A Tribute

Jess, I got the password from Geof. tonight and went in and enabled all of us as administrators. Even Aunt Jack, she just can't erase and start fresh! I put our old background on just as a little tribute to the early days but Jess please feel free to spice it up and please add the links to yours and Cort's blog because I'm too dumb to do it. So all ya all admin away.
love, Brooke

Good Morning from Bavaria

First of all Jess, I am not ignoring you. I need to get a hold of Darla because she inadvertently became administrator for the blog. Darla, if you are at the library today :)do you mind e-mailing Jess and me your password? Jess, because she can add the links and "jazz it up a bit" and me because I'm on a power trip. I thought I had it in my e-mail records and I don't, plus, I think we have to use your e-mail address and password and I don't want to without permission. Maybe we can figure out how to change it permanently.

So the day before yesterday I took Sawyer at 3 1/2 mos. to his two month well baby visit. Yes, I know, but it had to be that way because of our trip home. So he weighs 15lbs. 9oz. He is in the 75% for his head size and his weight and 95% for his height-which I think was just short of 27 in. if I remember right. The Dr. loved him. He was smiling and laughing and cooing and turning on all his gentlemanly charm. He was given the thumbs up in all regards. We then spent the rest of the appointment like we do at all of my children's appts., discussing Ellyn. I asked her what she thought of Ellyn trying out this gluten free casein free diet for a couple of months. She thought it was a great idea with a few amendments-it should not be for two months, but for six, and I should eliminate all preservatives from her diet as well. Choke. At our house that pretty much means that we would be eliminating food from Ellyn's diet. Her doctor told me that one of the german stores where I shop had a good selection of gluten free foods and they had soy yogurt as well. So...I decided that I was not going to do this gradually because I would never get around to doing it all the way. I was going to jump in feet first. First, I went to the commissary while Ellyn was at school and spent an hour and a half putting together about 5 meals. Things I have learned- Campbell's tomato soup and all canned tomato soups available at our commissary, have wheat in them. Vinegar is made from wheat- I had never thought of the origin of vinegar. All candy is full of the most amazing amount of crap AND licorice has wheat in it. I always thought Twizzlers was made from plastic. Sherbet, which I thought was flavored ice, has milk in it. So Tuesday night I was expecting phone calls from Mike so I couldn't get to the REAL (the german store) so I was looking on line to see what kind of foods were available and thought how terrible it was going to be if I had to order everything. But...I went to the REAL yesterday and it was like a ray of light shining down from Heaven. I asked the stocker in one of my three german phrases that I know if she spoke English. She did not, but I had looked up how to say gluten in german. Guess what, it's gluten. I had a feeling, gluten had that german feel to it. I already knew how to say free, frei. The girl walked me over to the section and that is when the ray of light thing happened. Jane was incredibly relieved to find several bags of pasta in my shopping bag. That was the one thing she was most concerned about. So now I am sitting here beside my daughter who is eating a breakfast of soy milk on corn puffed chocolate cereal, with a banana. I might mention that this could really assist me in my weight loss endeavor as I passed my favorite italian pizza stand, with the real italian pizza man that makes pizza better than almost anything I had in Italy, the Donner Kabob stand which are like gyros but from Turkey, and the bakery with their rows of beautiful pretzels. It was torture. Luckily Ellyn only eats a very limited variety of foods anyway so IF I can find some staples this shouldn't be too terrible. I just have to be careful with the whole mindless eating thing, fast food-which we only really do when we are traveling. It's going to take some planning and some more from scratch cooking (I found some scrumptious looking tomato soup recipes- I didn't know people could actually make tomato soup) but it shouldn't be terrible. No, the whole family is not going on the diet. A loaf of bread is $5.98. Yikes. Luckily, during the week, Ellyn eats her breakfast and her lunch with just me. They also have gluten free pretzels and Ellyn loves mixed nuts and fruit so I should have some good snacks for her. Wish me luck.

Well, that is all for now. I have to go shampoo my carpets. They were clean enough until I want to lay the little man down on them, then, not so much. I love you all.

Another great thing!

http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/200/5127/ This link came to me by way of Debbie Beecher Nance and it is worth watching! I love watching all the things that people are putting out there! Love Me

Hi

As I read this it reminded me of all those people that told me that I would look back someday and wonder where it all went!!! At the time I thought that it would never end and now look!!! This is wonderful for all you Moms that are going through things right now and hopefully will be a little smarter then I was about wishing it away!! Love you Aunt Jack

Anna Quindlen, Newsweek Columnist and Author: All my babies are gone now. I say this not in sorrow but in disbelief. I take great satisfaction in what I have today: three almost-adults, two taller than I am, one closing in fast. Three people who read the same books I do and have learned not to be afraid of disagreeing with me in their opinion of them, who sometimes tell vulgar jokes that make me laugh until I choke and cry, who need razor blades and shower gel and privacy, who want to keep their doors closed more than I like. Who, miraculously, go to the bathroom, zip up their jackets and move food from plate to mouth all by themselves. Like the trick soap I bought for the bathroom with a rubber ducky at its center, the baby is buried deep within each, barely discernible except through the unreliable haze of the past. Everything in all the books I once poured over is finished for me now. Penelope Leach, T. Berry Brazelton., Dr. Spock. The ones on sibling rivalry and sleeping through the night and early-childhood education, have all grown obsolete. Along with Goodnight Moon and Where the Wild Things Are, they are battered, spotted, well used. But I suspect that if you flipped the pages dust would rise like memories. What those books taught me, finally, and what the women on the playground taught me, and the well-meaning relations --what they taught me, was that they couldn't really teach me very much at all.
Raising children is presented at first as a true-false test, then becomes multiple choice, until finally, far along, you realize that it is an endless essay. No one knows anything. One child responds well to positive reinforcement, another can be managed only with a stern voice and a timeout. One child is toilet trained at 3, his sibling at 2. When my first child was born, parents were told to put baby to bed on his belly so that he would not choke on his own spit-up. By the time my last arrived, babies were put down on their backs because of research on sudden infant death syndrome. To a new parent this ever-shifting certainty is terrifying, and then soothing. Eventually you must learn to trust yourself.
Eventually the research will follow. I remember 15 years ago poring over one of Dr. Brazelton's wonderful books on child development, in which he describes three different sorts of infants: average, quiet, and active. I was looking for a sub-quiet codicil for an 18-month old who did not walk. Was there something wrong with his fat little legs?Was there something wrong with his tiny little mind? Was he developmentally delayed, physically challenged? Was I insane? Last year he went to China . Next year he goes to college. He can talk just fine. He can walk, too. Every part of raising children is humbling, too. Believe me, mistakes were made. They have all been enshrined in the, 'Remember-When-Mom-Did Hall of Fame.' The outbursts, the temper tantrums, the bad language, mine, not theirs. The times the baby fell off the bed. The times I arrived late for preschool pickup. The nightmare sleepover. The horrible summer camp. The day when the youngest came barreling out of the classroom with a 98 on her geography test, and I responded, 'What did you get wrong?'. (She insisted I include that.) The time I ordered food at the McDonald's drive-through speaker and then drove away without picking it up from the window. (They all insisted I include that.) I did not allow them to watch the Simpsons for the first two seasons. What was I thinking? But the biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make while doing this. I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of the three of them, sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4 and 1. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less. Even today I'm not sure what worked and what didn't, what was me and what was simply life. When they were very small, I suppose I thought someday they would become who they were because of what I'd done. Now I suspect they simply grew into their true selves because they demanded in a thousand ways that I back off and let them be. The books said to be relaxed and I was often tense, matter-of-fact and I was sometimes over the top. And look how it all turned out. I wound up with the three people I like best in the world, who have done more than anyone to excavate my essential humanity.
That's what the books never told me. I was bound and determined to learn from the experts. It just took me a while to figure out who the experts were.

bgme

jackson was saying prayers on martin luther king's day and he thanked Heavenly Father for all that martin luther did so that black people could be free so that he could be friends with jose (a boy in his class).  it was so sweet.  cory said that he never even thought of martin luther king's day as anything other than another day off of school.  jack is so in tune with understanding what is important to be grateful for.  saturday cory and i got in a huge fight.  he left me at a walmart with hazel for two hours because he didn't listen to me and went to the one on the other side of the county, causing us to miss our soccer game.  when we got home i locked myself in my room so i could sleep it off.  after about an hour cory tried to brake into the room but i had the rocking chair in front of the door.  it works really well and i planned on leaving it there all night.  after cory had given up and gone down stairs i hear some rustling by my door so i went over and looked behind the chair and there was a little piece of paper.   it read:  mom i love you so much will you please, please, please come down stairs.  so much for my plans of staying in bed for the night.  how do you say no to such a sweet plea from my little benny.  next story so remember how i didn't get to go to institute the other day because i couldn't get into my gas tank which of cory got right open when he got home from work.  well i sat down that day and started reading the ensign trying to get spiritually fed some way.  wil sat down next to me and started pointing out different pictures of President Hinckley.  so then we had to go through all the general authorities and who would be prophet next and after that and after that and on and on.  then he turns to me and says mom i want to be the prophet.  man that got me thinking what kind of home is a prophet raised in.  (i'll tell you one thing not the kind that we were in during our fight saturday).  and hazel keeps asking me where Jesus is and when i tell her that He is in heaven she says she wants to go to heaven to live with Jesus which is very sweet but also a little scary.  so those are my cute stories i wanted to post before i forgot.

