A New Eagle in the Family

We have a new Eagle Scout in our family. On Sat, Dec 26, 2009 (YES - the day after Christmas!) was Nathan's ceremony. These photos posted in reverse order. But you will get the idea.

Family, Friends all in attendance!

Big Brother, Steven (who is himself an Eagle) having Nathan take
the Pledge/Oath of becoming an Eagle Scout.

Grandpa getting the pin so he can present Steven with his Rank.

Proud Aunt with her new Eagle nephew!

(This was taken before the ceremony)

Christmas Day

Christmas Day we had fun seeing and being with most of our kids. Heidi's family on the left, Serina & Nick, then Peter's family on the right. Jason's family was in Utah visiting with family there.

Curtis & Sandi on Christmas Day.

A Pioneer Christmas

We had a Pioneer Christmas for our Ward Party tonight. It was so fun. Some families came dressed as pioneers or in their "native" costume. We had bar-b-que beef, ranch beans, peaches, rolls and lemonade for dinner. Here is food line with Pioneer CJW serving peaches.

A little dark, but the above photo is of our "Campfire" we had in the middle of the gym. A fan laid on its back with red crepe paper to float upwards to look like fire and stumps to sit on around and chat. Bro. Walker told stories in the person of "John D. Lee" and his interaction with the Prophet Joseph Smith during 1832 era.

Bishop Curtis and Sandi Nielson in pioneer wear around the campfire!

Ashley and Tessa Grantham in their native Apache wear. Their clothing was absolutely beautiful! They even had real moccasins...so soft to the touch.

We all had a great time singing Songs & Carols with the Stott Boys on their guitar and banjo around the campfire. Fun was had by all in attendance!

Early Christmas!

Our oldest son and his family had Christmas with us tonight. They are going to be her family on Christmas. The kids had fun opening gifts from their Utah Granny and Farfar and from us. You can see the excitement on their faces!

Jaycie opening up dolls and stuffed dog.

Jaren and his baseball mitt, ball and ball pump!

Carter with cloth activity book! Yea!!!

Scary Masks!

When we had gone to South Africa (years ago) we had brought back some masks for Jason. Well, to our good fortune they came back to our house. I am going to hang them in my "African - Grandkid Room". In otherwords, this is my room that has toys, crib, bed, and african decor. Heidi's two middle kids were at our house this past week and found them. They had to try them on! Miss Haven came running out and said "Grandma! I am scary!" She modeled every one. Then brother took his turn. See the variety below!

Aren't these really cool?! Can't wait to get them on the walls.

A Son's Gift

Thanksgiving day our son, Peter, brought this beautiful gift to us! He made it out of one sheet of plywood. It all comes a part and lays flat! It is absolutely beautiful. I brought it inside to get a good photo of it. With the shade in the yard, you can't see it as well (when I took the photo).

The beautiful Nativity Scene that our son made for us!
This is outside, but it is in the shade when I took the photo! There is also a spot light he gave us that goes with it. When hubby is home, he can get it all fixed up (right now he is helping fix sprinklers at our other son's home!).

Thanksgiving 2009

Once again Thanksgiving was at our house. We sure have lots of fun. My sister, Patti and her family came up on Wednesday night and stayed until Friday afternoon. Three of our children had to be other places: Reno, Utah, and home with sick kids! So only Peter's family came. We had my folks and my mom's sister and her hubby as well. We played a new game called "Split the Ward". It is a lot like Rummy...only hilarious! We also watched a couple of fun movies in the evening. Before everyone came for dinner on Thursday...they were all busy looking at the "Black Friday Sales" and making their shopping route for the next day!

Deep discussion about where to go for the sales!

Hubby went and did this early morning shopping event a couple of years ago...so I knew better. I stayed home! However...this year our garbage disposal died! So we went to Home Depot for a new one and installed it by the time the family got home with their treasures! We all then decided to drive out to my folks. We visited and had a great time. When it came time for Patti's family to hit the road back to Tucson....

