My Trick or Treater (kind of)

OK - Nicole really isn't going trick or treating for Halloween, but she did dress up for work on Friday. At her work they did have a little costume competition and she got 2nd place. We are so proud. Can you tell who she is? For those that need a little hint - think commercial (insurance), and she wouldn't appreciate it if you guessed Geigo Gecko. :)

Adventures along the side the Freeway

Our adventure started Friday night when Nicole and I went to visit our good friends on the other side of the mountains.
We left a little later than we wanted, but it gave a chance for Seattle traffic to clear, and we would still get there before it was to late. We were making good time and figured we should be arrive just a little past 10:00PM.
Then we heard and felt a weird sound like when you ride on the bumps on the side of the freeway,but I knew I wasn't near those bumps.
Then a thought came to my mind - maybe it's a flat tire. Quickly I tried to recall the last time I had a flat tire and is this the familiar feeling and sound? Ah yes, you better get to the side of the road so you don't completely ruin the tire.
I managed to get the car to the side of the freeway, and Nicole made the assessment of the situation and confirms our suspicion and it was a flat tire.
Nicole having experience with road side emergencies, and immediately indicated we needed to call AAA and have them come and change our tire(boy am I glad we just renewed our membership). That was a perfect idea because I was a little fearful about laying on the side of a freeway changing a tire in the dark in the middle of nowhere.
Not to mention it has been a long time since I have changed a tire and didn't know if I would be able get the lug nuts off.
We made the call and was told that assistance would be there within an hour and to call back if they weren't there in an hour.
Good news it was a full moon and so it wasn't pitch dark, bad news crazies come out. Ok - we didn't have any crazies stop by, but we did have a older man in a mini van with lots of his possessions on top of his van to check to see if we needed help. We told him that AAA has been called and that they should be here anytime and the nice man was on his way.
What do you do when you are on the side of I-90 in the dark? Nicole and I watched the road kill carcass moving down the road with each passing semi, and Nicole had her I-Pod and we watched Alvin the Chipmunks sharing the earphones. We did have to remember that we couldn't move our heads to far apart or the earphone would fall out.
When the hour passed and our help still wasn't there, we called again. Now - I needed to give them more specific directions - "hello we are in the dark" and no, I don't see a mile marker. Yes I do see some wind turbines because they have red blinking lights on them. I know that I am close to Vantage, but not exactly sure how far it is.
Then I see the tow truck in my rear view mirror with the flashing red lights. Yay! He found us!
Jessie the tow truck driver made the tire change in less 5 mins., actually the paperwork took longer than the actual tire change.
We were back on the road again! We finally made it to Deb's about midnight a few hours delay safe and sound.

She is moving....

Back home! We are so excited for her to be moving back to Washington.

I will be flying down to Las Vegas and driving back with her. Did I mention that we are so glad to have her closer?

29 Years and Counting

Can you believe that Rayme and I have been married for 29 years?
About a week before our anniversary, Rayme and I were reminiscing about our years together and then Rayme says "what does someone do for their 29th wedding anniversary?". My response was probably go out to dinner.
What really happened for our anniversary is we visited with my Aunts, Uncles and cousins since they were in town visiting. It seemed appropriate since they were all there celebrating our wedding 29 years earlier. To top off our anniversary we all went to Dairy Queen and enjoyed the blizzards (and there was a special on blizzard - buy 1 get the 2nd for .25).
I am so grateful that I made the decision to marry the greatest guy in the world (at such a young age:) )

Memories of Grandma(s)

I have been very fortunate to have 4 Grandma's in my life. You may ask how can she really have 4 Grandma's?

There is my Great Grandma Small or as everyone called her Grammy she was my Dad's Grandma and she lived until her mid 90's. She was was able to welcome her 10th Great, Great Grandchild (Nicole) before she passed away. She lived down the long driveway behind my parents home.
Then there was my Dad's Mom (Grammy's daughter) she too lived until her 90's and lived just down the road from us so we had lots of time to visit, learn and enjoyed each other. Both Grammy and Grandma Lee were single Mothers and were hard working women.
Still on my Dad's side of the family, since my Grandpa got remarried I had yes another Grandma Lee, but to make sure we didn't confuse us we called her Grandma Eva. I remembering going to visit my Grandpa Lee and Grandma Eva almost every Summer. Playing cards was a highlight and I got to ride my bike in the city. Shortly after we got married my Grandma Eva passed away.
The picture above is my Grandma McConnell. She is my Mom's Mum (I thought I should refer to her as my Mom would).
As with my other Grandma's I had a wonderful relationship with her. There is lots memories that are flooding my memory now. Saturday I had the opportunity to be able to say farewell to her. It was a sweet time to seat by her side, stroke her hand and was able to let her know how much I loved and appreciated her. Later that night I got the called that Grandma passed away.
Grandma loved her tabloids and I remember our conversation when I told her that the articles are fabricated. Her response was "they wouldn't print it if it wasn't true". Grandma did have a tendency to be a little naive (now you know where I got it).
Grandma's house was the gathering place, since most of her children lived out of town that made it convenient for all. But it wasn't limited to her children and grandchildren, it was open to all.
When I was in school I always like to tell my friends that I went to visit my Grandparents in Canada. Little did they know that they only live about 25 miles away.
She was wonderful example, she never spoke unkindly about anyone, she was a wonderful hostess always making sure all had cookies, a snack and coffee, tea or some kind of beverage. It was a little difficult when I was trying to watch my weight, I really thought she was determined to make sure I didn't go home without a cookie or snack.
Oh, how I treasure these memories and feel so blessed to have the influences of these wonderful women.
I am grateful that I know that I will be reunited with them someday.

