skool daze

school started monday. do i miss those days? umm... NO! but i do wish i would have loved school more, back in the good ol' days. maybe the fact that we changed schools more than most kids changed underwear, made it worse. 1st grade i started school in phoenix, az. at baltz elementary. i actually got to go the whole year there. 2nd grade was the destroyer ! i started at baltz elementary, moved to utah and went to p.g. central for a few weeks, then moved to a.f. and went to greenwood elementary for a few months. we then moved back to phoenix and again went to baltz elementary for a month or so and then moved to tempe and went to rural school. ~ so i actually went to 5 schools that year. 3rd and 4th grade we stayed at rural school. 5th grade we went to a new school, same house, just new school - evans elementary. summer before 6th grade, we moved across town and so i started 6th grade at gilliland jr. high (a major upset!). part way through the year, we moved back into the rural school area, so we switched again. 7th and 8th grade i went to mckemy jr. high in tempe. after that, we moved to utah and i went to lehi high school for 4 whole years!

moving so much, i always felt like i was in the fog. never knew quite what was going on. ( but look at how cute i was in the 2nd grade!)(:

can someone get me some cheese to go with this w - h - i - n - e ?

busy, busy, busy!

no more right of way. yep ~ school started this morning, and if i don't get out of my driveway by 7:50 am, i have to wait until at least 8:10 am. it is absolutely impossible to get out between those times. buses, trucks, suburbans, minivans, big cars, little cars, whatever happens to be going down the street, will not slow down ~ not even one little ioda, to let me out! as if they had the right of way... guess i'm going to have to get my butt out of bed a little earlier from now on!

View from an Empty Nest

"Candlelight dinners, late-night chats, wild sex. Sounds like young love? Better----it's what happens after the kids leave." joe kita

(notice this quote was made by a person of the male gender, probably in one of his delirious daydreaming moments!)

I found this quote in a book at work and after I stopped laughing, I showed it to quite a few of my co-workers, all of whom are "empty nesters" ~ and... after they picked themselves up off from the floor (from laughing), we came up with our own version (more accurate, of course!) of this quote. Are you ready???

"First of all... Empty Nest ? Now how in the sam hills does anyone really think that that happens? It multiplies - like rabbits! No such thing as a "Empty Nest"!

Candlelight dinners would be, looking in the jockey box of the truck with the flashlight, trying to scrounge up any extra change as we go thru the drive thru at Del Taco or Arby's.

late-night chats... would be with myself. I talk to myself all night long. I wish I could tell myself to shut up so I could get some sleep! (I guess as long as I don't answer myself, I'll be ok.:) And for the...

wild sex, I've got my bee bee gun ready. Those neighbors cats have been at it every night the last few weeks. Sick it's just sick ! and for our husbands... well, that's only in their dreams!

~quirks~

1. Link the person who tagged you... Melanie
2. Post these rules.
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
4. Tag 6 fellow bloggers by linking them

i had to think about this long and hard. of course, i didn't think i had many quirks. but i did think of a few. so here goes.....

1. I HAVE TO HAVE A CLEAN HOUSE! i can't leave, sleep, watch t.v., eat, etc. (you get the picture) if my house isn't in order. don teases me all the time about having to vacuum up the popcorn on the floor in the middle of a movie (of course, he exaggerates alot). every time i walk in the door, i grab the dish rag and wipe off the counter. my bed has to be made. it drives me nuts to have things scattered around, and i have been known to clean things from right under donnie's nose. my friend ladawn has a saying in her cabin that goes something like this - "if a man should lay his tool or his sword upon his shelf, or upon the place wither he would keep it, behold, upon the morrow, he could not find it." i admit... it's me!

2. MY HAIR is another quirk i have! i could care less if i have make up on or the best of clothes, but my hair has to be just right! (but i have to stop and think what other's think after kendyl, my 3 year old granddaughter said to me one day, "gramma, i bet it was really interesting doing your hair this morning.") oh out of the mouths of babes!

3. I HATE PEOPLE WHO USE THE SYSTEM! i know that hate is a pretty strong word, but it really gripes me when i think of this... i'm working and paying taxes, so that someone else (who is perfectly able, but not willing), can sit home, eating bon bons (a luxury that most common people don't feel like they can spend their hard earned money on) and watching soaps, collecting the money the government takes away from me for their fun!

4. I DO NOT LIKE BEING LATE! for anything. but unfortunately, i have a husband that it doesn't bother. i've learned which battles to fight.

5. THE TOILET SEAT CLOSES JUST AS EASILY AS IT OPENS! nothing worse than getting up in the night, only to sit not just on the toilet, but in it!

6. GROSS EARS! picture this... you're sitting in church, you look to the side of you, only to see green "stuff" growing out of the kids ear that is sitting next to you. makes me want to grab a q-tip and start digging!

i tag: callie, gretchen, erin, alan and brigette, jake, and julie

blog blunder----------

okay... since donnie was released as bishop of the y.s.a. ward, we finally get to go back to our 'home' ward ( i have actually been able to set beside him again ~ after about 12 years)

anyway, last week i started going to young women's again. (y.s.a. to y.w, hummm, maybe someone is trying to tell me something!) as 'personal progress specialist' (or... maybe i am in need of some personal progress myself, who knows?) so... if anyone has any great ideas for p.p., i'm all ears.

but, i have to tell ya ~ i am the gramma! none of these young women leaders are much older than melanie (my oldest), and most of them are r.m.s. (hope they can teach me something!)

anyone have a walker that i can borrow?

another month gone by...

can you beleive that it's already august?

i know that the past few weeks have been hectic, with vacation, viewings, funerals, birthdays, family, etc. but... where in the world does the time go?

saturday was the 'highland fling'. we had all of the kids, grandkids, cousins, uncles, friends of kids, grandpa, aunts ~ ann and bonnie, and a ton of old friend that sat on our lawn to watch the parade (i've decided that parades just aren't as exciting as they use to be). but the grandkids had fun picking up the candy (notice kamryn's bag), and it was fun getting together with everyone. (our yard has an open invite to anyone who would like to join us in the coming years).
we miss some of the old time fans that use to always show up for the parade. melanie's zucchini bread this year, took the place of susan savages hot cinnamon rolls. we miss you susan! (and don has forgiven you for the burned spot in the lawn from your hot pan.)



