Tis' The Season !

I guess I got a little over anxious and decided now that Thanksgiving is over and "Black Friday" is pretty much over, I am changing my template on my blog. I thought this one was nice, so this is it folks at least for the Christmas Season.

Also, the little picture of the angel below is a free clip art I found on the internet. I took it and blew it up so that it filled an 8 1/2" by 11" piece of photo paper and printed it out twice. After doing that, I cut out around the angels and glued them back to back on an empty toilet paper roll (just poked the top of the tree up in to the roll) and made it my tree topper last year. It turned out really cute!

Happy Thanksgiving From Our House To Your's

Double click to read the poemThis is the time of year when we reflect upon the past eleven months and count each and every one of our blessings. As I look back on this last year I have seen many changes, .... some not so good. But as we live each day, one day at a time and think about what we have, and not just the material things, we can thank our Heavenly Father for the opportunity we have to live in this great country of ours. We have so many good and wonderful people out there that protect us and fight for our freedom every day. They should not go unnoticed. Please give thanks for the sacrifice they make for us and remember their families in your prayers and that their loved ones will come home safe and sound. Don't forget that we as Americans have a lot to be thankful for. We have the greatest gift of all , and that is our freedom.


I am thankful for my mother whom I love very much. I am thankful for my husband and what he does every day for me and the love he shows me continually (even tho' he makes me mad sometimes, and he can be very annoying!), it is great to be married to your best friend and the one you do fun things with. I am thankful for my three children and the love they show me every single day in one way or another. And their spouses,.....thank you for what you do to show the love and support that you do. I am very thankful for my grand-daugther and the joy she brings in to my life. I'm greatful for my three sisters and Sue and the love they show to me in so many ways. And to my mother-in-law and Dave's sisters and their families and all the rest of my extended family, I love you all! To all my friends that read my posts,...thank you for your love and friendship. Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving!

Congratulations University of Utah Football Team !

U of U won over BYU Saturday night 11/22/08 and is now the 2008 "MOUNTAIN WEST" Champions! What a great game! Score was 48 to 24 and the Utes had a perfect season of 12 and 0! GO UTES! (Vicky, this post is for you and Serge,....and you know why!)

Happy Birthday Jase ! ! !

Grandma and I Want to wish my nephew Jase a very Happy Birthday! He is the first son of Ina's (Denice). He is the second Grandson of Clyde and Nadine. Those of you distant cousins out there that don't know him, he was in a small group picture at my Dad's funeral that Sioux posted back in April of 2007. He was born 9 days after my son, Christopher. He too lives in Montana so visits with him are few and far between. He's always been such a handsome young man, and I'll let all of you determine if you think he looks a little like Tom Cruise or not. I hope your wonderful little family will spoil you rotten today! Again, Happy Birthday Jase! We love you!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLYDENE ! ! ! !

A Happy Birtday to my Sister!

When she was young, what a blister!

She would pretend she was Maye West,

To "come up & see me sometime" was her request!

With her white hair she was called "Whitey",

Although she doesn't know her lefty from her righty!

She likes to have things "Her" way,

In most cases she can't be swayed.

She is the baby of the "Spencer" clan,

Her three sisters and Mom are her favorite fans ? ? ?

From that white haired little girl she grew and grew,

To a beautiful, talented women thru' and thru'!

We love you Sister with all of our hearts!

You have such an array of all your arts.

But the best of all "those" you have created,

Is the love and devotion to all those related.

Not only your husband and children galore,

But all of "Us" others we know you adore!

HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY ! ! !

On Thanksgiving

HOW TO OBSERVE THANKSGIVING.

Count your blessings instead of your crosses;

Count your gains instead of your losses.

Count your joys instead of your woes;

Count your friends instead of your foes.

Count your smiles instead of your tears;

Count your courage instead of your fears.

Count your full years instead of your lean;

Count your kind deeds instead of your mean.

Count your health instead of your wealth;

Count on God instead of yourself.

~~Author Unknown.~~

Happy Birthday Tracy!

Grandma Spencer and I wanted to wish our beautiful Tracy a Happy Birthday! (and 'yes' folks, November is certainly the Spencer's month for birthdays). Grandma and I called her up to sing Happy Birthday to her tonight. We sang our hearts out, but guess what? It was Cimber that answered the phone and not Tracy. So after we sang she said, "now do you want to sing it to my mom?". Ooooops! But actually I think we sang it better the SECOND time around anyway. Tracy and Bill with their children live up in Dell, MT so of course we don't get to see them often enough. She just recently graduated from college and made us all very proud of her. She is certainly a very special young lady, not to mention crafty and a wonderful mom and grandma! She has more patience than anybody I know except for her Aunt NaNa of course. Tracy is the second daughter of Cheryl Young and Steven Hess and the second grandchild of Clyde and Nadine. We hope your birthday was a fun filled day and one of the best! We love you Tracy!

This was a Davis County Clipper newspaper article which shows Tracy as one of the winners of the logo contest for the Knowlton Elementary School in Farmington, UT. In case you can't read the top of it, the picture was in the October 8, 1980 edition of the local newspaper when Tracy (second from right in front row) was in the 4th grade. I found it in my box of treasures and wanted to share it with you. Dave and I were back in North Carolina living at the time, so Cheryl sent this to me when it was published. (I thought you would be able to double click on the article to make it bigger, but it's not going to work.)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTOPHER ! ! !

