Another neighbor passed away...

This death is going to impact a lot more than just a neighborhood.

He was a bishop till he passed away, he was a coach at the high school of multiple sports, he was an employer of mostly teens, he was married to a do-er which escalates his status by trillions.

I knew him 25 yrs ago when he was newly married and played ward sports with a boyfriend of mine.

I knew him 20 yrs ago when we built a house and ended up in his ward. We got split from that ward about 15 yrs and 8 ward splits ago.

He used to run the local catering business that his father-in-law owned. He employed probably every teenager that needed a job, and he never worked them on Sundays. Everyone wanted to peel potatoes for this guy.

I knew him 4 yrs ago when my oldest son was on the cheer team with his daughter. I rode to a game in Vegas with him and his wife. He was so pleasant to be around. I remember the Vegas school had a metal detector at the entrance to the football stadium. He was allowed to bypass the detector on account of his pacemaker. He was only 48ish at this time.

His wife put on the banquet for the cheer team that year. She never just does something like that. If she is involved, it is always overdone. Decorations, food, prizes. Everything is always crazy amazing. She is kind of crazy like that.

Recently, for the past 3 yrs or so, he has been in a wheelchair. His failing health required it. Something in his body was going haywire and I'm not sure if even the doctors could figure out why.

He was the bishop of his ward despite his health hardships. Lots of wards were realigned 2 weeks ago, and a lot of new bishops were called, but he remained in the leadership spot of bishop.

His greatness was made even greater because of his wife. She is a doer. She does it all. They host firesides at their house. They host a Valentines Day dinner for all the single ladies in the ward. She never slows down. She is a very creative person and uses her talents to the hilt. Which makes him look even greater as a person.

A few months ago, he was the Grand Marshall of our local parade.

For years, he helped coach the baseball and basketball teams. The past few years, his wheelchair was parked at the end of the team bench by the wall. I would walk past him in his chair several times a night to get to a place to take pictures of my kids at halftime or whatever. Each and every time I greeted him, he made me feel like I was his favorite person in the world.

That's the kind of guy he was.

That's why the line to his viewing will be out the door, down the street, and around the corner.

Even though he lives a mile away from me, we were some of the first people to build in this area of our town. That makes us neighbors, still.

I can't help but wonder what might have happened if our high school basketball team had won their game on Thursday. (which I looked for him in his chair, but he wasn't on the sideline with the team.) That would have put our team playing on Friday night. Friday night is when, I believe, he had a heart attack. The word was spreading fast about him on Saturday, and if our team had made it to the championship game (which they were sort of expected to) would they have ended up playing it? I know that I would not have been able to play if my beloved coach was in the hospital.

As I understand it, the EMT's revived him and he was put on life support. His family was able to say good bye before they took him off of life support on Sunday.

He has 5 kids, the youngest is a Junior in high school. His next youngest had her mission farewell 2 weeks ago. She was supposed to enter the MTC for a mission to Mexico tomorrow.

My heart breaks for this family and the community.

This loss is huge.

Three in 2.5 years.

This morning, my neighbor died.

He was in the hospital for some reason over the weekend, and this morning he got a blood clot in his head and passed away before he could be treated for it.

He was only about 58. He lived around the corner from me.

Two and a half years ago, my friend died of ovarian cancer. She was maybe 50. She lived 3 houses down from me.

A little over a year ago, my neighbor around the corner died when her schizo husband beat her to death.

That's 3 people within a block in 2..5 years.

I didn't know this man's family very well. But 10 years ago, his 17 year old son finished a shift at a pizza store, then went to the park and hung himself from a tree. That was sad, sad, sad.

That happened just after we got split from their ward, when this man was just put in the bishopric.

Forget about waiting for a second mission call. . .

trying to get my 17 yr old out the door, ready and packed for swim state,
is enough to give me a CORONARY!

He was half an hour late for Calculus.
He didn't do his Humanities homework that was due last night.
He forgot to eat breakfast.
He forgot deodorant.
He almost forgot to take his swim suit and goggles.
He left his "to do on the bus" stuff packed in his "put under the bus in the storage bin" bag.
He lost the spare keys to his car that I need to drive tomorrow.

Breathe, just breathe.

PS forget about breathing! Koby's call did NOT come today.
Now back to holding my breath. . .

True to form...

my ward will be re-aligned again!

That has got to be around 11 or 12 in the 20 years we have lived here.

There was 1 ward south of the river when we moved here.