....Hubby and I decided to sight see! We drove out through Estrella Mountain Ranch until every road hit a dead end. It was fun to see that side of the mountain! We also found this really cool star gazing place! It has an amphitheater, telescopes for night star gazing, and a beautiful water fountain and water noises! Several families were there taking pictures. We will have to try it one of these days.

This is part of the water fall that comes from the top fountain.

This is the Star Tower. I always thought it was just a landmark thingy someone built! Who knew! It has a paved walkpath, lighted trees, bridges. You can walk all the way to the tippy top of this tower and over look Goodyear and even see the Stadium in Glendale! Amazing scenery!

So now we have a new place to take Grandkids and do some easy hiking and photo shoots!

Construction in Gilbert

Saturday we went to Gilbert to visit with our kids who live there, Peter and Meggan. They are building a house. He gave us a tour. Here are a few photos of what it is looking like. It will only be about 10 minutes from the New Temple.

This is the front view - the porch and front door is on the right - directly in front of that white board laying on the ground.
This is the from the garage view. Two cars straight in, the one garage to the right is separated, but you can walk from one to the other from inside the garage.

Looking from Peter's property - you can the model home straight ahead. This gives a very good view of how it will look in design. Hopefully they will be settled in their home (first of February)before their 3rd baby comes in April .

After the NASCAR Race

Last Saturday following some NASCAR races, we were driving to our kid's in Gilbert and low and behold here was an amazing site to see. Right in front of us as we were getting on freeway was a big Truck hauling a BIG Truck and a LITTLE truck. It was so cute!!! Hubby said to grab the camera! So this was the first photo.

Here is the second photo as it was turning on the On-Ramp. You can see the little truck. I don't know if it was a Tonka Truck or not...but certainly cute! I think this driver has a sence of humor!

Marble Works

Today I got to spend the morning with one of my little grandson's and his baby sister while mom was out. While Sister was napping...we played with Marble Works. This is a great toy from Discovery Toys back in the 80s! You can see from the photo that he had lots of fun loading those marbles and watch them go!

Here he is with a fist full of marbles!

Larkin Resort Time

Nov. 1-7 hubby and I went to the Larkin Resort for some grankid time while the parental units went to Cozumel! This was totally reminiscent of when hubby and I left 4 little one with my mom while we went to Hawaii (only my little ones all had the chicken pox!). During the week child number 3 turned 3. As you can see below Superman and WonderWoman came to the party!

Below: WonderWoman picked out her cupcakes for her special day!
For WonderWoman's birthday DAY, grandma took her and cousin (also 3) to a nearby zoo. We had such an wonderful day. But I was very disappointed that the Cotton Candy machine nor Carosel were operating! Those were two things grandma's like to do!

We were at the Monkey section. Cousin was taking good care of WonderWoman. They were so excited to see "Dexter" from "The Night at the Museum" movie!

These two really liked the train. We spent a lot of time watching it come and go. Even when it was stopped...to check out the steel wheels and all that goes with a train!

Saturday, while grandma cleaned house in preparation for parental units to return from trip, grandpa took the three oldest to the Arizona Science Museum for 5 hours! Grandma packed them a lunch, snacks. They wanted to see what it was like to be on a plane like their parents.

One funny: Grandpa took all 4 to the airport to pick up parental units, oldest child said to the 2nd child "Do you think we will recognize mom and dad?" The other said, "Do you think they will remember us?"

Wednesday after oldest child got out of school early, we loaded up the mini van and went to Westgate Mall to watch the dancing waters. Not as exciting as the Bellagio in Vegas, but good. We then found the jumping waters (too bad we didn't know about it before hand, could have brought a change of clothes for kiddos).

The three by the waters at Westgate Mall.

Morning Walks

Boy, I am certainly enjoying my days with hubby! This morning we did not have to put flyers on houses for our School Bond. And hubby says to me...do you want to go walking? I said, "Would love to!" So we put on our walking shoes and hit the sidewalk. We walked all the way around our subdivision and explored some back places we had never been (such as Durango walkway!) and was amazed at all we saw. We walked 1.6 miles this morning. Feels good.

