A Bad Bloggers Moments of the Week

I have been a very bad blogger this last week or so as my life has really been all work and no play. My play days have consisted of mundane tasks such as cleaning house, laundry and grocery shopping. As you can see, nothing very exciting. So, as I have nothing really important to report, I thought that I'd list some of my various moments of the week.
Funniest moment: This had to be at work. Two of the nurses there have 4 year old children who attend the same day care center.When asked what had happened that day, Lizzie told her mommy that Gavin had shown her his privates. Not wanting to make a huge deal of it, Lizzie was very carefully asked "So what did you do then?". Lizzie took her thumb out of her mouth, put her hand on her hip and with a grin on her face said "I showed him mine!!!" The innocence of children is often very amusing.
Most worrying moment: To find out that my dear sweet mother in law was very ill. Thankfully, she is beginning to make a slow recovery, but is still a long way from being well. She is a wonderful woman and the best mother in law in the world. I pray for her daily that she will keep her spirits up and return to health as soon as possible.
Most shocking moment: When The Bachelor booted Amanda off the show when I and thousands of others were firmly convinced that she was to become Mrs Bachelor. I was shocked, she was shocked and I think the whole Bachelor community was shocked. It just goes to show that I'll never understand the mind of a man.
Most satisfying moment: To get to the checkout on Thursday and find out the amount of dollars I saved through my creative shopping and by using coupons. It was very gratifying. I love to get bargains!
Smiliest moment: When I read a Google alert stating that "Donny and Marie Osmond to appear in Las Vegas Strip show" Now that conjured up something that definitely made me smile. Well worth a $250 dollar front row ticket!
Most newsworthy moment: I read today that the Church has announced they are to build a temple here in Gilbert, just 3 miles away from where I now live. Construction won't start for a few years and I may have moved by then, but this is wonderful news for the LDS community of the SE valley as we already have a temple not too far away in Mesa.

Phoenix Women's Expo

Here are the Three Musketeers; me, Laurel and Donna about to set off for the Phoenix Women's Expo today. It took us almost an hour to go from my house to the Glendale Arena, we parked, got our tickets and then Margie called to say that she and her friends were already inside at the stage area. Wave, wave then hug, hug and off to start working away around the different exhibits.
I must say, I have never seen so many booths about plastic surgery, vein removal, botox injections, etc in my life. It seems like women here are obsessed by it. There were all sorts of women related things on display and to buy, but the best things of all were the freebies to eat; chips, popcorn, tortillas, snack bars, candy, ice cream, drinks, and we took advantage of them all.
We got our seats at the stage by noon, really waiting for Marie Osmond to appear, but we first listened to Linda Cobb, our local Queen of Clean, who knows everything there is to know about cleaning products and stain removal. "C'mon, you can talk dirty with the Queen of Clean". Let me tell you, the answer to almost everything is either Clean n Shield or Odorzout!

On came Marie, introduced by the very nice piece of eye candy, Javier Soto, from Channel 3 news (much better looking in person than on the TV) and I guess she spoke for about an hour. She was witty, eloquent and shared experiences from her life that demonstrated the 4 concepts that she lives by:
1. be still and listen to your intuition
2. continue to seek out knowledge
3. be willing to serve, but not to expect any thanks or recognition
4. maintain a sense of humor
My disappointment, and others too, was that the stage and hence Marie, was totally inaccessible to the public. I had an I Love Donny scarf that I really wanted her to sign "Marie rules, Donny drools". She would have loved that, it would definitely have appealed to her sense of humor.
After Maries's talk, we carried on looking at all the things we didn't see before. It was a fun day, spent with a couple of fun people. Had a blast!

An Evening with George Dyer

Last night Brent and I went to the Mesa Arts Theater for An Evening of Broadway with George Dyer and Michael Dowdle.The evening started off with a tenor named Luke something or other (oops, forgot!) who sang a couple of numbers. He was okay, pleasant, but not great and he was followed by Mike Dowdle, a very accomplished guitarist who performed several of his own guitar instrumentals. He was a very, very good guitarist, but I'm afraid that instrumental music just doesn't float my boat.

After the intermission, on came George and the minute he opened his voice, I was just blown away. Now, I am not generally into opera, but he was just phenomenal. He brought out my very favorite Jenny Jordan Frogley and they sang and acted a couple of songs from Phantom. Oh my word. Breathtaking.
He then brought out the Luke guy again along with Freddie Ashby, a tenor from right here in Mesa. They all sang a very funny rendition in Italian to the tune of "Just one Cornetto, give it to me, delicious ice cream, from Italy" Well, that obviously wasn't the real tune, but I remember it as an advert when I was a kid in England. Then they did a very funny English translation of it which was the old song "you are my sunshine, my only sunshine", which wasn't the real translation, of course, but it was very comical.
Out came Jenny again and they sang "The Prayer", once again, just beautiful. George sang a few other songs, most of which I knew and loved. All the while, the Arizona Symphony orchestra played, conducted by the famous LDS musician/songwriter, Kurt Bestor.
As I said before, I'm not usually into opera, but I would go and see George Dyer again in a heartbeat (and Jenny too!).

Supernurse!

This is what happens when I come off the floor and have an office day. I guess that instead of sending the small maternity pads that we usually get, the supply department sent us these gigantic diapers instead. Crazy Jen was the one who got to model them.

