New Year Committment FINALLY

I have finally quit thinking about it and have made up my mind to join Weight Watchers and go to the meeting at Cottage Grove on Tuesdays at five PM in the evening. It is a good meeting and only fifteen minutes away so it will be nice for me. I won't like the evening meeting as I will be getting out in the dark for awhile, but it is okay and will be nice for the Spring and Summer and is only dark for a few months in the Winter. So I have also decided to go back to TOPS which meets on Wednesdays and I really enjoy the women of that club, it is out in Thurston, but really worth the drive, as they are all such fun people. This club has a big group of KOPS which are the girls that have kept off the pounds sensibly. I truly always learn a lot and get to laugh a lot with them. However I do need the discipline of the WW. So I will try to attend both. It only costs a quarter a meeting for tops so it is really worth it to me. There are other costs if you want to take part in those and sometimes I will and others I won't  I will also be walking in the water each day down at the club   It is the best exercise for me as it is the easiest on my joints.  I am sad tonight, as it has been Tanner's baptism and we are not able to be there with all of you. I know it was wonderful and I wished we had lots of money so we could just jet over for all of these special things. We missed Rebecca'a sealing and we will miss Gracie's baptism also :-( don't get old as it makes things harder to do and is a pain. I wish I had the body of my young years when I ran around the block if I felt like it and danced with grandpa all night if wanted to. I do miss those things sometimes. But alas if I were young again I wouldn't have all of you, so I think I should be content with what I have and be grateful for all of my blessings which I truly am. I am so thankful for all of my wonderful grandchildren and great ones, you are all such a blessing to me. I love you all so much.  WISH ME LUCK AND PRAY FOR ME.  HUGS AND KISSES

2013 I Can't Believe It Is Really Here

So it is really getting to be almost a couple of weeks into the new year and I still haven't settled completely into a committment for my resolutions. I will be trying to get some of this weight off, How is the big QUESTION, Thinking about joining WW, but still thinking... I have been doing my exercises more or at least walking in the water more often. The pool was closed because the pump was broken and had to be replaced this week so I got a little behind this week. But onward and upward, so I will be going tomorrow. Usually don't go on a Saturday, but we will go this week. We had a really quiet but nice Christmas, we went to Judy's and Fairy's for Sunday and spent Christmas with them then. Drove up to Vancouver on Sat. and spent the night with Debbie and then on Monday Am went to the coast to spend Christmas with Sharon and Steve. I missed seeing all of you kids but that is to be expected of course and I know that your parents really missed you. We had quite an exciting time the week before as I was baking and making my usual candy etc and the first thing was the light over the marble slab started to POP really loud, and then I realized it was falling down and getting ready to go onto the slab. Got it before it happened but it needed to be replaced, which grandpa did, no sweat then.... Shooting the cookies out of the cookie gun and it died.... so all of the cookies had to be done by hand. Everything goes well for awhile and then.... the microwave quits I look it up and it is 11 years old, so we run down to Bi-mart and replace it. Only a hundred dollars soooooo we are doing well and the next things that blow are a breaker that has two plugs in the kitchen on it. Well we get all of this fixed and go off for Christmas and when we return it is great to get home and grandpa decides to have his usual ice cream, but the carton is really soft, and guess what the freezer is not working properly, in fact the fridge is only working on the bottom half and that isn't really cold enough. Now to tell the truth Ed has hated this fridge every since we bought it at Sears years ago. It isn't 2o years old yet it is 12, but the icemaker hasn't worked well since we got it and no one could ever repair it and no matter what Ed did it never worked well, so as far as he is concerned we can just get a new one, as it is a pile of you know what. So Ed looks it over and says it is the compressor and then he calls a repair man and it is going to cost at least 600.00 to repair it and that doesn't include the ice maker so you guessed it...... we go looking around for a new one. Long story short, we bought one from Fergussons the supply house grandpa works with for all of his plumbing materiels. They have a floor model there that is a Kitchen Aid an energy star and a really nice stainless steel one to match my other kitchen appliances. We got a really great deal on it we paid about a third of what the thing retails for. Plus we get a rebate for the energy star and 40.00 for our old fridge, which the company hauled away. A great deal, but I wasn't planning on getting a new fridge for Christmas sigh.... I do have a new Iphone because Sharon gave me money for Christmas, B-day and Mom's day so I paid the rest, However I am still learning how to use it and I am slow.... it is a learning curve. I will get it I am sure, but all of you guys can text me and send me videos pictures and etc. I do know how to do that and you all know my number so I will look forward to hearing from you. I am planning on taking a quilting class at the end of the month. I love you all and wish you a happy and great new year.

