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This is my last daily post on this medium. I will continue posting weekly, but not daily.

The boys and I had a great day yesterday. The two oldest were excited all morning long because at noon they were going to a B Day party at the swimming pool. When they left, I fed the baby and put him down for a nap, then I took a nap, too.

By the time the boys returned, the baby and I were well refreshed and ready for another great afternoon. We spent some time taking turns jumping on the tramp. WOW. The baby has no fear of jumping off the slide and onto the tramp. He is awesome. I believe that the second son had no fear of that also. I know he is still pretty brave, though he is more cautious now. Sure love that little fart. He is my favorite second son of my daughter Emily.

Nuff Said
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Just looked at Sally Lloyd-Jones blog showing a fake commercial about the Bronte Sisters Power Dolls. Strange. Very strange.

Went to Della's yesterday to see where she can help me with my business. It is becoming a little too overwhelming for me. I need help rewriting the histories of the units. Some of the histories are copywrited and rather than try to find out which are and which aren't, I am just rewriting all of them. Della wants to help me so it won't take as long.

Kenyon goes to SLC today for an appointment with a podiatrist. The hitch on his Harwee melted from the exhaust. It was the hitch itself, not the ball. Don't know how he is going to fix it. It is a plastic hitch. Guess I'll talk to Travis and see how long it will take to make a metal hitch.

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A few days ago, Emily's adopted son, Zak, came by the house and Kenyon saw a trailer hitch ball that Zak has on the back of his truck. It is a 6 1/2 inch ball. Kenyon decided he wanted one for his Harwee just because it would be so hilarious. He found one on the internet and it came in early last week. A friend of Grant's told Kenyon that he would build a hitch piece for the ball to go onto, but Kenyon didn't want to wait because Sunday was coming up and he wanted to show it off now.

So on Saturday, Kenyon built a hitch piece for the ball out of wood. The main problem with the building of the hitch piece is that the exhaust for the Harwee is right there where the hitch is and since the ball is only made of plastic, Kenyon needed to place the ball far enough away from the exhaust so that it wouldn't melt. Plus the Harwee is so low to the ground that the hitch piece had to be built up a little higher so it wouldn't drag on the ground.

So on Saturday he gets this hitch built, attaches the ball to the hitch and goes off to town for some zip ties for the dune buggy. While in town, he had two people ask about his hitch (Kenyon loves that kind of attention). On Sunday, however, we were a little later arriving to church than usual and so not too many people in our ward saw it. Kenyon was a bit disappointed, but Hey, there's always next week.

It's pretty fun being married to him. He really enjoys life.

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Been reading some blogs by some military wives. I will learn to be more fun, I promise. Those young women are very interesting bloggers. That is something I will learn along the way I believe.

Also, they put pictures in their blogs and one has music running in the background all the time that you are reading her blog. I'll learn to do that too.

Eydie's B Day yesterday. I called her and found out that Jessie and Della had also called her. Great day for Eydie, huh.

Next weekend, the Fourth, we are helping Kenyon's folks move out of their resort home. They are just getting too old to keep traveling from St. George at the bottom of Utah, back up to Star Valley in Wyoming. Even though it is only once a year, it is a strain on them to clean up after the winter and then to winterize the house and all when they leave. Star Valley is only open anyway for the four months of summer so they can only stay there for the four months, but it is just getting too much for them. They have decided to sell their park model and we are helping them pack up stuff and decide what to sell, what to take back to St. George, and what to store somewhere.

I am looking forward to being there. Honestly, I am. For some reason, Mom, always seems to want to start an argument with me. She will purposely say something that she knows will make me react. Anyway, I have decided that I am not reacting anymore. She can keep her argument to herself. Besides wanting to spend some quality time playing Progressive Hand and Foot with them, I am looking forward to not reacting when she tries to start an argument. I am not going to react.

Yesterday, Kenyon and I got to spend most of the day together. We were emptying out the cabin that Sam and Tai stayed in while they were here (Kenyon wants to finish the taping, texturing, and painting before his folks are here for the family reunion in August). We moved out the bed, the chairs, the Thomas Kincaid picture on the wall, the lamp, the chest of drawers, the night stand, and rug, and something else that I can't remember. It only took about an hour.

Oh, I read a challenge on Friday from someone who knows how to be successful. I am not allowed to do any complaining about anything for three days. Boy, I thought I was normally a person who didn't complain a lot, but now that I am being more concious about it, I realize that it is an effort to not complain. Getting better at it, though. "Better at what, complaining or not complaining." I am trying to say that I am getting better at not complaining.

