Where has the time gone?

Ok I know that I am slow, but I just logged on and it has been over a year since I have blogged!! Oh MY!!!
There is a lot yet that has happened in this past year, unfortunately, I can't think of where to start and go back.
So, let's start with the present. It's the month of Thanksgiving. I think I will share with you some of the things that I am so thankful for.
First of all...my family! My husband and kids each are a blessing to me! I thank my Heavenly Father everyday for that blessing. Plus my brothers and sisters! What a family we make! We may never get to see each other, but the memories that we have created through the years in the past are always and forever with me.
I am thankful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ! The blessings and standards that it has helped me set for my life. For my Savior, Jesus Christ! How can anyone deny the love that He has for us!The sacrifice that He made that we might have life! For these things I am sooo grateful.
Just a quick note...Wednesday was my granddaughter Bailey's birthday. She turned 3 years old. What a blessing and joy she has been to my life.
And sometime this month,hopefully in a week or two...I will be blessed with another granddaughter! Jason and Erin are in Chicago awaiting the arrival of our Leonie!
Well enough for now! I love my family!

Where has the summer gone?

Ok, so I am not so good at keeping you all up to date. Sorry. I still have to learn how to put pictures on. Again, sorry no pictures (yet). For now I will give you the most recent updates and then go backwards for the summer.
Erika changed her mind and is going to the College of Idaho (formerly Albertsons) in Caldwell, Idaho. She emailed the coach and asked if they could use another player. The coach did some research and invited her to play. On top of that she offered her a $9000.00/year scholarship for soccer. At first Erika was thinking about it, then the coach called back and offered her $14,000.00/year. That pretty much made the decision for Erika. She has been up in Idaho since the 14th of August. She is living with her Uncle Ron and Aunt Ali up there. She seems to be really enjoying herself there. School doesn't start until Sept. 8 though, so then we'll see how she handles it then.
Jason came to visit on his way back to Chicago. He had been working in Spokane selling APX security systems for the summer. Erin wasn't able to come, she had to fly back to Chicago early for some job interviews. We really missed her, but sure enjoyed having Jason to ourselves for a few days. He is now back in Chicago, going to school again.
Matt is still working at Smiths and just started back to school last week.He is a Senior this year. He seems to have a cush year this year. He is going to be taking a bunch of mechanic classes at the Bridgerland Applied Technology College. He figures it will come in pretty handy working on his own car. He will turn 18 on Saturday. WOW!

Getting Caught Up to Memorial Day Weekend

We have been spending a lot of time on yard work on the new house. We have decided to do one section at a time. When you think of a third of an acre, you don't think of it as being very big, but when you are trying to turn it into grass and a nice yard...well it's a lot bigger than you think. So far, we now have the front yard planted with seed. It will take a few weeks to see how our hard work turned out. We also are trying a garden this year. We have corn, strawberries, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, green beans and bell peppers. I am trying to grow the majority of the ingredients for my sweet salsa, so i can make and can a bunch of that this fall. We had decided not to put my pool up this year because we have no fence, but we saw that our next door neighbor has put theirs up and figured why not...so we got an area ready to put the pool up. We figured as long as we keep the ladder put away no one will try to get into it anyways. My pool is my way of relaxing in the heat. After work I just go out and float! I am getting excited for it to get warmer so I can spend my time out there.
Let's see, I missed posting about Easter. It was really a fun weekend. It's been a long time since I have had a baby around to enjoy all the fun parts of Easter. We took Bailey to an Easter egg hunt in our neighborhood. Then we colored eggs. Then on Sunday we had dinner and another egg hunt for Bailey! It is so enjoyable watching her grow! I have always loved being a mom, but being a grandma is just as great if not better...I can spoil her and then send her home!!!
Erika is home for the summer. She is planning on going to school here in Logan at Utah State University in the fall. She is a little nervous being so close to home, afraid that I will "mother" her too much or that she will hurt my feelings because seh wants to move out. I am working really hard keeping the apron strings unattached and just enjoying her being closer, so we can play. She has been going with me to the gym and being my personal trainer. It has been kind of frustrating, everytime I start getting in the routine of exercising, it seems like a get sick or hurt. This last week I got so sick from an infection in my saliva gland...I truly thought I was going to die. Had to go back to the doctor a second time to convince him it was an infection. Anyways, I am better now and going to start going back to the gym tonight or tomorrow.
Yesterday for Memorial Day, we went to the cemetery and we all shared a memory of both grandma and grandpa Mouritsen. It was pretty touching. Then we went home and fixed dutch oven potatoes.
And now here we are at Tuesday. Nothing else really happening! Just waiting to be able to get to do my balancing for the month end!
We are planning a yard sale for the 13th of June. The family is teasing me, cus we got rid of so much stuff when we moved in November and now as I am still trying to empty boxes, I am finding more stuff to get rid of. Whatever we don't sell is just going to the D.I. It is amazing how much junk one person can collect! Well, for now I will go. I am still trying to find time to learn how to update and add pictures, when I do you will get to see a bunch! Til later. Love ya all!

