Introducing . . .

. . . baby Gneiting #2

Aren't ultrsounds awesome!!!

This is my 2nd little Grandchild

Scott and Amy Joy's baby at 19 weeks.

They have decided not to find out if it's a Boy or Girl until he / she is born.

Amy is feeling good and is doing well on her bedrest.

Baby is growing nicely.

August is going to be a wonderful month!!

I can't wait!!!

It's Spring!

. . . . in Idaho!!!!!!!!

WHY MEN ARE NEVER DEPRESSED

Most women are just too high maintenance I guess.
Men are just happier people--

Yeah right!!! Life is just easier for them!!!

Your last name stays put. The garage is all yours. Wedding plans take care of themselves. Chocolate is just another snack. You can be President. You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park. You can wear NO shirt to a water park. Car mechanics tell you the truth. The world is your urinal. You never have to drive to another gas station restroom because this one is just too icky. You don't have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a bolt. Same work, more pay. Wrinkles add character. Wedding dress $5,000, Tux rental $100. People never stare at your chest when you're talking to them. New shoes don't cut, blister, or mangle your feet. One mood all the time. Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat. You know stuff about tanks. A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase. You can open all your own jars. You get extra credit for the slightest act of thougtfulness. If someone forgets to invite you, he or she can still be your friend. Your underwear is $8.95 for a three-pack. Three pairs of shoes are more than enough. You almost never have strap problems in public. You are unable to see wrinkles in your clothes. Everything on your face stays its original color. The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe decades. You only have to shave your face and neck.You can play with toys all your life. One wallet and one pair of shoes--one color for all seasons. You can wear shorts no matter how your legs look. You can 'do' your nails with a pocket knife. You have freedom of choice concerning growing a mustache.You can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives on December 24th

in 25 minutes.
No wonder men are happier.

Drum roll please . . .

da da da dum . . . .

Mindy has received her mission call . . . . 

She will be serving in the 

Russia Novosibirsk Mission!!

She will enter the MTC on July 15.

We are looking forward to learning all about this area.

Here are a few facts that we have found out already:

General information on the city of Novosibirsk:

 

The third largest city of Russia

Location – middle of Russia 

Unofficial capital of Siberia  

Area - about 500 square km 

 Population – about 1,5 million people

It is a large cultural center with many museums, a lot of churches and cathedrals, 

beautiful historical buildings & monuments.

Here are some pictures that I found online of the buildings in the city.

We are so excited for Mindy!! 

We think this is going to be a great experience for her!!!

If any of you know anything about this mission please let us know!!!

Where in the world . . .

. . . is Mindy going on her Mission?

Yes, that's right! My baby girl is going on a mission.

She has submitted her papers

and now we are just waiting for her to get her call.

So take a guess - where do you think she is going???

Thanks for your prayers

So far so good. Amy is doing better. Now we just have to help her stay down for the next 6 months on complete bedrest. Bless her heart! She is already bored and it has only been a few days. But I know she can do it. Scott is pampering her and I am going to try to go down and help them as much as I can this summer. I will be done with school for the summer April 10 and so I'm planning on going down to help if they need me. Anyway here are a few pictures that they had on their blog so I stole them to put them here.
Here she is in her hospital room. They are in Newport Beach, CA and the hospital is amazing.

One reason it is such a great hospital (aside from wonderful doctors, nurses, yada, yada) look at her view from her room. That is the ocean in the background. You can't get a better view in a resort in Hawaii.

Here is Amy's wonderful husband (oh yeah . . . and my son!) He is so good to Amy and never left her side while she was in the hospital. He is so good to take care of her and make her as comfortable as possible. What a guy!!!

And here is Amy at home making the best of this situation. As you can see she is doing pretty good right now. She just has to stay right there for the next 6 months. And as you can see they have a watch dog named Billy and he is keeping his eye on her. His job is to make sure she doesn't move!!! I think he is doing a pretty good job, dont you? Good job Billy! And good job at staying down Amy!! Love you!

