Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas

Yesterday was Joseph Smith's birthday anniversary. I made a big chocolate cake and Abby and I frosted it and decorated it. The missionaries came for dinner and my visiting teacher came at the same time, so she stayed for dinner. Then I brought out the cake and everyone wanted to know who's brithday we were celebrating. I was really disappointed that no one knew. We lit the candles, sang happy birthday, and let Abby blow out the candles. The cake was delicious. I am sure that I am not the only one to commemorate the prophet's birthday on his actual birthday (the Church does it earlier in the month), but it seemed like it yesterday. I am grateful for his contribution to the gospel and the blessings that it has brought into my life.

Now it is time to celebrate another birthday--one that no one is allowed to forget--even if you are not Christian. Merry Christmas! to one and all.

Birthday

Happy Birthday to Sariah. The big 30 is now officially hers. For one whole year. Yay!! You made it. Happy Birthday to you!!

How embarassing!

Grandpa started counting. He counts really well. Joshua is #18. Gabe and Laura are bringing #19 and we will have 10 boys and 9 girls. I don't know when I got off count; but I suspect it was when I was on so many drugs last spring. That's my story, and thank you, Grandpa, for setting the record straight and counting for me. Somehow, I am numerically challenged; even though I was really good at accounting for a long time. Surprised?
Boys: Chance, Connor, Branden, Michael, Theron, Kevin, Jacob, Ammon, Joshua, to-be-announced
Girls: Ivy, Sara, Donna, Emelyn, Olivia, Amber, Mary, Abigail, Julie

Amber Lee Haynie

Happy 4th Birthday, Amber! I hope that you have a great day and get to do everything you want to do. That would include, of course, teasing Julie and getting away with it. Poor Julie. Maybe you can just tickle her a bit. :)

#17

Joshua Kelsey Brown was born October 21, 2008, 6:10 pm in Grapevine, Texas. He is 21-1/2" and weighed in at 8.12 pounds. All is well with the Brown family. Joshua looks a lot like big sister Abigail. Abby thinks he should be called Batman. Welcome to mortality, Joshua!

Number 18 on the way

Happy Birthday, Laura!!

I believe that Laura is having THE ultrasound on Thursday. Is it a boy or girl this time?
I say BOY One more boy and we will have 9 girls and 9 boys.

Maintenance

Home ownership is a project-in-the-works (never-ending maintenance). I am hoping to start a habit of putting a certain amount of money into the maintenance or improvement of our house every month. For awhile it will not be very much, and will all be for maintenance. There is a leak under the kitchen sink that has been a problem for a long time. I have fixed it over and over again, which means it has never actually been fixed. Now the board under the leak has rotted and has to be replaced. I bought a board to fix it, but got frustrated because I couldn't get it under the pipes. That has been awhile, I wonder where the board is; I sort of remember giving it away. Maybe I should go look for it...................

Am I coming or going?

I have been told that I travel a lot, so I started counting the trips that I have made this year. It amazed me how much I have been gone since January. I am the one person in the family that prefers to stay at home, yet I have traveled more than anyone else. I am getting way too familiar with airports and the various airlines. I got home at 3am Tuesday and will be leaving Saturday morning(weather permitting--Hurricane Ike is supposed to have a severe effect on DFW weather Saturday afternoon) for one week. I am hoping to stay home for awhile after that (until March).
Dad has gone to Denver for a month to be with Grandma. She seems to be doing better than what we thought possible. I have always thought that she was one of the strongest people I have ever met. It is evident that she is still stronger than we estimated possible. She reminds me of my Grandmother, who lived to be one day short of 93. Go, Grandma, go!
I will be glad when Dad gets home. We all miss him.

Dust bunnies

I got this from Marlene Marshall: My house is dusty--you may sign your name in the dust, but don't date it!

Musings

This is a photograph of a garden in Vancouver. It is one of 7 or 8. Lanni Graf sent them to me.
If I can do this, I should be able to figure out how to do some others.

William, I have tried to leave comments on your blog, but alas, there is a notice that it won't accept my comments. Take your kids to do something fun before you all go back to school. They haven't been swimming, hiking, played soccer, gone to a real park all summer. That would be fun for all of you. Free lunch in the park does not qualify as a family event unless all of you go! It just barely qualifies as a lunch, depending on what they get that day. Sometimes it is just chocolate milk in the park.

Ben has a blog now! Check it out. Grassclippings in the shoes.

Michael is going to be baptized on September 6; Ammon will be blessed on the 7th in Utah.

Home Sweet Home

It is good to be back home after a couple of weeks. It was fun to get to be with the Cassidy family; but I think by the time I leave, everyone is glad to see me go. Grandpa and I are planning to go back the first weekend in September for Michael's baptism. He is going to see if he can get Great Grandma to go, also. It would be a short flight and she could see some of her relatives that can't travel any more.

Everything at home is pretty much the same. Busy, busy, busy. I am thinking of not going back to work this week, just to rest. My original schedule was to come home on Friday, so no one really expects to see me. Then, again, I could use some income. Choices, choices. I am so fortunate to have choices!!

