Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas all my family, friends and fellow bloggers! Was your Christmas truly merry and bright? Mine was! I think a fun time was had by all in my house. Everything is unwrapped, mostly put away (except for all Dan's new toys, they still reside in the living room, all over the floor) and Jim and the kids are all off either reading the books they got for Christmas, playing with toys, or just relaxing. I have some time to download all the photos off the camera and post a blog entry letting you in on all the highlights.

Our holiday started on Saturday with the Lundberg family tradition of Christmas Brunch. We have of course altered the tradition in the fact that we now hold it the Saturday before Christmas instead of the morning of Christmas. Makes it so much easier on those that had to go and move so far away, across the valley. The food was fabulous, like always, and the company was even better, like always!

Dan with his Ironman toy.
This is Bev and her thing 1, Kaity.
Some of the kids, assembling their airplanes. (Jim believes that you can't just give gift cards! You must have something to play with in order for it to truly be Christmas!)
My handsome, engineer Sam. Later, he made modifications to one of the airplanes to make it more aerodynamic.
Dad and Susan holding Kaity's new baby, Holly.
The cutest "Present" under my tree!
Hmm...this next one needs some explaining. First I must warn you that I come from a very strange family. We are loud and boisterous, recite movie lines every time we're together, and have a very strange sense of humor. When my Mom passed away, we girls got together to go through all of her personal belongings decide who wanted what, or give away what wasn't wanted/needed. In my Mother's possessions was a small statue we always called David. Though in actuality he is the Greek god Hercules. (No, I really have no idea why my mother owned this.) For some reason nobody wanted poor little Hercules! Beverly finally said she would take him. That year when we got together for the above mentioned brunch, Bev "gifted" him in our exchange. Sadly, he was out of circulation for a year when I misplaced him, but since then has shown up every year with a new "addition" to his alabasterness. First addition? That was mine. I felt he really should have some sort of clothes, and so gave him a black leather loin cloth /underwear. Nicely molded to his buttocks, don't you think?

The lovely chapeau was added by Margaret. This year he came to us from Crissie's house, proudly displaying his holster and boom stick (what Jacob called his gun). He has now returned to Bev's once more, and we all eagerly await next years addition.

Later on that evening we had our Ward Christmas party at the church. Dan finally got to see Santa and tell him what he wanted for Christmas. This was the first time that he willingly sat on Santa's lap. I'm one of those mean mommies who believe in torturing the child for the photo!

And what exactly did he ask for? "A Hungry Hungry Hippo toy".

Snowflakes were the decor this year and eventually the children figured out that the pretty. sparkly, snowflakes on the tables were actually stickers. You simply had to peel off the paper backs and voila!

Dan and his friend Harley

Last night was our traditional Jones family Christmas Eve party. One of my favorite nights of the year. We eat tons of yummy food, sing carols and of course Santa comes to our party to hand out one gift to everyone there! Of course, I think he might just be one of Santa's helper Clause's, because we all know how busy the jolly old soul is on Christmas Eve!

Daniel was so excited that Santa was coming. He wouldn't even come in to sing with us because he was waiting by the front door, watching for him to arrive.

Christmas morning...

We had fun watching our Dan open his presents, especially his much requested Hungry Hippo game.

Here are Sam, Kacie, and Sarah wearing the beanie hats Jim made for them, and holding up their quilts that I haven't quite finished making for them!

Well, they are mostly done. I need to machine quilt and bind them, and then they will be all ready for use.And finally, playing Hungry Hungry Hippos! I wish you all could watch him play. His little tongue darts in and out of his mouth while he's playing. It kind of reminds me of little Ralphy in A Christmas Story. When he's concentrating using his decoder ring!

What did I get? I got tickets to 4 shows at Gammage this coming year! I am the luckiest and happiest girl today! This next year I will be attending RENT, STOMP, WICKED (did you hear me screaming?) and I am going to take Dan to see his first show, CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG. Good show to introduce a 5 year old to the theater with I hope. With luck, he'll learn to love it as much as his mother. Then as he grows, Jim can make Dan go with me, thereby getting himself out of it.