paula it is so good to have you on the blog and cort we got the announcement and we are so excited.  cory was really happy to see our invitation to the temple, i think he feels special.  well i am so cold that my finger nails are purple so i'm going to get into the shower.  we are going up to mom's to make wil's quilt, finally!  the kids have 3 hour late start because it snowed at some point last night but of course there is no sign of it now.  i know all of you from utah and colorado would die, don't you go with a foot of snow on the ground, that's how i remember it anyway. 

love all.................me 

ColoradoBennett

Video tribute to Gordon B. Hinckley:
http://photo.byu.edu/video.php?cat1=Slide%20Shows&cat2=General&cat3=2008&cat4=Hinckley%20Tribute

Couples Quiz

What is your spouse's name? Kevin Reed Rigby

How long have you been together? Since November of 1971, I was 16! He was 19!

How long did you date? About 2 ½ years

Who eats more? Kev, if you can believe that!

Who said I love you first? He did!

Who is taller? He is.

Who is smarter? You don’t think that you can stay happily married as long as we have by answering questions like that ?!

Who does the laundry? I do. Except for when I was sick and he was the laundry King! He does bring them into the laundry room.

Who does the dishes? I did it for 30 years, now he does most of them.

Who sleeps on the right? I do.

Who pays the bills? It's all automatic, but what isn’t I do!

Who mows the lawn? Me and I love it!

Who cooks dinner? Once again, I did it for 30 years and now he does a lot!
Who drives when you are together? Me because I get car sick.

Who is more stubborn? Again the stay Happy Married thing!

Who kissed who first? I kissed him! Surprised?

Who asked who out first? He asked me.

Who proposed? He did after me begging till he couldn’t stand it any more!
Who has more siblings? Me

Who wears the pants? Me all the way till he says not and then there are no questions asked!!!

Tag...Anyone who wants to reflect on your love life :)

Couples Quiz

What is your spouse's name? Michael Kenneth Stinchfield

How long have you been together?14.5 years

How long did you date? six weeks until we were engaged, and then 4 1/2 mos. engaged

Who eats more? I do

Who said I love you first? He did, but I thought he was teasing me because he was tackling me on the lawn at Ricks

Who is taller? He is.

Who is smarter? Mike, I'd say we started out pretty equal but he is always studying and learning new things both for work and hobbies.

Who does the laundry? I do as rarely as possible

Who does the dishes? me and the girls

Who sleeps on the right? looking at the bed, when Mike is home, I do

Who pays the bills? I do

Who mows the lawn? when Mike is home he does about 75% percent of the time. I love mowing the lawn but I do other yard work, which I also like to do, while he mows. Jane has started mowing the lawn as well.

Who cooks dinner? I do, if we grill he will most of the time

Who drives when you are together? for the sake of our marriage he does

Who is more stubborn? it depends on which one of us you ask, he'd say it was me and he's probably right

Who kissed who first? he did

Who asked who out first? he asked me


Who proposed? well we talked about it, then I said we should wait, I was too young, then a few days later I asked him if he would ask me to marry him, he did, and I said mmmhhmmm.

Who has more siblings? he does by one

Who wears the pants? we all know the truth, Mike does, unless I really need to

Tag...Anyone who wants to reflect on your love life :)

bgme

Couples Quiz

What is your spouse's name? cory matthew allen 

How long have you been together? almost 12 years . 

How long did you date? way too long, over two years.  that's what happens when you have to wait for them to grow up, literally.

Who eats more?   we are both huge eaters, but if it really came down to it i could blow him out of the water.

Who said I love you first?  he did, but i kind of tricked him into it.

Who is taller?  cory is and he loves it 

Who is smarter?  cory is way smarter!!!!!  in every way, but maybe i am more logical

Who does the laundry?  i do unless cory finds his soccer shorts, underwear or white shirt not clean when he wants them.

Who does the dishes?   we both try not to.

Who sleeps on the right?  looking at the bed, i do.  but this summer when it gets hot we will have to switch so i can be by the window. 

Who pays the bills?  cory does all the bills.  if i did them we would live in adverse poverty, because i would not allow us to spend any money, but if i don't know i am happy spending what he gives me.

Who mows the lawn?  i think he has twice.

Who cooks dinner?  i always do. 

Who drives when you are together?  if its a road trip i do.  if its on the way to church he does (so i can do my make up) any other time it's 50/50. 

Who is more stubborn?  unfortunately we both are very stubborn

Who kissed who first?   he did, after that many years i was not going to give in first!

Who asked who out first?   i guess that would be me if you count asking him to youth conference.

Who proposed?   he did, but i had to force him into it.

Who has more siblings?  i do, but only by one (he has one sister in heaven).

Who wears the pants?  we both wear pants, but cory looks hot in a mini! 

Tag...Anyone who wants to reflect on your love life :)

posted by Mindi @ 1:28 PM

Couples Quiz

What is your spouse's name? Adam Ellery Bennett

How long have you been together? About 7.5 years

How long did you date? Two months dating, two month engagement.

Who eats more? I eat more often, so most likely I eat more.

Who said I love you first? He did, but in a non-direct kind of way.

Who is taller? He is.

Who is smarter? Adam wins street smarts (which is his super human quality), I win book smarts (not quite as useful).

Who does the laundry? I do. If I remember to leave it piled up on the couch at night, sometimes he'll fold it while he watches tv.

Who does the dishes? Sierra.

Who sleeps on the right? When you are lying in bed or looking at it? He sleeps on the right when you are looking at it.

Who pays the bills? It's all automatic these days.

Who mows the lawn? When we had a lawn, I would mow it.

Who cooks dinner? I'd like to say I do all the time but Adam is a great cook and takes over on the days he can see that look in my eye (or lack thereof, a glazed over kind of look like Goldie Hawn on "Overboard")

Who drives when you are together? Always Adam. Makes him more of a man, I guess.

Who is more stubborn? He is

Who kissed who first? I would have to say he kissed me

Who asked who out first? He asked me on a group date with his mission buddies and their dates. I think we saw, "Everest".

Who proposed? He proposed in a gazebo, overlooking Utah Lake, with our mtn. biking clothes on (but no bikes)

Who has more siblings? He has twice as many.

Who wears the pants? Is this a feminist question? How about if I say we are equal partners.

Tag...Anyone who wants to reflect on your love life :)

Robbins Family

Okay, there is absolutely no excuse for why I have not been better about blogging with all of you. To be honest each week when Cameron and Monica are here for Sunday dinner I will hear about something that has come out on the blog in the past week and feel bad that I'm not on. It is just so overwhelming. You have all been doing it for so long and I find myself spending hours reading about each of your families. I decided that the best way to start would be to only allow myself to read the last couple of days so my knowledge of what's happening is obviously limited.

Last night when we heard the news about President Hinckley we immediately turned on the tv to see if it was true. I know I should have been expecting it to happen but I was totally taken off guard. I just thought he seemed so healthy at the last conference and at Christmas. I guess I wasn't taking into account how many years he has been here serving. Kel reminded me that President Hinckley is the only prophet that he has ever known which reminded me of when President David O McKay died, I think I was about ten or eleven. I remember such a feeling of loss. I have felt that each time one of our prophets has completed his work here on earth, and I feel that loss again today. What an amazing prophet! He has inspired me so much through his teachings and example. I am so grateful for the influence he has had on my life to be better. I know I am not alone in how I feel.

Just to let you know, we are all doing just fine at our house other then the fact that we currently being buried in snow. Actually, I love it!

Here's an update: Cameron keeps you up to speed with their family so I'll just tell you about the boys. Jordan and AJ have been spending a lot of time together in the past week writing a song. Michelle is busy getting the Tigerettes ready for the State Competition this coming Saturday. Joel is in Salt Lake today taking an aptitude test. He put an application in several months ago to be an aircraft controller. Apparently, he made it through that step but now we'll see what happens after today. He is still determined to be a pilot though, this will just help with that goal. Jan is still in Lugano, Switzerland. He loves the work and the people. He has been out ten months now and is feeling pretty good about the language. In fact, he must feel comfortable since he has found that he likes to speak in church. I already told you about AJ but as well as the song with Jordan he is almost finished with a piano composition he has been working on since last summer. Kel turned 16 at the end of December but will not get his driver's license for a couple more weeks. He is going on his first date and dance February 8th with an older woman. She's a junior and he's a sophomore. Bill and I just continue to get older and more blind by the day.

