Watching for a parade

I love living in small towns. We have lived in several, but this is the first time living on Main Street in a small, close-knit town. The RS presidency came by to welcome me into the ward and while they were here there were some sirens, which is a normal sound on main street (especially with calls from I-80). I didn't think anything of them, but one of the ladies said that maybe it was a parade. I laughed at her, thinking she was being funny. She realized that I had no idea what she was talking about and explained that if it was slow moving that it was recognizing somebody and if it was fast moving it was an emergency.

We looked out and sure enough it was slow moving and had a man dressed in full military uniform with his wife sitting up on the fire truck waving at people. He had just gotten back from active duty. She explained that any time somebody, or a team wins a tournament, goes to state, gets recognized for something extraordinary, etc. the town has a small parade, usually a firetruck and a couple of other emergency vehicles with sirens blaring. It's pretty cool.

Now the kids and I look outside each time we hear sirens and if they are moving slow we go onto the front porch and wave at the person(s) being honored. One of the neatest things we got to see was the special olympics kids running down the street with the lit torch, the kids loved it! I love the feeling of being a part of things in the community!

My Awesome Brother-in-Law

My brother-in-law, Marty is just amazing! My sister, Jamie and her family came out for a week from Nauvoo, where they live, for their daughter's high school graduation (Sage has been living here in Grantsville for her Sr. Year). Even though they were only here for a week, Marty took almost the whole day on Wednesday to come to my house and re-stretch all of our carpet upstairs and lay new carpet in Gabby's room! Is that amazing or what?

When we moved in there were some wrinkles in the carpet in the upstairs family room and the hallway that drove me nuts! I knew that they needed to be re-stretched, but didn't know how to go about doing that, it's a skill that I haven't yet learned to do. When I found out that Jamie and Marty were coming out I asked if he could re-stretch it while they were here. Marty has known how to do carpet since he was in high school and is amazing! If you ever go to Nauvoo and look around at any of the sites or church buildings, he has laid a lot of that carpet. I know specifically the Joseph Smith Academy stuff, but since that building isn't there any more you can't see what great carpet he did!Anyway he was happy to do it. In the meantime Bump's parents were getting rid of their carpet in their living room and asked it we wanted it. It's nice carpet, but it's pink and I am not a big pink fan, so at first we said no. Then we thought that it would look great in Gabby's room and so we pulled it out of their house on Memorial Day and Marty laid it on Wednesday. The upstairs looks brand new now with all the carpet! We even put carpet down in the toy closet in Gabby's room, so the kids have a nicer place to play and they won't get slivers from the plywood!The kids "secret" toy room, now carpeted (we will be painting the walls something fun)

Jamie loves my vacuum and wanted to vacuum everything when Marty was finished.

It looks amazing and I can't thank Marty enough for all of his hard, hard work!! What a way to spend a vacation huh?? We sure do appreciate him and the house looks great!!

New American Idol

Okay, so I have to admit that it has been a few years since I have gotten into American Idol. To me it just hasn't compared since "So You Think You Can Dance" started a few years ago. The dancing talent was just so amazing that it kind of ruined American Idol for awhile. Well, this year I watched the whole season again and I have been cheering for David Cook the whole time!


I tend to be pretty picky about singers. There was some great talent this year and it was fun to see the songs that they picked to sing throughout the competition - some were amazing, and others I just had to fast forward through (thanks TIVO). The thing that I loved about David Cook was his variety in song choice and his range.

Bump and I decided that you either have the talent or you don't. You can always tell someone who has had to work to get their voice good and someone who is just born with the right sound - you know? Anyway, I am so happy that he won and I did download 5 of his songs from ITunes before they took them away. My favorite is "The Music of the Night," because it shows that he can sing more than just rock and the high notes are nice and smooth! I also like the version of "Billie Jean" that he sang.

Anyway, it was a great competition this year with a lot of talent, but now I am thrilled to move on to my very favorite show of all time - So You Think You Can Dance!!!! Did anyone see the amazing popper at the end of the season premier this last Thursday?!! AMAZING!!! I hope he can do other things and isn't another Cedric from last year! Happy Thursdays!!!

Family Home Evening Dinner

In keeping with the tradition that my mom set for us years ago I decided to introduce my kids to Family Home Evening Dinner on the table. I cooked a big pot of spaghetti and dumped individual piles in front of the kids instead of putting the food on plates. (Don't worry, I washed the table very well before and made the kids wash their hands!)I wish I had the camera right when I put the food out because Corban's reaction was hilarious! He started to cry and beg for a plate. He was looking at me like I was the meanest mom in the world for not putting his food on a plate. Once I finally got the camera out he had adjusted to the situation and was ready to have some fun. (see the video below)The kids ate more food than usual and had lots of fun at dinner. Even though we aren't in the pictures both Bump and I ate the same way (Bump was just late getting home for dinner, so he got to eat by himself with the kids watching his every move with huge smiles on their faces!)

It's good to mix things up a bit once in awhile and it ended up being a really fun night!

Happy Mother's Day!

First of all, Happy Mother's Day to all of you beautiful women in my life! I hope that you are having, or had, a relaxing wonderful day and that you were pampered beyond belief and that you all got many wonderful thank-yous and some fun gifts!

This year I got what I wanted - flowers! And more flowers than I thought I would get! Bump got me 5 beautiful hanging baskets that run all along my front porch (yes, that's the same front porch that I haven't gotten to do anything with yet. . .'sigh') It really makes the porch look nice! It will look even better once the blooms really start popping out. I also got lots of flowers to plant in my flower beds around the house and some neat Marguerite Daisies to plant in pots by my front door. It's nice to have some color out front finally! It isn't nearly enough flowers for my taste, but I can't have it look exactly like I want it to all at once!! Right? The pictures don't make it look like there is still a lot there, but when the petunias fill in there will be some really wonderful color!
There is still so much work to be done on the outside of the house, and it will happen in the years to come, but for now, at least I can add some color to the front and make it look more homey than it has. Oh, I also got 2 lavender plants that I put on either side of the front steps so that it will smell really nice as you walk up to the door. I just love the smell of lavender!


Thank you, Bump for the lovely flowers and for helping me to have a really nice few days!! I am so happy to be a mom and I am so grateful for my own mom and her example! It was so fun to watch Gabby today in church. It was her very first time singing with the primary kids in Sacrament Meeting and she was thrilled! She just kept looking at me and smiling so big! I have to admit that I got a bit teary and I have never done that when the kids have sung before. I guess it's different when you have one of your own up there! Suddenly you have one that is actually singing those songs to you! It was really fun!

Date Night

Saturday night Bump and I went with Tracy and Steve out to dinner and a movie. I just wanted to let everyone know that Iron Man is a great movie and we just loved it!! We had a great time on our date (it's been awhile since we have been out on a date instead of fixing up something on our house!)

Thanks Tracy and Steve for a great time and good company!

Everyone else, go see Iron Man!

Who do the kids look like?

All of the kids look like Bump. No matter how many times I changed pictures to try to get one to actually look like me, none of them ever did! Corban was anything from 5 to 11% like Bump and Quincy was 4% more like Bump. I guess the Williams' genes are just pretty overpowering!

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