Christmas miracle!

Did I say Christmas miracle? Why yes, I did! I know what you're probably thinking. Jim went out and bought me the perfect gift without me telling him exactly what the perfect gift is. No, that's not it. Of course that would be a miracle too!


My miracle is much more simple than that. Are you ready for this? I know you're sitting down (unless you prefer to blog surf on the run and are standing at your desk right now).


I actually did my nails!


This sounds like such a simple thing to you. But let me just tell you that this is a classic example of the cobbler's kids needing shoes. When you are a nail tech, and work on other people's nails for a living, the last thing you want to do when you actually have time...your own nails! My family and clients will right now be gripping their chair seats to keep from falling off of them.
I feel like Tiny Tim. "God bless us. Everyone!" See how festive!
Have you ever tried to take a picture of your nails? It's not easy! Try it sometime. Jim is the only other person home right now (besides Dan, and being 4 1/2 I doubt his ability to operate a camera!) and I wasn't about to ask him to take a picture of my nails for me. He already thinks I'm whacked for taking a picture of my candied yams at Thanksgiving. (It's a blogger thing honey. You wouldn't understand.)
I didn't want to be outdone by Crissie so here is a picture of my kitty too! He is also feeling festive. He "dove" into this garland and looked so cute and Christmasy I had to document it. I just wish the photos had turned out a little clearer. Again, have you ever tried to take a picture of a cat...

Bloggled.com

Wow! This is great! Some time ago I had a conversation with friends and fellow bloggers.
We discussed how great it would be if someone would come out with a service that would put your blog posts into book form and print it for you. Tah Dah! I was led to this site by another friend. Bloggled not only can print your blog, but they also backup your blog for you, so you never have to worry about accidentally deleting your blog! How cool is that! Can I just say how stoked I am! Oh, the best part about me blogging about their service? I get to put my name in a drawing for Cricut or an I-Pod touch! This is the bomb! Hope I win!!

AAAHHHH!

Do you see that little tree? That one right over there on the right hand side of this page? Every day I log on to my computer, click on my favorite little short-cut button on my toolbar. You know, the one that looks like an e with a planetary ring circling it.

Narcissistic me. My home page is my blog.

Oh my favorite past time...blog surfing my friends pages and seeing what you have all been doing.

But every day that little counter under the tree gets smaller...and smaller...and smaller. This is what I feel like.

Are you ready? I'm not! So much to do. No not the shopping, that is almost done. It 's all the handmade gifts that I really would like to finish. Did I just say finish? Ha! I haven't even started some of them. And don't even ask my sisters about the scrapbooks I started for them...what was it, like 2 years ago.

I've been contemplating an old Calvin and Hobbes cartoon.

Maybe I could take a box, add a button, and recreate Calvin's duplicator! Then if there were two of me...just think what I could get done! Why, I could sit here on the computer while the other me finished (started) all my projects.

Or, I could quit wasting time and get busy....

Nah! I'm going to go find me a box.

Christmas Past! ...and somthing for Leigh

It's Christmas time! Time for baking, for shopping, and especially time for Family!

In honor of this amazing holiday I thought I'd share with you some fun snapshots of my childhood. Please, feel free to laugh with me, not at me!

I can assume that this must be Suzee's first Christmas. Not a bad looking Santa, unlike this next one! Oh my gosh! Can you say unhappy? How about "I hate my Job"? Sure. I knew you could. No wonder poor Margaret is crying. The rest of just were not smart enough to realize we were sitting on the lap of the worst Santa in mall history! Oh, and you have got to love the candy cane on my nose.

This is my sister Beverly, followed by Margaret. Do you love the 70"s Christmas tree? Groovy!

