A Wedding and Reception

So tonight was Janae Demke's wedding and reception. She married her long time boyfriend, Barndon Wolfe, and the ceremony was at the house and backyard. Ginger had it decorated very pretty and did a good job on a limited budget. Janae wore an off-white halter style gown with a butterfly in her hair which she had long and curled. She was a beautiful bride and it is so crazy that she is old enough to be married. The absence of Jared was very much felt this evening. Joseph and Jedi walked Janae down the aisle and gave her away along with Ginger. I thought that was a nice touch to have the two boys give her away too. Janae was married by a pastor as her new husband is Catholic and she is a less-active LDS so they went with a non denominational pastor. They read their own vows and the pastor never did call them husband and wife but that's what they are now.

Janae married into a very nice family that is very good to her (Ginger was telling me this) and she and her new husband will be living in Victorville in the house that his family helped them to buy. It's cheaper than rent and they have a place of their own. She was very happy and it was so great to see them and visit with the other friends of ours that were there. The party was in full swing when we left so they were all having a fun time. It is so different to go to a wedding and have the alcohol that people feel is essential at it. But...not my concern...just hard when I saw Joseph smashed from the alcohol he consumed...it's hard to see the choices that are made. His choice though, right?

I love that family so much...sometimes it's hard to see choices that are made but I love them no matter what. So...that's what happened tonight and then we came home to make sure the house is picked up so we can have an open house for Daniel here tomorrow afternoon so he can say goodbye to ward members as he leaves on his mission the 26th and we are leaving next Saturday to take him up to Utah.

Well...off to bed...

School has started...again...and time is flying by!

It is so hard to believe that school has started once again. I swear the years are flying by! This year is special because my grandson, Alex, has started Kindergarten! I can't believe he is old enough to be in kindergarten but he is. Ariana has also started pre-school and that's just too crazy too. When did they get so old as to be ready for school? I am so excited for the both of them though and I know that they will LOVE going to school, they already do. Alex loved pre-school last year and will love being in kindergarten this year.

I know that every year I am amazed that school is starting and equally amazed when it's the end of the year and school is over. It goes so quickly, especially the older I get the faster time seems to fly.

Speaking of time flying, Camden is going to be 2 years old on the 24th and he is so tall it seems like he should be turning 3 or 4! He's such an amazing little guy, like his brother and sister are so amazing....but he's growing so quickly also. So much fun these grandchildren!

Daniel is leaving on his mission in like 13 days now. I can't believe that one either, like I said, time is flying! I am so excited for him and the new experiences that await him. I will miss him like crazy but wouldn't want him anywhere else than where he will be...serving the Lord for the next two years of his life. I know that he is nervous as he is such a homebody but I know he will do an amazing job and will serve the Lord well. I love you Daniel!

Michael is up in Alpine living at his grandparents until he can get in his dorm room and has been able to get financial aid for BYU so he's all good with that. What a blessing for him to get some grants to pay for his education. I am so proud of him and his good hard work.

My birthday is coming oh so quickly also...I am planning on going to Disneyland for that day...it will be fun and free since it will be my birthday, yippee!!!

Fun times ahead.

It's Friday!

So, it's Friday and I have really enjoyed the last 2 days of work. I LOVE working the morning shift...it is so AWESOME! I LOVE having my afternoons free...I'll take this as long as I can. I get off and get to spend time with my husband and son, so cool! Today we went and saw Harry Potter and we really enjoyed the movie. We watched the previous movies at home and then went to this one and thought it was very good. We are looking forward to the final movies now.

The bad news is that my grandchildren have been sick for the last few weeks. Camden now has croup and bronchitis, so scary. I guess yesterday he was coughing and got to be a tinge of blue so Christina being the good mommy she is took him to the urgent care. So scarey! Ariana and Camden have been running a fever since Sunday so Ari is still running her fever, not as high, but not coughing like Camden. Alex had the fever and vomited twice first week then Ari got the fever and vomiting a bit more and Camden got the fever and croup and bronchitis. So...poor Christina has been dealing with sick babies for a couple of weeks now. She's hanging in there and is such a good mommy...but this sure is hard to get through. This too shall pass and I will be glad when all of my precious grandbabies are all well. School starts next week for Alex (kindergarten) and Ariana (pre-k) so they need to be all well by next Thursday. So exciting for them to go to school. They are so excited too.

So, I get to enjoy the weekend with my husband as Daniel has a YSA conference to go to so it will be a fun weekend!

A few Days Off

So...I am enjoying a few days off from summer school until I start regular work on Thursday. The time is going so quickly and I can't believe it's almost time to begin regular work once again. I am grateful for the work though as it is a paycheck...that helps to pay the bills. Chuck is going to be off a bit more this month than we thought so any money we can get is good right now. It is all okay, just stressful.

