Scary Trip to Idaho

Steve travels to Idaho Falls on business quite often; every once in a while he invites me to come along and have a mini vacation. We stay at a nice hotel right on the river, accross from the Idaho Falls Temple. He goes to meetings, and I read, or swim in the pool, or work out.

Yesterday was one of those trips. It's been so foggy in the Salt Lake and Tooele valleys that I thought a trip to Idaho would be WONDERFUL. I found out how widespread the inversion is; we never got out of it. We went from thick fog and rain to snow! I guess we had not watched the weather report and were taken completely off guard.

We were very close to the Idaho boarder, still in Utah, the rain was very light and the fog had lifted a bit. We thought things were looking up, when suddenly Steve hit black ice at 80 MPH! We started fishtailing so bad that we turned completely sideways twice. I just held on to the arm rests and waited for us to roll, it was SO SCARY!

After the "near death" experience, Steve decided to slow down...the roads seriously did not look slick at all, and MANY cars went FLYING past us. We stayed at a comfortable 40 MPH for the rest of the trip. In Idaho it started to snow heavily. The roads between Pocatello and Idaho Falls were snowpacked and hadn't even been plowed. We were in Steve's Infiniti, which does terrible in the snow. We left our house at 9:00 PM and didn't get to our hotel in Idaho Falls until 1:30 AM. I guess they had 6 to 8 inches of snow fall last night.

This is a view from our hotel room balcony at 2:00 AM, when we finally settled down for the night.

This is the view the next morning. It was still very overcast and cold. I love coming here, this temple is where my parents were married.

Steve left for his meetings early the next morning and I just read a book. It was a needed break from the hustle and bustle back home.

Our drive back home was uneventful. We stopped at the Bountiful temple for our Ward Temple night. The Bountiful temple is high enough on the hill that the fog doesn't reach it...yet. Look at the beautiful blue sky behind it!! When we finished at the temple we drove home, the fog was thicker than it has been all week. I just want some sunshine! I'm going stir-crazy!! But after the events of last night, I guess I'm just glad to be alive and breathing!

No More Braces

Here's a before and after picture of Kaylea today, she got to go to the orthodontist, and after 4 years of brackets, wires, buttons, and lip bumpers, she's FREE!! Look at those pearly whites. I had to do my "motherly duty" and embarrass her with a few pictures "in the chair" while they were working on her.

Most of the time was spent cleaning off the old glue that held the brackets in place. Then they had to take an impression of her teeth for a retainer. I'm really happy with the results, although she was in them for such a long time, I thought she'd never get them off.

Kaylea was so embarrassed with me and the camera, she wouldn't even look in my direction. Despite the embarrassment, it was a pretty good day for Kaylea.

Jr. Jazz

The basketball season finally started for my boys, and may I say, it was a very interresting day. All week Conner has said that his game was at 8am, and Steve's was at 9. I thought that would work out pretty well. I had a special Relief Society luncheon and speaker that started at 10am. I thought I'd go to Conner's game and then run home at nine to get ready for my meeting. As we were driving to the High School...all of us trying to wake up on an early Saturday morning, Conner said he actually didn't know what time his game started, he said 8 so he wouldn't miss it. We walked in to a completely EMPTY school! You could hear crickets!!! The boys found a basketball in the corner of the gym, so they just started to practice...and wait. At 8:15 I decided I was wasting my time because surely the first games start at 9:00. I left the boys there and went home to get ready for my meeting. On the fridge was a note that said Conner's game was at 10:00!

As you can tell by these pictures... NOBODY is in there!

Having the games later was nice because that meant Dad could go watch his boys. Steve has been taking them and practicing almost every day after school. I think it has paid off! He said that Conner and Steve both scored more than anyone on their team, or on the opposing team. Steve's team had two games. In the first game, Steve made 23 of the 34 points that his team scored, but they lost by 20 or 30. In the second game he made 28 points, he doesn't remember the score, but they won by 20 points. By the way, Steve was supposed to be in his ankle brace for a couple more days, but the swelling is gone, and he feels a lot better. Conner made about 13 points and I guess they lost, but he won't give me a straight answer, and their dad is not here right now. Conner is playing a lot more confident this year, it will be fun to see the season progress.

