YARD SALE

We decided to have a ward yard sale-bake sale for our fundraiser for girls camp. We started advertising about it about a month ago and the ward really came through for us! People brought over a ton of stuff for us to sell. All the neighbors around here were really supportive too and brought over stuff to sell or just brought over money. We baked a bunch of goodies friday then got to work pricing all the stuff. There was so much stuff! Leslie has been collecting all the things and storing it all in her living room, kitchen, front porch, side of house... She is a gem! Candice put an ad in KSL classifieds and Leslie made some great signs and about 6:45 am, the people started coming . There was a pretty steady stgh ghgghjb ll,, iiiiinuinh87n ok this isn't going to wor kfcfdddcdxcaaaz bbb I'm babysitting Kathy Withers granddaughter for a few weeks and she wants me to hold her all the time. She is 8 months old and a little sweetie pie.She is very good natured and happy n bbbn bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbcccccc

Nap time. So anyway we had a lot of people come to the yard sale and we made over 800.00 dollars! Candice was awesome to come over and help...6:30am, and she was there with bells on!
Leslie really worked herself to a frazzle...I think she pulled a muscle in her back lifting boxes because she couldn't get out of bed sunday morning. All the young women and their leaders were supposed to sing in sacrement meeting and she couldn't move. All the girls showed up though which was really something because there are several that are pretty much inactive. They wanted Candice and I to sing with the girls because we are the camp leaders this year, so Candice came over and sang and I tried to sing but I mostly just blubbered. We sang "Walk Tall, Your a Daughter" and I never can sing it without getting emotional. I can't even play the piano for them to practice without boobing. The words are so powerful and really hit close to home for me. Anyway, thanks to Candice for trying to help me get through it without falling apart. You know what I'm talking about.

Saturday afternoon, K.C. and I went over to Riverton music to look at their sheet music. They have pianos set up so you can sit and play with headphones on and you are the only one that can hear it. They had one with two headphones hooked up to it though so we had fun playing on these amazing pianos and listening to each other. It's amazing how much better the music sounds on that kind of piano......some day......

These are just lame pictures I took with my phone, and K.C. doesn't help them any by pulling this face every time I want to take his picture.

(Missionary shoe shopping) We found some nice brown ones that I think will hold up real good.
Steve Larsen brought over a pair of black Doc Martins that were just his size and look like new. People are so thoughtful , kind, and supportive! We are so grateful!









We went up fishing bright and early friday morning. It was real nice when we got there...perfectly calm and beautiful! Then about 10:00, the wind started to blow and it was COLD!

We kept fishing though because we came across an area where there was a ton of fish on the fish finder. The only problem was they weren't biting. We tried everything but no luck. We finally decided to give it up, then on the way back to the dock, K.C. caught this one little guy.

I Can't believe the fish didn't just jump in the boat with Kelley enticing them like this.

Fishing with Dan is an experience in itself. He says and does the funniest things, we are just laughing nonstop the whole time. On the way up there, he kept saying he saw deer up on the mountian side. We were all questioning his eyesight. Then he said "look at those deer...right over there...I've still got it!" We all saw them, but they weren't deer, they were emu. He was wishing he hadn't said he still had it.

Kelley and Dan have got so many lures and fish catching gadgets that it is funny. I mean ridiculous funny!

K.C. even pulls that face at me when he is sleeping.

Holly called me last week and asked if K.C. and I would like come over and visit with her son who just returned from his mission to Russia 5 months ago. So Sunday night, we went up to their house. It was really great. We talked for about 2 hours and he showed us a bunch of pictures of what it is like there. He was in a little warmer area than K.C. is going to, but I think the living conditions will be real similar. They told us things he would need and what not to take too. Jordan was robbed 5 times while he was there, so he told K.C. what to watch out for and how to be safe as safe as possible. Drinking is a big problem there and also immorality. He told us about good people there too and the success's he had had. He said he had wonderful experiences and by the end of his mission, he didn't want to leave. He has grown to love the Russian culture and was able to get 16 credits in college by testing out on the language. I think it made K.C. feel a lot more comfortable and at ease. He said he can actually picture himself being there now and is excited and ready to go.
I think he looks at the 3 months he will be in the MTC as a reallly long time, and is anxious to get to Russia, but Jordan said that Russian is pretty tough to learn, so he will need the time.

Anyway, it was so great of them to share their experiences and advice with us. I love Holly, she has always been one of my favorite people.

Happy Birthday to my sweetie!

