Summertime, Parties and Family....

Wow! What a busy summer this has been. I have had visitors from Ogden (Michelle, Jeff, Carlee, Kory and Maggie) in June. In July, Spencer came to visit for a week. We had a good time, swimming, shopping, swimming, go cart racing and then swimming some more. Thanks to those who braved the heat and gave me something to do while you were here. (I would have had to look for a big project around the house if you hadn't come to visit.) I flew back to Utah with Spencer and spent a few days there before Larry and Jack joined me on Tuesday, July 22. That week was full of family get-togethers-- first with the Bruce family on the 24th after the parade and then with the Nelson family on the 25th. What fun it was to get together with these good families and visit with each other. I have been so blessed with the love of great families in my life. On Saturday night, my children got together in the name of my upcoming birthday to celebrate by eating great food from Maddox and ice cream cake roll. Sunday afternoon, Larry, Jack and I loaded up the car and headed back to Las Vegas.
Upon arriving, we were greeted by the Sims family (Michelle, Mike and children, and of course Mandy). They had arrived in Vegas on Friday. It has been fun for me to get to know them a little better. While they have been here, the other families that live here in Vegas have also been here so cousins could play together and adults could visit. Which brings me to yesterday. It was my birthday (I know how old I am but I'm pretty sure my Wii Fit thinks I am somewhere between 35 and 40 so I think I will go with that age). Thank you to all my kids who spoiled me last week with a reservation to BYU Education Week and a new set of scriptures. Thanks to Larry for giving me opportunity to shop and/or visit a spa in the near future. And thanks to Larry's kids for making it special for me even though I am away from my family. We had Chicago Style pizza (thanks Michelle, Steve, and Kevin), and a delightful chocolate chip bundt cake from Everything Bundt Cake.

It was SOOOOOO good. Now as I said a few minutes ago, I have been blessed with the love of great families (my own and the Bruce's) and the addition of the Pierce family in my life has been a blessing as well. I hope that will continue for many years to come. Thanks to all my family members for making my life so complete.

IT'S HOT! REALLY HOT!

Wow! It has been a while since my last blog. I have kept pretty busy and haven't found time to blog. That combined with the fact that I often think my blogs seem pretty mundane have kept me from updating for awhile.

Let me begin with the statement that it is REALLY HOT here in Vegas. Last week Michelle, Jeff, Carlee, Kory and Maggie came to stay with us. We kept pretty busy trying different places to eat and shopping at the outlets (at least the girls. The boys went golfing that day). We all really noticed the heat while walking from casino to casino taking in the themes (where was the breeze that was supposed to blow mist from the Bellagio Fountains?). Thank goodness for the swimming pool to cool down in after our sightseeing. With all of the activities we had planned, Maggie was such a great little vacationer. I hardly knew she was with us.

Here's a GREAT BIG THANKS to those who braved the heat and planned a vacation here. We certainly enjoyed the company--and so did Jack. He gets pretty bored listening to Larry's humor (OK, mine too). And now I have a visit from Spencer to look forward to. If anyone has any input as to what fun things I can do with him while in Vegas, let me know. I'm making a list.

Visiting Family and Making Memories.....

This week has been so nice. I came back to Ogden last week and spent Memorial Day here, had a cookout with the family and celebrated May and June birthdays with them. On Thursday Larry made the drive here to be with us for the weekend. We have had so much fun. We visited Pop's Malt Shop, took my mom to dinner for her birthday, spent time with all of my children, and each of the grandchildren (Hannah, G, and Dylan even spent the night on Friday). Wii Sports was part of our exercise regimen and provided many hours of fun for the family. Thanks to the Boyles! I was also able to attend Maddie's dance recital. What a beautiful little dancer she is becoming. Thanks for inviting me, Maddie. Today we were able to be in attendance at, and participate in, Ellisyn's blessing. What a neat experience that was. Brett did a wonderful job, leaving Ellisyn a big responsibility to be the person that Heavenly Father sent her to become.
Tomorrow morning, very early, Larry and I will be heading back to Vegas to get some very pressing work done in our house there. We have three bedrooms to get in order, i.e. walls and mop boards washed, carpets cleaned, beds moved around and possibly a bedroom painted. Next week Larry is heading to Hawaii to bring his dad back for a couple months. We need to get a room ready for him and since Carlee, Kory, Maggie, Michelle, and Jeff will be coming to visit on the 24th of June, we will need to get the two extra bedrooms upstairs ready for them. I think I always have a plan and things on my list to get accomplished. Oh, and next Thursday I will be coming back to Ogden for a few days while Larry goes to pick up his dad. Does life ever slow down? I hope not. I think I would get bored.

Here's how I spend my days....

I thought I would bring you up to date on the remodeling that we have been doing here in the Las Vegas house. After about a month, we are getting most things back to normal. Carpet was laid on Monday and since then we have been working to get things put back. We still need to hang the pictures, replace the mop boards in the bathroom and find a home for some miscellaneous things. It looks SO nice. Hopefully before I leave for Ogden on Saturday we can have it done and done.