I hope this hasn't been too boring but if I'm going to start writing I wanted you to know what's happening in my life. Hopefully, I will catch up with all that's happening in your lives in the next few days. I love you all and feel very blessed to be a part of this great family.

Love,
Aunt Paula

Bavaria

Today has been an emotional day. My thoughts have have been turned toward Pres. Hinckley and his life, his teachings, and his death. It doesn't seem very real yet. I am so happy for him to be able to be reunited with his wife. How sweet that must be. I can't help but wonder what the reception must be like in heaven for our prophet. How beautiful and joyful for so many. Can you imagine being so righteous, serving the Lord with every part of yourself so diligently for so much of your life and then returning to be with Him? It is beyond anything I can even begin to imagine.

President Hinckley has been the prophet for almost my entire marriage. So many of my decisions were made (not enough) with the question in my mind-"What would Pres. Hinckley do?" He has been an amazing example, his teachings have inspired me and encouraged me and, at times, humbled me and prompted me to repent for actions or thoughts that I've had. He has been realistic, loving, and righteous. He has successfully navigated through this world showing love and integrity and hope and happiness and never compromising anything that he stood for. He has been an incredible example of how to live happily and righteously in a world full of so much corruption, so much gray. I know you all know all this. I just want to write it down. Let you all know (since this is my only journal I'm keeping)how much I love our prophet. I know he was a living prophet of God. Following his teachings will only bring happiness and blessings. I will miss him more than I can possibly express.

I have only been able to talk to Mike every five or six days the past few weeks so I've spent more time e-mailing, less time blogging. I thought I would bore you to death by transferring over parts of some of my e-mails.

Jan.22 Tonight is going to be short. Just before I took Ellyn up to bed she wandered into the kitchen and I remembered right as I heard it- a can of peaches I had left on the counter when I was putting away dinner. My floor is now coated in fruit syrup. I have to nurse Sawyer to sleep and go clean up.

I have my work out clothes on so I could run at 3:30, at 5:00, at 8:30. It never happened. I wanted to do it tonight but last night after I got off the computer I realized I would never get ahead today if I didn't get the house cleaned up. I'm trying to do it while Ellyn is asleep or gone. So I stayed up and cleaned but then I couldn't get to sleep. Funny thing is, the house probably needs it more tonight than last night and it is just not going to happen.

Jane had basketball practice tonight and loved it. Her first game is Friday. Sadie loved running around with Devon. Kayla has decided to stay by the way. That is good. Ellyn did really well today. Mrs. Nell said she had a great day at pre-school. Today I helped her peel her own clementine and showed her how her zipper worked a few times. We played together all morning while Sawyer slept. She is a funny kid, such a little puzzle.

The girls and I had a fun afternoon. The night kind of unraveled a bit. It was fine, just trying to finish up homework, clear up dinner, answer the phone several times (my home teacher is coming tomorrow night with his wife and my visiting teacher is coming Thursday), and Sawyer was screaming every time he got set down. I think he was just tired and ready to sleep but there was too much going on. Sadie has the most amazing ability to ignore whatever she doesn't want to do. Good thing she is so cute.


Jan 23-Today was a pretty uneventful day, woke up, got Jane and Sadie off to school, Sawyer back to sleep. I worked out, woke up Ellyn and we showered and got things cleaned up and ate and then mailed mom back her phone and went to the steering committee meeting. From there I came home and cleaned house. It was a sunny day and so when Sadie got home I sent her right out the door to play with Devon in the back yard. Ellyn was going to go out but she was eating a peanut butter and honey sandwich for forever. The Gages from our ward came over to Home Teach and then we ate dinner. Tonight was American Idol. We sort of watched that but Jane was working on homework and Ellyn and Sadie and Sawyer and I were playing. Jane had to put together and demonstrate how to make brownies from scratch for her language arts class tomorrow. Tonight was the practice. It is killing me to have the scent of brownies wafting through the house and not be able to eat any because they are all for her class. Evil.

Jan 26-
Today was very busy, fun, a little stressful. I will write you more about it later, hopefully tonight but Sawyer is really having a hard time for some reason. It's the most upset he's been in a long time.

Okay, Jane has him quiet for now. So I will write until I can' t anymore. We had a huge turnout at our Fasching party, about three times the number of kids that we had this summer. We went through almost all the food. This party was right up Sadie's alley. Ellyn's too actually. There were lots of games like tag and musical chairs and freeze dancing. Sadie and I were dancing at one point and Ellyn was sitting on a chair next to Jane watching and I kept looking over and telling her to come dance with us. All of the sudden she got really excited and got off her chair and ran out and started dancing with us. She came out with me every time after that (it was game, dance, game, dance). She has also really been playing with some of her toys and some of Sawyer's toy too lately- as a side note.

The sun was shining through the windows today and I had to start washing windows and wiping down cupboards while everything that was dirty was brought to light. A very beautiful day, cold though.

I did a color wash in my hair. The kind that I did last time, the one that makes my hair burgundy colored for a long time. It makes me feel younger. Actually, I was kind of happy tonight. I went to Jane's basketball game and then to the coffee and at both places I had someone tell me that I looked great, that I did not look like the mother of four. That made me really feel good. I also had someone ask how I could look so calm and happy with four kids. That probably made me feel even better. Now this time next year, when Sawyer is running around everywhere things could be different. But then his daddy will be here to chase him and I will just watch the game sitting peacefully on the bench.

Jane's team lost by three points in the last two minutes of the game. I guess a few parents were upset because the ref from the other team kept calling fouls on our kids. I didn't keep close enough tabs to know. I was watching but also nursing Sawyer, keeping Sadie a tiny bit sane, playing with Ellyn, and talking to Jasmine. Jane had a couple of good blocks and dodged around another player and caught the ball and passed it off to a team mate. I didn't ever actually catch her dribbling. We'll have to practice that in the cul-d-sac.

The coffee tonight was at Zur Post. I called April as I left the house (Ashley Olsen met me here after the basketball game) and she ordered my food for me so I was able to eat with everyone. April had to leave early to pick Kathi up from the SAS skating party and drop her off at home and then we met up at the movie theater and went to see The Bucket List. It is Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, two men dying of cancer that are doing everything on their list before they kick the bucket. Good movie, I thought. Kind of sad thinking of Rob. April had told me that she and Jeff decided that they should try to quit smoking in a few months. Freeman's character looks down at his cigarette as he gets the news. I told April that should up the date a bit. Then in the middle of the movie she leans over and says, "while I'm thinking about it, Jeff wants to know if you have a Mormon Bible he can borrow for awhile." Of course I told her yes.

Sorry, I know that is pretty piece-meal and I think some of the dates are mixed up but it gives you a little glimpse. I love you all and I hope you are doing well. We need to put links on here (by the top) for jess and cort's blog, I just need to get over to them. Moni, how are you doing? I love you all.

just catching up was written last week jan 18

i wrote the whole thing and then couldn't get it to post and thought i had deleted it somehow. cory, the man found it last night somewhere in cyber space when he was installing the church's family indexing thing and posted it for me. talk about a tender mercy--nothing like taking time out to blog and then losing it--very discouraging for computer idiots.

i'm officially on "the diet." it's not bad if you are willing to eat equal portions of beans and beano. still waiting for my system to adjust. i miss salt to the point that i am about ready to take up hazel's habit of licking meagan after she has gone to the gym and worked out. meagan's safe i can lick my own arm, but i swear i taste less salty than i used to--do you run out of salt if you quit eating it?

good news is i got another quilt top done and ready to mail off to be quilted but this cute little lady in oregon. i also got 3 more cut out. i realized after they were all cut out that one of the pieces of fabric hadn't been preshrunk so i had to wash it--it did shrink and unravel a little at the edges and so i had to cut it down and now will have to cut all the pieces down so they will work. you know if your brain doesn't work something else has to.

i went down to sheridan prison last sunday to visit a friend of mine. it was an amazing day. he is so alone and having a rough go of it. moral of the story is be completely honest about everything. he made a lot of money, but at what price and now he has nothing. i got back to church and found out that rob had one of his worst days. he tried so hard to get to church and couldn't. you read about it on their web sight maybe. anyway i went to visit and drop off his favorite movie "12 angry men." i told him about scott (the guy in prison) they are both about the same age, cute wives, 5 kids, sucessful, (or used to be) and they both taught seminary for us for a couple of years. i told rob and patti as miserable as this experience is to go thru if i had to make a choice i would be them. i think of the fasting, prayers and support they have had from their family, the ward, their friends it has been amazing and they recognize it and are so grateful. scott is so alone. i am your mom/aunt le anne so i will moralize--satan entices you to do something wrong, gets you out on the end of a limb and when the tree goes down and you get caught he leaves you hanging. he delights in it because you are now miserable just like he is--wahoo!!! nothing could be more apparent than the contrast between these two men's lives. God does have us go thru some incredibly hard things but never alone always with His help. He will help scott too, but consequences are a bite!!!

