Hey, All You Leopards!

Well, the time came and went for the celebration of our 40th Reunion August 14-15! Wow.... some of us really changed.... some stayed pretty much the same. I was determined to take full advantage of the experience, and attended a fun luncheon then went to a sports bar and met up with a few more friends then headed downtown to the Bayou to mingle with the crowd. Each event had a flavor of its own - different, or more, people, and louder as the night progressed. The following day started with a run in the rain and a golf tournament. The Sr. Women had a luncheon at Sally Peterson's house up by Ft. Douglas - nice and very well attended and the men had a BBQ. In the afternoon, there was an open house at the school with an assembly presented by the committee with some great slide shows and narrative, music by the folk group, acappella, madrigals, and an awesome piano/cello number for a memorial presentation. We laughed, cried, and did a lot of hugging. A good time was had by all, and we've decided to do it again next year!
http://www.easthighleopards69.com/

Days of Summer........ Over!

Where has the summer gone? I can hardly believe that we're already raking the leaves and clearing out the remnants of a not-so-great garden. We've watched the daddy and mamma quails scurring through the yard and feasting on the strawberries. Not many babies this year, but the yearlings were still trailing the parents. We managed to add a new friend to the garden - a wood chuck! He's a handsome critter - yellowish-red, and probably about 20 pounds. Plump little fella feasts on all the apples he wants. Probably not a good idea to keep him around because I've heard they have a very nasty bite, but it has been kind of fun trying to spot him peeping through the bushes.

Our family has grown this summer as well. Ben and Amy and Koree added little sister, Cassidy on June 20. Cute little dolly whom I get to spend my days with. She's sure a happy little girl, and gives my days a goodly measure of joy.


Rachel and Ryan and Noelle added Little Sister Sydney to the family on June 26. She sure is a little dolly pie and I'm just aching to get my hands on her and kiss those chubby little cheeks. I think Noelle is happy with her cute little sibling, and before long they'll be playing Barbi.


Rebekah and Victor announced they will be parents of a little boy due in early January. We're very excited to learn of his coming and hope he'll arrive safe and healthy. What wonderful blessings each and every one of these children brings to our lives!

Randy and I are rounding off the summer by heading back down to No. Arizona to deliver necessities to the Elders. Some of the family have donated their time baking cookies for us to serve a the dinners we'll be preparing at our meetings. We'll be visiting three groups in Sanders, Teestso, and Big Mountain, and hopefully provide food and other necessities to sustain them through the winter. The annuall Rug Show in Deer Valley is being held in November, and we'll be looking forward to volunteering and being part of this Adopt a Native Elder program in some small way.
See http:/www.anelder.org.

The Best Birthday!

Yesterday was my 58th birthday! I thought it wasn't going to be very different from other birthdays, but it was. We watched the fireworks the night before up at the Sons of Utah Pioneers building and had the evening spoiled with someone's car rolling into Randy's truck - real bummer! Apparently the gear slipped and it rolled several feet and was stopped by our truck. If it had kept rolling, it most likely would have killed the fireworks onlookers below where we were parked. Looks like their insurance will cover the entire repair - no problemo. Anyway, I had the Relief Society lesson the next morning, and that was weighing heavy on my mind. I also wanted to prepare a potato salad for our family dinner planned for afternoon and get things kind of organized for the fam. Early morning meetings were cancelled and it was lovely to be able to sleep in a little, but the lesson was still in bare bones planning stage. I wanted to put a fresh spin on "Patriotism" and give the women plenty of time for testimoneys. The lesson went pretty well and we had gobbs of time and left RS out 10 minutes early! That's a first!

The family came for dinner around 4:00 and it was lovely. Randy smoked a pork loin roast and everyone brought the best food. The tables were set nice and patio clean! We had all the kids here with the exception of the out-of-towners and Nicole's family who were on route for home from Casper. We were pleased that Heidi was in town from Albuquerque with Karen's little Rebekah, and Julie and Brian and their darling kids were able to join us. Kaitlin gave me a gift of red, white and blue beads she won from Lagoon- she was too cute! I was able to spend lots of time holding sweet tiny Cassidy and visit with my children and just relax.

The day was wonderful. I had a steady stream of my sweet friends come to wish me happy birthday, felt the love of my wonderful family, and especially felt the pamperings from Randy. Loved the day. Today I face the reality of the clean up - but you know what? It wasn't too bad - I'm going to keep celebrating - it is my brithday WEEK~!!!

I'm a slacker....

I can't believe it's has been so long since I posted. A lot of "stuff" happened in past months, probably too numerous to try to relate. Maybe I can touch on the hi-lites so I can validate my lack of update.

A couple months ago I was notified at my 2-day a week job that my position (and several others') would be dissolved and they were just giving us a "head's up" so we could begin looking around. No time frame when the employment would end - so about 6 weeks later we finally got word it would be the middle of May. I had mixed emotions about this. Part of me was jumping for joy and another part was all tied up in knots. When I really stopped to think about what I might do, all I could do was feel overwhelmed and the prospects of being home with so much that needed my attention. I had a pretty good excuse if I was at work, but now there was no excuse. Needless to say, I began reading and reading and reading. That's it.... just ignore the rest of the world and enjoy fantasyland. The real highlight of my days came when someone called for a food order or I worked on the visiting teaching report. Big whooptee doo. I went to help Rachel pack for her move for a few days but really didn't feel that I was able to accomplish all I wanted to in such a short time. Worked in the garden here and there, and have spent waaaaay too much time on Facebook.

Today I took a step in a different direction and put in my application with an employment agency to go back to work, at least part-time, temporary. Maybe something will turn up that will motivate me to get up in the morning!

Renee Likes To.......

Ok....here are the rules.... Google "{your name} likes to" (with the quotation marks) and see what the first 10 hits say about it! I first forgot to include the rules - I'll be all 3 of you who follow my blog may have thought I was a bad girl! Maybe I am! Here's what I found out about myself:

1. Likes to play (Oh, that's vague and ambiguous!)
2. Likes it on the floor! (only if it's carpeted)
3. Likes to pretend she's smart.
4. Likes to kid around.
5. Likes to garden, cook, and is pretty crafty.
6. Likes to work on her own movies. (hmmmm)
7. Likes to shoot. (who?)
8. Likes to read good books, paint furniture, garden and fish.
9. Likes to travel, scuba dive and ride her Harley. (vroom, vroom)
10. Likes to be creative, is indifferent to revulsion and thinks of some of the activities (eg peeing) as fun (Girl Next Door - adult internet - yup, that's me)

Interesting, huh. Bet ya didn't know all this about me, did you? If you think I'm bad, you ought to see what Randy likes!!!!

It's the Love Month....

We had our annual service auction to kick off the month of service and love. It was decided that the party would be a little different this year - "Madhatter's Happy Unbirthday Party". It was pretty fun. Tables were gaily decorated with hat boxes, teapots and flowers with accompanying teacups and saucers. We served herbal teas, hot tang and cocoa and had the most delicious cakes made by Mary Ann and Janice. It was delightful! The women brought their gifts, some wrapped beautifully. We had breads, and other baked goods, chocolate covered fruits, hand made blankets, hats, and socks, and other various delights. We tried to cover other areas of service and asked the sisters to donate the gift certificates for service by offering cooked dinners, washing dishes, doing ironing, crafting scrapbook pages, and hand-painting t-shirts. We had about 35 women in attendance, and it was a smashing success!