Put a little Sunshine in your day:-)

A few weeks back as I was driving home from the temple and I couldn't help but stop and take some pictures of these beautiful Sunflowers. After that I noticed them all over town. A lot of people are planting them in their yard. Driving Keagan to School in the morning I noticed some other sun flowers just down the street from us. Now that fall and soon winter will be upon us I just had to post these photos of the beautiful sun flowers. I hope they warm your day as they do mine.

Still No Coke!!!

Just thought I would fill you in and let you know I STILL have not had a Coke!!! Are you proud of me?

The Start Of A New Year In Our BYU Ward

It's hard to believe that we have been in our calling at the BYU 144 Ward for a little over a year now. Les is 1st Counselor. The 2nd Counselor Brother Blackhusrt and his wife have the cutest little boy, Luke is his name. We received an email from Brother blackhusrt today that said, "I thought you might like to know that Luke is doing his part for the ward. See attached. He also likes to make sure Brother Smith is still there."
Here is Luke looking through the ward directory, he's pointing out his nursery leaders. Yes, even in the BYU ward we have nursery leaders for Luke.

Here's were he is checking the directory to see if Brother Smith is still there.

This is the cover of the ward directory, do you see Brother Smith??? Luke just like to check and make sure he hasn't fallen off the ladder, and he's still holding up the 9 :-) Luke has to be a sharp kid to be at BYU already:-)

The Twins Turned 80!

For those who don't know Les's Mom and her twin sister Auntie Dorothy well, saying they are horse lovers is an understatement. They are truly "HORSE" lovers, practically born in the saddle. I love this poster that cousin Pam got for the 80th birthday celebration.

This is a photo of Les's Grandmother Kiki, Les's Mom, and her twin Sister Dorothy it was their birthday party invitation. They celebrated their 80th birthday on Aug 2nd. They were born in Santa Barbara California and lived in a beautiful home there that reminds me of being somewhere on a pacific island because of the vegetation that grows around the home. About 6 years ago we took a trip there to visit all the places where Doris (Mom) lived, played and went to school. It was really very interesting. Their parents were horsemen.

This is Les's Mom's Senior picture, and below is Aunt Dorothy's Senior photo. What beautiful young woment they were.

And as you can see, how beautiful they are still.

Here's wishing them many, many more!!!

New Scales

Just as I said I went out and bought me a new bathroom scale. It's one of those that will hold your weight for up to 4 to 6 weeks so you can see your progress. It will also keep track of up to 4 peoples weight. Les saw it and wanted to try it out. It took a minute for us to get the hang of it but he became person #2. I was person #1 so when he stepped on the scales the first weight it brought up was mine. He looked at it and said, "Ya, that's about right for my weight." I said, "Les, that's MY weight." He waited a minute and then his came up. Thank goodness it was 20 something more then me. FWWWWWWW! I'm not going to give out our weight though, sorry. Les really wouldn't care but I would. I'll keep you updated on my progress:-)

Four Weeks Without a Coke!!!

I can't believe it but it has been 4 weeks since I last had a coke or any kind of soft drink for that matter. You got it right. "4 WHOLE WEEKS!!!" It's been even longer then that since I have had any Corn Nuts (my last craving) I was eatting on an average of 1 to 2 packages a day. I do have to have a little tiny piece of chocolate every now and then but I have sworn off sweets as well. Not entirely or I will set myself up to fail. I have been walking everyday and doing the 8 minute work out which you wouldn't think it would but it kicks my butt, and I dance 3 nights a week. I know your thinking HOW MUCH HAVE YOU LOST? It's discouraging to even tell you but I don't think I have lost anything. I am going to get myself a new set of scales and start keeping track. But I'm not going to let it get me down. I am going to get some of this weight off if it kills me! Keep me in your prayers:-)

PHASE TWO OF OUR TRIP.

