Celebrate!

Fred's birthday

Avery & Emma eying Easter dinner

The girls prepping for the egg hunt - the guys hide them

Liz is probably wishing for more teeth for her 7th birthday

Uncle Justin is a magnet for the kids - oh, maybe it's the gifts...

Thousands of luminaries

The 2011 Christmas luminary display - this is an amazing sight!  Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park at 3401 S. Highland Dr. in Salt Lake.

Join us Saturday, December 17th from 5-8 PM as we honor loved ones that have passed away with a luminary of more than 10,000 candles throughout the cemetery. After seeing the impressive display of light, come inside and take a break from the holiday rush. Warm yourself by the fire with hot chocolate and treats.

It's Friday again...

Halloween weekend

Easter

We celebrate Easter with a casual Saturday dinner and egg hunt for the kids (pics of them on the Grandma blog).  Here's the spread...

 My daughters Jennifer and Aubrey

 Krista's wonderful baked confections

 Grandma B, Kenlee and I

 My DIL (I prefer daughter-in-love) Krista and Kenlee (cute mom and daughter)

 Fred and Grandma B

 Jennifer and my son, Justin

 Sons-in-law/love - Fred and Rob with Alex (Avery in the background)

 Aubrey and Max

Easter for the Fam

This is the official announcement for my kids...  In case you didn't get the message in the email, we'll do the traditional family Easter party (and dinner) on Saturday - hmmmm, when are those storms coming in?  I need to mow the lawn, but if it's raining on Saturday it doesn't really matter anyway I guess.  That frees everyone up for the other side of the family plans or just R&R (and church of course) on Sunday so this usually works out well I think.  Krista kept plastic eggs for us to use so bring your candy (and extra chocolate for me).  Oh, yeah, what do you want to bring?  Jon has to shoot a wedding so he won't be joining us.

History of Valentine's Day & Science of Love

History of Valentine's Day


Love/Rejection


Love/Kissing


Science of Love


Love/Attraction


Read more:  Science Daily

Ridiculous "no holiday" rules

To brighten the short, dark days at work, our program planned a cubie holiday decorating contest. Well, the day of the award, we received an email stating that the contest was canceled because there were people who complained saying that they "don't celebrate holidays." We had already watered it down by not allowing anything "Christmas" or with any religious significance. Our program used the theme, "Winter Wonderland" and we had snowflakes hanging from the ceiling and a snow scene with lights down the aisle/hallway. Snowmen??? And another program used a "gingerbread man" theme. This is objectional? Nobody was required to participate.

I have known people who don't celebrate holidays but somehow they still manage to live amongst us and just refrain from participation. I work for State government and they are so scared by the vocal minority of atheists that they are accepting this violation of our rights. The Constitution protects our rights to worship without interference or control by the government but now it seems the government is dictating "no religion" as the "state religion. It's just plain wrong. The ACLU is destroying our freedoms.

Thanksgiving Humor

Teresa shared this with me. It's a good one!

A young man received a parrot as a gift. The
parrot had a bad attitude and an even worse vocabulary.

Every word out of the bird's mouth was rude, obnoxious
and laced with profanity. John tried and tried to
change the bird's attitude by consistently saying only
polite words, playing soft music and anything else he could
think of to 'clean up' the bird's vocabulary.

Finally, John was fed up and he yelled at the parrot.
The parrot yelled back. John shook the parrot and the
parrot got angrier and even ruder. John, in desperation,
threw up his hands, grabbed the bird and put him in the
freezer. For a few minutes the parrot squawked and kicked
and screamed. Then suddenly there was total quiet.

Not a peep was heard for over a minute.

Fearing that he'd hurt the parrot, John quickly opened
the door to the freezer. The parrot calmly stepped out
onto John's outstretched arms and said "I believe I
may have offended you with my rude language and
actions. I'm sincerely remorseful for my
inappropriate transgressions and I fully intend to do
everything I can to correct my rude and unforgivable behavior."

John was stunned at the change in the bird's attitude.

As he was about to ask the parrot what had made such a
dramatic change in his behavior, the bird spoke up, and very
softly said...... "May I ask what the turkey did?"

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

What's wrong with this picture?

Sad tale...

Ah, life before the S. C. disaster when we actually had some money to shop. This past year my son had created a small Christmas account for the kids at $20/paycheck and he was so excited to actually have some money to use now since he only gets to take home $3/hour after child support, but ORS nabbed it and apparently sent it to STBX. Her lawyer convinced the court to hold him in contempt for the back child support prior to the court appearance. Now there's no money at all, even to bring them here. It's the most tragic thing I have ever seen. That the children would be deprived of their father in this way because it is good for her is beyond belief. Here Jon has been faithfully working, providing the only income they have out there (besides the welfare) and he can't even see his kids or buy them gifts.

Now they get to travel to Virginia for Thanksgiving in her new-to-her van instead of coming to Utah (his turn).

Meanwhile she tells the kids he could come there whenever he wants (never mind he can't afford travel, hotel, rental car and time off work while she drags him back to court for ongoing legal expenses and he is actually working - retail - no time off for travel and no vacation pay). He is the only one in that family who is working and yet she tells the kids they could come to Utah if their dad pays their way (at ridiculous prices due to holiday fares and location - not an inexpensive destination). So, it looks to them like he doesn't want them. Yet, he is the hard-working, loving and devoted parent who doesn't want to rely on welfare for livelihood and is willing to use more money in gas to get to work than he can bring home after child support payments (for the children he doesn't get to see).

Oh, and he can Skype twice a week for 30 minutes (two hour time difference and work schedules only allow one or two of the ordered three). Never mind that the connection there is so poor we can only see vague images of the children and must use the cell phone for sound.

One day they will be old enough to learn the truth. An attorney recently told my friend that his situation was similar. When he grew up and learned his mother had manipulated, she was the the one he resented and much worse than he had resented the absent father previously. This is the second story of this type that has been relayed to me after people heard of his dilemma.

This is abuse!

Halloweens Past

1986 - Aubrey and Jon
1976 - Justin
1976 - Chris
1981 Justin and Chris
1986 - Chris dressed up for a Mutual party (you can certainly tell it was the 80s with these peg-leg pants). This was one of my nurse uniforms, but I know I didn't wear them this way. Of course we were moving out of the nurse's cap era too:)
This wasn't Halloween (it was 50s day at school) but the costumes were fun!
1981 - Nat and Jenn
1980 - Justin, Natalie, Jenn, Chris
1984 - the ward always had a Halloween party and families dressed up in themes with a parade and contest. This year we were Babes in Toyland. Natalie (Raggedy Ann), Jon (clown doll), Chris (toy soldier), Jenn (baby doll), Justin (Pinocchio puppet).
1977 - Natalie was a newborn. Here are Jenn, Justin and Chris.
Getting a bunch of my pictures scanned to a disk was my Christmas gift last year from Nat and Jon. It was a wonderful gift. I still need to finish organizing and labeling them.