Snow In San Diego County and L.A.?

I am laughing at the thought of snow in San Diego County and Los Angeles! Most of the population of Calif. wouldn't know a snow chain if it hit them in the head!! I can remember as a kid not having to go very far up the mountains to find snow, but downtown? That's amazing! I do miss going to the snow and playing in the morning and going and laying on the beach in the afternoon!

New Year starts now!

Getting geared up to get back to work, it's been nice having a week off with my family, and was able to spend a couple of nights in Oklahoma City just bumming around, now we're trying to ween ourselves off all the good junk food we've indulged in for the past month and getting ready to start eating a little more healthy. (I know, NO fun!) Ben's back at MCC getting his room put back together, I still don't know why they make them move it all out for Christmas break, but, now he can get it organized. (ok, my idea, not his! lol) Can't believe he's halfway through his freshman year, can't wait to see where life takes him.

New Years Eve and Day

Great time spent with the Williams on New Years Eve, we had purchased great deals on Groupon to Jimmies Diner, and decided to have dinner together there. We were the only table there for quite awhile, I guess others had wild, exotic, glamorous parties to attend! We started giving our waitress a hard time and pretty soon they were all involved, it was a really fun evening.Then ended up at our house playing Rummikube, Do NOT play it with Randy and Phillip!!! ; )

Windows and Doors open on December 30th

Who'd have ever thought we'd be enjoying such a beautiful day with the breeze blowing with the windows and doors open and hearing the neighbor kids playing outside in shirt sleeves and playing on the trampoline!! Don't cha just love it!!! You Betcha!!

Black Eyed Peas and Cabbage

One of my Moms favorite dishes to make was Black Eyed Peas and wilted Cabbage on New Years day, she always said that Peas were for Good Luck and Cabbage was for money...unfortunately, she never had much money, must not have eaten enough Cabbage! I've never eaten anyone elses wilted Cabbage, but I think hers had to be the best! She would cook Bacon and crumble it up and pour Bacon grease on the cabbage and sprinkle the bacon on it! Yum!

Making Peanut Butter Cookies

Made Peanut Butter cookies with some of Bens friends and realized it's funny how you do something the way a mom or grandma taught you and you don't even think about it. I was measuring the peanut butter by using a measuring cup with the same amount of water as I needed peanut butter, when you add the peanut butter to the water to 2 x's the amount, it's exactly the amount of peanut butter that you need and you don't have it gunked up on the sides of the cup. The kids were so surprised about seeing it, I thought everyone did it that way!

Jamaica 2008

Randy, Ben, and I just returned from spending 10 days in Montego Bay helping some missionary friends work on their new church. It was the first time that we went and didn't spend our time on top of the mountain. It was in the 90's the entire time we were there, with 100% humidity most of the time. We thought we would freeze when we came home to 50 degrees! Randy and Ben worked really hard preparing and painting concrete walls, it will be a beautiful place to worship when it is finished!

A year has gone by since my last post!!!

My goodness time flies!!! So much has happened since my last post! I lost my Mom on June 24th to lung cancer...I just don't understand why I still see kids smoking with all the deaths around them due to smoke related cancers!!! It is an ugly death! I miss her greatly...I remember thinking when I was young and had friends lose parents, that I hoped that I would be older when I lost mine, thinking it would be easier, but it's not! We think our moms will be there forever!!

Here is a new picture of Ben, He is really growing up! 

Ben in his Sunrise Buffaloes Uniform

Bens football pictures for 2007

The church gang that came to cheer the Sunrise Buffaloes on!!! 

Our weekend in Denver

We found out we could go to Dove Field in Denver and watch the Broncos practice, so the Fergusons, the Smiths, and Bens friend Sid hit the road. We decided to tour the playing field while we were there, didn't look near as big as it does on T.V. Pictures are the invesco Field sign, the Broncos locker room, the Broncos practicing and of course, the fridge where they store all the beer for the game!

 

Denver Weekend

A picture of us when we visited Invesco Field in Denver. Found out we could go and watch the Broncos practice and took a tour of their playing field while we were there. 

Here is a picture of my mom on her 74th birthday,













one of my mother in law Erma and my mom when I dumped them out of the car after spending way too much time traveling with them,























one of me in jail after spending way too much time with them,








and one of Ben in his Tuxedo in the Sound of Music. 

Ben is now 14!!!

My pictures are coming out blurry for some reason, here is one of Ben after we got back from eating African food at Seringeti's, none of us had room for cake! 

some kitchen pictures

Here are some before and afters of our kitchen, I haven't figured out how to post more than 4 at a time yet, I think you can click on them and make them bigger to see.

Some new pictures of the house

Here are some before and after pictures of our (ok, Randy's and Ben's) Den, it's really starting to feel like home.

The Move is ON!

It's already January 16th, My Mom always said that we wish our lives away until we are 21 and then the years fly by!!! How true that is!!! We are about 2 weeks from moving into our house!!! The carpet is going to be installed on Thursday!!!! Not everybody gets new carpet for their birthday!!!Whooppee!!!! Maybe life will get back to what ever normal is!!! Ben has a part in the school musical "The sound of music", he's glad he's a Nazi and not a little boy wearing shorts and suspenders!!! It should be fun for him, they have an awful practice schedule though. It will be a good excuse to get more pictures of him to post, I hope!

New picture of Ben

 
Ben needed a picture of himself to use when he is auditioning for a play today, so I took this one. He doesn't give me many chances to take pictures of him.