It's May, It's May, What it's not May?

Oh my goodness. I can't believe that May has come and gone and I did not do a single blog. It certainly wasn't because there was nothing to blog about. Quite the contrary--so much that I had no time to blog. Now it all seems so overwhelming. So in order to alleviate some stress and try to get back into my blog, I am just going to recap May and move on.

We celebrated a couple of birthdays in May. First was Miss Abby D, as I like to call her. She turned four on May 3rd. What a ham! Oh how we love our Abby.


Matt also had a birthday in May. Silly me forgot to take the camera and so we have no picture to prove that this event occurred. So you will just have to take my word for it that Matt is truly one year older.



Cambria had Idaho History Day at her school that we were able to attend. She created a sweat lodge. I thought it was the best exhibit there and of course, she was by far the cutest student there.

Mark and I drove cross country to New Jersey to see Trevor graduate from Seton Hall Law School. It was so wonderful to be able to be there with him and his darling family. He has really done well in school and graduated Cum Laude, or however it is spelled. He was also honored for his work as editor of the Law Review. What a thrill for all of us!

Trevor and Sherry

Trevor, Carter and Holland
Don't they look happy to be there and this was before the graduation started.

Yeah, Daddy has finally graduated and now we can go home.

The grad and his proud parents

Our trip started out by driving to Killeen, Texas, to see Brandon, Marcia and Jared. We hadn't seen them since we left on our mission. They are doing great and we had a wonderful time. They took us around and showed us some of Texas and we learned "Don't mess with Texas". We visited the capital in Austin.

Jared, Marcia and Brandon at the Austin Temple

All of us at the temple

We also made a day trip to see the Alamo. I have always wanted to go there. I wasn't disappointed.Me and Jared at our favorite shop along the River Walk in San Antonio

One of the old missions we visited near San Antonio

Then we traveled on across the south and up to New Jersey. Of course, we had to geocache along the way. Before we got home, we had geocached in 21 different states and had a total of 102 caches.Mark at Point of Rock Stage Station in Wyoming

Me at same place

Mark finding the cache at the relay station

On our way home we stopped in Council Bluffs and Winter Quarters. I loved the feeling in those places. It was awesome! That was the first time that we had actually stopped and visited the sites there. Everyone needs to do that. We were gone 17 days and had a wonderful wonderful time.

Mark at the tabernacle (replica) at Council Bluffs where Brigham Young was sustained as President of the Church.

The Temple at Winter Quarters

The night we got home, 27th of May, Hannah had a ballet recital and so we hurried and got ready and went up there. She is quite the little dancer and did a super job.


Kira and Tyler own and run a rock wall and they had a rock climbing competition for anyone who wanted to participate. It was a huge success! Shannon's kids, Garen, Britton, Brigham and Cambria all entered the competition as did Diana and her son, Sean. It was so fun to watch them all.

You would have all been impressed with Diana. She has probably only climbed a couple of times but she wanted to see what she could do. Here she was competing with these college age girls. She certainly held her own against them too. There were five different areas of the wall that they had to climb and she scooted right up all of them. She's amazing!

Cambria scaling the wall.

Brigham on his way to his first place finish.

Britton showing everyone how it is done.

Garen has no problem shimmying right up.

Sean shows his moves as he scales the hang out.

After the competition, everyone challenged Jim to show us what he could do. I must say he certainly was up to the challenge.

That isn't all that happened in May but my fingers and brain are getting tired and I am sure that you are getting tired of reading this blog so I will end there. Hope to do better now but since June is half over, I am already way behind. Bummers!

Beaded Watches

I think that I must be crazy but I am making and selling the beaded band watches that are so popular now. I told Mark he could blame Brian and Chris because they gave me one for Christmas and I absolutely loved it. So Diana and I took a class and learned how to make them. Now we are both making the beaded bands.

I need to get the word out so that people will know that I am doing this. I just don't know quite how to do it, so I thought I would put it on our blog and at least let all those who read the blog know.

If you have never seen these types of watches and interchangeable beaded bands before, all you do is clasp the end lobster claw clasps onto a watch face bar, and then wear and enjoy. You can have a variety of bands and then simply change them to match whatever you would like. They make wonderful gifts. Thought some might be interested in them for Mother's Day gifts for your moms or for yourself. I can make them any size that you would like. There are different size watch faces too. All you need to do is let me know which one you would like, which watch face, and the size of the wrist and I can fix one up for you.

