All grown up and now to conquer the world!

Flashback: Nick showing off his homemade battery (6th grade)

Freshman year on the drum line.

Yes! Nick graduated from Cortez High School in May (I know . . . that was 3 months ago). But I still want to remember this important milestone event! He had such a great time at Cortez and did a fantastic job! This is the boy and the smile that I love to picture as he started his high school memories.

No longer a boy... "sniff" He really is all grown up! Wow - where did the time go?

Gotta show off the medals!

Nick, we are so proud of you!

Allen & Becca are celebrating right along with you!

Nick picks up his "real" diploma after all of the pomp and circumstance is over.

Memorial Day Camping

Rod and I love the Grand Canyon. We also love camping, which we have not done much because it is hard to take our car into the wilderness. But now we have a truck! So over Memorial Day (yes, I am very late in making this post) we went camping on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. We took a forest service road and got as far away from other human beings as possible.

Yes, that is snow. It was FREEZING!!! But we made a huge fire and hunkered down for the night, snug in our little tent.

Our Coleman stove did not work, so we just cooked our dinner right on the open fire. Simple fare - weenies and beans. The were fabulous! And hot chocolate, too!

It really was not very comfortable because of the cold, but I would certainly do it again! The next morning, I got up and sat by the fire in the sunshine to warm up. As I was enjoying my book, I heard a noise that I had never heard before . . . I looked up and there was this huge, black bird flying by. The sound was his wings beating the air. It was my moment to commune with nature. Very cool!

Of course, we did go to the "tourist" place where the people are so we could view the canyon. There is nothing quite like it...

On our way home we drove past the Vermilion Cliffs. Very beautiful red rock country. There is no camera that can capture the grandeur or beauty of this place. I will treasure this little overnight getaway with my favorite guy forever!

Living in a construction zone - Part II

Here is a little background on our refurbishing: Eric (Rod's oldest son) and his wife, Em, had come for a visit in March. While they were here, Eric said they wanted to do something for us and he said they would come and lay some new tile floors for us. We had wanted to do this, but it is quite cost prohibitive to remove the old floor and have someone lay new tile. Because they were willing to do this, we decided to go for it! We set the date for the last week of June. Eric measured the rooms and let us know how much tile we would need to buy. We got more and more excited about the project and decided to paint several rooms, carpet the living room, and get new counters in the kitchen. Our counters were awful!! We have been in this house for 5 years and never done anything like this, so we were anxious to redecorate and make it ours. Now back to the project:

So .... we lived with concrete floors for two months, with tons of dust from the tile removal and painting. Nothing was where it should have been. During that time we did the painting, picked out new carpet and hired a cabinet maker to do our counter tops. At the end June, we had two wonderful visitors that came and went right to work! Eric and Em did not waste any time in starting in on getting things ready to lay the tile. The family room was so bare, and it would echo when we talked.

After all the thin set was chipped off the floor it had to be swept, vacuumed, mopped and then all of that done again so there wouldn't be any dust or sandy particles anywhere. Then they painted on the sealer. I was shocked that it was bright red!

This is what lies beneath...

Once the sealer was dry, they started in on laying the tile. Allen and Nick helped. They all worked so hard! They did a fantastic job! Here is what the entry way looked like right after the grout was done, before the tile was cleaned off and the mop boards replaced:

While the boys and Em were busy with the tile, Rod replaced some boards under the eve of the house in back. Actually it was sheet rock that should have been plywood. It was a mess! There had been some water damage, and when he pulled it down, there was a HUGE bird's nest. Those dang pigeons!

Rod did a really nice job on that little project. It turned out very nice.

Here is a close up of the carpet and tile:

This is a shot of the family room. Just look at that gorgeous floor - thanks Eric! I will never have to hide that with a rug like I did the one before! I also love the picture of the temple - thank you to my girls for the lovely gift!

Here is the living room right after the carpet was installed. They had to take off all the doors and we had to trim them to fit because the carpet was way more plush than the old one. It is way fun to walk barefoot in this thick, soft and amazing carpet!

