The Grand Life

2010-09-22T16:32:00.000-07:00

Today on the radio Cedar Dispatch reported a semi on fire and it was carrying BEEs. This is one day I am glad I am not an Iron County firefighter!

2010-08-22T12:06:00.000-07:00

I came home Friday to find Curtis and all his big friends squished in my little kitchen setting around the tape recorder laughing their heads off. My recorder can speed up your voice so you sound like the Disney chipmunks or slow your voice down so you sound like a deep voiced giant. They were making up silly stories and messing with their voices. Last time they were around the recorder like that was at 13 years old. They had me laughing so hard I just about fell over. It was much funnier than when they were young because their imagination was stronger. Now Marley is in college her vocabulary was sharper. Josh, Jack and Marley along with others have hung around since kindergarten. I have watched them grow and I have stuffed a mountain of food in them. I sure have grown to love them.

2010-08-22T11:57:00.000-07:00

Leah's little Lucy finally made her appearance in the world at one in the morning, weighing in at 6 lbs 13 oz. I had taken a week off a couple of days after her due date to help her out. She didn't arrive and I though she would come the day after I went back home and was jealous because Miranda would come the following week and get to see her. Well Miranda came and went and she didn't get to see her. Nanner Nanner.

2010-04-23T10:47:00.000-07:00

Miranda, my second daughter had little Michael Dean Williams on his dads birthday, April 20th. He weighed in at 6lb 10 oz and 19 inches. My second delivery was about an hour and 1/2 and Miranda had him in an hour and 3 minutes. I told her the next one is at home for sure. My third was 35 minutes and his dad was there alone delivering him. I am excited to see Mikey on the 26th. I took a couple of days off.
I was happy yesterday to get the lights in the frontroom. We have only had lamp light for the last 20 years. I put in two can lights, three spotlights on the fireplace and new ceiling fans with lights. With nine lights in there now it should be lit up. Boy drilling through lathe and plaster is the pits. I feel like my arms are ready to fall off. Thanks Curtis for the many projects I have put you through. It drives him crazy because I am one endless stream of projects. He is a good helper and I think I stretch him too far some times.
My spinach didn't die this winter because there was a sheet of ice holding in the ground heat. This is driving the farmers in the neighborhood crazy. They ask how I grew it so fast and I say I got magic beans like Jack and the bean stock. There is such competition with gardening in our neighborhood. It has been fun.

2010-03-02T03:54:00.000-08:00

Chris and Katie and the boys stopped by yesterday on their way home from Disneyland. It was fun to hear each of their versions of Disneyland. They rented a motorhome and loved it. I was glad to see them get away and bond so close with each other. They seemed so close.
Natalie has been begging for years for us to come to her neck of the woods so I talked Leah into going with me. Next week we meet up with Natalie in New York and take in the sites for a couple of days then head to State College to see the campus. We plan to go to the Davinci exibit and eat a lot of food and walk a lot. I hope I can keep up with the young ones. I think it will be awful if I can't keep up with the pregnant one. Miranda is due next month so she won't be going. Guess I will catch her another time.
I was noticing that all the earthquakes Richfield has had were close to the same years as Chili has had. It has put me on edge. I have been preparing. Most of our food is in the basement. I guess I will get food and water in the garage with the tents. I am remodeling the frontroom. A big earthquake will probably hit when I get done.

2009-11-23T22:01:00.000-08:00

My aunt sent me info on a website entitled "meet me at the coffee shop". I just about fell off my chair laughing. I wondered why this kind of thing makes me laugh so hard. I really just love to tease people and get reaction out of them. Funny my kids still talk to me after all I have done to them. Here is the website: http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:mvideo:cmt.com:40319
I have enjoyed my time just puttering around the house and not having to work in the yard. I really hate wasting food and people just kept giving me food and my garden produced so much. I have spent too much time processing all the food. I got so sick of cutting up, canning, freezing, and drying food. But on the flip side the freezer is full, the pantry is full and I have enough fruit leather for 6 years for me and Curtis or one weekend if the grandkids show.
I did a funny awful thing the other day. I had gone shopping and left the sprinkler too close to the house and water went in the basement window. I had put the groceries away upstairs and only set the pantry stuff on the bed down stairs so I could rotate out the old stuff. The following days I would go down stairs and there was a horrible oder. I thought that I had rotted the walls by leaving the sprinkler on. I dreaded the fact that I would have to tear the wall apart due to mold. It was hard enough for me to put the wall up the first time. After a couple of weeks the smell was coming and going in drifts but still bad and reaching the up stairs. I spent a day cleaning the basement and grabbed a sack of cake mixes to put in the pantry and a smell came out of the sack that melted my eyelashes. I thought the bag was filled with cake mixes but one of the boxes was actually fish stix that had sat there for a couple of weeks rotting. Needless to say my house is back to just smelling like an old house. I am probably the only person that is thankful to find rotten fish stix in the basement. How happy I am to find out I do not have to rip the wall out.
We had a heavy snowfall this month and I had a total night of accidents. The snow just kept coming and since it was the first snowfall the ground was warm and melted the snow. Nightfall came and the water froze on the highway and the continuing snowfall made slush on top of the black ice. Snow plows would drop the sand and salt and it would just go in the slush and not effect the black ice below. My officer sat by the side of the freeway with lights on to get people to slow down . They would hit the black ice, spin around three times then gain control again and speed up to 60 mph again. The snow plow sanded the section three times and it only helped a little. Every one of the area tow trucks were out for over 16 hours pulling slide offs back on the freeway. If traveling the cove fort area during a snow storm go slow and have a full tank of gas.

