Mannclann Seniors

Fall 2011

2012-01-01T17:32:00.000-08:00

September started out with a wonderful announcement of the forthcoming birth of a new grandchild.

This time it's our youngest son, Chris and his beautiful wife Emily expecting their first in March of 2012. They surprised us with this news on labor day! How appropriate. We found out later in November that it is another precious grandson. We are so happy and excited for them and us.

My temp job that I thought was going to turn into a permanant position at the eye doctors ended in August due to their financial burdens and the economy. Then I got another temp position that was supposed to be for just 4 weeks as a medical records clerk for Santa Rosa Orthopaedics. That was perfect because we had a vacation planned...

On October 14th Richard and I took a trip up to Lake Tahoe and stayed at one of our World Mark resorts. The weather was perfect the whole time we were there. We enjoyed finding beaches where we could see the gorgeous clear water of the lake and just walk along being together. This was the celebration of our 32nd anniversary that happened in July.

There is a really fun miniature golf course in South Shore and we had fun playing their 28 hole course. Richard beat me by one point!

Our resort was at the summet of 7400 feet as you can see by the ski lift chair I am sitting on. We loved just having relaxing time together playing games and watching movies in our beautiful resort room and sightseeing around the lake and in South shore. It was a wonderful celebration. On Wednesday of that week we left Tahoe and flew from Reno (leaving our car there) to Salt Lake City and gave the rest of the time at the resort to Chris and Em to celebrate their 5th anniversary. They drove up from Sacramento.

In Utah we stayed with Jeff and Rachelle in their new home that they are renting. Much bigger and more fun for their boys with a yard and room to run and play with the cousins. Better than a condo for a young family. The First day there (we got there around noon) we met John and Noelle and their children and all went up the canyon to Silver Lake. One of their favorite places in Utah. It was cold but lots of fun. We got some great pictures so here is a sampling..

Above is the mirror effect of the lake and the fall colors.

Jeff and Lucas (age 2) watching the ducks on the lake.

Rachelle and little Ethan watching Daddy and Lucas.

Grandma and Papa enjoying being with their Philpott Grandchildren

and Daddy John and Mommy Noelle.

After we got back we went to the Philpott's new rented home just a block away from where they used to live. It's a very nice, very large 6 bedroom home with lots of family space as well. Now all the kids have a room of their own. This is Jenna and Little Cousin Jude (10 months old).

On Thursday night the girls did a surprise dinner with a halloween theme. We had three courses that we got to choose what we received but all the items had halloween names so we didn't know what we were getting and the utensils and napkin were in the mix also. After each course the table was cleared. The long and short of it was that the food was good but I wound up eating all of it with my fingers because I got my spoon, fork, and napkin for my second course and nothing to eat at that point. It was great fun!!!

The next morning we had Ghost Pancakes for breakfast (seen above) also very good!

That Friday after the Pancakes, we all took off to a fun pumpkin patch. There was a corn maze that the kids loved as you can see by the smiles on the faces of Michael and Isaiah above. They ran through it in record time.

We also took some family pictures with the country setting..

This is the Manns:

Brook, Jude, David and Carter

The Philpotts

Emma, Jenna, Isaiah, Michael, Noelle, John, and Abigail

These are the other Manns

Jeff, Ethan, Lucas, and Rachelle

We were behind the camera this time!
We all got pumpkins, even Richard and I and they let us bring them home on the airplane! I was so happy about that. They made a nice part of our fall centerpice on the dinning room table.

We enjoyed watching our family play together.

Here Uncle John is helping Nephew Carter do a slam dunk in his driveway.

We love our time in Utah with our family but it always goes by too quickly.

The weekend after our return was our Church ward Halloween party at a farm of some of our members.

We invited our Sebastopol Grandsons Joshua (left) a friend of his in the middle, and Lucas La Grave (right)

with their parents Kathleen and Mark. It is a wonderful fun event and we enjoyed sharing that with them.

After all of that I was extended in my Medical Records job so I was still working full time.

June and July 2011

2011-09-18T20:57:00.000-07:00

This blog is sort of out of order. Even though it is before August in the grand scheme of things I posted August intending to put the summer all together but my computer was slow so I ran out of time and had to do two posts to record the summer events. So here we go with summer part 1.

Our summer started out with a bang! My parents decided that they were going to sell their home of 10 years in Grants Pass Oregon and move home to California. My brother, Larry and his wife Becky asked them to move in with them in their home in Brentwood California. We are thrilled to have them so much closer so that we can have family events together and just get to see them often. My Dad celebrated his 92 birthday shorly after their move down and we were there to have a great weekend. I'm taking this picture of my parents (in the middle with two of their dogs) Richard to the right of my Dad, Larry next to him and Becky on the other end in the back. There is Emily and Chris kneeling in the front.

On the 2nd of July, our son Dave and his beautiful family arrived for a weeks vacation. This is Carter (age 3)on the day they arrived learning how to catch a ball. See his hands ready to receive?

On the 4th of July we joined Dave and Brook and the kids at their dear friends, Vince and Nancy's home with Brook's parents too. We had a lovely afternoon and fabulous barbeque food with all the trimmings. Makes me hungry just to remember... My contribution was this heart shaped cake with strawberries and blueberries decorating the whipped icing. 4th of July and family....you can't beat that!!

In Santa Rosa during the summer they have what is called "Wednesday Night Market". It takes up two full blocks of the downtown area and the side streets with all kinds of fun things to see, taste, and experience. Dave and Brook and the boys met Richard and I there. My job at that time was on 4th street smack in the middle of the market so I was already there and just walked out into the excitement. We ate dinner together each selecting what sounded good to us. There was a great selection to choose from. It was a very enjoyable evening. This "hand" sculpture is at the entrance to the mall at the end of the downtown area. Carter was fastinated with it.

Carter loves the Peanuts comic characters so Dave and Brook did a Peanuts treasure hunt whenever they had a spare hour or so. Because Charles Schultz lived in Santa Rosa for many years and was a big part of our community doing a lot for people here, we have decorated statues of Charlie Brown, Lucy, Woodstock, and Snoopy all around our fair city. They are very individual in their design and fun to find. After the "market" we went to Yogert Farm for an outstanding frozen yogurt dessert and there right in front was Snoopy all decorated as a dairy cow. Carter is posing and saying "cheese" for his picture with Snoopy.

On Friday of that week I took a half day off work and i went with the boys (and family) to the beach. It was Carter & Jude's first time at the ocean. Carter loved the sand but didn't like the moving water and wouldn't venture anywhere near it. I brought along some beach buckets and sand toys so, as you can see, he was happy playing in the sand.

We also brought along our patio umbrella so the little guy, Jude, wouldn't get burned. Dave is feeding him so he can take his nap.

Grandma ventured out into the water and brought some ocean water back in a bucket to Carter and Daddy Dave so we could build a castle. The toys were little molds of fish, a crab, and a seahorse. Daddy filled them and Carter put them out on the sand. He loved it! We did make a castle tower with the bucket too but didn't get a picture of that one.

Speaking of pictures, Carter loves to see them as they are taken. Daddy is showing him the picture that is posted below. Can you tell that Grandma Joy is having a great time?

After the Beach we all headed to Sebastopol ,which is on the way home from the beach, to meet up with Richard at Mark and Kathleen LaGrave's home. They are our step children and grandsons Joshua and Lucas. Here you see Joshua (age 10) meeting cousin Jude for the first time while Grandpa looks on. We spent the evening together and enjoyed a fabulous meal and great conversation but most of all just being together.

Here are the other two cousins, Lucas and Carter. Carter is exactly two weeks older than Lucas. They had a great time playing together.

The parents of the cousins left to right: Kathleen, Mark, Brook, Dave. What beautiful/handsome kids we have!

Here we are together with Brook and Jude and Dave and Carter.

It was an incredibly fun day.

Saturday the 9th of July they headed home to Utah. We had a little birthday celebration that morning on their way out of town for our son Dave whose birthday was later in July. Carter loved the ribbon that was around his daddy's birthday gift, especially the fact that you could wear it and see through it. Can't wait until we see them again.

Also in July near the end, our grandson, Shawn and his lovely wife, Karlena came over from Fairfield and had dinner with us. We were happy to be able so share some time with them. Karlena is expecting their first child in November near Thanksgiving. This will be great- grandson number 2 and grandchild number 22. We are very happy for them and for us. A grandchild that is closer to home!

The rest of that month was just working at our jobs until the post below about August.

August 2011

2011-09-11T22:16:00.000-07:00

In August we were priviledged to have our friend Dorsey Willison and her three childlren stay with us for almost 3 weeks. Her husband is a dentist in the Air Force just beginning his assignment in Mississippi and they needed to have Lincoln start school before Dorsey moved there to join him so they all lived with us so that could happen. They were such fun and we miss them but wish them the best of life in their new adventure.

This is Lincoln watching "The Little Mermaid" before he has to go to bed.

This is their newest little one, Juliette. Such a cutie.
She cut one of her top teeth while she was with us.

This is Christian the two year old. He is a very sweet little fellow.
He was so polite as he would say, "Goodmorning Joy" every day when he got up.

On August 10th, Richard and I were thrilled to be able to use Gwen's Christmas gift
to Richard... two tickets to a sporting event of his choice. He chose a Giants Game
as he knew I would love to attend with him more than a Warrior's Game or the 49er's.

They had the World Championship trophy on display so I got a picture of it.
Sure is a beauty. We were about 10 feet from it.

Our seats were perfect... top tier, second row, seats 1 & 2 between 3rd base and home plate.

It was a perfect day at AT&T park. Sunny and clear with a light breeze.
You couldn't ask for better weather at a ball game.
All these "in the park" shots were taken from our seats!

With my zoom lens on our camera I got a pretty good shot of Cody Ross (one of my favorite players)
getting ready to take a swing. It was fun being there and watching our Giant's players...
too bad they lost the game. But we enjoyed ourselves anyway.

After the game we went to "Nick's" on Fishermans Wharf for dinner.
Good food, fun wharf atmosphere. This was our anniversary celebration dinner.
32 years of happiness as of July 21.

After dinner we walked along the Wharf down to Ghirardelli Square for
some chocolate for my Dad's Birthday and samples for us.
Had to take a picture of the cable car on our way back to the car.
There's nothing more San Fransisco than that.

On August 20th after our trip to the Oakland Temple, we went to my cousin Kathy's
home in the Oakland hills. It was about 12 min. from the temple. We had a wonderful
lunch with Kathy, her husband, Howard, and my Uncle Bob shown with me here.

We so enjoyed just visiting with each other and catching up. We also went through pictures
from our past and pictures from my grandmother's life. I was thrilled to get copies of some
great pictures of my grandparents, special documents from their lives, and my uncles story
from his service in WW II. A wonderful time together with promise of more sharing of family
history to come.

2011 Spring Snipetts

2011-09-04T13:43:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged in a year and I have been told by some that I should blog again so I will give you little snipetts of our year so far. I started working full time at a Temp medical receptionist position last September and have had a second temp full time position after that one ended. I loved both of my jobs...first at the Cancer center and then at an Eye Doctor's office. Now I am looking for work again so that we can reach our goal of serving a mission in 2014. I know the job I'm seeking is out there somewhere so I just have to be diligent and patient.

On to the pictures and their descriptions...

Our son, Chris, graduated with honors from ITT tech in Sacramento this March. We are so proud of his accomplishments. He is now enrolled in the continuation of his education at Sacramento Institute of Art in pursuing his career as a Game Designer. He has tremendous skill and talent and really enjoys his classes.In May we traveled to Utah for a weeks vacation and some more wonderful family events. Our son, Jeff, graduated from University of Utah Law school and took his Bar exam in July. We are waiting for the results and he is enjoying being home with his two boys as Mr. Mom without having to study while looking for a job with a law firm. We are very proud of him too.

Some of our Idaho Grandchildren came down for the graduation and other family events and fun. This is Emeric Mann who turned 18 while we were together.

This is Emeric's Stepmom and our son, George's wife, Urasia, with her daughter Maycie and their daughter Brooklyn who is 2 years old. It was so much fun to have them there sharing in the family fun with us. We got to know them better this time. George was working in Arizona so he couldn't be there with us.

This is our great grandson, Jordan. He is four and his mom, our granddaughter Beth, came up from Provo for the last weekend we were there to be at the reception for Jeff's graduation and his baby's blessing.
These two cute Utah Mann boys are Carter age 3 (above) and his new little brother Jude, (below, born on December 16, 2010). They belong to David and Brook. We had such fun meeting sweet little Jude and playing with him and Carter. Being a grandparent is one of lifes nicest blessings. We wish we lived closer so we could see all of them more often.

Next we see the two sons of Jeff and Rachelle, Lucas Mann (age 19 mos in this picture) and his new baby brother, Ethan James who was born on April 15, 2011. Ethan was just a couple of weeks old when we got there and it was so much fun to hold the newest Mann grandchild. He is a very good baby who sleeps really well.

Then on that incredible weekend of wonderful, very special family events, we witnessed the baptism of our granddaughter, Emma. She is the middle child of John and Noelle's family of 5 children. She was so excited to be baptized and I had the priviledge of giving the talk on Baptism at the service.

It was a wonderful vacation that we hated to see end. We look forward to being able to see these adorable, loving family members again in October when we go there again. We are grateful for modern technology that keeps up updated on all of them and helps us to see their growth and hear all the exciting things going on in their lives.

I will blog about our Summer next.

Ankle Adventure part 2

2010-09-01T17:16:00.000-07:00

Finally the hopeful day came (July 6th) for the Cast to come off and stay off. It had been about 2 1/2 weeks and he was ready but also a little nervous!!
Dr. Stateva said that the ankle and scaring looked really good so she took the stitches out...notice the scissors in her right hand as she examines his sergical site...

So here is his next stage...the BIG BLACK BOOT. He noticed right away that it was as heavy if not heavier than the cast had been. He was told that he could only put weight on his heel and was still supposed to be very careful and use the walker or crutches for a few more weeks. Still wasnt' full weight bearing. He had to keep his foot elevated too but now he could shower without the rubber vaccuum sealed boot and actually wash his foot and ankle. Ahhhh! that shower felt so good, to be able to wash and rub where the itching had been, but he still was sitting on his shower chair. I gave him foot massages and put lotion on his foot and ankle. He went to work from home on our home computer about 4 hours a day. He said that felt good too.

Now we got to go to Physical therapy that started slowly at first until he had more strength and mobility in his ankle. It was up to his Dr. how fast the PT would progress. He progressed pretty well. In this picture above you see Jay Hamon, who I've known for many years because he used to work at Safeway with me but now he is a very good Physical Therapist, massaging Richard's ankle. Richard always started out with that to increase the mobility so he could do the other exercises.

Now he has gotten a resistance band that helps to strengthen his ankle movement. Jay put him through a series of different exercises each week adding and removing some as Richard progressed. It was fun to compare the ones he did with those I did when I was recovering from my broken ankle. I am grateful I didn't have the tendon injury as Richard got a greater variety of stuff to do, some the same, some different; some hard and some easier. That's what progress is all about.

He reached a point where he needed to practice on his balance so what do they give him to do...play a game on the Wii!! Who would have ever thought I'd see him doing that?? What do you think, Grandkids?? Pretty cool, huh?Well, now that he was more mobile, he was going to church, going slowly up and down the stairs several times a day. He was finally free from being upstairs so much and he was able to get out. Here he is out at Mark and Kathleen's when the Philpott's came to visit in July. This is his new look of a goatee beard too and one of his new Luau shirts I got him for Father's day. He's become "Mr. Casual". I like it!

Finally he had had enough of the mustache so off it came. Here he is with just the chin beard. I really like that. Look how handsome he looks! Today he is biking on our exercise bike (as I type), working 6+ hours at work so he is driving because the BOOT is off and shoes are on, and he is not using any walking assistance, even the cane has gone back to the closet. His ankle feels much better than before the surgery and he is still going to PT to continue to strengthen everything. He will probably be released by his Dr. at his appointment next week to go back to work full time. His only real problem now is his heel hurts but that will get better too. We missed BYU Ed week because of all of this but we are determined to go next year and he will be able to walk all over campus and enjoy it...hopefully ankle pain free.

Good work, Sweetheart!!

Richard's Ankle Adventure... Part 1

2010-07-18T18:11:00.000-07:00

Friday, June 18th, Richard had out-patient surgery on his right ankle to remove a bone fragment and repair a torn tendon and some ligament damage. The Doctors feel these were a result of a combination of incidents...a bad sprain ten years ago and our car accident in June of 2009. The surgery went well though it was more involved then the doctor thought it would be taking 3 hours instead of 1 1/2 hours. However she was pleased with how well it went. The top picture is him after he woke up from surgery in the recovery area and the bottom one is of his ankle in his cast.