That reminds me of Barbara Streisand in the movie, "What's Up Doc." Ryan O'Neal is talking with her and saying how she is just different. She says, "I know I'm different, but I'll try to be the same." Ryan says, "The same as what." She says, "The same as people who aren't different." What does that mean, huh. I love that show. When I want to laugh so hard that I wet my pants, I watch "What's Up Doc."

Sunday today. Looking forward to a beautiful Sabbath Day.

Nuff Said,
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Today is my sister Eydie's B Day. She is 57. WOW. I will be 59 on my next B Day and my sister Jessie just turned 60. That all seems so old.

Jessie had a party for her 60th (she called it a family reunion). I was able to attend and so was Eydie. We have another sister, Della, who was moving that weekend and couldn't be there.

The other day I received some pictures in the mail from my sister Jessie. Her third (she has 5) oldest son took her rapelling. (May not be spelled correctly. I was once a very good speller. Now I am forgetful of how to spell some things.) It looked like fun. I have been rapelling before and I liked it. I did that back before 1997. I remember because it was before my daughter graduated from high school. I would go again, if I had the chance. Kenyon's back is bad and so he doesn't want to do that anymore. Maybe I'll go without him.

He's home from SLC. The seminar was great. It made him excited to do some stock market trading. If he had a job, we could probably put some money aside for that.

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Not a long post today. It is my day off today and I am going to the temple this AM. I like to go in the morning because then I feel like I have a good start to the day, plus it gives me the feeling that I still have all day left to do stuff. Ever feel that way?

Yessterday, I ran across a program that I had purchased but didn't realize it had as many applications as it did. Kinda like the guy who sold us our digital baby grand piano 12 years ago. He told us that it had applications that we would never use and I am sure it does. I only use it to play the piano. Kenyon doesn't play the piano, but he likes it for all the fun stuff it does. You can program a song into it and it plays like a player piano, you can also use those 3 1/2 inch discs that have pre-recorded music on them and program it to play the disc. It will only play one disc at a time, but hey who's complaining.

The program that I ran across is a CD fulfillment program. It will take the CDs I produce and mass produce them for me for mailing to my customers. Cool, huh.

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Kenyon is gone again. He is gone so often I have decided he must not like the fact that I don't feed him. HEEHEE. I am a lousy cook, but our daughter and her boyfriend are both very good cooks and he eats at their house. He makes his own breakfast, but that is only because I am already gone by the time he gets up. I am an early bird; he is a night owl. Back when he had a regular job and had to get up at a certain time every morning, then I did fix his breakfast, but now he has to fix his own. He rarely eats lunch because I am not there and he won't come over to Emily's to eat, so he just doesn't get fed much. Is there a law against that?

He went to a big rally recently with Colin Powell and Sarah Palin and others. One of the others was a man teaching about how to find success in the stock market. Kenyon really liked that and has decided that he wants to do some stock market trading and so today in SLC was the first workshop and that is where he is. It runs through tomorrow so he should be home tomorrow night.

Sometimes I want to cry, but mostly I just dig into my work building an online business. Maybe I'll cry tonight. HEEHEE

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Just watched a video on Sally Lloyd-Jones blog. It was fun. It was a spoof on the old movie, "Ghostbusters." Some of the library patrons were younger than the movie itself. Her address is
http://sallylloyd-jones.blogspot.com I'll bet you enjoy it.

Kenyon and our son and his girlfriend and one of our granddaughters were in Yellowstone National Park the last two days. Kenyon and I were able to visit there last year and my daughter and her family were there last month. My daughter actually saw a grizzly bear. I was talking to a friend of mine and told her how they were all going to the Park and she had been in Yellowstone just the week before and she saw a grizzly.

Have you ever seen a cartoon character named Yogi Bear. Well, he lives in Jellystone Park with his little buddy BooBoo and a park ranger named Ranger Smith (maybe Jones). Yogi is constantly getting in trouble because he likes to steal picnic baskets.

When I was a young girl, we could go to the Park and the bears would be sitting at the side of the road waiting for you to throw food at them. Some of the bears started getting agressive and so the bears were moved to the more central part of the park. Yogi and his buddy BooBoo were actually supposed to represent those bears who were sitting and begging for food. At the time there was a famous football coach, Notre Dame I believe, who was named Yogi Berra and the Hanna/Barbera team took Yogi's name from him.

When last I was in Yellowstone Park, a tour guide explained some of the paintings on the walls of the famous Old Faithful Lodge. There were bears depicting all sorts of human activities ie. doing dishes, doing laundry, eating at restaurants, etc. These paintings were famous all over the U.S. It was an advertising gimmic and it worked. I asked the tour guide if they had ever been told that Hanna and Barbera were ever at the Park, but if the two of them were, they didn't announce themselves.

