homeless without a shopping cart or any other reliable means of transportation . . . again

ok so i am learning several new things this year. most importantly how to be patient which has never been my strong suit. this blog thing has been way worth it. i love reading about each of you.
chelsea, i'm so excited for you. elly gave me some of the details you left out of the blog. i've turned into such a mush in my old age--but when she told me that when you turned around and joey was already down on his knee and that you joined him i got tears in my eyes--awesome. like brooke said where are the pictures and brief bio of this soon to be new member?
moni i am so glad that you have joined the blog. let cameron know that this does not let him off the hook--still expect to hear from him. besides he can talk to us about something other that YW's. this teeth thing has got me stumped--it's got to be the in-laws!!! good luck with YW,s you will be awesome. i remember when i was YW's pres. and ellery was elders quorum pres. ward council was interesting and short with both brooke and adam attending. we spent so much time at the church and at meetings brooke became best friends with the bishop. one time when ellery was taking her out during sacrement mting she yelled at the top of her lungs, "bishop, save me!!!" the bishop loved it and so did the rest of the ward. ellery never heard the end of that one. then there was the time we had walked down to the church one night for the magazine drive (which none of you remember even took place back in the olden days) and i wanted to see what time it was so with brookie holding my hand and adam in the backpack we just peeked into the chapel to check out the clock. it was all dark and quiet. brooke looks up at me and whispers "bishop asweep?" how cute is that?
jess and tony--indie is beautiful just as we knew she would be. aunt mindy (lowell's mindy) is pretty excited since she figured it out that you really did name "indie" after "mindy." that was so clever of you. you couldn't have chosen anyone better to name indie after.
speaking of which here comes the "homeless" part. it about killed me to miss the party with all of you and the 1st hand account of the engagement while i'm sitting in the las vagas airport, but it really was quite the experience. i just kept thinking how glad i was that i had not brought hazel along for the ride--what a nightmare that would have been. i watched a guy get escorted off the plane i was trying to get on because he was intoxicated. he was so ticked. the check-in people just told him they were sorry, but it was the captain's call. little did i realize what kind of power "the captain" has. it's just like the captain of a ship which-- now meags and i are wondering--does this mean, geofy george, you can marry someone while in the air when you become a fulfledged captain? will this power go to your head? well no i didn't get the drunk guy's seat and that poor guy was going to be stuck without luggage in that airport at least till mon. or tues. i hope he had a credit care in those gym shorts he was wearing!!! this nice man that worked for the airlines offered me a pillow and blanket. since i can sleep anywhere and have proved that many times. i brushed my teeth with my antibacterial (since they had confiscated my toothpaste because it's not how much is in the container it is the size of the container that counts)and went to sleep with peach breath. i was awakened the next morning at 5:30 by the sweet sounds of several slot machines. remember this is vagas.
the next morning i make it back to phoenix. i,m thinking my luck has changed and i am going to get to slc no sweat. all day every flight over booked with lots of us waiting to go standby. so we trail from gate to gate hoping that this will be the "one." finally at 8:30pm the last flight has sailed and we are all still there. i look at this poor mom with her 2 year old little boy. they have been there all day. they had flown in on the redeye from hawaii that night and were so tired and no where to go. i had spent $10.00 on water that day (they confiscate that too) not to mention food. i looked at her and said i can't leave you here. my niece and nephew are coming to pick me up will you feel comfortable enough to come with me--i'm sure they won't mind. to make a long story a bit shorter. lowell and mindy were the perfect hosts for 2 days. it was so much fun. the only problem was i got more sleep in the airport in vegas. we had to catch up on a lot of things. tony the kids are practicing their instruments deligently every morning and we got to see kimmie's basketball game. those not so little kids are so cute. hoku said she was surprised when i said the whole family was tall--she didn't realize just how tall. her little boy, jared cried like he was leaving his best friends when we had to leave. he wanted to sit on my lap on the flight home and so i tickled his face until he fell asleep in my arms. it so was sweet. i think was where i was supposed to be and generally speaking i think God has us where we are supposed to be if we will just be patient, look around and find out what we are supposed to be doing while we are there.
alicia thanks for the car delivery. brind loves it!!! i'll tell you the mean trick jack and i played on her another time.
Elly spoiled me when i finally got there and we did something different with my hair. i was ready for a change. it must have been a change since i stopped by joanie's work for a minute on my way out and she didn't even recognize me. she's gettting old or i am.
brookie i do have some ideas, but call me this has been long enough and then some.
love to all aunt Le Anne

Bavaria

Jess and Tony, those are beautiful pictures. Indie looks just like Tony to me, except you know, pretty and like a girl. She's so chubby and perfect. Jess, you look fabulous. I think a photographer would have to pay me to have my picture taken that soon after birth, like thousand or millions.

