Happy December!!

Happy December, Everyone! It has been too long since I last updated this blog. I need to do better than this!

Big news here! We finally took Teddi Bear in for her first professional grooming job! And she did very well. Her fur was so long and so terribly matted when we first got her and we have tried and tried to brush the snarls out but nothing we did worked. It was so bad we finally broke down and got her groomed. And it was so bad they had to shave her fur all off. So now she looks like this expensive little dog and we just laugh because she looks so different and so cute. We knew she was a very small dog but now that the fur is all gone it really shows how small she is. And her legs are so LONG!!! and spindle-y looking. That surprised us. With all that long fur you couldn't tell just how long they were! I love the way they left the fur on her head and tail. She really looks cute. And they put the little red bow on her collar as it's Christmas time. Too sweet!

Well, that big winter storm that hit the States a week or so ago left us with some very wonderful rain here in the Valley. Mesa got just under half an inch. It has been so cool and beautiful here and at times down right COLD!!! I have LOVED it!!

I took some photos of one of our recent stormy days outside my window here. Loved the way the dark sky looked with the palm trees. So I'm sharing them with you.

So....What's been happening with us here? Well...lots actually. Although a lot of it is the same old stuff day in and day out. But nothing exciting going on means life is okay and things are good, right? No one is having any adventures we can do without. And that's okay.

A couple months ago we had to take the puppies in for their yearly checkups and shots. Teddi Bear had never had any so this was a first timer for her. Dr. Funk is a neat looking guy, isn't he? Reminds me of Einstein. He was getting ready to give Teddi her first shot here. Kodi is helping to hold her steady.

From the time we walked into the examining room until the time we walked out Frankie was looking for a way out of there! He didn't like being there at all. Wouldn't even eat the treats they gave him to help him be more comfortable. So Teddi Bear ate hers and Frankies too. She didn't seem nervous at all. And Teddi weighed in at just over 17 pounds, Frankie was about 100 pounds.

And Teddi Bear continues to be a mischief maker with her puppy ways. She turned a year old on Thanksgiving Day and we've had her about 8 months now. Frankie is still not too happy she has invaded his territory. But she now respects him as the alpha dog rather than trying to kick him out of his spot. So that is good. Here is one of the messes Teddi made. She found the package of toilet paper on the landing upstairs and had herself a great time with it. Totally mangled that roll there. It was quite the mess!

This is one of the times I can say....she's your puppy, Kodi. You get to clean it all up! Great, huh?!!!

I had to take a picture of this next thing...I was walking through the downstairs bedroom one day and something caught my eye. I picked up the item and it was this little rubber aligator munching on Kodi's little Polly Pocket. I got a good laugh out of that. The grandsons like to play in that room when they are here and I figured it had to be one of them who did this dastardly deed. Sure enough! It was our Colebe. He 'fessed up to it at the family birthday party at the park a few days later. I still have this sitting on my desk here to remind me of how wonderful my grandkids are. And it's still making me smile everytime I look at it.

And here are a couple photos of our Autumn Tree! I think of all the themed trees we did this year, this one was the prettiest. I love the colors of the leaves and flowers and it looked so pretty against our new green walls. We put orange lights on this tree and it gave off this very orangy glow. We left it up til after Thanksgiving and now have the tree decorated with our traditional Christmas ornaments that we have collected over the years and white twinkle lights.

We also added a beautiful new little grandbaby to the family in September. Haven't seen her in person yet. It will probably be a while before we get to. But my sister keeps us in photos over the internet and I have them all saved on my computer here. I'm so thankful she loves my grandkids and my kids and is so willing to take the photos and send them to me.

Thanksgiving was kind of quiet. Chris and his family came for dinner after Melany's family get together. They did the turkey and it was so yummy. We did the rest of the meal and had plenty to eat for everyone. It felt funny to have such a late Thanksgiving dinner as we are used to doing it around 1 or 2 in the afternoon. But it was a nice day and we had plenty of time to get everything done without rushing.

