WebCam Wednesday - I Wanna Know, Have You Ever Seen The Rain

I love the rain. I grew up in a place where when it rained, it rained. I now live in a place where when it rains, well, it just gives off a light misting. If you click on my "Everything you wanted to know about me" thig-a-ma-bobber on the right side there, you will see that aside from the ice cream and the people (not particularly in that order)(or maybe so) the thing I miss most about Texas is the rain. So when we were in St. Louis for Christmas and got caught in a torrential downpour, I was so excited. I had been so long since I had seen real rain. Steve and I were driving down the street loving it, while our kids were freaking out in the back seat. I turned back to them and said, "It's OK kids. That stuff there, that's called rain." Anyway, I just had to take a video to remember.

Gathering

When we were in St. Louis for Christmas, the whole family went to Steve's mothers grave. She passed away in 1990 from cancer. I never met her, but I know she is a wonderful woman because she left behind a great legacy. It was a special moment to have everyone gathered there together to pay tribute to her memory.

After visiting Myrle's grave, we drove around the cemetery for a while. I love cemeteries and this cemetery is beautiful. It is a National Cemetery and it is HUGE. All the headstones are alike an it is an awesome sight to behold. They go on for miles and miles and miles. It is a very historic place and there are soldiers buried there from the Civil War and every war since. For some fascinating facts about this cemetery you can click here.

Monday Morning Musings - Repeating Myself. Repeating Myself. Repeating Myself. Repeating - OK, You Get The Idea

Ya know how I said a few posts back that I haven't been blogging much because I say everything on Facebook and I feel like I would be repeating myself if I said it here? Well, I'm about to do some repeating. For those of you who refuse to join Facebook (Kristy) they have this thing called a status. And on your status you type whatever it is that you are doing and all your friends can see it and comment on it. Most of the things I put on my status are things I would probably be using for my Monday Morning Musings. So for my MMM today I am going to give you some of my past status....uhhh...statuses. For those of you interested in joining Facebook, you may do so by clicking here. Come on. All the cool kids are doing it.

My past status updates:

1/26/09: Allyson is aware that the jar says refrigerate after opening,but do pickles really need 2 b?Cause I ain't got no room n my fridge 4 this big ol' honkin' jar from Costco.

1/26/09: Allyson has a strange, unexplained desire to watch Pee Wee's Big Adventure.

1/25/09: Allyson has concluded that if she stops cleaning her house for more than five minutes at a time, it turns into a disaster zone.

1/24/09: Allyson finally has a mortgage on her house! WAHOOO!!! now i have to start making the payments....

1/23/09: Allyson is standing @ her fridge,eating green olives straight out of the jar,trying 2 decided what 2 eat 4 lunch.Maybe if I eat enough of these,I won't have 2 eat lunch.

1/22/09: Allyson just unpacked 2 boxes! The first boxes I have unpacked since the new year. I only have 587 more to go....

1/22/09: Allyson says as if it wasn't bad enough that the creators of Lost have drug out their cockamamie story for this long, but I find it very irritating that they filled my DVR with 2 hours last week and 1 hour this week with crappe' I have already seen before.

1/21/09: Allyson is staring at the pile of trash she just swept up in the kitchen and is wondering if all kids are this messy when they eat or if mine are just special that way.

1/21/09: Allyson is eating oatmeal and just looked on the side of the box and found out it is expired. How bad can old oatmeal be? Tastes pretty good to me.

1/20/09: Allyson says he can talk the big talk, now we see if he can walk the big walk.

1/20/09: Allyson is watching the inauguration because Zac has to for his homework. Oh and 'cause Aretha Franklin is singing.

Let There Be Lights

We were having unseasonably warm weather back at the beginning of December. I knew it wouldn't last for long so one night I told Steve we HAD to go downtown to Temple Square to see the lights. Usually I am torn between wanting to go see them and wanting to stay warm. But this year we were able to do both.

Flashback Friday - Talk About Havin' Your Cake And Eatin' It Too

These pictures were taken at my house when my book club met there, I have no idea how many years ago. Maybe 4 or 5 years ago. Maybe longer. I really couldn't tell ya. The book we read this month was called Eat Cake and so everyone brought their favorite cake to book club that night. It was a fun book and a fun meeting. We had tweleve cakes that we hardly made a dent in, so we all divided them up and everyone took some of each kind home.

Some of you might recall my "Special" little Flashback Friday I was doing before I packed up all my stuff and moved. Well, I wanted you to know that I still am planning on doing that and I will start again with those next Friday. I've picked up quite a few readers since then so anyone who wants to add a comment, feel free to by clicking here.

Seasons Of Love

Compliments of my last post title, I have now had this song stuck in my head since last night. Well, except for a brief moment when I woke up this morning and Grease Lightning was stuck there because I was dreaming I was in the cast of Grease. Which is a much better dream than the one the night before when one of my kids got kidnapped or the night before that when Steve died. I swear I have been having the strangest dreams lately. And I'm not even the P word (pregnant).

Five Hundred Twenty Five Thousand Six Hundred Minutes, How Do You Measure, Measure A Year?

Monday marked the one year anniversary of the death of my father. It is so hard for me to believe that one whole year has gone by without him here. 365 days. A lot has happened in the past year. My children have grown up and changed so much. The world has changed so much. One year. We have now made it through every holiday and birthday without him. He was very much missed. How grateful I am for my testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ that teaches that we are eternal beings. That our families, they can be together forever. I know that my father lives on. I know that he watches over us.





