Grandpa Kay Decorates

He put a board over the stairs to the basement, and created

this winter wonderland indoors.

Where was I?

A week or so ago, I heard a story on the local tv news that

some "guy" went to the DI and was handing out $100 bills to everyone.

I was like, "I'm gonna go hang out at the DI and wait for him to come back."

Tonight I found out who it was, because I ran into my friend/neighbor.

and her husband. The husband,

who happens to be on my scout committee

and my right hand man for Boards of Review, works for the "guy."

The guy, who is in his late 20's or early 30's,

called 10 of his buddies to come help him and he gave them

$10,000 each,

in $100 bills to give to random people they saw.

(Hey, wait a minute, he saw me, so what gives????)

I think they each got that much, because my friend

still had $5000 in his pocket when we saw him.

Anyhow, they went around town today

and this past week handing out the money.

How would that be?

You get to see the benefits first-hand and see peoples' reactions

and be a hero, without getting poor.

People would cry when they gave them the money.

My neighbor gave a homeless guy outside of walmart $600.

What a cool thing to be a part of.

Anyway, I thought I'd let you know that this kind of thing is going on.

It makes me feel good to know that I'll get to hear some of the stories first-hand.

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P.S. The "guy" redid the kitchen in his houseboat,

and just gave the perfectly good older cabinets away to someone.....us.

That's what Chris and Courtney are using up in our "playroom."

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What Does Santa Carry In His Pack?

...when it's not Christmas Eve and it's not filled with presents?......

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well....

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comfy sneekers in case his bunions start hurting...

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extra shirt

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(he's an honorary member of the Green Bay Packers,)

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it's his favorite team, since it's the closest one to his house.

extra hats in case he flies over one of the games

and just in case one blows off.....

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his flat teddy bear he's had since he was a baby

--flat because he rolled onto it.

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and an extra pair of

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CLEAN underwear that

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Mrs. Claus always packs for him.

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Don't under estimate this photo.

We were late to 3 birthday parties

and missed two Christmas parties to get this shot.

And that's just the two oldest ones.

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MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Just Kidding

Gas is really $1.31 a gallon.

I think that is what I paid in college...

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10 1/2 years ago.....

$1.37 !!!!

That's right!!!!

A dollar and thrirty seven cents a gallon

at Costco last night

in the SNOW!!!

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.Strange times.

Guess what we did tonight?

shorts...

and

bare

feet...

shorts.....

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Kashton

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Koby and Kort

all done and all wet.

Look at those ROSY cheeks!!!

and

drips of snow off her eyebrows.

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We got like 1-2 inches at our house, and i just got word that

SCHOOL IS CANCELLED FOR TOMORROW!!!???

just a minute,

I gotta go kick some butts of some of school board members.......

It snowed ALL day,

but not much of it stuck to the ground.

When is the weatherman right?

TODAY!!

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It's SNOWING in our desert!!!!!!

When you are desperate,

you have to create your own "wind" storms.

We need most of the leaves down and gone

before we can finish decorating our yard.

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Don't forget to notice the roses in the background!!!!

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It's DECEMBER, people.

PS. Did anyone see Survivor tonight? LOVED IT!!!!!!!

One of the best episodes ever.

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"GARLIC" on the Banister....

Here is Kashton posing with the decorating assignment he did.

He put the "garlic on the banister."

one fifty three

that's right! Over the weekend, I saw a station with gas at $1.53. (a gallon, not a quart...)

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Also, I'm having dish netwrk problems.

Does anyone else have them and is losing the signal for any

and all local channels at any given time of the day?

They sent me a new dvr, but that didn't fix the problem.

The techs that came to my house are baffled.

The weekend Part 2: Black Friday

Me and my shopping assistant got up at 4:15. He was in the electronics line at Wmart by 4:30 while I scoped out the whereabouts of the rest of the bargains. We didn't find out till 5:15 that it was actually the wrong line. I had asked the electronics personel twice to make sure we were in the right spot for item A. Unfortunately, the manager had not gotten the word out to a certain employee who already had item A locked behind the glass around the corner.

