Milestones

The chubby man in this picture, is my dear husband, Eugene. I call him Gene. He doesn't like his picture taken, so I usually have to catch him with the grandkids or the dogs! We have been married for 31 years as of October 28th, and I love this man! He is a great grandpa, a wonderful husband and a awesome dad!

It was not always that way. There was a time about 15 years ago, I thought we were done. We both had different priorities and were making some pretty bad mistakes. It is not easy for me to talk about. One of those mistakes led to Gene losing his membership in the LDS church.

Thank heavens we both woke up and learned to fight for our marriage and not against each other. It was a difficult lesson, and took us a long time to get right! On December 20th, Gene was re-baptized and confirmed a member of the church. The next day, they gave him a church job, the Cannery specialist! This has been a magical Christmas for me and you will probably catch me tearing up on a regular basis, but they are tears of joy! It is kind of like when you have a new baby, that magic time that envelopes your family!

Eighteen years ago I lost a baby on Christmas day. So Christmas is usually a melancholy time for me! Until this year! I have a new joy to help!

Hug the ones you love today, for me, okay?!

Chris

Christmas Pajamas!

Ever since I was a tiny girl, my Grandma Alvey made us pajamas for Christmas. Our family would all get together at Grandpa and Grandma's and we had a pizza party and opened presents. The adults drew names and traded gifts, but us kids always got a present from Grandpa and Grandma; pajamas! Actually, us girls usually got flannel nightgowns. I loved those nightgowns. Even when we lived in California and couldn't come for Christmas, grandma sent us pajamas. One year, when I was 10, she even sent my mom scraps so she could make a nightgown for the Barbie I was getting for Christmas. To this day, flannel nightgowns are like comfort food to me! When I feel crappy or sad, I pull on a flannel nightgown, wrap up in a blanket and read a good book!

Well now I try to carry this tradition on with my family! These are my 6 grandchildren! On the Tuesday before Christmas, we all gathered at our house, made homemade pizza, ate Christmas candy and exchanged presents. The adults draw names and trade gifts. And the kids have a couple of presents under the tree; pajamas and toys! I was informed that the girls all like jammies, not nightgowns, so I adjusted! Here they are! The girls, even 21 month old Maddie, are in High School Musical pajamas, and the boys in Optimus Prime (Transformers) pajamas! Just before this picture Maddie was crying, Conner madly running his RC mustang, Jesson his train, Bailey danced in her Cinderella dress-up costume, Sydney played away on her electric guitar and Sarah was headbanging in her Hannah Montana wig! But for one brief moment, they put their jammies on and smiled for Grandpa and Grandma!

I know I am in heaven!

Love,

Chris

Merry Christmas!

I know it has been a looooonnnnnnggggggg time since I posted! I guess I just needed a break! But I am back and I will catch you up in the next few weeks! Anyways, Merry Christmas to you and yours and I hope that the weather isn't keeping you from visiting family! We have gotten at least 10 inches of snow today, adding to the 10 or 12 we already have! Who hoo, a White Christmas!

Remember the reason for the season!

Love Chris!

See what I did?

After months of not really scrapping, just buying more stuff, I finally got my scrap groove back on! I went to the Express the Moments Expo and Conference on June 20 and 21. We made this cute page in a class Amanda Gibson taught! She had us bring a picture of ourselves and make this page for our families to see, since we mom's don't scrap about ourselves very often.


This one I worked on in the expo afterwards. I have about 30 page kits put together so I worked on a few. This one I got done so I wanted to show you. These are my youngest grandchildren, Jesson and Maddy. They have the cutest smiles and I just had to make a page of them, especially Jesson's goofy grin! This paper from Serendipity was a perfect fit! Add some Thickers letters and a few small sticker letters and you have a fast, and adorable page! One of my favorite!


Well we are going on vacation for a week, so I will be quiet unless I get time to post a few things on the road! We will be pulling our 29 ft travel trailer and heading for Glacier National Park and Courdelane Idaho. We will be there on the 4th! Then we will head home through Boise, since Chelsea has never seen that side of the state!

So be watching, I expect to take awesome pictures!

