Sending out a SOS!

OK, peeps. Calling out to all fellow blogging sisters of the ya ya sisterhood. Our good friend Queen is in need of our good thoughts, prayers, and well wishes. Her son had surgery again last night. They are still having trouble getting his bleeding to stop. She is living at the hospital during the day. They are still not positive what will happen or when it will happen. So if you could add her in with T, T's family, and Denae, well that would be great.

Yesterday, I stopped by and visited for a little while. Who says hospitals are a bad place for first time face to face meetings with blog soul sistas? Well, for the record, it is a great place. We shared hospital stories, children woe's stories, and for sure our shared grief over the BYU football game last weekend. Sometimes group grieving therapy is a good thing. It was great. The best thing about blog friends is that you can tell them what's new, because they already know about the old stuff.

I am sure she would not mind another kind word in her comment box either. The future is uncertain, and that is terribly unsettling, for sure. Don't ya just love how blogging expands our circle of friends? I know I do.

Cyber Salon

A friend of mine has a daughter who has graduated from beauty school. A week ago, Friday, this daughter came to Vegas and set up a beauty shop at my friend’s house. I was one of the lucky people who received her services.

Just to be clear, usually I get my hair cut at super cuts for $12.99. And I color my own hair with supplies from Sally’s Beauty, that usually cost about $6. For these reasons, it was a huge treat to have someone else color my hair and give me a professional hair cut.

But better than the new doo, was the fun of sitting in someone’s kitchen while several others filed through the hair cutting process. Visiting and catching up with others was so much fun. It reminded me of the beauty shop in Steel Magnolias.

It is sad that times have changed and it is no longer a habit for most of us to go and get our hair done once a week.

But it occurred to me that blogging is kind of a cyber space beauty shop. We all meet together in comment boxes and share each other’s joys and pains. I have no other constant source of comfort and support, and for this I am extremely grateful to my blogging soul sistas.

And it is great that there are an unlimited number of hair dryers for us all to sit under. So while Crash is getting her nails done, Shelle can get a shampoo, Anjeny can get a cut, Funny Farmer can get her brows waxed, Heidi can get a pedi, Kristina can get a facial whilst wearing her snuggie. Annie can get whatever you get for hair extensions. Jen can get a deep conditioning treatment for soft and silky hair. Kritta, Melanie, Eliza, Shauna, there is room for everyone. That is the beauty of the blogoparlor. Get it...Beauty of the beauty parlor. Ha Ha Ha

Every one is invited and welcome.

Keep it up everyone, and I will join you for some pampering at the Cyber Salon.

So come in and set a spell. What's the latest?

Muffinhead

Here is our friend Andrew. His three year old sister, Abby was kind enough to put these pajama bottoms on his head. Perhaps she was helping him get dressed. When we all laughed, he was pretty proud of himself. Pretty handsome kid, huh? This picture is compliments of Diana.

You gotta have friends

Here are some pictures of Jared and a friend of ours named Bailey. Their family was in our ward when we first moved to Vegas. We have done so many things with them throughout the nine years we have lived here. These two have been good friends for a very long time. They are only a year apart, but look how much taller Jared has grown. The picture where they are younger, was taken at a ward dance. Someone else put the funny captions on the poster that was made. I am not quite sure but I bet that picture was taken in 2000, so eight years ago. This other picture was taken during spring break. Here's to good friends, and my how you two have grown.

It's raining frogs.

When I opened my front door this afternoon, this fell to the ground. How cute! A little frog. The note says "Hoppy Leap Year, to a "toadally" cool family!" This is from my fun, clever, creative friend Shawna. I already knew you were a rock star, but seriously "you rock". Thanks for the little surprise.

On the Seventh Day of Christmas...

life's blessings gave to me SEVEN SEATS OF FRIENDSHIPPING. My patio furniture is one of my favorite things. One morning a week, my patio is open to anyone in the ward who wants to come over and play and visit. Mostly people with toddlers come. The kids love the swings and the trampoline. The grown ups enjoy a chance to friendship each other and relax in my comfy chairs. When I had small children, I benefited from such kindness shown me by older sisters in my ward. Now I figure it is my turn to give back what I once received. And truly, I benefit as much if not more from these kind, fun sisters who visit my home each week.
I love how attractive this furniture looks when I look out of my kitchen window. It had been a dream of mine for years to have a covered patio where such furniture could live. The patio is one of the things I loved about this house when we first looked at it. The patio sat empty until one day I followed a prompting to stop in at Goodwill. When I walked into the store they were just putting all this furniture out on their floor to sell. It was brand new, the cushions were still in the plastic. I happily bought all of it, paying about 25% of what I would have paid at Target. You gotta love tithing blessings. Surely I am truly blessed to have such a place for friendships to be strengthened.

Cannery Candids

So today I had an exciting adventure called going to the cannery. Not even being able to remember the last time I went, I figured it must be time. In the event that we had to live on our food storage, it might be good if we had more than a case of macaroni and cheese. The sad thing about my current food supply, is that I really have no idea what or how much I really have. It is all tucked into various and sundry places and I have not kept a good inventory. So I figured that I couldn't go wrong getting just a little bit of several things. And hey, any day you get to wear a hair net is a good day, don't ya think? My most exciting purchase was a case of apple slices. It was hard not to eat them all, while I was canning. Now if I can just convince Jared and his friends that these apple slices would be a great snack choice. They have entered the "hoard of locust" phase of teenage hood. It seems like all I ever hear from Jared is "I'm hungry" and "What can I eat?" Now I will have something else to suggest instead of "Go make yourself a dang Quesadilla." He and his friends seem to devour what ever there is around here. I also got some oatmeal because I love it in cookies. The other thing I got was a case of wheat. I don't think I have much wheat because Marion is not a big fan of wheat. He had enough of it when he was growing up to last him a lifetime. Which may not be that long since he doesn't eat whole wheat. Any way now I have a case that I can look at and feel good knowing that at least I have it. We had to can 11 bags of powder milk and that was kind of a pain. We do have a lovely, large, new canning facility that was just opened 6 months ago. So after about two and a half hours we had finished the task. We started for home, but the three of us in our car all agreed that we were famished. So of course we had to stop at In-N-Out for a little lunch. This is my friend Teresa showing off the lovely lap pad they give you so you don't spill on your lap. What a great day... hard work, yummy food and time with good friends.