After seeing the big redwoods in Yosemite we headed to Exiter California to visit my Uncle Kent and his wife Paula. This is a Kent, Paula and their new puppy Jada Elizabeth. Kent and Paula live on what Les and I consider to be a little piece of pparadise only you can't really say little. He lives in the middle of 100's of acres of orange groves. It is so beautiful and peaceful there. Jada is the cutest little puppy and won over our hearts and our feet:-) she likes to lick feet. We got to visit with some of my cousins, Gwen and Charlotte and meet Gwen's twins, Morgan and Shane who are two great 17 year olds.
Les took a relaxing swim in the pool before dinner. Kent also has a hot tub, sauna and tanning booth as well.
We enjoyed our stay at Kent and Paula's they truly roll out the red carpet for us! They put mints on our pillows provided us with robes (like they do in the expensive hotels) and made us feel like royalty.
Sequoia National Park in almost in Kent's back yard, another park of giant redwoods so we took off to Sequoia while we were there as well.

The Park was so beautiful and it was sooo cool there. The temperature was the best probably because we were so high up and shrouded in trees. We waved good-bye to Kent, Paula, and Jada. And were off to our next stop, Santa Barbara California, home of the twins for their birthday. Stay tune for the 80th birthday party!

YOUR FUNNY FOR THE DAY...THE LAUGHS ON ME!

We have had a sprinkler in the back yard that has leaked for years, yes you heard me right YEARS! At first it was just a little leak but then it became a big leak. It was even seeping into the neighbors back yard and he complained about it last summer, so the start of this summer Les took the sprinkler valve apart and put all new parts into it. WALA...it still leaks only this time the leak is even worse. Les will agree he is no handy man. What I'm about to tell you next I wish I had a picture of but I don't because it happened to me. Jake our 10 year old grandson wanted to earn some money this summer and asked if he could mow our lawn and even though Papa is very particular about his lawn he is even more particular about having young boys grow into responsible young men so he agreed. He just asked that someone trim around the fence and get things started for him. Last Friday Jake came over to mow the lawn and so I was doing the trimming for him. Well needless to say when I got to the place where the leaking sprinkler was it was muddy, as I stepped onto the muddy spot I could feel my feet slipping out from under me. I looked over at Jake as I was going down WITH THE LAWN MOWER mind you, and I wish you could have seen his expression! He looked as if he wanted to laugh but then remembered, "oh oh, this is my Nana what if she gets hurt," and the expression changed from laughter to fear. Needless to say I slide down still holding onto the lawn mower and the more I tried to get up the more I slid. I finally had to take off my shoes to even stand up. Now I have MUD all over my butt, down my legs, up my back and I am cussing (in my mind not in front of my grandson) this d--- sprinkler!!! I get back up, start the lawn mower and finish trimming the lawn covered in mud before I go in to change. Needless to say a plumber is coming to fix the sprinkler TODAY!!! I know your laughing but it's okay.

"GETTING AWAY..THE GREAT ESCAPE"

Ever since my retirement last January Les and I have been saying we were going to get away but something always comes up. Les's Mom and her twin sister were celebrating their "80th" birthday August the 2nd, the day after my Mom's and they wanted to celebrate it in Santa Barbara California where they were both born and raised. We decided that would be a great chance to take off early before their birthday and do a little sight seeing on our own. So Tuesday July 28th we loaded up the car and headed for California to Yosemite home of the giant Seqouia's. The first day we drove to Tonapa Neveda. What's in Tonapa you ask? Not really much of anything any more, the motel we stayed in, a restaurant or two, an antique book store, a couple of gas stations and that's about it. We spent the night there in a nice Best Western got up the next morning and headed for Yosemite. You would not have believed the road we drove on. I thought my grand kids would have loved it. It should have been titled the roller coaster highway because it was just like a roller coaster and if Les got going a little to fast our car did a jump (that must be where we lost one of our hubcaps). The scenery in Yosmite was breathtakingly beautiful.

As you can see from the picture we were pretty high up. The ole ears were a poppen all the way! The landscape and flowers before we got to the big redwood trees was so pretty.

I'm usually not in many of the pictures but Les did take a few of me because we were both carrying camera's on this trip. See, I really was there.

The Giant Redwoods were AMAZING!!! The pictures do not do them justice unless you have something to compare them with.

