Things I want to remember they said....

In the front room eating Pez candy:

Kinley: I like red, Kyler likes red.

Grandma: Hunter likes red too.

Kinley: So does my cousin Broccoli ( Ambree)

Waiting in the car for Ambree's baseball game to be over:

Hunter: Do you have a TV in your car?

Grandma: No, I do not.

Hunter: Do you have a show on your phone?

Grandma: No, I do not

Hunter pushing all the button, pulling all the knobs and finds the tweezers.

Hunter: these are sharp

Grandma: Yes .they are you have to be very careful with them. ( I get out to get in the back)

Hunter: Hey, you're not coming around to take these from me?

Small accident happen:

Hunter: Don't tell my dad, he will be mad

Don't tell grandpa he will laugh

Grandma: Can I call mom so she can help us?

Hunter: Yes,she will bring new undies.

Chaos

Today the world is suppose to end. I do not believe the news.

However 2011 does not seem to be a good year. There is so much happening in the world and at home, that it makes me wonder.
At bookclub we discussed this and decided that the world and our lives are in chaos and I wonder if and when it will ever end.
This last month,

my sisters husband has passed away

my grandmothers basement flooded

Both Rob and I started new jobs

Easter

Mothers day

my great aunt died

Rob lost his job

my uncle moved in with my grandma

yard work to start

my uncle had a major operation

2 new church callings

good friends with bad health

Do we ever get to go back to the simple life?

Missionary quotes By Jeffery R Holland

Anyone who does any kind of missionary work will have occasion to ask, Why is this so hard? Why doesn’t it go better? Why can’t our success be more rapid? Why aren’t there more people joining the Church? It is the truth. We believe in angels. We trust in miracles. Why don’t people just flock to the font? Why isn’t the only risk in missionary work that of pneumonia from being soaking wet all day and all night in the baptismal font?
You will have occasion to ask those questions. I have thought about this a great deal. I offer this as my personal feeling. I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head.
How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? It seems to me that missionaries and mission leaders have to spend at least a few moments in Gethsemane. Missionaries and mission leaders have to take at least a step or two toward the summit of Calvary. If He could come forward in the night, kneel down, fall on His face, bleed from every pore, and cry, “Abba, Father (Papa), if this cup can pass, let it pass,” then little wonder that salvation is not a whimsical or easy thing for us. If you wonder if there isn’t an easier way, you should remember you are not the first one to ask that. Someone a lot greater and a lot grander asked a long time ago if there wasn’t an easier way

I promise that because of your faithful response to the call to spread the gospel, He will bind up your broken hearts, dry your tears, and set you and your families free. That is my missionary promise to you

Lily graduates

Last night we attended Lily's graduation from Preschool. It was cute and they are still singing the same songs our boys sang when they graduated from preschool. Matt was teasing Rob about attending. I had to remind him that we had been doing this for 30 years. Matt said he did not remember ever doing any of it. I said we do.
So to Matt who always wanted to put on a puppet show, worn and performed in the magician's cape that Aunt Dianna made, here is your song:
I am a policeman dressed in blue
here are the things I like to do
direct the traffic in your town, help to keep you safe and sound
oh it's my job
and I like it fine
no one has a better job than mine
And for Brent:
in the nick, in the nick in the nick of time
that's when kids arrive
not 1
not 2
not 3 or 4
but in the nick of time -- that's FIVE
and for Cameron
There was a snail called Herbert who was so very slow He caused a lot of traffic jams wherever he would go The ants were always getting mad and the beetles, they would fume But Herb would always poke along and sing this little tune Have patience, have patience Don't be in such a hurry When you get impatient, you only start to worry Remember, remember that God is patient, too And think of all the times when others have to wait for you When Herbert was much younger, he often got in trouble Forgetting that he was a snail, he did things on the double He'd crash through every spider web and with crickets he'd collide' Til one day Herbert's father took his speeding son aside As you can well imagine, there's a moral to this tale Some of you may find yourselves behind a creeping snail So if you get impatient and you're easily disturbed Think about this little song and take a tip from Herb
and for Colby who spent the 2 hours on the bus from Disneyland to San Diego, trying to learn this song, and even though all the other passengers will be haunted by it the rest of their lives, Colby still did not memorize it:
Oh she sailed away on a lovely summer day on the back of a crocodile
you see said she hes as tame as he can so I'll ride him down the Nile
well the croc winked his eye as they waved him all good bye
wearing a happy smile
at the end of the ride
the lady was inside and the smile was on the crocodile
and for Jessica,
who made me memorize these songs until I finally did then right
when you send a valentine, that's the time to run
shove it under neath the door
ring the bell and run run run
ring the bell and run
and
knock knock knock sounds like more, trick or treaters at my door
and
I open the door and what do I see
3 scary monsters looking at me
I give them a treat and then they flee
knock knock knock

Easter 2011

Hunter

Our tree climber

Ambree is just like Jessica. Except the tree has gotten a bit bigger since Jessica was climbing it.

