Merry Christmas 2008

This is Max at his first Christmas at Grandma's house. Mom and Dad "had" to go to Hawaii, so he had to stay with us. Merry Christmas Mom and Dad! From, Maximus

"8" Tag from Carrie

8 Shows I watch

Monday Night Football
Sunday Night Football
Thursday Night Football
Tuesday Night Basketball TNT
Thursday Night Basketball TNT
NBA TV Channel 601
Seinfeld re-runs
Anything Steve is watching as I fall asleep next to him!

8 Things I did yesterday

Slept in!
Christmas Shopping with Steve
Took a long hot tubby
Went to lunch with my kids
Went to Tyson's basketball game
Complained "alot" about my teeth hurting
Babysat Maximus
Went to bed early because of... my hurting teeth!

8 Things I look Forward to

Sleeping in on the weekends
Being with my kids anytime I can
GRANDCHILDREN....someday
Tysons basketball games
Fantasy Football games
Trips with Friends
Lake Powell
Traveling

8 Things on my wish list

Good Health
Happy Family
Sunny Weather
Missy will stay around for awhile
That I could win Fantasy Football just once
Perfect pillow
Grandchildren (eventually)
Those I love will be happy and healthy

8 places I like to eat

Cafe Rio
Red Lobster
Macaroni Grill
Chilis
Subway
Paradise Bakery
Panda Express
COSTCO!

8 people I tag

All the fellars listed in my blog list. I think that is 8!

I wanted to add one more category...

8 things I am grateful for

My husband
My kids
My daughters in law
My health
My country
My job
Carrie
Angela

Happy Holidays to everyone!!

Tyson and basketball

Tyson made the 9th grade team for Crescent View this year. Anybody who wants to come see him play is welcome to. He is a great kid and we are excited for him!

Here is his schedule for basketball. All of the games are played on Saturdays at Alta High School.

Dec 20 12:25 east gym
Jan 3 4:25 east gym
Jan 10 7:05 main gym
Jan 17 5:45 main gym
Jan 24 3:05 west gym
Feb 7 5:45 main gym
Feb 14 4:25 west gym


Playoffs are Feb 21 and Feb 28th. Every team will get at least one playoff game. If they make the semi finals then those are played Monday March 2 and Tuesday March 3 will be the championship game.

Can you see why I am so proud.....

Just trying to catch up on blabberings for the blog. These are late but better than never I suppose. Rachel had her first ever dance now that she is 16. It was fun to shop for her dress, shoes etc. She is a great kid!
We had a great time at my sisters for a halloween party. It was fun to dress up again. In case you can't figure it out from the picture, Steve is dressed as Michael Phelps, the Olympic Swimmer.


Rachel and Austin at her FIRST Homecoming Dance. The dating has just begun!


My little pumpkin!


Tyson as a whoopie cushion!


Sorry about this picture but it was the only family one we took. Missing Josh, Annie and Ryan!


Jeremy, Lianna and Max my grandpuppy.

17 Wonderful Days .......

We left Salt Lake to go to LA to board the cruise ship for the Panama Canal. We went with the Stewies and the Moonies and it was incredible. I can't say enough about how great it was to get away with just Steve and see some beautiful places. In the beginning my arm was sore and my face was still scabbed but I knew the cruise would be relaxing and the only thing I was worried about was not being able to get my face in the sun. That worry didn't last long, I figured I am almost 50 so after the first day of putting suntan lotion on my scrapes I just said what the heck and off I went to enjoy the sunshine and there was plenty of it!!!


Park in LA where girls were dancing.


Can you say Muster Station?

Our first day at sea was awesome, sat by the pool and loved listening to the steel pan music of the carribean.

Our first port of call was Cabo San Lucas and it was awesome. The pictures don't do it justice.


You can only walk thru this arch every 4 years because of the tides.


Acapulco and the pals.




You know it's famous for the cliff divers. Steve insisted on taking pictures!

It was off to Huatulco (waa-tool-co). It was a very small island, we found a guy to take us in his boat around the island. Note the iguana, Steve was in heaven when he saw it.




We celebrated Halloween on the ship. We got our costumes at Walmart in Acapulco. Jim Carey aka "The Mask" won first place. This guy had all his mannerisms down and really did a great job. He deserved to win!






We are in Costa Rica where Steve served his mission and it was so awesome to just be there. Of course it has changed alot but I could tell Steve was so happy. We decided to do the zip lines in the rain forest. I didn't overcome my fear of heights but I dealt with it as we went from one zip line to the next (9 total) and then we rapelled down the last one. It was awesome!!





Then it was off to the Canal. The ship went thru at 5 in the morning and since I had grown used to sleeping in I was not getting up that early. Steve however was to excited to sleep and was up on deck in the early morning hours.

These are the Cuna indians that met us at the port. The men are in loin cloths and the womens usually don't have tops on and they are covered in tattoos. These girls were so excited to see themselves on Steves camera after he took their picture.


