Spinning!

This past month my husband gave me the most wonderful gift, a spinning wheel.  I have wanted one for 30 years, but it always got put on the back burner.  Here its is -

She is an Ashford Traditional, single drive, single peddle.  I love her!

This is what I have made with her so far, some Romney wool (the scratchy kind)

and 100 % Merino wool (so soft)

Right now I am trying my hand at spinning Merino/Silk blend, that has already been dyed.  This yarn is looking so good and is consistant enough that I think I may be able to make socks out of it. 

Now I haven't forgotten my first love, knitting.  Here are some of my latest projects:

 These mittens are for me!  I love them!  They are knitted out of 100% Merino Wool, and the pattern I found on Ravelry.com

 This is my own pattern for baby socks.  They fit newborn to 9 months and are really stretchy!

this is also a pattern I made for mittens!  If you like the socks or mittens, come visit me at the Rigby Jr High Craft Fair on November 12th!  My booth is the Corner Cupboard and it is filled with yummy yarn goodness!  Everything from mittens, to slippers and socks, to blankets, dresses, hair bows, hot pads, dish cloths, and more!  All made from yarn!  We have something for everyone!  I only do one of these a year and I bring everything I have worked on during that year.

And this year I think I will bring my spinning wheel, so come and watch!

Have a Yummy day!

Chris

Recounting

So fall will be here tomorrow.  A time when my garden starts to peter out, my yard doesn't need to be watered as much, the kids are back in school and the neighborhood is quieter.  It is also the time when I start to recount what I accomplished during the summer and make plans for fall and the holidays.  A re-counting of sorts.  Of course my to do list and my completed list are very lopsided.  I am usually running this way, a day late and a dollar short.  Lately I have been on a knitting jag and have accomplished so many things, but have a large list of things I still want to do.  What is it about women that make us make such huge goals that we can't finish unless we become 10 people?  Oh well.

On the other hand, I got to go to a wonderful class reunion this summer and connect with so many old and new friends.  Family reunions were always fun and having our grandkids around is always a blast!  Our youngest grandson, Tyson, starting walking (or I should say running) this week and it makes your heart smile to watch the look of wonder on his face as he accomplishes each new thing.  And he is only 11 months old! 

Best of all, our huge garage is making progress.  We just finished the roof.  Next will be the garage doors, probably around Christmas.  Then a break to next spring and the final push to get it sided and the floor poured.  And we will have a wonderful new garage!  This has been a huge undertaking for my husband, but it is really turning out so wonderfully!  I am really proud of him!

Just to let you see what I have accomplished lately, here is a shawlette which is my first attempt at knitting lace and a knitted purse that I did as a challenge on Ravelry.  It actually was kind of fun, which I never thought I would want to do, but now I have plans to do another in the near future.  Guess another item just got added to the to do list!

Cindy

My cousin Cindy Olsen Starr died last Saturday.  She was 56.  I haven't seen her for years, but it really set me back.  When I was growing up, Cindy was 3 years older than me and I looked up to her and wanted to be just like her.  Later on we went to high school at the same school, Bonneville.  She was a senior when I was a freshman.  Around this time she started having some health problems and she had struggles over the next several years.  She married, had kids and tried to do everything right.  Sometimes she did. Sometimes she didn't.  But she never gave up trying.  That's what I remember most about Cindy, when she set her sights on something, nothing would stop her.  So rest in peace now, Cindy.  You can quit trying so hard.  You are in a better place and I look forward to the day when I see you again, free of all the things that weighed you down in this life!  Love you Cindy!

This is a link to obituary if you would like to know Cindy better.
 http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/postregister/obituary.aspx?n=cindy-starr&pid=153499077&refsvce=google#.TmmktfzPpYg.google

Chris

Blogging issues

I have been trying to log on for two days to make an entry, but have had issues with my blogspot account.  Found out tonight that Google is changing from Google Page Creator to Google sites and that in the process you have to have a new host for your third party widgets.  I just spent 2 hours going through the steps to get this done.  Apparently, when you enable third party cookies and delete the history under Internet options, it is not making it through to AOL.  So I have yet another program that I have to log onto using the internet explorer.  I just thought I would let you know in case you are having the same problem.  I have made Google aware of it, but who knows when they may address it. 

