I'm late, I'm late for a very important.... something

So I have always been the person that puts up their Christmas lights to turn on on Thanksgiving evening and then spends the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving decorating the trees and the rest of the house. (and yes that says trees with an "s")

But Brandi had a soccer tournament in St. George the weekend after Thanksgiving and we pretended to have a blizzard the week before Thanksgiving so the decorating didn't get done. Last week in the grocery store, a neighbor stopped me and wondered if I was ok because lights weren't on the house. Then when I got home another neighbor came over to ask the same thing. I got lights on the trees on the porch by Sat. night and on the house by Monday night. Yesterday I also got all the snowmen in the front entry. but that is as far as I have gotten. By the time I got home from work, after running a couple errands, it was time to go to Brandi's concert and then I needed to put Matt's Christmas box together to be shipped tomorrow so he will have it in time for Christmas and now it is time for bed.

 When am I supposed to decorate? Wed? I have class. Thursday? The boys have a concert. Friday? possible Saturday- I have to proctor the ACT, Brandi has a game, clean house (yet again) do the laundry and all that other stuff.  My goal is to have it done before I go to bed on Saturday. Really. But don't hold me to it. It just may be the year of sparse decor that I always threaten.

In other news- I was at Deseret Book and the woman in front of me was purchasing Key Lime Pie by Josi Kilpack. I asked her if she was buying for herself or someone else and had she read it yet? It was for her and she had not read this one, but had read the others and was excited to read it. As the conversation went on, I mentioned that I was part of the test kitchen and that Sandra's Chocolicious Frosting from Devil's Food Cake was my creation and named after me. She was so excited that she took the book out of the clerk's hand as he was bagging it, cleared the counter, handed me a pen and asked me to sign her book. She then left the store with it held to her heart and she was beaming from ear to ear. Sweet little old ladies, gotta love em. (Sure beats being told you are fat.)

And it yet still more news- I finished my gingerbread house. all of my kids did a house and so did my grandbabies. So far those are the only entries. Not very exciting when I give my family the prizes.  Don't forget you have until Friday to get me the pictures.  And don't be afraid to use the pre-baked ones from the store.

And the final piece of news- and I am doing this news because I don't know if I will be online tomorrow where I can share this, but
Happy Birthday tomorrow to the best daughter-in-law in the world!!! I love you.

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Indeed.

Silent Saturday Salutation-Birthday edition

Maybe not so silent today

and I totally stole this picture from him

But

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

DADDY!

I Love You

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Indeed.

19!

Happy 19th birthday to Matthew.

3 1/2 weeks till you leave.

I thought this day would be a long time in coming.

Apparently I was wrong, because it is here.

I have loved getting to know you and I am going to miss you, but know that you are going where you need to be, doing what you are supposed to be doing.

I am so proud of the man you have become.

Love you son.

But I am still going to miss you.

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Indeed.

Watch out on the road

When you are born 2 days after your brother's birthday, sometimes you get left out because everyone is birthday partied out. But when it is your 16th birthday, your mom will make it special. Today is Ethan's 16th birthday, but he will not be getting his driver's licence just yet- he still has to finish the driver's ed class at school and finish up a couple other stipulations that I gave him.

Ethan and Brandi at the San Diego temple

Happy birthday son!

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Indeed.

Birthday Greetings

Happy Birthday to my friend Dave over at Top of the Morning.

Here's a birthday lunch for you. Take a break from writing and enjoy yourself.
(It is also National Gazpacho day, but tomato soup is going to have to do.)





Blow out some candles







Play some soccer
(I borrowed the photo from the soccer club website. I hope you don't mind)

The rest of you, head over to Dave's site and make it a party and wish him Happy Birthday.

Happy Birthday, Dave. Hope it is a good one!

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Indeed.

It's yer birthday

14 years ago, today, I gave birth for the last time. It was the worst pregnancy ever and the delivery was an emergency to keep me from dying. My baby was 6 weeks early, 4 lbs 2 oz and healthy as a horse. Well, a sea horse anyway given his size. I, however, was not well so we spent a week in the hospital while I somewhat recovered. I also did not know what to do with such a small bundle because all my other children had been born half grown!

Here he is at 1 week. You can see by the kitchen scale I used to weigh him how small he was. I kept the bowl as a souvineer for him.

I know the bathroom is a mess in this picture, but keep in mind I had not been allowed out of bed for the past 3 months and spent most of that in the hospital trying to not have the baby. His due date was not until almost Christmas. And if you were to come over today, the bathroom looks much better since I ripped out the cabinets and flooring and redid it.

