Wildlife Photography

So, after the carousel ride on Tuesday (see me still wearing my hat for Marie?), I stopped by Hallmark to see what was of good report or praiseworthy. As I was walking out of the store, Troy takes my picture. I said, "Did you just take my picture?"

Troy says..."Yes. I've been photographing you in your natural habitat..."

Oh, how I do love a Hallmark...there are just so many pretty, happy things...especially at Christmas time. (Remember that advertising campaign they had a few years back...heartwarming scenes where people would get noticed for carrying their Hallmark shopping bags and the people noticing them would automatically know they are "nice" because they shop at Hallmark? I loved those commercials! It made me feel so justified in my addiction. After all, I am nothing if not nice!)

Anyhoo, each time I go into Hallmark lately, I'm reminded of one of my favorite days of the year. It's coming up Nov. 8th...Hallmark Holiday Open House! Big spenders (like myself) are rewarded with a VIP invite to (among other deals) claim their $50 value gift bag of totally adorable holiday goodies that you never knew you needed until you were gifted with them!

Apparently, my sister-in-law Brittani loves Hallmark, too. (As opposed to my friend Brittani...they spell their name the same...isn't that convenient? Unlike my other sister-in-law Shellie who does NOT spell her name the same as my friend Shelly. I can't have everything. They might ALL like Hallmark...I don't know...I'll have to ask!) Anyway, when Brittani was here, we were both delighted by these new, adorable, holiday trinkets here. I might not have a Christmas tree this year (it'll take 2 months for our stuff to get to Japan) but I WILL pack these guys in my suitcase! Their cute little River Dance is just so...festive! I'm feelin' like Christmas already!

This was a great idea, Troy...now I'll have to see who else I can catch in their natural habitat! Game on!

The Coolest Memorial I've Seen

The kids and I attended an awesome memorial service yesterday...it was for one of our favorite Snowbirds. We had the pleasure of getting to know Marie over the past 2 "seasons." She was classy and sweet, and loved by her family and friends.

Marie used to join us at chapel services on the base, and she attended LDS services out in town, too. She was so tickled that there was an LDS chaplain serving at NAF El Centro...we were tickled that someone else besides us did both services each Sunday. She was involved with both communities, too.

Marie had a stroke in front of her trailer on a Sunday morning last year. She didn't live very much longer, but when we went to visit her in the ICU, she did wake up and respond to us, even though she couldn't speak. We know she is much happier in heaven!

Her family waited until this "season" to come down and have a memorial for her. They had it in the same place out in Anza Borrego that they had her husband's service. They LOVED the desert. Her daughter, Kitty, asked me to read her "life sketch". It was an honor, and I enjoyed getting to know her even better.

The thing that I liked most about this memorial, is that it celebrated the things Marie loved about life...they were things that I love, too.

Marie loved hats...I always remember seeing her wearing one...so everyone was encouraged to wear a hat.

Marie LOVED chocolate. She believed in eating dessert first...

as I was reading this part, her daughter handed out chocolate bars to everyone, with this wrapper around them.


Marie LOVED the 4th of July...particularly fireworks. Kitty brought us all some small fireworks to enjoy, so Marie could have a front row seat from heaven!

(The cat jumped up on the coffee table as I took this. She thought it was obvious I wanted a picture of her!)


At one point, we listened to her favorite music while we wrote messages to Marie to attach to balloons.


We held our balloons till the end of the service...


and then we lauched them into the air with our messages of love to her...


hopefully she gets them all!



Marie LOVED carousels. As a gift one year, her son bought her a brass, "lifetime pass" to the carousel at Seaport Village. What an awesome gift! After the service, we went over to the mall to ride the carousel.

I think that Marie's family was onto something...this was a very special way to remember her. Yes, there were tears...but there was also laughter at all the good memories.

It was a very special day!

