It's a Little Less Scary Out There

Whew!! We made it although the mentality of the citizens out here leaves you wondering. One proposition that passed had to do with animals not being able to roam freely and living in too crowded conditions. Wouldn't you think we'd be a little more concerned about the living conditions of people instead? Another proposition that didn't pass had to do with the notification of parents if their under age children wanted an abortion. In other words, people care more about animals than they do their own children. Yes, indeed, we must have that same law on our books that Arkansas was trying to get rid of.

Scary Times

Everyone keeps reminding us that we're not doing our part in keeping up with the blog. What can we say other than we live rather dull lives and that we've spent countless hours during the past 4 months working on Prop 8. For the benefit of those who keep up with our blog (besides our kids), we were called to serve on the finance committee which entailed spending 2-3 nights a week keeping track of the donations that were sent in by the church members to ProtectMarriage.com. We helped process millions of dollars and hopefully, it will all pay off when the election is over this week. Steve has also been involved with the members in our area who are making phone calls, walking the precincts, and will be doing exit polling on Tuesday. The members have been very generous with their time and money.

This is a picture that our bishop e-mailed to us that reflects the battle we've undertaken:



The following is from an e-mail that was forwarded to me of an experience of one sister up in Northern California:

"I had a very disturbing experience yesterday that I would like to share with those of you that live outside of California (or outside of the San Francisco Bay Area). This weekend we have stake conference. Our stake conference always begins with a stake temple session on Friday or Thursday night. Early Friday morning I received a call from the second counselor in our bishopric to let me know that there would be numerous protesters outside the temple, and to remind everyone to stay calm and to drive carefully. The beautiful Oakland Temple is located right across the bay from San Francisco, very close to the city of Berkeley. Apparently the opposition to proposition 8, the amendment that seeks to make marriage in CA between a man and a woman again, has realized the deep involvement of the church and begun to protest right outside of the temple and harass temple patrons. The fastest way to get to the temple from our house is to take the 680 freeway, but the exit is a bit tricky. The off ramp is extremely short and straight uphill. You then make an almost blind left turn, an immediate right and another left into the parking lot. As we approached the off ramp, I realized there would be trouble. There was a backup onto the freeway from cars stalled on the off ramp. As we moved forward inches at a time, we realized this was due to a large group of loud protesters who were standing on both sides of the street, yelling, screaming and waving signs. When we got to the top of the offramp, ready to make our turn, one protester jumped out right in front of our car. It took my husband all his self control to carefully maneuver around him to the left and proceed to the temple. I tried not to listen to all they were shouting at us, but I was shaking as I got to the temple front door. Several of the sisters, especially the ones driving on their own, were crying (which made me snap out of it and go into RS President mode to comfort them). Later, as I was sitting in the perfect quiet of the chapel, I couldn't help but think of Lehi's dream, and the people who mocked the Saints from the big spacious building but 'we heeded them not.' It was a truly surreal experience, I'd never thougth that I would have to go through an angry crowd to get to the temple. As we left late at night, the protesters had dispersed, temple security (who all looked very large and Tongan) stood by the gates. I never saw a single police man. Please pray for those of us in California fighting for prop 8--it's getting kind of scary out here!"

It has gotten scary and also very ugly too. The opposition's ads accuse us of hate and discrimination and our signs are stolen or destroyed almost as fast as they are put up. Two more days -- please do remember us in your prayers.

I'll Take Your Challenge --

Amy tagged us so here's my list of things we'd never say. Some may be a little lame, it really did take some deep thought to come up with these:

Things I'd never say:

1. Can I have avocado/guacamole with that?
2. No thanks, I really wouldn't care for a Godiva chocolate.
3. I think I'll mow the lawn today.
4. I'd love to sit down and watch that baseball/basketball/football game with you.
5. Let me kill that spider for you.
6. You'll never find me sewing/quilting.
7. My hair looks so great, I don't think I need to wash it today.

Things I think that Steve would never say:

1. I never forget where I put anything.
2. I'd love to have a huge piece of that chocolate cake.
3. I hate yardwork.
4. Let's go shopping.
5. I'd like to sleep in tomorrow morning.
6. I think the front lawn can go without mowing for a couple of weeks.
7. I've never liked the Dodgers.

Steve concurred with his list and has just discovered that he can't remember where he left his Church keys.

