getting better.....

Well Mike and I are starting to get over our sicknesses.

Yesterday we stopped by Erins house and played with

the baby. She had been pretty sick and she was getting

better. Mike played with her and made her so happy,

she loves her grandpa.

We actually ventured out today and took in a "picture show".

We enjoy Tyler Perry's work.

"Madea's Family Reunion" is a really good movie to start

out on. So we went and saw "Meet the Browns" today and

enjoyed it.

Sick Easter Day......

Well it was our Princesses first Easter and she was so sick. She had the sweetest Easter dress but she was so sick we didn't dress her up. She stayed in comfy clothes. She did have a cute Easter Basket. And that's her uncle Steven with the crutches behind her. He sprained something in his foot and has to stay off of it for a few days. He is so loving life with crutches. He also had to get on a round of super strong antibiotics he couldn't shake his strep throat. Grandpa is still sick, going into his second weekend. I think Issy might have picked up something from her grandpa. I hope she doesn't give it back! I'm much better the doctor told me all my medical stats are looking much better. I will just feel draggy for about another week. We had Stake conference today, I'm sure it was good but we were all sick and had to miss it. It feels wrong not to go to church on Easter Sunday. We did a special FHE about the Savior and Crucifixion and Resurrection. I also listened to a very excellent talk about the women around Christ. It was very thought provoking. Issy was running a high fever even with medication. So we all just rocked her and loved her. She loves grandmas necklace.
Our older Princess had a very yummy Easter!
Nathan for the first time in 11 years has let his hair be naturally curly. Since he was 4 he has had a buzz or he has straightened his own hair. But last week he got it cut and decided to wear it natural. I love it.

Steven and Charlie had a friend from Mesa come up for a few days this week. Ryen was on spring break. They had fun but Steven got no sleep, I think thats why he was still sick. This picture was taken at 6:00 AM after I told them to quiet down at 1:30AM. Ryen was leaving and they got up to see him off. So it's not a good picture of any of them.

ouch! My head......

Well yesterday afternoon I started feeling really bad, I hopped in the tub because my entire body was achy. When I got out of the tub I had the chills and still ached all over. I got in the bed and didn't want to move at all. Then I started thinking if it was the flu I could go to Urgent Care they would test me to see if it was the flu and give me something to make it better. The only thing is you have to catch it in the first few days for it to work. So I drug myself out of bed put on my comfy pants and slippers and drove myself over. I looked as bad as I felt. So after I signed in and turned to the seating area the 4 people looked at me like "don't sit by us". I promptly turned around and found a lone seat in the corner across from everybody else. But my flu test was negative, I had fever so they knew something was up and took x-rays. So I am so thrilled to tell you I have pneumonia. They gave me a very painful shot in the hip, and some strong antibiotics and now I'm just waiting for it all to kick in and make me feel better. Because right now I feel awful!

Weekend stuff..........

On a side note, Sunday is Easter. As I think of the Atonement and what a great gift it is to us all, it seems to be all about love and sacrifice. Nathan and I did a little "random act of kindness" for somebody last week. It was so fun, we were sneaking in the dark, laughing and hiding. We were doing something we knew was a very good thing. He loved it, he said it was "the most intense doorbell ditching ever." So I challenge all of you to do a secret kindness this week. Share Christs love with others, and involve your kids, it will warm your heart.







One day I will get my brain to work with my blog and load the pictures in the right order. Anyways this weekend was full. first off all 4 of us were sick and 3 of us on antibiotics. We woke up Sunday to a fresh layer of snow. Which Nathan and I got freezing hands trying to clean the car off to get to church on time.

I forgot to mention before, when we watched the Princess on Saturday she said "doggie". Mike grabbed the video camera so we could prove it.
She said it over and over, mostly because Beatrice kept running up to her.
Nathan begged me for days and I finally broke down and made banana bread. I made four loaves but we have an extra teenage boy or two around here, so with 5 teen boys there isn't much left.

And Saturday morning we had a surprise baby shower for our Relief Society President. It was very nice lots of good food and a great turn out.
It did leave me pretty tired but good things happened last week. Hopefully we will have a slower week ahead.

Take the Quiz here!

Mikes pics....

So Mike took his trip to Chicago, he took some pictures and here they are. I am going to be a little cryptic because as of late people have been getting in trouble for pictures they post. He actually took some other pics of a set and a few other rooms. But we don't want somebody to randomly find this and get sued or anything. So you will have to see us in person to see any of those. (Last week some boys on a mission got in big trouble because back in 06' they went to a religious sanctuary and took some pictures messing around, the pics I saw didn't seem that bad, but now they are having charges pressed against them. Because some of the parishioners found the pics on line. I guess it's true what they say be careful of the picture you post on the Internet, because they will be there for forever!) So I will not post her name I think you all know who this is. And no Mike didn't see her, he was however quickly escorted past her office.



This picture would be self explanatory:-) Notice the covered heated sidewalk, for overflow audiences.
This is Mikes friend and co-worker Alex from Japan.
He got her entry door.
OK one day I will learn how to load pictures correctly. Mike stayed in this hotel in Dallas, he thought it was cool and took a picture. Well this was the same hotel my family stayed in the night before my brother got married in the Dallas Temple. It was just fun that we both have stayed there.

O.k. back to the Chicago pictures. Mike sporting his "back stage pass".
And she has her own store across the street. Mike was so original and got us all black t-shirts. I would have loved to see what was in that store.
And lastly we babysat the princess today while her mother went to out with a friend. She has a few Uncles who adore her.

I hope her mother doesn't see this picture. Grandma put a flower on her little head and it made her sad. I took it off of her quickly, after I took a picture. She was too cute!

Happy F words.......

Fun.......
We had a Fun weekend!