It's been a fun few days. My niece, Nikki, flew in on Friday and has stayed with us until today. It was so much fun to play games in the evening with Nikki at Christina and Ray's home. Catherine was there too and we laughed so much...playing "Apples to Apples" was just a fun time. We got together and played on Friday and Saturday night and the everyone came to our house. Nikki was gone though and got back right when Christina and Ray and the kids were leaving but I still enjoyed visiting with Nikki. I'm sure her family is so happy to get her back this evening but I wish she could have stayed a day or so longer. It was a fun weekend though and now I get to spend the next few days enjoying Chuck and Daniel.

Daniel reports to the MTC in 23 days...it is going way too quickly but I knew that it would. He's starting to think of it as an adventure he's going to be going on and that's a good thing. He is going to be a fantastic missionary and will have some wonderful experiences in Chile. He is such an incredible young man and I am so proud of him. I will miss Daniel so much, I missed Michael too, but I wouldn't want him anywhere else but serving the Lord for the next two years. Some fun times are ahead, that's for sure. I thought we would have an empty nest to get used to but our daughter, Catherine, is living with us for the time being so we will have the joy of having her here while Daniel is gone.

Well...gotta get some things done around the house and enjoy my husbands company.

So Much is happening

So...since I last blogged I have been so busy! I started out summer school thinking how hard it was going to be to work 8 hours a day and try to get things done at home. I was right. It was hard at first and then I have gotten used to it, just in time for it to end! Yeah, it happens every year, I've been working summer school for about 11 years now, maybe a year or two less. Anyway, I have two days of summer school left and I am very happy about that. I work summer school to help pay the bills and it does help. We are hoping to be able to not have to work summer school before retirement, but we'll see what happens.

Anyway...my days have been busy with working all day and by the time I get home I don't want to do too much. I have some errands I have had to run and then home to spend time with the family before I have to go to bed at 9:00 pm. I couldn't stay up too late as I have been getting up at 5:45 am but I'm getting used to it but am looking forward to sleeping in for the week that I have off before I go back to my regular job at school police. It's all good and I am so blessed to have this job.

Today was a fun day. Chuck and Daniel got ready to go to Palm Desert for a teachers conference that Chuck is going to so I decided that I was going to go out and do something for me. I finally figured out that I wanted to get a pedicure and called Christina to go with me. She wanted a manicure and we went to the spa that Catherine works at. My feet are so dry and needed to be treated so badly...and I'm so glad that I went and got this done. I love my pedi and it was so relaxing. The spa is so nice and it was just a pleasant experience.

Catherine is turning 27 on Monday, the 27th. I can't believe it...so I went ahead and paid for a pedi for her but she'll have to get hers before she starts work on Tuesday. Something to look forward to though.

So I got the pedi and Christina got the mani and then I got to go and watch my beautiful grandchildren while she and Ray went on a date. It was so much fun being with my grandchildren. I got the kids Uno game and Alex LOVED playing it. Ariana loves playing the adult game but Alex LOVED the kids game. Aunt Catherine played with us and it was just so much fun. I so LOVE spending time with my grandchildren, they are so beautiful, all three of them!

Well, Chuck and Daniel are going to have a good time in their 4 star hotel this weekend and Catherine and I are going to have a good time together here at home. Gotta get to bed as I have church in the morning but I am so grateful for my many blessings. Life can have it's challenges but it is full of blessings too.

One week down...2 1/2 more to go...

So I got through my first week of summer school...full time days...and boy, am I glad it's a Friday evening and I get a whole weekend to relax. I have to be up at 5:45 am and at work by 7 and get off at 3:30 pm...it makes for a long day. I am more used to my 3 1/2 hour work days so full time is a different experience...but I am so grateful for this experience. It's only for about 4 weeks so it's all good. I will get one week off before I am back again to work but this year I get to work the morning shift and be off by 11:30 am instead of going to work at 11:30. I just hope it doesn't change, which it shouldn't. Anyway...it's been a good week and I am glad to have a weekend to relax once again...at least I have the next 2 days and tonight of course. :) Off to spend time with my husband, yippee!

Life has been so Crazy!

Life has been so good, hectic, and crazy.