On Sunday, there will be 12 wards in our stake,
and I don't know how many are in the other stakes
that are out here.

We still will not be getting our friends from our neighborhood back in our ward. We were split away from the oldest part of our neighborhood 2 years ago, and we are all still wanting to be rejoined with them. They are assigned to go to the other chapel to hear the news, that's why I am confident they aren't going to be put back with us.

We do know that our bishop will be released.
He will be in Africa picking up his missionary when he is released from his 7 years of being bishop.
So, he bore his testimony today since he will be gone.

Lemony lemon brownies?

okay, got my recipe. now all I need is some LEMONS!






Lemony Lemon Brownies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup flour
2 eggs, large
2 tbsps lemon zest
2 tbsps lemon juice
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

For the tart lemon glaze:
4 tbsps lemon juice
8 tsps lemon zest
1 rounded cup powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Grease an 8×8 inch baking dish with butter and set aside.

3. Zest and juice two lemons and set aside.

4. In the bowl of an electric mixture fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the flour, sugar, salt, and softened butter until combined.

5. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, lemon zest, and lemon juice until combined.
6. Pour it into the flour mixture and beat for 2 mins at medium speed until smooth and creamy.

7. Pour into baking dish and bake for 23-25 mins, should turn golden around the edges.

8. Allow to cool completely before glazing. Do not overbake, or the bars will dry.

9. Filter the powdered sugar and whisk with lemon zest and juice.

10. Spread 1/2 the glaze over the brownies with a rubber spatula and let glaze set.

11. Spread 1/2 the glaze over the bars, and let it set (not harden like most).

12. Cut into bars and serve.

To cover or to not to cover. . .

Do I cover up the preschooler in the  morning so she will be warm and possibly sleep longer?

OR

Do I leave her uncovered so will be chilly when she wakes up, then she will come climb on my lap and snuggle with me to get warm?

HOLY SMOKES!

A summer ago, our house filled up with smoke.

It wasn't a fire, and we never figured out for sure what caused it (that's a terrifying thought in and of itself,) but we knew it was a plastic burn -a plastic melt, of some kind.

We suspect it might be a wire to a bathroom fan, but we still don't know. The fire dept. even came and looked around with their heat vision camera and couldn't find any hot spots.

Yesterday, Koby came home and declared that our house smelled like something was burning.
Yep, it smelled like that same burn from a a summer ago.

I ran upstairs and checked the bathroom. No smoke. I checked the bedrooms. No smoke.

I could smell it when he mentioned it, but it was the worst in the entryway.

I couldn't find anything, but there was no smoke, so I forgot about it till later that afternoon.

We have a relative staying in the casita, and he mentioned that his power was off to several things in the casita. He could hear clicking like something was powering on and off.

Hubby started searching around, and found a power box on the outside wall of my bedroom was scorched. He opened it up to discover today's culprit.

The whole switch inside the box was melted. The wires had fried so bad they were severed.

YIKERS!

The smell was in the front of the house and the melted thing was as far away from the front as it could get- in the back of the house.

Hubby was able to replace the melted part and wire.

But, I am serious about getting a fire safe, now!

Me and Murphy! I am so used to him and his law; I live by it.

Saturday.
Couldn't get to sleep last night till 2 am., and I had to get up early with lots of things to do.

The Schedule:

Koby and Kash swim meet at 9 a.m.

Kort's basketball game at 10 a.m.

Go to Wal-mart for milk and birthday presents.

Go to Home Depot to buy parts for a shower.

Go to Lowe's to buy parts for a shower since HD didn't have what we needed.

Kauri's birthday party at 12 p.m.

Kinzie's basketball game at 2 p.m.

Kauri's basketball game at 4 p.m.

Kash's gamers party at 4:30 p.m.

Koby leaving for pictures for Senior Ball at 4:30.

Kinzie's birthday party at 7 p.m. (across town).
Kash's stake dance at 8:30.

I was already short on time, and needed to get to work on the corsage, but we had to stop
at the stores.

Milk has gone up 33% since Christmas.
Now if I could

just convince my kids to stop drinking it for every thirst quench,
so that we don't use 1.5 gallons a day.

HomeDepot had the vinyl flooring we needed, 

but their only roll had slices through it 5 layers deep.

Lowe's claimed they didn't even have any, 

but I found some there, and it was too little, so we had to buy 2 of them.

I didn't have time for the 1 store,

let alone all 3 of them.

Didn't make it home in time to get the gift to Kauri and give her a ride, so

Kinz had to walk her to it.

