May's Entertainment

Once in a great while when Grumpy will stop working long enough we spend an afternoon at the movie theater. That happened over the Memorial Day weekend. We went to the AMC at the Stapley/Baseline location and went in to see the new “Star Trek”. Is was really good and we enjoyed it. We managed to get through it without the obligatory popcorn that is such a part of movie going. However, the next movie, “Angels and Demons” had to have the stop at the refreshment counter for a large sack of popcorn. I of course had to add a Coke to the day, and it was my second time to Angels and Demons. My thoughts on this movie were something I shared with Grumpy afterward and we had a good discussion. I know it is just a movie, but it is fun to theorize about the way this and that are done etc.

I have been reading again, just for a way to get my brain to shut out the everyday worries, etc. With the 4th of July coming up, I decided to read a series Papa has had on the shelf for long time. It is about the Revolutionary War and our fledgling country. The series is called “Prelude to Glory”, and is 8 or 9 volumes. It is a good way to learn a little more about the history of our nation and approaches the things that happened with a spiritual point of view. Yes, George Washington was inspired to do the things he did. Yes, the people who fought did so with prayer and deep commitment to be free. It is about a fictional family that you follow through the historical events and political climate that led to our eventual freedom from Great Britain. I think reading this series has made me more aware of the freedom we have enjoyed and the sick way our present administration is taking away so many of our rights and freedoms. I am enjoying the time reading about this great nation and hope that the people of this country will wake up and be aware of the issues they should be. I looked for the covers on the Deseret Book site, but they were not on their site anymore. I hope they are not out of print.



The girls and I have had a couple of movie girl nights in which we saw “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past”, (a little on the coarse, gross side for me), and I finally bought “Bride Wars”, to watch here at home because I never made it to the theater to see it. I really liked that one, it was fun to watch. The girls bought summer movie tickets through the elementary schools that are fun to do with the kids. I think there are 10 movies, the ticket for the whole summer was $7. It is a great way to go somewhere with the kids and enjoy the theater experience. Our first one was “Space Chimps” which I hadn't seen. We took up the whole row and it went pretty smoothly. We bought 2 big buckets of popcorn and got the courtesy water cups for the kids to have their own cup of popcorn. Carson and Lauren especially loved the movie. They sat very quiet and made the funniest comments now and then. Wednesdays are summer movie days from now until the last movie has been seen. I love spending time with all my girls and the summer movie tickets were a great idea. Thanks Tawna for getting mine for me this year.

There are a few movies coming out this summer that look good - I of course am anxiously waiting for the next Harry Potter and “New Moon” of the Twilight series. Fun times ahead. I love movies and books. What a great way to be entertained and sometimes even learn something.

Fathers & Sons

During the middle part of May, when all male church members traditionally celebrate the restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood to the earth by holding Father & Sons Campouts, our family males did likewise. Robert, Jamie and Kevin had to stay behind due to work obligations, along with J.T., Jake and Daron, but the rest of us took for the Rim Country late on a Friday afternoon. The younger boys were starving by the time we reached Payson (only one hour later) so we did the obligatory stop at the Golden Arches! Then it was back on the road to try and join up with R. B.'s ward near Woods Canyon Lake. The directions we had from his ward were pretty terse and no help at all...eventually we gave up looking for the ward and started just looking for a good campsite before dark. We settled on a nice spot and began setting up camp- Nate and Jeff set-up their brand-new tents for their boys and them, and I set-up our old green tent for R.B., his boys and me (I immediately declared this the last campout for "old Green!").





We got a fire going as quickly as possible to start getting coals for the adult's dinner- good 'ol "yucka" burros!
Everyone ate to their hearts content and we had plenty left over. After sitting around the campfire for a while, one by one everyone turned in for the night.

