News for December - WOW!

It's been a crazy few weeks. We had a wonderful time in California at Kate's for Thanksgiving (found a new wine, check out the site on the right). We cut some trees at MB's and Andy got a part to fix the waterheater.
I finally had the garage sale...we did really well, evidently. Two cars in the garage - just in time!
For massive snow!!!!! We got 10 inches or so, but it DID drift a little in the open spaces one night. Since then, it hasn't gotten above freezing, so it's still here. Andy got snow, burritos, and carrot cake for his birthday. He's been studying for finals... I've been driving the Nissan...checking to make sure it works before we head to CO for Christmas! Well, I've avoided work for long enough... enjoy the changes! Here's the Birthday shout-out:

Karen, Jim, Rhoda

MB
Andy

Devine
Grandpa Don
Susanne (B) G

Pre-Thanksgiving Checklist

So...we made it to MaryBeth's house. All the animals acted like they'd been starved for days...drama queens! You know how when you travel there's always stuff left behind? It's inevitable that something gets left, and then you have to talk about it and decide how important it really is. I mean, is it like going camping without sleeping bags and pillows, or is it like camping without a spatula? So I've decided that you can't go anywhere without something being left behind. What are we missing? Here's the list: my phone chargers (car and regular), dvd movies for bedtime (MB has some good ones), and chairs (the living room couch has been sent to a new home).

But all will be well... I turned the phone off to conserve the battery. I moved the plastic off one of the chairs to sit here and type. The heat is on in the house, and the dogs are playing...
What else happens at the holidays? Well, hopefully we can stave off any serious illnesses, but we do both have a little congestion.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

News from Hurricane, UT...

Andy and I have been attending James' (#21) youth football games the last couple of months. We've really enjoyed watching (and cheering) these young men play. They put a lot of hard work in and made it to the Championship Game for their age group undefeated. (These pictures are from their playoff game 11/14.) Unfortunately, they lost a heartbreaker last night. The game went into overtime last night at 0-0. Then each team scored in the first overtime. In double overtime, each team scored again. Going into triple overtime, it was tied 14-14. Hurricane had the first shot and scored, but missed the extra point. Their opponents scored and made the extra point. The boys (and all the fans) were sorely disappointed in the loss, but all the fans knew how hard a game it had been. (This was a little extra hard because Hurricane HS had gone to the State finals for 3A the night before - 2nd year in a row - and lost in the last 3 seconds.) But the 6th graders were the only youth team from Hurricane to make the Championship game....next year, they'll definitely kick some more butt!



On the movie front, we double-dated to New Moon - it was great! The movie and the company, of course... Dee and Steve borrowed our copy of Twilight the night before so Steve was up to speed.

Happy November!

Here's the list of the lucky November birthdays:

(that I can remember right now...I just KNOW I'm forgetting several)
Grandma Meisel

Logan ( #1 Nephew!)

Lots of home maintenance going on this weekend. We also did the Butch Cassidy 5K walk this weekend with some neighbors - good times! Hurricane USA League 6th grade team won last night under the lights (go James!) - they beat my students, but it was a good game. Will post more later. Gotta bike ride and do citizenship grades for report cards - YIKES!

Great Basin National Park - the middle of...

NOWHERE! Don't get me wrong, it was fabulous, but when even Andy says he wouldn't live there, you know it's in BFE. Andy says it reminds him a lot of the Ruby Mountains...evidently there's a lot of nothing in Nevada, except for in the mountains. The colors were gorgeous, for you leaf peepers, we were flying low up and down the road into our camp and didn't get the red, but I'm including some yellow. All the leaves had pretty much dropped off the aspens by the time we left Monday morning.

We had some great hikes, one up from our camp to an old tungsten mining town with a lake at about 10,700. We will go back sometime and climb up and over the ridge to another lake, but we don't think we can take Sarah on that one.











Sarah was happy though, that we found snow - her favorite thing.









We also hiked up to Lexington Arch, which was a shorter (but steeper) ascent, and that's where these other shots were taken. It was REALLY windy at the arch, but the canyon up there was amazing!












