Suprised!

Regular friday night at home. Went to a movie that afternoon with Grumpy and saw Red Tails. Good movie. Tried a new restaurant, Dona Anitas that was the best one so far in regard to the kind of Mexican food we like. Not much to look at, but the food was pretty good. Got home. Jammies on, blankie out, iPad on and TV on. Quiet night at our apt. Grumpy went to bed about 10 since he had to teach more Aviation Merit Badges to about 30 scouts on Sat. It's 10:30 and I'm Pinning away and there is a knock on our door. No one ever knocks on our door. Especially not at 10:30. I'm thinking someone is lost looking for an apt. I look out the peep-hole and see a thumb. I say "Who it is?" and the thumb disappears. I see R.B. and Stacie. My mind thinks "What?" I open the door and it is R.B. and Stacie. Beyond Surprised. I don't get all animated, but I can tell you I am plenty animated on the inside! They flew in and got a Taxi (didn't know we even had a Taxi service here), R.B. said there were 2 taxi's at the airport. Got to our gate at the apts. and just started pushing buttons. Eventually they hit on a combo that worked (real secure gates) and found our door. No small task as this is a big complex. Of course I woke Grumpy up. He was surprised too! They kept telling us our Christmas present would be delivered in January. Now we know what they were talking about!

Saturday Grumpy went to the Merit Badge Academy, Stacie slept in and R.B. and I went to breakfast. We did some shopping at Best Buy for Grumpy's computer and went to see if Stacie was up yet. She was. We went shopping again with Stacie this time and I saw the inside of Kohl's for the first time since we moved here. Then they went to the bag and jewelry store and I went to Hobby Lobby next door. I needed to find an implement that would cut circles. I had made some baby shower invitations for someone in our ward and I needed to cut them out. Hand done wasn't working very well.

Found one. (I ruined about 3 of them, and then caught on. It worked really well. R.B. cut the last few for me.)
We went to the Shoe Carnival so Stacie could hopefully find some boots. One thing we have a lot of here is boots. She did. I sat in the car as we all know how much I love to shop, but she said the shoe store was really a good one. Nice to know when I do need to go sometime.

Later Saturday we went to see Man on a Ledge and then to a teppinyaki restaurant called Shogun. They have really good food there and it is an entertaining show as well. We were all so miserably full afterwards, all we could to was go home and put on our jammies and hang out. (literally for some of us). Sunday morning Grumpy made blueberry muffins for us since we don't have and pancake/waffle stuff on hand. They were good. Stacie was being shy in the pic above since she had just gotten up. After snarfing a muffin, I started cutting my invites and just visiting. We all got ready for church and headed out.

Made Swiss Steak for them after church as that is one of R.B.'s favs. Me too. I love that stuff. We had Girl Scout Thin Mints (found some sellers in front of the shoe store and R.B. bought a couple boxes) for snacks and spooned down some Mint & Chip ice cream for dessert. Grumpy had Ben & Jerry's (he doesn't like mint). How can anyone not like mint? Watched Courageous Sunday night. Good movie.

R.B. got Grumpy's sound working on his computer and got him better connected to the internet. He and Grumpy hung our T.V. on the wall for me. I like it much better on the wall and now the other components can go underneath it on the mantel. Thanks R.B. and Grumpy!

Took a pic of them in front of my Grandkid wall of frame to prove they really were here! I love it when I can be with family. They were so sweet to come and see us. I know even with discounted tickets, it is expensive to travel.

It was certainly one of our most memorable Christmas presents ever.
Thanks for coming and making January a better month.
Love you guys. Lots.

Cousins, long ago

Thanks to Nandina (top row third from left), or Russ (left of Doug in the flight suit)? whoever posted this photo on Facebook. Wow, what a bunch of kids we were. So funny to see how young we all were in this. And we all still like each other! That's pretty awesome considering we don't see each other very often anymore. I am standing next to Marlane on the top row. (in the blue/green shirt)  I love your flight suit Doug! Tracy has her Barbie box. I think it was taken at Grandma and Grandpa Schnepf's house. We lived across the street from them, and next door to Uncle Max and Aunt Carolyn. Must have been Christmas. So fun. I have such a great family.

Bicycles, Skates and Hula Hoops

For some reason unknown to me I have been thinking of the childhood pastimes of my youth. Maybe it's because Taya's family got bikes this year.  There is so much video game technology in the homes and apparently my subconscious is in high gear. For whatever reason in the early morning (I don't want to wake up) hours, I find my dreams/memories going to the days of childhood play. Sadly, I have no pictures of my roller skates, hula hoop or bike, but found some similar pics on the web to use.