His first morning with breakfast in bed. He wasn't going to be able to walk on his foot at all until the cast would come off and the stitches come out. He therefore only came downstairs when he absolutely had to for the first 2 1/2 weeks after the surgery and that means twice for Drs. appointments. Oh, how I remember it well. Patience is a virtue but that doesn't mean it's easy!! AT first you think...this will be cool to just lay around watching sports and the World Cup on TV and reading books and working on personal history but it doesn't take very long to wish you could be up and around like normal again. At least he had very little discomfort and I pampered him to the best of my ability.

The day after Richard's surgery, he got a package in the mail that contained a Father's day gift and this wonderful Get Well banner filled with messages of love from our Philpott family. It meant so much to him and he loved looking at it every day. You can just barely see him sitting on the bed with the poster on the wall beside him.

One lovely Tuesday, our step-daughters Gretchen (L) and Kathleen (R) came over for a nice visit. They even went down the street and bought us lunch too. This is them with Kathleen's son, Grandson Lucas #1, coming up on the bed to say "Hi" to Papa Mann and get a closer look at that cast!!

For several years our sons have been asking Richard to grow a beard or mustache and I told him this time off of work and staying home most of the time was the perfect opportunity so he agreed and began the process of NOT shaving (except his neck) This is the first picture at one week.

Look number one at 3 wks growth...BYU Dad

Look number two...Utah Dad with beard

Look number three... No glasses and his cute cap...sort of a Sean Connery look to me!!

This was the last of his full beard cause it was driving him crazy so he shaved right after these pictures. Hope our sons enjoyed it because Richard says that is it for a full beard. Stay tuned for Part 2 of the adventure...

Brithdays and Weddings

2010-06-30T14:57:00.000-07:00

During the past three months we have participated in several birthday and wedding events. It started out with our step-grandson Lucas who lives in Sebastopol. He just turned 2. He and his brother, Joshua are very close and Joshua was there to help him at every turn. It's very tender to watch the two of them together.

Later in the month I had a Joyous Occasions Birthday event for 3 year old triplets, two boys and a girl. The boys got Mickey Mouse cakes and the girl a Cinderella Doll cake. Many hours went into doing these.

Some dear friends of our who used to live in our ward both turned 90 this year so we were able to attend the surprise birthday party for Nettie as it was here in Santa Rosa at her favorite restaurant. The first picture shows her sweetheart Frank(standing)who's Birthday was in January and he had a party in San Francisco where they met and lived before coming to Santa Rosa.
The next picture is Nettie greeting her friends all around a very long table. She is such a dear and used to do specialty cakes too. She also always did the flowers every week for our chapel and then would give them to friends to enjoy during the week. She had an amazing garden where she grew all the flowers. She turned 90 in May. It was a very spec ial event for us to share.

Later that month our dear friend Jackie Bunnell got married to her new sweetheart, Larry Wright. I was asked to do the flowers and her cake. I was so happy to do this for them as Jackie and our family go back to the very beginning. I met her before I married Richard and Richard served with her deceased husband in the Bishopric. Her husband was the Bishop. We are thrilled that Larry and Jackie found each other to be together on this earth until they can each be reunited with their departed spouses.
Jackie's son, Jordan, gave her away and her two daughters were her bridesmaids. It was a very happy day.

Just this last weekend was another Joyous Occasion wedding for a dear friend. Cindy Pulley, who was one of the singles in our stake single adult program, got married for the first time. We are so happy for her. She has such a sweet spirit and she is so kind. She served a mission in the same mission as our son David (Cleveland Ohio) and even stayed in the same apartment complex he did in Toledo, only she served about 15 years before he did. She was the main care giver for her mom for many years and then her mom and Dad both passed away a few years ago. We are so happy for her and her husband, Allen Eckles.
Lots of fun events enveloped in love in a short period of time. I am so glad we could be a part of them all.

The begining of the adventures

2010-06-09T17:00:00.000-07:00

We have been very busy these past couple of months and it would take too long to blog the whole thing so I will blog a little when ever I have the time and will eventually catch up to the present so here goes the fun...

Our month started out in Sacramento for Easter/ General Conference weekend with Chris and Emily. We had a great, relaxing time with them watching the wonderful messages of our Prophet and the Apostles of the church to enhance the Easter message, eating fantastic food, and playing games together.

The following week I continued to participate in a "Flat Stanley" project for my grandson, Michael Philpott in Utah. Any of you who haven't done this for a grandchild or niece or nephew are really missing out on some fun. Take the time to do it if the opportunity comes your way. I took "Flat Stanley" with me wherever I went and took pictures to send with our written adventures together. It was like what I did for our granddaughter, Jenna with her shadow. See if you can find "him" in the pictures here. He was in Sacramento with us, then on a walk around Spring Lake, at the Snoopy gallery and museum, helped me mow the back lawn, and then mailed home to Utah.

It was a great way to begin the awesome month of April!

Marvelous March

2010-04-18T21:26:00.000-07:00

The highlight of our month of march was the thrill of having two of our Utah sons and their families come out for up to a week. Brook and Dave and their almost two year old son Carter stayed with us for 7 days which was absolutely delightful. It was Spring Break for the U of U.

Dave would love to see his son play basketball so he is starting the dream now by taking his picture playing with our basketball. Go CARTER!!

Carter brought some of his favorite toys but took great pleasure in discovering that Grandma and Papa had toys for him to play with too.

He loved the beaded "roller coaster" thing and then to find his Sesame Street friends under the number 1 - 5 made him very happy.

He is very smart and talks very well. The numbers one - five he recognizes and says in or out of order.

We had the privilege of babysitting for him on the first Saturday they were here while Brook and Dave got a night out and went to the city to see "Wicked". Jeff and Rachelle and Chris and Emily were here too but I was wondering if Carter would be good or concerned in a new house and with us for the first time. Well, he was an angel. He ate a great meal and was perfect. It was such a fun evening!!

Lucas was really good too and went to bed in a room upstairs without any trouble. So when the little ones were down...we played our favorite card game..."butt Mann". Just like old times.

Sunday was a day for Brook and Dave to see some other friends and Chris and Em and Richard and I went to the Dunford's for a Birthday dinner for Rachelle's dad, Ron. We had such fun playing with Lucas. He loves this life sized puppy dog as you can see.

Monday, Jeff and Rachelle and Lucas came over and I had the time of my life feeding Lucas his rice cereal with him mom. This was his 3rd time eating. He loved it and did a very good job at eating it all. What a good boy!!

Daddy, Jeff playing with Lucas!

Mommy was playing with him here and I caught an expression worthy of a caption...but I can't think of one. It was too priceless not to post. How about you giving it a caption.....

Papa and Lucas getting to know each other.

Monday night we had a family dinner and invited Mark and Kathleen, our step-children and their cute little ones over. Here is Carter playing with our other "Lucas" grandson. They got along great and they are exactly 2 weeks apart in age.

Tuesday we went to Howarth Park here in Santa Rosa.
It is a wonderful park with lots of fun things for parents to do with their children. Brook took Carter down the slide to give him the hang of it and be sure he wouldn't get hurt by him self.

While their older son, Joshua, was in school, Mark and Kathleen brought their Lucas to the park too and we all had fun together.

Carter likes to swing, can you tell?

Papa was asking Carter for help reading his ABC book and Carter was more than happy to help Papa read ALL the letters of the Alphabet.

I think little Lucas was really enjoying the beautiful Spring weather after coming from Utah where it is much colder.

Oh those soft, sweet cheeks!!

Jeff, Rachelle, and Lucas had to go home on Thursday but
Dave, Brook and Carter were here until Saturday night. On Saturday morning I took Carter over to the Park to play. He found the slide again only this time it was a double slide so Carter and I went down it together holding hands. We did it many times and loved it each time.

He learned who "Grandma and Papa" are while he was here and now he even asks for us when he is home. What a special time we had together. Can't wait to be together again.

It can't be March already!!

2010-03-14T20:37:00.000-07:00

Our month of February started out with a special visit from our Philpott family. They arrived on a Sunday evening in time for dessert and some fun activities with Gramma and Papa. They all spent the night with us. How wonderful it was to have our home filled with laughter and smiles.

This picture was taken of Richard with the grandchildren just before he left for work. He went in a little late so he could be here for a special breakfast where we all fixed our own "Eggs in a Bag" to complement our pancakes. It was a fun, adventurous breakfast.

We played games together and watched a movie, then they were off with the promise they would be back this summer for a longer visit. We are excited about that.
This is the whole family...(L R) Noelle, John, Abigail (in back) and Isaiah, Emma, Michael, and Jenna. We love you all.

I had two floral contracts this month but they were for funerals instead of weddings. I love to do flower arranging but prefer weddings and birthdays for obvious reasons. However the families were grateful for the arrangements I designed. We knew the families for both.

Now that our Grandson, Shawn and his wife Karlena live in Oakland, they can come up for dinner occasionally. We had them here on a Monday night as she works on the weekends. Emily, our daughter-in-law was here that night too so we had a fun time talking, eating, and watching old family movies together. This is them with their cute, well behaved dog, Piglet.

Here is a picture of Richard with a special portion of an assignment we were asked to do by our granddaughter, Jenna Philpott. She is in preschool and her class made "shadow" figures of themselves (that's who is sitting on Richard's lap..."flat Jenna") and sent them to a far away place to go on adventures with their friends, or in our case, grandparents. What a creative thing to do. I wish I could have been there to see all the adventures of all the children. So the following pictures are some of those we took to send back to Jenna along with a journal that showed her shadows journey.

Here we are at the Luther Burbank home and garden in Santa Rosa.

Now we are outside of the Snoopy's Ice Arena where Charles Schultz had senior hockey tournaments and families come to ice skate. They used to have a fantastic Christmas Ice show here too. We went once many years ago when our three youngest boys were little. The sign next to the bench tells you that you are being recorded and if you call your friends and tell them to log onto the Snoopy Ice arena website, they will see you. I called Noelle, who was back in Utah, and asked if Jenna was home from school. She was so Noelle logged on to the web site and, by golly, Jenna could see me and "flat Jenna" right there. I took this picture so Jenna could remember that. It was fun.

Then I took "flat Jenna" over to the Snoopy museum and gift shop. Here we are up on the top floor where there are very interesting articles, awards, and fun things to see about Charles Schultz. You can see the gift shop below and Snoopy in his airplane hanging from the ceiling behind her. I bought her a Snoopy sticker that she put on before she went home. You can see it in the picture of her with Richard.

On Flat Jenna's last day here with us, I took her to the park across the street from our house. She had fun playing on the playground equipment. I look forward to taking our real granddaughter and her family to these places when they all come back this summer.

The rest of the month was spent on finding a job. I took a class put on by our ward that taught job search skills. It was a 11 hour class given in the evenings one night a week for 5 weeks. I learned many valuable skills and have been working with them in my job search, networking with people and spending hours on the internet finding jobs listings and sending out my resume. Still no interviews but I will keep plugging away. Our other two sons and their families will be here next week so I am glad that I still have time off to spend with them. It's a blessing. Maybe the perfect job will come along after their visit. So you can guess what pictures will be on my next blog. I can't wait to be able to babysit for my little grandsons.

January 2010

2010-02-10T10:27:00.000-08:00

We have had a challenging but fun first month of this new year. We started out with the challenge of my job downsizing and creating one full time position from two part time positions therefore I was laid off of a job that I really loved. So now to the challenge of finding a job in this hard economy where there are hundreds of people applying for any job out there. Well, we will see what happens. However I haven't been bored or with a lack of things to do. I have been very busy actually. So besides learning job search skills and how to write a resume and do an interview...here are some of the fun January happenings for Richard and I.
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We started out on January 9th by going to see our favorite comedian, Brian Reagan, at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts. He keeps you laughing so that you feel wonderful and it's all pure fun...and CLEAN. However, your cheeks hurt when it's over. We love it! He is great! We try to see him whenever he is in Santa Rosa.

On the 16th we went out to Sebastopol to celebrate Mark La Grave's Birthday with his family and friends. This is a picture of him and his boys, Joshua and Lucas who we consider our grandsons. We love them and are so glad to have their family, who are a part of our family, live near us now. We also celebrated Christmas with them then too as we missed seeing Mark and Kathleen during the Christmas holidays.
This is the Birthday cake I made for Mark.
He loves gardening and is a Doctor by profession.

On Friday the 22nd Chris and Emily came out to Santa Rosa so we could celebrate Chris's 26th birthday with him. That night was our ward Talent show and we decided to perform the Abbott and Costello routine "Who's on First" we did 20 years ago and practiced it for many days and weeks. This picture below is us after the performance when we came home. Yes, those are Christmas decorations behind us...I told you I was busy. The tree was down but I was still trying to take down the rest of the decorations here a little and there a little. Everything was down before February though. I tried to post the video and it was, in theory, downloading for 5 hours but still not accomplishing the task so I canceled it. I will try and put it on Facebook because it downloads much faster; so check there if you want to see it.
Chris and Emily. Can't believe our "baby" is 26 years old.
Wow, does that make a person feel old! Love you Guys.!

2010-02-09T12:01:00.001-08:00

Stupendous end of 2009

2010-02-09T10:38:00.000-08:00

So many wonderful events and memories just kept coming during the last quarter of 2009 that I didn't have the time or energy to blog. So I thought I would give you a bullet point summary complete with a picture slide show. I hope you can get a small feeling of the wonderful memories and experiences we were blessed to enjoy.

October 9th: Richard's 70th birthday celebrated with Chris and Emily and a few close friends.
October: Our ward Halloween chili cook-off and harvest party at the Lowder's farm. Joy was a witch serving the brew. Mark and Kathleen and their boys came and enjoyed it too.
Joy attempted a garden...our pear tree gave us the most beautiful pears ever but the cantaloupe were teeny weeny and laughable.
Our Thanksgiving trip to Utah was abundant with amazing surprises and blessings. It wound up being The Best Thanksgiving EVER and a reunion of our posterity...all 33 of us!!
Joy enjoyed being a part of the annual Nativity art and music exhibit again this year. We both sang in the Choir with Dan Earl again. That is always one of the highlights of the Christmas season for us.
We saw the Christmas lights at the Oakland Temple for the first time in many years.
We attended the David Archuleta concert at our local entertainment center and loved every minute of it. Joy even got a T-shirt. David actually attended our ward sacrament meeting that weekend. The young women... actually all the women were thrilled!!
Christmas was quiet. Chris and Emily were here in the afternoon and we "skyped" on the computer with our Utah and Texas families, and called the rest on the phone.
New Year's Eve was spent with good friends enjoying good food and fun games as we welcomed the new year with hope for it's future and ours.

I will try to do better at my blog this year but being Relief society President takes up a lot of what used to be my spare time. Happy New Year Everyone!! Hope you enjoy the slide show.

September Miracle!

2009-09-29T08:12:00.001-07:00

On Monday, September 21st, at 4:06 PM our son Jeff and his wife, Rachelle participated in a miracle and became parents for the first time. Their "little son", Lucas Jefferson Mann, was born. He weighed in at 9 lbs 10 oz and was 23 and 1/8 inches long. These are their first family photos!! We are so happy for them.

So fresh from Heaven!!

All bathed and beautiful even down to his little "Mohawk" hairstyle!

Rachelle was so good to keep us feeling a part of it all being so far away. We received pictures on our cell phones so we could see our grandson often. She sent us this one the morning of the 22nd from the hospital after feeding him.He seems quite pleased.

"Sprout", as he was affectionately called before they met him face to face, didn't receive his name until they were ready to leave the hospital on Tuesday. We think they chose a great name for our precious grandson after getting to know him a little.
But I think he will still be called "Sprout" on occasion.

Day 3
His Grandma Cindy and Grandpa Ron were fortunate enough to have been there when he was born and were a great help during those first few days being at home. Grandma Cindy is holding Lucas here and is the reason I have some of these nice pictures from his first 5 days after birth. Thank you Cindy!!
His Uncles, Aunts, and cousins were ready to greet him

as above where Uncle Dave is holding him.

Day 4 "Snug as a bug in a rug"

Day 5... Hello there little bright eyes. It's good to see you.

Rachelle had just fed him and he was so satisfied.
She sent this picture of that contented peaceful look.

Day 5 again...the little sleeping angel.

Sunday morning Rachelle sent this sweet photo saying. "Happy Sunday." It's amazing how a little fellow can change in his appearance so much in one week. We love him so and can hardly wait for November when we are going to Utah to see him in person and touch those cute little cheeks, give him hugs, and shower him with love. The miracles in our family are plentiful.

Weddings of September

2009-09-28T21:43:00.001-07:00

On the 12th of September we attended the wedding of Matt Dold.

The wedding was held at the home of a friend of the Dold family high in the hills of the pretty little town of Glen Ellen where they lived when Matt was a toddler.
The ceremony and reception were overlooking this lake on their property. It was a perfect place and the weather cooperated too.Matt patiently waits for his bride to join him.
Ruthie, his cousin, is a bridesmaid.