OH MY!

I can't believe so much time has passed! No wonder Ardys has asked me to update my blog. Plenty has happened. Let's see where to start. Ralph was furloughed for 11 weeks from his job. He got called back a month early! Thank goodness! We love dad, but when he gets bored and restless...well I will leave it at that! He did get alot accomplished on the house. He semi finished the bedroom downstairs. It's all done except the ceiling and floor. We ran out of money. We went ahead and set up Erika's king size waterbed down there for her to settle in down there, when she comes back for the summer.Only 4 more weeks till she gets back!
I was also furloughed for a week in March. So we (Dad, Matt and I) flew to Chicago to visit Jason and Erin. We really enjoyed the visit. Unfortunately, it was too cold for a lot of activities...but that didn't stop us from trying. We went to one of the biggest malls I have ever been to. We went to a couple parks, we went to Lincoln Zoo (it was too cold for the animals to be out, but it was free), China Town, Navy Pier, Wrigleys Field. Forgive me Jas and Erin if I have forgotten anything. I think the best part of the whole trip was just getting to visit with Jas and Erin. They are doing so well and are so happy! I really miss them! They will be heading for Spokane, WA for the summer. He will be doing his summer job selling APX Alarm Systems.
Matt is still working at Smiths. He has kind of put himself in a predicament. He works really hard and does his best, which is good...but now the managers like the work he does so well, he gets stuck doing all the cleaning jobs. Plus while most stores have cut back a lot of peoples hours they have increased his. I worry that he is working too much...but he says he is fine. Between his girlfrend Alex and work...sometimes I wonder if he even lives at our house anymore. There is proof of that...cus I always seem to find more dirty dishes than what Dad and I dirty! Plus his bathroom does keep running out of t.p.
Well that will have to do for now. I still haven't learned how to add pictures, but when I do you will get to see tons.
Hope all is well with everyone else!

