i did it! i did it! he really let me do it!

how did i do? donnie really let me mow with his "john deere" tonight, while he edged and mowed around the edges with the walk behind!

what do you think? think he'll let me do it again?

if you look close, you can see how almost straight my lines are! i am sooo proud of myself, i can hardly stand it! doesn't even look like a drunk indian mowed it.

sure, he yelled at me a couple of times to sloowww down, and i had to go over some of it twice, but all in all, i think i did okay!

childhood summertime memories

well melanie gave the address of this blog she found, that has a topic to write about each week. i'm not apart of that blog, but thought that it was somewhat of a good idea. so here we go:

as soon as i saw this topic, my mind (yes, it sometimes, still remembers) went right to the summers that i spent in tempe, arizona. these are some of my choicest friends! we had some great times together.

* i remember alot of 'sleep outs' (or mostly, no sleep outs)

* toilet papering cactus in the rain

* sundays, after sunday school (dates me, huh!?), between ss and sacrament meeting, going out to markhams for sunday dinner (at the time, they lived forever out in the 'country'). one time we got a flat tire. brother markham said " okay everyone out! we are going to have a lesson on changing a tire!" he was not kidding! we all got out, in our dresses, no less, and he really did teach us how to change the tire.

* here we are, me, cindy markham, nadene noble, annette adams, and nancy raisor.

* riding our bikes to mcclintoc swimming pool in the blistering heat, paying a whoopin'10 cents to get in. flirting with the lifeguards. then riding our bikes home. it was quite the ride. but worth it!

* swim caps! yuk!

* girls camp at 'camp lo mia'. our first year especially, with amanda! (does anyone remember her like i do?) she was our camp leader. when we went to get on the bus, we were suppose to have this new leader who was : #1. a return missionary, #2. not married and #3. just a barrel of fun. when we got on the bus, we found out that most of that was true, (they could have left out the "barrel of fun" part.) i think she was about 85 years old, she had a dress on and combat boots! and, she was about 4 foot nothing. oh, and that year, too, nancy got her hand caught in the big mixer in the lodge kitchen and had to go to the hospital. i could go on and on, but you get the drift. at least it was memorable.

* swimming in the shontell's pool - playing "marco, polo".

* staying with my aunt georgia. she was the only family that we had down in az, and i loved to be with her when ever i could be.

* playing ping pong in raisor's basement. (i think they were the only people i knew in az that had a full basement). it was nice and cool down there! and... they had a fruit room with a hide a bed in it. it was the coolest place to play hide and seek!

* going to 31 flavors ice cream parlor.

* "legend city" ~ a place like "lagoon", but 1,000 times cooler!

* "jack in the box" drive in. hamburgers were 5 for a dollar. sometimes, if we were lucky, we got french fries, too.

* drive in movies, in the back of the station wagon.

* gas was only around 20 cents a gallon!

* floating down the "verde" river on inner tubes. what a blast we had! one time i got sunburned really bad, that wasn't so fun, but the rest of the day was!

* dances after m.i.a., for the scouts and beehives. cindy was always the dance instructor. boy she could do any dance move!

* baby sitting for the kempton's, lee's, macdonald's and the rays.

* going to california with brother and sister raisor to pick nancy up, when she flew home from hawaii. we stayed in a beach house in la jolla beach. we went to disneyland, sea world, the art show, the beach and a whole lot more (the first time i had ever been anywhere, except, to utah, for vacation.) we had a ton of fun. (except on sunday when brother raisor did our hair for church and we couldn't get in the ocean that day, (have a look at those do's!)).

a few years ago, i went back down to arizona for a visit and we were able to get together and reminisce

so...here we are again, nanette (cindy's little sister), jeanette (annette's little sister) nancy, annette, me and cindy. thanks for all of the great memories, girls! you were and always will be a big part of my life! love ya forever!

happy little helpers!

the past couple of saturdays have been quite nice, weather wise. a good time to go out and dig in the dirt! the funnest part is the 'happy little helpers' that have been here to help me. this is ryker (chet and tiff's). he is 9 1/2 months old and he had to be right under us as we were weeding. he's cute even when he's filthy dirty. he hadn't had a nap all day and was just as happy as could be ~ all boy!

