I've been busy!

It's been kind of busy around here!  Melissa's grandmother died, very sad, but that meant she came down for her funeral.  Had her, her parents, her sister and her nephew over for tacos on Wednesday.  What a lot of fun!!!  Jacob, Elise and Riley were there, too, so everyone got to see the new little one. :-)

I spent yesterday morning going through a box of scrapbooking stuff, and diffying stuff out.  Spent the afternoon in Nathan's room getting that cleaned out.  You can now actually fit the bed in again!  Yeah!

Riley is now just over 7 1/2 pounds.  Yippee! 

Here's the most recent picture:

Oh my, isn't he just precious!

Done!

I'm done!  At least with what I can do myself. :-)  I moved all the buckets into the new food storage room, (putting the ones we don't rotate in the closet), and got everything else on a shelf.  I could have put some of the buckets on a shelf, but they fit nicely in the closet, so I won't worry about them.  I put most of the wheat in there, and I actually do use the wheat, but I don't go through it very fast.  I left 2 buckets of wheat on the shelf.  But the rest (beans, sugar, salt and the rest of the wheat) got put in the closet, and I shut the doors after I took the picture. 

Now to just get Jacob to take away his stuff.......

The two big shelves: plenty of room to add more.

The rotation racks.

The closet!

almost done.....

I built the new shelf (took about 1/3 of the time as it took to build the first one) yesterday, and today finished emptying the shelves from the old room onto the new shelves.  I still have to move in the buckets. There's about 25 of them, and they weigh about 30 lbs. each.   I decided that would have to wait until another day.  I even put the paint cans up in the old shelves!  Yeah!  Man, when this is complete, it is going to be soooo much easier to access our food storage and the other stuff that has been stashed away in inconvenient ways!

Looking good!  When I'm finished, I'll post some photos!

Whew!

What a busy, busy Saturday!  Went to the temple, first thing, then home and we raked the leaves and picked the rest of the apples.  Then we had a bite to eat, then I cut John's hair.  Cleaned up quickly so I could run over to the 13th ward building and go to their Preparedness Fair.  Very good.  Was there from 2-4.  Then came home and built one of the shelves for the storage room.  I built it all by myself!  (Well, John did help me put in the last shelf, since it was so high.)  Can't wait to get one more built, then I can move the stuff from the "old" storage room into here.  Yeah!!!!

Almost time for our date, but first we're going to look at different cruise options for next summer...... 

Here's the shelf:

4 ft. wide, 2 ft. deep, 72 inches tall.  Just right!

A few pictures of Riley....

Jacob has posted quite a few darling pictures on his facebook page, but I'll post a few of my own here!

Outfit I made Riley.

Shoes included in Diaper Cake, from Tami and Sue.

 Here's the rest of the Diaper Cake.  Has personalized blanket and bibs.  Just adorable!!!

Grandpa with Riley, Oct. 26.

 

 

 

 

October 26

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

November 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

November 4, with new hat I made for him!

Owl hat Elise made.  He's soooo cute in it! (Check out Jacob's facebook page.)

 

 

 

Riley is up to his birth weight! Yeah!!

Tomorrow Riley will be 3 weeks old, and yesterday he finally made it back up to his birth weight!  Mom and Dad are VERY happy!  But they are not getting much sleep. It will get better, but they are just tired right now.  Will publish more pictures soon.

One week and 2 days

The last week has been wonderful!  I'm getting better sleep now, but poor Jacob and Elise are not.  The baby was taken off the bili lights, but then had to go back on them.  Sigh.  He's still under 6 lbs. (Jacob says, "He's soooo skinny!")  They worry about little Riley, mostly because he is so little, and having jaundice doesn't help.

Last night they let me spend the night and take care of Riley during the night so they could sleep. (I have offered before, and they were finally desperate enough!)  They got a good 7 - 7 1/2 hours of sleep.  Riley woke up twice during the night, then when he woke up at 7 a.m., and at that point I decided it was time to let momma feed him, or she'd be sorry!  Worked out good, and frankly, it was fun!  I may need a nap this afternoon, but I got at least 6 hours of sleep, so I'm good.  Helps that I've gotten good sleep over the last week, not 3 hours a night like Elise. :-)

I'm a grandama! I'm bushed!

Okay, I can't even compare myself to Jacob and Elise, but I haven't slept much since the baby was born either!

Here's some pictures: 

Hair!  And only one cowlick!

Finished bathroom!

Here it is!  Finally functional, AND pretty!

