The Mom Song

Amen! Too funny :)

In Memory of Mom

Today was my mom's birthday. She would have been 75 today. It seems strange that she has been gone for over a year and a half. Yet, her memory is still strong in my heart and mind. She lived with me, Lloyd and Ashley for several years after her 1st stroke. Then Parkinson's disease shortly after the stroke, came along.

She lived with us for 5 years then she had to go into a nursing home. One of the hardest things I have ever done was taking her there. She and I lived alone for many years after my older brother and sisters left home, me being the youngest. Mom wasn't perfect, I don't know a mom who is. We all learn as we go along and make mistakes along the way. But for me she was the best mom I could have ever had.

She taught me about patience, compassion, service, never giving up, faith and living with the things you can't change about yourself and working on those you can. She went back to school after 40, as a single mom. She earned her bachelors degree in education and a masters in computer science. She wasn't to far from being able to get a doctorate, but decided that wasn't something she wanted or really needed. She taught for 20 years in the school district here.

Although she had many ups and downs along her life's journey, I will always remember her faith. A strong testimony of Jesus Christ and his church. Going to the temple once a month when it was hours away and weekly when one was built across town. Her testimony of tithing and how the windows of heaven are truly opened when you obey it. I know there was many times when we lived on very little, but always ended up with what was needed. Not what we always wanted, but the needs were always met. I know raising four kids, working and going to school wasn't easy for her, but she always had time to fulfill her callings in church and with a happy heart.

So as a warm memory of love for my mom, I wanted to share this with you.



Sometime in summer probably in 1934. Most likely taken in Southern Nevada.




Mom in the mid 1960's



My mom and brother (both gone now) at my wedding in 1988.



My mom in the middle of two of her best friends. Teachers she taught with for years.



Mom a few years ago with her dog jasmine. She loved that little dog.

Jesse finally took the plunge :)

Our son Jesse came to visit for a couple of weeks. Before he left he took his newly married cousin Britni shopping to help him pick out a ring...so he could ask his long time girlfriend Nicole, to marry him. Of course Britni was more than game ;). Poor Jesse came home that night tired, nervous, but with the ring! He was pretty cute. As his flight time came closer, the more nervous he became.

When they called after Nicole said yes, Nicole said she thought something was wrong. He came off the plane acting kind of funny. Imagine that :). She was pretty darn happy when he finally asked. So, sometime in the next year, we should have another wedding in the family.





Britni giving a very nervous Jesse a hard time...


The ring it took ALL day long to find...

I love holidays and family get-togethers

One of my favorite things about special events and holidays is having family in town. Any more that doesn't happen very often. Especially not everyone at the same time.

We were excited when our son Jesse was able to come for almost 2 weeks! Hopefully next time he and Nicole will both have time off together so we can have them both here.

It is hard now that the family is starting to scatter across the country. It's exciting for them, but sad for me. I miss them even as they grow up and I don't see them as often, because of their busy schedules. I am spoiled. For so long everyone lived with in a few minutes drive. We worked together and played together. Now its a special treat when we are together :)

We all gathered at Morgan and Devin's to celebrate baby Alex's blessing and Devin's birthday!



Something about windy days and us trying to get a family picture...





A partial group shot with Tiggy, Garthy and Forrest added in...




My silly Garthy...Don't you love his locks? He's growing long so he can then cut them for chemo patients wigs...Gotta love that kid ;)




Two of my beautiful nieces...



Silly cousins hanging around...

Lloyds Birthday

So as you can see, this is why Lloyd takes the pictures in our family. :) My battery was croaking, everyone was looking at Tiggy, I just never get it right!

Last night for Lloyd's Birthday I decided (at the very last minute) to text the kids and have them meet us at Macayo's for dinner. Only a few weren't able to come. There was about 14 of us so it was silly and fun with lots of love. Lloyd loved it.



Well this is a really bad shot of the group. Tiggy and Morgan are the only ones looking at me. Can you tell Tig was being a ham. She was insisting it was her 1/2 birthday party. Not Uncles!



Lloyd holding the newest and cutest addition to the family. Tig still won't let me keep him!

latest cake

Busy weekend making cakes for friends. At least with friends I can try new techniques and if I really mess up they usually don't care...much ;).
The Transformer cake was for Ashley's boy friend. It was watermelon flavor which is a favorite of the kids, but I don't care for much. It reminds me of a watermelon jolly rancher and just to sweet for me.


