Fun, Fun, and more Fun

Isn't my home beautiful? And after these guys get done, I'm warm, too!




Here's a few pictures of the boys doing wood for me--Darren's truck got a dent in it--so Matt leaned on it whenever he could so Darren couldn't see it. They are sooo funny, and I am nice and warm--thanks to all of you who take such good care of me. I love you :)

Matt and Sara and I went to Uncle Jim and Aunt Louise's--Matt and Jamie helped clean and haul stuff from the Shayville cabin to the new "Bennett" ranch home.












Of course, Mayme loves everyone and everybody, especially if she's outside . . .

















Blue skies, family, work, good health, isn't life
grand?








And then, Thanksgiving !

We had lots of fun. Thank you to my brother Jim, his wife Louise, and each of you for all the fun and food, more fun and food, way toooooo much food, actually, but never too much love!!

So, now we have more :)

And more ....

Catch Up

This weekend I had a date with Bob...We went to the Hells Canyon Mule Days--first the parade. These bulls weighed 3200 #'s and were taller than me--the owner said she left the big guy at home, he's a foot taller. She can't touch the top of him!! They were beautiful and seemed very gentle....





Then the quilt show. I need to get online and see if they listed the winner's of the People's Choice. I'm sure the ones I choose were the best!! This was a fun one for the theme quilt.







You have heard me talk about my 104 year old cutie--Miss Phoebe at Anthony Lake. She says she's not old--she only looks that way.



This is a picture of a kitten that was wandering blind on the road when I was walking. I walked around it and on for about 10', then went back and carried the goeey, puss-filled, mattered up, goopey eyed thing home. He would follow Mayme around and make Mayme jump and leave. It was funny. He died....but was clean and warm and loved for a little while.

Love to all, Mom/Missy

Hot Happenings

Darn, I get a big hot under the collar when I do this. Start at the bottom :)

Who are these people in my house? They came, they dressed, and dressed, and then redressed--they would look slightly familiar, they sounded like someone I should know, and then they would speak and sound like my grandchildren!!

Caitlyn had her 9th birday. That means those 4 2 year olds that were sooooo bloomin' cute 7 years ago are all now 9--Dillon, Koy, Brielle and Caitlyn. We love you all very, very much! I can still see them at our home in Cambride, walking 2x2 out through the grass in the field--with only their heads showing above the grass, and putting their pop-cycle sticks through the cracks in the deck while their mothers yelled--and the kids said, "Grammy told us to do it!"

Anyway, Caitlyn received a hula hoop--cause the kids LOVE them!!

And, her Dad and Uncle Dean, riding the saddle....glad that all of us can stay young.

I love you all, Mom, Grammy, Missy

Birthday 09

There is a wonderful :), rocky, rough, non-vehicle road (except 4-wheelers, of course), up to Pine Creek Reservoir. Darren and Caitlyn came over and we went up and had a picnic here. Then Caitlyn and I walked around the thing. At the far end there is still snow--we're right at timber line. She was disappointed because the water and bog was right where we wanted to go. You should have seen her eyes when I started to take off my shoes and socks and roll up my pants. We made it around--over the rock slide and all. She was pretty proud of herself. I had a great time, too!

We partied the week before, and Tami & Lonny gave me a fantastic chair to set on my deck and recline and read..., Karissa a fun star for the study, and Alysha a California shirt. Today, I also received a Weber barbque. Whohooo. Now I get to learn a few new cooking skills :)
And... we went to the Prospector and had dinner and brought home a piece of lemon cheesecake--and shared it. YUMMMMMM!
Then Matt called. He had heard from the MD that the mole he had removed on Monday was benign. Nice birthday :) Love to all, Mom/Missy

Green Canyon 09

We had a great time at Green Canyon. Here's Lonny with Dutch Oven Cobbler. YMMMM. And the towels and swimsuits hanging remind me that we have been hanging towels and camping for over 20 years!! Since I am too impatient to take the time to move these pictures around and type...you will just have to peruse them as is :). There's Karissa and kids on horses, and my broken dishwasher--nice child to repair it--and more pictures of loved ones! Tami, Andrea, Karissa and Alysha played badminton and laughed until they rolled on the ground and cried. Love to all, Mom/Missy PS, alysha fixed the camera, now it will be focused again. Sorry!

Mayley Marie Martin & More

On June 4th, Mayley made her appearance. Lacey fell on the steps to the deck in the afternoon, went to the ER where they monitored her for a while. She wanted to go home and did, but returned later that night because she was bleeding. This time when they hooked her up, her uterus was bouncing all over, so they did an emergency C-section. 7#15 oz, 21 inches long :) Lots of dark hair, as you can see, and I saw a dimple on the right check when she yawned. Lacey is TIRED, and sore. Riley has been with her both times I stopped in. Clay was there tonight.