i'm going in to wake up benny so we can watch our favorite movie "love comes softly" together on the dvd player in my bed before i have to take josh and rob's aunt kathy to the airport. its the only movie she will sit thru and she will watch it over and over again. i miss all my grandkids. the pictures were great mindi. i'm glad you could spend time together.

looking forward to the wedding almost as much as cortney and rodger j/k! thanks for all the open invitations to come stay at your homes. your are all such good kids.

love le anne

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just catching up

i just got home from a week at the condo on mount hood. we had so much fun. meags, cory, the kids and ellery came up for the weekend and stayed till tuesday. we went snowshoeing up to mirror lake with all the kids. we checked it out on the map later. it was rated most difficult. good thing it was just 3 miles. jack hiked it the whole way, benny almost the whole thing. wil wanted to do more than he did. he was not really fond of the tabogan. meags was pulling it and it was so steep in places it would slide off the trail and almost pull her with it. ellery saved them once. it was beautiful but it started to pour down rain. there isn't more miserable weather than pouring rain in 34 degrees. we were dressed for it so it wasn't bad. it turned into a fabulous snow storm. we went to the hot tub sauna and pool. so it was movies and games and wii and books and x-country skiing for 5 days. wed. i was on my own. i had some good friends come up for the day, sandy ririe and connie dunford. connie had never been snowshoeing and sandy-- it had been 30 years. it was bright and sunny that day with a fresh fall of snow. we went to timberline lodge--i love that place--it's amazing--had a bowl of soup and then back to the hot tub etc. before they had to go home. it was so fun. i watched old time movies and finished one whole quilt which is just 2 quilts short of what i thought i was going to get done. silly me i always think i will get more done than i do, but its back to reality---tomorrow the Christmas decorations really do need to come down. i should have started it tonight, but i wanted to see what was happening on the blog--a lot to catch up on.
mindi i wouldn't worry about sierra talking about God in a public library. the freedom of speech thing has to go both ways--her freedom to speak of God has to be protected also. They have asked us to talk about our religious lives in the course of our conversations with people. every year in seminary we start out the year teaching the plan of salvation because if we truly understood and believed we were children of a Heavenly Father. . . think of the things we wouldn't do and more importantly--the things we would do!!! aw to be so bold, wouldn't God be happy with me. sierra has the perfect message for all those "concerned about their kid's emotional well-being parents"
cortney and roger please forgive me if i spelled your names wrongly. i can't go back and check on this program--at least i don't know how. i loved everything about your blog, your b'day, your house, ring, the story. i liked it best that you had roger down on his knees so long. roger remember that pose it will serve you well. j/k you are both so cute. the invitation is wonderful. you are a beautiful couple. looking forward to the wedding!!!
jess, your own blog, pictures, and video. i am so impressed. you are so beautiful and you have a beautiful family. hey way to go on the old navy sale--don't you love it!!! what a cute fish!!!
elly your stories of the provo house are so stinking funny.
adam, your memories were more about NOT BEING at the provo house. so elly i think you still have him beat as far as time living there.
thanks cameron, it means a lot!!! tell paula i love the book "Homebody" brooke has my phone.
brooke, next to mindi you are the toughest girl i know. your patience is phenominal (phonetically spelled) i attribute it to my example of being the most patient woman i know and the fact that you have an incredible sense of humor and a partial hearing loss in both ears....
well i am calling it a night--if i missed anyone i'm sorry. alicia i loved your Rigby Christmas card. now i want a fitting tribute from you about the provo house. something about the heat or lack thereof would be good. i love you all aunt/mom le anne

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Oops, I might be a little late...

Meags, 

Alicia told me today to post a blog to personally invite you to stay at her house during your stay because she heard you might be coming.  So maybe you could split your time up with her too.  Leash says that offer is open to anyone else coming in town.  I too would like to say that anyone is welcome to stay with us if you need to.  I can't wait, this is going to be so fun.

Love Jess

P.S.  I love that you call Hazel Professor Umbridge.  I am on the last cd of book 6.  I absolutely love it.  

ColoradoBennett

We had a wonderful time with Uncle Geof.y, Cole-e-oli, and Dayners. The first picture is the puzzle they gave us for Christmas. Richmond to Denver, not so far away. Sierra and Cole had a blast together. Lots of talk about getting married, even though I said it was illegal. Then a couch full of "delay fish" trying to avoid going to bed by pretending to be interested in the youtube videos. Kaia and Dayne were at war with one another when I took this last photo, but most of the time they played nicely. Thanks for coming out! Hope your trip home was calm and easy.

i hate titles

i think my car hates me. the other day i was driving and i kept hearing this popping noise when i would pull in or out of something. then i was pulling out of the epperson's driveway with jake and robbie (our friends that we put the link to) and i hear this major pop. i start picking up speed and the car starts to rock, so i have robbie check to see if the tires are flat. they're fine so we start out again. as we get to about 15mph the whole car starts to rock and bounce again. the boys think it's great, but i don't really agree. i pull over and look at the car. like i have any idea what i am looking for so i get back in and drive the 3/4 mile back to my house very slowly. when cor get home he checks it out and discovers that the ti-rod is not connected to the wheel. in other words my steering wheel was not connected to my wheel. sweet huh. if it had come undone earlier that day as i was driving home from institute going 55mph it would have flipped. not sweet. cory fixed it because he is the man. as robbie said last night about something cool cory had put on the wii "its because he's cory".

that was last thursday and as i am driving the kids to school on the way to institute i am thinking (in between my screaming at my kids for being late and lame) wow i hope nothing goes wrong with the car today. i dropped off the kids (after i apologize for being such a brat) and head to the gas station. i pull the release and jump out but the latch wont open, i try again and again and again. then i have wil pull it while i stand by and try to pry it open with the help of my keys. no luck. so as you can imagine i pull out of the station very calmly and head home instead of to institute and the gym because my car is on E. maybe the devil is controlling my car and doesn't want me to get to institute. heaven forbid i get any spiritual uplifting after i spent the morning yelling at my children.

the ironic thing is that i was just telling mom, ellynn, and cory that my life just seems to easy right now. i don't have any babies, i have a totally cake calling as does cory, my kids are all pretty dang easy, our health is all good, and our house basically keeps itself clean. i couldn't decide if there was something coming or if God was letting me just be calm for a while. i guess it meant something was coming. i know its just a latch on the gas tank, but i think my favorite car is slowly trying to leave me. too bad i have no money to get a new car so it's going to have to try a lot harder.

new subject.............cor set up the tramp that his parents bought the kids for Christmas last night. i think the little retirement community we live in was in shock with eight screaming kids jumping in the dark. it was rad. this morning wil and haz went out and jumped on it again while it was still covered in frost. they couldn't have been any happier. they are so cute!

cory and i are driving down for cort's wedding and we are sooooo excited!! we can't wait to see everyone's new homes. that includes moni and cam's because we have only seen it from the outside. and indie, too!

love to all...............me

ps hazel is calling wilohm "kiddo" and she is always calls benny "seedy pie". it's a good thing she is so cute because she is a monster. mom calls her professor umbridge.

pps now i'm going to make granny's peach cobbler for lunch. yummy!!!

Rob's info

Here's the blog-type page for our friend Rob, who has cancer.  The comments section is very uplifting for anyone who needs a little lifting:  http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/robepperson 

Luvs n kisses,

cory

bgme

oh my goodness i just spent and hour catching up on the blog.  i don't ever want to get that far behind again.  i has been very crazy getting back to "real" life.  we have had company since we moved into the house and so have never really established any kind of flow.  we are slowly figuring it out.  is it too late to write my tribute to the provo house?  well i'm going to anyway.  adam covered many of mine but......................

getting a week long free pass to the gym to work for the whole three months we lived there

finding a job with alicia at matrix (converges) and loving it. 

paying for gas in a car we never got to drive at a gas station that was not the cheepest so adam could get his free ski passes

going up to byu in our short short and tank tops with ad's beard and having people not just give us dirty looks but telling us to shave and put on some clothes.

flaming gorge and the beecher boys trying to put the huge tent and russel dancing around like and indian, but the "tent" dance did not work, because the dang thing fell down on us in the middle of the night. 

running to the tanning place way too much.  going home for the weekend and surprising my mom. 

her not even caring about my belly button ring because she was too freaked out about how tan i was. 

fighting with cory every night on the phone.

watching cmt in michael's room. 

walking home from chad and michael's on the most beautiful sunday afternoon along the provo river "rape me" trail alone, because cory and i had broken up AGAIN. 

calling in sick eating breakfast and going back to bed.

running at night with leash and always tripping over the dang provo sidewalks.

scraping the cracks in the drive way with a srew driver.

chipping paint off the doors and dreaming about summer's brother peter. (pre cory of course)

lagoon fright night with leashy.

mountain biking with adam and jake

mountain biking with the beecher boys and going back to their house to eat pie.

breakfast with ryan

getting home from the gym at midnight on a work night and having the boys call to go out and of course saying yes.  who needs sleep

that one guy lighting his face on fire up in the canyon.

kicking adam's bike across the room and him throwing me into the hall closet door while alicia hid on the bed.

alicia making baking powder biscuts without the baking powder.

sitting on the couch sunday mornings eating breakfast under tons of blankets because we refused to turn on the heat. 

spending no money on food.

oh i could go on and on i was just so happy being with two of my bestest friends. 