No one in my husband's group saw a grizzly.

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Got a phone call yesterday from my son's wife. They live just three blocks from me. Their dog had gotten out in the street and was hit by a car. She was taking her oldest son to a basketball camp and found him. The boys really liked their dog. Maddie was her name. She was feeling pretty bad herself. I was also. I don't really like dogs, but I still felt bad. It was only about three months ago that our next door neighbor's dog was hit and killed by a car. The boys would play with that dog through the fence.

I was driving home after picking up the four year old from pre-school. I turned the corner onto our road and Taz was in the street. In fact I had to swerve to miss him. I was thinking I should get him and put him in my car where he would be safe but at the same time I had three kids in the car and I thought it would be too big a hassle. Kenyon was not at home so I couldn't tell him to go get Taz, so I tried to call the dog's owner's. Neither of them were at work. In fact a co-worker told me that they were away for the weekend. Their daughter lives in the same subdivision but she was at work. I decided I would call her anyway because her husband only worked part time and maybe he was at home.

Well, he wasn't at home and when I told her about Taz, all she could do was say, "Oh dear." So I called my husband again to see when he would be home. While on the phone with Kenyon, the six year old that I babysit came home from kindergarten and said that from the school bus window he could see that Taz was laying out in the street. When he told me that I knew it was too late. We all went outside and looked over the fence and he was there. I started to cry. I went back into the house and called the daughter again and say, "It's too late, Chelsea. He's been hit."

Just at that time, a cousin of Kenyon's who lives in Hawaii called me and I told him about the dog and he said, "Did you ever see the movie All Dogs Go To Heaven.." I said yes, and he said OK, remember where he is. I'll call you later and we can talk. Also right then my son's wife who lives three blocks away came over to drop off one of her kids while she went to a doctor's appointment. She saw the dog out in the street and knew it was the neighbor's. So she tried to comfort all of us. Then at the same time Kenyon's mom called about something and she could tell that I was crying so I told her the story and she also tried to comfort me and the boys.

All in all there were lots of people comforting us over the loss of the next door neighbor's dog.

Nuff Said
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WOW. Got home late last night. We left Anaheim at about 4:30P and after being routed through Denver, we arrived back in to Idaho Falls at 11. Don't you just love jet lag?

In Denver, Kenyon and I were just sitting there minding our own business when Kenyon looked up and said (as he was getting up out of his chair), "Now Wait A Minute", and then he was gone. I watched as he thumped on a soldier in the gate waiting area next to ours. The two hugged each other and talked a few seconds and then started walking towards me. He was one of the soldiers in Kenyon's unit. He stayed longer in Iraq and was just then getting home. Actually he was on his way to Ft. Bliss for out processing, so he wouldn't technically be getting home for 3 or 4 more days.

Kenyon told me a story about how during one drill in SLC, he and this soldier got in Kenyon's Smart car, (the other soldier is 6'6" and Kenyon is 6'4"), and how they spent one entire evening after drill just driving around and getting out of the car. It was fun for them because so many people would comment about seeing those two very tall men getting out of that itty bitty little car.

He was a very good friend to Kenyon. They took some time talking about their lives in Iraq and catching up. Seeing him just topped off the great weekend we had just had. We plan to attend another Yellow Ribbon event and also a Strong Bonds event. Strong Bonds is geared just to married folks and strengthening the marriage bond.

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Happy Father's Day! We celebrated at the Yellow Ribbon event here in Anaheim. When we arrived here on Friday afternoon, we walked down on the Garden Walk which is near the Hilton where we are staying. What a sad sight. Half of the businesses in that area were closed up. One of the shops posted a sign that they were only accepting cash "from here on out". The atmosphere was still enjoyable, but there just were not as many people as we expected.

We ate at an establishment called McCormicks. Kenyon had the Father's Day special which was prime rib and creme' bruele' for dessert. He really enjoyed it. I had a chicken dinner. I told Kenyon that the prime rib was his Father's Day Gift. There were also very few people in the restaurant and it was 6PM. We were both thinking that maybe that restaurant would be the next to go, but the waiter told us that the dinner crowd didn't show up until 8PM.

Last night after the last meeting, we took a little walk and ended up at a Mall near Disney Adventure. We went into the World of Disney shop and bought a bouquet of suckers for the grandkids and Kenyon bought a Mickey Mouse shot glass for our daughter who collects shot glasses.

