Well it's about time I guess.  I could say where has the fall gone but I am sick of thinking it much less saying it.  It is amazing though how fast the days, weeks and months fly by.  I always have such an adjustment this time of year with it getting dark so early and the long evenings.  I am hungry for all the fall comfort foods; pumpkin pie, chili, hot bread, hot chocolate, popcorn, cinnamon rolls and the list goes on.  Other than the chili there is not one thing on that list that I really want to eat if I stop and think about it.  Bud and I have really been changing our eating habits over the summer and the results are in.  Substantial weight loss and me off all prescription drugs and him off three more as of last week and an ultra sound on his heart that had his cardiologist thrilled.  I hope I never take good health for granted.  I doubt I will because my body always seems to have something to complain about.  A nasty hiatal hernia dealt me fits for nearly three weeks and now it is better and I have thrown my shoulder out.  I did it trying to pull the covers over my cold behind.  Between Bud and Molly I have to fight for every inch of blanket!!

I ran away to Idaho last week and it was a really good trip.  It has been two years since Kathy and I have done our "Fall Fling"  We didn't do much except go to Driggs to lunch a couple of times and play games at night and of course lots of talking.  She always motivates me to come home and get busy doing the things on my procrastination list and she says I motivate her, so it is good for us to spend some time together.  It was a real experience being in Victor with all of them on election night!!!  A couple of weeks ago we had the fun of having the McLelland kids here while Shawn and Cheryl were Ireland.  We worked them pretty hard in the yard one day (actually Bud worked Brayden two days) and then just enjoyed them the rest of the time.  They are great kids and are so good to each other.  I never heard on cross word from them in the 5 days I was with them.  Thank you kids for a great time.  I am cooking some beets that our neighbors left on the door step and there is beet juice splattered all over my white tile bar.  Now I know why I would NEVER can beets.  They along with some Hubbard Squash are our Sunday night meal!  We had some Chicken Tortilla Soup after church.  It was delicious.  See I told you Aunt Kathy inspired me.  There is always something good cooking at her house.

This is starting to ramble so I will end with a promise to read your blogs more often and do better at keeping mine up  to date.  Don't have yard work as an excuse for a few months!! 

Mama Mia!!!!

I find myself saying that a lot after seeing the movie twice and am going with another friend this week!  I went last week with Andy and we laughed and cried all the way thru it.  For some reason I did neither when I saw it with Bud.  Then we left the theatre and raced to Target in her beautiful little Crossfire Convertible to buy the sound track.  So now here is a picture for you -----after I do my pilates I dance in front of my armoire mirrors to Mama Mia!!  I die laughing at myself.  I should be really healthy due to the exercise, Usana, and now I laugh real hard everyday!!!  They say that can add years to your life.  Wouldn't all of your lives be boring without me in it??  I am so ready for fall and so sick of hot summer and dead heading flowers.  Next year I am going to put plastic ones in my window boxes and anything that has resembled a flower bed will be filled up with bushes!  We are celebrating Bud's big 72 next week at a gorgeous park here in Bountiful and sure wish everyone could be here but I couldn't afford that much chicken so it's just as well.  Course I guess I could cook it myself but then my flowers wouldn't get deadheaded!  We had "my tacos" for an early dinner tonight and now we are headed out to finish the gate on the new fence and then just a couple more projects and we are done and hopefully what we have done this summer will make things easier next.  All you kids are either heading back to school or already there.  Hope it is a wonderful year  for all of you.  I have a favorite country western song that talks about a little girl learning to color and trying to stay in the lines and then it goes on to her growing up and among other things learning to drive and staying in the lines.  Then the message of course is that if we all "STAY IN THE LINES" then our lives will take us to wonderful places instead of dead ends where we have to turn around and start over.

Try to remember that this school year and it will make a difference I know!  I love you beautiful kids so much and your parents so much.  All I need is for all of you to be happy!!!  And just because we have this cyberspace stuff doesn't mean Nana wouldn't love a phone call once in awhile to let me know what is going on in your lives!!!!!

