A few random things...

A couple of weeks ago we got to have Joann and Colleen at our church.  Oh how I miss these dear ladies!  Joann moved away years ago, but has been good to stay in touch with all of us ladies from the old 4th ward.  And Colleen is  wonderful at sending texts or emails, and keeping us up to date on the goings on of the old bunch. Or she'll send us something from the internet or something she's heard about that she thinks we would be interested in. I really don't know how she does all she does and is always looking out for everyone else too!  Amazing lady!  We had such a special group of ladies there in the 4th ward and basically went through all of our kids growing up years together.  That forms bonds that will last a lifetime.

We got the better end of the deal when they reorganized the stake and dissolved the ward because most of the women moved to the new 6th ward with us.  There was a handful left there that were added onto the third ward though and it's an understatement to say it's been rough for them.  It is an older area with older people.  Just sayin, Colleen and Greg were the youngsters in the ward!  They are amazing though and have made the best of it.  Greg is the bishop now and I bet he is great at it.  There's not a kinder man around.

Anyway, Joann's family are all married and live all over the country now so she travels quite a bit to visit them. As she was visiting family in Utah, her plane trip home was delayed a day, so she chose to spend the day with old friends. It was so good to talk to her.  She's one of those special people that does so much, gives so much, is super talented in many ways, but is probably the most humble person I know. 

After relief society, we grabbed a few of the ladies from the old 4th ward that were still there visiting and took this picture.  There were a lot of other women in other organizations and ones that had left already that we missed out on, so I felt bad about that, but was glad we got a few of the oldies together.  Oh my, where have the years gone?

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 We have been having the strangest weather this spring.  It got really warm early in March...like 70's.  All the flowers came up and bloomed, we were barbecuing and enjoying warm evenings on the patio and life was good!  Now it has turned cold again!  I mean really cold!  It snowed yesterday in the valley!!! and there seems to be an endless stream of storms coming across Utah that are forecast to bring more rain, snow, and cold temperatures!  BOOOO!  

We went to J&J Gardens the other day and got  a bunch of tomato plants and other vegetables and we've had to cover them every night to keep them from freezing! (not planted, just waiting for warmer days)  

Anyway, we had never been to J&J before but now it's our new favorite place!  I heard an add on the radio about their "Big" tomato plants for a great price so we drove up to Layton to check it out.  The plants really were big!  Plus everything else was really reasonably priced too. We got all of our vegetable plants there too and they look super healthy.   We also got a cute water plant for the fish pond too that I'm pretty excited about.  I'll take a picture of it soon.

 Just a few shots of the pretty tulips and such...can't help but sing "When you wore a tulip, a big yellow tulip and I wore a big red rose!" when I see these!  Oh great, now I'm missing my mom and my sisters so much!  We haven't been able to get together for such a long time!  I think it's been since January! We keep trying, but it seems like there's been a lot going on the past few months.  Teina had surgery on her feet and it's really been a long hard recovery.  Leslie has been sick too and Brenda has been  snowed in, or visiting her kids or they've been at her house.  We've missed Teina's birthday and now Leslie's is next week! Going to get in touch with them today and plan something!  

Oh man I really am  rambling all over the place!  Ha!  I think mostly, I'm just avoiding doing what I should be doing which is preparing the lesson for Gospel Doctrine this Sunday.  That's right...I'm teaching Gospel Doctrine. My worse nightmare!   Martha asked me to fill in for her because she was going to be out of town.  She already got me with the "are you going to be here next week?" and I stupidly said yes. Then there was no excuse to get out of it except for maybe getting hit by a train or getting food poisoning which are both sounding better and better all the time.

 This is my favorite thing to see in the yard!  Love it when she comes by!  So does Lizzy.  Candice always takes time to play with her.

 The lilac bush was really something this year!  We took a  small start from Kelley's folks place when his dad died and they were getting ready to sell the place.  It has taken several years to grow into a nice big bush and make these heavenly blooms!  I can't get enough of them.  They fill the whole house with that yummy fragrance.  I just wish they would last longer!

 We took a nice bouquet of them to the cemetery on Sunday afternoon.  I think Grandma would approve.

I've been working on these little cuties for the past month and wanted to get them to the grand kids for Easter, but I wasn't quite finished.  

 I loved these little turtles...Sam always wants to carry one with him so I thought these could fit in his pocket.

 This pony has taken me forever to get done, I changed it up a bit from the pattern.  He's so goofy looking, I couldn't help but love it! I hope Jonas does too!

 Camille sent me snap chats and pictures of them opening them when they got the package and that just made my day!

 Ha Ha I asked Camille if Jonas was scared of it and she said no, that this was his happy face!  

 Olivia was at her baseball game when they opened the package so Camille sent me this later.  

 Glad to see Jonas has taken a liking to him now!  The other kids have a whole zoo of my creations, so it was  past time to get started on a collection for Jonas too!

KC is going to graduate next week!  It has been a long road with so much studying and hard work! 

We got to go see his final presentation last week and I was just proud of him as I could be!