We are finished with our meetings today and are packing up to leave. I am very glad that I attended this event with Kenyon. I didn't want to go. I thought it would be another boing, "this is the form you fill out and this is how you fill it out," meeting, but it was a very interractive, informative, and networking meeting. I learned a few things about some of Kenyon's emotions that he had not shared with me. Some of the power point presentations were focused on communicating with your soldier and helping him get his feelings out in the open, some taught the soldier's family what to expect from him (like crazy sleeping habits) and why he does them. Yes, I am very happy that I came.

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I am sitting here in Anaheim, just two blocks from Disneyland. When I left Idaho, I kept my jacket on just in case. I am glad I did. Anaheim is having a little cold spell.

Kenyon and I arrived here at abut 4:30 PM yesterday. The plane flight was great. I love flying. Someday I believe I will have the ability to fly through the air like the birds do. I love to look at the beautful world God created for me. In an airplane the view goes by pretty fast. If I was flying myself, I could take all the time in the world to go from one place to another.

That was one of the greatest things about skydiving. When I was a little girl, I would watch movies with people jumping out of planes. Most of the time, the paratrooper would open his chute as soon as he cleared the plane and landing gear, etc. While watching the actions of the paratrooper, I would wonder, "Why doesn't he wait until the last minute to open his chute. That way he can enjoy the rush for a longer amount of time."

While Kenyon and I were living in Vancouver, we went skydiving on my birthday. My 50th birthday. We were in tandem with the instructor and he gave a few instructions and then we were out the door. He is the one who pulled the chute and he pulled it as soon as he was clear of the plane. WOW. It was one of the grandest experiences of my life. It felt like floating through the air. I could see for miles around and I can see that miles around for what felt like a very long time. It was awesome. If I ever go skydiving again I know that I will pull the chute as soon as possible.

Kenyon was at the drop zone waiting for us. He told me that he could hear me laughing as soon as the plane was out of hearing range. Apparently, I laughed all the way down, which is quite funny considering that I could hear Kenyon when it was his turn and he was cussing all the way down.

I loved it.

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On my way to Anaheim this AM. I am looking forward to a little sunshine. I had a great day with the boys yesterday.Right now I can't remember what we did, but I do remember that we had swiim lessons and then we went to school lunch.

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The boys' dad has a birthday coming up. In fact, his birthday is June 20, so he will celebrate Father's Day and his birthday on the same day. Yesterday, while the two year old was asleep, the two older boys and I made cards to give him.

His favorite color is purple and so we used mostly purple construction paper. I cut whole words and also individual letters out of sticker paper, magazines, and color books for them to paste onto their cards. The six year old wrote the I Love You message himself. He can do some spelling, but sometimes he just says, "How do you spell _____," and I tell him and he writes it out. He didn't ask yesterday and so Happy Fathers Day was spelled Happy Fathrs Day. Sounds right, doesn't it.

The four year old has been having a lot of strep lately and yesterday the doc told his mom, my daughter, that if she agreed to having his tonsils removed that he would have less strep, and in fact, the strep might totally go away. So, his appointment is scheduled for the seventh day of July.

We usually eat "school lunch" (the free lunch program for children 1-18) every day, but the doctor's appointment was scheduled for just a half hour after they finished swim lessons, so we didn't have time yesterday. Instead, we ate lunch at the hospital cafeteria. Boy, do they love that. Course, it helps that my daughter got to have lunch with them because she works there at the hospital and eating there saved her some time.

Going to Anaheim tomorrow for an Army redeployment retreat. Looking forward to it.

Nuff Said
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My son is here with his girlfriend. She is beautiful. She speaks very good English. We do have some words that we need to find a synonym for, but mostly we do OK. We tried to teach her canasta, but my husband and I don't play the same canasta that we taught our son years ago, so it was quite a learning experience for all of us.

They are staying in the cabin my husband built out in the yard. It is not quite finished, but there is a place to put their clothes and a place to sleep. They have to use the bathroom in the house, but hey it's good. The boys really like their uncle and have been looking forward to him coming back home.

He has some appointments with the VA today, as does my husband, so I won't be seeing them much until evening.

The little boys have swimming lessons today. They started lessons on Monday. Yesterday after swim lessons we went to the library to register for their summer reading program.

The boys father's birthday is the same day as Father's Day, so we will be working on making cards today. Looking forward to it.

Nuff Said
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My son, is coming home today for a 10 day visit. He has been living and working in Panama for a few months now. Since he has only a Visa right now, he can only stay in the country for three months and then he has to leave. He said that he only has to leave for 24 hours and then he can return, but he has to leave. He is bringing a girlfriend with him. She is a citizen of Panama. We are all excited to see him and to meet her.