He watches and waits...

Here comes the beautiful bride, Francesca, on the arm of her Dad who, with his wife, came all the way from Hungary to be there for her.

Friends and family...we are gathered here in the site of God to witness the marriage of Matt and Francesca....

They say their vows....

You may kiss your Bride...

I present to you Mr and Mrs Matt Dold

The garter and bouquet were thrown and Fronie's sister caught the bouquet and a friend of Matt's, that I know from working at the Chiropractic office, caught the garter.

The Bride and Groom share some dances together.
The food was delicious. Some of it was Hungarian traditional food made by Fronie's mom.
Matt and his wife will be going to Hungary with Jan and Greg to have a wedding ceremony over there for her family and friends who live there.
It was a beautiful day and a very special event. We were glad we were there. Matt told us "he was very glad we were there but he wished that Dave, Jeff and Chris could have been there too."
He seemed very happy. We are very happy for him and his beautiful wife.

The week after Matt's wedding I had a wedding cake to do for another young couple. The wedding and reception were out in Sebastopol at "The Vine Hill House". I created this design using her wedding invitation to inspire me. She and her husband and their family were very happy with the way it turned out.

Supurb Beauty of September!!

2009-09-27T22:01:00.000-07:00

This post is about the beauty of the nature that has surrounded me this month.
I've started walking regularly again and so I thought I would take my camera along with me one morning. These are some of the natural beauties that delight my senses and uplift me as I walk. The picture above are those gorgeous flowering trees that bloom in Sept all around Santa Rosa. We even have one in the dark pink color growing in our yard. How fun it will be when it gets that big.

As I walk through the Oak trees that are at the far end of the park, I smell them and that fragrance that surrounds me takes me back to my childhood and a park I used to go to in Berkekey called "Live Oak Park". It is an instant memory and a very good one. At the same time I look around and down that path in front of me as I stand under the Oaks is a view of the fence that surrounds our first house in Santa Rosa...the home where we lived when all three of our youngest sons were born.

Then I walk down that path and stand by that fence and look out at the view that we had from our deck in the backyard of the playground over the stream and through the trees. Look familiar... sons??

Near the end of my walk in and out of the park walkways is a pathway that is another favorite. I love the majesty of the Weeping Willow trees. They have a grace and beauty all their own.

These cuties are some of the Gerbera Daisys that grow on our deck. I love looking at them out of my kitchen window.

This is the Hydrangea plant that my Philpott family gave to me one Mother's Day. I love the color of those flowers. It brings me much happiness. Thank you family.

This cute little succulent plant was a get will gift from the Kitchen family that was waiting for us when we got home from our extended trip to Utah in June. It's "get well" messsage was greatly appreciated and it is blooming again so that it's love extends on.

Light pink roses that bloom profusely on our front path on a bush that my boss gave me for assistants day in 2008 make me smile every day. I love that I planted it and it grew so nicely. I got another one this year that is a dark, dark pink that I have planted across the path from this one. It will be fun to see it's growth too.

I love nature and the way it makes me feel. I'm so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who created all the beauties that surround me. Now it's on to the next phase of nature and all that fall has in store for the senses.

Awesome August!!

2009-09-13T08:57:00.001-07:00

The First Saturday in August, our Stake President and good friend, Perry Bingham (front center) came over and told Richard that it was time for him to be released from his 8 years of service on the High Council and I was also being released with him from our 8 years of service as advisers to the Single Adults in our stake. The picture above is his last night with the High Council. It was a hard release as we both loved serving in those capacities but with change comes growth and new opportunities to serve. You will see at the end of this post where we are serving now...

The two weeks surrounding that event were very busy weeks for 4 of our sons. All four of them moved from one place to a new place. Our son John and his wife Noelle and their 5 children moved to Taylorsville Utah from our rental home in Sacramento. He got a really good job there but not until his wife and kids had already moved into their new rental home. That's a leap of Faith which accompanied with the confirmation of the Spirit was exactly what they were supposed to do. They have a lovely home there and are setteling in nicely. Our son Dave and his wife Brook with their son Carter moved from Salt Lake City into the beautiful newly fininshed 3 bedroom basement apartment of the rental home John and Noelle live in. And our son Jeff and his very pregnant wife Rachelle moved from a 2 bdrm upstairs condo to a 3 bdrm downstairs condo in their same building in Salt Lake city. It's wonderful having 3 of our sons and families so close together while Jeff and Dave finish school at U of U. They love being close and having family dinners together at least once a week. Noelle takes care of Carter when Brook is at work and Dave is at school. There's nothing like family!!!
Also the first weekend in August our son Chris and his wife Emily moved from our house in Santa Rosa to our rental home in Sacramento as he started school at ITT for his computer animation degree. Emily is still communting to Sonoma county to work but hopfully she will be able to find a job close to home when the opportunity presents itself. Chris is still looking for work in Sacramento that will fit with his school schedule.
I'm very grateful that we are staying put!!

On the 15th of August we were in Grant's Pass Oregon with Chris and Emily to celcbrate my Dad's 90th Birthday. We had a party for him with his friends from his barbarshop chorus as well as other friends. Dad has a quartet and they entertained us beautifully. You will see a couple of videos of two of their songs at the end of this post. We had a great time spending a couple of days with family. With thoughtful calculation we figured that it had been 17 years since my brother Larry, my sister Joanne, and I had all been together at the same time. We promised not to let it be so long next time.

The week after we got home from Oregon, our granddaughter, Beth and her son Jordan arrived from Austin Texas for a visit. What fun it was to spend some time with them and her Dad Steve Berry too. Jordan is a very busy little guy. He loved burying his little cars in the dirt.

They came to church with us the Sunday they were here and Chris and Emily were here that weekend too so they got to visit with them as well.

The last Saturday of the month, Richard and I went to Sacramento to do Temple work at that beautiful temple. We had been there for the sealing of John and Noelle's children but never been through a session there before. We spent a great day with Chris and Emily there and at their home seeing the fun decorating they have done to make their home their own. Family is where the real Joy of Life abides!!

We did get new callings at the end of the month. I am the new Relief Society President and Richard is the first assistant in the High Priest Group. New opportunities for us both.

Here is my Dad's quartet and one of their songs they did. I have been trying to upload a second video but it is taking forever so I think I will cancel it and try and put it in a post by itself so that I can get this one published. My Dad is on the far left and sings high tenor. My video skills are new, so when the picture isn't good...just enjoy the beautiful sound!!!

"May the Road Rise Up to Meet You"

Where did July go??

2009-08-03T10:15:00.000-07:00

The first thing we replaced from our accident losses was getting a new camera. How can a family with so many wonderful people in it not have a good camera. The one we had lasted long enough to take a few pictures after the accident that were in the slide show from last month but after we got home...it refused to work at all. Thank goodness for digital cameras and camera memory cards. Another tender mercy from a loving Heavenly Father.

The first pictures taken were of Emily, our daughter-in-law, by her husband, Chris and then I took one of my sweetheart sitting in the living room. His head looks better than in the last pictures of him without a cap. Chris and Emily lived with us for two months between their Santa Rosa apartment and the house in Sacramento where they moved for Chris to start school in Sept.

On the 11th of July the four of us went to a premiere showing of Karos Lowder's short film he produced at BYU titled "The Space Between". It was very impressive and he shared his comments about the experience of doing that and how it is being submitted to many film festivals during the next 12 months. He is the son of good friends of ours and he is in the film making degree program at BYU. He is definately up and coming and we can say..."We knew him when."

On July 18th, Richard and I went out to our house in Sacramento to see the Philpott's one last time before their move to Utah. Noelle was very busy priming a room with Abby, and shampooing carpets. John was busy cleaning and fixing things that needed attention so we had the pleasure of babystting our 5 grandchildren. It was a very HOT day in Sacramento (about 108 *) so we stayed indoors where it was air conditioned.

We watched a few of their fun animated movies with them that we hadn't seen yet...and some of us dozed in the process.

We enjoyed playing games with them too. Here I am playing Junior Scrabble with Jenna. We had a good time.

Isaiah had fun showing Papa his musical toy.
It's amazing what toys can do these days!

Starting on the 4th of July and practically every day thereafter, I spent a lot of time talking to car dealers, test driving cars, and researching cars on line to find my "new" used car to replace my van. Well, on the 25th of July we bought this Hyundai Santa Fe. It's a small SUV and rides like a dream so my cakes and flowers will be safe. It has 36,500 miles on it and therefore has 25,000 miles left on the new car warentee. It has a very high customer satisfaction and safety rating so that is good. As you can see, it's a beautiful dark cherry red...my first red car. Hopefully we will have many good years with this one

Pictures from June

2009-07-02T09:46:00.000-07:00

Well, here are the long awaited photos of our amazing month of June with all our blessings in tact. Family is the greatest blessing of all and we ended our month with the sealing of our fourth adopted grandchild in the Philpott family at the Sacramento Temple on the 27th of June. Life is Good!!

June is busting out all over!!!

2009-06-24T19:29:00.000-07:00

I decided that I will take a lesson from my children...I know they teach me a lot about many things...and I will write my blog about this month and then I will post a slide show as soon as Emily and Chris show me how to put my pictures into a slide show like Rachelle did and has done before on their blog. So here goes the commentary with pictures to come later...

Richard and I had a fantastic vacation to Utah to visit our two sons and their families. One of the reasons we chose this month to go was because we had all the baby gifts to deliver (as well as a bassinet and infant car seat loaned to them by Brook and Dave but residing at our house) that Rachelle and Sprout received at the shower we gave her last month. Also we wanted to go up to Idaho and meet our new daughter-in-law Urasia, her daughter Macie, and George and Urasia's baby girl, our granddaughter, Brooklyn, now 3 months old. What a great family time!!!

We left on Saturday, June 6th and from the time we got into the Sierra Nevada Mountains until we reached Salt Lake City, it was rain showers with very few breaks and only briefly when they happened. I've never seen Nevada so green and actually quite lovely!! We arrived safely and happy to be there. The weather continued the whole time we were in Utah and Idaho with rain, quite heavy many times, everyday. Lots of thunder and lightening too. I guess that's what you get in the spring but people were saying it was quite unusual for that late in the season.

We had a great time in Utah. We relaxed and stayed with Jeff and Rachelle but when they were at school and work, we went over to Dave and Brooks and babysat for Carter...hurray, we loved that....while Dave had his chiropractic appts and had errands to run. It was so much fun! On our own, Richard and I ate lunch at Hires Big H which has been in Utah since the 50's. It was good food and fun atmosphere. We also had to have an Ice Berg Shake cause they are really thick and oh so good. Then we did a trip to...no not BYU this time...Barnes and Noble for Richard to use one of his gift cards.

We took to opportunity to attend the Temple in Utah but took a while to decide which one. We chose to go to the Bountiful Temple and thoroughly enjoyed our session there. At least that morning it wasn't raining so we got some good pictures as we walked about the grounds after the session.

Rachelle, Brook, and I did a mother daughter day at a boutique village just down I15 a ways. We had a great time wandering through the shops and looking at fun creative things. All the shops were in old little houses from the past with a stream and ducks meandering through it all. We spent the most time in the Christmas shop that seemed to be the biggest house too. It was a delightful day.

On Wednesday night I was priviledged to be able to give Carter his bath and enjoyed playing with him and his toys, then get him ready for bed including singing a song and reading a couple of his books to him. I loved every minute of it!! Thank you Brook and Carter for that awesome experience!!

Our "Daughters" took turns and shared making wonderful dinners for us. All our sons are so lucky to have their wives be such good cooks. Then on Thursday...I had the fun of making a Birthday Dinner for Jeff and the family and his two best friends, Ryan and Jonny. It was a fun evening with family and friends. He chose Lasagna, green salad, garlic bread, and brownie sundaes for his birthday dinner.

On Friday, Jeff and Rachelle road with us up to Idaho Falls to see George and his growing family. Urasia is lovely and very sweet. We felt right at home and so welcomed. She is truly a wonderful addition to our family. She has a cute 5 year old daughter, Macie and then of course there is baby Brooklyn. We had such fun getting to know them and reconnecting with Emeric and Seneca (George's great teenagers). We watched movies, talked a lot, ate good food and played "Buttmann". Saturday Brook, Dave and Carter came up from SLC and we all got to meet Urasia's parents who came down for Brooklyn's blessing that was done at the house. The Bishop came over and presided and Richard blessed Brooklyn with the Bishop, George, Dave, and Jeff standing in the circle. George kept and eye on Brooklyn every so often during the blessing and said that she was staring at Richard as he spoke and she was so good! She is really an angel baby. Very happy, well behaved, and so willing to come to others and smile readily. She is definitely a grandparents delight. It was so fun to watch so many of our grandchildren play together and to have time to interact with all of them. I love being a grandma!!

We drove back to SLC Saturday evening so that we could leave Sunday morning. We packed up the car and were on the road by 8:30 AM and it was sunny with no sign of rain...until we got to Nevada.

We got to Elko and stopped for a potty break and to change drivers. On the road again we were just past Carlin and through the tunnel by a couple of miles when there was a HUGE cloudburst and the road became flooded, big time. We were passing a Semi truck and with the flooded road and his wheels adding to it...we started to hydroplane out of control. We spun around and in front of the truck and over the edge of the northern side of the road with the driver's side going over first. We rolled our van one and a quarter times landing on the driver's side for the second time. We both had our seat belts on and never lost consciousness. It was still raining and all the windows on both sides of the van were gone when we stopped. People who were behind us on the road stopped and came to us asking if we were all right. We assured them that we were alive and doing quite well considering the circumstances. They told us that help was on the way.

The volunteer fire department of Carlin and the ambulance arrived first. They took out the remainder of the windshield so we could be reached that way if necessary. However the rear door and window of the van were still in perfect condition...amazing as that sounds so the EMT's came in that way to reach us. I was suspended over Richard hanging from my seat belt and I could see Richard's head bleeding badly. I was concerned but he was talking and said that he didn't feel in any great pain. The EMT's took each of us out on a back board with neck collars on and securely strapped down. I was put in the ambulance and Richard was put on a helicopter to get him to the hospital quicker because of his head wound. The people who witnessed the accident kept telling us they couldn't understand how we didn't get hit by the Semi!! We are certain that it was a miracle and only by the grace and love and protecting arms of a loving Heavenly Father did we survive that ordeal with no broken bones, no internal injuries, no life threatening injuries at all. No words can express how we feel.

I was examined and found only to have a few very small cuts and some bruises especially on the right side of my face so I wound up with a "shiner" worthy of a boxer. But I was released from the Elko Hosp and became a passenger for the rest of the traveling.

Richard was examined; he received a "$1000" reverse mohawk hair cut, and then his head wound was cleaned and sewn up with 10 stitches for a 4 inch gash on the top of his head; then he was CT scanned. He had some minor cuts on his left arm and big bruises on his legs just below his knees. The Dr. was concerned about a hemotoma on his brain so he felt that he needed a neurologist's attention so he told us we would be flown to SLC. Hurray. We are going back to family and where we came from! After two ambulance rides and one ride in a small "air ambulance" through turbulent weather (the pilot made an incredible landing...so smooth that we couldn't feel a thing...really!!) we arrived at the U of U Medical center. Jeff and Dave and their wives arrived and Jeff and Dave gave their Dad a Priesthood blessing. The Doctors did more scans and kept him over night for observation. After more than 24 hours, and determining that the 3 millimeter hemotoma hadn't grown at all, they released Richard Monday night to join me at Jeff and Rachelle's apartment once more . He hadn't really slept... only little infrequent snoozes the whole time since the accident so he was exhausted and so grateful for a bed to really sleep in for the whole night with no one poking and prodding him. Brook, Dave, and Carter bought Richard a really cute cap to wear to cover his stitched up wound. It's just like one Carter has and they sure look cute together in their caps.

Wednesday, George drove all the way to Elko from Idaho Falls to retrieve our belongings. When he was there, he spoke to the owner of the towing place and he told George that there were three other accidents on Sunday in the same general area of I 80 and they were all fatalities. The wrecked cars were there beside ours. He also told George that we had rolled down a 100 foot or more embankment because his 150 foot cable on his truck was completely extended to pull our car up to the road so he could tow it. A further testimony that we were protected and greatly blessed. George then drove all our stuff to SLC and brought it to us at Jeff and Rachelle's. He had dinner with us and then drove all the way back to Idaho Falls. THANK YOU, GEORGE!! We went through it all and didn't really have to throw away very much...which also is very amazing to us. We washed what needed washing and packed it all very tightly for our flight on Southwest Thursday evening. Some of our stuff was left behind but other family members going out in July will bring us the few things that we left in Utah.