It not the destintation it's the journey......

****Warning Long Post*****

Our journey started while the girls were home for a long weekend. First stop was visiting the Vancouver LDS Open House.

Played games, visited and cleaned out the front hall closet (this is the closet with all the coats that belong to everyone and didn't want to get rid of perfectly good coats without approval of all involved).

Then Nicole and Rayme flew to Las Vegas for Nicole to go back to work and Rayme to attend training. But they can't leave without Michelle and me, so we joined them in Las Vegas the next day.

We usually are not the typical Las Vegas tourist, but this time we did some of the tourist attractions. We walked the strip to enjoy the bright lights and the different hotel attractions (interesting place to people watch). The Mirage Hotel has the volcano action going on (which is kind of funny since a real volcano was raising such a ruckus in the other parts of the world.)

Watched the fountains at the Bellagio and the beautiful flower displays.

Since the Country Music Awards were in Las Vegas, a free concert was offered on Freemont Street. We got there to claim our spots to watch some of the country music favorites. Ok - I need to admit I really do like a wide variety of music, but I am not the best at knowing band names or names of songs, etc. So when our friends and the girls were talking about the well known bands and artist playing I really didn't have a clue. The girls assured me that I would know who they were and would start singing the songs until I would recognize them. As you can see from the pictures there quite a few people there. Did I mention that we stood there for a long time and all the while trying to keep our flip flops from be permanently fixed to the ground. The bands we saw were Emily West, Danny Gokey and Lady Antebellum. As you can see we were pretty close.

On to our next adventure to the West Rim of the Grand Canyon. Now we were warned that we would have to venture down some gravel road, so we weren't to surprise that the sign pointed down the gravel road. What we didn't know is that we missed the turn and took the long way there (we called it the scenic route). This side of the Grand Canyon has the glass walkway to goes over the canyon. (Just for the record the blonde in the picture is Heidi - Nicole best friend.)

It's not the destination it is all about the Journey.

The Girls are on their way....

Home!!

Michelle called is at the airport waiting for her airplane.
Nicole called too and is at the airport waiting for her airplane.
Michelle called again and now is at the Boise airport ready to get on her next connection. Only to get to Seattle and another connection. Hopefully her luggage will make all the connections too.
Waiting, waiting....getting more excited for the girls to get home.
We are so blessed to be able to travel by fast moving airplanes, and that we live so close to the airport that it doesn't matter that I get to go there twice in just a few hours because I get to see my girls!
As a family we plan to attend the Open House for the LDS Vancouver Temple. That is another blessing we are very excited about too. Blessings everywhere.

Weird Moments at Wal-Mart on Wednesday

Today while shopping at Wal-Mart, I noticed a young man (I would say in his 20's) holding a pair of thong underwear and giving a thorough examination, tugging and stretching the waistband. I mean really like he was trying to figure out if these were the ones to buy. I didn't hang around because I feared that I couldn't help myself from laughing out loud, and what if he noticed me and asked for my advice. Oh dear!

April Fools Day Memories

Do you have any April Fools Day memories?
My memory was when I was growing up my Dad would come into our bedroom and announce that school was cancelled. We would ask why, and he would make different things up each year such as no power, water main broken (which we had a school in the country, so I don't think they even had a city water), or it was a nice sunny day. I fell for it every year.
Rayme on the other hand has a few successful pranks under his belt, but he usually wouldn't wait until April Fools Day.

A Month of Birthdays

I knew that March was a busy birthday month, but now with facebook I am reminded of all my high school friends' birthdays too.

Not only do I have many friends birthdays in March, but have many family members too.There is my Grandma's 91st birthday, an uncle, mother-in-law and my dear husband Rayme's 50th birthday, and those are the ones I remember.

Lesson learned - if you are not a good liar, you should not host a surprise party. Therefore, I will not attempt to throw a surprise party again. Oh, don't get me wrong - please invite me to be a guest (I can keep a secret if I don't see the guest of honor to close to the celebration).