This is a picture of Les's great grandfather Horace Smith taken in the redwoods years ago. Les's father had his picture taken also but I don't have one of him to put in the blog. And of course this is Les. I wish I had the photo of Les's Dad because he tried to dress like Horace as well.

Stay tune for more of our trip as I find time to update :-)

My faith in people has been restored.

Recently Jeramy and Rebecca had the GPS stolen from their car. Previously to that they had their Honda stolen from right in front of their bedroom window. Then Jeramy lost his wallet at the movies. Believe it or not after much prayer they were all returned. The car had a torn seat cover, the GPS was missing it's cord and case and the wallet was missing $20.00 but they got them back!!! Yesterday I was in Wal-mart to buy a birthday card and gift bag for a birthday present my sister Nancy and I were giving Mom for her birthday. I called Nancy to ask a question and she said, "where are you?" I told her, "Wal-mart." She told me she had just gotten home from there and while she was at Wal-mart she had lost a very expensive bracelet. She had called their service desk but no one had turned it in. She asked if I would look around where she had been to see if it might miraculously still be there. I looked in the places she had been with her on the phone and it was no where to be found. She said, "I'll probably never see it again with the way things are today and it being expensive, someone will probably just see it and be happy to take it home." I paid for my things and was going to stop by the service desk just in case when my cel phone rang. It was Nancy, they had just called and told her someone turned it her bracelet. Someone found it in the parking lot. It just goes to show you that there's still GOOD people in the world.

"HAPPY "83rd" BIRTHDAY MOM"

(Sorry the photo's a little dark we were running out of light)

Yesterday we celebrated my Mom's "83" Birthday. Her birthday isn't until the 1st of August but Les and I will be out of town then so we celebrated it early. I wanted everything to be nice and go just right but what ever can go wrong usually does go wrong. Mom and my siblings arrived and we were going to barbecue, well when Les tried to hook the propane to the grill every time he would turn it on it would blow off the hose. Wouldn't you know it some little plastic fitting broke and therefore we couldn't use the grill. So we had to take the steaks in the house and broil them. Other then that we had a great time together. It was great that we could all get together to celebrate her birthday. It would have been better if Burt could have been with us but he was unable to make it. It's hard in this busy world to find a time when we call all get together. We had fun reminiscing and laughing together. What a great influence Mom has been not only to us but to so many others. She grew up on a farm. She is the oldest of six and the only girl.

Mom felt as comfortable on a horse growing up as she did driving a car. Her life has been a life of service; helping with her siblings, working on the farm and in the orchard, raising her own 6 children, taking care of our father and her mother as their health declined, not to mention helping all the widows in her neighborhood get to church. She also helps a lot of those ladies find joy in the winding down part of their journeys by having club, playing cards, laughing and sharing. She is a great example to her children and grandchildren. Happy Birthday Mom!!! And here's to many more to come.

" The sisters"

The New Pergola

For my birthday present Les had a Pergola built over the patio. I had seen one at Hyde Park where we buy the flowers for our yard. They told us theirs was built by one of employees (Randy) who would probably be more then happy to build one for us too. We got in touch with Randy weeks before my birthday and I was really hoping I could have it for my birthday but he was booked out about two weeks. He said he could at least get it started before my birthday. Well, Mother Nature was determined that was NOT going to happen!! It rained, and rained, and rained! Finally the rain stopped and the sun came out and Randy finally got it finished before the 4th of July! We love it!!! Now I'm asking for patio furniture, I'm I ever satisfied?!?

The other night Les and I were in bed fast asleep when I was awaken by a noise. It sounded like the sliding glass door down stairs. I was wide awake now, there it was again. I wake up Les to let him know I think there is someone down stairs. You know what it's like to be awaken from a sound sleep! He tells me he will get up and and turn on the outside lights and I should watch out the window to see if I see anyone. Well, I stood at the window, he turned on the lights, but I didn't see anyone. Les calls from the family room, "Judy come here." I go and he is standing on the deck, he points to the TOP of the Pergola and there is our boogie man. A CAT!!! He had walked across the fence and jumped onto the Pergola. That is probably what I thought was the sliding glass door opening. Les went out in his angel chaps and got the cat off the Pergola, and we went back to bed. Someone or something other then us thinks the Pergola is pretty darn nice as well:-)

Little Entrepreneurs!