Moni, I can just see Harley being absolutely great and really loving her theatre work. She is such a cutie and has such great self-confidence. I'm sorry to hear about all of your dental work. That is something that I can be very grateful for, so far we don't have any cavities, but it is all genes. It has nothing to do with my careful regime which involves plenty of sugar and not always brushing at bedtime if I'm tired and grumpy or we're late home from something. Monica, I also think you would be an absolutely great young women's president. It sounds like you have a fun group.

Everything is going well here. It has been really warm and yesterday all of the kids in the neighborhood started a huge waterfight. The girls paused for a few minutes to drive with their dad to the PX to pick up a couple of super soakers. So my three kids went into the PX while Ellyn and I sat in the car listening to a little U2 and enjoying the breeze. Mike, of course, got himself the deluxe version with a compartment for icecubes so the water is freezing when it hits you. So for a while he joined in the fight with two of Jane's boy friends from school. My house was full of bits of grass and little puddles of water and Mike soaked one of my only two pair of capris that fit me right now, but they all had a blast and it was a relaxing, fun, get nothing done kind of Saturday. I'm okay with that right now because I know the next few weeks are going to be insanely busy with the move and the change of command and right now we are a bit too far away from it to do anything but stress about it.

For Mike's change of command we have to put on a simple reception for 200 people. I'm a bit stressed. When he did his command at basic it was only for 50 and I thought that was bad. I did a whole brunch that time but this time we are going to do nachos and then the traditional cake. Oh how I miss Costco in a situation like this. The last two command changes have had 6 ft. sub sandwhiches catered by the commissary but Mike wants something different and I tend to agree. However, it means extra work. I'm going to do cheese sauce and dad's enchillada sauce, and a few crock pots of shredded beef - have I told you about South of the Border Pot Roast? So good and so easy, and then a couple of trays of diced tomatoes and olives and jalepenos and whatever else I can think of. I'll order the cake and then just do several liters of soda. If anyone has any suggestions please feel free to send them my way.

Meagan, you will be very proud of me. My Dr. told me at my appt. that my blood was full of nutrients and that she didn't see many Americans that had nutrient full blood like mine- that is kind of the way it was said. I told her that eating was one of my strong points but it made me happy that our diet is healthy enough to warrant a positive comment from my doctor. I'm always worried that we aren't eating well.

I'm not fitting into any of the maternity clothes yet. I'm still in between and now with all the more fitted styles it is really tricky. I'm wearing all of my down east shirts and a few skirts and a couple capris. I'm hoping I stay thinner this pregnancy, I know it's just a dream, but it really would be great.

Well Ellyn is asleep now so I can go do dishes. She was a bit crazy tonight. I love you all. Mindi and Adam, I haven't heard from you forever. Love, Brooke

Jess, she is absolutely beautiful, but so is her momma. You looked terrific. What were you 4 weeks out when those were taken? You are amazing! Your entire family looked wonderful, those pictures truly captured the love you and Tony share for your little one. Indie is a doll.

Harley is performing in a mini theatre production tonight at a charity gala, we are really excited for her. She will be singing(solo's incld) and dancing. As many saw on Sunday she is a little drama queen, and this fits her to a T. Michelle is their choreographer, and after a couple weeks with the company she asked if Harley would be interested, and of course she has been all over it since. The company is a theatre school out of California, they are trying to start a new branch in Utah. Interest has been high, but when people find out there is a tuition involved they run the other way. So, as of now, they are working with them at no charge, until they can show people what they can do. They will be doing 'Annie' in September. Harley will be playing an orphan, and the part of 'little Annie'. We were a little unsure who this was until they explained that they decided to make the part up for her. When Daddy Warbucks (played by Jordan) adopts Annie at the end they will do a flashback to Annie as a little one singing Maybe. She is really excited. Jord will not always be doing this, but until they get more of a following they needed him. The company works with those 18 and younger. When the plays are put on, many times the part of an adult will be played by a child. We will see how it goes. I never would have thought i would be doing this with one of my little ones, but as long as she is interested I will support it.

Well kids are running wild, and my house will soon be in shambles. Love you all.

Moni

Pictures of Indie

Hey fam,

We got some pictures of Indie last night but I can't figure out how to post them on the blog so you will have to go to a web site to see them but they are worth your time. Here is how you do it:

Go to staynerphotography.com
click on "blog"
Scroll down to "A little angel" and click on the picture of Indie
click on "view all"
enter "client" as the username
enter "stayner" as the password

Enjoy!!!

BTW Brooke and Mike I think you are having a girl.

I love you all!

Love Jess

YEAH!!!!

