Lee & Darla's Bunch=A work in progress!!

PHOTO SHOOT!!!

2011-10-19T16:25:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I got to take Shelby and Carter out to shoot a few pictures...hoping some would be usable as Senior Pics for Shelby. I'm not sure yet if they are "the ones" she will choose for her Senior pics but some of them turned out pretty cute! Course that was a fairly easy accomplishment when I had such cute peeps to photograph!

Sooo, after viewing the pictures I just know you are all definitely in agreement with my previous statement about such cute peeps! I really enjoy taking pictures, especially when I get to 'shoot' my most loved peeps in the whole wide world! I am truly blessed to have such great kids, such a wonderful husband and the loving extended family that I have!

Happy 21st Birthday Dalton!!

2011-10-04T17:03:00.000-07:00

How can time fly by so fast without the least bit of warning??? I can remember the day we welcomed this sweet baby boy into our family like it was yesterday ... and now here we are celebrating his 21st bday. That just ain't right!

He only lives a little over an hour away but he doesn't make it back home very often--probably because he has a life beside being my son!--but we were blessed to have him home with us the weekend before his big day. We had yummy cheese cake and key lime pie complete with a, as in 1, candle (multiples would have rendered the pies a bit liquified!). He was actually pretty easy to please this year. His only desire was a new phone. Which, of course, we were able to get for him!

We are missing two of our children in this traditional birthday picture. Dustin is in Afghanistan still and Shannon is in Texas. But we still were able to have a grand time and had a wonderful weekend with our now completely adult in every sense of the word son!

Had to capture a shot of his "most desired" phone. Dalton is not known to be one that phones last long with so if that proves to be the case once again, we at least have a picture of it for eternities!!!

Every weekend that Dalton comes home causes Cale to be way, way excited! He absolutely adores Dalton and loves to spend time with him. Thought a big/little brother picture was appropriate!

Like I said previously, Dalton was pretty easy to "shop" for this year...BUT he didn't end up with any presents to actually open. So, I put together a number of things that I knew he could use/enjoy and sent it all home with him in a package that he could open only on his actual birthday. I also stuck in a bag of doggie treats for my granddoggie, Koga!

Like I said at the top of this post...where has the time gone? My 9 1/2 pound, 23 1/2 inch baby boy has grown into a 200 pound, 6 ft. 4 in. handsome and independant man in what seems like a blink of my eye. Dalton, I love you and am so proud of the man you have become. You have such potential and so many talents to share with this world. So even tho I am sad to see how fast you have grown up, it gives me goose bumps as I think of all that is still to come for you!

Shelby's Salute

2011-09-23T23:00:00.000-07:00

Shelby and two of her color gaurd friends do this salute to signal the beginning of the performance.

(fingers crossed that it actually posts onto the blog!)

SHELBY ON TV.....Well kinda!!

2011-09-20T18:21:00.000-07:00

Some of the kids at school have come up with a cool idea. They put on a "show" highlighting things going on at the high school that Shelby and Carter go to. One of the "shows" they feature an interview that they conducted with Shelby as the drum major for the Crimson Cadets. She was REALLY nervous and stumbled over a few things but I think she did a pretty darn good job of representing the band! I have included the link for you in case you want to view it and decide for yourselves!

http://www.youtube.com/cvillehsav

Band and Football is in full swing! LOVE IT!

2011-09-17T09:00:00.000-07:00

I apologize for the rather long post but had to catch up on three games and a scrimmage! As you can see our lives revolving around football and band has begun its yearly three month run! Just thought I'd ad a few highlight shots of the year so far.

This was a crowd pleasing catch that Carter caught on the three yard line that set up the first Cardinal score of the night against Oologah. (A funny side note to this picture--as I was editting my pics after the game was over I started working on this one and a de ja vu moment occured. I remember when Dalton was a senior and wore #85 he was defended by a guy wearing the same #11 jersey that defended Carter all night!!)

The highlight of every single half time at every single football game we go to is getting to watch our Collinsville Crimson Cadets, led by our beautiful daughter Shelby, perform their show! They look pretty darn good too! Last night was the first night they were in their uniforms and it looked even more impressive as a result!

I love it when I walk by the band bleachers during a game cause these kids are always so upbeat and having such a good time! They love what they do and love helping to get the crowd pumped and excited!

First official, full costume, on the mark salute marking the beginning of the marching band performance. I just think that Shelby has the perfect form and the perfect look of a drum major! (No bias there whatsoever!)

This is a shot of one of the featured solos of the performance surrounded by the cute color guard!

Now back to the game! This is a kinda weird shot I got of three Cardinals tackling this guy. Carter has his back to the camera and it looks like his head is spun backward...it wasn't tho, I promise! It was actually the third Cardinals who is on the reverse side of the tackle.

Carter plays wide receiver, line backer, deep snapper and is on the kick off and kick off return ... which means that he is pretty much out there the entire game. This is a shot I got of him making his way down the field after a pass reception from the QB. He is my absolute favorite wide receiver on the team!

Another picture of Shelby doing what she is so very good at! This was before all the kids got the uniforms so they had to perform a couple of games in the Echos reflected tee shirts.

Look close and you can see the football hanging in the air between the QB and Carter. Carter did make this catch and got a few extra yards afterwards.

Here Carter is playing linebacker and managed to get this openfield tackle. And the added bonus was that he did it on the side of the field that I was taking pictures! He has so many good plays but most of them seem to be on the other side of the field so the pictures I get are either too dark or blurry so it makes me happy when he obliges me with good photo ops!

Two of three senior band girls this year.....Sweet Shelbi & Shelby! I love these two girls!

Carter and his teammate TJ combine strength to push this Mannford opponent back on this play.

Ok this is quite a story here. This little "baby" became a weekend member of our household the weekend of the first football game. Shelby named him Jackson....I nicknamed him Goober...and Lee nicknamed him Morti (for rigamortis!). He was to be properly cared for from Friday through Monday morning which meant that a baby sitter would be needed during the band stuff at the football game. Well, I am on the field taking pics the whole game and Lee is in the stand watching closely to get proper stats for the newspaper so that left only Shelby's best friend, Sydney, to care for this sweet little plastic baby doll that could have shattered windows with his eardrum breaking screams! Poor Syd had her hands full! Goober spent the whole weekend with us...Shelby learned that babies are kind of a pain in the butt...and that she really loves her sleep! Poor Shelby was afraid to even go into the chapel at church on Sunday fearing Goober would out scream all the seasoned screamers in church so she sat in the foyer during the entire sacrament meeting. Goober didn't utter a peep....then she went to Sunday school and Young Womens and he was either crying or needing fed the entire time!! Welcome to "motherhood" Shelby!

Carter was obliging this day for me as well! He made a beautiful catch RIGHT in front of me and even ended up taking it into the endzone for a TD!

Another great Rasmussen catch!

This was on the other side of the field so I didn't get a good picture of him running this TD in but I did get this great shot of his excitement after the fact!

And this last picture is of an annual "Meet The Cards" event where each player and cheerleader is introduced individually. They each get to run through the tunnel as their name is being announced and then all line up around the 50 for a group picture.

WOOT! I'm caught up once again! Well kinda....I have a few pics of Cale I need to add and will do that next time. Hope everyone is enjoying the cooler weather cause I sure am!

ITS BEEN WAY TOOOO LONG!!

2011-08-19T14:20:00.000-07:00

First day of school this year was different for us....all three kids had to be at school at such different times that they weren't all awake at the same time to get a group pictures. Shelby had to be up way early...Cale at regular time...and Carter didn't have to go till 11:30.

Sweet, Sassy Senior Shelby!

My BIG 4th grader...CALE!

And here is my cute and confident Junior, Carter!

Media day was the first Saturday afer school started so I was able to get some cute pictures of my kiddos! Shelby will be serving as the drum major again this year and Carter will be playing football in the traditional Rasmussen "85" jersey.

What a tough looking football player!

After the pictures were finished, the players got to have a short scrimmage. Carter made a sweet catch up the middle.

This is Shelby with one of her best buds...Shebi.

For some of the pictures, they brought in these totally awesome cars and so we snuck in to snap a few pictures while there was a void! This is four of the senior band members...Shelby included.

Another shot I got of three beautiful band nerds!

I hope that I will be able to make the time to update my blog more regularly. I feft I had missed so many blog posts that I MUST somehow make them up....Now I am realizing that is just not gonna be possible. So hopefully I can just keep on top of the current Rasmussen News for you all!

I am looking forward to this school year. Shelby as a Senior and Carter as a Junior is still something that I am having a hard time wrapping my head around. My babies are getting so big! And they are growing up into such amazing people! I love them so very much...and very proud of them and the good choice they are making and consider myself extremely blessed to have the family that I do.

Proud WOO HOO Moments of a Momma!

2010-10-18T22:13:00.000-07:00

Just in case you didn't get it out of the title of this post....This is gonna be a bit of a braggin' kind of post!!! I have some pretty talented kids, (I take full credit for them when they do these kind of things!), and I have to document for future reference these major achievements. (This documentation purpose is two-fold-- 1: to preserve for all posterity the amazing achievements that this generation of Rasmussen's conquered & 2:to serve as a gentle reminder of good that Lee and I might reflect back on if &/or when this same Rasmussen generation might make some of those typical-teenage-genius-decisions!)

Now let the braggin' begin!!

Last Saturday, October 16, 2010, the Collinsville Crimson Cadets headed to Stillwater, Oklahoma to compete in the annual Oklahoma Bandmasters Association (OBA) 2010 Marching Band Championship. This is like THE big event during marching band season. It was a pretty long day for the band kids, the awesome booster club parents/volunteers and of course the band directors. This year our school moved up a class from 4A to 5A and as a result, there was a bit of apprenhension with not knowing how well they would do against the bigger schools.

Here is a picture taken during their preliminary performance. The show is called "ZEN" and has an oriental theme to it. Shelby has the honor and privilege of serving as the drum major this year and so to keep with the theme, she and the color guard wear chop stick in their hair.

This is a scene from the show where they gather into the middle of the field.

The above picture is after the drumline puts on this amazing performance (on the left side of the picture) and at the end of this part Shelby and all of them end it with their hands up. It is so very cool and my favorite part of the show.

At the very end of the performance, Shelby turns to the judges/crowd and bows....a great tie in with the theme!

Collinsville was fortunate to pull the 21st performance time out of 22 so only had to wait for one more band to show their stuff before the awards presentation and the announcement of which bands would be going home and which would be staying for finals. For the awards presentation all the drum majors come out on the field and if & when their bands names are called out for an award they then step forward, do their individual and unique "salute" and then accept the award. Out of all the class 5A bands there, Collinsville secured the 3rd place honor! That means they placed 3rd in the state of Oklahoma for class 5A bands. So much for being worried about how they would do up against bigger schools huh?!?!

After Shelby did her "salute" she stepped forward and gladly accepted the trophy for the band! After the top three bands from 4A and 5A were announced the top twelve qualifying bands were announced. And yes, Collinsville made it to finals!

I will spare you most of the details .... here are just a few: they found out they scored in the top 6 bands :-), they found out their finals performance would be 11th out of 12, they also found out they would be performing in between the two first class finishers :-(

After their final performance, (which I took 0 pictures of cause I really had to just wanted to watch it completely and take it all in!), they only had a few minutes to wait for the final assembly.

This pictures shows Shelby as she leads in her band for the final assembly/awards presentation. They call it Massing of the Bands and it is a pretty cool thing to watch. The announcer starts with 12th place and makes his way up to first. With the calling of each band and not hearing Collinsville, I got giddier and giddier!! You would have thought that I was one of those who performed for this award!! Anyway, when they announced 4th place belonging to Collinsville we were all just so happy! That is the highest the band has placed since Shelby has been in it....8th grade I believe. Shelby got the honor of accepting yet another trophy for the band and each member of the band also received a medal for their 3rd place State finishing!

Consider this the "After Party" pictures! Above is a picture of Shelby and her best friend, Sydney. If you look close at the picture you will see a purple bandaid on Syd's upper sleeve......you see, she is a band aide for the Collinsville band!! She is so funny! And I have to say that she does a wonderful job taking care of all the little extras that people don't even think about unless you are involved with bands! Love you Syd!

And this is a picture of the very proud and extremely happy Drum Major! I am so very proud of her and all the Crimson Cadets for the committment and focus. They put in more hours than most people would ever imagine and work so hard on memorizing music and learning each step of their performance. They start their practices before school ever starts--spending countless hours out in the heat working on getting things just right, they are at the football games maintaining the crowd spirit throughout the game, they give up their Saturdays to travel to and compete at different places, every Tuesday evening since school has started has been sacrificed to spend even more hours perfecting their show. These kids (& their directors) are some pretty tough and amazing kids! And my daughter is one of them! I just love this young lady so much!

SECOND BRAGGIN' SESSION!

Carter is just a sophomore this year so we have been extremely surprised and excited to see how much varsity football this young man has earned the right to play! This evening just happened to be the last JV game of the season and Carter was allowed to play in it. (When he starts Varsity, they usually don't let them play JV). He had a pretty darn good game too.

Ok....here is where I have to forewarn you. My dear husband is out of state working this week so had the misfortune of missing this amazing game our son played. I kept him updated through text messaging most of the game.....Thank goodness for modern technology!...but also promised him I would post ALL the pictures I could of Carter onto my blog so he could log on and have the next best thing to being there kinda moment! SOOOO that is what I am doing. If you think there are too many pictures, or that some of them maybe aren't blog worthy because they are grainy or blurry, let me just say "oh well"! My husband just has to see these!

What a beautifully thrown pass..Huh? And look at that pocket he is making with his hands. Yes, Dad, he was listening and it was registering!! Well done both of you!

This has to be the highlight of the game! Carter caught this pass on the 4 or 5 yard line, broke through 3 defenders and made it into the endzone for the first of three Cardinal touchdowns! He was almost as excited about it as I was!!

Carter is a very talented football player and can play very effectively both sides of the ball. Here he is on defense chasing down a Claremore Zebra! I like to think he gets his athletic ability from his mother!

Not the best picture but, (see above for clarification on why this picture is included!) behind those two white jerseys in the middle of the picture you can see Carter in there making a great sack that resulted in a fumble.

A great/bad picture combined. This is a pass that Carter caught and hauled in at the two yard line (Great part of it). It was thrown with only 2 seconds left in the half. He got to the 1 yard line and was shoved out of bounds just as the buzzer sounded. (Obviously the bad part of it). But look at him drawing that ball in after making the catch. He definitely knows what he is doing as a receiver!

Sorry...this is another must see for Dad. Back behind all the players you can see someone on the ground. That is Carter. One of his teammates pressured the QB so bad that the QB made a bad toss to this unfortunate chap whom Carter proceeded to knock the tar out of ... all behind the line of scrimmage I might add! Pretty awesome to watch!

Ok...another one. In this group of football players you will find my Carter. This was a sack that he got. If you look close you will see him in between 64 (in white jersey) and 45 (in red jersey) Carter is closer to #45 and has the QB and is forcing him down. Another pretty awesomely amazing thing to watch!

This is his touchdown catch before he made it into the end

zone. Perfect form and focus as he brought the ball in!

He had quite a few passes thrown his way tonight. Unfortunately not all of them were catchable. This is a shot of him stretching out as far as he could in hopes of getting the ball.

With the end of this game comes the end of his JV career. I can't believe that he is going to be an upperclassman next football season. How in the world does that keep happening to my kids??!! He is a great young man who is a lot of fun to be around and has so very much talent! I must echo my sentiments from earlier in my post....I just love this young man so much!!

Miss SHELBY!

2010-10-08T22:22:00.000-07:00

I thought I would share a few pictures of my beautiful daughter...Miss Shelby!

Shelby loves to laugh and smile!

Shelby got to lead the band down main street for the Homecoming Parade.

A cute picture I snapped of her!

Just had to show you the real Shelby!!

And below is a picture of her with the 3 trophies the Collinsville Crimson Cadets earned at their second band competition!

Two beautiful girls...Shelby Razz and Shelbi Brown

And then the other side of the same two Shelby(i)s!

Taking a break during one of the football games....but as soon as the camera shows up, so does that smile!

Beautiful hands....beautiful daughter!

Getting ready to bring those football players through the spirit line and enjoying some chat time with band friends.

Shelby during one of the performances. She does such a great job and takes her role as drum major extremely serious.

She was delighted to see one of her church friends had shown up at a football game to watch her and the band! This is Shelby, Ashley and our neighbor and great friend Bryce.

This is the first trophy Shelby got to accept for the band this year. They also qualified for finals at this contest so were very excited!

And this is one of my very favorite pictures of Shelby! I wish I could take credit for taking it but I can't! A senior girl at school who is going to the local tech center for Photography took it. Isn't it a great shot??!!

I sure do love this young woman and am so very grateful to have her as a part of our family! She is steadfast and true to the standards that she is taught at church and has such a strong testimony of what is true and right. She loves to spend time doing fun and crazy things and has such an infectious laugh...if she is laughing then so is everyone around her! She loves the Lord and isn't afraid to stand up for things that she knows to be right. How blessed this world is to have such a valiant, beautiful, talented and loved young woman in it!

