My Walk

Today was my aerobic and strength training day. One of my goals this week was to add 20 minutes to my exercise routine. I wanted that to be walking on the beach. BUtttttt it has been very stormy with very high waves. Today it was mild weatherwise. Still mostly cloudy and cool, but the wind was hardly there and the tide was a little ways out for a change. I was a little concerned about sneaker waves but not too much since it was just going to be a 20 minute walk. As I was walking I found myself doing what I usually do and that was look for interesting things on the beach. I saw a small clam shell and thought it looked different, so I bent down and it was a fossil. I thought, that was interesting. I put it in my pocket. Then I walked a little further and you guessed it, another fossil. I thought hmmm.... maybe this is a fossil beach. Then I found some petrified wood. I started to think about how every beach we have lived on is a little different. In bayshore it was the whole sand dollar beach, with the dunes to hide in and sea lions to watch. Then we moved to Idaho Street and in the winter with the storms came the agates. I think I found maybe 2 sand dollars in 6 years while we lived there. We had easy beach access, roaring waves in our face and yet wide long sandy beach to play on. Here in South Beach, I am still discovering. Here it's like a mini 4th year hike without a back pack when I go down to the beach. The path is full of nature and shrubs and trees with little peeks of the ocean and occasional scenic view spots as you go down. I can't wait for Clay and Danielle to come so Clay can give me a geology lesson about the banks here. I don't think it is unique or special, but it is definitely different than our last 2 beaches. Now would be the time for me to be philosophical. But I'm not going to be. I just love how Heavenly Father has given us lots of beauty and adventures. Well, I'm glad I got up earlier than I have lately, the rain just started pouring down. With all the skylights we have here, you can really hear the wind and rain. Kind of cool! Love you all and hope your day is great!

Way Behind

We had Jake, Lyndsey, Ruby and Miles over last weekend. It was fast but fun. Since they were only one day really (two nights) we did things from morning till late. I made pancakes with Ruby first thing in the morning. Lyndsey told me she has been looking forward to that for some time. She had told everyone that she was going to her grandmas and we were going to make PANCAKES!!! That was so funny to me. I knew she liked pancakes and that she liked to make them with me, but I didn't realize it was that big of a deal to her.

Then we started to get things ready for a tea party. By the time we got everything ready it was close to lunch time, so we had a lunch/dessert tea party. Lyndsey and Miles joined us. Miles didn't last as long as the rest of us, but way longer than I thought he would. I bought these cute top hats for the boys, but I didn't know where they were since our move. So he wore my red hat.Miles is a kick in the pants. He loves being funny. He is quite advanced in the humor area for his age in my opinion. He saw this pic of him that everyone loves where he is laughing, and later in the day when I was getting ready to take pictures of him, he tried really hard to make that face. He loves to fake laugh, it's pretty funny.

Then we went to the aquarium. Needless to say I was exhausted. BUT we needed to eat and it is our ritual to feed people fish, so that meant I had to fix dinner. Jake offered to help, but he looked tired. Sunday we went to church and they went home, I crashed after church.

We didn't go outside because it has been non-stop rain!!!! I love and appreciate the rain. BUT one of the things I love about the coast is because of the wind, we usually get some sun on a regular basis, but no such luck, it has been one storm after the next.

I think everyone knows by now, but I have been called to be the Education counselor. I am so grateful. I was starting to hide in my house and just watch TV instead of finishing the unpacking. Since it was Christmas when they called me and the Pres. is in a play right now. So between those two things it has been a gradual assigning of things. I am so grateful, my mind is still fuzzy at times. When I was set apart the Bishop said something very interesting. He said that the Lord would cause small miracles so that I could fulfill my family commitments, and then I was to share those small miracles with my family. Sooooo I need to be paying attention, not procrastinate blogging and share those things.

I have gone and worked in my greenhouse one day. My goal is to go after weight watchers every week. I think it will work.

Right now instead of New Years goals I can only think about getting off the 14 pounds I have gained over the last 8 months, and unpacking the rest of my house. I lost 2.2lbs last week and am hopeful about this week.

I made some yummy brownies that were made with half Kamut and some applesauce in place of some of the butter. Steve never knew! They turned out to be 5 points for a 3x3 piece. They had lots of nuts in them, so if they didn't they would be even less.