The Corsage:

It is not
rocket science to tie a corsage ribbon,

so WHY CAN'T I DO IT?!!!
Strike One.

I gave up

on the ribbon and went to work on the bracelet.

The bracelet was lost!
Strike Two.

I gave up 

on the bracelet and went to work on the flower

and baby's breath.

My floral tape was missing!
Strike Three!

I was sooooo out of time.

I spent the next hour searching my craft storage area for the floral tape and bracelet.

Kinzie and I couldn't find them.
Lost time = Strike Four.

While I was looking, I accidentally pulled out the plug to the only light source to the craft corner.
Strike Five.
The plug is behind my ginormous headboard and would take a miracle to fix it,
so instead, I had a meltdown.

Hubby was busy doing his own project fixing a shower, so

he was unavailable.

Out of desperation, I called him. He dropped everything and went the 10 miles to

go get me some floral tape.

He was already on his way to the store when we realized Kinz had to be to her game in

10 minutes,
Strike Six.
so he had to come back and get her and drop her off.

Which meant that I would be late to see her game. pffffft.
Strike Seven.

Finally got to Kinz's game,

but when we got home I only had a half an hour to put the corsage together

before going to Kauri's game.
I would have had longer if she had found a ride like I requested her to do, but didn't happen.

I got the corsage all put together and was attaching it to the bracelet with wire,

and the wire SLICED the rose right off of its stem at the base of the flower!!!
Strike Eight, Nine, and Ten!

OMH

Now what am I supposed to do?

I tried hot glue like everyone uses on you tube, but

it wouldn't work for me, cause I didn't have time to wait for it to get super hot.

?

?

?

I tried it one more time since the glue had time to heat up while I tried to figure out what to do,
 and we won't know if it worked till

later tonight.

I strung a ribbon through the bracelet because the bracelet is too big

for Allisyn's wrist, and she can tie it on so it won't flop around.

Then Kauri and I were late for Kauri's game.
Strike: ?, I lost track. then she got a jammed thumb and couldn't play most the game.

I wanted to find Koby to take pictures of him and his date,

but he didn't know where he was,

BUT

he called me right back to let me know he forgot he had the

salad assignment.
Strike: I lost track plus 1.

Now, it's 5:30, and Costco will be closed before I can get there

to get more lettuce for me to eat tomorrow.

I had to

give every last shred (haha, get it?) to the dates.

I had to cut it all up, make dressing, and find containers to put it all in.

(That reminds me of a funny meme I saw:

Tupperware?

More like TupperWHERE?!

WHERE THE FREAK IS THE FREAKING LID!

Hahahaha)

Then, we couldn't find Koby's picture session.

He left his phone in the car.

They ended up being a mile away from where he said they would be.

It was so dark by now that my

snapshot of them will not turn out!
Strike: whatever plus 2.

She had her dress custom made in Mexico and

shipped to her.

I hate that I could not do justice with a picture in the dark.

(most of their fellow daters were an hour late to pictures, so they

had to take them after dark. : (

Then, we no longer had time to go on a date before Kinzie had to be somewhere.
Yep, another strike.

We had to go clear across town to get Kinz at home and take her back to where

we had just been, to get her to her bday party.

That reminds me. 

There is a bridge approved and okay'd to start any day now that will be so close to my house that
"clear across town" will only be a couple of miles away.

YAY

YAY

YAY

just not today.

I was gonna give myself a break from my Saturday night addiction on account of
eating too much Christmas Junk,
but if I was going to be anywhere near tolerable to live with,
I HAD TO HAVE IT!

So, I caved and got my Durango's small pork salad in a hard shell
with black beans, lime rice, cilantro, sour cream, guacamole and extra pico and Cholula sauce.

Okay, I am back to my bipolar personality number 1 for a few hours.  : )

and then we get a phone call from Kash, who has a ride to the dance, but now needs
us to come get him at his party and give him a ride home to finish his chores before he can go to the dance, but
the friend's parents somehow can't give him a ride a mile up the street to his house.
So, we have to leave Durango's with my meal half eaten

: (

and drive clear across town to get Kash and take him home then drive him clear in the freak across town to the dance. Strike whatever.

And there you have a day in the life of me.
Phew.

Thank goodness I had a picture turn out!!!

Koby and Allisyn.

Koby's girlfriend, Allisyn, made his boutonniere.

Kyson and Courtney stunting

If only I had taken bathroom pics.. . . . .

maybe I could be cool enough to have pics like this. . . . .