Kayaking on Gantun Lake. I was told to hold the oar steady, don't move because if we tipped Steve wouldn't be able to get me back in the boat.


The temple picture doesn't do it justice but I had to include it anyway.



Then we were off to Aruba. This was the only port where we had the whole day. In the morning we went to the beach and rented a hobie cat catamaran. The Stewies and us went sailing for about an hour. It was way fun. We met up with the Moonies at lunch and they wanted to go shopping and we went horseback riding. I am scared to death of horses but yet I love the idea of riding a horse on the beach so off we went. My horses name was Antonio Banderas. Supposedly Mel's horse (Party Boy) was the one that likes to lead but not this time and needless to say I was way freaked out when my horse took off. It turned out to be everything I had thought it would and I felt like a little kid in a candy store or maybe even at Disneyland. I was so excited. Aruba was the first place that we went that we could find a Mountain Dew for Criddy. After we were done riding we felt the need to wash our hands. Criddy grabbed his Dew, went for the first sink he could find and well the picture says it all.





Our last port was Puerto Rico where we got off the ship and stayed in a hotel for a couple of days. It was way awesome, I don't know why we didn't take many pictures, maybe cuz we had been there before but we went to Old San Juan, Barrachina (the first place the pina colada was made)and spent one day sailing and snorkeling on a catamaran. They provided lunch and drinks and fruit and took us to 2 different spots. The first wasn't that great as far as visibility, but I did get to see a purple jelly fish up close. The second spot was more colorful. Our pals (the stewies) saw a barracuda but we weren't so lucky. It was way fun!






I must admit as we flew away in our big ol plane I was sad. I realized how much I enjoyed being around the ocean and the beautiful water of the carribean and really didn't want my trip to end even though I missed my kids terribly. As we got further away I became antsy to get home but of course we had to go thru atlanta first. About an hour before we were ready to land Steve told me he was short of breath and still had the pain in his left side. (He had complained of that when we got to Puerto Rico, but thought he had pulled a muscle.) He said he was light headed and felt like he was going to pass out and just in case anything happened he wanted me to know his symptoms. I told him to put his head down but there wasn't any room. About 5 minutes later he told the lady in the aisle seat to move and took off for the back of the plane. I don't know that he actually passed out but ended up on the floor of the plane with an IV in his arm. His blood pressure had dropped. There happened to be a nurse and a cardiology Dr. on the plane as well as my friend Mel (who stayed in the back of the plane with Steve. I was pretty much helpless and emotional during the whole thing. After the plane landed Steve and I took an ambulance ride to an Atlanta Hospital. After running tons of tests, chest xrays and urine samples they felt he could fly home. So Steve and I flew home on Tuesday. My pals the Moons and the Stewies are incredible. Criddy and Moonie gave Steve a blessing on the plane, Mel stayed with him and even offered to stay behind with us in Atlanta and they all took care of getting my luggage in Salt Lake.



The doctor sitting on the plane during the landing. Not sure what the IV was hanging from!




Thanks guys for 17 wonderful days of fun in the sun. Can't wait for the next cruise!!!

Lake Powell

We love Lake Powell and decided to go for Labor Day. Usually we stay close to the marina's but Steve decided he wanted to get away this time so we loaded up the gas cans and drove down the lake. We stayed in what is called the Rincon and it was fantastic. The water was smooth, their was a porta potty close by and hardly anybody was there. We had a bad storm the first night which I slept thru but it rained pretty hard. After that a couple of sprinkles here and there but when the water is 80 degrees you can stand that. I still struggle with this blog stuff so here is a run down of the pictures. Of course our boat up davis gulch. Ryan and Garrett and Tyson had climbed up to the arch so we were just waiting for them below. Tyson is doing a flip on the knee board, Ryan caught the biggest lizard he has ever seen and then he is wakeboarding and Josh is upside down wakeboarding going into his flip. Jeremy and Lianna couldn't come as well as Rachel so we missed them. I love Lake Powell, have to have warm water and sun and the beauty of the Lake is like no other place close by that I know of. It was good to get away!

Neighbors....