Happy Birthday Ambree

7 wonderful years!!!

Playdough Master pieces

Happy Birthday Heather

Thanks Ambree for making dinner and decorating the cake. You did a GREAT job!

Dress up or treasure hunt-- Sundays are the best

Here are the girls in thier new dress up but the hit of the day was Colbys treasure hunt that he set up in the back yard. We are all anxious for summer!

Battle Los Angeles

Rob and I are not big movies attenders. It just got to be too disappointing. The movies are too much money, the seats are uncomfortable, the standards of other attenders below par, we down too much overly buttered popcorn and the movies suck. We like Comcast on demand. At home in our own little room, our own uninterrupted space, all we can eat and drink, we can move around and if we fall asleep, we can start it all over again today or tomorrow. Colby and Heather had given us a movie pass and so yesterday at work when it was suggested we see Battle Los Angeles, we went. I was not disappointed. I have been reading about WWII because of my grandpa and what I imagine was displayed on the screen. There was no nudity, no heavy duty blood scenes, no nutcase to make you feel uneasy, and they did not focus on the aliens. It was about people and the decisions they make and why. It was about being more than yourself. It was about the Marines and if you did not already love these young men and women who are out there fighting for us, after watching the movies, you will.
I do not think I have what it takes and I am not sure I ever did. I am grateful for those who choose to serve and defend our country and freedom.
Maybe in our own way, we are all fighting some type of war and their motto rings true to my heart.
Retreat- Hell!

A prayer

It is hard to sing of oneness when our world is not complete, when those who once brought wholeness to our life have gone, and naught but memory can fill the emptiness their passing leaves behind.
But memory can tell us only what we were, in company with those we loved: it cannot help us find what each of us, alone, must now become. Yet no one is really alone: those who live no more, echo still within our thoughts and words, and what they did is part of what we have become.
We do best homage to them when we live our lives most fully even in the shadow of our loss.
author unknown

I was watching Corina, Corina the other day. One of my most favorite movies of all time. I relate to the young girl who lost mother. I remember the same feelings, words, actions from when I was young. In the movie the little girl states that she wants to die. How well I remember that feeling.
Right after we bought our first home, I served in the Relief Society Presidency as second counselor. During this time, a father of 9 children was out jogging and died. I still remember visiting the wife. She was devastated and keep telling us she wanted to die. It bothered me and I went to my mother and asked her if she had felt the same way when our dad had passed away. She told me that she had never felt that way as she was all that us kids had left and she had a strong desire to live.

I have lost many loved one since my dad and many I miss terribly. But it is that feeling of loneliess that makes me still "want to die". Sometimes the emptiness is so great, so vast that I cannot get past it. I have been doing geneology and the desire is so strong to be with them again. Not only are they missed on this side of the vail but the other side of the vail is just as empty without "us" the us that we were together. I can feel their pull. I desire to be with them.

The world is so dark and I am drawn to the light again and again. I realize I am here on my own mission and will be able to return to my Father, Mother and my brother Jesus when it is completed. I am willing and able to find the path to be what I can become. It is just sometimes, I wonder................

One year ago today

One year ago today my grandmother passed away. It has been an interesting year and I have learned many new things about her. This last week my uncle gave me all her personal items. I was able to read letters from my grandmother and great grandmother and learn so many things about her life. Here is a small glimpse of her life:
My grandmother was born to Grace Evans,a single mother who had the fathers name removed from the birth certificate. My grand mothers birth certificate name is Geraldine Evans. Soon after Geraldine was born, Grace married AE Headley. From that time forward my grandmother was known as Fern Headley. Grace married to AE Headley was rocking and she left with Fern several times. AE Headley wrote beautiful love letters begging her to return and it looks like it worked. When Fern was 14 her mother died and Fern went to love with her grandmother Clara Evans. However before she could go to her grandmothers, her grandma made her change her name back to Geraldine Evans. When Geraldine lived with her grandparents she found out that her father was not dead, as she had been told all her life , but he was a live. Geraldine set out on a quest to find him and she did find him. There were a few letter between them, her father wanted to get to know her and told her that he had been divorced for years and had search for them but were never able to find Grace or Geraldine. They had only a few correspondences and then he died. Geraldine never got to meet her dad.
Soon after Geraldine become a single mom, who moved to Salt Lake. My grandmother, Jean tended Geraldine's son Greg while she worked. Within 3 years Geraldine was married to my grandpa and was a part of my life for 54 years.

