Brady's latest

Brady was invited by Ashley to Sadie's. There were about a million dum-dum suckers and smarties spread all over his room. He is everyone's new best friend as they come and ask frequently for candy. He's been pretty good about sharing.

Brady and Ashley, and his two best friends Nathan and Joe and their dates. Ironically, they don't actually go to the dance. They went to dinner and then to ride all the death-defying rides on top of the Stratosphere.

HOME AGAIN

WE HAD A VERY NICE TRIP, VISITING OUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN. AS FUN AS IT IS TO GO AWAY, IT IS NICE TO COME HOME AGAIN. LEAVING GIVES A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON THINGS. WE REALLY APPRECIATE ALL THAT YOU DID FOR US AND WITH US. YOU HAVE WONDERFUL FAMILIES AND IT WAS FUN TO BE PART OF THEM FOR A WHILE. THE KIDS ARE GROWING UP SO MUCH. I GET SAD THINKING OF NO MORE BABIES IN OUR FAMILY, BUT HAPPY TO SEE HOW EVERYONE IS GROWING AND TURNING INTO YOUNG ADULTS. WE ARE PROUD OF YOU.

WHEN WE WENT TO SAFFORD YESTERDAY I DISCOVERED SAFEWAY WAS HAVING A GOOD SALE ON LIVE ORCHIDS, SO I BOUGHT 3 AND WITH THE ONE I ALREADY HAD, HAVE A GOOD START ON MY ORCHID FARMING. I PUT ALL OF THEM TOGETHER IN ONE NICE CONTAINER. NOW, I HOPE THEY DO WELL. I ALSO GOT A LIVE HYDRANGEA, A PINK ONE. MY PLANT AREA IS SHAPING UP AND LOOKS CUTE WITH ALL OF MY "TREASURES" I FOUND ON MY SHOPPING EXPEDITIONS, THANKS TO BEVERLY DRIVING ME AROUND. IT BRIGHTENS MY SPIRIT TO GO IN AND ADMIRE MY PLANTS. I STILL HAVE ROOM FOR MORE.

WE HAD A LOT OF MAIL. IT IS QUITE A JOB TO KEEP UP WITH ALL THE STUFF, FILING EVERY IMPORTANT PAPER, THROWING AWAY JUNK, BUT SO MUCH FUN TO LOOK AT "MY STUFF" - MAGAZINES, CATALOGUES, ETC. MAGAZINES AT THIS TIME OF YEAR HAVE SO MANY TIPS AND HINTS ABOUT ORGANIZING AND EATING HEALTHY. I NEED ALL OF THESE, SINCE WE ARE TRYING TO EAT HEALTHIER, AND I AM CONSTANTLY ORGANIZING, TRYING TO CLAIM MORE SPACE.

SPEAKING OF EATING HEALTHY, ON THE "OPRAH" SHOW, ONE OF THE EXPERTS & HER DR. OZ WERE GIVING EXAMPLES OF FOOD CHOICES. THEY SAID REGULAR BACON IS HEALTHIER THAN TURKEY BACON. THEY BOTH HAVE THE SAME AMOUNT OF CALORIES, BUT TURKEY BACON HAS MUCH MORE SALT, WHICH ISN'T A GOOD THING.

BECKY, I REALLY APPRECIATE YOU FOR STARTING THESE BLOGS, AND KEEPING THEM UP SO NICE AND CUTE. I THINK DAD IS REALLY GETTING INTO IT. HE WANTS ME TO START ONE FOR US, JUST TO POST SILLY THINGS ON.

EVERYONE, KEEP BLOGGING AND KEEPING IN TOUCH. I LOVE YOU ALL

What can I say.

Well, here I am, sitting at the computer while eating a small bowl of ice cream. Good to.
The televi sion is off, and Grandma is reading one of her catalogues. { is that spelled right?]
Lulu wants to go for a walk but it is dark and the boogers are out.