The glacier is on Wheeler Peak (13,000) feet roughly...it's in the middle of the park. Looks like a good hike - in the SUMMER! It was so cold up there that they'd already closed the campground. We also practiced our "professional" photography... so there were LOTS of pictures taken in 4 days, but we won't share them all.






We celebrated our anniversary (Andy cooks a mean steak, and Dee sent sangria!), and then the next day was Sarah's birthday. She got bacon - that was a SERIOUS treat. She NEVER gets people food from us.

Here's the damage report: 1) the pump mechanism on the duel fuel lantern has finally gone caput, 2) there's a major leak in the air mattress - the good one, but at least it waited until Sunday night to appear, 3) very sore calves for a couple of days (mostly the downhill), and 4) the Coleman chairs officially went in the garbage when we came home (mechanical failure). Other than that...awesome trip. Back to school was a reality check on Tuesday (for me, we came home Monday morning for Andy's Bio class), but now that the week's over, I'm not sure where it went.

Anniversary Edition

I know that this is belated for some, and premature for others, but I'm doing one shout-out for all the October anniversaries:

Scott and Kim Keene
Bill and Cathy McCullough
Carl and Susanne Medley
anyone else my mind is blanking on at the moment...

Some of you might not realize that I'm a collector/packrat/someone who keeps momentos and stuff...(the title depends on your point of view). Anyway, Andy and I have been talking about going through all our old photos. So I went in the closet where that stuff is and realized...WHOA - there's a LOT of stuff in there. Christmas pictures of everyone, cards from special occasions, invitations to events, lots of ticket stubs, napkins, and other memorabilia. I could do an entire blog just on that stuff. But it did make me a little teary (not a shocker)... So here are some pictures from our wedding... Many of you were there, and for those who have met us since, yes, that really is us...

Yup, if you were at our wedding and under 35 (with a couple of exceptions) you should be somwhere in this shot... we have an 11 x 14 hanging on the wall.Look at that handsome bunch of guys...

I get 2 Moms...

and a really great Dad! (He maintained his sense of humor about the hotel, the road, the golf course...)I don't mean to brag, but what a family...(where's Justin, anyway?)This was worth all the other stuff...Andy and I wanted an outside wedding (hence October - Phoenix, remember?), at sunset...picky, picky!

The other great event was Leona's birthday, 90 then - 101 this year - for which we sang...Other notable October birthdays...(I'll try to make this a habit...)
Ivy
Mike (another great dad)

and, Sarah

Back from the land of busy...

Hello - is there ever enough time? Today, as Andy and I were doing a "big" clean, he remarked, "there's really not enough time to work a full job and keep the house clean, huh?" Truer words were never spoken. It was a good day, tho'. Andy let me sleep in and took the pack for a big bike ride (they LOVE that phrase now). Then when I woke up and realized he was gone and had taken my paint (more in a minute), I geared up and rode to the fire station. He very sweetly helped me paint the CERT signboard (I've been promising for 3 months to get that done...see? never enough time). Then I rode home and when Andy got back, we decided to clean house. A big clean involves dusting everything (except blinds - that's its own job), cleaning granite, bathrooms, sweep (for dog hair), vacuum (for all small dust), and mop. We've got this house down to 4 1/2 hours...and then the dog shower so she can come in! I temporarily misplaced my retainer...and had flashbacks of 6th grade. But, all's well that ends in the retainer case soaking in mouthwash.

Anyway, got an email from Mom and Dad by way of Michelle and Jarvis (Brethour's surrogate parents/grandparents). Katie got a Women in Business award from the city of Pasadena! Way to go Kate! I think this is a great shot of her and Mike.

Speaking of family, Andy and I are looking forward to Brooke's wedding in March. The only difficulty with coming to Phoenix is all the people we should see....

Don't you just love weddings? Here are some pics I found recently. We have been digging out some old pictures to load on the computer, so I'm including some classics - see the Compatible Dyad - oldie but goodie!

Gotta go - there's a bathtub calling my name!