Just couldn't resist posting these faces of Ryan and his daughter Shaylen.  Aren't they silly?  A bit spooky, too!  They're called Fusion Faces.  AND...I'm related to them ;-)

Hi Carol,

I just read your blog and thoroughly enjoyed it. You could write a book and become a famous author! What is causing your aches and pains? So glad you found the keys!

I got really scary news late last night.  I wrote an email to Nancy Murphy who is a good friend we knew in Vernal who also moved back to the Wasatch front.  Actually, Springville.  I wanted to see how she was doing.  She lost her husband, Bill, about 10 years ago to ongoing health problems.  After he passed away, she took care of her mother who recently passed away at the age of 100 (I believe).  I've been worried about her.  Last night I received a short reply back from her telling me she has had some serious health problems.  Last Saturday she was diagnosed with a brain tumor and had surgery to remove it this past Tuesday.  She said it affected her speech and would keep in touch as she was going to have radiation therapy and chemo after that.  There are four of us who lived in Vernal at the same time that keep in touch and get together when we can for lunch so I called Darolyne Childs to see if she knew anything about what was going on with Nancy.  She is in St. George for awhile and hadn't heard about Nancy but told me she would try calling one of Nancy's boys to find out more and let me know what she finds out.  I wrote back to Nancy not expecting her to respond but a few minutes later, I got a phone call from her oldest daughter, Wendy, explaining what the situation was and then I spoke with Nancy.  She sounded in good spirits but, naturally, was in shock.  I might be wrong, but I believe she said the tumor was a glioblastoma located just above her left ear which is the fasted growing kind of brain cancer you can get.  If they had taken any more of what they did, her walking as well as more of her speech would have been affected.  She stumbled only a little when I was talking to her.  I'm so grateful she called so I could talk to her.  I'm very concerned about her.  She is a very good friend and has been through so much over the years with her husband and then mother.  It doesn't seem fair, but life isn't fair.  I spoke with Darolyne again and while speaking with her, she told me her husband, John, has had heart problems again but they can't do anymore surgery on him so he will have to lose 40 pounds, exercise and eat healthier.  This news will keep them from going on their mission to St. George until he gets the weight off.  It made me realize, again, how short life is and how you just never know what is going to happen.  

Here's the deal.  I mentioned I have torn the house apart looking for Dad's keys ever since they went "missing" last week.  Every night when I go to bed I go over and over in my mind every place I might look to find them.  I thought I had given up looking, thinking they had been thrown away and were long gone.  Last night was no different.  I went over room by room places they could possibly be hiding.  I've passed over looking in the coat closet because Dad always wears his "Grumpy" sweatshirt and I thought (and he thought) that was what he wore outside the day he started the car.  Well, it hit me that his leather jacket was in there and it was the only place in the house I hadn't already looked so I thought to myself I would check in the morning after I get up since I was just getting to the point of not being able to get out of bed because I was so comfortable.  Something told me to go check anyway and low and behold, there they were!  Who knew?  Looking back on it, it was kind of dumb of me not to check there when I was checking every other nook and cranny in the place.  Would have saved me tons of times and taxing of my brain.  I'm relieved to say the least.

The first thing I did today when I woke up was go online and send birthday cards to Bryson, Jennifer, and Kali.    I'm going to try to continue sending cards along with a check (though not in the same envelope).  Online makes it so easy for a lazy person like me!  Bryson is turning 9 on the 10th.  Jennifer is 29 and holding on the 11th.  Kali, believe it or not, is turning 18 on the 16th!  Where has the time gone?  It's amazing to me how fast time has flown by.  I sometimes wish I could hit the rewind button but then I think better of it.  Kali is growing into a very fine young woman.  She's smart and has more common sense than I ever had at that age.  I have great expectations for her.

We finally got the second bedroom's bed put together.  I haven't hung the mirror yet but here is a picture of the bed.  It is a trundle bed so it has a twin bed that slides under the full bed.

The snow melted the same day the storm moved passed and the weather warmed up a bit.  It's been raining a lot but I love the rain and here it is so fine and misty.  Even when it rains hard the raindrops are petite and soft.  The storms come in fairly quickly and leave just as quickly.  It's fun to watch the changes over the bay.  It goes from calm to white capped and back again in just a few minutes.  I've been tearing the house apart looking for Dad's car keys.  He went out last week while it was storming to start the car to make sure it still runs and since that time, we can't locate the keys.  We wanted the keys in the house since we aren't in a garage.  The only thing I can think of is that somehow they accidentally got thrown in the garbage and are gone forever.  I didn't know they were missing last week when I took the garbage out but I checked this week and they weren't in the trash.

