Where, oh where can our Jimmy be???

Jimmy at his birthday celebration at Grandma D.'s in July.

Two long months ago Jimmy, Ally, and Sydney left on their road trip to New Jersey for a working vacation. After a series of road adventures they made it to Jimmy's brother Michael's house and settled in. Ally enjoyed visiting with Michael, his wife, Rhonda, and their daughter Alexa for three weeks. We enjoyed her blog posts about their experiences "back east." Then Ally and Sydney came home, while Jimmy stayed to keep working with Michael. He's STILL there!

We miss him!! While on a trip these past three days, I had trouble getting to sleep one night. I lay in bed thinking about all the things I miss about Jimmy. Here's my partial list. The "Top Ten Things I Miss about Jimmy" (in no particular order.)

1. His smile and contagious laugh.
2. His conspiracy theory conversations (I never thought I'd say THAT!)
3. The way he holds and rocks Sydney.
4. His standard answer when you ask him what he's up to. ("Oh, just relaxin'.")
5. His hugs whenever he greets me or says goodbye.
6. The way he takes such good care of Ally and Sydney.
7. The sparkle in his pretty green eyes.
8. His friendliness with the guys in the family.
9. His willingness to come to boring family parties and do the things we want to do.
10. Just having him around and knowing we can see him whenever we want to.

I miss you, Jimmy. When are you coming home???

Fall is here!

Proof positive that perhaps I will never "grow up..."

Do I have a good sport for a husband or what??? How many men would let their wives change bedspreads and sheets to match the season? And how many men would sleep easy at night covered with witches and pumpkins?

I just love fall, and this ensemble goes on at the first hint of autumn. The sheets and pillowcases have witches flying on broomsticks on them and it just makes me happy to see the bed like this...

Summer used to be my favorite season. I love having the kids home, going out on the lake, taking trips to Disneyland and the beach, and having a much more relaxed schedule. But since we moved to the desert 18 years ago, fall became my favorite season...

Fall means the kids are back in school - for long enough that I am used to having them gone again. Fall means the hot summer weather is ALMOST over. Fall means the three seasons that make summer bearable here are just beginning. Fall means the season of fun, fun holidays is starting...Fall means there will be piles of leaves to jump in, gardens that MIGHT actually produce something, flowers in my pot that might actually stay alive for more than a week. Fall means we can drive to Utah and see the leaves changing color. I can burn my favorite Salt City candles and feel cozy. I can make stew and cornbread for dinner. I get to wear socks inside the house. I can think about putting flannel sheets on the beds soon. I can put my Halloween, November, and Christmas bedspreads on! Fall is definitely my favorite time of year.

Father-Daughter/Granddaughter Campout

I am sitting here, home all alone, listening to the rain pound down...wondering how Jeff, Maddie, and Julie are doing up on Mt. Charleston. It hasn't rained all summer (seems like, anyway!) and tonight, for the Father-Daughter campout it pours! I'm hoping an hour away and that high up it is NOT RAINING! (Or snowing...) I was looking for pictures of previous Father Daughter campouts, but I have no digital ones. Pictures from the stake Daddy-Daughter Date (September 2006) were as close as I could come.


The theme was "50's" and these guys looked the part.


Maddie and Julie give Daddy/Grandpa Jeff a "shave" and a new "hairdo."


Some serious "swing dancing." Note the slicked back hair on Dad.


The traditional "on the Harley" photo. After seven years, we have progressed here to the point where Dad actually lets the stake do the pictures on his OWN Harley instead of renting one for them to use...He's so funny. He even laughs about it himself now.

Ramblings

Okay, I have been chastised long enough about my paucity of posts. I always think I have to have something really important to say, but I've decided not. So! I was looking through some old pictures and here are my ramblings on them.


This is one of the very first pictures I ever took with my digital camera. We were in Utah and Maddie and Ally were getting ready for church. (8-2004)


This is what a good sport Allyson is. She wore her Maddie-do to church that day!


This is one of my favorite pictures of the little girls (10-2005.) We took a trip to Solvang, Morro Bay, Hearst Castle (one of our favorite jaunts.) We love to stop at this fruit stand along the way. Isn't this a perfect fall picture? I made a great scrapbook layout with it.


This is Amy with the huge blue squash. We asked the cashier how to cook it and she said she made Mexican candy with it!

Amy goes to College

New BYU Coed on her way to New Student Orientation

Yes, Amy is now officially a BYU Coed. She and I went up August 29 and got her things unloaded and into her new apartment at Wyview Park, which is considered on-campus housing. As soon as we got everything packed and put away, Amy looked around and said, "Okay, I'm ready to go home now." I felt the same way...She has two roommates and is approximately a thirty minute walk from BYU. (She does have her car and a bus pass, however.) She is the "Mom" for her ward Family Home Evening group.


Amy and her roommate Kaylee, from Iowa.


