Scott and Jessica Get Married

Scott and Jessica were sealed on August 8th in the Mount Timpanogos Temple which is located in American Fork, Utah. My Dad flew from Bremerton to be there. Shannon & Brian drove up from Las Vegas with their babies. Corinne was only able to attend the reception that evening. She came down with strep throat the day before and had just started the anti-biotics the night before. Fred and I didn't dare take the risk of having any of her family come to any of the sealing and only Corinne to the reception starting at 5:30 pm for family pictures. By then it had been 24 hours on the antibiotics. It was a heart wrenching decision, but we couldn't risk the chance of spreading it. Now days later, none of Corinne's family has come down with it. It was the right decision at the time, but still certainly no fun. We are grateful that Ben encouraged Corinne to come to the reception even though she didn't really want to come much without her family.

Here is the happy couple right out of the Temple Doors!

This is the first time my Dad met Jessica!

This is the reception in Highland Utah. It was in the backyard of a relative. It was really beautiful. Our three children & Mima.

Me and Scott. All these pictures were taken with my camera. The professional photographer portraits will come out later.

I really love this one of Scott and Fred.

At the end of all the photos, I realized there were absolutely no group pictures of the two families together in any form. Only a huge group at the temple with EVERYONE who was there about 50 of us.

This would have been where Corinne's four boys and Ben would be. 

Mima is pretty much in all the pictures with her Momma. She wasn't too happy if she wasn't being held by Shannon over the weekend. Mima's special pose for the weekend!

Brian was so patient and supportive all weekend. Chasing after Buddy and being wherever he was needed. Buddy's little Knicker outfit also had a newsboy hat which he refused to wear.

Our baby boy.

Brian and Mima

Here are the two grandbabies. Buddy's having a ball.....

 Isn't he dapper?

 Here is a picture of the reception. Nice backyard huh?

The Wedding weekend was really a lovely time. Fred and I hosted a luncheon after the sealing. A good friend from long ago in Bremerton lives in Bountiful now and I asked her to decorate and host for us. She did a beautiful job. 

Here are the few pictures that Shannon took of the luncheon decorations.

Special Visitors

Shannon brought Mima and Buddy up for the weekend while Brian was in Seattle with his family. Buddy was excited to come to Grandpa's house. I'm glad he is old enough now to know who we are and remember our house and the stuff we have for him to play with. Mima on the other hand needs some time to warm up again....Now you may think that I take a lot of pictures of her because she is my only granddaughter..There may be a little truth to that, but these pictures were my attempt to capture her lips. She has the most expressive lips. Always making funny little shapes. They are SO Cute!!!

All of these toys except that truck with the red cab on Mima's right were toys that our children played with when they were babies.

Not this Mater one. 

 Or this big blue truck in the front of the picture.  

We had two of these rattles. We got one when Corinne was born and then another when Shannon was born. They were like break through child development toys at the time. See even Buddy is fascinated by it!

We bought a couple little pools for the grand kids, but it ended up being a bit of a dud. We didn't realize it was so shallow.

Shannon left on Sunday evening so the babies would sleep on the way home. The traffic stopped south of Mesquite. She was able to inch her way to an off ramp and get back to Mesquite where she let the kids eat and play at a McDonalds. She made the decision to drive back here and stay another night. Shannon handled the crisis incredibly well. We love that they live close by. 

4th of July with Shannon & Brian's family

For the three day weekend Shannon and Brian came up from Las Vegas. They got here about bed time Thursday night. The babies did some sleeping in the car on the way up so they had some unwinding to do when they arrived. Blake was very interested in my new Glider when he saw his Dad try it out. 

He did pretty good for a very little boy. 

Pretty much first thing Friday morning it was walking time with Grandpa. 

In our neighborhood, all the homes have flags posted by our ward's YM for all the patriotic holidays. 

It really looks nice to have the flags uniformly posted in front of all the homes. 

 Missy Mima in her sun bonnet before our outing.

 Across the street from where I work, a heavy road equipment sales and rental business moved in a few months ago. They have big equipment parked in front of their building. I knew Buddy would love going there. We drove over there and no one was in sight. He got to climb on a few of the big machines.

 Little Miss.

 Taking turns with their wheels.

 Grandpa Fred playing cars with Buddy.

Mima - well she is just a cutie. I really love having a granddaughter.

We bought a few water toys last year and finally got them out this year. 

We took Buddy to the Children's Museum that we have taken Corinne's boys to that they really enjoy. 

We think Blake enjoyed it too. 

 I didn't get to go with Corinne's boys last year because I was recovering from surgery

 so this was all new to me.

 This is Maggie the cow. You can milk her. Buddy is checkin it out.

 Brian is giving Mima a milkin lesson.