Aunt Ada

I am posting this for my family records. This is my grandmother's younger sister.

I was told she was mistakenly left of the obit by the paper, but no one works weekend to fix the error before the funeral. I think another sister was left off as well.

There's a lot of info here about my own grandmother's history.

(I wrote this to the paper Sunday night of the viewing:)

My grandmother's sister passed away and she was left off the obituary. I believe another sister was left off as well. I think it might be The spectrum's fault it was left off. It's only fair that you print a corrected one in the paper, and maybe even apologize to my 96 year old grandmother. She has always taken your paper.

Obit was for Ada Alldredge.

Sisters left off are Myrtle and Pearl.

Thank you.


Ada Helen Nelson Alldredge (1921 - 2014)

Ada Helen Nelson Alldredge 

St. George

Heaven gained one amazing, sweet, energetic angel. Our beautiful mother, Ada Helen Nelson Alldredge left this life January 9, 2014 and went on to be with our Dad .

She was born October 27, 1921 in her Grandma James' house in Ramah, New Mexico, to James Mark and Nellie Mariah James Nelson. She is seventh in a family of twelve children. She married Verl I Alldredge June 21, 1940 in the St. George LDS Temple. They were the parents of eight children.

Her father, being a lumber man, moved the family to the mountains in New Mexico during the summer to work in the logging camp and back to town, Bluewater, New Mexico in the fall for school. Their summers in the mountains were a fun time for the children playing in the hills. With such a large family, she learned early to work and help out. As a teenager she pieced quilts for fun when work was done. Quilting became a lifelong love. She served as quilt chairman in the Relief Society for 5 ½ years. They made a quilt a month, plus a satin quilt for each bride from the ward.

Mom's life was that of devotion to Dad, her children and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She served for 28 years as a volunteer in the St. George Temple. She served in the Primary and even when she thought she was too old, she was called to be the Secretary in the Primary. The Relief Society was her love, serving there for many years in different positions including President. She was always a Visiting Teacher until her illness in 2010. These last three years she kept busy making hot pot holders, dish clothes, dollies for grand and great-granddaughters and scarves for a humanitarian project - close to 200 scarves. She couldn't stand sitting idle.

During her lifetime, Mom had many serious illnesses that could have taken her life, but she was a fighter and outlived everyone's expectations making it to 92. We called her our "ever-ready bunny" because what ever health problem she had, even when we didn't think she could get better, she did! One of the more serious problems was lung cancer in 1963. She had a lung removed, then she developed diabetes due to the steroids she took to help her breathe. She determined that she wanted to live to help raise her family and be there for Dad. And she did. In 2010, she had a fall that we didn't think she would recover from, but she has battled back for 3 ½ years and even with this last downturn in her health, she was fighting to get better to take care of her family. 

We are grateful to have had our Mom with us for so many years, for her example and for her fighting spirit that showed us not to give up when things get tough. 

She is survived by four daughters; Darlene (Gale) Larsen, Elma Jean (Jay deceased) May, Evonne (Burton) Johnson and Nancy (David) Thompson; four sons: Jerry (Gerri), Michael (Cindy), Dennis (Rae Ann) and Alan (Rinda); 52 grandchildren; 129 great-grandchildren; and 2 great-great-children. She is also survived by her brother, Bennie (Kathy) Nelson; sister-in-law, Maxine Nelson; and a brother-in-law, Bill Bundy. She was preceded in death by the love of her life, our Dad, Verl; her parents; brothers: Joseph (infant), Mark, Heber and Robert Nelson; sisters: Mary (infant), Marvia Goodwin, Eliza Bundy and Reba Burgess; two granddaughters; two great-granddaughters; and one great grandson.

As a family, we would like to express our thanks to Dr. Rignell, for his kind and loving care of our mother over many years, and to Southern Utah Hospice, Bob, Natalie, Leah, Laura and Debbie. So appreciate your being there anytime we needed help and advice.

Funeral Services will be Monday, January 13, 2014 at 11:00 a.m. at the Main Street LDS Chapel, 166 South Main Street, St. George, Utah. Visitations will be Sunday evening from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Metcalf Mortuary, 288 West St. George Blvd. and Monday, at the Chapel from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., prior to services. Interment will be in the St. George City Cemetery.

-  http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/thespectrum/obituary.aspx?n=ada-alldredge&pid=169011018&fhid=4514#sthash.pvgMVAtp.dpuf

Senior Stampede!

Let the games begin!