And let us not forget about Dad. Keep in mind that at this point he had 3 little girls, not a boy in sight, nor was there ever to be one. Toy car? Well, I think Dad put something under the tree every year that he "claimed" was for us girls, but that he himself had purchased so he would have something to play with also. (The race car track comes to mind...)I think I always had my tongue sticking out as a little girl. Probably developing it for it's future use of lots of talking! Can't see my tongue in this next picture? I guess because I was licking the window frame of this awesome bike/wagon.Perhaps you are wondering where Crissie is? Well, finally she makes an appearance in the few family snapshots we have our childhood Christmases.Isn't she adorable? My Mom made us the pajamas. This was Christmas eve. Oh look! Did I hear Santa on the rooftop? Everyone else seems to think so. Except, of course, me. Can't decide if I was just a little slow to understand, or if I was always just a little bit off from what the rest of my sisters were doing.

Christmas morning...I don't know if this was Beverly's or Margaret's record player. If it was Margaret's, then Bev was just being Bev and taking over everything! Big sisters! And one of Mom that morning. Margaret looks exactly like Mom! I swear, if I showed you a picture you'd ask 'Is that Holly?'

Finally, something for Leigh. She thought she was an only child growing up. Technically she was. Leigh lived across the street from us our whole life! (Until my family moved in 86) She is the same age as Margaret, was one of her best friends growing up, and so was always at our house. She recently found Crissie on facebook and so has joined our little blogging world. I guess you could say it's like having her across the street again! After reading one of her older posts last night, She was on my mind this morning. I was thinking about the way we treated her as if she was one of us. You know, teased and picked on her just like she was a sister. Then I remembered that I had this picture. It proves that she was part of the family. It is Christmas morning. The gifts are still scattered through the living room, and we are playing with the bounty that Santa brought. This was a Polaroid picture and someone wrote on the photo (probably Mom) to document who was who.See...just another one of the girls! It's good to have you back in the neighborhood!

Picture perfect & Thanksgiving wrap up!

When I was a little girl my mom made candied yams for Thanksgiving dinner every year. They are one of the Lundberg family traditional foods. However, I think every year, my mom would end up slightly burning the marshmallows that went on top of the yams. Probably because they are one of the last things you do right before you sit down to eat. You know, when you are making gravy, setting all the food on the table, carving the turkey, etc. All while you are supposed to be keeping an eye on the marshmallows toasting! Oh the fond memories I have of mom yelling and throwing in a sh** or two, or three, as she pulled her smoking yams from the oven. I will admit that in my time I have also over toasted them a time or two.

Ahh...but this year, Perfection!

The night before is always my pie night! This year Dan pushed a chair over to the counter to help. As you can see, my other little boy had to see what we were all doing in the kitchen!

Our Thanksgiving Table

I know...I cheat by using paper plates on my table...what can I say. After cooking all day, and washing the dishes, also all day, I am done! The kids set the table this year. Personally I wouldn't have gone with the purple goblets on my rust colored tablecloth...

And finally...More goofing around brought to you by Sarah and Daniel!

The things we are Thankful for this year!

I am thankful for my family, and for my truck (wonder who said this...Sam?),For Butterfingers candy bars, And for colors! For paint and Art! I am thankful to have dinner at Jim and Suzee's, and for books, and for my Spiderman blanket. I am thankful for my education, for the scriptures ...that we can know what to look for and be glad. I am thankful for sitting by the fire at night with my family members, my job, and for pie! Lots and lots of pie! I am thankful for a bed, for my children, for the gospel and the priesthood, and for the knowledge that on Thanksgiving I can eat anything I want! I am thankful for our country, and for my iPod, my friends, and for music. I am thankful for my hubby who works so hard for our us, and for kitties who like me. I am thankful for David's strength, Jim's determination, Suzee's creative abilities, Sarah's smile, Sam's quietness, Kacie's giggle, Daniel's exuberance, and for Bonnie's kindness. I am thankful for this economy that will humble many people and turn them back to our Prophet's council. I am thankful for seminary, soft kitties that purr, and for a living prophet and apostles. I am thankful for being able to work and having work to do, for my testimony, and for school. I am thankful for my Saviors plan of happiness, our church leaders who teach us to have peace from our hope in Christ. I am thankful for makeup, and for my talents, to live in Arizona, and for good health. I am thankful for the air we breath, and rain to sustain life. I am thankful for the pretty clouds today. for my taste buds so I can enjoy Thanksgiving dinner, and finally, for Texting!