On an up note, I am glad to be back!

Chris

A little knitting

We stayed home this weekend, worked in the yard, worked on the garage and just napped.  It was actually a very nice weekend.  I canned soom beans too, which I have been desperately needed.  Hope to get more.  My patch is late this years because we had to replant everything this spring!  Good Lord willing, and it don't freeze, we still should get what we need.

I also did some knitting!  I tried a shawl in a KAL on Ravelry and it stoked me, so I decided to try a fingering weight one that has lace.  I found this downloaded pattern on Ravelry and so I decided to try it.  In case you want to try it, it is the Holden Shawlette.  Anyways, I went and bought some nice yarn, Cascade Heritage, and started it last Thursday.  I spent about 2 hours a day as an average and I finished it yesterday.  So without further ado........................

I can't wait until this fall when I can wear it with my navy sweater and levi skirt!

Chris

Happy Labor Day!

I am busily working along in my yard and my garden!  Canned 10 pints of beans today.  Also cleaning for the holidays, although I am not sure we will have anyone around to celebrate.  Maybe we'll take a drive, or go to the movies.  Not sure yet.  All I know is that Gene and I are both needing a relax break, so that's what this weekend will be.  Finish a few honey do's, take a nap, knit a little, cook!  Sounds like a plan, eh?

Hope you have a great long weekend! 

Chris

Busy, busy!

Well, I guess it took me a few more days than I thought to get back to you!  You know how it goes?  We have had 2 birthdays this past week and Gene and I both got the flu, so there you go! 

Want to see what I have been doing? 

 A pair of cuddly wool socks for Gene........

 A scarf to sell at the craft fair in November

 A cuddly warm wrap for me when the fall nights get here.............

And a shawl, don't know who it's for yet!  Anyways these are what I have pictures of right now.  I also knitted 2 keyhole scaves for the craft fair, another pair of socks, and 3 dishcloths from cotton yarn, but I didn't take pictures of them.  Right now I have 2 more pairs of socks on the needles, another keyhole scarf  (red!) and today I started a scarf for me.  I also have a sweater in a partially done stage, that I go back to every day or so.  That one will take til about Christmas to get done, but that's okay!  This is how I am battling empy nesting.  I really am enjoying it!

So last Thursday was Bailey's seventh birthday and Gene's was on Monday, so the family got together at Kendall and Christy's on Sunday and had a cookout!  It was really nice!  I have to tell you, it was different!  For so many years all the family events have been at our house!  And while I love having everyone there, it was alot of work to get ready for and clean up after everytime!  It felt good to relax at their house and let them be in charge.  I just brought a salad and sat and played with Tyson!  At 9:30 we headed home so Conner and Bailey could get in bed for school on Monday morning!

 Bailey got a Hello Kitty cake!  She is really into Hello Kitty right now, most of her presents had the great Kitty on them.  Anyways, when they went to pick up her cake, she made them add Grandpa to the cake since we were celebrating together!  So cute!

One last picture for the night!  Back in June, we moved Tiffany and Joe into a new house too!  They have they beautiful home, on six acres, which is great for their menagarie of animals.  Sunshine, the cow came to live at our home's pasture, but the rest of the animals were transplanted at the new home.  They have a dozen or so chicks (now mostly grown), a piglet that is growing fast, 2 dogs and this rooster.  This rooster is from their last year's batch of chicks.  They never had the heart to kill him, so they just let him run around.  He has become buddies with the 2 dogs and now thinks he is a dog!  He just wanders around the yard all day, eating bugs and crowing at dawn (usually under Tiffany's window).  Life is good!  I get such a kick out of him, because he has become a master at adaptation!  If he needs to, he can run with the chickens, the cows, the pigs, or even the dogs!  And now he is such a part of their landscape, it would be downright lonely without him!

