Getting ready for a new school year!

We are getting the haircuts, clothes bought and supplies ready for school. Where did the Summer go? I have no idea. It went in a blink of an EYE. Aunt Kristen gave the kids both beautiful and good looking haircuts. (of course I don't have a picture yet of Kayson's) We took quite a bit off Shaylee's and she is loving it! Kayson is going to Middle School and will be in the 6th grade. We went and registered. He learned how to open his LOCKER (which is the highlight of Middle School). He starts on the 21st. Shaylee will go take assessment tests on the 21st but won't start until the 27th. They are both excited for school. Now if I can only get Kayson up and to school by 7:30am. Getting him there by 9:00am last year was hell. How will I ever do 7:30. Pray for me!
















This week we started our new schedules at work. We now work from 7:30-5:30 Monday through Thursdays and work 8 hours on Friday with every other Friday off. It will be nice to have a 3 day weekend now and then. I was lucky enough to get the Friday off before Labor Day. So I will have a 4 day weekend. I already checked it out and I will have a 4-day on Columbus Day, Pres. Day....I lucked out with the best Friday to start having off. It will be a change, but a nice change.

Life is good. Busy, but good.

Chris & Crystal Gomez Wedding!

Mr. & Mrs. Gomez

I return tonight from Montana where I spent the last 5 days. My good friend Chris Gomez, which whom I worked with at Albertsons in Phoenix, got married. This was my first meeting his wife, Crystal. She is a gem! Montana is such a beautiful state. Bozeman is where the wedding was held. We arrived Wednesday night. Thursday we met Chris and Crystal for lunch...with much due stress to the bride having to take the time to do so with much to do for the wedding. Sorry Crystal! It was great seeing Chris. He hasn't changed a bit in the 2 1/2 years since we last saw each other.

Greg, another friend from Phoenix (Albertsons) flew in Thursday afternoon. We all joined up that night for a night of fun! (I will leave it at that. What happens in Bozeman stays in Bozeman :) JK...we behaved!). At around 2:30 a.m. when driving back to the hotel I hit the BIGGEST raccoon with my car. It was as big as a HUGE DOG. (the pictures explain it all). I was on the freeway going about 75 mph and could do nothing but hit the darn thing. At least the car was still drivable and no flat tire. Friday we slept in until 1:00 p.m. Ok...I am too old to stay up late. I didn't get to bed until around 3:30 a.m. and I had the hardest time getting up the next day. I can't keep up with those young kids! It was still fun and worth it.

Saturday, August 2, 2008 was the wedding. It rained right before the wedding and then during the reception. Cooled it off just in time for the "I do's". It was beautiful! Congrats Chris and Crystal! You both make such a cute couple.

Greg...mad at Chris for beating him to the Alter! :) JK Greg!

Thanks to my brother Joe and his wife Amber for keeping the kids while we were away. They had so much fun!

July 24, 2008

It was 16 years ago today my Dad passed away. I think of him so much and wish he was still here with us. How would my life be if he was here? Would my family have stayed close like we were as kids? Who knows, but I do know he would love the Grandkids so much. He would have taught each of them to fish and to enjoy life to its fullest. He taught me that family was the most important thing in life and they are the only ones that will be there in the end. Friends come and go but family is the most important thing. I love my family. I hope they all know just how much. Sometimes I think he is looking down on us in disappointment. I think we all need to try harder. I love you Dad! You are missed dearly!

So today is a holiday in Utah. It is Pioneer Day. I am lucky enough to have Thurs. & Fri. off work. Government jobs are great! I planned to clean and get some things done around the house. NOT! Joe brought his kids over so Amber could get some sleep and we took the kids to the Logan Pool and had a blast! We then went and got Casper's Ice Cream...yum yum! Then we went home to get Grandma and went to the movie. We saw "A Journey to the Center of the Earth". It was a good movie. Better than I expected. After the movie we came home and did the Sparkler and Poppers thing. We got out the glow necklaces and had some celebration fun! Neighbors were doing the BIG fireworks. Glad they do them so we can enjoy them because I am too scared to light them off and I don't want to get caught anyway since they are usually the illegal ones they light off. My Sister happened to stop by and ate lunch with us. It was great to spend time with family today. Thanks Joe for coming by. It was much more fun to do what we did than to clean!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

Yesterday, July 23rd Brian and I celebrated 14 years of marriage. He happen to mention it felt like 28. Maybe on my end! :) Well, he sent me some really beautiful roses. He knows that I hate to see him spend money on something that dies the next day or two, but I have to say, it was a nice surprise. He then took me to dinner to Maddox. It was yummy, but he wasn't feeling much in the mood of celebrating. Headache! Carol was nice enough to watch the kids for us. We went and picked them up and the kids and I stayed up until 11:30 pm watching the movie "21". It was a pretty good movie.

Happy 14 Brian.

FIRST 2008 CAMPING TRIP

We finally got to go on our first camping trip of the summer. My brother and I took our families to Bear Lake for 4 days. It was a blast! We only had one day the lake was rough and COLD, but we still had a great time. My Step-daughter Marissa and her family surprised us and came over a couple of the days. It was nice to have her. I also invited my Step-son and his family, but they just had a baby and couldn't make it. Those who came had a great time. Jason, we are going to have to make a weekend at the lake before the summer is over.