Early Morning Walks

Ever since we returned from Reno, NV hubby and I have been out walking at 7:00 a.m. until 8:30 a.m. every week day! We have been putting flyers on people's doors (in areas where we could not get volunteers) to tell them about the Littleton School Bond election on November 3rd. The walks have been in 65-70 degrees...PERFECT! Hubby noticed today that he could take his belt up one more notch. I feel the exercise in my leg to hip joints. We bought a pedometer (sp?) and we are averaging 3 miles a day. We quit at 8:30 because it is getting much warmer then. This will keep us busy until Nov 3rd...so I am hoping we can keep it up after the election. I love getting out walking! This has been a first!

Extreme House Makeover

Those of you not on FaceBook...I am finally sitting down to blog about our two weeks in Nevada helping our kids renovate their new home they bought - it was a 1973 built home that had been foreclosed and sat empty 10 months!

This place needed work. But now that it is almost all done, it will be a beautiful home! It was a four bedroom...but all rooms were only 10 x 12! So the kids knocked out a wall between the master and other bedroom to make a decent master bedroom. I am posting 10 photos. Kind of the highlights. I'll make comments at each picture.

Curtis installed electrical plugs and wiring on the entire bedroom wing. He installed wiring for 3 ceiling fans (installed 2 of them), a new hall light with separate switch, and all the wiring for the new master bedroom, bathroom, and walk-in closet. In the Family Room there was this back door with a swamp cooler mounted in it! Totally DUMB! We removed the swamp, framed it in, and walled it up!

This shows the wall where the swamp used to be. Once painted...you'll never know!

The entry way had a solid piece of lineoleum that was curled up. We removed it. I primed the floor and then we layed new vinyl squares that look like ceramic tile! Hubby taught the kids "how to do" and they did.

This is the shower off the family room. This is the finished product. I stripped grout and mold off of their three bathrooms and re-grouted and sealed it all.

This is the bathroom off of the family room.

This is part of the family room. I did all the prime painting and triming around doors, plugs, outlets, corners, ceilings...This corner...was a fiasco! I was painting behind the TV area and as I went to stand up, my left thigh caught the lip of the tv stand and paint went flying over my head and hit the wall . See that big splash of paint?!! Well...the rest was all over me. Too bad we didn't have a photo of that! Took the 3 of them with turpentine cleaning up out on that patio you see to the left! It all came out of my clothes!

This is where we are constructing the master walk-in closet. Daughter became the expert in measuring and cutting drywall while the guys screwed the panels to the walls!

This is the master bath before renovation. See the sink in the bedroom and NOT in the bathroom? That sink cabinet is now history, and the wall goes around the entire bathroom. We added a medicine cabinet in the wall. The door to the left of the sink in the photo was the old door way into the master bedroom. That is now a solid wall.

I scrubbed every corner of the inside of the house on my hands and knees. I also 409-ed every wall and door in the house. The garage to laundry room door was black when when I started. Now it looks new! Plus...no germs! I swept around the entire outside of the house with a broom and dustpan. The weeds were so dry that the broom worked like a rake! There are now no bugs or cobwebs anywhere! It truly did a number on my asthma! I should have taken my nebulizer with me.

The kids just have to finish mudding the master walls and painting. The two kids bedrooms had new carpet layed in there on Tuesday this week. So it is coming along. Can't wait to go back and enjoy the house and have fun with the kids and NOT work!

History Personified

I just returned from an amazing law conference for school board members here in Arizona. I learned about the different laws effecting our schools today such as:
1. Employee Discipline: How Board Members Can Keep from Messing it Up!
2. Employee Privacy Issues in the Workplace
3. Employee Email Monitoring
4. The Latest on Educating English Language Learners
5. Student & Employee interactions via the New Technology (this was an education!)

I got to see Ron Rickel who served as Principal of Mt. View HS in Tucson and then in the Marana District years ago...he is now Superintendent of the Mammoth San Manuel Unified School District - which is where I first met him. He taught math in the Junior High there when we lived there! It was great visiting with him.