Bavaria

After Ellynn and I had a very hilarious conversation last night (we thought it was funny, how can it not be with Ellynn?) I decided that I should probably clarify on a misquote from Mike in the article I blogged. First, I had to confirm it with him through e-mail but when he said in the article that "this war could not be won militarily"(that is not a direct quote by the way, just one from my memory) they left out the very important ending word "alone." I'm sure you can see how that might make a big difference and how bad it might be if a guy in charge of leading lots of men had no faith in what they were doing. Anyway, he was pretty annoyed by it, but the Washington Post is a very liberal newspaper and they are going to try to put their spin on everything I guess. I knew it didn't sound like something Mike would say. Also, for my piece of mind I learned that the cheez-its and cheeze whiz were part of an MRE. The cheese spread was actually for the burritos or something that they were eating. This probably makes no speck of difference to anyone else but if you understood my huge aversion to all things artificially cheesey you might understand how disturbing this combination of cheez-its and cheese whiz was to me.

Besides that, everything is pretty good here. We spent the whole afternoon at the Dr. yesterday. Our entire family has strep throat. Ellyn was the only one to have a fever so I thought it was just part of a cold or something coming on. None of us really felt sick but it did feel like I was swallowing razor blades. The good side of that is that I've lost three pounds in a couple of days. So...we are all out of school today- yeah they are going to come take my kids from me. It was going to be a three day weekend anyway and now it's a four day. Fabulous. Nothing like trying to keep the kids entertained in the house while it is cold and rainy.

Mindi, as far as the kids saying things about religion. I wouldn't sweat it. I guess if it doesn't get too out of control. You don't want them to be self-conscious about talking about something that is so important to them. The situation that has come up most often with both my girls were kids saying "the special word"- the Lord's name in vain. I've told them that some people don't realize how special it is but it has never bothered me when they've told their friend that it's a special word that they shouldn't say. I just try to make sure they don't get judgemental, since most these kids don't have a clue. Along the same line, but different. Yesterday Miss Loretta, Ellyn's respite provider brought over Christmas presents for the girls before she moved back to the states. I had talked to her the day before when she had watched Ellyn for the memorial service and she had told me that she had bought Jane High School Musical 2- the actual DVD (she knew we had the burned copy from Anne). So when I got home I explained the situation to Sadie and Jane and told them not to say that we already had it, just to thank Miss Loretta and then Jane and Sadie could each have a copy. I thought we had it all clear. When Miss Loretta came over and gave the girls their dvds Jane was very gracious and acted with appropriate enthusiasm and Sadie kept looking at me and saying "but..." and "mom..." with a very concerned look on her face and I kept distracting her. Our visit with Loretta was brief because we all had strep and she was leaving today. When she left Sadie almost burst into tears. "Mom, we aren't supposed to lie. We don't tell lies." Yeah, tried to explain that to her and it didn't go over at all. Not to mention Jane didn't actually lie. It was pretty cute though.

Okay, I have to go. Cortney, I love your invitation. You look absolutely beautiful. You can send me an invitation just like you send one in the states. Same postage and everything because we are a military post. I think Chels has my address but if you need it I can send it to you. Or I can just enjoy the one on the blog. I do love sticking pics of my cute family on my fridge though. Alright, I love you all.

ColoradoBennett

Adam takes the laptop with him to work these days, so I'm internet deprived. When he got home today he said, "Look kids, mom's getting her fix" as I hurried to plug in the computer and get online.
We rushed out the door this morning (I've been waking the girls up at 8 a.m. now because they got into the bad habit of sleeping in late--I think Sierra could easily sleep till 11 a.m. almost every day--so that we can make places on time). We had joy school at Liesl's house and we were going to be right on time. Then I found my cell phone that I'd left in the truck the night before and there was a message from Liesl saying her husband had the flu and she was canceling joy school. Dang. So we rushed off to Sister Vigil's house to drop of my copy of LDSLiving magazine because she'd asked me if Mitt Romney and his wife have always been LDS. There is a wonderful article about Mitt this month and I highly recommend everyone to read it. Then we stopped by the library to see what time it opened, 10 a.m. and it was currently 9:30. I headed out to Costco, even though my precious list disappeared into thin air, hoping they let "executive" members in early like they do at Sam's. But they don't. So the kids and I stood out there by the door for 10 min. in 22 degree weather. The advantage of being the first in the store is that no one really gave me dirty looks for letting my girls run a muck. So that was good exercise and fryer chickens were buy one get one free, doesn't get much better than that. Then we hit the library for story time by Mr. Dana, who is one of the world's silliest story tellers. I stood at the back of the room (which was packed with all sorts of squealing kids and yuppie moms) with our laptop (the one that Adam doesn't use for work) and plugged into the library's WIFI. I'm sure I got plenty of dirty looks, but I didn't notice because I had to quick and trade some poorly performing stock options (don't worry Adam). At the end of story time, Mr. Dana busts out his banjo and asks for requests. Sierra starts screaming "I Am A Child of God." I don't think most people could understand what she was saying, but I did try to look for fear in people's eyes (like: "Did she just say "God" in a public library?!"). Mr. Dana hurried and started playing "Bingo" and all was well. It reminded me of stories from my mom about taking Jay to preschool. Jay did a lot of talking about "Heavenly Father" and other subjects he was learning about in Primary. I guess one of the teachers and another mom talked to my mom and told her that Jay was going to have to stop talking about his religion. I think mom pulled Jay out of there pretty fast. Has anyone else had a similar problem? How do you get a primary kid to not think they are free to discuss religion no matter where they are? I wish we didn't have to.

provo

court i love the announcement! you both look fantastic. you have to be one of the most beautiful girls alive. i'll get your number from chels and text my new address to you.
i have absolutely loved reading the memories of the provo house. it really has been wonderful. i've got a couple more memories to post.
geof. and chris foote studying in the living room and jess and i dressing up in different outfits, putting on a song to go with our look and dancing out into the living room. we have pictures of all our ansambles if anyone is interested.
the fire alarm used to go off everytime we got out of the shower and the steam got to it.
singing "i am 16" while geof. held my hand and i jumped from couch to couch.
the night that brett riggle called to ask me out and the phone kept cutting out.
living in the house with cassie.... thats as far as i wanna go into that
"whatever you guys have in the sink smells like duke"
working in the yard
pulling out matresses out into the living room "the lesbian bed" and blake and markum called it
tetris eyes
painting over adam's yellow and blue bathroom. thats right adam, it was me!
one night when darla was out visiting geof. they came home late. jess and i had just gotten home around 2. we were still brushing our teeth when we hear someone coming in through the back window that we kept unlocked. i was in the hall and jess was in the bathroom. she turns to me with eyes as big as tennis balls, points into geof.'s room, closes and locks the only door with a lock on it leaving me to face whatever was coming in the window alone. luckily it was just geof. and darla being spontaneous and fun. i've still never forgiven either of them.
the halloween party.
camping at deer creek with the mission boys
murdock and dearduff (a.k.a. maximus)
living here in my college days and thinking how fun it would be to live here with my husband
living the dream and moving here with jason.
it will be weird when they remodel this place. they are planning a 17 to 20 foot addition onto the back of the house and a basement. i'm just glad it's going to someone who will take care of it and has the money to fix it the way i've always wanted to.
ellynn

Address

Okay, Geof and Darla, I can't find your address anywhere. Please email it to me, you should have my email address, let me know if you don't. I would have emailed this to you but I don't think I have your latest email address. I have the bennettskis one and I don't know if that one works. I have been meaning to update all my email contacts. Sorry and thanks for your help.

Love Jess

Wedding Invitation-February 16th-1 MONTH!!!

Hello...everyone. It's me, Cortney. I figured I would post our invitation on the blog. It does say PROOF on my sleeve area, but oh well. The others that will come in the mail won't say that, obviously. I'll be sending everyone one in the mail. (I'll try and figure out how to send one for you Brooke, your addresss is not my language) Also, Ellynn the Provo house is sold (as I've been reading) so where do you live now? If you'll post your address that would be great. I have everyone elses.

