Country Girl's Place

The Best in Music!!

2012-01-11T00:08:00.000-08:00

This evening Kodi came downstairs to have Stephen and I watch and listen to some YouTube music videos by The Piano Guys. Talk about fun and fantastic music that speaks to the soul!! I LOVED it!! Had to go on iTunes to buy some of the piano pieces. And of course the more I heard the more I wanted.

In listening to Jon Schmidt play I got to thinking about my cousin Ryan Reilley. Jon and Ryan kind of compose and play the same kind of music. In fact, Jon's "All of Me" reminded me very strongly of Ryan's music. Ryan's music is soooooo beautiful. Some of his pieces just speak to my heart and it makes me cry as I listen to them. I need to find out how to get in touch with him so I can purchase more of his CDs. He has a beautiful gift where music is concerned.

I started putting Christmas things away today. Makes me sad that the holidays are over. I also finished reading "The Christmas List" by Richard Paul Evans today. I started it about midnight last night and read until 4:30 this morning. Couldn't put it down. After sleeping for a while and then doing my chores I read until I finished the book about 10 PM. A whole book in less than 24 hours! Wow!! It's a super good story for those of you who love to read! I'm now going to read his book "The Last Promise". We'll see if it keeps me up all night!

We made sweet rolls on Saturday. Kodi mixed them up, I rolled them out and Stephen baked them. That's what you call a family effort. They turned out really good, too! The recipe is one of my Grandpa's recipes. He was a chef who really knew his stuff! Everyone loved his sweet rolls. When he and Grandma would come to visit us out in California, they always spent a day making lots of them for us. I remember coming home from school and watching them make them. Grandma carried on the tradition after Grandpa died. And she always made a whole bunch of them at Christmas time to give to all of us. I always looked forward to getting our share for my little family. My family wishes that I would make it a for sure Christmas tradition in our home. It's kind of hit and miss for us. I really should be more diligent about making them. Traditions are so important. And making sweet rolls is a huge job. About 6 hours worth of work from start to finish.

Well, that's about it for now. Take a minute to enjoy a simple pleasure today. There are so many of them out there for us to enjoy if we will just look for them! See Ya!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

2012-01-02T14:27:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year, Everyone!

We had a quiet New Year just Stephen, Kodi and I. Watched TV and movies. Had a nice dinner. Just took things slow and easy. There were a lot of fireworks going off in our neighborhood. A couple families were setting some off by our retention area and I stepped out to watch them for a minute. Looked like fun.

Kodi is sick. Our first illness for this season. Cold and flu like symptoms. I'm hoping Stephen and I don't get it from her. But we shall see.

Our Frankie would have been 9 years old yesterday. My heart still aches that we had to put him to sleep.

And Teddi Bear has been so barky today! A lot of noises going on outside and next door and she has responded loudly to them!

We had a lovely Christmas. We went to I Hop for Christmas Eve breakfast and had pancakes. YUM!! Christmas Eve was especially fun with Stephen R. and Karma and the kids here. We had a nice ham dinner and lots of goodies to snack on. Watched a movie, played the gift exchange game, played Puerto Rico, and then we headed over to see the lights in the Temple Garden and we also saw the Nativity display.

Stephen made this really neat whistle out of metal that was the hit of the gift exchange game. Both Michael and Stevie wanted it bad. So Grandpa has to make another one so they both have one.

Christmas Day was quiet. We went to church that morning. The Ward choir did the program and it was very nice. Lots of good music. Then we can home and opened gifts and had dinner. Watched TV.

Stephen had the whole week off from work and I so loved having him home. We just had a very lazy week doing whatever we felt like doing.

Shane and Sherri and their kids came on Sunday. We went out to Queen Creek to Stephen R. and Karma's for visiting, dinner and games. And then Tuesday night Kaleb was ordained to be a Priest and we went to that. I can't believe how TALL he has grown!! And that was all we got to see them. But we are grateful for even that little bit of time with them. Shane went home Saturday and Sherri and the kids drive home this week.

I so miss having my children and their families here near us. The grandchildren are growing up without us. And we have three or four who don't really know us at all. One that we have never met in person yet. It's hard and sometimes my heart just aches because I miss all of them so.

I have three little green sprouts coming up in my flower pot where I had my violets. The third leaf on each one is coming out at the moment. I'm anxiously waiting to see if they are violets and am hoping they are not just a friendly little weed or something like that. I have been so afraid that the violets were done in. So we shall see in a few more days what is happening here. I hope I haven't lost them. These are the violets I brought from our house on 7th Avenue. When Mom and Dad moved in with us over there, Dad dug a bunch of them up from their home and planted them at ours for Mom. And I dug some up to bring here when we moved to our condo in 1997.

Dad planted some of the violets just outside my laundry room window over on 7th Avenue. Some days I would go in there to do laundry and I could smell the scent of them so strong. It would come up through the dryer vent into the room. I loved that.

Well, gotta go change the laundry loads. And fix dinner. Take care! Say "Hi" if you come by to visit here. Would love to know if anyone is reading my posts. Thanks! : )

I'm Back!!

2011-12-22T23:15:00.000-08:00

Well, here I am again! Just a quickie note though. I finished our puzzle up last night. I'm so glad to have it done! Now Stephen and Kodi want to leave it on the table a few more days just to look at it and admire our hard work. It was a VERY hard puzzle. I call it a nightmare puzzle. Everything was so swirly and the colors were all so mixed up in it. Very difficult to put together. Here it is:

Close up so you can see the detail of the swirling colors, but the flash kind of messed up that one part. Click on the photo so you can see it even bigger.

Further away so you can see the overall picture better.

And here is our beautiful Christmas tree! I love how it turned out this year. There is no gold on it. The ornaments are blue and silver and the lights are blue and clear twinkle lights. But I love the golden glow this photo caught.

Close up of the ornaments.

We got a little bit of rain this evening. We didn't even know it was raining! But it did. Just enough to get things wet and let us know it had happened.

Take care, Everyone!!

Cold, Rainy Sunday!

2011-12-18T16:15:00.000-08:00

Hi, Everybody! It's a cold, rainy Sunday here in my neighborhood! And I'm loving every minute of it!! The sky is all gloomy and the wind comes and goes. A perfect wintery day! Except for no snow. I do so wish it would snow here. We NEED SNOW!! And icicles hanging from all the eaves of the houses. A pond to go ice skating on. Sleigh rides. Christmas caroling. And fires in fireplaces. And hot chocolate. And Christmas music playing while we read good books...... You know....one of those perfect picture postcard Christmases!! The kind that are ONLY on postcards, in stories, in movies and on greeting cards. I've heard those kinds of Christmases aren't real life though. But I think if a person tried, it could be very real! And I'd like to have one of them.

Well, Christmas is only a few more days away. I'm already feeling a little sad that it's almost over again. At least it didn't rush by and leave me in the dust this year!! We baked up a big batch of chocolate chip cookies yesterday. I still need to make sweet rolls and fudge. I'll make more banana bread, too. And I have three more presents to wrap and a stocking to stuff and then that's all done. Then it will just be Christmas Eve dinner to make on Saturday and the traditions that go along with that. We are having Christmas Eve at our house this year.

One of our traditions is to put a puzzle together as a family during the month of December. One of those 1,000 piece kind. This year Kodi picked the puzzle out - a fairy blowing bubbles and several of the bubbles have scenes in them. Her wings are multicolored/patterned and very different. It's one of the hardest puzzles I've ever done! We have a big board we put the puzzle together on because the only place we have to do it is on the dining room table. Having it on a board allows us to easily move it when we need the table. Anyway, we started it right after Thanksgiving and we are still painstakingly working on it!! But we are slowly getting there.

Kodi got straight A's for her final grades this semester! Yay, Kodi!!! Not an easy thing when one of those classes is Latin. Her other class was beginner graphics. We are proud of her.

And that's about it for this time. I hope all my readers have a wonderful Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year! In case I don't get to write again before then.

And that brings up another thing...Do I have any readers here????? If I do, will you please stop in at the comments right below here and say a quick hi? I'm just curious as to whether I'm sharing things with anyone out there or if I'm just talking to myself! It would be pretty sad if I'm just talking to myself. Thanks!

2011-12-11T19:29:00.001-08:00

Okay. Writing two days in a row here!! Shock-ed and amaze-ed!! But what can I say? I downloaded all the photos from my camera this evening and had to share these of our Teddi Bear going for a ride down to MCC with Kodi and I the other morning. She LOVES going for rides with us! And she especially loves having the windows down just enough to get some good air going on her little face. She goes from one side of the car to the other looking out the windows and pit stops between the front seats to look out the windshield. It's so fun. In these photos we have that back window down just three or four inches. And she is loving it.

Notice the fur plastered back on her face! So funny and sooooo cute!!

And.....we went to see the lights at the Temple this evening. They are always soooo beautiful! This year they have put the stage out in front of the Visitor's Center and have chairs set up on the front lawn for the evening performances. I really like that! They should have done that years ago. Now the main pool area is free for just walking around and enjoying the main part of the gardens. It's so much nicer this way. Anyway, here are some of the pictures I took with my little camera. Hope you enjoy them. This first one is of the main pool area in the garden.

I loved how all the palm trees looked against the dark sky tonight.

I didn't realize there were autumn colored leaves on this plant until my camera flash lit it up.

Soooooo pretty!!

This area was just glowing with green, purple, blue and a few whitish colored lights. The color combination was so pretty. The flash from the camera kind of took the glow away. But I still love the colors here.

And yes, those are oranges on that tree!

The Wise Men and their camels on the front lawn of the Temple Grounds.

The star above the Nativity Scene on the east side of the garden area. White lights this year and so pretty.

And that's it for tonight! Everyone take care.

2011-12-10T23:45:00.001-08:00

Wow! I can't believe it has been over a year since I last wrote. Now here it is Christmas 2011! Didn't we just have Christmas a few weeks ago?????? I think time flies faster when you get older. Sure seems that way.

I have mixed emotions as we get ready to say goodbye to 2011. There have been exciting things happening in our family. But there have also been some pretty tough things, too. Like saying goodbye to a new little Grandbaby who would have joined our family in time for this Christmas but didn't quite make it. We love him though, and know that a loving Heavenly Father took him back home because for some reason he just couldn't have survived and been healthy and strong at this time. And we are looking forward to another new Grandbaby due to arrive around June sometime. I call that "joy to temper the sorrow".

We also had to make the difficult decision to put our Frankie to sleep in July. The decision to do so still haunts my heart. But he had cancer in his leg and we managed his pain until the medications quit helping and then we let him go. We miss him.

Among the good things: Kodi has finished her first semester of college. She has loved her graphics class and was chosen to be a participant in the 2012 Art Show this coming spring. It is quite an honor to be able to do this as only a few are chosen from each teacher's classes. She was one of four chosen by her teacher and will be entering as an emerging artist. We need to get her art piece professionally printed up and matted but we have until April to do that. We are excited and very proud of her. She also LOVED her Latin class and has done very well in it. She takes her finals for that this next week and then she will be out of school until January. YAY!!

It has been nice and COLD here the past couple weeks or so. We've had some rain. And snow in the north end of the Valley and on the mountains. More rain is coming next week. I just hope we really get it.

We are pretty much ready for Christmas. Kodi and I decorated our tree with blue and silver ornaments and it looks beautiful. We've never done a blue theme. We used blue and white twinkle lights and I'm loving it.

And on that happy note I will end this entry. I hope you all have a wonderful Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

OH, YES!! PLEASE LET THE RAIN COME DOWN!!

2010-10-05T18:56:00.000-07:00

Good Evening!! So much to show you tonight!! First.....Stephen found this HUGE Wheaties flake in his Wheaties! It's DOUBLED over. So it's actually twice the size you see here if it were all layed out flat and not doubled. So we had to get a few pics of this gigantic piece of cereal for the record.

And this is a normal size flake next to the huge one! Remember...the big one is doubled over!

And yesterday, the wind started to blow and we found faces in the clouds over our neighborhood! So I just had to take some pics of that.

Then the rain came. But the big story of this storm was the wind. We had a whirlwind in our entry way by our front door just swirling away in that little corner. It went way up to the second story of our building.