Since the age was changed for missionaries, the church will forever be overwhelmed by 6 to 9 months' worth of freshly turned (or soon to turn) 18-year-olds that will be graduating high school and racing to get their mission papers turned in by Jan. 23. (The rule is that you can turn them in 4 months before you are able to leave for a mission which is 18 years old and graduated. Graduation is on May 22nd.)

Gone are the days that there are a handful of people a month turning the necessary age for a mission and putting in the papers randomly.

Everyone from late Kindergarten starters (boys AND girls who turned 18 before their Senior year started) to late May and June birthdays will be scrambling to get to their Bishops in the next 2 weeks to get their mission papers started and turned in.

Right now in my current ward (my ward has changed 11 times in 21 years while living in the same house), there are 16 missionaries out. Half of them are girls.

By the end of May, I expect to be financing 10% of the 20 missionaries from my ward!

Get it?

Kyson got trampled by the age change and the Senior Stampede from last year, and it would have set his schooling and his only scholarship off by a whole year to get home mid November had he turned them in last year.

Not only were all the freshly turning 19 year old boys and freshly turning 21 year old girls putting in their paperwork one year ago, but also ALL the girls already 19 and 20 and, it seems, every male high school senior. There's not that many beds for all those interested at once, so that put departure dates 6 months out for a lot of kids.

Kyson is now determined to beat the Senior Stampede to the MTC. His schooling is done May 7ish. 

Koby, despite my anxious pleas to not to, won't be far behind.

They gotta do what they gotta do, but I am not fond of them making me grow up.

Let the internet paperworking/Bishop interviewing/girl heart-breaking games begin!

I don't know what to think.

It feels not real.
It feels like it's a fictional story.

The blessing in this for the family is that they did not have to make the decision.
Her husband did not have to make this decision.
I would not want to have to make that decision in a situation like this!

I will miss seeing her and chatting with her in stores as we try to keep our families fed.

I will miss all her crazy stories about all the stuff that her family has gone through in this life.

I will miss her even though I never see her much.

She passed away on her own today at about 4:54 p.m.

She was just one of those crazy, fun, real, 'this is how I am, take it or leave it' people.

I will miss her.

Christmas In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2013!

WAIT. WAIT. WAIT.

Kyson is NOT READY!

She hasn't changed much since yesterday.

That's the word I got this afternoon.

I don't quite know what to think about this.

It seems the antibiotics would have the infections under control by now, and
she should be improving quickly.

That's not the case so far. Sheesh.

She might make it.

Wow, that's not quite something you'd expect to hear about a perfectly happy, healthy 42 yearish old.

They've got her temp stabilized to 102, and they might let her come out of her coma.

They think she might live.

Holy Cow.

Instead, you'd think you'd be hearing something like, she's really sick, but she'll be home soon.

Burglary Report Follow-up

The driver of the car that was at my house to burglarize it was arrested a couple of weeks ago. He was so stoned in his arrest picture that I could not recognize him.

But, he admitted to several burglaries. Like 10 ish.

A cop just called me to let me know that the passenger of that burglary attempt is now in custody.

Thanks to my report and the license plate number of the car that I got, they were able to close in on these guys! ! !

Yay! I love getting thugs their rightful karma.

The cop that called me is a different cop than the one that took my report and declared them unrelated, but today's cop said that the first cop had actually put both reports under the same incident number, that's how they had me linked to the family that got burglarized the same day as my incident.

It turns out that this idiot really DID have an uncle in my neighborhood. We even spent a week at Lake Powell with the uncle back in the day. He even lives within a stones throw from my house.

It also turns out that he is facebook friends with my niece, and several of her neighbors. A couple of  this kids friends swim with my sons on the high school team.

It looks like they got him on at least 5 burglaries, and his bond is set for over $60,000.

I hope none of his family is stupid enough to pay that for him. He needs to sit in jail for awhile.

Swine Flu?

is supposedly going around?

I just found out a long time friend of mine got the swine flu last week or the week before, but they figured out it was swine flu the day after Christmas.

Well, then it developed into double pneumonia, and strep throat.

She is only 42 ish, and she is in the ICU right now fighting for her life.

We worked together at Frostop, but after she got married, they lived in my ward for awhile till our ward got split. So, when we see each other in Wmart or somewhere, we will catch up on stuff. I just saw her shopping a couple of weeks ago!

They are putting ice blankets on her to keep her temp. down from the 104 that it wants to stay at.
They are afraid of brain damage.
They have her on the highest dose of steroids they can give her.
Her oxygen levels are below 80 and that could cause her to die if they go much lower.
She is on oxygen and and a machine is breathing for her.
She is in a sleep coma so she doesn't move around and fight all the tubes in her.

