It's COLD outside

Well, it is New Years Eve and it is freezing outside. For the past 2 nights it has dipped below 30 degrees and it is really cold in the morning when I walk with Gayle. Don't I live in California??? It is the end of the year and so much to be grateful for. What a great 2011 to look forward to. We have six wonderful kids married to six great spouses and together they have given us 13 grand kids so far and number 14 will be here the first part of February! What more could a person ask for?? Sid is making changes to his dental office with going digital and he still finds more than enough days to hunt, hunt, hunt and did I mention he likes to hunt??? How much pheasant can one person eat?? Zip has turned into a wonderful companion for him and gives him lots of exercise on Friday and Saturday mornings. I will be starting a monthly craft group to get my creative juices flowing again and I plan on loosing much needed weight to look good for Cancun in May 2011. So grateful for wonderful friends and family. May we all have a healthy and prosperous new year!

A song to remember

A few weeks ago the temple president's wife asked me to sing Away in the Manger for our prayer meeting in the temple last night. I told her I would love to sing but I don't sing solo! She was not surprised and asked me to ask Susan Merrill to sing with me. I quickly sent an email to Susan and asked her to sing with me and hoped she was an alto. She said she would be glad to sing with me and she was an alto so all was going great. The week before we scheduled our breaks at the same time so we could practice in the break room together. We sang it once and called it good until this last week when we were to perform. We got to run through it once in the ladies room before we performed in front of our Tuesday evening shift. When we practiced together we were discussing how we were both so afraid to sing alone and that we were both very nervous to sing at all in front of everyone without a piano. Well, it was finally our turn to sing and we just got up and it was such a high for me to sing with Susan in the temple. The acoustics in that room are amazing and we sounded really good together. So many people were shocked to hear us sing and said we sounded like angels!! It was such an honor to sing with Susan and especially such a wonderful song about our Savior. It was a wonderful beginning to the night of work at the temple. I am so grateful for the talent of being able to sing and share this talent with others. I have truly been blessed in so many ways and thank him for this gift.

Happy News

If any of you have not heard yet, our son Joshua got accepted into Dental school at the University of Louisville!! We are so excited for him to FINALLY get in and get on with his dream of becoming a dentist. It is hard to believe that we have two sons attending dental school at this time. Jacob in West Virginia and now Josh in Kentucky. We are so proud of all of our kids and know they have worked hard in their educational goals. Mike and Christy are living with us while Mike completes his clinicals at UC Davis in Sacramento. He enjoys the experience of working with different people every day and learning new things. We love having the grandkids entertain us on a daily basis. Now that Jack is mobile we have to watch out for everything on the floor that he might get in to. We had a great Thanksgiving in Colorado visiting with Matt and Stacie and seeing our newest addition to the family Tysen. What a sweet and good baby he is. It seems all we did was eat the whole time we were there but we did have a great time. Kandis and Nic were there and Kristin and Thomas were there. Three out of six children isn't bad when they are spread out all over the USA. It was cold and windy but we flew in and out with out any problems. The time just went by to fast! I have not got the Christmas decorations out yet. I have to decorate for the ward Christmas party on the 11th and most of my things will be taken over to the church for that party. I will probably get the rest of the stuff out today and get it done. Much to be grateful for and much to look forward to.