The next morning I got up first and took a little hike to look for Elk. I think Jeff and his boys did the same not too long after me. Since we had planned to be with R.B.'s ward for the traditional pancake breakfast, our breakfast was pretty strange- twinkies, chips, cookies, candy and soda/juice. Luckily I brought myself an apple...otherwise my diet would have taken a big hit from that conglomeration! :-) After snacking, R.B. broke out the B-B guns and everyone from him down to Carson and Aden got a crack at hitting the targets.





For a while there I had a bit of intrepidation about what was going on, but we all survived without anyone getting hit! Then we took the boys on a long hike (walk) to tire them out for the drive home. After a few rest-stops for the shorter-legged campers, we returned to camp, took a few pics and packed-up for home. R.B. and I took his boys and Taylor to lunch at Sonic on the way home, thinking Nate and Jeff would follow, but they shot by us like they needed (or wanted) to get home quick!




On the drive home, R.B. asked me to reach into his bag and get a snack for Carson. Out with the snack came a piece of paper that had the exact directions to the place where R,B's ward was camped! and with them, our pancake breakfast! oh well...But all-in-all we had a great time together and it was especially nice for me to spend time with the majority of "my boys" all at once. Hopefully, Robert, Jamie and his boys and Kevin and Daron will be able to come with us next year!

If You Had Asked Me…

If you had asked me even two years ago about bottling jam, I would have said “Heck No”. (I edited for the blog) I am here to say, Never, say Never. After learning to do strawberry jam with Tracy, I have decided it is not only fun, but so easy. I thought it was a lot of work, so never wanted to try it before. Jam is really easy, and I actually like it. I'm not much of a jam eater, but have learned to appreciate the home canned varieties. I was in the kitchen last night getting ready to cook the last batch of Apricot jam and get the jars in to process when Grumpy comes in with the camera. He wanted me to pose with the finished jars that were cooling, so I did. He then comes over, gives me a kiss and says, “You have gone crazy you know!” I know I say, but it makes me feel good to learn to do this and then have the food on the shelf. He gave me a look that at best can be described as “skeptical”, but hey, one man's insanity is another man's therapy. (Or something to that effect). Insanity is contagious as I have done jam with almost everyone in the family at this point. I think it is great. I love that we have fun, get to spend time together and get food in the process. Jacque and Gramma H. have been over to do strawberries and it was good to see them. Jennifer has done strawberries for her and Robert and helped me get going on my Apricot jam last night. Jade and Tawna have a good supply of strawberry jam now, and are looking forward to doing some other flavors, and Taya was the recipient of some of my learning jars. She was busy potty training her Lauren, so I did some canning for her and her family. Potty training is the pits. I know Stacie has an anniversay trip coming up, so I'll have to wait to get her into the kitchen for jam. I have so many things I want to learn to can. We are just learning more with every project. So for now, the insanity/therapy continues.

The Latest Tag

6th File, 6th Picture. As if my organization methods are that conducive. It is me and Summer in the kitchen probably making birthday dinner for Papa, since it is from a folder full of September 08 pictures. It looks like chicken frying in the background and Summer and I are making salad or something. Fun times.



I'm not keeping up with the birthday dinners very well lately. Sometimes they just get away from me. I'm thinking Jamie, R.B., maybe Stacie, and I'm not sure about the rest this calendar year. Got a bunch coming up in July, so I better gear up. Now if I can just get the rest of the jam done, maybe a few green beans and some corn and carrots too. I love to can.

I hope I can settle down long enough to think straight a little later so I can post about the crazy week. Gotta love it.

Mother's Day Memory

I don't think I have had such a nice, relaxing Mother's Day in a long time, or maybe ever. I want to thank my sweet honey for his great effort to give me such a nice day. Perfume, cards, dinner, gifts - I didn't even get stuck with clean up. I want all my kids and my husband to know how much I appreciate everything. Apparently I was so relaxed, I didn't even take any pictures. Even so, the day is locked away in my memory and is treasured for sure. I love, love, love my family. Thank you all.

Grumpy is on board!

I guess Grumpy will be posting now and again, and I couldn't be happier. I always love to hear what he remembers, and how he feels about things. Now he can post under his own identity, so my pic doesn't come up. His own mug will be attached to his musings. Looking forward to it honey!

