I'd rather be in Disneyland....

.....because this was the year that you could get in free on your birthday but.....I've enjoyed the day doing the usual, greeting my family and friends and having food out all day then giving out treats in the evening and I just turned the lights out because I'm out of candy (what a Grinch I am) but it's been a long day. Back to Disneyland.....next year, you get in if you give a day of service so I'm going to do that so I'll be in Disneyland next year on my birthday.....but if I'm not, I'll be here doing the same thing that I've done for many years.....I think that's called a "tradition" and since I'm a "traditional" person, I probably won't be in Disneyland next year. Hope you had a nice Halloween.....

We wait with bated breath each year to see what Mason is going to be. "The Coach" is in the house and .......

....and wouldn't you want him jumping on the trampoline with your kid? Huh???????

Kyle rode over in his golf cart with his golfer's outfit to match....along with the Rubics Cube, Princess and the frog and the sweet little pea pod Matty.....

My camera failed me but I got this cute one before it gave out on me.....Kisten will come through with some good ones though.

.....and my witch's brew is a must. James and Lauri checking out the potency......they surprised me last night and it's been good to have them here. It was a really great day. Thanks for all your birthday wishes.....

.....and I almost forgot.....this day started with the "Toaster Streudel Fairy" arriving in the a.m. with some fresh treats.......and why, you say, did you have a grand kid sleepover the day before Halloween. Um......I thought it was harmless but when they weren't to sleep by 11 p.m., I thought how foolish in this Swine Flu season to not get these little kiddies in bed before 8 especially on the day before sugar overload. A lesson learned.....we're off and rollin'......get out the Christmas music. Mine will be on tomorrow. I'm outta here......

Did you hear the one about the blonde student....

...... who was taking a test? ......the professor told the class that it consists mainly of true and false questions. She takes her seat and stares at the paper for five minutes. Then a little light bulb went off in her head; she dug through her purse and took out a coin. She starts tossing it on her desk and marking the answer sheet- true for heads and false for tails. She finished the entire test in about thirty minutes, whereas the rest of the class is still working. She starts tossing the coin, swearing to herself. The professsor, a little alarmed, approaches her and asks.."what's going on?" She replies, "Well, I finished the exam in thirty minutes, so now, I'm checking my answers." Not to offend anyone, just a little "educational" humor to send along with my birthday wishes for Kyle.....click HERE to read my last year's tribute to him. Teachers see it all.... from "the dog ate my homework" to "I have swine flu" (3 times in one semester) but I'm sure he handles each situation with total integrity.....like the professor that was giving a big test one day to his students. He handed out all of the tests and went back to his desk to wait. Once the test was over, the students all handed the tests back in. He noticed that one of the students had attached a $100 bill to his test with a note saying "A dollar per point." The next class, he handed the tests back out. This student got back his test and $56 change! Have a great day Kyle, and I hope you continue to find the humor in your profession and in life....you're in it for the long haul, so might as well enjoy the ride. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Professor Wells. Keep up the good work. May you always make time to mow the lawn and lounge in a hammock.....(that's what I'll get you for your birthday, a new hammock for Pine Valley).

Got your pumpkins carved?......

It was always our tradition to carve them out on the back porch on the Family Home Evening before Halloween....that would be tonight. Always good memories and I want you to enlarge this picture and check out the facial expressions on each of my children. They used to put their own special touch not only the pumpkin carved, but on the presentation. Good times......I barely tolerate the holiday but love the memories. I do enjoy others around me enjoying it though. I just wish I could figure out why I don't like it....it could be because of some traumatic experience in my childhood or maybe I don't like orange and black that much.....or maybe it's the fact that it's a made up holiday, but I guess we need all the holidays we can get.... or maybe it's that kids go around and beg for candy. I don't really mind any of the above too much and I do think little kids in costumes are cute, but it's the big kids that dress up and scare me that I don't like. I need you to know that I pass no judgement on those that do love Halloween...seriously, in fact, I wish I did like it and I've tried to over the years but I just don't get it, really....but I realize it's not going away any time soon.....so I'll have my candy ready....and I'll hand it out....and I'll be cordial to the scary big people that knock on my door and want a handout.....and I'll wear orange.....and I'll participate as I say to myself...."wait....now why are we doing this again?".....and one of these years, who knows.....I may come to love it, but probably not.