Tagged

*Open your pictures file on your computer

*Grab the fourth picture in the fourth file!

*Now Post it and blog what you remember about that picture.

I took this picture in July of 2006. A super sweet, young friend of mine was having a baby girl. I found this old glider rocker that someone was getting rid of, and painted and reupholstered it in her chosen nursery colors! Is it not the BOMB or what!

Now I tag Crissie, Rachel, Erin, and Lynsee (cuz she need to post something new on her blog!)

Thud thud

Thud thud...thud thud...thud thud...
Do you hear that?
That's the sound of my heart beating...
It is the background beat to the mantra repeating over and over in my head...
I'm in love with a vampire...in love with a vampire....Love...Vampire...
Now do you hear it?

Did you see Twilight yet? No...Yes... Well, I won't be the one to ruin it for you.
This is just a quick entry to express my feelings.
For all of you critics out there, IT IS NOT A VAMPIRE MOVIE!
It is a love story!
They took a novel and condensed it into a 2 hour movie, and I for one think they did fine job of it! They stayed true to the characters. As sat in that dark theater and watched the story unfold on the big screen, I felt all those same feeling I had felt while reading Twilight.
Do you remember staying awake into the wee hours of the morning, unable to close the book? Do you recall irrevocably falling, right along with Bella, madly in love with Edward?
It happened again!
I'm in love with a vampire..
Thud thud...
In love...
Thud...
Vampire!

Shh.....
Don't tell my husband!

Poor me, poor Sam?

So I put my back out of whack this week. No, I don't have any idea how I did it, I'm just hobbling around to compensate for it. This morning my plan was to take Dan to preschool, call my chiropractor to get in this afternoon, and do one nail client. When I went to drop Dan off the battery in the truck was DEAD! Ughh! Of course preschool is maybe a half mile from my house, a walkable distance. At least it is if your spinal column is aligned exactly as it should be. Because preschool is so close we never leave until at least 5 minutes before it is scheduled to start. I had to get a friend to drive over here and take my son to preschool for me. Thank you Sue! This was also the first time Dan has ever told me while getting ready to gothat he doesn't want to be late. No. We're not ever late! Well, okay, maybe once or twice...

Well, after getting Sam to jump the battery when he got home from school, going to the chiropractor, getting another jump, stopping at Checker to get a new battery (all while walking like a little old lady) I finally arrived back at home. You'll remember that Sam has been without his truck for a couple of weeks now. He just got it back last night. When your vehicle sits down at the shop, in the yard, with all that dirt, it's not so pretty when you get it back! As I was hobbling up my driveway to go in the house I had to stop and laugh! Followed immediately by getting the camera to take some pictures of his truck! The kitty prints are definitely from Kacie's rotten cat, Grizzy. However, it wasn't any of my kids that wrote on the truck. I guess someone at the high school saw all the paw prints and couldn't resist!

Amazing weekend and one not so great thing

On Saturday I got to go with my girls down to the Phx convention center for Deseret Books Time Out for Women & Girls. I have my mother-in-law to thank for this. She is awesome. Every year she buys ticket to the Timeout for Women events, and includes me and whomever I want to bring. This years event targeted our young women, but was just as wonderful as past years. The messages still applied to women. They brought in a lot of the popular LDS musicians, knowing that it was a sure way to reach the girls. The spirit can touch you so quickly through the power of music. Kacie picked out a new Hillary Weeks cd, and Sarah picked out a new piano book full of all the most popular EFY and other LDS songs. (So anyone needing songs for YW or Choir call me!) We then were able to get 3 of the songs autographed by their writers! Also, we got pictures of the girls with them.

