Monday, November 1, 2010

It Feeels BIG, SWEET, and GOOD...


Claire convinced me to get back into blogging mode with pictures, so I coaxed her over to help refresh my very limited skills and we ended up with something BIG (figuring out blogging again after more than a year in hiatus), something SWEET (every picture of the grandkids!), and something GOOD ( pushing ‘publish post’!) Now for some detail on the pictures and times in between. The BIG fish was caught by Glen, our most recent fix-it-up guy. He claimed it weighed 15 pounds and it definitely came right out of our front lake. He says he is going to ‘mount it’, but for now, it is in Claire’s freezer…good for me since he’s not using my freezer, bad for Claire. I loved the SWEET picture of Hannah and Lucy together in the ‘chair lift’ swing taken one morning on our walk at Sundance, and Amelia thinks the ice-cream sandwich is very, very GOOD. I got the cute shots of Kate and Taylor in their community pool when Connie and I stopped in Dallas enroute to Denver early in Sept. Our destination was driving Patti’s car to Denver, but our goal was to have a fun road trip together which I would say we accomplished! I got several shots of Izzy with a band-aid on a different part of her body each time. For now, they are her trademark. I have to admit that I nearly fell in love with Muffy, the little dog at the Taskers, and offered to swap her out for Ranger, the big dog at home. I had no takers and probably just as well since the dog on Hickory Hill Farm has to fend off possums, skunks, beavers, snakes, and other scary things which Muffy might not have been too successful at. Gabe and I had an ice-cream date which he managed to turn into a visit to his favorite restaurant where he skillfully pointed out all of the stuffed animals and then wanted to know which one was my favorite! Have you ever seen a jack-a-lope? Cute little things….but not near as cute as Gabert T. Tasker. Jenn and I spent some good time doing kickboxing at the church (she was the teacher!) and yoga at her fabulous gym (where I was definitely the oldest, the stiffest, and the most uncoordinated but I did persevere). We enjoyed an afternoon at the temple and that evening we split ways so she could take kids one place and I could take kids another place. I got to take Emma to her gymnastics class and witnessed 2+ hours of bending, flipping, vaulting, and balancing. What a stark contrast: myself at Yoga, Emma at gymnastics!

Gary and I spent some time at Sundance – our annual fall retreat. He commuted to and from Utah instead of back to Georgia between his work days. Jessica, Dave, and children came up for a week loaded with their bikes and bike trailers, as well as several volumes of Harry Potter which Madi was totally immersed in. She read, Dave and Caleb mountain biked, Lucy played with Hannah, Jessica fed Ammon, and then Jessica broke her leg and that changed everything! They stayed an extra couple of days at the cabin so Jessica could feel up to traveling back home. This delay meant they would miss the St. George marathon which was a big reason for their coming to UT in the first place. Gary stayed at the cabin to help out as well as recuperate from a lot of travel and work. I headed south to St. George for the marathon weekend. Our runners this year: Rachel, Julie, and Amy. Rachel was injured early on (so sad), Julie endured to the end and completed her second marathon, and Amy did an amazing job on her first marathon. One of the highlights was driving back over the racecourse and realizing what an incredible thing it is to be in a marathon. Julie says she will be back next year with determination to train better, Rachel says she will definitely run a marathon someday but right now she is working on getting her knee healed, and Amy is undecided – too soon to tell!

The next week I was at the cabin alone – kind of nice some of the time, kind of lonely some of the time. I did have great company one night when Dave and Kathy, Steve and Melanie came up. They were on their way to St George themselves but did a layover at Sundance. Melanie was keeping her foot elevated (just like Jessica was keeping her leg elevated) as a result of a four-wheeling accident a couple of weeks earlier where she broke most of the bones in her foot – serious stuff. I told Melanie she had earned the right in 2010 to be depressed…but she declined and smiled! The latest news from their family is that Andrea is expecting - #6 for the Lovelands.

I did ‘fall cleaning’ at the cabin if there is such a thing. When I was growing up, it was always ‘spring cleaning!’ When I left, the cabin looked GOOD and I felt GOOD! I went from UT to California, and Gary came from Kalamazoo! and we were able to share in Ammon’s blessing day. Dave and Jessica had the blessing at their home so all of Dave’s family could be there. Lucy climbed the wall so she wouldn’t miss a thing – isn’t she amazing in her picture… amazingly cute. I stayed for a few extra days to help (Jessica has been ‘couch bound’) and just had a fun time with the kids, with the baby, with Jessica, with going to soccer games and piano lessons and anything else that needed to be done.

It was major catch-up time when I arrived back in Georgia – catch up with everything I missed, catch up with office stuff and church stuff, catch up on a pile of mail and a bigger pile of laundry, and catch up with the birthday people! Gary and I caught up with Josh (Oct 24) and Dagmar (Oct 27), Jordan (Oct 26) and Amanda and celebrated together at the Farmhouse where we had a delicious dinner that could almost be called ‘homegrown’ – they actually grow quite a bit of what they serve right on the property. It was a fun evening out together. November birthdays coming up: Julie on Nov 5th, Emma on the 6th, Baby Boy Jewkes soon to arrive on the 8th, Grandma Becky on the 11th, Jasper on the 13th, Isabella on the 21st.

We finished up Halloween celebrations on Sunday with a Halloween dinner: cheesy ghosts, mummified doggies, creepy punch, spider web dip, monster munch. We nearly scared our guests (the Mayfield family) away! Do you remember our first Annual Halloween Parade a year ago? I’m hoping for a second Annual Parade in 2010 – send pictures!

Life is good!


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