Dennis doesn't know what to make of this...

He really is baffled by this, and so am I

I had called him at work minutes before he left today, asking if he would stop off at the store and pick up some guacamole.

Well here's what happened after that, in his words:

"I stopped at Save-Mart, picked up a package of guacamole, and went to the register. There was a middle-aged woman with a teen-age girl standing in line behind me. The total came to $4.99 so I gave the clerk, Travis, a $5.00 bill. Immediately, the woman in line behind me jumped forward and said "I'll take care of this." She grabbed the $5 bill from Travis, handed it back to me, and gave him $5 of her own money. I then looked at her wondering if maybe she knew me. But I had never seen her before. I then said "Why are you doing this?" She said "I just want to pay for it." I then handed my $5 bill back to Travis, while stating "I can pay for my own food." She then grabbed it from his hand again and tried to give it back to me, while pushing her own $5 bill towards him. Poor Travis didn't know what to do. I finally talked directly to Travis, saying "This is my item...and I will pay for it." He took my money, gave me $.01 in change and my receipt. The lady then stuck her $5 bill in my face, saying "Here's more of your change." I just turned away and left. At first, I thought she was crazy. Thinking about it later makes me wonder if she just was someone that wanted to do a good deed. I don't think I looked like I was homeless."


Okay, here I am again.
My question is, if she was just trying to do a good deed, why would she choose a nicely dressed business man? (like I said, he was on his way home from work) Why wouldn't she have chosen a young family, or an older tired looking person??

And why was she so insistent? She would not let up. Dennis had to just get out of there to get her to back off.

Does anyone have a possible reason for her behavior?
What would you have done? Really, what would you have done??

So nice there was a BYU game on after dinner so he could de-stress.
Dennis may have a hard time taking from strangers,
but he sure is enjoying the cookies Paul Gage made for him.

"Wait, don't eat them. Hold the cookies up high, honey, so I can take a picture."
"

Dr. Laura on marriage

I agree with her on this one, do you?
Love the way she explains this...

A sad goodbye

From 1978 through 1990 we lived on a very family friendly street.
Lots of families and kids all about the same ages. Mostly boys.
Lots of great memories

One of these families, below in 1981
Patty (the mom in the above picture) passed from this life last Wednesday while on a business trip with PG&E. The cause is still pending but last I heard they think it was a heart attack. She was 54.

Just before becoming pregnant with her 3rd child, Patty asked me one day,
"Do you think all the boys born in this neighborhood could have something to do with all the airplanes going over our houses?"

Our street was right in the air flight path, and we did hear airplanes going over every single day.

I remember responding with something like, "Uh... no... I don't think the airplanes have anything to do with it." But then she did get me to wonder. After all, I still remember this conversation 25 years later.

She gave birth to her 3rd son less than a year later.

She really wanted a girl. She wanted to name her Sally. But it was obvious she adored her baby Daniel, as she did her older 2 sons, Mark and Scotty.

And then one day she said to me, "You know what Jill? I have this all figured out. Our sons are all going to grow up and want sons, but they will have daughters. Just you wait, you and I will have lots of granddaughters!"

Turns out she was right. I learned at her funeral service yesterday that all of her grandchildren are girls. She had 5 granddaughters.

Taylor, Brianna, Hayden, Katelyn, and Emily (who is due to be born in 3 weeks)

1984

Logan, Scotty, Mark, Mikey, Brock
Baby McKay with the neighborhood Cabbage Patch dolls

The preacher ended the eulogy today with a clip from the Wizard of Oz. He said it was Patty's very favorite movie. I even remember her showing it to Brock and Logan when they were little. I was surprised to learn it was still her favorite after all these years.

These babies have lots to say

Jonas wanted to share what he had to say. His sister Téa even threw in a few words.

Jonas obviously really thinks he's conversing. Notice how he listens and waits til it's his turn to talk again.

Logan, Sept. 6, 1989

McKay, Tyler, and Logan

The post yesterday reminded me of a similar conversation I had with Logan when he was 11.
Here it is exactly from my journal:

"Last week as the boys saw Christopher Reeve on the Disney Channel I said, "I remember when he was on a soap opera Daddy and I use to watch each morning at 10:30am"

Logan: "Really?! What was the name of it?"

Me: "I think it was called "Love of Life"

Logan: "Wow, what part did he play?"

Me: "I think he was a boyfriend."

Logan: "Did he make lots of money?'

Me: "Well not as much as he makes now."

Logan: "Wow, I can't believe my Dad was a movie star and I didn't even know it."

Oh and just so you will know, I gave up my foolish ways of soap operas many many years ago.

Gotta read this

I got permission to share this from another blog. This was just too good to pass up.

Taylor's Mom (who writes below) is the sister of one of Logan's best friends, Travis Ryan. We have been intertwined with the Ryan family since 1990!