Words cannot express the gratitude and love we feel for our family and all their help and the tender mercies of our loving Heavenly Father through this ordeal. We have been incredibly blessed!! Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and many prayers in our behalf. We have felt them.

We are now home and both of us returned to work Friday. Richard had his stitches removed today. His Dr says everything looks really good. We'll see how his hair grows out, it will be fun to watch and try to keep looking good as I am his hairstylist so I will do my best with the growing process. Rachelle's parents have loaned us a car until we can replace our van with something else. We will see what we come up with and I'll share it on the blog. Enjoy the slide show when I find out how to do it.

The Rest of May!

2009-06-05T22:41:00.000-07:00

Jeff and Rachelle came out from Utah for 6 days and Cindy (Rachelle's Mom) and I gave her a baby shower at our house. This is the cake I did for the shower. Rachelle and Jeff love the Beach so we had a beach theme. Cindy and Cazra, Rachelle's sister-in-law, took most of the pictures so the cake was all I got on my camera.

Memorial Day tradition...Breakfast at Armstrong Grove...a very beautiful Redwood forest!

Jeff and Rachelle talking with Bishop Freebairn. Can you see "Sprout"??

A family of Robins built a nest on the arbor over one end of our deck. This is the Dad waiting his turn at the little ones. It's amazing how fast they go from building the nest to babies flown away.

Saturday, May 30, we went on a nature walk through the Bouverie Preserve with a few of the single Adults in our stake. It was a beautiful hike and our guide, Ann~ bottom right, taught us a lot about the things we saw. She was a real delight.

This is a bark house built as the Indians native to our area would build it. See the very large basket in the back...this they used to "cook" ground corn meal in. Imagine, cooking in a basket. They were the best basket makers ever.

A Buckeye tree in full bloom.

Beautiful scenery all around!

A bare tree covered in Spanish moss. Do you know what the "First People" (Indians) used the moss for??? If you want to know, just ask me or make a guess.
It was a wonderful adventure that we thoroughly enjoyed and want to do again.

Hot Giants!!

2009-05-24T19:27:00.000-07:00

The day is May 16th, a beautiful Saturday afternoon and we were given ticket to the San Francisco Giants game by Richard's boss. We were delighted and then we found out that the weather in Santa Rosa was going to be in the 90's so we were delighted to go to SF where "it's always much cooler"!!

Little did we know that it would be a whopping 89 degrees in San Francisco with little or no sea breezes (notice the flags in the first picture). The Game started at 1:10 PM and our seats were in the sun. We were in for a good time but a hot one.

Randy Johnson, "The Big Unit", was pitching and we were playing the Mets. We tied the game twice but they always seemed to get ahead of us. The final score was 9 to 6 Mets. However, the Giants were the only ones to score a home run! We enjoyed our hot dogs and garlic fries but we didn't like the intense heat. I got quite sunburned on my arms and am now "peeling" because of it. However it was a great date to have together. We have fun no matter who wins.

After the game, we didn't want to get stuck in the big traffic jam leaving the parking lot so we took a nice leasurly walk along McCovey Cove. Here are the ever present seagulls waiting to get into the park and clean up after the fans.

It truly was a gorgeous day as you can see by these pictures Richard took from the car on the way home. San Francisco has a beautiful city scape and of course the Golden Gate Bridge is one of a kind. Hopefully the next time we have an opportunity like this the weather will co-operate and the Giants will win!!

A Fabulous Mother's Day!

2009-05-15T12:10:00.001-07:00

Thank you to my wonderful family for making my Mother's Day absolutely delightful!

I called my mom early Sunday morning and talked with her about her choral show the previous night. All went well and my Sister sang a solo of "Fever" which was a show stopper. I love that song and look forward to seeing the DVD when we visit over the 4th of July. I then spoke to my Dad who is recovering from some surgery he had the week before. He sounded great and is doing really well. I'm so grateful for that!

After Church, Richard and I came home and enjoyed a delicious lunch that was prepared by our son Chris and his beautiful wife Emily. It was chicken salad sandwiches on special rolls, fresh fruit salad, Sierra Mist soda with fresh strawberries, and chips (low sodium variety for Dad). Ummm! It makes me hungry just writing about it. They did all the preparation and clean up. I loved it all!! I also love my yummy fragranced hand and body lotion and "4 footed" massager that feels so good even though it doesn't look like it should. Thanks so much Chris and Em, it was all so thoughtful.

After a nice visit with them the greatly anticipated phone calls started. We began with a "skype" call (on the computer where you can see each other and talk too...sci-fi style) with Dave, Brook and Carter. It was so fun to watch Carter's antics as he walked all over the place. Chris and Em got to be a part of the call too and enjoy the adventure. I love modern technology that makes the miles melt. It's the next best thing to being there.

Then I got the remaining wonderful calls from the rest of the family...George, Jeff, Christy and Jason, then John and his kids sang to me on my cell phone voice message when I was on the house phone so I have that saved. So precious. He called me later to have a mom/son talk. It was great having long converstations with all of my children. Thanks family for all your love.

I also got two beautiful cards, one from Christy and the other from Aaron and Jason, two of her sons. That was an added, unexpected treat the two days after Mother's day. Thank you so much.

A few days before Mother's day, I got this beautiful picture of our newest granddaughter, Brooklyn on my cell phone. She is 6 weeks old now and we can hardly wait to see her and hold her in person on the 12th of June when we go to Idaho to visit George and his family.
Look at those eyes! What a doll!

"April in Pictures"

2009-05-06T10:29:00.001-07:00

April started out with our trip to New York to see our daughter, Gwen and her boyfriend, Yasir. This picture became a familiar site as the Astor Park Subway station is just to the right of the angular building in the center of this picture. We walked there many times during the week we were there.

I was fascinated with the subways and actually enjoyed riding them.

Our first day of site seeing we took the subway and got off at "Grand Central Station". It was very impressive.

As we came out onto the street and looked up... there, rising above another office building, was the top of the Chrysler building made famous in the first "Ghostbuster Movie" See the gargoyles poking out??

We walked several blocks, passing by huge buildings and famous streets. Notice the reflection of the surrounding buildings in the glass office building? Pretty cool!!

Our next stop was the New York Public Library where another very famous scene from the first Ghostbuster movie was filmed. I have inside shots on my phone as they wouldn't allow flash inside. It was very impressive!! We learned that the first New York phone "book" was one page and had 16 names on it.

After the Library, we headed over to time Square. I was surprised to see how small it really is. On New Year's eve, it seems much bigger.

A couple days later we took the Subway and went down town to the Empire State Building. The weather was quite cold and overcast but we got some pictures anyway.

In this one notice the gold tops of a few of the buildings. It's a strange phenominom when you are up that high...the buildings you are looking at look big and tall but the site is familiar because of movies and pictures you've seen so you don't really feel as high as you are. There is nothing else even close to you to really compare your height. But when you get back down to the street and look back up of where you have been and the size of the buildings around you...then you realize just how far up you were.

The Chrysler building is in the center of this picture with the East river on the right.

A nice man offered to take a picture of all of us and we gratefully accepted.

Saturday, Richard and I went with Yasir to get their t-shirts and "bibs" for their Central Park race the next day. We walked to the building where we picked them up and this was a very old, impressive church nestled amoung the tall apartment buildings. I thought it was quite a contradiction of old and new.

We then walked down the side of Central Park and saw neighborhoods like this one on the side streets. Yasir said the the house on the right is a single dwelling and right by Central Park. Can you imagine the value of that home?? Really beautiful buildings as you can see. We walked many, many blocks that day and saw the edge of Central Park complete with Break dancers at the south end doing their thing. Gwen was home practicing for her "gig".

That night we went out to dinner at the best Italian restaurant we have ever been to called "The Three of Cups". Great food and company!!

Sunday was their 4K race through Central Park. We enjoyed looking around a little but after our very long walk the day before, we just sat and watched people. It was fun. After the race we ate bagels, apples and juice. Then walked through the park a little. Pretty scenery!!

On our way back to the subway, we walked along Park Ave. and saw many amazing, fancy apartment buildings.

Sunday Afternoon, Richard and I took a walk along the East River enjoying the view of the city.

Just a we were ready to turn around and go back to the apt. I went to the end of a walkway and discovered to my delight a view of the Statue of Liberty. Because of bad weather...this is the closest we got to her. Next trip for sure we'll go see her up close!!

Sunday night was Gwen's Gig at the "Scratcher Inn & Pub". She and LisaBelle were "back-up singers" for Elaine. It was fantastic music and fun atmosphere. Very Irish!!!! Elaine is from Ireland as is the owner and the performer that sang before her.

This is a self portrait taken by Gwen of the four of us on what we thought was our last day there but because of bad weather we were there a extra day which was frustrating but pleasant to have an extra day with them.

The day after we got home, Dave, Brook, and Carter arrived for their vacation in Cali. We celebrated Carter's first Birthday with a party held at our house. We had a wonderful time!!

Carter's special Birthday cake made by Grandma, of course!!

One of his favorite things to do was play drums on my bowl wrapped with foil. As you can see, he's really getting into it.

Kathleen and Mark came to celebrate with us too. Here is Richard with their almost 1 year old, Lucas.

I don't know what setting my camera was mistakenly on but I really like this Easter Morning Picture of Dave swinging Carter. It's got a cool effect to it.

The following weekend was Lucas's 1st Birthday Party at Mark and Kathleen's house. It was very warm so Lucas had a hat on to keep from getting too much sun.

He really likes spatulas so Kathleen let him serve his own little birthday cake with one. He had a great time. His brother, Joshua, was right there to help him make a mess.

The last event of the month for me was making this wedding cake. It is a first time cake for me because it is very different from any other cake I have ever made...it is a fake cake. It's made with Styrofoam circles that have Fondant over them. The Mother of the bride did that part then I did the decorating with royal icing that drys VERY Hard and added the ribbon and pearls. This cake traveled all the way to Utah and they served sheet cakes to the guests. I'll be anxious to hear how it all went when I next see the bride's mom.
On to a new month and more exciting family events.

Happy Birthday Abigail

2009-04-10T09:09:00.000-07:00

Happy Happy 9th Birthday to my darling Granddaughter

ABIGAIL

This INCREDIBLE Month of March

2009-03-24T22:07:00.000-07:00

The blessings of Grandchildren continue to flow around us and this month is one of the best ever!! It started with the birth of our oldest Son, George's, new little girl Brooklyn Addison Mann on Saint Patrick's Day. She weighed in at 7 lbs. 4 oz and was 20 inches long. She is a beauty with dark hair and BIG blue eyes. The picture of her here was taken by George on the night she was born all snuggled up in a blanket in his arms. Congratulations to our son and his wife Urasia and the rest of their family...Seneca, Emeric, and Macie. More pictures will follow as we receive them.
Then, Today was ADOPTION DAY for the oldest three of the children that our son John and his wife Noelle have had in their care since August of last year . The adoption was finalized this morning at about 10:00 and my daughter-in-law, Emily and I left early this morning to be there in Sacramento to witness this wonderful event. My tears of Joy overflowed as they all signed the papers and legally became a family. We will do it all again in a couple of months, when the youngest will have his turn.

Abby and Noelle watch the event
Michael

Emma

Jenna

The Whole wonderful Family with the Judge

Emily and I stayed for the day with them to celebrate at "John's Incredible Pizza Place" that had a great all you can eat buffet and tons of games and rides to play on and with to increase the celebration factor.

Emma and Abby riding the Motorcycle race bikes. They loved it and did really well!!

Michael being a real biker on his game!
Look at that concentration!

Jenna loved the Merry-go Round

Isaiah had fun on the games too but loved to eat his peaches....LEFT HANDED!! Papa is happy he finally has another lefty in the family.

The best is yet to come this Saturday when the three children will be sealed to John and Noelle in the Sacramento Temple with their daughter Abigail looking on with the rest of us.

Proof of My Reputation As...

2009-03-24T21:55:00.000-07:00

In years past I have had my daughter, Christy, tell me that I am "The World's GREATEST DISH STACKER". Well one morning recently I went to put away the dishes that I had washed the night before and I noticed that I had really done quite an amazing job of stacking those dishes so they would dry by themselves and I didn't have to get out a second dish drainer or a dish towel. I thought I would share this accomplishment with you and prove, by this photo, that my daughter was very observant in noticeing this dubious talent of mine.

Business Training and Old Friends

2009-02-18T09:40:00.000-08:00

Thursday the 12th, we left for Anaheim taking hwy 101 because we didn’t know if the Grapevine pass had snow and required chains due to the much needed rain that had finally come to California. There were many memories that flooded our minds as we traveled through areas that had been a part of previous vacations with our boys and even my first marriage. (I spent my first honeymoon in Santa Barbara.) We always enjoy traveling together as it is time to communicate on many levels without interruption. The weather held and we arrived at the Anaheim Hilton about 9:30 PM. It is right next to the Convention center and Disneyland. We shared a room with our good friends and business partners, the Tashjians. I must say that the Hilton rooms aren’t anything fancy but we were extremely pleased with a couple of basics that were top class…one was the towels (they were a nice size that you could actually wrap around all of yourself) and the other was the bed. It was very comfortable. Probably the nicest bed we have had in a hotel setting. Made getting a good nights sleep possible. There was one other nice amenity but I will tell you that later. The two day conference was a mix of emotions…concern, disappointment, hope, trust, faith, commitment, fantastic training and love. We are so very grateful that we made the decision to attend. We are committed to working with our Zrii business and being successful to fulfill the goals we have made for ourselves. We are excited to work hard and see results. We are committed to help those who join us to also succeed in fulfilling their goals and dreams all of us gaining better health in the process. There were several outstanding presenters during the conference. One was Thurl Bailey. He is a former pro basketball star plus he sings, and is a great motivational speaker. He was the first presenter on Saturday and was just what the conference needed to start the day. He sang and spoke to us giving us all deep reflection and determination. We bought his CD during the lunch break and were just one of many who had him autograph it. That was my Valentine’s gift. Speaking of Valentine’s day, one of the presenters had his wife come up on stage with him and he told about their meeting on a blind date and how happy they have been in their marriage. He then got down on one knee and asked her to go to Hawaii with him and marry him again in renewing their vows. He presented her with a piece of jewelry at the same time. She was overcome and emotional. He, Dr. Boettcher, threw his head microphone off over his shoulder to give her a “real” kiss. It was very tender and sweet. All the women were envious, I think.

After the conference, we took off for dinner with the Tashjians to an Irish pub. It was called “The Auld Irisher Irish Pub and Restaurant. The atmosphere was fun and the food was great. The only negative was we were sitting very close to the speakers where the music was playing and it was loud. If it hadn’t been so crowded we would have asked for a different table. But it was fun and yummy.

After dinner we returned to our hotel room and ordered a movie on the flat screen TV (at least 36 “, maybe 42”, the other amenity). We watched “Australia” and thoroughly enjoyed it. If you haven’t seen it…make a point to do so. It is filled with adventure, history, comedy, drama, and romance. It’s set in the beginning of WWII and very well acted. We highly recommend it.

Sunday was pack up and ship out day but first we made a stop at the home of a dear old friend of mine. Her name is Brahna Nudell. She was a neighbor of ours when we lived in Cucamonga CA. when my three oldest were very young. “Linda” (Christy) went to school with her son David and they played together a lot. Even though we haven’t seen each other for about 37 years we have kept in touch every year at Christmas time through cards and a phone call. Brahna’s husband Seymour died a 4 years ago, so now she is alone but still living in Irvine, CA which is just a few miles south of Anaheim and just off of I-5. It was her birthday on the 12th of Feb so her son David (who lives in Hollywood) was there too and took us all out to lunch at the Elephant Bar restaurant to celebrate her birthday. We had a fantastic time together reminiscing and getting caught up on the current days in our lives too. I brought pictures of the family…all of you, and they were thrilled. David was particularly interested in “Linda’s” & George’s families as those are the ones he remembers. He just turned 43 at the beginning of the month. He is quite well known in Hollywood for music (has several gold records on his walls) he’s written for pop groups, TV shows and movies. He is also a TV and Movie producer. He’s writing a script for a movie now and working on his next book. He gave us a signed copy of a book he wrote "Lessons from Beyond" which he dedicated to his hero, his dad, as he learned so much about life from him. It is an ongoing book series where people contribute stories from their lives of lessons they have learned from those who have passed away. David goes by the name Daven Michaels in his career. He is a very down to earth guy and such a good son to his mom. He currently has a girlfriend who has two young children. Being a "Daddy" figure is a first for him and he really likes it. Our visit was a real highlight of our weekend. Richard and Brahna were very happy to finally meet each other after talking on the phone several times when I wasn’t home for her annual call. Our trip home was on I-5 and we didn’t hit the downpour of rain until about 130 miles from home. It was a deluge but we made it home without any trouble and arrived about 9:30 PM Sunday night. It was definitely a trip to remember.

Another Grandchild is on the way!!