Fall = Football, Band, Pictures & Articles

2010-09-14T15:59:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! I have finally made it back to my much neglected blog! We are up to our elbows in our annual fall activities.....(see post heading for details!) So I thought I would just give you all a glimpse into what keeps up hopping most days!
Our very talented daughter, Shelby, tried out for and earned the honor of being this years Drum Major for the Collinsville Crimson Cadets. Along with this great honor comes great responsibility...as well as lots of butterflies, shaky knees etc! The theme for this years performance is entitile "Zen" and has an oriental theme so the band director agreed with her and instead of wearing the traditional plume and hat she will be wearing her hair up in a messy bun with flowers. In preparation for that first home football game complete with her first "live" performance in front of the home fans, Shelby spent quite a bit of time in the bathroom having one of her band friends work on her hair. I think Emily and her had an awful lot of fun getting ready that night! And, of course, I seldom get a picture of her anymore that doesn't include the funky face!

This picture is actually from second football game, which was not a home game. She leads the band out onto the field, salutes the home crowd, takes her place up on her "podium" and directs the band throughout the performance. She also had the responsiblity of coming up with a unique, all her own, salute that is oriental theme related. I will try to post a video later on of her salute.

She does such a great job at conducting and leading the band. (Doesn't she have pretty hands!) I think by the time they get into the actual competition performances she will be butterfly free!

And all this is done during half time of each game. Before and after her performance, we get to witness what you see below. Carter is a sophomore this year so gets limited Varsity playing time but does manage to get plenty of JV time. He actually got to start in the second Varsity scrimmage this year and really did a great job of tearing up the other team! Lee and I were very proud of him and how he gave it his all.

The picture below was from the game last night. He put enough pressure on the QB to mess up this pitch and it resulted in a fumble and turnover!

And when he is not playing linebacker on defense, he is busy being a receiver on offense! This was at a scrimmage and he got a first down out of the run.

Same scrimmage....opposite side of the ball! He's got a nice way of reading the plays and always seems to be either right in on the play or right there when it is happening!

And this is what I see ALOT of....my better half driving from this game .... back home again .... then on to the next game! We spend plenty of time in the cars traveling back and forth to watch our kiddos do what they love doing!

And this is a pretty common sight for Lee. Cale is not usually exactly thrilled to have to go to all those games and spend ALL that time doing....well, whatever it is that he does to keep himself occupied! I know he makes multiple trips to the money man in hopes of getting to make a run on the concession stand!

Some of you may not know this so I thought I'd share....Lee and I have the privilege of getting to take pictures and write articles of the football games and band performances for the local newspaper. It's been fun getting to be a part of the kids activities and being able to share their accomplishments with our community. I thought I might go ahead and add the links to their two websites so you might be able to check it out. Their website is http://www.thecollinsvillenews.com/ and you just follow the sports links.

The other link is to their facebook page which is http://www.facebook.com/TheCollinsvilleNews

Hope you are all enjoying this wonderful fall weather!

A long awaited visit from Dustin!

2010-08-24T21:53:00.000-07:00

Let me start this by letting you know right up front that it is a major marathon post! I had soooo many pictures that I wanted to share with you all but settled on these instead of posting the 200+ that I took...so I guess you can consider yourselves fortunate that you don't have to wade through the whole album!

We had a wonderful time spending time with Dustin. The more I was able to visit with him the more I realized that he has gone from my son to my very grown up adult son! He is so much in control of his emotions and confident in his dealings and has just matured into an amazing and awesome Marine/Son/Man.

We have very few pictures of the three of us so i was so very pleased to get these two camera shy people to take this shot!

And this was another major accomplishment for all of us....Hayden getting to come and see us. Dustin got into town on Saturday. On Monday he was finally able to get them to agree to let him come over to see Hayden. He was able to spend about 3 hours at their home reconnecting and rebonding with Hayden. It was a very long overdue reunion....he hadn't seen him for 16 months. Figuring the ice was broken, Dustin tried to get Hayden the next day only to be put off. Long story short....Dustin was planning on leaving on Monday the 23rd so they finally let him have Hayden alone, unsupervised, on Sunday from 1 to 8 & then again on Monday from noon till 6 when Dustin left to head back to North Carolina. It was a time we all relished and had so much fun! The Nerf dart gun was the first fun activity.

Hayden and Cale spent some time creating creatures with playdoh. Hayden seemed to like making Cock-a-doodle-doos the best!

It's been so long since we have been able to spend any time with this little guy that he had a birthday card from his 2nd birthday to open. (He turned 3 on July 16, 2010) Grammie, as you can see from the picture, he was THRILLED with his money!

Hayden has always seemed to take very easily to Lee. Lee loved it whenever Hayden would say something like, "look at this Grandpa" or "watch this Grandpa"!

And of course Cale and Hayden found the football helmets and had to bring them out too!

This was the absolute favorite activity enjoyed by all these boys tho....sword fighting complete with sound affects and dramatic acts of dying!

All the boys had to take a turn at it..and of course Cale and Hayden loved every bit of it!

This little guy is all boy and had all the right moves and stances and sounds for all the boy things he did!

Despite the look on his face in this picture, Hayden and Shelby hit it off and had a great time together....except when I took this picture! (It was too hot outside for him!)

After spending all that time at home playing swords and darts and shooting each other, we all headed out to the nearest park. Honestly, I think my big kids were more excited about it than Hayden and Cale were!

Look at that fine blonde hair standing on end!

Shelby, Carter and Dalton beebopped all over that park..trying this and doing that and then seeing something else that looked way cool! They were fun to watch!

And Cale and Hayden just spent their time doing all those things that little kids love to do at the park!

Carter and Dalton had a great time on the swings.

And Shelby liked this crazy spinny thing!

Hayden is quite the little monkey and could scale this wall fairly easy. Of course, Dustin stood close to make sure!

Dalton had Cale really spinning on the tire swing.

And Carter just wore himself right out on it!

This is Dustin's pride and joy....a very sharp looking '04 Dodge Ram 4x4.

Just before Dustin headed out on Monday evening.

Hayden thought it was pretty cool that the darts stuck to his helmet!

I was also able to get a small photo shoot. Here is one that I thought turned out pretty good. I will do another post in a few days with more shots.

And this was a scene that we saw a number of times during Dustin's stay. He had a few issues with the front wheels and wheel bearings which required a bit of muscle, grease, teamwork and money & provided priceless memories for this father and son duo.

Now on this picture you have to either rewind your memories back to my Christmas post or actually research back to that post! Remember me telling you that Cale took great care and thought into making his gift selections from the Santa shop at school? Well, he was finally able to give Dustin the gift that he picked out for him. It's a camo scarf. He thought Dustin could use it when he gets cold. Dustin seemed to think he could use it when he goes to Afghanistan. Anyway, both seemed pleased!

It was a very laid back kind of visit. We really didn't do anything big or crazy....just spent time together. It was wonderful to get to see and hug and touch both Hayden and Dustin again! I love them both so much and am so very proud of my son. Thanks for spending your leave time with us!

NEWS FLASH*

2010-08-10T10:16:00.000-07:00

I have been informed that my son, Corp. Dustin Rasmussen, will indeed be coming home this month on leave!!!!!!!!!!! Actually he will be leaving North Carolina on Thursday...that is only two more days!! WOOT! We are so very excited to get to see him and hug him and hear of his deployment! Thought I would share the good news with all my peoples and this is the best way of doing such! Hopefully my camera will be back from the repair shop so that we can capture the visit and share with you! Love and hugs to all of you. I hope you have peace in your hearts and love in your lives.

WHAT......AUGUST ALREADY???

2010-08-08T01:19:00.000-07:00

I am absolutely.....completely......totally baffled. What in the world happened to our summer "break"??? Just yesterday (or so it seems) the kids got out of school and now here we are facing a brand new school year starting up in only 5 days. What crazy, madness our little corner of the world has been the last few months. Between day camp, football camp, drum major camp, YW camp, youth conference, business trips, surgery & recovery, and family issues...it truly has NOT been a nice, take it easy, kick back summer "break". I can remember when we would sooo look forward to summer time and I can even remember saying, "I can't wait for summer so we can have a break from all the running." Well, now I am saying, "I can't wait for school and football to start cause then things will not be so crazy!" WHAT!!??!! If you guys knew what our schedules are like during the football/marching band season, you would be able to truly appreciate the sheer madness of that statement! But, it is what it is....and I am saying that very thing!

Shelby has been working diligently on being the best darn Drum Major she can possibly be. She attended a camp at the University of Arkansas and learned quite a bit while she was there. She has almost got her salute figured out and just finished up the 2 week summer band schedule. She is full of ideas to incorporate into their musical piece. It has an oriental theme to it so her salute will have an oriental twist to it and she will be wearing her hair up in an oriental sort of style. I can hardly wait to see the full show when they get it perfected!!

Carter has spent alot of his summer just plain working. He picked berries at the berry farm, went and spent about 10 days with Keith and Jan at their ranch and did an assortment of jobs for them, and went up to St Joseph, Missouri and worked for my brother on his farm. Hmmmm, I guess Shelby did her fair share of working this summer too cause she did the berry farm and worked with my brother as well! Carter will be a sophomore this year and so will be suiting up with the varsity football team. It is kinda cool that he gets to wear the #85.....Dalton wore the same jersey when he was in high school. He will be in drivers ed the first semester so will be getting his permit very soon....I'm sure he will be behind the wheel more than me when that happens!

Cale has had a fairly boring summer I think. He did get to go to cub scout day camp one week in June. It was a fun experience for him. I was able to go with him one of the days and I really enjoyed that! I have a few pics of him that I will post. He spent most of his June running back and forth between our house and the neighbors across the street. (A very sweet family that we go to church with. They have 6 kids and he absolutely LOVES going over there!) For July he was pretty much a tag along with me and the kids as we were up in Missouri helping out my family. He did get to do some fun things while we were there ... swimming at my brothers, learning to drive a golf cart, bottle feeding a calf.

Lee spent most of June out of town instructing in either Missouri or New Mexico. He is an excellent teacher and I think they have figured that out at work because his teaching schedule has become very full with one class right after another and very few breaks in between. He loves his job which means I love it too!! He has also been working on some of our home improvement projects. We now have new replacement windows on the front of our house, termite free walls in the formal living room, new insulation and sheetrock there as well, new light fixtures in the hall and entryway, a new I beam ready to go up in the ceiling of the garage & the ceiling vents for our downstairs ac/furnace done. He has also been mowing our yard and the yard of our neighbors across the street most of the summer by himself. He has been a busy guy!

Dalton has surgery on his back in May and has had a slow recovery....mostly because of self inflicted obstacles. He is the typical teenager who doesn't think rules apply to him and that he will heal quickly simply because he is young. He has SLOWLY come to realize that what he does to his body does indeed affect the healing of his back and he has adjusted his activities accordingly. He is now feeling the benefits of that too. He was released to start running on August 1st and is so excited to get back into shape. He will be staying home and taking classes at a local community college this semester and going back to play football at NEO in January. His football coach advised him to do this so his back would have plenty of time to rest.

Dustin has been back from his deployment since the beginning of July. We don't hear from him much but what I do see on facebook makes me think that things are going good for him. We were hoping he would come home sometime this month.....haven't heard from him to know tho. He was promoted to Lance Corporal while he was deployed. I can't believe its already been two years that he's been in the Marines. His little boy had a birthday on July 19th and is now 3 years old. Another I can't believe fact! We haven't seen Hayden since Dustin was home on his last leave which was about 16 months ago :(

I took a leave of absence from work from the last week of June to August 16th so I could go up to St. Joseph, Missouri to help my family out. I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to help out too. It has been too long since I have been able to spend that much time all at once with my side of the family and it was wonderful to get to reconnect with them. I just love them so much! Ya know, I have some great brothers! And my Momma and John are pretty awesome too! And then there is Margie and Cheryl who are pretty cool too! I got to spend alot of time working alongside Greg on his farm while I was there. It is a pretty addicting type of operation. I find myself thinking about cows...ALOT! I also got spend time with Mom and John. John has been diagnosed with a disease that is basically shrinkage of the cerebellum which affects his motor skills. He has progressively lost his motor skills to the point that he is pretty much dependent on others for all his personal care. It is a sad thing to witness someone, especially someone you love, become trapped inside a shell of a body with the will and desire to do things but not the ability. It is also hard to watch how caring for someone 24/7 can be so mentally stressful for my Mom and Greg. I wish I lived closer so that I could help them out on a more regular basis.

Cale at day camp.

This was one of Cale's favorite day camp activities!

Fishing was another fun time for him!

There is my update....hopefully the next one won't be so long coming!

Happy Fathers Day to my awesome Hubby!

2010-06-20T12:29:00.000-07:00

I am so very blessed to have this wonderful man as my Eternal Companion and the father of my children!

I think back over the last 24+ years ... lots of memories to pull from in that amount of time; some happy, some sad, some that we would probably just as soon forget! We've been through alot of heartache, shared a ton of laughs and experienced many joyous occasions together. Our life together has brought me my greatest sense of joy and happiness and I wouldn't trade any of it. We have weathered more than our fair share of storms and have become stronger and closer because of them. I love you Lee and cherish our companionship more with each passing year! Thanks for being persistent and patient 24 years ago!

Birthday fun!

2010-06-15T16:07:00.000-07:00

We have had a few birthdays this year and so I thought I would just combine them into one post. (That gets three check marks off my "need to post list" :-)) Cale had his 8th birthday on March 7th. He was so very excited and could hardly wait for all of us to get home so he could open his presents! He opened up the cards.....

then moved on to the best part...the tearing off of the gift wrapping! He was thrilled to get a new Wii game.

Our family is not real big on birthday cake. I mean really not into birthday cake. I bought this cake to have on his birthday and we finally had to force him to blow out the candles and eat the cake about 6 days later! The lettering had begun to bleed, the frosting was beginning to crack and the cake was not the moistest! But, by golly, we had the candle blowing experience and all ate at least a part of the piece we got and the rest ended up in the trash can. :-)

(I got these two birthday out of order when I was loading the pics.)

Carter celebrated his 15th birthday on March 1st. I pestered him for days asking for a wish list from him. He kept putting me off and putting me off so I finally just started spouting off the things I was gonna pick out to get him since he was not overly anxious to give me ideas. The one thing that finally got him to submit a "list" was the threat of getting him a package of Barbie Panties!

As usual, we always start with the cards and work our way to the presents. As you can tell, Cale was almost as excited for the whole process as Carter was!

Well, I didn't want to make Carter think I was a dishonest person, so I really did go out in search of some Barbie panties for him. Problem was...there were no panties available in his size! So Shelby and I bought the next best thing....a pair of Marvel Superhero Underwear! Can you just see how thrilled he was with them?!

I couldn't get Carter to model them for us tho??? (What's up with that?) BUT Shelby was more than willing! I have a number of poses she struck but thought this was the most attractive!

Not to be outdone, Cale decided he needed to give them a try as well! (He was striking a flying pose!)

The kids couldn't let their Daddy be left out of all the fun and so helped him to get his undie-hat on just right for this picture!

Even poor Bella had to take a turn modeling the infamous Superhero Undies! She was completely and totally miserable!

I finally got the birthday cake thing right....we replaced it with a cheesecake--HUGE HIT! We even ate it on the actual birthday this time!

And then it was Shelby's turn. She turned a big 17 on April 23rd. By this time, Aspen, Chloe and Layla were living with us so she had alot of help with her gifts!

She really needed a new carrying bag for her flute and I thought...no big deal, I can get that. What I didn't realize is that they are really expensive!! Oh well, she really did need it AND she really deserved it!

Shelby was treated to a surprise birthday party hosted by a few of her good friends. The got her big time too. She had no idea about the whole thing. It was a lock in sleep over held in the community room at a local bank and they had a ball. Then her very BBF brought over a cute little mini cake for her on her birthday and I had once again stepped out of the norm by buying a Snickers cake AND a Reeces Peanut Butter cake for her. So she ended up with four cakes for her birthday! What a lucky young lady!

I cannot believe how fast my kids are growing up....good grief how in the world did Shelby get to be 17---and Carter turning 15 ??? --- and then my little man is really not so little anymore. Makes a Momma all choked up and sobbish!

The growing up process of my little chickies has cause me many moments of quiet contemplation. I ponder on what life will be like when they are all grown adults who are completely capable and competent in managing their own lives and families. I wonder about where I might find my worth then?? You see, I have come to realize that those things I cherish most --- those things that truly define who I am --- those things that make me complete can be summed up in just two words...MY FAMILY. Oh how I love my children and my husband. Pondering on what my life would be like without them is not a very pleasant experience for me and I thank my Heavenly Father more than anyone could ever imagine for blessing me to be the Mother of these wonderful children and to be the Wife of such an awesome man. I am a blessed woman!

Easter 2010

2010-06-14T17:55:00.000-07:00

I have been working on getting this on here for.... the original post date was May 5th and it didn't get posted until June 14th! Let's just say that things just keep on getting me distracted from this over and over and over again! But not tonight!!