"dear old a.f. high!"

also... saturday was "donnie macks" class reunion. (40 years!) as we pulled into the high school parking lot...(yes! they had their reunion in the school cafeteria ~ 'but it was decorated cute'... gotta love those cavemen!) anyway, donnie was watching his classmates walking in and he said "all of these people look old! you would think we were coming to the senior citizen's christmas party, again " (we took grandpa and grandma at christmas) well... guess what donnie! and all of the girls (old ladies) were woo hooing him and telling him that he hadn't changed a bit ~ yeah right!

let me tell ya girls..............

he has changed......... a whole lot! but, he is still cute! and the best thing about it, is that he's mine, forever!!! love ya 'mack daddy'!

vacation????

sorry this is so long, but i am writing this more for my history than anything.

ryker enjoying his 1st birthday with dutch oven hot fudge cake.

this past week, we attempted to be on vacation down on the mountain with ALL of our kids and grand kids coming at sometime during the week. the 20th was ryker's first birthday and the 27th was siona's third birthday. adam and julie olson and their 3 kids came down with chet and tiff for the first 2 nights. we celebrated ryker's 1st birthday on sunday. we had alot of fun things planned.

siona, jane, kendyl, and ike with the visors they made.

but our plans changed real fast on monday. craig (godwin) came down monday afternoon. on his way down, he got a message from melanie to have don call home a.s.a.p. (not an emergency, but very urgent). we were just getting ready to take the kids on a four wheeler ride, but don left in a hurry and went up on the mountain to the 'phone booth'. he came back in just a few minutes and told me that we had to go home, now! his mom was not doing well and grandpa was asking for don. sooo... we loaded up a few things and siona. (we had taken her with us and george and mel were going to come down later in the week). she was NOT a happy camper! when i put her toothbrush and pillow into her bag, she took them out, saying "gramma, just leave them here and we can come back!"
we got to grandpa and grandma's house about 9:00 p.m., grandma had not eaten much since friday and had been in alot of pain, she hadn't been out of bed since then, either. the hospice doctor had taken her off all of her medications except for her pain pills and ativan. grandpa and some of the boys had given her a blessing by the time we got there. we went into her bedside where she was resting peacefully. don leaned over and told her that she needed to go if she was ready, that she didn't need to worry about grandpa anymore, we would make sure he was taken good care of. we stuck around until about 1:00 a.m. then we came home. tuesday morning, we headed back down to see how grandma was doing. she was resting peacefully, with no change. we stuck around until late afternoon, and still no change. we were told that she could go within hours, weeks or months. don decided that we needed to go back down to fairview and we would call and check in every few hours. valerie (don's sister) had come from idaho and was in talking to grandma. she got a little response, but not much. when we went in to tell her goodbye, siona gave her a kiss on the cheek and said "goodbye grandma, i love you!" grandma instantly opened her eyes, grabbed siona's hand and puckered up her lips so that siona could kiss her. she had done the same with kamryn earlier. our grand kids all had a special place in grandma's heart. anyway, we headed back to fairview. we got to camp about 7:00 p.m. the next morning, we got up and once again, don went out to the 'phone booth' to see how mom was doing. still... no change. so we went over to 'potter's pond' (which is about 1 1/2 hours from our trailer) to take the kids fishing. we had a great time. the weather was great and the scenery was beautiful. don and chet didn't get to fish, because every time they would cast kendyl and siona's poles, they would get a bite and they couldn't keep the girls poles baited and fish too. ryker wasn't feeling to great, but "papa" let him reel in the fish that he finally was able to catch with his pole. (we had to let them all go, because they all were just little planter fish). on our way back to camp (about 6:30p.m.), as we were going over the summit on the skyline, don's voice mail rang. it was melanie telling him to call home a.s.a.p. he called and she told us that grandma had passed away about 3:45 p.m. so once again, we drove back up the mountain to get our things packed to come home. again... siona was NOT happy! she cried when we told her we had to go home again. after grandma passed away, jeff, haley, kamryn and hunter decided to go ahead with their plans to go to fairview. we passed them on our way home. we got to grandpa's about 11:15 p.m. they had taken grandma's body to the mortuary by the time we got there. we made plans to meet the next morning (thursday) at the mortuary. so... thursday morning, we got up and met with the family to go make funeral plans. george, mel and siona left to go back down to fairview. friday morning, we went and picked out flowers and tried to get a few things ready for the funeral, which was to be held the following monday (which was today). then don and i headed back down to fairview for the night.

siona enjoying her birthday 'cupcake'.

we celebrated siona's birthday and had a campfire with the godwin's. then again on saturday morning, i came home with george, mel and siona, so that we could go to the mortuary and dress mom for the viewing. sunday night was the viewing at the mortuary and today we had the funeral at the stake center. everything went well and tonight, but now we are all totally exhausted.

we hope to have a better vacation next year!