The Fur

Oops! I almost forgot one of the most important gifts -- Missy's faux fur coat! We saw this material and another coat in the fabric section of Wal-mart and Missy wanted it so badly. So Nana bought the material, and I made the coat. She says it's nice and warm and soft!

The Day After. . .

Here's a picture from Cameron's last ball game. He scored another basket and they won rather handily. That's Cameron at the free throw line. The joy of Christmas and being 4! Amy just loves playing kitchen so that's her kitchen to play with at Gamma's. I spent about 2 1/2 hrs putting it together last night.
This is Venus, Cameron's cockatiel. She needed to pay us a visit while we opened our presents. She's quite a fun bird. She's learned to whistle and almost say "Hello Pretty Bird", she can wolf whistle, another whistle Rob taught her, and now she imitates the 7 o'clock bird. We have a bird clock that has 12 different calls, one each hour, that is an integral part of our lives. We do things according to what call we hear, and the most important one is the American Robin call at 7. That lets us know what time to start getting ready for the bus after eating breakfast. I guess Venus figured out that it's an important call (it's the only one she's tried to imitate) and now she does it all the time -- even when it's not 7, and that messes with me!
Here's Cameron opening his Transformers dvd. He and Jeremiah went to see it and loved it. It's actually a pretty good movie, and with our TV Guardian, we don't get any bad words!
Here's PaNana opening their gifts.

We're surviving the Christmas doldrums so far. Fortunately, Jeremiah has not left for Utah yet, and we're leaving tomorrow, so things won't get ugly until about January 4th. Well, I better get back to packing and getting ready for our trip to Utah. Hope you all have a great vacation. Rob, Cam, and Miah are out on the 4-wheeler shooting the gun. Hope they don't freeze -- it's turned cold here since yesterday. Lots of staying inside!

Merry Christmas!

Here's our stocking hanger. I saw it at the house of some friends and Cameron built it for me. I painted it and it looks much better in the photo than in real life! But it's a good place to put your stockings when you don't have a mantle, only a pellet stove!
Too many presents under the tree!

Missy's mushroom chair. Amy has one that's too small for the big kids to sit in, so she got this one and it's purple -- her favorite color!

Santa seems to know what her favorite color is! Here's her new bike which she desperately needed! Thank you, Santa!
Amy loved Christmas this year! Cameron's bow set is in the background. Rob got a Benjamin air rifle, so the two of them are going to go out and shoot things. We should be eating a lot of quail in the coming months! Just kidding! And yes, Ola, Amy's hair isn't blond anymore. But we still like it!. She's been licking her lower lip a lot, so she looks like Angelina Jolie.
More pictures will come, but this is all it would let me download. Becky, I really need your help! Hope everyone's Christmas was great!

More catching up

Here's a common sight at our house on the weekends. It's not always all three of them, but this particular time it was. The boy on the left is Tevin Hincha, another of Cameron's very good friends and Jeremiah (see previous blog) is on the right. They are such nice boys and excellent friends and examples for Cameron. The first time we ever visited here for Rob to interview with the mortuary I knew we were coming here for Cameron. Missy could have grown up anywhere and made good friends, but this is exactly where Cameron needs to be. And the neighborhood we live in is great (for Missy because she has lots of friends that she can ride her bike to -- all of Cameron's friends live a couple of miles away, but that's okay). It's safe and friendly, we love our ward and really don't like the thought of building a new house and moving to Central. But I would like a new house!


Every semester the college puts on a children's theater that Missy has been involved with twice. This semester, though, Amy was old enough to be in it. It was called "Babes in Toyland" (but nothing like the show with Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon). Missy was Contrary Mary (from the nursery rhyme) and Amy was one of Bo Peep's lost sheep. She was the lead sheep and would run out and stand right on the mark whenever the sheep made their appearance! She was the littlest sheep (of course) and the cutest (of course). Even parents of the other sheep would tell me how cute she was! We went out and gleaned cotton off of the plants that had been harvested and then I sewed the bolls together and then sewed them to her sweats. Everytime she wore her costume I had to keep sewing the bolls back on -- she was often trailing cotton behind her. But she was the fluffiest sheep!