Uncle Justin and Aunt Brittani

The day after we returned from our conference trip, Uncle Justin and Aunt Brittani arrived for a visit! While we hope they will come to see us in Okinawa, too...and we hope to come to Colorado to visit them, all we know for now is that we are leaving the country and we need to savor every moment we have with them!


Here we are enjoying dinner shortly after their arrival. Things were so crazy with Cliff having to leave for KC (for Dave's funeral) as soon as we got back from SLC, AND the busiest time for my work (change of the term) ahead of me...so it was SO sweet of Deb to surprise us with this delicious dinner. I was just planning on getting pizza or takout. This was SO much better!


OK, so maybe we had a little competition. They were here to see us...but they also scheduled the trip around the Chargers/Patriots game. I can live with that.

Let's be honest...there's not a WHOLE lot of excitement to be had in the Imperial Valley. We went to the Mall, Gamestop and Coldstone...Cliff took them on a tour of the base when he got back...and then the last night they were here, we went bowling at the NEW bowling alley out in town. It is pretty awesome, I must say.

Uncle and Nephew


Aunt and Niece


Troy and Patrick put on their best "teenage attitude" faces. Their vote was laser tag...which doesn't really lend itself to family conversation.


We were having fun, anyway!


Couldn't resist a rear view


Did you know Justin took bowling in college? And snowboarding! How cool is that?


Look at that form! Kind of an artsy shot, huh?


We all laughed so hard at this one...I was trying to capture some of Justin's tricks (like his under the leg one here)...but none of the shots came out very flattering...this is the funniest one!




This is where the REAL fun is!

Besides bowling and laser tag, they have an arcade full of games which dispense tickets (like Chuck E Cheese) where you can earn prizes. I wonder if there is a kid out there with his eye on that Crock Pot? (Only 2815 more tickets and that baby's mine!)



All the kids took a turn learning from the master...




Cliff and Patrick are out of tokens...so they make up their own games

Just good, clean Valley fun!

Zubbas...Who would have thought?

This is the picture I always imagine when I think of Zubbas...or Uncle Justin, as we know him today. Isn't he gorgeous?

I adored this baby...as a matter of fact, the one thing I regret about having our kids so close together, is that none of them got to have a "Zubbas"...they were all too young to appreciate each other.



He said and did the cutest things. He loved music...some of his pre-school favorites: "Celebration" by Kool & the Gang and "A Country Boy Can Survive" by Hank Williams Jr. (He called it "The Fork and the Knife song"...I think it comes from something about a switch blade knife?) He was fascinated with "The Dukes of Hazard" and the Godfather's Pizza commercials.



I used to feed him...and even after he was old enough to feed himself, sometimes I talked him into letting me feed him anyway...like my own living doll.



Come to think of it, as he got older I still treated him like a doll. I loved to buy him clothes and style his hair.

(A little Trivia: To this day, if Justin is with me, I absent-mindedly call him Troy and Troy, Justin. I think it is because before Troy, Justin was my most recent "baby" experience.)

During Justin's most recent visit, I was watching him walk ahead of me into the mall with my kids. He was showing them all his hip, "freestyle walking" tricks.

The inspiration for this post came washing over me...the picture of him as that fuzzy-headed baby went flashing through my mind...I couldn't have imagined then that he'd grow up to be SUCH a cool uncle...that my kids would adore him SO much, or that he'd be SO dang funny...but here he was!

I couldn't have imagined what a sweet husband he would be to his darling wife. To be honest, It's still hard for me to imagine him as an adult...and he's almost 30!

I started welling up...but sucked it up, as I did not wish to ruin the moment by being the un-cool, sentimental, weepy mom that I often am (luckily, it was dark).



Justin and Reese in WY back in '05



Justin doing his own Sarah Palin impersonation



He even shreds at "Dance Dance Revolution", how cool is that?

Justin and Brittani strike a pose on our way home from Starbucks

Yes, Justin is officially "Uber-Uncle"...but he will always be Zubbas to me!

Flashback Friday...Stranded!

