Thursday, December 31, 2009

Christmas is FUN (another ‘delayed’ post) sorry. I thought this was posted already

And I can hardly wait.  Lindsay arrived on Friday evening, John and Rachel on Saturday, and Amy and Spencer this evening (Sunday).  That means we can start making gingerbread houses and decorating cookies, and wrapping gifts, and stuffing stockings and all the FUN stuff.

Rachel has been cooking some awesome meals and all the cousins are having such a good time together.  Amy brought “Cities and Knights” and proceeded to whip me soundly, again.  One of these days, I will be victorious more that twice in a row.  But I need to practice more first. 

The fun stuff has begun and I want to be right in the middle of it all.  I love my family!  Parker, Emma, and Tayleigh helped me clean up the magnets this afternoon and did an incredible job organizing all of them!  I am impressed.

Friday, December 18, 2009

It’s FREEZING up here!

Sorry this post is late.  Just a few glitches, that’s all.

In fact, it’s way below freezing.  The last time I looked at the weather in the middle of the night, the temperature was at zero.  According to my calculations, (which were pretty fuzzy in the middle of the night), 32 is freezing, so 0 degrees is 32 BELOW freezing.  Glad I have a toasty down comforter. 

I could NOT go to sleep last night and have now slept half the day.  What a waste of good Utah time.  While I was not sleeping last night, I was able to check e mail, and work on Christmas cards…just one for each of our children’s families with their gift from us.  I’ve checked on John, who is feeling a little better today than yesterday.

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Emily was baptized this morning at a very special ceremony where she was the star.   Her whole family sang together while Sarah accompanied them on the flute.  It was beautiful and I had no idea Sarah was that good already.  I LOVE flute music and would love to hear her even more.

After the baptism, Lesa & Kevin had a little brunch that was delightful; then Karl & Karla had the whole family over on Sunday for a delicious dinner.

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You can see by the pictures who did most of the work.  And who had fun playing.

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And there were those who had to study … good job, Leah.

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It was a fun evening and we topped it off looking at Christmas lights on the way home.

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I’ve done two really stupid things lately and the second one is so painful, I can’t remember the first.  Karl took me Christmas shopping  – just for me and that alone made me feel quite special that he would take time to spend with me.  We had an enjoyable time talking and laughing and found exactly the game I’ve been wanting for months: Settlers of Catan!  My next goal is  to talk SOMEONE in to playing it with me. 

Anyway, about the stupid thing, as Karl and I finished shopping and headed out to his car, I hit an icy spot and before I knew it was flat on my bum.  How embarrassing!  of course someone besides he and I witnessed and tried to help me up.  When asked if I was all right, I told them it was mostly a very bruised ego, which is quite true. I never even saw it coming because the parking lot didn’t look icy at all.  So, I’m feeling pretty dumb now and hoping I never remember the “other dumb thing” since I’ve had enough humiliation for one day.

Taking stock of the injuries:  mental/emotional – incalulatable; physical, bruised, throbbing, bloody knee (first point of impact) with quite a good sized goose egg.   Not the greatest ending for such a lovely day. but I’ll be fine tomorrow.

Hmm.. not as “fine” as I’d hoped for, but surviving ok.  I remember the other stupid thing I did and will chalk that one up to fatigue.  One night when I had difficulty getting to sleep, I decided to just get up and work on making those cute little boxes Julie M. taught us to make at WWWW.  Lesa is planning to give them to each sister in the ward R.S. with little chocolates inside for her birthday, along with a personal visit.  What a lovely idea.  Only 103 boxes.  That’s not too bad.  Ok, back to ‘stupid’.  I was cutting cardstock down to the right size, and then scoring it for the folds.  Lesa’s scoring blade is too sharp and was actually cutting, or tearing the paper, which in turn would weaken the box.  I removed the blade and ran it over my index finger to check . . . and cut a slice all the way across, causing immediate and profuse bleeding; well, enough that I couldn’t work with paper without smearing it.  A bandage really hampered my ability to make the precise folds, so I quit box making and decided to go back to bed and play “text twist” until falling asleep.  Have you ever tried to use your mouse pad with a bandage?  It doesn’t recognize the bandage.  So much for games.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

WWWW and Eliza’s birthday party

I LOVE this blog.  Even if no one ever reads it.  I will have this record to keep and look back on.  Thanks again Sara and Mark.