 Buddy is a pro.

Fred and I displayed pretty good grandparent skills when we told Brian and Shannon they could take off a few times and leave the babies behind. We remembered how to change diapers, feed babies, fix bottles and play with babies. We even got hugs from Buddy and Mima was smiling and not crying for her Mommy.

 It was a good weekend.

A little intro

Scott and Jess. Let me tell you what I observed about Jess so far.

She loves and adores Scott. Scott has never had that. He loves it. 

Jess is a happy and whole person. She is excited about life. 

Jess loves people by being generous, kind and by serving.

She loves to have fun and be silly. 

Jess is comfortable being herself. 

Focusing on her strengths and leaves the rest behind.

She seems to be very wise for her young years.

She is trusting. Never doubting, questioning or grilling Scott on the past.

She accepted Scott from the first moment and knew he was "The One".

God answers prayers. 

Her name is Jessica McGuire.

Realizations

A couple weeks ago I finally got an interview with the school district here for a position at the nearest High School. I made it to the first level of interviews for a high school secretary. It was a 5 minute get to meet the principal and answer a scenario and submit the answer on line to the principal. If he liked you and your answer, you would be selected to move on to the next level. I arrived to my meet and greet and found out it was for an attendance secretary position. Well that was a huge disappointment, but I figured I had to start somewhere. That is the least attractive secretarial position. I was quite charming and did extremely well. Precise, intelligent and to the point answers. My scenario answer must have been acceptable because I got the call back.

So the next week I returned for my interview before the panel of six. Let me tell you first, I suck at interviewing. For the life of me, I cannot answer in a short to the point neat form. I know the content I need to convey, but I go the long way around. I know it is nerves even though I don't think I'm nervous. It certainly did not help that some meds I'm taking are causing dry mouth. So the first answer I get into my lips start sticking to my teeth. I can barely form the words. I had to ask for water. Luckily there was a water dispenser right next to the table. Humiliating - Yes. Each panelist asked one question. Let me tell you right there. That is not the usual way of school district panel questioning. There is usually at least two questions each. That in itself tells you they already had someone selected. Anyway - the point is. I sucked and they already had someone they wanted.

When I walked out, I thought to myself they must have looked at each other and shook their heads and thought "what was that?". I was so depressed and so embarrassed for a couple of days. I started to do some soul searching. Why do I want to work for the school district? What is so attractive about that? Of course, it is the hours and all the days off. Then it came to me that I am in a different time in my life and a different place. I realized that I need to be working. The money, the socialization, and to not be home all the hours with just Fred and the summer hours in the heat. It made me admit to myself that Fred and I will never be that couple that go adventuring and exploring even though that was just about the main reason that we wanted a change in our lifestyle in moving here. We just are not those people. We are home bodies. He likes to dink around the house with projects and I like to be with people, watch TV, go out with friends and be in a work environment where I can be me.

So I'm not going to look for a school job anymore. I'm going to stick with my job. You know, I filled out my application on line at Express Professionals on Sunday night. They called me on Monday or Tuesday to come in for an interview and sent me to work on Wednesday. Ummmm - do you think that there was some divine guidance in this? I certainly do. There is a reason I am there. I do LOVE these people. AND I have stuff to do now. It is glorious. It is also so healthy for me emotionally to know that I acknowledge things about myself, me and Fred, and our relationship and what we truly are about and it's okay. We are who we are and we do what we do.

No I can't go stay with my children for weeks on end during the summer, but guess what? They are close enough that weekends are easy to do and we can do it more often. So - it's a nice compromise. Scott and Jess will be in Texas so that will not be the case, but life isn't perfect. We will figure that out.

So that is my latest life change and realization. I'm a working girl and have no plan on retiring in the near future. Fred has to have all the projects done. Backyard, shelves in all the closets in the house, sort through all his stuff in the office and set up the office, set up his garage and sort through and arrange our big closet in the hallway. Those are the only projects that I am aware of that exist that we came up with when we moved in. Now that does not mean he will not come up with more as days go by. You know he can come up with more at the drop of a hat. Those are the ones that I see need to be done. After those, I don't care. I can't see any that will affect my eyesight.

Picture of the Post

90th Birthday Installment II

 When I was talking to my Dad before he came for his birthday, we talked a bit about what to do when he was here. He mentioned a former friend went skydiving on her 80th birthday.

Well this was the best we could do for Dad.

At least the great grandsons got to go with him.

 Fred always gathers a bunch of stuff for the boys to play with. We had balls, kites, frisbees, and bubbles. This is Fred's wagon that he had as a little boy. His parents still have not actually given it back to him to keep. 

We are just "borrowing" it. 

Here are the baby cousins with Mommie/Auntie Corinne.