Over a year ago, my husband started to build a log cabin in the yard here. The kids think it is their log cabin, but he says, "No. I am building that cabin for me. You can play and sleep in it, but it is mine." It is a work in progress still. He has coompleted the floors, the windows and doors, the electrical (he won't be putting any plumbing in it), the sheet rock and the mudding. Saturday we put a rug on the floor, brought in a lamp, a night stand, a chest of drawers, a couple of chairs, and a bed. Our son and his girlfriend can have the choice of sleeping in the cabin or they can sleep in our house in the guest/computer room on a trundle bed.

Looking forwward to another beautiful day.

Nuff Said
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Sunday again. Beautiful day today. A little cold, but no rain. I love to go to church and today was no exception. I am LDS and we have three different sessions all in one block when we go to church. First we have our general meeting where we partake of the sacrament and listen to speakers. Then we have our class time (Sunday School), then the women and men and children separate into another class time.

In our women's class time, we do a little spotlight on a sister and on a young woman. Each sister chooses a card (any card) and reads the question on the card and then answers the question. Oh, did I mention that the sister and the young woman both have to go up front and stand in front of all the other sisters and young women?

The question I got was,, "Where was the most memoable place you have ever visited or lived? Why?" The question the young woman got was, "What was the hardest thing you have ever done?"

The young woman went first. She said that caving was the hardest thing she had ever done. She said that it was cold, she got bruised and lacerated, she could hardly see, and she didn't enjoy it at all. I said that giving $20,000 to the IRS was the hardest thing I had ever done.

We had received a lot of retirement pay when Kenyon left his first job of 20 years. We were advised by an accountant to just put the money towards a house and we would be OK. Even though we received numerous messages from a government agency that we would be held liable for taxes for that money if we didn't put it in a protected account, we just left it in a fund for a house. Well guess what, when it came time to do taxes, the accountant said, "Oh let's see the government owes you this much money." I wasn't comfortable with that, so I took the return to H & R Block and they said, "Oh, let's see you owe the government $20K."

Who knows if the IRS would have caught that error. I don't. I didn't want to take the chance, so I paid the $20K in taxes. That was the hardest thing I have ever done.

Then we went to my question, and I said, "The most memorable place I have ever lived was in Vancouver, Washington." I told the sisters about how it was so green there, the flowers were the most vibrant colors and how we hated to mow the lawn because it felt like committing murder because the grass was so green and alive. The young woman's answer to that question was, "Disneyland."

How are Sundays for you? Do you get a break from the rest of the week? I do. That's one of the things I like about Sunday--I get a break from the rest of the week.

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Are you superstitious. I usually am not. The number 13 is just a number to me. It comes after 12 and before 14 that's all.

We had a little celebration in our town yesterday. Every year as close to the 14th as possible, we celebrate the establishment of our city. The celebration is always held in a little park next to a lake that is near the golf course right at the edge of town. There are always jump rides and train rides and pony rides for the kids. The adults can play frisbee golf, bingo, and chess. There are also contests including shooting galleries, hat throw, and checkers.

To me the big event of the day is the snowmobile races. Yes, I said snowmobile. No, we don't usually still have snow in June, but we still have snowmobile races. It's amazing to watch those races. The drivers sit on their machines close to the edge of the water, then when the whistle blows they drive their snowmobile out into the lake. Yes, the snowmobiles actually will run across the surface of the water, if they are going fast enough and if they don't have far to go.

A few of the drivers will get clear across the lake. Now I am not very good at measurements, but if I were to look at the end of the lake where the races are held and compare it to sitting at a football game and looking from one end to the other, I would think that the lake is about two times as long as the football field. How far is that? Most of the drivers will only get about half way across when their engine starts to sputter and die and then the machine starts to sink.

One year one driver who was sinking put his right hand up in the air with the middle finger pointing up and just stood there while he sunk. It was reminiscent of that movie starring Paul Newman, I think, where at the end of the movie he is floating down a river (I believe) and he has his right hand straight up with his middle finger pointing to the sky. Do you remember that movie? Can't remember the title, only remember that my grampa and grandma wouldn't let me watch it because it was too scandalous. I watched it years later when I was living away from home.

Nuff Said
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More rain today. I like the sound of the rain. I like thunder and lightning, also. When the kids were little and it started to thunder, I would wrap them up in a blanket and we would go sit on the front step. The reason I did that was so they wouldn't be afraid of the thunder. We would sit there and get rained on and it was OK. The blanket was a comfort to them and my talking would reassure them that it was all right. None of them are afraid of the thunder now. We would sit there for a few minutes until we were soaked through. It was a good experience for me.

My end of the world is very green right now. It is quite a switch from the norm. This is considered desert country. It doesn't look much like desert, The grass is so green and the trees have more leaves on them this year than what I ever remember in the past. I'm content.