Monday night, they didn't expect her to make it through the night! ! ! !

Her grandfather is my step father in law. He is very worried about her.

She has 5 kids from ages 9 to 19 that are being cared for by her in laws while her mother spends every minute by her side.

Yikes. I am an anxious mess now. Waiting to hear any news. . . .. . .

My mural.

instructions is up on my blog that I use for linking to Pinterest:


http://halloweenjunkie.blogspot.com/2013/12/garage-mural.html

in case you are wanting to make one for yourself.

LOL

Kashton won't get up at 4:30 a.m.

on Christmas morning ever ever again.

He and Kort woke up all the kids and Kams who was sleeping in my room, therefore,

they woke up ME at 5 a.m.! ! ! !

 I went back to sleep till Hubby woke me up at 7 a.m.

I was ticked, sooooo. . . . 

Kash and Kort got to skip a turn the first round, and Kash got to go dead last for the rest of the rounds.

Here is what Kash thinks is his #1 gift is in.

He watched Kinz open a biggish box and find a smallish box inside.

So, he picked out a big box from Santa, hoping, hoping, hoping. . . .

This is what he found! !  !

and this little thing. . . . .

He finally got one! He has been waiting for 3 or 4 years for one.

He had one really big box that he wanted to open worse than anything, but since he

woke up all the kids at 5 a.m, I made him

save it till LAST!

Here he is trying to hurry up the process and passing out all the kids' gifts

so they can get them all opened.

LOL

Drum Roll PLEASE ! ! ! !

Inspirational quotes and or pics in each of those pockets.

Happy Happy Day For This Kid ! ! ! ! !

Kyson hauls A

on the schools website, 5th picture down:

http://www.utahstateaggies.com/school-bio/ust-romneystadium.html

Sweet!

The 2 hour layover

turned into a 6 hourish layover.

They made it to their hotel at 5:30 a.m. Utah time.

So a 2 hour flight ended up taking 24 hours to get them there.

Don't feel too bad for them, though. The ocean is half a block from their hotel.

Too much snow in Logan for the plane to land

this morning, so it had to land in Ogden.

They had to postpone their departure to San Diego till tonight at 6:00.

Update: They had to be bussed to SLC airport, then had at least a 2 hour layover.

A 2nd flight in 2 weeks.

Kyson does not remember flying on a plane before. He was too young.

He has been to Walt Disney World, Mount Everest, Puerto Vallarta, among other places.(I used to work at Skywest when I was newly married and got lots of free flights.)

A little over a week ago, the USU cheer squad got to fly home from the football game in Fresno.
The football team's chartered plane was replaced with a bigger plane than they had ordered, so the cheer team got to fly home on it with them. It's a good thing, too, cause the snowfall in my town that they had to pass through that night of returning would have had them stuck in the gorge for 6 hours after already travelling for 9. Plus another 6 hours from here to get to Logan.

Kyson loved flying. LOVED it.

They lost the game in Fresno which put them in the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego on the 26th of Dec.so no Kyson for us for Christmas.

Instead of driving to SD, they get to fly with the football team. They fly out on Sunday morning.
They will be there till after the game on Thursday night.

He is pretty excited. The U is paying for their whole stay, and they are also taking them to the SD Zoo and to Sea World while they are there. Not a bad exchange for missing Christmas with the Fam.

If the football team had won the game against Fresno St. (which was super close to going into overtime,) USU would have played in the bowl game today, and we would have had Kys with us on Christmas Eve and morning.

I am excited for these adventures this cheer leader life provides him in college. I am thankful for how much of his school is paid for by doing it.

He is planning to put mission papers in in January and the goal is to beat the "high school rush" at the MTC, and to be out of there before high school gets out.

Right now, I am hoping the 4 inches of snow Logan got today does not stop their flight in the morning. It is supposed to start up again by the time they leave at 8 a.m.

Okay, Here it is!

It does not look as cool as it was in my mind.

It is not as cool as the one I copied on Pinterest.

But, it's done.

Hopefully, the spotlight will light it all up tonight.

Hopefully, now I can start to enjoy the season. . . .

I wonder if people that live around snow do stuff like this?

My lack of patience is torturous!

I am working on a house display for Christmas.
It's almost done.
At least that's what I thought a few days ago.
And a few days before that.
And a few days before that.

