Christmas Eve

Colin got new Nike athletic shoes from his uncle and aunt
Ben liked the board books we gave him.

Ady got a personalized princess magnet board, Owen a personalized laundry basket hoop with his name on the backboard. These were all from her uncle and aunt.
Kali and Gabe came over early Christmas Eve and visited. They didn't have any children since their kids spent Christmas with the other parent. The cloth bag on the table is a music carrier that is reversible. My adult student had one made by her daughter. She commissioned her daughter to make one for me! I was thrilled.
After the story of the nativity with unbreakable figures, Ady continued to play with the figures.
Our traditional sing a long of carols went well and everyone participated. We had special performances by Terrin, singing "The Twelve Days of Christmas." I still remember when Bev, I think drew on brown butcher paper alll the pictures of twelve days of Christmas. I thought it was so cool. Camron surprised us all, volunteering to do a solo of "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas." We all thought he was a monotone, but he proved us wrong by staying on key.

Christmas Week

Christmas Week making cookies with the grandkids!

Thanksgiving Weekend

We went to dinner at Dave and Michelle Goodwins. After dinner Dave pulled out his guitar and played for Ben and we enjoyed it too.
Goodnight Moon is Ben's favorite book of all time. I had a chance to read it to him while we were there.

Eric and family came up on Saturday and we took care of the younger 4 kids while Camron helped his Dad with moving a single mother and her two kids out of their house. After Camron got home he was trying on Grandpa's glasses which were way too big.

There was snow in the NW on Thanksgiving Day so Kali and Eric's kids went sledding. They had a lot of fun and worked up quite an appetite for the big dinner.
Our car is in the shop because of an accident Frank had on Monday. He left work early and got to Stanwood and hit black ice, slammed into a curb, causing other damage to the tune of $1000 dollars. He was only going 10 mph. No other car was involved and Frank was not hurt.

The car in the background is the rental car the insurance company rented for us. He will drive that to work on Monday.
Kali and her kids stayed the night on Wed so they could help with Thanksgiving Day preparations. That night we watched the "Home Alone" movie. This movie was hilarious but I don't think this was the hilarious part.

We had 20 people for Thanksgiving dinner. David and Rachel's family and youngest son and his wife were not here. We invited a single sister and her two kids because she had no where to go.

We had sooo much food. Yam with marshmallow caserole, green bean caserole, stuffing caserole, two tossed salads, turkey and gravy, mashed potatoes, and rice pilaf. (Gabe's daughter is vegetarian)

Dessert was Krispy Kreme donuts from Gabe, two banana cream pies, pumpkin, chocolate, razzleberry. People took home pies since the kids loved the donuts and didn't eat much pie.

I had Jennifer and Ethan color a turkey I printed out and cut out feather shapes of card stock. However, when it came to time to retrieve the picture of the turkey, and attach the feathers, it was nowhere to be found. So we just all read the feathers around the table. In advance everyone filled out, on the feather, what they were thankful for. Owen said,"Grandma and everyone else." Ben had his written by Michelle. His was, " diapers and butt paste." I said, "for still being alive to enjoy another Thanksgiving and to be able to kiss my husband good morning and good night."

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and those in China we missed you. Gabes' was the funniest. He wrote how much feathers meant to him which filled the whole huge feather.

We were extremely glad to gather family around and express our blessings to one another.

Hope you all had a great weekend and a happy Thanksgiving.

My Life Story-First Sixty Years

I have been trying make the blog of my life story into a hard bound book. I started it as a blog, taking it from a hard copy with pictures to the blog in January of 2009. I have it almost finished but have some format questions that I have wait until Monday to ask. Customer service is only open Monday through Friday. It has been quite an exciting adventure to say the least.
I'm hoping to have it done by Monday and order it so it will arrive by mail before the 13th. My big party is that night. There will be a voice student of mine and a piano student performing. My friend Bev Anderson will do a belly dance candle dance with her husband on the drum. My friend Cindy Miller will read a poem about friendship. I'm sure there will be other surprises that I don't know about.
My friends Bev and Cindy and I have been putting together a scrapbook of the many pictures we have taken through the years. We had an annual friend's pilgrimage we would take each year. We visited the tulip fields every April during the Tulip Festival. Some years we missed, but most years we went. We will make copies of the scrapbook so all of us will keep that memory through pictures.
All I can say is that I've never had a big, big birthday party like this ever in my life. When I was growing up we didn't have big birthday parties with friends. So this will be a night that I will treasure for a long time.