Patent pending

I have gotten a new job and had to go get a drug test. This is a new experience for me and I will have to say it was NOT pleasant.
First, it is at insta care and everyone there is sick! I take in my little paper and they let me know that they only have one machine so it will be about a 50 minute wait-- in the sick room.
So I go out to my car to wait out the majority of the time, decide I have time to run to the bank and get some money and then once I have money , I decide I need a burger so I pick one up and return to read my oriental trader catalog.
I am called to the back with the rest of the sickies,, told I have to take off my jacket, leave my purse, wash my hands and then given a small cup to pee in and shown the bathroom. The nurse had no bed side mannners at all. She is not pleasant and I am not pleasant back. There is no shelf in the bathroom. I am not sure how they expect you to wipe and still keep the cup in hand. I make it out and hand her my pee cup, it is extremely humiliating and I hate it. She makes me initial the cup and electronically sign for the pee cup. Then I am free to go.
Surely this is is about as humiliating as you can get. what amazes me more is ho wthey treat you like you are guilty before you even pee.
So I have thought of the Drug testing toilet. When you can just pee on the pot and it goes into the toilet which contains the machine to test for drugs. Kind of like a one stop shop without everyone having to touch the pee cup.
I need to start to look for funding.

Lunch with an old friend

I had dinner tonight with my friend Maria. She had recently tailored Rob's new suit and I happened to mention that Rob was talking about stopping by to thank her and show her what a great job she did.
She was anxious for him to stop by and when her did, he could he bring some of those red hot poker plants from the back yard and a shovel.
I was laughing and could hardly wait to tell Rob as he is a little in debt to her for the rush job on the suit.
Then Maria remembered that her furnace filter needed to be changed too and could I send him over.
It just made me laugh!
Who know what the list will look like by the time he gets there!

Lacey the Horse

Grandma: laughing, laughing, laughing
Kyler: My mom and dad do not think it is fun. They are not laughing at all. My mom hates it.
Grandma: laughing laughing laughing
Kyler: Grandma they really are not laughing
Grandma: Does Kinley like her birthday pony?
Kyler: oh yeah she loves her so much
Grandma: do you like Kinleys birthday pony?
Kyler: oh I really love the pony too
Grandma: laughing laughing laughing
Big smile
Grandma: kyler can you pinch the ponies ear so grandma can hear it sing
Kyler : yes
Grandma: laughing laughing laughing
Yes, being a grandma is great. You can buy what ever you want. Revenge, payback or what ever you want to call is Bliss!

One year anniversary

It has been one year since the fire/ repair and we moved back into our house. I would have to say it has not been an easy one and we have not come very far. But we are finally getting back to our lives. Losing the sale of our home was not that bad and really we did not lose any personal items in the fire so that was good. Three months plus in a hotel was okay. But we were depressed and had lost all confidence in ourselves and could not find it, as we faced one trial after another. I lost my job. My grandmother passed away. There are always family issues that do not allow the heart to heal. And even though we kept our personal circles small and did not venture out much, it seems there was not much good happening around us. I got a job but neither of us were happy at work. It was one tough year. And I didn't realize how bad it was till Thanksgiving when the kids made dinner here at the house and I had no cornstarch. It was the straw the broke the camels back. We decided to pull back together.
I have a new job, Rob is looking for a job, we have made new commitments to ourselves and others. We want 2011 to be better. We want to be better and we are the only ones who can make it happen.
We lost one year of our lives. I do not know where it went but that is going to change and this year hopefully will be the one that will be unforgettable.
I thank my lord, my brother Jesus and my wonderful husband for getting me through it. Without them--- who would care and want to even go on.

Happy 3rd Birthday Kini-bell

How did you grow so big so fast???
And what a special day.
March 3 turning 3
We hope it turns out to be a lucky day for you!!!
And since all you want for your birthday is PINK
Grandma and pa got you something extra pink!!! We can hardly wait for the party!