All the kids. Based on what he is wearing, I would say this was Jake's blessing day. The back of the picture says Nov. 1994, but it was probably early Dec. Doesn't it look like Jess is holding a doll? With his head in the palm of my hand, he didn't even reach to my elbow. I had to buy special diapers and clothes to fit him. Back then the stores didn't carry preemie stuff and it had to be special ordered and was very expensive. He grew so fast that I ended up with a case of diapers left over. I kept one diaper so he could see how small he was, and donated the rest to a family that had a baby in the NICU at the hospital.

Here he is two summers ago at Bridal Veil Falls.

He always has that solemn expression.




Last spring (he's the one with the flag tie)

Here he is playing football? frisbee? what was it kids?

at my sister's house this past Labor Day.

He is the most absent minded person I know. I tell him that is a sign that he will be a great scientist or inventor some day. And he says, "O.K. ... Wait. What?" I kid you not. I hear that out of his mouth more than anything.

But he is also one of the sweetest people you will ever know and I wouldn't trade him for anything.

Love you son. Happy Birthday.

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Indeed.

For Mom

It's my mom's birthday today. If you asked her, I am pretty sure she would tell you that she is 18 today, because that is the answer she has given as long as I can remember.

I love my mom. I wish she did not live so far away. Whenever life gets overwhelming for me, I call her and she listens to my whine and cry about how unfair life is. Then she tells me that I will be ok and that the kids and I will be fine, I dry my tears and life goes on. And it is better because my mom said it would be.

I learned how to cook from her. It used to drive my roommates crazy when they would ask how to make something and I answered the same way Mom always answered me- "You add flour until it looks right and then cook it until it is done." I remember sitting on the stool in the kitchen with a pad of paper and a pen and trying to take notes while she cooked. I still have those "recipes" and still use them.

Her pie crust recipe is my most treasured one. She and I both were making pies this past Thanksgiving for the family get together. Dad told us that we could purchase pies at The Village Inn. Mom and I looked at each other and said, in unision, "But their pie crusts are nasty!" She still makes better Shelieghlie rolls than I do, though.

Mom and Dad on their wedding day

A few years later with Dawna and me(the baby)

November last year with Hunter

June at my niece's wedding. This is how you will almost always see Mom, working, doing, helping, cleaning. In all my memories of Mom, there are very few where she is sitting down. If she is sitting down, she is still working, sewing, stuffing, stitching, sanding, cutting, something.

Grandma Hulsey (dad's mom) Mom and Dad outside the temple after Shayla's wedding in June.

My parents gave me my love of reading. I do not remember a time whithout books. Both of them always had at least one, if no more, books started. I think at one time, Mom wanted to be a journalist. I,however, am glad that she choose to be a mom instead.

I miss you. I love you.

Happy 18th Birthday, Mom!

Indeed.

Another year older

It's my older sister's birthday today. She never reads this blog so I could tell you all kinds of things about her. Things like

• this is her 4__th birthday
• How she fell and broke her arm in jr. high and just laughed because she couldn't move her wrist

• Or that it was her daughter that got married in June
• Or how she talks in her sleep. And that it is not just random talking. She will carry on a conversation and not remember it in the morning. This is very amusing to the person that she is keeping awake.

She still does it. Her husband told me when I asked

Or how she was my best friend growing up, and I was lost when she moved away and went to college 1,000 miles away

Or how we used to talk for hours on the phone when she lived in another state, but now that she lives in the same state and we have e-mail, we hardly ever talk

I could tell you all those things, but I won't because she never reads my blog and won't know they are here.

Happy birthday, Dawna

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Indeed.

It's your birthday

It's my daddy's birthday today.

You can go here to read what I wrote about what a great man he is.

Love you Daddy. Hope it is a good day!
Have a great weekend in the temple.

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Indeed.

Birthday time

It's my sister's birthday today. There she is at our niece's wedding last month.

Woo Hoo, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LORETTA.

I would taunt her about her age, except she is younger than I am, so.

In looking through my photos, I realized that there are a lot of nieces and nephews and my kids, but very few of my brothers and sisters and absolutely none of me. We are going to have to remedy that at the next family get together. Beware, I will be the mad camera weilding sister (or maybe I will just make Jess do it.)

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Indeed.