Easter 2010 was a fun time for us here! It was fun to have the three granddaughters here to help Cale find all those eggs that the Easter bunny hid!

But first we had to have a sort of organized egg decorating event! Each of the kids had so much fun picking their colors out and making each of their eggs special.

The girls had only been with us for about a week before Easter and it was fun to talk to them about the real meaning of Easter.....and to get to watch the delight as Cale, Aspen, Chloe and Layla watched their Easter eggs turn from white to the most perfect shade of whichever color they were soaking in.

Layla was pretty proud of her creation!

Concentration was part of the intense process of dyeing the eggs.

Before anyone can come down to see if we have had a visitor while we were sleeping, they must first wait on the stairs till mom (camera lady) gets downstairs and set up!

And then they all cut loose! Cale and Dad joined forces in capturing this Easter egg!

Chloe was super happy with her "Cool Shades" that Mr. Easter Bunny left in her basket.

All in all, it was a wonderful Easter!

How do you spell smart? C..A..L..E. & A..S..P..E..N

2010-04-30T05:53:00.000-07:00

We had a very special evening occur recently. Both Cale and Aspen attend the same elementary school this year and that school hosted its first spelling bee. The students in each of the first grades and each of the second grades competed against their own classmates to determine who would represent their class in the spelling bee. It took a couple of days for the selection process to finish up and then the top four spellers from each class was announced. Cale and Aspen both were selected! Aspen represented her 1st grade class and Cale represented his 2nd grade class. I believe there are around 8-10 classes per grade level so that makes up for a good amount of kids! They both came home with very long lists of words to study on to prepare for the big evening. Aspen was so diligent and wanted to be quizzed as often as she could find a willing participant. Cale.....not so much!! He is a great student and academics comes very easy for him. But once he gets home from school, he puts all academics out of his mind and is focused on playing and just being a boy! So studying was the very last thing he really wanted to do!

When the evening of the spelling bee arrived we all piled into our cars, (I say that in the plural sense cause there are too many of us to fit in one car now!), and headed up to the school with two young students who had butterflies in the tummies! They were both so excited and nervous and happy!

(This is when they were introducing each of the 2nd grade qualifiers. Cale was extremely excited!)

(And this is during the 1st grade introductions. Aspen was excited but still quite a bit nervous.)

And then it came down to the dirty business of spelling those words correctly! If you look in the background you will notice the empty seats. They were full when the bee began so you can see how far Cale was able to make it! He did so good even without much studying!

Aspen was so prepared but oh so nervous....and the nervous bug is what got her. She got out on a word that she knew how to spell and that kinda bummed her out.

They both represented their classes quite well and we are proud of them for this huge accomplishment.!

Cale Gets Baptized!!!

2010-04-24T14:02:00.000-07:00

Today was a big day for our Little Man....today he became a true disciple of Christ by entering into the waters of baptism. He was sooo excited about it!

This was bittersweet for both Lee and I. So happy for Cale and the decision he made but also a little bit teary since this is our last baby to get baptized

It was fun to have the girls here to share with us in Cale's special day!

Carter and Shelby took care of the opening and closing prayer and Cale chose "I Am a Child of God" and "Scripture Power" for his songs and, of course, Lee baptized and confirmed Cale.

Our dear neighbor and great friend gave a great talk on the Holy Ghost and Cale's last years primary teacher (whom he adores!) gave an equally great talk on Baptism.

I am so happy my Momma...aka Cale's Grammie...got to come down from Missouri to be here with us! She is such a good Momma and Grammie and I love her soooo much!

And Grandma Jo couldn't be here in person but did call and get to talk to Cale before he was baptized and he really enjoyed that.

I am so grateful to have this sweet little guy in our family. I am so pleased he has chosen to take upon himself the name of Christ and follow in His footsteps!

A couple of HUNKS!

2010-04-23T21:52:00.000-07:00

I was in desperate need of an updated picture of Carter for my wall and so while we were messing around with the prom pictures I was also able to take a few of him and Cale. I can't believe how much kids change in just one year...especially during the 14-16 year stage. I have a pretty hard time getting this young man to smile for the camera so was pretty pleased with this shot! I think it is definitely gonna be on my family room wall! Isn't he a heart breaker?

And of course Little Man couldn't be left out so Lee found a cool looking tree to stick him up in and I got a few of him as well. He is ALWAYS smiling for the camera! Usually it is that deer in the headlights kind of look with a big goofy grin to go with it!

I feel pretty blessed....I have great kids, a husband I love dearly, the Lord in my heart and an extended family that is awesome. What more could a person want or need?

Beautiful Prom Beauties!

2010-04-23T21:39:00.000-07:00

One of MANY updates that are due to be posted! Shelby and her BFF all dolled up for the local proms...well kinda! The stake hosted a "Prom-Dress" dance the same night as Shelby's high school held their prom so Shelby opted to go to the stake dance and her BFF chose to split her time between the two. We all got together and had a chance to take some pictures before they headed their seperate ways. They are both such sweet and good girls. I love them both so much and was so glad to get to share in their excitement for the evening!

My little tree hugging, cute and adorable daughter!

This picture shows her for what she really is.....a very attractive young woman who has just a touch of attitude!

Doesn't Shelby make that flower look amazing??!!

Potpourri of FUN!

2010-02-18T15:39:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to add some of these pictures for a while so today seems like a good time to make a random kind of post!

One Sunday coming home from church Lee spotted something that we had to turn around and go back to get pictures of....this HUGE toadstool! Isn't it amazing?? It was there for like a week before it finally turned black and then evenutally withered up. If this is how big the toadstool is, can you imagine the size of the toad??!!

This is from last June when we had the girls for a few hours. We went to the big jungle gym park and played till we all were sooo hot we had to leave. Isn't Aspen so pretty in this picture?

Chloe has always been a thirsty kiddo and this day was no different! She loved the potato chips we brought for a snack too! Doesn't she look happy?

And then there is Layla! She loved everything there was to play on...can't you tell?

I sure do miss these little girls. :-(

This year we had a HUGEMONGOUS snow storm blow through on Christmas Eve. In a matter of two or three hours, we had 8 inches of snow on the ground....something that Oklahoma doesn't have very often! After watching "It's A Wonderful Life", we looked out the front door and were amazed! After all the presents were opened on Christmas morning, Cale went out to enjoy it. He absolutely LOVES snow and to have it on Christmas day was just an added bonus for him! Christmas couldn't have been better!

Here is a picture of the drift that was out back. I opened the door and this is what you saw! Isn't it pretty!

After we decorated our house, Shelby found this Santa hat and Cale and her had a fun time posing for me!

Shelby is always one to pull the funniest faces!

Carter refused to do the hat thing but did strike a "deer in the headlights" pose for me!

Dalton absolutely loved AVATAR .... in fact, I think he went to see it three times! What do you think.....college student or nerd?!

Happy 75th Birthday John Boy!

2010-02-14T20:37:00.000-08:00

I am a very happy woman....I finally made it up to Missouri to get my Momma fix and got to be there to help John celebrate his big 75th birthday! It was a wonderful occasion too. Mom put the word out that she was having a surprise card party for him. Cale and I arrived around noon on Saturday and by 2:30 the house was literally full of well wishing friends and family. I think it caught John a bit by surprise!

He opened his birthday cards...twenty two in all...ate his own personal ice cream cake...and seemed to enjoy being the center of attention for the day!

Granddad and Cale (the youngest grandchild) had a great time!

and Grammie had a wonderful time loving on their newest Great-granddaughter Madison!

These two very special people have lead some pretty eventful lives, done some pretty amazing things, and given so much of themselves to their family. I am sooooo very grateful to have them in my life. I love you guys!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN!!!

O Christmas Tree......

2010-02-12T18:21:00.000-08:00

This year we had a joint effort in our Christmas decorating. Usually I brave the colder weather with Shelby in tow and put up the outside lights. It is something that I really, really enjoy doing and take great delight in. Well, now that I am working, it seems that about half the stuff I plan on doing actually gets done! SO, for a family home evening we decided to all get out there and get it done. We had a great time putting up the icicle lights and putting up lots of lighted trees and deer in the yard. It looked so nice and got done so much faster than I expected! After that we got out the tons of totes that had our inside decorations in them. I thought it would be easier if we just did the inside another day. Remember my previous statement about how much I actually accomplish anymore! I really don't remember what it was that was taking up my time, but Cale decided to take it upon himself to finish the tree decorations himself. (Shelby had already put the lights on!). I think he did a marvelous job too!

You have to remember that he is 7, almost 8, and had no assistance with all the decorations, other than the Angel on the top! The picture below is our documentation of just how tall Cale was during December 2009! (Notice the lack of ornaments!)

I'm thinking this might have to become a new family tradition.....a nice way of tracking his growth! What do ya think?

Christmas 2009

2010-02-10T13:20:00.000-08:00

I am getting an unexpected day at home due to poor Cale having a fever and not getting to go to school....so as a result, I finally have time to update my blog!! WOO HOO!

Dustin had planned on coming home from North Carolina but Mother Nature played into that planning and sent a winter storm to the Carolinas that nixed our family Christmas plans. After getting over my huge disappointment in that, we ended up having a wonderful Christmas. It was the first real Winter Wonderland Christmas, complete with beautiful, drifting snow, that I can remember in Oklahoma! The storm came in on Christmas Eve, which created huge traffic problems and resulted in alot of last minute changes in Christmas travel plans for many in the area. As for us, we hunkered down at home and spent Christmas eve together enjoying the spirit of the season and watching "It's a Wonderful Life". (A tradition that our family has enjoyed for many years. Of course, the kids were allowed to open their one present on Christmas Eve....and of course, Mom picked which one they got to open! AND, of course, it ended up being the traditional pajama present!

Cale didn't seem to mind that it was just pj's tho! At least he got to open a present!

Yes, that is the smile of approval from Carter! He loved his OU pjs!

And then it was Shelby's turn. I can't remember what had happened but she was, once again, giggling about something that tickled her giggle bone! She seems to do that alot!

Dalton putting forth the least amount of energy possible in opening his OSU pjs!

Shelby helped me in getting a smile out of Carter!

Bella was allowed to "open" her present too! She was sooo funny!! We had put a few of her doggie treats in the bottom of this gift bag and once she figured out where those treats were, this is how she stayed until they were all gone!!

Another family tradition....the picture at the top of the stairs waiting to go see if Santa came!

Got this out of order in the line of pictures. Christmas Eve Cale left Santa a note letting him know that he had made him a "bed" on the living room floor so that he could sleep a bit.....AFTER he left the gifts, of course! Lee and I tried to convince Cale that Santa was pretty busy on Christmas Eve and probably wouldn't use his "bed". Cale was not to be discouraged tho...and you know what? Santa actually did sleep in that bed! I guess that just goes to show that kids are smarter than parents when it comes to things having to do with Santa!

Dad and Cale had to see how much food Santa ate and if he had read Cale's note!

Cale's BB gun broke while we were at Keith and Jan's ranch over the Thanksgiving weekend so he was thrilled to see that Santa had brought him a new one! (Along with those 5 swords in the background! I guess Santa knows how much Cale loves playing Ninjas!)

Carter was just so happy to see that Santa brought him stuff too!

And Shelby was most happy about getting lime green slippers for her cold feet!

With all the exercising and running that Dalton does, it was good that Santa brought him some new running shoes!

Look at that excited,Christmas joy smile!

For the last couple of years, they have had a Santa shop at school that the kids can take money to and purchase gifts for their loved ones. Well, Cale takes this pretty seriously and puts alot of thought into the gifts that he buys for "his" people. Below are the pictures of the kids and Lee opening their gifts from Cale.

Let me explain these most thoughtful gifts....Shelby got a guitar shaped thing of lip gloss. Explanation given me by Cale: She likes music stuff and Shelby said she wanted makeup for Christmas.

Carter got an assorted pack of action pirates. Explanation from Cale: I got Carter some pirates so he would have to play with me!!

Dalton received a stuffed Batman....last year he got Superman. Explanation from Cale: Because Dalton likes superheros ALOT. Explanation from mom: I really think that Dalton is Cale's superhero!

Dad got a very durable screwdriver. Yep, the explanation was that Dad likes to work on things so he thought he would like it!

We failed to get pics of me opening my gift but it was some lotion, which is what he got me last year too. His reasoning for this was that I loved the stuff he got me last year so much that I needed more! Isn't he a sweet and thoughtful shopper!?!

We drew names this year and Carter drew Lee's name. He made his Dad really happy with this cool new welding helmet! And it looks so cool too!

All in all, we had a wonderful Christmas day. It was fun spending the day together enjoying each other and playing with our new toys. The meal was pretty yummy too!

Dalton goes out into the great big world

2010-01-12T20:19:00.000-08:00

(Notice the pile of snow. It was sooo cold and Dalton was the typical Oklahoma teenager out in shorts and a hoodie!)

As most of you already know, Dalton just started his second semester of college but this one has taken him out of our home and into the dorms at the campus of NEO...Northeast Oklahoma. Lee and I drove over with him last Sunday and helped to get all his "stuff" moved in. I think he took enough stuff for two people! It was nice that I got to see his dorm room and where he will be spending most of his time for the next 5 months. I must say that it was not really too impressive!! A very small room complete with two twin beds...well used twin beds I might add...two build in closets and two built in desks complete with one chair! Kinda odd don't ya think that there is only one chair to share between the two desks. The room was also decked out with one window, minus a blind, with a wonderful view of the football field! Which, of course, is why Dalton choose to go to NEO...to play football for them and make a name for himself and hopefully catch the eye of the OSU football coaches. He is excited to get going with his dreams and career and with his determination and focused attitude, I have no doubts that he will succeed! ( I also think that he will come home with a renewed appreciation of "all the comforts of home"!)

Shelby, Carter, Cale and Dalton

Had to get a picture of Dad and Son....

and then one of Mom and Son....

What a master suite!

This is a picture of the built in desks...and the chair...and the picture window...minus the blind!

So for the next football season, we will be dressing in blue and gold on Saturdays and cheering for our favorite Norsemen!

Christmas with Cale

2009-12-19T08:54:00.000-08:00

I got to be a part of Cale's classroom Christmas party this year. It was a lot of fun just watching the excitement and joy in those little people's eyes! This season brings out the wonderful side of everything I think!

Cale has a fairly new teacher so they are kinda not really organized and scheduled with all the holiday crafting and partying that the "seasoned" teachers provide. But her kids love her and don't seem to mind missing out on some of the extra foo foo stuff. This is a wreath that she had them work on for about two weeks!! I thought they turned out pretty cute and the kids had fun doing them.

The party pretty much consisted of eating while playing Christmas bingo. The kids always love playing bingo. I was happy that I was able to be there and enjoy his special time!

The next day the 2nd graders performed a program for their family and friends that was entitled "Christmas at the O.K. Corral". They were asked to dress as cowboy as possible as soooo, Cale had to make sure that was the case! Below are the results!

And of course he had to pose! He is such a ham!

I have added a few from the program too. As usual, when he saw me aim my camera his way he started striking poses! I must say that he does seem to be quite photogenic!

His Yee Haw pose?

Just a cute little cowboy!

During the program it was hard to get any decent shots simply because of the number of kids but I did get a few. He absolutely loved it and was very sure to perform all the motions precisely right!

Cale at the O.K. Corral

2009 Christmas Letter

2009-12-18T06:28:00.000-08:00

Since I use this blog as my journal, I thought I had better post our annual Christmas letter to it. So for those of you who have already read it....you off the hook and don't have to read any further!

Merry Christmas 2009

I hope we are each taking time to truly enjoy this most wonderful time of the year! I absolutely LOVE Christmas and everything about it…the decorations, the baking, Santa, anonymous service, fun Family Home Evenings, wrapping gifts, the excitement of the children and most especially the true meaning behind the whole season - the celebration of the birth of our dear Savior.

This past year has brought about a lot of changes and happenings in our family…which in turn has gotten me to ponder and reflect on those things. After all this pondering and reflecting, the theme best describing our year is “family”. Let me break this down a little further for you all:

F = frustrating, fighting, fondness - AND Fantastically Fun!

A = active, affection, agony, anxiety, appreciation – AND Absolute Adoration!

M = misery, mischievous, mind boggling - AND Most Memorable!

I = ignorant, intelligent, intriguing – AND Intensely Interesting!

L = loving, loathing, laughter, long-suffering - AND Lasting Legacy!

Y = yelling, youthful, yearning – AND Yours Eternally!

I am indeed grateful for the eternal truths I have been blessed to learn because those are the things that seem to get me through the stresses of everyday life!

And speaking of everyday life….

Lee is still working at American Airlines but had the fortunate opportunity to change career paths and is now an instructor. I like to think of him as my “business casual” guy!! He loves the new job along with the new schedule which enables him to be at home every night with us!!

Darla--I am still counted among the working class and have come to actually be ok with that. I have been fortunate enough to get to pick a schedule that allows me to be off Friday – Sunday as well as to go in after all the kids are off to school.

Shannon and her little flock moved to Houston this summer. She is going to school for medical transcribing and the girls seem to be adjusting to Texan life.

Dustin is in the Marine Corp. and will be deploying to Somalia on January 14th BUT he will be spending Christmas with us!! I can’t wait to see him!