Mirror

Putting on a mirror without clips, using just glue, can be tricky!  The workers where I bought the mirror said to hold it as long as I could, since I didn't have clamps, and that 10-15 minutes should be sufficient to where it would've move.  John and I took turns holding the mirror against the wall and pushing up so it wouldn't slip.  Well, it was getting more solid by 15-20 minutes, but we were tired, and was still slipping down a little!  So John got out the blocks, and with blocks and one shim we were able to hold up the mirror!  Yeah!  We're leaving it there at least 24 hours, but probably more like 40 hours.

By the way, we actually had some snow briefly on Thursday.  Here's what it looks like outside my front door.

The construction has ended.

The last worker left here on Thursday afternoon, and said, "It's done."  Whew!  Doesn't mean that WE are done, but THEY are done!  Yeah!  It's been so nice to get the "stuff" back in the room!

Today we (mostly John, 'cuz it's too hard for 2 people to fit in the bathroom working at the same time) is finishing the painting, fixing holes, putting back up the towel holder, and hanging the mirror.  The mirror is going to be VERY nice to have back!

No one wanted my old vanity, even charity.  Oh well.  Here's a picture of my old vanity now.

I'll post pictures of the bathroom once it is really done.

Bathroom, bathroom, bathroom!

I have spent a LOT of time this week working on the bathroom.  The carpenter was coming over on Thursday, so I had to get the bathroom totally cleared out.  I filled a large plastic container overflowing with the blankets, and filled a large corner in my bedroom with smaller containers.  A lot of stuff was already in containers, but I had to find others to use for all the stuff that was in drawers or just sitting on a shelf or the counter top.  Yikes!

But, good news!  The bathroom is about 80% done, and so I could start filling the shelves in the closet!  Since the drawer pulls are not on yet, I decided to wait to fill the drawers.  I'd have to clean out the sawdust, and that will be easier if the drawers are empty. :-)

The closet is almost done, but it does have doors on the outside that will get installed next week.  My granite guy came over yesterday morning to template my counter, and that will be done by Tuesday.  Yeah!  Right now we have no sink in the bathroom, so we have to wash our hands in the bathtub.  I had them put in a light in the middle of the room, too.  It's just a small light, (equivalent to 65 watts, but it is LED, and only 12.5 watts), but it sure is nice.

Here's what the bathroom looks like so far:

Closet.  The closed cupboards will have locks on them for kid safety.

Vanity.  You can see that we have some more painting to do!

Upper vanity.  Love the 2 can lights.  Needs a mirror.

It's fall!

A couple of days ago, I noticed a few yellow leaves on my Lindon tree.  Last Friday, I noticed that I raked up more leaves than usual.  Today, I looked out my window, and saw that Autumn really was upon us!

The tree has quite a bit more yellow than it did even just last week!

Yep!  It's Fall!

Food Storage Room addition!

I ordered a food rotation rack during Education Week.  It finally was delivered about 2 weeks ago, and yesterday we finally had time to put it together.  Yeah!  It actually went together quite easily; it just took time. This morning I put in the cans.  Hmmmmmmm......  I am running very low on a few things!  A lot of my food storage is in 5 gallon buckets, so it's not quite as bad as it looks!

The rotation shelves on the left are what we built ourselves for our #10 cans, and we are going to build at least one more.  There's room for two, but don't know if we really need it.  On the opposite side of the room, we'll have large shelves where the 5-gallon buckets can go, as well as home canned items, and items that aren't round.  :-)

But now that I have a good rotation system, more stuff is going to go in the new rack!

Happy Birthday to me!  I have such a sweet husband.  He sent me 50 emails today.  Here they are: (Sorry for the long post, but had to share!)