Today is Christopher's Birthday, my firstborn! We were living at Ft. Devens, MA at the time when they still had Army OB/GYN's, so my care was at the Army Cutler Hospital. He was born on November 14, 1973 and was a BIG baby (not my biggest tho') at 10 lbs. 9 1/2 oz. and was 22 1/2 inches long. He had very dark brown hair and he was perfect! My mom flew in to MA to help before having him and then afterwards of course. I had just gotten out of the hospital when Dave had brought her home from the airport. I had developed pre-elampcia and was drugged up plus I had been having gull bladder attacks the last two months. Those were awful! I kept telling Dave that if this is what having a baby is like, then I don't want to do it! I was 3 weeks late having Chris and had been put back in the hospital. Fortunately within a day or two I went in to labor and so the work began. He was born a little after 5 p.m. on a Wednesday and after the trama of the doctor trying to give me an epideral and getting mad at the nurse because she kept yelling at me to "hold still"! the doctor tossed the tray across the room and told her more or less to keep her mouth shut. What an awful experience that was, however every bit of it was worth it when I saw my baby boy for the first time. My mom was there with us for a total of 6 weeks. But because of my bad gull bladder, she came back when Christopher was 3 months old. I had my gull bladder removed on February 14, 1974. She stayed that time for 4 weeks. I don't think I ever told her how much I appreciated her for doing what she did for us. Not only did she make sacrifices for us, so did my dad because he was home alone all that time. I can hardly believe he is 35 years old! Happy Birthday Christopher! I hope you had an enjoyable day. Love you!

The craft bug bit us in St. George!

A week ago today (Thursday), Ashley took the Shuttle up from St. George. She got to SLC around 1 p.m. I took a break from work and went down to pick her up by the Conference Center. She took me back to work, then went to run a couple of errands. She came up to go to the UofU vs. TCU game that afternoon with us and stayed til' Sunday. We kept pretty busy while she was here. Her friend Lisa just had her second baby girl so Ash and I went shopping for fleece to make a fringed baby blanket for her. We brought some lunch over to Mom's on Saturday to not only visit with her but to put the blanket together. It was so cute! The material was a pink and black plaid with a bright pink backing. Mom helped Ashley with it while I went and picked Diana up. When I got back to Mom's we three helped finish it up together. It turned out really cute. Sunday morning Dave and I left and took Ashley back to St. George. We stayed down there til' Tuesday early afternoon which was also her birthday. We got bit so hard by the craft bug again that we went to a scrapbook store not to buy anything, but to get some cute ideas for neighbor's Christmas gifts. We ended up picking out 2 kits to make Thanksgiving decorations. We did that on Monday night while Dave was watching Monday Night Football and Joey was working. We had so much fun making our projects together and were pretty pleased with the finished products. In fact Tuesday morning we decided to go back to the same store picked another kit up for the both uf us. She did her second one Wednesday,....I guess I'll do my second one this weekend. Here are some pictures. I'm not going to put them all on however. As much fun as I was having with Ashley and taking pictures of each step of the project, I looked way haggered in some of them. Anyway,.....enjoy! By the way, after leaving the scrapbook store on Tuesday (we had been to Walmart in Bloomington because we wanted to see Joey in action at his new job as a Pharmacy Tech) we headed over to Washington specifically to get an "In And Out" Burger for lunch. But what I was going to say is we turned on to Bluff Avenue near the Kmart store and guess who we saw walking hand in hand down the sidewalk? Kris and Terry (my cousin and her hubby for those of you that don't know them)! They got back from their mission in Africa not too long ago and are living in Hurricane. Didn't want to honk and scare them but I did wave to them as we drove by.

Happy Birthday Ashley ! ! !

Today is your birthday
It’s been twenty-five years
We couldn’t believe it
When you happily appeared.
Mom and Dad were so happy
Your brothers were too
Don’t want to get all sappy
So Happy Birthday to YOU!
It’s hard to believe that our little girl has turned 25 years old today. It seems like yesterday when we were calling all the family and friends to let them know we had her. She was born at the University of Utah Hospital on November 11, 1983 (our Veterans Day baby) weighing 8 lbs. 15 1/2 oz. and was 21 1/2 long. We were living out at Dugway Proving Grounds at the time. Dave had brought me in for an appointment and they ended up keeping me. They admitted me to the hospital around 11 a.m. and “started” me, however come 10 p.m. I still hadn’t had her so the doctor told the nurse to stop the medicine. He expected to come back in the next morning and “start” me again. Well, funny thing about that medicine and much to the surprise of Dr. Kochenhour ….. once it got me going, there was no stopping. She was born around 5 a.m. that next morning (Friday). While still in the “birthing” room waiting to be taken to our hospital room, Dave turned the television on to the BYU channel. There was an exercise program going and he thought he could talk me in to getting out of bed and start doing the “jumping jacks” and “sit-ups”. Yeah, right! Ashley, we just wanted to wish you a Happy Birthday and let you know that you have been the sunshine of our lives and such a joy to us!