Hugs and Kisses!!

Nana

Summer Sizzle

Well so much for the nice cool spring!  The Summer Sizzle has begun.  It began for me  while in Phoenix and I got a nasty sunburn and a cold sore from @@@@@@@!!  My high blood pressure med. makes me extra sensitive to the sun I just happened to find out by accident.  We have worked so hard this week in spite of the heat putting a beautiful black rod iron fence between us and the Blacks next door.  It looks so pretty and boy what a job.  Linda and I were kept busy just keeping them fed and watered.  They did hire 2 boys from the ward and if they hadn't we would have had two dead husbands.  Bud leaves for Alaska saturday and altho I am sure he will have an awesome time I do worry about him.  I will leave for Amy's 7/2 and be home the 9th.  After that we will be home for the summer and fall.  We are trying to expand our budget to include some help with this yard so we can actually have the energy to enjoy it.  As is now we work so hard that we are out of gas and ready for bed by 8:00pm.  So I ask who are we doing this for!  But it is beautiful and we will figure out something.  I am so grateful for the health we do enjoy.  If getting tired is the worst of our problems then we are truly blessed.  I have been so good at working out at least 4x's a week and am loving the pilates.  I can feel the results whether or not I see them.

I am still considering the no sugar thing with Shawn but haven't committed yet.  The only thing I would really miss is the Pumpkin Pie at TG.  Maybe we could convince him to bend the rules for that day!  I am loving reading all the blogs and I do have pictures but have forgotten how to get them on here so Kristen HELP!!!!  You are all awesome and bring so much joy to my life!!  Thank you!!!!!!!!!

SELF CONTROL WHERE ARE YOU????

I am sitting here reading everyone's blogs and crying my eyes out.  I have sweet music playing on my I pod (I am so proud of myself for finally getting one and figuring out how to work it) and a cold glass of orange juice that I am sipping on trying to make taste like a COKE.  It doesn't work.  I sure hope I can pass this test. There are just certain foods that need COKE!!!  Okay enough of that.  If i can exercise a minimum of 4 times a week since New Years, I can do anything because some days it has nearly killed me.  I am starting to see results and that has become my motivation.  Now Shawn wants me to join the no sugar until New Years club.  No COKE, No SUGAR and now after the results of yesterdays colonoscopy no RASPBERRIES, NO CORN, NO NUTS, NO POPCORN, NOTHING WITH SEEDS!!!!  Then Tara tells me to stay off any carbohydrates that are white.  PASTA, POTATOES,BREAD, PANCAKES,WAFFLES!  You get the picture!!!!  Will Power is not my strong point.  What do I eat and what do I look forward to eating???  Any suggestions will be appreciated.!!!  Change of subject!  Taking Alex and Trent to Rexburg was an awesome experience.  How many Nana's get to do that.  I had to bite my tongue a few times and laughed a lot.  Watching them shop for their kitchens beds and baths was funny but the groceries were the best!!  They are great guys and will have the time of their lives.  Then it was on to Tara's  to stop her tears and just chill.  We do that well when I am there.  Again lots of laughing and some good talks and just feeling overwhelmed with love and gratitude for the children and grandchildren I have been blessed with.  Each one is so unique and special in their own way and so in tune with right and wrong.  I need to sign off now before I start blubbering out of control..  Remember the theme of this blog is SELF CONTROL!!!!!!!!