Went to Safford today for a small amount of groceries. Had to s ee if Wal mart was still there.
I had something in mind to put on this blog but by the time I went through ALL of the steps to get here I had forgotten what I had in mind. OH THE GOLDEN YEARS.

Bought some ignition parts for my old truck, hope to have it running good in a few days. Going to intall the steering wheel, brake and clutch pedals. and then take it ON THE ROAD AGAIN.

By the time you read this I will have tired of it all and will go back to solitair.

I am going to start signing my name in a more sophisticated way, such as AMANDA LAUREL.

Signing off now.

MR JERRY LEE

We have a WINNER!!!

All of your guesses were great but the winner is JoAn who guessed (actually she knew) sand crab formations from the beach in Australia. They also made little sand balls that they pushed into formations that looked like flowers. They covered the whole beach - it was amazing. So JoAn I'll be sending you some sand from Australia, but I don't have any so you'll have to wait until the next time I go there. And since it really wasn't a fair contest since JoAn knew it, I'll be sending Becky some rotten hamburger, Emily some coral and Miranda and LeNell some kangaroo poop. This other picture is of LeNell flirting with a guy on the beach. woo-woo

Raspberry Jam

As I was spreading my raspberry jam onto my toast this morning, I was taken back in time to when we used to pick raspberries on Mt. Graham.(is that spelled right? it doesn't look right) Anyway, it was a big event. We made a whole day of it. We would drive and drive up the mountain until we found a good spot. Everyone would take their buckets and split up and start picking. Our hands and arms would get all scratched up from the raspberry bushes. I would get tired and bored and hungry and hot and whatever else I could think of to whine about. Then we would go find another spot after that one was all picked over. After a long day and buckets and buckets of raspberries later, we would head for home. Then the real work began. I don't remember this part so much. Probably because Mom did most of it, but the results tasted wonderful! Jars and jars and jars of jam. Raspberry pies to put in the freezer to be baked on Sundays. Heavenly! I know it was ALOT of work, but it was good work. It taught us some valuable lessons. Things that MY kids will probably never learn. And even though we can buy raspberry jam and raspberry pie whenever we want in the store, it's not the same. Never will be.

What in the world???

I'm going to do JoAn's idea and see who can guess what this is a picture of....everyone needs to get on the blog and give me your guesses - the winner gets.............................................................................................................................................................................some of what's in the picture!!! HA

Nacho Libre Pose

If you have seen the movie "Nacho Libre" (one of our favorites) you might remember the scene where Nacho (Jack Black) is trying to impress Encarnacion and flexes his buns. While hiking Mt. Timpanogos last summer, Rob, Brady, Kason and Eli did the bun flex. I wish Colby would not have gone so far ahead on the trail so he could have been in it too, then it could have been all the Dow boys, but it's still funny!

trying this again

greetings:

i would just like to let all know who think they might care, my new favorite musical artist of all time is.......

regina spektor

for all those who may be wondering what it takes for amanda to endorse an artist so strongly without any reservations or second thoughts i suggest you watch...

fidelity: by regina spektor

this video can be found on youtube. or other major search websites.

she. is. a. genius.

and as weird as can be, a prerequisite for genius consideration.

thank you for your time.

so...

i got accepted into the arizona state university school of nursing in downtown phoenix.

yay me.

24 addicts

OK so I never expected it to happen, but Rob and I have become addicted to "24". Darvil told me a while back that he was into it and how addicting it was. So for Rob's birthday I gave him season 1 on DVD. (it got a little smashed in the accident, but most of it was still OK). We had never watched it before. Well, at night after we have the kids in bed we put in an episode just to unwind. Without the commercials it only takes about 40-45 minutes. It's really action-packed and intriguing, and of course they leave you hanging at the end of each episode, so much so that sometimes we have to watch the next one even though it's late! It's been fun.

I obviously don't know how to put pictures on the blog - the baptism pictures were there at one time, and then they disappeared completely. I don't know what I did wrong, I'm just clueless I guess! I'll try again another day (remember my procrastination quirk?) Ha.