2009-02-03T13:43:00.000-08:00

We're Pregnant!!!

Oh Happy Day!!

Well, the proverbial "Cat is out of the Bag" with the announcement from Jeff and Rachelle that they have a baby on the way. We are so excited for them and for us!!!! They found out they were pregnant on Jan. 2 when they were here in California. They told us, Chris and Emily, Cindy (Rachelle's Mom) and her brother Ryan and his wife, Cazra on the 5th at a family dinner here at our home before they left for Utah. Rachelle's Dad was in Idaho taking her sister Becca to BYU-I so they found out a few days later. We were beside ourselves with excitement but sworn to secrecy until they had their first Doctor's appointment, which was yesterday, to be sure everything is okay. So now they have blogged about how it is all going great(please check their blog for their announcement...our link is Los Hombres).

We can't believe how fast our family is growing. We had an 8 year dry spell and now....there is no stopping us. So far, including step grandchildren, by the end of this year we will have 18 grandchildren and our sweet great-grandson making 19 in all. Wow!! And to think we started last year with 9. Not many can say they doubled their number of grandchildren in 18 months. We are so amazed and thrilled. Congratulations Jeff and Rachelle!! You will join all the great parents we have in this family. We love you!!

Great Weekend!!

2009-01-25T19:16:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was in a stake woman's choir for our Stake Relief society conference. We sang some beautiful songs and had a great time. Sister Clegg, who used to be in the General Primary Presidency, was our keynote speaker. She has 5 children and has served a mission as a Mission Presidents wife in Brazil and Portugal. She had some wonderful stories to share with us and great lessons to teach from her experiences. Here are some thoughts from my notes:

1. Relief Society sisters, no matter what age or nationality, can serve and reach out to each other and answer each others prayers.
Examples of this are:
a. When she was in Brazil, an older sister there named Gina who spoke no English, came over 5 days week and taught her Portuguese. They became great friends and Sister Clegg still speaks the language fluently.
b. A neighbor of Sis. Cleggs lost her son in a tragic hiking accident. This mom was having a very hard time until two teenage girls from her neighborhood came over with a plate of cookies. They had lost their mom to cancer the year before and asked this grieving mom if she would be their mom when they needed to talk or get girl advise. This made all the difference to all of them.

2. The Light of Christ is in our life and it radiates from us when we serve and reach out to others. People can see it in us. We are women of covenant and as we serve, all are blessed in the process.

3. President Spencer W. Kimble said, "God does know us and He watches over us, but it is usually through another He meets our needs."

4. "Be not afraid... only Believe!!"
Pay attention everyday and you will see that
Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ
are in every aspect of our lives.

I did the large floral arrangement for the front of the chapel and I was pleased with the way it turned out. After the program we had a great lunch and sat and visited for a while. It was wonderful. Afterwards, I took the flowers over to Evelyn Ross to cheer her. She is doing well with her infusions but she gets tired easliy and doesn't come out to large groups because her imune system is low. She loved the flowers and the visit. She is a dear friend.
Last night, Chris and Emily came over for his birthday dinner of Steak, Potatoes Au Gratin, Ceasar Salad, Rolls, and sparkling cider. Then we all watched the latest episode of "Smallville". After that we opened presents, sang Happy Birthday and then had Chocolate cake with chocolate fudge icing and filling and Chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream (all served on Superman plates) while we watched the movie, "Vantage Point". It was a delightful day full of love and warm fuzzies.
Today after church, Dad and I made some family phone calls to Beth, Gwen, George, and Fred Overdeik (his friend who introduced him to the church) All the conversations were great and only one surprise out of all of it...George is getting Married!!!! Yep, he asked Urasia to marry him and she said yes. He got her a ring and they got their marriage liscense on Friday. Their baby girl is due in 7 weeks and they will be married some time this week. They have moved into a large 5 bedroom, 3 bath 3000 sq. ft. home in Idaho Falls so there is room for everyone. Seneca and Emeric (who both have their learners permits now) love the house and are happy with the news. I didn't think it would ever happen again but it has and I am happy for them and anxious to meet his soon to be wife and her daughter Macy (or maybe spelled Macie, I forgot to ask) and our newest granddaughter when she is born in March. I can't believe how many girls have entered our family lately. It sure is changing the Mann family boy/girl ratio.

Birthday Shout!!!!

2009-01-22T19:05:00.000-08:00

Happy Happy Birthday, Christopher Jacob Joseph Mann!!

(Chris is the one on the far left, in case you didn't know!)

We love you and are proud of who you are.
You are a "Super Hero" to your family as you love us
and give your all with your tender heart.
Thank you for blessing our lives these past 25 years.

Temple Promises

2009-01-22T07:53:00.000-08:00

On Sunday afternoon, I turned on BYU-TV and there was a devotional from BYU-Idaho being shown. It was in the middle of the program so I don't know who the speaker was but I was interested in what he was saying. He was talking about the blessings "Promised" to those who attend the temple regularly. He summarized what the Prophet Joseph Smith told us in Section 109 of the Doctrine and Covenants and so I grabbed a notebook and let him finish his presentation and then went back in his talk (thanks to the ability to pause and rewind live TV) and paused his 12 points so that I could write them down. I felt they were worth sharing with my family and friends on our blog. So here they are...

1. They will feel God's power in their lives.

2. They will be taught words of wisdom.

3. They will grow up in Christ.

4. They will receive a fullness of the Holy Ghost, to be comforted and led to all truth.

5. They will be organized according to the laws of God.

6. They will be prepared to obtain every needful thing.

7. They will be armed with God's power.

8. They will have the name of Christ upon them.

9. They will have Angels to guide and protect them.

10. No weapon will be formed against them.

11. No combination of wickedness shall have power over them.

12. Those who fight them will dig a pit and fall into it themselves.

In this day and age with all the things going on in the world, I was very happy to gain a little more understanding of the blessings of the Temple besides the obvious ones. One of our goals is to attend the Temple more frequently than in the past and partake of the blessings promised to us. I know we desire those blessings promised as they are very appropriate for our current situation in the world today. I hope you have enjoyed the message as much as I have.

Have a great day!!

Christmas to New Years in Pictures

2009-01-20T21:33:00.000-08:00

For the first time in our married life together
Richard and I spent Christmas morning alone.
We slept in til after 8:00, opened our stockings,
had our "Yulekaga" breakfast, took our traditional
Christmas morning picture of the tree and then opened
our presents to each other. Very strange in a quiet, peaceful
sort of way.

A little after lunch time, the peace gradually became the
traditional excitement and noise of Christmas as Chris and Emily
arrived and then our Philpott family of 7 from Sacramento.
Hurray for the explosion of love!!

After we opened the Christmas presents and then had a great
Christmas dinner that everyone shared in the making of,
we had some more fun family time together.
Jenna and Isaiah loved the rocking horse that was bought for their uncle Chris
when he was two.

Auntie Em played Christmas carols for us as Emma
and Isaiah listened and tried to help her out... like she
needed any help.

Finally, after many years, we have enough children to
act out the nativity story. Here is Papa Mann as the inn keeper
with Michael as Joseph, and Abigail as Mary, great with child.
Daddy John, reprized his role as the donkey.
Uncle Chris was a shepherd (note the mini lamb
from our Ecuador Nativity set)
who had been told by the Angel (Auntie Em)
about the birth of the Christ child.
Emma, Jenna, and Isaiah were the 3 wise men.
We missed having Dave, Brook and Carter here.
Carter could have been a perfect baby Jesus.
It was a wonderful Christmas!!

On the 27th of Dec. Susannah "Jones" had her wedding reception
and I did a cake for her and her husband as a gift.
They cut it for the traditional pictures and feeding.
She is a dear friend of the family and was the only girl
in Jeff's high school Posse of friends. They are still all very good friends.
Here they are together (minus one) for perhaps the last time.
Even though having a birthday so close to Christmas can be
hard, I've realized how lucky I am to be able to have my gifts
under a Christmas tree. Not many people have that privilege.
However I do request that my gifts are not wrapped in Christmas paper!

Chris and Emily, and Jeff and Rachelle were here for my birthday.
We had a great day together as it was a day off of work for me.
They all fixed my Birthday dinner (Taco Salad at my request)
then I showed my "daughters" how to decorate a cake.
We all enjoyed the evening and played games too.
Thank you Family for a great Birthday.

New York with Gwen

2008-12-23T21:48:00.000-08:00

My honey is home and has been for 8 days. He is very glad that the snow and freezing weather waited to come to New York city until he left. He has been talking regularly to Yasir and Gwen since he got back and there is steady baby steps of improvement everyday. Gwen does remember that he was there but not exactly when or how long he stayed. I thought I would show you some of the pictures he took while he visited. In this picture they are sitting on the couch where Richard slept every night. The papers on the wall behind them tell Gwen about her surgery and has a calendar up there too so she can see how time is passing.

Here her friends have come over and are fixing Quesidillas (sp?) Richard said they were very good!!

They had some crazy "Shower Caps", so Gwen's friend Dawn, Gwen, and her Dad were clowning around with them. I guess that's the only way a shower cap would be worn these days :0)

Here you see Gwen with her Dad on the roof of Yasir's apartment building with New York skyline in the background. It was very cold but a clear and beautiful day.

Gwen is supposed to take at least a 30 minute brisk walk every day so they all walked down by the East River which is just a few blocks from Yasir's apartment. Pretty spectacular scenery surrounding those wonderful people. Notice the skater in the one with Gwen and Yasir. A very common sight in New York.

Lonely in Santa Rosa but busy too!

2008-12-14T13:41:00.000-08:00

Well, Richard has been gone since Tuesday morning and he took my camera with him to record his adventure for Gwen as well as us. I will post pictures when he gets home which will be Monday night...Hurray!!! I miss him terribly.

Last weekend was the Nativity Exhibit and we sang in the choir. Dan Earl was very, very pleased with our performance. He said it was the best, most prepared choir he has directed. We were happy to have pleased him and the audience. Here are a few pictures from the exhibit.

This is what people see in the exit foyer as they are leaving.

This is a brand new nativity from Ecuador. I loved it!

This a my all time favorite nativity that has been shown many years. It was purchased on ebay and was made in Italy. To me it shows most realistically what it might have been like the night of the Savior's birth.

This is a close up of the cave and the Holy Family.

Tuesday I got home from the airport and went to the church to "take down" the exhibit and get our nativities. I brought it all home and then began decorating our house for Christmas. I worked for 9 hours and got a lot done.

Wednesday I did some more decorating before work and then after work I put the finishing touches on it in preparation for my part in the ward party on Saturday.

Thursday I drove out to Sacramento to be with Noelle, John, and the grandchildren. What a great day that was. I sat for Jenna and Isaiah while Noelle went Christmas shopping. That was a grandma's delight!! Then we walked to school and picked up the other 3 and walked home. There are few words as sweet to my ears as "GRANDMAAAAA!!!" There was snack time, homework time, dinner time and then bed time. Wow, what a busy household. Good job Philpott family. That night John and I went to a very special Zrii business meeting and I was really glad we took that opportunity. (Thank you, Noelle for sacrificing John to let him go with me. You will be glad he did. :o) I spent the night, thank you Abby for giving up your bed, and then left Friday to come home and go to work.

Friday night, Chris and Em invited me to their ward Christmas dinner and party after work so I went there and really enjoyed that. Then I went to their apartment to watch "Horton Hears a Who". What a great movie. Very entertaining and the animation is fantastic! A fun evening.

Yesterday I finished the decorating, except for the Christmas tree which we don't have yet cause Richard and I will do that together next week. Then I cleaned house and set up for the group of friends coming here for the first course of a progressive dinner. We had a great time and then I went to the two other homes for the rest of the meal. It was a great ward party with way to many scrumptious desserts.

Today was church and then tonight is choir practice and then the Single adult Christmas potluck fireside and program at Pres. Wiseman's home. I don't know if you have been counting but I haven't had to fix but two dinners for myself the whole time my sweetheart has been gone. Like I mentioned, it's been a busy week.

November highs and lows!

2008-12-05T21:28:00.001-08:00

November was much more than I bargained for and very busy as formerly noted. As the Philpott family likes to do, we had some real highs and lows this month so that is how this blog will go. Fortunately most of them are Highs!!

The Election was a high because it's finally over and things are changing, some for the better and others for the worse but they are changing and we have to live with the results no matter if they please us or not.

One "high" was a big wedding floral contract that was a lot of work but with many gorgeous flowers. I loved the colors the bride chose (Dusty rose, burgundy, and ivory) and the romantic feeling she wanted in the arrangements. It was truly a delight making her happy and being surrounded with all those flowers for three days while I worked with them. I was afraid that I would run out of flowers at one point but it turned out to be just right with a few to spare and the bride was very happy with the results...she said they were, "perfect". I also did the flowers on the cake that was made by my neighbor and good friend, Jan Dold. Here are some pictures of them, see what you think.

The Bride's bouquet.

The large church arrangement, there were two.

Another "high" was the Single Adult T-giving dinner and movie night we had at the institute on the 22nd. The food was great and the attendance was about 32 which is extremely good for a movie night. I think we always need to serve food if we want more people to come. Everyone enjoys a meal with friends, especially if your single. We ate and then watched the movie, "August Rush". If you haven't seen it, give it a try. It was our second time seeing it and we enjoyed it twice. Be sure and have some Kleenex ready at the end. Here's a picture of our feast and friends.

Then there was a huge "LOW" that has effected all of our family. Gwen (this picture of her and Yasir was taken fall of 2007) told us about her brain tumor that was growing rapidly between her brain and her skull causing the loss of her sight in one of her eyes and the need for speedy neurosurgery. Through the stress of finding a very good surgeon and getting it covered on her insurance, she finally had the surgery two days before Thanksgiving and everything went well for the 7 and a half hour procedure. Her sight has been restored (a high) and she came through the surgery really well (a high) but her short term memory is temporarily "out of order" and that is a" big LOW" and a tremendous concern for all of us who love her so much. They expect a full recovery but we have to have patience and wait! How grateful we are for such a big family on both sides, her wonderful loving Yasir, and so many amazing friends in New York. They have all gone the extra mile to help her in her trials. Thank you to her sisters who have gone out there and helped so much and of course her mom, Daisy for all you are doing to support and help your daughter. We thank all of you for pulling together and loving her and us. Richard is able to go out there this coming week to be with her and help in any way he can thanks to the generosity of our immediate family. Words cannot adequately express our gratitude for this marvelous gift of love and joining us with all your fasting and prayers in her behalf.

Thanksgiving brought us a big "HIGH" with the addition of one more grandchild in the Philpott family... sweet Isaiah (2 and a half) and the youngest brother of the other three new grandchildren. Because of his timely arrival, they canceled their planned trip to Utah and stayed here giving us the opportunity to go out there and be the grandparents fixing the feast they provided and playing with the children. It was a wonderful day full of activity!! We colored in coloring books (aah the smell of crayons), watched movies played charades (I was a turtle and Dad was Cinderella), played outside, and the two youngest girls, Emma and Jenna, each made me a beautiful bracelet. We were happy to be there and share in this fantastic day of gratitude. Our family has so much to be grateful for.

Another "High": starting back in October and through November in with all the other activities, Richard and I were also practicing with the Stake Nativity Choir with Dan Earl. As always it has been a thrill. The exhibit is this weekend starting yesterday and going through Monday. The Choir performances are tonight, Saturday, and two tomorrow. We love it and consider it a huge part of the Christmas season. The Spirit is there so strong there. I was working in the set up all this past week and it is beautiful with many new nativities and my personal favorites as well.

My final personal "high" to begin the season and to look my best for the holidays, I got a perm and a haircut Thursday as my hair was getting really straggly and hard to make it look as good as I like because my hair is thinning out and most of the curl was gone from my perm in June. I am grateful for the money from my wedding flowers to be able to do that. It feels much better and I've gotten very nice comments from friends and people at work.

Hope you enjoy the fun "hustle and bustle" preparing for Christmas. Just remember to keep the reason for the season in your heart and mind to bring you peace and happiness as you sing those beautiful/fun songs and wrap those gifts of love.

Busy, Busy BUSY!!

2008-12-03T22:45:00.000-08:00

This is just a short note letting you all know that I look at your blogs daily and love you all. I haven't had time to do a good blog with pictures and all, for a month now. It is the Stake Nativity Festival time and I've been busy with that, working my longer hours and trying to get the Christmas/ Birthday shopping completed so that you will get the gifts in time. Then trying to figure out Dad's trip to NY and haveing wonderful holidays thrown into the mix...whew, just writing about it makes me feel tired!! So I have pictures and I will blog but probably not until Saturday, unless we go and get our tree that day and I start putting up decorations... I promise I will get to it in the next 3 days. Till then.....

The Election is over and there is Hope in America!