AFV

I wish someone would have had a video camera in this house today. Bud came home from the dentist looking like a chipmunk with all of his nuts for the winter stored in his cheeks.  He had two teeth pulled.  He was sitting in his recliner with ice bags and a big quilt over him trying to not laugh his guts out (it hurt so bad) while he watched me attempt my first pilates workout .  What a hilarious picture I must have been.  Tara told me about the dvd at WallMart and it is hard but really fun.  I will be one BUFF MAMA  if I stick with it and I intend to!  I spent 5 days with the Clegg clan last week and it really made me appreciate my girls so much.  I went to bed at night so exhausted I hardly had the strength to pull the covers up, but it was fun and they are a family with some really awesome and intense personalities.  I have found myself really missing them today.  I could steal Abby.  She has developed a real love for her Nana too! and that is so fun.  I just wish all of my grandchildren were closer so I could hug, love, tickle, sing songs and have some great discussions with each of them.  I still am struggling to find the motivation to get out in the yard and start making things pretty.  I just keep saying I will wait for the weekend and then every weekend the weather is lousy.   I can't decide if I am just content or just lazy!!!!    Please don't respond to that sentence!  

Weekend Wows!!!!

I made my muscles work when they sure didn't want to.  I listened to Conference yesterday am while I cleaned out my closet and drawers and got all my spring and summer things out of the guest room and the winter things put away.  That was a mistake because then today we headed up to Heber to have dinner between sessions with Jim, Judith and their family.  The meal was delicious and their new summer home is really nice.  We can see the Allred cabin from their family room windows.  It was so cold and still LOTS OF SNOW!!!!  Conference was wonderful and I made it thru without any tears of sadness or fear.  I prayed hard that I would hear things in a way that wouldn't take me to that place!!   I am so grateful to have children that understand Gospel principles and are trying hard to teach my grandchildren to have strong moral compasses.  We will be leaving for St George Wed.(so my summer clothes will work) and be back Sunday.  Then the following Wed. I get to to Nana's "boot camp" to the Clegg house until the following Sunday.  It will be fun to have some one on one time with them and they are always so good for me!  I am sure by the time I finish all of this up it will time to hit the yard and I am still waiting for the desire to him me.  It just looks so overwhelming to me.  I really could be talked into a retirement village if I could wave a magic wand and have the moving and all that that would entail done.  I do worry about Bud and this big yard.  But we love our home and now is not the time to think about major changes.  I love you all and am so proud of you all!!! 

A Case of the Blahs!!!

A lazy cold spring saturday finds me feeling frustrated because there are things I should be doing but don't want to.  I got off to a real good start this am by exercising (I am so proud of myself for not missing once yet)  I have the Book of Mormon on a DVD so I can read and listen to the narration while I ride the eliptcal machine.  So I got 30 Min. of scripture study done and then I came upstairs, drank my nutrimeal and read two articles from the new Ensign we just got.  I showered,dressed, put in a load of laundry and left to run some errands and was home 20 minutes later and could care less about the errands and feel totally out of gas.  For one thing I CANNOT believe it is saturday already.  I just got through Easter Sunday!!!!!  I have stayed really busy this week working on Usana and educating myself to be able to work the business better.  When I got home today here was the second check for the month.  This really has potential and we are sitting on a Gold Mine but I can really appreciate people's hesitation an reluctance to even listen.  If they listen they can't help but see the vision. Bud's Dr. took him off three more meds this week.  There is no doubt it is having a positive effect on our health.  This morning Mollie ha me laughing my head off.  I was unloading the dishwasher and as usual she was right beside me.  Bud was out trimming the raspberry bushes when all of a sudden we both heard his jeep start up.  She put back her head and just howled like a baby and then ran downstairs to the door and barked her head off.  I called him and told him what had happened and of course he turned around and came back to get her.  He opened the door and she shot like  white tornado thru the garage and jumped up into his jeep ready to go.  He had been on his way to Mc Donalds to bring us home a breakfast burrito.  He likes to surprise me on sat ams.  I told him I didn't want one as I had just drank my nutrimeal but of course he brought one anyway and I cut a tiny piece off and gave him the rest.   Are you bored Yet???  I need to go fold a batch of laundry and decide what to fix to eat and probably should attempt the rest of the errands. Poor Kristen has really fond the perfect dog!!!!!!  Except it poops and pees (in the house)  I keep telling her to just give her time and she will get used to a new family and settle into a routine and I hope it works soon as she doesn't need any more stress in her life.  I wish I could get excited about spring and summer.  All I see is work!!!!  We did the pine needles raked up  and Bud had some Samoans come and cut down one of the trees by the hot tub this am and that will help!!  We want to get rid of the hot tub and use that space for a fire pit or just more patio space.  Someone out there please send me a dose of SPRING FEVER!!!

