It's All About Kamarie! It's about time!

Playing in the pool all day while waiting at the swim meet. Loved it.

You can't tell in this picture, but Kamarie is trying to hog the limelight and she is pushing Kauri out of the picture.

 A nap, FINALLY!

 She doesn't take naps very easily anymore.

This is how I found her one late afternoon.

Family Reunion at Halls Ranch up by Bryce Canyon.This is the dock in the middle of the swimmin'/fishin' hole.

Here, she is just getting back from a ride.

Here, she has just realized that she is not going to get to go on the next ride.

Breakfast! Pancakes!

 Kashton and Kamarie playing in the sand together.

Her favorite part of the reunion. Sand.

 Koby taking her for another boat ride.

Sand castle contest.

 Breakfast! She hardly eats, so I was tickled to have her gobbling all this food every morning.

We only eat pancakes when we camp, and we've only camped this year once until this reunion.

I guess she like pancakes. Yay!

 At the top of the hill at the ranch.

Bryce Canyon in the background.

Kortie is cruisin'

Kams knew it was his turn to get in, and she tried over and over again to push him in.

Unfortunately, I only got one of them on my camera.

Kinzie's turn on my blog

Thanks to my kids, we have to get on with life...

My favorite game on my DSi XL is Solitaire. No shuffling of cards. No wind or 1-yr-olds to blow them away. Key word here is XL! So 40eyetis doesn't keep certain people from seeing the cards.

Kinzie, bless her heart, just came in and informed me excitedly that YOU CAN PLAY SOLITAIRE WITH THESE...(holding up a deck of cards).

hahahaha

Me: I need to go in and visit my computer. (Meaning that I need to blog about it.)

Koby: Why, cause you need to go see how to do it? (Meaning how to play solitaire with real card.)

OH MY, A TWO-FER!! woot woot

Funeral week

I went to the viewing for Mr. Slack on the morning just before the funeral. I was taken aback by the lack of well-wishers that showed up. This man was hugely popular at the college, but I didn't see any college professors there. He was a politician for several years, but I didn't notice any others there. He was a Bishop, but there were only a few people there from the wards he had attended. He had lived there for 30 years, yet there were only 30 or so people there for the funeral besides the family. None of my friend's friends were there. Just me. I was sorely disappointed in the lack of support I felt this man should have gotten.

His funeral was nice, though. He comes from a family of 10 kids, he being the oldest. His sister and brother each spoke and a grandson spoke. His funeral wasn't much sad, his death had been expected for awhile.

Dixie's funeral was today. Hubby and I went early to the viewing to avoid the crowd. Her kids didn't cry as we went through the line. Hubby did though. He asked Todd how he was doing and Todd said he was hanging in there, but barely. Just barely. There was a video slideshow at the entrance, and that was hard to look at. She just was taken way too soon. They had some really nice family pictures on display that been taken within the last year. She even had her own hair in the picture.

Her funeral was pretty darn sad. Even though she's been sick for so long, her passing was rather sudden and way too soon. She was such a prescence that missing her will be easy. She had a way about her that made you feel that you were not alone and that the mistakes you made didn't so much matter to her.

She had a neighbor and a nephew-in-law each sing. The neighbor sang beautifully and perfectly. Later, the nephew, Ranse, who is also a neighbor, sang Families Can Be Together Forever. He added a few original verses to it, and he struggled through it quite a bit. I could tell he was capable of singing beautifully, but given the song he had to sing, and given how close he was to Dixie, he choked up all the way through the song, which made it even more tender and meaningful.

Her sisters each spoke and then her step-mom, who had done most of the caregiving in the last two months. Then her husband got up and spoke. Wow. I've known him a long time, at least 16 years, and he impressed me today with his tenderness and strength. They have been our neighbors for 14ish years, and they got sealed in the temple 11ish years ago.

It's a good thing Hubby wore long sleeves. His tissue didin't last more than 5 minutes, and short sleeves wouldn't have given him enough fabric to wipe on for the whole 90 minutes.

My friend Dixie Clark passed away.

Last night, Monday, Aug 8.

I have a lot of fond memories of being associated with her.

Today, I made what I call Dixie Caramel Popcorn in her honor.

She brought me some for a Christmas gift years and years ago.
It was so good that I never shared it.
She gave me the recipe, and if I make it, I can't quit eating it.
Everytime I make it, I think of her.

She was Koby's Bear Den Leader.

We were pregnant together with our 13 year old boys.

We took their family to the lake one time, and while on the two-man tube,
we laughed and laughed and smacked our heads into each other.

