Non-Gooey

Here is a "non-gooey" picture of Ruby (as Erin's girls would say!) They liked the one right after her birth, but they asked me to take one that's not gooey! I just love those little cross-eyed newborn pictures. And by the way, she looks EXACTLY like Erin did when she was born. I dug out one of Erin's baby pictures, and they could be identical twins!
What do you think?

Ruby Mae

Ruby Mae Trimble was born this afternoon about 2:15 pm. She weighed 8 lbs. 1 oz. and is 22 inches long. She has lots of dark hair. Her sisters couldn't be happier or more excited. Her name is Ruby Mae Trimble.

Wondering...

I was doing so well, and I guess I fell off the blogger wagon!
The schoolgirls' sleepover was a huge success. We woke up Saturday morning and the girls quickly got dress and went with Grandpa to pick up our Bountiful Basket. They thought that was fun. When they got back home they each chose a couple of their favorite fruits to take home to enjoy. Then we all got ready and went to breakfast. We went to IHOP. That sure was fun! The girls ordered exactly what they wanted and they were all amazed that our waiter, Luis, was able to remember everyone's order, down to the slightest detail, without writing anything down! And he got everyone's orders perfect. Wendy's could take a lesson from IHOP! On our way back home, we saw a sign for an estate sale in our neighborhood. Naturally, we had to stop. They girls were delighted! They each found a cute purse to buy. And when we got home, they were eager for me to find things to fill their purses. We found pencils, pens, highlighters, mints and post-it notes. They were thrilled. We even heard the words, "This is the best day of my life!" That's what makes it all worthwhile.
The in-town girls were picked up around noon and we took Emma home after that. On our way back home, Mark and I made a few stops in the east valley and then we got home and I watched the Relief Society broadcast while Mark went to get dinner. We settled in for the night and were up bright and early Sunday morning. We had told Erin we'd go to her ward to help her with the girls since Chrystalyn was out of town. The girls did well, but I'm not sure how much the rest of us got out of the meeting. We'll have to work on that one. We spent most of the rest of the day at home. Mark had meetings in the afternoon and my siblings/spouses and Mark and I met at Dad's to begin plans for our next family reunion. It looks like it will be in January. We're planning something low-key and relaxing, I hope! Aunt Dovetta treated us all to fry bread. Yum! Thanks!!
Since we like to have cinnamon rolls for conference weekend, Erin and I had to figure out how we would make that happen this time. We decided to make the dough and get it all rolled and cut and freeze it before it had a chance to rise. Then when we're ready to eat it, we'd get it out, let it thaw and rise and then bake it. So that's what we did today. So we have two batches of cinnamon rolls ready to go! Erin had to buy stamps, so we made a quick trip to the post office. Then it was back home and on to household chores.
Tonight we're waiting for Eliza and Libby to come over. They'll be staying here while Erin has baby #5....hopefully, tomorrow. The Doc. is planning on inducing in the morning so we'll have the school girls for a few days. We'll have to get up early to get them to school on time! Yikes!
So I've been wondering the past few days a few things about our newest granddaughter...
What's she been learning before she comes to our family?
Who's been teaching her?
Is she with my mom?
What will she look like?
What will her little personality be like?
How will she fit in with her sisters?
What's she doing today as she prepares to come to earth?

Lots of thoughts passing through my mind.
I'll keep you posted when she arrives!

Sleepover/Pajama Party

Tonight has been so much fun! The school-aged granddaughters are her for a sleepover/pajama party. We started out the evening getting everyone picked up/dropped off at various points in the valley. Then it was dinner. At first, it looked like it might be a problem getting all four of them to decide on one dinner location. But then they asked if they went to Wendy's, could they have a Frosty. Of course, the answer was a resounding, "Yes!" (especially if that meant just one stop!). So we stopped and picked up Wendy's on the way home. Naturally, they got the order totally wrong, so after a rather stern phone call, Mark returned and they got things straightened out. Sheesh! How hard is it?? It would have helped had we been able to understand the broken English of the order-taker! Oh, well. Then it took another hour plus to finish up dinner, brush teeth and get ready for bed. And of course, it was a little interesting getting their bedrolls situated just right. Then we watched a new movie I picked up today, Princess Protection Program. It was a very cute movie and the girls all seemed to enjoy it. By the way, while Grandpa was out getting our dinner, the girls called him to request some movie snacks. Their requests were simple....popcorn, candy corn and M&Ms. They nibbled a bit and then started quieting down. As of this moment, we have two down, and two to go! Who knows what tomorrow will hold!!??!!
As far as earlier in the week goes...
Monday I spent at the dentist getting a couple of teeth worked on. No cavities or anything, just a little cosmetic stuff. But nobody would notice but me! Oh, well. The doc wanted to do it to "strengthen" my teeth. Ok....as long as insurance will pay.
Tuesday was book group. We read Minding Mama, by Marilyn Arnold this month. It was a funny book about a woman who promised her mother that when she died she'd take her to southern Utah (from Georgia) to be buried. So she did...literally. She propped her up in the cab of her old pickup and headed across the country. The book tells of her various antics/encounters on the road. It's a very funny book.
Wednesday, I went back to the dentist so he could finish up the teeth he worked on on Monday. Then I went to Erin's to take pictures of my 7gypsies Christmas project. As soon as I get the ok, I'll post pictures here.
Thursday was a full day. Brian called on Wednesday night and asked if I was available on Thursday to watch Luke. Their sitter and her kids were feeling ill and they needed a place for Luke. Of course, I agreed. So Luke came early Thursday morning. We watched Snow White and Lady and the Tramp. He also entertained himself very well playing with blocks and the little box of plastic animals. And he loves to pound the pegs with the wooden mallet. He could do that forever, it seems! He was building something with the blocks and called to me, "Grandma, I'm building a house. Take my picture!" Of course, I did! What a cute boy. After lunch, he took a 2+ hour nap. I had to wake him to take him to Brian's school.
Today Erin and I got together to bake bread one last time before the baby comes so they will have enough bread to get them through a couple of weeks. We made a quick run to Target for lunch and a couple of movies and Erin needed to stop at Costco. Then it was back home until the girls started to arrive for tonight's festivities. Lest you'd think we left the boys out...not to worry. Their sleepover will be next month! I'm sure it won't include lotions, colognes, lip gloss and hair styling, like the girls' did tonight!