Here's another shot with her new hairdo. She also has some of her new Missy handmedowns that make her look older than she is. She also has Missy's old cowboy boots on. She looked great!

It rained here yesterday, which means it showed on the mountain, which also means the kids want to go up and play in it. So I guess we'll go later today. Cameron has a basketball game this morning. I'm home with the girls because they're not up yet. I sent the camera with Rob so my next post should include some pictures of him playing ball. I hope they win! They've won 2 and lost 1. He scored a basket in the last game! He was really proud! So was I! Later, gators.

Tired of Cleaning . . .

I'm going to try to go back and catch up on some of the things that our family has done since I last posted! Here is one of my favorite pictures of all of my children. Two of them you may not recognize, but they are definitely my children! The boy in the blue shirt is Cameron's best friend, Jeremiah Ward. The two are almost inseparable. He's a year older than Cameron, and unfortunately, is in junior high while Cameron is still in elementary school. But there's always after school, weekends, etc. We took Jeremiah with us Labor Day weekend to the White Mountains of Arizona to visit the little boy in yellow, Kaiden. He and Cameron have the same birthday and are 10 years apart. He's the son of two of my students who are very special to us. Kaiden's mom (Karen) used to be Cameron's piano teacher until Kaiden's dad (Rand) got a teaching job in Eagar and they had to move from Thatcher. We were very sad, but it gives us an excuse to go visit and one day we'd like to build a cabin there.


Since my blog is the "Furry Menagerie", I thought I'd better give you a sampling every now and again of our furry friends. This is Creamy. We raise rats to sell to the pet store as pets and reptile food, but we decided that we wanted a couple of rats as pets for us. I know what you're thinking. . . but rats really do make great pets. We take them from their mommies as soon as they get hair (even before their eyes are open) and then bottlefeed them so they will be tame. We have another one named Butterscotch and they live together to keep each other company. Amy and Cameron absolutely love them. Missy likes them, but she's not as interested in them as the others are.


This is Creamy before her eyes were open! She's much bigger, now!

Everything seems to get put on hold during the semester, so lots of work piles up for when I'm home. So now I have to tackle it, but I'm tired of it, so I guess I'll post some more. Two more days until Christmas vacation! Missy is VERY excited for it this year. She's been my present scout this year -- checking everything under the tree, keeping track of how many presents everyone gets, especially her. I finished her fur coat yesterday. We saw a coat that someone made in the fabric section of WalMart one day, and she wanted that so desperately! She kept talking about it until finally, Nana gave in, and gave me the money to buy the pattern and fabric. But she was too scared to make it! So I had to. But it was really pretty easy and I'll post a picture of her modeling it after Christmas. It was fun to make for her and I can't wait to see her face when she opens it!

Well, back to work! Make it a great day!

A Whole Semester . . .

I can't believe that an entire semester has gone by without a post! Sorry about that, but it's been a very hectic few months. Here's one of the changes:





After:

Before:

I know this should have been the other way around, but I still haven't figured out to upload pictures to my blog in the order that I want them to be displayed. I hate that, and I REALLY hate Moon Sand. Don't buy it! Yes, it doesn't dry out, but it also doesn't stick together and gets everywhere. The good thing is that each time Amy plays with it, less and less returns to the container. One day it will have all been vacuumed away . . . .

Amy was getting very tired of having it hurt every Sunday when we tried to comb her hair for church. The reason why it hurt so much was that she'd only let me comb it on Sundays before church. So we cut off the dreadlocks and I have a new girl! I miss the long blond hair, though. It's darker now but I'm hoping it will lighten in the summer.

I guess for now this blog is going to be about Amy or it will be too long. Amy has had a time in the past with seizures as she wakes up in the mornings. She had her first in June of 2006 and we did tests with a "wait and see" from the neurologist. They came back with one in March, one in April, one in July, and one in August. So we're doing more tests and currently have her on medication. It's always scary to have your children on maintenance meds, but she hasn't experienced any side effects or seizures. The doctor said we'll try it for a year and if she can be seizure-free for a year, we can take her off of the medication. So, we're four months and counting. I hope she'll outgrow them. I've heard of lots of cases where that has happened. We're keeping our fingers crossed!

Now that I'm out for the semester, I will keep catching up on our lives! Have a great day and congratulations, Jeff! We're all so proud of you!