I think the highlight of the entire event was meeting a man by the name of Clay Jenkinson. He portrayed Thomas Jefferson. He was dressed in period clothing. Spoke in the first person. It was amazing, it was spiritual, it was rivoting! (Did I spell the correctly??) Anyway...I couldn't tell Curtis enough about it last night. Then today, this same man, came back and did a presentation as if he were J. Robert Oppenheimer who invented the Atomic Bomb. I knew nothing about this man...was before my time...but boy I learned a lot listening to him, about him. Mr. Jenkinson is a very talented humanitarian. You can see a presentation on the web if you go to www.jeffersonhour.org
Now I have lots to research as to our curriculum and what we are or are not teaching!

Kissing Hubby

Today was the second day hubby was home. Traveling to work for him now consists of walking from the bedroom at 6:30 a.m. to the Office in our home trying not to stub his toe as he rounds the corner past the family room couch! Every time one of us leaves...we give each other a kiss and say "I'll be back...I love you!" Well...I was the one today out the door several times. Hubby got lots of kisses. I told him..."You are really getting a great deal in this new arrangement of working at home!"

I went visiting teaching. Met a new lady on my route and what a neat person she is. Can't wait to get to know her better! Then went to the world's best chiropractor to have my neck fixed! Yeah...no more pain after he works his magic! Off to Sprint store. Wonderful son gave me his old NEW wonderful phone (he got Ipod phone) to transfer contacts. I had 129 contacts. I didn't know I talked to so many people! I can hear hubby in my mind saying "Well..I could of told you that!"

Stopped into Sprouts to pick up an item...and found two friends from church there. Small world ... I guess they like Sprouts too!

Back home for lunch with hubby! Then out the door at 1:15 (more kissing) to speak at a school staff meeting and cheer teachers on. It was so fun. I heard some funny stories they shared. One teacher was on the Stratosphere in Las Vegas on a ride. Seat belt would not latch...could have plunged to her death...but held on...and lived!!! I would not do that!!!!

Received a rescue call to go and help a friend. Out the door at 2:45 pm (more kissing) - I took her to a courthouse...then to Motor Vehicle Department (finding the right one...what an adventure!)...and then took her home.

I made it home in time to wolf down hubby's dinner of salad and soup.

Off to HOA meeting for two hours....(more kissing). Gee I think I am going to like him being home! But he says to me...You are never home! I told him...that is true - now you know what my day is like.

Old Journal

Last night I laid in bed wide awake....AGAIN!!! Finally I got up at 2:00 a.m. I read several chapters in my Book of Mormon. I still wasn't tired...so I started looking for something to read. I found all my old journals. I pulled out the one dated 1978. So I sat down and read until 4:30 a.m. I found all kinds of treasurers in there I had forgotten about. Here are the summaries of a few:

Our first baby was only 6 months old at the beginning of this journal. It seems that every entry ended with "I am really tired," or "I am bushed" or "I am pooped"....I got the picture ...I was exhausted. I also noticed that I never made it to bed before 11:30 pm trying to accomplish everything in the day.

This was the time that hubby was Elder's Quorum President and worked shift work at Magma Copper. It was interesting all the different meetings we had, went to, and I served as Mia Maid Advisor.

We certainly had a lot of fundraising for the Ward or Stake Budget. I baked cakes and frosted them for all kinds of events! I took a sewing class this year from the college. Every week I learned a new technique and came home and used it some gift I made for a family member for that upcoming birthday or christmas present!

One sister came up from Tucson to show slides at a fireside one night on her trip to Israel. Curtis and I both felt we had truly been there....was this foreshadowing our own trip???

It was fun reading and finding old friend's names within the pages and how they touched our life in 1978!

Carter and Jaycie Time

Well...I finally remembered to take pictures while I had grandkids this morning. Carter and his little sister, Jaycie. Jaycie is about 3 months old. He loves her. We had about an hour together this morning while Carrie was at the dentist. Now I am off to the County Elections Department in downtown Phoenix. Never a empty moment.