Where Did The Last Five Months Go?

It has been a long time since I have blogged. I usually talk about planting my garden, and how it is going. I haven't had very good luck with the peppers or tomatoes this past year, But the beans,lettuce, squash, and onions, have all done well. I canned about 30 pints of beans from a small patch 3 feet by 4 feet. The lettuce has gone to seed. I haven't harvested the onions, I hope they will keep, after I harvest them. Last year my onions lasted until after Christmas. This year I grew the walla walla sweet ones, and I am told they don't keep as well as the yellow ones I grew last year. I take comfort in the fact that my neighbor's tomatoes aren't doing very well this year either, so I think it has been a poor year for them. May also brought some distressing news about my pacemaker/defibrillator that I have. The leads which are attached to my heart through a vein in the heart, have been recalled. Now I was told that it was dangerous to remove them, but the insulation that covers part of the wire could cause problems by coming apart there are three wrappings around these wires. Needless to say I have prayed and thought about this a great deal. I talked to my primary care doctor, and my cardiologist. I looked on the Internet, and that just made it worse. So I decided to get another opinion about it from another cardio doctor. Come to find out my leads at least 2 of them are NOT the Reita brand, and the other needs to be checked a little closer. The FDA wanted to have the cardio docs do a screening every 3 months, and the doctors said what about all of the radiation that the patient is exposed to??? Needless to say the FDA doesn't always think things through. Long story short, mine seems to be working perfectly, according to the ST. Jude technician and he monitors it every 6 months or so anyway. Whew! I decided to quit spending my time being concerned about it. I have about three and one half years left on the pacemaker. When it is worn out they will leave the leads if they are still working properly and put in a new device. We had a wonderful Mothers day party by Nicole, and a birthday party for grandpa by Crystal. I didn't realize they were going to do it. We had my b-day in June and it was great and Sharon and Steve gave us tickets to go to the Williamette Country Music Festival, which was in early August. For the month of July the highlight was the Arnold Family Reunion, which we attended over the 4th and it was really wonderful. We so enjoyed seeing all of our grandchildren and the great grandchildren, not to mention the fireworks, and the great food. So fun. Then home again, jiggity jig and it was kind of a cool month so things namely tomatoes didn't grow. I have been sewing and finished a bed cover for my bed, it is king sized remember and it is really beautiful if I do say so myself. I used the blocks granny Grace gave me years ago. I had it quilted and I worked on it for part of last year and finished it in Feb. I want to make some drapes for the window in the bedroom to match, haven't gotten to it yet. Back to the music festival, it was held in Brownsville which is 26 miles from Eugene, on a big working ranch up there, it was a lot of fun, and it came the middle of August in the hottest heat wave we have had in years, record temperatures of 100 degrees or more, and it was HOT and the sun was out in full force. We drove up each day as the places to stay were all filled in Brownsville( pop a little over 3,000) so very small motel. We went up as it was so hot in the afternoon and had big hats, and lots of sunblock, no shade except for my umbrella. We got to see a lot of really nice shows, the first night Sugarland late at nine, they were okay, although not as good as I expected them to be. The gates opened at 1:00 and the opening was at 6:45 and then we saw Rodney Atkins for an hour and he was my favorite for Friday. Saturday we saw Lee Brice, he is fantastic I loved him. He has written lots of hits. Then Billy Currington he was really great, another songwriter/performer then a special for the heart gallery for foster kids really touching, then on to Martina McBride, she is truly wonderful and it was her first time in Oregon and she couldn't say enough about the beautiful scenery here. Wonderful composer and perfect performer. The next day which was Sunday, we went to church and drove up and saw Amy Clawson really great, then the Band Perry, which I had never heard of, but they were the best rock a billy band I have ever heard, truly amazing. Two brothers and a sister, plus their band, and they all played something also, The sister sang and was joined by her brothers for harmony. They were really great. Big Trace Adkins came last to close out the festival, he is everything that you see on TV, but almost electric on stage, so sincere and just really a sweet man. He is really as unselfish and giving as he appears to be, a true patriot, and a wonderful performer, he really gave us our money's worth. I really loved being there, it took me a few days to recoup, but it was worth it. I would've liked it to be a little cooler. We were grateful we went, thank you Sharon and Steve for the tickets, and they treated us so well, carrying our stuff, chairs,water, food for snaking umbrella and etc for us each day., plus we parked right in front of one of the entrances, with not too far to walk. My summer has been really good, except for the few issues that I have dealt with, but all and all I am doing quite well for my age. We lost my younger Sister in the Spring, and I wrote about her in the little Nellie Blog, however her funeral was truly amazing, such beautiful music, and great talks. The luncheon was amazing, and the tables were beautiful, there were pictures of my sister and her family everywhere. It was beautiful, and they made bookmarks for all who attended courtesy of Jon and Deb Sherry's son and daughter in law. It was a wonderful celebration of her life. Sherry planned all of the talks, and music. I love you all till next time.