Another Celebration

Today is Ethan's birthday. He is a great old whoppin' 15. With him I can share my love of, indulgence in and oveall obsession with all things Stargate SG1. I used to make wonderful cakes for the kids' birthdays. They would start planning what they wanted me to make the next year as soon as they were done eating this years' cake. I have made trains, planes, dinosaurs, Tigger, Thomas the Tank enigine, rabbits, trains on a track, a swimming pool complete with swimming teddy grahm bears, dolls and I can't remember what else. Brandi is the only one that asks me for something special any more. So mostly it is just a 9x13 with the appropriate number of candles and we all call it good. That is what I did for Matthew 2 days ago (except it was a bundt).

Then Friday night Ethan asks if I can make a Stargate cake. I did a quick brainstorm and though that yes I could do something that might resemble it. It would have to be simple since we were going to be gone all day Saturday and I would have to do it after church.

For those of you that don't watch Stargate or know what I am talking about, I will post couple of pictures of what a stargate looks like and then I'll show you what I came up with on short notice. There are things I will do differently if I ever do one again- stand it up for starters, but hey, I think it looks pretty good anyway.

Happy Birthday Ethan!!

Candylishious

Today is Matthew's birthday. His 17th birthday to be exact. Of all of my children, he is the one that is most like me. We just "get" each other. Something about Matt? He has straight "A's" since he was in kindergarten. And it comes easily. He has calculus and some AP classes this year and he has actually had to spend time doing homework. He did get a "B" on his report card once this year. But I still love him.

I started this thing when Donovan was a teenager. My kids ate way too many sweets. I told them that if they didn't eat any candy from the time they were 13 until they were 17 I would give them $1000. Donovan did it. Jess and Trevor chose to not take the challenge. Matt, the overachiever that he is started when he was 11 or 12. Today was the magic day. (I don't have all the money saved up yet, I am working on it).

His friends bought him 7 pounds of candy for his birthday.

Choosing what to try first

Here goes

Not too bad

A little sweeter than I remember

I think I'll stick with the no candy thing.

Happy Birthday

Felicitations

Today is my brother in law's birthday. I downloaded some pictures into a post last night and saved the post so that I could come to work today and write a great birthday greeting to him while I was at work. When I opened my dashboard this morning, the post is not there!!
So, to see pictures you are going to have to go here to my sister's blog.

But I still want to say Happy Birthday, Isaac!! Hope it is a good day.

Happy Birthday to my sister

Today is my sister in law's birthday. I am not going to do an ennumeration list for her, as she may not like my telling her age, but I am going to do a tribute to her.

My brother met her while on his mission. I lived in his mission boundaries and was able to talk with him from time to time. I remember him telling me that he was asking to be transfered to another city so that he was not tempted to spend time at her family's house instead of doing the work he was there to do. He also told me that he would never mock another missionary that went back and married someone he had met while serving.

Now let me tell you about her. When I met her, I too, fell in love with her. She is grace personified. I know that life has not always been a bed of roses, but she always has a smile on her face. Think of a southern belle, and you have Tammy. She has raised 3 beautiful, smart, wonderful children. She works hard. For many years she was the only sister in law in the family, that must have been hard for her. But let me tell you this about her- many times throughout the last 23 years, I have forgotten that she was not my blood sibling.

She is my sister and I love her. Happy Birthday Tammy! Hope it is a good one.

Happy, Happy Birthday Jacob

When you have as many kids as I do, you ca be guaranteed that birthdays come quickly. Today Jacob is 13 years old!! It seems a lifetime ago that he was born, so early and so tiny- 4 lbs and 6 wks early. So here is a list for him on this special day.

13. He is a deep thinker. Many times it seems as if he is being lazy, but reality is that he is pondering.

12. He is a great friend to others. He often sees needs that are overlooked and trys to help.

11. He has great compassion.

10. He works hard, when he finally knuckles down to do a job, he does it well.

9. He makes me laugh.

8. He is often in a hurry- can you tell by his early arrival in this world?

7. He takes great care of Brandi. They have a bond that stretches to the pre-existence with promises and deals made there.

6. He is a great student.

5. He is an amazing artist. Once he drew a picture and I thought he had traced it- not true- he drew it!

4. He is a very sensitive soul. I think that is a good thing in a male.

3. I miss him when he is not home.

2. He was named after my great-grandfather (Mansel Hardy Thompson= Jacob Hardy), One of the greatest men. Jake will grow up to be just as great. I know it, I can already see it.

1. He has amazing musical talent. He started piano lessons and did 2 yrs. worth of work in 2 months. He is just as great on the percussion instruments.

Happy Birthday son!!!