So...we went on our cruise, I blogged a little about that. We had such a nice time on the cruise and our day in Ensenada was quite enjoyable. We got into Ensenada on Saturday and got off the ship. We were trying to decide what to do and took a bus into town, it was $2 each to get the ride instead of walking the 10 to 15 minutes. So on the bus they told us that we could get tickets to go to El Bufadora (the blow hole) for $15 each instead of the $30 each it would have cost us on the ship. We decided that was a good idea and went for the tour. We were excited to go and see a little of the countryside of Ensendada so got on the next boat for the tour. A man with a guitar was on there entertaining us until the bus was full enough for us to leave. He was great in his singing and having those of us on the bus sing along with him...it was funny. We got to to to the blow hole and see some of Ensenada, that was fun. After you get to the blow hole you have to go through all of the makeshift shops to see it and run the "gauntlet" of people trying to give you their fliers and get you to come back to their shops. It was crazy, especially the closer you get to the blow hole. We had about 1 1/2 hours there to see the water spray up out of the blow hole and then go back through the street and worse "gauntlet" of people back to the bus. I was very proud of myself because I didn't take one flier that was being passed out and anyone that invited me into their store I politely refused. We eventually went into two stores and Chuck almost bought a plate but the guy didn't want to go down until we left and then he was saying lower and lower prices...we didn't go back. I ended up buying a little dolly that was dressed in Mexican garb and is a rag doll and figured that was a good souvenier for me. We waited for the alotted time to board the bus and went back to town and then back to the ship. I have to say that I felt like we were a part of a dream where tons of people are tempting you here and there and we were trying to keep a hold of the iron rod and stay on the straight and narrow. It was pretty surreal to feel that but that's what it seemed like. I HATE it when there are crowds of people like that trying to tempt you into their space and I didn't want to go there. Just an observation.

Anyway...we got on the boat and went to get some food before dinner time...little snack. We enjoyed the shows on the ship and enjoyed a lazy day on board the ship for Father's Day. It was just so pleasant to go and relax and spend all of my time and attention on my sweet husband. He loved it because there were no phones for me to be on...lol. Then on Monday we docked and Michael was almost there when he got on the wrong freeway and was desparately trying to figure out how to turn around and get back where we were waiting for him. It was pretty scary for him being in unknown territory but he did a great job and with prayer was able to find his way to the dock where we were waiting.

We got home and as I blogged about before changed clothes and left again. When we stopped in Mesquite we got to see Christina, Ray, and the kids and got dinner, slept, then got up and went again. It was nice to get to Utah and know that we had a place to stay for a week before we left again and enjoyed our time there.

As I blogged up through Thursday I figured I would finish the trip and what's been going on. Friday we got to go to the Timpanogas Temple with Mom and Dad, Cindy and Rolly and Daniel. That was a great thing to do...being in the temple with family is just so awesome. We got to take names through for my brother-in-law...he has thousands of family names that he is trying to get done. He's been a busy boy with his geneology. Then we went home and changed and I got to go out with my two sisters. We met for lunch and then went to a movie...I LOVED that too. We are trying to spend some time together, just us girls, and it has been so much fun. My sister, Viki, was having a hard day and by the end of our visit she seemed to be very happy...I'm so glad she came and we could all have fun together. I love being around my sisters when we can have fun and laughter together.

Saturday we decided to go to BYU as Chuck and Ray wanted to go to the bookstore and we wanted to see where Michael would be living up there in just a few months. We had fun and took it easy and met the family at Olive Garden in American Fork for lunch. That evening I got to play some UNO with my Ray, Rolly, and Cindy...it was so much fun. I'm so glad we got to have some fun together like this.

Sunday was church time and after it was over I went off to finish seeing my friend Penny, my brother David and his wife Janna and their kids, and then my dad and Colleen. Catherine and her friend Kristi came with me while everyone else stayed home and visited. Once again I had so much fun.

Monday we got up and packed and were off to home again. We had a lot of fun in Mesquite once again and got home about 3:30 on Tuesday afternoon. It was just a fun trip.

Once home I was exhausted. I got to try to get caught up after being gone for over a week and get ready for work the next day. We had to go and pick up the dishwasher we had bought right before we left for our cruise (our dishwasher pooped out on us). We got it home and Chuck waited for it to cool off before trying to install it. I have to say what a GREAT guy he is...he worked so hard for like 4 hours to get that dishwasher installed...it had so many challenges and he got through them all (I was praying for help for him the entire time) and he did so great. I love the new dishwasher and it is amazing how the dishes come out clean without the food or film on them, quite amazing.

Thursday was work at summer school where I stayed busy the entire time...the day flew. Friday Chuck had to get the cooler fixed...the house was so HOT...once again he proved how Genious he is and was able to take care of the cooler and now our house is actually COOL! How novel is that? :)

Our 4th of July we went swimming at Aunt Judi's in Glendora and visited with Grandma Vera and had such a nice time. Some of us got a bit burned but not too horrible. Then we came home for pizza and were too tired to go to the fireworks show. Daniel was more bummed than he admitted and now I feel guilty we didn't go and see them but I can't change it now. All in all...a good time though.

I am so grateful for my husband and his fixing all of these things and so grateful to my Heavenly Father for blessing him to know what to do. Life is full and challenging and I am loving it that it's a Sunday and we get to relax and enjoy a Sunday afternoon. Now to Christina and Rays for dinner tonight...even better.

I am grateful for the independance we have to enjoy our days like we do and the freedoms we have.