Dalton just completed his first semester of college and will be headed to NEO for the next 2 years. He was able to get a scholarship to play football for them and is excited to get to do that. He is pursuing a college degree in chemical engineering.

Shelby is now a licensed driver and still my biggest helper around here. She is currently the 2nd counselor in Laurels, 3rd chair in the flute section in concert band and the delight of her momma and daddy!

Carter is in his first year of high school and seems to be adjusting quite well. He gets wonderful grades, passes the sacrament most Sundays, still loves playing football and enjoys seminary (minus the early morning part of it!!)

Cale was able to skip a grade this year….what a smart kid he is! A sponge that doesn’t forget anything he hears, (except what I ask him to do!) We recently had a family move in next door that goes to church with us and Cale is ALWAYS at their house playing.....first thing out of his mouth in the a.m. and last thing out of his mouth in the p.m., “Can I go play with Gage?”! I am so happy he has such a good friend.

Hope this Christmas is a wonderful time for you!

Thanksgiving at the Ranch!

2009-12-10T23:49:00.000-08:00

This year we got to go to Keith and Jan's Ranch for Thanksgiving. What a wonderful time we had! We got to spend some great quality time with family, do some hunting, play on the four wheelers, eat, butcher a deer....MAN was it fun!! It was so nice to get to see Keith, Jan, Grandma Jo, Grandpa Var, Marisa, John and all their cute kids, and Alex. It's been way too long since we have been able to spend any time with this special branch of the family tree and I am so very grateful to them for inviting us over.

Jan has quite a flair at decorating....from her front door to her deck out the back, she has it decorated so cute!

Cale got busy from the get go searching for treasures...this is his first find! He ended up putting it on the railing along the front of their ranch...guess he thought he would help Jan with her decorating!

Playing on the four wheeler and driving the Stealth was a big hit with the kids!

Grandpa Var had Cale pretty grossed out when he started butchering this deer. He is taking the antlers off in this pic and Cale thought it was pretty yucky..

As you can see, Shelby was really enjoying herself...Carter, not so much!

Like I said before, Cale was really grossed out when Grandpa started butchering this deer. But, by the time they had it skinned, Caleb and Cale were both touching it all over and even wanted to get their picture taken sitting inside the carcass....(sorry but I just didn't think that would be such a great photo shot!)

Grandpa Var let Shelby and Carter have a try at skinning the last deer.

I think they did a pretty good job too!

Then the real fun began! We kind of set up in a sort of assembly line and all pitched in to get the deer cut apart, separated into roasts, steaks and ground into deerburger and then vacuum sealed, labelled and stuck in the freezer! It was really a neat process and I had a blast helping out!

I have to admit that Shelby probably had more fun doing it than me tho...she seemed to like getting her hands all bloody and gooey.

After finishing up the deer, they headed out on the lake to do some duck hunting.

Can you tell by the smiles how much fun they had?!

Lee, Shelby and Keith were pretty happy with their haul....but Cale was REALLY happy!

Look at the smile on my hubby's face!! It says it all!! Thanks Keith and Jan for the great memories!

WHY WOMEN SHOULDN'T TAKE MEN SHOPPING!!

2009-12-05T11:01:00.000-08:00

I received this from a very good friend the other day and thought it was something that all my gal friends, (and probably some of my guy friends!), could really appreciate!

WHY WOMEN SHOULDN'T TAKE MEN SHOPPING!!
After I retired, my wife insisted that I accompany her on her trips to Target. Unfortunately, like most men, I found shopping boring and preferred to get in and get out. Equally unfortunate, my wife is like most women -she loves to browse. Yesterday my dear wife received the following letter from the local Target.

Dear Mrs. Samuel,
Over the past six months, your husband has caused quite a commotion in our store. We cannot tolerate this behavior and have been forced to ban both of you from the store. Our complaints against your husband, Mr. Samuel, are listed below and are documented by our video surveillance cameras.

1. June 15: Took 24 boxes of condoms and randomly put them in other people's carts when they weren't looking.
2. July 2: Set all the alarm clocks in House wares to go off at 5-minute intervals.
3. July 7: He made a trail of tomato juice on the floor leading to the women's restroom.
4. July 19: Walked up to an employee and told her in an official voice, 'Code 3 in House wares. Get on it right away'. This caused the employee to leave her assigned station and receive a reprimand from her Supervisor that in turn resulted with a union grievance, causing management to lose time and costing the company money.
5. August 4: Went to the Service Desk and tried to put a bag of M&Ms on layaway.
6. August 14: Moved a 'CAUTION - WET FLOOR' sign to a carpeted area.
7. August 15: Set up a tent in the camping department and told the children shoppers he'd invite them in if they would bring pillows and blankets from the bedding department to which twenty children obliged.
8. August 23: When a clerk asked if they could help him he began crying and screamed, 'Why can't you people just leave me alone?' EMTs were called.
9. September 4: Looked right into the security camera and used it as a mirror while he picked his nose.
10. September 10: While handling guns in the hunting department, he asked the clerk where the antidepressants were.
11. October 3: Darted around the store suspiciously while loudly humming the 'Mission Impossible' theme.
12. October 6: In the auto department, he practiced his 'Madonna look' by using different sizes of funnels.
13. October 18: Hid in a clothing rack and when people browsed through, yelled 'PICK ME! PICK ME!'
14. October 21: When an announcement came over the loud speaker, he assumed a fetal position and screamed 'OH NO! IT'S THOSE VOICES AGAIN!'

And last, but not least:
15. October 23: Went into a fitting room, shut the door, waited awhile, then yelled very loudly, 'Hey! There's no toilet paper in here.' One of the clerks passed out.

Okay....so did you laugh as hard and long as we did???? LOL!! Hope you enjoyed it!

Girls Night Out tonight!!

2009-11-19T15:05:00.000-08:00

Tonight is our monthly Girls Night Out at church. We combine with the other ward and meet together to do different things each month. This month we are having three fun things going on. During the first part of the meeting we are going to have a cooking with spices/herbs class and will be creating some no sew receiving blankets and hopefully some burb clothes for a non profit local organization that helps new young mothers gain the knowledge they need to take care of a baby as well as helps to provide the materials goods necessary to raise a baby. After that, those who want are gonna play a few games of dodge ball in the cultural hall. I think it is gonna be a great night! And then......for dessert.....some of us are gonna go down to the local movie theater and stand in line to go see the midnight showing of ....

YEP!!! NEW MOON!!! I hope it is worth the staying up late and standing in line so long and being completely crowded in the theater! Shelby and her friend Kara is gonna go too so if we get to sit together it will all be good!

What a wonderful Sunday

2009-11-15T14:16:00.000-08:00

I don't know if it is because I have spent a lot of time lately pondering on things I am truly grateful for or if the speakers/teachers at church today were especially spiritly guided or maybe just because the Lord felt it necessary to give me a huge dose of nourishment today......but I absolutely, thoroughly and completely enjoyed my time spent at church today. Our Bishops wife, who just so happens to be our neighbor and someone I consider a dear friend gave a very heartfelt and soul searching talk on gratitude during Sacrament meeting. She went through a detailed list of those things she is most grateful for and even though they were specific to her and her life, I found myself tearing up as I realized that I could associate most of them with my own life and experiences. She compared the contrast of being caught up in the hussle bussle of getting the perfect gift at the perfect price for Christmas as to the peace that comes by focusing on our Savior..on his life and his example of charity and service. Another very spiritual and scripturally wise Sister also spoke to us today. She emphasized the importance of recognizing that "Thanksgiving" is not really a day set aside to stuff ourselves with turkey and watch football on TV so much as it is a day that we should center our activities more on our Savior and on service and charity. She did an outstanding job of backing all her topics with a scriptural reference that did indeed clarify our spiritual obligations as to thanksgiving. That would have been enough sustenance to sustain me throughout the week ... and then I went to Relief Society. Once again I found my cup being filled to overflowing with instruction and peace and love. As she talked to us about the life and perils that existed amongst the early Saints during the last of their time in Nauvoo, that despite the turmoil and conflict and sometimes overwhelming trials, these great people were able to put their trust and faith in the hands of the Lord and remain "of good cheer". Their testimonies were so strong and their commitment to following the Lord so important to them that they not only endured those horrible times but they grew even stronger and closer to each other and the Lord as a result of this dedication. As I compared the trials I have had and am now going through and my own reaction, attitude and commitment level, I must admit that I felt very humbled. I know we struggle with a different kind of trial now than our ancestors did back then.....but the course we should follow to get through them has not altered. It is the same now as it was then. Faith, hope, charity, unconditional love, forgiveness, commitment, prayer and dedication....all are things that help us through our tough spots, whatever they are. I am so thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who knows my weaknesses and faults but loves me unconditionally anyway. I know that when I go to church with the desire to truly feel His spirit and hear His counsel, I will be fed. I am so glad I went to church today.....what a bounteous feast I was blessed with!

Work...work... work...and then play!

2009-11-13T08:18:00.000-08:00

We have been extremely blessed lately with some beautiful weather....not too hot and not too cold. That is something that is definitely out of the norm here in Oklahoma! Lee decided to take advantage of that nice weather AND to check a project off his to do list! We have been wanting to put a little step out "roof" across the front of the garage for a while now. There is a dual function reason here: first-Carter and Cale sleep in the room above the garage and so it is a safety feature for them to get out of the house in case of a fire or some other mishap and second-it is to break up the long wall on the front of the garage and hopefully add a bit of curb appeal. :) I snapped a few shots of Lee as he is putting on the shingles to finish the project up. It turned out pretty good and wasn't really even that expensive. Makes me wonder why we put things off for so long.....oh wait, it probably has to do with the fact that we are very seldom home to do any projects!

The kids helped where they could but did seem to be easily side-tracked. That nice weather kept calling them away! As you can see, they had a good time playing catch for a bit. Then we decided to play a little hot potato, (sorry no pics of that cause the camera lady was busy playing the game!).

The kids also decided there were plenty of leaves in the yard to create a nice size frollicking pile! Cale and Shelby worked at getting the pile big enough while Carter helped Lee with the shingling. After all the work, it was time to enjoy the fruits of their labors!

Okay, it is easy to see that Shelby is having a pretty grand time in the pile...but if you look close you will see Cale's feet sticking out the front of the pile and his head is close to Shelby's legs!

I can not believe that one pile of leaves can provide so much entertainment! And it didn't cost a thing...imagine that!

This was a definite photo moment that Mom just couldn't miss! What a wonderful day it was! We had a blast AND got a project done...woo hoo!

Happy Halloween!!

2009-10-31T20:24:00.000-07:00

Tonight was the all important & most anticipated HALLOWEEN! Cale has been looking forward to getting to wear his Ninja costume to the church and do Trunk or Treat. His costume was equipt with a cool caddy sort of thing that stored his swords on his back in a X....I'm sure it has an 'official' name to it but I haven't a clue what it is! I just know that is the reason that he thought his costume was like oh so very cool! Before truck or treat, the YW had different games and activites set up in the church for the kids to do. Shelby was in the face painting room and Cale patiently waited for her to finish up with a little girl before taking his turn with her. She painted a really cute pumpkin on his face. I told him it made him look like a much mightier Ninja Warrior! They both had a fun time. Love these kind of picture moments!

I had to pull Cale away from some great fun, (playing with the other boys after trunk or treat!), so that I could take a picture of him and Shelby. He was NOT very happy at all to have to make such a sacrifice just so him mother could take yet another picture!! Hmmm, wonder what his problem is?! Anyway, Shelby took it upon herself to show him how to smile and be happy for the picture! It was a fun night!

Had to get a cute picture of the mighty Ninja warrior and the prissy sweet flying lady bug!

Cale loved getting to bring all that candy home! He was so very good to share with everyone....especially him brothers who chose to stay home and not trunk or treat. Party Poopers!

I have to share with you the reason for my excitement for this day.....another confession....it is not because it is Halloween~~~ it's because it is daylight savings time and we get to sleep in an extra hour tomorrow!! WOO HOO!

Hope you all had a very happy and safe Halloween!

Crimson Cadets work their magic!

2009-10-30T08:13:00.000-07:00

Shelby and her fellow Crimson Cadets had an amazing program this year. Their show was entitled Versus and featured plenty of conflict in the marching performance. It is by far my favorite of all the shows I have been able to watch since living in Collinsville. At one point in the show, (my favorite part!), the color guard comes out with metal trash can lids and the entire band acts out different fighting scenes with the color guard crashing their trash can lids together in unison with each bass drum hit......absolutely outstanding to watch!

This year the kids traveled to Springfield Missouri for a first time appearance in a local contest there. My aunt Wilma and niece Mary accompanied by her daughter Hannah were able to attend that contest and got to see the Crimson Cadets perform. Wilma called me a few days later and let me know that they thought it was amazing....so I guess I am not just biased in my opinion of how great this show is!

(Because of my stubborn blog, I am having to insert this picture here instead of in storyline fashion. This was taken at the OBA competition, which is explained below, in between the prelims and the finals.) You can see from the picture just how much stress was lifted from these kids shoulders after their first performance! I love how they just let loose and began cutting up and clowning around. There are some very strong bonds between these kids. They spend A LOT of time together and it shows in how they interact with each other....it's great to watch!

Last Saturday the band went to the biggest and most important competition of each year....OBA. There are two stages to this competition....first is the preliminary round in which all the bands have an opportunity to impress the judges. After that round is judged, the top twelve bands are advanced to the finals round which is held that evening. The first two pictures below are of the preliminary performance. After giving their all and putting on a grand show, the entire band was called to pose for a formal picture (4rd in the line of pics).

Love those straight lines!

The Crimson Cadets drew the last time slot in the final performances. I added a couple pics of their efforts in that performance. The bottom picture shows them dulicating the V in the Vs. sign which is their backdrop. Of course I had to add a pic of Shelby too!

Collinsville placed 3rd in class 4A and 6th overall in the 4A-5A combined judging. Not bad for a small band from a small town somewhere in northeast Oklahoma, huh?!

Way to go Cadets! I absolutely LOVE watching you entertain!

Carter the Cardinal!

2009-10-29T17:24:00.000-07:00

Carter plays both sides of the ball. This is on offense right after getting the pitch from the QB. Carter got away from the guy in the picture and was able to make a nice gain on this play!

And this is one of my favorite things to do. Take candid shots of my favorite people! Isn't he a handsome young man?!

This is a pretty grainy picture but it shows Carter in action! He saved a touchdown with this diving tackle!

Carter chased this guy down and tackled him too! He is alot of fun to watch on the football field!

To those of you who are wondering, the Cardinals ended up losing their game against Oologah (see previous post). :( Sad for our boys but the Oologah boys were excited cause it is the first time they have been Conference Champs....Collinsville has beaten them out of it every other year. Still, it was hard to watch our boys lose to Oologah cause some of them are really poor sports about absolutely everything. Carter went to a couple of their summer football camps when he was in like 5th and 6th grade so some of their players know Carter. He said they were saying HI to him during the game and were actually pretty nice to him. Not so for the other Collinsville players tho~~ :) glad they like my kid! Anyway, Carter played a pretty good game and wasn't extremely grumpy afterwards so all is good! By the way, the pictures I posted are of a previous game....camera is still on the injured list!

The Return of the Prodigal!

2009-10-29T13:41:00.000-07:00

Okay....I'm back!! I have a confession to make. I decided that I just pretty much needed to have a facebook account. For a number of reasons. First, my kids have them and I felt it might be a good idea to keep up on things with them. Second, I thought it would be nice to maybe reconnect with some old friends. Third, I just thought it would be cool!! So, facebook and I became acquainted. Then we became buds. Then it was best buds. Then it was complete addiction. That was followed by complete control (by facebook)! Yes, the facebook bug bit me and bit me hard! I have been able to reconnect with friends that I haven't been in contact with for years and in some cases decades. I have been able to keep on top of things with my kids and their friends. And yes, it made me COOL! What I didn't figure on was how time consuming and addicting it is. And how little time it would leave for my rejected, shoved in the back seat blog! So I am back....repentant and ready to make amends with my rejected blog and all those that seem to enjoy reading it for whatever crazy reasons they may have! Next confession....I have missed all of you and have really missed keeping my beloved blog updated on the lives of my loved ones. Months have passed with many, many wonderful things that transpired that will surely be forgotten before I can get caught up on things here. :( BUT, I am resolved to make up for as much of it as I can and to be more diligent in keeping on top of things from here on out. Apology accepted????

Okay so where to go now? Hmm. Well we are leaving in a few minutes to cover Carter's last football game of the season. It is against their big time rivals....Oologah. If we win the game, then Oologah and Collinsville will tie for the Conference Champ title. If we lose, well, I guess that goes without saying! Because of a horrible mishap with my camera, I will be camcording the game tonight instead of taking still shots. Cale accidently knocked my camera off the counter a couple nights ago and messed the lens up so it is in the camera shop hopefully getting fixed (fingers crossed). And since we failed to record a single game of Carters last year and this will be the only one we get from his 9th grade year, I am excited to get to record it for him.

