Goodbye 2008!

At the risk of sounding sappy let me just say ... I am so blessed! My life, marriage, and kids aren't perfect but I am extremely happy. I am enjoying the best stage of my life. I feel like it's a blessing to even recognize that I feel this way! A few things I have to be grateful for:

Family - Of course those boneheads top my list ... what would I do without their humor, their sarcasm, their support and love, and the way they knock me off my soap box when I get carried away?

Friends - You girls know who you are - my life has been changed forever because of you (I'm not kidding). If we hadn't gone away for that first scrapping trip all those years ago, I'd be an inmate at a jail or loony bin by now. (I know that last statement isn't politically correct, but I'm just keepin' it real here.)

My Testimony - I love that it's grown this past year and I love that I recognize how much I value it.

Quiet Music - Love that soft music ... it soothes my soul.

Books - Books are my retreat, my way to ground and calm myself. I'd die without books. I pray I never go blind! (I'm serious.)

Snacks - I love snacks! When I say I'd die without snacks, I'm not talking starvation - I love treats!

Humor/Laughter - What would I do without great big loud explosive belly laughs? My family and friends seem to keep me supplied with reasons to laugh.

The Internet - I love that I can keep "in touch" with my friends without ever talking to them or actually writing them a letter. I know that sounds extremely lazy, but I'm being honest here. I also love that I can look up pretty much anything and find out about it on the Internet. Most of you probably don't remember going to the library, finding the encyclopedia, and looking up your subject. You were out of luck if someone was already looking at the volume of encyclopedia you needed. The Internet is amazing. And don't even get me started on Internet shopping ...

As 2008 ends and 2009 begins I am grateful for the little cocoon of peace, stability, and love that my family and I share. I hope (and pray) that we can sustain that cocoon for another year and that at the end of 2009 I will be able to say again that I have been blessed.

The Whirlwind of December

It's been such a long while since I posted ... here's December in a nutshell: went to work, made Christmas gifts for Relief Society ladies, Relief Society Christmas party, dinner with friends, Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert (you know how I love the Choir), mad dash to finish Christmas cards (same story, different year), realization that just because you have THOUGHT of what to give someone doesn't mean you have actually bought and wrapped it (seriously), cooked for MOMD and his work party, family parties, shoveled snow, mailed missionary packages, shed many tears for a dear friend who just received a horrible diagnosis, finally took around my neighbor gifts, shopped and wrapped for Sub for Santa (no wrapped presents yet under MY tree, but Sub for Santa family is taken care of), went to the high school concert to see my cute nephew play the drums, enjoyed the annual viewing of White Christmas with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye, started making presents for RS ladies in the ward to give them on their birthday (for those born in January), read a darling book I recommend to everyone for next Christmas called "The Autobiography of Santa Claus" (it makes perfect sense and since Santa wrote it, I know it's true!), ate more than my share, and am constantly amazed at how much people love each other and show it at this time of year. And it's only December 23rd! Merry Christmas everybody!

Halloween at the Happiest Place On Earth

MOMD, my brother-in-law (Trace), sister-in-law (Juanita), and I were lucky enough (blessed) to go to Disneyland over Halloween. Oh my heck! You know how much I love anything Disney! You should see it at Halloween time. Amazing! We had an incredible time. MOMD and I flew in on Thursday a.m. and spent the entire day in the parks. Juanita and Trace had their original flight canceled (they found out on the way to the airport), so they didn't get to California until Thursday evening. We spent Friday and Saturday together in the parks riding the rides, shopping, and watching the people. We returned to real life and home on Sunday afternoon. It was a great weekend! I don't have words for how much fun it was.

We were lucky enough to stay at the Grand Californian Hotel (beautiful, incredible; they made ghosts out of our wash cloths on Halloween - how's that for fun?), so we were close enough to walk to the parks everyday. The balcony of our room overlooked Downtown Disney. It was like living "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous". Trace and Juanita had a room right next to us. Here is the view from our balcony.

We ate incredible food at every meal - MOMD and I are kind of food slackers - give us a drive through window any day, but Trace and Juanita know where to go for the good stuff. (We need to hang out with them more often.)

Check out the pictures below ... We were hanging out one day in Disneyland waiting for a parade when some Disney "Cast Members" (that's what the employees are called) were standing near us. I started talking to them. I asked if I could get a picture of them since they were my "peeps". (That's what us cool people call our friends.) They were good sports because they agreed to the picture (but I know in their heart of hearts they yearn to be included in my group of peeps).

After the picture taking love-fest, they told me that since we were all peeps, they wanted to give me this:

I know you can't read it, but it says that I'm an HONORARY CITIZEN OF DISNEYLAND! Can you believe it? How did they know that in my wildest dreams I could not have asked for anything more? (With the possible exception of winning the showcase showdown on the Price Is Right ...) Life is good!

One of the funnest parts of the entire trip was watching the people. I know, I know - I could stay home and do that BUT have you ever watched people in Downtown Disney on Halloween while listening to live music with the love of your life? Life doesn't get much better than that.