Chris

Happy birthday!

My oldest daughter, Tiffany, turned 30 today! Happy B day Tif! I know this has been hard for her, but I still can't believe that it has been 30 years since I took that crying bundle home from the hospital! She has been the first on my lists, just like Chelsea has been my last. Now I can check off that my oldest is not a young adult anymore, but is approaching middle age! Wow!

We went to the Express the Moment Scrapbooking conference on June 20 and 21, just like we always do. During the conference on Saturday morning, Kim Rose called some of the ladies to the stand and asked why they scrapbook. Tiffany was one of them, and she said it was because of her daughters and her awful memory (it only gets worse honey). Later, she also got picked to be in a dance contest. Here is a picture of her:

She is the one on the right. Needless to say, dancing is not a talent we excell at in our family! But she was a good sport to try!

So happy b day Tiffany, welcome to being an adult!

Mom

Flying!

In my next life, I will be a bird! Oh to fly with abandon!



That was what I thought the other morning as this crop duster flew behind my house! Even though I am afraid of taking my feet off terra firma, even though I hate roller coasters! When I watch these planes, I feel a sort of abandon I don't feel any other time! He realized after a few minutes that I was taking pictures and even posed for me, banking right over my house! I could watch these crop dusters for hours! I don't even mind the noise at 6 AM! I jump out of bed and run outside like a child, to watch and dream!

When I was a child, I grew up about 8 miles from Disneyland. In my dreams, I would fly with Mickey and Tinkerbell to the magic castle. It was one of my favorite dreams!

I hope you "fly" today!

Chris

I am not that old!

Yesterday my youngest daughter, Chelsea, got her drivers license! If you live in eastern Idaho, I guess that is a warning!

I have this list I keep in my mind, one where I check off the last time I do things. You know, the last diaper I will ever have to change, the last kid to get ready for kindergarten, the last pinewood derby car I will ever have to make, so on and so on! Chelsea has been involved with most of those lasts. So now, just 2 months short of her 16th birthday, she can drive without her dad and I in the car. Another checkmark!

She was so cute yesterday. She asked me on the way home when she could get her own set of car keys! I looked at her for a moment and then said "When you get your own car sweetie!" She was actually surprised!

The next checkmark comes when my baby turns 16 in July! Slow down, I can't write that fast!

Cherish your family today, okay?

Chris

What A Month!

Whew! I finally got feeling better and decided that I needed to fix some things, on me, that is! So got a few tune-ups!

First, I got my eyes checked and got new contacts and glasses. It is great to be able to see again.

Then I went to the doctor for a physical. Everything okay.

Then one morning I looked in the mirror and said, "you look 50 years old!" Now I am, of course, but everything looked it, my skin, my eyes, and especially my hair. I had really let myself go!

So, I went to the JC Penney salon and asked for a do over! They gave me to Jody, a wonderful young gal ( and I enphasize young, I have shoes that are older!) and she took care of me! I cut 8 inches off my hair, had her color it, then cut it in layers and help me learn how to straighten it. I love it! Now for those of you that have straight hair, I am sure you can't appreciate this, but for someone who has always battled curls, having straight hair is wonderful! So anyways, look at the picture on the side of this page, that is the before, then scroll down ---








and -------------






Ta Da!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What do you think?

I feel at least 10 years younger and bouncier! My husband loves long hair and I wasn't sure how he would take it. The last time I cut my hair short at all was when I was 19 and ever since it has been well past my shoulders and often to my waist. He didn't say anything for a few days, but then one night we were repairing his boat cover and I looked up to him staring at me. He said that he liked my hair, that it made me look bouncier and younger! That made my night!

So be watching, cuz you never know what might change next!

Try something new today!

Chris

Playing around

I have been playing with my blog today! Trying some new stuff out. So far I have tried dramatic, pink and black, and now this one! I am going to be creating different ones over the next few days and trying them out, so let me know what you think!

Have a creative day!

Chris

Whew!

