What is it???

Blade and Ginger have happy news.



Its a girl!

November Snow and Blessings

We finally got some snow. It is lovely. But there are some problems with snow. I had my very large Elm trees in the backyard topped a few years ago and the new growth is still fragile in crazy weather. So we had a big branch come down in the night. The trees are very close to my house and I have felt very blessed that none of them have hit my house. 

Also, on the day before Chance is to have his mission interview with the Stake President, he FINALLY got his wallet in the mail. As it turns out, it was not mailed 4 weeks ago as he was told but just this last Monday. His wallet went on a long journey. From Utah County, to Tabiona UT, to Oklahoma, and then to Texas. Glad it finally made it here! 

Creative and ......bored.

We have been waiting for 4 weeks for a lost driver's license to arrive in the mail so that we could submit Chance's mission paperwork. Grrrrr! Finally the Stake President said to go ahead and we will get the DL number on there later. Meanwhile, Chance has been busy as usual, working for me and at his job at Delta Freeze. One thing is lacking though.....his friends are away in College or busy in High School. Chance gets a little bored in his down times and this is what he has been doing to occupy himself.

Helping me in the garden. He has been SO much help. I will miss him TONS next year!

Spending time with his brothers!

Creating works of art on his bedroom floor! He said this was a man's face but it looks like a lion to me.

I thought this one was finished, but it soon morphed into.....

This!

October....

October is gone and here are a few pictures to let you know how it went for us.

October is "Put the garden to bed" month. I canned that last of the tomatoes last week and put away the canning supplies and food dryer. Yeah! Time for a long winter's nap.

We left the beets to last and found some monsters hiding. I also had red and white striped and plain white beets. I didn't know there was anything other than red beets but Wikipedia confirmed it. They were good too!

Crazy hair day at school. Guess who is going to have curly hair? That is not artificially induced and it is getting curlier by the minute.

The "Scarecrow" Elijah and Chance made for a contest at Elijah's school.

Halloween decor

Darth Vader and his jester

Hurry! Get my machete!

So I just bought a machete, actually 2 machetes. I bought them for gardening work but they could come in handy in case I get the chance to rid the world of evil, if it happens to come my way. And it just might, so I'll be ready.

Hi-Ya!

A few weeks ago, I read an article about co-dependents and thought of my ex-husband. It fit him to a T. But so does Narcissistic, Autistic, OCD, etc (I'm sure my sister-in-law could come up with a nice list for me ) 

Lame

Anyways, I have been very curious as to whether he and his wife are still together and so I used this article as an excuse to find out. I sent it to her and said,  "I don't know if this is still applicable but I read this and thought of you and me and the person that we both married. Hope you are well."  She wrote back and said that she was still living in Hell. We wrote back and forth a few times and honestly I was kind of amused because she has been with him for almost a year and a half and has taken him back 3 times now. When will the woman stop believing his lies and allowing him to sweet talk her? 

So, then I get an email from my ex. He is full of his usual blah blah blah. It was so funny, especially the part where he said that if I didn't stop writing to his wife then he was going to have to contact my Stake President. 

Seriously? PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE contact my Stake President! I am sure that he would be grateful for the opportunity to tell you AGAIN that you are devoid of the spirit. 

He also said that I was trying to brainwash his wife. HA! Lame is KING of brainwashing. He could have worked for Hitler. ( Actually, now that I think of it, I am trying to brainwash her. I am trying to wash her brain clean of all the crap he has been dumping into her mind and heart for the last year and a half. )

He went on to say that I would be held accountable to God for interfering in his sacred marriage relationship. Well, I certainly hope I DO get credit for helping this poor woman escape from his crazy schemes. It will be one of the better things I do in this life.

At the end he said, "If you can not say anything nice, then at least pray for me."

I do buddy.....every day.....that you get hit by a bus!

I was going to put up a picture of a man being hit by a bus but since this is a family blog, I chose this instead. Reminded me of the time he instructed me on how to properly replace the toilet paper roll.

Since I don't like seeing his name in my inbox, I decided to cool it. But a few days later I received another email from his wife asking me how I did it....HOW did I get him out of my life??? So I gave her some basic instruction and hoped for the best. A few days later she told me that his bags were packed but that he had locked himself in her bedroom for 2 days. 

Help! My wife is starving me!

She overheard a phone conversation he had with his brother where he said that he was going to call immigration (she lives in Canada) and tell them that she wasn't feeding him. He also said that if she divorced him, then he was going to try and get $5000 from her for all the work he did around her house. Huh? What work? Lame doesn't work!

Today she called me and we spoke for an hour. She didn't know HOW to get him out of her house but she had an appointment with her bishop that night. Great! 

Now the best part.....During the conversation she told me that Lame thought that I was trying to sabotage their marriage because I still had feelings for him and regretted letting him go and that I was hoping that we could get back together.  

What the...?!?!?!

I have been laughing ever since!!! 

And so, after he is divorced yet again, he might show up at my door, thinking that I want him. That's when the machete will come in handy. I'd send one to his wife if I thought it would help.

