My b-day Oct 29th big 51

Well, this year was way low key compared to last year. I was tired and just wanted to stay home and read, what do you think I was reading????? You guessed it Twilight, Rebecca got it for me and I bought the other two. I started the day early substituting for seminary. I am probably the only person that would look at that as a gift to me. I got lots of wonderful phone calls all morning, went to lunch with a good friend, and read the rest of the day. I was going to go out to dinner, but by the time I got home from lunch I just wanted to sit and read with a blanket on me. It was cold and kind of raining. So Steve went and got shrimp, bread, and Strawberries. It was great. I think we are going into town a week from Friday for my b-day with the valley people.

I will take pics of my presents tomorrow, I got two cute hats from Steve, a cool new blade for my Cuisinart that makes french fries from Lizzie and Shad, and Twilight from Rebecca.

I then proceeded to read until 11:30pm, got up the next morning and continued to finish the first book by about 1:30. I started the next book in the evening. (I had to get some things done) Then today I finished the 2nd book, and will probably start the 3rd book tonight. Now lest you think my life is one big cushy life, I chose to do nothing for the last 3 days (at least most of the last 3 days) to read. I decided I needed some time off, my life has been nonstop crazy since July. I feel like I did when I was a young mother and would sit on the couch for 3 days and do as little as possible and read. The kids would destroy the house and I didn't care. It was worth it. I had to feed them and change diapers of course, but I think that is all I did. At the end of 3 days, I would have finished my book and was ready to go for the next 6 weeks. I still read, but not non-stop. You can tell that I don't have little kids to interrupt me now, since it took me 3 days back then to finish a book versus one day now!! There has to be some perks after all those years of diapers, sleepless nights,cleaning up vomit in the middle of the night several times, never sleeping in until Danielle graduated and went away to college, and etc. I loved those years though and would never trade them for anything. I tell my daughters, enjoy the years with the celestial people in them. Once they turn 8 and get baptized the world changes!!

Well, I need to study my weight watchers topic for tomorrow and start the third book! :-)

Yea!!!! The Garage is Done (for now)

Well, Saturday night at 7:30 I started taking pictures. I thought I would never get done. It is all the little screws, nails and etc. that takes so long!!!!! For those of you that never saw our garage before, (I forgot to take a before pic) we have lived in this house for 4 years and 2 months. During that time I have been able to park in my garage on two different time periods that didn't last long. Our garage has never been empty enough to park both vehicles. One day we decided we must think our garbage and crap is worth more than our vehicles. Here on the coast things rust very rapidly, and our precious garbage got to be protected for 4 years while our cars have slowly started to rust.

I am posting a lot of pics but it took me a long time and I need to post the finished product! It may look still crowded, but we took two loads in Steve's Forerunner to the dump, one full load in the back of my van full of stuff to St Vinnies, and one full van load to the recycling. Not counting the stuff that cluttered and is still cluttering our kitchen, and the stuff that went into the attic. Anyway Steve helped me one day, the other 3 days were just me.

The for now statement is because now that we can actually get to our 72 hour pack, I am going to go through it. We would have about killed ourselves if we had tried to get to it before. Also I am going to go through our food storage and improve it. Plus I am going to go through my baking shelves and organize them better!!

For my family you are probably wondering what the white things are beside the freezer and refrigerator. When we purchased our Newport Vacation Rental we had these cupboards we took out of the craft room , we brought them home to put in a shop for Steve. Then we decided that we didn't need a shop and so I said I wanted to put them in our garage. Steve screwed them into the wall, and I put the doors on and filled them up.
As you can see I still have lots more room!! Yea for me.
we have actually moved the coolers to the other side now and moved the garbage can over to this wall. You know how it is, once you start to use it, it becomes obvious what works and what doesn't.

the back pack and stuff above is our 72 hour pack. If we can drive out we will take a bigger tent and our stove. If we have to walk out we have a back packing tent attached to the pack and a backpacking stove. I will carry the sleeping bags. I am grateful for the 10 years of 4th year hikes!!!
I don't know if you can tell, but I drilled holes in the wood that this saw was attached to and then put screws in the wall so we could hang our chop saw, cool huh!!?
This is the inside of Steve's, shop/closet. The pic on the left is for tools, it is so great to be able to find tools w/o ourselves!! The shelf to the right is one of his fishing shelves the pic below is for more fishing supplies, look at the empty space, Christopher Lowell would be proud!