this is down at grandma ruth's and poppie's. i was out weeding and the kids found a 'roly poly' (potato bug) and a lady bug. they dropped one of them, and were intensely looking for it, when melanie said, "well, here is your roly poly bug right here. and i've stepped on it!" at that moment kendyl (who is the drama mama) came running in and started bawling, "you killed it, you killed it, and i wanted it! why did you kill it, auntie?"

what small things keep kids entertained! they played with this lady bug and anything else they could find that crawled, for hours. they decided they needed a jar, so they put their bugs in the jar and then decided they needed to go 'visit' someone. so we sent them over to aunt ann's. (aunt ann is grandma ruth's sister who is 86 years old) they were so proud of their new little friends, but ann was not amused!

mother's day

i loved elder m. russell ballard's talk given in general conference last month titled "daughters of god". one of the comments he made was that " there is no role in life more essential and more eternal than that of motherhood".

david o. mckay once said "the noblest calling in the world is that of mother. true motherhood is the most beautiful of all arts, the greatest of all professions. she who can paint a masterpiece or who can write a book that will influence millions deserves the plaudits and admiration of mankind; but she who rears successfully a family of healthy, beautiful sons and daughters whose immortal souls will be exerting an influence throughout the ages long after paintings shall have faded, and books and statues shall have been destroyed,deserves the highest honor that man can give."

all my life i wanted to be "just a mom". when i was 19 years old, all of the sudden i had someone else to care for, 24/7. someone that i loved more than myself. someone that i would do anything, including giving my life for. heavenly father blessed me with a precious little girl and trusted her to be in my care, to teach her and help her to return again to him, someday. (boy! did i have alot to learn!) i didn't think i could love anyone or anything anymore than i loved my little melanie. two years later, chet came along and i learned quickly that i had enough love for both of them. what a great responsibility, two of heavenly father's children entrusted to my care. when chet was 2 years old, we were blessed with little haley anne, the apple of our eyes. melanie and chet were so excited and somehow knew that heavenly father was going to send them a little sister to look over, love and care for. now, i was blessed with even more love to give. it's funny, how you think that you only have so much love to give, but as these sweet little spirits enter our lives, you love them all the same and heavenly father gives us enough love to go around again and again. cheyne came four years later, and now i had four of our heavenly father's children that i was responsible for. oh how i loved each of them! and felt sooo honored that my heavenly father loved me and trusted me enough to bless our home with four special little spirits.
discovering that with every child, your heart grows bigger and stronger - that there is no limit to how much or how many people you can love, even though at times you feel as though you could burst - you don't - you just love even more.- yasmin le boni

to know that i needed to teach them and be a good example to them. always! that i am responsible to help them return to their heavenly father! wow! how overwhelming! when i think of how i worried every time i left any of them for even an hour or two, and with people i love and trusted, it makes me think how heavenly father must feel each time he sends one of his children to this earth, trusting that those he sends them to, are going to teach them the things they need to know to get back to him someday. it makes me feel a sense of inadequacy.

i look at my children now, and they are all grown up, three of them married to wonderful spouses. what happened to time? sometimes, i think that somehow time slipped past me and i missed out on some of the most important things in their lives. if i could do it again, i hope that i would take a little more time to enjoy the moment. spend a little more time reading to them, playing with them, letting them help me with whatever i was doing, instead of always thinking that my house had to be cleaned, the wash needed to be done and everything had to be in perfect order, before i could take time to enjoy anything. in my wise old age, i've learned that the house always needs to be cleaned, the wash is never done and no matter how hard you try to make things perfect, they just aren't!
a hundred years from now... it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house i lived in, or the kind of car I drove... but the world may be different because i was important in the life of a child.- kathy davis

now heavenly father has blessed our family with 5 more of his choice spirits (with another one coming in october). it's a good thing that love isn't weight, or i would never have any clothes that fit!
now that I've reached the age, or maybe the stage, where I need my children more than they need me, I really understand how grand it is to be a grandmother.- mrs margaret whitlam

i am grateful to my heavenly father for trusting me enough to let me be a mother to four of his choicest spirits! i love them all and love being their mother. hopefully they will forgive me for my shortcomings , for my impatience, and for the things i should have, but didn't teach them.. i know i wasn't the perfect mom, but i hope each of them know that no matter what, i wouldn't trade anything in the world for the years i had them in my care and for what they have taught me over the years! melanie, chet, haley and cheyne, you are my life and i will always love you!