Bedroom/computer
Closet

Now, as I mentioned, I will be traveling to Ogden again this Saturday. Life doesn't seem to slow down for me at all. There are lots of birthdays in the family that we will be celebrating and, of course, Memorial Day. I will be there for eight or nine days and Larry will be joining my next Thursday. I hope to get some yard work done as well as party with the kids and visit parents. It is always hard to uproot and break my schedule every two or three weeks but well worth it. I get to see my children and most importantly, my nine adorable grandchildren. I also love just being home where everything is so familiar and I know where everything is (I am getting to know Las Vegas pretty well though, at least the West end, oh, and, McCarren Airport).
When I get back to Vegas? Yes, you guessed it. I will be starting on another room. We have company coming in June and I need to get three bedrooms ready for that.

Update on the Updating........

In my last blog I mentioned the fact that Larry and I are remodeling the master bedroom and master bathroom. This week we painted the rooms a very warm taupe color. I really love it. However, we are now trying to match tile for the bathroom floor and carpet for the bedroom to the paint. We have finally decided on the tile. Not the one we originally thought we wanted. Now we are facing the carpet dilemma. We have had no less than seven samples of carpet here in the last week and still can't decide. Tonight we were in a local furniture/carpet store and I had about ten samples laying out on the floor with the tile sample and a large size paint sample. Some pieces of carpet seem too dark, others too pink and yet others too yellow. (Side note: the salesman said that watching me decide on a carpet color was more entertaining than gambling.) Did we choose the right paint color? I think we are down to two samples to choose from. We have to make a decision by Saturday so it can be ordered. I will be happy to have the bedroom put back together again. As much work as it has been (and we still have the very big job of tiling to go), I look forward to the next project.

I have been thinking a lot lately about what drives people in the direction of accomplishment. Is it a hereditary part of nature? A learned personality? Or maybe even both? I have pondered this because I seem to always need to accomplish some task. I find it really difficult to just sit back and enjoy a day of doing nothing in particular. I know that my parents were very hard working people. As a matter of fact my mother, at age 79 (almost), still works in her yard and keeps an immaculate house. Even though her health isn't good, spring and fall house cleaning are still a ritual for her.
I suppose I learned that while growing up so that was part of what I did as a young wife and mother. Typically, the work was always done before the play started. As life got more hectic with teaching school and working on additional educational degrees, I found it hard to continue that kind of cleaning even though I didn't let my house get out of hand. I guess what has made me think about this as of late is that since I have been married to Larry and am getting used to a different house with things in different places, I have been doing a great deal of reorganizing, cleaning, de-cluttering to fit my wants, needs, and life style. I'm sure there are those people out there that would be very comfortable just moving into someone else's domain and leaving well enough alone. It sure would be a lot easier that way. I think they call that "sitting around eating Bon Bon's all day."
This week we have taken on a new project. Larry and I are painting the bedroom, putting tile on the floor in the bathroom and having new carpet installed. I love doing these kinds of projects because I can actually see some results. Oftentimes when doing weekly cleaning, I know it is done but no one else actually notices. We got the ceiling painted last Saturday and I am working on the bathroom walls today. The target finish date is sometime around May 16 to have it all done. It has been enjoyable to me to be able to work together on this remodel job.
I have been concerned that Larry will wonder why the hurry on the cleaning and remodeling but like I said, I suppose it is drive for accomplishment coupled with my impatient nature to want to get things done in the quickest time possible so I can move on to another project. Did I just commit to creating more work for myself? Oh well, it will be fun to realize the fruits of my labors. Whether my drive for accomplishment is hereditary or learned, I don't mind work at all.

Warm Weather is really nice...

This winter in Utah has been SOOO cold and seems to have lasted a very long time. Granted, I did take a trip to Hawaii in January for a week but then I came home to more cold. Well, on March 21, 2008 Larry and I were married at the Lodge in Perry, Utah. It was a very nice occasion and we were very blessed to have all of our children, their spouses, and all 19 grandchildren in attendance along with a few friends.
After the ceremony and dinner, we took four days and went to Jackson, Wyoming. We stayed in the Cowboy Resort Cabins. You guessed it--more cold weather. At least it didn't storm. We saw all kinds of wildlife and some beautiful scenery. On Monday we drove to Rexburg, Idaho and were able to take in a temple session in the new Rexburg Temple on Tuesday. What a beautiful temple that is. I am so glad that we were able to plan that into our trip.
We got back to Pleasant View and two days later Keri had little Ellisyn. What a beautiful little baby she is, and from what I understand, she is a very good baby too. Kudos to Keri and Brett.
The next week I made the trek to Las Vegas to start the next chapter in my life. Larry and I will be living here for the most part but I will be visiting my home and my children and grandchildren in Ogden as often as possible. I am learning my way around Las Vegas pretty well for having only been here a week. I can at least get to the Meadows mall and several strip malls. :) I have been making a few changes in the house for my convenience as well as just a little updating. I am really excited that some of my children have already committed to come and visit us here. I think Spencer is planning on coming here for a few days also. We'll plan some fun things to do while he is here, however, he may just want to spend the days swimming in the pool in the backyard. At any rate, it seems like I have some things to look forward to in the next little while. Oh, and did I mention that it is nice and WARM here? Today it was nearly 85. Pretty nice if you ask me.