Now all of the furniture is back where it belongs and there are actually some pictures back on the walls. I really hated to put nails into the beautiful paint job! Ha!

Truly - home, sweet home, my place of peace. I love to sit in here. It is so clean, and beautiful. I love the peach paint on the walls and how there is no clutter anywhere! Yes!

Here is the kitchen counter, and the new stainless sink. I love it!

I really wanted a sink that had one side bigger than the other so it would be easier to wash the big pots and pans. And did I mention that I love a stainless steel sink?

I am so pleased at how the tile matches the counters, the wood and the walls! And it is so wonderful to not have that nasty white tile anymore! We can never thank Eric and Em enough! And Allen and Nick, too! We always think of you when we comment on how nice our home now looks. You have totally blessed our family!

Be it ever so humble....

Truly my cup runneth o'er.

We Are Responsible For Children...

Who put chocolate fingers everywhere, who like to be tickled, who stomp in puddles and ruin their new pants, who sneak Popsicles before dinner, who erase holes in their math workbooks, who can never find their shoes.

And we are responsible for those who stare at photographers from behind broken windows, who can't bound down the street in a new pair of sneakers, who were born in places where we wouldn't be caught dead, who live in an x-rated world.

We are responsible for children who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions, who sleep with the dog and bury goldfish, who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money, who cover themselves with band aides and sing off-key, who squeeze toothpaste all over the sink, who slurp their soup.

And we are responsible for the ones that never get dessert, who have no safe blanket to drag behind them, who watch their parents watch them suffer, who can't find any bread to steal, who don't have rooms to clean up, whose pictures aren't on anybody's dresser, whose monsters are real.

We are responsible for children who spend all their allowance before Tuesday, who throw tantrums in the grocery store, who pick at their food, who like ghost stories, who shove dirty clothing under their bed and never rinse out the tub, who get visits from the tooth fairy, who don't like to be kissed in front of the carpool, who squirm in church, scream on the phone, whose tears sometimes make us laugh and whose smiles can make us cry.

And we are responsible for those whose nightmares come in the daytime, who will eat anything, who have never seen a dentist, who aren't spoiled by anybody, who go to bed hungry, and cry themselves to sleep, who live and move, but have no being.

We are responsible for children who want to be carried and for those who must, for those we will never give up for those who don't get a second chance, and for those we smother and for those who will grab the hand of anybody kind enough to offer it.

The above sentiments were give to our entire school staff by our principal on the first day of school yesterday. It made me get a huge lump in my throat. We have many underprivileged children at our school. If you look at them, each one is beautiful. Our responsibilities to children are huge. It doesn't matter if they are our own - the are all children of our Father in Heaven. My vow this new school year is to remember this - and to "mother" every child with whom I am fortunate enough to come in contact. Remember how much the Savior loved children...he admonished us to become as little children in order to enter the Kingdom of God.

Living in a construction zone - Part I

Early in May my house became a construction zone. Lots of stuff was moved into the garage:

Lots of stuff was out on the back patio:

We tore out the tile in the family room, kitchen, dining room, laundry room, and the little front entry way. Wow! Our back yard looks so bad! (PWT) And it just gets worse and worse throughout the project, cause lots of stuff got thrown away, too! This is what all of the floors looked like when the tile was gone. What a mess! We swept and vacuumed and mopped and swept some more to get up all the dust and broken pieces of tile.

Once all the grit was cleaned up it wasn't so bad. I just kept telling myself that it would be worth it when the whole project was finished. It was time to refurbish! We have lived in this house for 5 years now, and haven't done anything to it so we decided to bite the bullet and fix it up a bit. We decided to do the tile floors, paint, get new kitchen counters and sink, and new carpet! Yes!!

We taped off cabinets, rooms, and furniture to try to keep the dust from the tile removal to a minimum. Didn't help at all! We taped off lots of rooms in the house when we spray painted our vaulted ceiling in the living room - but there was still "paint dust" in every little nook and cranny. I even had to vacuum it out of the upholstery that was so carefully guarded- even moved out to the garage.

Nick was the best painter ever! He could sure use that spray gun! He did a FANTASTIC job on the ceilings. Who ever knew that sprayed cottage cheese ceilings could look so good!