My Beautiful Girls

Here are my two little beauties! It sure has been fun being home with them this summer. I really don't want to go back to work on Monday, but duty calls! Missy starts 4th grade on Wednesday in the elementary school. She's a little nervous about going to the new school with the big kids (4-6th). She'll be fine, though.



My tiny will be sad to have the kids off to school, but she and her Gampa will find lots to do. The last year home . . . don't know what PaNana will do without her next year. Amy, unfortunately, has started the seizures, again, and last week she had a real one that we caught on video (with the wonderful camera I got for my birthday, thank you very much). I won't post that, because it's a little disturbing, but it comes in handy when you go to the doctor! So now she has to go back to her neurologist and we'll end up putting her on some sort of medication. A sister in our ward has a granddaughter with a similar situation, and she outgrew the seizures after being on medication for a couple of years. So we hope the same for Amy. She's such a precious spirit in our home. Cameron took this picture of her in Wyoming on our vacation this summer. I think he did a great job!

I don't have anything about Cameron; I'll do him later, since this is about my GIRLS! We're looking forward to Tony and Kevin's visit in a couple of weeks. The following weekend (Labour day weekend) we're going camping in the White Mountains. Our very special friends moved there this summer and we really miss them.

I'm sure I'll post more once I get back into a regular routine. Take care of yourselves and we certainly are missing out on the fun in Houston!

Our House

Ola wanted to see our house and suggested that I put it on my blog. Here's what we hope it will look like if we ever get it started, and finished, of course.

We've had the plans and land for a couple of years, so hopefully when Rob is finished with school and gets a job, we can start construction!

I've been Harry Potterized!

Well, I finished it. I even made myself finish what painting I had to do in the girls' room before I started it (pictures to follow). I think I was averaging 75-100 pages an hour. I'm satisfied. I need to go back and reread the wand thing, and go back into the Half-Blood Prince, too, but for the most part I really enjoyed it. The eavesdropping with Ted and Dean, et al., was a little contrived, but how else were they going to find stuff out? Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!!!

Here was our very fun day of fishing at Dankworth Pond. Kevin had a VERY good time. They also went on the 4-wheeler with Rob and I don't think that he wants to go home. Everyone caught at least one fish.



There is also an artesian spring at Dankwork pond that the kids played in. It was about 95 degrees.

Here's Amy's fish. She needs a little help with casting, but reels it in pretty good!

Sorry about the little April Fool's day thing, but I just couldn't let the day go by without something! Tony and Kevin got here safe and sound last night. Cameron slept over at Grandma's so he could wait up for them. I understand the two of them are now over at my house playing basketball. Doesn't surprise me! Haven't seen Tony, yet. I'm still at work for a couple more hours. But my house is all cleaned up (except my bedroom and no one needs to see that) so I don't have much to do this weekend. We have a ward pancake breakfast and easter egg hunt tomorrow morning. Then we may go fishing. I'll post a picture of C and K together this afternoon. It will be kind of funny! Have a great day!

I really enjoyed conference this weekend. It was neat to hear the stories about the tabernacle. We were fishing at the time. We thought it would be okay to go fishing Saturday afternoon if we brought conference with us. I also liked the multiple references to the Nicean creed, especially saying that it's WRONG!! The philosophies of men . . . My devotional talk on Tuesday went well. I still am getting students telling me how they enjoyed it. I gotta run, dinner's on the stove, but wanted to post today. We found out about Merrill and Alicia -- Terry and Kay left it up to them to let us know. I guess we know where we stand! Well, we won't let that happen. I hope their baby is not the only one born this year, if you know what I mean! Hey Becky, what's it like to be 53 with an almost 12 year old?

A big THANK YOU to my blogging buddies who helped me to know that I'm not crazy and that posting pictures really is a pain. Too bad they're still not in beta form or blogger could maybe fix that. Oh well, I still have lots of pictures left to post, so more in the future.