Now the pic on the left is the wall , I hung up all the life preservers up high since he doesn't use these as often.
And now for the finished goal!!! tight quarters, but we did it!!!!

Day 2 on the Garage

Well, I knew it would take time to do the garage, but more than 2 days?!!! Part of the problem is today was only me, and I have spent a good share of the time cleaning the shop/closet. I am getting so close to being done but with weight watchers tomorrow I fear it will be Saturday or next week.

The weather has turned. The rain has started. Part of me is ready. Well, this is very short, but I am tired and there is only so much I can say about my garage!

Home and Blogging again

Well it is always good to be home. Today was one of those rare wonderful, no wind days. Steve and I took a walk on the beach for about an hour, it was wonderful. It was one of those days when we were in the house I had a hard time looking at Steve while he was talking.

It was a very busy wonderful time at Jakes. Ruby and I rode horses morning, noon and night time. I never knew 2 people could ride horses so long and to Africa and back so many times, nor did I ever dream we would run into Willy Wonka so many times. Our ride would start at about 6:30-7:00 am and continue until about 8:30 to 9:00am. I am not kidding. My horse was a very old one, it was made of gold velour and shaped very much like a stuffed rocking chair, it was very fast though, I won several gold medals. Ruby's was a very cute stuffed horse that rocked on wooden rails. Her's was also very fast, she also won many gold medals. The first day we rode we thought we were being very quiet, so as to not wake up everyone else. I forgot because of the way Jakes house is arranged that the horse room was above Jake and Lyndsey's room. Lyndsey managed to sleep through the first ride, but Jake said we shook the whole house. He said it was really funny. So for the next few days we didn't ride quite so vigoursly.

I cooked, cleaned and played. By 9:00pm every night I felt like I was going to fall right to sleep.

Miles is doing well, he is just so small and sleepy that it is hard for him to finish a feeding. So they are working on ways to get more food into him so he can get stronger. He is a very calm, noncomplaing person. I am axious to get to know him better. I feel like I already do know him, hmmm, maybe cause we already have known each other ! Anyway I am anxious to get reacquainted.

Jake and Lyndsey looked tired most of the time. The plight of newborn parents.

I got home on Friday early evening. We watched Batman Begins. I am not a Batman or Spiderman or any ____man fan usually, but I enjoyed it.

Saturday I tried to be totally lazy and do nothing. But when you have been gone for a week it is hard to do nothing.

Today I got the recycling all gathered up, smashed boxes and filled the back of my van, the back of my van w/o seats!!! Tomorrow we are going to clean the garage!!!! I am so excited. Our goal is to be able to put both cars in by evening. We shall see!! We decided we will have to start very early!

Well, a little treat here in the end, little Miles and Ruby the day I left, he was two weeks old.


Now is this too beautiful or what?


Nothing quite as sweet as this.

For my children, after you quit looking at Miles, check out my nails, they are mine. I wasn't even trying to stop biting them, it is weird!!

Finally here!!!

Well, I am at Jakes and Lyndseys today! Yea for me and Steve. I was getting a little cranky. The first pic is the quilt. I was very happy with it. I like it a lot.
The rest are pics of Miles, I know are a lot the same, but he is soooo cute it is hard not to include them all. There's nothing quite like the faces of a newborn. He's a good little baby, nursing well, doesn't cry too much yet! Has his days and nights mixed up, although we are hopeful that he will sleep a little better as he was more awake today. Fun, Fun!
I thought this one was very artistic, an accident of course.

