Truck problems

I don't really like to complain a bunch but sometimes I just hate car problems and we have had way too many the last few days. The guys took the truck hunting and that is when it all started. They blew out a tire, couldn't get the spare down it had a broken gear on the release mechanism. So they had to walk out a couple of miles to the main road with the bad tire and catch a ride to the other car, go into Flagstaff and get it fixed. A few days later they tore the plastic guard under the front bumper off. When they got home Doug replaced that, bought two new tires, and had the truck aligned. We thought it was good to go. On the way to Yuma we noticed the truck still had a funny vibration so Doug thought something was still wrong with the tires but drivable just a little vibration that wasn't there before.Well other than the tires we  thought everything was good until we got to Yuma. The gas we got at Sam's Club was bad gas and the truck started pinging really bad. On top of that we had to follow a police escort going 50 miles an hour from Yuma to El Centro (55 miles) because of a wide load in front of us. In El Centro we found an autozone and bought some high octane booster to help the ping, but it didn't help, so we just went on to San Diego. Doug got up Saturday morning and found a mechanic to see what the problem was. He said it was one thing that ended up being something else. The pinging from the bad gas had caused a spark problem and cracked the pipe from the engine to the muffler. He welded that crack and thought that it would be ok. Then Doug went and had all of the tires rebalanced. Filled up the car with premium gas to help things out .(I'm sure he would have rather relaxed on his day off but was such a good sport about getting everything fixed). The weld job lasted for about 100 miles then the pinging  started up again and the truck sounds like a diesel engine. We made it home and the truck will go into Kelly's in the morning to see what other damage has been done. Cars, don't ya just love um. Wish I had the money to trade them all in and get a couple of new ones, but that's not going to happen.

Fun day at the Garlock's

Saturday, August 13th was so much fun thanks to Mike and Debbie Garlock. They invited our family to join with there's for a fun filled day of swimming, water slide and yummy food. Tiffany and I took a few hundred pictures and I am posting quite a few because pictures speak a thousand words.

Ist week of High School

I don't ever remember having such a busy week as this past one for Shandraya. School started off great and then it got really busy when Shandraya decided to run for Vice President of the Freshman class. There was tons to do to ensure that she got recognized  and voted for. Posters to make a speech to give, a catchy phrase that people would remember her and vote for her. Hand outs to make and Summit dance on top of all of that. She was so tired last Thursday night that she fell asleep on the couch and then got up and went to her bed around 6:30 and didn't even remember going downstairs.  Know one knew where she was when dance girls called and said that she hadn't shown up. We all thought that Doug had taken her. Needless to say she missed that dance class. But the good news is that she made Vice President of the Freshman class at Mesa High School. She has to be at school at 6:45 every morning and that morning was an extra early morning that started at 5:45am.She is super busy with the dance (Howdy Hop) last Friday night at school, seminary opening social, dance classes and school, Mia Maid activities. I don't know how she does it all and keeps a smile on her face. We sure do love her. I think that Trevor and Tiffany were probably just as busy but I don't remember. High School is such a great time in kids lives if they make the most of it. Some do some don't. On top of her busy week we all got to enjoy Tiffany and family here during most of the commotion. I will have to post some cute picture real soon. We loved  having them here and sure did enjoy the grand kids. They grow up so fast.

Mission call

Caleb got his mission call in the mail on Thursday August 2, 2011. Not sure what he was waiting for to open it but he finally decided to on Friday evening. He is going to the Tampa, FL mission. He reports to the MTC on November, 16th. We are so excited and proud of him.

Braces off, yeepee!!

Shandraya got her braces off this morning. She was supposed to get them off on Friday, but the orthodontics office called yesterday and they had a cancellation so Shandraya could come in a couple days early. She was so excited when I told her. Here is her before and after pictures. So fine.

Shandraya's fun summer

Shandraya started out her summer with a bang! Off to Texas with me to help Tiffany for one week, home for three days then off to girls camp,

home for one week then to EFY,

                                                                            

then home for one day and off to Time to Blossom. 

