Saturday, August 22, 2009

The End of Summer


It's the last Saturday of summer vacation. Harry starts school on Monday and I get to go back to watching Andrew and Kelly while their mom serves lunch at Nate's school.

Harry has had a great summer. He never went a week without seeing some if not all of his friends. They had movie nights and beach parties. To end the summer, Kelly took him and his girlfriend, Rebecca, to the Warp Tour in Sacramento yesterday and I babysat Roko. Today, Harry is at a swim party celebrating the finish of his summer homework.






Other great accomplishments this summer include Nate learning to ride a two wheeler, Andrew swimming under water and Kelly learning to walk (both she and Roko turned


one this year). Sabrina spent the summer between me and Gramma Pam. She kept me active all summer, riding bikes and exercising on Wii. Harry did not get his license-we both dragged our feet and now he won't get it til Feb (but it will be a great birthday present).

I love to see summer come and hate to see it go. I'm not ready to give up the pool (although I don't really have to until the middle of next month- it just gets harder to find the time). I love having sun light until 9pm. And oh how I love sleeping in (which of course will end with the beginning of seminary).

As far as I can tell, the only good thing about summer ending and school beginning is Back To School Shopping! Harry went with Rebecca and came home looking like a Jonas Brother! Sabrina, of course was the cutest to dress. But really what I like, what I look forward to every year, what I'm probably addicted to, what I can't walk by in Target without stopping to dream... is School Supplies- mostly crayons. I had Sabrina take inventory the other day:
18 boxes of crayons- after we donated 6 boxes to the 1st grade
6 boxes of colored pencils
6 boxes of skinny markers
5 boxes of fat markers
some scissors
I didn't even count the pencils because I buy them by the box



What's really strange is this doesn't even seem like alot. There's just something about new pencils and crayons and scissors, and rulers, and notebooks, and cute folders. My cousin, Barbara, didn't like school until the invention of colored Flair markers. After that she did all her homework in different colors.

So another summer ends. 294 days to go.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Grendall



This is Grendall.
She's my doll.
My friend, Sandi Olsen, made her for me as a graduation gift
when we graduated from High School.

So that makes her....Well...really, a lady should never have to reveal her age.

Both of my daughters played with her when they were little.
She's been repaired a few times.
At one time, someone drew on her face with marker
so she had to have a little bit of a face lift.

But the most important thing is that she has been loved.
So loved in fact that she shows up in many of my drawings.


Sometimes she appears by herself and sometimes with friends.
Sometimes she's the center of attention and sometimes she's not.


Once she was the Easter Chicken.

Grendall is a GREAT doll!
Keep an eye out for her.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Tresures in the Attic

OK, so we don't have an attic, but that sounded better than Treasures in the Old Storage Unit.

We've had this old storage unit for probably 20 years. (That's 20 yrs at $42 a month...I don't want to know or hear about it.) It hasn't been opened in 15. Today we decided it was time to empty it. Why today? Well... David wanted his GI Joes for Nate because the movie comes out next week.

Did we find the GI Joes? Yep, along with Rambo, Masters of the Universe, Star Command, baseball cards and Construcs.



Nate was in Heaven!
We also found the Cabbage Patch dolls and other "girl" stuff: yearbooks, New Kids On The Block, love notes, etc., but we took it all over to Sandi's garage so no pictures.

We kept toys so our children could share them with their own kids. Wow! How time flies!

Did we find anything else? You bet!



  • Antique hats and china that belonged to my Aunt Martha. My Aunt Martha didn't have any children. Jeanette and I were her favorite nieces. She bought enough china for both of us. The hats are beautiful. One is from Neiman Marcus. I tried them all on.



  • Tons of old books. Including this gem: "Welcome Aboard An Informal Guide for the Officer's Wife" from when Rich was in the Navy. I don't remember reading it.



  • Rich's old record albums. He was so thrilled! They're all in perfect condition. Too bad we don't have a turn table anymore. He also found our first computer-an Amiga!
  • But the real find were all my Uncle Jimmy's (married to Aunt Martha) cameras.
There was one antique Poloroid. The rest are all Kodaks. One is a Brownie that was in the box! One looks really antique and one looks like it just came out of the store. Along with the cameras were a million slides I can't wait to look at, a very old slide projector, and lots of old flash bulbs, camera bags, and other supplies.

What a day it was!

Where am I going to put the china?

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