He has really shot up this year. He no longer looks like a kid but definitely has the appearance of a very nice looking young man....something that the girls haven't missed! :) He is a great kid who is not one to talk much but a delight to listen to when he does open up! High school has made a mark on him. I have felt the "need" to talk about spiritual things with him more often than I have in the past. It is a hard world these young people go out into every day. Satan is working so very hard to break down their barriers every moment they are out of our homes. And thank goodness, Carter is still approachable and at times even eager to hear those things that the Lord seems to give me to say to him. (No reading in between the lines here....he is not in trouble, nor is he a basket case or in the middle of some huge moral delimma. Just a Mothers observation of things).

With football coming to an end, a new era will be creating in our home. Dalton and Carter have always walked straight from the football field to the basketball court, but Carter has opted to not play basketball this year and as a result, it creates alot more HOME TIME for the Rasmussen gang during the winter months!! WOOO HOOO! Add to that the fact that Lee is now working a 'regular' hours job and is home every night with us and you get a very happy Momma Rasmussen here!

Gotta head out to that football game now. Hope you all are enjoying the beautiful Fall weather and colors!

HOLA!

2009-07-21T13:52:00.000-07:00

I know.....I know....it has been an awful long time since I have entertained you all with the comings and goings & the antics of life here in Oklahoma. Life around here has become pretty crazy lately. I find myself continually reviewing my "mental checklist".....mostly because I have so many different things that HAVE to be done within the next day, week or weeks and also because I cannot seem to remember everything that I need to do. There are things having to do with Dustin and his divorce, more things that have to be accomplished before August 11th when Dalton heads out to college, then add to that Shelby needing to get her defensive driving lessons done by Friday so she can go get her license and all the collecting, packing, paperwork and airline stuff involved in Carter heading out to Utah next week as well as getting ready for school and worrying about things that I can't control or change....wow am I glad I wrote that down! Now I see why I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with my to-do list! Unfortunately there is more tho! Lee recently interviewed for an instructor job at work and he dazzled them! Wonderful news! We are looking forward to a new work schedule...Monday through Friday, 6:15 to 2:15...home EVERY evening and weekends...no more crawling around into itsy spaces on the airplane or working with all those chemicals that are so harmful....lots and lots of perks here! On the downside, it also adds a couple more items to my to-do list. A whole new wardrobe needs to be shopped for and purchased by next Monday morning and his new hours require me to change mine a bit, (something I must say I am more than happy to do!!), and with Carter going to Utah, Shelby starting band next week and the rest of us at work I was doing some scrambling trying to figure out what to do with Cale. Thankfully my wonderful Mother has agreed to take in my poor little orphan during the critical two week time frame. Which, of course, adds another item to the list....meeting Mom halfway with Cale. I would and could continue with all the other stuff that seems to be consuming most of my time which makes checking things off my to-do list practically impossible .... but I think I am 1) getting my point across, 2) beginning to feel even more overwhelmed with each item I am listing!, 3) am beginning to feel like a big, fat whiner! and 4) could get outside and get my yard mowed if I finish this up!

SOOOOO, long story short......I am very busy! There are so many different things happening all at the same time and we are all mostly going in different directions trying to get things done. I just keep thinking how it feels that Lee and I are so busy working to support our family that we don't have time to enjoy them...anyway, not like I would like to. Ahhh, such is life I guess!

So here is Darla's little reminder to not only myself but to each of you:
take time to enjoy the summer .... pause for a moment and watch the sunset .... take a minute to listen to the birds sing and breathe in the smells of the season .... invite the Lord to spend a moment with you pondering and reflecting ...

Dustin=Father, son, Marine AND 22!!

2009-06-28T12:01:00.000-07:00

On June 24th my oldest son turned 22 years old.....What? How can that be??? LOL All you young folks out there, a word of advice. Believe it when you hear old folks talk about how fast time just speeds by. I cannot believe that my little parade of chickies is dwindling down so quickly! I must say that I am so very proud of my 22 year old Dustin! He is 100% totally committed to serving this great country and being the best Marine he is capable of.

While he was home on leave we decided to try to get a few pictures that were 1) blog worthy and 2) wall worthy! Since Hayden has been born, I haven't ever gotten a picture that was good enough to put on my wall. Though they turned out ok, I wish we had gotten one that was a real "that's the one", but these will have to suffice.

This is my favorite for my wall!

Dustin just adores this little guy! And Hayden thought the rocks were.....well interesting!

Daddy had to show him how to pick out the right one...

And Hayden kept a sharp eye on Me-Ma the whole time....

Aren't they both so darn handsome?

And once Hayden figured out what to do with those rocks, he had a blast throwing them in the

water!

Daddy and son stroll hand in hand back to the car.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SON! WE LOVE YOU AND ARE SO PROUD OF YOU!

Happy Birthday Hon!

2009-06-09T14:20:00.001-07:00

I know this is a bit late but, hey, better late than never right?!? It's always hard to celebrate birthdays at our house in our traditional way when they fall on Sunday....and this year that was the case with my hunny. We normally let the birthday "boy/girl" have their pick of what they want for dinner. It used to be that Mom, aka I, would be called on to make my own special pizza or some other favorite out of our kitchen. That all changed with the kids getting older & wiser, (I really do use that term loosely here cause I believe that teenager and wise are contradictory terms!). With age, they realized that Mom and Dad were actually leaving the door open to going out to eat at their choice of restaurant and so, that has become the norm now. Unfortunately, when the big day falls on Sunday, that option usually becomes null and void. Well I have a bit of repenting to do here so I guess I just as well start on it. When asked what he would like for his dinner, he choose Kentucky Fried Chicken. Yummy! Good choice! So I decided I would go pick it up after I got off work on Saturday and just warm it up after church on Sunday while the rest of the fixins were cooking. Great plan + bad day at work = forgetting to buy chicken on Saturday. :-( SOOO, yes I did go and buy my deserving and wonderful husband chicken from KFC on Sunday. Yes, I did break the sabbath by shopping on Sunday. Yes, I do feel bad about it. And yes, it was very yummy!

We had gone out and bought all the plywood to finish out our front porch a couple days before his b'day so he claimed that as his present! What a good man he is! We had a wonderful meal in which four of our six children were present for and had a fun afternoon.
Lee was most entertaining! Give this man a hat and he will entertain not only himself for hours, but everyone and anyone who is around him as well! When he put his hat on like this, I could see the wheels spinning! Can't you just see it in his eyes?!

And then he began pulling crazy faces......which really cracked the kids up......which only encouraged him more!!

And so he continued with him "imaginative play"! He entertained us all for about 20 minutes with his silly hat tricks!

This one is a favorite of the kids! I can't remember what he was doing but it sure did get them laughing!

And, of course, he would occasionally have to take a chuckle break himself! It was a nice, laid-back afternoon that we all honored this wonderful man. He is a very gifted and talented man and I am so very happy to call him my Eternal Companion! I love you Hon!

*On a side note*

This is what we do for fun at our house!

As most of you know, we were blessed to move into a house that had this amazing swimming pool already installed. As most of you probably don't know, after 4 years of blissful summers spent swimming, swimming and more swimming, we discovered we had a major leak in our pool liner. This was at the end of last summer so we just figured we would order a new liner this year and so made the mistake of not covering the pool over the winter. This is pictures of the results of our decision!

Because of many unforeseen things, a new pool liner has not been ordered and is not going to be ordered for a while. But with no chemicals in that water, it was really starting to stink and had become the newest neighborhood pond for turtles and frogs (and a couple snakes which we didn't know about till Lee got into draining it!). So after 3 days of pumping the water out, this was what was left...about 12 inches in the deep end that was filled with leaves and other debris that had blown into the pool. Lee put on some tall rubber boots and then ended up sliding down the slope on his bum (no that was not planned!) to rake the crappy stuff out of the water. It was a nasty job as you can see and he was ever watching for those snakes and anything else that had decided to call this "pond" home! Well, after all his efforts, the leaves are pretty much out and the water level was about 6 inches.....and then the skies opened up! It has rained 3 of the last 5 days and so now that water level is up again. But, hey, at least you can see through the water and not wonder what is in it!

And I had to share this picture with you all! In actuality, Dalton had come out to start the sump pump for Lee, but the picture just shows him watching his Dad work. But what I really wanted you all to see is this....Dalton is 6'3" but look how small he looks standing above that pool wall!! Pretty funny!!

Cale earns top honors!

2009-06-05T14:36:00.001-07:00

For the last day of school, Cale had an awards assembly/program that the parents were invited to. Thankfully it fell on my day off and I got to be there!! Each class got an opportunity to be up front and the teachers were really careful to make sure each child was given an award for something during this time. Then they all took a minute and sang some cute songs to us. Then, each teacher took a minute and handed out a special award to the top student in their class. I was so thrilled to hear Mrs. Craig announce "Cale Rasmussen" as the recipient of her award!! He was equally as thrilled! He really advanced alot this year and "grew" 3 years in reading alone! What a smart little man he is!

Carter and his poor feet!

2009-05-24T19:11:00.000-07:00

When Carter was a little guy, he was outside all summer long and we never had to worry about him getting too sunburned. Well, about the age of 9 or 10 that all changed. Since then, he is prone to getting horrible sunburns if he isn't careful. For the last 3 years his attendance at school has always dropped off during the late springtime because of this. I guess the last two years finally got through to him tho (he always tries to go without sunblock!) cause at the state track meet he was diligent about applying it. Unfortunately, we all failed to think about the tops of his feet. By the time we got to the motel after the first day, I realized our mistake....his feet were so red and just beginning to hurt. We hit a local Walmart and picked up some Aloe Vera which at least took some of the heat out of it for him and he was able to sleep. The next day was cloudy and much colder so he managed to hobble into the meet and just sat in one place. Poor guy! Needless to say, he wasn't able to wear shoes to church that Sunday but could get his boat size feet into my stretchy house slippers! :) Yes, he wore house slippers to church and no they were not pink! But by Monday, his feet were swollen enough that even slippers wouldn't work for school so he ended up missing Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. He finally made it back to school on Thursday, attired in my house slippers once again! Now get this...the principal told him that those shoes were against the dress policy so he would have to wear something different on Friday. Can you believe that?? He even showed her his feet and explained how hard it was to get anything on them at all but she was unwilling to compromise the policy. SOOO I went shopping and found him a pair of flip flops that had a soft strap that went across the top of his feet. Poor guy had to wear those the next day and each step rubbed the top of one big toe and by the time he got home he had a huge blister on that toe. He is now doing much better. They still look horrible but he was able to get real shoes on today to go to church.

What do you think???? Pretty bad huh?

Graduation!!

2009-05-22T12:20:00.000-07:00

Another major milestone has been passed! Tuesday, May 19, 2009 marked the date that child #3, aka Dalton LaVar Rasmussen, crossed the stage and received his HS diploma!! No longer can he use the excuse of, "Come on, Mom, it's my senior year!" I cannot believe how quickly that last year of high school has gone by! Only one year ago, I was watching graduation and fighting back tears as I thought of "my baby" being on that same stage in a years time......and now it is all a thing of the past!

Before graduation!

We, meaning Carter Cale and I, showed up at 6:30 when they opened the doors. The ceremony started at 7:30 but all the seats were gone by 6:40! Lee, Josh, Shannon and the girls got there around 7:15is and had a few minutes to chit chat!

Dalton and his best friend Kyle Rush. They will both be attending NEO in Miami OK and playing football there as well.

13 years of accomplishments all summed up in this one picture!

We couldn't be prouder! He not only graduated with honors but also has a game plan for the future!

Dalton and his girlfriend, Rachel.

Cale was a little sad cause he thought that "graduating" meant that Dalton was leaving to go to college right afterwards! He loves his big brother and I think is gonna have a hard time when he actually does leave to go off to school.

What a blessing my children are to me!! I love them all so very much and am so very grateful to have been blessed to be a mother to such sweet spirits!

All in all, it was a wonderful graduation! AND, I didn't cry!!

STATE TRACK RESULTS!

2009-05-16T22:40:00.000-07:00

As you all know, this past weekend marked the very last high school related sports event for Dalton....okay, I guess that statement is only correct if you don't count the All-Star football game he is playing in next Friday and the All-State football game he will be participating in this July!! :-) But other than those two things this was it! He and 25 other track athletes hopped on the bus to make the 2 hour trek to Moore Oklahoma to compete in the State Track Meet. This was an amazing year for the boys track team. Not only did they qualify a record number of athletes for state but they also earned Collinsville the very first ever title of Regional Champions at the regional meet that was held 2 weekends ago! That was an awesome meet to watch....and hear! Every other name called over the intercom as a winner seemed to be from Collinsville! At that meet, Dalton qualified to compete at the state level in three events: the 2 mile relay team, the 1 mile relay team and the 800 M run. He had only run the 800 one time before that so I was kinda surprised when he told me he was in it, but he got a silver medal at regionals so I figured cool beans!

(Dalton was thrilled to get to stand twice on the podium as a medalist!)

Shelby had some activities that required her to stay in Collinsville, but the rest of us loaded up the van, dropped the dog off at the boarding kennel and started our trip to Moore in plenty of time to get there to watch all the events on Friday. Well, just as we got a good start and were to Tulsa, Vanna's transmission (that's our van) decided to start making some very funky sounds. I guess I should backtrack just a bit...Vanna is our mini van that Lee uses to get back and forth to work. I drive Sadie, which is our newest and bestest car! Well, when I got off work Thursday afternoon, Sadie wouldn't start. After careful and sometimes heated inspection of her, it was determined that the starter had gone out. With us planning on going to Moore the next morning we opted to just drive Vanna and fix Sadie when we got back. Ok, now fast forward back to the funky transmission sounds. Knowing that we had to make a quick decision if we were gonna get there in time to see Dalton's first race, we headed to the airport to rent a car to get us to the track meet in time. You would think that would be a fairly quick thing to do right? NOT! I stood in line at the cheapest looking car rental place, waiting very impatiently I might add, only to hear the words...."Oh, we don't have any cars available." WHAT?!? I headed to the next line...only to have the same gal tell me that she was pretty certain they didn't have any either!! AAGGGHHH! I then asked her if she knew of any of the 20 or so car rental booths had cars and she pointed to the only two "possibles" and I bee lined it! Again, there were lines so Lee came in and stood in one line and I was in the other. I got up to the front only to find there were 3 vehicles available....first was a Yukon, which was the cheapest at $150 a day, next was a 15 passenger van which was only $200 a day and to be honest with you, I have no clue what the third one was cause I had tuned her completely out by then. Can you believe those prices? I about had a cow!!??!! Lee had just made it up to the counter and I cautiously joined him...not really expecting any good outcome. But I guess he is the Lucky Charm in our family cause he got us set up with one that only ended up costing us $150 for two days. Hey, but at least we were gonna get to be there to root our boy on right!

(Waiting for the medal presentation and chit chatting with the other medalists!)

So after just a few snags :-) we were there without any more hitches! It was a lot of fun watching all these kids get to compete at the state level after watching them work so hard each week to get better and stronger at their individual events. Of the 26 athletes, 8 walked away with medals....two of those 8 athletes earned two medals! This is the third time I have been able to witness the state meet and this one was extra special cause I feel a bond with most of the kids that went and so it was more personal for me! They were great sports and did a wonderful job.

(2 mile relay team brought home Silver Medals!)

Dalton was the first leg on the 2 mile relay and did a great job of getting them out in front. The other boys on the relay were able to keep the lead and bring home the title of State Runner Up for the relay! They were ranked 4th overall in the state so they were thrilled to capture the silver!

(Dalton lead the pack during both his laps around the track on the 2 mile relay.)

The next event was a heart breaker for us all. They ran the preliminary round for the 1 mile relay with high expectations. The boys on this relay have worked so hard all season to get their times faster. As a result, they were ranked 2nd in the state, with only a one tenth difference separating first and second place, going into the state meet. While running the prelims, two boys ended up hitting feet the last leg of the relay....one from Collinsville and one from Shawnee. Both boys stumbled a bit but neither fell. Both boys were way out in front of the other 6 so it didn't really make any difference in the out come of the race, but because our boy was in front when their feet hit, they deemed it Collinsville's fault and so disqualified the team.....disappointment doesn't even come close to describing how everyone felt.

(Dalton likes to be the leader of the pack!)

Dalton ran his last event Saturday afternoon. The 800M is a race that has no prelims. They run all 16 qualifiers at the same time and those who finish top 6 earn medals. Well, this can really make for a traffic jam at times! As well as plenty of boys getting boxed in. I must say that Dalton did pretty good about keeping out of those situations the first lap, but the beginning of the second lap found him with boys on three sides and the edge of the track on the other. It took him a full 100M to work out of it and he was back in 10 place or so by then. He was able to turn it on and make it up to 6th before he ran out of track! He was very pleased tho cause he was ranked 16th going into the race and ended up with 6th and another trip to the podium!

Great company+great effort+great kids+great weather=AMAZING WEEKEND!!!

Family Potpouri!

