Blessed indeed!

Today we celebrated our 39th anniversary. It seems like we have always been together. I have wonderful childhood memories, but I have to think twice to remember that Brent was not a part of them. We celebrated the day by being together all day-dinner, poking around in a store or two and a movie. Dating is still fun for us, but the best part was coming home and curling up in front of the fire under our big blanket, which was given to us last Christmas and represents the six wonderful families who we love most.What more could you ask for in life. Thank you to those of you who share this wonderful merry go round ride with us and especially thanks to my best friend, who is the kindest, gentlest, best man I know.I am blessed indeed!

Alzheimer's Memory Walk

Today was the annual Alzheimer's Memory Walk. Our family has been participating for several years now to honor Mom, who suffered from this terrible disease and Dad, who was her constant support and taught us much about love and devotion and many more things during Mom's illness.

We had a smaller group this year because Ryan's family lives in Utah now and the Tassainer kids weren't able to be with us. We sure missed all of you, but we still had a great experience.

Looking at our group as we congregated after the walk Brent said that Mom must probably be in Heaven someplace smiling down on this great group of people and so happy we were there together.

Only Chandler was brave enough to try the

tambourine this year, but represented us well.

Go Chandler!! Sure made us miss the Jamesons. They could have used you, Doobies!!

Isaac was trying to play escape artist and had to be in time out by the trash bin. But he sure was adorable there! Can't stay mad at somebody that cute for long.

A good time was had by all and it's a great tradition. Thanks for starting it for us, Jamesons, and thanks for setting it up this year, Em.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

The yearly Halloween fun at our house happened on Monday night.

We had 10 of our little grandpeople over to celebrate the holiday.

Actually we had 12 and their parents to start with, but the babies and the parents were excused after the picture taking and went off to dinner.

NO PARENTS ALLOWED!!

Papa told frightening ghost stories and terrified the little people.

We cooked "Halloweenies" with blood (catsup), eyeballs (olives),

skeleton fingers(carrots) and all that Halloween stuff.

We carved our traditional pumpkin and everybody got their hand in the pumpkin "guts"!

We ate lots of sweet Halloween treats! ( Shh! Don't tell the parents how

much sugar we ate.)

It sure was fun for the Old people. Hope the youngins enjoyed it half as much as we did!

Happy Halloween!

PS. Sure missed you, Jamesons!

It's a "Sunny" Day!

Today is a big day for our wonderful Sunny girl. It's her Birthday!

She's centering this 5th birthday around one of her favorite stories.

FANCY NANCY! She got a Fancy Nancy doll and a dress of her own

to match the doll's dress.

Sunny is just like her name. She's bright and happy and full of fun, sparkle and spunk!

A day with Sunny is truly a sunny one!

She's having a Soiree to celebrate her big day ! So, how many little girls

even know that word!? (I guess French has been thrown around a little in

her life). But she thought that a Soiree just sounded like the name a Fancy Party should have.

Enjoy your Soiree, Sunny! Grammy and Papa love and miss you!!

Two of my favorite things

I spent the weekend quilting and watching conference. That's what I

call a great weekend! We watched the BYU ballgame on Friday and then conference the rest of the weekend. I did a Halloween quilt start to finish in that time. It made me stay awake and I enjoyed conference so much more with my hands busy. What a wonderful conference it was.!! I had gotten pretty worked up about the economy and the state of the world and it seemed that the Brethren were talking just to me when they told us to have hope and faith and try to live the commandments and do our best!. Then, we need not fear. I kept having the scripture run through my head that said, "Be still and know that I am God". It was a great help to me in these troubled times. I think I'll watch less news and read more scriptures and Ensigns.

We had all the family who were in town over for conference and dinner. It was actually cool enough to eat outside. This time together at conference is kind of a tradition and one that I love. Thanks, family, for making the effort to be with us. We missed you, Jamesons and Webbs, but we're glad you were together!

Torture-day two

We did day two at the gym. Dad thought it was "great" this time. I didn't throw up! I guess that's progress. Only 11 more session to go before I can go back to sitting in front of TV and eating bon bons.

Happy Birthday,Nicole!!

Today is a great day.! Nicole Tassainer, our wonderful granddaughter, turned 8.

She is full of smiles and fun and CHOCOLATE, since her birthday party is a Chocolate party.

We love this cute, sparkly little lady.

