. . . i'm back at it

some people call me 

. . . crazy . . . nuts. . . insane

others say . . . 

. . . i couldn't ever do that!    

to which I reply. . . 

. . . if I can do it - you could do it!!

and then they say . . . 

. . . oh, but i would NEVER want to do that!! (implying that i'm CRAZY again!!!)

and some people say . . . 

WHY are you doing it?

 . . . alot depends on my mood when i answer this one (especially if they keep insinuating that i'm CRAZY!!!!!!!!!)  

So pick the answer you would want to hear from me . . . 

a)    i'm not sure why i'm doing it

b)    cuz i'm CRAZY!

c)    i was inspired to do it

d)   to help me through my mid-life crisis

e)   cuz i need more face-book friends

f)    so i can be smarter than my kids 

then they ussually look at me and roll their eyes . . . ok, yes . . . thinking "she IS crazy!"

when people ask me . . .

. . . is it HARD?

I say. . .

. . . no, not really - - - time consuming. . . yes . . . but hard?  no, no, not at all!!!! 

(i wouldn't want them to think i'm CRAZY!!)

anyway . . . no matter what anyone thinks . . . 

. . . after a nine month break . . .

. . . i've got my nose in the books . . . . . . 

. . . and i am back in college . . . . full-time

 

. . . taking 14 credits . . . going 5 days a week. . . 

majoring in sociology with a minor in marriage and family studies!  

ok, Yes, I agree with you . . . I am CRAZY!!!

But I love it!!

and i'm almost done - - - only ONE semester left after this one

and I will have my bachelors degree!!!!  Yippee!!!!!

I know I can do it! I HOPE I can do it!!

so . . . people say to me . . . 

. . . what are you going to do when you are all done?

i smile . . . and with a sheepish grin (waiting for the CRAZY thought to show up on their faces again)

i say . . . what else???  

. . . . master's degree?!?!?

Look at how we've changed

Ok I stole this from my niece's blog but I just couldn't resist putting it on mine. (thanks Heather!) In my last blog I mentioned that it had been about 15 years since my family had been together. Well, this picture proves it. This picture was taken at my brothers house the last time we visited there, back in the early 90's. (In fact my other brother and his family weren't there then, so it has been even longer since we had been together with them.)

Anyway enjoy taking notice of the hairdo's, the big glasses, the 80's themed clothes and how young we all look.


The picture below is how we all look now. Take notice - Mindy, who is in the black & yellow striped shirt, is the little one on grandpa's lap in the previous picture.

Wow - what a difference 15 years makes. 

I hope it doesn't take us that long to get together again!

A special day

On Sat we went to Utah to my dads funeral. The weather was very chilly and we were all freezing, but the spirit was strong and that warmed our hearts. 

One thing that made it a really special day was that my family (Joe, 4 of my 5 kids, my two brothers, my sister-in-law, and 9 out of 13 of my neices and nephews) were together for the first time in about 15 years. We really had a good time just visiting and catching up. After the service we had a really nice luncheon and just sat around and talked and laughed remembering Grandpa and good times we shared with him.

All of the cousins had a really good time getting to know each other (I'm not joking when I say that we really haven't seen each other and been all together for many, many years). We all felt like we don't want to wait so long to see each other again and so we are going to try to get together again soon (and not at a funeral.) Thank heavens for blogs so we can keep in touch with each other until then.  Here are a few pictures.

 

My brothers and me and our families (the ones that were there)

My family (minus Hollie & Cameron and Amy Joy. We missed you guys)

My brother Gary, & Kristina and Lars

My brother Tom, his wife Margie and Todd, Heather, Chad & his wife Beth

(Ryan, Tyler, and Erin weren't there - missed you guys) 

Me and Mindy with Grandpa :)

Scott, Rhiana, Mindy and Amy

This is one of my dearest friends Ada and her daughter Staci 

with Mindy and Amy

We have been friends for 30 years and she came and surprised me at the funeral. 

It was so good to see her.

It was a special day! And I am sure that my dad was looking down on us all with pride and I'm sure he approved of everything that happened that day. 

