turned out that all we had to do was push the little red reset button and it looks like all is well again. Blessings, blessings!! We are wondering if the lightning and thunder last night maybe caused an overload on the electricity to the water heater causing the reset button to kick it off. Weird.

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We tend Nickie tomorrow. I'm not sure I'm ready for that. It hasn't been long enough since Tuesday to forget how bad that day was. LOL We love this little gal so much. But she can definitely be a challenge. I hope tomorrow goes a lot better for everyone.

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I read this quote on Susan's Daily Dose - an email I get every day. I really love what it says.

Any person capable of
angering you becomes your master; he can anger you
only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him.
~ Epictetus (55-135 AD)
Greek Philosopher

So.........Don't get mad and angry at anyone!! And til next time........Enjoy the Simple Pleasures that are all around you! Look for the joys in each day. Take the time to make a list of what you find and you'll be amazed at your many blessings!

Happy Tuesday!! Happy Wednesday!!!

Tuesday!! For another 8 minutes or so and then Wednesday will be here. I'm such a nightowl. Stay up most of the night and then sleep late in the morning. Almost had that turned around but have slipped back into this comfortable routine once again. I think it will be changing when school starts next week though as we will be watching Nickie in the mornings from 5 AM til her bus comes to pick her up at 7 AM.

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We had a good storm roll through here this evening. Some wind and rain, lightning and thunder. Love our monsoon storms!! It will probably be pretty humid tomorrow now because of the rain we got. But we can't complain.

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Here are three scrapbook layouts I have done recently. If you click on each pic it will enlarge it so you can read what is written on them better. The first one is of Kodi. The second and third ones are of Kyran when we lived in Show Low.

Cute, cute! I finished the little piggy one today. I have started making some of my layouts 12 inches by 12 inches and then I size them down onto an 8 and a half by 11 page and add top and bottom borders of some kind using background papers. Sure like how the spacing and everything looks. It's a little more time consumming I think, but so worth it as everything is better balanced and sized. I love the looks of the 12 by 12 pages. But my printer only prints the 8.5 by 11 paper. So this works really good for me.

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I stepped down from the CT (Creative Team) I was on yesterday. I just felt I needed to spend more time on genealogy and family research since that is my job at Church now - Family History Consultant. Plus I have become a little burned out on the scrapbooking and need to just do it when I feel like doing it. I felt bad giving it up but also very relieved which tells me I did the right thing. I enjoyed working with Sherah. She is a very talented lady. I was on her team for about 8 or nine months.

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Well, it is now Wednesday morning and I'm still wanting to read for a while before I head to bed. I started a book after dinner last night and read over half of it before the night was over. Maybe I'll finish it tonight????? : )

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Hope everyone has a happy day. Enjoy all the simple pleasures around you. You would be surprised at how many of them just pop in to make your day more enjoyable. Funny thing is, you don't notice them unless you are looking for them. So.....take the time to LOOK!!