More ankle stuff

Last Friday when Steve found out his ankle was possibly broken, the doctor said he wanted to put Steve in a stablizing boot right away, and treat it like it was broken for 10 days. The problem was, he didn't have a boot in his office. He called around to everywhere he could and finally found one in Salt Lake that we would have to go pick up. It was around $100, but with insurance it would only cost us about $20. I don't have a problem paying $20 for a broken ankle, but I was hoping we could find a boot for a little less. We couldn't pick the boot up in Salt Lake until Monday, so on Saturday I decided to take a trip to DI (my FAVORITE store in the Tooele Valley!). They had a boot, EXACTLY Steve's size for $1.50! On Sunday when we went to church, our doctor came over and looked at the boot we had bought. He was impressed. I was thrilled! Steve was just glad he didn't have to be on crutches for the next 10 days. He says it's a lot more comfortable. Now that it's been almost a week since the accident, I don't think it was broken. The swelling has gone down and there's just a bruise there. Thank goodness.

DUH!

I have had some really weird things happen in the past couple of days, I need to write about them for my own records...

Last night I was cooking dinner. I had just put ground turkey into the pan and was seasoning it. I have a large bottle of peppercorns that have a grinder on the top, so I was grinding away when suddenly the lid popped off. All of the peppercorns fell into the pan, on the counter and on the floor. There were peppercorns everywhere! That was a first for me, how do you take spices OUT of ground meat? I took out the meat, and washed the pan, but there was still pepper throughout the meat. It was an interresting meal, everyone had a small pile of peppercorns left on their plate when they were finished eating. (Steve says, no he had about 50!)

I know raw meat looks gross in pictures, but if you can tell, there's more pepper than meat in this pan. YUCK!

A couple of days ago I was leaving the fitness center. It was about 8:00pm and dark outside. I had been working out for about an hour. There were 2 ladies and a trainer talking in the parking lot, and we were all leaving at about the same time. I went to the back door of my car and was putting my things in when I noticed that a van (not sure if it was the man or one of the ladies) was backing up towards me. My first thought was, there's an empty stall next to me, I'd be in trouble if the driver decided to back into the stall...he did! Well, it was backing up pretty fast, and kept coming towards me. I would have been pinned between my car door and the van. It got so close that I screamed and tried to move away, whacking my knee on the side of my car. I can't believe it didn't hit me, it was so close. When I screamed, the van stopped and drove away. I just stood there shaking, and I started to cry. I cried all the way home. I can't believe it upset me so much, but I seriously thought I was going to die. Dumb drivers.. :(

Jessica is blogging!

Hey everyone, Jessica has a blog! Now that she's moved into her own apartment, it will be nice to keep in touch with her this way.

Molly, Tori, and Denise, maybe you guys could invite her to your blogs. She has the addresses.

http://www.jessicasjabber.blogspot.com/

So....is it broken or not?

As most of you know, Steve is a basketball fanatic. He spends most of his spare time practicing, whether at school, home, or whatever. He has tried out for the high school basketball team every year, and gets closer to making it each year. Jr. Jazz is starting up next week, and he has had one practice with his team. Last night Steve was playing church basketball when he came down on another boy's foot. He rolled his ankle and ended up laying on his back on the floor of the gym. He couldn't even walk to the sidelines. Steve's coach is a doctor, he looked at it, and Steve was determined to play, so his coach taped it up for support and told him to try and play if he wanted to. Steve tried to stand up and couldn't even walk. So he had to sit out the entire game. (His team did win, which made him really happy.)
After the game was over, I asked Dr. Krogh if we should come into his office and see if it's broken. He said that as he was feeling Steve's ankle, he was concerned because the pain was actually on the bone, not on a tendon. He said if Steve was still having a hard time walking on it, he should come in for an x-ray.

Steve went to school this morning, and after his first class he called me and said it was hurting too bad. So I took him in for an x-ray. They took 3 x-rays of his right leg, and then 2 of his left leg to compare. They told us that it was too hard to tell if it was broken. He is supposed to stay off it for ten days, and then come back in for another x-ray, if it is broken, they will see the bone trying to heal itself, and Steve will be put in a stablizing boot. If there's no break, he should be able to walk on it in ten days.
Right now Steve is in a temporary brace with crutches. He is praying that is isn't broken, and that he'll only have to miss one Jr. Jazz game. I told him that he's only allowed to play basketball if he watches where his feet land when he jumps, he says I'm crazy. So...is it broken or not? We shall see.

On a positive note, Dr Krogh said that there is still quite a gap in Steve's growth plate, which means he still has several years of growth ahead of him. I think that was the best news we heard all day.

Call me crazy!

I seem to need motivation when I decide to work out. A few years ago I ran the Top Of Utah marathon in Logan. This year I joined a team from Grantsville for the Ragnar Relay. It's a relay race where 12 people take turns running 170 miles from Logan to Park City. My brothers, Lee and Jared have both run it in the past, and are both running it again this year. I thought it would be fun to try it too!