Okay, I am going to bed right this minute, but I had to get on and tell Moni that I am so incredibly happy that you are blogging. We have been waiting for this day for a long time!
Love, Brooke

Life

It's about time. I am so excited to start participating in this great blog endeavor with all of you. I have been reading to catch up, but please be forgiving because i may be a little behind for awhile.
Sorry about Benny Meags. My kids were there only a week ago. Luckily it actually went quite well. Harley had to get a root canal and cap, and liza had a few fillings. I told them that we were going to the dentist to get jewelry on their teeth, and they were ecstatic. I think with the vanity in mind they were willing to do any thing. Liza went first. They started her on the gas and then they were going to deaden her, but they ended up not needing to. She had 5 cavities filled with no tears. The only thing she cried about was that she couldn't see her jewelry because they had put in the white fillings(thank goodness) instead of the traditional silver. Harley was a different story with the root canal, they had to do the gas and deaden her. She did amazingly well to, and has a beautiful silver molar to show for it. She was in tears after we left the office because she was dead on that side of her mouth. She sadly has to return for another one (on the other side) on the 30th. I am not sure she will be so happy about it this time she really hated not having any control of her mouth. It is also quite hard to forget the pain after the anethstetic wears off. Needless to say I have not said much about the upcoming one for fear we will not be able to get her into the car. It truly has been a crazy tooth month for us. We went in for our cleaning a month ago and a month later we will have paid over $1700 for the work. I think between all of us we will have 2 crowns, 2 root canals and caps, and 11 cavities. Yeah it was not a proud day for me when they confronted me with that. When I came home after our initial appointment I was physically ill, and couldn't knock it for a day. The good news is we are going to Joan's office. She just took it over in the last few weeks, so she will receive a percentage of that. I would much rather fund her than some crazy stranger.
Well life has been busy. Two weeks ago they sustained me as Young Women's President in our ward. For a couple of weeks I have felt like I was running at a standstill. I am the only women returning, I called a completely new leadership which has been a riot, but it has been alot of work. The first week I was on the phone for hours with the former leaders who were really struggling with their realese. My new presidency is really young. At our first meeting I was floored when I found out that my first counselor is 25 and has just started a 20 week nursing program. My second counselor and secretary are both 27 like my self. I hold our meetings in the nursery room. Because we are all young mothers with little children. Infact my second counselor just had her second on the 27th of December only a year and 2 days apart from her first who was born on christmas day the year earlier. It seems crazy, but this is exactly what the Lord wanted. It has really been an adventure, but every time we get together I know it couldn't be any different. Cameron teases me constantly saying that he will be talking to himself for the next three years. I think it is a little overwhelming for both of us. Luckily I have an amazing husband who is willing to pick up any loose pieces.
This weekend was a blast we had a visit from Ellynn and Jason on Sunday. They were going to pick up LeAnne from the airport and spent their time waiting with Robbins clan at my house. Luckily Jack and Joan's families were able to join in the fun for awhile. Sadly as of 10:30pm Sunday evening LeAnne was still stuck in the Phoenix airport. Where she had been for 2 days waiting for a flight to Salt Lake to pick up Brinds new car. I have not been updated on what has happened since, but hopefully she made it.
Life is busy, but I don't think any of us would have it any differently. I love you all. And will be blogging soon.

Moni

Hey, Guess What!

Okay, baby was breach today, no peak at the gender.

bglife

just a quick snippet.  I should have been in bed hours ago, but i slept in instead of going to the gym and then tried to go visiting teaching the other time i could have gone to the gym (but the lady must have forgotten and was not home), so i had to go tonight.  yuck, now i'm all sweaty and all i want to do is crawl into bed.  not that it matters that i am sweaty, last night i woke up and my legs were actually dripping with sweat in my bed.  no lie.  i am that gross and hot when i sleep. 

my life is full of funny little moments brought to me by my crazy little children that are so funny that i just can't wait to get on here and share, but the second i do my mind goes b l a n k.  one i wont soon forget... i had to take sweet benn to the dentist again this week with an abscessed tooth.  she was so good and did exactly what they asked, but as soon as they brought out the little swab with gel on it she went berserk!  they gave her like 5 shots then pulled the sucker out.  the roots on it were 1/4 of an inch long.   the poor little angle cried for over 2 1/2 hours after she was done.  then two nights later a blood clot must have come loose, because she was laying in a 3 inch pool of blood.  nice picture i know.  (i hope you don't read this while you eat lunch like i do).  evidently an old filling had rotted causing an infection.  i can not stress enough how important a GOOD dentist is.  now in the course of this blogs history i have tried to teach you two things...1. find a good dentist and 2.  clean out under your refrigerator.  i think the only way benn with ever get over her hatred for the dentist is to become one herself. 

i talked to brooke today which has made my week and she has assured me that she really does want us to come next summer.  i told benn that we were going to go see brookie and she asked if it took a lot of pennies to buy a plane ticket.  when i told her it did she said she had to go inside and take all of her "monies" out of her wallet and put them into her piggy bank.  i told her that she could do it later because we were outside.  but she insisted, because she didn't want to forget.  i think i am going to try to get some kind of job so i can save my pennies too.  do you think some one would pay me to tell them what to wear.  that would be fun job. 

ok i do have more than one child, but that is all i can think of for now.  except that jackson's baptism is on MAY 5th if anyone wants to come.  our door is always open.  we're hoping that cory's family will make the 10 minute drive, but it is a saturday, so we wont get our hopes up.  (that was kind of mean and i have guilt, but not a ton, because it is also true.)

love to my fellow bloggers.............meags   

Awesome Chelsea!!!