Here I come! Ready or not!!!

Spring!!!!!!!!  and I am not ready.  I am like a big old hibernating bear not ready to wake up yet!!  I look out the window and see dirty snow and a MOUNTAIN of pine needles that are waiting to be raked up and the window I am looking out of is dirty too.  If that is not enough I am hungry 24 hours a day and am craving something but don't know what.

I loved Jan. and Feb. and the snowy gray days and the books and the movies and watching The Planet Earth series and I am just not ready for it to end.  Okay that is enough complaining altho I do have other issues if you are interested (smile)  I had a bad night sat. and took 2 ambien and woke up sunday am not even remembering going to bed and lo and behold the little chest we bought for my computer and printer had the first coat of yellow paint on it.  So did my pj's and my hair!  I hope you girls are getting prepared for what is ahead.  Amy it was so good to have some one on one time with you.  Just too bad you had to feel so rotten and then I was rotten. (you know what i mean)  I wish we could all afford a real girl time out get away!  I am feeling really emotional about my kids for some reason.  Maybe that is part of the old bear waking up; she worries about her cubs.  I am still so new at this computer thing but I will take a picture of my chest when finished.  I think it will be cute.  It sure looked hideous Sun. am with only one coat and drips and runs everywhere.  I have the second coat on now and it looks like it will take a third.  It is such a cheap thing and soaks up the paint like a sponge.  It was turquios and Bud did his best to sand it but it still shows thru.  Tara and Lane will be here this weekend and then Tom and Kim and family are coming for Easter and the following week I am thinking about running away to Victor for a few days.  Aunt Kathy is determined to get me on skis (sp)  Then Bud and I leave for St George for his Athletic Directors Conference.  So here we go off and running and it will be fall before things quiet down again I am sure.  For now I am going back to my den and finish my book.  I am almost finished with the  "These Is My Words" trilogy and I have absolutely loved all three books.  

Girl's sleepover!!!!!

We picked up Ashley(Tom's) and Sarah and Mary (Jim's) and tood them to the Olive Garden for dinner and then stopped for movies and treats.  They snuggled up with blankets, pillows and treats downstairs for TWO movies and bless Bud's heart he stayed awake and then they decided that grandpa needed to see Hairspray!!  Well it wouldn't work on the dvd downstairs so all five of us ended up in our big bed with Molly trying to find her spot to curl up and shooting us daggers because there were too many legs, and the girls singing every song at the top of their lungs until 2:45 am.  Next thing I knew they were all telling me good bye and promising not to be grumpy today.  Bud had gotten up and fixed them pancakes and eggs and was ready to take them home.  It was so much fun to see Bud having so much fun with them. Just made me miss "MY" girls SO BAD!!!!  We are going up to Perry to see a play that Aunt Sharon is in tonight.  So I need to get my sweaty body taken care of (I just exercised) and clean up the mess we made and try to not crawl back into bed with Molly.  She follows me wherever I go and curls up and sleeps until I move again.  I don't think she appreciated the party esp when we wouldnt let her near the treats.  POOR DOG!!!

Let it Snow Let it Snow Let it Snow!!!!

I love this time of year esp. with all the beautiful snow we have gotten.  I don't understand why people complain about it so.  I just tell them I feel like a bunny rabbit hibernating with books, movies, tv, food, games and nothing that absolutely has to be done.  Before we know it March and April will be here and yard work and summer activities will be on us.  The only thing I hate about this time of year is a dirty garage.  I am so new at this that I hope Mollie's picture comes up where it should and as you will see she gets the idea!!!

KRISTEN is most DEFINITELY my FAVORITE daughter!

DID I MENTION SHE IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL?
Note to self: Never give out blogger password to my daughter!