Car Escapades!

Having difficulty with cars is not fun for the pocket book or for your inconvience, but especially when it involves vandalism and robbery! Yesterday we were going to watch our daughter's children so she and her hubby could go out to dinner and celebrate 10 wonderful years of marriage! Well, he never showed up at our house...finally she gets a phone call. She is to go the car repair shop! Someone had entered hubby's work parking lot and totally cut off and stole his catelitic converter (sp?) (this is the 2nd one now!!!) again off his vehicle! So to figure out how to borrow another car for hubby to get to work today (Friday) so his vehicle can be repaired. So daughter and I figured out this elaborate stragedy. See if you can follow this: Last night when daughter and hubby came back from dinner they picked up our garage opener and left me a key for their mini-van as I was at Roundtable with my car. This morning at 5:15 am daughter's hubby uses our garage opener to get my vehicle & key so he can get to work leaving mini-van here for me. At 7:20 am I then drive the mini-van back to daughter's house and together we take all 4 kids with us ... we drop of daughter and my granddaughter off at school. The other 3 kids go with me out to Rainbow Valley to pick up a most important package that was delivered yesterday. Back to daughter's house to play with 3 little ones until lunch time. We all load back up in mini-van and go get daughter. Daughter then drives me home where I will be the rest of the day. So...that is how we got daughter's husband to work and me to daughter's house to babysit so daughter could go to her child's class at school. If we would have lived a long time ago, no one would have gotten all of these things done!!! Modern times bring on the modern thinking of strategy. Now let's hope daugther's hubby's vehicle can be repaired by Monday. If not then...more strategy will be in play!

A Day with Hubby

Saturday was a great day! We spent the entire day together doing stuff...not separately...but together! We started off by going to the temple and after a session, we sealed my grandma to her parents. Totally great spirit with them all! It was great seeing old friends on our session...Missy & Corby Gardiner!!! We are definitely going to re-connect with them in a few weeks! Curtis was his counselor in the Bishopric in Tucson. We also saw Stephanie Walker's mom! She asked us to keep taking care of her kids! We do...we love them!!!

Went to Seagull book to pick up the latest copy of Gerald Lund's book "The Undaunted"!!!! When he was called as a 70, I thought to myself..."Oh no...does that mean he won't be writing great historical novels any more?" Once he was released...he was back to writing. I love reading his books. I learn so much more about the history when you add personal feelings to it!

We then tracked down an Office Max in Mesa for hubby to get special pens. He is so particular what kind he carries in his pockets and use. But...we FOUND the ones he wanted.

Off to Trader Joe's. Oh how I miss having Trader Joe's so close to where we lived in Tucson. Now they are a half hour drive away...so we tracked down the one in Mesa while in that neck of the woods. We had this awesome Havest Grain rice blend at Serina's in-laws in May. Oh....sooo good. So I bought 4 packages for the pantry. Each bag was only $2.69! You cook it in chicken broth and it is yummy!

Since hubby's office is closing here shortly...we went to Things Remembered to find special gifts and have them engraved for his "special employees". I told him he should buy himself a PARTING gift...but he wouldn't.

We then went and had a very nice romantic lunch at the Legacy Suites (our local time share). They have a great restaurant (and we have free coupons!!!). So it gives us a relaxing time together.

Then home...to write out bill payments, plan the week, and we watched an old movie with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funacello "How to Stuff a Wild Bikinii". Old movies were so much safer to watch than today!!!

I certainly enjoy days where we can be together. You would think with no kids at home that would be the norm....NOT. So I LOVE it when it happens!