Watching TV

I really don't sit down very often to watch TV, but right at the moment I admit that my Monday nights are taken up with Dancing with the Stars and The Bachelor. I have watched DWTS for a few seasons now as I have always loved to watch dance since I saw A Chorus Line when I was 15, but The Bachelor is a show I NEVER thought I'd watch. I'd seen clips of it before and I wanted to vomit as I watched a mansion full of girls drooling for the attentions of a guy who always loved himself first and foremost. And when he would say "So and so, will you take this rose", ugh! After all, what type of person is it who wants to find their marriage partner through a reality show?
But this season has a 27 year old Brit, Matt Grant, as The Bachelor and maybe I'm just sucked into this, but, I really don't think he is obnoxious or vain. I really think he is down to earth and wants this to succeed. This week there were 6 Bachelorettes and he had to whittle it down to 4 and Brent and I were absolutely right in our guesses as to who the 2 unlucky ladies would be. Frankly, I was glad to see the back of both of them. As to who will win their Prince Charming? We haven't decided yet, so I guess we'd better keep watching.

Miss USA

So last night I sat and watched Miss Texas be crowned as Miss USA 2008 whilst my husband said that the parade of dazzling beauties did nothing for him. Exactly, I know precisely where he was coming from because they did absolutely nothing for me either. How could they? MY eyes were firmly fixed on the doggone gorgeous host Donny Osmond who hosted the event with his sister Marie. Now I have no objections to Marie. I happen to think she's the kind of woman you'd want as a best friend, and my husband is actually getting to the point where he thinks she could well be HIS honey, but for heaven's sake, don't you understand Marie? We want Donny all by himself. Move over and stop making him out to be a goofball. The 70's are over!!!

I also found out today that my friend Laurel also watched the show. She would have me believe that she's into pageants because her daughter did them years ago. Well, I'm having none of it. I don't believe a word. I think she has a secret crush on my honey. It's okay Laurel. Just wait till next week when we go to the Women's Expo. Arlene, Donna, Margie and I will look after you. We'll hold your hand and give you all the support you need. It's hard at first but then it gets easier once you've told people what you really are; a Donny Diva. Just come out of the closet Laurel, you'll be just fine. Here's an incentive just for you.

WOWZA

Happy Birthday Mam

Happy Birthday Mam!!!

We love you lots and miss you lots too. Have a very special day.

All our love from, Brent and Janet, Daniel, Heather and Danielle, Olivia, Greg, Katelynn and soon to be Christopher, Michael and Jordan.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Another Grandma day

This morning we watched General Conference (I loved the talk that Dieter Uchtdorf gave), then we took the dogs for a ride in the car and then it was Grandma day again. Danielle was crawling everywhere and can even pull herself up onto the side of the coffee table. She tried chewing on it but that's where Grandma just HAD to be a spoilsport. All that, and she's only just turned 7 months!

A great Saturday

Today was all in all a lovely day. Brent and I started off bright and early by going to collect our Bountiful Basket (check out their web site http://www.bountifulbaskets.org/ ) at our new and much closer to home site. As it was the first time this site had been used, the truck delivering the fruit and vegetables was about 20 minutes late, so that coupled with a 30 minute later pick up time and a freeway closure that made us divert onto the side streets, caused us to be just a smidgen late to get into the Desert Botanical Gardens for free. We made it there at a minute past nine and there was no way that the security guy at the gate was going to take pity on us and so we had the honor and privilege of being the first paying customers of the day.
The gardens were just beautiful, the weather a perfect 65F when we arrived and I could have visited there for a long time, but Brent, who hates the heat, had had enough after about 90 minutes. (Note to self: go alone the next time!)
Anyway, enjoy the photos of the Gardens and also the Butterfly House that we went to.

After that, we were pretty hungry, so we headed towards home and stopped off at Village Inn for a lunch. Brent had his usual Santa Fe skillet, but I decided to be a dare devil and had something different; crepes filled with cream cheese, strawberries and pineapple and topped with whipped cream and grated coconut. Mmmmm, good!
I then watched most of the Saturday afternoon General Conference session before we started getting ready for the picnic we were going to with Daniel, Heather and Danielle. We met up at Freestone Park where we took over a picnic bench and barbecue and set up a large blanket on the grass for Danielle to play on. Daniel was in charge of cooking the burgers and chicken and we enjoyed them with salad, potato salad and drinks. The weather was just perfect with a balmy breeze blowing by.
Take a look at our picnic.

Watch Out, Mikes About!

This was taken earlier in the week as Michael was about to go on a ride along with the Gilbert Police. He comes complete with a bullet proof vest under his shirt, police vest over his shirt, handcuffs, police radio and a mean streak towards criminals. Watch out Gilbert!

The Tudors

Okay, so I haven't posted much lately, but that's mainly because it's been all work and not very much interesting play.
One thing I have been doing though is watching The Tudors. As you may know, I LOVE the Tudor history, it totally fascinates me for some unknown reason. I don't get Showtime, the channel that The Tudors is on, but thanks to the Internet, I have been able to download all of the previous seasons episodes (that's 100 hours, folks!) and the first couple of episodes of the new 2nd season.
It's a little bit raunchy, well more than a little bit actually, so much so that one of my sons accused me of watching porn! (I close my eyes a lot!!!) The facts aren't totally accurate, and that really irks me, but overall, it's just very dramatic and for me, compulsive viewing. In fact, last night, I was so busy watching it that I completely forgot to tune in to Dancing With The Stars which is the only program that I actually sit down and watch on the TV.
Anyway, it's nice to know that I'm not the only one who has this obsession. LAUREL, here's to you girlfriend!!!!