We have two activities to attend today. Both of them are outside picnics. I guess we'll see whether they are moved indoors or are we brave enough to enjoy them in spite of the rain. While living in Vancouver, WA, we learned for ourselves that if you didn't go out and have a great weekend in spite of the rain, that you would never go out and have a great weekend. I remember many, many times we were boating in the rain. In the two years that we lived there, I heard it thunder only two times, so we were never anxious at all about boating in the rain. You just bundled up differently. It was great.

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Kenyon returned last evening from SLC. He had been there making sure his paperwork was in order for his retirement from the Army.

On Wednesday, he attended a seminar with a lot of big name speakers--Sarah Palin, Colin Powell, Zig Ziglar, Mitt Romney and a host of not so big names but all with very important messages about our lives and how really good America is doing in spite of what you hear on the news. One of them was a speed skater, don't know his name, but he has won 200 Olympic medals.

Another speaker was Tamara Lowe. Her topic was salesmanship. She settled in on knowing your prospective clients DNA--desires, needs, awards. After listening to Kenyon's recap of her speech and looking at his notes, I realize why Kenyon and I get along so well. We totally complement each other. Under desires there are people who are the workers and those who are the communicators--Kenyon is the communicator and I am the worker. Under needs there are people who are two different personalities, but I can't remember what the title was that she gave them and I can't find his notes and Kenyon is asleep right now, so I can't ask him, but whatever the two titles were--Kenyon was one and I was the other. Under awards there are the person who likes internal awards and the one that likes external awards. I am the internal award--the one who says just give me the bonus and I'll get to work and earn another one, while Kenyon is the one who says give me the sticker, the ribbon, the title, the car to show off, etc.

I love him. I really love him.

Nuff Said
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Sometimes when you think that you are doing pretty good in the area of The Golden Rule, you can have a rude awakening.

I have metal poisoning from drinking colloidal silver, and my face and neck are an ashen gray color. Most adults are careful about their reactions to me when first seeing me, but some are not so careful. Boy, and little kids really react. There have been many times in the grocery store when little children have come up to me and stood right in front of me and just stared. I would move the cart forward and they would stay right there ahead of me so they could continue to look. Some days it gets very frustrating and I think, "Why can't they just look and then move on."

Then I was at a demolition derby a few days ago and a young man with earrings was sitting behind me. I have seen young men with earings before, but these earrings were the kind that look like pictures from a National Geographic magazine. You have probably seen those pictures of Africans with those big, heavy gold rings around their necks and ear lobes that were as big as plates because of how they arranged their pierced ears. That's the kind of earrings I am talking about. I confess, I didn't just look and then move on. I stared. I really stared. I stared for a long time. My daughter was with me and she kept telling me to quit staring, but I couldn't. The young man finally got up and left because I was staring at him.

Now, how inconsiderate is that. I don't like it when people do that to me, but here I was doing it to someone else. Bad choice. I promise I will never be so inconsiderate again.

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Beautiful day yesterday. We went for a walk and Deegan fell asleep in the stroller. He quite easily falls asleep when he is sitting in his car seat or when he is in the stroller. I love the feeling of gathering him up in my arms to go put him in bed.

After he woke up, I took Evan, Devner, Caden, Cannon, and Deegan to a park here in town. There is a skate park there and the boys love to go there to ride their scooters. But since it was the first really nice day for a very long time, the skate park was crowded. It is actually for skateboarders or in line skaters and scooters are not allowed when skateboarders are using it, so we just went to a basketball court that is next to the skate park and the kids rode their scooters there.

Because of all the rain we have been having there was a puddle, a big puddle, on the court and the kids decided to ride their scooters through the puddle. I was OK with that even though Cannon's scooter slipped and he fell in the puddle. Well, all the kids decided they were going to ride through the puddle and see if they could go all the way through without slipping. None of them got through the puddle without slipping. It was really hilarious watching them continually ride through the puddle and slip and fall. They were all wet which was not bad because they were having so much fun.

When it was time to go, I got up to walk to the truck and the baby, Deegan, was walking in the puddle and I had to get him and lead him to the truck and I stepped into the puddle and, yep, you guessed it, I fell and I got wet.

Yea. It was a great day.

Nuff Said
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Oh, it looks like sun today. We have had a very long, rainy spring. For a few weeks I was feeling just plain tired of the rain and then a few days ago I had an epiphany.