Fun with some Grandkids

Saturday, Aug 1st, Heidi had invited Grandpa Curtis and Grandma Sandi (me) to go to the Childrens' Museum in Phoenix. We were there from 9am when it opened until about noon. We had some fun with Heidi's family and Jason's family. Haven and Carter were great play mates in what I call the "Pinewood Derby" area. They kept getting these little cars and launching them down the track, I would lift them down, they would run to see the cars cross the finish line and then return. They were sooo cute!! Curtis was with the older kids...I hardly saw him during the morning. Here are some photos he took to document the event:

Haley driving Christian and Carter on the trike through this little carwash.

Christian, Haley, and Jaren would pick these plastic flowers and then re-plant them.

Grandma Sandi with Haven driving and Carter hanging on.

They pretended they were going F - A - S - T !!!!

Carter, Jaren and Jason with the cars.

What a fun day. I got to hold Jaycie and Noelle a bit...they mostly slept in their strollers! Had great visits with them all. We left about lunch time. Once we got home...we slept for 2 hours!! But we are ready for the next adventure!

Special Luncheon Date

Patti and Ashley (my sister and niece) Prodromides were driving back from Las Vegas this morning from seeing Steve & Emily's new baby Wyatt. They gave me a phone call to see if I'd be home today at noon. You bet. Nothing on today's schedule. So they stopped in for lunch and a really nice visit. I miss being closer (in miles!) to them. They showed me photos of new baby Wyatt and how cute he is. We yaked for about 1 1/2 hours and then they finally had to head down the road to Tucson.

Bus Tour of School District

This morning I got to have a lot of fun! As most of you know, I am the President of the Littleton Elementary School District here in Avondale, Arizona. Today we had induction of our new teachers to our district. It was fun meeting them at breakfast and finding out where they came from and now which school and grade/subject they will be teaching. After breakfast at one of our schools, we loaded up a yellow air conditioned bus and hit the road. I got to be the tour guide! It was so fun!! I shared info about the original days of Avondale being called "Coldwater" and about the founder Billy Moore. History about each of our schools, who they were named after, when they were built. I pointed out landmarks like....Fry's, Bank of America, Phoenix International Raceway...Cashion...post offices, etc... You get the idea!

A yellow school bus, similar to what we took this morning.
This is Estrella Vista Elementary School.
It is in my subdivision. This is one of 8 schools in our District area.

Computers and Bugs

We live in the modern age of computers where you just can't live without them! Emailing, checking weather reports, news, staying in contact with friends on Facebook, etc... Well..our computer on Sunday morning got a virus! Called msa.exe. Let me tell you...it is one bad problem. So finally last night after dinner we were tired of having all of these little pop ups from the internet! Sometimes there would be 15 of them on the screen. Someone figured out a way to get into the computer and took control. We have Norton Symantec service. So I get on the technical chat on line help with them (so great...not holding a phone to your ear for hours!) ... we were able to type back and forth about the problem. Well after $99.99 the technician could go in and repair the problem for us. So when his name pops up on the screen as to whom I am typing with....it was a long one. I recognized it as an "indian" name from India (not native american). So I asked...are you in India? Yes, he was. But after an hour and 20 minutes he had cleaned out the insides of our computer and removed that terrible bug and reinstalled Internet Explorer for us. So today we are bug free and not getting any more anoying pop ups. So my advice to all...be careful what email you open! I accidentally hit open instead of delete and hence our problem.

Wicked

Sat, July 20th we went to see the broadway play Wicked at Gammage Theater on ASU campus. Here is a photo of Sandi and Heidi at intermission. We had a great time. The message of the play was very good. It basically lets you know how all the characters from Wizard of Oz knew each other or were related and how they came to be viewed by others for either good or bad even if it wasn't true. The biggest message was "be yourself" and not let others label you. It was an emotional play. The audience was carried with every emotion from laughter to tears. It was the only play Curtis and I had ever seen where at the end when the two main characters "Glinda (the Good) and Elfiba (The Wicked Witch)" came to take their bows...the entire theater in breath stood on their feet and cheered! All these characters did a superb job in acting. Three of them were the understudies. I was impressed at how well it was done. Curtis was busy analyzing the entire play from a Bishop's point of view. He had a hard time with it but did like the ending.

Sandi & Heidi at Wicked