Amanda, I have been cracking up at your blogs. Your mom must be bugging you to blog and you've complied by blogging very simple things on purpose. but it is funny so keep it up!

Last but not least, thanks everyone for the organization tips. I'm just doing a little each day and trying to clear out clutter and get rid of things. It's amazing how much you accumulate when you haven't moved in over 10 years! I'm slowly liking my house again!

You never know what pictures will show up on the slide show!

Help me, PLEASE!

I have been playing around with photos and how to include them on a blog post, I don't really know what I'm doing, but I managed to put these cute photos on. I think I need shaleice to come to my house and show me what she showed Mom.

But what I really need and what I think would be a good idea for a challenge question is to have people help me with organization. This is a good time of year to get cleaned up from the holidays and get organized, so why doesn't everyone post their best organization tips? If the Hancock women would do it on their blog too since they have a bigger group, we could really get a lot of good ideas. For example: How do you avoid and eliminate clutter? do you have a trick for avoiding the dreaded Paper Mountain I always seem to end up with? Or maybe you have a good system for laundry or even getting your kids to do their own? Or maybe you have a cool meal planning/ preparing technique? Share them! PLEASE!!!!!

Isabelle's baptism, Oct. 25th

hike

today i decided to go on a hike.
because i didn't have to work.
and i thought it would be fun.
so i invited emily along.
and we hiked.
and it was fun.
the sun was out.
but it wasn't hot.
and it was fun.
buckets of fun.
and now i'm tired.
but i feel accomplished.
the end.

I hear you Dad

I know what you're talking about Dad. I get tired of getting on here and not seeing anything new either. Do people just not use computers these days? My life is not exciting by any means, so that's why I post little things. And it's the little things that are so fun to read about others. It doesn't have to be anything life changing. For instance, the other night I watched Dr. Zhivago for the first time. The girls gave me a box set of movies for Mothers Day with Gone with the Wind in it because I love that movie, but also included was Casablanca and Dr. Zhivago. Phillip and I had the whole evening ahead of us with nothing to do so I put that movie in. Good thing we had the whole evening because it's a long one! When there's a prelude and an intermission you know you're going to be there awhile. And it's kind of hard to understand, I had to keep asking him "what are they talking about?" or "why did he do that?" (Russian Revolution and all that) But we made it to the end. I know it was big in it's day and won like five academy awards, but it's not for me. So now I can say I've seen it and I never have to watch it again. See, I just filled up a couple of minutes of your day with a little thing and you didn't even notice those minutes are gone now. Everyone seems to respond pretty well to challenges, maybe we should present another challenge. I'll put my thinking cap on and if you come up with something also, let's hear it. We can't give up on the blog, it's still a baby. It needs to be given a chance to grow and nourish. LET'S FEED IT PEOPLE!!!

DEFENSE OF MY POSITION

I had to get on this blog and defend myself. I do some of my best thinking from this position.

It seems I can't sleep much at night and it takes me a long time to go to sleep, but when I lay down on the couch I can go right to sleep. STRANGE.

We have a pork roast cooking and it is almost done. Am I the only one who can hardly wait?

I really do not have anything to say except I am tired of logging onto this site and not finding any new information about anyone. Come on all you Borens, Cooks, and Dows, get on the stick.
Lie to me if you want, just write me something to read. [ Make it juicy.

Gotta go now, see ya.

Bye

Grandpa

ARE YOU READY FOR THE PROM?
I'M STILL PRACTICING.

SHALEICE IS A GOOD TEACHER

I AM LEARNING HOW TO PUBLISH PICTURES TO THE BLOG AND OTHER NEAT COMPUTER TRICKS - WITH SHALEICE'S HELP. MY BRAIN IS VERY FULL AND FRAZZLED, BUT SHE IS WRITING EVERYTHING DOWN. THANKS, SHALEICE