Conference, and all of the things that have been going on the last couple of month.

Well it has been awhile since I posted, and will try to catch up with this post. I loved all of the conference talks this time. I felt like a lot of the talks were for me. I have been struggling with a few things and I got a lot of answers from the talks. I will need to study them in more depth so I really understand them. I already made one decision and that is to quit my FaceBook game of FrontierVille. I have gotten caught up in it and it has just gotten a lot more time consuming than I want to take out to play it. I just don't need to waste time doing it anymore, I have a lot more things to do with my time. I need to block it from my FB page but I don't know how, but I have a friend that I am sure will tell me as she did the same thing. I have had a lot of trials this past few months, first I got the colon problem, then I got vertigo, and on top of that my back really got into a kink. I think I pulled a muscle really, at least that is what we decided went wrong as it comes and goes a lot, it gets better and then I move a certain way or turn over in the bed and it starts over:-( it is getting better now, but still is annoying sometimes and hurts. I have been on a colon cleanse and yeast killing diet for the past two months. I haven't had any sugar or gluten or white potatoes, rice, or pasta. She added legumes and brown rice a couple of weeks ago. I have lost about 15 pounds and my joints feel better. I went to a Naturopathic doctor as I didn't want to have surgery on my colon. She is working with me to get my colon healthy again. It has been a challenge sometimes, but my colon feels better and I haven't gotten anymore bacterial infections in it. I talked to a lot of people that have had the surgery, and then they either have to do it again or they have to take antibiotics a lot. That is what I want to avoid, so that is why I have been so faithful on this diet. It has been hard at times, but I don't miss the sugar as much as I do the nice white loaves of french bread and pizza. I do miss chocolate and sometimes I think about it and then I remember what surgery entails and it is easy to let it go. Ed aka, grandpa and dad has been doing a little struggling or his own, too he has had a lot of depression and went to the doctor and is on a new medicine that seem to be helping him a lot. He is working too hard as usual. He will be 80 at the end of May on the 29th, so I think he is entitled to be tired. I am working with a physical therapist for the vertigo, learning how to have better balance, and to use my eyes to balance with not my ears. I didn't realize that our ears, are such a large part of the balance we have. I tell all of you stay young, and don't grow mature (I refuse to say older) cause it isn't easy sometimes. I want all of you to know that I am so proud and happy to have all of you for my children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. You are such a wonderful part of my life and I love you all so much.

The Holidays And Happy New Year!