This is Hillary Weeks.

Next we got Cherie Call. She is around 7 months pregnant with her 2'ND baby.

Finally, Jenny Jordan Frogley.

Abe Mills, who sings with Jericho road, was also there.

One of the presenters was John Hilton III. He has been a religious educator for 8 yrs and has taught at EFY conferences. His message was on the scriptures. Highlights were: The scriptures have the answers you need. It's easy to miss something you're not looking for. Look for applications to your life, the scriptures teach the why. The scriptures can get you through hard things. And finally, Know that when you read the scriptures God is talking to you. Of course mixed in with this were lots of great stories and video clips that related to the message!

Now let me tell you about the absolute highlight of the day.

The end of the day was supposed to be a question and answer session with the presenters. If you had a question you wanted answered you could write it on this small, pink piece of paper. When we came back from our lunch break Our wonderful MC, Laurel Christensen, was holding one of these papers in her hand. I wondered what she was doing with it. She started by saying that this person had no idea she was doing this and then asked if Molly Guber....(something) could come up on the stage with her mother. Molly was 14 and from Tuscon I believe. She was just an average looking young woman, and I wondered how difficult her life had been...not being one of the beautiful people, and with her last name. You can see it made an impression on me, at least the first part of it, because it was pronounced goober. As she was making her way up on stage, Laurel began telling a story about a group of her friends. The abbreviated version being, that they had spent a few days camping together and came up with the fact that at any time you could request a standing ovation, and the rest would get up and oblige. She then asked everyone present to give Molly the standing ovation of her life! The one we felt that she deserved. As she was saying this (before the applause even began) Molly put her hands over her mouth and began to sob. Over 1200 women/young women immediately jumped to their feet and began clapping, cheering, shouting out woo hoo's. I couldn't have possibly opened my mouth at that time because I was struggling not to sob as well. We watched her mother cry as she witnessed what this was doing for her daughter. I was so overwhelmed with the spirit bearing witness to me that this is how Father in Heaven feels about each of his daughters! Both young and old. He would have each of us receive a standing ovation. How I wished that we could make all of our young women feel the way Molly must have felt at that moment. I will never know what was written on that piece of paper that prompted Laurel to do this, but I do know that she followed the spirit and did exactly what she was supposed to do! I am so glad that I was there to witness this event for myself. It has been two days since this happened,and still I can't think about it without both my heart and my eyes over flowing! Surely this was a life changing moment for more than just Molly.

The main message of the day was this "God knows each and every one of His children by name!" He knows us, loves us, and truly wants the best for each of us. What a blessing it is to have this testimony for myself.

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Now, the not so great stuff. Poor Sam, he just got his truck out of the shop after having the fuel pump replaced. With his class schedule (he has one class at Liberty every morning) he has to have a vehicle. He and I did some car juggling last week. On Saturday he took his truck over to Fletcher tire and auto to get his oil changed. He drove his truck home and parked it in the driveway. Sunday night we had dinner at my in-laws. Sam didn't go because he had mission prep. He called me on my cell about 6 to say that he was pulling out of our street when all the sudden his gauges went to 0 and his dash said check gauges. He didn't know what was going on so we told him to take his truck home and drive Jim's instead. He did the long loop to get back to the house (down to Pinnacle Pk and around). When he pulled out of our street the second time he discovered his oil filter and all the oil out of his truck in the road! Holy crap!! Boy, did Fletchers screw up! This was definitely their error! To bad for them it happened to a family who not only knows about cars, but owns tow trucks, has mechanics employed, and also has a lawyer on retainer for the business. Joe, one our drivers, came and got the truck this morning (along with Sam who was supposed to be enjoying a ditch day) to take back to Fletchers and then down to the shop to start pulling it apart to find out how bad the engine is. :(

I'm telling you this so all my friends who live up here will be warned! Bishop Purtymun told Sam last night that he won't use them anymore because twice they shorted him a quart of oil. Then his seminary teacher this morning told him that they screwed up her car and they ended going to the BBB to get Fletchers to give them their money back. So beware! If you need work or your oil changed, go somewhere else!