We are looking forward to Christmas. It sure came fast this year. I'm not near ready for it to be here and gone again, but that's okay. That's just the way I am. I love this time of year so much. I do have the Christmas gifts all bought and plans for baking and fudge making are in the works. Right now I'm working on making some Christmas cards to send out. As for anything else, what gets done gets done and what doesn't will just have to wait til next year. I'm not going to worry about it. We'll be going out to Queen Creek to have Christmas Eve with Stephen R. and Chris and their families. That will be special.

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year. Remember why we celebrate this very special season and take the time to enjoy all the simple pleasures. It's those simple pleasures and the company of family and loved ones that are important in our lives. It isn't the gifts and material things.

Merry Christmas to all of you!

We Are Painting!!!

Boy, it's about time I got back on here to let you know what we are doing around here! We are painting!!! So far the living room now has green walls with blue above the plant shelves and it looks sooooooo yummy! I absolutely LOVE the green!! It does make the room darker but I don't mind that a bit. Just means we have to open the shades. And the blue looks really pretty above the plant shelves. I'm very pleased with the colors we chose. Still have to do the tan on the stairway walls. And the trim paint isn't on yet. It's going to take a while to get it all done. But that's okay. We are taking a break this weekend.

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So, here are some pics of what we have done so far. Stephen and I got the things back up on the plant shelves and I love them so much. There was plenty of room for my birdhouses as well as a lot of my Americana stuff. So I'm excited about how it looks.

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This first pic was taken on green paint day. That's Chris resting. He really worked hard for us and we appreciated his help. And Melany made me a 5 gallon bucket full of homemade laundry soap while they were here that day. I LOVE it!! Just pennies per wash load.

Whatever light is in the room makes a difference in how light or dark the colors of the walls are. I love it!

My Americana throw pillows look more country with the green walls. I was a little concerned about how the red, white and blues would look with the green but I'm very pleased with how it all turned out. It's a warm country look now.

I even got my round wooden cheese boxes that I found at a carport sale years ago up on the plant shelf there! I'm excited to finally have a place to show them off at.

The tall birdhouses look really neat up there, don't you think? And the one off by itself is a plant stand my Great Grandpa made. It is holding a birdhouse made out of old wood from a barn back in Indiana. Hope found that for me when she lived back there.
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And look how pretty our clock looks on that green wall. The dove cote looks pretty on it too.

And that's what we have been doing! Plus keeping busy at Church. I taught the Family History class last week and will be doing it again this week and next week. I'm loving that. And I'm still reading a lot. Found a new writer that I like. Lynn N. Austin - she is really a good writer. I haven't been doing much scrapbooking lately.

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Stephen and I went to The Crackerbarrel for dinner this evening. Just the two of us and it was so nice to have a real date!! We did part of our grocery shopping afterward. That will free up a little time tomorrow.

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Take care, Everyone! Look for the simple pleasures in your day!

Happy Tuesday!!

Hi All and Happy Tuesday!! Today will be busy as the Missionaries are coming for dinner this evening and we have to get ready for them to come. I already have the meat in the crockpot. Just have to decide what else to serve with it.

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Have a couple scrapbook layouts to show you. Actually, I have more than that but I'll only bore you with two of them.

Thought this one turned out good. A mother's nightmare to be sure though!

And a new pic of Teddy Bear. She is such a cutie! Took this pic just yesterday. Isn't she tiny and sweet?

Pics from our evening with Hope and Jim, Kathy and Phil and Cade and Melissa. We had a nice time with them.

And pics of the remodel in our living room! I'm loving the new plant shelf. Haven't put anything on the new part of it yet. We are hoping to paint soon. Finally got the colors picked out. Just need to get the paint and put it on the walls. Anyone want to come help?????

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The guys cut a hole in the slanted part of the ceiling and put the shelf inside of it to help brace it up and make it more weight bearing.

I love how they finished this off. Looks pretty cool!

And look at that smooth curve in the corner!! The guys really worked hard on this and it took them most of the day to get it all finished up. I LOVE IT!!! Thanks, Guys!!