Hitting the books together in their well-designed little room.


Aleks, an engineering student from Alaska, has the other bedroom in the apartment.

Leaving Amy at BYU brings back all my own feelings of "aloneness" as I attended BYU. I had a wonderful roommate from home, my mother and brothers drove me to BYU as part of a family vacation, and I had a wonderful ward and lots of friends on my floor in Deseret Towers. I had a full schedule, a part-time job, I was in Mask Club and involved in several regular service opportunities. I went to church, attended every devotional and forum, and loved my teachers. But I honestly never felt more alone and homesick than when I was at BYU (except maybe when I flew to Kansas City to visit my dad just before he died...) I stuck it out and graduated in three and a half years and had some great experiences, including a semester abroad in Spain. But it was a tough and lonely time. SO...it was very hard to leave Amy there. I know she will enjoy it and she has lots of family there...cousins that she loves and enjoys being with, my brother and his wife, Jeff's sister and her husband...I just feel for her during this adjustment period...She loves being with us so much and we love having her around...The first Saturday and Sunday without her this weekend seemed so strange. I keep finding myself looking for her and expecting her to walk in at any moment. I know she has to grow up and make her own life and I'm glad she is so responsible and capable. She really is a lovely young woman with so many opportunities and I'm happy she is on her way. I just wish she could do it all and still stay my "little girl." I love you, Amy.


Amy in front of the gorgeous flowers on the way to her apartment. We tried taking the bus to BYU and it only took 10 minutes to get to the Wilkinson Center, five minutes away from her first class. We got on the wrong bus going home, though. Instead of the seven minutes it should have taken to get back, we were headed for the University Mall fifteen minutes later! Luckily we got off in time and only had to walk about 3/4 of a mile (past these flowers) back to her apartment!

Why I Love Disneyland

Tyler and Maddie inside the monkey cage on the Casey Jr. train.


David is so silly...This is his Disneyland garb...complete with "50 lb." backpack of necessary supplies. The second day he rented a wheelchair...to CARRY HIS BACKPACK FOR HIM!

WHY I LOVE DISNEYLAND...

People think I'm crazy for going to Disneyland so often. After all, it's crowded, expensive, hot, expensive, humid, expensive, crazy, expensive - an icon to the greed of American capitalism. I agree with all those labels...and yet, I still LOVE IT! It's also happy, joyful, magic, a wonderful escape, exciting, breathtaking, exhilarating, fun to share, and did I mention an escape from reality?

That is the key for me. When I go to Disneyland, I am in another world. The mundane cares of my real life are gone. I'm a princess, a Small World doll, a toy monster- blaster, a glider pilot, a pirate captain, a fairy on the way to Neverland. I can take a boat to a world of tiny storybook scenes that make me ask "Can I get out and PLAY??" I can lose my breath in a whoosh down an exciting elevator shaft that leaves my knees shaking so badly I can hardly walk after. I can go from 0-60mph in a few seconds while riding upside down - around Mickey's ear! I can listen to funny, silly-looking plastic birds singing in the Tiki room and later I can hear Tyler quote the birds and sing their song! I can see Ally run up to me shouting, "Gramma Linda, Gramma Linda! I went on Pirates of the Caribbean!" I can sit on a bench and watch people from many countries laughing and experiencing my same joy. I can comment about the gorgeous flowers while I wait in line for the Casey,Jr. train and the next day see an entirely different garden of flowers in the exact same spot - with no evidence that it's been replanted! It's magic! I can have breakfast with princesses! I can see joy on the faces of the people I love best and witness their excitement as they plan the "best way to see all the best things."

I watched the incredible new fireworks this past year and was amazed at Disneyland's creativity and showmanship. The show they created for the fiftieth birthday celebration is so amazingly beautiful and entertaining. This time as I watched, I happened to glance over at the rapt faces of Loretta, Julie, and Ally next to me. They were lined up in a row of perfect silhouettes, totally engrossed in the beauty and spectacle above them. It brought tears to my eyes and once again made me feel - "Why can't everybody have a family like this?"

I waited excitedly for two years for the new "Finding Nemo" submarine ride to open this summer. Then we waited an hour and forty minutes in line to go on the ride. Did Tyler love it? Not exactly. It was a little scary for him. Did I love it? Not exactly. I had to fight my claustrophobia to go down that little hole into that little space. (It seemed much bigger when I was a kid!!) Was it worth it? Absolutely! It was beautiful and the underwater projections were incredible. So much creativity and talent. Wait...I DID LOVE IT!

So, I'll probably never get tired of Disneyland. As long as I have grandchildren who have never been there, or who have only been there fifteen times, I'll probably keep going. Who am I kidding? I'll keep dragging Jeff there even if there comes a time when no one else wants to go. (Not likely to happen in this family...) As crazy as it may seem to some, I LOVE Disneyland!


Papa and Tyler with Tyler's favorite "tar" from "Tars."