We love you !

Utah Utes are GREAT!

What a great game to be at last night! It was a "keep you on the edge of your seat" type of game. TCU was ahead most of the game with a score of 10 to 6 until the last 47 seconds of the game. Utah beat TCU 13 to 10. WOW!!!! There was so much enthusiasm and the fans were going crazy! It was truly awesome to be there. We had fun, and my throat is now raspy from all the yelling I did. The U of U football team stands at 10 and 0. They play San Diego there next weekend, then it is BYU coming to the UofU the following week, I believe. Better explain why going to these games are so important. Dave graduated from the UofU in 1972 along with ROTC. He originally went down on a football scholarship from Davis High, but because he was doing the ROTC thing also, he was told he needed to do one or the other. He decided on the "other" and gave up the scholarship. Anyway, he is a loyal fan which in turn makes me one also. The Utes were sporting their new black uniforms with a little red and white. They asked the fans to wear all black. I would say 90% of them did. It looked really different looking out over the stadium. We thought we would be freezing our behinds off but it was really quite comfortable with a couple of layers on. Ashley is up from St. George and our friend Wally came down from Wyoming for the game. GO UTES!

Now This Is Scarry ! !

BOO ! ! ! !

OK,....I thot' I would post a picture taken at work on Friday, Halloween 2008. This cute (well, maybe not so cute) big rag doll is me as "Raggedy Ann". My co-worker Sunnee is in West Virginia right now on vacation but if she had been here I would like to think she would have dressed as "Raggedy Andy". Over the years while working at the VA, we dress up for Halloween so Sunnee and I have always tried to do our costume themes alike. One year we were big Pumpkins together. We got those orange leaf bags that had pumpkin faces on them, with hats that looked like a leaf and stem of a pumpkin. We started to stuff our bags with dried leaves to make us look bigger around, however they were falling out as quickly as they were being stuffed in. We won the best costume prize that year. Another time we dressed up, her being the nurse with scrubs,stethoscope and first aid kit and me with a band aid around my bloody head with pj's (as the patient), a crutch and a splint boot on my leg. The reason for that one? Well, a day or two before Halloween, another co-worker, Garry was getting in his car the same time Sunnee and I was going to mine. She went around in front of his car, and because I was parked right next to him, I was going behind his. Well,....he started backing up without looking to see if it was safe to do so and almost got me. Hence, the costumes. Another year we were "Yin and Yang". She was the white part of the circle, I was the black side. Another fun year was when we were "Ebony and Ivory". We were dressed as piano keys that actually fit together when standing next to each other, I being Ebony and her being Ivory. You need to know Sunnee to appreciate the way we dressed. It has always been fun for us. We may have won more than one costume contest over the years, but I can't remember any more which ones specifically. Two years ago, the whole office had a theme of being pirates, or something to do with them. I paid a good amount of money for my costume but it was well worth the fun. Last year the theme was the "Blues Brother's". I wore my pinstriped suit, had dark glasses & hat and won the best costume of the women. What fun!

This is what I do when I'm home alone.........

My Yesteryears
By Janette
I Ponder and think and look back on my days
There’s lots to remember, some things are a haze,

But there are those times when in the back of my mind
I dig deep within myself for treasures to find.

My Mom and my Dad played a very big part
In my life’s journey, they gave me my start,
There were four of us girls Mom & Dad was so blessed
Dad feeling out numbered but loving it,….he confessed.

Growing-up on South Main was filled with lots of fun
We had plenty of space to walk, skip and run,
Lots of games we would play, one was “Red Rover, Red Rover”
It was always so fun to send someone right over.

Having the hollow to play in was the best by far
Playing down there was better than going for a ride in the car,
It was a whole different world down in that hollow
Through the brush, mud and water it was fun just to wallow.

At night on the grass in our bags we would sleep
Didn’t take long before we were counting the sheep,
But we’d look up and see the bright stars and the moon
Knowing that morning would come all too soon.

My parents were the best, they sacrificed what they could
To make sure their girls had every thing they should,
There were swimming lessons at Lagoon and matinees to see
We would anticipate weekly the movie displayed on the marquee.

There were music lessons to be had for Cheryl and I
Didn’t do much good to be timid and shy,
Me with my mandolin, her with her guitar
Entertaining we did, we were near and went far.

A new house Dad bought, was pleased as could be
To be able to move his whole family,
To a new home on three-fifty South
He was so proud when he bought that brand new house!

In February of nineteen-sixty one,
The BIG move started, it had already begun,
When Dad said out loud, we have had some luck
“Get packing”, he said “get your stuff on the truck”!

These are just some of the memories I have shared
In the back of my mind nothing can compare,
To what I remember and what is in my heart
Yes,….my Mom and my Dad played a very big part!

I’d like to say more but no more will fit
One of these days there will be more to submit,
To my friends and family I’ll be ready to bare
More of my memories to those who care.

It’s time to stop, and stop I must
There’s things to be done, and things to dust,

Washing the dishes and cleaning the floor
It’s time to start and get on with my chores!