The second cake was for our Karate Sensei. Lloyd has been studying karate with him since the late 1980's. He is a super guy and has a great family. We like to try and do something special for him when ever we can. His birthday happens to be on Veteran's Day so it's always easy to remember. His cake was a pina-colada flavored cake. It was pretty yummy!



Sensei James with his cake...




The cake itself.

So tiny...

When my grandma was still living she was always crocheting. She could crochet about anything. I have many of the things she made me. One of the favorite items for all my family was the slippers she would make us for Christmas. I found some old slippers she had made and decided to try my hand at it. They were actually really fun to make and with my short attention span :) I could do them in no time.


The hot pink one is one of grandma's creations. The other two are a pair I made for Antigone and Alex.

Alex's were so tiny!

How do guys think of these things?

So dh (dear hubby) comes home last night after going hunting with some guys from work. He sets a Diet Coke and half a package of mint Mentos on the counter. I eat a few of the Mentos before he tells me their for an "experiment". Supposedly if you drop a couple of Mint Mentos in a bottle of Diet Coke it shoots the Diet Coke out of the bottle.

Maybe it would of looked even cooler if I hadn't eaten most of the Mentos :)

Silly Boys!

Really...I'm still here ;)

I realized I hadn't posted anything for over two weeks. I really am still here and kicking. However I did get the stomach flu that lasted for a week. Then with my really lovely stomach it took a while to get up to speed again.

Lloyd and I with baby Alex

We did have a beautiful baby boy added to our family on the 24th. My niece Morgan and her husband Devin had their second child Alexander Jeffrey. We are all so excited. Big sister Tigone is very happy he's here!

Aren't they so cute? This is just a couple hours after he arrived. Look at all that hair! I just love my family! I think Antigone likes Alex even better than Pebbles :)!

He is so tiny! Especially compared to the usually big babies born in this family :)

Eww, now he has Ashley germs :).

No this isn't an advertisement for Sonic Drive Inn...

This is a picture of my daughter, going to drive on her own with her very recently acquired drivers license, to her job at Sonic. Oh the gray hair is coming quickly...

Funniest part is she now has her license before her 24 year old brother! She thinks it funny. Now when he comes to visit she says, she can drive him around to do things. ;) Silly girl.

This is where you hope and pray that your child survives the early driving years as you did. Mostly unscathed, lessons learned not to harshly or dramatically. And mostly you pray they walk in that door each and everyday whole and happy.

Sod Party

Before...

Saturday morning family and friends came over to help us lay some sod in our backyard. It is so amazing to watch the transformation of dirt to green in just a couple of hours. What is it about a green lawn that just makes you feel good? Most of our yard is desert landscaping but this small square. I love it, Lloyd loves it, Tig loves it, the dogs love it! All around its a good thing ;)

After...

Here is a few pics of the work crew having some breakfast before work begins. I have to say thanks to everyone that helped... Devin, Morgan, Ashley, Forrest, Shayla, Josh, David, Britni, Grandpa Pruet, Tigone (the official grass tester) and of course Lloyd. What a great bunch. Thanks guys!

Finally more than a couple of almonds...

My small but wonderful almond harvest :)


We have lived in this house for more than 13 years now. In all those years I have planted (and replanted) fruit and nut trees in the hope of actually being able to harvest and eat what the trees produce. Can I just say, yeah right! It may sound silly to be excited over 4 dozen little almonds, but that is the most any tree has produced that is edible.

It is like UGHHHH... Every year I have this nice orange tree that produce the best "lemons". Pomegranate bushes that, this year cracked and dried up by August, and a lemon tree that still has not produced one lemon! I have had horses and dogs eat my trees several times and have had to start from scratch again. So those cute little almonds are very exciting...

Almonds bring back some great childhood memories for me. In our back yard we had these two big beautiful almond trees. I remember as a kid going out in the fall and picking the almonds up off the ground, shelling them and eating them right there. It is funny, but I love raw almonds. No salt, not roasted or candied. Just plain straight from the tree raw almonds.

For those that haven't seen almonds from a tree this is what they look like:



First they have a fuzzy outer shell that when ripe opens up.



the hard inner shell is what
you see in the grocery store
when you buy them in the shell.



after you crack open that shell
you have the yummy almond.