Have a great day tomorrow on the first day of September!

Chris

Peek A Boo!

So you thought I was kidding when I said I was going off radar for a few weeks!  Whew!  I love August, but then I hate August too!  I love reunions, I love my raspberry patch, I love the smell of the fresh cut hay behind my house, I love early mornings working in my yard, I love camping and everyone trying to squeeze in a little more fun time before school starts.  But then I hate the heat, I hate the anticipation of the heat going away and winter setting in upon us too soon, I hate school starting up again and everything on our road being so quiet.  So I guess you could say August and I have a love-hate relationship!

So where do I start?  Well, our class reunion was actually the 29th and 30th of July and it was  a success!  It was so much work, but so worth it!  I think at 52-54 we are realizing our mortality and wanting to get close again.  We are already planning a dinner or luncheon around October, because 5 years is just too dang long to wait to get together again!

  This is my bf from high school, Melanie Hart Belnap!  She was in charge of the reunion and I was her able assistant!  Neither of our husbands went to Bonneville with us, but they were awesome!  They did all the heavy lifting for us and helped the evenings go off without any hitches!  Thanks Brent and Eugene!  You are the best (that's why we married you)!

It is hard to realize that Melanie and I are both grandmas!  I remember when the most important thing in our lives was deciding what outfits we going to wear so we coordinated with each other!  Now we both have awesome (and stressful) careers and blossoming families (mine is a tribe, actually) and suddenly we are looking more like our moms than our high school pictures.  Mind boggling!

This is another of my bfs!  Holly and I went to high school together and were pretty good friends. Then we decided to be college roommates!  There is a bond when you live with someone that you don't get any other way!  Holly is our resident artist!  When we in college she used to draw the newspaper adds for the Bon Marche and we always had awesome outfits floating around our apartment!  She even painted our Bee for our reunion!  There was no one better than Holly to play hooky from class with, and let me tell you this woman has the most awesome laugh!  You can be on the other side of the store, never see her, but when you hear it, you know Holly is there!  I found her once in Walmart with that laugh!

Have you ever tried to get a large group of people to all look at the camera at the same time?  Not easy!  We had about 75 people from our class attend between Friday and Saturday night!  Here are 42 or so of them!  Our original class had 305 graduate from it, so this is very small compared to the whole lot, but it's the cream of the crop!  Hurray for the Bonneville High School Class of 1976!  Go Bee!

And on that note, here is the Fighter Bee!  This was our school mascot!  It used to lay in tile at the entrance to our school.  Stepping on it had consequences!  If you were a bee, you would have to scrub it with a toothbrush, and if you were from another school, well lets just say more than fight resulted from insulting our Bee!  Holly painted it on clear vinyl so we could lay it out like it used to be!  I told you she was an awesome artist!

Well enough for today!  Tune in tomorrow for another installment of my July-August travails!  There is still much to come!

Chris

Going off Radar

Okay, so I am going off-line for a couple of days.  Tomorrow and Saturday is my 35th class reunion!  That's right, The Bonneville Bees, Class of 1976! 

Isn't that picture awesome?  Holly Hasegawa Nielson, one of my high school buddies and my college roommate drew it!  She is so talented!   We were a class full of artists, including Greg Olsen, the LDS artist that we all love!  I have his pictures all over my house! And we even have a raffle for a new one!

Our whole committee which includes Melanie Hart Belnap, Terri Curtis, Holly Hawegawa Nielson, Michael Herrera, John Jenkins, Tena Jenkins Looney, Gary Mills, and myself, have worked or so hard and we are excited to get this shindig going!  So if you belong to the class of '76, we'll see you this weekend!