2009-05-11T15:29:00.000-07:00

While Grandma and Grandpa were here they got to go and watch Cale's class participate in their kite flying activity. This was something to behold! You would think that a whole football field would be plenty big enough to allow these kids to fly their kites with no worries of getting tangled together or running into each other....NOT!! There were plenty of tangled lines and lots of "Can you help me?" and tons of laughter and running around! The kids had a blast and the parents did a pretty good job of untangling lines and helping to get those kites up in the air! Once Cale figured it out, he did pretty good!
We took the kids to a local pond that has a bunch of ducks and geese that love to be fed! Well, Cale thought it was pretty cool....at least until those bold geese decided to come closer to collect their snacks! Cale put on a brave front right up until he realized the goose was going to come and take what he wanted to eat! Then he started doing the butt scoot boogie!

After the goose got a chunk of bread and stopped "closing in" on Cale, my little man thought it was pretty cool again! In fact, he decided t be brave by hand feeding him the next chunk....(see below!)

(click on this picture and see it up close)

So much for being brave!

We got to see Hayden a lot more than we thought we would and the kids just ate him up! He had so much fun with them and they had equally as much fun with him! Here he is getting a big dose of Aunty Shelby lovin'!

Shelby texted me when she was on her band trip and told me that she had gotten a new puppy. Knowing she was at an amusement park, I kinda put two and two together and figured she was the proud new owner of a stuffed animal! BUT I was not in the least prepared for the size of this new puppy! It is huge and Cale loves it!

Hayden loved being with his Uncle Carter...and vice versa!! Look at those cute faces!! Can't you tell they were having fun?!

Cale completely idolizing his big brother Dalton and he was in hog heaven when Dalton agreed to play on the swings with him at the park!

One of the times we had Hayden over, he ran across this HULK mask of Cale's. He sure did think it was cool! He couldn't see out of it very well so Cale followed closely behind him to make sure he didn't run into anything!

Band Awards!

2009-05-09T22:01:00.000-07:00

About a week ago the band hosted a catered "banquet" and social get-together for the students and their families. It was held on a Sunday after church so, we opted to go in support of the band but to not purchase the catered part. There were many finger foods that the families brought as appetizers so we all got our tummies full :-) Anyway, after everyone finished eating, the director got up and just kind of did a replay of the years accomplishments. Then he surprised us by announcing there were going to be a couple awards. He first explained the award and then named the lucky student. Well, the first award was described as being given mostly to underclassmen, (grades 8 -10) and was given to a student who displayed leadership, discipline, and an overall complete package of excellence. Yep.....you guessed it......My sweet Shelby was the lucky recipient of this one! She was completely shocked! Actually so was I! But not because I didn't think she deserved it. I was so surprised because I didn't have a clue that there were gonna be any awards at all! There were three other awards that were given out. One recognized excellence in the jazz band and was given to a Junior boy. Then, the Drum Major was awarded a trophy for his leadership and performance. And last of all, they presented an 8th grade young man with the most improved award! It was a wonderful time and Shelby is so dedicated and committed to her music and the band program so I am so very happy that she received special recognition for her efforts!

Shelby was caught a bit by surprise!

The lucky four!

Senior Portraits!

2009-05-03T17:09:00.000-07:00

Okay so I FINALLY got Dalton to agree to go out with me so I could shoot a few pictures worthy to be called Senior Pictures! Nothing like putting it off to the last minute huh?!?! Lee came along with us and helped with the settings and posing and I think we did pretty good for a couple of amateurs! It only took about 35 to 40 minutes and could have been done so very long ago....but at least I can finally check it off my to-do list! Here is a sampling for you all to check out. AND most importantly, feedback on favorites is most appreciated! #1
#2

#10

#11 (put this one on by mistake!)

#12

#13

*Sweet 16*********

2009-04-26T19:24:00.003-07:00

My dear, sweet Shelby celebrated her 16th birthday this past Thursday.....where has the time gone? I can remember bringing her home from the hospital, all dressed up in her pretty little pink dress complete with the little elastic bow that went around her little head. She was such a beautiful and good baby.....qualities that have followed her through her life! She has grown into a beautiful and good young woman! I am so very proud of the lady she is becoming and so very happy to have been blessed with her sweet spirit to be a part of our family!Shelby continues to make good and solid choices in her life. She is such a choice spirit and definitely an elect daughter of God. I am so thankful for her spiritual strength. Never one to worry about stepping out of the "traditional" approach to things, Shelby opted to forego the sweet and yummy birthday cake for a healthier alternative.....a fruit tray! I must admit that it was way, way more yummy AND way, way more expensive!! But, hey, you only turn 16 once, right?!?!

Shelby wanted to say thanks to Grandpa Var & Grandma Jo and Grammie & Grandad for the cards and added contents that she got!

And as you can tell from this picture, Cale was extremely anxious that Shelby open her gifts...in fact, that is one of the first things he said when he woke up....and the first think he said when he got home from school.....AND the continuous question we heard until she did sit down to open them! This pictures shows her opening up what Cale got her. If you look close you will see that it is a tube of lip balm.....She was so funny when she opened it up to smell it and realized that it was used! In truth, Cale just happened to find this in the driveway that afternoon and decided it was perfect for Shelby's birthday gift!

And now to explain our main gift to our dear Shelby. Here she is holding her gift which has rubber bands wrapped around it!

After removing the rubber bands, Shelby unfolds the paper to reveal what is inside........

Which just so happens to be a ROCK........see!

Then she proceeds to read the paper that the rock was wrapped up in and figures out exactly what her gift is! Shelby has been wanting a membership to the local gym here in Collinsville for a while now and so we decided that would probably make a pretty good birthday present...the problems began almost as soon as that decision was made! Seems this local gym that is so very popular with almost everyone in Collinsville has a huge stumbling block......noone is ever there working the desk to take your money and give you a membership!!! Seriously, I went up there at 5 different times, all of which were within their posted operational hours, and noone was ever there. SO, determined mother that I am, I decided calling just might be the way to go to get results....NOT! I called 5 times to no avail. I seriously do not know how they make any money at this gym...unless, of course, that we are the only family left in Collinsville that doesn't have a membership!! So, after all these failed attempts, I came up with the next best thing to the real thing. I got on my handy dandy computer and printed up a generic MEMBERSHIP form complete with Shelby's name and birthdate, had Carter go outside and get a good size rock, wrapped the membership form around the rock using several rubberbands, and dropped it all into a gift bag. Waaa Laaa! I guess you all probably need to know the name of the gym to really appreciate my creativity in all this tho! The name of this infamous place is THE ROCK!! Anyway, she was really excited once she figured it out!

This is a picture of Shelby with Dalton's friend Rachel. Rachel called me about two weeks before Shelby's birthday to see if I was ok with her giving Shelby tickets to go see Taylor Swift in concert as a birthday gift.....who am I to say no to such a generous and thoughtful gift! Once I knew that Shelby was getting this, I also knew that it really didn't matter much what we got her....nothing could come close to beating this one!! And Shelby was indeed thrilled! Knowing in advance about this, Dalton gave her a gift certificate to Olive Garden so now Rachel and Shelby will be able to go to dinner and then the concert. Sounds fun, huh??!!

Sweet Reunion!!

2009-04-24T19:03:00.000-07:00

We are so very happy to have Dustin back with us.....even if it is only for a short time! He flew in on Tuesday and we have been doing alot of catching up every since!! I am also pleased as punch to report that he has also been able to spend some time with Hayden. We all met at the park in Owasso and got to spend a couple of hours playing and watching him. You know, if you haven't taken time lately to just sit back and watch the wonder of a small child.....you should! They are so energetic, and curious, and energetic, and adventurous, and FAST! He was such a delight to watch! It was nice to get to watch Dustin interact with him and watch the two of them get reacquainted. Hayden was a little bashful at first but that didn't last long....this little smile is evident of that!
As you can tell, Dustin was thrilled to get to spend some time with this little man! And Hayden loved the slide and big toy!

We played a little ball.......okay, actually, Hayden did alot of throwing and we all did alot of 'running' to get it! The wind was blowing like crazy which meant fishing balls out of the pond almost became a past time for Carter!

Hayden and Cale had fun crawling through this tunnel!

Anything those big boys can do, I can do too!! Hayden was determined to climb up on top of this tunnel and spend some quality time with Cale and Carter!! His little legs were dangling because he was pulling himself up on that bar trying so hard to get up there.

I love this picture! Dustin is such a fun dad! He loves to wrestle and rough house with Hayden and as you can see, Hayden loves it too!

(One of my favorite shots!) Before the two hours were up, it was as if these two hadn't been apart from each other at all!!

Fun times!

And no trip to the park is complete without a push in the swing!

Carter got a bit tired of running to the other side of the pond/lake to fish out the balls that blew over there so decided to take a break.....except Hayden wanted to play!

It was a wonderful time spent together just getting reacquainted and, of course, taking lots and lots of pictures! I am almost.....I repeat...."almost" embarrassed to admit that I took 160 pictures in that short two hour visit! Yes, I am a photo taking fool....and yes, I will probably take that many or more during our next reunion!

Flower Power!

2009-04-22T17:00:00.001-07:00

My previous post was made possible simply because we "borrowed" Grandpa Var's vast knowledge and experience in successful gardening. Well, we were also able to "borrow" Grandma Jo's abundant knowledge in the flower area as well!!! Those who know me, know very well that a green thumb is nowhere close to a proper description of my skills with plants, so I was thrilled when JoAnne offered to help us get our pots beautified with flowers! First thing we did was to go and find the perfect flowers for us. There were many varieties and colors to choose from and JoAnne knew all about each kind and the right planting procedures.....Thank goodness those little plastic information sticks come along with the flowers to keep my teeny, brown thumb brain familiar with them all!! Anyway, Carter and Shelby went along on the trip and helped us. It was a fun adventure!

Next, we picked out those blossoms that were not quite so pretty and those that the stems got broken during the trip home. Shelby found a good use for this one!!

Never the one to sit idle, Grandpa put himself to use cutting potato seeds to plant in the garden. (Just a little inside info for you all......LaVar just about wore Lee out!! He works so hard and is like the Energizer Bunny--always going!)

My official job is always the camera person! (A job I really do enjoy having!) But Shelby stepped in to help "learn" all that was needed to have beautiful flowers through the summer. I am hoping that she inherited some of Grandma's green thumbness!

And then it came down to just diggin' in and playing in the dirt! There were eight pots that were adorned....and I am very proud to inform you that there are STILL eight pots with beautiful flowers in them! I have not killed any of them....WOO HOO! Of course it hasn't been that long since the official planting, but I have been known to kill things off pretty quick! I promise to post updates on our garden and flowers progress through the summer.

Shelby really got into the planting! She is such a little homemaker already!

Grandma and Shelby in the process of finishing up the planting.

And just in case any of you were wondering where Carter and Cale were while this was going on.....

Carter's back was bothering him so he spent the day at home, resting and icing it. When it came time to go outside, his idea of "helping" was stretching out under a blanket!

And although I didn't get a picture of it, Cale took it upon himself to be the official tormentor! While Carter was stretched out in his "helping" position, Cale would quietly sneak up and pop him on the head and then run off giggling! This went on for some time before I had to finally step in and rein in the tormentor! All in all, everyone had a pretty good time....ok, everyone but Carter!

How Does My Garden Grow??

2009-04-20T06:42:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows that Grandpa Var and Grandma Jo came and spent some time with us. We had a wonderful time with them and really enjoyed their company! While they were here, a fringe benefit for us was that there were a number of things that got checked off our to-do list!! :-) One of those things was getting our garden plot figured out, prepared and also planted. I have included a few pics to show the work in progress!! First, you must have a supervisor! Bella seems to have a pretty good handle on that job....
Then you must have willing participants to crawl, bend and stoop....

Another needed factor is someone who can create those straight rows....

Okay, so maybe a little help from Grandma and Grandpa and a garden hose does help with the straight part of that job....

Grandpa was set to spray just about everything for bugs.....including my camera...

And a very necessary element is to step back and observe, ponder and REST....

One end of the garden is planted with only "hill" produce. Grandpa is digging homes for squash, cucumbers, and other yummy stuff....

Lee is taking a moment to show Shelby how important it is to get those plants out of that little plastic home with their roots intact. (I guess there was some giggling that went along with this step! Seems Dad had a difficult time with parts of this demonstration!)....

And then there is the community planting session! Everyone just had to get their hands in that dirt...

More planting combined with some pretty vital watering...

And when it is all plowed, raked, rowed, planted, covered and watered.....well then it is time for hugs and atta girl/boys!....

Waaa Laaa......the finished product! Looks pretty good don't ya think??!! Okay, I know it really just looks like a square patch of plowed dirt.....but vision is required here. Look at it again and imagine rows of beautiful green plants and ample supply of beans, peas, potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, onions, cucumbers, squash.....do ya see it now??

Any of you who feel the desire to come and partake of our bounteous harvest are more than welcome!!

The Sound of Music!

2009-04-14T14:07:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday evening we were privileged to be entertained at the Collinsville Crimson Cadets Ensemble Night. And it was absolutely amazing too! There were a number of small groups that did solo performances.....including a flute number which Shelby was part of....and then the grand finale was a literal performance by the percussion section of the band. Shelby and her fellow fluties did an awesome job on their piece. They sounded so clear and sweet!! Shelby and her friend Casey before they performed.
The flute ensemble.

The best flutist!!

Awwww...it's over!

There were also a couple of girls that performed their color guard solos. This girl placed first at state with her performance.

And then they began the grand finale.......and boy was it GRAND! It was mesmerizing, moving, and absolutely amazing! Even my not so very fond of band events sons were impressed with it! I was on the floor taking pictures but Lee said that Carter and Cale were completely engrossed with the whole thing. The color guard did a number of flowing dances with their flags but the main focus was the drum line with their multiple type of drum performances. I wish I could express through this post the impact of this musical performance. It was definitely one of my favorites so far!

Drum line.

Another drum line picture.

I am so very glad that Shelby is part of this great group of talented youth. She loves everything about it and is a definite asset to their talent.

Birthday Joys!

2009-04-12T19:31:00.001-07:00

Even though I had to work, my birthday was still wonderful!! During the day, I received phone calls and text messages from all my brothers, my sis in law, my aunt, my "daughter" in Arizona, my hubby, my momma and all my children! And then when I got home and I found this beautiful flower arrangement waiting on the table! Thank you all for making me feel so loved!

Teacher Ordination

2009-04-10T20:08:00.000-07:00

One of the wonderful things that come along with turning 14 is having the opportunity to advance in the priesthood to the office of a teacher. Although Carter's birthday was over a month ago, he wasn't ordained until this past Wednesday evening. And that is because when he found out that Grandma and Grandpa were coming out to visit, he decided that he would rather wait so Grandpa could be a part of the ordination. We had it set up to happen on the first Sunday they were suppose to be here......but because of a big, bad snowstorm that blew through Oklahoma on Friday and Saturday, they ended up snowed in at Keith's ranch. And then the next Saturday and Sunday were General Conference so we settled for a Wednesday night during Young Mens. Lee ordained him and Brother Halsey and LaVar stood in as well. It was wonderful! I am so very proud of Carter and the choices he is making in his life. This has proven to be such a growing time for my young man, both physically and spiritually. He has grown so tall and matured so much in his features in the past few months. I was looking at him just two days ago and realized that he doesn't look like a boy anymore.....he looks like a young "man".....literally! Brought tears to my eyes, (both sad and happy tears!). But besides his phsyical changes, I have noticed a spiritual growth as well. He is much more open and willing to discuss and listen to gospel related things. I guess he has always been willing to listen, but now he takes an active part in it. His countenance just shows a pleasant and focused young man! He is a great son and I know he will be a great teacher. Grandma Jo, Carter and Grandpa Var on Carters special night!

And we couldn't let the moment pass without a picture of all of us!

Im Baaaaaack~!!

2009-04-09T15:25:00.000-07:00

This was our "pioneers" as they were making the last leg of their journey.....The closer they got to us, the faster their steps became! Even tho they really enjoyed the whole experience, I think they were all extremely anxious to see us! Carter's family was one of the last families in the train. Can you tell he was thrilled to see us?! (The picture I took of Shelby and her family didn't turn out .... my fault....I didn't check the settings on my camera before I took the picture and it was way, way overexposed.)

I have to be honest....I think I was actually the one that was most excited at the end of the trek. I was so very happy to have my kiddos back again!

And Lee was feeling pretty much the same way!! There were hugs all the way around!

This is a scene that doesn't happen everyday!! They were so happy to see each other! Can you tell by the looks on Shelby and Carters faces that they had a wonderful time?

While we were waiting on the kids to top the horizon, Cale was propped up on the fence checking out his surroundings. All of a sudden he says, "Hey, look! Camels!" Those camels turned out to be a couple of mules the teamster was unhitching! Such a city boy!! So, we had to take advantage of the situation and get pictures of Cale beside an Oklahoma "camel"!