This year we had a bumper crop of cherries!!! Our tree was actually loaded to the ground. Try mowing the lawn under the branches laden down with ripe or over ripe cherries:-( I must confess neither Les nor I are fruit farmers, we know "NOTHING, NADA" about pruning or spraying trees. (Don't ask me why we even bought fruit trees!) The cherry tree has grown HUGE which for one good thing provides our back yard with great shade, but, that is about the only good thing! The ground is always covered with cherries. And the d--- birds (I'm sure it's just as bad to think the word as it is to say it) carry the cherries in their mouths, fly over the deck and drop them...Yuckie!!! Anyway we were out of town the week the cherries turned ripe. Ashlyn, Dave and the kids were helping Grandma and Grandpa Robb have a yard sell. In the past when we had our video yard sells we would sell cherries for $1.00 a bag until one time a little neighbor boy came back and said, "Your cherries have worms in them." Les gave him back his money and an extra $5.00 to help the kid feel better about eating wormy cherries. Les had sprayed and sprayed but the cherries still get worms in them. You open up this beautiful, sweet, delicious cherry and there would be one little teeny tiny white worm hiding behind the pit, not in every cherry but who wants to open all their cherries before they eat them. Ashlyn and Dave checked the cherries and didn't find any worms so they came and picked them and sold 26 bags of cherries for $1.50 a bag. Les picked more when we got home and the kids sat on their yard and sold them all. So Les decided to pick more the next day and the kids were going to sit out on our yard and sell them along with ice cold pop. (That beats lemonade because people never know what the kids stirred the drink with (a dirty little hand or what.) As we were picking, Dave started checking the cherries, "Oh, Oh," he said. "I found a worm!" We all started checking more cherries and sure enough not in all the cherries but in 3 out of ten there was that creepy little worm. The kids were disappointed because they wanted to earn more money so we went to the store and bought more pop and Ice. We Loaded up the ice chest with pop and they sat out front of the house in the afternoon as people we going home from work and sold Pop.

We started setting up for the pop stand when what to our wondering eyes should appear but the little neighbor girl across the street ran out and started setting up a snow cone stand! Jake said, "Oh great!!! Now we have competition." I told him that competition was good because people who didn't want a snow cone would buy a pop from he and Lily.They didn't sell as much pop as they would have liked but they had fun doing it and made new friends in the neighborhood as well.

May and June Birthdays

Here it is the first of July...can you believe it?!?! With all the rain we have had it feels like March or April weather. I am beginning to see how Noah and his family felt on the ark, well, not exactly because we at least don't have to put up with the smells :-) but it can get pretty depressing.

May the 2nd was my oldest and dearest friend's birthday. Patsy and I met when we were 7 years old in Mrs. Waffords second grade class. We have been friends 57 years...amazing don't you think?!? We have been through a lot together. We have shared loosing our baby teeth; skinned knees, singing "I can't be happy, unless your happy then I can be happy too." Square dancing in grade school with Mr. Beck, Spanish class in 6th grade with Senior Brimhall, running down the halls in High school yelling, "Hi Lynn," in Mr Hunters class and driving him crazy, bummer Sornsen's Drivers Ed class, riding in the trunk of Patsy's car when she had only her temporary drivers licence and you couldn't drive with more then one other person, double dates, sluffing, record hops, broken hearts, marriage, the births of our babies and grand babies, to the lose of a grand baby. There is no one on God's green earth that knows my childhood and I know hers like Patsy.