Some of the things I remember:

Riding my bike everywhere. It was what they now call a beach cruiser. A Huffy, green and white. I rode to friend's houses, to the grocery store, to the ever popular A&W Rootbeer Stand that was a couple of miles or so from my house in Chandler. Most of the time with friends. There were no helmets or knee pads. Kidnapping wasn't as prevalent, I didn't even wear shoes most of the time. I rode to my friend Nancy's house and all over Chandler. Of course it was a much smaller city then than now. I remember after moving to Mesa, riding to the (now gone) Dog & Suds for a hot dog and a rootbeer. , to my friend Marilyn's house and there were various and many other friends houses as well. I loved riding my bike because it got me where I wanted to go faster than I could walk. I loved riding my bike because I could go really fast and feel the wind rushing by my face. Look Ma, no hands. Yep, did that too. Bikes are great. Kids should spend more time on them.

I had a brief but passionate affair with the hula hoop. As much as I loved hula hooping, I just wasn't very good at it. I can still remember entering a City of Chandler Hula Hoop Contest (I must have been about 8). I thought I was going to win the day. I thought I could keep that hoop going forever. Wrong. I was one of the first ones to disqualify by my hoop falling down to the ground. So disappointing. I reserved my hula hooping to the back yard.

Speaking of the back yard. When we lived in Chandler, we lived next door to my Uncle Max and Aunt Carolyn. Since our parents were related, and built the houses about the same time, there was no fence between our back yards. Just one, big, two house size back yard. I loved that. I could run over to my cousins house right out the back door anytime I wanted. That house is still there. It remains in the fond memories of both Nana and Papa as an all time favorite. Nana would talk about it often and kept a set of builder's plans for it. Papa still talks about it, and we drive by now and then to see it. 800 W. Tyson St. in Chandler. Good memories.

Now about the skates. Roller skates. No in-line wheels or boots to put on. Just adjustable skates with yes, a key to tighten them onto our shoes. Where were the helmets and knee pads back then? I could have used them. I remember being so determined to learn how to balance and skate on wheels. I would go out every day after school to practice and learn. I did master the forward motion, not falling down and I could do a great u-turn, but beyond that was not in the cards. I never learned to backwards skate or do any tricks. Oh well. I still had a lot of fun skating around the hood.

Some of my other pastimes were the still popular Barbie Dolls, I had a larger doll I called Revlon and I loved (but never had) the then popular Betsy McCall doll. Those are all a topic of their own.

Hopscotch was a fun game and I did love jacks. I would play both of those with and without friends around for hours. I was pretty good at jacks, but never competed in any contests. (memories of the hula hoop no doubt.) I still have a set of jacks somewhere. I have been known to buy them once in a while for no good reason. It would be a cold day in H@&& before I would/could sit on the floor with knees folded to play jacks. I buy them just the same. I loved the "superballs" when they first came out. They were yellow and had such a great bounce.

All great memories and I'm glad I played outdoors. Outdoors is a good place to play in.

2012

Really? Hard to believe it is here already. I'm glad to say goodbye to 2011 although it was a better year than we've had for a while. On the upside we were able to get a house of our own again. I don't feel so displaced anymore, and I am grateful to those who helped us over the last few years. My personal downside is that we live in Texas most of the time,(only visiting our house and our kids), and that is hard for me. I am so very thankful that we enjoy a good job in our lives in this hard time nationwide. If that means we live in Texas for awhile, then that is what we will do. My mantra has become "This too will pass", and it will. Someday we will be back in Az, with all that goes with that and it will be good. For now, I'll visit as often as I can.

I love and appreciate my family so very much. Our children, grandchildren, in-laws, (and outlaws as Dawson would say), our parents, siblings, nieces, nephews, friends. I reflect often these days at how much the Lord has blessed me. But I have to say after 38 years, I am truly blessed with the best husband ever. I can't even imagine a life without him. I don't know why at the tender ages of 21 and 22 we decided on each other, but I am glad we did. We just celebrated our 38th Anniversary, and I hope to celebrate many more. Thank You my Honey for being my knight. He is my protector, my champion, my partner, my friend. He even loves me at my worst. That's saying something.
We are a great team, but he is truly my strength.

I did good.