Chelsea, that is wonderful news. I can't wait to hear all the wedding planning details. You know that could boost the blog : ). Maybe you could post a picture of our new future family member
and tell us a little bit more about him? Thank you for sharing this with all of us. We love you and we're very excited for you.

Love, Brooke

yeah chels

i promise to write more later, but i just wanted to tell chelsea...CONGRATULATIONS!!!!  i am so excited for you!  keep us posted on the plans!

                             ............meags

We're Engaged!!!!

Hello everyone. As many of you know, Joey and I are engaged. He proposed Friday, April, 20th. It was absolutely perfect. Rose petals, candles, dinner, tears, ect. :) I had no idea it was coming. I'm still completely surprised and can't stop looking at my ring. He is really wonderful and I couldn't be more excited. Keaton and Isaac will be here for almost the whole summer, so we are thinking late fall. Yea!!!!

The blog has been sorta slow lately. I love hearing about everyone so keep it up!

~Chelsea

Bavaria

Wow, I've been wanting to get on here all week and now I am finally getting time at 10:30 on a Friday night.

First of all, Aunt Jackie, Happy Late Birthday!! I hope you got spoiled, I'm guessing you did.
I love you!

Next, my sweet nephew, Jackson, Happy Late Birthday from all of us in our family. We were on a trip for your birthday. We went to Salzburg, Austria and we saw lots of the places you can see in Sound of Music. It was pretty neat, Jane was very, very excited. You tell your mom that you need to come over and go in the salt mines with slides deep underground and then go see all the places from Sound of Music. I can't believe you are so old. I can't believe you are eight. You get to be baptized!!! What a wonderful time in your life. I love you and wish that we could be there.

Darla, thank you for your blog. It actually really hit home. The past two months have just been one thing after another and I just picture myself during this time as one sick, hunched over, woman just letting everything beat me in the back. I might have been weathering my trials but not growing by any means. I read your blog shortly after I had determined that I needed to put renewed effort into being a good mom, wife, and friend. I needed to get back on track with creating a spiritual environment for my family as well. We have been so strung out that some things have slacked. So far it has really helped this week. Which is good because Ellyn has been sick with strep all week and the poor kid was miserable. So again, thank you, and I enjoy your babbling if that's what you want to call it.

So, before we left for Salzburg I had to go into the Dr. and make sure it was okay to come off bedrest (which was only three days, thankfully) and modified activities. Everything looked good. Baby was healthy and I have not had anymore bleeding so we are pretty happy. I have another appointment on Tues. and this leads me to the point of this section of the blog. The Dr. was able to point out the gender of the baby to Mike and me. This will be confirmed on Tues. but I wanted to see what everyone thinks we're having. Please voice your opinions and I will share the news when I get it.

Okay last thing and then I am going to bed. My whole family has fallen asleep watching Charlotte's Web, Mike included. Okay, two things. Mike takes command on May 10th. He is very excited and he is going to be very, very busy. This is, however, one of the most important times in his military career. The other thing is- we're moving. We got the house we wanted and I am very, very happy. The bad news is, the Army is not going to pay for the move. It's all politics and irritating but we'll live. We get the house May 14th and Mike is a bit stressed trying to figure out how he is going to do it all. The poor man has really done so much these last few months. He has had to really play Mr. Mom of late and he's done a wonderful job. His girls adore him. All of us.

Well I love you all. I'm glad you are back in the Provo house Ellyn. It needed someone to love it. Hopefully it will grow on Jason. How nice to have handy men in your family.

Jess, how's baby? Cameron, how's flossing? Mindi and Adam, I love the pics. Write soon.

Love, me

to my favorite aunt jack

oh i am so dead!!  i was going to do this all day yesterday and never did.  i am so sorry.  aunt jack i love and respect you so much.