I finished uploading what photos I had taken since the last time so I can send the link to my blog to the kids if they ever want to see what we are up to. 

Oh, my gosh!  You'd think Washington was expecting a Tsunami!  Granted, it has snowed quite a lot, especially for Seattle north but for goodness sake!  EVERYTHING is shut down.  All schools have closed and most city offices up and down the coast.  Everyone who can is staying indoors.  That wouldn't be so bad but every local television station is broadcasting continual updates on road conditions all day long so none of the national programs like "The Today Show" are airing.  The evening shows will depend on whether or not the storm passes.

View from back balcony.

View from front porch walkway.

Looking over the front door railing.

View from our bedroom window.

Alright!  It's officially snowing outside.  The funny thing is Seattle and the west coast usually never see an accumulation of snow so they are like everyone in Southern Texas when they get hit with snow or frozen rain.  They have no clue how to drive in it.  Seattle, of course, is very hilly so the traffic snarls and accidents were like watching a circus on ice.  Laughable.  I think we came up here just at the right time.  I'm glad we missed driving in the mess.

I didn't wake up until 8:30 this morning wanting so much to get into a hot bath and soak all my pains away.  I just couldn't get myself off the couch to do it.  Even though I wanted to go to church today, I couldn't move without aching all over.  Such a bummer!  The weather outside is gray and snowy.  Softly falling snow that so far, isn't sticking to the ground.  By evening, this is what the sunset looked like over the bay.

We did get some rain overnight.  Looking over the bay, it is still clear (no fog) though and beautiful.  However, later in the day, the clouds thickened, blackened and it started to snow.  Before the snow hit the ground it had melted so there was no accumulation.  We'll see what the next few days bring.

I got Dad's computer set up so it can print to the wireless printer and then I worked on the corrections I needed to do on the kids' Christmas presents.  I finished them, uploaded them, and ordered them.  I started to make a quick page for one of pictures but got too frustrated with it because I couldn't get the cutout for the pictures to look smooth so I quit.  I'll have to do some research to see what the best way to do that is.

I had called Tif yesterday and left a message on her cell phone but did not hear back from her so I was a little worried.  I called again today with still no response.  She did call back a little later, however.  She was just busy as she usually is so all is well.

As the day wore on, I began to feel achy again.  I just took some Aspirin then ate dinner.  I'm going to put my computer away and lay on the couch and watch TV and hope by morning I'll feel well enough to go to church.

It's Friday already.  Friday the 13th no less.  I felt better this morning, thank goodness!  We didn't do anything today but wait for the Comcast guy to come and activate our phone.  Our new telephone number is 360-933-4615.  Bellingham is expecting some snow this weekend for the first time in years.  I guess we are still living up to our reputation of bringing the snow with us.  It's been colder here than usual.  Even I have been cold, can you believe it?  The cold is humid and cuts right through you.  It's sure pretty here though.  It's so fun just sitting and looking out over the bay, watching the boats come and go.

Friday the 13th ended without incident :-D

I woke up and started to catch up on my blogging.  We needed to go to Walmart to pick up the rest of the food we need so we don't have to eat out so often.  I made up my grocery list and realized I couldn't print it because we have no printer so I wrote a list from the screen.  I fixed breakfast, got ready and we headed to Walmart.  Man, what a madhouse.  I suppose everyone from Bellingham and Canada were there.  No surprise that things there were a lot cheaper than at Fred Meyer.  (No offense, Brad)  Just as two examples, Pepsi at Walmart was $.50 cheaper and V8 Juice was $1.00 cheaper at regular prices.  I'll be either going very early in the morning or later at night from now on.

I got all the groceries put away and started aching all over.  Could be the flu or just aching from working so hard the last few days.  I guess I'll know tomorrow when I get up.

While at Walmart, we checked out prices on a wireless printer.  I couldn't see a plain printer so we got a small, HP All-in-One.  It was marked on the shelf as being $89 but when we checked out it scanned for $69 so it wasn't a bad deal.  After I put all the groceries away, I installed it.

It is a little too wide to fit into the TV center but fits nicely sideways so it doesn't have to be sitting out on the floor.

Wednesday I got up and put together the hall bench and the counter stools, tore down all the boxes to take to the dumpster, and got ready for the day.  We needed to go to Comcast and return the wireless box since we brought ours from home already set up.  While there we made arrangements to start getting phone service.  Using the cell phone is a pain and gets expensive so we decided to add the voice the to package we already have.  I know I'll like that better.  We also stopped by the furniture store to make arrangements to get the platform and twin mattress for the second bedroom.  We stopped at Subway for a late lunch and then headed back home.  I took all the garbage to the dumpsters so the place is starting to feel more "put together."  We watched Money Ball on movies on demand.  It was a great movie.  We liked it a lot.

