Update

Well, it's been busy at our house. A week ago today I took Steve to get his first colonoscopy-I know a really great subject. We have both avoided them, he took the first big step. The results weren't terrible but it motivated me to sign up for one. When I get back from my trip with my sister, I think I will set up an appt. He had 6 pollups (like that name) that if left in there were the kind that would have turned to cancer. I am so glad he had them taken out. Needless to say I believe in colonoscopies.

Then on Friday I took him to Portland to get his eyes lazered-it was take care of Steve week. It has made a difference for him. I thought it wasn't really necessary, but now that he did it I can see he really needed it. I am glad he did it. Now we are constantly putting eye drops in his eyes. We spent the night at Jake's and Lyndsey's house. Jake made us a wonderful dinner and breakfast. The next day we went to the zoo. It was great fun. I will post pics later but here's a sneak preview.
Don't you just love Miles hat!

Yesterday I bought and ordered seeds and plant starts!! Ahhhhhh such a wonderful thing! I will have a lot more seeds than that. I bought those at this really cool Feed and Seed Store. It is in Toledo a little town just outside of Newport. The really cool thing about them is they will order the seeds I want and not charge me for shipping. She said they will come in this week! Pretty cool! I also got fresh local eggs there. It is now getting ready to be a 3rd generation store. Gotta love that!

The other night I was sitting at the computer and called Steve to come and look.It's a rough life, but someone has to live it, so I will carry the burden! Love you all!!!

Snowy Day!

Snow at the ocean is a rarity. It happens only every few years. The other day it hailed like crazy then it started snowing. I couldn't believe it so had to grab my camera! It didn't last of course. The next day it was absolutely gorgeous, still freezing but the sun was shining the ocean was blue. I took an hour walk on the beach and didn't see a soul until the last 3 minutes I was on the beach. The sun made it look like there were diamonds floating on the ocean.

I went to our Stake Women's conference this weekend, it was amazing. I was deeply moved by the main speaker. I also attended a class on order in the home. It was a great reminder,refresher and I learned a few things. She had the "rule of three". If you have a big project just do three things each day and it will eventually be done. Also she said to get rid of the junk drawer. She said to take all the stuff out put dividers in it and then little boxes or containers and have a place for everything. I loved how she said that nothing in your home should be "homeless". I liked that!

Then I went to a boring staff meeting for weight watchers. After that I ran into Costco very fast, because I had to meet someone I took with me to Woman's conference at the little mall in Albany. So I literally walked as fast as I could through Costco, grabbed a little sample of dry cereal and the young man that was running that sample table said" excuse me mam". The way he said it was in a way that I felt like I had to stop and go back. Low and behold it was Matt that Danielle used to date in high school! I was so excited and happy to see him, I hadn't seen him in almost 5 years. He looked great was working at Costco, going to Oregon State studying History and two other subjects. He wants to be able to teach three different subjects. I was so happy to see that his life was moving forward. Then I was in such a hurry I left my purse in the cart at Costco. I realized it when I went to pick up Melissa. We roared back to Costco which thankfully was only 10 min away and I ran inside and it was turned in and everything was still in it! I was so grateful. It was comforting to know that there are still honest people in the world.

Today we went to church, still no calling yet.

I got a new computer and printer. My computer is is almost all put together. I had to buy a new Print Shop program. I had to order it. I don't think I could live without print shop. Other than that, most of my programs still worked. My web designing program didn't work, but Clay is designing a new one anyway. I finally bought an external hard drive-Lizzie's suggestion. So now I can backup my pics to that and not have to worry about making discs. I have a few things to learn and get used to, but that will come.

Hope you all had a great weekend! Missing some peoples blogs, even if they think there life is boring the rest of us don't think so! :-)

Love you All!!!

Two days in a row of blogging! Wow!