new toy...........

okay... all of our kids were moved out last summer, so i inherited the "great and dreadful" chore of mowing the lawn. i actually took a liking to this chore. we had a walk behind mower and it gave me a little 'alone' time, a little - much needed- exercise, i love being outside, and i love the satisfaction of how everything looks after it's done.
well... towards the 'very' end of the mowing season last fall, our wonderful son in law, george, called to let donnie know what a "great" deal they had on riding lawn mowers at "the home depot". (george knows don can not pass up a good deal!) so... we headed to town. i think we checked out every stinkin' riding mower they had there, once, twice, three, four, and probably five times! (donnie likes a good deal, but it also has to be the best! and... they had brought mowers from all of the home depot stores in utah to a.f.)

if you look at something four or five times, or long enough, do the looks change?

anyway, we ended up buying one - a 'john deere' (not a 'donnie dear', but a 'john deere') the mowing season was over, but i think donnie snuck in an extra cut or two.

don was sooooo excited for the lawn mowing season this year ( ya, go figure!). the first chance he got he ran down and bought and fertilized the yard. anticipating the time when, finally, he could get on that 'john deere' and "mow the lawn". he couldn't wait, and the first time he mowed it was after dark. then of course, he decided that we needed a bag, to catch the grass. ~ that dang thing costs as much as a regular lawn mower! yes, he picked it up last weekend - it needed to be put together and he was sick all weekend, so it didn't get done.

last night i came home from work and thought (i know, scary, huh?!) maybe, i would mow the lawn while he finished putting the bag together ~

our conversation went like this:

me: uummmm, maybe i'll go out and mow the side lawn.

donnie: well...the bag needs to be put on the mower first.

me: maybe, while you're putting the bag together, i could just 'practice'.

donnie: we would have to go over it again to catch the grass, and do you know how much gas is???! but... i guess you can... if... you really want to.

he did not want me to rain on his parade!

i ended up weeding the flower beds, instead.

maybe, just maybe...this could be a good thing!

isn't he cute, sitting on his 'john deere'!

so ...my question is ~~

WHY?

don can crawl out of bed in the morning ~ brush his teeth, run the deodorant under his armpits, slip into his jeans (the ones he had on the day before), add a t shirt , through on a hat, and... presto! he is ready to walk out the door. it only takes him, at the most 15 minutes, can you believe it, and he's ready for the day. he doesn't worry about WHAT to wear, doesn't care if his hair is not perfect, or that people can look at him and know that he just got out of bed 15 minutes ago.

i on the other hand ~ get up, crawl into the shower, shampoo my hair, shave my legs (and pits), get out. brush my teeth, through on the deodorant, lotion up, then the underwear goes on. i make the bed (a little pet peeve of mine....can't stand to get into an unmade bed at night), through the dirty clothes to the laundry. blow my hair dry, add a little product, blow hair dry again, add some more product, blow hair dry again ~ flat iron (ya gotta love the natural curly hair when you are trying to make it straight!) spray hair, pick it out, spray again, flat iron a little more, add more product. check out the back of hair to make sure it looks 'just right'. flat iron some more, add the finishing touch. i put on my make up ( granted, i don't use much), but it takes time to make it look 'just right'. i run downstairs, plug in the iron, while i wait for it to heat up, i put in a batch of laundry (usually have to empty the dryer first so i can put the clothes from the washer in). run back, iron my clothes (thank goodness for 'scrubs', they make it easier, because i don't have to decide WHAT to wear, just what color would be best for the day). , get dressed, hop upstairs to grab something to eat for breakfast on my way to work, and something for my lunch, clean up any messes left. gather my goods, and then... i'm off to work!

over an hour later!
(and i don't even have any kids to worry about!)

is it vanity ? ~ or what?

wouldn't it be great if we all looked good in a hat!?

spring ??????

did i say "it's finally spring" just 2 days ago?

well...this is what i woke up to this morning.

'SNOW'

yes! i know.. it's only a skiff, but it's still snow and it's cold!

cheyne had the sprinklers on out in the pasture all night and it looks like a winter wonderland out back where the water hit the trees.

no! no! no! no! nooooooooooo... i am ready for spring!