I'm a sleepy boy, don't bother me!

I don't think you heard me.

Oh allright.

Ahhhh, this is better!

Miles is here!!!!

Baby Miles came to the world today!! I have only seen pics of him on Amy's and Megan's site. His other grandparents are there right now. It is hard not to run over and hold him. I will go over on Friday to help them out. He was 5lbs. and 12 ounces and 18 1/2 inches long. He came into the world at 10:30 am.

What a lucky grandma I am to have at least one set of grandkids nearby!!!! I will post pics when I am there. You know how fast they change!!!

Brown Sugar, Quilt, and Lizzie's visit

I have been married 32 years. Over those 32 years I have tried many things to keep brown sugar soft. Key word "keep", I know about apples and bread and etc. to soften it after it gets hard. But I only saw one thing that kept it soft, and that was a clay thing my sister-in-law had and I searched and couldn't find another one. Soooooo I researched on the internet one more time, and I read that if you used a glass jar with a rubber gasket it would keep soft. I looked everywhere, because for our use it needs to be not too tall, but be able to get a measuring cup in it. Guess where I got my the perfect jar???? You guessed it container heaven-The Container Store. It was only 5.49 cents!!! You can't get better than that. I have had my brown sugar in there now for a while and it is still soft and wonderful! Had to share that so you all won't go 32 years. Oh if you want to keep it in the bag sealed w/o air that will work also.

Okay, I am making Miles a nursery, so the pics below are the fabrics for the quilt, and the quilt is the pattern I am using. Will take pics of the whole nursery when I am done.


Lizzie has posted pics from her trip, but remember I am a grandma, so bragging comes with the passage of being a grandma. Below are LOTS of pics of some of the cutest kids in the world, hope I don't bore you to tears. I included a lot of me because Lizzie and Amy are the only ones that take pics of me, (amy does when the kids are around) and it is important that I exist in the halls of history. :-)

Tanner and I on a mission, we were making tunnels and a mountain



Playing with cars in the tunnel

Lizzie took all the pics so here is the only one I could find except the cute ones I took of her and Tanner playing on in the waves that she already posted.

My mom and dad came out on Wednesday so my dad could help Steve with our new vacation rental. My mom knows more songs than anyone in the world, the grand kids love to sing with Nonny.


Me with the kids

Friday Jake's fam and Amy and Mike, and Megan and Greg came out. Lizzie already posted pics of Amy and Meg, so I am just posting Ruby with Tanner and Me!
They loved jumping on the bed, something I dont' think I let my kids do! But you know how it is, grand kids get to do whatever they want at my house!!

We played on the beach, made a tunnel, which they promptly destroyed, and then a mountain we sang around and that they took turns jumping off of.

I love pics like these, it makes you wonder, what were we talking about?


We tried to get a pic of them on top of the mountain together, they acted all shy and wouldn't look at the camera.


Gotta love the Ruby faces

Ruby wanted me to draw around her, so I did, then she wanted to draw around me. As you will see, I am very large, is that because she is little and doesn't know how?,is it because she thinks I am large? or do you think it is because I am important in her eyes? I choose the last!!!


Ruby doesn't weigh much and still likes to be carried, so I do off and on.

There was a dead seal, which I will spare you the pics amy took of it!! Ruby and Tanner were facinated by it, we had a conversation about death, pretty heavy. It made her sad to see it the first time.

On Sunday we made cookies. Tanner and Ruby were so cute and it was fun. Tanner immediately started eating his when he finished decorating his first cookie, decorating was not his first priority. Ruby on the other hand wanted to decorate more cookies before she started eating. Do you think that man loving food gene is already a part of him?





Well, it was a busy, fast, fun weekend. I am adding these two of Tanner and Meg because it looks so serious.



Steve and I had a great week and a half with Lizzie, Tanner and Kate. As we all say so often, I wish we didn't all live so far apart! One last pic, of Tanner's foot, nothing cuter than that!