Summer at home

Last month our household increased by one member. Elora moved in with us! I've missed having my kids around me, but it is understandable that Buckeye was not the most convenient place to get to, especially if you don't drive. Our move back into "town" provided the opportunity for Elora to come and stay with us again.

It had been a few years since Elora had lived with us, and I guess I hadn't realized how social she is. She has a lot of friends, and she seems to be a very good friend to them as well. She seems to always have someplace to be, or someone who wants to come over. It's all good, and her friends seem to be respectful of her home.

Another perk of moving back to Phoenix is that we are now close enough that we get to see Maria (and Owen, Tanyon & Lily) and Josh (and Jake) a lot more often. Tan and Jake love to come over and go swimming and Maria usually helps with dinner and we always make a fun day of their visit.

Batter Up!

In January of 2008 Darrell and I joined a softball team made up of folks from here at work. We had a pretty shaky start (we lost every game), but more importantly, we had an activity that we could enjoy together, we made friends with some of our co-workers and we were getting some exercise.

We played for three seasons in 2008 as well as the spring season of this year, however, this summer session, we decided that a name change was in order, as our original name reflected our workplace. I took suggestions from other team members and then created a survey and let the team members vote.
Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present to you "Old Balls and Old Bags"

(insert team photo here) (I haven't taken the photo yet)

Nearly half of this team is related to me, and this is the realization of a dream that I am not sure I had even acknowledged; I am on a team with my husband, my son, my sister, my best friend, my son's best friend, and now even my daughter is playing with us. The other team members are becoming very good friends, and I enjoy my Friday evenings more than I had imagined I could.

Our record doesn't accurately reflect the fact that there is a lot of talent on this team. So far we've won one game out of six for this season, but I am confident that we will finish at least at 50/50. Win or lose, we are having fun, and that it the most important part of playing. (Don't tell Darrell I said that...)

Gummy Bear

Lily Madison was born on April 30th, bright and early in the morning (in the tradition of her mother, uncle Josh and aunt Elora).

Apparently Maria is made to deliver babies. She how great she looks just moments after delivering even though Lily weighed in at 8 lbs 4 oz!!...

According to her mom, Lily is behaving the way new-born babies are supposed to. She likes to wake up during the night just to eat for 5 minutes and fall right back to sleep - and just when mom and dad think that they'll get to rest for a bit, Lily needs a diaper change.

But the thing that just amazes me most is how familiar this little person is to me. Her features and expressions are so like her mom's were at that age, it feels like I've known this beautiful grandaughter of mine forever.

Welcome to the world Lily...

Wow! It's been a while...

I love reading blogs, absolutely love it. I realize that I am not so good at writing for a blog. I will try to do better!

Since my last post, we have moved twice. We left our home in Buckeye and moved to a condo in Phoenix, just three miles away from work. Last month we moved from one condo to another condo within the same complex. We love our condo! We love being close to work! We love not being 35 miles away from everything!

click http://www.9920az.com/ to see the website for our condo complex.

I will do my best to post about some other exciting stuff (exciting for my hum drum life, anyway) has happened since my last post.

• I am a grandma again!


• Softball


• Elora


• D (aka Eugene)


• mom


• wedding catering


• diet

Hopefully, I will be more reliable at posting - I'll set a goal! Yeah, that's it! I'll set a goal! I am officially setting a goal to post at least 3 times per week starting today!

Not that anyone is reading, but this sounds like fun :-)

Checking In!

The last several weeks have been pretty busy for me. Work is always busy, (but that is expected) and besides, this is not about work, anyway.

Two weeks ago I went to Jacqueline and Mike's house because Baby Maya was blessed. Most of the family showed up, which is always one of my favorite all-time situations.

My family is incredibly awesome, even if I say so myself. We might not all have the same opinion or idea of how things should be, but as a rule, we do not let our differences interfere with the fact that we are family.

There are always lots of kids around when we get together as a family. That is probably one of my favorite things about us. Here are some of those kids.

The following week I went to a scrapbooking convention with my friend Tracy. I don't think that Darrell was fully prepared for how long this day might be for me. I left home shortly after 7:00a and then Darrell and his mom and brother met me there after 4:00p. It took that long to get through the entire exhibit hall. I saw some very neat products and some beautiful scrapbook pages, which I photographed so that I would be able to remember them later.

I will share a bit about the baseball game and also about the conference I went to in Palm Springs soon!

Posting Quest

Okay, I think that it has been a month or more since I first posted. I have had a busy life lately, but in spite of the "busy-ness" I don't have much to write about.
Since I work in a hospital, a large part of my day is not publishable, what with those pesky patient privacy rights, and all that...
So I will make it my quest to find something interesting everyday to post about! Yay! A new goal...
For today I will mention that I watched my first bit of politics on TV for the entire year last night in the form of Sarah Palin's speech. As a member of Toastmaster's, all I can say is WOW! Great job! She is very articulate, she had great timing, and she has a beautiful family. I will have to look a little deeper into her and what she is about. I have to admit that this year I have been very on the fence about who I was going to vote for and Obama's choice for running mate did nothing to sway me. I was concerned that McCain's choice was simply a semi-stunt, but I have to admit, she impressed me last night.
Anyway, enough of that crap - this is not a political blog!

First Post!

Hi! This is my first post to our official blog. Last week, while spending time with my family in California, I learned that I am "out of the loop" since I don't have a blog.
I will try my best to create interesting things to blog about...