Kash played baseball on her husbands team more than once and my Hubby helped him coach.

Her daughter cheered on the high school team with my son.

She taught primary while I was a counselor in the presidency.

She stopped by my house and gave me a big hug when my unborn baby died at 19 weeks.
That's what meant the most.

I miss you, Dixie.

Mr. Slack passed away.

On Saturday. He was breathing raspily on Friday.
Funeral will be on Thursday at 11 am.
http://www.metcalfmortuary.com/fh/obituaries/obituary.cfm?o_id=1232220&fh_id=11516

Sad news is everywhere, it seems

For those of you who remember my "ex-best friend" who dumped me after he left on his mission, well, we met in US History Class at Dixie College. His dad was the teacher, but I didn't know it at first.
Oh, how I hated history! Nothing was more boring and such a waste of time!

The man at the front of the room was, well, a funny-looking sort of guy. He was skinny and tall and wore glasses and had slicked-back hair. He had a voice like I had never heard before, and had barely a hint of a lisp.
I wasn't sure what to make of this fellow. He seemed to say a lot of things and sort of laugh at what he was saying. As I grew to know him more, I learned that his sense of humor really got to me. I mean, it was the type of quick-wit humor that I realized that I loved because of being in his class.

He'd be talking about people in history, then all of a sudden drift off the subject to make a remark that not everyone got. I learned early on that if  you wanted to laugh with him, then you needed to pay attention to every word. I listened intently on every word. The man was hilarious, and I couldn't get enough of his humor. I eventually took 4-5 different history classes from him. What can I say, I loved the man.

Some things that I really enjoyed were watching him write on the chalkboard. You had to be listening to him as he was writing or you wouldn't know WHAT he was writing. His handwriting was sometimes what you'd expect of someone who was writing without looking. Which is what he did -not look-cause he was looking at his notes.
He dotted every time there was an i or a j, and he crossed every time there was a t. Only he would do it after he finished writing the word, so the n's and g's were dotted and never the i's or the j's. That was one of my favorite things about him. Him dotting every n cause he would do it without looking.

He had been nominated for teacher of the year every year he taught at Dixie. I think he finally won it a few years after I graduated. He was competing with such masters as Maxx Rose (who is a humorous genius) and Docc Heppler. (who is another humorous genius)  (misspellings intentional as to avoid random googlings of potentially scary people).

Oh, how I grew to love that man. He was Mayor of Washington Citty at the time, so he was very much into politics, which I knew nothing about.

One of my favorite memories of him was when he laughed along with me as I played an April Fool's joke on his son. His son had already dumped me, but was now home from his mission and hung out with me a few times. He could never stop talking about his mission to Rome, and how he wanted to go back worse than anything. One April Fool's, my friend had sent me a letter saying he was tracting and had taught the Pope. Okay, I was a lot on the naive side back then, and I had no idea that pranks could be this big, so maybe I believed it for a few sentences...Oh, how I wanted to get him back after that one.

I played like I had sent my mission papers in a few weeks before, then on Sun Apr 1st, I called my friend and told him that I had gotten my call and I needed to show it to him. (Prior to my friends mission, he had given me a copy of his mission call. All of it.) I took his call and retyped it with my name in it and forged the President of the Church's name. Thus, I gave myself a mission call to the SAME MISSION that he had gone to. Hahaha. Like he would believe it for a minute....

BUT HE DID!!!!

As I was showing my "call" to my friend, I handed a copy of it to his dad, only his dad's copy had a big APRIL FOOLS written across it. So, then his dad knew it was a joke and HE LOVED IT! I could tell when he stood up, walked over to me, and asked me if "this was for real." Meaning the April Fool's that was written on his paper. Then he just smiled big and sat back down.

Sadly, Mr. Slackk is dying. He is in the last stages of his life, and he has not eaten nor drunken anything for 5 days.

I am sad about all of this.

The world will lose a great one.

I am just sad.

I hate cancer.

I have a friend 4 doors down that has had it for about 10 years.

When she first got it, her youngest child was just about 3,

and you had to feel for a momma's boy that loses his mom at such a young age.

Now, she is dying, and I just want to say that I am sad.

She is in the last stages, can't eat,

lots of stuff going on inside her body tumor-wise.

When I see lots and lots of cars in front of her house at a time, 

I literally have to choke back my urge

to throw up cause it makes me so worried.

We aren't in her same ward anymore,

so I have to get info second hand,

and I don't know if the cars are there cause she has passed
or will soon.
.
.
.

I hear it will be soon.