Moving, Business Trip and The Holiday

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!
What can I say? I love going in and checking everybody elses blogs, reading all the fun things about everybody and yet here I am a month and a half behind. I am still working on taking pics of the new house. Hopefully, I will get those ready and on the blog by the end of the weekend.
So now to update. I still have boxes in our garage. But, most everything is put away where I want it, it's just finding places for everything else still in the garage. According to Erika, I'd best be doing more de-junking. UGGGGH! For those of you that know me...you know what a challenge that is. But I am working on it.
We got settled in enough to have Thanksgiving Dinner at the new house. Erika came home from Dixie, on crutches...she had her surgery on her miniscus (knee). To no surprise she did a doozy on her knee. Most people when they tear their miniscus, the doctor just goes in and scrapes the tears off and sews you back up. No, not Erika, she tore it all the way across, so the doctor had to go in and sew the whole miniscus back together. She is recovering pretty well, just not as fast as she would like. She would like to be out there practicing again already...but she won't be able to do that until at least February. She just got off her crutches a week before Christmas. Back to Thanksgiving, Julie Lentz and her family came from Draper, and then Chris, Lesley and Bailey came over too. We had a really enjoyable time. It was good to just eat, and visit with everybody.
The beginning of December, I was sent to Boston, for training on a program that I have taken over at work. It was really a very enjoyable trip. I got to have a layover in Chicago, so I got to spend the night at Jason and Erins home. The visit was way too short, but it was really fun to see them and chat with them! They are both doing really well. Keeping busy with work and school, but they are very happy and have a really sweet home. The weather was really quite cold, but even with that it was fun. Since I was by myself, I was "adopted" by 4 women from Arkansas. They were so fun to be with. I really enjoyed getting to be their friend. We went on a walk...it's called the Freedom Trail. As you walk you pass all kinds of historical sights. When I learn how to put pictures on, I will put my trip on too. The only bad thing about the trip is I came home with a cold, that I am just barely getting rid of.
Then when I got back I needed to start getting ready for Christmas. While I was gone, Dad, Matt and Alex were going to surprise me by putting up the Christmas tree. Well, they got the tree up but couldn't find the lights or decorations. It took me like 2 or 3 days to find them. They were in the food storage room. Don't ask me how they got there. It was really nice to have a big quiet room for the tree. From the time I got back from Boston till now everything has just seemed to past by so quickly.
Erika came home on the 18th or 19th. She is quite the "get r done" type girl. She helped me get the rest of my Christmas shopping done, she practically wrapped all the presents, and helped me keep the house straightened up. Plus she had time to watch a couple seasons of "House". Which she has gotten me stuck on. I don't even like the guy on "House". She went home on the 4th.
Matt got his new (used) car. He is loving it, not having to rely on me and Alex for his rides. He actually worked alot during the Christmas break.
Christmas was very enjoyable. Everybody seemed happy with their gifts. Matt and I bought the family a WII for Christmas. The only thing Dad isn't happy about is that we take up so much time on the big t.v. in the family room.
The hardest thing now is getting back into the swing of work and not having so much free time.
I'd best go for now. Hopefully, I will be able to blog sooner than a month and a half. Hope everyone else had as good of a holiday as our family did. Happy New Year! and may the Lords spirit be with you through out this new year.

We Are In Our New Home

Well, it is done. We finished cleaning our Wellsville home Sunday afternoon and are completely out of that home and have gotten everything moved into our new Nibley home. Last week I took Wed thru Fri off of work, to spend moving and cleaning. I cannot believe how many boxes we have to unpack. Our garage is full of boxes in no certain order. It's probably going to take me at least a month to empty boxes and organize and put everything away.
We couldn't have done it without all the help we got. Members of the Priesthood (of our Wellsville 7th Ward) came over Thursday night and helped us move everything out of our Wellsville home. For fear of missing one of them, I don't want to try and list them all. To them THANK YOU! We wouldn't have been able to get it done without you! And when they left it was very hard to say good-bye. Wellsville 7th Ward will always have a place in my heart!
And then on Saturday morning, Sara, Irene and Shanell (my friends at work) came and helped me clean the Wellsville home. Again without their help I would have never gotten it done! Thank You so much!
Also, I need to thank Allen & his family for coming over and helping us get the few rooms in the new house that needed painted.
And of course the obvious, but never getting acknowledgement...Ralph, Matt and Alex. All three were true troopers! Packing, moving and cleaning! and now they have to help me unpack!!! The joy continues!!! And it may sound silly...but thanks to Chris, Jason and Erika...continually encouraging me, over the phone , to de-junk, organize and pack. And now that I am unpacking, I am still being told that there is more that I can get rid of, so I will have enough space in our house for everything! Lesley came over Saturday night and helped me decide where to put a lot of my pictures for decorating. Now I know where I want to put a lot of them, it's just getting them on the walls!
And if I have forgotten anyone...I didn't mean to. Thanks to all that has helped me in the process.
I love our new home. It is a tri-level, which is the type of house I have always wanted. Once I get things in order or at least semi-order I will post some pictures.
As I close for today, just a thought that has been coming to my mind...now that the holidays are officially coming upon us...THANKSGIVING! I hope that all of us will truly take a few minutes on a daily basis and ponder our blessings and truly give Thanks to our Heavenly Father and to those around us that bless us everyday! Sometimes, we ponder more on our trials and problems that we forget what is truly important in our lives! Enough for now!
Again thanks to all that have helped my family in the move and just for being around.

Never mind...

okay so never mind, I still have to do some more experimenting before I try putting more on...sorry, we will have to get caught up later.
Have a great weekend!