 

let me just write a brief note while we wait for aaa to come and open meags montero which is locked and running in the driveway.  it's full of gas so it could be awhile.  so much for my nap.  happy b'day jack.  hope your b'day dinner was good. 

they have asked me to teach seminary again till the end of the year.  it's perfect except brind just started this new shift of 4 10s. meaning he goes to work from 4 till 2:30 mon thru thurs.  he makes it home at about 3:00-3:10. he wakes me up to do scriptures and prayers till about 3:15-3:30.  i know this is nuts but its the only time i see him some days and since van pepe is having a bit of a problem its a good idea that i make sure he is home and not stranded on a back road somewhere between here and work with no phone reception.  my problem is i have just enough sleep by then that i can't go back to sleep.  i've decided that what i'm going to do is stay up and study till 4:45 meet meags at the gym at 5:00 till 6:00 go home shower get ready and go to the high school to teach from 7 till 8:00.  home again to see brind for 2 minutes before he leaves for his 9:00am class.  so here we are sleep deprived, but reasonably happy.  i love teaching!!!!  they are the cutest class.  take care le anne

 

now it's me again and i am still waiting for aaa.  ohh cory is going to be so happy with me.  anyway, jackie as i was saying...i hope you had a wonderful birthday and i hope the celebrations continue!!

aj i wouldn't forget you i hope you had a great birthday too.  are you 17, if you are i am going to die!! 

                           love you all.........meags

ps jack i love all the pictures!!  it made me so homesick for you guys, and my sisters.  they can't have babies without me there to take care of them!

Happy Birthday Mom!

You are the best looking 37 year old I know. You are the greatest mom a girl could ask for. Thank you for everything you do for me and my little family. I love you more than tongue can tell. I hope you had a wonderful day.

Love Jess

Provo House

first let me start by saying that i love the pictures. mind you could've left out the one where i look like i've been camping... moab was a blast! cor the pictures of moses lake were awesome. i can't believe how grown up the kids are! benny's hair is so long! and mom what do you mean to say that hairdressing is a whitetrash occupation??!! i don't know how i feel about that?

okay so the adventures of the provo house begin. last monday i spent the entire day cleaning and unpacking and somehow only managed to get the kitchen done. it's slowly coming together but oh boy do i have a very long list of "to do's" not to mention jason's "honey do's". saturday while i was at school he and his whole family worked in the yard. jason cleaned out the whole shed and sprayed it for spiders. he pulled out lots of boxes for me to go through. it was quite the walk down memory lane for me. jess remember those plasic halloween utencils we used to use all the time? i found them. i also found my box of old books...or what was left of them. appearently a mouse had been eating them and pooping them back out again right there in the box. it was sick. i was so mad. if jason hadn't already found the mouse dead, i would have killed it! we also met one of our neighbors. she had some interesting stories of the old tenant. she's pretty sure that matt was dealing drugs. cars coming and going at all hours of the night, weird smells coming from the house etc. needless to say she was very relieved when my mother in law filled her in on our background.

anyway i'm very excited and overwhelmed to be back in the house. i feel a little bad for jason tho. i don't think he loves being there as much as i do. luckily he and his dad are very eager to "fix" it. wish us luck!

ellynn

green Virginia

Wow it's gorgeous out here. LeAnne, you left right before things got good. The blossoms were at their peak about a week and a half ago and are still a nice treat to every front yard. I can't believe how green it is here! Utah is so beautiful with its mountains and ruggedness, but this is just something else. We just got back from church and are going to the airport pretty soon here to pick up Geof. Poor guy was expected to sit at a hotel all day in Milwaukee. Yes, he did get paid for it but decided to leave early losing $40. Kind of lame since $40 is a lot for us, but he's already sick of hotels. Anyway, church was sooo good. They had 3 new adult baptisms this week and have already had like 20 converts this year! I'm so envious of the missionaries. It's a wonderful, close ward. I met the gospel essentials teacher today and told her I'd be happy any time to sub for her. I think that'd be a wonderful experience. Our gospel doctrine class is very uplifting and for anyone who skips out on this class regularly-PLEASE GO!! I needed it so bad. Today we talked about Christ feeding the 5000 and walking on the sea of Galilee. I won't go into the specifics, but what I felt was learned was that we must have faith that if we're doing what's right, we won't need to worry so much about temporal things. Duh-I'm sure that's what you're all thinking. But my mind has been so on "when will I get my house? When will Geof. make more money?" and not with, "how can I be a better person?" Well, to be honest, the Spirit constantly tells me, 'you can do better than this'- and I'm grateful for at least knowing and feeling that still. But I've seem to become too "comfortable" with the mountain of "trials" set before me- almost like I use them as an excuse to not progress. A guy in our class remarked on that and it was so perfect. We complain about how hard things are and how many trials we have, but forget that we actually kind of prefer those trials to the fact that we can overcome and use the Atonement. Make sense? I'm rambling I know!! I'm sorry. I have goals I need to set right now so i'll leave you (I'm sure some of you are saying thank goodness). You guys are such a good family and I thank you for your positive attitudes and examples. Happy late Easter and Spring!! love-Darla

Fun!..Fun!

Hi guys! How are you? I just got back from Salzburg, Austria and Venice, Italy. We had so much fun. I got to ride the gondolia boat that was really nice. It was fun to identify things in The Sound of Music things in the movie that I had seen in Salzburg even though I did not go on the tour because it cost too much. But I did see the horse fountain in the beggining of the movie.