I am just sad....

Guess what...

I ran a stinkin' 5K on my treadmill today without stopping.
.
.
My longest run was 2.5 miles on my 40th birthday, almost 4 years ago.

.
My longest run recently was 1.5 miles a couple of weeks ago.

.
What Was I Thinking?               I Dunno!

I thought it would never happen. A 5K, I mean.

For a NON-runner, that is a serious milestone.

I have to pass so many WALLS when I run.

Usually every lap is a WALL.

WooHoo for me.

(It won't be happening again any time soon.)

History of the Tree Swing on Kaibab

There was a man named James Nelson who was the father of the mother of my father. Haha sounded good, anyway.

Grandma Myrtle's father, James, had some younger brothers named Jonathon and Smith who were also loggers on Kaibab. Their father was, their brothers were, my grandpa was, my dad was.....

Jonathon and Smith are the ones who put up the tree swing in the 1940's for the kids to play on while their dad's worked. (This story is told by Bernice Pickett (Mich's mom) who is the daughter of Jonathon Nelson.)

The Nelson's logged at a place called Mile-and-a-Half Lake. They held their reunions there every year until about 10 years ago. They used to visit the swing.

About twenty years ago, my dad drove to Kaibab and my hubby and I followed. My mom, Bryce, Jana, and Cheryl were also on the trip. We went to the swing and had a picnic.


Fifteen years ago, 1996, my dad died of cancer.

Nine years ago, in 2002, my hubby and I bought a travel trailer, and started camping on Kaibab.

In 2002-2005, my hubby, myself , and our kids spent a lot of time driving around the mountain looking for the tree swing. We were looking for signs of what we could remember from when my dad had taken us there. We could never find it. We asked rangers about the swing, and they had no idea what we were talking about.

In 2006, we found the tree swing. We had gotten limited directions from Uncle Verl, "Go down, down, down, till you can't go down anymore...." and we drove right to it. The cable was only attached to one of the trees, and my kids loved swinging around and around the tree like a tether ball, then switching directions and doing it again. We always took a family picture there.

In 2006, there had been a fire that had swept across this mountain, and it burned the whole west side of the tree.
I think this may have killed the tree. The fire also burned the board that was used for the seat. It is still usable, but barely.

In 2007, it took us awhile to remember how to get to the tree.

In 2008, the wind had blown the top half of the tree to the ground. The cable had spent its years embedding itself into the tree as the tree grew around it. This made the tree vulnerable to the wind and it just snapped it off.
































In 2009, we went to Kaibab, but didn't make it to the tree for some reason. I think it started pouring on the second day of our visit and didn't stop. It was 3 weeks before Kamarie was born.

In 2010, we didn't make the trip to Kaibab, cause we were out of work and didn't have money for gas, and we had taken a long trip to Bryce Canyon for a family reunion.

                                               -insert no pictures here-



This year, 2011,  the cable fell off the 40'-50' stump of the tree with barely any force applied. It missed landing on my 8-yr-old's head by 8 inches.

On this particular trip, my dad's baby sister had asked to tag along. She had never been up to Kaibab. She and her hubby came as well as her baby who is 17. They happen to climb trees. Casey scurried up a new tree with the cable, and with the help of Kyson and Mike, secured the heavy, heavy cable about 30 feet up in a living tree.

Then Mike scurried up a tree that was about 10 feet away and using the old, old u-bolts and nuts that were already on the cable, and a wrench that he happened to have in his Rhino (a new fangled jeep), he secured the other end of the cable to the 2nd tree about 20 feet up. Voi La. A new tree swing.

My kids prefer the swing to be tether-ball-like.

Right now it is lopsided as you swing, and it is quite a balancing act to stay on.

I remember going there as a child. I was around 5 years old. That is the last memory I have of that place till I was married. I remember wanting to swing as high as the big kids, and they wouldn't let me. I remember two men had to swing the swing higher by standing on either side of the swing and flinging it with a rope, since the swing was too high to reach. I remember my brother, Bruce being a bit stubborn and not wanting to let them swing him, so he put his foot up to stop the rope. I was there also as a 2-year-old, I know, cause my mom has pictures.

I have no idea why I am drawn to Kaibab so much. I just am. I like to go there at least once a year. My kids will ask to go there if we miss a year. They enjoy it, also.

I don't know much of the history of the place, but that is my tidbit to add to it.

In honor of 7/11

Ahhh, Kaibab...

For some reason, I am always reminded of my dad when I am on Kaibab...

The year was 1969.