Cameron went on his first Boy Scout overnight Camporee this weekend. For the past two weeks it has been hot (I've been worried that winter gave spring a miss and went straight on to summer) until Thursday of last week it started raining. It cleared up Friday, so they left for the campout (with Cameron packed with every warm/dry thing his mom could think of) and it snowed on them in the night. I guess a really wet snow that made their tents collapse. Their group didn't leave until morning, but some groups left in the night! Nevertheless, they all got home early. But he still had a good time. We finally got 11-yr-old scout leaders called yesterday, so I don't have to pawn Cameron off on other ward where he has friends! Speaking of friends, will you pray for Sam Savage, one of Cameron's buddies who has diabetes. Bad things are happening with his limbs and his blood glucose levels are out of control. Thanks! Hard to deal with when you're only 11.

I'm speaking on prayer at the institute's devotional tomorrow. Any ideas?

Bye for now!

Here's some pictures from our trip. Read down through this and see how I don't know how to post things yet!

Missy and Landon. Landon has loved Missy since she was two and of course, Missy adores him. His mom and I want them to get married, but I'm not sure he can wait for her (he's 14, she's 8.5)

Cameron and Amy at LA zoo

Amy and Gracie (our friends' dog)

Missy and Gracie

I'm still trying to figure out how to post pictures, they all post at the beginning of my blog instead of where I want them, so things are kind of screwy till I figure this out.

Missy

Wow! I didn't know how long it's been since I've posted! I'm so busy all of the time. We had a GREAT time in California. Here are some photos with my NEW WONDERFUL DIGITAL CAMERA!

Missy and Cameron at Westminster Mall

Amy at Corona Del Mar beach



Becky, teach me how to post the pictures after I write something!

I am so incredibly busy for the next three days before we leave for California for spring break, but I just had to post really quickly about my birthday yesterday. It started off kind of crappy (excuse the term but it really fits) because the only ones to wish me a happy birthday were my husband and mother. Not even my kids. So I went to work knowing that no one would know and that was sad. I was waiting to open my email to make sure that my email card from my very best friend (Jan Gregory) for 36 years would get here. Sure enough, it was there!!! I really love her for that. She NEVER forgets!!!!

So I went through the day with nothing, till I got to grandma's from school and opened my presents Thanks to mom and dad for everything (especially the new computer) and an extremely heartfelt thanks to Tony and Becky for the AWESOME digital camera!!!! What a very generous, but much appreciated gift. I can't wait to figure it out and post pictures! Spring break will give me that chance.

Then I talked to Terry and my visiting teacher called and her family sang Happy Birthday to me over the phone, and the relief society counselor dropped by (I wasn't home) and then I went to kickboxing and called Tony and the bishop and his wife came by with a chocolate cream pie and they sang and I blew out the candles, and it turned out to be a very good day.

Now I have to run!

I guess Tony got here okay this morning. I'm still at work (I have a lab at 1 pm) but called Mom to find out he was at WalMart with dad. That's about the highlight of a trip to Thatcher! I finally got a new computer and cable internet hooked up yesterday! How wonderful! Now I'll be able to blog from home. Now it's wait for the tax refund to get the digital camera. Cameron has had a rough time bouncing back from his bout with the flu. I certainly hope that Lori feels better really quickly! We're lucky that no one else got it here (hear that? that's the sound of me knocking on wood!). Well, that's all for now. We'll enjoy Tony while he's here and see him and Kevin again in April.

We went to the doctor yesterday to find out that Cameron has influenza B and it is apparently going around the school. So he's home again today with Amy and PaNana, which really isn't too bad by his standards because school (actually the work part of it) is not one of his favorite things right now and he likes how Grandma takes care of him when he's sick. He says she's good at that!

We're looking forward to Tony's extremely brief visit on Friday. It may be short, but we're happy with what we get! Cameron is looking forward to Kevin's visit in April. We're still planning on unloading Cameron in Humble sometime this summer. Maybe the whole summer! Just kidding. I'd miss him too much.

Everything else continues to moving along at its merry pace here. Oh, I was going to comment on the jiggity-jig thing. I remember Jeffy used to say "home again, home again, jiggery-jig". I thought it was cute and now I like to say it! I see by everyone else's blogs that things are pretty good with the rest of the family, too. I'm very grateful for that. Heavenly Father has truly blessed the Hemming/Bryan/Gillespie (at least my part) families. Well, I have a faculty meeting now, so I better post this. Love to you all.