Be prepared for lots of pics next week, along with a serious walk down memory lane!

Chris

New Tricks or Old Dogs?

Okay, so I have knitted since I was 10 years old.  I had a primary teacher who taught me and since no one else in my family knitted, it stuck for me.  Over the years I have been on again, off again when it came to knitting.  But I did know I liked it better than crochet.  I actually found it quite relaxing.  When I was pregnant with my first baby, stuck at home and bored out of my mind, I sharpened a pencil for a double pointed needle, pulled out the only pair of knitting needles I owned and a ball of yarn and knitted a baby sweater from the newest Family Circle magazine.  I was hooked!  Over the years I have knitted dozens of sweaters, tons of hats and scarfs, and even mittens.  I can do fisherman knits, baby knits, all kinds of knits.

But the one thing I never tried, was double-pointed needles to knit socks.  The thought of trying to manage 4 or 5 needles at the same time, especially when they had points on either end, seemed daunting!  A couple of years ago I went and bought  double pointed needles and they have sat in my needle basket.

Then a few days ago I found this book at JoAnns and it made sock knitting seem fairly simple.  So I bought the book, bought a ball of yarn and headed home.  I had to dig, but I finally found my needles.  This was last Thursday.  That night, I sat down with all my equipment.  I cast on, knitted, pulled it out and tried again for about an hour.  Then it took off!  That first night I knitted the top half of the sock!  And it looked pretty good!  I was pumped!  In between all my honey dos, chores and life, I worked on it over the next few days and by Saturday night I had a sock done!  I was siked!  So yesterday, I knitted for about 2 hours and have most of a sock done!  And here they are!

In about a half hour sock #2 will be done!  And what is so cool is that they match!  Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?  I honestly don't remember why I didn't try this before, but watch out, now I am a sock making machine!  Makes me think I can try anything!

Chris

Vintage or Old?

No pictures, crafts or recipes to share tonight, only a random thought.  Yesterday my family was all together to celebrate Chelsea's 19th birthday, which was actually Friday.  We grilled burgers, brats and hot dogs and finished it off with chocolate cake and lots of icecream.  Then Kendall dug out some old fireworks that we had and bottlerockets (probably about 3 years old).  It was still light but the kids had a blast, especially when Kendall started shooting the bottlerockets into the water in the ditch.  The kids said the water was 'burping'!  And because I was enjoying the show so much, I didn't think to grab my camera.  So you just have to imagine it.

Later, Tiffany was surfing Craig's List, which she has taken to doing.  She is trying to furnish a huge house and needs cheap furniture.  Anyways, as she said, she is becoming addicted to Craig's list, because of some of the bizarre postings.  So she's reading through them and someone has posted a 'vintage' chain saw for like $180.  Now as you read further, you find out the chain saw is a 1970's model!  Vintage?  I call that old! Probably a piece of junk they cleaned up and hope to pass off as vintage so they can unload it!

So we were talking about this and I started thinking, if you call it 'vintage' does that make it more special, more valuable?  I know that everywhere you look, they are using 'vintage' to describe things as if it makes them more special.  I was added to the list on Twitter for a furniture company with 'vintage' in it's name.  There have been several varieties scrapbooking and crafting paper that has come out lately, with 'vintage' in their description.  And I even watched an antiques show the other night that used the word quite regularly.

That is when I decided that I live in a 'vintage' home on a 'vintage' farm and drive a 'vintage' Tahoe.  I play a 'vintage' piano and guitar and I watch TV everynight on my 'vintage' TV set.  I don't watch Blu Rays, but 'vintage' DVDs in my 'vintage' DVD player and even occasionally in my 'vintage' VHS machine.  But best of all, these wrinkles and gray hair, aches and pains, and dimming memories that I am acquiring are not because I am old!  Not at all!  I am a thing of beauty and value!  I am "Vintage"!

HaHa!

Chris

When You Need to Create!

