The Missing Link

Spring Break

2010-03-28T18:33:00.000-07:00

Andrea has spring break one week, Karissa the next--so we planned Levi's baby blessing for in between and met in the middle. Andrea headed out first--then I flew into LA and Alysha picked me up. I was on my way to Boise when I realized that my phone was back in Baker City. I didn't think the plane would wait for me, so I had Darren call her and leave a message that I would met her outside when the plane landed. How on earth did we pull all of this off prior to cell phones??? I didn't panic to badly. Had only carry on luggage and headed for the sidewalk--but which one??? Limos? Taxi's? I asked a man on the sidewalk....just then I heard a voice yelling MOM, MOM--turned, and there was my favorite youngest daughter. It was awesome. :)

They had all tried Salad Pizza the night before and judged it fantastic, so... we did it again--WOW, that is one incredible pizza. We were pigs!!
The next day Alysha went to work--so did her roommate Sam, and her mother; Jake and his girlfriend went house hunting, Denise went to work, her mother went sight-seeing. Andrea, Kayleigh, Koy, and I went to the Long
Beach aquarium. We spent almost the whole day there...

You'll have to check Andrea's blog for those
pictures. Then we met Alysha and headed
out to have our toes done. Anyway, Alysha,
Kayleigh, and I did. The boys were disgusted.
However, they waited semi-patiently as we were headed to the beach for a bonfire next. We did our normal park by the beach road, to cheap to pay the parking fee to park by the beach, then walked down with all supplies for our party. It was pretty fun, too. Then we hauled ourselves back up again. It is soooo fun.

We arrived home and then Lysh and Andrea insisted that I had to try Toppings...with ice cream underneath. I had a Kiwi sorbet, with blueberries, blackberries, strawberries. It was incredible.

No pictures for that. Next am Alysha went to work again. We were VERY quiet when we got up so we wouldn't bother any of the other people that were staying/sleeping. Come to find out they were already gone. We walked the mile down to Trader Joe's and bought breakfast and other very important items. I picked up a 6" pot of basil and a shopping bag, along with chipolte chocolate hazelnuts, etc. When Alysha got home she took Lucy to the sitters, then off we went for the 4 1/2 hour trip to Logandale. ONLY there was a bit of Friday afternoon traffic headed for Vegas, so it took us 7 1/2 hrs. I watched Princess Bride (while I read a JD Robb book), then Radio, then 50 First Dates. They were all great. My education has been sadly lacking. When we arrived at Tami's, we found Karissa, Matt, Sara, Brielle, Xave, Dax and Lissa already there. They had driven Grandma and Grandpa Cox from SLC and left them at the hotel. Now the real party started!
Since I am entirely at the mercy of my family for pictures, I have no Valley of Fire pictures..and no pictures of the whole crew at Tami's. However, Alysha did copy these pictures for me. THANKS, honey :)
The star, of course, is Levi. He is sweet and handsome and we love him. He is laying on the white blessing afagan that I crocheted for him. Now I have two more days with Tami, Lonny, and Dillon, Garrett, Wyatt, and Levi. Love to all, Mom/Missy

Wonderful Holidays, Beautiful Family!!

2010-01-05T20:43:00.000-08:00

Luke made it home and we all gathered at Lacey's on Christmas Eve to celebrate. We had a great time--that's Jesse next to Luke, and Mike, his son in front of him. I'll bet that Stephanie is right close to him, and Emma is close by, too. I cried when I called to tell him goodbye and hurry back home. Uncle Aaron cried when he saw the picture of Matt with his haircut. Guess we all love each other a LOT!! and miss Aunt LaVonne and the great love she gave to all of us. Heavenly Father definitely has blessed us all! The kids had so many fun things to do. Aunt Lysha helped them play muscial pipes. We are FANTASTIC musicians :)

The dogs were delightful...

Phoebe, who is 104, came for dinner. She had fun--Jingle Bells was her favorite song. She sang it with Caitlyn.