And after the rain...the beautiful sunset and the gorgeous clouds.

All of these photos, by the way, were taken with my little bitty camera! Neat, huh?

And then about noon today, the rain came again. And what a whopper of a storm we got!! They said we would only get about .25 to .50 inches of rain around the state. Well, Mesa...by 3 PM had gotten 1.18 inches and it was still coming in waves. I'll be very surprised if we didn't get 2 inches plus before the storm ended.

The beginning of the storm.

And it just kept on coming down!!

After the first wave of the storm ended, this is how our parking lot looked.

It has been an awesome but kind of scary day. We got about three waves of this storm and there were some pretty mean looking clouds out there. Some had rotation in them and there has been a lot of damage done because of the winds. We had a little bit of hail here at our house. I was hoping to take pics of it, but we didn't get enough to take pics of it. Kodi and I went outside during the storm to get our photos and we both got drenched. But it was worth it.

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Hope you are all having a great evening!!

It's Our Aniversary Today!

2010-09-05T16:04:00.001-07:00

Wow! 42 years today! And they have been good years. I wouldn't trade any of them. Sure have had our ups and downs during these years. I think our hardest trial was Stephen's heart surgery and all that has happened because of that. But I also see great blessings because of it. Blessings we never would have had without that trial. So I'm grateful for it.

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When I think of how many years we have been married and of how much we still love each other, I find myself hoping that our children realize what a blessing that is to them in their lives. The fact that we, their mom and dad, have kept our committment to being married and raising a family in spite of the trials and troubles that have come and gone. And the fact that we love each other more than ever before. And that our love just keeps growing as time goes on. This is a great gift to them from us. It's a part of their legacy. It really makes me happy to see them doing the same with their marriages and to see the love they have for their wives and children. Our family is truly very, very blessed.

Check This Out!!

2010-09-01T10:50:00.000-07:00

For all you digital scrapbookers out there or those who would like to get started...check this out! Suzy Q is a super talented designer at Scrap Orchard and her kits are so much fun to work with. Here is her blog addy: http://suzyqscraps.com/blog/2010/09/01/fall-is-just-around-the-corner-sneak-peeks/ She has some new kits coming out soon and this link gives you a chance to win one of them.

WELL!! IT'S ABOUT TIME!!!

2010-08-18T19:16:00.000-07:00

Well! It's about time I got back here to do some blogging! There I left you all hanging over my baby's 21'st birthday. So it's about time I caught you up on what we did.

Stephen went out and got Kodi a maple frosted donut on his way to work the day before her birthday. And that night - just in time for her 2:13 AM real birthday time - she was born at 2:13 AM on 2/13 - we lit a tea candle and put it in the middle of the donut and went into her room and sang Happy Birthday to her! Then we made her eat her treat before she could go back to sleep. It was really fun and I think she loved it. And of course I made her her favorite Jello dessert that takes about 6 hours to make. And she loved that too. Then her brothers and sister's-in-law gave her another party with a cake and candles and everything when we went out to Stephen R. and Karma's house for dinner that weekend. So it was good.

Here is a layout I did using the photos we took at 2:13 AM.

Stephen got the living room ceiling all painted. I'm so glad that part of the paint job is done. AND that he did it while I was asleep. I was so worried about him being up high on a ladder trying to do it

And we bought two new fans for the living room and dining room. They match except for the blades on the dining room one are a few inches shorter than the living room ones. I really love them - the fans - not just the blades. And the best part is that the lights in the dining room one WORK!!! They stay ON!! No more on and off stuff with the vibration of the fan! No more scary popping noises! No more being afraid to try to change the light bulbs and having them break off in the socket!! No more jiggling with vibrations til you think it's going to fly apart and demolish the room and everything in it!! It's really great!!! Sure was an adventure getting the living room one up though. Stephen was standing on the top of the six foot ladder trying to reach high enough to install it. I almost couldn't watch! But we got it done without any mishaps.

AND we finally got the carpet all cleaned. AND a new leather sectional couch!! YAY!! We are loving that! The sections on each end are recliners. Soooooo nice!! They are kind of a golden brown in color with a slight reddish tone mixed in there somewhere. I need to take a photo of it and scrapbook it, don't I? That and the fans. Yes. I do!!

And I'd tell you the story behind finally getting the carpets cleaned and buying a new couch, but it involves a tiny dog getting scared out of her wits by a visitor to our home. And she jumped up on the back of the couch and ran across the tops of the cushions pee-ing all the way. Drip, drip, drip. Poor puppy. So scared. I didn't have the heart to scold her. And the cushions didn't have removable covers so that I could wash them. So we turned them over to the clean side and when Stephen came home from work I said... I've made a decision. And I need to tell you about it. I can't stand this any longer! So!! We are getting the carpets cleaned and we are going out to buy a new couch! And we did!! Ooops! I just told you the story. Oh, well. Now you know. And it isn't like we didn't need a new couch. We were sitting on it one day...no one was jumping on it or anything...I promise!...we were just sitting there and CRUNCH! And the couch dropped a little to the floor. The front of the frame broke in two!! AND being a denim couch it was all faded and looking beyond awful. So what can I say. It definitely had died on us. The pee job was just the final straw. Thank you, Teddi Bear!! : )

Stephen's work has been keeping him real busy the past month. I think they have forgotten he is retired and only working part time. I really love having him home and don't like it when he has to work so many days in a row. And it's sooooooo nice to be able to just say...ask them for Thursday and Friday off so we can have a four day weekend! And he can do that and it doesn't hurt us.

He was able to take a four dayer last weekend when our Shane was here and we really enjoyed having Thursday afternoon with him. We played Phase 10 a good part of the afternoon and had ham and baked potatoes for dinner and then Stephen and Kodi ran him to the airport. There is nothing like having family for company, good visiting, fun games to play, and great food to eat, is there?!!

Have been working hard on my scrapbooking. So here are a BUNCH of new layouts that I've finished over the past few weeks. I've also thrown in some older ones. But a lot of these photos are from Tyler's baptism day and the family activities when Hope was there in July. Remember...if you click on the layout it will bring it up bigger for you. Enjoy!

Aunt Hopie...the Fairy Godmother of the Little People.

This layout was chosen as Layout Of The Week this week at one of my scrapbooking sites!

I love this series of photos. I actually made two pages but put them together for a double layout challenge. So if you divide it down the middle you'll know what the two pages look like. Love how this one turned out.

Hope sent me these next two photos on the computer. I saw Tristin's first and when I clicked for the next photo and it was Cydney with this look on her face I just burst out laughing!! Priceless photos of both kids. And it made Grandma's day!

HAD to get that blue tongue in there on a layout! Too funny.

Love, love, love this photo! So precious!!

I got a lot of comments on this layout. Everyone loved it.

Well, those photos should bring back a few good memories and some laughs too. Hope you enjoyed them. Take time to enjoy the simple pleasures. And if you look for them, you'll be amazed at how many come across your path each day. Bye for now!

My Baby Is Turning 21!!

2010-02-12T21:12:00.000-08:00

WHOA!! Can you believe that? My baby will be 21 years old in less than three hours!! And I never wanted her to grow up! I wanted her to stay little forever!! But life had different plans and now she is a beautiful young woman. Still.....it seems like just yesterday that we welcomed her into our lives. Such a precious little bundle of delight. Our first girl after five boys.

On her blessing day. She is wearing my blessing dress and using my pink shawl from my own blessing day.

Her first car!! Designed by her wonderful brothers!! It came with a sun roof and a squeeky toy hood ornament. Plenty of horse power in the engine.....better known as big brothers pulling her around the house in it. What more could a girl ask for!!

I have been scrapbooking again. Here are a few of my latest pages.

Stephen and I are going to wake Kodi up at 2:13 in the morning to start her birthday off right on time. That was what time she was born. ON 2/13 AT 2:13 AM. It's such a special birthday that I decided to carry through with my years' long threats of doing this. I didn't tell her we were going to do it this year though. She always says she doesn't want me to wake her up 'cause she is too tired. Anyway, Stephen went to Bashas' early this morning and got her some of her favorite donuts.....maple frosted raised. She doesn't know we have them. I'm going to put a candle on one and we'll light it and go in and sing to her.....at 2:13 AM. Fun, huh? :) I also made her some of the Value Jello dessert that they made for the Young Women's New Beginnings one year. She loves it and always asks for it for her birthday. It's the only time I make it because it takes at least 6 hours to make! Very easy to do but very time consuming.

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Tomorrow we will go out to Queen Creek for Kodi's party and dinner with Stephen R. and Chris and their families. We were going to have it here at our place but Stephen R. called today and invited us to have it out there as they have a lot more room than we do and the kids have space to play. So we will do that.

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Anyway, that's about it with us right now. Hope everyone has a great day! Look for the simple pleasures and be grateful for them!

January.....ALREADY!!

2010-01-16T14:31:00.000-08:00

HAPPY JANUARY, EVERYONE! WOW!! 2010!!! Can you believe that? And what are you calling it? Two thousand and ten or twenty ten? I kind of like twenty ten. It's different. I can remember when movies and books were popular about the year 2001...2001: A Space Odyssey, and that one about 1984. That was supposed to be the way far out future with lots of space stuff going on. Sci-fi space age. And here we are! 2010!! We are living in that space age future.....minus all the weird spage age stuff! LOL Aren't you glad though? Those were really weird ideas back then. The way cars and houses and clothes and people were supposed to look and all. Anyway.....welcome to 2010!

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I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Ours was great. We headed out to Queen Creek to spend Christmas Eve with Stephen R. and Karma and Chris and Melany and their families. Had Indian fry bread and all the trimmings for dinner. Played the gift exchange game. We decided to make homemade gifts this year. No going to the store to buy anything for them. Having to make items with just the things we had on hand around the house made for some really interesting gifts. I was so impressed with what all the kids came up with. Stevie made a yarn hat on one of those round looms. One of the boys made Rice Krispy Treats. Another made a cute little Lego car. Chris made a picture frame with a very interesting photo in it. We had a lot of laughs over that one.

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After we got home, Kodi decided she wanted to open her gifts before we went to bed. So we changed our tradition and let her. I kind of like doing it that way. With no little kids around at our house it makes it so we can sleep in on Christmas morning! It was kind of nice. But I miss the magic of Christmas that comes with having children around who still believe. It just isn't the same when everyone is grown up.

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We had a Ward Christmas party for the adults in our Ward this year. They served us a very fancy, elegant 7 course dinner and it was so fun. Yummy food too! I was really glad Stephen and I went.

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It has been cool and beautiful here. We've had some rain and this coming week is supposed to have a good chance of rain for most of the week. I sure hope it happens. Our highs have been in the 70's the past several days. And we are knee deep in sunshine. Beautiful Arizona weather.

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Kodi and I went outside to watch for the International Space Station the other night. It was cloudy out and I was afraid we wouldn't be able to see it. But the clouds parted some and we were able to see it go about halfway across the sky. I had my camera and was taking pictures trying to catch it in one of them...which wasn't easy because it was so dark that you couldn't tell what you had on the little monitor thingie. But I did catch it in one of the pics!! I was so excited that I caught it!! I had to scrapbook it. So here is the layout I did about it. I love the way it turned out!

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And Hope has been sending me photos of the Logan kids. This is one of Cydney admiring Aunt Hopie's Christmas tree. I loved it and had to scrap it. The photo is just so precious.

Will be working on a couple layouts for Monika Designs this week. She sent me her newest kit last night. I'm excited that she likes my work enough to keep inviting me to do the layouts for her. It's quite an honor for me as I'm not an official member of her Creative Team - CT. She does beautiful design work. And I'm still a CT for Jan Waite of Waite For The Moment Designs. I have enjoyed working for her also. I love being able to use these beautiful kits and then keep them in exchange for doing the layouts. :) And it's fun to get to know these two ladies and to be their friend.

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I'm back into making cards also. It has been nice to be able to work on them again. And I'm still hoping to cross stitch again soon. I feel the mood coming on me. I've also bought the fabric for the first two grandchild birthdays for 2010. So I need to work on them this week. I have enough to do to keep me out of trouble. Let's hope it works!!

