November 23, 2008 by Melanee.

My blessings are many and I don’t want to be ungrateful for all I have:

My girls
Grandchildren
Family
The Gospel of Jesus Christ
Strength to get through each day
Good memories of a wonderful marriage and husband.
Friends
Good people
Faith
Prayer
Answers to prayer
Scriptures
Physical and mental abilities
Health
Earth’s beauty
My employment
A roof over my head
Clothes to wear
Food to eat
Happy moments
Cardinals-my bird buddy that hangs out at my house and other sightings.

So much to list and not enough time to list all I have.

What are you thankful for?

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November 18, 2008 by Ashley.

Well, winter is on its way here in Colorado. It’s starting to get real cold and I’m worried for the heating bill I’ll be getting for the next couple months. Things have been a tad stressful in my life with the economy the way it is. I thank God every day that Pat still has a reliable job and that I’m able to work a bit and still stay home with Lydia, but this past summer many of the companies we get bills from (garbage, electric, etc) have increased their rates because of gas prices. They say it’s just a temporary gas charge and they’re doing everything they can to keep costs down, yet prices are at an all time low (1.83/gal)… and my bills are still high. So it’s been harder to make ends meet. We’re hoping Pat can get a good raise come January.

With the extra financial stress though, I’ve actually felt more at peace lately because I’ve really made an effort to read my scriptures (specifically the Book for Mormon) and pray every day. To be honest, in the past I’ve been a bit lax on it and kept looking everywhere for different solutions to improve my life and make me happier (I know in my head Pat and I are so blessed yet I still feel down a lot of the time). I finally did what I knew in my head would work (but I guess I never really believed) and really committed to daily study of the scriptures. In just a few weeks I’ve noticed a marked improvement in how I feel. I’m able to enjoy being a mom to Lydia more and find the motivation to clean the house and cook dinner (something I have never enjoyed in the past).

Lately I also joined a monthly playgroup and Book Club in my church ward. I’m really excited and glad these opportunities recently started up because I’m not the type that just walks over to the neighbor’s house, knocks on the door to make friends. I’m not working now and that’s where I’ve developed most of my relationships in the past. We had our first playgroup last week. Lydia was fascinated being in a different house. For over a half hour she just sat in her car seat staring at everything around her. I’m trying to have her see more faces than just Pat and I. Plus in the winter it’s really good to get out and talk with other women.

I wrote this post about a week ago, but since then I’ve been really really blessed. I got 2 more calls for tutoring so now I have 3 people to tutor. I’m really excited about it because first of all, I enjoy it and second, it’s my most profitable job. I was stressed about finances and then suddenly I get 2 more opportunities to work. I know God is really looking out for my tiny family.

Pat has always enjoyed learning and has recently started researching investments, specifically stocks. His job at HP is going well. He just finished a project that the guys at HP are really happy about and excited for. It’s kinda weird that I’m married to this guy who has the ability to completely develop an HP product that could be used worldwide! Pretty cool, huh.

LEFTHere’s our first green pepper in our container garden. This was taken a while ago so it’s much bigger now (but still about 1/3 the size of a normal one) and has since been picked and put on a pizza. It was really good too. Not a day goes by that Pat doesn’t say “Look at our peppers! We’ve got 3 growing now!” Needless to say, I’m a tad tired of hearing how amazingly incredible our peppers are, but at $1 each (at the grocery store) it’ll be cool if we can get a lot growing.
MIDDLEPat loves it when Lydia is willing to just sit and chill with him and not have to jump around or cry. This was a rare moment where she just looked into Pat’s eyes; a rare but precious moment for a new dad.
RIGHTI found a bottle of red nail polish and couldn’t resist.

LEFTTaking a nice walk. You can barely see Lydia in the stroller, but she’s there!
MIDDLEWhere we live there are prairie dogs everywhere! It’s hard to see because it’s the same color as the dirt, but look close. On the way to church we pass a small horse field that has mounds everywhere will tons of prairie dogs walking around. It reminds me of a computer game my sisters and I used to play: Prairie Dog Huntin’. You get a shot gun and try and kill the prairie dogs. They’d give this little squeak “ah!” when you got them and they give a chipmunk “haha!” when you miss them. Good times.
RIGHTLydia’s first Halloween. She was a puppy dog – the exact same thing as her cousin Kevin.

LEFTSo sometimes when Lydia lays on one side for a long time her ear sticks folded in. It reminds me of this movie – I forget the name but it has Jon Cusac in it. Anyways, in it someone says to these kids that if you make a face and someone pats you on the back, your face will stay that way.
RIGHTLydia gets in moods where I can’t leave her line of site. I had to do laundry one day and she was in this mood, but she can’t sit up on her own without occasionally toppling head first. So I popped her in the laundry basket – it worked great! (Since I wrote this last week she can now sit up - Halleluiah!)