Sara came and brought Brendie, Andrea and Koy, Kayleigh, and Kyler brought Hank, Uncle Jim and Aunt Louise came and brought Zoe--she and Mayme and Hank and Brendie were an interesting combination...

Matt got a haircut....

And then he shaved. Whooooee, who is that young man? Alysha was going to send him to Primary cuz he looked so young!

And, then there was Payton...

Fun, Fun, and more Fun

2009-11-29T20:33:00.000-08:00

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

2009-09-16T07:29:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-30T16:01:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-12T21:36:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-09T18:35:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-05T19:11:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-19T21:36:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-13T20:14:00.000-07:00

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

Another Day

2009-02-07T18:03:00.000-08:00

Well, to contrast the last post, I am going to share a happy day. So, to start Mayme and I go for a walk--I wear snow pants, and layer up good and we walk while big white beautiful flakes of snow fall. It's nice because it's no longer dark at 7 am, so it's easier to get out and do something. Then, I feed the birds. As you can see, they are quite happy--I even had some Evening Grosbeaks this week!

I received a letter from my most favorite almost 9-year old granddaughter, Brielle, who lives in Idaho Falls. She wants me to travel to Idaho Falls on Friday, Feb 28th, so that I will be with her the next day--which is her birthday! Sounds like fun to me!!!

Then after my shower I look out and laugh at Mayme playing "chicken" with a gopher. I watched her throw it--and it would run. I think it got away under the snow.

I think that the gopher probably thinks that it was a terribly horrifying start to his day (and here I was laughing); the darn things are invading the lawn. Of course, Mayme thinks it is her job to search out and destroy the little buggers. That means there are HOLES all over. I will have to take measures soon--but I don't know what they would be right now. There is a foot and a half of snow, and Mayme does this jump up in the air abt 2 feet, come down with all 4 feet and your head under the snow while you try to get them....

I also hauled wood--over the very icy driveway. It's quite a feat to carry wood on the ice :)

Matt and Darren and Jesse and Jamie and Sara have all contributed to keeping me warm. THANKS!

Today I drove to Halfway to do a Nurse Competency Visit--that means I got to run away and drive and enjoy the beautimous world, and then visit with Jody and her patient. Heavenly Father is the GREATEST of artists.

Uncle Aaron made it back from his 5 week Police Academy detail last night. He says he's fat. I invited him to walk the 5 miler with me in the morning before church. I thought he would say no, but he said yes....I told him to bring his IPOD, so...now that Andrea has walked me through getting this thing together, I'll have to work on adding songs to my IPOD. Joy.

As you can see, for those of you who lived in Cambridge (Eve, too), Pine Eagle is still there...

The snow is piled high--5 to 15' in from of the buildings. The back streets are single lane only.

And it was so fun because every power pole had a different valentine on it to decorate the main street. I liked the one that said "to my Sweet Pea"

The road to and from winds along the river. One of my patients told me he had counted the curves, and there were 82. I told him I would never had been able tokeep track. He said he had his wife do it.

Just more fun sights along the drive--those cows were happy to get some hay today!

I now have a company car. This little dude sits on the dash--that's so I'll know which car is mine. Does he look like the bluebird of happiness?

Then home. Darren and Caitlyn brought over their new puppy in January. As you can see, he growls and barks at Mayme--NONSTOP.

She finally laid down so he would play with her. She stayed on her belly for hrs trying to win him over. She was, of course, successful--as she is a woman.

This is their little Mister. He puked on the way over--and when they went back, too.... So, now you have another page in my life. Hope you enjoyed seeing a HAPPY DAY. My best days,
however, are when my family are here. I LOVE YOU GUYS!! When summer comes, we'll see if I do something more exciting.

Sometimes sad. . .

2009-02-02T22:28:00.000-08:00

I love looking at the fun Christmas pictures--and I love the family picture at the top of this. We have a beautiful, fun, loving, wonderful family (was that fun, loving, or fun-loving?? or both?)

This morning I woke up thinking it would be so nice if Aunt LaVonne came through the door--and her leaving had all been a mistake. Not as much, as I'm sure her family wishes it!!

