Update on Brother Jim...

He called and was out of surgery, had already had a 2 hour nap in recovery, everything went fine and he was just released to go home from his Dr. as soon as they found his clothes!

Oh, the amazing marvels of modern medicine!

God's grace is Good!

Prayers and perspective...

(I love this photo, not mine... I just saw it on the Internet)

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Today my big brother gets a new battery in his pacemaker, I will keep a prayer in my heart all morning that it goes smooth and he has no complications.

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We share the common thread of both having pacemakers. I got mine 1st when I was 18, and about 6 years later he ended up with one too. So we always share stories, and keep each other on track about having them checked and keeping them in good working condition, and how we freak people out with them.

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This week he had gone in to have his annual check up, and the nurse ran some diagnostics before the Dr. came in. And there was a rep in the room from the company that sells the pacemakers. I guess she took one look at the tests and stated right away that he would need a new one.

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My brother being the very sound, stable, analytical guy he is, asked her "You are a salesperson for the pacemaker company, right?", she answered "yes". He said, realizing she would have had a very bias opinion "I think I will wait and get a second opinion from my Dr., because your opinion really doesn't mean a whole lot to me, since you make a living trying to sell these things".

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I was cracking up when he told me! He is always right on his toes that way. I would have sat there fretting and worrying until my Dr. arrived and not found an ounce of common sense, much less whit in that situation. But not Jim, he is always thinking on his feet.

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It is a simple in and out procedure now, so I know he will be just fine. But I will keep the prayers going until he gets out of surgery just the same.

Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo!

My Sisters in town!

And she brought this...

"High on the hill was a lonely goatherd"...

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We love "The Sound of Music" but I was cracking up when she pulled this out of her suitcase...

This will definitely make me smile when ever I have a rough day!!

My next door neighbor met us for lunch. We have the best neighbors, we love this gal she is wonderful!

And then out to see Katie! The teenager met us after school and he and my sis got their hair all spiffed up!

When my strong silent mysterious man got home from work, he took us to one of our favorite places for dinner by the river. I felt so spoiled all day, to have my family with me!

A good time was had by all!

Tuesday, I get Nene to myself...

Tuesday was my day alone with Nene, so we went into the city.... here is my favorite view!

The hustle and bustle with the capitol in the background...
We have been wanting to go to the Basque Museum and Cultural Center for a really long time, and every time she came to visit, we never seemed to be able to get it in. So we were really excited to finally make it there.
Two entire city blocks are saturated with Basque restaurants, and the Basque Market, and the cultural center with the museum. After talking to the locals and getting their reviews, we decided on this restaurant for some authentic Basque food.

I was trying to be adventurous, but feeling pretty timid.

It was so good! I was fairly safe with a Basque BLT (your standard blt with leg of lamb on homemade chibatta bread) and a salad with this awesome garlic dressing that they wouldn't reviel any secrets about, but so Yummy! I was glad to at least venture out and try it.

This is the oldest standing brick home in the city... used as a boarding house for many years to the sheep herders.

All throughout the sidewalks on these blocks were these songs (this one was about a dog named Pintto...

And phrases written in Basque...
I loved this one... couldn't read it, but I loved the way it layed out.
Inside the museum, there were also stories about the Basque being the first to whale hunt and learn to take the fat and get the oil from it. Lots of stories about ships going down with millions of dollars worth of this precious oil on them.
The display with some of the whale hunting tools was pretty cool...
But being a scouter mom, I was most impressed with this display of knots!!! Very impressive!!! ("Hey the teenager has used that one on the dogs a time or two")

On the way home from the city, we stopped at a vegetable stand; and met "Henry"... a cute little quail roaming around the shop. My Mom loves quail, so she noticed him right away, so I had to get his picture.

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When we got home, the teenager was there to greet us, we rested for a short time. Then I got a call that someone had goofed up on the calendar and the week our Ward had signed up to feed the missionaries wasn't next week but this week. So they didn't have a place to eat. I have such a strong feeling about never turning them away. I just told her to send them over to my house. I will always feed them!

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Because of my conversion story, I have learned to love the missionaries, and I have a great admiration for all they do while they commit 2 years of service for their Heavenly Father. And I cry when I say, I think of our missionary in Chile and would hope that if he was out and didn't have dinner tonight, that someone else feels the same way I do, and is taking him in. Or when my teenager is out there, that somehow this will be paid forward, and he will never be without dinner. It's a small thing, but it rings pretty true in my heart, so I just try to be true to my heart.

