Family Friday: The Count Down

Next week is the final week of "Family Friday". I will be posting something every day starting on Sunday and ending on Friday with the final "Family Friday" feature. Be sure and check in; there will be two blog contests with two winners for each contest!! Here are the prizes: these way cute St. Patrick's Day bubblegum jars. You want one, don't you!?!

Letterman and Marsden

Okay my friends, check this out. My brother the anchorman on the Letterman show. Cool huh!?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFsBM6lxLcA&feature=channel

The Eagles Have Landed

Every winter for the past ten years we have driven down Pages Lane to go see the Farmington Bay Eagles. From November through February they come daily to these trees; I refer to the trees as their "timeshares".

When we found our new home we quickly discovered that we had a front row seat to this marvelous scene. One of the first things I've done every morning this winter is to go to my bedroom window to see how many Eagles are in the trees.

Mike set up his spotting scope in the living room so that we could have an even better view of these birds, it really is an amazing sight (I was hoping the neighbors didn't think that we were trying to get a better view of them). Often we see them flying around after they've taken off, or just before they land on the branch of a tree. Our neighbors told us that there have been as many as 60+ Eagles in these trees at one time, recently I saw 19 and that was quite a sight to see. Last Saturday I saw one and that was it, Mike said they are gone until next November.

Those of you who know how I feel about the "feathered variety" may be surprised that I wrote this post. I don't really think of these as birds, but more of a majestic animal; in fact, recently as I looked through the spotting scope and observed an Eagle turning it's head and blinking it's eye I said to Mike, "It is so beautiful, I want to hug it." Mike said to me, "it would claw your eye out." Ouch. At least I had a kind thought for one species of the "feathered variety."

This picture is taken from my house

This is from my corner

Across the street from my corner

This is a "birds-eye" view of my house

Family Friday: Featuring My Brother (by marriage) Cory

"Family Friday" is quickly winding down and coming to an end, there are only two weeks left. I will have featured 47 family members when it is over and I have observed that there is something unique about the family member who I am featuring this week; he is my only brother "in-law" on my side of the family. Of course I am talking about Cory.

Cory met my sister Lilian in the summer of 1984, shortly after she returned from the beach house. He moved in with some guys who lived next door to my parents home and, well... the rest is history. They were married in the Salt Lake Temple on December 6, 1985. Over the next several years Cory and Lilian became the proud parents of five handsome sons.

There are a lot of things I love about my BIL Cory, I'm going to mention a couple of important ones here. First of all, Cory has always made me feel welcome and comfortable in his home. Mike and I love to go on a Friday or Saturday night and watch movies with Cory and Lilian and their friends, often we invite ourselves, but we know we can. When I go into the house and I see Cory sometimes I say, "dad, we're home." Cory always has a big smile and a welcoming hug, and he always says that we can come back. The second thing I'm going to mention is Cory's hugs; they are the BEST!

Cory is a very handy guy and he's always willing to help others with their projects. He is a good carpenter and finished his basement beautifully; and now he lets our entire family invade it for many of our family parties. Cory is also really good at electronics. When me moved into our new home Cory was right there to help Mike install our TV on the wall. Mike was so grateful for Cory and his knowledge and willingness to share it. One thing I've observed about Cory, he is always ready, willing, and able to help in whatever way he can. And he'll even bring the tools!


Cory has a job. Do you remember "The Incredibles?" or did you ever see California's "Governator" in the movie (only on TV of course) "True Lies?" 'nuff said. Of course with me there is never 'nuff said, so I did get permission from Cory to say that he meets with NATO. Although we really don't know what Cory does we do know that he travels all over the world and consequently Cory has a lot of frequent flyer miles. In 1997 Cory very generously treated me and Lilian to a trip to England (with his miles) to visit our parents while they were on their mission; FIRST CLASS SEATS! Cory is awesome! 'nuff said.

Cory is interested in what's going on with the family. Selling and buying a house was an extemely stressful and emotional experience for me. I remember Cory coming to the new house (before we bought it) to check it out; he also called me on the phone to see how things were coming along, and I'll never forget the time that we were talking on the phone and he said to me, "it's your turn (for a house)." That meant a lot to me. Cory celebrates other peoples successes. That is a quality that I admire.

Cory is very tender hearted. He cares about everyone in this family. When Ashleigh was sick he came to our house one day with a pair of "Little Mermaid" socks that he had bought for her. Those were the last socks she ever wore.

