Bragging Rights

Just bragging a little but aren't they cute? Of course I can brag, they do have some of my genes. Zach is 5, Aubrey is 4 and Mollie is 3 months.

Weekly Bowling Scores 9/27/08

This weeks excuse... STRESS

Terrie 117 / 96 / 96 / 123
Brent 148 / 125 / 141 / 161

Weekly Bowling Scores 9/13/08

OK, so my excuse for such crappy games this week is this:

We went to our usual bowling spot and while there was more than half of the 36 lanes open, not being used, we were told they didn't have ANY open lanes available and it would be around noon before they had maybe two available. We were there at 10:30 am. So, we went to an OLD rinky dink bowling alley down on State Street, about 80th South. Not the best part of town and I didn't even know this place existed but Brent knew about it. It was called Town and Country Bowl. We pulled into the parking lot and the thoughts that ran through my head... Well, I will summarize; We walked up to the front door and the smell of urine cautioned me NOT to go in but we did. It was very dark inside and it reminded me of the real old bowling alleys where only old men go to get away from their wives. The place even smelled like bowling alleys of long ago, smoke filled etc. We decided to bowl anyway since this is now our Saturday ritual, not to mention our only form of excercise. When we left, I put plenty of hand sanitizer on and made sure I washed my hands (and arms up to my elbows) when we got to the restaurant. I'm looking in the phone book for more "family friendly" atmospheres for the next time we can't get into Sandy Lanes.

Terrie 99 / 118 / 97
Brent 126 / 147 / 146

I miss you MOM

Today marks the 7th anniversary of my mom's death. I am extremely emotional and thought that by sharing this, might help to ease my sadness. I miss my mom horribly. I know she's with me all the time and I even still "talk" to her. I know she sees all the wonderful things going on in my life, like my 4 beautiful grandbabies, but still, it's not the same as having her right here for me to watch her rock them and sing to and tell stories to them. I know every person that has known my mom, misses her as well so here are just a few photos for you to enjoy. Love you mom!

IF ANY OF YOU HAVE A FAVORITE MEMORY OF MY MOM, PLEASE SHARE IT BY POSTING A COMMENT IN THE LINK BELOW.

Mom and her mother
About 3 or 4 years old
Mom told me that after they got these pictures back, her mother was very mad because the photographer had colored her dress blue but it was acutally yellow.
About 17 years old
January 31st, 1946
Me and Mom in Volendam 1999

Mom's 80th Birthday February 26th, 2001

Week Bowling Scores 9/13/08

Brent 183 / 157 / 140
Terrie 135 / 97 / 133 Jenny came after our first game and JINXED me
Jenny / 122 / 122

Meet Dusty

So after trying many different names: Fritz, Fritzy, Grizz, Grizzer, Baby, Kitty, KC (for Kitty Cat, Ike, Spike and a few others that were too brief to remember, I think I have finally come up with a name.

DUSTY. First off, this came to me because as he was playing under my chair this morning, I noticed he was playing with a hugh dust bunny...the kind left over from the dogs that tends to accummulate under my desk, near the computer. He was having so much fun, flipping and jumping around it. Then it occurred to me that he kind of looks dusty with his smoky gray ears, tails and paws so, unless I change my mind suddenly and find a name that I HAVE to call him, I think it's official; DUSTY it is!

On a side note: This kitty does NOT like to be cuddled however, he hates to be alone. If I feed him, I have to stay with him and watch him or he won't eat. If I leave the house for a while, I come home to a kitty that is scolding me to no end. Now that he's around, Paisley is getting a little jealous. She doesn't care much for him fut will now come to me more often to get a belly rub. She doesn't sit by my computer anymore like she used to. She thinks that space has now been contaminated. When she comes down here, she will let me pick her up and cuddle her for a while. Poor Paisley.

My early Birthday present

Isn't he adorable? Jenny found him on KSL.com and when she showed me the picture of him, I just had to have him. I know, it's a little soon after Spooky but I didn't want Paisly to get too used to being the "one and only". I knew someday I would get another kitty so why wait? He is Jenny's gift to me for an early Birthday.

I need help in naming him! If you have a suggestion, please post it. Jenny thinks it should be something that goes well with Paisley. She likes Payson or Presley. I am not too keen on Presley since I never liked "Elvis". I like unique names but nothing strange.

Week Bowling Scores 9/6/08

Brent 138 / 107 / 158 / 166
Terrie 129 / 134 / 150 / 116
Jenny / 139 / 95 / 86 Not her day
Matt / 105 / 96 Not his either
Jeff / 114 / 123 / 139

Yes, Jeff was here for the weekend. His friend got married so he came down for that. We loved having you here Jeff. Maybe you can come again for Christmas.

My family

Now that I have the disc of pictures that we had taken, I thought I would share two of my favorite pictures. I had both of these printed in a 20x16 size from Costco.com for $9.95 each. They turned out beautifully and it only took three days to get them.