(Sixth Grade picture) If you look close you will see we are holding hands. There are lots of great memories of our growing up years. Hop scotch, jacks, trickie bars, roller skating, riding our bikes from American for to Pleasant Grove, or to Lehi. We could go any where on our bikes in those days. Amagine walking a few blocks from Patsy's to the Star light Drive In, in our PJs and sitting on the seats they had by the snack bar watching the movie, telling everyone we were twins, Tammy and Pammy. Hee Hee :-) Our grand kids and kids will never know these kind of fun times in their lives because our world has changed so, which makes me sad. Oh I can't forget roller blading in our later years as well. Happy Birthday Pats!
On the 20th of May it was my little sister Bonnie's birthday. When Mom was pregnant with Bonnie and we found out she would be born in May I was so hoping she would be born on my birthday. It didn't happen, she came 7 days earlier. It was so fun being the big sister to 5 siblings. I loved mothering them although I don't know how much they appreciated that. Bonnie did a lot of the things growing up that I wish I could have done, so I lived my life vicariously through watching her. It was as exciting watching her accomplishment's as if I would have done them myself. She was and is a great sister. Happy birthday Sis!On the 27th of May I turned "63" which I can't even believe I'm that old. For you youngsters out there enjoy, because you turn around and your in a place you thought was years away. I look at photos of me and think no, that's not me. A week ago we were in Zions with Les's cousin Tim. I was looking at some of the photos Les had taken and I said, "who is that women talking to Tim?" And would you believe that women was ME!!! It's scary, I'm on the down hill side. Enough of the lamenting.

June the 5th was our Angel Andrew's birthday. I can't talk about birthdays without remembering his. He would have been 9 years old. We went to the cemetery with Ash, Dave and kids and sent a balloon bouquet up to Andrew. He makes us all want to be better so we can be with him someday. Happy Birthday Andrew, we love you!!!

June the 9th was our energetic little Jarons birthday. This little guy keeps his mom and dad on their toes.

Soon after he was born we made a trip to San Antonio and were their for his blessing. What a great experience that was. It was fun to get to cuddle him and love him which I would love to do more of. I sent him an outfit for his birthday and sent red tennis shoes to go it. He loved his red shoes. This boy is stylen!! Is this the little boy I sang to and rocked in the rocking chair just the other day? And now he's five years old. NO WAY! How can that be?
Happy Birthday Jaron buddy! We love you!!!

And The Winner Is...

Thursday, Ashlyn, the kids, and I, were on our way to Park City to go Father's Day shopping. Ash mentioned that she had entered Marcella (Grandma Barrett's) recipe for fudge in the Studio 5 Pioneer Heritage recipe contest. She said, "I've never heard back from them so I guess mine didn't get picked because they are having the contestants on the show tomorrow." About 20 minutes later her cel phone rang and guess who it was??? Studio 5 asking if she was available for the show tomorrow and if she could bring a batch of her fudge. The show was being televised from the Pioneer Heritage Park. She was so excited and so were the kids. The kids and I first thought that it was their Realtor saying that they had an offer on there house but NO, it was Studio 5. So we got up early friday morning and headed to Salt Lake.

When we got there we found out not only would Ashlyn be in the segment but Lily and Jake as well. Lily and Jake were asked to participate in a segment featuring games for family reunions, which was a lot of fun.
And then they had a segment where they featured kids with three little kids (baby goats);-) They were only a week old. Lily and Jake and some of the other kids were in the shot but there was one shot where they featured Lily and a little goat getting right up close and personal. It is so darling. I wish I had a picture of it so I could put it on the blog. I'm so glad that I tevoed it. They told Lily it may be on a magazine cover as well.They asked Ashlyn to send in some information about the recipe, who's recipe it was, and where it came from. They also asked for pictures. I wish I would have taken a picture of her when she was little sitting in the high chair or on the counter next to Marcella making the candy with her. In between the segments when they went to a commercial, and when Ashlyn was talking about making the fudge with her grandmother they showed the pictures of Marcella and her sisters, Marcella alone and Grandma and Grandpa Allred. It was pretty neat. After the judges (who were the camera crew) judged the items it was unanimous that Ashlyn's fudge was the winning recipe. The prize was a year pass to Heritage Park and some lotions. It was fun for her to participate and it was a nice tribute to her grandmother & great grandmother.
Darrin the anchorman, Ashlyn, Brooke the anchor, me, Jake and Lily. Keagan missed out because she was at Girls camp with her ward.

And the winner is...Ashlyn's old fashion fudge recipe!!!:-)

"Flash From The Past Birthday"

Billy the birthday boy and his Mom Suzanne. From Left to right: Aunt Dorothy and Fido, Sandy, Les's Mom, Laura, Abby, and Les.

