Family Reunion "are we having fun yet?"

I couldn't resist putting that first, we were getting ready for our family pics. Isn't it crazy the faces we make when we aren't posing!? There are more fun ones below!

Wow! I think I say this alot, but it has been way too long since I blogged! I was so busy trying to get ready for the reunion, WW's new program and other things in my life that time just slipped away.

I had a blast at the reunion. I learned a few things, first just because it is warmer at Lizzie's, doesn't mean it is great traveling weather for the rest of us. We personally were very blessed, we missed all the bad weather. There was a little concern at Megan's, but we sailed out so early that we missed it and beat the weather heading south.

As I said we stopped first at Megan's. It was good to see Greg as we don't see him much. It's always good to see Scarlet, and Megan also. Meg did my hair, I feel like a human being again, and a much "younger one"! :-)

I also learned that cooking crafts need to be simpler. I did something very fun, but it took too long. I loved it and don't regret it. It gave me some one on one time but it took the better part of two days. Considering that the reunion was only 3 and a half days that wasn't such a good idea. But the kids loved them. Here are a few picks below. For some reason I didn't get Ruby. Oh I know why hers got wrapped up for traveling before I got out the camera. I didn't think about how if I focused on the person the cookies would be blurry! So some you are blurry, some you can see! Beautiful Aliese! Miles always has this crazy Pirate smile pose for the camera! I wonder when he will stop? Beautiful Anna!Making snow!Beautiful Gracie!Last but not least, handsome Tanner!

We went to Tangled, I LOVED IT!!! It is the best Disney Show in years. The lead girl was a girl, she didn't have size double "D" augmented breasts. She didn't show the little cleavage she had and it didn't have any adult inuendos! Did I say I LOVED IT!! I will buy it as soon as it comes out. All the girls and the kids went to it while the guys shot guns. It was so cool and cute to look down the row and see all 14 of us together! I bought 4 of the big popcorns. They told me they could give me boxes to divide them all up. Then after I paid they reminded me I could get free refills! I thought that was a little sneaky! So I immediately got two more refills and filled up the boxes more! Danielle, Amy and Alies and I went to save the seats, so when everyone got there, there was a box of popcorn on their seats, how fun was that!

The women all went to a spa. It was a blast and relaxing at the same time. A very old lady did water yoga/tai chi or something like that. It was really relaxing in some ways and in other ways I had a hard time not laughing. I was a good girl though and didn't laugh. We were actually good in the relaxation room. If it had been more private, I fear I wouldn't have been very relaxed. We then had a private room where we painted each other with healing muds. It was really fun. Mostly it was just great to have girl time with all my daughters and Lyndsey. I loved it.

Of course we ate, and ate and ate.

It wasn't as warm as usual so I didn't go swimming, plus I was rather occupied with cookies, but others went swimming.

Steve, Me, Amy, Mike, Clay and Danielle stayed at their friends house. It was huge! It was really nice to have our own bathroom and place to crash.

Rebecca's fiance Steve wrote a song with Anna. Amy begged them to sing it for the whole family. It was really beautiful. I was so impressed that Steve would do that for her and for us. We definitely gave him a taste of the family he is getting into! We all loved him and can't wait for Rebecca and him to get married. Plus it will be another excuse to get together!

Well, the last thing of course, family pics! I had to post them all it will bring great joy to you all! Well, we thought we were ready-maybe not!Checking the camera!
Still checking the cameraEveryone ready but me! Yea!
Last but not least my favorite
We had to include Greg who sadly couldn't be with us.Some Sibling pics!Maybe I'm predjudice, but that is one gool looking group!!I would swear I straightened this pic! Steve and I with the Grandkids!!! All 9 of them!
I didn't have time to touch up the family pics, I know everyone was anxious to see them, I will correct the color and then post them on Costco. Hope you are all well! Love you all!!!

My B-day and Scarlets Blessing Dress

Well, I am 54 years old! For some reason that seems weird. It is the first time in a long time that I thought my age was weird. I feel like it doesn't feel like anything. For quite some time now I have felt great to be in the shape I am in for my age. I have never been embarrassed to talk about my age. I am still not embarrassed it just seems odd.

Anyway this is us at my favorite restaurant by far since New York. So now if any of you ever get to go there you will be disappointed because I have built it up. But it is how I feel. The chef is a woman and she with her husbands help grows all that they can in their greenhouses, use only good beef, and fish, makes all her food from scratch, its just great! I love it. We shared the dessert, because it is too rich to eat it by yourself. You can't tell but it is a chocolate silk torte. Very rich and nummy!