Week Bowling Scores 8/30/08

Again, not worth mentioning but I'm posting anyway.

Jenny 116 / 112 / 124
Brent 171 / 170 / 157 Actually, his are worth mentioning
Terrie 91 / 144 / 109
Shawn 126 / 138 / 169 His aren't too bad either
Kim 90 / 61 / 133 The only reason she got 133 on her last game is because Shawn bowled more than half of it for her while she fed the baby. :)

Spooky 1986 to 2008

Words cannot describe my feelings today. I am sad but I am also somewhat relieved. Yesterday, shortly after posting to my blog about Spooky, I realized that the end was near. By the end of the day, I told Brent that I didn't think Spooky would make it through the night. He did but he was so bad off. He was barely breathing and couldn't walk. He was cold too. Every once in a while he would just let out a half meow, more like a whimper. I finally made the decision to end his suffering. It was so hard but I knew I could not let him go even a few more hours like that. We called down to the vet and they told us we could come in and they would fit us in. I wrapped him up in a receiving blanket and he was still the ride down as I cradled him in my arms. I couldn't bare to just leave him there so we decided to be in the room while they administered the drug. They warned us of what we may witness, none is which would be a pleasant sight. None of that happened. He didn't even flinch when the shaved his leg to find a vein, nor did he flinch when they put the needle in. He was already so far gone. The vet assured us that it definately was time for him to go. He said that Spooky outlived the average cat by about 6 years. Since I have no absolute record of when Jenny found him, I can only go by pictures. The earliest one Jenny has, she is about 4 years old and she has him tucked into a doll high chair. I believe she found him in about 1986 or 87 but he was already about 6-9 months old then. That would make him about 22 or about 110 in cat years the vet said.

Good bye my Spooky. I will remember you forever. Have fun in heaven with JoJo and Addy.

Spooky

My poor Spooky. He hasn't eaten for about 3 days now. This morning, all morning, he's been hanging over the dog's water bowl; not drinking, just hanging over it. I took it away to wash it and put fresh water in it and he moaned at me. When I put it back he just hung over it again, still not drinking.

He did look up at me when the flash went off so I could get another picture of his face. Spooky is about 22+ years old now. He has arthritis,and can barely walk. He hasn't been able to hear anything for about 3-4 years now but he can still see.

Jenny found him when she was about 3 years old. He wasn't a young kitten then. Probably about 9 months old judging from his size and he was all dirty. When she came home with him, I was in the living room and she peeked around the corner wall and said, "Mommy, do you think daddy will let us have another kitty cat?" I looked at her then saw this little black furry head peek around the corner too and well... Jenny still claims him as her cat but Kim says he is hers because he was really attached to Kim. Neither of them took him with when they moved out so he's MY cat!

I really don't have the heart to take him into the vet. I don't think he would survive the car ride and I know for certain they would just tell me to let him go. I can't do it. My poor Spooky.

Harvest time

Forget the manicures, Orange fingernails aren't so attractive.

We've had a pretty good turnout with out garden this year with the exception of my cucumbers and pickling cucumbers. That darned zucchini plant finally got chopped to the ground on Thursday so now the pickles and cucumbers will get some sunlight. I even noticed some starting already.

So far, I have "put up" 16 pints of peach (no chunks)jam, 22 pints of Strawberry (without the seeds and no chunks)jam, 4 quarts of the best salsa in town using my own grown jalapenos and tomotoes (by the way, this doesn't get stored because it's too yummy and goes quickly when I have to share with my kids), two quarts of pickled beets, shredded and froze 32 cups of shredded zucchini for bread (I hate zucchini otherwise). I have an abundance of green peppers and I'm not sure what to do with those; you can only put so many into the salsa. This has all been done within the last 3 weeks. Phew!

You should see my green bean plants. The bushes are huge but there's only about 4 beans on the entire thing. I was really hoping for a bunch this year. We are almost out of corn too so it looks like we're headed to Rasmussen Farms in Draper for more. Brent's great at cleaning the corn then all we do is seal it in the food saver vacuum bags and it's good for a couple of years.

So, I am the canning queen. If you have fruit or anything else you want to get rid of, I am almost an expert now and will happily show you what to do with it.

Weekly Bowling Scores 8/23/08

Whis week is hardly worth mentioning but I guess we all have to take the bad with the good.

Brent 118 / 102 / 152
Terrie 104 / 115 / 112
Jenny / 118 / 130

Weekly Bowling Scores 8/16/08

Just me and Brent this week. I would like to say that I think my game is getting better now that I have a lighter ball. I still have my bad days but today was pretty good. I should also add, the first game, I could have beaten Brent but since neither of us were paying any attention to what frame we were on, I bowled Brent a strike in the tenth frame. Had it actually been my turn,I would have beat him.

Brent 149 / 158 / 163 7 strikes for Brent for the three games plus the 1 I gave him
Terrie 138 / 123 / 125 8 strikes within my three games.