End of September 2009 Poster

It is the end of September. Time for a poster update. Fall is definitely in the air. It has actually snowed here today and it is cold.

Making progress

Added one more month!

Tannerism #13

The other day I was on my Facebook. I noticed that the 'Farm' on there that Tanner usually takes care of for me was getting a bit overrun. I decided I would take care of it by deleting a few things and rearranging and then readding things back on. Tanner walked in while I was doing it......

"Mom! What are you doing?"
"It's getting over crowded so I'm rearranging it."
"Why are you getting rid of the plants. I don't want you to delete them!"
"But I have to for right now. We'll put some more back on. I'm going to make it bigger and rearrange things so they fit. It's too crowded."
"You're deleting them. I told you I didn't want you to do that."
"But I told you I needed to."

He turns his back and sticks his foot out in a very teenager sort of way and says in a sing-songy way....

"I'm not done not liking you right now."

I couldn't help it. I cracked up. It was too funny!

And he did like the 'farm' when I got it rearranged.

Happy Happy Birthday Drewann Dear!

Today is Drewann's (Drew) 22nd birthday! I can't believe it's been that long. She was my right-hand for so long, it's hard to have her all grown up. We're taking her to Las Vegas on Thursday for an interview to work on a Cruise Line, so she gets to pick out her present there. But we did celebrate with cake and ice cream, family and 'roommates'.......

Drew with her cake and the roses are from the 'roomies'

Veronica, Lindsey, Emily and Drew

'The Roomies'

The picture my dad put on his birthday email of her.

Drew and Gary in Lexie's sunglasses

Happy Birthday Drew!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Today is my Dad's birthday. I don't get to see him much, but I love him!

Dad and Andy showing off their hats at Andy's wedding

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!

Good To Go For Another Year?

I had my annual doctors appointment today. I have had enough female/health problems that I don't go to the doctor. Literally. Wynn has always had to make my appointments for me, and then take me to them to get me to go. Seriously. I kid you not. And then in November of 2007 we found my current GYN and his PA. Can I just say.....Hallelujah!!!

They have never treated me like a stupid female. Two years ago the PA listened to my problems and told me it wasn't all in my head, it wasn't normal, everybody does not go through this, etc, etc......I had never said what the other doctors had been telling me, but this is exactly what I had heard my whole life. I literally started crying in the office. The PA put her arm around me and gave me a hug and told me they were going to help me. She wished she had met me 20 years ago because there were so many things she could have done for me. But at that point, there was really only one option open to me....to have a hysterectomy. I was fine with that. So the very next week I was in to see the GYN, the did some tests, I followed up the next week and was scheduled for surgery for one month from my first visit to them.

It has been a long road since then. My weight was up, ugh, which caused my blood pressure to be up, double ugh, and I was severely anemic. I was put on BP meds (1/2 pill once a day) for 3 months until I lost about 5 pounds and my BP went down. Then I was taken off of them, knowing that I needed to get more weight off and if my weight went up at all I would be going back on the meds. So started the long process of getting the weight off. I exercised, counted calories, watched as I did Weight Watchers with Wynn and he lost 25 pounds and I lost 2. It was hard. But the weight has started to come off. It's just such a slow process. When you basically eat healthy to begin with, no chips, sweets, pop, junk etc, there's not a lot to cut out to lose weight. It can be very frustrating.

So a few months ago I made my appointment for today. Yes, I made the appointment all_by_myself and today I went there all_by_myself. I was nervous about going because my weight is not to the goal we made. And although I take my blood pressure regularly just to make sure it is staying down, I was having Doctor visit anxiety. So on to today.....

They all raved about how good and well I look and how much weight I have lost. Then I went into 'the room'. Of course they wanted to get my weight and blood pressure. I_was_EXTREMELY_nervous for this. Drum roll please........My blood pressure was a good number. Yeah! My weight was down 12 pounds! Yeah! But even better was the fact that I had gained 4 more pounds after that appointment that they, of course, didn't have recorded. So I have lost 16 pounds. Hooray for me!!! Of course I still have to get to the goal weight I have set with the PA, but she was very impressed and very happy with my progress. I just know I can't slack off knowing I won't have another appointment for a year. Next year I know I can be at my goal weight if I just keep at it. It's not going to be easy, but I already feel so much better I can't wait. Plus I'll HAVE to get a new wardrobe. There's the best plus! Now we just have to wait for the blood tests to come back because she doesn't think I'm anemic anymore. Gosh. Once I finish getting the weight off, I'm gonna be a whole new me!