Hopefully someday, I'll have more than a few dozen almonds. Who knows maybe I'll actually get pecans, peaches, apples, pears, apricots and whatever else I get planted :)

Never leave a Tigger alone with a cake :)

Today was a Tiggy day. I love when Tiggy comes over. She is such a little ray of sunshine! She can always make me smile. I like to do things with her. She likes to help switch laundry, fold clothes, play with the dogs, whatever, she likes to help me.

Well, today she decided to help me out with a practice cake I was making. In the kitchen she'll pull one of the chairs up to the center island and help me with what I'm doing. So, today as I had been working with fondant, I gave her some and some Halloween cookie cutters to work with.




(What? I just helping ;P Aunt Jan)


I covered the cake and had to go the other room for a minute. I had moved the actual cake over by the stove area and went to do my thing. When I figure out it is really quite, (very unusual ;) I go to investigate. Tig had moved her chair from the island to the cake and was helping me finish it by "squishing it". She was so very proud of her self. Actually, I think she was trying to eat it, cause every time I mentioned lunch she told me she wanted yummy cake. She didn't like when I told her no, not till after lunch and the cake was done.



Nice crimping technique,


I also like all the cute little finger
marks all over.


I think this might be all the new rage :). Thank goodness it was a "just for fun/practice cake". It probably would not be as funny if it were actually for something! Just gotta love those babies.

I think I remember her mom doing something similar but with a cowboy hat! She was just fixing it for her head... :)

Latest Cake

One of Ashley's best friend from elementary
school likes to come over and make things
with me. She likes the cake decorating and
candy making. She is willing to help me
out if I need an extra hand. So this weekend
while her Mom was out of town she wanted
to make her a birthday cake. She had an
idea of colors and the polka-dots so this is
what we created this weekend. It is a lemon
cake with a lemon curd filling, glazed with a
lemon curd/icing glaze. The fondant is Satin
Ice (vanilla with lemon added to it.)

Happy Birthday Laura! Hope you enjoy
your cake!

All that family

Just a little family love...

Happy Birthday Morgan!

Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!


One of my favorite pictures
of my Morgan :)


Don't you just wish we were in primary right about now. We could sing about a dozen different Happy Birthday Songs to Morgan! My niece Morgan is the big 28 today! Happy Birthday Morgan! Good thing you all can't here me singing huh?


I love all my nieces and nephews. Morgan and I have a weird bond however. She was born when I was 12, lived next door to us for several years. I took her everywhere with me when ever I could! She went to ball games, friends houses, she and Dom came and stayed with me at college for a couple weeks, vacations, the list goes on and on. She has spent so much time with me that some people thought she was mine... I'm sure it's the curly blond hair and blue eyes :).

Since it's her birthday, I made her a cake (of course). Blackberry flavor with blackberry frosting! Yum Yum!

So we are off to celebrate Morgan at her house!

20 years...

October 1, 1988




September 6, 2008

My how 20 years just flies by! Today, Lloyd and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. It seems like I've always known him and that we've been married forever! And I mean that in a GOOD WAY! Honest Cupcake :)...

Just think of all the things that you've done in the last 20 years. I know for us, there has been a lot of ups and downs. Happiness and sorrow. Adventures and everyday life. Health and sickness. Family, kids, church, work, etc., it has been a very full 20 years.

Last weekend we decided to take a little trip to one of our favorite get-a-ways and went fly fishing and leaf peeping. It was so much fun. Thanks to Dad and Jerri for letting us stay at their house and fish their pond! As a bonus we were able to see them, both my sisters and my stepbrother Doug and his family. It was great!

Here's a few pics of our fun weekend.

All I can say is... Lloyd...

Leaf Peeping trip up Cedar mountain.

It was gorgeous up their!

Just pretend we're standing by

each other :)

I love the fall and all the vibrant

colors! It is my favorite time of

year!

Visiting my sister Lynne.

Taking a tour of her not

yet finished home.

(Note: Tonya's is finished, but

I didn't get any pictures!)

Lloyd fishing,

One of his catches,

that got-a-way :),

Another nice rainbow!

Me fishing,

The two that went home.

Normally it is just catch

and release, unless they

get injured. These two

decided to swallow my

hook!

Here's to another great 20 years!