Surprise Surprise

When we got to Scott and Amys house for Christmas we were sitting in the living room visiting and all of a sudden Scott said, "What do you guys think of the Christmas stockings Amy made?"

Amy is so creative and did such a good job making them. They looked so cute hanging on the wall.



She had made one for Joe and I.


And one for her and Scott

One for baby Joseph

And even one for the dog in the shape of a bone.

But wait . . . what is this?!?!?!

Hanging right in the middle of all the stockings????

hmmmmmm. . .

could it be?!?!?!

SURPRISE!!!!!

Coming attraction!

Arriving sometime in August!!!

Yippee!!! We can't wait!!!!

I will miss you daddy

Have you ever had a day when you have felt both saddness and happiness at the same time? 

Well today was one of those days for me.  

Today my 94 year old dad passed away.  It wasn't too much of a surprise when I got the call from my brother.  We were kind of expecting it to happen soon.  But it is still a little 

shocking when you hear the words that your parent has died.  

So, this has been a day of mixed emotions for me.

I'm sad because I wont get to see him again in this life.

Sad that I didn't get to spend more time with him the past few years.

Sad that my kids didn't know him better.

Sad that he died alone without me or my brothers with him.

Sad that we all have to get older, (which is starting to scare me a little bit.)

BUT:

I'm happy that he isn't miserable and lonely any more.

Happy that he is reunited with my mom and his parents and brothers and sisters, etc. (Can you just imagine the party they had as they welcomed him home?!!)

Happy that we got his house cleaned out and everything else taken care of last summer so we don't have to worry about it now.

I'm so Happy that Joe and I got to see him at Christmas.

Happy that I was able to tell him how much I love him and hug him and kiss him just 3 weeks ago.

Happy that he was as healthy as he was right up until the end and that he died peacefully.

And so happy to have the gospel and the knowledge that our family can be together forever.

Today I've been thinking about him alot and I have so much to be grateful for.

I'm so grateful to have had the greatest dad in the world.

Grateful that he taught me so many wonderful things.

Grateful that I was his special little girl that he called "Toad".

Grateful that I had him in my life for 51 yrs.

I celebrate his life, his accomplishments, his example, his love, his legacy.

My life has truly been blessed to have "Wimpy" for my dad. 

I dedicate this to him.

Dad, I will miss you but I look forward to the day when we can see each other again.

Dad, I love you tons!  Oh . . . and will you tell mom hi for me and that I love her & miss her too when you see her!!

Christmas day criminals . . . well. . . almost. . .

On Christmas day Joe and I went for a ride to find a grocery store to get a few things for dinner that we had forgotten to get earlier. We went to a couple of stores close by and nothing was open. But we finally found an Albertsons that had cars parked in the parking lot. Good sign!! There were people walking in. Even better!! Yeah! They must be open. So we went in too.

As we walked in the automatic door wasn't working and was only open a few inches. Joe had to push it open so we could walk in.

I noticed that only half of the lights were on in the store.

My thoughts: "They must be having a slight power outage."
Joe's thoughts: "We better hurry. . . they must be about ready to close."

I sent Joe to find a couple items and I hurried down an isle to find a few more. I noticed several people talking to a lady over by one of the cash registers.

I assumed: "She must be having a hard time getting the cash register to work since the power is out."
Joe's thoughts: "This is weird!"

I grabbed a couple bottles of BBQ sauce and as I was coming back up the aisle . . . I heard a strange conversation between a man and a lady.

Man: "I'm just going to take it and I'll come back tomorrow and pay for it then."
Lady: "Yeah, me too. I need these oranges today so I'm just going to take them but I'm going to leave my name, address and phone number and I'll come back and pay tomorrow too."
Man: "And maybe you should call the cops!!!"
Lady: "Ok, good idea!"

Wait. . . WHAT!?!? Ok. . .I don't know about you but hearing the words "Call the cops" got my attention. As I got back to the front of the store I met up with Joe and we both looked at each other with puzzled looks on our faces.

I said: "I think we better get outa here. I don't think this store is open."
Joe said: "Yeah . . . let's HURRY!!!