My husband and I lived in Vancouver, Washington for two years and I loved it there. Everything was so green. The trees were green. The grass was green. In fact the grass was so vibrant, so alive that it felt almost like murder to mow it. The flowers were abundant and so many colors. After living in desert country for so many years, it really was a joy to live where it was so green and beautiful all the time. What made it so green and beautiful. Rain, yep, rain. The people who were natives of the area complained quite often about the rain, but my husband and I never complained about the rain because of how beautiful it was there. We learned, as most folks do after living there awhile, that you learn to enjoy life in spite of the rain. You learn that if you don't go out and go boating (with all the rain, I heard thunder and saw lightning only two times) or on a picnic or to ball games or a myriad of other activities even when it is raining that you will never go. Just plan ahead.

His folks had been there a few years earlier and when they came home, they put their house up for sale because they were moving to Washingon. Then because his mom is a person who needs lots of friends, they changed their minds. She couldn't leave her friends. I am glad they didn't leave because if they had, my husband may not have gone to the college I was at and we may never have met. While there they were astounded by the blackberry bushes that were abundant. They mentioned to someone about all the bushes and that person said, "Yes, there are lots of blackberry bushes, but you can't eat them. They are dusted with chemicals to try to keep them down." She said that blackberry bushes were almost like a weed to folks in Oregon and Washington. Can you imagine?

So, my epiphany, "Suzanne, just pretend that you are living again in Vancouver, and enjoy the rain. It is making everything here very beautiful."

So, that is what I have done for three days now. I have been pretending that I am living once again in Vancouver, Washington.

Nuff Said
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Kenyon left yesterday for Salt Lake City. He will do four days of drill trying to get all his paperwork together so the points he has collected in his military career will all be accounted for. He took three file boxes full of paperwork. Thirty nine years of paperwork. When I was telling a friend about the file boxes she said, "Who keep thirty nine years of paperwork." Well, Kenyon does. He knew from the get go that the army isn't very good at keeping records and he didn't want his retirement points wrong, so he kept the records. Through every move, we have brought those files with us. Every new year saw a new file folder added to the box.

I remembered yesterday about a funny experience we had over the Memorial Day weekend. We left our home in Idaho and went to Price, Utah. On 1-15 we met up with a Harley-Davidson motorcycle club going in the same direction as we were going. Well, in case you don't know, Kenyon is a big of a show off. He has named his little Smart car a baby motorcycle since the get go. He put a big Harley Davidson motorcycle sticker in the back window and he got personalized plates with the word "Harwee" on it. (That's two year old talk for Harley.) So here we are going down the road alongside a club of Harley Davidson motorcycle riders. Kenyon got a lot of attention and a lot of the riders pointed out the license plate to us and nodded or did a thumbs up. I don't know how many riders there were, but it took us 3 miles worth of driving at a little more than 75 miles per hour to pass them all.

Then we took the wrong exit and when we got back on the freeway, there they were again so Kenyon got to pass them all once more. He was lovin' it.

Nuff Said
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It's Sunday. I love Sundays. I am a "go to church on Sunday" girl. For me, Sunday is a day to relax and spend time with family. I prefer to spend my after church time just goofin' with Kenyon.

Yesterday, he told me about his little adventure with the Fathers and Sons outing. One of the fathers showed up with 14 little bows and arrows for the boys to play with. He also had one bow and arrow for adults. Kenyon did a lot of archery growing up, but hasn't picked up a bow in over 40 years. He took the bow, aimed at the target, and let it fly. Too high. He adjusted, aimed again, and hit the center of the bull's eye! When he saw that, he put the bow down. He said, "Boy, I'm not going to do that again, so I'll quit while I'm ahead." Another father brought 10 or 12 good sized swords with lots of padding and told the boys OK only one rule--don't hit anybody in the head. Kenyon said the boys really liked the swords and the father who brought them said he takes them to family reunions and other outings he goes too because it helps release the testosterone and then there are no "macho" fights to break up.

Two of the boys at the outing were the sons of my son and his wife that I was to be babysitting that day. They didn't get home until after 9 AM and they had not slept well so they went straight to bed. Their sister is a late sleeper so I when I got to their house at 6:30AM, I also laid back down and went back to sleep. Man that was a lazy morning.

After the three kids were up and at it, we went to an interactive museum and to a zoo. I really had a great day yesterday.

Nuff Said
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This AM I was babysitting for my son and his wife while they were at an Army outing. He is being deployed soon and the army was conducting a What To Do If... session. Their sons went to the same Father and Sons outing that my husband was at.

My husband was conducting a teaching moment. He called it the Scoutmaster's Minute. He spoke a little bit about the keys of the priesthood and then all the boys picked out a key and tried to unlock the lock on a chest that my husband had filled with Twinkies. Well, the key that unlocked the lock was the key that one of my grandsons picked out. Questionable? Naa. The keys the boys chose were in another box and each boy took a turn picking out a key and my grandson was not the first one to choose.