I woke up on my b-day and it was gorgeous outside, a rare thing for my b-day. It is usually raining. Steve said, "why don't you go out for a walk?" I thought yea, why not. It has not been walking weather for a few weeks now. I found a good bakery and Steve volunteered to get me two scones for my breakfast while I went on a walk. I walked to the jetty, I must not have walked my normal pace, because Steve said he was about to go out in his truck and drive down the beach to find me. You gotta love a man that would say that with all sincerity. I then ate my two very delicious scones. One was a savory one, Parmesan and spinach, the other was blueberry. I normally would never eat two scones, but it was my b-day! So one tasted like breakfast the other dessert. Did I say it was delicious?! I now know where to get a scone when I am dying for one.

Steve gave me two days off for my b-day, no cooking, no Beach House bookings, no work. It was great. I have to admit, it was kind of strange not doing anything, I basically didn't do much of anything on my b-day, but on Saturday I couldn't stand the kitchen so I did the dishes and swept the floor. I had to make cupcakes for our Halloween party at church, so I did that also. Steve brought home some chicken breasts, so we watched the last Bourne movie and ate our dinner. We had watched the other two the two days before. After that I went into the sewing room, put on Gilmore Girls and finished little Scarlets Blessing Dress. Theres nothing quite like sewing and watching Gilmore Girls. Ahhhhhhh...... I loved the way the dress turned out!The back

Well, it was a great two days.
I got phone calls from all my kids and my mom and dad. It was great. Steve also gave me some cute little things from Williams Sonoma that I wanted. Here are the pocket pie molds. I wanted these because Steve will only eat one piece of pie, so I eat the rest of the pie. This way there is more control, and they are cute on top of it all.Here are the pocket pies, aren't they cute!!!!Then I got some little cutouts for a big pie Church was great today. Steve bore his testimony. It was wonderful, it was mostly about the atonement, several people came up to me and told me how wonderful it was and that they needed it. I saw others thank him personally also. I love watching him bear his testimony, especially at times like that, I realize all over again what a spiritual giant he is. Well, love you all!

After the Storm

We had the first big storm of the year. This morning I got up and the sky was awesome. I didn't catch it all, but if you look at the taller pic you can see the sun shining on the top of the clouds. It was so cool I had to take a pic of it. I love the storms if I don't have to go out in them. Sunday was the beginning and just as we got out of church the BIG hail/rain drops came down. It was hilarious, everyone started screaming and laughing and running to their cars.

By far one of the coolest things about living on the ocean is the moving postcard always out your window. I have so many pics I have never posted. I just can't resist.

I made Halloween cookies for the non gluten free grandkids today. I am hoping to get the gluten free ones made tomorrow. I decided a few years back that it didn't do me any good to have all those holiday cookie cutters if I don't use them. I bought them to do with my grandkids, but with them all living so far away I decided to just use them and the sprinkles myself and mail them.

Hope you all had a great day. Love you all!!

Hard Week, tomatoes, movie

Well, it is a strange how you can have a week where everything is great, and then for some odd reason, (lack of good scripture study for one big reason) I feel like crying every other minute. Then because I am so blessed I get the added feeling of guilt. I have already gone through menopause (that is for you Amy) and I still felt hormonal all week. I mentioned this to one of my fellow menopausal friends and she said, "well we still have hormones" . Ugghhh I thought it would be all over! WRONG! I decided to stop taking my natural herb pills to see if I didn't need them, MISTAKE!!! I have been having hot flashes and night sweats galore. So I think that all of that along with too much running faster than I have strength caught up with me. One day this week I called Amy and said, "I'm tired of my thougths I need to talk to someone." She immediately asked me if I was okay and I said" I repeat, I don't want to think about me its boring". Well, enough of that boring stuff.

I had some extra tomatoes so I made some "Italian Stewed Tomatoes" aren't they pretty! It only made 5, but that is 5 less canned tomatoes I need to buy. All of the veggies in the mix came from my greenhouse except for the onion.

Steve and I went to the movie for the first time in more than a year or more. Steve hated the seats in our theater and all the talking people. Well, Secretariat came out and our theater has been remolded so I got him to go. It was a great movie, you all have got to go! Steve liked the theater so maybe we will start going to the movie again! Yea!!