Trunk or Treat with Grandkids!

They all went on the cupcake walk and received a cupcake which they scarfed down and then it was down the hall for a drink.
Colin was Robin Hood, Ady, Maid Marion, and Owen Spider Man complete with leather gloves. We did take his leather gloves off to eat, of course!


For putting the bean bag through the mouth of the ghost Ady received a necklace which we gracefully added to her beautiful dress. By the end of the night she had two necklace adorning her outfit.
Owen and Colin waiting in line for the bean bag toss with grandpa. There was also eating a donut on a string and a fishing pond and cake walk. Grandma was on her scooter taking pictures! After the carnival in the gym, all of us went outside to "Trunk or Treat." The kids saw a scary witch, Abe Lincoln, a crazy crayon lad. cheerleaders, flapper ladies, punk rockers and some draculas and other odd assortments of costumed people having lots of fun. For some unexplained reason a whole cow costume family showed up. Grandma dressed in a orange polo shirt and went as a handicapped person! Ha, ha. We all had a lot of fun and "tired out" was the game we played as we headed home!

My New Scooter

My scooter frees my hands so I can do more things and gets me places faster. The chair next to me with the pillows was where I spent my day cropping pictures for scrap booking.
Ben loved my scooter and pushed it around the condo. He liked to tip it over so he could play with the wheels. He also has another strange habit of carrying around one shoe by the shoelace.

As you can see the cast is almost up to my knee. I've pretty much gotten used to sleeping with it. The first few days my foot had panic attacks because it couldn't get out of the cast. The hard part is no baths or showers except sponge baths. I only have two more weeks to go until this comes off. I'm gaining a lot of upper body strength from lifting myself up both sets of stairs. I only use the crutches upstairs now. When we go anywhere I use the scooter.

Last Friday we went to the music store in Burlington, WalMart, and the dollar store for cards. By the time I arrived home I was spent! I didn't realize what a big store WalMart was until I had to do to on a scooter! Relief Society sisters are just bringing in one meal a week now. It has been nice. I did manage to fix a chicken, stuffing caserole. I just can't get it out of the fridge by myself so I go to the fridge with my dish and ladle out what I need right at the fridge without having to remove the caserole.

NECESSITY IS THE MOTHER OF INVENTION!!!

Yahoo and Whoops

Tuesday was a banner day. I went to visit the oncologist and he decided my counts were low enough to take me off chemo. Frank came with me to the appointment but had to leave to Tacoma for a Support Enforcement Convention. It's a once a year thing. He was gone Tues, Wed and back Thurs night.

Since Sunday I had been having pain in my right foot. I stepped into a Suburban for a ride to church and turned my foot towards the little toes and felt extreme pain. I thought it would go away by the time I got to church, but had to limp around for the next 4 hours. (Choir practice was before church and choir was singing)

Sunday night Eric brought Adyson. She stayed the night and I spent the day on the couch with my right foot elevated and watched Disney movies. Her favorite is Alice in Wonderland. When the pain hadn't abated by Tuesday morning, I made an appointment to see my regular doctor at 4 pm, after I saw the Oncologist.

They took ex-rays and determined that my 5th metatarsal bone in my foot was broken, not a hairline fracture, but broke clear through. They fitted me with a boot and went to get crutches to fit, but had none. (Efficiency in that clinic, not) I promised I would have someone take me the next morning to pick some up. Driving home with my left foot was an adventure. I think people thought I was a beginning driver because I punched the brake way too hard at first. Then I'm thinking as I drive home,"how am I going to get into my house without crutches?" So I drove by 3 different friends, all of which were not home. One house I could see movement inside so I honked the horn a few times, waited, still no one came out so I left. Could you see me crawling to the front door. That would been a comedic sketch. On the way home a brother in our ward was OUTSIDE and I stopped the car and explained my situation. He followed me over and helped me hop inside through our garage.