We had a real nice Mothers Day Kelley's Birthday weekend. Saturday a bunch of the guys came over and played basketball. They haven't played in quite a while and I know how much Kelley loves to do this, so it was good to see them having some fun.
We went to do sealings with our sealing group Saturday afternoon. When we got started, there was only the Buhlers', one other young couple, and us there. After a little while, Colleen came hurrying in all breathless and said "We almost died!" I was like, "Oh I'm glad your ok. " We couldn't really talk right then, so after as we were going down the escalator, I asked her what had happened to them. "how did you almost die?" She looked confused for a minute, then starts laughing. She said "I said we almost TIED! ... we almost got here at the same time!" Unfortunatly, Kelley was overhearing this whole conversation and thought it was pretty funny. It really was funny, and embarassing... man I am deaf! Anyway, on the way home I start getting these text messages from the kids. K.C.: "Did the Pooles almost die?" Candice: "Oh my gosh mom, did the Pooles almost die?" Camille: Did the Pooles die? Bummer...I really liked them!" Kelley must have text them as soon as we got to the car. What Ever!!! Just add it to the list. Yes they are making a list of all my deaf moments. It's getting pretty long.


Mother's day was really nice. The only thing that could have made it nicer was if Katie, Camille, Kellen and Olivia could have been there. It just didn't work out that they could make it but I know they wanted to be here.
Our Sacrement meeting was really special. Kelley was conducting this month, so he asked several people to talk about their mothers. He had Paul talk about Martha, Sam talk about Carol, Heidi talk about Diane, Nikki talk about JoAnn, and Leslie talk about Cleo. It was really sweet to hear them tell some special things about their mothers. Heidi said something in her talk that really touched me. She was talking about a conversation her and Diane had had years ago. Diane had said something about Heidi being lucky to be able to go skiing whenever she wanted to. Heidi had come back with "Well you could go too if you wanted too, you just choose not to go." Heidi didn't realilze until she became a mother herself, that her mother had given up things that she wanted to do so that her kids could do things they wanted to do.
I think that's what being a mother is all about. You just want so much for your kids to be happy, that you gladly sacrifice anything and everything, so they can do what will make them happy. And what is strange about that is that it doesn't hurt to sacrifice, it just fills you with more love for them. Camille was supposed to be one of the speakers, but when she couldn't come, she sent Kelley a note to read for her. All the speakers went long, so there was not time to read it, so he gave it to me after Sacrement meeting. I sat there in sunday school bawling while I read her sweet message.

The girls gave me a awesome set of knives...Yea! mine were terrible!

Kelley gave me an ipod...very cool. now I have no excuse not to go to the gym

We went up to visit mother after church. I feel so blessed to have been raised by such a sweet, loving , gentle Mother. I was thinking when Heidi was talking about the many sacrifrices my mother made for me. I know she went without things she wanted, so I could have the clothes and things I thought were important. She would stay up late at night sewing a prom dress. She spend countless hours teaching me how to sew. She would help me unpick my mistakes in sewing and in life. She was always there to listen to me, support me, and comfort me. She taught me all the good things I enjoy in my life now. She taught me to love music. She paid for many piano lessons, and endured my whining and complaining over practicing...always encouraging me and telling me I would be glad some day that I could play the piano. I AM ! From the time we were small, even till today, one of the greatest joys in my life has been to sing with my sisters with my mom playing the ukulele. She taught us so many songs that have stayed with us all of these years, and hopefully have been able to pass some of them down to our own children. She has always been such a great example to me of the kind of wife and mother I want to be. I loved the way she was with daddy. They were like one...in their hopes, and dreams, everything they did, they did it together. They always had some project they were working on together...in the yard, or the house, or for their family, neighbors, or the church. They had this special whistle they would use when they were working outside. The yard was so big, to find each other one would whistle.(moms was kind of a yoo-who)..then the daddy would whistle back . It always made me feel happy when I heard it. When daddy died, it was like half of her was missing. I thought her heart would break she missed him so bad, but her strength and hope and faith through this trial has been an inspiratiion to me. She spends a lot of her days reading over their old diary's. I think she likes reading about when they were together and the good times they had. She talks about longing to be with him again and I know she looks forward to it with joy because of the good life they had together here on earth.

Candice and K.C. tried to get her to pull faces but she wouldn't

Mom is so funny about Candice's hair. She will say things like "When I saw your black hair I thought... Oh dear what has she done?" " You don't look like Candice with that black hair" I'm glad Candice understands and loves Grandma and doesn't get offended.