Ok, I must be honest.....we have had our computer back for at least a week but I just haven't had time to get on here long enough to post. And, once again, I find myself way behind on all the things that I deem "blog worthy"! I guess I will begin with updating you all on the pioneer trek Shelby and Carter went on. They had an amazing experience! Lee, Cale and I went up to meet them when they came to the "end of the trail", (so to speak!). We got there a little early and so were able to kinda check out the area and get a glimpse at what kind of "trekking" they kids really did. Let me tell you....they were really trekking. It was all raw ground that was inhabited by approx. 30,000 head of cattle and full of stickers, holes, ruts, hills, creeks and grass/weeds that hadn't been cut back and lots and lots and lots of cow manure. They really did get a real life idea of how difficult it was for the pioneers. There were 100 youth and 50 support people that were able to participate and they were divided into 12 family units, complete with a Ma and Pa. Carter was a member of the Ellsworth family and Shelby was in the Brown family. They experienced pulling/pushing handcarts through creeks and up hills, meeting and trading with the indians, the "men" leaving with the Mormon Battalion, the "women" pulling/pushing the handcarts alone and many, many other spiritual and testimony building experiences. I was so impressed with the whole group of youth. We were allowed to attend the testimony meeting held before the kids were released to go home and I was so touched by the testimonies that were bore. These kids really got it. Of course the womens pull was the biggest and most difficult experience for most of them. The girls each learned they were much stronger, (physically-spiritually-mentally), than they thought. They shared how they felt as they had to push those handcarts up a very steep hill, (after tredging through a creek first). They all pitched in and helped where necessary. And while this was going on, the guys were all silently watching from the top of the hill. They were all told they could only watch....not help or give advice or even talk to the girls during this ordeal. They were allowed to watch this experience unfold as if they were not actually there. Man was it hard for those guys too. By the time the girls finally got all the handcarts up the hill, I guess there was not a dry eye among the guys. It was the most difficult thing the guys had to go through during the whole trek......watching those "women" struggle, collapse, get back up and push themselves harder than they thought possible. I think a respect for women and womanhood was one of the many lessons those guys learned. I could go on and on about this but I'm sure I would just bore you to death with it! I will just close by saying that I am so very thankful to belong to a church that feels it is important to have these kind of activities for our young people. And that I am thankful my children were able to experience all the "hardships" they did....I really think they have a better understanding of the sacrifice our pioneer ancestors made and how strong their testimonies must have been to carry them through all the difficult struggles they endured.

No News :-(

2009-03-25T18:36:00.000-07:00

Just so you all know what is going on......our computer is having to go to the doctor for surgery and so we will be offline for anywhere from 2 to 3 weeks.

The downside is.....well, no computer. :-(

The upside is that at least it is covered under the warranty so we don't have to pay anything!! :-) (Gotta look for the good in every situation!)

So until next month......

Pioneer Children Sang as the Walked and walked and walked!!

2009-03-19T08:06:00.000-07:00

To preface the pictures: The youth in our stake were able to participate in a pioneer handcart trek as part of their spring break this year. There is a ranch the church owns about and hour north of us and that is where this is all going to take place. There are actual handcarts the "families" will be using which will haul their allotted 17 pound pack (per family member), water, food and shelter. The kids left this morning, (via chartered buses!!) to head up to the church ranch. I know, how crazy is that! Riding a chartered bus to go to your pioneer trekking activity. I guess a little pampering is a good thing before they get shell shocked into pioneer reality!!

Anyway, I only got to visit a bit with some of the leaders that are going so don't have the whole scoop....but it sounds like it is going to be such an amazing experience for them. I think it will be a spiritual, physical, mental and emotional roller coaster ride! They will actually be hiking/trekking the whole way....a route that amounts to 2o+ miles....pushing/pulling their handcarts the whole way. They will be crossing numerous creeks, trudging across ground that over 30,000 cattle occupy (plenty of 'buffalo' chips to dodge!), making and breaking their own campsites, sleeping out in the night....you get the general idea??!!! Along with these physical struggles they will also have numerous "family" counsels, work together as a family sharing in the duties to ensure that no one is over or under worked, hear boo coo pioneer stories around the campfires, participate in a hoe down, have multiple firesides & devotionals , experience a silent walk, sing praises unto Zion, play games like stick pulling, hatchet throwing, bark removal, tug of war, and gunny sack races and I think they are even going to have an Indian encounter. Doesn't it make you want to be with them.....experiencing it all right along beside them?? I know I sure wish I were! I know it is going to be such a memory making experience for both of them and I can hardly wait to hear the stories they have to share with us!

I have to put in my little blurbs here....they were given strict instructions as to packing their personal gear. It all had to fit inside a 5 gallon bucket with a lid. Do you have any idea how hard that is to do??? I literally had to put both knees on top of Carters lid and bounce as I was pushing on the edge of the lid to get it to snap shut!!! They each took an extra set of shoes inside their bucket and Carter has some pretty big feet so I am thinking that is why his was so hard to shut!! Anyway, that was a a memory maker in and of itself! I told him to stand back as he tries to open it cause that lid is gonna go flying!! Also, the girls were told that makeup was not part of the daily pioneer routine....so no makeup! That caused alot of anxiety, but I'm sure they will get over that by the time they have to hike their skirts and weave in and around all those piles of dung!!

We get to go up on Saturday and be there as our kids crest their final hill before making it to "Zion". We will be standing below, they will see us as they top the hill, and we will be waving our white hankies! I get all teary eyed just thinking of that moment --- already. Man am I a boob or what???!!!

We thought a pose similar to those taken way back then would be appropriate....you know, solemn faced and no smile. I think they still look so dang cute!

And then the bubbly side had to show! It's hard to be around these two and not feel the giggles start!

Sorry Carter!!! I know I wasn't suppose to post this picture but it is priceless and must be shared with our loved ones!! One of the required dress items for the men was that they wear suspenders. When the kids were getting ready for my blog picture taking session, Carter got those suspenders all set up and then attached them in all the right spots and this was the end result!! What a hoot it was!! He finally got them adjusted right and he looked pretty darn good! I was telling them they would both probably be married or marrying age if they were true pioneers....now there is a thought to ponder!!

Carter brings home the GOLD!!

2009-03-19T07:58:00.000-07:00

Carter brought home his first GOLD medal for track! He was so excited that it adorned his neck all through the evening when he got home from the track meet AND it helped to balance out his outfit at school the next day!!

This is his first year to officially run the hurdles but he is doing great there. The coach is impressed with his ability to watch someone perform a proper approach and jump & then go out there and do it himself! He is still learning and working on getting his steps just right but I think he is going to accomplish some great things if he continues to work so hard!

The medal he got was actually for a 2 mile relay team that he is a part of. He is the second leg of the relay and at this particular track meet, his team was in 4th place when he got the baton. He was able to get them into first place and the other two boys maintained that lead......bringing home the gold! WOOO HOOO!!

My Little Man is 7!

2009-03-19T07:35:00.001-07:00

The big day finally arrived! He was so excited to have his birthday!

Birthday candles are just as much fun to blow out as they are to light!

This little guy was sooooo excited to open presents! I really think I could have taken random items from around the house, wrapped them up as gifts, let him open them and he would have been just as excited to open them as he was with these! It's all about the whole opening presents and throwing that paper around I guess!! (Too bad I didn't think of this BEFORE going shopping!)

One of his gifts was a LEGO kit that you can select one of three different type of aircraft to build. After all the wrapping paper was distributed haphazardly around the family room floor, this was the first plane we built!

And no birthday is complete without birthday cards from Grandma and Grandpa & Grammie and Grandad! Thanks! Cale loved them!

Happy Birthday to my little man! I sure do love you and am so glad you had such an amazing day! Your enthusiasm for life makes my days SOOOOOO much more......well lets just say adventuresome!

***I'm not sure if I added to my blog that Cale has decided it is indeed okay for mom to call him her "little man" afterall! As earlier stated, he had issues with it....but apparently those issues have been resolved in his little head and I am extremely happy to have been re-granted (is that even a word???) this privilege!!

Hubby Tag!!**

2009-03-15T20:02:00.000-07:00

Okay I am slow to get this done but am now getting around to posting my tagged topic!! (Slow and steady always wins the race tho, right?!?!)

Here goes...I hope this doesn't offend or tarnish that perfect image you all have of me, Lee and our marriage!! HEHEHE LOL!

1. Where did you meet your husband? I was living in California with my oldest brother Greg. One day I got home from work to find this totally, knock down, handsome guy sitting on our couch! Lee worked with my brother at Rockwell and they had plans to go out "partying" together that night so Lee was just there hanging out till Greg was ready to go. Well, I was immediately smitten with this dude! I flirted a bit and was kinda bent out of shape when he didn't seem to respond. He later claimed that the ring I was wearing on my left hand gave him the impression I was already married so was therefore off limits. To his credit, I did indeed have a ring on my finger! I found out where they were going...which just happened to be where I always went anyway and asserted myself later that evening by insisting he dance with me to keep this "other guy" from bugging me. The rest is history!!

2. How long did you date before you were married? Well, we met in January or February and got married in October.....after much persuasion on his part! :-)

3. How long have you been married? We have been sealed for time and all eternity for 20 years this coming August and married for 23 years this coming October.

4. What does he do to surprise me? Hmmmm well, he surprises me with 'sugar' texts throughout the day. I am so thankful for that modern technology!! And lately he has been busy busy working on finishing up some projects around the house. He has been known to bring home flowers but I think I kinda put the damper on that because I am just too cheap.... love the flowers but always think of ways we could better spend that money!! Yep, I am a cheapo!

5. My favorite feature of his? I love his eyes, especially when he is in his mischievious mood and laughing! They sparkle and light up! I also love his hands. They are working man hands and all scraped up, scratched up, scarred and rough....a testimony of the life he has lived and the work he has done.

6. What is his best quality? His knowledge and talents. He is definitely a jack of all trades....except electricity! He can do it, but doesn't like it at all! He is amazing with what he know how to do. He also keeps himself in the loop as far as knowing what is going on in the world.

7. Nickname he has for you? Well, we have been Hon to each other for years but lately I have noticed he calls me babe alot. I like both!

8. His favorite food? Toss up between Chinese and lobster and crab legs!

9. His favorite sport? I believe that would be football....but he actually enjoys watching any sport his kids are participating in.

10. Where and when did you first kiss? Come on you have to be kidding me?!?!? I cannot even keep my own kids names straight most of the time so how in the world am I suppose to remember when we first kissed? Lets just say that we have definitely kissed into the six digit figure range (at least!)

11. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? Well this answer will probably be different if you ask him but my favorite thing to do as a couple is to get out there and tackle a project together!! Work seems to be my favorite past time! I also miss our chit chat sessions all snuggled up in bed in the evening/morning ...something that has all but disappeared since I have started work.

12. Do you have any children? We have 6 amazing children. Shannon - 27, Dustin 21, Dalton 18, Shelby 15, Carter 14 and Cale 7. They are the joy in our lives, (as well as the pain in our.....well you know what I mean to say there!)

13. Does he have any hidden talents? You know what they say about hiding your talents? You lose them if you don't use them. Fortunately, Lee has had to use most of his talents throughout our married life. If I had to pick one or two I would pick the artistic and musical ones. He thinks he isn't good at either but we all know better!

14. How old is he? He is 45 and will be 46 in May. He has a head full of "blond" hair too!

15. Who said I love you first? This is another of those "you gotta be kidding" questions for me!! If I have to venture a guess I would say probably Lee said it first. He also proposed to me multiple times before I would even consider jumping into being married again. (Had a bad taste in my mouth from it and couldn't even imagine marriage ever being a good thing. Boy was I way off base!)

16. What is his favorite music? He really is well rounded as far as music goes. EXCEPT for the new hard rock and rap...has no use for either one!

17. What do I admire most about him? I admire alot about him. He is a bundle of information. He is a very knowledgeable guy....really. He loves learning about stuff. And it always seems to be something that benefits our family too. He is also very gifted as far as common duties around the house. You know....like car stuff and remodelling stuff and things that you just cant afford to pay someone else to do when you have a big family! He is a good provider for our family. Throughout the years, he has had to do many side jobs and extras to keep our family fed and sheltered. He has a great knowledge of the gospel as well. AND he has never once forgotten my birthday! I just love alot of things about this guy!

18. What is his favorite color? I think it is red...

19. Will he read this? You bet. He is one of my favorite blog followers!

I must admit that was kinda fun!! Hope I didn't bore any of ya....or embarrass my dear sweet hubby!

Winter Band Concert and Coronation

2009-03-02T07:46:00.002-08:00

We had the privelege of going and listening to the high school band perform their winter concert a bit ago. I always enjoy their performances so much. They really have alot of sound and play so very well together. Before the concert, they held their annual King/Queen coronation. Since I take pics for the paper, I got there a little early to get a few shots for the paper and so that I could just enjoy the concert without worrying about getting the perfect picture. I thought I would share this picture of some of Shelby's fellow band nerds with you! They are a good bunch of kids and Shelby really likes the Jennifer, the Queen. She is a fellow flute and has always been so very nice to Shelby!

Then while I was sitting waiting on the High School band to take their places after the middle school had performed, I realized I just had to snap a couple pics for my blog!! (That is almost always foremost in my mind!) So I grabbed up my camera real quick and got this cute shot of Shelby as she is headed down to take her spot. Can you tell she loves what she does? What a blessing she is to me and what a gift she has been given by Heavenly Father!

She is only a freshman but is talented enough to hold down second chair all year long! I think she is good enough to challenge the first chair girl (a junior)...(in fact the first chair girl has told her the same thing), but she doesn't think she will do it. There are a total of 9 flutes so that is quite an accomplishment! AND, we finally found an amazing tutor for her and so I figure she is just gonna take off and fly! She has had a couple of different tutors in the past. Something that hasn't exactly been cheap. I just never saw that they helped her that much. Well, the band director was telling Shelby about this new tutor he found that he wanted her to go to. Well, she is actually in our ward at church! She is older than the other two tutors we've used and after only one lesson, both Shelby and I were quite impressed! I think Shelby will really advance now! What a gem she is!

Basketball Homecoming 2009

2009-03-02T07:46:00.001-08:00

This is the whole basketball royalty court. I can't believe these kids are all seniors already. They have been a fun bunch to watch grow up!

Dalton and his buddy Kyle with the girls they escorted.

This is Dalton with Linsey Curtis.

And this is the real reason he plays basketball!! The foo foo stuff is just stuff for us parents!

He can really jump high! It sometimes amazes me how high he gets up there!

It has been a lot of fun watching Dalton play basketball. It went from being his favorite sport to his least favorite! LOL I guess maybe he just got burn out from doing it for so many years??? Anyway, he is still a pretty good ball player and Lee and I both really have a good time watching. With that said, we are still glad to see the season finally over....for multiple reasons. First and probably the most selfish reason is that now we will have more time to spend at home...hopefully keeping busy taking care of all those things that didn't get done during football and basketball season! AND it was not a very fun year to watch the actual games because of the way the coaches did things/or didn't do things. It was a pretty mixed up crazy kinda year that only got worse as the season progressed. Enough said!

I am already considering optional time fillers for next year when we don't have varsity basketball on our schedules at all!! he he he!! Oh how I am scheming!

School is Cool!

2009-03-02T07:45:00.002-08:00

Cale invited me to come to his Valentines Party this year at school. He was quite worried that I wouldn't be able to go because of my work, so I am very thankful that it all worked out and I got to go. Of course I had to take my camera too so that I could share with all of you! I have decided that food is way too abundant at these parties. They kids had four stations that they rotated to with different activities at each station. The first was a cookie decorating station. They got to decorate their cookie with their choice of frosting and toppings (there were some very elaborate ones as well as some Plain Jane sugar cookies.) Can you guess who had the most ornate one tho!!??? Yep! The next station was where they each got a goodie bag to check out. Cale got a little ball and two pencils among other items in his. His little imagination turned those pencils into hockey sticks and the ball into a puck and he spent his 10 minutes playing table hockey! Next they moved onto the game table. Who knew they could use food as a game too?? They were each given a small baggie with about 10 of the medium size candy hearts that have sayings on them. Then they were challenged to build a tower with them. The pictures below show Cale's concentration on this challenge. After MANY, MANY attempts he finally conquered the challenge! His delight is evident by the picture~! Then for the last station they guess what they had......refreshments?!?! YIKES! I know why they plan these parties for the last part of the day. Those teachers do not want to deal with 20+ kids and their sugar high! Cale had alot of fun at his party!

I think I can, I think I can.....

I knew I could, I knew I could!!

Then they planned a crazy hat day in honor of Dr. Seuss. I have to admit that I completely spazzed getting him a hat lined up till the day before. I was walking through the Easter aisle at work that day and spotted this really cool basketball shaped Easter basket....and that prompted my memory! Oh yeah, Cale needs a crazy hat for tomorrow. SO, I took that as inspiration and decided if I turned that basket upside down, it became a pretty cool crazy hat.....what do ya think?? It did take a bit of persuasion to get Cale on board tho! He finally decided it was so cool that he ended up wearing it on the bus on the way to school too! When he got home he was telling me about all the crazy hats......"there was even one kid that wore a basketball on his head", he said. What a kid he is!

Carter turns 14!!!!