Then Alysha called me, and she is so devastated with her idiot boyfriend. I wish I had a magic wand to help. I wish that we could all learn the lessons we need to learn without it hurting so badly.

At work today I had a meeting with the Corporate team. In order to hire a high quality nurse, we are offering her $5 more /hour than I make-which is fine with the Corporate team. It makes me feel totally expendable and demoralized and sad because I love hospice work.

A family in our Ward has a 4 month old baby that they took to the hospital on Wed--life flighted to BOI on Thursday, Ventillator and ARDS then a high temp and 100 % ventillation last night.

So, good times, bad times. We will see what tomorrow brings. Meanwhile, prayers please for alysha and Gage. Love, Mom

Christmas Pics

2009-01-20T18:32:00.000-08:00

Three months Mom?

2009-01-01T19:31:00.000-08:00

Mom,

Do you check this page to get to all of our blogs? Will y0u notice that I changed it? Hee hee hee.

Matt, Darren, Alysha and Andrea all got to spend time with Mom for Christmas. We had a great time. We played games, made and ate great food, and just enjoyed being together. Thanks for everything Mom.

Knife Attack

2008-09-30T11:15:00.000-07:00

Sunday afternoon I decided to go spray some wasps that I had seen hovering around. Little buggers. So I collected the spray, and a long flat serrated knife that happened to have a double pronged pointed tip. The wasps have collected under the mailbox. I had sprayed them before, but they had returned to the nests which were in a 1/8 inch flat opening under the box. This time I planned on scraping the nests out. THE END OF THOSE MAILBOX WASPS!! First I headed to the end of the shop where they were congregating under the eaves and metal. Shoot those buggers, hither and thither, falling like little bombs. Oooops, one coming my way--hand shoot up to shoo him (or her) away from my face. STAB, knife into my scalp; pain and blood. My thought was, good thing it wasn't my eye. My headache had me laughing the rest of the night and next morning. Not smart :)

Friends

2008-09-29T10:41:00.000-07:00

“True Friendship”

· When you are said, I will plot ways to get revenge against the sorry bastard who made you that way.

· When you are blue, I will try to dislodge whatever is choking you.

· When you smile, I will know you finally got laid

· When you are scared, I will rag on you about it every chance I get

· When you are worried, I will tell you horrible stories about how much worse it could be until you quit whining.

· When you are confused, I will use little words.

· When you are sick, stay the hell away from me until you are well again. I don’t want to catch whatever you have.

· When you fall, I will point and laugh at your clumsy ass.

· This is my oath. . . I pledge it to the end. “Why?” you may ask? “Because you are my friend.”

2008-09-25T18:26:00.000-07:00

Andrea says I have to write. . .of course, since I am a compliant person, I am acquiesent. Yesterday I put a $50 (for gas) on the truck of the car, with my Blackberry on top, while I closed the garage up. You guessed it. I drove off without grabbing either. Eight miles later I went to make a phone call, and...no phone. I stopped the car, of course, no phone--and the $50 was also missing in action--or did it get the action?

Anyway, I drove home, looked high and low, with Mame's and Choco's assistance and found--nothing. Drove back to town, very slowly, looking side to side--nothing. Came back and put a phone sized rock on a piece of paper and drove the route again to see where it would fly off. It didn't.

So, I am out $50, and the Company has ordered me a red Blackberry something with a qwerty keypad. I think it will have a camera, also. I guess someone else needed the money worse than me. My fear is that a cow will eat it. Oh well. Love to all, Mom

Mom is now a blogger.

2008-09-14T16:24:00.000-07:00

Hey - mom is now a blogger, or will be soon. For now this is Andrea getting things started. Lonnie Bradley came to visit. I think she still looks the same.

Mom, Mamie, and Choco. Choco is staying out of Mamie's reach. Mamie likes to play with Choco, and Choco doesn't like to play with Mamie.

The club house is sad and empty, it needs grandchildren to come and visit.