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I hope you are all enjoying your new year. It has been a good one for us so far. I'm looking forward to the changes this year is bringing for us. Hugs to Everyone!!

Happy December!!

2009-12-18T01:03:00.000-08:00

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!!!

2009-07-24T23:01:00.000-07:00

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!!

2009-06-16T07:15:00.001-07:00

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!!

2009-06-12T13:35:00.000-07:00

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?????

2009-05-27T18:58:00.000-07:00

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!!

2009-04-27T12:35:00.000-07:00

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!!

Monday In Arizona!!

2009-04-20T11:00:00.000-07:00

Hi All and Happy Monday! It's going to be HOT here today. We are already 89 degrees before noon and it is supposed to hit 98 before today is over. Tomorrow is supposed to hit our first 100 degrees for this year. YUK!!

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It has been a busy weekend. We took Kodi down to Tucson on Saturday afternoon. Her friend Shealynn is having a surgical procedure today and wanted Kodi to come down and be with her. So we ran her down there. She plans on being there for a week. So we'll go get her next weekend. It was a nice drive down and back. But we saw three accidents - one with a fatality - on the way home. Traffic was backed up for several miles on the southbound side of the freeway. So we were grateful we were headed home and going north! All the accidents were in about a one mile stretch of road. Weird.

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Someone shot a photo radar worker on the Loop 101 last night and the guy died from his wounds. Soooooo sad. No one likes the photo radar. But it takes a pretty sick person to kill a person who is just doing their job to make ends meet for their family. There are so many shootings anymore. Kind of scary.

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Church was good yesterday. Loved the talks we had. And the Family History class went so great. I teach my class in there in two weeks. It's the one about writing/creating family histories. I gave it in our "practice" classes a few weeks ago. We as family history consultants each chose the lessons we wanted to be in charge of and then gave them to each other before we opened the class up to ward members. We've had our ward members coming now for two Sundays and have had a great turnout for it. It's exciting.

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Stephen's work is still on four day work weeks. We keep praying that things will pick up. We are hanging in there and so far so good. We are being blessed.

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We had a lovely Easter weekend. On Bunny Day (Saturday) we went to see The Hannah Montana Movie. I thought it would be all teeny bopper stuff. But it wasn't. It was a very good, uplifting movie. Great story line, a little romance, great country music, beautiful country scenes....We loved it. It wasn't anything like the TV show at all. If you get a chance to see it, do! We went to The Crackerbarrel for dinner afterwards and I tried one of their new skillet dinners. It was to die for!! Soooooo good!! And Easter Sunday Shane came over and made us his famous tacos. They are to die for too!! Stephen R. and Karma and the kids, and Chris and Melany and the kids all came to eat and visit with us. They played games and we all had a nice visit. It was a great weekend.

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Well, my CT work at The Cottage ended as quickly as it started. Something happened to the website while changing servers and they ended up closing it down. I did get to work for them for a whole week and got some fun kits. But I'm back to just working for SAS now. Which is probably a good thing as I'm trying to not do so much scrapbooking. I need to work on family history and have a hard time doing both.

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Here are some of my latest layouts. This first one was fun. Can you tell who all the eyes belong to?

I got a really nice compliment on this one of Kodi:

And that's about it for this time. I hope you all take the time to notice the simple pleasures around you today!

Happy Thursday!!

2009-04-09T13:35:00.000-07:00

Hi All! And Happy Thursday to you! Can you believe Spring is here and it's Easter on Sunday? Hard to believe. Christmas is only 8 months away. 259 Days, 10 Hours, 20 Minutes and 40 Seconds.....no, make that 24...23....22....21...20....... Oh, well, you get the idea here. Time is hurrying on and Christmas will be here before we realize the year is gone!

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Things are really good here in our part of the world. It got up to 90 degrees a couple days ago but has cooled back down again. It has been pretty windy off and on, too.

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Last night I heard police cars going somewhere in our neighborhood. Sirens, the works. About 15 minutes later I heard five very loud gunshots. And then a few minutes after that the police helicopter was buzzing around. Haven't heard what was going on but it makes me a little nervous about this neighborhood. It isn't as safe as it was 10 years ago when we moved here. Sure wish we could get into a normal neighborhood, in a house with a yard for Frankie so he can run, and where we can have a garden. Maybe some day?????

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Stephen is still on 4 day work weeks. He had part of Tuesday off and all day yesterday. But they have work for him today and hopefully tomorrow. We are hoping this doesn't go on for very long. But we are afraid it's a sign of the times with the economy and that it may not go away for a while. I so love having him home with me though.

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Exciting news!!! Chad and Heather just let everyone know that they are expecting another new little one come October!! This will be number 8 for them. They have 6 boys and just got their first girl last July. I'm hoping this will be another little girl for them.

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And Little Ky is getting baptized on Saturday!! Yay, Little Ky! We are so pleased with his decision to be baptized.

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Exciting news - for me - I got an invitation to be on another CT! It blew me away. So now I'm on two teams. I hadn't planned it that way. Everyone thought that SAS was going under and a lot of the designers and CT members left. I stuck around. And when nothing seemed to be going better I went ahead and accepted this new invitation. Minutes later I found out SAS was going to survive. So I'm on two CT teams. My new place is cottagescrapbooks.com. The owner there, Stella, used to be at SAS as a designer. She did a couple of their challenges and I enjoyed participating in them. That's where she saw my work and she liked it. She left SAS to start her own site. Anyway, I've been on her team for about a week now and I'm enjoying it.

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Now! Here are the photos of my Spring Tree!! I made bows out of pink, lavendar, yellow, green and blue ribbon to put on it. And there are stems of purple lilacs, yellow daisies and pink carnations tucked into the branches. It's bright and pretty during the day even though all the ribbons are pastel colors. The flowers are brighter except for the pink ones. But at night when the lights are softer and low, all the colors change to shimmery pastel tones. It's really pretty at night with the softer look. So, here are the pics of the tree.

And this is our Kayta. She is the sweetest, happiest baby. Always smiling at us. I thought this photo of her was so adorable. I made this ATC for a challenge at SAS.

I did this layout for a challenge at SAS also.

This layout was done for my CT work at the Cottage. I used the kit Boyish Stuff by Mitsybell. The photo is of Chris and Ky.

This layout is done using the kit New Life. It's the new mega kit for April at the Cottage. The photo is of me and my Aunt Mary on my first Easter.

I used the kit Bella Mia by Darlene Haughin for this next one. The photo is of my Mom. I love how the colors were just right for this photo.

I hope all of you are safe and well and being happy. We have so many blessings to count even during the hard times that are happening now. Remember to look for the Simple Pleasures that are all around you. And have a GREAT DAY!!!

Happy Tuesday!

2009-03-31T12:50:00.000-07:00

Wow! Tuesday already!! Plus it's the end of March today. Seems like it was just a few weeks ago that I was saying, wow, it's the end of March (2008) already. Where has the time gone? And here we are again!!

I just have some fun layouts to show you today. Looks like my job as a CT at SAS is over. For reasons unexplained at this point, everything is shutting down. Makes me feel so sad. I really loved being a part of SAS. But I have been invited to join the CT at Stella's cottagescrapbooks.com ! So I'm considering going over to there. I was very surprised to receive her invitation to join them and feel very honored that she wants me on board. Stella was a designer at SAS for a while and had a couple challenges there that I often participated in. She is a really neat lady.

Anyway! On to my new layouts! This first one is of Kayta. Isn't she a doll? This was for the March Clutter It Up Challenge at SAS.

This layout was done using PiggyScraps kit "Watermelon Spring". The bird nest in the tree is here at our condo complex. When I first saw it I knew I had to do a layout about it. It just reminded me of a summer home. The leaves are coming back on that tree now. I'll have to take another pic of it.

These next two layouts are made with the kit Blooming Dale by Lara's Digi World.

Another layout using Watermelon Spring.

This layout was made using Watermelon Spring and Courting Shabby which is also a PiggyScraps kit.

Good news - Chris passed his written test for Border Patrol with an 85% a couple weeks ago. He passed his oral interview this morning. We are excited for him!

Take care everyone!

Happy Wednesday Evening!!

2009-03-25T20:05:00.000-07:00

Hi All! And Happy Wednesday Evening!! Stephen is out doing missionary work so I'm catching up on some of my scrapbooking assignments and putting them on my blog.

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Stephen bought me a digital camera!! I'm so excited to have my own now. I don't have to get Kodi to take all my photos for me or borrow her camera anymore. It's sooooo nice!! I've been having fun with it and learning how everything works on it.

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First up - Pics of our March Tree!! We did shamrocks and cream colored daisies. The ribbons are green, blue and white stripe. It surprised me how great they looked with the color scheme. I found the shamrocks at Joann's. They are layered wood with glitter on them. I fell in love with them.

Close up of the decorations:

Now for scrapbooking! These first two are made using the kit Love's Dangers by Laitha at SAS:

These next two layouts are made with the kit Sweet Sunshine by Mitsybelle at SAS:

These next two are made using the kit Wildflowers by Designs by Terrells:

And these last two are made using Monika Designs' Herbal Essences:

Simple Pleasures:

Our carpenter bees are very busy lately. The other day there were about 10 of them all buzzing around the front door area. They scare anyone who comes to see us. That part isn't good. But I love having them around. I'm not afraid of them. They don't sting unless someone aggrevates them.
Frankie got shaved for the summer and he looks like a totally different dog!
Tomorrow night we go to the park for Kiley's birthday. Sherri and the kids are down here for their Spring Break.
Chris did great on his written test for Border Patrol. He got 85% and now he is preparing for the oral exam on the 31st.
After several days of temps up around 90 degrees, it has cooled down again and I'm loving that.

And that's about it for this time. Take care!

I'M BACK!!!!!

2009-03-19T00:03:00.000-07:00

Hello All! I'm BACK!!!! After being without my computer for two whole weeks the Geek Squad finally got it fixed for me. Thank goodness we had purchased the 3 year in home warranty on it. The parts alone would have cost us over $700 and my computer is only 14 months old! They had to replace the motherboard as well as several other major parts. So I pretty much have an almost brand new computer. The first few days were pretty rough not having my computer. Plus I was out of my favorite chocolate. Very cruel and unusual punishment!! But by the end of the first week I found that life continues on - computer or no computer and that I do enjoy my other hobbies!! I did a bunch of crocheting and made little cradle purses for the four youngest granddaughters. Just have the little dolls to make for them now and a tiny blanket for each one.

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Here are some new layouts. I'm only showing the 12 x 12 size ones this time. The first few are of my sister LeAnn's mission and homecoming from New Zealand. We TP'd Mom and Dad's house to welcome her home. Don't you think we did a GREAT job?

This is how we greeted her at the airport. All the kids wore piggy noses and ears and we all had pink balloons. Fun!! Stephen R. was such a good sport about wearing the piggy things.

This is when she was in New Zealand:

More at the airport photos:

Sweet Nessa Bug! She is getting so grown up.

Teryaki, Sukyaki and Shaneyaki - Shane's missionary friends who came for his wedding, and Chad, who was his Best Man:

It's getting HOT here. We are supposed to be 90 degrees before this week is over. Not good at all. Summer is coming too fast.

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Stephen's work is going back to 4 day work weeks starting Monday. That isn't good either. But we managed to survive last time. Hopefully it won't go on for months and months like before. We just got a bunch of year's supply and I'm really thankful we have it. That will help us a lot.

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Everyone take care. Look for those simple pleasures that are all around us. They can bring a smile to your face and sunshine to your day.

Happy Monday!

2009-02-23T09:04:00.000-08:00

Happy Monday to All! I hope the weekend was wonderful for all of you. We had Ward Conference yesterday and the talks by the Stake Presidency were so good. And the spirit was wonderful. We have Stake Conference in two weeks. I have a feeling we may be getting a new Stake Presidency. The one we have now has been in for about seven years or so. So, we'll see.

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The weather has been so nice here. Still cool enough to be pleasant. I am so not looking forward to the summer heat coming.