2008-11-07T09:02:00.000-08:00

We support and pray for the new President elect, Obama, that he will be able to get this country back on track and back to being a strong country united together. He has a huge job ahead of him and needs all of our prayers.

Yesterday, Richard received an email from the wife of the brother in charge of the Prop. 8 campaign in the Shiloh Park ward. She gave a quote from a talk that was given in 1978 at a devotional by Neal A. Maxwell. Of course it had nothing specifically to do with Proposition 8 in this past election, however... his prophetic counsel is certainly appropriate in our standing strong and fighting for family values and the sanctity of marriage in this election. I take comfort in his counsel confirming that the Lord is always aware of us striving to forewarn and encourage us and He knows our present battles and at the same time tells us that the battles on many fronts are long from over. I hope that this will give us continued courage to face the challenges ahead. So here is the quote...

"Make no mistake about it, brothers and sisters, in the months and years ahead, events are likely to require each member to decide whether or not he will follow the First Presidency. Members will find it more difficult to halt longer between two opinions. President Marion G. Romney said, many years ago, that he had 'never hesitated to follow the counsel of the
Authorities of the Church even though it crossed my social, professional or political life.

This is hard doctrine, but it is particularly vital doctrine in a society which is becoming more wicked. In short, brothers and sisters, not being ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ includes not being ashamed of the prophets of Jesus Christ. . . Your discipleship may see the time when such religious convictions are discounted. . . . This new irreligious imperialism seeks to disallow certain opinions simply because those opinions grow out of religious convictions. Resistance to abortion will be seen as primitive. Concern over the institution of the family will be viewed as untrendy and unenlightened.... Before the ultimate victory of the forces of righteousness, some skirmishes will be lost. Even in these, however, let us leave a record so that the choices are clear, letting others do as they will in the face of prophetic counsel.

There will also be times, happily, when a minor defeat seems probable, but others will step forward, having been rallied to rightness by what we do. We will know the joy, on occasion, of having awakened a slumbering majority of the decent people of all races and creeds which was, till then, unconscious of itself. Jesus said that when the fig trees put forth their leaves, 'summer is nigh.' Thus warned that summer is upon us, let us not then complain of the heat."

Elder Neal A. Maxwell

I'm a Blue! As A Child

2008-11-02T14:04:00.000-08:00

Congratulations you are a blue, 46.47% (AS A CHILD)

Blues (Motive: Intimacy)

Blues are motivated by Intimacy. They seek to genuinely connect with others, and need to be understood and appreciated. Everything they do is quality-based. They are loyal friends, employers, and employees. Whatever or whomever they commit to is their sole (and soul) focus. They love to serve and give of themselves freely in order to nurture others' lives.

Blues have distinct preferences and have the most controlling personality. Their personal code of ethics is remarkably strong and they expect others to live honest, committed lives as well. They enjoy sharing meaningful moments in conversation as well as paying close attention to special life events (e.g. birthdays and anniversaries). Blues are dependable, thoughtful, and analytical; but can also be self-righteous, worry-prone, and moody. They are "sainted pit-bulls" who never let go of something or someone once they are committed. When you deal with a BLUE, be sincere and make a genuine effort to understand and appreciate them.

Joy, your personality profile indicates that you have significant portions of other colors in your overall makeup that help shape your unique personality style.

When I have the time, I will take it as an Adult. Thanks for doing both Rachelle, I wondered how much validity was gained as an adult thinking of yourself as a child when you take it.

Happy Halloween to everyone!

2008-10-31T21:17:00.001-07:00

Hope you are all having a fun Halloween tonight. The children we have had at our door are mainly the little kids and they are so adorable and they are all polite too. There have only been about 25 though. That's about the average for us these last few years. They all go to the mall or up to the "Sky Hawk" neighborhoods.

Well, I will do my TAG from Emily so here goes:

My 8 obsessions right now!

1. My Family (checking all their blogs daily!!)

2. Get through this election and all it entails!

3. Get out of Debt

4. Our Zrii business

5. The Nativity Exhibit

6. Be better organized

7. Get the Christmas presents I'm making done.

8. Waiting for "LOST" season 5

8 words or phrases that I use often...

1. "Oh My Goodness!"

2. "Oh My Stars!"

3. "How in the world...."

4. "Awesome."

5. "Good afternoon. Thank you for calling Santa Rosa Chiropractic Neurology Center. This is Joy. How can I help you."

6. "Fantastic"

7. I have a question for you

8. I love you.

8 Things I want to do before I die...

1. Go on a cruise.

2. See a Broadway Show on Broadway!

3. Get all my pictures organized and not get behind again

4. Finish the Books of Remembrance I have waiting

5. Serve at least one full time mission with my husband

6. Ride on an elephant or a camel

7. See a Koala Bear for real

8. Travel with my husband

8 Places I want to go...(only 8?? Drat!)

1. Australia

2. Hawaii (again)

3. Norway

4. New York City

5. Disney world etc.

6. Europe

7. Zion National Park

8. Yellow Stone National Park

8 things I want or need right now!

1. A perm

2. A Pedicure

3. a Treadmill

4. An invention that will keep Bermuda Grass from my yard permanently!

5. Enough money to be debt free so Richard can retire and we can do all of the things in the last two categories.

6. TIME to accomplish all I have to do

7. The ability to bring all my family home for Christmas!

8. A new car

8 people I tag...

1. Brook (double tag)

2. Rachelle (double tag)

3. Christy

(Okay let's get some guys in this)

4. George (I doubt he'll even see this but oh Well)

5. Jeff

6. John

7. David

8. Christopher

This was much harder than I thought it would be and I got help from my honey on the "words and phrases". I'm sure those who read this could have come up with them much faster than I did.

Busy, Unique Thursday

2008-10-30T16:51:00.001-07:00

First things first... Happy, Happy Birthday, Michael!!! Hope your day is fantastic!!

Every Tuesday and Thursday morning at 8:45 this month (I only missed one when I had my Dr.s appt.) we have been having an exercise class at Church. There are about 12 -14 of us who come and Andria Pulu in our ward is our instructor. She is great!! She is young and really cute and in very good shape, but she is our friend so there really isn't any intimidation. I love the class. It actually started in Sept. but I went once that month and it was very aerobic and I didn't get there at the beginning so I was really struggling. This month she changed the format and we are doing our whole hour with our exercise balls, mats, and weights. I love it!! and I can really feel it. I have taught Dad some of the exercises we have been doing and will teach him more. We already had our exercise balls but the little booklet that comes in with them give you about 6 exercises to do with the ball and that is all. How boring. Now I have a whole hours worth and we can work out together which was the point of getting the two balls in the first place. We're going to get into shape yet!! i hope we keep doing it with the balls all next month. I know we will for at least next week from what Andria said this morning.

At work things are changing somewhat. One of the ladies who works there and has been with this office for about 25 years (she worked with Rob Jones before Blake took over when Rob moved to Utah) fell when she was walking last Friday and broke her elbow. Ouch!! She had surgery on Tuesday and will be out of the office for a while. Therefore, they have asked me to come in and work more hours. For how long remains to be seen. I will be going in at 12:30 PM Mon., Wed., and Fri. for now, starting tomorrow. I have to take a break during our lunch break so that I don't work more than 6 hours without one. So that will help our finances for now as I continue to work with Zrii to build our business.

Then I went into the office today... yep, I don't normally go in on Thurs.... but it was for a very different reason. Dr. Ambridge is having a commercial made to be shown on local TV and I was in it as part of the staff. I even had to sign a model's release with the film company who is making it. It was fun and really different. The two crew guys were very, very nice and made all of us feel really at ease. It was something I've never done before and I hope that I don't look really goofy or too ugly in it. You know we are our own worst critics but I'm kinda scared to really see it and see how I look on camera. It isn't very often I really like pictures of me and so we will see. Autographs anyone??? :o)

Yesterday before work, I went to the institute for their blood drive. I gave a pint of blood in 4 min. and 43 sec. They said I was the fastest one they had all day. I really "flow freely"!! Wouldn't Dracula love me!!!

Birthday and Thanksgiving weekend

2008-10-29T11:37:00.000-07:00

What a great weekend we had with our California family. Dad and I were so excited to have the Philpott's here with us and show the newest grandchildren our home and the park across the street. Next time we will take a walk down the park corridor and show them the play equipment at the other end.

In this first picture, Abby climbed clear to the top of the "web" structure. She was high up and having a great time being there.

John decided to join her which took a little more effort than he probably thought it would. I don't think these structures were made with adults in mind but I must give him credit...he made it to the top. I know his new physical strength and slender frame was a plus in his accomplishment.

All of them had a great time on the swings, and slides and monkey bars as well. Dad and I loved pushing the younger ones on the swings and Noelle had the most fun of all sharing a swing with Jenna. Abby doesn't need pushing anymore; she's learned the art of pumping.

Our Thanksgiving dinner later in the day turned out great thanks to all the family contributions. I enjoyed making a special cake for the October Birthdays and the youngest kids were happy with my efforts as they hadn't seen a cake that Grandma made before. It was fun surprising them with Pocohontas and Jack from "The Nightmare Before Christmas". I was going to have them take the rest of it home with them but they had won a cake in a cake walk on Friday so they didn't need one. I took it to the woman's shelter on Monday cause Dad and I sure don't need a cake to finish eating.

Sunday night was the first rehearsal for the Nativity Choir. I know, hard to believe but it isn't very far away. We are doing some new music and a couple pieces we have done before. They aren't as hard to learn as last year so that is good. Dad and I will be singing in a small ensemble too this year. We are actually the only members of the Mann family to be in the choir this year. That seems very strange after having so many of us in the past. This way we'll have Mann's in the audience too!

Birthday Shout!!!!

2008-10-28T17:02:00.000-07:00

HAPPY, HAPPY, BIRTHDAY, NOELLE

We love you!

My Turn!!

2008-10-27T12:12:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I had to do it too. It is fun but sad to see that (considering my age) I've only done just a few more things than my very young daughters and some of theirs are really exciting. I guess you can tell that I haven't had the great opportunities in school programs that you girls did. Wait till Dad does it. With his time in the Army, there are quite a few of the travel things he has done. Of course I could add a few things I've done that are not on the list so I guess that would count for something.

49...Things I've done and Been to (Mine are in RED too )

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child (in the process of )
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run (whiffle Baseball:)
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible ( Book of Mormon)
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating eewww...
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day

Some Birthdays, Stake Conference, Teeth, and family

2008-10-15T23:15:00.000-07:00

It's Fall and that means time to watch the trees change into beautiful colors AND..

Get out the decorations and the "candy corn"!!!

Dad had a great birthday thanks to all your calls and cards (notice the Abbot and Costello "sound card" from the Halls. Bet you can guess what it says.) and gifts (so far, I know there is more to come at the end of this month) Thursday he went to work and someone had put up a "Happy Birthday" banner in his cubicle. He was surprised and figures it is his co-worker in his dept. Then the company has a banner on it's network inner office page telling everyone who's birthday it is so Dad got 19 emails wishing him a happy birthday. That was nice. That night, Chris and Emily came for dinner. Dad's birthday dinner choices were:
Meat Loaf, Cheesy potatoes, ceasar salad, Chocolate milk (Safeway good stuff) and then triple berry cobbler ("Clobber" as he calls it, and I made from scratch using the "Dunford" cook book, "thank you, Jean Dunford") with french vanilla ice cream.
After dinner and between his wonderful phone calls, we all watched "Iron Man" that Chris and Em brought over and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's much better than we thought it would be and we look forward to the sequel. A very enjoyable evening!!Saturday morning we went to Costco to purchase the food needed for the SA luncheon following Sunday session for Stk. Conf. Very busy on Saturday and why I normally don't go then but it was nice having Dad with me. We snacked off all the vendors giving samples...no need for lunch that day. Saturday night was the Adult session of conference which we all enjoy. The speakers were great including our own Single adult co-chair, Tim Dugan. He has a great sense of humor and a tender heart and gave a great talk about marriage and the church and the place of singles in it including how married families can make singles feel a part of everything. The whole topic of the evening was marriage. It was a delightful evening.

Sunday was Stake conference... sorry, no Prophet at our conference... however it was a great meeting. There was a young women's choir and many really good speakers. Following conference... as is the custom... we have a Single Adult potluck luncheon. The stake committee provided different kinds of soups and then the rest brought salads and desserts. There was plenty of soup and bread but the salads were in short supply. By the time Dad and I got to the food line, the salads were gone. However we had a really large group this time, about 40 people with only a couple of kids. They all seemed to have a good time.

Sunday evening we went to Jason Dearden's homecoming/open house. Hard to believe he has been gone 2 years and he's back. He had a great mission in the Dominican Republic. Some of his pictures looked like ones from John and Jeff's mission. When we got back home we had Chris and Jim Jones come over to give Dad a blessing for his dental surgery in the morning. Then I had one for my little health concern too. I love the Power of the Priesthood!

Dad's surgery lasted 3 hours as the tooth was old and brittle with the root being totally dead and decay under it. Dr. Wilson's intention was to take it out and do the first part of an implant. However the tooth was so brittle it kept breakiing apart so he had to go all the way down to get it all out and then do a bone graft so he could put in the pin for the implant. Now it has to heal before he can do that. Darn, it's tough when your teeth get old!! Dad thought he would have to take two days off work but even after the long surgery, he felt pretty good yesterday and went to work and stayed all day.

I had a Doctor's appt at Kaiser to check on some heart palpitations I'd been having recently. They did two EKG's and asked me all sorts of questions. Everything is normal. It's just something that hearts do and as long as there aren't any other symptoms happening that he asked me about it's nothing to worry about; just a bothersome event on occasion. When it happens I feel like those cartoon characters whose hearts beat so you can see them jump in their chests.

Last night we had Mark, Kathleen, Joshua, and Luccas over for dinner and the evening. What a wonderful visit it was. We enjoyed a good meal (even though Dad couldn't eat the stuff that needed more chewing) and fantastic company. Those little boys are adorable and so well behaved. We always enjoy their company. Hope you enjoy the pictures we took...

Before they went home, we took them upstairs and showed them all our families blogs. They loved seeing all of you and what has been going on in your lives. Kathleen said she needs to learn how to do this. I know we would all be happy to teach her. Maybe sometime soon I'll help her learn. Then they can join in with the rest of us.

To end this long blog we just want to say:
HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO RACHELLE MANN AND JENNA PHILPOTT!!!
We love you both and hope you each had a great birthday today.

What a great weekend!!

2008-10-06T21:51:00.000-07:00

I haven't taken any pictures of anything lately so I guess there isn't any to post. We had a fantastic weekend with Chris and Emily here to watch General conference with us. What an outstanding conference it was. Powerful talks that are so timely. We "almost" had Mary Dahl, our neighbor, here for the Saturday afternoon session as the Sister Missionaries in our ward asked her over when they picked oranges for her, but she wasn't home when they called or went there to get her. The Sisters did watch it with us anyway. I guess none of that is new for all my former missionary children. I'm sure you've experienced this before. Chris went to Priesthood with Dad; and Emily and I enjoyed our time together just visiting.

Sunday afternoon, Kathy Payne came over to help us register (Dad already had) on the new Family Search program and then instruct us in how to use it. It is an amazing program but will take some time for it to come easily. We did find an ancestor in Gran's line that hasn't had any work done for her yet and so we printed out the temple ready form to take with us the next time we go to the temple. We also discovered that some of the work we did has been done more than once for some of Gran's family. It will be fun to see if they have been done through extraction or if we have other family members doing our line too. Emily's ward youth are going to the temple on the 25th of this month to do baptisms so we are going to try and get some more names before then, for them to do that work for us .

The fall weather here is gorgeous. It is mostly warm in the day but it takes longer to get there and then it cools down rapidly. The trees are changing into their beautiful colors as are the vineyards. Friday we had a really good rain, the first real long lasting rain in many months. The air smelled so fresh. I love the fall. I'll do some pictures in my next blog...

Busy Bees and my tag!

2008-09-27T15:35:00.000-07:00

So, I was "tagged" by Brook and I've finally taken the pictures required to fulfill that "tag" so here they are in order as was shown. The only one I don't have is my dream vacation because I haven't been there yet so I don't have a picture on my computer of where I want to go and I tried to copy and paste one from the internet and I couldn't do it here. So I guess I'll just have to tell you in the appropriate spot instead of a picture. It was a cool picture too... ENJOY!

Our refrigerator ... outside &

Inside!

Our Downstairs toilet.

Our closet!

My Kitchen sink

My favorite Room for obvious reasons!

My Laundry room

Okay... so my dream vacation is to NORWAY and seeing the country and fiords as well at the northern lights in the "Land of the Midnight Sun."

Our Kids "plus" (not the best quality in this format but the best I could do.)

My Favorite Shoes

Self Portrait, with a "little" help

I love to read blogs and that takes much less time than writing them. As you can see, I've jumped on the bandwagon with a new layout...thanks again my lovely daughters.