Ammon Kenneth Cassidy

Welcome to the world Ammon Kenneth Cassidy! Ammon was born Friday, July 25. His parents can fill you in on the details. I know he was born about 10:30 pm, and weighs 6# 9oz? William called me when I was asleep and he seems to be kind of busy today. Sariah just got a new phone, and I am not sure it is charged yet.

I will be going to Utah on Monday and staying for about 2 weeks to help care for the big kids.

Happy Birthday, Michael James Cassidy! Michael is 8 years old today. I guess he sort of got a little brother for his birthday. How cool is that? Only Michael can say.

Yours, Mine and Ours

There is a strange phenomena in this world about ownership and stealing. If I put something out in front of my house, there is a chance that it will be stolen. The closer to the sidewalk or curb, the more likely it will be taken quickly. Even if it is up close to the house, it seems ownership is up for grabs, except for hoses. No one has ever stolen one of our hoses. Are they of no value, or are they on the list of "leave it alone, it's not yours!"? The most interesting part of this phenomena is picnicking or camping. You can leave stuff alone for hours on end in the middle of a public park with all sorts of people around and come back to all the stuff untouched, except by wildlife and insects. People tend not to steal too much from public parks. Why is that? Pick pockets will steal from your person at any opportunity, but won't take your fried chicken, cooler or cake off a picnic table. Our world is really strange. I am glad there is an unwritten code of honesty or fear of stealing at the park.

Murphy's Law

"If something can go wrong, it will." Why does the automatic window motor always quit when the window is down? You can always roll a window down, but not always back up. One of our old cars had a window that would roll down OK, but you had to push it up while pushing the automatic button. Is the best option to have it up? Connor rolled the back window down in the Titan on Saturday and the motor chose to stop working, which means that it would not go back up. Then it began to rain. Then we got on the highway. Remember how the air pressure will drive you nuts when only one window is down on the highway? It was a looonnngg ride home. Dad took the Titan back to the shop where it was repaired several months ago after an accident. They will replace it without charge. BUT FIRST we have to take it back to Nissan to make sure there isn't a recall on that part, because it is a notorious problem with Nissan's. At least they rolled the window up (and taped it shut) and promised to fix it if Nissan doesn't. All is well that ends well. Life's little nuisances are funny aren't they? Nuisance is a funny word, too.

Here we go again.............

How often do I have to get new phones? What is wrong with me and cell phones? I had the first phone for several years. It was a "brick", but it worked, I never dropped it, lost it, washed it or abused it in anyway. Then it simply wore out the battery charger. It was obsolete, so then it began. Phone after phone. Abused, but never neglected. And now, once again, washed! Water is really bad for phones. I think this time, my warranty is gone, but if not, I am going to upgrade to a palm phone like Adam has. It comes in pink, too. I dread having to put in all the phone numbers AGAIN! I know you can transfer the numbers, but you still have to put them in by hand to get the caller ID (at least I had to the last time). If you are desperate to talk to me, call me on the land line for a day or so.

Possessions

William blogged about possessions and it started me thinking about a TV special that I watched some time ago. A wildlife photographer and his wife bought an RV and equipped it to be self-sufficient in the wilderness. They would travel to some pretty remote places and be there for several weeks or even months at a time. I thought how different my possessions would be without anyone besides my husband and wild things around. They would be trimmed down quite a bit. No need for space to entertain--squirrels and deer prefer the outdoor motif. No need to have clothing beyond safety parameters--What Not to Wear turns into What You Had Better Wear. Pretty shiny things would be work-related to attract the ones you wanted to take pictures of. Vehicles would be minimal and also work-related. Entertaining myself would be more active, although I think laptops would be part of the work equipment; I am not sure that Internet would be available all of the time. It is fun to think about what you would value enough to make space for, and what you have that is for social necessities or personal desires.

What not to wear

I have to go shopping today. I only have 2 button-down (up?) shirts and I can't put clothes on over my head yet. Yeah, an excuse to shop! Who would've guessed? I can't drive, but I can shop!! Life will go on.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers of my grandchildren! Thank you for being such awesome wives and mothers. You deserve the best.

Howdy, y'all!

Happy May! Thanks, Sariah, for setting this up for me. I am taking most of May off from work, so I should have a little more time. Hopefully, less pain and more energy. Right now, using the keyboard or mouse has to be limited due to the pain factor. Surgery is Thursday, so I should be doing ok by Sunday, right? We will see about that. I do't know what my limitations will be, but the Dr said no working for a month. Depending on what I will be able to do, maybe I can catch up on cleaning and organizing. Maybe do some genealogy and picture editing.

Tomorrow is stake conference. There is some speculations that change is on its way. I think that will be fun. My shoulder is starting to cramp, so 'bye!

Mom's new blog

If you can't beat them, join them, right? Too bad Matt wasn't able to get his site back to par and fight off the evil spam any longer. This is Mom's new blog. I got tired of waiting for her to put one together herself and since it was so easy I just put it together for her. I hope you like it, Mom! You can easily make adjustments or just let Matt or I know and it will get fixed.