Jesse came over on Mother's Day and helped with finish the fountain I had worked on the day before. I hadn't been able to level it. "Let's just put some rocks in it," he says. Wala!

Made a trip to California with Darren and Caitlyn and met Alysha and Kane in Montery. Saw the acquariam and played on the beach. FUN and WARM, NICE :)

Spring Work Day #2

Well, I have had a BUG, GERM, NASTY, in my computer, and so I had to get it fixed. Now I can finish this post :)

Of course, we did lots of work, and had lots of fun. You can see Matt and Mayme hard at work on Uncle Aaron's new 4-wheeler with the harrow on behind. He would pull up beside Sara and I, we would lift the thing off of the brush he had accumulated, and then we would burn it while he went around the pasture and accumulated some more. On one go round he accidentally hooked a corner of the burn pile with the harrow. I looked up and saw Matt making like a pyromaniac with the whole field behind him on fire. He was rather startled also, but we decided it worked out well. Sara and I quit managing the burn pile and headed over to protect the trees--we made like firemen, with rakes instead of polaskis.

We started out early with the burning, then went to the pruning...When Jesse showed up, he helped with the pruning.

Matt and I were trained by my Menonite friend to walk around the tree, carefully looking and deciding what should come off, then we lop a little and do it all over again. Along comes Jesse, climbs the tree, lopping as he goes, takes off 3 big main branches, aske if we want any more... Our jaws are hanging. Nope, we say. That looks just perfect--and it was!!

One of the days tragedies was when I discovered I was missing my cell phone. I started looking everywhere I had been--in despair because the harrow had also been there...Matt also started looking on the other end of the field. Asking as he went, "How many cell phones is that for this year, Mom?" (The answer would be three--and these are blackberries, not cheopos....and provided by my place of employment...) Sara called on her cell phone--and Matt yelled that he could hear it. Sara got there first and he told her it was in the fire, he could hear it--she's doing a little oooohing and scrambling. I'm thinking, "If my phone were in the fire and ringing, Matt would be getting it out, not standing there." So I get closer and say you can hear it--yes, where is it? In the fire...Hmmmmmmmmm, I walk over and say I don't think so....and he picks up his foot and there it is. RELIEF!!!

We headed over to see Lacey Jean, 8 months pregnant, packing a cute 2 yr old Tucker around, with Clay close by--they were branding (other family and neighbors) while Lace watched the kids.

Then the Halibut Feed at North Powder, and then Darren showed up and we played games.

On Sun am we went to the 9 am Church, and then headed to Hermiston to see Jesse and his new home and ranch he is managing. He built this fence post pounder for Matt. I call it Mad Molly (actually, it should take a lot of the Mad out of Matt--) it's a heavy honker. He was pleased and we had a great day. Now I need to paint the house, who wants to come and help????? :)

Spring Break

I didn't know that I would get to have spring breaks when I quit school--California beach, Disneyland, Clark County Fair, but nothing compares to time spent with family. It was wonderbar!

I flew into Las Vegas on Sat afternoon and Tami and Dillon and Garrett and Wyatt picked me up and we drove to Los Angeles. Whoooeeee! Two country girls in a truck that has a dirty windshield and blind spots on the side--Thanks to some expert coaching from Alysha we made it. Sunday we watched conference. This is the tree outside the window where I was supposed to be watching Conference. See the heart? See the 2 hearts??

That night we went on a hike. Wyatt held my hand and told me that he wanted a girlfriend like me--tough enough to go hiking with--see me flex and grin!!

Tami was sooo smart. She brought a red shirt for each of the boys--they say welcome to Las Vegas and have a Mickey Mouse on the front. It was easy to spot those little wiggle monkeys all day long.

We stood in line a LOT. We had some fantastic rides, and lots of family time. Kane and Alysha are awsome hosts.

That's Alysha--eating an utterly great corn dog--so
she says...

Tami took gate duty at the Fair so the rest of us could get in free. The boys had a friend (Morgan Aikele) who had a 4-H pig, so we went and watched that. Tami asked Dillon if he wanted to do a pig next year. "NO." So, we watched, and I told him how much money was to be made in this venture. When we left his Mom asked him again if he would like to do a pig-- "YES." Hmmm, I don't know if either of them is up to that project :).















I showed the boys a picture of a fruit bouquet. Then we went to the store and bought what we needed--I hadn't even noticed that there were chocolate bunnies in it, but they did. We had great fun putting it together, and even more fun eating it.

Now I'm back to work--and have lots of good memories. Love to all, Mom