Luv Ya! P.S. Its Jane

ColoradoBennett

ColoradoBennett

ColoradoBennett

Our Easter in Moab was awesome. Ellynn and I took the kids to the Moab egg hunt while Adam and Jason rode the Porcupine Rim trail. And most importantly, we made it to Church on Sunday morning, camp grime and all.

Wilohm David Ellery Allen

As you can see I tried to post earlier and lost the whole thing. No it was not Darla and Yes I am ticked, but I am trying to be philosophical and persistant about the whole thing as I know it has happened to you too and why should I expect after all my years of not doing anything with a computer to not have any glitches as I try to get the hang of it now.
Dang I am on a tight schedule today, but this was one of the priorities--to tease Janie about her Scarey Man blog. She was always so nervous here on the hill and guess what we never had any drunk, yelling, stumbling, rock-throwing, scarey men wandering around up here on Tuke's Mtn. We just have cayotes, and bunnies, and deer. I glad you had your dad and papa there to protect you or it would have been a lot scarier!!!
Wilohm is spending the night. He surprises me because it doesn't bother him at all to come stay at g'ma's all by himself even though he has always been such a momma's boy. After we watched Creature from Black Lagoon last night for family home evening--which was really spiritual. Actually we had FHE Sunday. Wil announced he was coming home with me to spend the night. Jack and Ben aren't pleased, but they have school tomorrow and I still don't get kids in bed early, but then neither does Paula I found out after staying with her. That household doesn't even think about closing down till after midnight. Anyway he comes home with me and is perfectly content to play with all the miniture Risk pieces till I'm ready for bed and to read him stories. When I tell to get a story he brings me in the "ART and History of Egypt" How's that for a little light reading before bed. "How about Go Dogs Go, or a Value Tale?" "No, Pweese Grawmaw." Fine here goes. We look at all the pictures and maps of the Valley of Kings and the Nile, Memphis, Luxor, Giza, etc. I tell him I have been here and here and here and each time he says very seriously, That's a long ways away." We read all the picture captions with me stumbling through the pronunciations of all the ancient gods and kings. Thinking I have finally bored him enough I try to wrap it up. "No Grawmaw, pwees just one mowre." H e is honestly interested in the whole thing. He recognizes the funerary mask of King Tut and tells me that's King Tut. Jack has drawn free hand a picture of the mask on a piece of wood that is in their bedroom. Meags needs to post a picture of it. Anyway after another long picture caption it's lights out for our not so little archeologist.
Lest you think he is all brains and no brawn I will add this story. Jack, Ben and Wil are over to play while Meags goes grocery shopping. Hazel is not invited yet as she takes actual watching and that's too much like babysitting for this old g'ma. The older ones are just fun to play with or ignore while I get done what I need to. I have set up the sprinkler under the tramp so they can bounce. And yes you have guessed it. When you concider the size of the rest of Wil's features not to mention his body why is it he always manages to hit his nose? It really is such a small target . He is bleeding profusely out of both nostrils. It is running down his chin, chest, on his boxers (optional swimming suit in this case) even to his feet. He is crying and Jack is telling him not to cry because he looks tough. I tell him to hold on and I will go get the camera and take a picture of him. This cheers him up and when I get back he is smearing blood on his teeth because Jack told him "That if I smeawr bwood on my teef I wiwl look like a vampiwr!" No all the w's are not typos. They are my attempt to phoneticly copy his lisping New Jersey accent. He is such a funny boy.
Benny drew a picture of him. It was easily recognizable as she had drawn his round cheeks and big eyes with a green nose that was off to one side. She reminds me of her mother when she was that age. Meagan had brought home a picture of me she had drawn. I told her I knew this was my mouth and this was my chin but what was this other line below that. She told me that was my "other" chin. I was pregnant with Brind and appreciated her honesty. I wish I had all my G'kids close. They are all so fun, but then I would have no place to visit. I have to look at the bright side.
Well I'm off to the basement to paint and finish the binding on Madison's quilt. Yes Evelyn got it done for me. I think I am going to try and see if she will let me help her with the other quilts or to do some work on the farm that would free her up so she can get to rest of them--Dayne's Kaia's, Sierra's, and Hazel's. Then I need to getting going on Tristan's, Bek's (spelling?) and Shelli's little girl, Madeline's. Mindi showed me the cutest pattern her aunt had made I can hardly wait to try it.
Wish you could all see it here right now. It is so green and what isn't green is blossoming. A breeze will come up and the petals will swirl down. It is so beautiful. We have a big Fugi Cherry tree just off the deck with the lights still in it from the reception. You should see it when I plug in the lights. There are giant lit snowball blossoms. Love you All, Mom, Aunt Le Anne, G'ma

Bavaria

The Scary Man...(seriously)