Anyway I thought I would put some pictures on here to let you see what I have available. Let me know if you are interested.

The watch and band together sell for $22.50 and the band alone sells for $15.00. Necklaces sell for $10.00.

Email: marloberrett@gmail.com
Phone: 208 754-4680 (home)
208 521-0633 (cell)

White/Crystal

White/Crystal/Gray

Multi-colored

Earth tones

Black/Silver

Gold Watch faces

We can even make a necklace to match the watch bands.

Young Women Value Colors

I have many more beads to choose from so if you don't see one you like, let me know, and I'll see if we can make one up using the colors and beads that you would like. I'll be adding new pictures as I make more bands.

As Time Goes By

This has been a very busy week. The weather was pretty nice for most of the week and so we spent most of our time outside trying to get things cleaned up. We managed to get all of the raspberries cleaned out and most of them dug out. We transplanted some new raspberries into a new spot in the garden so we can do some week control where the old ones were located. We also planted some new strawberry starts. I must say the garden area is looking pretty good right now. It will be nice to have a garden again and be able to eat the fresh fruits and vegetables. We sure did miss that in Guam.

Saturday we took a day off from yard work and went to Taylorsville, Utah with Brian and Chris. The girls had a dance competition there. Alanna wasn't able to participate because she hurt some ligaments in her foot but Ryanne and Tori danced like stars. It was fun to watch them. They are great dancers.

Ryanne

Tori

We also went to the DUP Pioneer Museum. It was very interesting. I am not much of a museum goer but I did enjoy it. I can't believe all of the things they have there. If you haven't visited it, you really should make the time and do so. You won't be disappointed.

So all in all it has been a very busy and wonderful week again.

Retire, Relax, Right!!!!!

It has been quite sometime since I blogged. I am not sure why I thought that when we retired we would have so much free time. Maybe we do and we just fill it up. I am not sure. But we are enjoying the many activities and fun things that we get to do with our family. I am going to try and catch up on our latest adventures.

April 3rd and 4th found us in Bozeman, Montana at the Regional Gymnastics Meet. Sean, Brigham and Britton all qualified for regionals. I was so proud of them. There were lots and lots of kids there competing and they held there own. All of them earned a medal--Sean placed in the p-bars, Brigham in the rings.

Sean

Brigham

Britton on the high bars

We had a wonderful time in Bozeman. Mark was even able to get in the hot tub and pool. He has now been released from his doctor. Still can't do any lifting and many other things but at least he is healing well and doing great for which we are very very thankful.


Menan always has an Easter Egg hunt the Saturday before Easter. You will never see more candy in one place than here. The kids love it and always get their baskets filled up with candy.


Berrett got scared when the whistle blew to start gathering candy and so he didn't get going until it was almost all over. Then he wanted to pick up candy and there was none to be found. About ten seconds after the whistle blows it is all over. I think he will know exactly what to do next year.



Abby, on the other hand, knew exactly what to do and rushed right out onto the tennis court to start collecting prize eggs and all the candy one could possibly want.


They have the city park divided into age groups so we didn't get to watch the other grandchildren gather up the loot. But as you can see from these pictures, they all did every well.

Hannah, Cambria, and Isaac

Kylee with all her loot. Britton wishing he wasn't quite so old so he could get in on all the candy.

We have been enjoying going to Jaimee's track meets too. She runs the 100 meter hurdles, the 200 meter dash, the 100 meter dash, and a leg of a relay. This last week she improved her time in every event. Way to go Jaimee! Oh my, it has been cold though. We have had to wear our winter coats and wrap up in blankets. Southeast Idaho has never been known for its warm weather for track meets.
Jaimee is the one with the yellow wraps on her calves. She has shin splints so she has to have her legs wrapped before she runs.

Jaimee signalling us her time in the hurdles.


Jaimee is in third place in the 200 meters.

Yesterday, the 18th, we were finally able to get to one of Hannah's volleyball games. What a riot! She is so cute! They are just learning and I must add, doing a right fine job of it. Of course, when your coach is an all-american volleyball player and in Ricks College Athletic Hall of Fame, you are bound to learn a great deal.

Diana giving her team some encouragement and pointers before the game.Hannah, "You want me to do what?


Getting ready to send the ball back over the net.


This is going to be an ace.


The perfect form.