2009-03-02T07:45:00.001-08:00

I cannot believe my sweet little chubby cheeked, soft spoken baby boy just celebrated his 14th birthday. Where has all the years run off to??? My goodness! All I can say is that I am so very glad that Carter is still my sweet heart....he may not have those chubby cheeks and has become quite loud when he feels the need.....but he is still that sweet little boy of yester years! Just in a bigger package! I must say that he is definitely maturing into quite a handsome young man too! I just love his smile in this picture. That smile defines his personality! He is just an amazing kid! Every year, our birthday babe gets to pick what they want for dinner. It used to be quite common for them to request moms homemade pizza...I say it used to be!! But since they have grown old enough to realize they also have the choice of going "out to eat", that has become the favorite pick! This year Carter's birthday fell on a Sunday so we opted to go out to his restaurant of choice on Saturday evening. He chose a family favorite, El Tequila. Yep, its a mexican joint that serves yummy food and has a great waiting staff. Unfortunately, they also have a big birthday sombrero that is required to be worn while they serenade with their version of "Happy Birthday!" For this reason alone, Carter thought he would rather eat somewhere else. But after I assured him that I would not tell them about his birthday that is where we headed. WELLLLL, I stayed true to my word and did not say a word to the waiter.....BUT we have this little munchkin (otherwise known as Cale) in our family that quietly listened to the whole ordeal before going to the restaurant, quietly sat thru the ordering process, and made it thru about half the meal before he caught the attention of our waiter and without any hesitation called him over, pointed to Carter and simply said-----Birthday Boy! Cracked us all up! That kid just never ceases to entertain us with his antics! Carter was even cackling over it. Of course, he also was the first to finish his plate and prompt the rest of us to hurry up so we "can go"! We dallied as long as we possibly could before finally thinking the waiter must not have believed Cale. Carter headed to the door, the rest of us were getting our jackets on and then the waiter comes over with the little b'day cake and seemed a little sad that they weren't gonna get to sing to Carter afterall! It was all pretty funny and was a definite memory maker!

So on Sunday, Carter got to open his gifts. I have to input my mother opinion here. I think that once your child hits about 12 or so, gifts shouldn't be a part of birthdays anymore. Now I will clarify so that no one thinks I am just being an old stink bug! I really stress big time about these birthday presents. The older my kids get, the more expensive the "toys" become. AND I've also realized that my children do not need anything. If there is something they need throughout the year, we go and pick it up for them. There is no more of that putting it on your wish list stuff that still works with Cale :) So, just what am I suppose to do when it comes to birthday gifts??? See my dilemma? So if it ever comes to a vote, I will be voting to nix the presents! Until then, I will continue to stress and worry!
Carter isn't really a big sweet eater so the cake was something that I pretty much had to force on him....with Cales help of course!! I must say that it was really yummy too!

Along with turning 14 comes moving up in the priesthood to the office of a teacher. He will also get to go to the stake dances now....something that I think is gonna take a bit of persuasion to get to happen! Wish us luck!

Daddy Daughter Date!

2009-03-02T07:40:00.000-08:00

Lee and Shelby got to go to the annual Daddy/Daughter date this year and had a wonderful time....as usual! They have missed the last two years because of one reason or another so it was something that Shelby was really looking forward to. In fact, she ended up having to cancel another activity over at OSU in Stillwater just so she could go with her Daddy!!! Awww aint that sweet!?!? That just shows you how very much she loves doing this with the old man!!

Don't they look like they are gonna have a wonderful time together? Lee took her out to a restaurant for dinner first and then the went to the stake center for the dance and activities. I don't know what part is their favorite but it seems to me that Shelby really looks forward to getting the letter that Dad writes to her each time they go. Occassionally they let me read the letters they exchange and it makes me so happy to read the sweet stuff they write!

And this is what poor Shelby has to put up with!! Actually this is what makes it so fun for her I think!! They ended up having a grand time eating, dancing and posing for pics together. I think Lee might be getting too old for Shelby tho cause he mentioned that she may have been a bit disappointed in his dancing this time!! I don't know if he meant his "dated" dance moves or his limited dancing ability due to that nasty old word "age"!

Basketball Senior Night!

2009-03-02T07:06:00.000-08:00

Lee and I got to experience our last sports related Senior night with Dalton this past month. It was a sad/happy event for us! As usual, I always get this little lump in my throat as I check off my mental check list those things that I get to experience with each of my 'babies' before they leave my nest and go out into that great big world that wants to swallow them whole! This was another of those times for me! But, it was also a huge relief to know that basketball was nearly at an end. Don't get me wrong, Lee and I both love watching our boys play ball, but the coaching staff this year has been one of those that you just want the season to hurry and end. Shelby snapped this picture for us as they were announcing each Senior player and their parents.
After they announced all the Seniors and their parents, they had a special announcement and presentation to our two All State recipients. The football coach presented Dalton with his all state letter jacket. There was a senior girl that made All State in softball too. It was quite a privilege and special thing to be spotlighted like that and both Dalton and Linsey were thrillled!

Coach West and Dalton

Dalton and Linsey....they are both great athletes!

I am gonna miss getting to watch Dalton and his friends play ball next year. But, I am also gonna enjoy having a bit more "free" time!

Hello Again!

2009-03-02T06:23:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! Once again I find myself way behind on my blog postings. I have so many things that warrant posting that I have decided to just take each one separately instead of trying to get them all on this one post. SOOO, it may take a while to catch you all up on the happenings in the Rasmussen household in Collinsville Oklahoma but hopefully I can do each event justice! I am gonna start with my visit to Missouri to visit with Mom and John. It was John's birthday on the 13th so Cale, Bella and I decided to drive up and pay them a little birthday visit!! It had been quite a while since Cale had been to visit so, of course, he had a blast! He was such a good traveler too. I only heard the "are we there yet" phrase the last 70 miles or so....! He was just so excited to get there and see them and their dog Winston. Bella traveled great too. She just pretty much layed in one of two spots and dreamt her way to Missouri!

This is my Momma and John. Aren't they the sweetest looking couple? I just love them so much!

In need of a cameraman, we turned to my little 6 year old apprentice! Cale took a number of pictures and didn't do too bad of a job! Of course, it was not easy getting the camera away from him once he started!

Cale and Grandad. I think the smiles pretty much say it all!!

Cale getting Grammie loves! I thought this was a pretty good picture so had to include it! Cale just loved having Winston in the pic too!

And these were the three noisy items of the weekend! Actually, it was more like Cale and Winston were the trouble makers and Bella was just there for looks!

It was a great weekend! I always enjoy getting to go and spend time with Mom and John. I even got to see my brothers Skip and Greg--their wives, Cheryl and Margie--Jillian and Cody, my niece and nephew--and Tina and Isaboo (Greg and Margies doggies!). It was definitely a great time.

I guess I had better take a minute and explain the bruising on Johns face. No....Winston and Cale did not get the best of John!! Although I think they could if they took a mind to it! Actually, John stumbled and fell outside just a few days before we came to visit. From the looks of his bruises, he did a pretty good number on whatever it was he hit! Thank goodness there were no breaks....just these nasty looking bruises and cuts.

Thanks Mom and John for a wonderful time! I love you guys!!

The Rasmussen Kids!

2009-02-09T06:46:00.000-08:00

It's been an unusually mellow week so I really don't have alot of "news" to post. Instead, I looked through some of our picture files and thought I would share these pics of my babies! Shelby is my right hand girl and I just love spending time with her. If life is getting to you and making you feel just out of sorts, she has a way of pulling you out of it. She has this infectious little giggle that just turns all the lights back on in your life! I am so thankful to have this sweet young lady as my daughter! And then there is Cale!!! Yes, he is also a bright spot in my life. Just when life seems to be settling down into a sense of calmness, you can always count on Cale to liven things up with one adventure or another! He is such an intelligent little guy and soaks up anything he hears.....something that is not always in the best interest of any of us! His energy and zest for life is endless and he is always coming up with something to say that will get us all laughing! He is also still working on growing a few teeth so he can actually chew his food!

Okay, now it's time to talk about Mr Carter. Oh what a clown he can be!! He is not your typical be in the spotlight kind of clown tho! He just has this quiet way of doing funny stuff! Like this picture. Shelby was experimenting with her new camera during the Christmas break and he decided to strike a pose! What do you think? Model material?? He also has this giggle that isn't as freely shared as Shelby's....but when he gets to giggling, you just can't stop yourself from giggling too! He is a joy to have around and I love it when I get to spend one on one time with him.

And then there is Dalton. When Shelby asked him to pose for a picture, this is the best he could do! He too is a blessing in our home. Dalton is at that age....ya know...the age when life comes screaming at you letting you know that you are just about to step out into what is the real world. Out from under Mom and Dads care and structure. Out into the life of freedom.....freedom to make your own decisions about your future AND freedom to pay your own way! It is a scary and exciting time in his life. He will be graduating from high school in 3 very short months. WOW! I can't believe those 18 years have gone by so fast! He has some major decisions to make concerning college and paying for it, but he is also in the process of working on it.

I don't have any new pics of Dustin so you will just have to settle for any visual image you can conger up! His MOS classes began last week and he is doing great. He still wishes he could change his MOS to infantry, (something that his momma is hoping he will work out of his system soon), but is plugging along in the intelligence field. He says it's not really what they told him it would be....not nearly as physically active as he would like....but he is such a smart man that I know he will excel at it. His divorce from Kelly is in the works and he sounds wonderful. We talk to him either by text or phone almost daily and are loving having him back in our lives. He has always been there in our hearts, but it is nice to be an active part of his life and have him an active part of ours. He is really looking forward to graduation and getting his permanent station assignment. I know there is a huge possibility that he will be deployed shortly afterwards, but he is so gungho ready that all I can do is support him in his eagerness to use his newly acquired Marine skills and trust in the Lord to watch over him. He has come so far in the short 8 months he has been in the Marines. He loves everything the Corp stands for.....loves every part of being a Marine. It scares me to think where he would be right now if he hadn't signed up. Again, I thank the Lord for prompting and urging him to do this with his life. Where there was no direction before, now he has a steady and sure course laid out. Where there was nothing positive or helpful in bringing out his good character, now there is nothing but that. He is in the right place....at least for now. I miss him, but am happy for him. He has always had such potential and so many talents and now he is being nurtured to see that. What more could a mother ask for her child?

Think of me as the SUN!!

2009-02-01T20:16:00.000-08:00

Today in Relief Society we had the most amazing "lesson"....okay, it was a lesson that had to be put together the very last minute due to teacher issues!! But it was a great one none the less. And it got me to thinking.....and pondering....ya know? The lesson was "Nurturing a Gratitude Attitude" and consisted of several ladies, who represented just about every angle to life there is, sharing with us information about themselves, what they do with their day, and what they are grateful for in their lives. I know, it sounds like lessons we hear all the time right? Well, maybe that is so, but this time it really touched me and got me in the thinking/pondering mode. Recently our ward had a boundary change so we have quite a few new families that I don't know. Of course, these new families all came from the same ward so they are familiar with each other....and all us old families are familiar with each other...so this was a nice exercise for us to become more familiar with those who shared. There were about 10 ladies who were asked to speak for just a bit. They ranged from a recently widowed older lady who shared how grateful she is to know she will be able to see her husband again someday to a young mother of three who is taking computer classes and working towards her degree and is grateful to live in a period of time where women are encouraged to continue their education to a mother whose 21 year old son has had a form of cancer (brain tumors) for the past 13 years who is grateful for eternal families and doctors who continue to use their skills to create new forms of treatment for diseases. I tell you it was a truly enlightening meeting. Like I said before, some of these ladies were strangers to me before sharing.....but not afterwards. And those that I already knew took on a new look to me as well. I guess I let myself get so caught up in my own little orb of existence that I somehow separated myself from these fine women at church. Maybe not physically but definitely spiritually. Today I was able to have my eyes opened to that fact. I also saw that these women face situations on a daily basis that are no bigger or smaller than those I face. After sharing their struggles and juggles of daily life, which consisted of anything from feeling discouraged with trying to keep the house tidy to dealing with the impending death of a child, they also shared the joy those trials bring into their lives. They brought a spirit of peace and joy into our meeting as they described the blessings their lives hold because of the obstacles they have overcome and the struggles they still face. It made me take a step back and think of the things that seem to be so consuming and detrimental to my family. I thought of how "important" most of those things are in the long haul and decided that the majority will just work themselves out eventually....on their own. How easy it is to fall into the woe is me trap and begin feeling depressed and overwhelmed with all these issues and problems that really are only as big as you let them be. Sure there are some things that warrant special attention and dissecting and maybe even a little bit of the over analyzing. But somehow we tend to pick up way too much garbage to carry around worrying about that we just plain can't do anything about anyway. I guess it keeps us distracted from concentrating on what we really need to be doing.....we can all figure out whose plan that one is!
Then the teacher had us do this exercise. She had us all look around the room for about 30 seconds finding things that are red. Then she asked us all to close our eyes and think about all the things we saw that were................YELLOW! Yep! Explaining this exercise, she said that we sometimes become so focused on looking for the red that we fail to see the yellow. The red (problems) consume our thoughts so much that we complete overlook all the yellow (good or brightness) in our days.
So, I am now resolved to not only look for the yellow in my own day but to help my dear husband and sweet children to find it in theirs. Wish me luck cause sometimes being the bright spot is a pretty hard job!

R.I.P.

2009-01-30T12:17:00.001-08:00

Oh our poor little Mater truck!!! Seems this last ice storm has taken a fatal toll on this dear member of our family. Dalton was trekking over to visit a friend...moseying along....minding his own business....trying to be cautious....and this darn tree beside the road beckoned to our Mater! Upon first inspection, Dalton and I both figured it was just gonna end up costing Dalton a bit of his cherished pocket change. BUT, then the man who really knows about this stuff took a peek and broke the bad news to us.....it was a lethal dose of tree and Mater is no more...sniff sniff. So it appears that Dalton is without transportation....and Mater is about to be adopted out. Cards and letters or condolences not necessary or required. Just letting our extended families know of our recent loss.

WINTER WONDERLAND?!?!?!

2009-01-28T07:22:00.000-08:00

Wow...we got hit with another big ice storm this week. I say another because it seems that this is the "new" form of winter here in Oklahoma. In December 2007, just before we were to head out to Utah for Christmas, a ginormous ice storm that nearly decimated the majority of our trees hit our state. We actually left for Utah with the storms aftermath still being felt. We cleaned up the branches and logs out of our yard, turned the furnaces as low as we dared, locked the doors and slid on out of Oklahoma on the freeway...praying that all would be ok when we returned! It was, by the way! Anyway, shortly after we got home from that vacation, another big ice storm hit us...that was January 2008. Again, everything was shut down, many millions did not have power, and it was just plain miserable around here. We were numbered among the fortunate ones. On our street, half had no power and half did....we did!! Well, it did go out for about 4-5 hours so I hustled up to Lowes to stand in line for about 3 hours waiting for a new shipment of generators to come in. By the time they got in, the line of anxious customers was no longer a line but more like a mass of generator hungry people that began grabbing and shoving as soon as the pallet was wheeled onto the floor. I'm serious....the pallet jack wasn't even pulled away nor was the plastic cut away from the stack before people helped themselves to yanking the plastic away and grabbing for a generator. There was a very nice Lowe's employee who had seen those of us that showed up so early and he made sure that each of us got a generator that morning! What an angel he was! Anyway, I got that generator home and shortly afterwards the power came back on. Oh well, better to be prepared for the next time right?? Lee ended up loaning it to a guy he works with whose family had been without power for a few days. And if I remember correctly, their power came back within that next 24 hours. Maybe we have been blessed with a magical generator that will magically keep our power from going off for any length of time!?! But, back to the ice storm at hand. They were predicting this storm for a few days and giving us the 100% chance of it hitting us. Still, I think it caught alot of people off guard and by surprise. Lee and I had to go to Tulsa to do an errand for Dustin that day and in the short amount of time that we were there, the roads really went south. Okay, Lee knows how to drive in these conditions, so we really didn't realize that the roads were going south..that is until we became stuck in one traffic jam after another..and saw one vehicle after another along the side of the road either crashed into the guard rails or into the back/side of another car. Honestly it was unreal. Within a one mile span we saw 4 different mishaps. It took us quite a while to make it out of Tulsa as we had to find a scenic route out! After Lee dropped me off at home, he turned right back around and headed to work. He called me when he got there to let me know that we should all just stay put and go nowhere. In that short 10-15 minutes the roads had gotten so bad that even Lee was challenged!! WOW! Anyway, so here we still sit....Wednesday morning! Okay some of us still sit here. Lee has gone into to work both days, I have called in both days! (Darn, right!), Shelby has kept herself busy with sewing pillows, blogging and blogging some more, Cale has been out to play in the little bit of snow that dropped on us yesterday and watching tv and playing with the dog, Carter talked one of his friends dads into coming and taking him to their house cause "there is more to do there", and Dalton decided to walk, without telling mom first, the 12 miles to one of his friends houses cause he wasn't allowed to drive in this mess. Any who know me knows what a mess that made me....I just knew he was gonna get hit by a sliding car or freeze to death out there....neither of which happened. But, I do think it caused me a few more gray hairs and definitely some stress. The storm is finally gone but the ice remains. We will see how long it takes to get these roads passable for all of us scaredy cats to get out there again!!