Mistaken Identities: Taylorisms

Taylor, age 10, is a funny girl who seems to live entirely in her own little world. She is one of those "book smart" kids who isn't always aware of the real world going on around her. This lends itself to some interesting conversations:

Taylor: (out of the blue) "Isn't it amazing that Ozzy Osbourne was in 'Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'?!? He did such a great job!"
ME: (chuckling) "Uh, yeah, that would be amazing. But, honey, that wasn't Ozzy Osbourne."
Taylor: (in her 'well-duh' voice) "It was totally Ozzy Osbourne. I looked at the end credits and everything. Hellooooo! He was the star of the show! He was Joseph!"
ME: (laughing) "Ozzy Osbourne was NOT Joseph in that play! You're talking about Donny Osmond..."
Taylor: (cutting me off) "That's what I said! Ozzy Osbourne. Anyways, I had no idea that he was such a fantastic actor. And singer!"
ME: (laughing) "Ozzy's something else, all right. And some people think he's a good singer, but he was definitely NOT in 'Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat.'"
Taylor: (sigh) "Go look it up, Mom. He's Joseph! And what's even more amazing is that he can sing and act when you consider that he's blind."
ME: "He's blind?!?"
Taylor: (heavy sigh) "Don't you ever look at magazines, Mom? He's always wearing his blind glasses. In real life, anyways. He is inspirational."
ME: "I don't even know what to tell you right now."
(ironically, Donny Osmond and Ozzy Osbourne were actually on the same television program this week- "Dancing With the Stars". How surreal to have the two of them together! I nearly dragged Taylor out of bed to witness the sources of her confusion, but decided against it. And, truthfully, Ozzy's glasses do make him look visually impaired.)


Taylor: "I am doing my history report on John F. Kennedy. He was such a great president."
ME: "Oh, that would be a neat report to write. I did a lot of research on him when I was in high school. It's so sad about how he died."
Taylor: "Yeah... that darn cancer."
ME: "Ummm, sweetie, JFK was assassinated."
Taylor: "I know. By cancer. Was it lung cancer?"
ME: "Um, no, it wasn't cancer at all. He was killed."
Taylor: "By cancer. I know. I wrote all about it in my report."
ME: "Oh, dear. Really? Did you write that in your report? Have you already turned it in? Cuz he didn't die of cancer, honey. He was shot."
Taylor: (gasping) "No way! That was Lincoln!"
ME: "Yes, Lincoln, too. But John F. Kennedy was also shot and killed."
Taylor: "I think you're wrong."
ME: "No, honey, really. JFK was shot! If you researched him, you must have read that."
Taylor: (pause) "Oh... yeah, now that I think about it, I remember. He WAS shot! But it wasn't that big of a deal. It didn't kill him. He survived it. And THEN he died of cancer."
ME: (completely stumped) "Honey, please don't make me pull up the Zapruder films. Seriously, he was shot. He lost most of the top of his head, and he didn't survive it. Where exactly are you getting your research materials from?"
Taylor: "Well now you're just being sick. I don't want to think about somebody's head being shot."
(heavy pause while both of us are confused beyond belief.)
Taylor: "Well, at least he had a good acting career. Not all presidents can say that."
ME: "Honey, did you maybe do your report on Ronald Reagan?"
Taylor: "Oh, yeah! That's who it was! Ronald Reagan. He was such a great president."
(and Taylor walks away, completely unfazed, while I'm left slightly traumatized by the entire conversation.)

Last spring. Taylor was in her school production of "The Wizard of Oz", proudly playing the great Oz himself. This performance coincided with a Broadway production of "Wicked" here in Jacksonville, and we were lucky enough to get tickets through her school's drama club. Carter, who was already familiar with the play came with Taylor and I. On the drive over, he put the Wicked CD in for us all to hear. About 5 songs into it, Taylor pipes up from the backseat: "Oh my gosh! I can't believe it! This Wicked play is a total rip-off of The Wizard of Oz! Are you kidding me? They like totally copycatted the whole thing. They even use the name Glinda, like in our play. Unbelievable! Talk about a lack of creativity!"

And so you can see why so many times we are left speechless (and utterly baffled) by our Taylor girl! There's never a dull moment with her around!

Posted by Kelly B at 3:41 PM

Look who got glasses!

Miss Elora Rose

Elora is SO EXCITED. She says she can see great now.
And she loves that "We are all glasses family now!"
Elora has the rule down:
"If they're not on your face,
they go in your case!"

She left me this message today.
Cracks me up the way she gives me suggestions
on how to do my blog. ("...Mommy took pictures of me before and after. You can draw a line down your blog saying before and after...")

Could having sons be this dangerous?

Click to enlarge

I originally read about this in 2002, but found this article again yesterday.

So the way I figure...I gave birth to 4 sons, so my life will be shortened by 136 weeks.

According to this article, if I had gone on to have 12 daughters, then I would be okay, because having 3 daughters cancels out the bad effects of having 1 son.

Well there is not anything I can do about this now. :)

And I should also add, they are worth it.

The Mcs' Halloween Visit

McKay and McKenna

Belle and Lion aka Elora and Cami

Teaching his nieces how to text?

Téa chewing on her head bow.

We just love her puppy dog eyes!

And Jonas' chunky thighs.
He loves his Grandma Karen.
(Back in 1976 when Karen and I lived in the same apt complex,
who would have ever thought that we would share grandchildren someday...)

So nice to have cousin Carly and Enoch stop by with their 4.
First Halloween that they were not in Texas or Panama.
More about Carly later.



Lots of playing time with the nieces.

Goodbye McKay and McKenna. Drive safely!

Even though they weren't here for our celebration,
take a look at some of our Utah grandchildren.

Jacob and Katelyn
And here's our little Buggy Rachie. What a costume!

Halloween 1990

McKay and Tyler

I don't know where my other 2 sons were on this day.
But these 2 were inseparable.

They would sit like this where ever they were.
If I was looking for one, I would find them both.McKay and McKenna will be here tonight from Provo.
They are flying in via Denver, Co.
Wish Tyler and Karen were also coming!

Thanks Tyler for taking them to the airport!