I just want it to be DONE!

And now there's only 1 week till Christmas.

I was sick Yesterday and the day before that and couldn't work on it.

Part of it is up, but it won't look right till it's all done.

I've decided I will take next year off of doing these big projects.

Sigh.

Back to my glueing!

Freeway message from the Beaver High Cheerleaders.

I saw this as we passed and wished I had a picture.
I just found this on the facebook of my son's cheer coach.




It made me so excited to see this, that I couldn't sleep anymore, and I had to drive so that I could watch for more.

There was a paper banner up at MM 280 ish cheering on Pine View. I don't know who is responsible for it.

This sign was made by poking cups through the fence.

T Day

was by ourselves this year.

That's the first time in 46 years we have not been at a Grandma's house 

or at a mom's house

or with extended family of some sort. 

It was so much easier than people make it sound:

Each of my kids listed two dinner items that they wanted on the menu.

Then,

I had each kid pick the two items on the list that he or she was going to 

be in charge of making for the dinner.

We started by having everyone peel 4 or 5 potatoes.

It was also the first time I have ever used

yellow potatoes. 

I wasn't even sure what they'd taste like, but the farmer said they'd be yummy.

Kinzie chose to do the potatoes and gravy.

We bought packets of gravy mix and it was so good and

so easy.

Hubby chose to do the salad.

HA!

We bought a premix at Costco. 

We

are

smart

like that.

Kashton made the Stovetop stuffing.

It's our family's favorite.

He

also made the 

cottage cheese jello

(cherry jello with cottage cheese that comes with pineapples in it and of course wool whip.)

no picture of the jello, sorry.

Koby made the rolls.

Rhodes Rolls.

HA!

cause we are smart enough to know how.

He also made the green bean casserole.

You can tell how good it was.

There was none left

to take pictures of.

I chose to make the pumpkin pie!

HA!

cause I am smart enough to know that it's cheaper to buy a pie at Costco

than it is to buy the ingredients,

and it tastes even better.

I was also in charge of the ham,

so I pulled it out of the

freezer a couple of days ahead of time.

: )

Kort is the beginner, so he made just the banana cream pie.

Voila,

here we are again!

SQUEAT ! ! ! !

Our dear little Kyson got to spend Tday in Bountiful with

his sweetie and her family.

He didn't have a very long break.

He made my day.

I won't take my kids shopping with me cause it is such a pain in the rear!

So, when I saw this group of people shopping, I thought, "kudos to you for what you had to go through just to get them in the car or van or whatever, then to get them out, then to push them around the store so they can get some extra curricular activity in their lives."

None of the group were looking around.

No one else in the store was looking at them. Everyone was looking past them.

I was curious. I tried to catch eye contact with one of the escorts. She was all business.

So, I looked straight at the man being escorted.

My intent was to greet him with a smile and make his day. It seemed no one else would...

His head was cocked sideways, his arms stiff and twisted up by his chest, his tongue was hanging partially out of his mouth, he didn't seem to know where he was let alone know he was anywhere other than at home. He was the third in a line of 3 wheelchairs being escorted through the store.

But, the most amazing thing happened:

He looked up at me just as they were about to pass me.
I was already smiling at him hoping I could make his day with a greeting,
but just as I said my smiley "hi" greeting to him,
he smiled back at me like I was a long lost friend, and he totally made MY day! ! !

And then he was gone, escorted away by his caregivers who knew nothing of our exchange.

Move the trees. . .

Kams: Mom where is my wand?

Me: It's out front in the graveyard. We'll go get it once the sun is shining- when it warms up.

Kams: The sun is shining.

Me: The sun is NOT shining out front. The trees are blocking the sun.

Kams: We should MOVE the trees.

Burglary Report

I came home from church last week to thwart a burglary! ! !

Yep, you read that right! !

Kams had croup, but we went to Sacrament Mtg. to listen to Kashton give a talk.

When he was done, Hubby handed me the keys and told me to take her home. But, I wanted to listen to the last speaker, cause he is a friend. So, I stalled for 15 minutes.

At 9:55, I pulled into my driveway to find two strange men getting out of an older dark green 4-door car that was parked in my driveway in front of my garage!

The passenger was out of the car, the passenger car door was open, and he was standing next to it. The driver was still sitting in the car.

The car was on the driver's side of my car, so it was easy for me to ask the passenger questions.

Can I help you?

He asked me if this was Sara's house.

I said no it wasn't, and asked him why he would think someone named Sara would live in this house.