As I mentioned it was Rayme's 50th birthday and it was on a weekday (not the best day to throw a party) and with his shift work it causes a some difficulty to try to schedule a party. A little celebration was in order since it was his 50th. Just invite a few close friends because of the tricky scheduling, and the more I invited the more chances he would not be surprised, and our house space is limited. The theme was picked out as a result of him planning my funeral (I was sick a few weeks ago - nothing serious) and he decided a "Cowboy" theme would be great fun at my funeral. Anyway, since I wanted to beat him at this own game. I decided that if he had a "Cowboy" theme, he couldn't use that theme for my funeral. Ok- this was a very in depth conversation about my funeral planning (maybe I should write it for another post). I had it planned cowboy pizza (his favorite), cowboy cookies, cowboy napkins, found some plastic barbed wire, and everyone donned cowboy hats and bandanna's. But, he knew all about his party because he quizzed me, integrated me and came right out and asked me if I had a surprise planned, and then was I surprised when he came out to greet me after I came home from town with all of his party goodies. Nicole warned me that I probably couldn't pull off a surprise party and she was right. I will not be planning any surprise parties anytime soon.

Happy Birthday to all of you that have a birthday this month.

Note to Mom

Mom-

This is me waiting. I know I am not alone in the waiting.

Love,

Nicole

Olympic Spirit

When the Olympics were held in Salt Lake I felt like I know this city since I visited it many times, and felt I was there in spirit. Not to mention that I knew friends that packed up the car and drove their families so they could enjoy the Olympic spirit in person. I loved to hear their account of their journey.

Now the 2010 Vancouver Olympics are here and literally in our backyard (if it's north would that be front or the backyard). You can tell by the signs welcoming Olympic visitors, border security updates, media coverage, Olympic trinkets at local stores, new road construction projects and even one of our local cities have posted 100 flags from many of the nations participating in the games near the main street into the city.

When I younger and my Mom explained the dedication, sacrifice and determination to master the necessary skill level to compete. And if they win they receive a medal and the gold medalist got their country national anthem played. Whenever an USA team member receives a gold metal and the recipient gets emotional I find that I get a little teary eye with them as I remember that they are representing our country and they have worked very hard for this honor.

I will be watching and cheering these talented athletes in the Olympic spirit.

Michelle - It's Her Day!

23 Years ago today we were in the hospital welcoming our newest addition to our family - Michelle.

I should have known then that she was going to be an independent thinker, when the doctor kept switching her due date (later), and she decided to extend even those dates. Apparently, from the beginning she wanted to express her opinion.

Michelle captured our hearts from the beginning and we are so blessed that she is part of our family.

PS - The tennis shoes aren't Michelle's they are a prop in front of Bubba Gump's Restaurant. Don't want you to think her feet are that huge.

Catch Up

I thought I should post on my blog and bring my few followers up to date. This might be a long blog, so consider yourself warned.

Can you believe that I haven't posted since Christmas? Since I brought up the subject of Christmas.
This was my very first year to be away from home for Christmas. Since most of our immediate family lives within our local area, there has been no need to be away from home at Christmas. This year was different and with Nicole living in Las Vegas and wasn't able to come for Christmas, we thought we would go to her.
I really didn't know how I would feel about being Las Vegas for Christmas with Palm Trees and sunny weather with hardly a chance of snow. The conclusion I came up with that it doesn't matter where you spend Christmas as long as you are with people you love.
Yes, it was a bit hectic getting ready for Christmas and selecting the perfect gift that could pass security and not put you over on the luggage limits at the airport. We did manage do last minute shopping on Christmas Eve that I always vowed never to do, but made an exception this year and it really wasn't that bad.
As a bonus Christmas present we got to enjoy our "other daughter - Chyla", she was able to come and meet us in Las Vegas.
Nicole was the most amazing hostess! First of all she gave her comfy bed to us, and we came to her home smelling of bake goodies. Her apartment was beautiful with Christmas decorations, and did I mention she had made a variety of goodies - mmmm. Thank you Nicole for your hospitality.
If you have to have good friends move away from you make sure they move somewhere that you will visit. Good thing they picked up Las Vegas were Nicole lives. Our good friends The Bowden's moved to Las Vegas last spring, and were able to spend time with them when we were there. You know that you have good friends when you just pick up where you left off. We love the Bowden's and thank you for including us in your Christmas celebrations. We are so grateful for our friendship with them. We miss and love them and can't wait until our next visit.
A Christmas tradition our home growing up we always opened our stockings first. One year I opened my stocking gifts I was very perplexed when I got flashbulbs, camera batteries and film. I didn't have a camera. When I exclaimed that these things were nice, but I didn't own a camera. Was I surprised when I opened my present and it was a camera. I am sure my parents were probably trying very hard not to laugh. I think I got my present first just so they wouldn't die laughing.
We have carried on that tradition in our family with opening the stockings first. But this year we needed to do it in reserve not to blow it. We got one of the girls an IPOD and in the stockings we gave itunes gift cards. Since I had experience on my side, I knew better.
We were home for New Years and we celebrated New Years Day by sending Michelle off to college in Rexburg, ID. Michelle and another girl from our Stake stuff all their earthly possessions in her car and traveled to BYU-I and I am happy to report that they made it safely without any incidents. Prayer works!

With Michelle leaving for college, Rayme and I officially empty nester's again.

That brings you pretty much up to date! Sorry it was so long.
Happy New Year! It's not to late to say that right?? It is still January.