Hi, its me, Jane! We are having such a fun time here with grandma and papa. Last night at about 11:00 at night I was drifting off to sleep when I heard screaming. For a minute I thought it was just a bad dream but when I opened my eyes I heard swearing and this man was right outside my house and drunk. I called to my dad and he said he heard it to. He went to his office and looked out his window to the sidewalk. Then when my dad started to put on his pants to go outside papa came out of his room and said the man had said that he was going to get rocks. So instead of going out he called the police. Mean while the man was now where I could see him walking. Papa came into my room and we turned off all the lights and looked to see where he was walking so we could tell the police where he was going. The man looked more like a waddling duck than a drunk man. All the sudden the man swirved to the left right infront of my friends house. He must have gone through the short to my school, found some rocks and came up the oppisite side of the path about 7 minutes later. He had the evil laugh that you here in movies and was yelling that he had rocks. We called the police again and told them where he was and they caught him in seconds Love Ya!

Jane

bglife

we will know more about wil's nose after we see the e.n.t.  they are having a hard time reading the x-ray because there is so much soft tissue.  the last picture cory posted is after jackson's little nose job.  sad huh.

mom wanted me to clarify that those job's aren't white trash it's just some of the people in battle ground who work them.  oh and you should see how she came out of hair country the other day.  she was praying she wouldn't see anyone.  i jsut can't figure out why they think it's ok to do that to someones hair. 

gotta run, it's spring break and we are heading to the zoo with linda, gran, rose and her kiddos. 

 love to all.... meags

Bavaria

hi benny i love you. i am taking tap class. sadie Sadie has been begging me all morning to let her write Benny a letter.

Mindi, I am also sorry to hear about your tooth. I hope you are able to get it fixed soon. Adam, I will try to remember to measure my bike today.

Meags, how is Wil's nose? Okay, this is all I am writing because Ellyn just filled this room with a very lovely aroma and I am greatly anticipating the changing of yet another poopy diaper.

Love, me

all right i put in my title for the first time and now it takes me to the list of titles and somehow i got back here so i can go on with my story and i no longer have a title however you will be able to figure it out as it will shortly become obvious.
this will be brief as i am headed to bed. as you know with Brind's inimate departure and all the "extras" having moved out i will truely be an empty nester here shortly and have been trying to decide just exactly what i would like to do with my time between trips for a career. i have recently seriously been concidering my options.
#1 i can't tell you how much fun it was to drive cross country. i loved every minute of it so i am thinking possibly a trucker. it hasn't been that long since i gave up swearing. it's rather like riding a bike (or trying to fix a bike.) i'm sure in no time the old habit would be back.
#2 i promised our neighbor that as soon as the wedding was over we would take out the grove of trees that was blocking her view. About 24 hrs., a twenty inch chainsaw that wieghes in at about 20 lbs, a $50.00 rental fee, and 25 or so trees later we now have what can only be described as a blast zone. while it was great fun and the view of the city has been restored my beautiful grove of maples and firs is gone and our hill looks naked. several neighbors stopped to ask if i hired out. sure i can come and make a mess of your yard too for a price. now i'm thinking maybe a logger. it's funny with a chainsaw in your hands the white collar guys are kind of intimidated. the blue collar guys old or young are going "hey, cool."
#3 hairstylist i honestly only added this because after i took the saw back i went over to meags and gave 5 haircuts. how do you make a 1 year old understand when you are cutting their bangs that you want them to hold still and look at you with their eyes closed. absolutely none of you realize, with the exception possibly of cory what a big deal it is that i figured out how to do that bold thing on "closed" and almost as impressive is that i got it to quit doing it!!! maybe my next option will be----
well i'm headed for the shower as i am covered in either sawdust or hair or both.
so good to hear from you. mindi i am so sorry to hear about your tooth maybe we can go to mexico together to get our teeth fixed or you could move to BG and become a trucker, a logger, or a hairstylist. the white trash opportunity employment options are almost endless.
love you all, aunt Le Anne

Some pics...

Wow.  Very impressive blogging.  Gone for three days and this thing is packed.  I've got to get reading, but in the meantime, I posted a bunch of pics for anyone who might want a look-see.  They're from the trip this weekend.  We went with our friends Josh and Ashley to Josh's folks in Moses Lake.  And we had a great time, too.

clicky here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/allen.cory/MosesLakeWithTheRossesApril2007

See you all later.

-cory

Seattle Bennett living in Colorado

So conference was great between kids and naps I have a lot of catching up to do.

Brooke if you can give me the outside diameter of the tube your seat post goes into I probably have a clamp in my tool box but they are a pain to track down.

Is spring really here, I started watering the yard and assessing the plants and I think I lost 3 and maybe a couple little ones. Its been 60's here and then the next day we have 6" of snow, poor Tristan keeps getting better just to get sick again. It must be Spring.