Things to know about Cory: He was student body president at Gunnison high school. He's patient. He teaches the Gospel Doctrine class in Sunday School. He loves movies; two of his favorites are: "The Flinstone's Christmas" and "Seven Brides For Seven Brothers". He likes "Popeye's Chicken"; I'd never heard of it until I saw Cory eating it at t'ocean. Every year after Thanksgiving he takes his boys to Gunnison to cut down a fresh Christmas tree. He is an avid Denver Broncos fan; he even had a dog named Elway. He's a great husband and father. He is a good provider for his family. He is a wonderful son and brother. He honors the priesthood. He loves the Lord. He loves my baby sister. He can get to California quicker than anyone I know. He doesn't draw attention to himself. He's a tease. Cory once had a cool car named Henry. He's very good at buying cars. I am so grateful for Cory, I know the rest of the family is too. We are so lucky to have him in our family and we love him.

Cory's family: Michael, Jacob, Taylor, Jessica, Russell, Lilian, and Cory (Elder Alan Nielsen will be home three months from tomorrow)

Decorating 101

I have been an avid change collector for years! For example: I make a cash purchase for $1.19 and I give them $2.00. Then I go home and put .81 in my LESLEY jar (it's a real jar with my name on it, spelled correctly, that my Dad bought for me in England in 1985, and yes this time I really mean 1985).

I have been doing this for years and you would be surprised at how much change you can collect in just a few months. I have needed to do rugs, shower curtain, and towels in Caitlin's bathroom so this is how I spent my change this go round.




What do you think? Do you think Caitlin will be surprised and excited when she comes home from school? I still have to do some wall decor (you know me and nails).

I loved the polka dotted shower curtain but didn't want all of the polka dotted towels and rugs. So I went with pink and brown. But to help tie in the shower curtain, I splurged on this cute soap dispenser and added the teal hand towel (there are teal dots on the curtain) for a little more color.


We need a few more accessories on the walls and counter top, and I may have to splurge on the polka dotted garbage can; we'll see. You'll never guess what I'm going to buy with my next jar of change; I can't tell because you'll think I'm a dork!

2002 Winter Olympics

Although I am admittedly not an athletic person, there are some sports that I do enjoy.... okay, they usually involve my husband and sons playing softball or basketball; but I'll never forget my introduction to the Olympics. It was the Munich Olympics in 1972, the summer that I turned fourteen. I loved watching the Olympics, my favorite was of course Mark Spitz (my gym teacher had a life-sized poster of him on her office door wearing nothing but a flag speedo and his seven Olympic gold medals around his neck). Although I enjoy watching the swimming and gymnastics, the winter Olympic games are my favorite and I particularly love figure skating.

I'll never forget being at the beach house the summer of 1995. We were all watching as the announcement was made that the winter Olympics in the year 2002 would be held in the city of Salt Lake City (that sounded so funny to me... the city of Salt Lake City). In 1995; 2002 seemed so far away, now it seems so long ago.

During the 2002 Olympics I took Caitlin out of school one day and we went with my Mother, my sister, and my nephews to downtown SLC for our own Olympic experience. It was a lot of fun and the kids loved it. They participated in Olympic events, won medals, and had pictures taken. We saw a display of "Olympic paraphernalia" through the years and so I decided to share some of my "Olympic paraphernalia". I purchased four "Kelly" dolls (Barbie's) at Target. I spent about $5 each on them. I've kept them in un-opened boxes for the past eight years and the other day I looked them up online. My figure skater Kelly is now worth $44.95 and my hockey player Tommy is worth $39.95. My other two dolls; a snowboarder and a skier are both in the $20 range. I think I'll hang on to them for a few more years. Do you think I should? I also have a "Roots" beret. Everyone wanted "Roots" berets and they stood in line for hours waiting for the opportunity to buy one. I was lucky; I was able to order one and never had to wait in line. But I've never worn it. I saw one on eBay the other day for $5. It doesn't sound like "Roots" berets are valuable paraphernalia.

My daughter-in-law Kristin was a volunteer during the Olympics, she worked at the opening/closing ceremonies and with stage/props. She loved it. Kristin came home from the closing ceremonies with a souvenir bag for us. It had cool stuff inside that Caitlin wanted to open but I said "no", I was still remembering all of the "Olympic paraphernalia" that I'd seen In SLC and I wanted to keep that bag in perfect form; after all, it could be worth some money someday. Do any of you have memories of the 2002 Olympics?

