Half Broke Horses

The other day at lunch one of my co-teachers was telling us about her sister-in-laws. She told us how one of her sister-in-laws is a fitness guru, the other one just reads. Well I guess that could describe me...I just read. As long as I can remember reading has been my very favorite past time. If you know my mother you know where I got this from. And I am not the only one in my large family that picked this up. No matter how busy I am which is usually pretty busy I don't have a problem fitting reading into my schedule. Reading is not something I fit in, it is just something I do. Right now I am halfway through "Half Broke Horses." I have decided that the books I enjoy can usually be broken into two categories: Meat and Potato books and Dessert books. Dessert books would be like "Hush, Hush" and "Twilight". These books are page turners, you can't put them down. Most of the time when I have a dessert book I just stay up all night reading and do it in one or two sittings. Plus you look forward to reading another book in the series. "Half Broke Horses" is a Meat and Potatoes book. It was slow getting started, but once you are into it it is wonderful and best of all it sticks with you. " The Secret Life of Bees" is another example of a Meat and Potato book. These books make you think and think and really fill you up. "Half Broke Horses is written by a granddaughter about the life of her grandmother. This woman's life is amazing. You get so much insight into the way rural life was during the early 1900's. If you're looking for a memorable, filling book this is the one for you.

Decorating

This summer I finished painting our upstairs rooms. Unfortunately I do not have any of my fathers decorating ability. Fortunately I have very creative daughter-in-laws. A few weeks ago I invited 2 of them over, set out all of my pictures and asked them to tell me what to do. They were wonderful and did it themselves. Not only that my rooms now have themes, something I would never have thought of.

Here is our bedroom. These pictures really don't do the settings justice.

This is our guest bedroom which now is the grandchildren room. Here is a collage of grandchildren pictures with lots of space for future pictures.

Another wall in the Grandchildren room.

The reading corner in the Grandchildren room. I am so glad all of my grandchildren love books.

Here is my office which used to be a bedroom when the kids were home. The theme on these walls is family. The girl and dog are not in the family, but will be replaced with a picture Chelsy is getting ready.


My ancestor corner in the office. We are changing the frames for Mom's and Dad's pictures.

And here is our oriental bathroom. They also put up an area for my children's high school and mission pictures, an area with wedding photos and an ancestor wall for Art. For the first time ever I feel like our whole upstairs is finished. Thank you Chelsy and Julie.

Today Chris asked me if I was ever going to put pictures in the basement. Sure I will, after I consult my decorators.

Last Saturday my cousin Bill passed away after years of dealing with an inoperable brain tumor. Even though I have only seen him lately at funerals and weddings I am really going to miss him. Bill was always larger than life to me. I looked up to him and always loved talking to him. I am so glad you are finally free Bill. http://www.abc4.com/content/news/slc/story/Local-cowboy-hauled-by-mules-to-final-resting/FW-Klin26USCzzrGa6SztA.cspx ( If you click on this be sure and watch the video)

Time Passes!

It is hard to believe that it is really October already! Time passes so fast. All summer I wanted to post the wonderful things that we had going on, but I never got to it. President Monson said once that you could think a thought to death... meaning that acting on the thought was what was important. Well I am the queen of thinking thoughts to death but not acting on them. So I have decided to catch up with some events that happened around here this last summer. And spending time with family has been the best part of it. One of our favorite parts of summer is going to the cabin. Each year we take a picture of all of us on the steps. Here are the past 6 summer step pictures. You will notice lots of great additions. Here we are this last August. Unfortunately Haley the newest member of the family was asleep and didn't get in the picture.
2008 brought a fun cabin trip. Thanks Mark for letting us borrow the motorcycles. We had a great time.
In 2007 we never got a whole family picture! For some reason we never did get Chelsy in the picture.
In 2006 Chris is a little blurry and we have a lot less babies. Audrey and James have sure changed.
It's 2005 in this picture. We fit on the steps a lot better in those days.
2004 is the first year we had a digital camera. Someday I will find all the prior pictures and make a Cabin step book. Somewhere I have pictures of my brothers and sisters on the Cabin steps. Thanks Grandpa Bay and Great Grandpa Bay for this wonderful memory building vacation spot. We love it.

After school today I was talking to a women I work with whose Marine son had just returned from serving in Iraq. She was feeling so blessed that he returned in one piece and that he was mentally handling things after all he had seen while serving there. She told me several stories of unbelievable things he had seen, of the poverty and the violence that goes on in the daily lives of the people. One thing she passed on really stayed with me. He told her that people in the United States haven't a clue as to how blessed they are. All of the little irritations here that we have each day are nothing compared to what life is like over there.
At the Cabin our daughter-in-law was reading this book Three Cups of Tea. It is the story of a man who devotes his life to providing schools for children in Pakistan. I borrowed the book and am in the middle of reading it. It is amazing that this man who was not a wealthy man, in fact he really had nothing other than a job, yet he puts all of his efforts into saving money so he can fulfill a promise he made while staying in a village in Pakistan.
This summer I also listened to the Kite Runner about a man growing up in Afghanistan and the differences in his life as a Sunni and his servants son's life. Then he talks about how their lives change when the Taliban takes over. Both books are very interesting and really make you think about how blessed we are to live in a free country.
Tonight as school was over and I was exhausted after another busy day and I came home to a house still a mess from my painting I knew how insignificant my "irritations" are.

New Addition

Summer is finally here! Summer brought with it a beautiful baby. We are so excited to have another girl in the family. We now have 12 girls and 9 boys in the family. That is remarkable because 8 years ago I was the only girl with 6 guys. I sure love the 11 new female additions. I love the 3 male additions too. How blessed we have been.



She made her appearance the day before school was out. Her parents now have 3 daughters. Her older sisters are so cute with her. I was able to spend some time with them this week while mom and baby recuperated.

The baby came a few weeks early. Dad has been busy getting their new home painted, repaired and ready to be moved into. I was impressed with how hard and how long he worked. Art and his brothers spent time helping too. Grandpa Bay is rubbing off on his grandsons.

They're Married

Chris and Michelle had a wonderful wedding day. Here they are walking out of the Temple after being married for time and all eternity. They were blessed to be able to have Grandpa Bay marry them. He gave amazing advice about how important it is for each partner to be unselfish in a marraige. The day was beautiful and everything went smoothly.
We had a very casual wedding luncheon at Pier 49 pizza. It was so nice having the family there to celebrate their union.



The reception was beautiful. The only glitch to the day was when the bride and groom were trying to make a quick escape and their keys got locked in the car. Colin was sent home to get another set of keys and after he got back their trunk wouldn't latch and they had to put off leaving for their honeymoon for a day. It's going to make a good story to tell in the future. It was a good thing that they had an apartment to go to to stay the night.

Here I am hugging one of my students as they came through the line.