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So the call came in at 4:55pm and they were coming at 5:30pm so they could leave in time for a baptismal interview at 6:30pm. Needless to say, as I whirl winded together some enchiladas, corn on the cob, re fried beans, and an apple crisp, I didn't get any pictures. Thanks to my Mom, I was able to pull this off in time to get them fed and out the door in time for their meeting.

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It is always very cool to have them in our home!

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It was a wonderful day... but today my Sister flies in. So I am really excited to see her and be with her for the rest of the week!

Monday, Nene comes to town...

We were so excited for Nene to fly in Monday morning... the teenager was out of school for the day, so we picked her up from the airport together and went to eat breakfast at the Cracker Barrel.

The museums we wanted to visit were all closed on Mondays... so we figured on the next best thing...
Yep... you guessed it!

Cabela's!

It would be disrespectful to come to this part of the country and not take a tour of this place!

Their amazing fish tank didn't disappoint! We had a fun time showing Nene everything Cabela's had to offer!

Then Monday night we had our family night and watched "The Restoration" dvd, and read some scriptures about it, and talked about how the blessings of the restoration have blessed our family. It was fun to have Nene with us for our family night.

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For an activity, we decided to ride out with the teenager to his job at the golf course.

Just when I think I am getting better at self portraits...

He is such a joker... he thinks he is funny anyway.... Stop IT!!!

Okay, 3rd times the charm!

He wanted to show off, I mean show his Nene his famous chip shot....

too long...

too short... Hurry up, it's getting dark out here. Maybe you should try it again tomorrow when you have those fancy golf shoes on that I paid for!

We had a really fun day, and really enjoyed having Nene with us.

Small miracles with mesh...

We have had a few series of accidents with our screen door off our slider over the past few years.

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One night after coming home from a date night, we noticed a small round hole in the screen precisely the same size as the big dowl we put in the slot to keep the door secure at night. Hmmm... the teenager denied it for years, but we finally tricked him into admitting the truth about it some time later, that it was an accident when he and Morgan were playing with the "stick".

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The next unfortunate accident happened when the screen door was shut and the glass door was shut and Morgan spotted a kitty cat in our back yard. So when we opened the glass door the screen was awkwardly in the way of her and the kitty and it took on some more damage before we could get it open to let her out!

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And the final blow to the screen happened a few weeks ago when Taylor was outside and Jacob had come home from school and I went to the back door to let her in (she loves to greet him when he arrives home from being at school all day)... and she saw him and bolted for him before I could get the door all the way open, she blasted through the mesh to get to him. It happened so fast I saw her on the inside of the house and actually had to look down to see if my hand had gotten the door opened for her.... I hadn't my hand was on the latch and I had only started pulling it open about 3 inches. Sadly the screen looked pretty trailer trashed by now!

But it was just my day when I found out the teenager had learned how to repair and replace screens at a scout camp merit badge clinic a few years back. So I went and got the dog resistant mesh (yeah, we will be the judge of that!). And on Saturday he took that project on, so it would look nicer when Nene came to visit.

So far so good... (but notice Dad over looking every move... with the ever so sceptical hands on his hips?)

He seems to look like he knows what he is doing...

Plenty of confidence...

Wow! All those years in scouting really payed off, he knows how to do more than just make good smores... who knew!

I have to give him huge credit on his home repair skills, the new screen looks fabulous!!

Saturday chores...

When I was a kid, Saturday was always the day we got our deep cleaning chores done.

I forever heard, "many hands make light work" (okay... like there was an option not to participate... not!); and we could play when all the work was done (that never worked out as good as they made it sound.... I was always way too tired to play after they got done with us).

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At my house now, I tend to save some of the deep cleaning chores for Saturday when my boys are home to help out... but somehow Saturday has turned into "golf day" and I don't golf, so I end up getting the chores done while they are gone, so we can all play. Hmmm???? I missed something in the rules there.

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Knowing Nene was on her way, I put my foot down and all week they knew there would be no play time until the chores were done. So Saturday morning I left everyone in bed to go to a meeting, and when I returned I found my strong silent mysterious man had the teenager up early working on the chores!

He is the best carpet cleaner ever!

He had cleaned the big stuff out of every room.. and was working away...

I found Rudy in his kennel and Taylor on the back porch...

Morgan had herself barricaded in the dining room...

And she never moved once until all the carpets were dry!