The American Red Cross (ARC) and me

I have been friends with the ARC for awhile. I go in usually once a month and donate platelets. I have my own reasons for going, but it doesn't hurt that I have the universal type of platelets. They can go to anyone. I have been told mine go right up to primary children's hospital in SLC when I donate. How can I not go donate? Really! Here's a few shots of the event. I pump my blood out from the left arm, and they put all the stuff they don't need back into the right arm. A machine does all the dividing but makes all the stuff coming back into my arm room temp about 72'. I usually run about 97'so its easy to get cold in this process. They usually have to tuck an electric blanket all around me. Yes, please turn it all the way on. Then I watch a movie. Today I got through 3/4 of "just like heaven". It's one i have I'll finish watching it tonight while I miss my dh.

Now, if I can just get these monthly visits to count for my visit teaching I'd be set!!

My view

They set me up with movie of my choice and a warm electric blanket

I squeeze from the left side

THIS is what they want

All that hassle for a tiny bag of plateletts

Grandpa 09

Last night right before the family reading time I snapped this picture
of David. He's easing into this grandpa thing. Awesome shirt laur and
steve!

Will sew for surprises

Look what came for me today!! I was so surprised I almost started to
cry. So so nice of the dress mama and young lady to bring me this.
The outter darkness dress pays off!

I've been making cinnamon rolls and bread sticks today, thus you get
to see the Bosch

My boy turns 16

A week and a half ago my oldest son turned 16!! Wowow !! He's a good
boy and I am so glad he is mine.

My lunch date today

I had some business in Orem and Provo today so arranged lunch with my
sister. Her two litle girls warm my heart. All four of us enjoyed
our lunches and two drinks. I took my drink with me when I left and
by the time I got to AF I was near the bottom of the cup. I actually
strawed up a little piece of rice that had *somehow* gotten on my cup.
Very suspicious. It made me laugh out loud.

Another one of her hanging out while I fold clothes

Another cat post

So, we have cats. I am allergic to cats, kinda. Meaning that if the
scratch me or the dander gets in my eyes there are obvious reactions.
Whatever
Nonetheless, Sweetie Kitty is really a good little pal. She hangs out
with me. She waits for me when I shut the door to the bathroom. If she
meows I let her in and she'll sit on the edge of the bath. She is very
interested in looking at all the water in the bath. She really loves
to watch it to down the drain.
Here she is sitting on some humanitarian quilts I volunteered to bind.
She came to hang out while I was finishing another nightgown for the
play. She thought the quilts were her spot.
She is my favorite kitty.

Just to give it a try

Dave had to go to dinner with some uppity ups at work tonight. They
are going up to Sundance, poor fella ; ) . We at home are having
leftovers. Tasty leftovers though. Actually one of dh's favorites. So
just for the heck of it, I thought I'd try a new way to make rice
crispy treats. I read about it on a blog. To kind of make dinner
exciting, ya right.

It worked out! The recipw, not making dinner exciting. I laughed
at this technique since making the origional recipe is sooo
difficult... Just kidding on that. A change my mom always makes to the
origional recipe, and now I do too, is to double the sauce part. I
call um "double marshmellow"

I was tagged

I cant believe how funny/weird this is.

I was tagged by my friend Nikelle to do the picture thing. But just before this, I was catching up on the blogs and read Tabby Gray and Lorna Doones blogs. They both had this picture tag thing going on which I loved reading. I then went to read Nikelles blog and she had the same picture tag going on, AND she tagged me. So I dutifully log in and look for my fourth folder, and fourth picture and here it is.

Last spring Dave and I went to a wedding reception of a girl that grew up with our girls. Our daughters couldn't make it to the reception, so I brought my camera, so I could bring them home all the pictures of her dress and cake and all that info girls like to see. This is a picture from that reception. So sweet.

This bride and her family have lived near us since we moved here. They are such a great family and great examples. We never really got close to them, but I consider them great friends anyway. I know they are always there if I need help.
One day the mom of this family noticed that we had some strange people coming in our house. She can see around my house area from her home. She called to make sure I was home and that everything was okay. (it was workers finishing our basement) She' a good sister that way.