Okay, so I found the cutest page today!  Stay-At-Home Artist shows you how to do a homemade stenciled shirt with freezer paper!  It is amazing!  You have to check it out!

She gives you all the steps to complete it!  Totally awesome!

One more page I got from Tim Holtz.  This blog has lots of scrapping goodness on it.  Visit Annette's Creative Journey where you see her Vintage Valise album!  Here are a couple of pics from it!

This is so cute!  Check it out!  She has so much stuff on her blog!

Hope you enjoy!  I feel creativity flowing today!  Hope you do too!

Chris

Grandma Loves!

These are all of my grandkids!  From left to right, Jesson (5), Sarah (8), Conner (8), Tyson (8 months), Bailey (6), Maddie (4) and Sydney (10).  I honestly don't remember them not being a part of our lives!  It is so much fun when we get them all together, a house full of chatter, noise and fun!  So you know this is the pairings of kids, Sydney and Sarah belong to Tiffany, Jesson and Maddie are Jeremy's and Conner, Bailey and Tyson are Kendall's.  Last night, Jeremy's ex was kind enough to bring the kids for us to see, since we haven't seen them for months.  We ate, played on four wheelers, and they built lego everything and played with our train set!  Such a good night!

In the back of our thoughts is Jesson.  He has had seizures since he was a baby, but seemed to have outgrown them, not having one for 2 years.  Matter of fact, the doctors at Primary Childrens, just released him with a clean bill of health a few months ago.  This past week he suffered 2 severe seizures and now has to go back to Primary Childrens for more tests.  They are now thinking instead of being the kind of seizures you outgrow (I had those kind as a little kid), this may be more serious, such as Epilepsy.  Our family is praying for a good outcome, whatever that may be!  If you can spare an extra prayer for Jesson, that would be appreciated!  Can't get too much help!

Love your family today!

Chris

Aprons

My earliest memories of aprons were from my Grandma Sarah Alvey.  Everytime you went to her house, she had a different apron on, always bright, always colorful, and always lots of detail to them.  I loved Grandma's aprons!  She had this huge drawer with dozens of them, and when you were helping her cook, you got to go to the drawer and pick one out!  It was the highlight of my day, made me feel so grown up!

When Grandma Alvey died, we went through her stuff and my aunt let us each pick out a couple of aprons of grandma's.  These are the ones I picked out for me.  The red one was for Christmas, which happens to be my favorite holiday, so that is why I got it.

 The black and white one I chose because my grandma put alot of effort into this apron.  Not only did she sew it on her old Pfaff sewing machine (which I have), but she hand smocked it too!  Look at the detail!

 I never wore aprons too much when I was raising my kids.  Don't know why really, unless it is because I usually was in such a hurry to get things done and didn't think of it.  But lately I have taken to wearing an apron at least on Sunday, to protect my church clothes.  A practical matter really. 

That's it!  Aprons are practical!  Necessary!  But what we do to them is what makes them special!  So anyways, everywhere I turn lately, there are aprons!  Ruffled aprons, Smocked aprons.  Short aprons.  Long aprons.  It is all the rage!  I decided to try making me a couple of aprons. Now you have to understand that the last apron I made was in 1972 in my 8th grade home ec class with Mrs. Crumbaugh.  I make dresses all the time and an occasional baby blanket, but never an apron.  So here it is!

 Please look only at the apron, not at the model.  After all I have been doing housework and sewing all day!  If anyone else would have been around I would have had them model it!  But isn't it cute?

 I put buttons on the straps.............

                                                                       and rick rack on the pockets!

Makes me want to make another right away!  It was really fun and only took about 3 hours to do!  Maybe I'll start an apron revolution!  No dull aprons to be found!  The next one I am making is green and salmon with roses and yes, rick rack. 

And next time my grandkids are at my house, I am going to dress them all up in aprons and do some baking with them!  More memories!

Happy memories everyone!  Hope you find an apron that makes you smile!