Hi, my name is Donna and I married a psycho!

:o)

A Big Step

With the announcement at General Conference that 18 year old young men can now serve missions, we rapidly and excitedly began the process of submitting Chance's papers. Within a few days, all was ready. Except for the HAIRCUT. This is a big deal for Chance. His hair is his trademark, part of his personality. People are drawn to him because of his blond fro. If he could keep his hair he would get double the amount of investigators, just so they could have the opportunity to touch his hair! JK 

Anyway, I must admit I got a bit teary-eyed when he left to go to the barbers. But he is still handsome as ever!

More Random...

Chance, after the chalk dance.

Chance, the Alien. ( I'm sorry, but why is this fun??? )

A beautiful beet.

Harvest time turns up some interesting veggies.

Enjoying each others company during General conference.

Dallin at his orchestra concert. I was worried because he had fallen off his bike the week before and hurt his arm, but he did a great hob!

A Great Day!

Chance and Elijah's Big Day!

On September 29th. Elijah was baptized and Chance had his Boy Scout Eagle court of honor. We had a lot of family and friends show up and it was very enjoyable.

Elijah Turned 8 in June but because of multiple family scheduling conflicts he wasn't able to be baptized until now. Chance baptized him and Blade confirmed him. They both did a very nice job. I am grateful that my sons are worthy priesthood holders and good examples to their younger brothers.

After the baptism we had lunch at the Palomar, but first we took pictures, and then we were treated to the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT! Blade and Ginger are expecting a baby! Yes! I'm gonna be a grandma! They are due in April. Here is baby's first picture. Wow! It looks like a baby dinosaur....lol

Then we had chance's Eagle court of honor. He earned his eagle during the summer of 2011, but we held off having his Court of Honor, so that we could combine events to lessen the amount of travel for our family and friends.  

Taking the oath

Proud Mama!

The Eagles nest...Uncle Curtis, Cousin Hunter, Friend Shawn, Uncle Jeff, Brothers Blade, Alex & Chance

 

My Three Eagles. Aren't they CUTE!

Random...

Roasted Tomatillos, onions and peppers for salsa...YUMMY!

The neighbors cat, who likes my garden.

This is what my neighbor saw, when he came by and said that we needed a garden tractor. I smiled and pointed to my boys and said that I wasn't just raising vegetables, I was raising boys.

I finally got a picture of the okra blossom. Isn't it lovely?

8 quarts of bread and butter pickles.

Sunset

I was hoping to get a picture of the fireball that  was rising over the church but as I walked closer, it took me to lower ground and hid the sun behind the church. Instead I got a picture of a neighbor walking her dog. Its interesting to me to see who else is about when I manage to drag myself up early enough to see the sunrise

My beautiful niece Kara, graduating from Paul Mitchel beauty school. Anyone could comment and so I said, "many of us say,  'When I grow up.....',  well, when I stop being grown up and boring I want to be just like Kara. She is brave and daring and fun and I hope she never changes."

Birthday Girl

The day before my birthday, I had to go out of town. Chance called me later in the day and asked what I wanted for my birthday. I told him I wanted him to clean his room. He just laughed. But then he said that he had my cake taken care of. SWEET! I love it when my boys show initiative and do something nice for me. It was our family favorite ice cream cake with a twist...covered in "Mother's Iced Circus Animal Cookies", which are my favorite. (Which is unexplainable because they don't contain chocolate.) He also had candles on it that spell out "cool mom". That isn't necessarily how he feels about me, we just already had candles that said "Congratulations" and he wanted to figure out something else, since you don't particularly want to tell your mom congrats about turning 47! Hee Hee!

August Garden

Garden of E   ~  2012

Just now starting to get overwhelmed with produce. This year I planted Okra (new), 2 rows of cucumbers, tomatoes, magic beans, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, brussel sprouts, eggplant, tomatillos (new), 3 kinds of melons, basil, cilantro, green beans, purple beans (new), celery, several kinds of peppers, marigolds, onions (new), beets, gold, red, and russet potatoes, corn, asparagus (new), parsley, and alfalfa. It is lovely. I only wish I could plant it and care for it, then get someone to pick and process all that produce. That is not my favorite part. But the eating is good!

Beets and Onions

Banana Peppers

Potatoes

I love red marigolds

My pitiful sunflower

Asparagus and Parsley

5 rows of Alfalfa so far. I will till it in in the fall and plant in the rows next year.

4 rows of sweet corn.

These are melons growing on the same vine...go figure.

Basil....mmmmm....pesto anyone?

Next time I plant something new, I will do a little more research. These are the HUGE tomatillos that I grew this year. My rows are 5 feet apart and I have to keep trimming the plants on both sides because they are growing  into the neighboring rows.

Cool tomato plant hedge

Feed me Seymour!

Beautiful Broccoli

Pretty Purple Beans

Magic Beans

Okra. I will have to get a picture of the blossom. It is beautiful!

Loaded with Honey Crisp apples.

The fruit trees are doing much better this year.