Family Friday: Featuring My Sister (by marriage) JuLee

This week on "Family Friday" I'm featuring my sister "in-law" JuLee. I'm going to state right here at the top of this post that JuLee is one of the kindest, sweetest, and most sincere people that I know. When I talk to, or I am with JuLee she always makes me feel good.

JuLee's parents had three sons and one daughter. An interesting thing about JuLee's family is that all four of the kids names start with the letter "J" (like their dad Jerry) and all but one of them has double letters in their name. JuLee and Archie followed this pattern with their three girls, they all start with the letter "A" like Archie, and they all have double letters in their names.

Archie and JuLee met when Archie worked with JuLee's brother Jerry at Mountain Fuel (Questar), they were married on August 2, 1986 in St. Ann's Church. After the wedding they held a reception at the Jordan Riverboat. It was such a fun reception, and such a unique place, we all enjoyed it very much. JuLee and Archie's first home was a townhouse in WVC. JuLee has always been very organized, neat and tidy, and right on top of everything and anything that needs to be done. After a couple of years of married life their three little girls came in quick succession. I've always been impressed with how JuLee could work full-time, maintain a spotless home, and keep up with girls homework and lessons. JuLee and Archie have a close knit family unit; one of the things that impresses me the most is the fact that the three girls are best friends. JuLee is very disciplined and motivated (two attributes that I greatly admire), when Aubree graduates this spring, all three of her girls will have graduated with an associates degree from SLCC one month before their high school graduation. That is a fabulous accomplishment for each of these girls and I'm sure that JuLee was a motivating factor in it.

Alyssa Ann, JuLee Ann, Aubree Ann, and Ammanda Ann

One of my favorite JuLee stories happened several years ago while we were at Questar Lagoon Day. JuLee, Archie, Mike, and I and the four girls (Ammanda, Alyssa, Aubree, and Caitlin) were on the Log Flume ride. You know how long it takes to wait in line for that ride... forever!! The four girls were in one log, and the four adults in the log right behind them. A storm had started; there was thunder and lightening in the distance and the wind and rain was upon us. The girls log started to ascend the big hill (the one you look forward to during the whole ride) and just as they reached the top... the ride stopped. The log that the adults were in had just started to ascend the hill when this happened. It was pretty scary, the lightening, the wind, the rain. I don't remember how long we waited but we could hear some of the girls crying because they were scared. We kept shouting comforting words up the hill to them (shout and comfort don't really go together, but... it was a noisy storm). Finally the ride started to work and both of the logs went over the hill and made a big splash at the bottom. As the adult log meandered it's way back to the starting point where we would disembark, we could see that there were hundreds of people waiting for their turn on the ride, so JuLee started shouting a warning over and over, "DON'T.GET ON.THE RIDE!!!DON'T.GET ON.THE RIDE!!!" It was a little scary on the ride for a few minutes, but we laughed pretty hard at JuLee's council to deaf ears (the people still got on the ride). We still occasionally remember that story and Mike will say to JuLee, "DON'T. GET ON. THE RIDE."

One summer Mike and I and Jeff, Jeremy, and Caitlin went camping with JuLee and Archie's family in Yellowstone. We had such a fun trip together. I remember when we went to Old Faithful, as soon as it started to erupt JuLee was whooping and hollering with excitement. This was in August and Old Faithful was very crowded, JuLee was the most excited person there. It's always fun to see JuLee's enthusiasm.

Aubree, Caitlin, Alyssa, Ammanda, and JuLee; there is a reason that the girls are sitting on top of the truck and JuLee is standing as high up as she can get... there is a bear right across the street; seriously

At the beach house last summer; Mike, Aubree, JuLee, Ammanda, and Archie. Alyssa couldn't come, I suspect that is who JuLee is talking to on the phone

Things to know about JuLee: She is a wonderful hostess, she always makes you feel welcome in her home. She loves animals. She is very tenderhearted. She is extremely organized. She works hard. She likes "Survivor". She's a great wife and mother. She's a good listener. She's funny. She enjoys camping. JuLee and my son Jeffrey share the same birthday. She's kind. She is a very competitive player at musical chairs. Her nickname is Sally. She is a happy person. I love it when she laughs. She gave birth to Alyssa on my birthday. She always organizes the family Cherry Hill day for the birthdays. She has a dog named Biscuit. We are all so grateful that JuLee is in our family, and we all love her very much.