Doug, Dave, Danette, Mona

Doug is almost 7, Danette is almost 2,

Here's Doug in 1972, almost 10.

Here you can see how high that swing could swing. This is Mona and Doug in 1972.


The swing got higher every year. To get a good high swing, someone else had to use a rope to swing you higher. One person on either side, catch the swing with the rope, and fling the swing backwards. Bruce is trying to kick that rope.
Mona and Tina 1972.

Danny, Tina, 1972

In 1992ish, we went looking for the "swing". Danny hadn't been there in years. The roads were gone and new roads had been made, but once he got in the right area, Danny drove us right to the spot-no road necessary. Danette, my hubby, Danny, Bryce, Mona .

The rest of the story

to come later, after the court of honor.

Add caption

Do you like my new heading

I changed the phrase just a little bit.

(Haha, I'm just so funny sometimes, I make myself laugh.)

Now if I could get my husband to look at my BLOG!

Kashton's Eagle Picture

Kashton's Eagle Court of Honor is coming up

Here is the "before", before my professional photographer gets ahold of it.
(It's a long-distance relationship.)
Watch for further updates of the magic.

 

Kauri is on a roll

We went to Tiffany's reception, and there was watermelon, cantaloupe, and honeydew in a fruit bowl. Kauri apparantly has not had a whole lot of cantaloupe, cause she asked her dad what it was.

She excitedly replied, "HMM! It stole this one's RECIPE!" as she pointed to the watermelon. She thinks they just "food colored it, cause it does NOT taste different."

lol

Another one for Kauri

The bigger sister in our house shares a room

with Kauri, and the bigger sister

refuses to change in her room

ANYMORE,

 cause Kauri says she has

"MAN BOOBS!"

ahh ha ha ha!

oh man,

where does she come up with this stuff?

(and whose man boobs has she been looking at?)

Kauri's Funnies

I needed to get a message to Hubby,

so I told Kauri to go out in the garage where Daddy was,

 and tell him something for me.

"OK!!!"

She was sooo excited to get the assignment,

that in her haste to get out of my bedroom,

she had to push her way past Hubby to get out my door.

LOL

LOL

LOL

Oh, man, I giggled till tomorrow!

I put Koby's name on his PIZZA!

He turned 15!!!

and

he loves

PIZZA.

BUT,

this

is

NOT

PIZZA,

 it

is

his

CAKE!

Kyson's Funnies

Kyson was running for student council because his friends wanted him to.

During his interview with the "powers that be", he summed up why he was running as

 "for the people" 

LOL

Ingeneous!

He WON the election, by the way,

so now he is the senior class president of the pm studentbody

of the Success Academy.

(Where you get to take your high school credits

as college courses and get an

Associate's Degree,

for free,

a month before you graduate from high school.)

Yes, he is the president over

22 kids!!!

WOOT WOOT

Kashton's Funnies

Kashton yelled, "UUUUGGGHHHH!"

I said, "What?"

He was standing in the kitchen babying his foot.

He said, "I just stepped in spilled yogurt......again!   For the third time."

I said, "Why don't you clean it up?"

He said, "Cause I didn't spill it, Kamarie did."

I said, "It would take less time to clean it off the floor than it would to wash off  your foot three times."

.

.

He didn't clean it up.

.

He stepped in it two more times.
One of those times his foot slipped hard enough to ram it into a chair.

hahaha

lol

Kort's funnies

Kauri was mad about dinner cause she doesn't like PUH-sketti.

.

.

Kortlen corrected her, and said,

"It isn't PUH-sketti, it is is BUH-sketti!

.

.

.

hahaha

Word of the Day

From Kauri:

Succulent

She said," Yummm, this strawberry is the best, most succulent strawberry I've ever tasted!"

I have never heard a Kindergartner use the word succulent.

She told me what it meant and then explained that she'd seen it on a princess movie where everyone  brought the princess presents. One of the presents was a succulent strawberry.



Easter Picnic !!

HA!

What you don't se here is how many "takes" it took to get any of these shots!

And,

Me with laryngitis trying to yell at the kids to look at the camera and quit distracting the baby!!!

Coming soon will be all the out takes of Kyson

while I try to get a decent shot to post!

Kauri has a funny friend, so she made my blog today.

The friend only hangs out with adults, so she is very articulate for a 5 year old.

Kauri was on the phone with her and made a rasperry sound with her mouth.

Her friend asked her if she just farted.

 lol

Then, the friend made arrangements for Kauri to come over and play for awile before the friend plays with her cousins.

Kauri had to wash her face and feet and brush her hair first.