This last weekend we made a trip to Wyoming for Les's nephew Billy's "40th" birthday party. I wanted to say 40th???? Wait 20 or 40 more years!!!! Shoot, the next 10 years will be some of the best years of your life:-) then you'll have something to really celebrate!!! But Billy has a lot to celebrate in his 40 young years. He has a beautiful wife Kate, and 4 beautiful kids, he has a very successful business and he has his health so as far as that goes he is one of the most successful people in Wyoming. They went all out erecting a large tent, live band, and catered food. The party was centered around a hippie theme since not only was it Billy's 40th birthday but also the 40th anniversary of Wood Stock. The guests were given peace signs to wear around their necks and washable tattoo's (instead of face paint). All of Les's family were there...well most of his family. Aunt Dorothy traveled from Palm Desert. She is Les's mom's twin sister. It was fun having the twins together. I am still gimping around on my foot but it is getting better. This beautiful photo was taken on the way to Star Valley. If you look close you can see a rainbow on the mountain side. It was made up of blues, purples, and greens. As you can see a fun time was had by all. Happy Birthday Billy!!! And here's wishing you a whole boat load more to come.

Future Utah Symphony Orchestra Members:-)

Last night Papa and I had the privilege of attending Lily's violin recital. There were only 5 kids participating so it lasted all of about 15 minutes. You wonder sometimes if it's even worth the trip, but in the long scheme of things I know that it is. It makes the kids so happy that we came to hear them participate and to cheer them on. Both Lily and Keagan play the violin. Keagan been playing since she was 5 years old and Lily started last year when she was 6. Both of the girls really enjoy learning to play. When I was young I wanted to dance which wasn't on option for me because my Dad would say, "you can't dance when you 60." Little did he know that I would be doing just that:-) He wanted us to play an instrument. I choose the piano but I wanted to play "REAL" music not all the little songs that didn't really sound like songs or scales. I didn't really want to practice either, hence I can play a few things for my own enjoyment but I could never play for anyone else. Nor can I sit down and pick up a piece of sheet music like Keagan can and start to play. My Dad had a beautiful tenor voice and was constantly being asked to sing at church, weddings, funerals and such. I'm sure he would have loved to have one of his daughters accompany him. Nancy also played the piano and she played a lot better then I, but she didn't ever acompany him either if I remember right.
Back to Keagan and Lily. Last night Lily played her first number with her teacher Mrs Chudleigh. She played Andantion by Suzuki. For her second number she played one the of the primary songs, The Baptism Song by Crawford Gates. And Keagan accompanioned her on the piano. Dad would have been so proud! Lily remembered her music but forgot to get the music for Keagan to use to accompany her so she had to play from memory and she did a great job. As you can see Keagan is really growing up. She will be in Junior High next year. All the kids are growing up.Bravo, Bravo, Bravo. Keep up the good work.

BEFORE AND AFTER

The last two weeks since my surgery I haven't been able to do a lot of anything other then sit about with my foot propped up. Believe me that can get old real fast. Yesterday I got the stitches out. YAHOO!!! This means I can get it wet, I can change the dressing everyday, I can itch my foot, and yada, yada, yada. You get the idea. Anyway I decided I would give you a before and after shot of my foot. Sorry I don't have the best looking feet as feet go, I should have taken a side view so you could see the bump on my knuckle better it doesn't look that bad from this shot but believe it was or I would NOT have had surgery. The after shot is not a very pretty picture is it? The bump is gone leaving a big scar, but I have so much more movement in my toe it is amazing. I have to do physical therapy with it all the time to keep the mobility but at least I'm on the mend. I may be able to wear my shoe instead of the stylish black Velcro shoe I am currently wearing. It's hard to find a shoe that is level with it so I am a sight sometimes walking around. I'll keep you posted on the progress but a word to the wise for the younger generation. Take care of your bodies, and your body parts like feet. Wear shoes that are comfortable not just stylish because sooner then later you will find yourself suddenly at an age you never thought you'd get to for a long, long time and you'll be thinking why didn't I take better care of my body!!!