There was lots of spray in the air! Glad we don't do this every day.

Then Rod and I attacked the walls and painted the family room, living room, hallway, and kitchen. It was lots of work. I would go to bed so dead-dog-tired at night. I sure can't work like I did when I was in my 30s! I can really feel the difference in my body! I was so sore after painting the ceiling in the kitchen, I didn't think I would ever recover! What a way to spend the second half of my summer vacation.

But I sure love the way the walls looked when the painting was done! Everything is so light, so beautiful! More to follow . . .

Katie had photos taken of her kids recently. The photographer did an amazing job! Amanda B. Photography. Aren't these incredible?

Now can you see why these amazing little people just melt my heart!?

Look Out World!

Here She Comes... My baby got her driver's license today.

A funeral: tender, sacred, special

My brother-in-law passed away on Wednesday, June 9th. He had been very sick with cancer for the past couple of years. He lived much longer than the Doctors predicted when he was diagnosed. It just so happened that I had planned on driving to Utah on the 11th to spend some vacation time, so I did not have to make a special trip to attend Brent's funeral. I am so glad I could be here with my girls, and to support my sister at this difficult time in her life. I am also glad that Rod could be here, too.

The services for Brent were amazing. Each of his children spoke and paid wonderful tribute to their father. He was always very firm in his testimony of the gospel and of Jesus Christ. He passed that legacy on to his children. Each one mentioned his amazing work ethic and how he taught them to work hard and to love work. They also mentioned that they never heard their dad swear his whole life long. LaRue also gave a beautiful sermon - the best I have ever heard at a funeral. She is firm in the gospel and firm in her belief of eternal life and our potential as children of God. She has been such a wonderful big sister to me all of my life. I love her so much!

The wind was blowing so hard at the cemetery!

Above are Brent's three sons: Cody, Chuck and Kendall (all three are dentists!). Holly, the oldest daughter is sitting to the right.

Brent was in the National Guard for a few years, so LaRue was presented with a flag.

My brother, Dave is helping my dear old dad walk to the car after the dedication of the grave. It was hard for my dad to see LaRue lose her husband. He sat beside her and comforted her as best he could. He knows what it's like to loose your sweetheart.

All of the Harris cousins were there except for KC, who is serving a mission. What a wonderful tribute to Brent and LaRue to have all of these amazing nieces and nephews there. Katie thought it would be fun to get a picture of my dad with all of his grandkids. I love my Harris family so much! Each one is talented, smart, good looking, and part of a wonderful eternal family. There is nothing like family!

I know there will be some difficult days ahead for my sister. But I also know that she is strong and determined. She will move forward and continue to grow and have joy. She has many amazing qualities and talents that will bless us all, and everyone she knows, as life goes on. We know that death is part of life, and that it is NOT the end!

Vacation Time

Rod, Becca and I left Peoria at 4:30 AM and drove all the way to Woodscross, UT today. As we watched the temperature drop each hour of the drive, we wondered what we were getting in to. Clouds were forming and the wind was blowing hard as we drove up Interstate 15. The rain started just before we hit Provo. It didn't stop. It ended up at 50 degrees. We had just come from a week of over 100. It is freezing here! I mean really! It's June!

This is the welcoming committee. I went through the garage and knocked on the door. I could hear the squeals and my darling grandkids saying "It's Grammy! She's here!" They all ran to the door and we had lots of good hugs and kisses. I have missed them. I gave them some fancy suckers that someone at work gave me for my birthday.

The next morning, they got all spiffed up as I got ready for the day. They love to put on my make up. Cooper fixed his hair, so Luka had to fix his hair. The girls wanted me to put braids in their hair. We always tell the story of Rapunzel when we fix hair. These little people are such a joy. I love them so much.

I'm as close to 60 as I am to 50

Yep. My birthday. Rod gave me the most amazing little camera! It's smaller than my phone. I love it. We are waiting to celebrate with dinner at the Olive Garden. Thanks, Rod! I love my new camera. Can't wait to take it to Utah with me tomorrow.