1. Happy Birthday, Lover Girl.   I hope you have a great day!   Love,  John

2. You have brought so much happiness into my life.

3. I'm so grateful that you said "yes."

4.  I love you because you are so friendly.

5. I love you because you are so smart.

6. I love you because you care so much about others.

7. I love you because you are wise.

8. I love you because you are responsible.

9. I love you for your laugh.

10. I love you for your beauty.

11. I love you because you are so affectionate.

12. I love the way you greet me when I return home.

13. I love your faith.

14. You are a team player.

15. I love being your team-mate.

16. You are worthy to go to the temple.

17. Places and events are better when you are there.

18. We met on the bus.

19. We began our lives together.

20. We had Thomas together.

21. We moved to San Diego and had Nathan together.

22. We enjoyed the beach together with our little family.

23. You worked so hard to help ends meet. I felt sad about that sometimes.

24. We had Jacob together.

25. We moved to Virginia. We discovered Bobby Dubba, the Rhonda River, and mountains that were rainbows.

26. We took the greatest family vacation ever (“They ate my lunch!”).

27. We went to North Carolina, flew kites, and got bit by crabs and flies.

28. We moved to Utah and bought our first home.

29. Every time I see your smile, I’m amazed and thrilled that we are together.

30. Last little one trots off to school for the first time and you go back for the first time in many years.

31. It was the season of boys, pinewood derby cars, tenderfoot scouts, and first grade fun.

32.  Years of being a Boy Scout mom begins as the second priesthood holder in the home gets ordained.

33. The children continue to grow as Nathan graduates from elementary school.

34. Our first vacation to Hawaii.

35. Our last one finishes elementary school.

36. You are working so hard to finish your degree. It’s tough, but the end is in sight.

37. GRADUATION!!!! (for Tom and YOUUUUUU!)    yea!

38. A son in college??? Nobody believes you because you are so young and cute!

39. Moon palace and your very first SCUBA adventure.

Nathan graduates and Tom leaves for Denmark. You shed a tear or two.

40. Forty years old! Time for a Florida vacation with Sarah (that was quite a current).

41. Tom’s home, so its back to Hawaii we go to enjoy our last vacation with all three boys as single men (followed by a private week on Kauai).

42. Jakey graduates, and just like that, a chapter has ended.

43. Seems like just a short time ago when the last one trotted off to kindergarten, and now he’s off to college.  The nest is getting emptier by the minute.   But we’re OK with it, because we finally got a daughter! Melissa joins the family, and Tom is thrilled!

44. Jacob is off to Tennessee for his mission, and you take your trip to Chile. You love the adventure, climbing a volcano, exploring waterfalls and emerald streams, collecting shells among ancient churches on a southern island. And who can forget the 25$-a-night cabins in Panama?

45. Now it’s time for your first cruise. French Polynesia is a paradise!

46. Life is a whirlwind again as you welcome Jacob back from his mission, go to India, see Jacob marry Elise, and go to Guam.

47. You discover one of your favorite places as you travel to Puerto Rico to take your first cruise of the Caribbean.

48. Guam again???!!    I love you because you are the best sport ever and a great shell collector too!

Remember that cool isolated beach we found at the bottom of a steep drive down a cliff?

49. ELISE IS PREGNANT!!!!!    You love the rainforest of Puerto Rico and have a great time on cruises and hiking trips.   We hiked that volcano like we were 30!    Gosh, I love you!

50. Whether I see you across the way during Sacrament Meeting, or with the little orange bird when I come home from a long day, or in the morning as you rush to catch me before I go, or in the temple across the aisle in your white robes, I feel happy and sometimes a little chocked up.

 You are my princess, my queen, my dear wife.

 I love you.

 Happy Birthday.

J-

So I have a big birthday coming up, the big 5 0.  Wow!  I'm not depressed or anything about it.  In fact, it's kind of fun.  I think I'm doing pretty good!  It does sound old, though!

I got my first birthday card in the mail!  It was a post card.  This is what I see first:

I though that was pretty fun, someone sending me a happy 50th.  But it was just a split second later when I saw who sent it to me. 
   



Here's the whole card:

Now THAT makes me so happy that someone cares so much about me to remind me to go get my 50th birthday colonoscopy!  Way too funny!

Family History Fair

The 10th Ward in our Stake hosted a Family History Fair today.  It had wonderful things to look at, learn and even eat!  I taught a class on using FamilySearch.org.  I prepared a PowerPoint presentation, so I would cover all that I wanted to.  I ended up teaching the class 3 times, so not bad. 
 
Unfortunately, as it goes with almost anything to do with Family History, it wasn't a great turnout.  People were there, but it should have been 5 times as many.  Oh well.  I had fun, the people who came had fun and learned new things!  Plus, they brought in one of the scanners from BYU, and I was able to scan about 125 pictures in about 15 minutes.  And it can scan both the front and back at the same time.  Very, very cool.  I wish I could have keep scanning, but they needed to clean up. :-(  But I can go to BYU and do it!   The only reason it took me as long as it did for those 125 pictures, was because I was only stacking about 5 or 6 at a time, because I wanted them to go back in the same page they were in in the photo album.  The scanner feeds them through probably about one picture per second.  Amazing!

Here's one of my favorite photos that I scanned!

Rearranging the living room.

I have been wanting to rearrange the living room for about 4 months now, and I saw that yesterday was a great opportunity to do it.  Neither John or I had any commitments outside the house after the morning, and the family dinner was coming up, so I decided it was time!  What I thought may take about 2-3 hours, ended up taking about 6 or more.  We started about 11 or 11:30 a.m., and I didn't finish putting the last things back on the shelves until after 5 p.m.  Of course, we had to vacuum in spurts, and I had to dust everything.  We cut a piece of wood that fits from the front of the TV stand all the way to the wall, so the bird feathers won't go down behind the TV.  Man, is that going to save a lot of time and trouble!