Smores....yum!
One night Brian and I cooked steak and dutch oven potatoes (which turned out fantastic)! The next night Joe and Amber cooked their famous dutch over pizza. Oh my heck...was it YUMMY!












For many many years I have been wanting a Jet Ski. I love being out on the lake and so we finally broke down and bought one. It was a lot of fun to have for the Bear Lake trip. We even took it over to the lake today and spent just the day at the lake.












I have been working many hours this past two weeks with baseball tournaments going on. I am ready for it to be over. The 15 hour days are wearing me down. It will make for a nice check though and I have enjoyed so much learning all about the recreation program. I love my job!

Toothless Shaylee

Yesterday Shaylee lost her 4th tooth. She looks much better now that the straggly tooth is gone. Her teeth kept moving with every tooth that fell out. I told her she looked like a "redneck" with teeth missing here and there. Poor girl. This time she let Brian try to pull it and once again, with a touch it fell out.

I hope everyone had a great time during the 4th of July events this year. We went to the "Cruise in" Sock Hop Thursday night followed by the Fireworks up at the Stadium. We had a great time! Last night I had to run to town and we ended up Cruising Main. For those of you who don't know what I am talking about, every 4th of July Logan has a "Cruise in" event with old cars from all over the country. They bring them and display them at the fair grounds that day. They have a Poker Run to Bear Lake one day and lots more events. COOL CARS! One night of the event the close the Main Street in Logan and cruise the cars like a parade. It was suppose to end at 6:00 p.m. (which the old cars did) but then it opens up to an all night of cruising by regular cars and at 9:00 p.m. everyone else was still out cruising the street with still tons of people watching from the sides. It brought back many memories. We use to have so much fun doing that. Shaylee loved it and we had the windows down and music up. Kayson, well he had a headache and the car exhaust from other cars stunk and please Mom, turn down the music. Shaylee is so my girl! She is so much like her Mom it scares me. A friend of mine that is now a police officer was out. When I drove by him I had to give him a hard time. He use to be so rowdy on that night. Now he is trying to control things he use to do. They had a bunch of hot tubs on the side of the road having a party. It's quite the deal. It took us 40 minutes to get 14 blocks.

Happy 4th of July weekend to all of you!

JUNE UPDATE

I know it has been awhile, so have time when you start reading this. It will be long!

I have so much to tell. First of all, today I became a Grandma again.

Welcome to Delia Grace Ward, 7 lbs. 11 oz. 20 inches.

Jason said she looks just like Lorenzo when he was born. Congrats Jason & Julie! Thanks for giving us such great Grandkids. They are so much fun! You can tell Lorenzo and Claire are such proud Big Brother and Big Sister. They will be great help with Delia.

Today, Kayson was just getting done with Fun in the Sun and decided to jump off the bleachers at the ballpark and broke his foot. This is the 3rd bone he has broken in his life. He is my accident prone child that is for sure. For now he is in a boot. He will see the Doctor some time next week. Hopefully he won't get put in a cast. That would make for some NOT SO FUN trips to the lake! (Just a note, Kayson was in Shaylee's room in this picture. Didn't want you all to think he liked ballerina bedding :) hee hee)

I made it through planning my first City Celebration. It was so busy during May. With Baseball, Softball and all the Celebration stuff going on it kept me running. We didn't have the best weather for the Celebration, but all who came had fun. I did sprain my ankle really good around 4:00 pm that day. I had to continue walking on it the rest of the day and that was not fun. I worked from 6:00 am until Midnight that day. It was a long 19 hours, but I did enjoy seeing it all come together and flow like it did. I am still taking it easy on the ankle, but it is getting much better. (yes, I take after my son. Ok...so he takes after me) As for work now, I am just trying to get baseball tournaments together, fall recreation and our Art in the Park Event. The thought of starting to plan the Celebration in a couple of months again blows me away.

After the Celebration, I decided I needed a day off. I took Friday the 13th off and we took Marissa's kids and our kids and headed to Jason's house for the weekend. It was fun to see the them and spend some time with their family. We went to see Lorenzo play T-ball. He looks like a pro! Brian helped Jason tile his bathroom.

On Saturday I took the 6 kids (yes, me, myself and I took all six kids) to the ZOO! I took my ZOO to the ZOO! We went from having 50 degree weather to having 96 degree weather from the 11th of June to the 13th. So the ZOO was a HOT day. We all had a good time and it gave Julie a break to rest. (she is the one who just had the baby)

Shaylee has now lost three teeth. She had this one top, front tooth that was just hanging there but every time I tried to pull it the string would slip off and cause it to bleed. I couldn't take it any more so I made her a dental appointment. The Saturday before the appointment my brother Joe was here and with tons of bribes she was going to let him try. When it came right down to it she decided to fight him so we had to hold her down and as he put his finger in her mouth she knocked it out with the fight and next thing I knew she spit the tooth across the room. We got a laugh out of it. Of course that tooth cost me $10 plus the tooth fairy. That was my bribe, but it saved me an $80 dental bill.

Hope everyone is having a great summer. We are and the fun is just beginning!