I woke up earlier than I planned today and couldn't go back to sleep-a blessing from Heavenly Father! I thought oh well, I will read my scriptures. My life has basically been a mess lately. I have been eating out of control, watching way too much TV and been very unhappy as a result of it. I have prayed a lot about it and just couldn't seem to pull out of it. This morning I felt prompted to read out of the Gospel Principles Manual. We are on Chapter 27 this coming week. If you aren't taking advantage of the GPS Manual (wow is that metaphorical or what!?) you are missing out! It is written in such a simple way, that it doesn't matter how long you have been a member of the church you can gain so much from it. I have decided simplicity allows for great depth and great learning.

Anyway Chapter 27 is on work and the value of it. Just what I needed. I think we are always wanting and hoping to have less work. Like Sis. Beck said we are always trying to find more leisure time. But that is not how the Plan is! The lesson talks about not only the value of work, but how that is the one of the ways to happiness. We are supposed to learn to LOVE work. What a concept! It also quotes Pres. McKay (prophet when I was a little girl) "Let us realize that the privilege to work is a gift, that the power to work is a blessing, that the love of work is success." Just think how much happier we would be if we really practiced, believed and lived this!!! I am going to change my attitude!!!

We had a great time with Amy and Mike this weekend. We watched Movies, sewed, ate, and visited. The weather was gorgeous, I took advantage of it and took a couple of walks on the beach.

About a year ago I bought some stuff to put on my window in my sewing room so you couldn't see through the glass. I procrastinated because I thought it would be a big ordeal. One day I got tired of putting up a sheet across the doors and finally got out the package of the stuff to put on the door. Low and behold it was a plastic film that clung to the window by spraying water on the glass and then squeezing all the air bubbles out with a squeegee. It was so easy!! It is like those things you put on your window for holiday decor. You can peal it right off if you don't like it. Well, it is great! Well, I am, you guessed it-going to get to work! :-)
Love you all!!

Past time to blog!

I wonder how many times I have said ,"I can't believe how long it has been since I blogged". Too many!!!

Before Christmas I was sick of my closet under the stairs. It had become the place to pitch things when I didn't' know what to do with them. When we decided to move into this house I immediately thought how fun it would be to make it a playroom so to speak. In the end I chose for it to be more of a place to put the dress up clothes. Here it is !
Last but not least the actual clothes. I put up a tension rod.love you all!!

Babies Quilt

Next week my #8 grandchild, Lizzie's little Elle, will be one year old. I wanted to do something fun and special. I had this idea in my head that I had never seen, so there was no pattern. I couldn't find the kind of dolls I wanted so I remembered these cute fabric paper doll fabric with outfits. So this is what I came up with. I cut them out , sewed some muslin on the back and stuffed them so they would be soft. I felt like a little girl dressing the dolls before I put them together. I ironed the clothes on with stitch witchery type stuff, then sewed them together with muslin on the back. It was great fun. I was so excited when it was done. Steve absolutely loved them, he kept saying how cute they were! I was originally going to make pockets for them, then I thought it would be cuter making the pockets look like blankets. Well, I'm tired. Love you all!

So much to share!

I am so far behind, at times like this I just want to forget the past and move on from today, BUT that would be foolish. I use my blog to share and to document. Soooooo that means I need to catch up. For fun before I go back and catch up, Steve and I went out to eat the other night for Chinese, Steve's favorite. These were our fortunes, I had to share.
Christmas was wonderful. It was definitely different, but I still enjoyed it very much. I can never think of a time in my life when there hasn't been lots of people around at Christmas and always children. I think there might have been one Christmas when we lived in Wyoming that we stayed there by ourselves, but we had Rebecca and I think Jake, so children around. This year, because of our Reunion just one month before, our kids were either at their in-laws or just staying home. Steve didn't want to travel so we were home on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning all by ourselves. I was worried that I would be sad, but I wasn't , it was very pleasant. It was very quiet. I would love to say it was laid back, but we were expecting Rebecca, Steve, Amy and Mike that night for Christmas Dinner. Since Rebecca and Steve wouldn't get a Christmas Dinner unless I did one, I waited for them to come to have it. So that meant cooking all day. I was reminded of why I do Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. By the time Christmas comes I am tired out! I just want to stay in my jammies and do nothing. But I was happy to have Rebecca and Steve so I just bucked up and did it.