Summer's End

The summer is nearly over -- just 2 weeks until school begins again. It seemed like at the beginning that things would not be as hectic as usual and I mentally compiled a list of all the things that I wanted to accomplish. I wish I could say that I had accomplished all or at least many of those things, but there's always another summer. I did get to do those things that were at the top of my list: Taking a class and learning how to machine quilt; I finally made Brooklyn's quilt -- it was about 3 years overdue, but it was my 1st quilt that I made from beginning to end, thanks to having taken the machine quilting class. I was able to attend a huge quilt show in Long Beach as well as visiting about 20 quilt shops in Southern California. The very best part of the summer was having all the kids and grandchildren spending their vacation at our house. What fun!!

Kids slumber party -- did they get any sleep?

Brookie's quilt:

The reason why my license plate frame says, "My Grandkids Are Cuter Than Yours":

Not Very Original

Since I find us in a bit of a lull (or is that, since we're a bit dull), I decided that I would follow the lead of Jeff and Nicole. Hope you find this interesting. :)

10 years ago:
I didn't think I would be able to remember anything but luckily, Jeff has reminded us that he was beginning HS and escaped attending Foothill which does jog my memory a bit. I believe that was the year that Nicole and Jon got married and thus brings back all the memories of blizzards, plane rides from he__ and trying to bring a wedding cake back on the plane among other things.

5 years ago:
Jeff was leaving for his mission and we were preparing to be empty nesters (which didn't last). To avoid that dreadfully empty feeling that comes when someone leaves and you know that you're not going to be seeing that person for a long time, I immediately hopped on a plane and flew to Utah for my high school reunion.

5 months ago:
(I had to consult my calendar for this one). I was taking lots of quilting and software classes, and even though it seemed like they were taking up almost every night and weekend, I really enjoyed learning lots of new stuff. And I started making a quilt that I can hardly wait to finish. Dad and I celebrated Valentine's day at Macaroni Grill.

5 things on my to do list:
1. Finishing one of my "in progress" quilts
2. Backing up my pictures from the computer onto a hard drive
3. Getting my sewing room/guest room in order before the kids arrive
4. Relaxing in my lounge chair on the patio with a good book
5. Learning to quilt on a long-arm machine

5 snacks:
1. Godiva or See's Chocolates
2. Chocolate brownies
3. Crackers and Brie cheese
4. Peanut M&M's
5. Mrs. Field's cookies

5 billionaire things:
1. A private yacht and vacation homes scattered around the world
2. Travel via a private jet
3. A huge house with several garages full of really cool cars
4. A fabulous wardrobe
5. Household help, i.e., housekeeper, gardener, cook
(Okay, I cheated a bit to get it all in)

5 places I have lived:
1. River Heights
2. Logan
3. Salt Lake City
4. West Tustin
5. South Tustin

5 things you may not know about me:
1. I belonged to a sorority in college.
2. I had several opportunities to drink while in college, but never did and never have.
3. I went to school with and was good friends with Craig Jessop (formerly director of the MoTab) and Michael Ballam, in fact I even babysat Michael & his brothers once.
4. I was asked out on a date by Sergio Mendez, (the lead of a popular band in the 60's & 70's), but turned him down since I was certain he was just looking for "groupies".
5. I took dance lessons for 6 years and piano lessons for 6 years.

5 pet peeves:
1. Stupid people who just don't get it.
2. People who smoke with no regard to those around them.
3. People who can't pick up their own trash.
4. My next door neighbors.
5. People who spit lougies on sidewalks where I have to walk.

This was fun --

Daddy's Big Adventure or Boys Just Want To Have Fun

We've just spent the past week in Utah celebrating Mom and Dad Crosbie's 65th wedding anniversary. Saturday evening after the day's festivities had ended, Jed took Dad and Michael ATVing up into the hills above the Merrill's house. They returned several hours later and were rather nonchalant about their adventure. Then I noticed that the front of Dad's jeans were really ripped up. When I asked what had happened, he just gave me some story about how he had ripped them on the seat as he was getting off the ATV. Later on something was mentioned about him having banged up his knee. I finally got the whole story out of Michael about how they had swerved one direction to avoid a rut and he had followed them, went off the road and caused the ATV to roll over him. The thing that saved him from more severe injury was the fact that he fell into a rut or ravine as the ATV rolled. So the injuries are confined to a whip lash, bruised ribs, sprained wrist and thumb and a really ugly contused and bruised leg. And you know how Dad is, he doesn't complain about the hurt. So, I took a few pictures so we can all feel the pain for him.

It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's . . . .

Sawzall man!! Ready to make home repairs in a flash. He can rip through wood, nails, walls, the roof. He's a dangerous man when he puts on his goggles and picks up his Milwaukee weapon! Notice how all the wood facing is missing from the upper eaves.

On the other side of the house . . . . meet our newest family member, Big Bertha Payne. She's going to be keeping our house nice and cool this summer. Her little brother, Henry, resides in the garage and will keep us warm and toasty in the winter.