Chris

A Baby's Best Friend

Say Hello to Tyson Scott. He is our youngest grandson and is 8 months old. I took these photos a few weeks ago when Tyson was trying to master crawling. Funny thing is I didn't get any of him crawling! But I did get pictures of him playing with balls of yarn and even him and his big brother, Conner, playing with my measuring tape. Got to love my Blackberry for being so handy for pics!

But the best pictures I got that day was when Tyson decided to make friends with Toby, my miniature schnauzer. Toby loves little kids, and he is best friends with Conner, but we weren't sure how Tyson would react to Toby when they were on the floor together.

I guess we didn't have to worry! Within moments, Tyson was pulling Toby's beard and Toby patiently stood there and took it! Grandma just kept clicking! Have I told you lately how much I love being a grandma?

Since these pictures were taken, Tyson is on the prowl, literally! Nothing below 2 foot is safe at our house! And now he is walking along the couch! Guess I better baby proof again!

Enjoy life today!

Chris

Watch out.........

I have had an unusual week for accidents. Really, really wierd things! Nobody is hurt or anything, but sometimes I wonder if I am a problem magnet.

First of all, on Saturday, when we went fishing (see Monday post), I didn't feel like fishing and so I sat in the Tahoe and crocheted. I got tired of crocheting for a minute, so I wove my needle through my work and set in on the dashboard. Later, I decided to crochet some more, picked up my work and the crochet hook promptly fell into the air vent on the dashboard! Panic set in and I grabbed a double point needle, shaped like a candy cane, and tried retrieving the hook. Almost had it, when I lost my grip on the double point needle and down it went! Ugh! So I had to admit to my husband what I did. They are still in there, not hurting anything, but making me feel like a dope!

The second thing happened today. I mowed the yard. We have a huge yard and it takes awhile to mow. Got the front yard mowed and set hoses, then moved to the backyard. Got the part behind the house done and moved over to the side yard. There was alot of garbage collected on the fence, so I picked it all up and started to mow. I backed up to my plum tree to get the tall grass underneath it, and promptly mowed an old baby blanket that my grandkids apparently had in the yard and had been hidden in the tall grass. Wrapped that sucker firmly around the lawn mower blade! All 52 inches of it! Ugh, Ugh! Now I have to wait until my husband comes home and fixes my mess. I feel like such a dope! Everything I touch, goes wrong!

So now I am watching the news, sipping on a Coke, and hoping I don't destroy anything else before dinner!

Chris

Where did it go?

So I am feeling a little nostalgic today. Thirty-three years ago today I became a mom for the first time. I was scared to death. Such a little bundle, dependent on me! I was so afraid I would screw it up!

Tiffany Leigh Scott was born at 3:00 on June 27th. She weighed in at 8 lbs, even though she was a month early! You could tell right away she would have brown eyes, although the hair was a different matter, because she was bald. Because she was early, she had no hair, no eyelashes and only half of her fingernails. And she was very jaundice to boot! I fell in love immediately!

She was a chubby baby and everyone told me she wouldn't walk until she was past a year. But on Mother's day 1979, when she was only 10 months old, she proved them all wrong!

At five, she had the most amazing smile and beautiful brown eyes! I loved sewing new dresses for her! She was quite a smart stinker and could read whole books by the time she started kindergarten! Now she reads constantly, still! Look what we started!

This is one of my all-time favorite memories. In the scrapbook in my mind, this one is at the top. About an hour before Tiffany's commencement ceremony, in 1996, I took this picture of my two girls dancing around the family room. Chelsea was almost 4 at the time and Tiffany 17.

Flash forward 14 years to 2010, and this time you have Chelsea's graduation! Boy how time flies!

Now Tiffany is the mom to her own 2 girls (see earlier post on fishing)! We've been through alot together, her and I and today I would like take a moment to thank her for letting me experiment with her on being a mom! Heavenly Father couldn't have given me a better oldest daughter!