Sisters

Conversations of a six and five year old.
Brookie: What if we went to the store and meet a boy five year old and a boy six year old.
Lily: ugh?
Brookie: The the boys liked us and we liked them.
Lily: ugh?
Brookie: And then they asked us out
Lily: ugh/
Brookie: HEY WAIT! How would they pay for the date?
Lily : ugh?

You are my valentine

All dressed up and stuck at home

It was the sisters ( Lily and Brookie ) sleep over this weekend and it has been packed.Lily came with a list of things she wanted to do. Friday night we had Kayden and Ryan so we went to the gym to go swimming ( check off the list) then to Gecko's for ice cream, scones and burritos ( in that order too) It was was busy night so it was no suprise that it was 10:45 pm before we ever got to bed. Then the sisters were up and going around 4:30 am. Obviously Mcdonalds is not open that early so we watched cartoons till 6:00am and headed over. Two hours at Mcdonalds ( check off the list) then we headed home. We cleaned the house, painted nails ( check off the list ), played with all the cushions off the couch ( check off the list ) and finally headed out to go shopping. We went to Smith so the girls could go to play land but Lily cried so I ended out staying out side the door for the whole hour. Then when I tried to move the cart around the store, it was almost crippling as it was too much for my finally mended knee. So we grab one jar of mayo and left. We then headed to the dollar store. The dollar store was easier as they left me to shop. Lily picked a flute, baton and a potted plant. Brookie picked a new purse, socks and notebook. When we got home Ambree and Hunter were here and although we wanted to go to a movie, we ended up going out to dinner. Then home to bed about 8:30 and painted our toe nails ( check off the list )Less than one movie later, they were asleep. Only up twice during the night, once for a drink and another time with a bad dream. Then up agian at 5:30 this morning. I was up cleaning but turned on cartoons for them. When they finally came down , we gave Frodo a bath ( check off the list ) had breakfast, pancakes for Lily and eggs for Brookies. Then they played while I worked on dinner. I thought I had planned it right and put them and their dolls in the bathtub while I finished off. I get one out of the tub and do her hair then turn on the TV. Another one out of the tub, do her hair and instruct them to both watch TV while I get ready for church. I am running a bit behind so I send Rob ahead to save seats. I get ready in record time ( 1/2 hour) and when I come out of the bathroom ready to put the final touches and leave --HELLO- they are both sound asleep in the bed. No one is going to wake them up and dog gone it, I wore them out so I am not going to let them sleep for their parents. So I am here alone and the girls are asleep-- hey wait I am not quit along as Cameron is here looking for his coat and he gets to see way more than his coat. Serves him right for being so quiet. I am loving it.

San Diego California

Wow_ what a fun weekend. Arrived in San Diego on Friday night. Stayed that night in the hotel to eat and rest up for the weekend. Saturday morning, arise early and swim, free breakfast and then down to Seaport Village for the day. The weather is perfect and we just enjoy ourselves. First cruise ship we see, we want to be on it! There are face painter, musicians, impersonators, vendors, boats, planes, stores and restaurants. Best stores-- Pirate and the shell shop! Good food and plenty of sun for every one. When we have had enough time in the sun,we head home for a nap before going to the gaslight district for dinner. Not often you walk 1 1/2 miles to eat.
Sunday we go to Balboa park and visit the international village and spend the day getting to know all the countries, people and food. Head back to the hotel for the Sunday siesta.That night we head to Old Town and have dinner. Monday I have to work at the convention but as soon as I am off, we take the ferry over to Coronado for dinner and shopping. Tuesday, I have to work and then we head home. It was short and sweet.

Words that make me happy.

When Kyler was small we loved to play with Play dough and the easiest thing to make were worms/snakes. Sadly unlike his grandma Kyler does not like real worms or snakes and so we had to come to an understanding,
Grandma: Kyler, do worms have eyes?
Kyler: No, snakes have eyes
Now I have Kinley and this is her favorite saying
Grandma: What do dogs eat?
Kinley: dog food
With Lily is goes
Granda: How is Ella?
Lily: she is fine.
I love talking to them like this as it is our special code but love it more when Kinley asks, Grandma what do dogs eat? Or Lily tells me Ella is fine without me asking.
Ambree is always asking me to tell me a story about the boys. I have many but for some reason just can't remember them all. But I am trying. So when Ambree says, Grandma tell me a story, I will have one.

You are my sunshine