Kelley is 53! We had a good day...kind of low key, but fun. We barbecued, enjoyed talking with K.C. about his upcoming mission, ate cake and opened presents.

ok so I might have peed my pants a little bit I was laughing so hard. I was trying to get a picture of Kelley blowing out his candles, but couldn't get his face and the cake in same picture, so he finally held the cake up and pretended to blow out the candles.

K.C. got him this cool tie





Katie and Camille and Olivia and Kellen sent Kelley sweet birthday cards. Katie called when we were opening presents...I think that made him happy.

He always has to shake the present and try to guess what it is...funny thing he usually guesses right!

Candice gave him this great grilling cookbook

I gave him some much needed new black church shoes.

Later, we rented the movie "Marley and Me" Taught great lessons on life and relationships. Laughed and cried.

I sure am grateful that I have this wonderful man to spend my life and all eterniy with. He is so good to me. It's so great to be able to grow, learn, experience, share, love, laugh and cry with him by my side. He makes me laugh every day. He is always concerned about my happiness and the happiness of our children. I know that each of the kids have a great love and respect for him. He is a hard worker and has always provided for our family, making it possible for me to be at home with the kids. He gets a lot of joy out of serving others and can often be found doing so. He honors his Priesthood and has taught K.C. to do the same. He has a lot of friends. In fact, I think about everyone he meets, becomes his friend. People will just come up to him and start talking to him that he doesn't even know. I will say "Who was that? " and he will say "I don't know!" He is just one of those people that is easy to be with. I am so grateful for the good life we have and for the love we share. Happy Birthday Sweetie...I love you!

May Day

This is my last week in no particular order, not because I didn't want to put it in order, but because I am a spaz at putting these pictures on here!

I got to spend this last weekend with mom. It was pretty rainy most of the time I was there, but I was able to do a little yard work. We sat down together and looked through her old records of how she had done the flower beds in the past years. We picked out some that she said had turned out real good and figured what kind of plants we would need and how many. They are still about 3 weeks behind up there as far as safe planting goes so in the next few weeks, we will go get her flowers. It was fun looking through her old records and reading the little comments her and Daddy had made about the yard. They used to start planning what they would do around the end of January...they would sit at the kitchen table together with a bowl of popcorn, mulling over the seed catalogs and selecting just the right plants for each of the many flower beds in the yard.Then they would send for the seed. It was like Christmas when the seed arrived in the mail. By this time Daddy had gotten all the flats ready to plant by mixing his special concoction of dirt, purlite, vermiculite, compost of leaves and stuff they went up the canyon to collect, and such. Then mother would start the planting. I have great memories of sitting under the workbench in the greenhouse playing while she would spend hours planting the tiny seeds and marking them and watering them and loving them. It seemed like they could make anything grow. You would find little starts of flowers she had seen and picked off a little piece, at different places she would go (temple grounds, neighbors flower beds, lagoon) in little pots in her window sill. And they would all grow! After the seeds came up, then she would thin them out and seperate them. Then after a few months in the green house, they would be big enough to plant outside.
We would all help carry out the flats of geraniums ( that she would get starts off of the fall before and plant and grow all winter in the greenhouse) to their appointed beds. Then we would clean off all the dead leaves and tip the plant upside down and tap the pot gently to get the plant out. We'd hand it to mother and she would dig a hole (perfectly spaced, she had a eye for it and was very fussy about this! I remember when I was older and had taken over the job, she would come out and frown at the plants if they weren't evenly spaced out, so I would move them to the proper distance) and gently set it in. People would visit the yard all the time just to walk around and look at the beautiful flowers. They would come and take wedding picutres there and want to have parties and receptions there. Daddy kept the place immaculate. Not to mention growing a huge vegetable garden that always provided for our family and lots of neighbors and friends too. Now that we have taken over the job, we all realize just how much work he did to keep the yard so beautiful. We have scaled back a lot and let some of the flower beds fill with ground cover. The greenhouse sits empty and quiet now...There is no garden anymore, which I think makes mom kind of sad. We have been getting her a tomato plant to keep on the patio so she can at least have a fresh tomato to eat, but it's not the same. We all pitch in and plant flowers in the spring and take our turns with the irrigation, and luckily have a great mower that comes every week, but we have to let a lot of stuff go. I'm sure Daddy knows we are trying our best. Anyway I do digress, or reminesse or something.