I also made a blog. Thought it would be fun to keep everyone posted on my life and my new life to begin. It's http://rodgerandcortney.blogspot.com/. Check it out if you feel like it.

I love reading the blog...everyone continue. Hope all is well. Thanks!

Bavaria

Mom wanted me to post my adventure on the blog, so I've copied part of my e-mail to Mike. We are all doing well here. Half the family is jet lagged and the other half has pretty much adjusted so I have a pretty interesting sleep schedule still. As much fun as we had (which was alot) it feels good to be back in our house and back to our life.

I loved reading all of your memories of the Provo house. I will always remember moving in with the house half done and all of these projects mom wanted us to finish and I didn't have a clue how to do them or the time to do them (I thought, I have since learned how busy life really can be). I remember finding out we were pregnant with Jane in that house, being sick in that house. I remember Megan and I used to talk every week and I would normally spend that time working in my yard (weeding). I remember always coming home from Brick Oven late at night and the kitchen light would be on and every cupboard open. -Brick Oven- I remember painting the rooms and the trim and the windows. I remember Hendrix, the best cat ever, lounging on the front porch or snuggling me on the couch. I remember holding Jane and sitting on the back steps waiting for Mike to come home (I was lonely and postpartum). I remember fighting with my husband- ALOT. I remember playing with my husband too- a couple of concerts, movies, a few crazy trips. Opposite schedules much of the time. Mostly I'm happy that I got through the time I lived at the Provo house(not because of the house). Is that a tribute?

so here is my adventure-That was the most exhausting trip ever. I don't know if I can do it again this summer. It was worth going home but knowing what I could be facing I don't think I can get myself up to it again. I don't know, you never ask a pregnant woman when she's going to have her next kid. Just to give you a rundown- not complaining mind you- I will tell you the details.

First, you know how I was going to fly to Raleigh then drive to Charleston, and I made all my reservations (mini-van and lodging). I called and listened to their 72 hour recordings. Didn't hear anything to Ramstein. I called and they told me they had just switched all of their channels to Dover. Called two days before and switched all my reservations to Dover. Called day before to listen to recordings and nothing to Ramstein. Called and talked to someone and they told me they had switched everything to McGuire. Call McGuire first this time, confirm and then call and change all of my reservations again. Problem, the car rental place closed by five at McGuire, so that meant a very short stay at Geof's. Our Southwest flights went well except that there was one more stop than indicated. The kids were great. Ellyn had just a couple of moments. We were able to do curbside check-in and that was a huge relief. We got into Charleston late- oh Mike it was so warm and balmy, in the middle of winter- I hired a porter to cart all of my stuff down to the Avis bus station. Got over to Avis, rented van, and took off at 10:30 with mapquest directions. Stopped for Wendy's for the kids, got to Geof and Darla's at 1:10 a.m. Ellyn kept me up until 4:00 after keeping me up the night before we left from 1:00 to 3:30 after I went to bed at 11:30 and had to get up at 4:30 (I don't know what terrorist organization she was working for but I'm pretty sure I would have given them any info. they wanted). We woke up at 8:00 and left at 9:00 and drove to McGuire. Have I mentioned that our poor Jane was sick with a fever and cold this whole time- even with medication? Drove to McGuire, tried to call on the way to see if Avis would let me drop off the keys since it was less than 24 hours but the number I had been given was a fax number. So I got there in time, the girl was very nice and told me to bring in the van the next morning. Got us checked in to the dirtiest, grossest military lodging I have ever been in (military or otherwise). We crashed, ordered pizza, and then went to bed. Oh, we had stopped by the airport and found out that nothing was going out until Friday afternoon. So the next day I went back to Avis and rented a car. Jane was too sick to walk anywhere and I found out they had no taxi service on post or in town- is that crazy at a military post? So we had a low key day, went to the commissary and PX, went over to lodging to print out the letters that I needed, which is where I saw the news about HHC. Seeing Pionk's name I just burst into tears (just thinking of his wife, she's the first wife that I have known who she is). I'm sure everyone in that lounge thought I was psychotic, but I was only in there for a second. That night Ellyn had a major accident and I had to scrub everything out in the tub (making the tub off-limits). So yesterday morning (Jane felt much better starting the afternoon previous) I dropped Jane off with our first load of luggage, brought two more loads, checked out of the hotel and drove two miles down the road to Avis. Turned in the car and started walking back with Sawyer in the front pack, Ellyn in the stroller, and Sadie beside me. Oh, and carrying Sawyer's car seat because I couldn't leave that with the boosters at the airport. It was only going to be two miles but a really nice lady in a minivan with a million military bumper stickers and two car seats stopped and begged me to let her take us in so we only walked about half a mile. That was great because it was pretty awkward.

We got back, got checked in, set ourselves up in the family lounge, and waited. Right before roll call about a million people show up to check in their baggage. Ellyn gets too hot, as does Sawyer, and they both start screaming. I'm sure everyone thought I was insane and totally inept. But I stayed calm- don't ask me how- and got Ellyn calmed down at least. Plus, after our trip over I had all of our warm things out and our food and so we weren't nearly as compact as we had been previously and so everyone was offering to help. That was very nice and I decided I was not going to feel stupid. We had traveled so far and our kids had been so good up until that point. Anyway, had some help with luggage getting on the plane, A guy carried Ellyn for me because we went on a C-5 and I couldn't get both kids up the ladder. It ended up being totally hot, which I was grateful for but I had to strip Sawyer-very much your son- down to his onesie before he was finally happy. We got in this morning, a customs official helped me load our two carts, very nice. Jane and I pushed carts, Sadie pushed Ellyn. I got the car and we drove home. Oh, it felt soooooo good. So it went fairly well. Lots of good people, just long and hard and this summer Sawyer will be bigger and more mobile and it is very daunting.

I love you all. Leashy- congratulations!!! Jess, I love the christmas card, so cute. Cortney, I'm so happy for you. I hope it all goes smoothly and stress free.

Save the Date...

Cortney's Shower

Saturday, February 2nd

1:00

Aunt Jack's

Invitations to follow

Seattle Bennett living in Colorado

First set of Roomies Alicia and Meags August 1997-December 1997

my favorite memory was hiding under 12" of Alicia's covers when she went in for her early morning breakfast before going back to bed and jumping out and scarring her
riding up on BYU campus with the girls in their tank tops and short shorts and me with a beard and getting strange looks
going to Chad and Mike's and when Meagan would get angry sending her home to get some sleep
7:00 am class 5 days a week and never getting to bed before 2:00 am
Ryan Beecher coming over and going to dinner with him out at that Chinese restaurant with the fish
going camping out at flaming gorge with the Beecher boys
riding Squaw Peak with Jake Meagan and Alicia
My first trip to Moab sleeping in the back of Jake's old truck and waking up under petroglyph


Second set of roomies Jake Weber and Jeff Harris January 1998- May 1998

Not knowing Jake was naked and jumping in bed with him to wake him up
bringing home a new date every night the first week they lived with me and freaking them out
Hiking up to the hot pots in the snow
Having Geof come out for spring break and snowboarding/skiing all day and staying up all night hiking, mtn biking down snowy slopes and sending Geof home so tired he slept for 2 days
going snow shoeing with Jake Jeff Alicia and a couple of other people up alpine loop
snow boarding 3 days a week with Megan Newport now Megan Weber
Road tripping out to Oakland to go to Jake and Megans wedding
Meagan and Cory's wedding and getting everyone sunburnt for it except me who was already golden brown from the neck up to the point where people laughed when i took off my shirt
Megan's friend that could get us into a gym after 1:00 am and playing volleyball, racket ball, and hot tubbing till the wee hours of the morning

Going to Alaska and hitch hiking the Alaskan/Canadian Highway

Third set of Roomies Geof and Justin August 1998- April 1999

Justin's poor dog Burton that we made him give away after 2 weeks of him working 80 hours and not taking care of his dog
Snowboarding/Skiing with Geof 5 days a week
Having class with Geof
Working at DownEast Outfitters with Geof and hanging out with Jonna and Dale from there, putting Jonna in a suitcase and Dale filming me while I rolled her around and she would reach and grab people and scare them to death (hilarious)
going up to Lowell and Mindy's in Heber
writing a note for Justin to do his dishes and him getting mad and then hiding all the dishes except 3 of the essentials and everyone knowing which ones theirs

Forth set of Roomy August 1999-December 1999 Aaron Mcglaphlin

I didn't know this kid but I never saw him either
Dating Jen LLoyd
Mom saying that it was alright to not have much in common and being ever so grateful i didn't follow that advice
Getting Jen sent out on a mission a viciously dating to find my real true love
Finding out about cheap Europe tickets and booking the first Euro trip and that one girl that came along that we still don't know who invited her