His group invented this neck thing for athletes to wear that is all soft and squishy so it's comfortable, but when it gets hit, it goes hard instantly to protect them. Genius! 

It was fun to go around and see all the different projects the students had  come up with...some were really cool...and could make a big difference for people's lives.  I guess that's where these new inventions get their start.  These smart motivated kids give you hope for a bright future! 

 Isn't he the cutest!

 We met Candice at the Library and walked to the Union center together.  She was in between classes so that worked out real good!  Candice is doing so well at school too!  She works so hard and studies her brains out and it all pays off cause she gets A's!  She was going to graduate this spring too, but she realized she would have had to take a real heavy load in order to do it so she decided to go one more semester in the fall.  I think that was really smart cause her classes are hard!!!  She has so much reading to do, I don't know how she would have done it with two more classes. She is getting her degree in psychology and wants to be a counselor for women.  I know she will be so good at it because she has a compassionate heart and a great desire to help others.   I'm so proud of her I could just bust.

We've got bees!

After last falls's disaster, we have been anxiously waiting for it to get warm enough to get some new hives going.  

Kelley found this place on the internet that had new packages so he ordered two.  We went out to south Jordan to pick them up and there was a lot of people there buying them.  It was just a family business selling packages they had started their selves from their home. They have a pretty cool set up though with his whole garage filled with boxes and packages.   He opened it up for us so we could see there was a queen in there and there was a ton of bees!

We brought them home and Kelley put the new queen in her box.  It's so interesting to see how they make their new home!  I've been listening to some podcasts about bees that just blow my mind!  These  little creatures are so incredibly smart!

 So he puts the queen in the little box with a marshmallow blocking her exit so she has to eat her way out, or the worker bees help her get out.  Either way, it takes a little time.  So Kelley taped up the entrance to the hive all except for a little hole to discourage the whole hive from flying away.  Then he left it like that for about two weeks.  

Yesterday, we got into the boxes again to see how they were doing and to put the wood slats in for them to build their honey comb on.  They had already started making waxy honeycomb and it was just sitting in the box.  The queen was out and being all primped by the other bees.  So all seems to be going well! 

 I didn't think I was going to get too hands on this time, so I didn't put a suit on.  When I was filming KC and Kelley I could tell the bees were getting fired up.  They get mad when they think you are intruding into the hive and that's just what Kelley was doing.  He was trying to put the slats in but I guess they don't know that.  We decided to back off and get the smoker to calm them down.  One chased me though and got in my hair!  I could feel it crawling around on my head and was trying real hard not to freak out.  KC very carefully picked it out of my hair and I didn't get stung!  I think the poor thing lost a couple legs in the process though.  Ewwwww

This is the waxy honeycomb they had been making.  It amazes me how perfectly shaped each little piece is.

Hoping for a summer of happy bees!  They made such a huge difference last year in the production of our garden and all the neighbors gardens too!  

Easter this year was such a nice day.  I was sure missing these kids though and wishing we could all be together.

 We had such a fun afternoon hunting for Easter baskets.  Easter bunny was at the top of his game this year.

 The back yard is so full of wood right now!  It made for some excellent hiding places.  Interestingly, the bunny didn't hide any there.  

 KC found a basket in the lawnmower bag but it wasn't his.  Candice saw the whole thing and scored!

 Kate's was the best though...Kelley hung it over to Tobys side of the fence and tied it with a rope.  When we got home from church, Toby hollered over the fence at us.  He showed Kelley and I the basket that his dogs had helped their selves to! Ha!!! They had got the plastic eggs out and chewed them up and got the candy out. Luckily, I had forgot to put the fancy protein bars in her basket.  They would have liked them!  We fixed it up and refilled it and Toby promised to not let his dogs out.
  Katie looked and looked and we were doing the hot cold thing and she still wasn't finding it.  She finally asked "Is it in OUR yard?"  Kelley said "not technically"  Then she looked over the fence and found it!  Ha   

I think she wanted to punch the Easter bunny

 KC couldn't find his either but with a few hints, ended up here at this tree.  He looked high and low and still couldn't see it.  We just didn't realize the extremes he would go to!  Kelley told him to keep looking so he went around the back of the tree and there it was.  But you had to have a ladder to reach it!  Ha!  I wish I could have seen Kelley hiding these in his suit! (he came home during Sunday school...very sneaky)

Had a nice rubikub tournament which KC dominated. Then they all helped make a nice dinner.  

I'm so grateful for these amazing people, Camille and her cute family and my good husband. They are everything to me!  They are each so unique and different, yet they love each other with no bounds.  They are always there to support and lift each other up or to help each other get through the hard times too.  The relationships we have with each other mean so much to me!  I know we are so lucky and I thank Heavenly Father every day for giving me this bunch!  Easter day has been a sweet reminder to me of my gratitude for the Atonement which makes it possible to be with my family forever.  We sang the most beautiful song with the choir in Sacrament meeting today.  It was called "It was for me"  I knew I was going to have trouble cause I couldn't get through it in practice either. I had to stop singing several times because my emotions were over the top as we sang about the priceless gift the Savior has given each of us.