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At 5:10, I turned around to see item A being carried out by numerous people, and none of them was my assistant. The 20 people in line ahead of us were mad mad MAD!! Item A was a good deal for $22 off the regular price. We waited around to see if for some miracle, item A would soon appear. It didn't, but by 5:35, 10 of the mad people were still in line waiting. So the manager gave everyone a different item A for $30 off. But, only 1. I have 6 kids, remember.

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So, I left my assistant waiting in line to pay for it, and I booked it over to Kmart to see if I could make it in time to get item A from them. (I didn't even check with BestBuy 'cause I knew they'd be out of EVERYTHING. Been there done that.) I made it there just as they opened their doors. However, the line was a block long. I knew if I patiently waited in the line like a good little girl, item A would be all gone. (My integrity wins every now and then.) I waited in the line and watched several bunches of people not wait. I got in there finally, and dodged in and out of the empty aisles and was surprised to see the electronics NOT packed. I was 3rd in line for item A and I got as many as I wanted. AND item A was a discount of $35 each (rang up separately) on account of me getting coupons for something free that I was going to buy anyway.

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That's why I do it, right there.

Seek and conquer.

Those 3 successes made my whole day good.
I went back and picked up my handsome assistant, and we were off to more stores. We went to one store 4 times that day. We couldn't make up our minds. It was nice to be in BB when it was not packed, and they even had 6 of item A left.

But the discount was only $10, so not as good of a deal.

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I always make my 8 a.m. stop at Blvd Home Furn, because they have donuts and hot chocolate. YUM!!! and a really cool toy I've heard about for years but have never seen in stores-only $7. Yes, I got 5 of them. Kauri is too young to use it.
And my kids tended each other quite well. Meaning-no casualties while we were gone.... for 12 hours. There, I said it out loud. And yes, I said 12.

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P.S. If you think it's a good idea to take your young kids (6-14) shopping with you on this day, think again, I ran in to several of my kids' best friends and had to swear them to secrecy to not tell my kids what I was hauling around the store.

We had a weekend part 1.

Thursday, we caught some deals at Kmart before going to Pine Valley.

It was the smallest group of Thanksgivers that I've ever had in my entire life. There were just 23 of us (3 of 6 families). It was nice to not have to stand in line for food all day, though.

The potatoes and gravy were to DIE for. The secret spice in the gravy? Taco Seasoning.

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We spent a lot of time talking video mp3 players, playing Spoons, playing Nerts (Like speed but in teams of 2.) We had 7 teams playing against each other at once. Playing pool, napping, looking through my ads getting my shopping order planned out.

We even took a short trip around the valley to the ranch.

Sullivan Sunset Ridge

just became Sullivan Sunset Resort!

No need to guess where our reunions will be held for the next while.

Craziness, just plain craziness.

Guess Who? Warning!...Graphic Images. Proceed at your own risk!

Who do you think this toe belongs to?

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Are you sure you think it's her again?

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She wore sandals to the park and stubbed her toe.

The Storm Came Early

It started raining at 10 a.m. and hasn't stopped yet.

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.I don't remember having roses AND falling leaves at the same time.

This is 3 days ago.

Happy T Day and BF Day! (Black Friday)

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PS Gas is $1.63 at Costco.

My car still had 1/4 tank of $4.09 gas,

so when we put 3/4 tank of $1.63 gas, that makes our gas we are driving with $2.25 ...Yippee!

Catching up, Jana.

Which Came First?

Cinnamon toast or Cinnamon Toast Crunch?

My kids think I've just come up with a

great tasting invention by copying the cereal.

They LOVE the cereal.

They will eat it for every meal (or some kind of cereal),

but they can go weeks without eating bread.

Today I've gone through 1 1/2 loaves just for this copycat treat.

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Kauri tasted it and told me she wanted

more Cinnamon toast crunch on a shanwich.

ONE SEVENTY SEVEN!!! at Costco, Jana

Have we caught up yet?
It was 1.87 yesterday.
Don't buy gas till next week, cause they'll be paying us to get gas soon.
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It's sad to say, but I still have $4.09 gas in my Suburban.

I Got My Last

Arrow of Light Mother's Pin for 5 years.

It is strange that I won't have anyone in cub scouts for 2 years.

I have had someone (or 2) in it for the last 7 1/2 years.

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Here is Kyson's JV Relay Team. He's the anchor man.

He is the one with the thumb's up,

and yes, he is that much smaller than the rest of this team.