I feel like it's my birthday.....

.....it's still a week away but in the mail I got these..., a present from ME. Since I've had this passion for creating funky socks, I've wanted to be able to wear them...and now that I'm old.....and I can wear purple.....or any other @$#@$ thing I want, I'm gonna wear my socks and I don't care what Stacy and Clinton might think.....(this might start a new trend)...I got these great transparent crocs and I LOVE THEM!!!!!! You're gonna want some too......but I'll have to make you some cute socks to wear with them. Thanks knittersdream.com. You rock!

Franklin Day Planner not working for ya?........

.....me neither. I've tried it several times and usually make it about 3 weeks but last night at work I saw something that really caught my eye and I thought I'd give it a try. A girl had a huge "to do list" written on the back of her hand. Nothing more than a fleeting thought but I said to myself...."she really has a lot to do." This morning, she was there again and I said as I looked at the list still on the back of her hand...."did you get all that stuff done?" "Most of it" she replied. Before leaving work, I wrote all the things I needed to get done on the back of my hand....(not nearly as many as her and my hand was a lot more wrinkley and hard to write on than her young, smooth, unfreckled and unharry skin but I thought I'd give it a try. Solves my problem of never being able to find the list I made, or forgetting to take the list with me when I go to do the things on the list or never writing them down because I know I'll forget to look at it or take it with me....I'm sure you don't have that problem but I do so I thought I'd try it.....so far so good. Still got 2 things to go but should have them done by bedtime. Then I found this online that might help me in the future if I don't want to bother with scrubbing the ink off my hand....(knowing me, it will take until it wears off to get things done) but innovative none the less. Clickity click on it to learn more.

Happy Birthday, David....

Clickity-click on this picture to read my tribute to David Barber Wells......

I DID IT......

.....and it wasn't that hard (now that it's over) but I have to say that I had the same feeling that my niece's husband described when he finished a triathlon (Eric, hope you don't mind me using your quotes from your Facebook entry): "I DID IT!!! Amazing the spectrum of emotions one can experience in just 3 hours. What a high! Swim 1 mile + Bike 25 miles + Run 6.2 miles = one of the greatest experiences a person can have." .....but mine was actually an "Iron Grandma" (take off on the Iron Man Race) as I pretty much kept my Kentucky grand kids alive for FOUR DAYS.....as they jumped off furniture, careened down mile-high bike jumps, and went off by themselves to their friend's houses in those corrupt Louisville neighborhoods.....not to mention that I COOKED....(we only hit Mickey D's twice), that in itself was equal or even more than Eric's 6.2 mile run and in the end...in Eric's words: "I think the announcer put it well, "how close is heaven? You ask. It is very close. It is right on the other side of that finish line. ".......my heaven was last night in the Louisville airport when Spencer and Shana walked into the arms of their 4 "alive" kids......I was secretly doing the arm and fist pump repeating in my head with a huge grin on my face...."I DID IT!".....and it was a bit hard on this old grandma but enjoyable. Do I want to do it again?.......'um give me a day or two and you'll get a resounding YES!!!!!!! Laynee, Drew, Seth and Jack.....I miss you. You really are great kids.

Saying goodbye to the kids this morning after a successful stay. I'm sure another Iron Grandma Event will be coming soon.....I'll keep you posted.

Hey, did you hear the one about....

......the couple that entered the dentist's office? The wife said,"I want a tooth pulled. I don't want gas or Novocain because I'm in a terrible hurry. Just pull the tooth as quickly as possible."You're a brave woman," said the dentist. "Now, show me which tooth it is."The wife turns to her husband and says,"Open your mouth and show the dentist which tooth it is, dear."

