Sunday, July 26, 2009
We're Still Here!
We are all well and happy and hope you are too!
Thursday, July 23, 2009
What? No One Is Working???
Art Work
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
The Best Snowcones Ever
Friday, July 17, 2009
50th Anniversary
Hope they love it!
Brick is Looking Good!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Look How Cute!
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Mystery Box...
Keepsake ornaments! Mickey and Wizard of Oz! They are thrilled! Whoever our mystery giver is, they know Ryan and Katelyn very well.Ryan loved the crank that turned the pictures on the ornament- he calls it live action!
Notice the hidden Mickey in the gears?
Katelyn couldn't have been happier! She said, "Look Mom, real jewels!" She even read the inscription on her own..."There's no place like home."
Summer's Over for Ryan and Katelyn
Reading didn't come easy for Ryan, but I was happy to see that he'd retained everything he learned in school. He's almost done with his first reader- and since it isn't a school assignment, he will sit and read without a battle. PROGRESS!!!!
Katelyn was thrilled! She was disappointed at the end of the school year that she hadn't finished the series. She's convinced that if she finishes the readers, she'll be the smartest girl in the first grade. She's already zipped through two readers since Monday. She's going to be mad when we practice penmanship tonight...
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Colorish Carwash..Or So They Say
Friday, July 10, 2009
11 Years...and Grapefruit
The Grapefruit Syndrome
By Lola B. Walters
As a young wife, I learned that marriage could be sweeter if I didn’t focus on my husband’s faults.
My husband and I had been married about two years when I read an article recommending that married couples discuss truthfully and candidly the habits or mannerisms they find annoying in each other. The theory was that if partners knew of such annoyances, they could correct them before resentful feelings developed.
It made sense to me. I talked with my husband about the idea. After some hesitation, he agreed to give it a try.
As I recall, we were to name five things we found annoying. I started off. After more than 50 years, I remember only my first complaint: grapefruit. I told him I didn’t like the way he ate grapefruit. Instead of cutting it open and eating it with a spoon, he peeled it and ate it a section at a time. Nobody else I knew ate grapefruit like that. Could I be expected to spend a lifetime, and even eternity, watching my husband eat grapefruit like that? Although I have forgotten them, I’m sure my other complaints were of similar importance.
Then it was his turn. It has been more than half a century, but I still carry a mental image of my husband’s thoughtful, puzzled expression. He looked at me and said, “I can’t think of anything I don’t like about you.”
Gasp. I quickly turned my back, not knowing how to explain my tears. I had found fault with him over such trivial things, while he hadn’t even noticed any of my peculiar and no doubt annoying habits.
I wish I could say this experience completely cured me of fault finding. It didn’t. But it did teach me early in my marriage that we need to keep in perspective, and usually ignore, the small differences in our spouse’s habits and personalities. Whenever I hear of married couples being incompatible, I always wonder if they are suffering from what I now call the grapefruit syndrome.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Final T-Ball Game of the Year
More Bricks
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Slowly But Surely
The brick was there as well as the correct color for the grout...Wild West. (Chocolate grout would have been really ugly with light tan and cream brick! Yuck! I'm glad the brick guy asked instead of just using that color!) The layers were there this morning to start.
The sheet rock people were there yesterday too. The house sounded like California Adventure on the first week of May near the Mission Tortilla Factory exhibit. The sheetrock is up on the ceiling in the basement and in the hall on the walls.
UNFORTUNATELY, the sheetrock in this room will need to be taken down. This was the one room that was not supposed to be finished yet. The vent to my down draft stove has not been run and it needs to go in the floor joists above this room. I'm sure everyone will be very happy to redo this!
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Logan Loves His Job
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Freedom...
We celebrate our freedom.
Freedom to say what we wish,
Freedom to work.
Freedom to learn,
Freedom to go where we choose.
Freedom to make the world a better place,
Freedom to have a family.
Freedom to worship how we choose,
Freedom to do choose what we do.
We live in the United States of America. I for one am guilty of taking this for granted. I foolishly have assumed from time to time that it has always been this way. Although I know deep in the recess of mind mind that this is not so.
I took the time to read the Declaration of Independence today. (If you haven't done this yet this year, there is a link at the bottom of this post you can use to get to it.) I remember reading this in school, but for some reason it did not resonate with me then as it does now.
I am in awe of those brave men and women who did what they had to do in order to give me the freedom that I enjoy. If you read it in full and realize the things that our forefathers had to endure prior to declaring this a sovereign nation, one can only imagine how brave these people must have been to stand up and have a voice. It had to be a very scary thing to do. I imagine that they worried for their lives and families as they each signed the declaration. Yet, they signed that declaration and continued to fight for what they believed to be the right thing.
I think it was best said by President Woodruff in the April 1898 General Conference-
“those men who laid the foundation of this American government and signed the Declaration of Independence were the best spirits the God of heaven could find on the face of the earth. They were choice spirits … [and they] were inspired of the Lord.”
http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/index.htm
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Pictures in the Park
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Go, Bears, Go!
Kate: Yes, mother it was fun.
Me: Did you like learning to cheer?
Kate: Yes.
Me: Do you want to be a cheerleader when you get bigger?
Kate: No!
Me: Do you want to play ball?
Kate: No.
Me: Do you want to dance or do gymnastics?
Kate: No.
Me: Then what do you want to do when you get to high school?
Kate: Just boss people around.
Sounds like she may run for Student Body President some day!