Fifth set of Roomies Chad Bernards and Kevin Fairhurst January 2000- April 200o

telling the new group of cute girls that moved into the ward we were their home teachers and then telling the elders quorum pres he needed to assign them to us because we already home taught them
developing my favorite home teaching style which includes cute girls, swim suits, and hot water
going "home teaching every night" (by the way Mindi still keeps in touch with a few of those girls)
we home taught all our groups like that
Snowboarding 5 days a week
working at the rehab
staying a wake 24-36 hours at least twice a week and finding out i could still function
having 4 jobs and working 72 hours straight
Kevin snapping his knee cap and being stuck on the couch for 3 months
Darla coming into my work to get Geof.'s address on the mission
going to Europe for the first time and having such a great time but thats another blog
coming back from Europe and Chad setting me up with his girlfriends roommate because she is the only other person he knows who has snow shoes
meeting Mindi for the first time
Mindi picking me up from the airport after mother's day and her giving me a big hug and knowing that she was going to be wife

Sixth roomy Steve Garvert April 2000-June 2000

his fiance Laural who got me the job at the rehab months before
Dating Mindi
going to Durango with Mindi and Andrew Gibbs (my best friend from high school) and him telling Mindi he will be her best friend because he wants to stay best friends with me
going to Sun Valley aerating and buying my 65 Volvo station wagon the one car I wish I never sold
Riding one of "Bike" magazines "5 Epic Rides" in Fruita Colorado and realizing "Bike" magazine has no idea what its talking about

Seventh set of final roomy and the 11th roomie in the Provo house over all August 2000-May 2001

Marring Mindi
lots of x rated stuff
going to Lowell and Mindy's up in Heber for Cale Ellery's blessing meeting Tony for the first time and knowing he was the one
going to Europe for the 2nd trip
Mindi going to the Rigby's every Monday night because I was working and she loved looking at all the baby pictures Jackie has of me ( more than my Mom )
4 years of going to Aunt Jacks for thanks giving
Alicia always being protective of me with every girl I dated and not liking any of them except Mindi

Ode to the Provo house...

What I loved about the Provo house and our Provo experience in general...

The day we moved in

Trying to fit all of our clothes in that tiny house

Borrowing Elly's white long sleeve t-shirt

Eating grape nuts on the front porch

Eating peanut butter and marshmallow sandwiches made with the snack master

Running to Albertson's with spoons in our sports bras so we could walk home eating ice cream

Old Glory and our other mullet lovin' neighbors

Creepy thin neighbor lady

Hearing about 9/11 from LeAnne

Riding our bikes to our friends to watch the news

Geof's mission buddies

Going dancing at the Omni, listening to Bootylicious before we left 

Sunday dinner with the Beechers

Ben and Ramsey

Ramsey's girlfriends cabin

Geoffery singing

The Halloween dance at UVSC

Leaving no candy for the trick-or-treaters but pretending we did
Andrew Rich

David Ashby

Dave and Andrew coaching us on Tetris

Movie naps

Our singles ward

Love couch

John Speth

Ward prayer at our house, about 100 people stuffed in our house eating really awful brownies we tried to make

Drinking hot chocolate on the couch

The sick turkey dinner we made

The picture walls
Neil dawgy

The heater blowing out cold air

Wearing a beanie to bed to stay warm

Sleeping anywhere but our own house to stay warm

Ben

Coby

The whole Jones family

4-wheeling in the school yard

Flipping mud in Coby's truck at Utah Lake

Trips to Moab

4-wheeling in Scoffield

Pool with the boys

The UVSC dance with Chelsea, Cassie and Lydia (we snuck her in)

That stupid duck sleeping in my bed

Donating plasma for money and almost passing out about 7 times

Ellynn's sense of direction

Working at Ony Oma's together

Mowing the lawn even though it was a "boys job"

Starting the broken lawn mower

Doing laundry while being scared of "two red eyes" because Geof's window didn't have curtains and we had just watched some scary movie

Driving Ben's truck

Ellynn saying, "Goodnight Princess" every night

Good times for sure.

I love you Geoffie and Elly.

Sorry the picture quality isn't great...they are pictures of pictures, we don't have a scanner.

Also, sorry that only Ellynn will understand most of these.  

Love Jess

Check out my blog...

I finally started my own blog because we decided to join the 21st century and got a computer and the internet for Christmas.  Go to: 

jessicamariesmith.blogspot.com

Enjoy.

I will be posting about the Provo house later tonight.

Love Jess

The Crabb's

I just wanted to get on here and post this link real quick. I think that it goes well with the Washington Post article.

http://www.gratitudecampaign.org/fullmovie.php

Thank you Mike and all of the soldiers for all that you do and sacrifice for not only our freedoms but those freedoms that you are helping to provide for many throughout the world. You are in our prayers!

An Article in the Washington Post

Please keep Mike and his guys in your prayers right now especially. We have had very bad news this week. I will write my memories of the Provo house later

January 11, 2008
Pg. 10

A Sense Of Satisfaction, Then Anguish

U.S. Troops on Offensive Pause to Help a Woman in Labor, but Diversion Is Fleeting

By Amit R. Paley, Washington Post Foreign Service

TAIYEH, Iraq -- The distress call rang out over the radio. In the midst of one of the largest current military operations in Iraq, Capt. Mike Stinchfield recognized this was, so far, his most urgent mission of the day.

A captured insurgent? A fallen comrade? Not quite. A local woman had gone into labor, and within minutes about 18 U.S. soldiers endeavored to help.

"That's a lot of men to secure a baby," said Stinchfield, 37, of Vancouver, Wash., the commander of Company H, 3rd Squadron of the Army's 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment. "But that's what this war is like. It's slow and boring most days, and not much happens."

Thousands of U.S. soldiers are moving against one of the largest known concentrations of fighters from the group al-Qaeda in Iraq here in a 50-square-mile pocket of Diyala province known as the Bread Basket. Company H expected resistance from 40 to 50 fighters from the Sunni insurgent group, but most of them appeared to have fled by the time the unit rolled in.

In the end, Company H didn't fight a single person. What had been envisioned as a combat mission instead became a day of emergency-service work, hours of boredom and finally tragedy as word of fallen comrades reached them over the radio inside their Strykers, eight-wheel armored vehicles.

"I'm sitting here eating Cheez Whiz and Cheez-Its, which I realize might seem weird," Stinchfield said. "But I'd rather be doing things like delivering a baby than shooting people."

It was just past noon Wednesday, Day 2 of this offensive in the fertile Diyala River valley. The soldiers had been given the location of a suspected local leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq in the village of Al Ali.

But when they arrived at the home of the man, known as Abu Ayeesha, he was nowhere to be seen. His wife refused to answer questions.

The village was quiet. A teenager rode past on a bicycle carrying a lumpy sack on the back. Stinchfield stopped him.

"It's flour! Just flour!" the boy pleaded in Arabic to the military interpreter.

Stinchfield didn't respond. He looked at the boy's black coat, with the name Oscar embroidered in gold.

"Is your name Oscar?" he asked.

"No, Fouad!" the boy said.

"Well, that says your name is Oscar," Stinchfield said with a laugh. "It's an American name."

The boy looked confused, then pedaled furiously down the street.

Stinchfield returned to his Stryker, passing through a door bearing the soldiers' graffiti: "SHOW NO MERCY TO A MAN WHO SHOWS YOU NONE." They moved out and drove along a small canal that cut through several tiny villages.

Staff Sgt. David Rozmarin delivered a Catskills-in-combat shtick, with Stinchfield the straight man to the 26-year-old from Omaha.

"When are you people gonna learn it's called crick, not creek?" Rozmarin said, referring to the canal. "That's C-R-I-C-K. Crick."

"I've got a crick in my neck from all this," said Spec. Aaron Bacon, 21, of Noblesville, Ind.

Inside the Stryker, the soldiers scoured a map for areas where insurgents could hide. Then they called in mortar strikes.

A few minutes later: Thud. Thud. The mortar shells landed nearby . And then the radio came alive with news of the pregnant woman.

"This lady's about to pop!" someone yelled.

Sgt. Levar Scott, 28, of New Orleans, the company medic, rushed to the site along with more than a dozen men. Scott had assisted in only one previous delivery -- that of his son, now 5.

"A baby in combat," Scott said, shaking his head. "This is just crazy."

The woman lay on a mattress on the floor. She screamed occasionally through a piece of black cloth stuffed in her mouth.

The soldiers quickly discovered that her last delivery had been by Caesarean section, meaning she probably needed surgery and hospital care for this delivery, too. After some frantic scrambling, the soldiers arranged safe passage for the woman and her family, despite a ban on car traffic during the offensive.

"So has the war started yet?" Rozmarin asked when he returned to the Stryker.

Lunchtime. The soldiers tore open their MREs, standard military-issue food packets called Meals Ready to Eat.