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Here are my latest layouts using kits from the designers at SAS. This first one is of Loaryn and Luke. The look on Loaryn's face is priceless and I had to go looking for a quote to go along with it. I think I found the perfect one. "Sisters don't need words. They have perfected a language of snarls and smiles and frowns and winks - expressions of shocked surprise and incredulity and disbelief. Sniffs and snorts and gasps and sighs - that can undermine any tale you're telling." (Pam Brown). I love it! By the way, Loaryn fell out of bed the other night and broke her arm. Way to go, Loaryn! At least you did it during the school year and not just in time for summer vacation!!

The kit used here is "Lost In A Dream" by Mitsybelle at SAS.

And this is little Missy Hailey on her first birthday. Lovin' that cupcake! The kit I used is the February Mega Kit from SAS - Oriental Cherry Blossoms.

And now I'm off to create more layouts. I have two more kits I'm needing to work with. I hope you all take the time to enjoy the simple pleasures today. Look around you and see how many you can find! Have a great day.

Happy Birthday, Kodi!! And Happy Valentine's Day!!

2009-02-13T22:06:00.001-08:00

Well, it's Kodi's 20th birthday today - for about 45 more minutes. Our day before Valentine's baby. She has had a fun day today. I made her the layered Jello dessert she likes so much. The one that takes about 7 hours to make. It turned out good like always. And I made homemade pizza for her birthday dinner. She got phone calls from Shey, Stephen R. and Chris and his kids, and was tickled to hear from them. She also got a big surprise when her friend Shealynn showed up on our doorstep this afternoon ready to spend the weekend with her. We got Kodi good on that one!! It was delightful. She just stood there repeating the same thing over and over like she couldn't believe Shealynn was really there. It has been a very giggly afternoon with these two girls!

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Kodi on her birthday --

Shealynn --

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Happy Valentine's Day to all of you out there. I hope you get to do something special with your families. Our day will be quiet. Stephen is going with the missionaries in the morning to help teach a lesson to a young lady who is being baptized next week. And Kodi has a party tomorrow night with the group of kids from her Ward that she had a party with a couple weeks ago. So that will be fun for her and Shealynn.
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The weather has been cool again. Four Peaks has had snow on them. The other day it was so cold when I walked Nikki out to catch her bus for school. Kind of a different kind of cold than we usually have. It was almost unbearable by the time I got back in the house. Weird. And we have had more rain which has been really nice. There is a chance for more tomorrow and over the next few days.

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Now, on to some digital scrapbooking layouts. I'm really pleased with how these turned out. This first one was for a challenge on SAS. I wrote about how when I was little I had a great love for books. If Santa brought me new books for Christmas my Mom and Dad had to hide them from me until I had seen all the other gifts because once I saw the books, that was all I needed.

Me and my Honey! Photo from wwaaaaayyyyy back when! Our looks have changed over the years, but we still love each other. And that will never change! I hope my children know how blessed THEY are that their parents will love each other forever and ever!

This one is from my childhood. It's my Dad standing by our car. We lived in Pedro Point, California at the time and I was only four or five years old when this was taken. I remember this house and the store next door. A little Russian lady named Vera owned it and she was always so nice to us.

My Sweetheart!

These next ones were done using Piggy Scraps kit Happy Chocolate. You can get it at SAS. I used a photo from the Internet - the one with the little critters here. The other photo is Frankie.

And speaking of the birthday girl, here are her first photos with her brothers. The photo of Stephen R. holding her was taken at the airport the day he came home from his mission. She was almost two years old before we got her first picture with him. The boys were so excited to come hold Kodi at the hospital. I couldn't believe how willingly and quickly they washed their hands and put on those yellow gowns so they could be near her! The kit I used to do these photos is called Cupcakes and Fairies by Kristi Westling at SAS.

Aunt Hopie and Uncle Jim sent us a package with things that a little girl doesn't need but just has to have. The little headband is from that package. I used Cupcakes and Fairies for these layouts also. I love the colors and the alpha.

On to Easter Saturday 1982! I used Kristi Westling's kit Some Bunny Loves You for these layouts. The first small photo at the top of this page is Grandma Merkley swinging at the baseball! Do you guys remember this ball game out on the desert?

Chris and Ben showing off the Easter eggs.

And that's it for this time. Have a great weekend!!

New Layouts!

2009-02-05T00:48:00.001-08:00

Hi! Just a few more new layouts using kits from Stone Accents Studio Designers. This first one is done using Backyard Bayou by Enaideel. It was done for the Heritage challenge. We had to scrap fashions over the years.

This one is Loaryn and Cardon. I thought the photos were priceless. The kit I used was Funny Dragon by Mamrotka.

This is the same kit. I love the looks on Luke and Cardon's faces. I had to do a layout where I wrote my own title on the page.

This is one of Stephen and Cydney on her blessing day. I love the way he is looking at her. Kodi took this pic. Nice job, Kodi! The kit is Winter's Natural Warmth by Laitha.

Take care Everyone!

Tuesday!!

2009-02-03T18:25:00.000-08:00

Happy Tuesday to All! Hope life is treating all of you well today. Not much happening here. Just a lot of the same old things from day to day. Which is good. Have some new layouts to show you today. So here they are. This first one is made using the kit Backyard Bayou by Enaidell at SAS. Loved the little worms. They are great for fishing photos. This one is of Chad and Shane when we had our Maughan Reunion at Horseshoe Cienega Lake up in the White Mountains of Arizona.

And the 12 x 12 version:

This layout was done using Whimsical Winter Land by Booland Designs at SAS. Cydney on Christmas Eve:

This layout is done with Winter's Natural Warmth by Laitha at SAS:

This layout was also done using Backyard Bayou. The light blue paper in the middle with the whitish photo frames is a quick page provided by Mamrotka at SAS and is for her February challenge in the forum. The baby is Shane's Cardon.

These next two layouts were made using the Home and Hearth Collab Kit, December 2008 from SAS.

I finally got a pic taken of our Valentine Tree. I think it turned out looking very pretty. I'm already brainstorming for next month. Click on the image so you can see it better. Here is the Valentine Tree:

Take care. Watch out for all those Simple Pleasures!

Another February Sunday!

2009-01-25T21:58:00.001-08:00

Happy Sunday to All! I hope everyone has had a good day today. Church was great. Stephen gave his lesson in Priesthood and I went to the Family History class. Stressed out some so sat the RS hour in the foyer waiting for Stephen to get done teaching. It was a beautiful day weather wise. Cool and sunny with a mackeral sky - which means it will rain within 72 hours. Yay!!

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We went out to Queen Creek Saturday to say our goodbyes to Chad and Heather and the kids. They will be heading up to Utah in the morning. We helped them load the trailer and it was nice to spend that time with them. It's so hard to see them go. I have loved having them so close for the past few months. Our family has made some happy memories while they have been here. I'm sure Stephen R. and Karma are going to miss them too. It was nice that they all lived so close in their neighborhood out there.

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Here are my latest digiscrapbooking layouts. Hope you enjoy looking at them. These first three were made with Mamrotka's kit "Spring Garden". All the kits can be found in the SAS store. I also used the Commercial Use Template Kit by Cathy Cher and Ellen Massey on a lot of these layouts. They are fantastic templates and I loved using them.

This one was made with Mamrotka's "Be My Valentine" kit and her quick page for the January challenge at SAS.

These next two were made using "Joy Of A Garden" kit by Mitsybelle.

I used "Milady" and "A Victorian Christmas" kits by Monika Designs for this layout.

And this layout was made using the January 2009 Mega Kit from SAS, "Sugar and Spice".

Another layout using Mitsybelle's "Joy of a Garden" kit.

And another layout using the January 2009 Mega Kit from SAS.

The CAT scan on Stephen's back didn't show any injuries. Just some deterioration of the lower back due to age. So that was a relief to know that he is okay after falling off the ladder. He's doing a lot better than he was. I thought he would be hurting today after helping to load the trailer yesterday, but he did just fine. So that is good news.

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Kodi got her new glasses this past week. She looks really cute with them.

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And that's about it for this time. Not much happening here. Just the same old stuff. Everyone take care!

Happy Thursday!

2009-01-15T12:03:00.001-08:00

Things are good here at our house today. Just getting some layouts uploaded to all the websites and on my blog here. It's a beautiful day out. 72 degrees - almost to our predicted high of 76. Stephen is going to get a CAT scan on his back this afternoon to see if there is any damage to his spine from the fall off the ladder the other day. Then we'll know what kind of treatments he will need to get him all healed up and feeling better.

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Here is a layout I did a while back. I don't think I uploaded it to my blog here yet. I thought it turned out pretty.

And now the latest! Kodi took the photos in these next few layouts while in Utah. I had to scrap them! The kit I used is Midnight Garden by Monika Designs at SAS.

This kit is Faeries Tranquility by Kristi Westling at SAS.

And this kit is Be My Valentine by Manrotka at SAS.

Beautiful kids!!! Grandma misses them all!

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I hope everyone is having a great day!

Another January Sunday!

2009-01-11T16:09:00.000-08:00

Hi to All! It's another lovely January Sunday! Hope you have all had a nice day. It is gradually warming up some here. I have enjoyed the colder days though and I'm not looking forward to the warming up. Summer will come soon enough for that.

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I have a bunch of new layouts that I have been working on the past couple weeks. I finally figured out how to use templates! It has opened up a whole new world of scrapbooking for me and I'm loving it - A LOT!! So here are some of my latest creations. Most are using templates.

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These first four are using the kit "WoHoo. A Night Owl In Love" by Booland Designs. You can find her things on her website or at SAS.

Another kit by Boo - "High Clair". I really LOVE this kit. The colors are so beautiful.

These next four layouts were made using the "Josh Kit" and the coordinating mini kit by Digitreats.

And now on to a kit by Skrapper Digitals called "FUNdamentals".

A couple more layouts using Boo's kit "High Clair".

And finally, these two layouts were done using a kit by Monika Designs called "A Victorian Christmas". I loved using this kit too. It's rich in color and so elegant.

So that's my latest in scrapbooking.

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Stephen fell off a ladder at work last Monday. He is hurting pretty good from it. We are still trying to get the workman's comp papers from his boss and when we get them we'll be heading to a doctor or chiropractor to see what he has done to himself. It isn't getting any better. And I'm concerned as to what this fall has done to his back.

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And I'm still fighting my bug, too. The cough is hanging on and the wheezing comes and goes. So we are watching that close and I'm hoping it will all just go away without having to go to the doctor.

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Kodi came home yesterday. It's so nice to have her home with us again. We have missed her.

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And Frankie is still out at his trainer's. He's loving being out there and has started to lose some weight running around with all the other dogs she boards. We miss him, too, and will be glad when we get him home again, too.

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Thought for today: "Life is not the way its supposed to be. It's the way it is. The way you cope with it is what makes the difference." Virginia Satir

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Take time to enjoy all the wonderful simple pleasures around you!

December's Last Sunday

2008-12-28T11:19:00.000-08:00

Today is December's last Sunday. And I ended up staying home from church. I was so hoping I could at least go and sit in the foyer and enjoy the talks and music from our Ward and the Young Adult Ward after us. Stephen is teaching his lesson in High Priest Group and I wanted to be there to support him. But my wheezing has been bad at night and when I'm trying to go to sleep it keeps me awake. Plus it was very cold this morning. Low, low 40's with a windchill of 35 degrees. It's 52 degrees right now but the windchill is 47 degrees. So it's best if I stay home and try to keep warm.

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I don't know that I'm contagious. No one ever seems to catch this bug from me. It's like it belongs just to me. My own special Bug! I get it every year in time for the holidays. Usually just before Thanksgiving and then it hangs on til January some time. This year it is late coming. I got it the day before Christmas Eve. Not fun! Especially when there were so many things I wanted to do and then couldn't do because of it.

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Anyway! I wanted to be at Church so I could enjoy the sweet spirit that is always there. But I didn't want to take the chance of maybe giving this bug to someone else or catching another bug from another person there. So I'm home by myself. Of course the wheezing eases up as soon as I get up and moving around some. But the cough is still there off and on and it doesn't sound real good. Everyone would be thinking - WHY is she HERE! Giving all of us her BUG!! How RUDE!! And I didn't want that to happen.