When the boys got home, they went straight to bed. Apparently they did not sleep very well during the night there at the outing. My husband didn't sleep very well either, because he also went straight to bed when he got home.

Nuff Said
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We have had a very strange spring. We haven't had our usual sunny days. Most of our weather has been wind, rain, and cold. Looking forward to the sun shining.

My husband is attending a Father and Son's Outing today. It is an overnight gig. Bring your own supper--the church will provide breakfast. My husband, Kenyon, is on the program. He is teaches about keys to the power of God. He will teach for a few minutes and then give all the boys a key and then each boy will try to unlock a chest that he made special for the outing. Only one key will fit the lock on the chest. Kenyon filled the chest with Twinkies and when the chest is open, well, I'm sure you can guess the rest.

Sure hope they don't get rained out!!!

Nuff Said
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Last night I went to a health issues meeting. The meeting was being conducted by a Dr. Harold Hill who works with essential oils. The reason I went to the meeting is because a few years ago I started drinking colloidal silver as a general antibiotic.

I had a machine that made the silver for me. I loved the benefits I received from drinking it. If I felt a cold coming on, I would increase the amount I drank from 8 oz. a day to 16 oz. and the cold never came on. If I had the flu, I would drink 16 oz. of silver a day for two days and the flu was gone. It was great. I was living in Denver at the time and so I wasn't able to visit with my family very often. After two years of drinking the silver, my sister came to visit me and she said, "What's up with the color in your face." She took a picture of me next to my husband and I could see that my face was gray. I had not noticed it before.

So, I have had this gray face now for five years. Many, many times people will ask me what my ethnic background is, or what country are you from. I wanted to say that I am an alien from the plant Zirkon, but that would be rude. Lots of times people would just stare at me. Lots of times people would recoil. I actually saw people recoil. Many, many children would just get right in my face and stare for a minute or more. It was embarassing.

Well, the good Dr. thinks it can be reversed. He gave me a daily regimen to try and Hey, I'm right there. I am going to do it.

Nuff Said
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I want to post a new blog every day. Sometimes I know that all I will post is a hello and a goodbye, until I get into the habit, but for now, this is good.

I picked the name gramcracker, because my granddaughter, Cammi, has a cell phone and put me on her contact list as gramcracker. I like that, so I decided that is who I will be.

Yesterday, I was babysitting the three grandsons I babysit every day. Their cousin, Caden, came over for a couple of hours to play with them and then later a friend of Evan's, (Evan is the six year old) came over to play. The three grandsons that share a back yard with me are Evan, Denver, and Deegan, Evan is 6. Denver is 4. Deegan is 2. The three grandkids that live just three blocks from me are Cammi, age 13 (going on 21); Cannon, age 9; and Caden, age 6. Caden and Evan are only one month different in age.

The four grandkids who live in North Carolina are Tailor, age 15 (she is also going on 21); Derrike, age 14; Arye'Annah, age 9; and Maegan, age 17. Tailor, Derrike, and Arye'Annah are three of my son Sam's kids. Maegan is the daughter of my daughter's boyfriend.

I have one other grandchild. He is another son of my son Sam. He lives in California where it is warm all the time. I actually lived about two miles from Disneyland for a couple of months. My daughter, Emily, wanted to be a model and so she and I moved there for a couple of months until she went to Japan for a photo shoot and I went back home to Idaho. I liked California. There are too many people there for me, but it was all right for the two months that I was there.

OK. Nuff Said.

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My first blog. I am a grandma. I have twelve grandchildren--three of them (all boys) live in my backyard and three of them live down the street three blocks, four of them live in North Carolina and one lives in California. Now, I know that three plus three plus four plus one only adds up to eleven. Our twelfth grandchild chose to end his life two years ago. He was only 16. I am not asking for any sympathy. I just want other grandmas (who have lost granchildren this way) to know that they are not alone. He will always be remembered for the awesome kid that he was. He was everyone's favorite school chum. He was very well mannered, a very hard working kid (milking cows twice a day) and very strong and handsome. Thank God for the ressurrection when I will get to see Curtis again.

My husband is a soldier. He recently returned from the Middle East. This was his second time to go and serve his country--OUR COUNTRY. We were living in Denver when he was first called up and two sets of grandkids were living in Idaho in the same town. I didn't want to live in Denver all by myself, so we sold the house and moved in with our daughter. I lived with her while my husband was away. Then when he returned the first time, my daughter's boyfriend said, "I will build you a house, if you will babysit our kids while we work." So we said OK. and he built us a house in their back yard. Pretty cool, huh. Yes, I am still enjoying babysitting.