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This is the “goofy” picture but Lesa, Rachel and Julie E. look pretty solemn.  I have lots of fond memories of our third annual WWWW in Park City.  It was fun.  And Julie M. really started something with the card and box making.  I still haven’t quit . . . a hundred or so items later.  Each one totally different from the others.  Our first WWWW in Salt Lake City was cool, and Lake Arrowhead was nice for the second but I think I like them more all the time.  Gee, I hope you feel the same.

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Either before or after Park City, some time when we were in Utah, we got to help celebrate Eliza’s birthday and that was fun.

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I wasn’t going to publish this so large but don’t you just love Kevin’s new look?

P1000596 P1000611 P1000602 P1000613 Of course I didn’t get pictures of everyone who was there.  It was hard not to totally focus on Eric, with his adorable antics.  But at least I got the birthday girl and a few cousins!

Oh! This is fun. More Reunion Pics

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Now isn’t that a beautiful bunch of people?!  There are so many more but it’s hard to choose.  It was a fun time, even if we did nearly have to call the fire department about John’s cake with 75 candles!  Good grief, he is OLD.  But still pretty cute.  And he’s getting to be an expert with Text Twist.  We enjoy playing that together. 

Today, we need to pack for the cold snowy weather in Utah so we can make it to Emily’s baptism.  I look forward to seeing all of my Utah families while we’re there.    Wow! I’m a blessed grandmother.

Monday, December 7, 2009

A Rare Rainy California Day

It’s rained most of  the night and a good solid rain today.  Enough for the fire victims to worry about mud slides.  It seems so cozy inside with the Christmas lights on and the overcast sky outside.  A fresh, hot chocolate and chocolate chip cookie day.  I love it and we certainly need it.  I want to learn how to insert pictures and will do that today if it kills me.

Somehow, this post got “lost” in cyber space (I go there a lot so I found it easily).  I WAS going to take a “rainy day” picture to insert but it would have been lousy with NO GRAND CHILD to include.  I love all of you even if you have taken our grandchildren so far out of reach!

Sunday, December 6, 2009

…more Christmas with Sara and Mark

This has P1000627 P1000629 P1000632 P1000650been a delightful day!  First of all, Sara, Mark and family came to our ward and I had one of the most fun Sacrament Meetings for a while.  I LOVE EMMA, and GABRIEL and ABIGAIL!  They are so adorable and fun.  Mark and Sara were fun too.  I can already tell December will be memorable, mostly because it will be written down here for me to remember and read again.  Sara and Mark created this blog for us and tried to teach us how to use it in a quick lesson.  But we can depend and their further help too.  And maybe some of you will have suggestions for us.  What a nice gift!  And, they taught us how to post a comment on your blogs as well.  Now if we can just REMEMBER.

We got a nice early start with Kevin and Lesa the day after Thanksgiving.  The whole family pitched in with the decorating and it went quite well.  The girls really seemed to enjoy it and that made it more fun for us too.

The Mark Ward family just drove off heading for St. George and it’s way too quiet here.  I miss them already. 

Joel is doing the “12 Days of Appreciation” for over 300 staff at the school he’s teaching.  He’s a maniac, but we already knew that.  I love my family!  mom/sjpw

Fun at the Ward’s

It is always fun to stay at Grandma and Grandpa’s. We did lots of fun things. One highlight was going to feed the ducks at Hartwell Park.

Gabe smiled the best he could so he could get back to chasing pigeons.

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Grandpa brought plenty of food.

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Despite efforts, no one was able to catch a bird in their hands.

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Grandpa and Sara got a good laugh watching a panic-stricken Mark keep Abigail from falling in the water.

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Grandpa helped Abigail to walk on the balance beam for the first time.

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He helped Mark too.

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And we had California Pizza Kitchen as an early celebration of Sara’s Birthday.

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