"It can be very deceptive," Stinchfield said. "The enemy is out there. They just don't want to tangle with us in a direct manner."

The radio crackled with a new alarm -- a booby-trapped house, U.S. soldiers hurt. Six casualties.

Rozmarin put down his Dan Brown novel, which he said he found in a dumpster. The casualties were from another company. H Company had a platoon assigned to it.

Suddenly, another distress signal. The pregnant woman was trying to cross the river on her way to the hospital, but U.S. soldiers would not let her through. Stinchfield looked concerned.

He got on the radio to ask for help. "I know you're dealing with these casualties, but I've still got this situation with the pregnant woman."

The radio gave the next update on the soldiers' status: "Three are urgent."

Then came word that the pregnant woman had crossed U.S. lines.

As a voice on the radio announced that four casualties had been airlifted from the site of the house bomb, Stinchfield left the Stryker to talk to villagers. He walked past Pfc. Cameron Houston, 22, of Silver City, N.M., who muttered a few obscenities.

"We've been walking around doing nothing today," Houston said.

Stinchfield asked locals about al-Qaeda in Iraq. But he worried that few of them were answering honestly because they felt intimidated.

He asked Yasin Hamed Awad al-Jabour, a 68-year-old farmer in Taiyeh, about masked men seen running through the neighboring town of Himbuz as U.S. soldiers entered. Jabour said they were not part of the insurgency.

His 6-year-old grandson, Yasin Khalid, joined in. "No, no, no. We haven't seen any al-Qaeda."

"Who told you to say that?" Stinchfield asked.

The boy looked confused, and his father ushered him away.

Stinchfield sighed. "There is not black and white," he said. "That's what I learned. There's a lot of gray here in Iraq.

"In no way is this war going to be solved militarily," he added.

In a call to his platoon commanders just before 4 p.m., Stinchfield said he didn't know yet what platoon had been hit by the bombing.

"Watch your guys," he said, enunciating each syllable slowly. "Make sure they are not complacent just because it's quiet."

At 4:30 p.m., the company received an update. The pregnant woman had reached a hospital in the city of Muqdadiyah. Stinchfield said he would check on her status that night.

But soon the radio sounded with three grim initials: KIA. One of their squadron members had been killed in action. Six were seriously wounded, two others lightly.

Standing on the dusty street as the sun set, Stinchfield had trouble finding his voice. "I knew all the guys in that group," he said after a long pause.

He stopped talking and shook his head, over and over.

Back in the Stryker about 6 p.m., Rozmarin wasn't joking anymore. He provided the updated numbers that had come over the radio. "Six KIA?" Stinchfield asked in disbelief. "Damn. Are you sure?"

"They still haven't said if they were yours," Rozmarin said.

Silence.

"Okay," Stinchfield finally replied.

used to be red now nearly dead

bought the provo house with my money from my inheritance from g'ma ellen and mom. mom told me one time that she liked how i spent the money i had earned from working at lagoon. i had just got back from a trip with weber state to mexico for 6 weeks. we earned college credit and it was a gri beat experience. she told me that she thought it was good that i spent my money on education and travel. g'ma had helped me with a couple of semesters of school so i thought it would be a good idea to buy a home in provo to help our kids out with school and so they would have the opportunity to meet and date some lds kids. i thought it would be a fitting to buy "the school house" in their memory. i think what a absolute hole it was. elly see if you can put the pictures on the blog that the realtor took. she made it look good.
i remember:
mike standing in the middle of the front room the day we bought it and pulling the carpet up, man, was strong! it was so gross!
how many layers we had to sand down the floor before we got to "dry" wood because the previous renters had let their dogs use the front room for a litter box.
the millions of staples we had to pry out with pliers or knives before we could sand it. we wouldn't even eat inside for the longest time. sleeping at beechers while we were working on it.
alicia's splinter, poor baby!
the rigby girls all coming down to help clean it up between renters and all of us going out to rodegeos--however you spell it. watching you all eat till we were ready to burst. cheap labor.
the time i sent rhett and meagan to the dump in rhett's truck pulling the trailer--both filled to capacity and no hook ups to the brake lights or turn signals. my instructions to rhett were if the police pulled him over to hurry and trade places with meags and she was supposed to play the part of a dumb blonde. "you mean it's not working? i tried to get the two plugs together and when they didn't match up exactly (one was round and the other one was square--i'm not lying) i thought if i taped them with that black tape it would work!" luckily no one rear ended them and no one caught them, but i know she could have played the part well and if her smile didn't get them off the hook rhett's would.
busting out the arched wall in the kitchen where the fridge is now and rhett and geof. building a closet with about 50 nails. and the cupboards--same story.
pulling up the floor boards in the bathroom twice to the floor joists and replacing the subfloor and linoleum. making all the fine cuts holding on to the plywood with one hand and sawing away with the sawsall in the other. man i love that thing. it's the greatest tool ever.
geof. telling me the stackable washer and dryer was too wide for the back bedroom closet and me handing him the sawsall and telling him to cut it till it was wide enough. he was all of 15.
elly and i pulling the toilet in the bathroom and hauling it out to the garbage can. bet they were surprised when they dumped that. elly how many toilets have you helped pull and set in that little house? how can you ever forget "HELPING PAPA LES" i know how much fun that was. and laying tile until 3 in the morning. it was so beautiful. we were so tired and hysterical.
christmas after cole was born. the christmas tree we bought and decorated. singing christmas carols with darla. so nice to have another soprano in the family.
completely redoing the backyard and laying sod. i think that was the last time i saw adam do any yard work--no wait he put in the sprinkling system.
and my favorite white trash story. you had inherited a really ugly couch and i wasn't too pleased. i wanted to get rid of it and since rhett wasn't available with his truck i had the great idea that after it got dark we would put the cushions in all the neighbors garbage cans because the garbage truck usually came really early and they would get dumped and no one would ever know. well for some strange reason they didn't dump the garbages that day until the afternoon. so all day long there are these garbages lined up and down the street with our garbage hanging out the tops of them because i think i remember adding a few items to everyones so they wouldn't feel left out. tell me how cool is that? ah the memories and the money that have gone into that little house. we learned a lot like i'm never going to be successful as landlord. i realize there are people out there that make money on renting out homes, but i am not one of them.
pray for brooke's safe return with the kids. her return trip to germany makes mindi's look like a picnic. which gives you an idea. love you all, le anne



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all of your stories made me bawl and i wasn't even there for any of them, but that house.  that house has more shared and loved memories.  i don't have time to share mine now.  (i am the new bear leader in the ward and tonight is my first night and i have to idea how its going to go).  but trust me my good memories of my favorite fall could fill the blog!!.....heart, me

povo house

Well i can go through a torrent of emotions and memories when thinking of the provo house. seeing the stinking dirty place for the first time and working on gutting and rebuilding. being so thankful for rhett and ramsay breaking up the monotony by helping and whisking us away to lehi at night. spending my freshman year of college there. never really being there except to sleep. adam and i skied or mt. biked every day. after the mission moving there with my girls. them being nice to me and making dinner. watching 10 things i hate about you 2 nights in a row on the mini tv while sitting in the stadium seating aka bunk beds. coming home at about 3 in the morning after darla had come out after the mission and telling the girls that i thought i was engaged. ellynn replying that she knew. living there with my little family and mowing the lawn with cole pushing his fisher price mower beside me. a lot of good times. many more some i'll take to the grave.
p.s. ellynn for old times sake stiff mom and dad on last months rent.

ColoradoBennett--Ode to the Provo House

I should be doing a lot of other things, like folding the mountain of laundry on the couch (why do I even start laundry when I know I will not have time to fold and put away for a few days?), but I can't resist the memories of the Provo House. Adam was living there when we started dating and that is where we first lived after we got married. Six months after we got married was Adam's 25th birthday and I tried to throw him a surprise party. He worked nights at the drug rehab, and he was supposed to be sleeping all the while I was getting the party together. He pretended to sleep, but he knew exactly what I was up to. We had about 10 people over and it was so much fun. It is amazing how comfortable a big group can mingle in that 900 sq ft. house. I remember the bathroom was a terrible yellowish green with dark blue trim, but I couldn't do anything about it because my husband was so proud of his color combo. It was in that house that after just a short time of dating, Adam gave me a great big hug, pulled me over to his calendar on the wall, flipped two months over and pointed to August and said "Let's get married here." I couldn't believe it, but I knew with all my heart and soul that I loved him and always wanted to be with him. I remember standing in the front yard with a lawn mower, calling my dad for help to get it started, trying to make the yard look nice (I learned very early that Adam doesn't care for doing yard work much, that is why we now have no grass in our yard, just bark). I planted a few bulbs in the front, I hope they are still blooming. I'm sure I'll think of a million more things to write, but morning tasks are calling me back to reality.