I'm motivated by goals, and it's easier to accomplish a goal when I tell the world I am working on it. Call me crazy, but it gives me something to look forward to, and work towards!

Wish me luck!! AAAAAHHH!

New Year's Eve

Steve's first counselor, President Lawrence, has a brother who is the Stake President of the Tooele East Stake, so both President Lawrence's brought the youth of their stakes together and had some fun. They had snow sculpture contests, and ate fresh donuts and hot chocolate... the snow was deep, but pure powder. I was impressed with the creativity of the kids when the snow wouldn't pack.

The middle sculpture of the missionary was done by my kids... I couldn't be more proud!

After the fun outside, everyone came into the gym for soup, or chili, and we watched "A Brand New Year", the DVD put out by the LDS church. Most of the kids were at the conference center when it was taped, but it was fun to see again. There are a lot of fun, upbeat songs. The kids were able to meet new friends, and had a really good time.

It's nice to know the kids aren't too embarrassed to hang out with mom and dad.

After the activities were over, my kids went all different directions for their New Year's Eve celebration. Jessica spent the evening with Joey Logan, Steve hung out with friends, Kaylea went to a regional dance, and I took Conner and a couple of friends to our stake center to play basketball. They played "guts" most of the evening. This clip is of Conner winning one of the games. Conner is the youngest of his friends, but he won most of the games they played. It was a fun night for him.

Christmas 2008

Okay, I admit it. I am really a slacker this holiday season. I haven't felt like blogging anything. I have actually had a really good Christmas, and have enjoyed spending time with family and friends, but haven't felt like writing about it.

I didn't take a lot of pictures this month. My camera is so big and bulky, but I knew Santa was probably going to bring me one that fits in my purse, so I waited. Which means I have quite a few pictures from December 26th on, but not many from before that.

We had a really nice Christmas Eve. My sister in law, Victoria put together a nativity program for all of the cousins to take part in at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It was simple enough that we should be able to do this every year. The adults and kids really enjoyed it. It's a tradition to read the story of the 4th Wise Man. That was also really nice. I think the cousins are just getting a little older, and know how to sit and listen better than they have in past years. We had a Christmas Eve dinner, and exchanged gifts. John and Molly had our name. They got us a door mat. The problem is it's so nice, I don't want people to step on it and get it dirty, so I put it on my hearth. I think it looks really nice.

I was really happy to have Great Grandpa Collings and Loa Jean, his wife with us. Grandpa was tired and slept quite a bit, but we were so glad they let him leave the rest home and visit us.

On Christmas, we had a huge windstorm, and decided to just stay at home. My sister, Erin and her family came over and ate turkey with us, we played games, and just relaxed all day. Erin's family gave my family a gift this year, it was a crock pot cook book (I think she got the hint when I kept calling her for recipe ideas for my crock pot), and a framed picture which is a quote from President Monson.

This year my mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, brothers and sisters and their families were going to get together on Christmas day and spend the next 3 days together. Sometimes the weather likes to throw a curve ball. Mom and dad were going to be traveling from Washington state, but they have been burried in 3 feet of snow. Dave was going to come up from California, but was worried about the roads. Jamie was bringing her family from Illinois, but the freeway was closed through Wyoming. I was feeling kind of sad because I enjoy spending time with my family.

The siblings that live here in Utah still wanted to get together, but we decided to scale it down a little bit. We spent the Saturday after Christmas together. Lee and Tricia treated us all to a brunch in the morning. Then the younger cousins went outside and played in the snow. Lee has a small hill on the side of his yard that they thought was really fun to go sledding down that hill.

Lee took those who were brave enough sledding just a few blocks away from his house. The name of the sledding hill is suicide! Steve and I, and all of our kids went, Lee took the oldest three of his kids, and a couple of brave uncles... Brayden and Jared. This place was CRAZY!! You go down a small canyon, zig-zagging between the trees. Once you start, you really can't stop your sled, unless you crash. There are a couple of jumps, and some curves that, if you take them too fast, also cause you to flip, roll, crash... you get the idea. The kids went first, and on the first run, the inner tube that Stevie was riding popped. I was the first adult to go, I really didn't have control the whole way, I hit a jump at the end and landed on the side of my face. I'm a little bruised, but no blood. At one point my hubby, Steve and Brayden pulled Jared's hat over his eyes and pushed him down on his tube backwards...not nice! By the end, I had gone down 5 times, the last two times, I learned to control my sled and had a blast!!