The past week has been a normal busy week with work at my three jobs...Joyous Occasions, SRSNC receptionist, and Zrii. All have been good experiences and tasks completed as well as can be. Dad has been doing his High counsel stuff and spoke in Bennett Valley ward last week. Great talk on "Follow the Prophet." Dad and I walked for "Yes" on Prop 8 again this morning and the responses of the 16 people out of the 72 townhouses we went to was about even. It gives us a small feeling for what missionaries go through every day and makes us love a appreciate their work just that much more. Go Army of the Lord!!!

Nothing really new to report from Santa Rosa. Just keep on blogging family. We love to read your adventures and see those pictures. Carter is plumping up nicely. I teach Primary again tomorrow and it is our ward's primary program so I get to sit with the kids. That will be fun. I'm looking forward to that. I also have a meeting tomorrow night with the Stake Nativity Committee. I'm a counselor in the presidency and it is that time of year to get it planned and implemented. The Theme this year is "Oh Come Let Us Adore Him". Dad and I (and hopefully the other two Manns in our family in Santa Rosa) will be in the Choir lead by Dan Earl again too. That is one of our favorite things to do every year.

It's a beautiful fall already. Weather really cool in the night and morning but quite warm to hot during the day. Love those fall colors and sunsets.

One Day that seemed like 3!

2008-09-14T13:06:00.000-07:00

This past week was pretty normal as weeks go. I worked at the Chiorpractic office and enjoyed it as ususal. We have great patients. We had empty nesters on Monday and Dad and I were incharge of the activity. We had an old fashioned "spelling Bee". It was a hoot... everyone seemed to have a good time.

Then came Saturday...We got up early, 6:30 am, for a Saturday without a wedding, and at 8:30 am met a group of about 12 others from our ward to be trained and receive materials to walk the precincts for YES on Proposition 8. It was a scary but rewarding experience in the long run and only the first time of several that we will be doing this. One man rudely made a comment and slammed the door in our face. Others were adamant about their NO vote but were polite. We did get a few possitive responses and even two that would put a sign on their lawn. So those mixed in with the others gave us the courage to keep going. We were done about 11:30 and went on to the next phase of the day.

We had a meeting for our Zrii business here at the house where I did the presentation for the first time in front of a group. I was nervous but excited too becasue I have such a strong belief in the product and the business. It was a good meeting and Richard said I did a really good job. It's a good thing that I have enthusiasm and belief because that hid my nervousness. I look forward to the next meeting.

The final phase was our best because it was our monthly family dinner in Fairfield. We were all there (at least as many of us that are left in California) and we each packed a picnic supper and met at the Allan Witt park on West Texas in Fairfield. We sat in the sun on a grassy hill by the play equipment and had a great time eating, talking, laughing, and watching the Philpott kids play on the equipment. Then the sun sank into the hills and the wind picked up and we knew we had to leave because it got very cold, very, very fast. To think that it was 100 degrees a week ago is amazing. We had a safe trip home with Chris and Emily and we looked at and talked about the stars cause Chris knows a lot about them now. We couldn't see as much as we would have liked because it was a full moon. They went home and we watched "Juno", the movie and ate popcorn. It was pretty good for the most part but not one we would watch again. On to our monthly Singles activities tonight and then a new week to see what it brings.

Weddings and a little trip!

2008-09-08T21:05:00.000-07:00

This past week has been really long, and eventful, and HOT!! I had one wedding on Saturday the 30th of August out at the Jack London Lodge in Glen Ellen. It was the wedding of Steve Hall and his girlfriend of 5 years, April. Steve is one of the sons of Dave and Pat Hall. I did their cake and flowers. The site was familiar from a wedding I did a couple of years ago and the weather was hot but it all turned out well in the end. It was a lovely ceremony and reception. Bishop Jim Beyers did the ceremony.

Sunday I came home following Sacrament meeting, packed my clothes, kissed my husband goodbye, and headed out of town. I drove 6 and a half hours stopping only once for gas in Redding and ended up in Grants Pass Oregon to visit and help my Mom and Dad. The drive was uneventful except for the much appreciated and anticipated phone calls on my bluetooth every two hours from my sweetie, but the scenery was beautiful and the weather was delightful when I got there; cooler than at home. I was surprised. Mom and Dad are doing well. We had a great visit on Sunday and I showed them all our family blogs and signed them up with an account so that they can read all the blogs and make comments, if they want to.

Monday, Labor day, I spent the day training my parents in our new Zrii business adventure. We are partners and I brought a lot of listening and viewing things to share with them. We had a great time learning together. That night a couple in their ward came over to learn about Zrii the product and the business opportunity. They were very impressed with all we shared with them and took home some additional information to look over. The next day as I was leaving for home they came over and purchased a case (4 bottles) of Zrii anxious to feel the difference the beverage can make in their lives. It's done amazing things for my parents. We are all very excited about this product and the business too. We will have a great time working together.

Tuesday we spent the morning going over a few other things and watching a Zrii DVD together. I left Grants Pass around 2:20 PM and was home about 8:30. I made good time. Another easy trip. Here are a few pictures from my trip home. I took 2 of them through the car window while driving...Mount Shasta with a tiny bit of snow. I've never seen her so brown!A rest stop in the Shasta National Forest. Too pretty to resist stopping.
Lake Shasta at a very low level. Water should be where the trees are!

I was called in to work on Thursday morning for about 5 hours because Marie, the other receptionist was ill. I normally don't work Thurs. at all. It threw my flower delivery off by a few hours but it was too hot to do much with them. I just needed to get them in the frig. Friday was 102 in Santa Rosa when I got home I had to decide what I was going to do. I would normally do the flowers but the Oasis would dry out in the heat so I decided to do the cake and put it in the frig. I finished at 1:15 AM and then got up at 5:30 AM to do the flowers. Saturday was another hot day (100) and the wedding was outside again so no air conditioning. Dad and I delivered everything to the Bridal Path by 2:00 PM and prayed for the best. Sunday, when the mom of the bride brought back the stuff from the cake set up and the vases the flowers were in she said that everything held together fine and they all loved the cake and the flowers. I am so grateful for that. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

What a Vacation!!!

2008-08-27T13:42:00.000-07:00

Well, Richard and I are back from our fabulous vacation in Utah. We love those majestic mountains and being able to spend time with our Utah kids and seeing their new homes. We drove out early Thursday the 14th and arrived about 7:30 PM at Dave and Brooks cute new 2 bdrm apartment. We had dinner there and were joined by Jeff and Rachelle. It was a lovely evening. We spent the night with them...Thank you Carter for letting Grandma and Papa sleep in your room...and then left early for the first of two days of the Zrii "Rising Star Academy" business training seminar. It was fantastic and so enlightening. We are very excited about this new business adventure we have started. It is the best thing to come along in our lifetime and will allow us to fulfill our dreams and help others along the way. Friday evening we had dinner at B & D's with J & R and enjoyed the evening together. We then moved into the guest bedroom of Jeff and Rachelle's new home just 5 minutes away. It is a 2 bdrm condo that is really nice too. Both families have just moved in so we were there to see the putting up of pictures and the arranging of belongings. What a process when you are just getting ready to start college!! I admire all both couples have accomplished in such a short period of time. Well done family.

Saturday was our second day of training in SLC and then back to Brook and Dave's for dinner all together. The meal prep was shared by Brook and Rachelle. What good cooks our sons have.
We enjoyed the time Saturday evening talking, taking a walk around their duck pond park like apartment grounds (where I got my toes mistaken for bread nuggets by the "friendly" ducks that surrounded us), laughing and playing games together. Sunday we went to church with Brook and Dave so that we could help out with Carter as they try to adjust to their new ward. It is the Millcreek Second ward in the area where Pres. Hinckley was Stake President many years ago. It's just down the street from their apartment.

We had a big surprise waiting for us when we walked into B & D's apartment. George, Seneca, and Emeric were there. They came down from Idaho Falls to surprise us and visit for a couple of days. We were very happy to see them. We all had dinner at Jeff and Rachelle's condo and enjoyed the evening together with lots of chatter and surprises. It was a mini family reunion.

Sunday evening we packed up and left for the second portion of our vacation...BYU education week in Provo. We were able to stay with Rachelle's grandparents, Jim and Jean Dunford in Orem. They have become good friends and we enjoyed staying with them and thank them for their hospitality. We attending BYU Monday through Friday going to 8-9 classes each day except Monday. We ate at Fuddruckers for dinner Monday which is a tradition for us. We were emotionally and spiritually fed learning many things with topics from Organizing our lives, to music by Marvin Goldstein, to Leadership skills and learning about the middle East. There are so many wonderful teachers and topics...something for everyone. Richard and I attended more classes together this year than we have in the past and that was lots of fun. We absolutely love Education week!!!

Saturday we met up with the kids again and went to lunch at The Gateway Mall, road "Tracks" to the SLC distribution center in the Joseph Smith building to make some purchases, then drove up to the Campus of the University of Utah to the book store while Jeff got his text books, then back to Jeff and Rachelle's to wait for her to get home from work. We took our family out to dinner at "The Old Spaghetti Factory" at Trolley Square. On the way home Jeff had to go to the Law school to pick up a Sylibus for a class so we got to see the Law school late at night. He can go into the building 24/7 with a special card he has so he can access whatever things he needs to do the work he has to do. We were happy to see where he will be spending so much of his time the next 3 years. Richard gave both of our sons a Father's blessing for their new challenges as they start a new phase of their lives.

Sunday morning we left Jeff and Rachelles for home at about 8:30 AM. We had a quick and safe trip home stopping for an hour or so at the Philpott's to see their wonderful, growing family. It was a fantastic, eventful, uplifting vacation. Thank you to all our Utah family for sharing it with us. We miss you.

Is Anybody out there???

2008-08-11T21:07:00.000-07:00

I just thought I would pose this question to see if there is anyone reading the blogs I write. I got comments from some of my family when I first started doing this and I loved that. It was a connection to you. Now....I write comments to my family bloggers but I haven't had a comment from anyone in months. If my family is reading what I write and has any response...I would love to have you talk to me. What do you think? There is only one member of our family who lives in our city now and they don't always know everything we do nor us them so Comments from all are anxiously awaited. Thanks all, I love you!!!

A Busy, Fun, Spiritual weekend

2008-08-10T16:31:00.000-07:00

Friday night we loaded up the back of the van with our old Computer monitor, used batteries, used florescent lights, and old gallon containers of various latex paints and stain and tile adhesive. A odd thing to load in a car you may think...well, you're right but it will make sense in a minute.
Saturday morning we got up, ate, showered and dressed in church clothes. We left the house about 9:45 and headed to the computer recycling place near Sequoia floral. They paid $.05 per pound for old computer/TV components so we picked up a whopping $1.20 for the monitor. We then headed to the dump! We went to the household toxics area and delivered our other stuff which they took gladly. We wonder if they had ever seen people at the dump in Church clothes before? :o) From there we went to the Temple...what a contrast!!

It was a beautiful day and the session was great.
We enjoyed the peace and spirit of being there.
We were there early enough so we had a snack
in the cafeteria and then had time in the chapel
before the session to read and ponder the scriptures. It couldn't have been better. I took some pictures after the session specifically for this blog...enjoy!!

This is the view of Oakland, and the Bay Bridge with the fog rolling in through the Golden Gate Bridge... that's why you can't see it.

After the session we took off for our favorite "after the temple eating place"...the plaza shops and eateries in Emeryville. We normally eat at Fuddruckers but this time we chose a new place called the Buckhorn Grill. Wow!! What fantastic food. We had a Bacon cheddar Tri-tip sandwich on a fresh baked french roll. So good. Then we went to the movies and used our AMC movie gift card we got from Brook and David for Christmas. This is the only AMC theater in the bay area and it took us awhile to find it. We saw WALL*E. We loved it. It is a very unique movie with a darling love story done by Disney's PIXAR. If you haven't seen it we highly recommend it. It was a wonderful day.

Today we had a fantastic Single Adult fireside. My "boss", Dr. Blake Ambridge and his wife Amy spoke on "A Brightness of Hope". They are very good speakers and held the audience in the palm of their hands. We learned a lot and gained great insight as well as sharing in their personal experiences and stories. I'm so glad I was there.

Now we get to prepare for our trip to Utah on Thursday. Yippee!!!!!!!!

The newest grandchildren

2008-08-07T13:34:00.000-07:00

Well, we were able to go and meet our 3 new grandchildren on Saturday and Chris and Emily came with us. It was a wonderful day. Those precious little ones make the Philpott family so complete. They are adorable and so friendly. Richard and I were thrilled at the reception we got and he was amazed at the loving the little girls gave him. He ate it up, what Papa wouldn't :o) !! We played "Disney Scene it" with the whole family and had a blast. They liked the gifts we brought all of them. It all seemed so natural. I would post pictures of the new little ones, but that is the privilege of the Philpott family for now. I do have a picture of Richard and I and Abby before we added the rest of the family. Go to their family site to see them. I love doing that daily. Exciting adventures and marvelous blessings.

Other than that we are excited about our upcoming trip to Utah to see our two sons and their families, go to the "Zrii" Rising Star Academy training for our new business (check it out at www.joymann.myzrii.com), and attend education week at BYU. While we are gone, Chris and Emily will be taking care of the house and the flowers. "Thanks, Chris and Emily!!" We will have fun pix and adventures to report when we return. We will be business trained and spiritually fed so "look out world" that is a dangerous combination!!

This is a picture of Carter all dressed up in his Sunday best the Sunday before they left. We miss them but are so happy for all the new adventures taking place in their lives now. I love all the blogs that Brook does to make us feel a part of their lives even though they are in Utah.
Great job Brook! Thank you!!

They are off to Utah!

2008-08-01T09:20:00.000-07:00

Well, the Mann family of 3 is off to Utah as I write this. They left at about 5:00 this morning after catching a little sleep here at our house to be safe on the road. For that we are very grateful. I spent all day over at their apartment yesterday taking care of Carter (Yipee!!) for the most part. That included a walk to Howarth park to watch the children play in the jumping water, and ride the merry-go-round. Then we took a walk up the path around part of Lake Ralphine. Carter fell asleep until a dog jumped into the water causing the geese and ducks there to really raise a racket!!

The 4 local missionaries, Vince (their fake dad), 3 young men from their ward, Haley Pierce, Chris & Emily, and Richard (after work), and Scott Hamilton (friend and David's work associate) were all there at various times during the day helping to load the truck that Vince is driving to Utah today. Brook and I switched jobs in the evening cause Carter needed his mom. I finished packing boxes and then Emily and I and Richard worked together on the cleaning as each room became totally vacated of boxes and furniture. It was a long day that ended about 10:30 PM.

Brook is blogging as they travel from her phone which is the neatest thing ever. I'm so grateful for modern technology. Thank you Brook for your travelogue. It makes us feel better seeing and hearing how the trip is going. Check it out family!

A dear friend of ours, Celeste Kitchen, had major surgery this past Monday that had some complications associated with it. In my calling as Compassionate Service leader, I have been updating the sisters in the ward so I've been communicating with her and her husband. It's good to know she is progressing well and hopefully will be able to come home from the UCSF Medical Center in San Francisco soon, maybe even tomorrow.

Our Zrii business is in its growing stages and we are looking forward to going to the Royal Star Academy training in Salt Lake City before our time at BYU Education week. It is an exciting business and one that will be successful. Of that I am sure!

We are very excited to be going to Sacramento Tomorrow to meet our new grandchildren!! We love the pictures we have seen and can hardly wait to meet them in person. They make the family in Sacramento complete. We are thrilled for all of them. Abby is finally a big sister in a BIG way.

After Reunion life

2008-07-15T20:04:00.000-07:00

Well, in the first place I don't know why my blog is all underlined or how to get rid of it but I will try when I have finished it. We have been busy doing usual things and unusual things too so here goes the adventure.

The weekend after the reunion (okay so now the underlining has gone away...I don't get it but I'm grateful) I had a big wedding floral contract at the Bennett Valley golf course. It took me three days to put all the flowers together as well as working half of Friday. I was really tired and very grateful for Richard's help with the set up as it took two trips over there to do it and I couldn't have done it without him. The bride and her family loved it all... so much in fact that I'm doing her sister's wedding in November.

Over the fourth of July weekend we had a joint garage sale with Brook and Dave and Carter on Friday (the 4th) and Saturday the 5th. We had fun rotating in and out of the house attending to Carter and trying to get a bite to eat when hungry and tending the sale. In the long run it was successful, Brook and Dave made a little over $300 and we made just under $100 but we got some great thing s from them in the process too. The remainder of the stuff we aren't selling on Craig's list went right over to the DI truck in our church parking lot. How very convenient!!