Family........

Our Princess came to visit. That floor was clean and in a matter of minutes that sweet little baby did ALL of that. She left a trail!Issy playing with the dog.

Friends!

My best friend from childhood, her son, had a reception here in Utah. So I was able to celebrate with them. And our close friend Gary and his daughter Jessica came in for the weekend. She had an interview at BYU on Monday.

Food....

FOOD!

Yes they were as delicious as they look! We have discovered a local restaurant that we really enjoy, its' Good Wood. We had friends in town so we splurged on the onion rings, YUM!
And then my favorite double pulled pork and double potato salad. The potato salad there is sooooo good I never want anything else. I usually bring half of it home for Nathan.

A good weekend!

Random things.......

So I read The Hiding Place this week. Mike also read it. It is so good

everybody should read it!

It just makes you want to be a better person. The woman, that this book is about, and her family were amazing people. I encourage anybody who reads this, to read this book. This is also the "book group" book we are reading. So it has motivated me to finally start scrapbooking again. There are a few girls that read my blog that make the most gorgeous pages. But I am so far behind I just can't figure it out. So anyway I'm jumping back into it with my Holland trip things. I think it will be fun.
I got my hair done this week. A cut and color, I needed to add a little pizazz to it, it was so dull. Plus the girl told me I am 25% grey! With no grey hair in the back, most of it is around my face under my bangs, then some of it is on the top of my head. Yikes! I now have to start thinking in terms of covering my grey! I like the color I got, so I tried to take a picture. I'm not sure that you can really see my high lights but you can see my sagging jowls, double chin, rolls on my neck, and my scar. So there you have it. Actually I got one shot of me from such an angle that it didn't look like I had any of that I looked pretty good. But I didn't post that picture because it was NOT realistic:-)
Finally this is a sign mike let me get to hang in my laundry room. I absolutely love what it says! It fits me to a T. But the ironing reminded me of my mother-in-law. She just loved to iron. We lived with them for a while. And every night that we went into the family room to watch TV, she went to her ironing board and ironed through all of the shows. She even ironed Mikes jeans and T-shirts. He hasn't had that kind of service since! I think it relaxed her, and she enjoyed it. But that was another time, I've even heard tell that women ironed their sheets. What a nightmare!

I'm going to brag on Mike now......

Here are a few more fun pictures of Mike. Those friends had a lot of fun doing goofy pictures. Well............................................................
This one is close! Mike is going to Harpo Studios in Chicago this month. He won't see Oprah but he should see the studio. Erin and I chuckled to find out he is going there, because Mike is NOT Oprah's biggest fan.

So Mike went out and did a training video. They are so boring and there isn't a lot you can do to spice them up, because you have to teach people the basics. Mike felt good about it, and the editor was pleased because he said he didn't need any second takes or anything. Well come to find out, Mike won an ward for the training, or the training won an award or something like that.

This is the little blurb about him on the site.

ABOUT MIKE DOWNEY:
Mike Downey has been a Canopus/Grass Valley user for over 10 years, having used the EDIUS NLE since the very first version.
He has traveled around the world consulting and training groups of individual videographers and broadcast affiliates for NBC, ABC, FOX, CBS, and the WB. Mike now works for Grass Valley as an EDIUS demo artist and trainer.
Many consider him one of the best trainers in the industry, but if you ask him, he is just a former high school teacher that enjoys teaching. When he is not training, his favorite hobby is listening to Jimmy Buffett while eating an Original Tommy's cheeseburger!

Books to read.........

The spell check on my blog has quit working. I'm going nuts, because I depend on it all of the time. Can anybody tell me how to get it to work again?




Well these pictures loaded backwards, I suppose I loaded them backwards, but I can work with it:-) Nathan hadn't seen Issy in a very long time. He is pretty crazy about that baby.

Our ward is trying to do things to help us all get to know each other. So the Releif Society has some different groups like a cooking group, a game night and a book group. Well I got in the book group and had the first meeting. The intimidating part was picking a book for all the women to read. I was at a sale at Schoolastic Books and found this little diary I bought a bunch of them and used that for our first meeting. It was about a 9 year old girl living in Philadelphia in 1776. It was alright, but there are much better books out there. A lady in my ward gave me a list of good books, she was in a book club too. Actually, I wish we would have done it in AZ. I never knew what books were good, or what I should read. I read A LOT of just plain books, when I could have been reading great books. I have been impressed with the women in Utah, because almost everybody I have met has been in some sort of book group.

Also this Shelfarie thing has been great. You can look up books and find out what regular people think about them. You can look at other poeples shelves and see their favorites. So I now have a a bunch of great titles to choose from. So I stopped by a DI one day and found a few books. Then I started looking through the Shelfarie sight and went to another DI and got more books. Then I told Erin and she wanted to go look to so we went together yesterday. Most of the books are $1-$4, they used to be a little cheaper but some of the DI's have raised their prices. There is a code on the books with a date. I bought so many books the picture is of just a few. I think I have cleaned the DI's out because I noticed that most of the books I bought had been on their shelves since '03. Almost 5 years, they had been waiting for somebody to come and take them home. So if anybody wants to borrow a book, I have plenty to choose from!:-)

This is Issy at dinner last night, she had a long day of shopping at the DI's with mom and grandma. She did get her share of attention, everybody commented on her very blue eyes.

For the book group I thought it would be fun to look up what kind of food they ate in that time and try to have some for refreshments. I only found recipes, so I made a few. The picture of the soup was a suprising soup I made. It was "cream of peanut", it was actually pretty tastey. Our book next month is "The Hiding Place." This is so good for me, because if you remember, I went to that home when Mike and I went to Holland last fall. So I'm finally being motivated to read the book.