All The pictures I have are from the top of the hill. I didn't dare take my camera down the hill, I thought I'd break it. It's really hard getting good pictures from the top of a canyon.Steve stood at the top and threw snow balls at people as they would go by. At one point, Kaylea got plastered by an armful of snow.

Twenty Years!

Twenty years ago Steve and I were married. I thought it would be fun to post a picture of my wedding day.

Steve and I have definitely changed over the years, our lives have also changed quite a bit. We have added 4 kids to the family. We've moved about 12 times, purchased 4 houses and a duplex. We have lived in Washington, Colorado, and Utah. We have started and sold 3 businesses. Adopted 5 dogs, 10 horses, and a canary. We have dealt with dance, singing, basketball, football, pre-school, soccer, gymnastics, plays, piano, trumpet... man we've been busy!

I am so blessed to have married such an amazing man. He has always been so thoughtful of me and has kept life exciting. It's a great place to be when you can say after twenty years, I still love spending time with you. We still make each other laugh. I can't wait to see what the future holds.

Who needs Marie Callendar's?

I like using leftover roast to make a meat pie. Usually I buy a Marie Callendar's frozen pie crust, it's soo good. But today I thought, "What the heck? Pie crust can't be that hard to make." Well, pie crust is easy to make, and easy to cook, but putting it on top of the pie and making it look good is the problem. This was extremely difficult for me. But it tastes YUMMY!! I just wanted to show you all how pathetic I still am in the kitchen.
I didn't take a picture of the finished product, it was gone too fast.

Conner is a Champion!

I said before that Conner's football team took the state championships, and it would be in the paper soon. Here is the article. I don't think you will be able to read it, but it's pretty fun. Conner is on the front row, right in the center. I ordered a highlight DVD, and there are a couple of good sacks by Conner, an interception, and a TOUCHDOWN!

Next comes Junior Jazz, starting right after the Christmas Holiday. Conner and Steve will both be playing.

Temple Square

We decided to take the young women in our ward to see the lights on Temple Square. That was no small undertaking. We ended up having around 30 people there, and had a blast. We drove to a place where we could take the Trax train for free. Then rode Trax to Temple Square. We had dinner at the Lion House Pantry, which was served cafeteria style. Walked around looking at the lights. Then rode Trax back to the cars and drove home. It got crazy there for a while trying to keep track of all the girls, but I think everyone had a great time.

Most of the girls on Trax, we filled the whole train car.

Waiting to go in for dinner.

All the girls... unless we lost some...wandering around... all alone.

These are the leaders.
Waiting for the train to take us home.

Setting up Christmas

It's sure nice as the kids get older to have them help with setting up Christmas. We decided to do it on Monday night for family night. I just let them put things where they like, I'm not that picky. The inside of the house is done, and there's a wreath on the front door. I'm not sure if there will be any lights outside this year.
Everyone hates my clear plastic angel for the top of the tree. They think it's freaky. They put it up just to make me happy, but they tease me about it. As you can tell, everyone had a fun time.

Christmas Dinner

I must admit, it's hard finding just the right gift for people. Steve has 5 brothers, and for the past few years, Steve's parents decided that instead of trying to figure out a Christmas gift to place under the tree for each of their sons and daughters-in-law, they would prefer to take us all to a nice dinner and spend time together as a family. I personally think it's a great idea! This year they took us to Little America. I must say, I think it was the nicest place we have gone yet. We were missing one brother, Todd and his wife Denise. He was spending time with his own family before he had to go out of town. But everyone else was there, and we had a really nice time.

Visitors

I got a message just before Thanksgiving that my Great-Aunt, Bessie, and her daughter, Sidney, would be coming into town for a funeral. Bessie's sister-in-law had passed away. She lived in the town just next to us. I was very excited to have them stay with me because I don't get a lot of visitors. Aunt Bessie owns a bee farm and makes honey candy, they brought me a box of honey taffy, and truffles. They were so good!! I think I'm addicted to honey truffles. They spent Friday and Saturday, and left Sunday morning. It was really nice spending time with them.

I forgot to take pictures while they were here, I don't know what my problem is, but here is a picture I have of Sidney and her husband, Laurence, with Aunt Bessie and my parents.

Happy Thanksgiving

This year, Thanksgiving was held at Steve's parents house. It was really nice spending the day with his brothers and their families. Everyone pitched in with the food, so it wasn't a lot of work for anyone. The weather was amazing, so the kids played games outside for most of the day. Conner was even playing in the dark for a while. Conner and Kaylea got to spend the weekend with their cousins. I think they both had a really nice time. I forgot my camera, so here are a few pictures I stole from others in the family. Thanks guys for a great holiday!