So we put down our items on the nearest counter and quickly pushed back through the door and headed to our car. We saw the "orange lady" out in her car and I asked her what was going on. She confirmed our thoughts that the store was not open.
She had called the cops and they were on their way.

I said (While holding out my empty hands): Well you are our witness that we didn't take anything.
She said (Holding up her oranges): Well I'm taking these but I left my name and I'm going to come back tomorrow and pay for them. You could do the same thing if you need too! I'm sure it's fine!!"

WHAT . . . wait!!!!!

Weird - why didn't she just leave some change or a check or something for her oranges? Or why did she (and others) think that they could just walk out with out paying?

Isn't that . . . stealing . . . sort of?!?! Last time I checked. . .ummm. . . yeah . . . sort of!!!!

Strange - Why was the store open? Did someone accidently leave it unlocked? Or did someone break in? And if that were true - were they still in there while we were? Ewwww. . . scary!!!

Fact - Isn't "breaking and entering" a crime? The last time I checked. . . ummm. . . yep . . .

I think it is!!!!

Rationalizing: Technically we didn't "break in" - we only pushed open the door that wasn't working and shouldn't have been open. We did "enter" but only for a few minutes!! And we didn't take anything . . . (but our finger prints our all over the place.)

Question - Were we "criminals" for a few minutes!!!!! Were we witnesses to possible crimes?

. . . Were we on their security cameras?

Reality - We didn't hang around to find out!!! We left and eventually found a store that (we made sure before entering) had a door that worked, lights that were on and was REALLY open.

Our thoughts: "Only in California . . ."

Fun in Vegas

Our first stop on our trip was Vegas. The main reason we went was so that Joe could go to the BYU vs Arizona Bowl game with a couple of friends.

Even though it wasn't a great game for BYU, Joe had a great time. They had excellant seats - 14th row on the 42 yard line. You can't ask for a better view than that. I have to say though that I was secretly cheering for U of A (don't tell Joe!) I had to be loyal to my roots!! haha

While Joe was gone to the game I met up with my niece and spent the evening with her. We went to a great place for dinner and then we did some shopping. Then she took me to a candy factory that had a neat Cactus Garden all lit up with Christmas lights. It was really different seeing Christmas lights on cactus. I don't think I would want the job of putting them on or taking them off. But I'm grateful that somebody did because it was really pretty.

We stayed at the Excalibur Hotel. I think the lady that checked us in liked us so she gave us a beautiful room on the 27th floor with a great view of the strip.

(this pic is courtesy of the internet. I forgot to take pictures)

We didn't do any gambling or go to any cool shows (I guess we are kinda boring) but we had a fun stay in "sin city" and it was a great way to begin our vacation.

WOW!!! WHAT A CHRISTMAS TREE!!!!

We went shopping in Newport Beach to a really cool outdoor mall and in the middle of the mall was this HUGE Christmas tree.

You can see in this next picture that Scott tried to take the picture with us and the WHOLE tree in the shot . . . but it wasn't easy to do since the tree is so BIG!

I took this picture standing at the base of the tree looking up.

It is a real tree that was cut down at Mount Shasta, CA. It weighs 20,000 lbs and is 115 feet tall. It took a 10 man crew 2 weeks to decorate it. There are over 23,000 lights on it and 17,000 ornaments.

(We didn't get to see it at night,

but I found a picture online that I posted below)

This next picture was taken from the 3rd level of the parking garage. Look at how tall that stinkin tree is!!!! It is the tallest Christmas tree on display in the U.S. Unbelievable!! How would you like a house big enough to hold that tree??

Christmas in California was definately different - with no snow and being so warm. But when I saw this tree it really helped me get in the Christmas spirit. It was a spectacular sight.

SCOTT AND AMY JOY ARE GREAT HOSTS!!

Amy made cute stockings for us

They had their house decorated so festive

We made sugar cookies

which Santa loved by the way!!!!

We got a lot of nice gifts including a really big surprise 

a 42 inch flatscreen TV from all of our kids.

We had so much fun spending Christmas with Scott and Amy.
They really made it special for us.

Thanks you guys - We had a blast!!!!!