Happy Birthday, Nicole!!!

Can't wait for our Birthday lunch date next week.

It was NOT FUN!

Even at my age and in my shape I refuse to give up completely on some things! So, I got a bright idea that I'm now going to confess to anybody who might read my blog. I also hope that by putting this information out in cyberspace, I will be encouraged NOT to give up and humiliate myself, at least for a month.

On Wed. I suggested to Brent that we join a gym. What was I thinking!! It comes FREE with our "insurance for old people." (Maybe I was trying to get my money's worth.) They call it Silver Sneakers. (sounds cute and catchy!) Anything free sounds good to me. So does being able to fit into normal people's clothes. So, today we were off to the gym (Bally's) for our first workout!

OK. So, what was I thinking!!!!! Why did I think it would be a good idea to join a gym.?! I think it was a false impression given to me by most of my children who joined gyms, loved it and got skinny. Well....

I was tortured for a solid hour this morning by a darling young adult from our U1 ward, who was my "personal trainer". She is so cute and sweet that I couldn't believe my day at the gym would not be great fun! She later confessed, when I told her she was killing me, that her clients call her "killer."

I actually got sick to my stomach before I got finished. It was all I could do to keep from throwing up! (One of my general reactions to misery) It wasn't muscle pain or anything like that. It was just that I felt totally nauseous.

I was also totally covered with perspiration from head to toe. When I was a child and Allan would tease me unmercifully my Mom would tell him to say something nice to his sister. He would say, "For a fat girl, you don't sweat much!" I guess I've always thought that was one of my better qualities and maybe that's why I have such an aversion to sweating! Allan was seriously wrong today! This fat girl sweat!! It was disgusting!

I did not have fun.!!! And I did not get skinny!!! How could I have imagined this would be a good idea!?!

She asked me at the end of my workout what I liked the best. I was perfectly honest and said, "Going home!" She laughed and thought I was kidding!

However, I tell you about all this so that I am committed and I am not giving up, yet! After all, an hour later, I feel just fine. However, I repeat, it was NOT FUN! Will it be more fun later? Promise me!

Brent called it "exhilarating" and enjoyed the workout. I called it "surviving!" and it was not fun! (I think I've mentioned that before, haven't I?) So, I think I'm in for trouble. Brent wants to go again. It is my own fault too!

It has to do something good for the body to work it so hard or it will just cause a heart attach, whichever comes first.

At least I don't have to go again until Mon.

Happy Houseful

The last two weekends have been a change from our normally calm, somewhat quiet and orderly (OK- boring) life as we babysat for the Webbs and Stewarts so they could each go on a little trip.

We had Jameson (2) and Alex (8) months the first weekend.

Then we had Chandler (9), Shelby (7), Harley (4) and Tatum (3) the second weekend.

We had a great time with them and enjoyed them thoroughly. However, we also realized that we're not as young as we used to be, or would like to be. We're totally convinced that the plan to have children when you're young, mobile and flexible (physically, emotionally and mentally) is a good one.

Don't get me wrong, we love those little people to pieces and it was treat to have time with them all to ourselves, but boy are we tired!

However, these are the reasons for it all being worth it.

Webb Kids

Papa and Jameson put the shed back together
after it collapse from overloading or weather, don't know which.

Jameson found an old phone in the shed.

It was all the entertainment he needed for the weekend.

It's nice they're so easy to please.

Alex just being adorable.

Stewart Kids

Tatum had had enough fun for the day!

Harley and Shelby making dinner in the playroom.

Chandler helped haul Scott's music "stuff" from his concert Sat.

GRANDKIDS ARE THE BEST!

In our Own Back Yard

We travel all over the world to see the beautiful sites and sometimes we forget to look close at home for that beauty.

We took a trip to Snowflake and drove through the desert. It was very green from the rain and so beautiful. Canada was amazing, but so is Arizona.

I think we're that way about people

sometimes too. The best ones are really here in our own back yard.

Oh, Canada

The first reason we loved Canada was the company.

Who are those old folks?

We don't look like much, but we sure do have a good time!

We rode a gondola to the top of one of the mountains and then Allan, Brent and I hiked even higher.

View from the top. Wow!!

This picture does not do it justice! It was spectacular!

Next stop-The Canadian Palace. This is now a museum and has lovely gardens.

There are many old hotels in Canada. They were built by the Canadian Railroad to encourage tourism in the late 1800 and are quite amazing and beautiful.