And It Starts

Tonight was 'Parent Night' for the Marching Band. That means that Sky View and Mountain Crest both perform their routine for competitions this year for their friends and family. That means it is the start of the competition season. They each perform their routine twice. Can I just say, it was cold. Not as cold as last year though since the wind wasn't blowing. Last year it was at Mountain Crest, so this year it was here, at Sky View.

Mountain Crest performed their routine. They are still polishing it up. It was a little rough still. Then they did their second performance. It went better. It was interesting. It should be good once it's a little more polished.

Then it was Sky Views turn. I must say, when Morgan walked into the living room with the new Color Guard uniform on.....I wasn't impressed. In fact I was a little worried. But as they walked out on the field I was happy to see that it looks soooo much better out on the field than just in the living room. In fact, it looks good out their in their performance.

They took the field and I was excited that I had remembered the camera. I gave it to Wynn to video the first performance up close and then go up to the top of the bleachers to video for the second performance. That way we could get Morgan & the second one would show the formations. As he was videoing, we noticed that it just stopped. We then found out that my card was full! Remember my computer being down? Yeah. I haven't been able to download my pictues forever! We did get the computer back tonight, but now I don't have anything from their performance tonight. Sigh. It looks pretty good too.

So I will get the pictures downloaded soon and hopefully get caught up on my blogging.

Volunteering

Today I started the volunteer hours for AmeriCorps. These are the 25 hours that are in the 'not comfort zone' area. For 5 hours today I volunteered at the Special Olympics. Not just me though, Morgan, Lexie and Tanner went with me. My hours go toward AmeriCorps, Morgan and Lexie's hours are for a Value Project for Young Womens. Tanner's are just so he learns to serve others.

I was very nervous this morning as we were headed there. Talk about out of my comfort zone! I didn't know what they were going to have us do. I didn't know how Tanner would do. I knew it shouldn't be a problem for Lexie, she does Peer Tutor at school. (that is where for one period of school a day, students go to class with a child with special needs and help them with their class. Lexie goes to Science with the student she peer tutors. She absolutely loves it!)

The Special Olympics today were held at the University. The event was swimming. We got to time the races. Morgan was in the big pool area (along with my friend). Lexie, Tanner and myself were in the small pool area. Each of us had a lane we were responsible for timing, except Tanner, who helped me with my lane.

It was so fun to watch the athletes and see how excited they got when they finished. Notice I didn't say when they won.....but when they finished. But, yes, they were excited when they won too. They had such great sportsmanship, they were truly role models in how to behave at a sporting event. It was also exciting to see how Tanner cheered for them & laughed as they splashed us as they got to the wall. There was one boy that, when Tanner would see him would say, "Look mom, it's the guy with the really big splash."

If my kids learned nothing else today, I hope they learned that we can always learn something from everyone. Even if they are different than we are. Though we were there to serve them, they truly taught us plenty, and in that way, served us.

We will be doing more hours for Special Olympics. I'll be posting about each of the events we get to volunteer for. I know I'll be nervous again next time as well. Maybe it won't be so out of my comfort zone by the time I get my hours done.

AmeriCorps---Round #2

Last year I wrote about my year in AmeriCorps. It is a volunteer program in many areas. I volunteer in Literacy. There are many requirements for the year, I am part time......

• 900 hours

Out of those hours, there are certain areas that have to met.....

• 25 hours of community service that can be done in an area that I am comfortable
• 25 hours of community service that have to be done in an area where I am NOT comfortable, for a Non-profit organization, that I work directly with the people the organization benefits.....(cannot be the same thing I did last year)
• 1 Literacy night project
• 1 Homeland Security project
• 1 Martin Luther King project (January)
• 1 AmeriCorps week project (May)
• Training sessions....school, district & AmeriCorps
• Study groups, about once a month, of which I am study group leader this year.......the organization is reading and discussing 'Bridges Out of Poverty' this year
• only 180 of my hours can come from training and community service
• Reading groups....I work with the most at risk in Kindergarten and 2nd grade
• Any other things that the Principal and Literacy Facilitator have us do within the parameters of AmeriCorps
• CERT.....since I completed this last year, I don't have to do it again this year. They didn't give anything to replace these 20 hours, so I need to get them on my own

Now we just need to make sure we get our hours in and projects done. And help the kids learn to read. Not always the easiest of all the tasks for the year.