Just a little dental humor there to wish my favorite dentist a Happy Birthday. Did you hear about the guy that said to the dentist: "I have yellow teeth, what should I do? The dentist replied..."Wear a brown tie?" Are you laughing yet???? Well....at least these are better than lawyer jokes. All kidding aside, it's Mason's birthday and I don't want to define this good man only by his profession because he's a great husband, dad, son, brother, friend and party thrower, not to mention baseball player, hoop shooter and Cornhole Champ....and plays a wicked game of Mormon Rook so ya really ought to get to know this multi-faceted guy and wish him a big ol' Happy Birthday. (upper left pic: working on Joyce's teeth; lower right: hangin' with a little guy down in Peru a few years ago on a humanitarian adventure.) When's the best time to visit the dentist? 2:30.....(get it?.....tooth hurty...) What does the "Dentist of the Year" get?.....a little plaque. O.k....I'm done.

I'm tickled pink and pleased as punch....

.....and if I had a "show 'n' tell", I'd take it there but for now, I'll just have to put it on my blog. It's my "book" of my blog, my own personal "yearbook".....I love it. I accidentally stumbled on it through "Cutest Blog on the Block" blog.....and did a little clicking around and almost instantly created this book....I'm sure there are other ways out there but I've been pretty pleased with this. I had been printing out all my blogs....to save for posterity as it's the only journal I have lately but this has been a new discovery for me and I'm very happy with it, in case you couldn't tell.

Another thing I'd take for "show 'n' tell" is this cotton that grows in my neighbor's yard. She gives me some every year and has offered me some seeds. I really need to start growing my own. It's totally amazing to see these little cotton balls really growing as a plant. What would you take for "show 'n' tell"?

Truly one of my favorite week-ends of the year....

I actually love how the town fills up with people. I don't go out in it much but it's just a very exciting time, not to mention the bucks that it pumps into our local economy.....and the excitement that's in the air as this community puts on a mighty fine marathon.

This is where we see him first, on Diagonal Street where he greets the kids, poses and hands off all the stuff he doesn't need then we head out and meet him at the finish line. I'm very impressed that Kyle finished it....he didn't train, just decided to run it a couple of weeks ago. This is his 8th year and the baby was due this week....but when baby Matty came early.....no excuses. "Not training" apparently is not an excuse....we ventured up to Pine Valley for the annual "carbo load" party with the Beckstrands and Rogels.

Matty got to join us this year at the finish line and she did well.....probably a bit sunburned, but mostly slept. Someday maybe when she runs it, we can show this as her 1st marathon.

Joel, John, Charles and Kyle.....they all made it. Way to go, guys.

Still a very proud moment for this mom. It amazes me that people can really complete this and as we drove up to Pine Valley last night, it amazed me even more as you see how really long 26.2 miles is. It's quite magic though and fun to see the people that have the stamina to do it.....cheered on by the thousands more of us that wish we wanted to.

I do love surprises.....

....and Traci has pulled a few off through the years. Last Tuesday, I got a call from her (that I almost didn't answer because I had been working with a student) but I quietly answered it and she told me I looked nice today. I soon realized she was here.....I looked up and Scotty was coming through the door at work.

What a fun week we've had. My favorite part of her coming is getting the cousins together, especially Scotty and Evan and Jake and Miller. We were able to do a little of that and this morning, while playing downstairs, they discovered some hats in the cupboard, the perfect hip-hop attire as McKay showed off some of his moves and the rest joined in with theirs.

We ended the week with a short visit to Pine Valley where Traci enjoyed the golf cart, the boys ran around on the lawn and we all held little Matty. She's 2 weeks old now and very pretty in pink.

I hope everyone enjoys conference......and my prayers are with my marathon runner. Good luck Kyle.