I'm expecting to matching baskets to use on the bottom shelf for outside shoes.

If you look at the previous pictures, you can see what has been added.

Dad woke up at 3:00 am and said, "Is it time to go?"  I looked at the clock and told him it was only 3:00 am and to go back to sleep.  He woke up again at 6:30 and wanted to go eat breakfast so I rolled out of bed, got dressed and we walked down to the lobby for their continental breakfast.  Then.....we headed out for the l-o-n-g drive to Bellingham.  We were a little concerned about Snowqualmie Pass because the weather reports indicated snow but it was clear all the way to Bellingham.  With a little finagling we were able to back the car into our carport space.  The Excursion isn't exactly an ideal car to park in an alley that only has room for one car to pass.  I unloaded the car then we headed to Applebee's to eat.  It was nice to be able to get out of the car and walk around and get the kinks out.  The bed felt even better.

I woke up around 7:00 am on Tuesday and watched the sun come up.  I took pictures of the bay as it became lighter with the dawn. Such a pretty view.  We can see more of the harbor now that the trees have lost their leaves for the winter.  The following pictures are what I woke up to:

The day was clear and beautiful!  When I spoke to our realtor, she said we must have brought the sun with us because it hasn't been sunny for weeks.  Of course, we bring sunshine wherever we go :-0  (Except in Idaho.  We usually bring the snow with us when we go there!)

I spent the day unpacking and putting things away.  I got the wireless set up for the computers and figured out the remote batteries were dead so Dad was happy when he woke up to the TV working.  We needed a few things from the grocery store to get by for a day so we went to Fred Meyer because it is so close to our condo.  Can you say "Sticker Shock?"  Geez!  Everything was so expensive!  I bought just the bare minimum and figured we'd go to Walmart for the rest the next day to compare prices.

I really didn't plan on leaving Sunday until noon or 1:00 pm because that's how long Dad usually sleeps in.  However, he was excited to leave so he got up at 8:30 am and we left.  We stopped at McDonald's for breakfast, topped off the gas tank and headed north.  It's hard for old people to drive so long sitting in one place.  We planned on staying over in Meridian, Idaho and arrived there around 3:30 pm.  We took our things to our room in the Hampton Inn and then went to Applebee's for dinner.  It was really nice to stop and relax and get a good night sleep before taking on the remainder of the trip.

When we got home from Iowa, we had one week before we were planning on leaving for Bellingham.  It was overwhelming trying to think of all we had to take up there.  I tried hard to take stuff we could leave there so we don't have to try to remember to taking everything every time we go one place or the other.  Dad was to give a class to the Deacons on shortwave radios on Tuesday the 4th of January so we planned on leaving Thursday or Friday after.  Dad drove the Excursion down to Larry H. Miller Ford on 2nd West and 90th South to have the oil changed and make sure everything was working properly for our trip.  When he was heading home, he was about to get to Bangerter when the engine completely stopped and he couldn't get it to start again.  He called the service department, they towed the car, brought Dad home and said they would look at it and let us know what the problem might be.  We thought perhaps the battery died.  However, when they called, they said the oil filter had failed either through employee error or defective filter, spewed out all the oil knocking out the entire engine!  They said they had already ordered a new engine for it and would replace it at no cost to us!  What a bummer!  The original engine only had 54,000 miles on it.  Not an old engine by any stretch of the imagination.  So that put our trip in limbo.  They said it could be fixed and ready by Friday but I've heard that kind of promise before and didn't put much hope on it.  We also decided to let them fix the brakes and change the battery as long as they were fixing everything.  Shockingly, they had it finished Friday mid-afternoon.  We decided to leave Sunday morning giving me enough time to pack the car and get everything else together.  It was a good choice because we wanted to take Ryan and the kids to dinner on Saturday for Ryan's birthday on Monday.  We went to Famous Dave's and enjoyed great barbecue.

We were scheduled to spend Christmas this year with Nikki and her family but Kole and Bryson had to be in Roosevelt for the holiday so we switched and went to Tifany's and will go to Nikki's in 2012 (This year.)  We flew to Omaha on December 21st.  We've had a very mild winter so far in the United States so the weather was spring-like and dry.  It's always fun to visit Tif to see what beautiful things she has done to her dream home.  Her latest projects were her beautiful bedroom and the kids' playroom.  I don't know what she'll do when she finishes all the projects.  You can't improve on perfection.  While there, we heard from Nikki that they had sold their house and need to be out mid-January so they can start building their next home.  Only one more after this and they should have a home completed free and clear.