Give oh Give Away

Go to this blog......

You can enter for a chance win a beautiful picture of the

Salt Lake City Temple.

Except that I plan on winning it! It's beautiful.

Kill It? or Let It Die a Natural Death?

We have been having problems with our computer since June. First it messed up my whole log-in, losing all my pictures that were saved on the computer and my favorites that were saved for the internet. I found them all eventually and got them copied back where they belonged. It copied some of them several times and Lexie and I laboriously made sure we had pictures then deleted the rest....back and forth, back and forth...

Then it got a virus. We could work around it for the most part, while Wynn worked on it every day after work trying to remove it. Then it got ANOTHER virus, and we had to take it to the computer doctor. It took them no time at all and it came back feeling better. Not like new, but better than it had in a long time.

NOW it refuses to get on the internet...AT ALL!!! We are all having to use Drew's laptop for now. Are you kidding me? It says that there is a connection problem, but Drew's laptop connects just fine. GRRRRR. So now we will have to take it back to the doctor. This time I think we will add whatever it is that makes it go faster too. Might as well just get it all done now.

So that is why I am behind on my blogs again. Can't get on the computer for long and all my pictures I was going to use are on our computer and I don't feel like searching the cd's for the ones I wanted. So once we get it running, I hope I have time to catch up!

Birthday of a Father-in-Law

Today is my Father-in-laws birthday. He has lived most of his life in Wyoming, but now spends his days in Utah. He has had a long, eventful life. He has seen many things come and go and many things change in his lifetime. Some good and some not so good. But progress none the less.

And here he is with Zach and Sara. Another grandsons wedding.

Happy Birthday Dad, Grandpa, Dean

8 Years Ago

Eight years ago today, we were living in Evanston, Wyoming. I was pregnant with Tanner. We didn't have cable or satellite at the time, or even an antenna. Lexie was 4 years old. I had sent the 4 older children to school when I got a phone call from Wynn. He told me to turn on the radio and proceeded to tell me why. At 8:46 Eastern Time, the Twin Towers in New York City had been hit by hijacked by terrorists jets, one jet each. A hijacked jet had also hit the Pentagon. Yet another jet had been hijacked, but the passengers overtook the hijackers and it went down in a field in Pennsylvania. It was presumed that it was suppose to hit the White House. I could only listen, having no way to watch. Wynn's boss, as well as many bosses across the country, sent them home early, since no one could focus long enough to work. The country was in a state of mourning. We went down town to a furniture store so we could watch what was going on. I couldn't believe what I saw. Total devastation. The country rallied together. We were again the 'United States of America'.

Today they are revealing the memorial that has taken years to build. Many people that lived through the tragedy, many of them lost family in the attack, are going to be there for the reveal. The victims are being honored. Many people that are attending were just children at the time. They will be remembering the parents, friends & family members that were lost.

Maybe with the memorial being revealed it will help us remember what this country is supposed to be about? Maybe we can remember that we are supposed to be 'UNITED'. Maybe we can remember that our presence in Iraq (thank you Donovan and Trevor) and Afghanistan is necessary or the war would be on our soil.We need to remember those who lost their lives that day. Today should be a day of rememberance of so many things.

Happy Birthday Andy!

Today is Andy's 23rd birthday! Andy has always loved loud things.....trucks, tractors.......anything that makes noise. And the faster the better. He likes the tricked out everything. Even at 2 he knew what he liked, and it had better be John Deere green. And he even got some for his birthday again this year. I don't think his collection will ever be done.

Leza planned a BBQ for his birthday dinner. We all went over to their house for it, both families. Some of the kids had to leave early, but we had a nice dinner with family.

Leza baked him his favorite...German chocolate cake

(white cupcakes as well)

He's not old enough yet. He got them all with one breath.

Happy birthday Andy!!!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Today is my Grandma Hulsey's (Evelyn) birthday. She is like the energizer bunny....she just keeps going, and going, and going......She has so much energy and always has time for everyone.

I hope I'm just like her when I grow up! Although I don't know that she'll claim that she's grown up yet! (wink)

Happy Birthday Grandma!!!