While she was doing those things, the friend calls back and says,

 "Can I start over for asking you to play, cause I forgot to ask my family first."

Then she told Kauri that she CAN'T play with her.

Then Kauri said, "You mean that I got ready for NOTHING?"

Then a 10 minute conversation about how bad they want to play with each other today. Funny

It's not completely Koby's fault he made my blog

I don't think any of my kids have seen me boil potatoes in their skins before.
I had just boiled two pots full of eggs to color for Easter. (Remember, we have 7 kids that want to color eggs.)
I was boiling the pot of potatoes for potato salad.
Koby peeked into the pot and asked me with a big puzzled look if we were going to paint potatoes, too.
lol

Kauri's Commentary

Kyson declared that he was having a staring contest with Kauri cause she was looking at him.

They stared at each other for a few seconds and when Kauri blinked, Kyson told her that she blinked and declared himself the winner.

Kauri didn't want to accept defeat, so she said,

"I blinked inside my brain."

We were going to swim team practice one day last summer, and Kauri was sick, and I wasn't going to let her get in the water. I told her we needed to get her some medicine to get her better and she told me,

"The water IS my medicine."

Kashton's funnies

We were all headed to ball games in one vehicle since gas is now reaching $4.25 a gallon for diesel in the truck.
All the kids were already seated when I got to the car, and the only place left was in the back seat of our Suburban.
So they LET me sit in the back.
Kashton always complains when he sits in the back, but he moved his seat to let me climb past it and told me to  let him know how fast my legs get CONSTIPATED. Ha Ha
I think he meant cramped or claustrophobic. lol

KysonSullivan signature guitar!

He needed some attention on Kyson's birthday

Kortie did it again! (made my blog)

He wanted to use the humidifier tonight, cause he is stuffed up.
I saw him in the storage room getting it out, stuggling with it cause it was so heavy.
He managed to get it out of the room and dropped it as soon as he did.
I told him to stop, since it was not a humidifier.
It was a bread making machine.
lol

It sucks to be sick

on your 17th birthday!!!!
Sorry, Kyson.

Kortie's Funnies

Yay, Yay, Yay,

Kortlen FINALLY made my blog!!!

Kort's NintendoDS has a broken hinge, which means it doesn't work.

We have the parts to fix it, but it is in the halfway done phase. 

This is torture for an 8-yr-old.

Hubby was playing a DS this morning, and I asked if Kort could play that one if Kort's room was clean.

He nodded to me, so I told Kort that dad had nodded his head.

Kort had the most innocent look on his face as he asked me,

"Which way?"

as he unintentionally mimicked a bobble head doll.

LOL

My science experiment: Dingy whites to whitest whites

I read somewhere (and I don't know if it is true) that garments are DYED WHITE. So, when they are bleached, the bleach takes out the white dye and makes the garments dingy grey!!!

So, buy some white dye and dye them white, right?

What WMart carries in the Rit dye section is not really white "dye", but it claims to whiten and brighten dingy whites.

Well, the ingredients have some of the sodium and hydrowhatchamacallits that are similar to my oxidizer powder.  I'm not a chemist, but I was hoping there was a big enough difference to make a bigger difference.

I've tried using the oxidizer powder on the dingy garments to no avail. But, it makes sense that the oxidizer won't make the dingy whites whiter if the dye has been all bleached out of them...

So, I followed the directions on the "whitest whites" rit dye,

I even used hot, almost boiling water.

I stirred it for 12-15 minutes,

and rinsed them with warm water.

What I was hoping for was to NOT to have to spend $50 to replace the dingies.

You know, so I feel like I can wear white t-shirts again

and not feel like I don't know how to do laundry

(which apparently, I don't.)

The experiment was a waste of my time and the $2.20ish that I spent on the ritstuff.

Not completely a waste of my time, I guess, cause now, I know.

I don't mind the "now, I knows" as long as it didin't cost me too much.

Well,

I guess I am going to make that trip to the DB (DeseretBook) on Monday to get me some whitey whites.

Wait,

I guess I did figure out how to get the whitey whites after all.

Hubby says to try spray paint...
maybe I will.

Kauri's Commentary: riddle style

Brushing her own hair, she tells me, "I'm trying to make that white stuff on the top of my head."

What is it?

Kauri's turn to fold the stuff that goes in the kitchen drawers, and she says,

"I can't do the ones with the ropes."

What is it?

Look

below

for

the

answer.

I

have

to

do

this

so

people

who

use

a

google

reader

can't

cheat!

A part.

An apron