So, now I'm home and no husband coming home for two days. I called some friends who brought me dinner, did some vacuuming and filled my water bottles. For those who know my house I have a split level entry with living room on that level, stairs going up to the kitchen or down to the family room. I was fine for that night.

Wednesday morning my friend came back and washed some dishes, made me a sandwich for lunch, and put her homemade chicken soup in a bowl in the microwave. Crawling up the stairs at lunch, eating the sandwich on the counter (I couldn't carry it anywhere), then at dinner heating up the soup, sitting in a chair and eating it at the oven. (Couldn't carry that anywhere either)

Another friend dropped off perfectly fitting crutches and I proceeded to look on you tube on how to use crutches properly. I have to be on crutches for 3 weeks and in the boot for 3-4 more weeks. My birthday is November 3 so I think I'll still be stylin' wearing my boot on my b-day! Yippee! (Not)

My good friend had bunion surgery a few years ago and told me I needed to get a stool for the kitchen (to do minimal cooking) and for showering. She also has the same kind of floor plan as I do. After 3 - 4 days of crawling up and down stairs she bought knee pads.

My friend Yolanda brought me knee pads which help a lot. She also brought me a much needed remedy, Dove chocolate!

I'm trying to look at this as another BIG bump in the road and staying positive about being off chemo. I'm beginning to think my life is one big adventure after another! I've had enough adventures thank you very much!

Ladies Night Out

We had Relief Society meeting which I think should be called "Ladies Night Out." It was potluck most people brought main dishes or desserts. There was one salad and not very good. We had an interesting quinoa, black beans and corn that was great. Teriyaki meatballs were a hit. I did take tuna caserole, but, at the last minute added fresh mushrooms. One of the sisters there said her favorite meal is tuna caserole but her family doesn't like it. I must have been inspired. Adyson and I had leftovers for lunch and I took the rest to feed Benjamin and I for dinner. It's all gone now.

We had a clothing exchange and I took a lot of clothes. Someone had given me a two expensive women's suits which were both too short for my tastes. Both of those went to the same woman which made me happy. I found some girl clothes for Adyson, my grandaughter and for myself.

We played a game called Apples and Apples that was pretty fun. There were only 12 of us there at first and then three more people arrived bringing more desserts so, of course we had to go try their additions.

I'm kinda bummed cause my walking partner tweeked her knee somehow. So I haven't walked since last Thursday. Shame on me.

Good news though; Frank is now walking a couple of times around the development. He comes home at night and before he even comes in the house so I know he's home he's out walking. I'm so proud of him. He is getting ready and fit for when we hopefully go to China.

Bountiful Beautiful Foods

Color in nature is so dramatic. These pears look like giant lemons they are so yellow.
This was a pork chow mein that I enhanced by adding Kale, Swiss Chard, and Parsley. I steamed the three greens for 7 minutes and added to the leftover chow mein. It has given me two meals and I still have more left!
Kale is a super vegetable with many more nutrients than even spinach. For breakfast I also stir fry these three greens and onion, then add scrambled eggs and a sprinkling of grated cheese. Yesterday I wrapped the scrambled egg mixture and had a breakfast burrito. It was yummy.

When we went to Wenatchee, my Uncle Rex gave us a whole box of free pears. They are ripening fast so every day I have to eat at least one. I have given 3/4 of the box away since I am not doing any canning this year.
Melt in your mouth goodness and so little calories! If only I could eat natural sugar ALL the time!

Tomorrow is our Relief Society meeting. We are having a pot-luck dinner and game night. I plan on going - what to make though. I'm leaning toward a tuna noodle caserole; simple and quick. I bought some whole wheat pasta noodles at QFC tonight so I think I'll try them.

Benjamin's B-Day Celebration

Benjamin had 13 other family members at his party. It was a bit overwhelming for him to say the least.

Everyone sang Happy Birthday to him and he started crying. We all felt so bad. Everyone was shsshing and telling everyone to be quiet. It was totally quiet; he stopped crying and looked around wondering where all the sound went. We all couldn't help but laugh at the futility of it all!

My two darling grandaughters, Jennifer and Adyson.

Camron interestingly enough was curious about his littlest cousin Ben and sat and watched him play with his new basketball hoop toy.
Eric, Ethan and Terrin getting ready to leave
Colin, 7 years old.