My mom

For those you who don't know my mom, you should.    It is her birthday today, and even though I have forgotten her birthday in years past, I made it up to her this year, right mom?  A card, a phone call and a blog!  YOu lucky thing.  No, actually, it is me who is lucky.  For years, my mother was my best friend(sorry, Hans kicked you out of your spot).  I could call her at any time during college days and moan on her shoulder or laugh uproariously with her for hours, and I still can given the opportunity.  There are so many late night talks and much needed phone calls even now that I  have with my mom.  She is my support and really truly the crying shoulder that seems to understand when I just want to talk and when she just needs to nod and cry with me.  There are things that only she knows about me, (thank goodness), and probably some things that she knows about me that I don't even know myself yet.  I am thankful for her love and her influence in my life and in the life of my family.  From things as crazy as not going to bed until the dishes are done(and rinsing them separately, before washing them) to hanging in there and always having hope when some situations seem too far gone and trying to understand more than what is readily available.  Thank you mom, for being exactly who you are, who you have been and for the one you are becoming  I love you-

 He he he he.  I thought that HAns' story was hilarious, and all of you should rest easy knowing I would never let anyone shoot my dog.  We are up in Delta again this weekend.  HAns' folks went to Puerta Viarta??? for a week so we came up to spend some extra time with HAns.  The boys had have fun riding their bikes down the long dirt roads, adn Tonks loves running through the fields.  Gabe swears he can keep up with her, but seeing as he gets up to about 8 miles an hour and Tonks maintains a steady 20 miles an hour, I guess he can dream.  We clocked them using the Mule ( a glorified 4 wheeler with a tiny bed on it).  I've been, well, still cooking and cleaning and watching boys, but it seems easier at somebody else's house for some reason.  The boys have so much fun with their dad.  I really am just not too much fun and they get bored with me, but they are stuck with me, and somehow love me anyway.  Hans invited a couple for work out for dinner last night.  Can I tell you how unthrilled I was?  I AM NOT ready to make new friends- I don't want new ones, I like my old ones and that's that.  I am sure I can still travel to Cedar for a girls' night now and then and have a couples party every  JUly fourth with my croonies from Cedar- I am not giving up on the wonderful people that I have found and loved for the last 6 years.  Anyway, they were a nice couple, but as usual,it takes people a while to get to know my sense of humor and I managed to dump the homemade pizza halfway out of the pan- sloshing pizza sauce all over the table settings and the floor- mushrooms went flying.  Argh.  And no one even laughed.  YOU GUYS would have laughed.  I felt terrible the rest of the night.  To top it off I played the worst game of ROOK in my life, perhaps even the history of the game.  But the saving grace of the night was after they left, HAns and I stayed up and watched Redneck weddings on CMT.  I haven't laughed that hard in a while.  Oh my goodness!  Are people really like that?  Anyway, I needed a good laugh and that show did it for me.  Thank goodness for strange  people who make shows out of other strange people doing strange stuff.  

KIDS!!

Early yesterday morning Gabe and Hiett came into our bedroom, as is customary, to color and drink hot cocoa.  While they were in there the dog did something that made Shellie yell at her and call here a "Mutt"  After she said that this is the conversation that ensued.   (WARNING:  I was being facetious)

Shellie: We should name our next dog Mutt.

Gabe:  Our next dog?

Hans: Ya sometimes Dr. Remington or Winchester get to my dogs.  (my dogs got into the chickens a lot when we were kids, hence their common early demise due to a firearm)

Gabe: (after a minute of contemplation)  What do they do?

Hans:  They are really bad dog doctors.

Gabe:  (again after a minute of contemplation)  Where do they live?

Shellie: (now chuckling)  In the closet.

Gabe gave up on questions after this.  I hope it doesn't click in the future.  I promise I won't shoot Shellie's dog.  I got rid of the chickens so that isn't going to be a issue.

Halloween

Halloween was great. We all dressed a pirates. Yes I am a pirate not a hispanic drug dealer. Gabe and Hiett had so much fun getting all the candy they could. They made quite the haul. The ward put on a trunk or treat so we didn't have to walk the boys to death to get them their sugar high that would last a week. I remember when I was a kid we had to work for our candy. We would drive into Delta and walk all over town to get some candy. I think it was a calorie offset thing.