And yes, that swimsuit is 2 sizes smaller than

the one I would have bought him.

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Seriously, it fits Kortlen.

My sister came to town

and did a lot of this...

We celebrated her turning 29 1/2 at Cafe Rio just like we said we would. She ate there, what... 17 times in the 4 days she was here. She hung out with mom and mom's car the whole time, so now guess where mom's favorite place to eat is. Yep, the chicken salad at Cafe Rio Habito.

It's a good thing Jana came to town, cause we haven't seen Katy in a LONG time. We got together for tacos at my house.

And Kauri really likes her, and misses her.

And here is yet another of her funny sleeping positions. I would blame it on daddy's genes, but after seeing mom very, very sleepy this weekend, I'm not so sure.

This is me being stingy

with my 7-up with fresh lime squeezed in it.

It overflowed my cup, and Kashton jumped at the

chance to "clean it up".

Yuck.

$2.03

at Costco last night, but it was $1.85 at one of the stations across town. But, now I'm in the habit of not driving anymore, so now I'm trying to think up excuses to use some $2.00 gallon gas.

Kort's Turkey Project

He was supposed to decorate a turkey.

I knew the stale sunflower seeds would come in handy someday.

He painted seeds red, white, brown, grey, and yellow. Then we glued them on his picture.


I was so glad to be done with the turkey that I forgot to get a picture of it.

I was spreading out the seeds and didn't move my hand out of the way fast enough.

$2.33

at Costco.

Kauries Commentary

Just FYI. Be careful eating your Halloween candy,

there might be things in them that you never knew about

or thought about before.

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Kauri told Kort that she didn't want the watermelon sucker,

because it has seeds in it.

Zune Happy

Thank Heaven Zune finally made some updates to their software that now allows a normal person to easily change her music videos into a "videos/music" file instead of crammed in with all the other "videos/movies". I know most of you won't understand this one, but Mich and Jason should!!
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Warning: Commercial ahead.

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P.S. If any of you have children that watch videos, and you can get one of these for a decent price, I suggest you do it. My 3- yr- old uses mine a lot: visiting teaching appts, long car rides, long swim meets, regional conference at the college, etc. My 30GB has a TON of movies and music on it. She can watch her cartoons from TV, or listen to children's music I bought 14 years ago (that no one else in my family wants to hear anymore.)
It also keeps the "teaser"and/or the "easily annoyed" locked in his own little world for hours and promotes peace and harmony in our family/car.

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And if any of you know of any new ones for a really good price this season, please let me know. I could use 2 or 3 more of them.

Permanent Marker...Whodunnit?

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The handwriting is a dead giveaway.

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I think she's probably dead, too....

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I mean GROUNDED!

I Need

someone to tell me how to shrink this header picture.

My Favorite Costume... (Head Hunter)

Wal-mart

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Costume contest Oct. 30, 2008

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$50 gift card!

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Just enough to pay for next years' half price decorations.

More Halloween Tales

I sent Kash up a tree to hang my jack-o-lantern.

This is what it looked like 4 hours later.

I took the 3 youngest around the hood. We hit like 10 houses per hour. It was slow even with our wagon. Kyson and Koby had me drop them off at the edge of our ward.

By the time they made it home, they each had 6.5 lbs. of candy. Kash also went with a group of friends. They all had a blast.

Kauri is looking at a monster in the doorway. She almost doesn't dare get some candy. Can you tell we just came from a scary spook alley down the street?

Grandpa gets a visiter.

Cortney takes a turn handing out goodies.Kort needs some, too.

One of my neighbors is a HUGE Red Sox fan. Here he is cooking up "Fenway Franks" for anyone who stops by. Also, chip bags and big Costco cookies, sodas, and a movie- while you eat. This guy reminds me of my brother, Doug. He has mannerisms, sense of humor, and speaks just like him.

Kyson caught up with his friends around 10 p.m. Here he is getting taught by the missionaries. The kid in the green is Burke Staheli's boy (for Doug). The girls are Bruce and Lennette's neighbors.

Ghost track worked off-and-on like it does every year.

This ghost is motion-sensored. It used to hang in the front of the door where the spider is. It worked out really well to have it in the graveyard. It would howl everytime someone passed it to get to the candy.