Room rate then $5---Room Rate now $600. They are national historic sites so you can visit for free. Guess what we chose to do.

The hotel overlooks the Bow Falls and Bow River. Rafting his river sure looked fun, but was not a good choice for us old folks.

Scenes of Beauty everywhere you look!

Lake Minawanka. We took a boat cruise to Devil's gate.

This is another railroad hotel. This one is at Lake Louise. It was a beautiful, tranquil place that we loved.

This was a very cold, glacial lake. No swimming here, but paddling a canoe looked fun. All the glacial lake's color was a pale, cloudy (caused by rock dust from the glacial movement) blue--check out the color of Brent's eyes sometime. They're just the shade of the lake.
Lake Morraine was another beautiful lake. It was freezing cold and raining this day.

Look what came in handy. "Anybody can wear it!"

One of the most amazing experiences was walking on the Columbia glacier, which is the tip of the ice fields in the area. It goes for miles and miles behind the moutain that you can see.

It was much different than expected-Icy, bumpy, rivers and riverlettes all over it. We were only on the tip of the glacier. It goes back for many, many miles.

Riding this big snow bus was about Brent's favorite thing. You should have seen the first hill we took. Yikes!

Canadian tourism is alive and well.

The hole in the ground to the left is the birthplace of the Canadian Park System. Three explorers went down the hole, found a hot springs and developed a mountain spa at this site. Tourists loved it and everybody got rich, except the tourist. Everything was sooooooooooooooooo expensive in this area.

The middle picture is how the spa was in the 1800's. There was also a warm thermal spring coming up out of the ground.

Takkakah falls was named for the Cree Indian word

for magnificent. And it was!

We also went to an old train station in Lake Louise. It has been there almost a hundred years. It was a charming place to have lunch and enjoy the railroad history of Canada.

And all this at less than 80 degrees!

Not much wildlife. They heard Brent was coming and went on vacation. A few big horn sheep, a single deer, and some mule deer, a ground squirrel or two. But there are always zoos to see!

Oh, Canada. We will miss you! It was a great trip.

OCD personified

So..... while the rest of you are putting out blogs of your adorable children (our adorable grandchildren) and all the cute things that they're doing, Brent and I have nothing to report but that we have been indulging our ocd natures.

Obsession #1 Cleaning

We got it into our heads that we needed to dust, polish, sweep and wash all the plant shelves, furniture, fake plants, cabinets, etc. in our house. It's the thing our parents called "spring cleaning". We hadn't done it for many springs, so we were way overdue. We spent the whole morning of every day for a week(when we weren't with those adorable grand kids we talked about) cleaning. So, here is the results.

So.. you say you can't see one bit of difference from the way it looked last time you saw it, well.... neither can we, but we sure feel better about ourselves. Sad, isn't it.

Obsession #2

Rachael loaned me a book a few months ago and told me that she loved it. I'd hear about it from several friends who recommended it, but did so in quiet tones and with some embarrassment. I was not a bit sure about the subject matter of the book-romance, vampires. Silly! So, I decided definitely not to read it. Then I came across it one day last week and decided to give it a try, since Rachael was re-reading the whole series of three books. Well, that was the end of my week. I am sorry to admit I am hopelessly, helplessly hooked and waiting impatiently for 9 days, seven hours and 23 minutes 12 seconds to pass until Breaking Dawn (Book 4) comes out. I read Twilight in 24 hours. Then I started looking around to find somebody to loan me the others. I found lots of closet Twilight fans among my "mature" group of friends and finally one loaned me the other two books. I read all three books in the Twilight Series in five days. That's about 1800 pages. I was up reading at 2 am several days. Just had to finish that chapter and see how Edward and Bella survived. I have read the website for Stephanie Meyer and have seen every clip of the upcoming movie that I can find on the Internet. PLEASE HEED MY WARNING. Do not read Twilight if there is an ounce of ocd-ness, romance or adventure in your soul. You will be sucked in and nothing that you need to do with get done. But it will be a delightful adventure! (Thanks Linsey for the updates from your friends on the conjecture about Book Four and the end of the story.)

Obsession #3

Brent and Grandpa Bird and the Diamondback ballgames. No further comment on that!

Enjoy those cute little people that you show me all the time, don't read and don't clean. Your summer will be so much better!

Resist the urge!