We washed all of the plants and birdhouses off while the shelf was going up. But we haven't arranged them just how we want them yet as we will just have to redo it when we get done painting. So things aren't arranged up there yet. We just put everything up on the shelf to get it out of the way for now.

Life is good! Hope you all have a great day!!

Fun News!!

Hi All! Hope life is treating you well today! I have some fun news I wanted to share. I was chosen as the May SAS-y Princess at Stone Accents Studio!! Here is a link to the layout I did that won me this honor:

http://www.stoneaccentsstudioforum.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=35472

They also gave me this blinky to wear - my "crown". I'm not sure how to post it on here though.

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I'm very excited about this. They also gave me a gift certificate for $20 to spend in their store. So I get to go on a shopping spree!! Yay!!!! A girl can never have too many digi scrapping supplies in her stash!

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Things are going pretty good here at the moment. Stephen has been working a few Saturdays and that has helped a lot. Stephen R. and Chris came over and built me a new plant shelf that attaches to the one that was already in the living room. They did a beautiful job on it. It was my Mothers Day/Birthday gift from them. They also went all through the house and repaired walls, ceilings, etc., for us. We are getting ready to paint now. I know what colors I want to paint but need to choose the actual tones. Anyone want to come help me do that????? I'll add photos of the new shelf soon. Just need to get them downloaded into my computer first.

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Have a great day! Watch out for those simple pleasures!!

Almost June?????

It's almost June????? What happened to May? And April?? And March and February and January????? I'm tellin' ya....time is passing wwaaaayyyyyy too fast for me!! Christmas is now only 211 days, 4 hours and 52 minutes away and the seconds are just a tickin' away on my Christmas clock.

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We have a new member of the family! Her name is Teddy and she is a 6 month old puppy who is as cute as she can be. She is a mix of Chinese Crescent and Boston Terrier and is a little feather weight compared to Frankie. We've had her about a week now. She has been an outside dog so we are having to house break her. Our bottle of OdorBan is being put to good use and we are all trying to learn her signals. We've had to jump and run a few times to avoid little disasters. But she is learning and so are we.

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We've also had to replace about $25 worth of electronics this past week due to puppy mischief. The first item to bite the dust .... or should I say got puppy chewed ..... was Kodi's earphones to her MP3 player. She was not a happy camper about that. I just told her it was nice she had her babysitting money to buy new ones with. And then Kodi and Shea were upstairs playing games on the computer and Teddy snuck up and got the WII sensor part of the WII and chewed it up too! Right out from under their noses! She just chewed the wires right off of it! I had a good laugh over that one. Kodi said it wasn't funny. But I thought it was! She banished Teddy and her little pillow bed to the landing and shut the bedroom door! How RUDE!!!

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Such is life when there is a puppy around.

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Getting a little cage for Teddy is sounding better and better to me all the time. I wanted one from the first day. In fact, it was one of the things I said we had to get if we were going to get another puppy, but Stephen hasn't wanted to get one very bad. But he may want to after he gets home from doing his missionary work tonight. Teddy peed on the couch right where Stephen likes to sit! ..... He, he, he, he, he !!!!!!!! ..... Kodi cleaned it up but we ended up taking the covers off the cushions and they are now being washed in the washer. But I don't know what to do about the foam rubber!! I'm going to let Stephen worry about that part of the clean up job!

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We bought Teddy the nicest little pillow bed for her to sleep in and she peed in it this morning. So I'm having to wash that already. She hardly ever sleeps in it. She likes to lay under Kodi's desk with her little head and paws on the side of her little bed. So it is being used some. But her favorite place to sleep is up on Kodi's bed curled up next to Kodi.

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Here are some pics of Teddy and Frankie. So far they are not wanting to get too close to each other but it is very slowly changing. The first pic was taken on the day Teddy came to our house. That's Kodi and Shea with the dogs. Shea has been staying with us for a few days. It has been non stop laughter and visiting since she arrived. You'd think these girls would run out of things to say!

Teddy

Well, I turn 60 in three more days! That used to be soooooo old. But then there was a time in my life when 20 was old too. LOL !!! Here is a layout I did in honor of my turning 60. I'm determined that it will be a great birthday!