It was so nice to get to know Steve better. We met him at the reunion, but it was pretty busy and chaotic there. Here it was quiet and low key. It was really nice. We are excited for them to be married. He will be a great addition to our family. They and Amy stayed until Tuesday and then left to go to their homes. Mike went home on Sunday. Then that very night Megan and Greg came with Greg's little brother Chris and his wife. It was nice and pleasant and fun to see the changes Scarlet has made. She is so happy and easy going and LOVES to smile. Megan got some great pics with Steve it is hard to choose so there will be several.Aren't those great! Megan got a few of me just before they left.Then they left and Jake's Family came the next night. It was like a revolving door. Ruby and Miles stayed with us New Years Eve and Jake, Lyndsey and their friends stayed at one of our beach houses. The next night they came and stayed with us. While Ruby and Miles were with us we did some fun things of course. We made cupcakes-Surprise! Ha! Ha! We made the dinosaurs. It was cool to use my new pearls and big sugar sprinkles, it made them look more like dinosaurs. Plus, I figured out an easier and better way to put the sugar on, it was less messy and faster!After that we sewed. It is great having One of my grand kids close enough to teach them to sew. Ruby is actually using the sewing machine and serger all by herself. Miles sat on my lap but I made the mistake of letting the sleeve of his shirt that he was wearing get in the blade of the serger. He saw the cut in his sleeve, it was less than a quarter of an inch, but he got scared and didn't want to sew anymore. I was sad, I hope he will try again. Aren't they cute in their matching clothes!
Then of course we had to make pancakes. Danielle gave me this cool thing from Williams Sonoma, it is for pancake batterfor some reason I never noticed it. It is so wonderful!!! I have all these cool pancake molds, but I had just about given up on them because it is so hard to pour the batter around and into all the little crevices. This makes it a breeze, plus you can draw designs.It was a great time. We always have so much fun. They left and then I thought I was going to breath, but it seemed like then I had to catch up on life and get the Christmas all put away. That of course took longer than I thought it would. I still have my lights up, but I turned them off. The weather has been horrendous so one of these days I'll get them put away. I have hung up a few more pics around the house. I have a few more to go. I hope to get the car back in the garage this week. I got it in there for about a week and then Steve started another remodeling project. But thankfully they are all done! So we can put the car in and enjoy the house until it's time to sell. Hope you are all well! Love you all!

Hobbies

I know I should be blogging Christmas first, but this couldn't wait! Wednesday I went to sleep feeling very overwhelmed and uptight, crying myself to sleep kind of thing. I woke up not feeling much different, even after reading my scriptures. Keep in mind I have been reading and pondering my scriptures on a regular basis. I couldn't understand why I was such a mess. Thursday was Weight Watchers which usually cheers me up, but I was stressed about that also. I did my meeting and it was fine. Then for the first time in about a month or more, I went to my greenhouse, plugged in my music, and started cleaning up beds and weeds coming up through the bricks on the floor. It took me about 2 hours. I was exhausted, but invigorated! I was happy to the point of almost giggling. Life seemed doable for the first time in a long time. I didn't feel overwhelmed or the tiniest bit sad. I felt like I had so much emotional and mental energy. It was great! I woke up this morning feeling the same way. The moral of the story? BALANCE!!! I have been running around working myself to the bone. I got sicker than I had been in a long time. No matter how hard I tried, life was not fun. It is important to do things you enjoy, if you don't you will burn out. How can you be a good servant to the Lord, your family or anyone if you are burned out?

Now for the exciting crazy part those veggies you see up there are from my greenhouse! They are the last of the summer crop. I have other things growing still, but they are more cool crop things. The peppers taste soooo sweet and delicious. The tomatoes are okay. When we live back down there, I might just see if I can lengthen out the season by protecting them more. Well, love you all!!!!