Adam

Happy Birthday indeed!!

thank you guys for all the posts and the voicemails for my birthday!! i felt so bad that i couldn't answer my phone all day. i was in school all day and directly after i ran home to change for our mission reunion. so on the way home i got to hear roughly 6 different versions of happy birthday by artist such as my mom, adam, geof. and darla, aunt jack, jessica, etc. brinders adn even julia called me. i did indeed feel spoiled, and giggled the whole. i will be returning calls all week as i find small incruments of time durring this move. when i got to school on friday my amazing friend shannon had tied a ton of balloons to my chair, made a a big poster for me and placed a pile of presents on my chair. later jason's mom and sister came in and brought me more balloons. my instructors were teasing my that my station was going to float away by the end of the day. i won't bore you will all the details of my birthday but it was one of the best. jason got me my ipod but more importantly he and his mom and sisters packed up the whole kitchen and laundry room. he's wonderful and yes he does spoil me like a queen. we are so excited to move into the provo house we can't stand it.

funny story. so the other night we got to bed at about 11. at about 12 or so we wake up to our neighbors upstairs fighting, yelling, screaming, pounding. i fall back asleep and i'm in and out for about an hour as this takes place. jason can't sleep because he's sick. finally at 1.30 he stands up and starts pounding on the ceiling. we hear the noise die down and about 5 minutes later our neighbor knocks on the door. we were so not happy. jason had to get dressed, go answer the door and listen to this guy give his lame apology about how his wife is pregnant again (their baby can't be more than 6 months and they fight constantly.) when he came back to bed he was just shaking cuz his adrenalin was going like crazy. i guess he was tempted to call the cops cuz it sounded like he was beating her. he wasn't but it might get the point accross that we're sick of listening to them.

well i've been babbling for a while now so i'll go. thank you all again for the blogs. brooke, that was probably one of my favorite times in life too. jane, you're lucky i love you you little stinker. mike your blog almost made me bawl. pretty much they all did. i love you guys!
ellynn
p.s. yes i'm still posting under meagan's thing because i can't get on on my own.

ColoradoBennett

I'm not sure what it is about the blog, but it makes me feel as though I should post embarrassing stories about myself. Stories that I would normally be inclined to hide away and hope no one found out about. So the kids and I go to Gram and Pop's house at least once a week. While there, Gram does everything. She makes us lunch, feeds the kids (she talks a lot about how she wished she would have had someone around to help her spoon feed her babies and so now that she can help me she is eager to do so), and lets me just sit around saying "Ba, Ba, Ba" (have you seen "Overboard"? I feel that overwhelmed some days). So pretty much all I have to do on days at Gram's house is to remember to pull the fork out of my mouth before I bite down on the delicious morsel of food placed before me. Well, on Thursday I failed to do that. I bit down on the fork and took a chip out of my front tooth. It really brings out my white trash heritage, I think. And I'm pretty sure I won't be able to get it fixed until we get set up on new insurance. Awesome. I will not be posting pictures, just use your imagination.

Bavaria

Jane says "hi."

Well mom, Meags said you were upset because no one was posting- which I think we've all made up for. But I am going to try to get on here more often.

Jess, thank you for the Indie story, I'm sorry you had to go through leaving her in the hospital. That's no fun at all. I can't wait for pics and I am so happy for you.

We have had several beautiful sunny days this week and I am so happy. I really think I have that seasonal function disorder. I was ready to jump on a plane and head to Virginia until word was sent that the sun had appeared in Germany. Meags, you have to get Cory to the South because I don't think I can retire in Wa. Maybe I'll be a snowbird because nothing is better than Washington from May to September. I have to say that. But I have spent the past little while daydreaming about Georgia. We were looking at pics on Mike's computer the other day and it dang near broke my heart. I'm excited to be out and about here though, now that the weather is good. You have to understand, I love Germany, but on a day to day basis we are on post and it takes getting out and exploring to enjoy living in this beautiful area. Also, I really miss the convenience of the U.S. sometimes. Maybe it's because I am pregnant but I also daydream about Sonic on warm summer nights, walks down to Burgerville for milkshakes, going through the drive-thru at Taco Bell, Pizza Hut pan pizza...you get my drift.

Yesterday was a great day. The sun was shining, even though it was a bit windy, and Mike got out all of our bikes and got us all set up. The clamp that keeps the seat in place on my bike is broken, but he thinks he'll be able to find a clamp here for it. I drove to the commissary and Mike and Jane rode their bikes with the little girls in the bike trailer. They loved it.

Today we are going to listen to yesterday's session(s) of conference and then my friend Holly is coming over for dinner. She is nineteen and her husband is gone for three weeks and we try to have her over as often as she wants.

Well, I'm already feeling little flutters about once a day. Funny how quickly you feel baby once you know what it is you are feeling.

Well my kids think they need lunch or something so I had better go. I love you all and love your blogs so keep 'em rolling. They just might be helping a sister across the ocean that thinks she should start prozac and a bottle of red wine every night with dinner.
Love, me