I resigned from being on the Creative Team at SAS. Family History is calling me big time so I decided I needed to give up the CTing for a while. It has been hard to give it up though and so far it's like I still can't let go of it all the way. But I'm getting there. I have continued working on my own personal layouts for my memory books though so here are some of my latest layouts.



We went over to Chris and Melany's a couple Sunday's ago to play games and visit. I took all of these photos while we were there. I found it quite interesting how all activity came to a stand still as all of us gathered around the table to watch little Kayta eat her dinner. And you know how people do with their faces when they watch a baby eat - all the facial movements as we "help" the food go into the mouth and not all over the face of the baby.....it was really a fun "everyday" moment to capture in photos. And it was fun to make a layout about it. Like my journaling says: What is it about a baby that is so magical that a whole family will gather around just to watch it eat?



I love this photo of Menessa kissing Kayta. This little baby is soooooo loved by her family. It's just incredible to watch. Such a joy to see.

More layouts:

This is Stephen R. as a baby:

Our Year Round Christmas Tree - It's all decorated with flags, white daisies and red and white polka dot bows now and looks very Patriotic. We'll leave it decorated that way until at least August, maybe September. Then I'll decorate it for the Autumn months.

These next two layouts are a two pager about Stephen R. getting to go to the High On The Mountain Top Scout Camp. That was such a neat experience for all of us. Click on the layout so it will bring it up closer for you and you can read about the spiritual experience they had while there.

And that's all my layouts for now. I'm still working on more though.

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It has been hot here. We hit 107 a week or so ago. Had a few drops of rain but not much. So it was a little humid. We just stay inside where it's cool and nice. Our AC bill is going to be HIGH this time and I'm dreading that. I really believe summer is here too soon again this year.

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Hope everyone is doing well. Take a moment to reflect on the simple pleasures in your life. And enjoy the special little moments that come along.

Another April Monday!!

Hi All! It's another warm April Monday here! Hope today finds everyone doing well and being happy.

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How was your weekend? Ours was great! On Friday I drove down to Tucson - ALL BY MYSELF - and picked Kodi up to bring her back home. She was sick and feeling like she wanted to be back home again. We had a fun trip back. Came close to running out of gas. Seems like that last quarter of a tank just disappears before your eyes! With a prayer in our hearts we finally got to a gas station. Heavenly Father was taking good care of us. We stopped at a couple places on our way home and ended up buying some books at one of the big bookstores. That was fun!

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Chris and his kids came over yesterday and had dinner with us. Melany was sick so she wasn't able to come. We enjoyed having him come and had such a nice relaxed afternoon.

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I've made a tough decision to drop out of being a CT member for SAS. I have several reasons for this decision but the main one is that I'm just feeling like I need to get back into family history again and it's hard to devote the time necessary to that when I'm doing the CT work. Maybe I can be a CT again somewhere down the line. And I'll still be doing my digital scrapbooking for my own scrapbooks. I just won't have the obligation to meet deadlines and such. So, here are my final four layouts for SAS.

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These first two layouts are done using the kit "Touch of Summer" by Scrapbrat who is a new designer at SAS.

These next two layouts are done using the kit "Blooming Elegance" by Monika Designs. I LOVE this photo! I can't believe how great my little camera caught the sunbeams coming through the trees! That's Nikki in the photo. I was walking her to the bus stop and taking pics as we went.

And that's it. This week I'm going to be busy doing visiting teaching cards and notes and writing letters. Have another birthday pillowcase to get ready to send off with the three that I still haven't sent out yet. Friday is payday again so hopefully I'll be able to do it then. Sunday is my turn to do the lesson in our Family History class. I've already given it once so I just need to brush up on it and make a handout. Get my visual aids boxed up to take. The lesson is on creating family histories. Such as in books about families or a specific family member, making scrapbooks, family newsletters, etc. There are so many ways you can do a family history. It's a fun lesson.

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Hope you all take the time to enjoy the simple pleasures today. Keep well and be happy!!