Church was amazing today. I was so moved from the beginning to the end. It was our Primary Program today, it was so good, I cried. I wished I could go and see all my grandkids in theirs. Steve leaned over at one point and said the same thing I was thinking. Sunday School was one of the most spiritual class I have been to in years. RS was wonderful also. I am amazed how you can have a day like that, then come home and not want to be spiritual. I hate that.

I am so tired of remodeling. We have had more tearing out of doors, etc. After we paint the new wall, I think we will be done! I need to put up some pics and then I think we will be ready to put up the signs.

Well, it is late! Love you all!!

Great Day

The last couple of days have been so wonderful. In fact it has just been a great week. First I spent the early part of the week cleaning my garage. Now I know this sounds boring, but if you are like me and like to be efficient, things like this give me a high! Crazy I know. I will post a pic, but only my family will appreciate it. I forgot to take a before pic.

Then I went to WW's on Thursday, that is always a great day. After went to the greenhouse, picked a bunch of veggies, put some stuff from the garage in our attic at the Idaho Street house and then went home.

Yesterday I went to Lincoln City. Now for those of you that don't know anything about the coast, this is like going to the BIG city for me. They have a Jo-Ann's there and Outlet mall and if you are into Cold Stone ice cream (which strangely enough I'm not) you get the picture. Big city life for me! The town probably has about 11,000 people in it, but it is a tourist town. Since I don't get to go to Jo-Ann's very often it feels like Christmas every time I go. I went to the outlet mall for unmentionables, I need some after losing some more weight. I bought some cool fabric that I will post later, some patterns for .99 each, dropped my friend off and then went to Freddies! Could this day get any better. I got a pair of Steve's cool pants (being sarcastic of course) which Freddies has been out of for a while-on sale! Oh I forgot to mention that I spent 58.0o at Jo-Ann's and saved are you ready...128.83!!! Is that crazy or what! Anyway, I got some really cute shoes from Freddies. I have been wearing the same pair of black pumps since Lizzie was in high school. Lizzie is 30 years old! Picked up some shrimp and bread. Came home and cooked up some of my yummy squash, cut up my yummy tomatoes and had strawberries for dessert. It was wonderful!

Today I talked to Rebecca for a couple of hours, which is always a treat. While I was talking to her I was getting my patterns ready for my fitting class on Monday. I am so psyched about that!! Then did odds and ends.

Somewhere in there I read Pres Monson's article in the Ensign and besides being very moved and spiritually filled I couldn't stop thinking about how grateful I am to live today with all the modern media we have. Not so many years ago, I wouldn't have been able to talk to Rebecca for basically free for two hours. I wouldn't have been able to download the Ensign from the Internet ( I accidentally let mine expire). I wouldn't have been able to watch conference in my home last week without the dish. I could go on and on. I am very grateful for a loving Heavenly Father that sent me down at this time and inspired men to create these things for us. The media gets a bad rap. But like anything good in this world, Satan will use it. BUT we don't have to use it for bad things, especially when there is still plenty of good. Today Steve watched "Where the Red Fern Grows" on instant play Netflix on our TV with just a push on the the button on our remote control. How cool is that.

Will post some pics of my cool things later. Life is good!

Love you all!

Retirement age

Yesterday Steve got two pieces of junk mail that I couldn't resist posting. I hope it gives you as big of a laugh as it did us!
Love you all!!

Tomatoes

I have so many things to post, I have pics from a year ago. I might still post them because one of these days I will make one of those cool books from my blog, and I don't want those memories completely lost.

Loved, Loved, loved Conference. I am so excited now for the conf issue to come out. I want to study it.

For now, I am going to post my Spaghetti sauce! I had all these tomatoes so I wanted to do something with them. So I drove myself crazy trying to decide if I wanted to just can tomatoes or make Spaghetti sauce. I use my canned tomatoes for Italian type stir fry, or Spaghetti sauce. So the sauce won. If I get more tomatoes, which I assume I will, I will can some Italian style tomatoes! Well, here are my jars! I put my labels on two different ways, I think I like the ones on the front of the jars better. What do you think?About a week and a half ago, I went to my greenhouse and hit pay dirt! There were lots more peppers in the bottom of the basket. I think next year I will plant more tomatoes. But we will see. One of my plants died early becuase of the way I pruned and staked them. I'm trying one more new method next year. If it doesn't work I am going to try the kind that hang from the ceiling.

Well there are lots more things I want to blog, but I think I will try to do a little every day.
love you all!!