This flashback is a little bit different. It was triggered by an experience we had today. We had to travel to San Diego to get our military passports. We have to get 2 different kinds...(By the way, there are SO many appointments, expenses and shots that come along with going overseas. We had our second round of shots this morning...the first appt., last week I got SIX shots...the family record! Today was only one for each of us, luckily.)

Anyhoo...we finally get all the paperwork in order and turned in (after THE stereo-typical civil service employee tries every thing he can NOT to help us) and we leave 32nd St. and head for Party City for some last minute costume needs before Trunk or Treat tonight.

We come out of Party City very satisfied, only to find that our van will not start. We think the battery is fried from the summer heat, because it's been struggling to start lately. Same thing happened after last summer. Anyway, we are up against a curb in a CROWDED parking lot. Cliff sends us into Wendy's for some beverages while he tries to flag someone down with cables AND wait for one of the parking places next to us to free up (luckily, he's in uniform, that should help win someone over!

As the kids and I are inside, waiting for our drinks, something occurs to me that cracks me up...you have to keep in mind, it is RARE that I sew...VERY rare!


This is us...over 3 years ago. Cliff had just been asked to "prayerfully consider" switching his orders to NAF El Centro (he was supposed to go to Balboa Naval Hospital). Sidebar: Do pilot detailers ask you to prayerfully consider orders? Maybe Clint or Jeff can answer that one for me? In the Chaplain Corps..."prayerfully consider" is the nice way to say, "We're sending you here, in reality you have no choice, but we'd like you to believe you play a part in the decision. It just helps us all to feel good about it."

Since it was only 2 hours away, we all jumped in the car to get the lay of the land. It was a Friday afternoon in July. Our ward's Pioneer Day celebration was the next day, so I was finishing Coree's costume on the drive (pictured below...I also made her wear it that year for Halloween..I'm getting as much mileage as possible from my effort!)


And this is our van being towed to Pep Boys when it wouldn't start...the fuel pump went out. Ironically, they had to order the part from San Diego (where we had just come from). So we had to stay a night at the base and rent a car to drive back to San Diego. We missed Pioneer Day.


So that was the flashback part...now fast forward to today...


Cliff getting prepped for someone to give us a jump.


Me sewing the finishing touches to Coree's Halloween costume on the drive.

So this is what made me chuckle...

3 years ago, we drove from San Diego to El Centro while I sewed a costume for Coree. We got stranded in El Centro.

Today, we drove from El Centro to San Diego...while I sewed a costume for Coree. We got stranded in San Diego (but at least we made it back JUST IN TIME for Trunk or Treat).

Patrick said I'm not allowed to sew on the drive anymore...

Troy TOTALLY gets it!

OK...so we were working the kids like slaves today, getting ready to show our house for the first time. We have been spending all our free time lately (which isn't much) trying to pack up what we can and make our house "show" nicer...so WE'd want to buy it if we saw it.

Anyway, even though the kids worked hard, they didn't really appreciate why we had to be so particular. We explained "staging"...like what we saw when we dragged them through endless model homes.

Then later I saw Troy's desk...He get's it!


(Ignore the cammie netting...it covers their whole room.)



Here's hoping the Home-Schooled-Goody-Two-Shoes-Mormon-Boy effect gets this house sold!

It's in the low 90's...It MUST be Fall!

We may not have the gorgeous Fall colors out here in the desert (as seen below, surrounding Troy in Colorado)...



We may not have our own pumpkin patch like Bell Gardens in Valley Center...


But no matter where we have traveled, we've always had something very special to usher in this time of year...

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins...manna from heaven!

I received this recipe from my dear friend, (and first Visiting Teacher) Julie Cole, when I was still a single gal. I've been making them now since before I was birthin' babies, so my kids have been raised on them. They'll ask for them any time of year...they are everyone's favorite...but we usually reserve them for the cooler months.

This was the first batch of the season. Let the holidays begin!