Forgot my cape

It was dumb to trade the afore mentioned cape for painting clothes. I ended up needing it. While taping off Ben's 12 ft ceiling I fell from an 8 ft ladder. I ended up in the hospital (a lot of help I ended up being) I cracked two vertebrae and bruised a lung. I'm still recovering but doing quite well. It hurts to laugh, cough, and sneeze.
On a brighter note we had a wonderful Thanksgiving. The family really took good care of me and just had a wonderful time.

Hard is not good enough

I was telling Jill the other day that when determining whether or not I should tackle a project, I tell myself that "hard" is not a good enough reason not to do it. Well, with this last project, I found myself repeating that over and over trying to convince myself.

Christina found two porch swings that needed some tender loving care; a little sanding, coat of paint, new awnings, new cushions, pillows, etc. Remember, hard is not a good enough reason not to do something, so I threw myself into it and as long as I'm covering the swings I might as well make covers for the patio chairs.

First, I needed fabric. In Phoenix, the sun can literally shred outdoor fabric within a season, so I knew I needed "Sunbrella" brand. One little problem, it was $18 a yard at the local fabric store and I needed 36 yards! So I found some on Ebay for $5 a yard (not my first choice in prints but for the savings it was worth it) and I was in business. I figured it should take me about a week. Well, as of week 4, I am just now getting finished. If I had it to do all over again, I might rethink my little "hard is not a good enough reason" mantra but on the other hand it's nice to have my patio so much more useable. Barry and I have spent a lot of time just relaxing on the swings already. The weather has been beautiful so for now my Sunbrella fabric is working out great, come summer is the real test.

Like all projects, one thing leads to another, so I painted the front door and front bench. Well it's time to change out of my superwoman cape and tights (should have scrapped the tights long ago....50 plus body in tights....not a pretty sight) and into my painting clothes. I'm off to St. George to rescue a son and daughter-in-law in distress (we are painting the whole interior of their new home this weekend.)

Dr Hulet

Brett passed his dental boards first try!! We are so thrilled for him and Jen!! He has really worked hard to make this dream come true and we are so proud of him. Amazing, just amazing.

That's what happens when your wife makes your heart skip a beat

So, I've spent most of the week in the hospital. My mom had surgery on her knee and Barry had to have a pacemaker put in his heart. It's nice not having to be the patient but there sure is a lot of energy expended worrying and waiting. I'm tired, relieved, and looking forward to getting Barry back home tomorrow.

sew what's new

Just a quick addition to my blog. I got a chance to see Nic and Christian. I had a really great time and it was so fun to see them. The added bonus was I got to spend some time there and back with Jill, Spence, and kiddos and Ben and Steph (and her very delightful parents). I've been so excited to show Nic how to use her new machine. She posted these pics of the things we made on her blog, so I just borrowed them. We had lots of fun and Christian was a good sport about being neglected.
I lugged my new machine along so I could dazzle her with the machine embroidery. Here's a pillow we embroidered and made.
She embroidered matching paislies on the pockets. It turned out so cute she couldn't give it away. embroidered matching paislies on the pockets. Turned out so cute she couldn't give it away as intended!

Some People Can Dish it Out....

Okay, so I suck at blogging. Lots of stuff has happened since my last entry. So I won't even try to catch up. Besides, at this very moment I'm typing with one hand and I'm on drugs. So a picture is going to have to be worth a 1,000 words.

While washing dishes a plate snapped in half and cut my hand open. I grabbed a beach towel with a panda head on it and called my mom. She ran me to urgent care. When they unwrapped my hand from the towel, it looked like someone had shot the panda through the head.

The doc didn't want me ripping out any of his stitches, so he put me in a splint. A little over kill if you ask me, but hey, he prescribed no more washing dishes for 2 weeks. At least the splint matches my toenail polish and PJs.

I've been working this summer on trying to get the dining room and front room painted and draperies made. This is the dining room. You can't see the chair rail very good in the picture but it turned out great.

I've had a birthday since I last blogged. It was nice to have Christina, Josh, Jill, Spencer, Avery, Logan, mom and of course Barry there to help celebrate.