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Today is a special day. Grandbaby #23 is getting blessed and receiving her name. I so wish we could be there for her special day. But Utah is a long ways from here. And no money and no vacation time make it impossible to go up there. I hope Kodi takes lots of pictures of everyone for us to see when she gets home. And she will be home on January 10th!

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Also today, daughter-in-law Rachel's dad is being made Bishop of his Ward in Salt Lake. So Rachel and the girls are there with her family for that while Kyran and the boys stayed at home in Logan to be there for Chris and Melany and their baby's blessing day. Split family for two special reasons.

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I'm loving this cold WINTER weather!! There should be snow on the ground when it's this cold though, don't you think? That's what I've always said and I'm sticking to it. A few Decembers ago when I went to Logan for Uncle Jerry's funeral, there was snow on the ground special for me. And there were ICICLES!! Everywhere!! I had forgotten how delightful icicles are. Or maybe I hadn't realized it before because you just kind of take icicles for granted when there is snow around. But I don't take them for granted anymore. They truly are delightful. Beautiful really. Heavenly Father makes the most wonderful things for us to enjoy if we just look around us and SEE them!

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I was reading Shye's blog this morning. She approaches life in such a delightful way. She feels it, and lives it, and shares it with those around her. I think that being around her day and night must be such a fun thing. Her family is very blessed to have her. And those of us watching her are, also. Thanks, Shye, for being who you are!

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Well, I need to decide what to fix for dinner today. Nothing has sounded good to me since I got sick and poor Stephen has had to kind of fend for himself most of the week. Or put up with quick and simple meals made by me. It's nice we got to have Christmas Eve dinner out at Queen Creek with the kids. And the great Mexican potluck dinner at his family's gathering last Sunday evening. At least we had TWO great dinners during all of this! Next week WILL be better!

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Enjoy your Sabbath Day. Love your families. Take time to look for the simple pleasures around you. And have a great day!

Happy Day After Christmas!

2008-12-26T21:41:00.001-08:00

Happy Day After Christmas, Everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas this year. We enjoyed going out to Queen Creek to be with our kids and grandkids out that way. Dinner was good and we played a fun game, had the gift exchange game and watched the video "A King Is Born". Christmas Day I just slept half the day away - I caught my yearly bug - just in time to celebrate Christmas with me. So it has been a rough couple of days with that but I'm doing much better now. I'm hoping I'm over the worst of it.

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Here are some new layouts using the kits from SAS. These first two are from the kit First Friends by Cathy Cher.

These next two were made using the kit Merry Days by Booland Designs.

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Christmas Week!!

2008-12-22T15:30:00.000-08:00

Well, it's Christmas Week here in Mesa! It started out nice with our Merkley Family get together on Sunday evening. Mexican food potluck dinner - which was sooooooo yummy, as always! Someone brought homemade tamales this year. They were sooooo good! Lots of family came - about 50-75 of us total. Santa arrived after dinner and pics were taken of everyone.

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It's trying to rain again today. We are supposed to have it off and on all week. Another winter storm moving in from Alaska. So it's cold. We only made it up to 55 degrees today. Right now it's 52 with a wind chill of 49 degrees. I'm loving it.

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Here are pics from last night!

The little Princess' first visit with Santa - isn't this a precious pic?

And now my latest scrapbook layouts for SAS. These were done using Yule Tide by Booland Designs. It's a very pretty earthtone Christmas kit.

And just to prove that Christmas isn't just for kids - here is a photo to show that!

I hope you take time to enjoy the Christmas Season. Count all of your blessings. We are truly blessed in many ways that we all just take for granted. Gather your families around and share the love that you have for one another. I know this year is a hard one for many of us due to the economy. But that's okay. We are having an old fashioned Christmas at our house. Lots of great company, good food to eat, Christmas music and movies, time to play games, do puzzles or hobbies, or just sit and read for a while. I'm really looking forward to it. It's amazing how the stress lifted from my shoulders when we decided to not worry about gifts and buying things. The hustle and bustle of this busy season has just passed us by and we have been able to relax and enjoy our time together as a family. I kind of like that!! It's about time we all got back to the real meaning of Christmas. The birth of our Savior was a glorious event and we need to remember Him and all that He has done for us.

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Merry Christmas to all of you! May you feel great joy this Christmas Season!

Happy Friday Night - Late!

2008-12-19T22:45:00.001-08:00

It's cold here at my house! Not like where there is snow. But I figure when I feel this cold we should have some of that white stuff to be enjoying!! Doesn't seem fair to be so cold and not have any!
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Here are some new layouts. The first few are made using the kit called Baby Genius Mega Kit by Sherrah Kraan at SAS. I love the bright colors. It's such a cheerful kit and has a lot of fun elements. These little girls are our 2008 babies in our family. Such precious cuties to add to our collection of grandchildren!

These next two are made using Boo's kit Snow In Love. It's full of sparkly things and pastel wintery papers.

I can't believe there are only five more days til Christmas. This year feels so strange to me. With Kodi in Utah and Stephen and I alone for the holidays it just isn't the same.

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We went to Stephen's work party last night. It was really nice. They served us ham and turkey, baked beans, rolls, a veggie tray, chips and crackers and dips, lots of different beverages to choose from - no alcohol for which we were grateful - and several different desserts. We didn't get a bonus again this year. We didn't really think we would, but it would have been such a great blessing if we had gotten one. I guess Heavenly Father feels we are doing okay without it. And we are being blessed so I can't complain.

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Well, gotta run. I hope all of you have a great weekend. Will have more layouts to show you next week. One thing about being on this CT - I post a lot more often than I did before!! LOL

More Scrapbooking Layouts!

2008-12-16T23:33:00.001-08:00

Well, it's very early Wednesday morning. I should be sleeping but I'm still up and working on things. Will be tooooooo tired again tomorrow. But at least I have all my scrapbooking layouts posted now and up to date on the kits I have finished for SAS. One of the requirements for receiving the free kits is to post my layouts here on my blog. This first one is made using the December 2008 Mega Kit. I really love how this page turned out. I did it for a scraplift challenge. The photos are from our trip home from Indy a few years back.

The next layouts are made with the kit In My Life by Cathy C. at SAS. It's a beautiful kit.

I still have two more kits to do layouts for before I can request any more. Will be working on them the rest of this week. Hope you all have a great day today!

The Most AWESOME Simple Pleasure This Morning!!!

2008-12-16T06:41:00.000-08:00

Good Morning, All! I saw the most AWESOME Simple Pleasure this morning! Nikki and I were waiting for her bus to come and we saw some birds flying south for the winter! Not just a few, but HUNDREDS and HUNDREDS of them!! We could hear them chirping and they just kept coming and coming! They flew right over the top of us! They are such wonderful creatures. We watched as they flapped their little wings and then they would just glide for a second or two. And then they would flap their wings like crazy again and then just glide. It took a good five to 10 minutes for them to fly over us and it got to where it was just little straggly groups of them at the tail end. It was such a beautiful thing to see!

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It's cold here. Actually, it's warmer than yesterday. 52 degrees at the moment and we are supposed to reach 55 today. It's very overcast and we've had some rain the past couple days off and on. I'm loving it.

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Okay. Here are four new layouts. The kit I used is the December 2008 Mega Kit from SAS. It's a gorgeous kit. I love all the browns and creams and greens in it. Kind of a different kind of holiday kit. More country and woodsy and wintery than anything else. Check it out. I have used it to scrap some of our Christmas in Indy trip photos from several years ago. I love the way the pages are turning out.

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These pics are from the return trip home. We got caught in the biggest storm they had had in years. We tried to get to St. Louis before it hit us but because we took a wrong turn on the freeway and traveled a half hour in the wrong direction - toward Chicago - and then had to come back, the storm hit us about an hour out of St. Louis. Interesting. Anyway, there was an ice storm along with it and everything was soooooo beautiful. But the roads were terrible. We stopped for the night in Oklahoma I think it was...and the next morning the car doors were frozen shut and so was the trunk. People were having to pour water over their locks and everything just to get the ice to melt enough to open everything. We just took our time that morning. The roads were so thick with ice that we didn't want to travel on them until it melted enough to make traveling safer. So we headed on over to The Crackerbarrel for a nice breakfast. They had Black Jack Gum in their little country store!! I was so excited to see it that I had to buy some. My Great Grandpa Mainwaring loved Black Jack Gum. He always shared it with us kids. But only half a piece. I remember that. Some of the gum I bought that day is still in my journal. Anyway, the pics are of when we were at the motel and at the restaurant.

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Kodi outside the motel room.

Stephen and Kodi at The Crackerbarrel. I loved the ice on the trees in all of these photos. The wind was blowing and the branches and twigs would hit together making a little tinkling sound. And it was sooooooo cold!

Have a great day, Everyone! Look for the Simple Pleasures and enjoy them!!

Happy Tuesday!!

2008-12-09T13:25:00.000-08:00

Happy Tuesday, Everyone! It's a beautiful cool day here in Mesa. 66 degrees at the moment and I love it. Things are going good in my part of the world today.

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Talked to Kodi yesterday. She's doing good and seems to be enjoying her stay in Utah. I sure do miss her though. I try not to call her everyday but it's really hard! So it's okay if I get teased about calling her so much. What can I say. I'm a mom and I love my kids and have to be in touch with them.

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I made two double batches of cookie dough this afternoon. Chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookies. We are going home teaching this evening and Stephen wants to take his families a Christmas goodie. We make a great team when it comes to making cookies. I don't mind making the dough but hate to do the baking part. And Stephen doesn't mind the baking part. So he helps me do that. We'll get some baked up right before we go tonight.

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I still want to make some Melt Aways. They have a cream cheese frosting and are sooooooo rich and yummy. And I want to make sweet rolls and a batch of fudge. AND more dinner rolls and a batch of bread. And it would be nice to have some banana bread, too. Am I making you hungry?

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I got eight more layouts done using two new kits that I requested. I'm pleased with how they turned out. So here they are. 8.5 x 11 and 12 x 12 sizes. These first pages are made using the kit Cottage Dreams by Mitsybelle and you can get it at SAS. I love the soft colors.

These pages were made using Soothing Daisy by Piggy Scraps and that kit can be found at SAS also. I really love the flowered and gingham papers in this kit and plan on using them to make some cards.

I especially love how this page turned out. And I'm having a hard time deciding which size I like the most. Sometimes the 12 x 12 looks really great and other times the additional papers I use to make the 8.5 x 11 just make it so much nicer. Funny how that is. This layout just feels so "country" to me. The smaller page more so than the bigger one.

Simple Pleasures for today:

Seeing all the dogs being walked by their owners when Nikki and I are out waiting for the bus to arrive. I met "Abigail" today. Such a pretty colored dog.
Having the cooler weather
Knowing that two batches of cookies are ready to bake!
Playing Christmas music
Petting Snowflake and knowing she loves the attention I give her. Poor kitty - she lost part of her beautiful tail! Don't know how, but it is definitely shorter than it used to be.
Knowing there will be Christmas movies on again tonight!!

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I hope you all have a great day! I'll be back soon with more pages to show you.

Friday - Very Early Morning

2008-12-05T00:28:00.001-08:00

Hi, Everyone! This week has gone by so fast! And Christmas is only three weeks away now. How exciting is that! I have been busy finishing up layouts for the CT work I do for Stone Accents Studio (SAS). Here they are:

These first layouts were done using Day Break by Booland Designs. You can get it at SAS. As always, have put the 12 x 12 and also the 8.5 x 11 sizes. Remember to click on the image if you want to see it up closer.

These next pages were made using Magical Winter by Monika Designs which you can also get at SAS.

The candle photo on the last two layouts was taken by Ian Britton at Freefoto.com.

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Simple Pleasures for today - actually yesterday as it is now very early Friday morning:

It was a beautiful cool day.
Seeing leaves fall off the tree by the drive into our condo complex.
Being outside while waiting for Nikki's school bus to come.
Talking to my youngest son on the phone.
Drinking orange juice. Yum!!
Eating tacos for dinner - home cooked not Taco Bell!
Listening to Christmas music.
Leaving the tree lights on day and night. They make a perfect nightlight for the whole house.

