do you see the resemblence?

this is a picture of kendyl and gramma holding hands. (kendyl is the one with the "long" hair)
(yeah---i wish i were that skinny! glad that someone
sees me through those "skinny" glasses!)

and...this is what siona thinks gramma looks like.
(notice the hairdo)
they think i'm beautiful and that's all that
matters!
(isn't that what grandkids are for?)

(quite a great resemblence, ehh?)

what's happenin'?

after taking a week off after my surgery, i have returned to the 'working woman'. (even though i have only worked 3 days a week and only until 2:00 those days) ...can i say... it sucks! not to be ABLE to go back, but just to be back at work when there is soooo much at home that i have been made to neglect the past few months and now that it is SUPPOSE to be spring, i am getting the bug to spring clean and to go out and work in my yard. there are a few things that i really want to get done, but after work, i am totally exhausted.

then, after i got out of surgery the surgeon came in and asked if i was ever told that i snore. i immediately answered him by saying "no, but don does!" he 'politely' informed me that i needed to be checked for 'sleep apnea'. i would have been offended, but because when they were doing my surgery, i was not completely out of it, and would kind of float in and out of sleep, i DID wake myself up more than once snoring (how embarrassing!), i was hoping that those in the operating room were oblivious to it, but apparently NOT. so, tuesday night, i got to have a sleepover... at the sleep disorder center at timp hospital. i went in at 9:00 pm and by the time i was ready for bed, i had so many wires hooked to me, that i felt like the BIONIC woman. i took an ambien just before i went to bed, thinking that it would help me to sleep. i was right for about the first couple of hours. nothing could have wakened me. but then the 'cna' came bounding in my room and pulled a c-pap machine out of the cupboard and strapped it to my face. then she told me to make sure and take long, deep breaths. so the rest of the night i was busy concentrating on my breathing and trying to get comfortable in a bed that was like sleeping on a cement floor. i was never so happy to have 6:30 AM come! after de-tangling all the wires, i was finally able to go home, take an ambien and really sleep for a few hours. now i am waiting for the results, (knowing that i am going to be strapped to a c-pap machine the rest of my life). after years of complaining to the doc of fatigue, i think we have finally figured it out. between the hole in my heart and sleep apnea - questions answered! i'm hoping to have enough energy to be able to do all the things that i WANT to do AND continue to work. and, who knows... just maybe... i will get skinny! (yeah right!!)

happy birthday kamryn !

this is kamryn 6 years ago today. yep... today is her birthday (she is 6 going on 16!). she has grown up sooo much and is such a sweet little princess (she reminds me often, that she was my 1st princess ~ now i have 4). so, anyway, when we asked her where she wanted us to take her for her birthday dinner, her 1st response was 'panda express'. but after a little persuading and coaxing from her grandpa, she decided it would be okay to go to 'chin wah'.

i took her shopping and she knew exactly WHAT she wanted ~ so we bought her a jump rope with wooden handles, some other jump thing, and some 'pet shop' ongerie'. after shopping, we met grandpa at 'chin wahs'. she was bound and determined that she was going to eat her dinner with chop sticks (she even tried to eat her soup with them).

she did pretty good. when she asked grandpa why he didn't want to use the chop sticks, he told her that 'he wanted to be able to EAT' his dinner.
BUT... the thing she wanted most to do, (probably, because she KNEW that grandpa and gramma would take her). was to go up to 'east high' school.

when we asked WHAT was so cool about 'east high', the response we got...

"duuhhh! that's where 'high school musical' was filmed". she was so stinkin' excited on the way. she probably asked at least a dozen times, "are we there yet, are we there yet ?" when we got there, we drove around the block so she could see the 'whole' thing. she saw the ball field and proceded to tell us "oh that's where ----- played ball". after going around the block, grandpa let us get out to take some pictures.

she is such a poser (she gets that from her mom and her auntie mel!)

while we were taking pictures, these 4 cute girls came across the street. one had on an 'east high' sweatshirt. i told kamryn that maybe they would let me take a picture of her with them. she was mortified to think that i would really ask them. so when they got close, i told them it was kamryns birthday and she wanted so bad to see their school. ; then i asked the girl with the sweatshirt if i could take a picture of her with kamryn (i thought kamryn was going to crawl under the sidewalk, she was sooo embarrased.) but the girls were darling and one even said, "here, i'll take the picture, you get in it with them" (good thing, because kamryn was 'glued' to me and wouldn't even look at them).

i told kamryn, that all of her friends would think that she had her picture taken with someone that was actually in 'high school musical'. the cute girl in the 'east high' sweatshirt, said "well... i wasn't really in the movie", and the little gal taking the picture said "i was!", but kamryn wouldn't say anything to any of them (she was pretending to be shy!)
after we got back into the car, i asked kamryn if she remembered seeing the one girl in the movie, and she said "yea, she was so and so (i can't remember the name), i remember, because she had blonde hair". so now she has been there and seen where 'high school musical' was filmed AND she met someone that was really in the movie (whether it was the one with the blonde hair or not, it doesn't really matter, to her)

happy birthday kamryn! we had a fun night spoiling just you!

and.... we love you to pieces!!!

grateful for another b-day?

and, yes it did take all of us to blow out that many candles!

i am grateful to be able to have another birthday! a few months back, i probably wouldn't have said that, but in all reality, there was a great possibility that i may have not been here for this one. so... YES,YES, YES, i am grateful to be another year older.

my kids asked me what i wanted for my birthday a while back, and i told them i didn't want them to buy me anything. "just have the grandkids draw me a picture" is what i told them, and this is what i got...

(i have very talented children) and isn't this just the cutest, ever!

thank you , kids! this was a great birthday for me!

happy anniversary...

thirty-five years ago today, i was married to my sweetheart, donnie. we were married by bishop shelby berry in the old american fork third ward church (which is now the north hampton house, at the corner of third north and second west). my mom made my wedding dress for $35.00 and her time. she also made our wedding cake). we had purchased a home in american fork three months before we were married. and spent a lot of time working to fix it up. (we paid $18,000 for our home, and it actually came furnished with some of the ugliest furniture you can imagine, but it was functional and we used it for years.)

we had a wedding dinner at the church after we were married. don's mom, family and ward members, prepared a wonderful meal. when we went to leave the church, we found that my uncle dewey had done something to our truck so it wouldn't start. after fixing that, we had to go thru the car wash (still with me in my wedding gown and donnie in his tux) to spray off the truck.

the next night we had our wedding reception at the home of don's parents.

our wedding line consisted of my dad and mom, don's parents, freddie (don's cousin and best friend (besides me of course). notice fred 'goosing' don for the picture. the photographer had had just as much as he could take when he was done taking our pictures! needless to say.), donnie, me, and my other best friend, lari.

four years to the day later, we were sealed, along with our two oldest, melanie and chet for time and all eternity in the provo temple.

donnie, i'll love ya forever. you are the best thing that ever happened to me! happy anniversary!!