Ben and Steph came for a little over a week in July. That was FUN. I took advantage of their willingness to help out and rented scaffolding and painted the two story entry and family room. This is Steph, a construction guy wanna be, eating her lunch while sitting on top the scaffolding. Ben figured out the strange contortion so we could paint above the stairs. Man, I love that kid.

Steph, my little spider monkey. The girl has no fear. She just sat up there while Ben rolled her for place to place.

Barry snapped this picture of his lovely ETERNAL companion. We painted the wrought iron fence with spray paint and it was getting in every crevice of my well creviced body, so this was my solution. Ever had black spray paint on your nose hairs? So don't laugh.

My little Michigan arm of the family came for a visit in May. This is Joz. She's fearless. Avery is peeking around the corner. mmmwah, I could kiss their little faces off.

My little guy Brax getting ready to slide with Avery. These little peeps are as cute as their parents used to be.

Okay, I'm getting Carpel tunnel here. Who knows what grand adventures I'll meet up with when next I write.

Celebrate!!!

Yea!!! such a happy day. Christina has loved Josh for SO long and it's wonderful to see them start a life together. They were married May 1st at the Seattle Wahington Temple. The day was gloriously SUNNY. Seattle can be intoxicating on sunny days and we were all feeling a great anticipation for this long awaited event. Chrisina had lots of support from family and friends. Here's a recap in pictures.

Chelsee Hunt (cousin) performed the magic. She has such a sweet and giving spirit.

Here is Christina ready to go get hitched

We had a luncheon first. Josh loved the idea of "Dave's BBQ" but they would only take reservations before 2pm so we ate before we went to the temple and that worked out great. It left lots of time for the photographer (an amazing guy who flew up from Phoenix) after the ceremony.

The happy couple!! just leaving the temple.

Beautiful couple

The Family.

We were quite the team pulling this all together. Everything worked out perfectly.

Christina's dear friend flew in all the way from Boston to help her celebrate. Shout out to

Christy Parry!

Josh's car says it all!! and I for one couldn't be happier for them.

Since we had so much of Barry's family there to support Christina, we decided to throw him a surprise birthday party. Greg pulled him out of the room to talk to him and we set it up in about 4 minutes, Crepe paper, balloons, cake and candles. We then brought him in, yelled surprise. Blew out candles, ate cake and told "Barry" stories until we were laughing so hard we had tears rolling down our faces!!

Brett had the brillant idea of getting him a WII as a group gift. Here is the "new little man" in my life.We then drove to Yakima and had a beautiful reception hosted by the Doddroes. It was amazing to see old friends again. So many people there that are so dear to us.

After the festivities and on our way back to Seattle to the airport, we took an opportunity to show some of our newest family members beautiful Washington State. Here are some pictures at Snoqualmie Falls

The Andersons

Brett, Jen, Brax and Joz

Barry at the Falls

We then flew home and started the preparations for the Open House here in Phoenix. We had a great time. Lots of good homemade vittles, and a great show of support from family and friends. ... I'm tired.

Another day at the 'ol grind

Last month I was asked to teach a Stake class on how to make bread. No problem, really, I've made bread for years. How hard could it be. So I stood up in front of a packed classroom, turned on the charm, made a beautiful batch of dough and then declared with confidence "It's just that easy. I promise if you follow the demonstrated steps YOU TOO can have terrific results" One lady in the front raises her and and says"Uh mm, I'm confused, when do you put in the yeast?" Yikes, now that's embarrassing. I said "Ah, how about now" and I grabbed the container of yeast and sprinkled some on top the dough. So I admit to being a bit cocky at times and okay, so I get the part about God teaching us to be humble, but if I have to look like I don't know what I'm doing, Let it be a class about balancing the checkbook...not bread making. I'm FABULOUS in that area. (oops, I guess humility is going to take awhile still) As a result of attending the class some of the ladies from my ward asked for a private lesson, so they came over to my house and we donned aprons (as if I need an apron...darn, humble, remember humble)

We ground up some flour from my MONTANA WHEAT (love that stuff) Here we are in the kitchen. One of the sisters was given a Bosch Mixer 2 years ago and had never used it so she was excited to go home and get it out of the box.

