Julie broke her leg!!

I'm sorry to inform you all that yesterday, Griffin's birthday, Julie was getting the yard ready for Griffie's birthday party. She had washed off the back yard for the party - she and griffin were walking out the back door - She said, "Griffin, be careful, the steps are wet, so don't fall, " and she promptly fell as she stepped onto the second step!! A terrible break (a compound fracture?) Christopher said as he and steven ran out to help her, part of the bone was coming out through her leg!! They took her to Emergency. She's had the surgery. She is still in the hospital - will probably come home this afternoon - Kerry told me. Barbara Rossiter immediately took dinner last night! That makes my heart say, 'Thank you' - considering I spent the day yesterday at the church with Sisters in our R.S. tying seven quilts for the humanitarian Center (they need thousands.) Anyway, I was there from noon to 6 PM. Came home tired and starving - ate voraciously then promptly fell to sleep in my bed. When I woke at 12 midnight, Dad told me the very bad news. Love you all, but my heart goes out to Julie. I hope you will all respond to her.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRIFFIN!

Happy Birthday to Griffin from Three Little Pigs and Nana!! I hope you have a fun day.

Griffin's Day!

He's 5 today!

Guiltless Spaghetti

Chase does not care for pasta. Zak LOVES it.

So, while Chase is gone, we can have spaghetti and I don't have to feel bad that Chase hates dinner. So, it's guiltless spaghetti for dinner tonight!

Adventures with Zak

Really, the adventure was with Quinn, Christopher, Zak and me (Julie). Zak just had the most interesting hair.

We wanted to try Pad Thai noodles. So we did! Our tennis teacher has a Thai restaurant, so we went there and had lunch. It was good and it was an adventure. Hopefully one more picture will come that is of our food.

Tim is excited

Remember a couple of years ago when we all hiked 1 1/2 miles, up 1,000 feet, and took a tour through Timpanogos cave?

Starting August 10th, until October 10th, I'll be doing that on the weekends. 5 times a day... and I'll get paid for it.

We're Moving!

We sold our house in Monrovia - although it will always be my house no matter who owns it. And we bought a home in Burbank for a price we're very happy with - amazing to sell so quickly for this market. The only thing left is for me to get a job! I'm going to start substituting in Burbank and Glendale at the end of August and hopefully something will open up.


I have loved my time in Utah and have very happy memories. It was a unique time in my life. We will miss all of our family dinners and outings. Tanner will especially miss his second home! Thank you for a wonderful time. Tanner has already said, "let's come back up to Utah every time Kylie comes up!" I said, "OK!"

Hope comes to Utah

And I don't mean in the emotive sense.

Last Wednesday Tim flew out to Boulder and drove back with Hope, and Asher & Halan (friends from church). Tim is very happy about this. So are we. Hope is staying with Kelli Jo, another friend from Church, someplace downtown, I think.

Everybody say "Hi!" to Hope (she reads the blog).

Some Chatty Chat!

I got up this morning, did stuff, Kylie asked to go play tennis, I really needed to shower, but why shower before you play tennis, when tennis makes you sweaty, so just delay the shower! (Does that sound like Quinn?)

We played tennis, it was fun and yes, very sweaty. Came home. The house was VERY sweaty...as in sweat dripping off me. Why shower - I would just become sweaty again! So I delayed. Finally, I had to go to the grocery store to get buns for our dinner and items for tomorrow's dinner. (Hamburgers and hot dogs). I was really hoping no one would see me or, really, recognize me, when how could they as I didn't hardly look like myself! Whatever!

I saw so many people!! Sue Carrey (from our Ward). She was dressed so nice, pretty, like a Sunday! Then I saw Eloise Wayment, who just came back from the beauty parlor! She had lipstick on and all! She was nice and didn't complain of my smell. She did compliment me on my children and their greatness, (or was that my mothering??) ha ha Then the check out lady who knows me, but sweetly just ignored my slovenliness. Finally another friend from the Elementary school, Jane (not Colton) saw me and we talked. I apologized for my unkempt appearance, then we walked out and she was shocked at my choice of vehicle....I was driving my "go to car", the Corolla. She knows of my family and my usual big car, I told her it was just too expensive to drive my big car, gas and all. She thought that was great, wished she had a smaller car to drive during this time too. I told her thanks, it was one good thing I did today (as opposed to my non-shower). She was getting into her gleaming dark green Suburban and she said loudly from across the parking lot, "I can think of 7 great things you did!"

Wasn't that nice for me?? It was worth my sweaty, unkempt, smelly trip to the grocery store.

Shower, What's a Shower

I know someone that did not shower for 10 days! This person played many games of tennis during those 10 days. Camping was NOT involved.

Can anyone beat that??

Ok, Kind of Gross, but I find it Funny Also

I am NOT above bribing my children....so, to get help in cleaning the horrendous mess in the family room, I announced that I would give a Cold Stone's ice cream to anyone who helped me clean. I got volunteers! I was glad. The room got cleaned.
Here are the revellers in the back of my car. All of them....I am driving and taking a picture at the red light. I can do that, I just can't hold the phone up to my ear.
The GROSS part.....Quinn got blue ice cream. You will notice he got a real blue mustache too.