I posted in October so I guess it is time to do a little writing and reporting so we have some history and all of you folks know what is happening in our lives and what we are doing. I usually have a fun time with Sharon in October, as we celebrate her Birthday and go to the Temple shop and enjoy some time together, but this October we had a wonderful event, as Miss Maddie made her appearance in our lives and brought a lot of blessing for all of us. She is so precious and sweet, with the spirit that all new babies bring, coming from Heavenly Fathers Arms to all of ours. They bring such a wonderful spirit to our homes and we love them so much. So Sharon was with Amy and Mike in California and helping them out, so we went later the next month. met up with Judy, and later had a wonderful lunch with Jess, Crystal, and little Cora Jean, it was so neat to see them and hug and talk with Cora. She is a sweet baby also and reminds me so much of Crystal as she has the same big eyes and fat little cheeks to kiss. She is eight and half months old now. Her eyes are brown like Jess and Judy but big and round like Crystal's. Time passes so swiftly for me now and it seems like yesterday, when Amy and Crystal were little and now they are grown married women. November brought a lot of cold weather to the valley but was dry with sunny cold days. We went to the coast and had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Sharon and Steve, though quiet as all of the kids are pretty far away now. Sharon and I made a wonderful dinner and I made the most delicious chocolate cheesecake, it was yummy. I forgot to mention that I had been sewing all summer on a quilt for my king sized bed. Granny Grace had given me a lot of printed blocks that I kept around for a long time, and one afternoon I decided to do it and so I got them out and started it. A big project and a beautiful one, it turned out really well and though lots of work, fits the bed really well and looks wonderful. It is in pinks, green, and purples, and Cathy helped me with it or I don't think I would have ever finished it, it is so large, It hangs at least 2 feet all the way around it. I love it. Cathy's sister had given her a pillow case for her birthday and so she and I decided to sew some for her kids and grand children and I sew some for a few of mine, mostly the great ones. Although I made a few for grands. I made a dozen and Cathy sewed 16 so we sewed a few. It was fun, and I got started in early November on them and then I decided to make Christmas quilts for the Arnold clan, and Crystal, as they were all married, It was a lot to do but I would've made it but I got sick with a really nasty cold, it started late Thanksgiving night and I got to the doctor the following Tuesday and I had a lot of infection in my lungs plus asthma:-( and had a lot of meds an inhaler, plus something for my cough. I have never coughed so hard in my life. So this lasted for 10 days and I didn't sew a stitch, it was depressing. I was so upset, but I got better and started in again, but decided to sew some of the quilts this summer, I got the three oldest done. I sewed until early in the morning a few days. I also made candy with Nicole and her friend Shane. We made a LOT of stuff, and the next week-end we made some cookies. It was a lot of cooking. I made some truffles that were to die for, and I will post the recipe on the blog later so you will all have it, per your mom's request. I think I made about 15 lbs of candy and several batches of cookies. Still it wasn't as much as I have made in the past. I took a lot of it to Sharon's for Christmas, they all loved it. I gave a lot away, and I took the rest a huge tray loaded to a wedding reception on New year's eve. It had been frozen, and there was a lot left and I gave it all away, as I didn't want anymore of it around. I am glad it is gone. I have gained 3 pounds, and I need to lose it again. We had a wonderful Christmas with Steve, Sharon, and the grandchildren and all of the great ones. We left before Megan, Greg, and Scarlet got there, and so they stopped for a visit with us on the way home. It is always wonderful to have Scarlet, she is so alive and happy, not to mention cute! She usually comes in smiling, but she had been asleep so she took awhile to wake up, but she was really happy when she left, smiling and kissing and waving good-bye, she is so beautiful. So much fun and we do appreciate the effort that Megan and Greg make to come so we can spend time with them. It is a good place to stop so Scarlet can run around and relax a bit from all of the car riding. She loved the kitty, Trapper, I guess she loves dogs too. She really talks a lot now. So Very sweet. I forgot to mention that in early December on the 9th Grandpa and I had our 59th anniversary and went to dinner and saw the play The Sound Of Music on the stage, it was wonderful and we had such a great time. I have a hard time believing we have been married that long. Well I think 2012 is here and we all have goals and plans to fulfill, they talked about that in Sacrament on Sunday, I really enjoyed the talks and the RS lesson which all went together and talked of those things. I love you all and I wish you all a wonderful and Happy and Healthy New Year. God Bless Love you all