I'M BACK

I HAVEN'T POSTED ANYTHING FOR A WHILE NOW. I HAVE BEEN PUTTING CHRISTMAS STUFF AWAY AND PUTTING OUT OTHER STUFF. MY BIG WHITE CUPBOARD IN THE FRONT ROOM WAS EMPTY, SO I GOT OUT SOME STUFF THAT KIND OF GOES TOGETHER AND NOW I HAVE A KIND OF A LITTLE GARDEN SPOT IN THERE, WITH KIND OF A BIRD, LOVE, HEART THEME. I HAVE BEEN LOOKING AT A LOT OF BLOGS. I LOOKED AT THE ONE YOU TOLD ME ABOUT, BECKY, AND THERE ARE SO MANY PRETTY PICTURES TO INSPIRE. JUST THE KIND OF STUFF I LOVE. I ALSO LIKE THE GRAPHICS FAIRY, FOR FREE PICTURES TO FRAME OR JUST USE HOWEVER. I HAVE BEEN PRINTING OUT A LOT OF THESE. THERE ARE SEVERAL OTHER BLOGS THAT HAVE FREE PICTURES FOR PRINTING, LIKE THE VINTAGE MOTH. ITS FUN TO LOOK AT ALL OF THESE CUTE BLOGS.

BUT THEN, A COUPLE OF DAYS AGO, THE DREADED MIGRAINE APPEARED AGAIN. MIGRAINE HELL IS WHAT IT SHOULD BE CALLED. I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR MY MIGRAINE MEDICINE THAT I ORDERED FROM OUR INSURANCE TO ARRIVE, BUT SO FAR NO SHOW. KEN LARSON CALLED IN A COUPLE OF PILLS - 2 FOR $50 - SO I HOPE THEY WILL TIDE ME OVER TIL MY MEDICINE GETS HERE. I FEEL HALFWAY NORMAL TODAY. THESE ARE JUST A FEW OF THE THINGS I'VE BEEN DOING. DAD HELPED ME PUT MY SIGN "AND HEAVEN AND NATURE SING" ON A LONG BOARD THAT IS PAINTED THE SAME COLOR AS THE WALL, AND IT HANGS ABOVE MY SHELF AT THE END OF THE FAMILY ROOM THAT HOLDS BIRD NESTS, PIGEON EGGS, SEASHELLS, DRIED FLOWERS, ETC. I LIKE HOW IT LOOKS.

I LIKE THE NEW LOOK FOR THE BLOG, BECKY. YOU ARE DOING A GOOD JOB! TOO BAD MORE PEOPLE AREN'T GETTING ON TO ENJOY IT. ANYWAY, KEEP IT UP. I AM GOING TO WORK ON POSTING SOME PICTURES.

Is Anyone Out There????

Good Find!

I know this is dumb to post this, but little things make me happy. I have been wanting to get new decorations for my tree for a long time, but never had the extra money after Christmas when everything was on sale. I went to K-mart today not intending to get decorations but there they were. Martha Stewart everything 75% off. I decided if I was going to change I might as well change completely and go with a different color scheme. I liked the look of the silver and white, it's a change from the gold and red I've done for years. So I put all of these together and they were only $25!! I wish I would have gotten more. I'm so excited! You just can't redo a tree for $25! I'm sure I'll add to them when Christmas comes around again. So just remember, it's the little things.

Mom. Here's a blog full of pretty things you might enjoy!

Daisy Pink Cupcake

Daisy Pink Cupcake

Listen up Grandma and Grandpa! Just for You!

Thank Heavens It's 2009!

Happy New Year. And I literally hope it's a Happy New Year. I'm just so glad it's a New Year. I was ready to see the old one go. Hopefully 2009 will be a better one. Maybe this will be the year when good things happen in our family ( or crappy things stop happening). Phillip and I will be celebrating our 20th Anniversary this year. Amanda graduates from High School this year. We'll see what happens. 2008 wasn't all bad, there was alot of good also. Here's some pics from our family in 2008. Check out the Cook blog for Emily's room redo.

OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW

HOW WAS EVERYONE'S NEW YEAR'S EVE? HOPE EVERYONE HAD FUN. GRANDPA & I WENT TO THE PARTY WITH THE SAME OLD GROUP. SOME CHANGES HAVE OCCURRED OVER THE PAST I DON'T EVEN REMEMBER HOW MANY YEARS. THE PARTY WAS HELD IN THATCHER THIS YEAR, AT SANDY AND DENNIS LUNTS HOUSE. THEY LIVE IN HER DAD'S HOUSE. JOHN BRYCE HAS REMARRIED, AS YOU KNOW, BUT THATS A CHANGE FROM OUR FIRST PARTIES. BOB COLVIN IS NOW IN A WHEELCHAIR AND HE AND VERNA RAE ARE BOTH ON OXYGEN, WHICH THEY CARRY WITH THEM. I THINK VERNA RAE'S MIND IS GOING. SHE BROUGHT A WHOLE BUNCH OF POTATO CHIPS, BUT SINCE WE HAD PIMALOTTAS, THAT DIDN'T WORK AND SANDY HAD TO RUN TO THE STORE. JOY HURT HER LEFT HAND, HAD SURGERY ON THE TENDONS IN NOVEMBER AND IS STILL WEARING A PROTECTIVE BRACE. SHE PLAYED CARDS BUT COULDN'T SHUFFLE. SHE LOOKS LIKE SHE'S BEEN IN A LOT OF PAIN. BOB IS SPORTING SOME NEW FALSE TEETH AND LOOKS A LITTLE DIFFERENT. DENNIS LUNT GETS ASTHMA EVERY WINTER AND IS GOING THROUGH A BAD BOUT OF IT WITH A TERRIBLE COUGH. I SAT NEXT TO HIM AND IT WORE ME OUT JUST LISTENING TO HIM. I TOLD SANDY SHE SHOULD HAVE HAD BOWLS OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF MEDICINE FOR PARTY FAVORS. EVERYONE WAS COMPLAINING ABOUT SOMETHING. DAVIS AND MALENA DIDN'T GO BECAUSE HE HOLDS A GRUDGE FOR SOMETHING DENNIS SAID ABOUT DOUG DURING DOUG'S DRUG DAYS. PEOPLE, MAINLY BOB, STARTED TALKING ABOUT LEAVING AT 10:00, BUT WE STAYED TIL ALMOST 12. SANDY AND DENNIS GOT A PHONE CALL THAT 2 OF THEIR MARRIED KIDS HAD BEEN IN AN ACCIDENT INVOLVING ICE ON THE ROAD GOING TO THE SKI RESORT, SO I KNOW THIS PUT A DAMPER ON THE PARTY FOR THEM. BOB AND I WERE PARTNERS AND WE WON 2 GAMES RIGHT OFF THE BAT, SO I DIDN'T HAVE HIM PESTERING ME TO BID. AT LEAST HE WAS IN A GOOD MOOD ABOUT THAT. IT WAS A VERY UNUSUAL, INTERESTING, KIND OF DEPRESSING, BUT KIND OF FUN PARTY, BUT THE FOOD WAS DELICIOUS.

HOW WAS YOUR NIGHT?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

NEW YEAR'S DAY 2009

New Year's Day.... I remember Grandma Hancock's Hoppin' John - a black-eyed pea, ham and rice soup that she always made on New Year's Day. The legend was that if you ate some on the first day of the year you would have good luck throughout the year. We would go over to her house and have some just because it couldn't hurt, and it was good. I've tried making it (just making up my own recipe) and making my family eat it - they don't appreciate the nostalgia. I have some leftover ham from Christmas dinner, maybe I'll pull out some black-eyed peas....

The other thing I think of on New Year's is making resolutions. I never used to really see what the big deal was about resolutions when I was younger, but now I seem to make resolutions every year. They always seem to include the same elements --- weight loss, getting organized and improving my spirituality. Maybe one of these years I'll really accomplish these goals and move on... is 2009 that year? Probably not, it's probably going to be a life-long battle. Grandma was still on diets and exercising up until very late in her life. So maybe she had the right idea, eat a little Hoppin' John, set a few goals, and then keep on truckin through life 'til you're done.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!