Let me explain just a bit about the people we were watching. Since it was Halloween, we had a lot of folks dressed up (in costume). I think they were going the House of Blues or some place fancy because none of my friends look like that on Halloween. Anyway, we had two different types of women in costume. We had the young, curvaceous gals thinking that this would be a good opportunity to show some skin and be sexy in their little witch/nurse/school girl costume and we also had the above 50 crowd that thought they were the part of the young and curvaceous crowd. (Picture me in a slinky gold Cleopatra outfit - I'm not kidding.) It was a hoot. My favorite costumes though were the families dressed as the "Incredibles". Can you picture your husband or boyfriend wearing the red Incredible tights outfit with the fake muscles? I especially liked the drawn on masks. It was a crack-up!

Here's a few pictures to show more of the fun.

Make a Smilebox scrap pages

Tradition!

My family is big on tradition. We eat the same thing every 24th of July (Fishing Fiestas). We say the same words every Memorial Day ("Now who does this baby belong to?"). We all sing "Happy Birthday" at different tempos and in our worst voices. (We can make babies cry!) One of our big traditions is the Deer Hunt. The tradition of the deer hunt began when my Grandpa Noble was a young man. He and his friend (Mr Fisher) went to an area called Willow Creek (pronounced "Crik") down near Gunnison and Salina. As they continued hunting this area they named the landmarks (The Dry Lake, the Gammon Rock, Jack's Flat, etc.). After a while Grandpa and Mr Fisher both got married, had families, and continued to go to Willow Creek to hunt.

Grandpa Noble and Grandma Julie have been gone since 1995, but the Deer Hunt lives on. No one hunts anymore, but none of us would ever dream of missing the Deer Hunt. We have to do the EXACT things that Grandpa Noble did, such as:

* Arrange all the trailers and motor homes in a circle (picture circling the wagon train),

* Rake all the stickers from the ground from inside the camp circle,

* Lay down canvas tarps (who still has canvas tarps - aren't they all that blue plastic stuff?) inside the camp circle so the dust doesn't get kicked up,

* Dig a hole for the outhouse. (Everyone has bathrooms in their trailers but remember, it's TRADITION!),

* Talk about those old landmarks and how they appear this year,

* Try to remember where we hid the fire grate from the previous year.

Those are just a FEW of the things that we need to do to complete the deer hunt experience. (Does it sound like the entire family is a little obsessive-compulsive? We are.) We have added things over the years such as 4-wheelers, paint ball guns and occasionally a craft or two (for a few of us). We have always had snacks but now we have reached the ridiculous stage. We had 24 people in our group and we had one ENTIRE church banquet table plus the half-size banquet table FILLED with candy, popcorn balls, candy, cheese and crackers, candy, cookies, and anything else you can think of. It was as if I had died and gone to heaven!

Each night we all sit around the fire and talk about farting. This year I shared with some of my younger boy cousins (ages 10 & 12) how cool my scrapping friends were because we've been involved with "blue darts". That really moved me up on the coolness ladder!

Here's some pictures of the traditional deer hunt (if you want to use it as a pattern for planning your own outing):

The king and queen of the camp - my Mom and Dad


Here I am with FOS (why does he always make the stupid face when we are getting our pictures taken?)


The picture below is me sitting on the toilet in the outhouse tent ... You didn't believe me, did you?

Since I don't have a trailer, this was my campsite. Every evening after the fire we would drive a few minutes to Salina and our "camp". Imagine having a hot shower whenever I wanted on! Hee hee hee ...

The Deer Hunt - It's the same every year. Life doesn't get much better than this!

A Picture Really Is Worth A Thousand Words ...

I wish you could feel my heart when I look at this picture. It makes me immeasurably happy. How did I get so lucky to find this group of friends? It all started almost ten years ago when Ashley suggested a scrap booking weekend. Didn't Ashley know that I was insecure, that I didn't go anywhere without MOMD, and that I didn't hang out with friends? I guess she didn't know those things because she pursued it. I am so glad.

I am the mother of boys, the aunt of boys, and the sister of a boy. There are no girls in my life. I didn't hang out with friends. My family members were my friends. My life was full and I didn't think I needed anyone else.

I didn't realize I had an empty spot in my heart until I went on that scrapping weekend all those years ago. Beginning then and growing over time we have developed into sisters. We listen to each other, we counsel each other, we ask questions that we are too embarrassed to ask anyone else (even our doctors), but most of all, we are loved by each other. I did need more in my life and I'm so thankful that I found it with these friends.

It doesn't matter how much time has passed since our last visit or weekend getaway. We jump in as if we see each other daily. By this point we are pretty comfortable with each other (if seeing each other in pajamas, without a shower, and passing gas means you feel comfortable).
I think our differences are what make our group work. We have different religious views, political views, and we are in different stages of our life. I am older than this group (oh, so much older! - I could be these girls' mother) and hearing the stories about raising kiddos makes me wish I had appreciated my time more when my boys were little. Maybe that's one of our strengths - we all have different perspectives and feel comfortable sharing our ideas with each other. We don't need to impress each other and we don't try. How incredibly freeing!

The bottom line is this - I love these girls! Do you understand now why this picture makes me so happy?