Cucumbers, etc.

I just went out and picked a few cucumbers from the garden.  I think these are some of the longest cucumbers I've ever grown!

I also picked the last of the peaches. So sad.  We've had many great years with them. Now what's left of the tree can come down.

Super Saturday

Our Relief Society put on a Super Saturday.  There were lots of different projects: A tile with the B virtues, stick horses, children's aprons made from a kitchen towel, hanging towel w/ hot pad, children's rings, braided headbands, Christmas bags and tags, and a mini quiet book.  I may have missed one or two, but mainly that was it.  I made the bags, tags and quiet book.  They are pretty cute, if I do say so myself!

The mini quiet book is made from name badge holders, and 2x3 pictures. We're supposed to add some pictures of our own.  I think I'll call it a "purse quiet book."

Neighborhood party

Last night we hosted a neighborhood party.  We invited everyone from our street, the street over, and around the corner, which was about 33 houses.  We had 10 families join us, so we thought it was a pretty good turnout.  It was a lot of fun.  We had a net set up in the front yard, and Cowboy Golf in the back yard, and so the kids were entertained while the adults chatted.  We had to clean up when the mosquitoes started biting. We want to do it again in about a month. :-)

We set up chairs in the carport so we'd have shade.

Who needs a Super Soaker, when you have a bucket?

The garden and a new recipe!

John making the orzo salad.

Our funny cucumber that grew around a brick.

The salad, almost done, along side our vegetable bounty that didn't make it into the salad.

Yesterday we tried a new recipe using Orzo pasta.  It's just a basic salad, with lots of cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, scallions, and of course, orzo, in it. We put in our fresh picked bell pepper, too!  Topped it with fresh made balsamic vinaigrette.  We also made a squash/onion/tomato stir-fry.  The protein of the dinner was Italian Sausage, barbequed.  Yum!  This is a big bowl, by the way.  We ate well over half of the salad, it was that good!

Education Week

I had a great time going to Education Week.  I went to lots of great classes, but the funnest class was with Chef Brad.  He inspired me to cook with more grains than wheat!  In fact, today I made Oatmeal and Brown Rice Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies.  They're pretty good.  My primary class liked them, so that's a point in my favor!  I found the cookie recipe online somewhere (sorry, I didn't copy it), but I had to add a lot more flour than the recipe called for.  Chef Brad has a great website with great info and recipes.  His TV show is on BYUtv.  Chef Brad

Education Week

Today is the last day of Education Week.  It's been fun, but the house and yard are in real need of upkeeping!  I've been managing to keep up with picking up the apricots on the ground, but the house is a mess.  I caught up a little on Wednesday, since I only went to the evening classes, (spent the morning at the FHC) but spent most of the extra time time picking apricots and putting some in the dehydrator.  Gave 4 gallons away. The last class ends at 9:25, so I get home about 10.  After finishing dinner at 11 pm, neither of us feel like doing dishes, so the sink is getting full.  Tonight is Karen's birthday party, so I'm not even coming home after classes!  Crazy, but fun!

Can you guess what it is?

I few weeks ago I made some homemade hamburger and hot dog buns.  I made 1 1/2 times the recipe, so they barely fit on the pan.  I didn't notice that one hot dog bun had fallen off!  I've used the oven a few times since then, and finally took it out yesterday.  This was hard as a rock, and obviously very black.  It's like coal, I guess!  Too funny, I just had to share!

Elise is graduated! And... we're gaining on the apricots!

I had a family come over and pick yesterday, and we picked about 6 or 7 gallons today, I have 3 people coming over tomorrow to pick, and the tree is beginning to show signs it's almost done.  I broke down and made 8 more pints of jam yesterday.  I had enough for our "neighbor gifts" but didn't have enough for family, too.  So I'm up to 90 pints that I've made so far this year. Whew!

By the way, we've picked about 5 tomatoes and our first 2 cucumbers now, too.  Yum!

Today was spent at the BYU graduation for Elise!  Yippee!!!  Because it was the summer graduation, in which many fewer are in, it was less than an hour.  Then we went over to Jacob and Elise's and had a BBQ.  Really, really fun.  John went to work in the morning, but came home for the BBQ and stayed.  This is the longest time he's had to relax since our vacation.  Very, very nice.

She's DONE!

Jacob is just a bit proud. :-)

Ringing the Victory Bell