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November 16, 2008 by Marlene.

So I realized while reading the blog that according to websterlife, I haven’t existed in the last…forever…so I decided to reestablish my existence. Hooray.
I’ve been doing the school and friends thing for the most part. My roommates and I are getting pretty close so we have a lot of fun together, plus Stephen has been adopted into our apartment. Sometimes having a new best friend is really exciting.
It’s interesting because sometimes he’ll say or do something (or I’ll say/do something) that reminds me of Dad. I think I’m discovering more traits of Dad that I have and it doesn’t hurt that I’m totally rubbing off on those around me.
A month or so ago I got a tomato that I inadvertently let go bad and the seeds inside started germinating. Ok.. so maybe I saw a see or two starting to grow when I made a sandwich and I purposely let the others go bad but still… SO I grew the seeds in a couple of plastic cups I punched holes into the bottom of and my botany teacher thought it was really cool, especially the tomato I let go gross and let the seeds grow out of it. It was so alien looking that I kept it until it started attracting flies…then I planted the seeds.
So now the original tomatoes are from the range of 4-8 inches tall and the new batch(from the alien tomato) are about 2 inches. It’s really exciting.
I’m not so into my landscape design class since we need to spend hours and hours on these projects. If it wasn’t so time consuming I’d enjoy it much more.
In general, life is good. It’d be better if there weren’t so many things due this next week but hey it happens. That’s why I go to college anyway right? To take lots of tests? Yeah… that’s life.

~Marlene

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November 13, 2008 by Mallory.

Ok…so not brand new. (I just wanted to pretend I was Price is Right for a second). But we have finally given in. Wendell had our ‘88 Pontiac Bonneville for 5 years (82,000 miles in the beginning). Now it has 214,000 miles on it, and it’s finally starting to fall apart. Well, it actually still runs pretty well for such a well-used car. It pops a little bit in the mornings when it’s cold and sometimes dies on us if we haven’t let it warm up enough, but that’s really the only thing wrong. It still runs fairly well. But we decided to get a new car. We came across a ‘99 Honda Accord, and it seemed like a pretty good deal, so we decided to jump on it. We’re also driving to Connecticut for Christmas, and since our car has been having problems, I didn’t trust it to make the whole journey. Wendell says it’d probably make it, but I say I’d rather be safe than sorry. Anyway…we were thinking that we could rent a car to drive up, but then I thought, if we’re going to put all that money into a car, we might as well put all that money into a car that we can keep. So we decided to invest in a new car. So, Leah, we’ve finally given in. (Often when I talk to Leah she says, Have you gotten a new car yet? Or has your car died yet?) We pick up the car on Monday. They’re getting it detailed (it kinda smells like smoke). We’re still gonna keep our Bonneville, but not drive it quite as much. Let’s see if we can make this one last as long as our Bonneville!

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November 10, 2008 by Melanee.

I have discovered that many people ask my daughters and family how I am doing. It’s hard for me to describe how I am doing–it ranges from just fine to okay. I am just trying to get through my life as best I can under the circumstances that I have been given.
When you lose your best friend that checks on you all the time, listens to you when you have to vent about something, or just keep you warm at night can be challenging. I experience “triggers” occasionally. Everyday scenes, music, videos, etc. that can trigger a memory. Sometimes it makes me smile. Sometimes it makes me cry.
I have learned very early to count my blessings and open my eyes to people, friends and strangers, reach out to me which comforts me. This helps me.
My solace are my daughters and their families.

I have had to adjust to working full time and caring for a large house with its repairs and upkeep. I have repaired four windows in the house so far. Just got a company to work on my crumbling chimney. The work should be done tomorrow. My co-worker and her husband guided and helped me for a few hours weatherproofing my house last weekend. Nights will be spent organizing the rooms now that its dark earlier. My priority was yard work while it was still day light. I miss working in the yard when I get home. I took down a lot of small maples in the back of the property and bushes on the side of the house, mowed, weeded, planted, etc.

I do handwork at night.I was smocking Christmas Balls while Kev was having his chemo treatments. The ornaments were given to my daughters as keepsakes for them and the grandchildren. I completed my grandson, Kevin’s quilt that my mother-in-law started. I am starting to knit again. My mother taught me to knit when I was five years old. This keeps me busy while I watch a little television every night. I would like to get back to sewing too. I love to bake when I can. The amounts are still for six people. So, meals get made for friends and my parents occasionally. I’ve been invited to dinner with friends and co-workers. And I have invited others for meals at my home.

So, this is my life. How am I doing?–I am trying to make the best of my situation. Growing, learning, serving, and being served.

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November 10, 2008 by Melanee.