Again, to all of our friends and family - thank you for your thoughts, prayers and concerns. I will continue with updates once in awhile to let you know her progress.

Update . . .

Amy Joy is now home from the hospital. She is still having pain but it is subsiding somewhat. She is on medication to stop contractions and is now on complete bedrest. Please remember her and my little grandbaby in your prayers. Thankyou.

We need your prayers . . .

This entry was on Scott and Amy Joy's blog this morning. I just copied it right over so you all will know what is happening with them and their little baby. Please keep them in your prayers. We are praying for the Lord to let them keep this baby (which by the way is doing fine) and of coarse we are praying for Amy's health.

Ok Amy's surgery was today. We have been getting lots of calls asking how it went. Well we have come across a few little complications. I just ran home to get some stuff and am just about to head back to the hospital to be with Amy. I am going to make this a fast blog. But this way you all aren't wondering why we haven't called you back yet. We showed up at 10:30 am and the surgery was scheduled for about 12. During the surgery she started feeling everything they were doing and that wasn't good. They had to stop, remove all the surgical stuff and redo the spinal tap. The anesthesiologist said that in his entire career of over 25 years he has never had to do a spinal tap twice. So that was weird. We were told that the recovery is usually about 2 to 3 hours even with two spinal taps and that she wouldn't have any real pain because of the surgery. Well 6 hours after the surgery she had still not regained movement of her lower body and she was experiencing some major pain and contractions. On a pain scale of 1 to 10 she was saying it was a 7 to 8. The pain seems to be getting worse also. We thought we would be home by 3 or 4 at the latest today. We are now spending the night at the hospital. We are hoping the pain and any contractions slow down and stop. If things go the way we hope they do then we will probably be home before noon tomorrow. Thank you for your prayers and calls.

Is it a coincedence??? You decide!!!

Trivia about President Lincoln and Kennedy
(I stole this off of my friend's blog. It is really cool!)
Thanks for sharing Kathy!

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.

Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.
Both wives lost their children while living in the White House.

Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.
Both Presidents were shot in the head.

Now it gets really weird.

Lincoln 's secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy's Secretary was named Lincoln .

Both were assassinated by Southerners.
Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson.

Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.

John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839.
Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.

Both assassins were known by their three names.
Both names are composed of fifteen letters.

Now hang on to your seat.

Lincoln was shot at the theater named 'Ford'.
Kennedy was shot in a car called ' Lincoln ' made by 'Ford'.

Lincoln was shot in a theater and his assassin ran and hid in a warehouse.
Kennedy was shot from a warehouse and his assassin ran and hid in a theater.
Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.

Coincidence? You decide.

One year later . . .

It was one year ago today, Feb. 10, 2008 that we all gathered to see and hear Pres. Monson dedicate our beautiful temple. We are so blessed to have a temple in our midst.

A little trivia:
The dedication was to be held on February 3, 2008; however, due to the death of Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley and his funeral planned for February 2, 2008, the dedication was postponed one week and was dedicated on February 10 by our new Church President Thomas S. Monson.

Have joy in your mothering . . .

I have a college class called "The Family" and the whole semester is spent studying "The Proclamation on the Family." This week we have been studying about the divine responsibilites of fathers and mothers.

I liked this quote from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland and so I thought I would share it with you. So this is for all mothers, soon to be mothers and future mothers out there.

"Mothers, we acknowledge and esteem your faith in every footstep. Please know that it is worth it then, now, and forever . . . Yours is the work of salvation, and therefore you will be magnified, compensated, made more than you are and better than you have ever been as you try to make honest effort, however feeble you may sometimes feel that to be . . . You are doing God's work! You are doing it wonderfully well. He is blessing you and He will bless you, even ---- no, especially --- when your days and your nights may be the most challenging."

. . . 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!!!!