Love You Tif!

Mom (chris)

Great Moments!

So Saturday we went fishing up to Paul Reservoir by Humphrey. Gene has been dying to go and so we invited Tiffany and her girls to go with us! Now Tiffany hasn't had a fishing license since before she got married, so it's been awhile! It was really windy when we got there, but about 2 hours later it died off and the lake looked like mirror! You could see the hills all around it in the water! If you look close at these pictures, you can actually see it!
So this is the end result, 4 fish that the girls all pulled in! Sarah, left and Sydney hold the catch of the day!

Proud grandpa in the background!

Never a dull moment when you are fishing! Someone's pole was always bobbing! Kept Grandpa hopping!

Happy fishing to all of you!

chris

Evil Grin!

Okay, so my brother in law lives next door to us. Has for 33 years. Probably will for the rest of his life. He and I have a love-hate relationship. I love him because he is Gene's brother and he does have his good moments. At one time he hated me because I took his brother/best friend away when I married him and had kids with him. Now because their mom is gone, he looks to me for female guidance, at least sometimes. And because he has never married, he relies and on Gene and I to take care of him when he is ill or having problems.

Why am I telling you this? Well so you understand that it is an interesting dynamic between us. Add to that Dean, at 54, has never married and probably never will (altho their dad was 63 when he married). So shall we say he marches to a little bit different beat than the rest of society? Like going to bed at 9:00 at night, or canning beans and weiners for a quick meal, or wearing red jogging pants tucked into his tube socks outside when he does yardwork (I kid you not and he is 6 foot 4). His latest quirk is that he has taken to mowing his lawn at 6:30 in the morning. Yes, that is A.M.! About once a week I am awakened by his poorly tuned riding lawn mower coughing it's way around the yard. The dew has not even left the lawn (and he wonders why his blade won't cut)!

So this morning it happened again. Now I have tried talking to him about it. And he ignored me. So I decided somehow to get even. I have thought about it all day long and finally came up with an idea. We have these awesome bottlerockets that we bought in Afton Wyoming last year. They whistle, then bang and twinkle over everything. So at 10:00 tonight, I took a bottle out on the deck rail and lit off about a dozen of them! What is it my 18 year old daughter says? Buhaaahhhh! accompanied by an evil grin. Hopefully he didn't sleep through them. But if he did and he chooses to mow next week at his appointed time, I also found a box of artillery shells. Buhhahhhaaaaaah!

If you live in my neighborhood I apologize in advance. But come and enjoy the show! You have Dean to thank for it!

Hope you have a great weekend! We are spending ours fishing!

Chris

I love Wednesdays

After I get tax season over with, I love Wednesdays! I know, I know, most people live for the weekends. Me, I live for Wednesdays! I don't go to the office on Wednesday, I stay home, putter around the house, clean, whatever I feel like. No one else is there, just me and my schnauzer, Toby. Sometimes I don't even get dressed!

So this morning I enjoyed these lovelies! When I was growing up I LOVED spoon size shredded wheat with fruit on it. Last week I bought a box after I don't know how long. Then yesterday I found some wonderful strawberries at the store and there you have it! My ideal breakfast! I actually sat out on my deck and savored this!

While I was enjoying my breakfast I got to look at this beautiful crab apple tree in my back yard. It always blooms about a week later than the other crab apple trees in my yard, and it is such a deep color! I wish trees bloomed all year long!

So let's see what today brings! Good things are happening!

Chris

?

I used to hear old people say that the older you get the faster time goes. I personally thought they were full of it! But after looking at me blog and realizing that I haven't posted since January, I guess they are right! Because the last 6 months just flew by!

Not that I haven't been doing anything! Since January I have moved a child to college (see earlier post), learned a new tax program for my office, taught everyone else and prepared several hundred tax returns, put on a blue and gold banquet and a pinewood derby as the cubmaster, turned another year older, watched it rain, watched it rain some more, still more rain, then helped my husband begin to put up the walls on his garage/shop. I have also trimmed all the bushes in my yard, rebarked all the planters, put new brick around the house planters and planted a garden. In between I have been a wife, a mom to 4 and a grandma to 7!