                                                                                
July has been much calmer. She is doing a dance class T-F this week and next week that is a lot of fun for her. She is excited to get back to dancing more again when school starts. She has missed it this summer. I have really enjoyed having her home the past few weeks. She is such a GREAT helper for me and the fact that she is just fun to be around. Always has a smile and doing cute things.

Official news

Well Joanna had an ultrasound yesterday and we are going to be the proud grandparents of another grandson. So that makes it six boys and two girls, so excited!

Grandaughter Harley

Just a few pictures of our darling new addition. The week I was in Texas I only heard her cry one time. She is such a sweet mellow baby.

 

Just came home from her 1st doctor appointment and was sound asleep in her carseat.

Danielle

For all of you that might not know our sweet Danielle has has a rough time the past few weeks.We thought that the whole ordeal with her falling into the canal last month was a scarey situation but not as bad as the last two weeks.  Her baclofen pump (the little machine about the size of an ice hockey puck that is inside of her to help her stay relaxed) wasn't working right. It was giving too much medicine then not enough so she was getting really sick to her stomach for a few days and couldn't keep anything down and then she wouldn't get enough and everything would be really tight and so she had a hard time eating. For all of you that were concerned about her weight we don't have to worry anymore. She is down to a slim 115-118 pounds. Well the doctors replaced her pump and in the process somewhere she got spinal meningitis. She was really sick and was hallucinating for about 3 1/2 days. Someone had to stay with her 24/7 during that time or she would do really crazy things. They got that under control and decided to take the new pump out because they couldn't put enough antibiotics in her to kill the bacteria. She now has an external pump that doesn't work as well as an internal. She is still pretty tight, and itchy most of the time. She picked up another bug from someone or something in the hospital and also has diarrhea now on top of it all. She is such a trouper and hopes that this Friday or next Monday the doctors will be able to put in another new pump and get it regulated quickly. They will be putting it in on her right side whereas the others were on her left side. When she does get home she will still be on a lot of antibiotics through a pic line in her upper right arm for 6-8 weeks. We just keep praying that she will be strong and get better so that we can bring her home soon. Well that about sums it up about Danielle for now.

Science center in Texas

In my hurry to get pictures posted and show all the fun that we had I forgot to include any pictures of the science center that we went too. I think it's actually called the science spectrum. There was so much to see and do. A lot of different hands on displays and then the toy room. The boys played in there for about an hour before wanting to explore other stuff. I have been there before with Trevor's family but it was Shandraya's first time and Nixon's first time I think. An enjoyable time was had by all. I loved to watch the kids and there excitement with everything.

Nixon's first airplane flight

Drew took Shandraya, Nixon and I to the airport and dropped us off. We did the usual check in and then hung out at the airport for a little while. So many people commented what a cute kid he is. He just kept looking out the window saying airplane, airplane. We got the front room seat from Lubbock to Dallas. The flight attendant said I had to put my purse in the overhead so he did and Nixon didn't really like that. He kept asking where my bag was. I couldn't get my purse down during the flight because the "fasten your seat belt" sign never went off, but we did just fine. When we got to Dallas we got off the plane and walked around for about an hour and a half. Bought a happy meal and then back onto the plane to El Paso. We sat farther back because we had B seating. We had the whole row to ourselves so Nixon had a little more room to move around and play with his happy meal toys. Landed in El Paso and had to stay on the plane so we just moved up to a closer seat near the front so we could get off quicker when we landed. We had only been up in the air about one minute and Nixon fell sound asleep and slept until we landed in Phoenix. He was a great traveling companion.

A wonderful week in Texas

This past week has been so full of fun and excitement. Shandraya and I flew out to Texas to help Tiffany with her new baby Harley and Nixon. We also got to enjoy Trevor and Brandi's family and their wonderful little boys, Bentley and Cannon. We were busy everyday doing fun stuff. We went to the science center, the park and flew kites and climbed a huge pine tree, swimming, played a few hands of cards, went to the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus (The greatest show on earth) played in the yard with the sprinklers, drew on the driveway with chalk. Enjoyed ourselves immensely  but it's always good to get home too.