I finally set up my tea party stuff, it looks so cool. I am going to put some pics of the kids at tea parties with me in black and white or sepia tone (Jake's idea). I am really excited about that. I am excited to get some pics up. That will come later this week. I have loved our bathroom. It is the first time since we have been married that we actually have a place for everything, nothing is on the counters! Yea!! The bathroom always looks so clean. It's amazing how easy it is to put things away when there is actually a place to put it!

24 starts tonight. I am excited. I hope it is good this year. I liked it last year, but it was a little to political in the annoying way last year. Keiffer Sutherland is involved in the producing now, and so in comes the liberal stuff.

I can't wait for Lost. It will be when I am at Lizzie's for the baby. I will probably have to wait until I get home to watch it. We'll see. I am usually too tired to do anything but take care of the kids and Lizzie. If there is free time I am unusually sleeping.

Well, I have babbled on long enough. Love and miss you all!!!

More of Christmas

We always have our big Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve, so that was out of this world! I wish I would have taken pics of it. We all had assignments so it wasn't a burden on any one person. We didn't have quite as many treats as when my mom always came, but we still had way more than we needed. My mom would have been proud of her granddaughters dipping ability of the chocolates. They were beautiful and delicious. Rebecca whipped out some Almond Roca at the last minute also-yuuuuuummmmmmmy!!!! I made 3 pies, and Patty brought some yummy treats also. Christmas morning was fun. The girls were cute as kids always are.

Christmas night we all went to look at lights. Talk about amazing, there was this one house that had their lights timed to music on a radio station they rented. I felt like I was at Disneyland looking at the fireworks, but instead it was Christmas lights. We stayed and watched for about 20-3o minutes. We then went around and looked at other inspiring lights. I am ready for next year!!!! I was kind of bumbed about our new home when it came to Christmas lights-not now!!! I'm not going to do the music thing, but there were all kinds of neat ideas at the other houses. Well, here are some pics.Rebecca hired Amy to make these cute hats that had matching skirts for them and their American Girl Dolls, the girls loved them and they were very cute! Anna wanted a Ball Gown and before Christmas Greg had taught Anna to Waltz, Ballroom Style. So Christmas morning when she opened her ball gown, she said, "Now I can dance with Greg!" It was so sweet. What a great uncle Greg is.Aliese is growing up. Her favorite presents were her Clinique, shown here in the box and the bag, and her memory foam mattress and pillow. All in all it was a great trip! We were so grateful to be able to go and be with so much of our family at this special time of year! Love you all!!!

Last Chemo Party, and Christmas Eve

Amy had her last chemo party. All of us in Oregon were there. It was wonderful. We had it at Nate and Brooks, Mikes Brother and Sister-in-laws house. Amy was very happy and looked beautiful. She took time to thank each of us all for all we had done for her, it was very touching.Miles is all boy. If you will let him he will jump on you, run into you and etc. He kept jumping on Greg. Greg is a good sport. Miles in creative mode.Megan and Greg came for a couple of days. Then we took Megan, Greg, Amy, and Mike with us to Idaho for Christmas. We stayed for 3 nights and 4 days at Danielle's and Rebecca's. We had a great time. I was thoroughly exhausted before I left and so got even more tired while I was there and got a sore throat. We did some great family stuff and just hung out. Christmas Eve was spent with all of us and Clay's family. It was great! We did the Christmas story. I think because I wasn't feeling well, I didn't take very many pics, so there aren't any of Danielle and Clay or Rebecca, strange.Mike was Joseph, Gracie was Mary, Anna the angel, Steve the Narrator(in my rhinestone glasses), Greg the Donkey, Clay the innkeeper, the rest of us Angels or shepherds. We sang a lot and it was great fun. I'm afraid we weren't as reverent as we probably should have been, but I am sure the girls still felt the spirit, and I am sure Gracie felt really special. We were going to go sledding on Wednesday, but there wasn't enough snow. We went to the new Disney movie. It was really good, the older girls were very affected by how evil the bad guy was. I think he was a typical villian. Most of the adults fell asleep off and on, not because it was boring, but we were tuckered out from traveling and staying up too late.

More of Disneyland

These were all up and down main street, Aliese wanted a pic of them. I was glad it turned out nice. It was so beautiful.