He said he was told that Sara lived somewhere around here, so they were going around asking people for her house.

I thought, "yeah, right, liar." as I was scoping out the inside of their car to make sure they didn't have a gun. I remained in my car with the door between us, but my 4 yr old was climbing out of her door during this exchange.

I asked him what made him think Sara lived in this area.

He said she lived by his uncle.

I asked what his uncle's name was.

He paused for close to 3 seconds, like he was thinking, then told me his uncle's name was Ryan. No last name, just Ryan.

I just wanted them gone, so I politely told them I didn't know anyone named Ryan.

The passenger got back in the car, and they drove away. I watched them drive down the street 2 blocks and turn off of my street.

At this point, they made liars out of themselves, cause they didn't stop to ask any of my neighbors where Sara lived which is what they said they doing in the first place.

I took down their license plate #. 

377 XFE

It was a dark green 4 door sedan. I am not good with makes, but it looked sort of like a Pontiac or a Buick. The passenger door mirror was taped on pretty securely with black duct tape.

The driver looked like white male, early 20's, short, black hair that was spiked a bit. Small gauges in his ear lobes: maybe 1/4 inch ones, several facial piercings: eyebrow, ear lobes, and maybe lip and/or nose.

The passenger looked like white male, early 20's, short, blonde hair, could have been spiked or gelled, several facial piercings, and ear piercings.

Hubby urged me to call the police, but it seemed trivial to me to call the police and tell them two guys were sitting in my driveway. . . .. .

By Tuesday night, a friend had posted on fb about an acquaintance getting burglarized while their family was at church between 10:30 and 12:30 in the morning.

I commented that I had taken down the license plate number and to have her friend call me for it.

The victim did call me and couldn't believe it when I told her it was and older dark green car. People who drove a car like that had done the stone work on their new house. They have lived in their house for only 3 months.

She told me where she lives and we were both shocked to find out that it was the very next subdivision down the street from my subdivision.

We were both shocked to find that they left my house at 10 am, and her house was burglarized at 10:30 am. The burglars took everything of value: tvs, jewelry, computers, etc. Their computer had every picture of their kids on it: first steps, first words, birthdays, all of it. They had no backups.

She described the rock work installers to me and they fit the description only sort of.

The guys working on her house were in their 30's and had tattoos and lots of facial piercings including pretty large gauges in their earlobes.

The guys in my driveway were in their 20's and had lots of facial piercings including very small gauges in the earlobes. I hadn't noticed any tattoos. (I was looking for guns and at their faces.) Their hair was clean cut: one had black hair and mustache with squinty eyes, the other one had blonde hair and looked like the "boy next door".

The cops said they didn't have enough evidence from my police report, so they would not be getting a warrant to search this car. The cop also mentioned that since my house and the victim's house were so far apart that these crimes were not necessarily related. 

Kidding me?! !

True, the house is 1 mile south of mine, BUT it is the very next subdivision after you pass mine. We are nearly next door neighbors in this part of town.

My neighbor in a cul de sac 2 doors down from me told me one of her friends on a walk saw a dark green car driving down the main road, slam on the brakes, someone jumped out of the car, went over to the wall that was parallel to the road and jumped up to look over it. He then got back in the car and they peeled off and around the block. The friend crossed through the properties to see where the car went and found that they had stopped in this cul de sac of my neighbor. They had gotten out of the car, were looking around, but got back in the car and left as this man was walking toward the car. This happened 3 weeks prior to my encounter.

(No mention of this to any of us neighbors. Not even the neighbors in the cul de sac had heard about it.)

Yesterday at church, a neighbor told me that a house 1 mile south and 1 mile east of my house got burglarized while they were at church. Everything was taken. 

The one thing I know that my house has in common with last weeks victims is that our driveway is long and goes to the back of our house. A burglar could park there and empty our house into a truck without being seen or watched by neighbors.

My kids seem to think locking the doors will make us be okay. I stress to them that the burglars would not care about anything and would break a window in a second if they found the house was empty.

The victim's house was locked, but the burglars gained easy access through the sliding door in the back.

By the way, as I got to my front door and praying that it was locked to ease my mind, I found it UNLOCKED.

We are "lockers". We lock everything, every time. Just not when a burglar is gonna show up.

My timing is unexplainable.

If I had gone home earlier, it might have turned into a home invasion? or if not, I may not have dared to follow them to their car and may not have gotten the license plate number.

If I had gotten home 30 seconds later, I could have walked in on the burglary in progress. Holy Cow!