On Monday Steve and the kids and I all went to the cemetery with my brother Sam to put new flowers on his grave. That whole day, my mind kept going back to his last day on this earth. How glad I am that I was a part of that day.





I love this picture of my dad. It was taken on a Sunday in September of 2007. I love this picture because I remember this day so well. We were at my parents house for Sunday dinner and it was such a beautiful day so we all went out front to sit on the lawn. The kids brought out the hula hoops and we all had so much fun making fools out of ourselves (hula hooping for anyone over the age of 30 should be limited to the back yard). My dad and I kept trying to outdo each other with the hoops. I love this picture because it shows my dad in his true spirit. He was always goofing off and having fun. Everyone around him had fun.


This is another one of my favorite pictures of my dad. Again it shows his goofy nature. This was taken on Easter in 2004. It was before my parents moved to Utah and my dad was in town visiting. We were outside taking pictures and my dad took Emily's hat and put it on his head.

My dad loved to laugh and he enjoyed life to it's fullest. He was laughing and enjoying life up to his final moment on this earth. He was a great example to me and I will forever be grateful that I was blessed to have him as my father.

The Way It Is

Yeeeeeaaahhhh. Ummmm. I've been a bad blogger. I've said that before. Followed by promises to be a better blogger. It's like this. I have been really busy. Really busy. And I just don't seem to have time to blog. Not to mention that I have this new addiction called Facebook and I feel like I say everything there is to say there and then I have nothing left to say here. Or I could say what I say there, here, but then I would just be repeating myself and well, that just would be...repeating myself.

But, so, OK. OK. This is what happened. I needed some 411 (information) and I knew that the information I needed was contained in the pages of my blog. So I did some searching. And this is what I found. Or learned. Or...what's that word...ahhhh...it's like right there...on the tip of my brain...Anyway, that's not important. What I'm trying to say is this. I went back, I read a bunch of old stuff, I said, "Wow! I forgot all that. But now I remember. How handy dandy is this little thing called a blog?". So I realized that this here blog is like my own personal journal. That the things I record here are my own personal little records of my own little personal life and the life of my children that we can go back and read and remember. (and so can anyone else who wants to get all up in my bizness) And to think that if you look up the definition of a blog it says "a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer".

Alright. So after coming to that realization I decided that I really MUST be a better blogger in order to better keep track of all that is my life. Because I have a really hard time remembering what was my life yesterday, not to mention 2 or 3 years ago. There are a lot of things that I have been meaning to post but just haven't had the time so I never did and then by the time I got around to it I figured it was old news and why bother posting it. But now! Now I have decided that I must post it or a few months from now it will be gone forever.

And that's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna back post. And if you choose to be here, well, you're gonna get old stuff. Pictures from Christmas, New Years, all of it. So just prepare yourselves and deal with the old news and act like you enjoy it. OK? You with me, or what? Alright. Let the journey begin....tomorrow.

What? I've said plenty for one night. I'll be back tomorrow. I promise.

She Can Bring Home The Bacon, Fry It Up In A Pan

Did you know my sister Farrah has a very successful business? She designs the most AWESOME address stamps! Check it out. Click Here.

Fly Like An Eagle

just some eagles

sittin' in a tree

at the end of my street

The Shirt Off His Back

After my father passed away last January, my sisters and I were helping my mom go through his things. For those of you who know my father, you know he....how should I put this....had a "thing" for shopping. And a "thing" for clothes. He had more clothes than you could ever imagine. He was far worse than any woman when it came to shopping. When trying to decided what to do with all his MANY shirts, my mom said she wanted to make quilts out of them.

She started making the quilts in May and by December she had completed 12 beautiful quilts out of my fathers shirts. She made one for each of her 9 grandchildren, one for my brother and sister still living at home, and one for my grandmother. She gave them to them as Christmas presents and I must say, they were by far the most loved present each of her grandchildren received.

They are a beautiful labor of love and a treasure. My kids look at their quilts and say, "Papa used to wear this shirt all the time", or "I remember when Papa wore this shirt to my birthday".

The other night when I was putting Aubrey to bed, she started crying and saying that she missed Papa. I wrapped her up tight in her blanket and told her since it was made out of his shirts, it was just like he was giving her a great big hug.

Thanks mom...

Monday Morning Musings - Did You See Where I Put That?

So, something really funny happened yesterday. And when it happened I thought, that will make such a good story for MMM, cause I'm kinda low on material at the moment. I also thought I should write it down so I don't forget it. And then I though (scoff) I'm not gonna forget this! And well, I woke up this morning, and I have been trying all day, but for the life of me I just can't remember what was so dang funny.

On the flip side, I can't get this song out of my head:



Some people call me Maurice....Wahhhh....Wahhhh....

Cross Country Christmas

On a whim, Steve and I decided, "hey- let's go to St. Louis for Christmas". So a few days later we loaded up the kids and made the 2 day journey half way across this great country of ours. Since it was such a last minute decision we also decided, "hey- let's not tell anyone we are coming and we can just show up on their doorsteps". So we did. It was a fun trip and we had a blast. The kids were so glad to be with their cousins again and when it was time to pack up the fun and head for home, there were shouts of protest. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from our trip.

The kids around the Christmas tree

Steve and his dad, Roy

Zac and Uncle David

Steve, Emily and Aubrey

Sierra gettin' the belly stomp

Aubrey and Emily gave Uncle Steve a good workout. He probably performed about 100 of these flips.

Austin, Heather, Sierra and Samantha

This pretty much sums up what the boys did the entire trip (the guns are not real, just in case you got all freaked out)

Samantha and Addy

Addy made a new friend