A Boy was Born

Thirty-one years ago. Doesn't seem so long ago, yet sometimes feels like forever. Grumpy and I were in Okinawa, Japan while he served a 3 year tour of duty with the Air Force. We were living in a little house outside the base and the whole island was on water rationing. We had water every other day. It was a pretty awful little house, and I have to say I was suffering big time from culture shock. Of course messed up hormones weren't helping as I was expecting our fourth child. I turned 25 soon after we moved there, and life was very different from anything I had yet experienced. Whether from state of mind, circumstances, physical conditions, or a combination of everything, I was soon clinically depressed and physically ill. After visiting the Dr., Grumpy and I made the decision to send me stateside to have the baby. This was not an easy decision, as it would mean at least a 6 month absence from each other. That seemed like an impossibly long time. I was so sick, we decided to make the sacrifice and be apart for that length of time. The Dr. gave me a verbal clearance to board a plane on Okinawa along with Tawna, Taya and Summer. I only had enough time to throw a few things in a bag and go, Grumpy would send more of our things later. I was very sad as I boarded the plane and knew that I could be bumped off anywhere along the route home if there were active duty personnel that needed our seats. I wasn't worried that Grumpy would be okay, but I knew he would miss us terribly as we would him. On arriving in California, I called Nan and Pop to please come and get us from the airport when my connecting flight landed in Phoenix. They only had that one hour notice that I was coming. They were there to pick us up, and that's when I found out Nana was supposed to be at Tracy's baby shower. Tracy was expecting their first baby in a few weeks. She was sure surprised when Nana brought me in, and I don't remember anything else about that night.

It took me awhile to recover from whatever was wrong with me physically. My depression was awhile getting better too, but eventually I was feeling better. The months went by and I remember doing some random projects. I did some interior design work including painting for the small terminal at Falcon Field. I did some similar work for Dr. Farnsworth's OB-GYN offices and made a couple of huge macrame hangings for the new house Nana and Papa were planning to build. Then, it was May and I was ready for my baby to come. Nothing too dramatic about the delivery. I was in the hospital overnight as I was contracting enough to stay, but not really doing much until the Dr. came in to check me in the morning and then things moved pretty fast. I remember being so pleased that we had a boy, and knew that Grumpy was looking forward to having a son. I do remember holding him for the first time and the thought came to me that I should breast feed this sweet baby. I hadn't had a very good experience with that, so kind of blew it off and stuck with the decision to bottle feed. Wow, would I come to regret ignoring the spirit trying to tell me what I needed to know. That is a whole other story.

I called Grumpy to let him know he had a 8lb. 3oz. son and he was very excited about it. He was coming to some kind of training or something in California in a few weeks and got permission to come and see us in Arizona before he had to return to Okinawa. He came, we got permission to have R.B. blessed in Nana and Papa's home before he had to go back. It was hard to see him go. After a few more weeks Grumpy called me and said it was time to come home. I knew it was, but it was very hard to leave Arizona to go back to Okinawa. That trip is also another story. I returned to Grumpy with 4 children and many misgivings about what was in store for us on this tiny island. R.B. spent a lot of time in a baby-pack wrapped around me, but seemed content while I tried to get everything moved into our new (and better) house in a section of the island called Awase. The best thing about it was that we were all together again and that was the best. We were happy to have this little boy in our home, and of course things would never be the same again. So glad that R.B.'s birthday is usually so close to mother's day. I truly appreciate his spirit, his crazy personality and all the things that make him R.B. I love you son, and am ever grateful you came to us. Happy Birthday. (even if you are the oldest 31 year-old you know.) I wish I had pictures to post of all these things, but sadly, must not have had a camera as I have very few pictures of these times. The ones I do have I haven't scanned yet, so I guess I have a goal to get those done. We'll have to settle for this one of you taken at Austin's baptism. Someday I'll find the one of you with your two-year-old almost chubby body in your superman underwear. Now that was a good pic.