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I hope you all have a great Friday! My favorite day of the week!! And my Honey doesn't have to work today, which is rough for the paycheck but wonderful for extra time to spend together! Maybe we will make sweet rolls this weekend!! He's a great helper with projects like that.

CT

2008-11-30T23:06:00.000-08:00

CT stands for Creative Team. As a CT member I take digital scrapbooking kits that the designers at SAS make and I use them to make layouts. It helps to advertise their kits for them and gives me a lot of neat stuff to work with! Thank you for your comments. I'm glad to see someone is enjoying my blog!

I've Been Tagged!!

2008-11-26T19:28:00.000-08:00

I've been tagged! So here goes!!

The Rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you. That would be Diana at http://amberpony.blogspot.com - she is the one who tagged me! Thanks, Diana!!
2. Post the rules on your blog (this is what you are now reading).
3. List 6 random things about yourself.
4. Tag 6 people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know they have been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.

Six Random Things About Me

1. I love stormy, rainy, snowy, windy, cold weather. Our monsoon season is my favorite part of summer here in Arizona.
2. Carpenter bees live in the logs just outside my front door and I consider them to be my little friends. The logs hold my potted plants.
3. A skunk rode on our school bus all the way to school and back one day. Oh, my!! What a very stinky adventure that was!!
4. I played "Fur Elise" by Beethoven (on the piano) at my 8th grade graduation ceremony. I was so brave back then. Sigh.....
5. I have five boys, one daughter, 23 grandchildren, 1 dog, and the very sweetest husband ever!
6. I am a country girl at heart living in the city.

I'm tagging:

Stella at http://stellarificcreations.blogspot.com - she is a totally neat lady who is very talented and sweet.
Doris at http://lilguysmomma.blogspot.com - she is on the CT at SAS like me.
Sherah at http://skrapperdigitals.blogspot.com - because she is very talented - you should see the kit she made for me at SAS (Jan Kit)!! when I was on her CT. She is still my friend and I haven't bugged her for a while.
Anita at http://nanas-attic.blogspot.com - because I absolutely love her kits! They are soooo fantastic.
Heidi at http://weekdaze.blogspot.com - because she is a special friend.
Elaine at http://elainessunnyspot.blogspot.com - because I so enjoyed knowing her when I was doing her challenges at GDS.

And there you have it! Thanks, Diana, for tagging me!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

2008-11-26T14:12:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving to all our family and friends! We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. Ours is being a little cold and rainy so far but we welcome both the cool temps and the rain. Besides, being with family makes us warm and cozy again. We have truly LOVED having Chris and Ky and their families here this week. They are staying out with Chad and Stephen R. and their families and we have been able to go out to Queen Creek to visit with everyone. Will be going out there again tomorrow to spend a good part of the day.

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We are hoping to go see Twilight this weekend. Don't know yet if it's going to be a girl's afternoon out with the Dads and Grandpa babysitting all the kids, or whether it will be a date night for the grownups. But we plan on going one way or the other while we are all together. Should be a lot of fun! I'm looking forward to it.

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This Grandma feels content again. Being able to finally see the new little granddaughters for the first time and being able to cuddle them and love them has filled me up inside. Having three of them gives us lots of babies to share when we are all together. Plus seeing the older grandkids too. All of them are sooooo precious to me. I really LOVE being a Grandma. I just long to live closer to all of them and miss them so when we can't see them. Having us all together again has been like Christmas come early for me. The only thing that could make it any better is if Shane and Sherri and their family could be here too. But that isn't possible right now. So phone calls over the holiday will have to do.

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I've been super busy with my new job as CT member for Stone Accents Studio. So far I have requested three kits and have made all the required layouts and got them posted everywhere. You can see them here. I put both the 12 x 12 sizes and the 8.5 x 11 ones. It's hard to decide which ones to post. So many times the smaller sizes look nicer with the extra papers and all. Anyway, here they are. You can click on them to bring them up bigger.

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This is the Winter Wonderland Mega Kit which is a collab kit made by several of the designers at SAS. You can click on the SAS link over there on the right hand side in my Favorite Places To Visit list to go check out the full kits and see all the fun going on over at SAS. I only did the 12 x 12 size on these first two layouts.

These next few layouts are done with the Fairyland kit by Monika Designs.

These next few are made using the Noah Kit by Digitreats. I really love this kit. There are so many cute papers and elements to use on boy pages. And I love the colors.

And that's about it for this time! Simple Pleasures in my life right now:

Having five of my children and their families all together for Thanksgiving.
A telephone to call Shane and Sherri on!
The RAIN!!!
Cooler weather - it actually feels like fall and winter today!
Having Christmas up! Yes, I actually got us decorated early this year!!
White twinkle lights on the tree to leave on all night from now til whenever we take the tree down.
Being able to listen to Christmas music.
All the neat Christmas and Thanksgiving programs on TV.
Stephen coming home from work a little early today and having a four day weekend for us to enjoy having him with us.
Getting to take Frankie out to run at his trainer's house tomorrow. He needs the exercise and loves going out there. And I don't have to worry about us being away from home and him being home alone for so many hours when we can take him there. So it's my treat too!

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Happy Thanksgiving!!

I AM STILL HERE!!!!

2008-11-20T19:59:00.001-08:00

I am still here! Today is the anniversary of my Dad's passing. It has been 13 years and still feels like yesterday to me. I really miss him and Mom. Life changed so drastically for me when they passed away. It was a big life changing event for me.

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We are looking forward to seeing Ky and Rachel and Chris and Melany and all the grandkids for Thanksgiving! Can't wait to get my hugs and kisses and give out some love to everyone. It's going to be a wonderful holiday for us! And it will be so special to have our three new little granddaughters together for the first time ever. I plan on getting lots of pictures as well as getting my grandma hugs and cuddles from each one of them.

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I have some fun news! Last night I got an email from one of the gals at Stone Accents Studios - SAS - which is a big digital scrapbooking site. I do a lot of their challenges and post many of my layouts in their gallery. They have asked me to join their CT - Creative Team - for their store!! They like my work and want me to work for them. I'll get the big mega kit each month as well as kits from any of the designers I choose in exchange for doing my layouts using them and then posting them on their site as well as two other websites and my blog here. I also have to make comments on other peoples' layouts and participate in the challenges and on the forums when needed. I'm sooooo excited and can't believe they asked me!! It will be a little more work than doing it just for the fun of it. But it isn't that much more than I'm already doing FOR fun already. Just a few little extra responsibilities. And I get wonderful goodies in exchange for it. Can't beat that!! I will be starting as soon as they get the first kit to me.

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In the meantime, here are some layouts I've been doing and posting on SAS. If you want to check SAS out they are listed in my Favorite Places To Visit list on the right hand side here. Click on their link and it will take you to my new place of work!! It's an awesome site and the ladies there are so nice. I will be in good company.

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Now on to the layouts! Nearly everything here was done for a challenge. A few were just for fun. The first two are of Ky and Rachel's wedding day. You can click on any of the layouts to bring up a bigger view of it.

My Dad playing Santa:

Kyran on the Olson's motorcycle!!

Yes, that's an apple core balanced on his nose!

Done for a quote challenge:

The early days of the Gang when Karen was the only girl!!

Kyran in his infant seat.

Stephen R:

These two always had such mischievious looks on their faces. Like they had something going on that the rest of us didn't know about - YET!! Chris and Ky:

The challenge for this layout was to use that font you can hardly read. It says Brothers, Best Friends and A Stick! I was excited to do this page as the photo was perfect to go along with the fact that the Stick was just put in the Toy Hall of Fame this month. What a magical toy a stick is! The little pic is of the guy holding the display of the Stick that they put in the Toy Hall of Fame.

This one of Ky was for a scraplift challenge.

And that's about it for now.

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The weather is beautiful here! It's going to be cooler leading up to Thanksgiving Day. It was 86 degrees today but will be going back into the 70's for the holiday. Plus we might get a little rain????? I hope so. But not on Thanksgiving. It needs to wait a day or two longer and not rain on the holiday.

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Thanks for looking at my blog! Check out SAS. Especially if you are into scrapbooking. There are lots of fun layouts to view and digital scrapbooking challenges to participate in. And the posting gifts are really nice.

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AND....Remember to look for the Simple Pleasures in life. Right now we all need to do that. With times being so hard and getting harder, those Simple Pleasures are going to be important to us. Have a great day!

Wednesday Morning!!

2008-10-22T09:40:00.001-07:00

Happy Wednesday to All! It has started out as a wonderfully cool day in the 60's this morning. We are now up to 73 degrees but it isn't supposed to go out of the high 80's. So maybe it will stay okay for today. I hope so.

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Was up very late last night working on this layout of Hailey. Thought it turned out pretty cute. So here it is. She really looks a lot like Little Ky in these poses. Especially the third one down.

Not much to tell yet as the day is just starting out. I did see this quote last night and wanted to share it with all of you.

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Enjoy the little things,
for one day you may look back and realize they
were the big things.
~ Unknown

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So.....on that happy note, enjoy today's Simple Pleasures and I'll write again soon!

Sunday!

2008-10-19T23:16:00.001-07:00

We had such a nice day today. We headed on out to Queen Creek to be there for when Austin became a Teacher in the Priesthood. Heather invited us and Stephen R. and Karma and their kids over afterward for pancakes with strawberries and Cool Whip, bacon and sausage. We had a good lunch and enjoyed the visiting.

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There were butterflies all over the yard at both Chad and Heather's and Stephen R. & Karma's homes. It was so fun to see so many all at once in one place. On top of that, before we left to go to Queen Creek, we took Frankie out for a quick walk and there was a big black and yellow butterfly flittering around the condo across from us. It has been a while since I've seen any butterflies so this was delightful.

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Frankie was so glad to have us back home again. He doesn't like us leaving him for so long by himself and has a way of letting us know it when we get home. Poor puppy. He's such a good dog.

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Simple Pleasures for today:

Being with family out at Queen Creek
Holding little Cydney
Sharing Austin's special day
Seeing the butterflies
Finding a card in our mailbox from a friend on a card group I was on

Hope you all had a great day today!

What A Day!!

2008-10-18T21:42:00.001-07:00

What a day! We found water coming through the wall between the laundry room and the kitchen. So Stephen cut the wallboard out and sure enough our hot water pipe was leaking. So it was a trip to Home Depot for repair supplies and a mess to clean up at home. But Stephen got it all fixed and it looks like it's going to be okay. Have to patch the wall now. And I didn't get the laundry done like I had planned to do.

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We welcomed our 23rd Grandbaby into our lives early Wednesday morning. The kids named her Kayta-Kaili Normadean. (Kay-tah Kay-ee-lee) the Normadean is for Melany's grandma and my Mom. Quite a long name for such a little one. Here are her first pics. She's just a few hours old in them.

Precious, huh?
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And here are some of my latest digiscraping efforts:

Let's see.....Simple Pleasures:

Having a beautiful new Grandbaby and all being well with Mom and Baby!
Austin being advanced to the office of a Teacher tomorrow morning!
Having a few days of cooler weather - like down in the 70's kind of weather!! - even if it did go back up into the 90's again!
Still having cool mornings and evenings even if it does get above 90 by noon or so! At least we get a bit of cool to temper it.
Seeing snow pics from Logan!
Getting to buy the book "Eclipse" so that I can finish reading the Twilight series now - YES!!
Having sweet, juicy apples to eat - yes, I'm still on an apple eating kick.
Having Colebe say that he thinks he will keep his new baby sister - FOREVER!

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I have to share this: Last Sunday when we were out to Chad and Heather's for Stephen's birthday dinner, I was holding little Cydney. She spit up on her hand and Michael was standing there by me. He said, "She's leaking." I had to chuckle over that.

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Well, I hope everyone has a happy Sunday. We will be going out to Queen Creek to share Austin's special event with him and to visit with everyone. Take care and be sure to look for those Simple Pleasures!!

Thursday Almost Friday!!

2008-10-09T13:59:00.001-07:00

I'm back!!! And I have more layouts to show you. But first of all - Stephen had a nice birthday. He took some of his sweet rolls to work to share with the guys who were there and someone left a big baggie of pecans in their shells on top of his lunch box - he loves pecans and was happy to get them. We had ham and baked potatoes for dinner so that was yummy, too. I didn't make him his apple pie yet. I got to looking around and we had homemade cake from the other day still sitting here, cup cakes from a lady we home teach - she brought them to Stephen for his birthday - plus we had cookies from a couple days ago and then the sweet rolls! So we decided to hold off on the pie until this weekend. : ) And we have ice cream ready to go with it.