The reception was beautiful and we saw lots of people that had been in our ward but had moved. It was a good time.

I am so happy this little bride found her prince charming.



So, now on to tagging. you need to post the 4th picture from your 4th photo album on your computer and blog about it :)
I only know of two people that follow my blog so of course its

Laura
Sylvia
and how bout Robin

How dh makes me forget he was away

Dh came home late last night :). After nightmares and worrying about the dress all night, I got the demon dress back and made it look somewhat better. Today we took the family to the Draper Temple Open House. It is beautiful, and a beautiful experience with my dh and kids. Later David took me to Thanksgiving Point for a wonderful dinner. They had butternut squash soup! Yum! I could have soup and bread all winter. We shared one soup, one spinach salad and one entree of halibut. I then force Dave to share a creme brulee with me. It was very good and he did not regret it. It was a beautiful meal really. The picture shows Daves raspberry lemonade too.

It was a quiet lovely dinner to end a busy and satisfying day.

The dress from outter darkness

Well I guess you could say I finished the dress. It did not turn out acceptable in my opinion. But after a week of working on it, I am ready to just make do. Here's a picture of Kim trying on the dress for me. Its a "maiden dress" for the Pirates of Penzance play at the jr high. Jacob is a pirate but his costume is provided. I volunteered to sew for others if they needed me. The dress is a regular pattern, but with some alterations and add ins. That part was tricky. I did put in an admirable zipper though and I was impressed with that.
Hopefully the gal that asked me to sew for her will be okay with it. It's time for a warm bubble bath AND for dh to come home from his business trip!!

While Dh is gone

I sit and sew and the sweetie and the visiting kitty hang out with me.
It's pretty awesome.

I asked Jacob to take the lights off the tree. We had moved it to the
death trap garage so the dry dropping needles would not be all over
the house. He wasn't happy to do the job, but he sure did it!! The
garage smells like Christmas and the beat up tree makes me laugh every
time I see it.

Winter 08 & 09

This winter has been pretty intense. I know it's not over, bit here
are a few shots of December and Januarys winter glory. First an
impressive icecicle by our front door.

The sidewalks and street. Thankfully it does not stay ice packed
forever.

During the altering

I forgot to post this picture of kim trying on the pants as I was
trying to figure out the saggy bottom. She was the only one in this
house that was close the the person I was sewing for, so she had to be
my model. We laughed and laughed at this "alteration". Was not what
we were going for. Don't worry. I fixed it.

Pirate pants AND sailor pants

Last week I was asked to sew some of the costumes for the upcoming Jr
high school production of pirates of penzance. The mom of one of the
leads isnt a big sew-er. I was happy to take the challenge. The two
patterns were a little tricky but I was able to figure them out. We
even altered the brown pants a bit so the bum wasn't so saggy. Kinda
difficult but I DID IT!! And yes I'm rather surprized and shocked :)

The pants

The sweet reward

A favorite place to pick up a sandwich

Many days, when I am out getting things done, I have to bribe myself
to get the most annoying things done. My very awesome dentist told me
about this great little place in American Fork. That is where I stop
in for a sandwich now and then. At peak times parking is a little bad,
and there is a line but the food is yummy. They are open late and I
keep thinking I will take dh there on a date. They also have some fun
hot chocolate going on there. It's the mouse type kind, steamed milk
with a mound of chocolate mouse stirred in. Kinda fun.

An odd cure for a headache

Today I got a huge headache from being teased so much by ds#2. The teasing was a form of annoying terrorism and "the 12 days of Christmas " song. Please don't ask... Anyway, as a way to forget the said torture I volunteered to go get stuff at home depot for dh. (for the ever fun of finishing the basement fun) I started listening to Brian Regan on my iPod, and before I knew it, my pains disappeared. I was actually enjoying home depot. It was very strange and mysterious.