This year was difficult for me to face Halloween. This was Kev’s favorite holiday and our home was always decked out with a graveyard with tombstones, giant spider webs, a coffin, smoke, heads popping up, etc. The neighbors always looked forward to this every year. But, this year I could not bring myself to take the decor out and try to set it up.
Soooo….. I did the next best thing.
I took the day off and traveled to New Jersey to trick or treat with my grandchildren Anya and Kevin. Friday ended up being a beautiful drive and the highways through New York and New Jersey were fine. No traffic during the day.
Leah had a special Halloween dinner of orange rice shaped like a pumpkin with celery as the stem. Sloppy Joes were “guts”, and pretzel wrapped with ham and an almond in the end were “fingers”
Anya dressed as a ballerina and Kevin was a penguin. They looked so cute. (I will try to get pictures up once I figure it out.) Kevin is walking on his own now and waddles as he walks-so being a penguin is perfect. We giggled as he maneuvered around the house in his penguin suit. We started to walk the neighborhood and Anya would go up to the house, knock, and say “Happy Halloween”. She did so well on her own-very assured of herself. Kevin walked the road with us and teenagers passing by thought Kevin was the cutest thing around. One commented,”That is the coolest costume-It makes me want to tap dance.”
We got home and split up the loot. Leah gave some of it away as “trick or treaters” were still coming to the door.
Halloween was very nice.
We spent Saturday at the park with swinging on the swing with Anya and watching Kevin slide down the slide all by himself. Then we went out to lunch. Leah, Anya, and I attended church on Sunday. I ended up playing piano in Primary and the closing song in Relief Society.
The trip was great and a very good decision to spend it with my grandchildren. I enjoyed every minute of it.

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November 10, 2008 by Melanee.

Fall in New England is my favorite time of year. The season has been so beautiful. The golden colors have been breath taking.
I took advantage of a beautiful fall day on October 11th. I called a friend and we hiked to Castle Craig. The day was clear and the temperature was moderate. Kev took me there on the hike before. He had hiked it dozens of times for exercise. He also took the kids and their friends on the trail for Geo-caching. The hike was okay for me physically. Let’s just say I was breathing heavy by the time we arrived. But, once we got there we could see all of southern Connecticut to the Sound and to the north we saw Hartford. Beautiful!!
The day was pristine and the trees were just starting their colors. I took pictures with my camera phone and sent them to Marlene. She was telling me how much she was missing the New England fall colors. I had to rub it in. It was so peaceful there. Kev would have been really happy I did this because if he was here- this is probably what we would be doing together anyway.(No, he would be teaching me how to kayak.) I enjoyed the company and conversation with Cathy and so glad I went.

One week later I was driving in my hometown. I came to a traffic light at about 5 pm. The trees ahead had the sun shining right on them with their colors at full peak. I sat there in my car with utter amazement at the beauty I was witnessing. They looked like they were ablaze with fire. I thanked my Heavenly Father for such a beautiful scene that will stay in memory.

My leaf raking is futile. Some people have helped me fill 20 leaf bags so far. My lawn is covered again. I have filled 5 more bags. It has been worth it though. We have been blessed by a truly beautiful Fall season.

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November 1, 2008 by Mallory.

So I’ve been promising pictures for a while….they’re finally here! The first slide show is our trip to Lousiana. The second is the Wheel of Fortune auditions, and the third one is our weekend of Nauvoo/Gavin Degraw. If you click on the box, you can look at the pictures bigger. Enjoy!

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November 1, 2008 by Mallory.

So I have an interesting story. This story really shows you what part of town I work in…
So the other day, Wendell picked me up from my school. Right near my school, a cop started to follow us. We were doing absolutely nothing to disobey the law, so we were both just like, why on earth is he following us?? So the cop finally put on his lights and pulled us over. There were 2 cops. One knocked on Wendell’s window and asked him to get out of the car (which is really weird. That’s never happened to us before.) Wendell gets out of the car and one cop starts talking to him (I can’t hear them). The other cop comes and knocks on my window. I open the door (our window is broken) and here is how our conversation goes:
“So you’re from Idaho?” (We have Idaho plates)
“Well, he is. I’m from Connecticut.”
“What are you doing here?”
“He is a student and I am a teacher.”
“No, what are you doing here in this part of town?”
“I teach right over there at G. Elementary School.” (I don’t want to put the name of it on the internet)
“Oh. We don’t get many white folks from out of town in these parts, so that’s why we pulled you over.”

I was just like….What the heck?? There were three things that went through my mind at that point. 1) He could have thought we were doing something really bad like drugs or something. 2)He could have thought we were really lost and was trying to help us. 3)This really shows what part of town I work in, that they would pull us over because we’re white and out of town. At least living here gives me interesting things to talk about! Otherwise, I would lead a boring, uneventful life. Until next time!

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