My 5 little joys

I'm getting homesick for my grandkids. That's it, I said it. It's a long time till April when they all come for the fair. I'm not sure I can make it that long. They are the reason I take care of this body, this mind, and this insane life I'm living at times. We are two of the lucky grandparents, for we have a little of everything when it comes to grandkids. We have blue eyes, black eyes, carrot tops, and curly haired "milk chocolate" ones too. All we need is an alien! Although, sometimes we wonder if Eden came from outer space!! She's our little meteor. Oh, I can't get enough of them all. Jonah, Marcelus, Eden, Levi, and Phoenix. And the list is to grow, I'm sure. We're still waiting on Roma Jean, and hope she is up there waiting for us too. They are each so different and definitely come with their own talents and personalities, even as little as they are. Jonah is our creative one, our musical one, and loves a great beat. He is very smart for his young age, and has been putting 24-piece puzzles together since he was 2. Marce is our electonic guru, thank goodness, because every family needs one! I can see him fixing all things broken without even thinking about it. He is our quiet, reserved one. I am still trying to figure out what he is saying every time I talk to him on the phone. Eden, oh Eden. What can I say about her!? She is one of a kind. I think the best way to describe her is that "her spirit is too big for her body!" She is the life of the party when she is around. And she is taking after her mother and grandmother and ending up with a killer collection of shoes! That girl is into shoes. And then there's sweet Levi, the lover of the group. He is our precious, ice blue-eyed, carrot topped basket of sweetness. I don't listen to country music very much, but I DO like the song "Front Porch Looking In" from Lonestar. Every time I hear the words "There's a carrot top who can barely walk with a sippy cup 'o milk. A little blue-eyed blond with shoes on wrong cause she likes to dress herself," I think of Levi and Eden. That is them to a tee. Then rounding out the bunch is Phoenix. Phoenix is going to be bigger than all of them...put together! He is just like his daddy, big, but a marshmallow. He has the biggest, cutest dimples I've ever seen. And you can't get a more rich, beautiful color on a child than his is. You just want to eat him up. He is a cuddler, just a happy little guy. And he is the one that is changing the most. I guess that's what makes it hard to not see them. They are different little people every time they come.

One of the blessings of not having satellite anymore is that you end up finding videos that you've had for a long time, but never watch. Sunday night Kevin got in one of his "not just any movie will do" moods, and went to the back room (the vault) to go hunting for a good movie. Out he came with "Camelot", a movie that we both grew up on, but forgot that we even had. Landon even sat down and watched it with us. I had forgotten how much music is in that movie. I remember listening to the LP (record, for those of you who don't know what an LP is) all the time growing up, as this is one of my dad's favorite movies. Uncle Von even sang "How To Handle a Woman" at our wedding reception. And who couldn't LOVE Richard Harris? Okay, so he isn't as good looking as Barry Gibb, but the guy has an incredible speaking voice...and I don't mean as Dumbledore, although he makes a better Dumbledore in my opinion, but as King Arthur...WOW! Plus, you end up feeling sorry for him. It wasn't his fault that Lancelot comes and steals his queen away. So Lance can work miracles and bring someone back to life...anybody can do that, in Hollywood. So, there you have it...I love Richard Harris! (And those smoky, made-up eyes they give him in the movie aren't bad either)

KICKED OUT OF THE FAMILY

Two weeks ago we made the decision to get rid of the cable in our home. It's been a long time coming on mom's part, but I also understood that it had to be a family decision. So when Kevin told me that he was okay with it if I wanted to get rid of the dish cable, I jumped at the chance. We have had a few interesting things happen since we decided to do that though...including getting it shut off. We have Dish Network, which come with the "dish" attached to your home when you have it installed. The dish is ours, always will be, and never gets taken away, because we "own" it now. I'm okay with that...it doesn't mean we have to use it. So I got online to disconnect our service, but when I look the website over, there is no where to be found a place that tells you how to do that online. So I call the customer service number, talk to a real guy, and explain to him that we have decided to discontinue our cable service. I think I put him into a coronary, because he is sounding a little dumbfounded about the whole idea. He asks me right back (after I just told him) if we want to shut our cable off, in kind of a question form. I told him again that, yes, we want to shut our cable off. He still couldn't believe it, and asked me why we were having that done (which, now that I think of it, was none of his business.) I told him that we had decided that we wanted to simplify our lives and get rid of the things in our home that were not essential. He was polite, but STILL could not figure out why. (Like you cannot be living if you don't have TV.) After a few more explanations, and he trying to give me a better package for cheaper, free months, etc., I was able to get off the phone, with our cable gone, and a nice empty dish stuck to the side of our house, forever... The crazy thing is, that a week later, Kevin got a call from Dish Network trying to talk him into signing back up for 3 months free with all kinds of goodies to go along with it. People are funny...but we are free at last! And we haven't missed it a bit - although I think that the TV is getting pretty lonely.

ANOTHER LOGANDALE ICON GONE...

Tibi has already blogged about this, but for those who haven't seen or heard, our beloved Logandale church burned down today. It started at about 4 a.m. in the rear of the building, back where the Relief Society room was. They had just cleaned the carpets yesterday, and had fans all throughout the building to help dry them. At first they suspected the overload on the electricity, but after the day had gone on, they weren't sure that that was the actual cause. Federal Investigators came on the scene during the day, and were busy gathering information from local residents as to the floor plan and other specifics of the building. I called our Stake President as soon as I dropped the kids off for Seminary, and then got to work gathering food and heading down to the park across the street from the church to be ready to feed firefighters for the day. It was a long day, but very fulfilling. I came home exhausted, smelling like smoke, sunburned, and thankful for the women of our stake. I am posting these pictures mostly for my older children and relatives. I knew that it would be a sad day for them too.

Bishop Barlow with Bill McConnell, firefighter (and also 1st counselor) saving things from the Bishop's office. I thought this picture was pretty poignant.

President Robison (facing us) with his three Bishops in our building. Another solemn picture...

Bringing out the missionary placques. They all hang on the same wall for all three wards. That was providential.

Looking into the front door (as you are on the street). Notice all of the rubble inside the door where the ceiling had given way.

My wonderful helpers, Carolyn Jensen and Nikki Fessler. We ended up staying till the last truck left the parking lot. It was a long day...

ONE HAPPY KID

This last Saturday...all day, from waking up at 5:30 in the morning to getting home at 10 at night, we spent in Pahrump for Landon's basketball tournament. The team played a total of three games during the day, with each game time spread out throughout the day. Landon ended up playing all three games for all of the game, with the exception of a few minutes here and there. He did not sleep on the bus at all on the way home, so needless to say, he was very pooped when he got home. He had been hit in the face with the ball at full speed during one of the games, and had been knocked to the floor a few times too, so when he walked in about an hour after Kevin and I got home, I didn't even make him shower or brush his teeth (my kids will not believe THAT one) but instead, sent him to bed for a well-deserved night of dreaming. He woke up on Sunday morning with a huge fat lip, a sore throat, and a stuffed up nose. So he ate something real fast (I think with his eyes closed) and I sent him back to bed. "NO CHURCH FOR YOU!!" He didn't complain and when I went back into his room to check on him later, he was already out. It was all worth it though as long as they got that trophy...