2009-10-27T05:29:00.000-07:00

I finally got the back porch finished and was very happy with the results. I'll have to take a picture. Now I just have one room to sand down and paint and I am finished with the addition. How on earth do people build a whole house? These three room were hard enough for me.

Labor day was fun. Curtis and his two friends came to the Minersville Reservior house I live in along with Chris and his family and Leah and her family. It made for a fun weekend of Scattegories, good food, lots of laughs and teasing. It was my first time Crawdad hunting. Can anything be more fun than taking your grandkids Crawdad hunting for the first time. 2 yo Nash wasn't sure about it at first but then got into it along with Olivia and Gage and Skyler. Chris brought his kayaks and we each got a lesson. He tethered the little ones to him and went around the dock area. Gage, I think, loved it the most. We couldn't get him to give us a turn. I realized quickly how many whirlpools are in a lake. I would pattle 15 ft and twirl around and have to fight to get out and then another 15 ft start the process all over again. The bad thing about kayaks is that you can not lay back and rest or you loose balance and tip. I got back to the trailer and looked up to see Skyler driving with Chris in the passenger seat. Chris's eyes were out of the socket and his face tense yelling so lound everyone two blocks away at the campground could hear, "brake, brake brake!"

Things I found funny/weird this week:
A man named Jesus Cardenas who owns a hunting ranch. Jesus meaning savior or protector.

A state back east looking for a Jurwell Hurt on a homicide. Must be the name.

If you shoot a mime do you have to use a silencer? (I saw that on TV)

I am going to be skydiving soon. Anyone want to join me? Anyone want to watch and laugh at me? This has been the year of fullfilling my dreams. I got to climb Timp. I got to Kayak. I always wanted to build my own house, but the addition was enough. I always wanted to go to New Zealand and Alaska and my last one was to skydive. Hopefully the Alaska one will be this spring. I always wanted to be surrounded by my grandkids and that is fullfilled a lot. There is no better feeling than that.
I flew Miranda and Allie in last month expecting to get some time with them while Trevor finished up in Texas. But he wanted to get settled for school in Rexburg and picked them up early. I was really enjoying Allie a lot. What a fun child to watch. I picked her up at Jason's and got to spend a day with the grandkids in Salt Lake. Jason's little ones have grown so fast. I loved getting to make Halen laugh. He is 4 months old now and so much fun. When Jason and Lu told me they were expecting Halen I just started crying and couldn't stop. When he was born I couldn't stop crying again and when they brought him at 2 month old to a concert in the park in Richfield I would look at him and just start crying. Jason said he was the same way when he was born and while we were talking about it we both started crying again. Halen is one special little fellow. Chris and his family came and Skyler has shot up like crazy and Mic is becoming a mighty fine and handsome dude.

Curtis has all his paper done to turn in for a mission but Satan is pulling on him. Another boy in our ward gave his farewell Sunday and said he had his papers ready for a long time and didn't send them debating back and forth. So this fast Sunday pray for him. I think it would be great for Curtis to go because he is a little shy around people and has a hard time talking. A mission gives you confidence and teaches you so much.

2009-08-26T21:02:00.000-07:00

this was sent by my Aunt May

2009-08-26T20:06:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to get the framing up on the back porch so I can pour the cement and my kids just keep putting the cutest grand kids in my way and I have to play with them. Miranda flew in from Texas on the 20th and I have been melted by her daughter, Allie continually. You can see her on mirandasstories.blogspot.com She is the cutest little thing.
The people I am renting the basement from now are in foreclosure and I have been looking for a new place in Beaver. All of the apartment buildings are also in foreclosure so they are not renting them out. I was getting a little worried but God has always provided for me. I got a call from my roommate and the county needed someone to live in the Minersville Park home and let them know if there are any problems with plumbing and such. We hit the jack pot there. Whatever we want there we get. We asked for sod in the back and they put it down and power washed the place. We asked about a dishwasher and they are looking for one. We asked for a dog run and that was installed. We asked for new carpet and paint and got it. The inmates take care of the park grounds and so now it is like having 6 husbands for honey dew projects. I only have to pay $150 and get to use the ATVs and a large heated shop with all utilities paid by the county. I am a bird watcher and it is so nice out there because you get the egrets, pelicans and geese flying through. There are bike trails and atv trails and boating. Come visit.
I got the funniest 911 call the other night. An elderly lady stated her house was filling up with smoke. I had her get the 3 occupants out and paged the fire department out. An officer just happened to be in front of her house when the call came in. He walked in and discovered it was just a potatoe in the microwave. She had hit 30 minutes instead of 3 minutes and forgot about it. I laughed so hard.
Jason called me at work when the kids were young and was really upset. Curtis had put a remote control car in the microwave and started it. Apparrently it makes for some pretty good fireworks. I expected the oven to be ruined but after I scrubbed the black out it worked fine. That is why we have the microwave oven on top of the fridge, so kids can't use it.
Curtis has the doctor physical left and his missionary papers are complete. He had the doctor appointment last week but got the chickenpox and had to set it back until September. So lucky he got them now so his immune system is good. He got over it in 5 days which is good.

the perfect crime

2009-03-12T20:15:00.000-07:00

They had this one at work and it was funny

Canadian Police Chase

2009-03-12T20:07:00.000-07:00

I got this funny video from a friend of mine and it made me laugh

2008-12-15T04:38:00.000-08:00

Anna, your last post got me thinking a lot. I am thankful for a mother who did keep me and let me live. I had people at work who after getting married got fixed right away so they wouldn't have kids and people around me that put every other kid of theirs up for adoption. Those were options for our mother but she kept us and did the best job she could with circumstances. She talks of how hard it was to leave her little ones with her mother and go off and work at the army depot where she had no relatives or friends and she had never been alone before except the two weeks she went to her fathers at 13 years old.