Here are a couple of pictures of Tif's new bedroom.

The kids playroom before being stained.

We saw two movies with Tif and Ryan while we were there.  First we saw "Sherlock Holmes."  It was a great movie.  I love Robert Downey, Jr..  He has such a "dead pan" face while making you laugh your guts out.  We also saw Mission Impossible.  Action from beginning to end but I preferred Sherlock.

Ryan got a promotion at work while we were there.  They were excited about it and it will be good for him and the family.  Way to go, Ryan!!

Tifany's new cat that adopted them and then came to Utah last summer with her four new babies doesn't even look like the same cat!!  I hope I was smart enough to take a picture of her but I won't know until I upload my pictures from my camera.  She now has long hair and is no longer skin and bones.  She's such a mild, loving kitty.  It's hard to believe with all that hair, she doesn't shed but she doesn't and that is a huge plus.

The kids have grown so much!  Maggie is a little pistol.  Miss Payton is still a girly Princess and Kutter is a typical big brother.  Such a tease.  Such a handsome and smart tease though.  It's always so fun to see and play with the kids.

Christmas was wonderful!  Santa dropped his load and we had lots of good food and good company.

Tifany had requested Home Depot gift cards from everyone and so we were able to go to Home Depot after Christmas and purchase her cabinets for the playroom and Ryan was able to install them and add the book shelves.  They were completely stained and finished a day or two after we got home.  She's  very much a handywoman.  Totally amazing!

Blue Bunny built a new ice cream parlor in Le Mars which is the Ice Cream Capitol of the World.  It's such a fun place and so nicely done.  Old time ice cream parlor feel with a museum up stairs and a shop for purchasing Blue Bunny logo tee shirts and sweat shirts and other gift shop items next to the parlor.  It's a very popular place in small town Le Mars.

Of course, Tif and I had fun shopping and seeing if we could find any sales on things we just couldn't live without.

We had to catch the plane on Wednesday the 28th for the 6:30 pm flight.  The kids got to come too which was not a usual thing.  It was sad though.  I usually have the two-hour drive to settle down after saying goodbye to them.  Tifany told me later that Maggie cried when she couldn't come with us and the next day when she woke up and I wasn't there.  That kind of thing breaks my heart.

Note the cat in the corner by the door.

The hardest part of starting a blog for me is trying to catch up so I can write about things that are current.

As a family, we alternate Thanksgiving and Christmas for a holiday get together.  This year (2011) it was our turn for Thanksgiving.  We plan on celebrating on the Saturday after Thanksgiving so those who travel and have to work on Friday can still make it.  Our grandchildren are getting older and more involved in outside activities and with Nikki and Tifany living so far away, with two families' children splitting the holidays between mom and dad (and being on opposite schedules to boot) it's nearly impossible to get everyone together at the same time.  It's sad for us but a fact of life.  This year along with Nikki and Tifany, Jennifer and her family couldn't be here because of a Soccer competition game Brinli had in St. George.  Brinli is a natural at the game and loves the sport.  She is an amazing player who is fun to watch.  Go, Brinli!!  Because they had to leave for St. George on Thursday, Jen planned a Thanksgiving dinner early in the afternoon so her kids could still have a homemade meal.  They invited us to attend and it was delicious!  Brent had found a recipe online for the Turkey that was stupendous!  So tender, juicy and tasty!  Thanks for inviting us, Jen!

Daxton was enthralled with the pictures.  He seems to have a interest in genealogy.

Needless to say, Jeff and family, Becky and family, and  Ryan (he has the kids for Christmas this year) were able to share a meal with us on Saturday.  We took them to Chuck-A-Rama where they could eat all the food they could hold.  It is always a fun time getting together.  The Christmas present I made for each family member were handed out.  Turns out that I made a few mistakes on dates (no surprise there!) and will need to reprint some but its not a big deal to do so.  I just have to make the time to do it.  I do want to give each family the PSE file so they can change the pictures as the children age.  It was a fun project and hope they will be appreciated much more as the years go on.  After dinner, I went with Becky while she had Wendy take family pictures of her family.  I had requested that for Christmas each year each family give us an updated family picture.  Wendy is the amazing family photographer for those who are close enough to have her take them.  She has a great eye and has done some very amazing photos.  Thanks Wendy!

Below are the original (before error changes) Christmas gifts for each family: