The First of the Xmas Pictures

How is that for a very cute little Granddog!!

Cory's Graduation

Cory graduated from Berkeley on December 8, 2007. She got her B.A. in Comparative Literature.

She is starting work after the first at Demandtec in the San Francisco Bay area. Think it is down by Menlo Park area. http://www.demandtec.com/

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Congratulations Cory!! Well done. Keep up the good work etc. etc. etc!!!!

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We love you and think you are pretty special!!

In Honor of my Newest Grandson

Upon Seeing an Ultrasound Photo of an Unborn Child

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Tadpole, it's not time yet to nag you

about college (though I have some thoughts

on that), baseball (ditto), or abstract

principles. Enjoy your delicious,

soupy womb-warmth, do some rolls and saults

(it'll be too crowded soon), delight in your early

dreams — which no one will attempt to analyze.

For now: may your toes blossom, your fingers

lengthen, your sexual organs grow (too soon

to tell which yet) sensitive, your teeth

form their buds in their forming jawbone, your already

booming heart expand (literally

now, metaphorically later); O your spine,

eyebrows, nape, knees, fibulae,

lungs, lips... But your soul,

dear child: I don't see it here, when

does that come in, whence? Perhaps God,

and your mother, and even I — we'll all contribute

and you'll learn yourself to coax it

from wherever: your soul, which holds your bones

together and lets you live

on earth. — Fingerling, sidecar, nubbin,

I'm waiting, it's me, Dad,

I'm out here. You already know

where Mom is. I'll see you more directly

upon arrival. You'll recognize

me — I'll be the tall-seeming, delighted

blond guy, and I'll have

your nose.

***

by Thomas Lux, from The Drowned River.

Winton's Birthday and New Car!!

Someone just had a Birthday!! It was the 88th time Dad had a birthday but I won't say how old he is. Here he is with his new car that he bought a couple of weeks ago. He has been thinking about getting one for sometime now but I noticed he didn't do anything about it until he passed his drivers test!! (With 100%!!) He now has his licence until he is 93 years old!! It didn't take long for him to find a car and buy it once he decided to do it. One day he said he had stopped at the car dealer to look and then the next day he had bought one!! He got a great car with low mileage and very well taken care of. The owner wanted to make sure he was going to put in the garage!

The Birthday boy on his Birthday 2007

2001 Toyota Avalon XL


Here is another Birthday present he has been talking about for sometime and finally got. He had a gate put in on the side of the house. Here the workers are just about finished up with it.

Happy Birthday Dad!! And Many, Many More!!!!

The Day After the Storm

Here is a picture of the Freeway by Darcy's house. It is taken from the computer Traffic Web Cam. http://www.utahcommuterlink.com/ie.htm My weather page says it is 20degrees there at 9 am and it feels like 8 degrees!! It says it will get to get up to 40 degrees today. We are at 44degrees right now and should get up to 59 and I'm complaining about the cold?

This picture is right near Shannen's apt. Provo seems to get more snow then Farmington most of the time but this time it seems the same. Both of the girls will have to walk to school in the snow... uphill both ways I'm sure!!

Thanksgiving Trip

This year we went down to Steve & Lisa's to try out their newly remodeled kitchen and house. Jim drove down with us and Darcy and Scott, Jessy, Brianna and Kody were all there also. I had all three kids there and I didn't even get pictures of them all together! I can't believe that, darn!!! Here are some of the pictures I did get.

(you can click on all but one picture to enlarge them. I don't know why the one of Steve and Darcy and me at Wild Animal Park won't enlarge. It is just one of those mysteries of life!) Darcy and Scott and Jessy and Kody stopped by on their way into town in their new car!! They made a family vacation of it with Brianna flying in and going to Disneyland and SeaWorld and the Wild Animal Park.
Kody right after his shower with his hair combed like a big boy. He wants to grow it out but Mommy wants to buzz it again. I wonder who will get their way!
Kody and Beardsley in the Anderson's back yard.
Kody with his favorite thumb. While we were walking at the Wild Animal Park he had to change hands with me because I was holding "My thumb sucking hand."
Jim spent most of the weekend working on school work. He stayed home on Friday and did a paper instead of going with us to the WAP. I'm sure he will be glad when he gets that piece of paper and is done!!

Steve the Chef cooking the Stuffed Pork Chops that they fixed for dinner.



Rolling out the pie dough. Lisa made a great apple pie even if she wasn't real happy with how the crust looked. The pie was so good I had to close my eyes to savor it so didn't even notice the "Frankstein" look of the crust!!! (Lisa's word, not mine!) Notice how she has her own little baking area away from the other work areas. The kitchen turned out so great. Different little places for everything.

Darcy mixing the salad up.

Jessy and Brianna doing what they did most of the day, playing video games and talking. They are so grown up now.

Guinness in a rare moment of sitting. He was funny to watch run circles around Mr. Beardsley!! I think he wore Mr. B out just watching him!!! He is getting his adult coat so looks a lot bigger than last time we saw him.

It was a beautiful table.

Lisa even had a place setting for Kody. I just noticed that I took the picture upside down!! What was I thinking?

Everyone but the Photographer Steve. Good Looking group!!

Two of my kids

Kody and his dad feeding the ducks.

It was a great two days! Thank you Steve and Lisa!! Next year will be a little different for them!!!

Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone

(click to enlarge to read)

Take a Look at Steve & Lisa's

Notice to everyone Big News on Steve & Lisa's Blog!
I'm so excited!!!!

http://steve-and-lisa.blogspot.com/

John's 40th Birthday!!

On Saturday after we took Shannen to the airport we headed up to Ventura with Jared for John's 40th birthday party. Hard to believe that Paul's second child is 40 years old but those are the facts!

John had wanted to do a birthday trip with everyone joining him but because of work it didn't happen. Somethings just aren't meant to be. Instead Heather and the boys came down with him to Heather's mom's home in Ventura for the weekend. They had the party there. It was great fun and so good to see all of them. It was the first time we had met either of Heather's parents and they were as nice as Heather has been telling us.

John brought down his new longboard surfboard but as of Saturday there had been no waves to ride. I hope there were some on Sunday but I haven't heard. I know nothing about surfboards but it was a beauty. I know there was a great story that went along with the board but I can't remember what it was. Something about who made it or how it was made. Something like that . If you let me know John I will add it to the post. Wish I had got a picture of it but I never thought of it at all!

We got there around 1 pm which was great as it was before the main party started so we had some time with John alone before the rest of the party started to arrive. He had several old friends stop by. We had a great time. I know Jared was very pleased that he was able to be there with his brother. He mentioned afterwards how great John was and how much fun he had.

I really didn't take many pictures and these are the only good ones I did get.

Dad with two of his three sons.
Grandpa and two sons and one grandson! I think Ethan was in the house playing computer games.

Happy Birthday, John and many, many more!!!!

We Love You!

Shannen & Jared's Visit

Okay, stepping back a couple of weeks from the last post we come to the weekend visit of Shannen and Jared.

Shannen came into town with her mom to see Wicked, again. I know, I know, we who are not crazy about musicals will wonder why when they have already seen it would they see it again. Ah, it is not for us to understand these things just to accept them!! Shannen did say it was even better than the production that they saw first so I guess it was worth it. Hey, what can I say when I will sit and watch Back to the Future movies on TV every time they come on!!! All three of them. Jared didn't want to go so he flew in a couple days later. It is so tough being a working stiff, you don't get to take fun vacations every time you want to!!

Paul and I drove out to pick up the kids from their Grandpa's home in Lancaster so they could spend a couple of days with us. Shannen had to fly home on Saturday morning to be in her play. Very sadly on Friday soon after we picked them up their Grandpa died. He had been sick for awhile and it wasn't unexpected but of course very sad for all the family. I had enjoyed talking to him the few times I had met him.

We had a great time with the kids and they did a lot of "memory lane" types of things while they were here. First off they had to have Daddy's famous sandwiches. They are ham and cheese sandwiches that he always used to make them when they were young. Shannen says she tries to make them at home but they never taste the same. Just not the same touch of love in it!! Then we went to see the Simpson's Movie. I guess that is a show they would always watch with their dad. All three of them loved it, me I got through it!! What can I say, I just have no taste!! At night they made and scarfed down the chocolate chip cookies.

Cookies!!!! Give me Cookies!!

Shannen spent a lot of time on the phone talking to her fellow players finding out how the first performance went. She was happy to be here with her dad but she really wanted to be at the play too!

"So tell me, are you nervous? Who is doing our makeup? What do you mean they changed to last dance? I don't even know it now!! How am I going to learn it? etc. etc. "

I have been very slowly making garb for Shannen to wear when she goes to a SCA Event with Darcy and Scott. I have finished all but the vest in this picture. I haven't even touched it since she left but hopefully I will finish it this next week!! I said Hopefully. The green looked great with her pale skin and red hair. She loves her red hair!!

It was a wonderful visit even if it was short. Here are the three Cranes.

This takes us to Saturday morning when Paul took Shannen down to LAX to fly home and my next post will cover the afternoon and the extra special celebration we went to.

(Click any of the pictures to enlarge)

Weekend Visit

These next few posts will be all out of sequence so bear with me!! I'm going to start with this past weekend and move back from there.

This past weekend was my ex husband's stepdaughter, Chelsea's, wedding. Everyone follow that? Because of that Darcy and kids and Steve and Lisa and Guinness came up to Thousand Oaks to stay for a long weekend. They all stayed with us so we got to do lots of visiting.

Darcy and Jessy and Kody flew in on Thursday morning and Steve and Lisa & Guinness came up on Friday morning. It was busy and crowded and so much fun!! They had lots of things to do with Dennis and his family but we were able to get some great "Q" time in with everyone.
It was great seeing the people but the most fun was seeing my new "Granddog" for the first time. Since getting my own dog I have become much more of a dog person then I was before. Now, I'm not a complete dog person, at least not yet, but I'm getting more so. Now now, Darcy, you remember how much I liked your dogs when they were small little puppies so I never was a dog hater, just not a great fan of them.
This little dog of Steve & Lisa's just stole my heart away and mine wasn't the only heart he stole but more on that later. I had never seen a Black & Tan Pomeranian before. The regular tan color is cute looking and okay but nothing that I would get all worked up about. (Sorry, Ginger! ) One look at Guinness and I changed my mind about Pomeranians!

Guinness weighing in at 3 pounds

For a little dog he has a very large attitude! Maybe this is common for the smaller breeds but he is sure he is the King of the World! He struts around and takes over everything and anything that he wants. Now being that he is only 3 pounds it is cute. If he was 90 pounds you would want to kill him!! He will be able to get away with so much more than Darcy's dogs do!! Well, get away with and still look cute doing it!! They already have him trained to sit, lay down and something else that I can't remember. That is either a very smart dog or they have lots of patience with his training!! I know I didn't do as well with Beardsley!

Now I said someone else fell in love with Guinness, that would have been Beardsley!! One look at it was love at first sight. Well, maybe third or fourth sight but soon. He would follow Guinness around and let him climb all over him. He would let Guinness chew on his ear and only a couple of times did he "back him off'" when Guinness's sharp little baby teeth were hurting him too much!!

Guinness playing king of the mountain

The most tell tale sign of how much he liked the dog was that if I went inside he would stay out with Guinness. I meant nothing to him! Anyone who knows the two of us knows that I am the center of his world on every other day! It was weird being able to move around without my constant shadow!!

" Who us? We are just sitting here playing!!"

It is now Tuesday and Beardsley is still looking in all the rooms for Guinness!! He looks so lonely at times. Of course he is back to following me around but I'm used to that now. Not that it doesn't drive me crazy at times......

You can see the size of the dog compared to Jessy and Kody!!

Here are some more pictures from this weekend. I didn't get any of Steve or Lisa, again!!

Jessy relaxing while playing with the dogs.

Darcy and Kody and Jessy dressed for the wedding.

My two wonderful "girls"!!!!!

Jessy and Kody at the airport with the Grandparents!!

Kody's Visit #4

Okay, I am now two months late in posting this. Oh well. I'm just going to post lots of pictures with just a little writing so I can see if I can catch up with everything!! I still have Jessy's visit left to do and you know life goes on and things keep happening! I might never catch up!

The last we saw Kody and his Mattie they had headed up to the Santa Barbara Zoo for a great visit. We catch up with them now off to...

(Click on any of the pictures to enlarge them)
Conejo Botanic Gardens again. This time with Uncle Steve and Grandpa. We did the Kids gardens and had another wonderful Tea Party and then walked the long way around the Garden on the Nature Walk.

Tea Party

Here he is at the Picture Tree. It is a tree with a bench where I have been taking pictures of Jessy everytime she comes out to visit. We HAVE to take a picture at the Picture Tree!!!
Pretending to sleep when we took a break from hiking. It is a long walk!

Our next adventure a few days after that was to go to Underwood Farms. Beach Gramma and I took him over to the Moorpark farm. They have a great little place over there with lots of playground stuff for the kids and animals to look at and feed. It seemed a little expensive to feed too many animals but he did get to feed some of them. It wasn't very busy there with only one or two school groups there.

He got to ride the "tractor" Play in the sand with all the trucks.
Ride a pony!!
Climb the huge pile of hay bales. Running up and down as fast as he could. Look at the goats

Feed the Emus. Notice how they have the pipes set up so you can put your feed in and it falls down to the animals. Gone are the days where you can have them eat out of your hands!! I wonder if any place allows that now?
Kody and Emus Run through large "caves"
Climb on wonderful wooden trucks and trains. I remember these from the last time we went over and I wanted them then and I want them now!! They are so great. They have a couple different trucks and a long train. Needless to say they don't move as they are just made of wood but they are so cute!! When Paul retires..........

Pose with the Grammas!!

All in all a great day! I would recommend the place for anyone with kids under 8 or 9ish. A Disneyland it isn't but isn't that what is so great about it?

After we left there we went out to lunch and we bought a piece of cake for him to eat at home. I really think he liked it!!

That's it for tonight. One more outing and Kody's visit will be done!!!