Thanksgiving Weekend

We hope everyone had a fun Thanksgiving. Ours was very enjoyable. This is a great time of year to count our blessings. After counting mine I realize how blessed I am. I am grateful to be a member of the true church and have a testimony of it's truthfulness. I couldn't have asked for a better family. I'm grateful they are all healthy and active in the church. I'm grateful to live in this wonderful country. The list really goes on.

We had a different combination of family and friends around the table. Wayne, Elaine, Tim, Tanya, Leslie, Marisa, Sara, Kathy, Tyler, Grace and Wally Reid, and two missionaries. It was a beautiful day and lots of good food.

Sara arrived early Wednesday morning. I had to wait until after school to see her. She helped me Wed. night to get ready. Yes I did polish the silverware. It was really tarnished. Sara was asked which she would like to do, chop onions for the stuffing or clean the silverware. Guess which she chose? She did the onions even though she cried the whole time. Tim, Tanya, Leslie and Marisa came Wed. night. They slept over.

Thurs. mid morning we went to the movies with the Calders. This seems to have become a tradition. The Marcusens were in Utah. We went to see Enchanted. It was very delightful. It was Marisa's first movie. She did pretty good. Tim did finally have to take her out toward the end.

Friday we took our annual trip to Huntington and had breakfast at Ruby's. It was great. Then we did some shopping at HSS. I think Tim was the only one that bought much. (It is still his favorite store.) Then Sara, Wayne and I went to Irvine to see Madie play soccer. She scored a goal. She has a great team. It was fun to watch. It was nice to see Cookie and Madie. After the game we did some more shopping.

Saturday, Wayne managed to go golfing. I worked on my class. (I can't wait to be finished with these classes I'm taking. It makes it so I really have no life. I'm about half way finished. Hopefully I will be though by the end of summer.) Sara slept in. Tim, Tanya, and Marisa dropped Leslie off at the airport and came to spend the rest of the day with us. We watched the BYU / Utah game. Now it is Sunday afternoon and the house is quiet again. We love it when there is family around.

The Military Ball - Adult Prom

We are grateful to be friends with Scott and Carol.

Doesn't Wayne look handsome in his tux.
This weekend was the Military Ball. It might be the last one we get to go to because it might be Scott's last year in the Air National Guard. We really have enjoyed the times that we have gone. This year we were lucky and got to sit up very close. I really like their presentation to the POW's and MIA's. There is a table set for dinner on the stage. A member from each of the military armed forces; Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, and Coast Guard march to the table. In honor of those soldiers missing, a hat is placed on the table. On the plate is salt, this represents the tears of their loved one, and there is a lemon slice. This represents the bitter memory of the loved one being absent. I also enjoy the flag presentation as well. We are standing by the flags before dancing starts.

Besides going to the military ball, Wayne and I did a lot of things around the house. We did some of our usual housecleaning, some of it was deep housecleaning. I have collected a lot of dust in places I don't very often dust. Then we cleaned the windows. They were awfully dirty. Next we hung a few pictures. Wayne did some weeding and I went to the grocery store. Wayne thinks his honey do list is finished. Ha Ha Ha As soon as he said that I found something he hasn't finished. Is work like this ever done? There is always the garage and the attic. And if I remember correctly the weeds come back very quickly. We also have limes, grapefruit and avacodos that need to be harvested.

We have had Danny Lopez doing most of Wayne's honey dos this past week. Since the bedrooms have been painted we needed some new floor boards put in. We don't have the right tools so we got Danny to help us. Since we already had him working at the house we had him replace all the old light switches and outlets. Now they are white and look a lot cleaner. I think the gardeners broke the washroom door window so that needed to be replaced. While we were at it we also replaced the garage door by the freezer. His next project was to fix the kitchen fan. It hasn't worked for at least 3 years. When he looked at the fan he found it was broken. We were hoping it was just a missing screw. This means we now have a new fan/light in the kitchen. It has a really fancy switch. You might need instructions to make it work when you come to visit. Then we had him put up crown molding in the front room and dining room. His last project was to put up tiles on the roof that were missing. As you can see Wayne got a lot of honey dos done with the help of a handyman. This is why Wayne thinks he is finished. Because of all the dust I had to wash all the floor which includes the washroom. This is not my favorite job. The tile floor kills the knees.

It is almost Thanksgiving. I want to wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving Day. We are grateful for so many things, but top on our list is our family. You are all on top of the totem pole.

Halloween and Report Cards

This is report card weekend. This means I usually spend most of the day Saturday working of report cards. I made a big effort to have all my paper work done by Friday night so I could spend some time with the family. Tanya's mom is in town so Saturday morning we met Tim, Tanya, Ivonne, and Marisa at Ruby's in Newport Beach. This has to be Wayne's favorite place to eat.

We then went to watch Haylie play soccer. Her team won. They were even short two players when the game began. She is a good little team player. She took the ball away many times. Keep it up Haylie. I'm sorry you had to hear your mom, dad and grandpa yelling. I thought you were awesome. Wayne and I have tried to see the kids play two other times. We were rained out or fired out.
Here is cute Marisa at Ruby's. All her parents would give her to eat was a straw. That doesn't sound very tasty to me.
This is a picture of the class. I have some very active little boys. I'm sure you can tell by all the things they are doing. I hated my costume. I will never wear it again. I looked really funny.
By the way reports cards are done.