Bad Blogger! I can't believe it has been since the end of January since I posted! It couldn't be that I was buried in tax returns and also still being sick! Remember how I wrote that I had had pnuemonia? Well, it kept coming back as a upper respiratory infection, clear through February, March and now into April. Add to that I have coughed so much that I have now bruised my larynx and have this raspy voice. I am hoping that now that tax season is over, I can rest it enough to have it heal! It is not so funny to go to church and not be able to sing! Singing has always been such an important part of my life that I would die if I couldn't sing! Even my dad said this morning that I better get my voice back so he can hear me sing!

Speaking of my dad, today is his 71st birthday! So Happy Bday Raymond Malone!

And speaking of birthdays, I celebrated my 50th birthday on April 5th! I can't believe I am a half century old. I better get a move on, there are still so many things I haven't tried! I need to do everything at least once! Anyways, some of my kids got together and decorated my family room with 50 helium filled balloons! I came home from work to balloons everwhere! So we left them up and the next day everyone came for a cookout and cake and the kids had a blast playing with them!

The weather can't make up it's mind lately! Saturday and Sunday were in the 70's and then yesterday the wind blew 40 miles an hour and we, in Rigby, got 6 inches of snow! And it still hasn't melted off today! UGH!!!! I am so ready for the snow to be gone!

Chelsea went to southern California last week, with her school orchestra. They left Tuesday night, drove all night and had breakfast on the beach at Newport Beach. In 4 days they went to a medival competition, saw the play Wicked, performed in a school contest and spent the entire day Saturday in Disneyland! Then they got on the bus at midnight and drove all the way home! 20 hours on a bus! yuk! She was tired and very glad to be home, but at least now she can say she has been to California! And her orchestra did really well! Thank you Mr. Weed for having the patience to take this big group there! You gave them an opportunity of a lifetime!

Hoping to be back in fine form soon and hope to start scrapping again right away, so I can share it with you! I plan on going to a crop soon to help get my motors revved up!

Chris

A Whole Month?!?!?!?

I can't believe it has been a whole month! Where has it gone? Wait, I can answer that! Remember when I said I had the flu at the first of December and then that I was sick at Christmas and thought it was pnuemonia? Well I finally went to the doctor on January 2 and it was pnuemonia! I took antibiotics for 2 weeks then, had a small infection flair up and just finished another course of antibiotics yesterday! But I think I am finally getting back on top of things.

I don't know if you remember but I am an accountant, which means my busy time of year has begun. I have spent the past 3 weeks getting the year ends done on my bookkeeping clients and then doing their W-2s. I finished the last of them today, which is good because they are due in the mail today! It has been a struggle to get better and work double hours, but I have made it through. Now we go full steam ahead with tax returns. Full force until April.

Have you been watching the news about the weather? We are getting pounded with snow and freezing cold! It looks like my daughter will be out of school tomorrow for the 3rd time in the past week! And wind! Monday I was snowed in because we had 65 mph winds! And they are about 30 mph tonight, along with about 2 inches of new snow; not a good combination. My husband works at a nuclear lab outside of Idaho Falls and he got held over for an overtime. They left work at 9:15. Now normally it takes him about 1 1/2 hours to get home. Right now we are going on 2 hours and I expect it will be after midnight. When I came home this afternoon, the main highway 20 was polished ice and I could barely do 40 mph on it. So I can only imagine what it is like now! I am keeping my fingers crossed until he gets home!

I haven't scrapped a thing since before Christmas, I haven't played with my new embroidery machine, I haven't done anything fun for sooooooo long! This sick thing really took it out of me! But I have a goal to start something this weekend!

In closing, I would express my sorrow at the passing of the leader of my church, President Gordon B Hinckley. His funeral is on Saturday. He was 97. He has been either a counselor to the president, or the president for over 25 years! It is kind of like when your favorite old Grandpa dies, you know they suffered and needed to go, but you miss them oh so bad! President Hinckley was such a kind man and lived such a wonderful life of service. I can only hope to live mine 1 % as well as he did!

Well goodnight! And sleep well! We will talk again! Share your new stuff with me! I make a goal that my next post will include something new I did with my Cricut and the Design Studio Software!

Make goals! Live and Laugh!