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!

new and old discoveries

Here I am again after midnight blogging. Not a good habit. After watching the morning session, one of the things I felt prompted to do was look in the Young Women Manuals (online) for the lessons on time management and related lessons. Sooooo I did that tonight. I am recommending them to you that are interested. YW manual 3 Avoiding Crisis Living, nice title huh? Manual 2 Wise use of Leisure time , man. 1 Using time wisely. They all had a different look at time but similar. they are short and easy reading. An Ensign talk that is wonderful is May 1987 (don't you just love the Internet?!) M. Russell Ballard Keeping life's demands in balance. I highly recommend his talk with the others.

Promise to post some pics of fabric and the pic of the pattern for the quilt tomorrow.

till tomorrow!!

Conference

How humbled I feel this day. I love conference, we have such a loving Heavenly Father and an amazing Older Brother the Savior. I feel so grateful for his desire for us to be happy. I feel grateful to know he cares about us individually, that he caters things just for us. I hope you were all listening thus far, if not read the talks. I was impressed with several thoughts throughout the conference concerning my situation right now. I am hopeful that I can make this time in my life work also. I realized that anything that is important to us has to be a priority and therefore means sacrifice. No wonderful thing comes without sacrifice. When my children were young and on into their teenage years, I realized that during their young years and later when they were home for the summer, if I wanted personal time I had to get up early. I realized today that it is no different. I need to go to bed earlier and get up earlier when my children and grandchildren come, or when I am visiting them so I can have my personal time with the Lord. This summer has been hard, because I have not thought about that, and been willing to sacrifice. Just like I make it a priority to exercise, I need to make it a priority to get up early and study my scriptures and write in my journal when my family is gathered around me. I have thought many times as my family leaves or I come home from a visit, that so many precious thoughts and feelings were not recorded, and as we all know those thoughts and memories are often lost. How grateful I am for conference and this blog. I know that sounds silly, but writing opens or minds and helps us to sort out our feelings. How grateful I am to Lizzie for starting our family in this direction, and how grateful I am for those of you outside of our blood family (Emily and others) for commenting and making me feel loved.

I got my hair cut yesterday and my color done again. How I will miss Megan in that department when she leaves. She helps me to be hip and cute.

It was so fun to see golden friends yesterday at Courtenays Open house. It was so fun to see Aaron and Joe. I was reminded as I am at those times how wonderful good friends are. The relationship always stays even though we can't see each other often. Life is good.

Well, I am off to the upstairs to exercise, got to keep this body as young as possible!!!

I'm still here, but just barely!!

We just got back from Eugene, so I am very tired. I have commented on the new posts and will make a short one for now.

The last few days I have felt like I am totally out of control and exhausted. I am also excited for conference!!! I think I am going to stay in my PJ's all day. I am going to fold and iron clothes during conference and soak up the talks. I LOVE conference, and I really need it!!!

Since July I don't think I have had a weekend or a full week without company, or being out of town visiting, babysitting, or doing church work. I haven't had but maybe two decent scripture studies with journal writing in that time. So it isn't a shock that my life seems out of control. I do realize that I am unbelievably blessed. I just know that something isn't working right.

I LOVE having my family and friends visit, I love having tuna galore in my garage, salmon, tuna, and halibut in my freezer. I love my church callings, I love weight watchers, I love babysitting my grandkids. I just need to figure out how to continue to study my scriptures (key word study, not read) write in my journal, and take control of my life during those times. I know that life is not going to change. I remember when I used to have babies, I would sit down and make a schedule for the first 6 months, because I knew what it took to have a new baby. Then I would make a new schedule for the next season after that. Then when my kids started school, I would make a schedule for the school year, and as summer approached I would make a new schedule for summer. I noticed that when I started having grandkids and Amy had private school in our home, I couldn't seem to get it together any more. There has to be a way to have grandkids, and people visit, and still have my personal relationship with Heavenly Father. I don't' understand why I can't seem to get it. I need to talk to Carol about this. I used to go to Carol when new stages would come into my life. She would walk through them before I did. I think she might be able to help me with the grandkid thing, but the whole bed and breakfast lifestyle that has happened since we came to the coast is confusing to me and most people I know around here. Rebecca used to give me a hard time and say I was always waiting for happiness around the corner, but I couldn't seem to explain that that was not what I was saying. I just want to figure out how to do this part of my life. There has to be an answer. I think it is just I need to sit down and make a plan, but it seems like I do that and then someone comes to visit or I go visit someone or Steve needs a big talk or something to do on the new beach house, one more time to change all the websites. I'm confused.

Anyway, it was great fun with Tanner and Kate and Lizzie. Tanner and Kate are so sweet and so loving. It was fun to have everyone on the weekend also. Ruby is so happy.

I'm sorry I am such a drag. I am open to ideas, I truly am happy and grateful, just confused and tired.

I am sure after or between conference I can be more up. Like I said I am not complaining, I just want to feel more in control. Is that not possible?

Love you all. I promise to share more fun things soon.

One fun but very silly thing, Megan and Jessica Walker both commented on how good my bum looked tonight. Now to most people that might not seem like a big deal, but since I was in high school, I have never gotten a positive thing said about my back side, most of the time I was told I looked like a boy, or that I had no rear end. The first time someone complimented me on it was after I lost my weight, it was my brother. Since that day no one has, so tonight I am thinking maybe I'll wear these pants more often!! Oh one more thing, I am feeling pretty good about my bum and these pants, and about 5 min before I leave the Mitchell's, Amy says, mom your fly is open. Now I hadn't gone to the bathroom since I put these pants on so you know what that means, my zipper was undone the whole night!!!! Thankfully I had my big coat on my arm, which probably covered my pants most of the night. Uggghhh. Well, I must have needed to be humbled!!! I had to say something silly to lighten this post!!!!

I just ate a banana and feel a little more up and decided I need to add something not so down. I did something fun today. Lyndsey and I went to pick out fabric for Miles (jakes new baby due soon) quilt, it was fun. It is totally different than something I would ever make, but I like it and am so excited to start it. I am going to devote this week to making the quilt, dust ruffle, and sheets. The sewing room is a comfort to me, so it should be a good week. I will take pics of the fabrics and the design and post them tomorrow.

I also put a challenge out to my weight watcher people this week that I am very excited about. I started a contest where they can earn points for exercise, attending meetings, drinking their water, and a weekly challenge that will change from week to week. I have some people that are stuck, so I am hoping this will help them. The contest is for the holiday season, it will start this week and end the week after the first of Jan. The prize will be a dinner for them and a guest at my home. I will give them a choice of Salmon, Halibut, or Tuna; potatoes, rice or pasta ( I make a really tasty pasta dish with fresh herbs and olive oil); home made bread, and if they want dessert- chocolate or berry pie. Anyone that participates will also get some kind of prize. And I will come up with some 2nd, third and 4th prizes. They all seemed excited about it. Oh and one more thing to get me out into my greenhouse, I promised them organic fresh baby greens from my greenhouse. That means I need to plant them!! So now I have to play in my greenhouse!! Hee hee!

Well, it is almost midnight, so this is ridiculous, I am off to bed!