One of the fun things we did a lot of was meet characters. I am always amazed at how animated the characters are. They are so fun and take all the time you need or want with them. At Goofy's Breakfast Kate and Gracie got to dance with Goofy for a long time! It was awesome. Breakfast had everything from child size cinnamon rolls, eggs, waffles, sweet breads, you name it they had it. Goofy came and sat at our table and signed all the kids books he was great!Check out how big their hands are, and yet their signatures are really cool looking. Snow White came by and look at Tanner, that is how he looked when the characters were there. These were some pics I liked that were just during the breakfast.Baloo came by and was as cute as the rest! I caught Aliese in a very funny way and it made her hair look red, strange huh?More tomorrow, I am tired. Love you all!

Julie and Julia and Disneyland

Saturday Steve and I saw Julie and Julia for the first time. It was sooooo wonderful!!! We loved it. Of course we love anything with Meryl Streep, but besides her it was a great and wonderful story, I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it. It is such a wonderful example how you can do anything if you set your mind to it. I want to go out and buy the cookbook even though I probably would never make anything from it because it would be way to fattening. But I would really like to cook like that. I always think I don't really like to cook, but that isn't true. I love food and love to cook it. I just don't like figuring out what to cook, and it is time to cook when I am at my lowest energy time of the day.

Disneyland at night! Cool huh! They had an icicle look for Christmas.

Well, as I already said the other day I went to Disneyland with Rebecca, Lizzie, Aliese, Anna, Tanner, Gracie, and Kate. It was great. For the first three days Lizzie and the kids under 4 were with us. It was great, we did all the great kids stuff and some of the big kid stuff. It was the perfect amount of time with the little kids, it is fun to see the world through there eyes. The last two days we got to do the "big girl" stuff. It was just Rebecca, Me, Aliese, and Anna. A whole different experience. I sat in the front of the log at splash mountain 2 times!!!!! A first for me, I felt very impowered. I bought the pics of it because you could see each one of us and it was hilarous to see the total fear on our faces, it was great! I rode all the scary rides except for the Tower of Terror. The girls weren't interested, it didn't hurt my feelings. We saw lots of characters, had breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen (it had everything!!!) Did just about everything I think. I ran to get the fast passes until the last day. My feet still hurt and I have been home a week now. But I was really happy at how well I weathered everything. If I hadn't been a firm believer in exercise before we moved and I went to Disneyland, I would really be a believer now. I kept up with everyone and actually had more energy than all of them. Considering I am 53, that makes me feel good about that part of my life. I am grateful for my health, I feel truly blessed. As I said I took 333 pics, so obviously I won't be able to post them all, so I will try to put some of my favorites as well as a taste of everything.

Gracie with Snow White! Can it get cuter than that!

Santa and Mrs. Claus were there how lucky was that! Mrs Clause was a riot. Santa walked past her after his break and she asked how many cookies he had. She had her hands on her hips and shook her head. It was very cute! Tanner was to shy to stand talk to her.Santa was really cute also, he just grabbed Tanner and so it was the first time that Tanner has sat on Santa's lap. He really took his time with each child.I thought this was a cute pic
One of the few times Kate and Tanner wanted to walk. Lucky me, I was there!

Alice's Tea cups, the only kids ride that borders on making me nauseous. I always debate whether I will do it, but I can't turn down my grandkids. Gracie and Rebecca went alone because Gracie didn't want to spin and neither did Rebecca. It is fun that we were all in most all the pics.Who knows what I was talking about, but I had to put it in! I think Rebecca looks like Joe Cool!
After the ride we ran into Alice and theTea Party guy. They were great! Alice was very proper and the tea party guy was hilarious, he acted just like the guy in the movie. After he got done signing Gracie's book he yelled GRRRAAAAAACIE! It was great!By far Gracies favorite ride is Dumbo, I think we all love it! I love how relaxed and happy Rebecca is on it!I love this pic of Rebecca, it is a classic look for her the whole time we are there! The pics on the merry go round were awesome! I loved them!There is a new princess movie coming out this week. We got to see her before it came out! She was so pretty and sweet, she has a southern drawl. Boy could she sing!Well,it is late so I will post more tomorrow! Love you all!

Icicles on the beach!!!

We got up this morning and it was soooo cold. But it was beautiful, so I decided to take my first walk on our new beach. It has been so busy and rainy that I haven't ventured down our trail. So today was the day and boy what a find! These icicles are anywhere from 3-4 feet long. Crazy huh!

This is all ice. The water skim on the beach also froze. I walked almost to the jetty. I walked for almost an hour. What a great treat!