Pagent of the Masters

Like Nana and Bumpa, Steven and I went to the Pagent of the Masters. Unlike Nana and Bumpa, we went on the correct day! ha ha

Here we are, waiting for the pageant to start. Steven likes to blink when taking pictures. Just notice the man sitting next to Steven. I wonder if he is in the witness protection program, he looks so astonished at the idea of me taking a picture! Here are the crowds we are trying to get through to get to our car to drive home.
I tried to find pictures on the Internet for out most favorite Tableau Vivante. Sadly, I can't find any. You Utahans just look at Nana and Bumpa's book. It was a GREAT! We loved it. The time flew by!

Call Now!

If you have a Wells Fargo ATM card, check it now to see if money was stolen from you account. I know that many people's ATM card was used to get money yesterday!

Check your account balances, if money was stolen, call it in, you should get your money returned.

You CANNOT go to a bank and take care of this, you HAVE to do this by phone.

We've Got A Letter!

Check out Chase's Mission blog!

We got a letter today!

MTC Wednesday

Chase enters the MTC on Wednesday, July 9th.

Write him a short note!

His address is:

Elder Chase Barton Cole
Texas Houston South Mission
Provo Missionary Training Center
2005 N. 900 E.
Provo, UT 84604

You can also check out the latest info about his mission at his mission website. (Mom put your cursor over the words mission website and click, that will take you to his website.)

God is good, all the time

So. I got fired last Tuesday. I am sure that you are asking yourself "why?". Well, I'd tell you if I actually knew. I was told on numerous occaisions by both my supervisor and my manager that I was going to be transistioned to a permanent position. Then, someone from SOS Staffing (the temp agency) called me and told that my services were no longer needed. This is very depressing.

So I am trying to figure out what to do next, where to apply, how to tweak my resume. Lots of stress. I need to bring in about $250 a week to pay into our budget. Mark is stressed, we don't have enough money to pay the rent and buy groceries. Everything is very bad.

Backtrack about 6 months ago or more. Mark receives notification that he has been invited to join in a class action, age discrimination lawsuit against a local company. He had applied twice for jobs there and wasn't hired. Mark filled out the paperwork and sent it in, thinking that we would see $50 or $100. Some nice change.

Saturday the mail comes with a certified letter. In the letter is a check, Mark's portion of the settlement. The check was for $3,120. Yes. Three THOUSAND dollars. Enough to pay off our tax debt to the US Government and for me to have a month--A MONTH--to look for a job.

On a funner note... I have just completed the largest painting I have ever attempted. Now, most of the time my art is very nonrepresentational abstract impressionism. Think bright colors on a canvas representing nothing -->










I usually paint on 11" X 16" canvases... about the size of legal size folder. This week I painted a fairly nice representation of a lion on a 24" X 30" canvas. It turned out... very nice:



Well, I'm happy with it anyway. This one is titled "Lion of Judah"

Blogs of Note

Believe it or not, there are more blogs to look at!

Some of you know, and have commented on, Kylie has a blog. It is a good way to keep up with those writing skills! Something to do when bored. Her blog is: Kylie6.blogspot.com.

I have also set up another blog. It will have updates and information about Chase's mission. That is where all the who, what, where and when and pictures will be placed. His blog is at:
chasemission.blogspot.com. ElderCole.blogspot..... is already taken!

You will always be able to click the link, right over there, on the right.....the heading is, Blogs to Look at.

The Venom Could Spread to his Heart!

Chase had a DAY at the beach!

Little did he know that hidden in the warm waters of the beach were Stingrays!! No signs, no notices.

He was swimming in the water with Tony and Erica. He walked along the sand while deep in the water and he felt like a crab grabbed his toe. He kept walking and swimming until he was out of the water and saw blood on his toe.

The Lifeguard came over to tell them that they were "swimming in an area where boats had access, oh and by the way, that bloody toe there is a sting by a stingray. We had better take you over to the station to get your foot in the hottest water you can stand before the venom reaches your heart."

Luckily, Chase is able to stand scalding hot water to scramble the effects of the venom. His toes is a bit cut and and bruised today, but no venom to his heart. He can STILL go on that mission!

Today is Don's Birthday!! Yeah!!

Don is a wonderful man with many virtures. He loves his Tatia, and his children. He just recently baptized
Sophia. He just recently returned
from his military duty where he served marines and military who were injured in active duty. I am so proud of Don. He is very dependable - mmm - I wonder if he will put up my Christmas lights this year. Happy Birthday, Don. We love you!

Summer Fun

We just returned from CA to attend Chase's Farewell. We did not get one picture taken so I improvised. He's a darling boy and he gave a great talk. Three friends came from Orem! They went home with Julie and helped clean the house and ate her lunch then cleaned and helped make more goodies. ( I marvel at all the wonderful goodies that girl can make.) (I may as well have gone on a cruise - I came back having gained 2 pds! Of course, no one made me eat - but everything looked so good. We had a wonderful time, Kylie was very beautiful and a great help to her Mother. She vacummed, and passed out hamburgers to everyone. She is joyful to be around! Griffin was adorable and excited to show us all his toys but of course that would have taken many days so he just showed us his very sizable collection of swords. (The toy of the day). Quin and Zak helped pass the sacrament. Wow, they're getting tall, and such good boys - following in the footsteps of their three bros. Now, due to trouble with pictures I never got Sophie's baptism in. She was baptized on 12 June - her parents wedding day! I hope I got the right pictures in there. My head is buzzing - I can't think anymore. This is too much. Just have a good day. I love you all.