Today is sunny and typical of a SE Arizona winter. A very nice day. Cameron is finally back in school today after being sick with a bad cough and fever on Thursday and Friday. No church on Sunday, either, and he was getting really sick of being inside. We're still planning on going to the doctor after school today, though. He had a bad coughing spell in the night, and without any cough syrup to be seen, I had to make him some hot honey with lemon (just like I remembered Mom making for me in the night when I had a bad cough). Initially, it didn't seem to help any, so I asked him if I could go to WalMart and get some medicine. He relented, after complaining about how bad it tastes (that shows how he didn't want to be sick!), and I was off to Wally World at 2:30 in the morning. There aren't many shoppers in the store at that hour, you know? Anyway, I get home with Robitussin gel caps (what a great invention -- just like vitamin E capsules with cough syrup inside -- no more yucky taste if you can swallow pills!!!!) and Ricola (RICOOOOLLLLAAAA) to find that he's gone back to sleep with no more coughing. Too bad I couldn't! Morning came far to early, needless to say. So we'll see how he is.

I've been trying really hard to avoid my morning Cherry Coke ritual (especially when my weight goes up a couple of pounds), but I surely needed one this morning. Kickboxing really kicked me on Thursday. I'm just today feeling like my hamstrings are okay, ready to return tomorrow night for more torture! The things we have to do to get rid of baby fat. I'm tired of Amy's fat, she's three and a half, for crying out loud. But the upside is that everytime I got back down to my prepregnancy weight, I'd get pregnant again. So maybe this time I'll just keep it! No more babies for me! Except Cameron weekly begs for a little brother. He now wants to adopt since so many times I've told him I'm not having any more kids of my own. He's good with Amy (and still obnoxious with Missy, but getting better) but still feels outnumbered! Poor thing!

Okay, time for class. Make it a good day!

I wish things would stop dying in my life! Last week with the snow and the cold and everything our oldest (and most beloved) chicken, Fluffy, caught a cold and cough (Rob noticed on Saturday) and Sunday morning before church, he went out to find that she had passed away in the night. We came in and told the kids, Missy cried but Cameron just said okay. After church, Cameron went out into the alley to bury her and Fuzzy ( so that the dogs in our yard wouldn't dig them back up again). Rob went out to see how he was doing and to take him Fluffy and when he saw her in the box was when he finally let go. Rob asked him if he'd like to say a prayer and after a minute (during which time Rob said the tears were just running off of his nose and down his cheeks) he did. He thanked Heavenly Father for her and our memories of her, and then asked that she be happy wherever she was now. Bless his little heart!!!! We're having struggles with growing up right now (11 going on 15) but times like this remind me why I love him like I do. Cameron is such a wonderful, tenderhearted, young man. I just wish that he would lose some of the bravado!

By the way, I love everyone's blog, just don't find much time to respond. My life is so very hectic. Pinewood Derby was a success, now I have basketball games tonight, kickboxing last night and tomorrow night, stake baptisms and Cameron's baskeball game on Saturday. And trying to find a time to go see "The Queen" with Nana. I'm not even sure what lies in store for next week. I'm afraid to see! Make it a good day!

SNOW!!! We have SNOW!!! Again, I wish I had a digital camera, but maybe later I'll post some pictures. Anyway, Sunday afternoon it started to snow and snowed all night and until about 3 yesterday afternoon. All schools were cancelled, so we played all day in the snow. Cameron was out for almost a straight 8 1/2 hours (only potty breaks prevailed). We also helped shovel snow off of driveways and got out the 4-wheeler and pulled the kids behind on an inflatable boat. We all had a really good time (but I'm sore from shoveling--I'm sure Terry and Kay are very buff now from their shoveling efforts this winter). We got about 6-8 inches yesterday, maybe more, haven't seen an official amount. The snow is still around so I really feel like I'm back in Calgary. That's all for now, meetings await.