I have also started a new business that I am very excited about. I truly believe that it will be the business that will allow us to retire and serve a mission and be debt free in a short period of time because of the timing and integrity of the business opportunity. It is like nothing else I've seen and it is growing like crazy. I will tell most of you all about it at our family dinner later this month. I know you can hardly wait to hear.

Enjoy the pictures and captions. Please make comments if you think of any...I'm trying to do that more myself cause it's nice to know that someone is reading and hopefully enjoying what is being presented. Sorry I don't blog as often as I was. It is time consuming but I sure love reading all our family blogs. Keep up the good work.Here's Grandpa doing his thing with the nose of his grandson, Carter!!
We finally caught it on film!

This is one of two large arrangements that were placed in a cut out
on the topof these custom made pillars out on the golf course
(9th tee) where thewedding took place.

There were 20 table arrangements at the reception held
in the dinning area of the golf course. This is one of them.

If you look really close you can see a tiny gray bird with a yellow beak
on the string like flower stem of those pink flowers.
There were 5 of them on those little branches eating bugs, I guess,
that were in the little pink flowers.
They were so cute I had to take pictures. I hope you can see him.

This is our garage sale. Only one bike out of three left in this picture.
This is Saturday afternoon when we were about to call it a day.
Dave and Brook are sitting on chairs in the shade at the front
of the garage. The weather was perfect!!

Five Generations!!!

2008-06-25T21:47:00.000-07:00

I loved our family reunion!! I had a great time with all of our family and to have that many generations all together at the same time, what a blessing. I hope that everyone else enjoyed their time together. I hope that you enjoy a few pictures from the reunion. It will be fun to get the picture CD. Thanks in advance, Emily.

Some of our family went out on our inflatable raft and paddled around Spring Lake where we spent the better part of the Saturday of the reunion. As you can see the geese were not intimidated by the kids or the boat.
Other family members swam or rented peddle boats they used for an hour.

I loved our talent show. The talents of this family far exceeded my expectations. It was absolutely wonderful. Thank you all for sharing. When I have pictures of some of the performances, I will put them here too.

A few of us who were still here on Tuesday went up to the resort where the Texas family stayed to spend their last evening here with them. We had a fabulous dinner of BBQ pork rib steaks, watermelon & cantaloupe, Broccoli Salad, Chips, and Soda. We had ice cream for dessert. Christy did the BBQing and it was delicious!! It was really hot so some of us took advantage of the swimming pool and spa. Then some of us played the “Rock Band” video game complete with drums, guitars, and vocals. Richard and I had a great time watching everyone but forgot to take pictures. Darn that would have been good. Then Christy got out her Kareoke (sp?) machine and Emily, Christy and I tried it. It is much harder than it looks. But it was fun. Ari and her son Dustin and Beth’s friend Erika were also there.

The really hot, triple digit weather waited till the reunion was over which was a great blessing for all of us. We had 5 days of it which is unusual for Santa Rosa/ Sonoma County. To escape the heat and avoid cooking, Richard and I went to a movie last Saturday. We saw Indiana Jones and the Crystal skull. We loved it! It was a crazy, unrealistic, fantasy that was humorous, filled with action and suspense, and highly entertaining. Then we used our gift card and enjoyed a meal at Olive Garden. It was a great day!

This week is back to normal and work. Richard got a new crown in his mouth yesterday, and we’ve been breathing in ashes and smoke the last few days from all the fires burning in northern California. The Air is horrible…worse than LA they say. I’m so grateful that all that came after our reunion and not before.

Memorial Day Week!!

2008-06-10T19:42:00.000-07:00

The Saturday before Memorial day we had a super surprise...Chris and Emily had flown to Utah to attend Emily's sisters wedding . That we knew but what we didn't know was that Jeff and Rachelle were driving to Santa Rosa with her grandparents to attend her sister, Becca's, Graduation from High School. They had it all arranged and traded apartments so each of them were the others house sitters. They popped in at our house Saturday night about 9:30 really surprising us. What a great surprise, just like when the Philpotts surprised us on Christmas eve. I love family surprises. Here are some photos from our week.

There is an annual breakfast at Armstrong Grove starting at 8 AM every Memorial Day that we went to last year and loved so we went again. It started with the Dunfords and some of their friends from their ward and has grown. Here is a picture where we are playing "Butt Man" after eating Pancakes, eggs and fruit. Richard is at the back then there is Rachelle, Jeff, Becca, and Cazra (Rachelle's sister-in-law)

Cindy Dunford was keeping her granddaughter, Ava, occupied for a while. Ava was having a great time playing with Grandma's hair.

After Breakfast we all took the hike through the beautiful redwoods to the Amphitheater where they played red light/green light on the benches. That is a Dunford and friends family tradition. I missed out last year due to my broken ankle. How grateful I was to be able to take the beautiful walk this year! On the way back we noticed this enormous redwood tree that had fallen over some time this past year and shed some of it's bark when it landed. You can see how huge it is by the size of Richard next to it. It was quite a sight!

When Jeff and his brothers were little, we took a trip to the redwoods and we have a picture of the 3 of them in this tree. I wanted to get a picture of him there now as an adult and then add his beautiful wife too. Some day we'll get pictures of "Their" children in this tree to complete the cycle!!

Tuesday night, Richard left work early and we took a mid-week trip to the temple. That is something I think we have only done once before in all the years we have been married. It was a good idea and we really enjoyed the fewer people being there as compared to the weekends.
We are going to plan on doing that again.

Tuesday morning, Jeff and Rachelle came over to help me paint our family room. I have wanted to do that for a long time and I was so grateful for the help. It's much more fun doing things like that with family. It turned out really nice and looks very different from the dirty eggshell color it was before. Wednesday morning I did the trim and then Jeff and Rachelle came over and helped me hang the sign that they gave me for Christmas. You can see part of it below but wait till you see it completed. I love it and I look forward to putting up the pictures I have planned to complete the feeling the sign gives. Thank you Jeff and Rachelle for all your help!!

Ignorance is Bliss!

2008-05-13T21:10:00.000-07:00

Well, American Idol just ended for tonight so while I let the voting frenzy die down a little before I vote I thought I would blog.

Saturday night we went to the final performance for the season of the symphony and all the numbers were incredible. There was a guest pianist and the entire symphony played some amazing pieces that showcased many of the individual instruments in a beautiful way. We thoroughly enjoyed it and were sorry to see it end.

Mother's day was wonderful! I've received beautiful, thoughtful cards, gifts, sentiments, and phone calls from my husband, children and grandchildren. Chris and Emily came over for the afternoon and dinner too. Thank you all so very much. Your love has enveloped me completely. I love being a MOM.

Today has been a day of lots of noise, for a day off, because our new furnace and duct system is finally installed. Yep, it was supposed to be installed last Tuesday but to our dismay and relief it had to be postponed. Let me explain.

Last Tuesday the workmen from One Hour heating and Air came with our new furnace and took out the old one and discovered some sever problems with the duct system in the attic and the crawlspace under the house. The ducts were all wrapped in Asbestos and several of them were bent, cracked, and actually not connected to the vents where the heat should have been coming in. To our dismay, several problems from this were evident; 1) asbestos can be leaking into the air that is being heated and pumped into the house, 2) the heated air wasn't getting into some of the house vents and rooms they were in but was heating the attic area instead (which could have caused a fire, and 3) the return air duct was squashed half way and therefore the return air was partially coming from the attic and under the house instead of being recirculated from the house. Not healthy or effective. No wonder our PG & E bill was outrageous and our house never seemed to get very warm and never quickly.

The long and the short of it was, a different company of specialists came on Saturday and took out all the old bad ducts from under the house and from the attic in about 4 hours. Then today between the hours of 8:30 AM and 6:30 PM all new ducts, vents, filter system, boots, a two stage 93% effective furnace, and a new digital "really cool" thermostat was installed. Our front driveway looked like something from a space movie but it sure was pretty and shinny.

The new heater has a great fan system that will circulate the air in the summer too, to help keep the air cooler all over. We are very happy and relieved that the unsafe conditions of our home (that we didn't know about but that we could see ourselves once the old furnace was removed) have been fixed and our home will be safer, healthier, and more comfortable. Yippee!!!!! (By the way family, the vent in the dining room that we were afraid someone would fall down is new and fits snuggly so no more fears!!!) However this new furnace also means it will take us longer to be able to go on our mission; but it will happen.

No Excitement this week!

2008-05-06T14:59:00.000-07:00

This week has seemed so boring because we have been so "up" this past month that now it is kind of that let down you feel right after the holidays. We had such a wonderful month last month...how could we feel any other way?......

We knew what we needed to do...so we went over to Brook and David's the night after we got back so that we could see how much Carter has changed...well he is getting a little bigger and he's still so adorable. I missed him while we were gone. That helped us cheer up :o)

Saturday night we went to a concert that was hosted by our Stake but many churches participated in the talent. The ticket price was food for the local food bank. The Gym was practically full and so they did get quite a bit of food. There were great performances ranging from Solo singers to choirs and everything in between. There was a barbershop octet group of men, a quartet "recorder" musical number, a really great guitarist that had his own rhythm accompaniment that he worked with his feet, a horn / woodwind quartet (French horn, clarinet, Base Sax, and flute) that played Gershwin selections that were really incredible just to name a few. We all clapped our hands in rhythm to many of the numbers and really enjoyed the entire evening. It lasted for 2 hours but didn't feel that long. We all mingled and talked together as we ate delicious cookies afterward. It was fun talking with new people. I hope they make this an annual event.

Yesterday I went to the DDS cause I have a tooth sensitivity and now I'm scheduled for a root Canal next week. I just got DDS insurance through Dad's work and now I get to use it. Hurray??

On to planning our next fantastic event....OUR REUNION. I can hardly wait but I need your feedback so watch your emails regularly.

BYU Graduation

2008-04-30T11:42:00.000-07:00

We had a fantastic time in Utah. The weather was totally unpredictable. The first two days there it snowed and rained and was bitterly cold even with some sun. Then it gradually warmed up and by Monday when we left it was in the upper 70"s. I guess when they talk about the Utah weather and say, "Wait 5 minutes and it will change." is pretty true. We had a very nice visit and lunch with our good friends, Judy and Charlie Prosser Wed. afternoon on our way to Orem. We hadn't seen them in a few years so it was great getting together and sharing our families news. In Orem, we stayed with the Dunford Grandparents in their beautiful home. They are very hospitable people and now good friends. We thoroughly enjoyed visiting with them each morning and evening before and after our days activities.

The Commencement exercises on Thursday were uplifting and inspirational. Elder Bednar and Elder Samuelson gave really good talks, but what would you expect. We recorded it at home so that we can watch it again and make a copy for Jeff. George, Seneca, and Emeric came down from Idaho Falls for the two days ceremonies and got there about 30 Min. before it all started. It was wonderful having them there too. It has been 3 years since we saw the kids. They are great and we had a blast together. We all went out for a Mexican dinner at Casa Rio (I think?). Good food and great company with all the families there. Jonny Koehle and Ryan McAdam were there too.
Friday was when Jeff "walked" and received his diploma case with a sample diploma inside. It was quite exciting seeing him receive his bachelor's degree. What a thrill for his wife and parents and all who love him.
The speaker were excellent and I was wishing that we could have recorded that too. The topic of one was "Love is a Conversation" where he talked about how important relationships are that you make throughout your life. Really great food for thought for all who listened. That night we went to Draper and to the home of Jeff West and his wife and family for a big Taco Salad dinner. It was fun meeting a few more of Rachelle's family. They were celebrating the graduating from BYU of their son and his wife too, so we all celebrated together. George and his kids headed back to Idaho and Jeff, Rachelle, Richard, Jonny K. and I all headed up to the trail to hike the Y!. We didn't hike but enjoyed the view.

Saturday we went with Jeff and Rachelle to SLC and to the Cemetery to see the resting places of the prophets. We hiked all over with a map telling us where they were. It was a fun but also special experience paying honor to those extraordinary men and their wives.

After that we went to the Lion House Pantry for Lunch and then to Brigham Young's Beehive House for the tour. Wow, what a beautiful home.

I took a few pictures but my favorite room was the formal dinning room.

Went to church with Jeff and Rachelle in their branch and got to lead the music in Relief Society as Rachelle was conducting. She is the RS president. It's a small group of Saints who all live in their Apt. complex but really nice people. After church we played games and talked at the apt. and then went to the Dunford's for a delicious chicken enchillada dinner, dessert with more of the Dunford Family we hadn't seen yet, and a lively game of Mexican Train dominoes until midnight.

Monday we packed, spent some time with Jeff and Rachelle and then all went to Deseret Book before we left for the Airport. It was a fantastic trip. We really do enjoy Utah every time we are there.

Awesome April Continues

2008-04-22T20:14:00.000-07:00

Saturday the 19th of April (Happy Birthday, Christy)
was the first BIG outing for the newest of the Mann family. We all gathered in Sacramento to participate in and witness the Baptism of Abigail Lynne Philpott so
David and Brook took Carter on the first long trip of his new life and theirs with a new baby. He did remarkably well. They sure are a cute little family.

David gave the talk on the Holy Ghost and Carter slept "like a baby" through the whole baptismal service. He was as good as gold.

Abby was one very excited young lady. Here she is with John in her very special baptism dress that her Grandma Ford made for her mom, Noelle, and her sisters to wear. It's a very special family tradition. They sure look happy! She is one very prepared child. She was glad that the water was warm in the font when she felt it.

During the Baptismal service, John sang a beautiful song that he had written for her baptism. I hope that I can convince him to record it for the family to hear often. I would love a recording of him singing his songs that he has written for the members of his family. It means a lot to all of us.
After the baptism was done, Abby got dressed in her beautiful new white dress complete with a special necklace and bracelet. What a very happy family on such a wonderful occasion. There were many family and friends there. Abby received several special gifts to mark the occasion and then we all shared refreshments and watched a video that her Aunt Emily Mann made with pictures from her first 8 years of life. Then we all went back to the house and had a yummy Lasagna dinner together. What a fantastic Saturday.

So today, Tuesday, Carter is two weeks old and now he has a new cousin. Yep, today Kathleen and Mark had their new little boy. Richard and I were hoping that he would be born before our trip tomorrow and here he is. Mark called this AM to say Kathleen was in labor and we kept touch all day and then went over to Kaiser here in Santa Rosa about 5:00 PM. He was born just a few minutes before we arrived and so we got to see him right away. Their son, Joshua, was there for the birth and Kathleen said that he was a great help to her giving her hugs when she would have a contraction.

They don't have a first name for him yet but think that his middle name will be Lucas. He weighed in at 8 lbs , 14 ounces and was 21.5 inches long. He was very alert and looking around a lot at all of us taking his picture.

That's one more very happy family. Congratulations Kathleen, Mark, and Joshua!!

We are filled with gratitude to our Loving Heavenly Father for these abundant blessings in our family.

I love this April!

2008-04-15T15:55:00.000-07:00

Last week was so fantastic and just a part of this amazing month.

I spoke with Christy on Thursday night while Richard was at High Council meeting. All is well in Texas. Aaron and Riki went to prom on Saturday night with a large group of friends in a limousine. I haven’t checked their MySpace pages yet to see photos but I’m sure they are great. Christy was in an rear-ender but didn’t get hurt…only her new van which is now fixed. I know how that feels. At least her’s could be fixed. I spoke with Jason too and he is getting all A’s except for one B++ in school. He is really smart! He’s into the gifted program at school now and looking forward to a field trip to Texas A & M university. Beth has just graduated from bartenders school and is working events, such as weddings and big parties etc. It’s tough being a single mom…you’ve got to do what you can to make ends meet.

Saturday we worked in the “VERY WARM” weather in the yard. It felt good but we had to turn on the sprinklers to keep the plants alive. Not enough rain yet this season in Santa Rosa.

That night was the Santa Rosa Symphony program that we had tickets for. It was wonderful!! It is the Symphony's 8O th Anniversary in Santa Rosa. Bruno Ferrandis is the conductor and so incredible to watch. He is tall and thin with very long fingers. He is young but I can’t help thinking he reminds me of “Icabod Crane” in stature. Richard agrees. He is extremely animated and the Orchestra responds beautifully. The guest artist was the pianist, Christopher O’Riley playing Bartok, Concerto No. 3 for Piano and Orchestra. The whole evening was phenomenal with 3 selections in all!! Our seats were front row balcony...Yippee!

The bass Horns, the Woodwinds, and Percussion are my favorites!!

Sunday afternoon we went over to Brook and David’s to see how the new little family was doing. They are doing great! We hadn’t seen them since they got home from the hospital late Thursday night, but we’ve been in touch everyday. Carter is a good baby. He sleeps well but eats all the time so Mommy and Daddy are trying to take naps whenever they can between feedings. David went back to work Monday and I helped out a little by doing some laundry for them. We love having them so close and look forward to watching Carter grow before they take off to Utah in the fall.

He is so precious!!