So I have been wondering about a particuler neighbor who keeps his yard groomed all summer. He has a makeshift stream that runs in the front, always plants beautiful flowers in the spring and every week is out mowing, edging and blowing the loose grass around. I have been jealous a few times because Steve is not known to love to do yardwork so it would end up being me or the kids. That would explain why I am filling my yard with perennials and rocks. What I am sure to do is make my lawn always green, I really don't care the cost of watering I just know in July and August I have to water twice a day if I want my yard to stay green. Not that I am trying to stay up with the neighbors but I have always loved a green lawn that looks like it might want to be sat upon. Well these immaculate looking yard owners even surprised me! I have started walking a little bit to try and get in better shape and as I would walk past their house I noticed the lawn was dying in the mow strip and along the edge of the sidewalk. Not all of it just spots here and there. Now having already suffered from dead lawn because of a bug, which happened when we first moved in and even killing off my old lawn because it had grown tall fescue grass which I hated, I pride myself in knowing that they just needed to turn the water on more. The sorry condition of the lawn was because of owner neglect and not because of something out of their control. So imagine my surprise when I walked on Monday night having to pass the dying lawn only to return on Tuesday and it was nice and green. The DEAD giveaway was the fact that the color they spray painted it with didn't exactly match the color of the lawn. What was even sadder was they didn't spray all of it at once only the mow strip so it was another day before the other spots on the lawn were sprayed the same non matching color. So it makes one wonder, did they really think they were fooling anybody by spraying the lawn, couldn't they notice that the lawn that was by the stream was in perfect condition because it was getting water and the lawn by the flowers because they were getting water so how about just increasing the water to the rest of the lawn thereby saving you the expense of buying cans of spray paint to use on the lawn? OR were they aware that I had started walking to feel better, or that I had just started a blog and would need material to talk about or are they just CRAZY??

How was your weekend??

So Steve decided he wants to go hike the Grand Canyon Rim to Rim. Some might wonder why I would consent to this when my previous blog was about being alone and him being gone. He has been working on getting in shape this summer so I couldn't help but let him go. He left on Friday night and drove to the north rim of the grand canyon. He hiked 32 miles on Saturday going 3/4 of the way. By the end he could barely put one foot in front of the other, but he made it and is now walking like a very old crippled man. He was so proud of himself and I am proud of him for doing it. Of course he found another pair of sunglasses. Seems every trip he goes on he finds a nice pair of sunglasses. Because of his desire to save gas, he took the galant and left the big truck with us. Ryan had the truck Friday night so Saturday it is Rachels turn to have the truck. She had agreed to pick up Tyson and his friends so I wouldn't have to. Well on her way to pick them up it had started raining really bad and she lost control of the truck turning right at the light and took out a tree in Draper. Quite a big tree and we will have to wait for a couple of days to see the damage on the truck. Needless to say, I bet it is totaled. So here we are without a car, Steve in the Grand Canyon with no service, quess that means no church cuz I am not walking. It all turns out ok because I was able to rent a car from Enterprise. NO they don't pick you up on Sundays! Now Steve is driving a mercury mountneer until we find out the injuries to the truck. As for Rachel she is fine, this is her 2nd wreck in a truck, one at the hands of her dad who totaled the black toyota tacoma and now the ford f-150. Wouldn't you know neither trucks airbags activated! Does anyone think I might have a legal case?

OshKosh and Ford Mustangs

Steve took his dad and Tyson back to OshKosh Wisconsin to see the biggest airshow. His dad has always wanted to see it and so Steve decided to take him back there (sorta like a bucket list item for those who have seen that show). They saw alot of planes, airshows, movies on a blow up big screen and even had a night with Harrison Ford at the campground. Apparently his cousin is the CEO of Ford Motors and hence the mustangs were there as well. Tyson was in 7th heaven as he loves mustang cars. He actually loves the older models but his dad was able to snap some pictures of some mustangs that he thought were pretty SWEET. Now for those of you who have read my earlier blog postings you will know that I don't like to be alone. Even though this trip was planned months ago, no one realized that Steve and Tyson would be gone, Rachel would be at EFY and Ryan would be in Lake Powell with his friend Garrett and his family. So that leaves me and the dog alone to fend for ourselves. Of course the third night alone I have a bad dream about Steve and another woman. For those of you who have/had those dreams you know how real they can be. I wake up bawling the next morning and immediately call steve. I need to make sure he loves me of course. Well there is no answer and so I leave a message amongst the tears. After I have been at work for awhile I realize that he has not called back so of course I start texting him. Where are you, did you get my message, please call me to name just a few. That is Tuesday. Well Wednesday comes and still no Steve. Finally Wednesday night I get a call from him. Of course he left the phone in the truck! After reasurring me that he does love me, it was just a dream and he will call every single night I am feeling better. He lives up to his word and calls me on Thursday and again on Friday. He is supposed to come home Sunday morning sometime after he drops Tyson off to scout camp. By the way, I won't be seeing Tyson for 3 weeks, which I was not looking forward to. Well in walks Steve and Tyson, Friday around 5 pm. I couldn't get the grin off my face for several hours. The hugs and tears I think let them know how much I missed them. The best part was I got to spend time with Tyson before he had to go back to scout camp and work. After finally getting a hold of Steve and he realizing what a boob I was they decided to come home early. It was Tysons idea not to tell me they were coming home so they pretended to be in Wisconsin while they would call me as they traveled home. I still don't know if I have convinced Steve that this was the best surprise I could ever have. I know it is sappy but honestly if you know me you know how much family means to me and how I HATE to be alone!