Below is a picture of my buddy Vanessa. She has a magic ingredient. She puts so much LOVE into it, that who cares how it tastes!! Honestly, she is the greatest!!

This is Kristen, one of my most enthusiastic students. She was so excited to acquire this new skill and her enthusiasm was catching!!This is the other Kristen and Rachel. They were enjoying learning this new skill so they could show off to their husbands. They were a lot of fun to teach.

Though there was plenty of sweetness with the combination sisters, we still needed to add some to the bread because this time I remembered the yeast.

Luckily, for my reputation the bread turned out great. (As if there could have been any other result! ...I mean...um, I'm so glad my students did so well)
This is my friend Donna. It was sooo much fun to teach her because she came determined to not leave my house until she got it right. (little worried when she brought her sleeping bag with her! J/K) When she pulled out 4 beautiful loaves from the oven we both almost cried.
Afterwards, we sat outside and had lunch of different kinds of salads and of course, hot bread.

Twilight

This cartoon made me laugh out loud. (Thanks Nicole) Honestly, I'm getting the impression that I need to make room for "Twilight" in my scripture bag.

Boys will be Boys

When I was raising boys the wisdom of letting them play with toy guns was questioned. Certainly violence was at an all time high in our nation and perpetuating it by letting your little boys play with toy guns was discouraged. I struggled with what would be the most responsible approach, guns from a mother's point of view don't make sense but try telling that to a little boy!! I have a sister-in-law with all boys and I remember at the time her not allowing her boys to have toy guns. She tried to encourage the gentler side of their natures by giving them dolls. A few years ago we were sitting around a fire at a family reunion and one of my nephews confessed that he and his brothers took the dolls, lit them on fire and used them as bombs. The memory still makes me smile.

Anyway, while Jill was scanning all of my pictures (5000 approx, man ya gotta love that girl!!) as a Christmas gift for me she noticed I had a picture of all my guys at approximately the same age. Can't say if playing with toy guns created any violent tendencies, can say, shoot, I like the way my little cowpokes turned out!!!

BARRY

BRETT

BENJAMIN

Let's get Personal

So...I have a friend (Becky, ya gotta love her) who hooked me up with a personal trainer who was taking on clients for the unheard of price of $20 a session. I jumped at the chance to get a kick start on losing fat from my last pregnancy(okay, so that was 27 years ago but don't miss my point). So I have been heaving and hoing, lifting and pushing up, pushing and pulling since OCTOBER and I've lost a grand total of 6 measly pounds. It's hard not to feel pathetic but today my trainer said he was noticing some definition to my arms. The "Relief Society jiggle" when I practice my "Homecoming Queen" wave is less noticeable in my upper arm and I have a small cut (weightlifter lingo for "it appears there might be a bit of muscle under there"). I've learned a lot. Here goes:
1 I am never going to be one of those people who gets on the scale and says "My I've lost 5 pounds over night. I wonder where it all went." Every pound has to be coaxed off with more than an ample supply of sweat and a little swearing.
2 As hard as it is NOT to eat the cookie, it is 10 times harder to get it off my butt once I do.
3 Costco samples have calories. @#&* (remember the swearing part)
4 My scale is not my friend. It's an evil device that plays mind games and produces irrational thought patterns (Oh good, I've lost 2 pounds after five weeks of running 4 miles a day, I'll reward myself by baking cookies)
5 Someone needs to write a new joke book for personal trainers ("no, I meant your other left foot". har har. You'd think you'd be careful what you said to a woman with 50lbs bar bells in each hand (okay 12lbs) Honestly I think one of these days when I roll my eyes they're going to end up in the back of my head somewhere.

Polar Express

Here's some cute pictures of our trip on the Polar Express. Avery probably saw the movie more than a dozen times so she was quite excited about it. Brax would have liked it better if the fat man in the red suit wouldn't have been there. You should have seen him dive under the seat when Santa appeared. Oh well, at least he got a silver bell out of the deal

Brett and Jozalyn waiting to board the train

Grandma and Braxton and Avery on the Polar Express

Brett and Jozalyn looking out the train window

Avery looking out the window at the North Pole

Here comes Santa Claus

Santa giving Avery a bell

and Braxton...
and Logan...