Sadness abounds in my life right now! A couple of days ago I got in touch with a friend from graduate school and she informed me that Dr. Van de Graaff had passed away. She didn't know until much after the fact, but it's been a year now. Since it's new to me, though, it's as if it just happened. Dr. Van de Graaff and Dr. Tolman were the two most influence men in my professional and collegiate life. I am where I am today because of their love and concern for me. When I told Rob about Kent's passing, he said, "wasn't he the one that got you into graduate school?" That was just one of the many things he did for me. Most importantly, however, he taught me how to be a good teacher. My students often tell me just how much they enjoy my classes. But it's only because I'm copying him. He has a tremendous legacy, however, because we in the same profession all credit him with our successes. I am truly blessed to have been a friend, and not just a student that passed through his class one semester. For that I will be eternally grateful.

Then, last night, our beloved Fuzzy Butt the Hamster died of complications relating to old age. He was such a good hamster, never bit, let everyone (including Amy) hold and play with him. Cameron took it really well. He is very sensitive with animals and that's why I think he'll end up becoming a veterinarian. He has wanted to be a paleontologist ever since he was 3, so that's okay, too, if he still wants to be that. We've talked about career opportunities ever since he was small, and we know it will be something biology related. Takes after his mom, I guess.

It started raining pretty hard in the night and only stopped in the last ten or fifteen minutes. We love rain because we hardly ever see it. And snow, well, it looks nice from a distance on the mountain. But if the clouds go away (which I doubt because there's no wind and they're pretty thick) and the kids see all the new snow, they'll want to go up and play in it tomorrow. We'll have to see. We went up just after we got back from Christmas because of the snow that fell on our way home, and discovered that some mice (wild ones, not some of ours) had taken up residence in our padded snow boots. So we wore them and then threw them away. So now we have no boots. And I doubt that Wal-mart will have any. We lost our PayLess shoes, so Wallyworld is the only game in town and I don't want to make a trip to Tucson just for boots.

Well, I guess I better get ready for work. Make it a good day.

While I'm waiting for Missy to come over to the college from school, I thought I'd post a new blog since I haven't for quite some time. Part of the problem is that it is very hard to post from home, as we've been having problems with our dial-up connection (gee, what's that?), and the computer crashed some time ago and we're waiting for some up and coming money to buy a new one. So I post at work, and with the holidays, I haven't been around.

It's been a difficult Christmas break. It was good to be with family and to go to St. George so the kids can see NeeNana, but upon our return home, tragedies in the Gila Valley dominated our life. Just before the break, two kids from Thatcher High were in an ATV accident that was very serious and we didn't know what would happen to them with their recoveries. The boy who was driving sustained multiple skull fractures and we're still unsure if he will make a full recovery, even with rehabilitation. He's one of the older brother's of a buddy of Cameron's. She also works with me in the cub scout program, so we're praying for Jacob's recovery. The girl that was riding with him had the ATV land on her and she unfortunately passed away the day before we returned to Thatcher. I work with her mother in the Thatcher Stake Primary and Stephanie was an extremely wonderful girl and loved by many, as testified by the 1200+ attendance at her funeral.

While we were preparing for Stephanie's funeral on Tuesday of last week, the ex-wife of our men's basketball coach (who is a very good friend of ours) committed suicide in her garage, also taking the life of their 2 year old little boy with her. Needless to say, this is still affecting us all. I got to play the organ for Ryan's funeral, which was last Thursday. I'm really glad to have been able to do that for Tim. He's not a member of the Church, but we had the funeral at the stake center and the stake president spoke at the funeral. He did a wonderful job. If you go to http://www.eachoops.com you can see pictures of Ryan and his dad.

So now I'm back in school today, the kids went back on Monday. Things hopefully will be better for all of us this semester. Many sad things happened last semester to people associated with EAC, but it's such a great place to work because there is so much support. We really are one big family and I'm privileged to work here.

The kids are all in tip top shape. Cameron's back into little league basketball and piano, Missy's back to playing with all of her friends again, and Amy is still molesting the cat, and has the scratches to prove it! Our rats and mice had babies over the break so Rob has dollar signs in his eyes. He started school today, too, and is getting ready to enter his elementary ed program this fall. Finally, maybe a light at the end of the tunnel.

I've got stake Pinewood Derby in two weeks from Saturday to get through and the district commissioner asked me today if I would do the district derby. Absolutely not! So he said he'd take me off of his list. Thank heavens!

I'm hoping, too, with the money that we're going to get shortly that I can get a digital camera and post pictures, as well. Well, Missy should be here any minute, better go look for her. Make it a great day.