Caleb's Graduation

He's all done with High School. Now on to other great things. We are so proud of you Caleb and all that you have achived in school. You got great grades, had fun and applied yourself well.

Prom

Handsome Caleb and beautiful Rachel all decked out for a fun night at Prom.

Civic

This morning when Caleb woke up and went to school he came back in and told us of the great surprise he got when he got to the car. He has been parking it in the road under the pecans trees because Jeremy and Joanna have been parking there cars in the driveway the last little bit. Anyway someone decided to have fun and be stupid and smash in the window on the car. Thankfully they didn't take anything. So I had to make all the fun phone calls  to get it fixed. Keeps life exciting around here.

Dolly Cruise

Doug and I had a fun little adventure up to Canyon Lake last Saturday the 14th. We went on the Dolly Cruise. It was very relaxing and enjoyable. We sat in the front seat just inside the door because I didn't want to sit for one and a half hours in the sun. We had only been gone for about fifteen minutes and a jet set went by a sprayed the fourteen people that were out on the front deck. It was one of the best things on the trip. To see an older lady that had white gauze pants get soaking wet and cling to her bare butt. She might have had a thong on but couldn't tell. All of her friends were pointing and laughing at her. We also saw six big horn sheep and some turkey buzzards. It was a fun day activity.

Princess Disney on Ice

A couple of weeks ago I took Keegan and Kierra to Disney Princess on ice. It was really fun. Keegan's comment was kinda funny "Grandma I was really skeptical about going but it turned out really good. Anytime you want to take me I will go with you". Kierra was in awe she loved watching the different princesses. The first half was six different ones and the second half was the story of Cinderella.

We were sitting down pretty close because I was able to get tickets before they were sold to the general public. I thought that I would get a bunch of really awesome pictures but the man in front of me was really tall and seemed to move his head in the way everytime I tried to take a picture and the lady next to him turned around and gave me a dirty look everytime the flash went off. I tried to take some without the flash but the shutter is slower then and they all turned out blurry.

So I didn't get any of the kids at the arena but got one when we got home.

Thanks to Tiffany and Drew

When Tiffany and Drew were dating we started the tradition of making cinnamon rolls on General Conference Sunday. We have continued that tradition and are so thankful for starting something so yummy and fun for us to do between sessions. We thought that you (Tiffany & Drew) might like to see what your missing. We sure miss you guys and the fun times! We love you and think of you often especially when we do stuff like today.

                                                                 Eat your hearts out.

The rest of the trip

Here is just a quick glance at the rest of our San Francisco trip. It was full of fun and adventure everyday. The first day there we didn't have a lot of time to do anything by the time we got there and checked in, but we did walk around the city close to where we were staying. Way too many pictures taken to describe each one. We had so much fun each and every day. A great vacation. A wonderful place to visit but definitely wouldn't want to live there.

We went to Pier 39 which has a bunch of neat shops, and a bunch of sea lions.

 At the bottom of Lombard street

 This guy in the gold was a real live man. He was all decked out in this gold outfit and was really fun to take a picture of. Some of the live statues were kind of mean but he wasn't.

 The wax museum had a few statues out front that we took pictures of because it cost way too much to go in.

 We went up to Coit tower on a clear day and you could see out everywhere it was really cool.

Alcatraz was really interesting. Worth the money and time.


The wharf was fun, it has a salt water taffy shop that was huge. A lot of other shops. We spent two different afternoons there. On the wharf there is tons of statues that Shandraya posed with.








Aquarium at the Sea was ok but a lot like the California Academy of Sciences that we had gone to a couple of days before. At the Academy of Sciences they have an awesome bird and butterfly aviary (enclosed dome) that is three stories high that you wrap around the edge while observing the birds and butterflies.

The cable cars were a lot of fun to ride on and would take you almost anywhere you wanted to go.

The cable car museum was real interesting to see how the cable cars work. The fortune cookie factory was the best thing in China town.
The rest of it was just a bunch of stores that sold trinkets and kinda junky stuff

One day we were walking around and went into a little shop that had open food out everywhere near china town. Doug took a picture and the lady got really mad at him.