So Little Summer

I think we had a really short growing season this past year. Everything was really late and my tomatoes never really did a lot. I had a few off my 3 plants but only a few. Some of my friends at church grew a lot, and some gardens just didn't produce. Now it is raining and supposed to rain all week, it started on Sunday. They said on the news today that we only had 3 weeks of real growing weather. I was very fortunate to get a lot of beans, lettuce, onions, garlic, cucumbers, and summer squash. My basil did well, but a lot of the herbs didn't. I had lots of cucumbers, and made a few jars of pickles. I canned applesauce about 39 pints and I made lots of jam and jelly. I can't eat the seeds anymore, so I took all of the blueberries and made syrup, the strawberries and made jelly, also all of the blackberries also. I think I made around 50 half pints of Jelly and jam. It took me 2 days. It is beautiful and tastes really good, I made it with twice as much fruit or juice as sugar so it is really fine. I froze about 20 bags of beans, and I canned 21 pints of pears. I didn't do peaches this year, as Costco had a great buy on some canned in juice and organic, so I bought those, they are yummy. Our apple tree didn't do anything this year so I needed to buy the apples, but we usually eat all of the applesauce I make, as we eat it on waffles, and pancakes instead of syrup and it tastes really good. I read a really good book and would recommend it to you if you are interested. It is called The Help, and they made a movie also, it was really good too. It is about the black maids told from their prospective in the sixties in the south, really true to life at that time. We got to visit our friends in Grants Pass in July and so we drove on down to Medford and saw Megan, Greg, and Scarlet. It was a really fun trip, and the baby is so sweet and cute. A real keeper, as doctor Meyn used to say. When Rebecca was 16 months old she came to our house to visit and Sharon and I took her to see Sharon's doctor when she was growing up. He was a children's doctor and Rebecca only had an MD in Wyoming so Sharon wanted to take her to the specialist. He checked her over very carefully and pronounced that she was cute, petite, really sweet and If he was us he'd keep her, so after that all of the Arnold kids grew up as keepers. So I think Scarlet is a keeper for sure. I know this is a pretty boring post but since it had been so long I thought I would let you know what is going on with us here. I miss the old days when all of you were growing up and I got to see you all of the time. But those days are gone and of course we all move on and have to grow up. I haven't really decided whether of not to have the surgery on my colon, I am still thinking and praying about it. I would appreciate it if all of you would pray for me to make the right choice and do whatever I need to do. I am working on my weight again, which is also a bore. I love all of you.

Catching up My Birthday and The Garden

Summer that fleeting thing here in Oregon finally has come in the final days of August. Not the usual summer for us, we usually have pretty hot weather by now, but the days have been pleasant and hasn't gotten up to 90 degrees YET?? I have seen it like this before way back in the late sixties we had a summer like this one and the camping was really sad and the water skiing was worse! We had snow that winter of 69 so high and for almost a week and the summer was cold. This summer has been cold also, so I guess mother earth is getting back at us. The garden had a hard time starting this year, I have picked lettuce, beans, cucumbers and squash. The yellow crook-necked ones haven't produced yet. It is behind also and there are lots of green beans, left on the vines and I pray that they will continue. The farmers have complained about the late harvest here. Ed put the small AC in and that has kept us pretty cool. I miss all of the girls and having a camper. We used to have such a really great time camping when the kids were growing up. On my birthday this year we decided to go to Portland and see Jake and his band play at Doug Fir club. It was really something, and we enjoyed it so much. It is hard to believe they are so good and Jake has a great voice and so much presence. Everything was so much fun that night. When it was over and we were going back to the car Judy and I, a young woman stopped me and said " I just have to know the story behind your attending this concert what is it? I replied thinking she had seen him many times. I said that young man with top hat on that is our grandson. Jake Arnold do you know him? She says I knew that had to be a reason for you to be there, with all of the young people so I wondered what the story behind your being there. I asked her if she knew any of the people in the band and had she seen them before? Actually she replied that we simply stopped by as we heard the music, my friends and I some of us are from Portland and some of us are from Bend, we are attending a bachelorette party for one of my cousins that is getting married this week-end and I am from the Bend area. We just loved Jake and the band, they were so good we really loved Jake. Hope we get to see them again. Earlier that week Sharon and I went to the Temple and did lunch at the Olive Garden she treated me as it was my birthday week, so sweet of her. I really enjoy my trips to the Temple with my daughter they are special and the highlight of my month. I have one more thing to talk about, I am going to have some surgery on my colon this next month or so and pray I get better by Christmas. I have an infection in my colon as I have said earlier and have been taking a lot of antibiotics for these past few weeks and it has taken a told toll on me and my strength. It has been a pain for awhile and the doctor says it will eventually abscess and we don't want that to happen so they will try to do it laparoscopy and cut the diseased part out and then re-connect the colon and I should be as good as new. I have been on a low fiber diet for so long, and I can't eat any kind of salad and lots of fruits I can't have, so it is hard. Nothing with seed in it and no nuts etc. I am not whining but I do miss all of the berries this past year, and tomatoes, some of my most favorite things:-( so hard. Well enough of my troubles, I love you all and I pray for your continued health and happiness. Oh yes one more thing Ed and I have been reading the Book Of Mormon this past ninety days, a challenge from our new Bishop, It has just reminded me of how true the Gospel is again, it is such a testimony building thing and so true. How wonderful this gospel of ours is and how blessed we are to have these wonderful scriptures. Hugs to you all and may all of your days be pleasant.