Ok so how cute are these girls? I was able to go to the 6th ward recognition of these four girls receiving their YW Medallions. They had a really good program, then sang the medely of "As Sisters in Zion" that has the YW theme combined with it. They sang it with their moms and it was so beautiful. I don't think there was a dry eye in the house. The youth today are so strong and amazing!

K.C. had his wisdom teeth out yesterday. This was his second try. The first time he went up to the University Hospital to have it done, because that is where Travis works from. K.C. was really nervous about being put to sleep, so before they even got the needle in his arm, he passed out. Then they couldn't get his blood pressure to come back up, so they sent him home. We decided to go to the oral surgeons office to do it this time and it was much better. The doctor was great. When he found out K.C. was going to Russia on his mission he started talking to him in russian. He said his son had gone there 2 years ago and they had gone to pick him up. He said he had memorized his testimony in russian so he could surprise his son at the testimony meeting. I think he made K.C. really feel at ease, because he had the IV in before he even knew what had happened. Then he told K.C. to repeat what he was saying in russian and K.C. did but was asleep before he could finish the sentence.

Out like a trout

Not quite awake on the way home

Pain

Boredom

He got through it just fine. He was awake most of the night though, because he slept ALL day. It was nice to be able to sit and talk to him for a few hours (of course I was awake too...not because I slept all day, but because unfortunatly, thats how I usually spend the time between 2-5 am.)
Back to my backwards mixed up week. Thursday, we decided to take the boat up to Strawberry. K.C. had just finished his last final and we were all anxious to try a little fishin. They said the ice was mostly melted and it was a beautiful day. The closer we got to Strawberry, the windier it got. when we got to the lake, there was white caps on the water. But it wasn't too cold, so we decided to go for it. The boat ran great and we fished for a while, then we noticed the bilge pump was pouring out a lot of water. Kelley got into the pump area, and noticed one of the caps to the pump had a big crack in it. Well that was the end of the fishing trip.

But we had a fun day anyway, scenery and company was good.

K.C. is a pro at driving the boat now.

Candice came over earlier this week and we baked! Megan was having a thankyou party for all the people that have supported her and Candice wanted to make a few treats for it.



Cake mix explosion

Yummy mini strawberry cupcakes













Poo Poo cookies that turned out like their name.

Candice made these cute little appitizers that looked like little girls wearing scarves.

We made chocolate cupcakes with mint frosting, corn dip, and some amazing chocolate almond macaroon bars. (From the amazing chocolate cookbook Angie gave me. LOVE IT!)

We had lots of fun baking then delivered it up to Megs house. It was pretty late when we were coming home, and this lady in front of us was swerving all over the road.
She was all over the lanes and must have been drunk. We followed her all the way to the exit, then watched her almost sideswipe another car and decided to call the police. We gave them her licsence number and told them where she was headed and they said they would find her. I hope they did before she hurt someone. Scary.

Happy Birthday K.C.!

I have been thinking it would be fun to have a birthday party for K.C this year so Candice and I started plotting and planning and decided to have it be a surprise party.

I called Hatsumi to see if she would help me get the word out to all his friends. She was excited about it and very helpful. I can see why K.C. and all those kids like her so much.
We asked K.C. where he wanted to go for dinner and he said spaghetti factory. Candice met us over there about 6:30. The plan was for everybody to get to our house about 7:00 and decorate and we would get home about 7:30.
We let K.C. walk in the back door first and the house was decorated to the hilt. All his friends jumped up from behind the island and said "Surprise!" He really was surprised! He said he had no idea we were doing anything and his friends hadn't let on at all. He has a really nice bunch of friends.

We had made a bunch of food and Hatsumi brought a yummy cake and some cookies.

Ashley (Katie's good friend) and her sister came over with their little brother Jeff who is a good friend of K.C.'s. It was good to visit with her and catch up. She has always been a good friend to Katie.

Then they all went out back and played basketball for a while.

Then they came in and sang happy birthday to K.C and ate cake and icecream.

I'm still having a hard time believing my baby is 19 years old. He has always been a very special person and holds a special place in my heart.

He is very kind hearted, gentle and loving to everyone. Even his friends mentioned this to me at his party. They said he is about the nicest guy they know. He has always been a friend to everyone and is very non-judgemental. I remember even in elementary school, he would volunteer to help the kids in his class that were a little slow or had a hard time with their homework. He is also very smart and funny. He has never given us a minute's trouble and I knew I could always count on him to do what was right. I don't know what we ever did to deserve him but I feel so very honored and blessed to be his mother.