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Wow! We have a whole 10% chance for rain over the weekend. And the wind is coming in starting tomorrow. We are supposed to be 74 - 79 degrees for our high on Saturday!! It's 95 today so far so that is quite a drop. I have given in and turned the air back on for a while this afternoon. It will be soooooo welcome to get the temps down this weekend. 70's are just right for me. And after that it will go back up into the 80's and 90's.

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Don't know if Stephen will have work all day today. And he didn't know about tomorrow yet. I kind of hope he gets to stay home, even though that will be hard on the paycheck. We'll survive it. Just have to tighten our belts. I so love having him home though. If he has the day off we'll go see about retirement for him. I hate going to the Social Security offices. It's such an intimidating place to be. And things are hard to understand. So many rules and regulations just to get the money we have coming to us for retirement. He really needs to be able to retire though. It's getting to where it just needs to happen. It's time. But we also have to be able to survive on whatever he gets paid. Don't know if we can do that just yet.

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Okay! Here are the new layouts! I've enjoyed doing them. Again, there is an 8.5 x 11 and then a 12 x 12. I really love the way the smaller layouts turn out with the added trims and papers at the top and bottom. This first one is a redo. I love how it turned out.

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Austin holding the sun - don't you just LOVE these yummy blues!!!:

Kodi and Zack scattering Reindeer Feed - Christmas in Indy:

Frankenstein's Bride - Kodi - Love all the leaves and swirlies on this one!:

Another redo - Kodi:

And that's about it. Simple Pleasures for today:

The ac back on for a little while.
Being able to open doors and windows when the ac isn't on!
The smell of fresh air earlier this morning - YUM!
The thoughts of a very cool Saturday coming!!
Lawn day today! That means the fragrance of fresh cut grass to enjoy!!

Hope everyone has a great rest of their day!

Busy Day!

2008-10-07T21:58:00.001-07:00

Wow! Tuesday again already! It has been a very busy day today. It started out with Simple Pleasures. As I was saying my prayers the Mockingbird who often sings in the tree just down the sidewalk from our bedroom window began to sing. And because it's finally cool enough to turn the air conditioning off and open windows again - YAY!! - the melody of its song came floating to me. I love that little Mockingbird!! And it sang all while I read my scriptures, too! Heaven's music to my ears to be sure.

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Then when I walked Nickie out to catch her bus the air was so cool and wonderful! Finally!! A change to our seasons! And the sun was shining. I hated to go back into the house again. AND.... we saw a hummingbird. Just a tiny little thing. It was darting around above the street and then came to sit on a tiny branch in the tree by us. Then it was off again.

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When we got to the bus stop, this grandma lady who walks her dog Elvis every day was coming across the street to our side. So Nickie and I got to visit with her and Elvis. He's the cutest little thing. All black with a touch of white. And he just loves the attention we pay to him. We used to see him last spring at the other bus stop so it's kind of fun that the grandma lady walks him by this new one at the condos here.

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I made sweet rolls this afternoon to surprise Stephen for his birthday tomorrow. He told me the other day that he wanted sweet rolls, an apple pie, and a pineapple upside down cake for his birthday - in hopes that he would get one of the three items. So I did the rolls today and tomorrow I'll make him his apple pie. We had to go buy the apples for it this evening. I'm still eating apples like crazy. They just taste so good to me. Anyway, Stephen was really happy with the sweet rolls and has already had several.

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We went to a viewing at the mortuary this evening also. Stephen's brother's wife Raylani's father passed away last week and it's his funeral tomorrow. We won't be able to go as Stephen has to work. So we went to the viewing. Raylani is holding up well. They have a grandbaby on the way and a wedding coming up in the next month or so. So she has a lot to keep her busy for a while.

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We went to Lissie's birthday party and dinner on Sunday at Karma's mom and dad's home. They made Indian Fry Bread with all the trimmings. Was yummy. And we had a nice time. After we had been there a couple hours we found out Lissie wasn't feeling good and she ended up throwing up. Soooooo..... we are praying we don't get whatever she had. Kodi woke up feeling puky this morning so I had to take over for her with Nickie. I was worried that she got Lissie's bug. But she is doing better this evening. Stephen hasn't felt real good for a couple days. We are thinking his problems are from the spiciness of the beans and meat on Sunday. So we are just praying hard that it doesn't hit us with a vengence. We try so hard to not be around those kinds of bugs because they are so hard on Stephen and I anymore.

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And I've been scrapbooking again. Here are the latest layouts. You can click on the pic to bring it up bigger on each one.

And I guess that's it for today. Lots of Simple Pleasures out there to be aware of. Some even just pop up when you least expect it like mine did this morning! Have a great day tomorrow!!

Happy Tuesday!

2008-09-30T21:33:00.001-07:00

Tuesday night and all is well!! It's even beginning to finally cool down here. And the monsoon is officially over for this year. We got 5.70 inches of rain this summer. An awesome amount for Arizona for one summer!

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I have been eating apples like crazy! They just taste so good to me. We bought a container of them at Costco last payday and had them eaten in a week. So we bought more on Friday from Fry's and they have been pretty good ones. So juicy and yummy.

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I finished the second book in the Twilight series a week or so ago. Went online for the library to see if I could reserve the third book as Kodi got rid of hers a while back and we don't have it anymore. Bummer!! Anyway, there are about 25-29 people who have it reserved ahead of me and each one gets to keep it for three weeks!!! This was NOT good news! I guess I should go ahead and sign up though, huh? Maybe they have more than one copy of it and it won't take a year to get to my turn.

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I got candy treats sent to all the grandkids yesterday. We bought one of those $10 bags of assorted Halloween candies at Costco. It cost me another $15 or so to send each family an envelope with the goodies in them. The funniest thing about it all is that I was able to send them all 1st class mail which was cheaper, all except for Chad and Heather's family. I had to pay Priority Mail fees on theirs because they have more kids and it weighed more than the others. Priority Mail to Queen Creek!! A 40 minute drive from our house! LOL I debated sending the Queen Creek kids their treats or just taking it to them. But then I decided it would be fun for them to get goodies in the mail like the out of town grandkids. Sooooo............And this Grandma had enough stamps to put on everything except for the unexpected extra postage because the scales at the post office read different than mine here did. Anyway, treats are sent!

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Well, gotta run. Hope everyone has a great day! Look for the Simple Pleasures out there!

Just Checking In!

2008-09-24T13:22:00.000-07:00

Okay! I'm checking in again to say hi and to show you more of my scrapbooking! I think summer is finally winding down. Yay hurray!!! I think the monsoon storms are done, which makes me a little sad as I love them so much. I'm trying to feel like the holidays are about here. I really want to decorate big for Christmas this year. I want to be excited and feel the magic of the season in my heart.

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It's only 102 this afternoon so far. I went to meet Nickie at the bus stop and just got back. There is a warm breeze blowing that feels like a nice warm, soft blanket. But the air isn't so hot that it fills your lungs with heat when you breathe. If it were just a few degrees cooler it would be perfect. But I'm not complaining. It's so much nicer than the hotter parts of summer/fall.

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Work is slow again. Stephen has missed a day and a half off this next payday. That isn't a good thing. But I sure loved having him at home with me! We are kind of worried about what is going to happen with his job. There isn't much work from now til the end of this year and with the economy doing it's insecure thing right now, we are very concerned.

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Okay!! Grandma and Grandpa got treats!!!!! Will be sending them soon!

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Here are some of my latest scrapbooking efforts:

Ruins at Canyon De Chelly (Canyon day shay)

The London Bridge at Lake Havasu, Arizona

This is the Place Monument in Salt Lake City

Papa Santa

Chad

Ky, Stephen R., Chris & Chad

Chad

And I guess that's it for now. Take the time to enjoy the Simple Pleasures before today is over! My list:

That soft, warm late summer breeze that feels like a blanket

Kitties who come running for attention - even though they aren't ours

Eating a crispy apple

Hearing my Honey's voice on the phone at noon

Wonderful cold ice water!

Just a quick note today!

2008-09-18T07:56:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to let everyone know we are alive and well. I think it's beginning to cool down some. It's only 74 degrees this morning at 8 AM. That's GOOD!!

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I'm going to be heading over to the Church to the Family History Computer Lab to help people learn how to do their genealogy this morning. And I need to be getting ready to go. But I wanted to put a few of my latest scrapbook creations up for you to see. I've been trying some new things with erasing parts of different layers, etc. Thought those pages turned out good.

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OH!! And I finished reading Twilight in about three days. I'm now on page 94 of New Moon. Can't seem to get enough of reading lately. Have to check out the third book from the library as Kodi turned hers in to Bookman's a while back because she didn't like that book as much as the others. Crazy girl!!

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Okay. Here are the layouts. Enjoy!

Go look for some Simple Pleasures today! Have a good one!!

MEMORIES AND THOUGHTS OF 9-11

2008-09-11T15:18:00.000-07:00

Chris coming to pick Stephen up for work early that morning....HAVE YOU SEEN WHAT'S HAPPENING????..... Someone turns the TV on and I hear the commotion. I get up to go see what's going on. Standing on the stairs, frozen in time, watching the horror of the first attack on the World Trade Center.....WE HAVE BEEN ATTACKED!!!????.....DOES THIS MEAN WE ARE AT WAR????? ARE WE AT WAR?????.....Stunned and just standing on the stairs....Watching the horror unfold....Unable to move....Just watching and watching and watching.....DOES THIS MEAN WE ARE AT WAR?????.....Witnessing the second airplane hitting the second tower.....WHAT IS GOING ON?????.....Not wanting Stephen and Chris to go to work.....Wondering if I should send Kodi to school or not.....Just wanting my family around me.....The first tower goes down.....STUNNED AND SHOCKED.....WHAT IS GOING ON?????.....Then the second tower goes down.....HEARTACHE, FEAR.....WHAT IS GOING ON?????.....Do I send my child to school or do I keep her home with me? Maybe I should keep today as normal as possible....TOUCHED DEEPLY WHEN MY CHILD ASKS ME IF IT'S OKAY TO TAKE HER SCRIPTURES TO SCHOOL WITH HER IN HER BACKPACK TODAY.....OF COURSE IT'S OKAY TO TAKE THEM!!!!!.....I take her to school feeling that maybe the best thing for her is to see her friends, to feel with them what other kids are feeling this day.....Let her feel the "normal" feelings of her teachers, friends and surroundings as everyone pulls together to figure out what is happening to their world.....WAS IT A MISTAKE TO MAKE HER GO?????.....I GUESS IT COULD HAVE BEEN.....BUT THEN AGAIN - MAYBE IT WAS VERY OKAY TO ALLOW HER TO EXPERIENCE THIS DAY WITH HER FRIENDS.....We live under the flight path of a major airport.....All flights are cancelled until further notice.....All planes are grounded wherever the authorities can get them landed.....THE EMPTINESS OF THE SKIES.....THE QUIET IN THE AIR.....TOTALLY EERIE WHEN ONE IS SO USED TO HEARING THE PLANES TAKING OFF AND LANDING DAY AND NIGHT.....THE TOTAL QUIET OF THE SKIES.....Laying in bed way late at night and hearing a military plane from one of the air bases here in the Valley.....It's flying way up high keeping watch over us as we sleep.....COMFORT, APPRECIATION FOR THOSE WHO SERVE OUR COUNTRY AND TRY TO PROTECT US THE BEST THEY CAN.....

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Then.....THE PATRIOTISM EVERYWHERE!!!!! FLAGS FLYING, PEOPLE STANDING TOGETHER, MUSIC ABOUT OUR GREAT COUNTRY, GOD BLESS AMERICA, GOD BLESS THE USA.....WONDERFUL PATRIOTISM AS WE STAND AS ONE NATION UNDER GOD.....LOVING OUR LAND.....LOVING OUR PEOPLE.....RED, WHITE AND BLUE EVERYWHERE YOU LOOK!!!!! HOW I WISH WE COULD ALWAYS SEE AND FEEL THIS PATRIOTISM!!!!!