In the last six months I have learned a few things too! I learned that I am still pretty good on computers. That I can make a great meal in no time. That no matter how old your kids get, they still need a mom and dad. And the biggest lesson? This is the hardest one to admit. That Gene and I are getting too old to build stuff by ourselves. That one is a hard one! Over the years we completely built our home, by ourselves, with our own 2 hands. The only thing we didn' have was a garage. So after 33 years of marriage, we decided to build a garage. The thing is, building permits have changed. Drastically. It took us most of the summer to get the permit and we barely got the concrete poured when it snowed. So Gene spent most of the winter buying up materials while the prices were down, and as soon as we could, we started building this spring. The taller the building got, the older we felt. Thank heavens our kids, Kendall and Chelsea, and Tiffany, and our son in law, Joe, stepped in. They helped us get the tresses up and most of it sheeted.

Now we are back to hanging a sheet of plywood here or there, but is starting to look like a garage! We went and picked out the colors for the roof and probably in another month, we will be able to park in it! Woo hoo!

So now I am trying to take time for myself, to do the things I like and need for my soul. I got released from being the cubmaster and have a fairly simple church job. And I am taking an art workshop from Christy Tomlinson, from Scarlet Lime products, and really enjoying it! She is making look at myself in a whole new way!

Over the next few weeks I will post pictures of the garage, to let you know how it's going! And I hope to share with you what I am learning about myself.

Go out and make it the best day possible, okay?

Chris

Blessings

This precious bundle is our newest grandson, Tyson James Scott! He arrived a little early, on October 25, but weighed in over 8 lbs and is adorable and healthy. At last count he had passed 12 lbs and has the most kissable cheeks in town. Last Sunday we went to Kendall and Christy's ward to see him blessed. This coming Saturday we will watch his older brother, Conner, be baptized. It doesn't get any better than this! We are now up to four granddaughters (the oldest 10) and 3 grandsons!

On Tuesday we bacame official full time empty nesters. I go from being extremely excited about this to down in the dumps because I don't want to be done mothering. I have dreaded this day for 32 years. But it came anyways, so I plan on making the best of it. Here is my curmudgeon, Chelsea, in front of her new apartment. It is really cute and can you believe she has a washer and dryer IN her apartment? So spoiled! I always had to have change to go to the laundrymat!

This is looking from Chelsea's buildings onto the foothills of Pocatello. Not a bad looking view! And I bet she and Jarrica (her roomy from our ward) get deer close by, which will be like home!

This is the first thing Chelsea bought for her apartment when she got there. A bamboo plant. Interesting. She posted the picture sideways, so that's how you get it too. She said she needed something to take care of; this from the girl who complained about taking care of anything at home. I asked her if she had scizzors because bamboo grows fast.

Not a very good picture, I downloaded off Amazon, but you get the idea! Gene and I bought Kindles for each other for our anniversary back in October. I thought it was being frivolous at the time, but I have to tell you, this is so much fun! We have downloaded tons of books, including our scriptures and church manuals and it is so cool to pop it out to read. I have about 3 books I am switching back and forth in right now and tho I thought I would miss my paper pages, it is not a problem! Love it, love it, love it!

Again, not a great picture, but my wonderful husband got me one of these for Christmas! I have been a scrubbing fool ever since. With it and my steam cleaner, my carpets look wonderful! I love my spot bot!

Okay, so now you are caught up with my blessings recently, some material, but the most are my family, which is priceless!

The funniest thing is that my husband and I have a date on Friday night! And we don't even have to make sure that someone else is okay with it, has food for the night and entertainment of their own. Maybe this empty nester thing is okay!

Enjoy your moments!

Chris