Just a piece of cloth

It's just a piece of cloth, that's all it is
Just a piece of cloth.
But when a little breeze comes along, it stirs and comes to life
And flutters and snaps in the wind, all red and white and blue...
Then you realize that no other piece of cloth could be like it.
It has your whole life wrapped up in it...
The meals you eat, the time you spend with your family,
The kind of things boys and girls learn at school,
The strange and wonderful thoughts you get in church.
Those stars on it...
They make you feel just as free as the stars
in the wide, wide, deep night.
And the stripes...
they are the bars of blood
To any dictator who would try to change this way of life.
Just a piece of cloth, that's all it is
Until you put your soul into it and give it meaning;
Then it is the symbol of liberty and decency
and fair dealing for everyone.
It is just a piece of cloth
Until we breathe life into it,
Until we make it stand for everything we believe in
And refuse to live without.

Tonight we went to an Eagle Scout Court of Honor for a friend. Sam and Jim were responsible for making sure we had a flag there and then Sam was part of the Color gaurd to present the flag. He had with him a bunch of papers printed from usscouts.org about our beautiful stars and stripes. As I read the above poem I knew immediately that I was going home and posting this on my blog. I love everything our flag represents and stands for, and I am moved every time I have the opportunity to witness the raising or retiring of it.
I took this picture on Main Street, Disneyworld, in 2003.

Halloween @ the Jones Home and other stuff

It's November and I'm last blogger on the block to post their Halloween pictures! Honestly, this is not my fault. I used Jim's camera for Halloween and he hides it in his bag, then takes said bag to work with him everyday!

This year Dan decided he wanted to be a robot. I had fun making his costume. I decided that robots should have lights on them. I found some great battery powered lights and got Sam to spray paint them silver for me. I wish you could see in a picture how great they actually looked. I also got some spare electrical parts from my friendly electrician Wes, and hot glued on wires, an old circuit board and a small electronic cooling fan.

He wore his costume at the Ward Halloween party/camp out. I later discovered that the box was actually too long for him and he could barely walk! I had to cut it down for actual Trick or Treating. The funny part is his dryer vent legs. They wouldn't stay up. So he ended up looking rather goofy, like he was wearing metallic leg warmers! LOL It's a bad 80's kind of robot!

We had fun carving our pumpkin this year. Too bad Sarah wasn't there for this. See, that's what happens when your children start to grow up and have their own lives!

The finished result!

Of course it wouldn't be the Jones home without some crazy antics going on during the carving!

These are just a couple of the neighborhood dogs! I thought they looked too cute in their costumes so wanted to add them in to my blog! Aren't people just a tad psycho dressing up their dogs?

And this is my friend and neighbor Shawn. Her costume can either be described as fun or creepy.....you decide. Oh, and for those of you who are wondering what I wore this year, I covered my shirt in those "Hello my name is.." stickers. Each sticker had a different name on it. I was an Identity Crisis. ha ha ha Sorry I don't have a picture.

In other news... we passed proposition 102 yesterday! Hurray! Prop 102 creates legislation that states that a marriage will be defined as between one man and one woman. I am glad that Arizonans recognized the sanctity of marriage and the importance of protecting the family.

While that is good news, we have to deal with the peoples choice for our new President..... Ummm...I'm not even going to go there tonight. Maybe in a future blog, one talking about the general stupidity ( maybe it's more like the gullibility) of America.....

To end this lengthy post, here is something fun and super cheerful! Bonnie gave us this cute little pop up cat house. We've had it for awhile now. It sits on the floor in my family room. One day, out of the blue, Dan asked "Can I get in that?" I don't know Dan. Can you ? I guess so! At least part of him can.