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But mostly.....GRATITUDE FOR A LOVING HEAVENLY FATHER WHO LOVES US AND PROTECTS US.....GRATITUDE THAT MY FAMILY MEMBERS WERE HERE.....and not in the Trade Center Towers, or the Pentagon, or on the plane in Pennsylvania.....GRATITUDE, GRATITUDE, GRATITUDE!!!

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Where were you? What did you feel? What do you feel now? Why did we let our patriotism fade away again? We say WE WILL NEVER FORGET!.....but where are our flags? Where is the music? What happened to the red, white and blue? Do we still stand as one? Or have we finally gone our separate ways? Have we forgotten?

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We are flying our flag today. The beautiful red, white and blue stars and stripes are dancing and swirling in the breeze just outside our front door as I write. And there it will stay while the weather is good. It will be lit by the porch light at night and warmed by the sun during the day. It will be a reminder that we love our country. We feel GRATEFUL to our Heavenly Father for our free land and the freedoms we are so richly blessed with. Remember GRATITUDE. ALWAYS AND FOREVER!! We are a choice people living in a choice land. FOREVER BE GRATEFUL FOR THAT! NEVER FORGET!! Always.....Remember.....And be Thankful.

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Simple Pleasure for today: The freedom to fly our flag and feeling gratitude for my blessings.

WE WILL NEVER FORGET!

2008-09-11T07:56:00.000-07:00

Are you flying your flag today?

WE WILL NEVER FORGET!!

Cydney's Blessing Day!

2008-09-07T17:42:00.000-07:00

Today was a lovely day for a Blessing Day! Heather's family was all there and Stephen R. and Karma and their kids and Stephen, Kodi and I. Chad did a nice job on the blessing. And he was just grinning from ear to ear when he held Cydney up to show her off. Here are some photos. Kodi took all of them. This first one she took and made into this screen saver and surprised me with it. I think it's beautiful. Stephen and Cydney:

Of course she looked just beautiful in her white dress and so cute with her big bow. Heather made the little bracelet and her sister pierced Cydney's ears.

This next photo was taken a few weeks ago when Coltin received the Priesthood. Stevie had received it just a couple weeks or so before that. So we got them all together for a special photo of the newest Priesthood holders in the family.

More Cydney pics!

Who do you think she looks like?

Now to gross everyone out. Remember I told you Stephen was trying to keep up with the boys and their injuries? Well, here is the drill injury he got. You can see where the scrape began and then the bit went into his arm. It went under the skin as far as his finger there. It's still a little sore and is hard to the touch but he is doing okay. A day or so after this injury he was using the cutoff saw at work to cut some aluminum and it caught and took three big chunks of meat off the thumb of that same hand. So he was REALLY sore for a while!

Simple Pleasures for today:

1. The ride out to Queen Creek and seeing all the beautiful cloud formations.

2. Watching the rain coming down from some of those clouds. I'm sure it never reached the ground, but you could see that it was raining from them. The gray streaks coming down from them.

3. Getting to see all the family - the few of us who live here! I so miss the rest of you.

4. A sweet hug from our Lissie.

5. Watching Coltin pass the sacrament.

6. Visiting with Melany.

7. Having Frankie be so happy to have us back home again.

Have a great evening!

Nice Day!

2008-09-06T20:22:00.000-07:00

It has been a nice day today. Stephen and I went to The Crackerbarrel for our special dinner together. Just the two of us. The food was great - as usual. And we browsed in the store afterwards. They are all ready for the Fall holidays as well as Christmas. Lots of fun things to buy. But we didn't get anything this time. It was just nice to be able to go have dinner.

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Tomorrow morning we go out to Queen Creek for Cydney's blessing day. I'm hoping Kodi can take some photos of her in her blessing dress. Will post them if she is able to take some.

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Here is a new layout I did of Chris. He was our climber. And I wish I had photos of all the places we found him standing on or clinging to before the age of 6. Like when we found him almost to the top of the street light by our house. Or the time he was on top of a basketball standard. All the moms in the neighborhood would get so panicked over him climbing. They couldn't believe how calm I always was about it. But I had learned that Chris was NOT going to keep his feet on the ground. No matter how many times we talked to him about the dangers of climbing on such things, no matter how many times he was scolded, his feet were not going to stay on the ground. And I had also learned that he had good balance. He never fell or got hurt from any of his climbing adventures. Also, unless I wanted gray hair at the age of 30, I had to accept what was happening with this child and trust that angels would watch over him. This photo was of one of his safer climbs. I made up the little poem.

The 8.5 x 11 version:

Simple Pleasures for today:
1. Going out to celebrate our 40th Anniversary with my Sweetheart.
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2. Walking into the little entry way of The Crackerbarrel and noticing that it smelled like alfalfa!! I wonder if it was just my imagination or if they are scenting the air in that little space between the inner and outter doors to make us feel like we are in farming country.
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3. Hearing that winter seems to be coming early in parts of the country this year. And I hope it comes early here too!
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4. Watching four dragonflies flying in circles and swirls several feet above our heads and over the retention area by our condo. Two were dark in color and looked fat, and two were lighter in color and skinny. I enjoyed watching them.
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5. Getting two letters in the mail today! One from a good friend and one from a favorite cousin.
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6. Getting the utility bill in the mail today, also, and seeing that it is finally going DOWN!!!
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7. Seeing a blimp advertising the Outback flying around our part of the neighborhood.
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8. Finding a package of pinto beans that I had forgotten we had. Now I can make another crockpot full of chili beans!! They were so good when I made them the other day. YUM!!!
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Well, that's about it for now. Hope you all have a great Sunday. Watch for those Simple Pleasures that are all around you!

40 Years Together!

2008-09-06T00:30:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was our 40th Wedding Anniversary! Wow!! That's over half my life now that I've been married. And happily so. I have been so blessed to have such a great sweetheart. Here are some digital scrapbook pages that I did using our wedding photos.

It was just been a quiet day. Stephen came home at noon and we went shopping for groceries in the evening. We might go out to dinner today but we don't know for sure yet. We may decide to just keep this celebration low key and call it good.

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Hope you are all enjoying the Simple Pleasures today!

Photos From Our Whopper Storm!

2008-08-31T15:36:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2008-08-29T14:30:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-08-25T13:15:00.000-07:00

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!!

2008-08-24T19:47:00.001-07:00

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!

2008-08-20T22:56:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2008-08-14T15:46:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-06T21:57:00.000-07:00

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!!

2008-08-06T20:38:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2008-08-05T23:49:00.000-07:00

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!!

Another Day In Arizona

2008-07-29T15:59:00.000-07:00

Another hot summer day in Arizona here. It's about 104 at the moment. Not too bad considering how hot we have been so far this year. Plus the humidity is lower today. Wish it would rain again though. We need more rain!

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Today has been okay. Kodi babysat from 5:30 AM til 2:30 PM. The little girl she tends can be soooooooooo busy. She keeps both of us hopping at times. And she can be so "bored" and not wanting to do anything. I had to tell her today that she has a job to do when she is here with us. It's her job to not be bored. To choose to do the fun things we have for her to do. And that if she does choose to be bored, then that is her choice. That Kodi doesn't have to do things with her every minute that she is here. And I lined up all her choices for her to see on a table and pointed out several other things to do for her to choose from. Things went better after that. It's nice to be able to tend her, but it's nice to send her home with her mom some days too. LOL

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Okay! Scrapbooking!! Here are a few of my latest layouts. I had them on here before I redid my blog, so I'm just adding them on again. If you click on the layout it will bring it up bigger so you can read what is on it easier.

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Kodi and Shey at the fireworks.

Kodi

Kyran's Blessing Day when all the family came up to Show Low.

My Dad and Kyran on Kyran's Blessing Day. This was right before my Dad's surgery when the drs thought he had cancer. He was always tired during that time and he fell asleep holding Ky.

Kyran

This is a layout I did a while back. Stephen R. and Shane dressed up. This was at Kathy's house.

Kodi took this photo of Chris when we were at the cemetery for Uncle Jack's funeral. I just LOVE this pic of him. Don't know if he even knew she took it.

I used to live in that little beach community in the photo on the bottom of this layout. Played on that beach, too! That's Pedro Point, California.

I LOVE California Poppies!!

This is one of my favorite recent layouts. It's Kyran. I did it for a challenge. We had to draw a sun for our page. I thought mine turned out pretty good. A little cheesy. But, hey! Not bad for a first try!

Chris licking the beaters. Cute, cute!

Jake, Kyran and Chris - Cousins!

Chris and his dimples.

Stephen when he had his moustache. Love this photo!

And I guess that's it for today. Will post more later! Have a great day and be sure to enjoy the simple pleasures that are all around you!

More Cydney Pics!

2008-07-28T23:16:00.000-07:00

We got to go over to Chad and Heather's last night (Sunday night) to see Cydney for the first time. She is soooooooooo BEAUTIFUL!!!! I was able to cuddle her to my hearts content. It was so wonderful! This Grandma will never get tired of holding new grandbabies. I feel so grateful every time a new little one joins our family and arrives safe and sound.

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Anyway, here are some pics of Cydney. This one was taken before we got to see her.

These next two are pics Kodi took last night. Heather brought the baby out all dressed in pink, wrapped in pink and with that cute headband and bow on. Talk about melt your heart away!

And here is big brother Tristin holding his new little sister and the photo after that is of big brother Rylin with her. Heather said that she didn't think Cydney had spent any time in her bed yesterday. She was just passed from one pair of arms to the next all day. Those big brothers are so proud of this little sister and just can't get enough of holding her.

Hi All & New Grandbaby Has Arrived!!

2008-07-27T01:29:00.000-07:00

Hello All! I have started my blog over again in hopes of getting things back up and working like I want them to. I'll try to repost some of the layouts I had on here over the next few days.

Our new grandbaby has arrived! Cydney Dawn weighed in at 8 lbs. 1oz., 21 inches long, on Friday, July 25th at 8:20 PM. Mom and baby are doing well and Dad survived also. He's such a great Daddy. Stephen and Kodi and I all heard Cydney crying over the phone. She has a good set of lungs on her and I think this will come in handy seeing as how she has six big brothers to go home to.

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Chad and Heather were coming home Saturday evening if all went well. The hospital they had the baby at is a three to four hour drive from here so we are waiting til Sunday evening to go visit them. Hopefully Heather will feel up to us coming for a little while. I can hardly wait to cuddle this new little one and tell her that her Grandma Jan loves her. Here is her first photo!

I am looking forward to Church . Stephen teaches his lesson in High Priest Group. He really studies hard for it. I'm glad I don't have to do a lesson right now. I think I'm really going to enjoy being a Family History Consultant and I'm feeling more confident about being able to help teach other people how to use the new Family Search program the Church has put out. Our Temple District is one of the first to receive it and to learn how to use it. It's still in the process of getting all the bugs worked out of it. It will be so wonderful when everyone can have access to it. I really love the new features it has on it. It's a great program!

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I found new information on my great, great Grandma Magdalena this past week!! Someone who had information about her has finally posted it in the Family Search! I'm so excited. I have spent the past 10 years looking for anything I could find on her and my Mom searched even longer than that before she passed away. So this is wonderful to finally have all this new information! She is listed with her parents and siblings, and grandparents and great grandparents on both sides of her family. What a treasure!!! I would soooo love to visit with the person who had this information. I want to ask so many questions and hear whatever stories they have on her and her family. See photos if there are any. It has been such a long search. I feel myself becoming hook, line and sinkered into genealogy again and it feels good to be active in it again.

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I wish you could have seen the beautiful cloud formations today and yesterday. The whole sky was just full of them. Huge, wonderful formations with blue sky in between them. I should have taken pictures. We had a 30% chance of getting rain from the remnants of Hurrican Dolly but it hasn't happened yet. I'm thinking all the cloud formations were because of that storm. If the sky is that way again tomorrow I'll have to take pics! It was amazing to see the sky that way.

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Well, I hope everyone has a very happy Sunday. Remember to enjoy the simple pleasures that are all around you.