My New Notebook and Stitchery

A week or so ago, I helped Erin put together some composition books for her girls to use during church time to help them be reverent. I made them cute and personalized them for each of the girls. I guess they were totally surprised when Erin pulled them out during sacrament meeting the first Sunday. As a thank you, Libby and Eliza made me the sweetest gifts. They're ones I'll treasure forever. Eliza made the "I Love You" stitchery project. She did all of the stitching herself and I think she did a wonderful job. Libby personalized a small notebook for me to carry in my purse. She did it all herself....even down to choosing which stickers and messages to put on it. There are lots of meanings incorporated into the project. I got to use the notebook today during stake conference while I took some notes. Thanks, girls. I love your creativity and willingness to share your talents with me.

Sunday Session Lessons

This morning was the Sunday session of stake conference. The talks were great and the music very moving. Elder Pickard taught some simple, but deep spiritual messages.
Here are some of the suggestions that he had:
To the Primary children: Have a temple picture in your bedroom that you can look at and think about every day. Be someone the Lord can depend on.
To the Youth: Follow the guidelines given in the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet and there are promises made to you if you do. Also....the For the Strength of Youth guidelines are for both the youth and the not so young. He suggested that it be called...For the Strength of YOU(th)!
He urged all who are old enough and who haven't yet received their partriarchal blessing, to do so. By the way...we got a new stake Patriarch....Maurice Baysa from our ward. He will be WONDERFUL!!! He's such a spiritual man, I know he will be a great asset to our stake.
Elder Pickard then asked another question to ponder...Where are your priorities? He suggested several scriptures that talk about our treasures and where our hearts are. He counseled us to have Family Home Evening, even if we don't have children at home. And his final message (thought provoking, for sure) was, "You can change your life."
So that's what I learned today in stake conference. I have some studying, pondering, and changing to do. I'd better get on it!!

Thoughts to Ponder

Tonight was the adult session of stake conference. Among lots of other things, Elder Pickard, our visiting area authority, asked two questions that he wanted us to ponder. 1) What voice are we listening to? 2) What way are we facing?
I know....deep thoughts to ponder. But try.

Again So Soon?

Yes, I'm posting again. Trying to get myself back in the habit. Today was our stake fill the temple day. We went, despite my dislike for wearing hose/dresses. I guess it isn't the dress so much as the hose. Erin suggested that I just not wear them, but no, that's not an option for me. Legs are way too ugly and white. At least hose covers them a bit. It was hot today...which is probably why the hose dislike. Normally, Mark and I like to stop at a few of our favorite spots, but we made two stops and I was READY to come home and change clothes. The temple was great. We saw a few people from the stake, but not a whole lot. We had lunch at the temple cafeteria. Yum! We had a roast beef meal. On the way home, we stopped at Mystic Paper. I was wanting to get some inspiration for a Christmas project I need to get going on. I didn't really find any inspiration there this time, but I did come up with an idea for a project. I think it will be a fun one! I'll have to keep you posted. I do know it will take a LOT of cutting, though! UGH! Our other stop was at DI in Mesa. We had been there earlier in the week and bought a book on tape, but when we listened to it, we realized we only got tapes 1 and 2, so we went back looking for tapes 3 and 4. No luck today. But we did find two other audio books. We can't seem to get enough of them! And DI has great prices! Our next stop (Ok...we made 3 stops!) was Sonic and then we headed to the west side of town. I hurried into the house and quickly changed clothes. Ahhh!!! I feel better already. Now it's off to finish grading papers and getting my Christmas project done. I think you'll like it. I think it would make a really nice class, too....We'll see.

Self-Imposed Torture....a Good Thing!

Can you believe it? Two posts in two days. Wow.
Today I went to Erin's and we baked bread....lots of it. We each did a batch of 7 loaves. So 14 loaves of bread. It's a good thing she has two ovens or it would have taken a whole lot longer. While the bread was cooling, Ellie and Hattie wanted to go to our "usual" lunch spot....the snack bar at Target. They both knew what they wanted to eat. Ellie wanted nachos and an Icee and Hattie wanted a pizza and an Icee. Erin shared Hattie's pizza and I had a turkey sandwich. Such gourmet diners! Then we walked around the store looking at the Halloween decorations and satisfying Erin's craving for M&Ms and candy corn. Then we went home and bagged up the bread. I came home, put the laundry basket full of supplies away and started in grading papers. I should finish sometime next week! Just kidding...probably tomorrow. And tomorrow is our stake temple day. The only down side to that is I dislike wearing dresses/hose...and with temple day and stake conference this weekend, that will be a dress three days in a row. Yuck. Oh, well. I'm sure I'll live.

Holey Moley!

It's been a while since I've blogged....what else is new? I can't seem to find time to blog regularly. Sorry about that for anyone who keeps checking and I haven't changed my post.
Matthew's sleepover went well. We had such a good time with him. On Friday night, we met him at Dan's office and we picked him up. He was so jazzed!! Our first stop was Target. He knew what he wanted and where to get it. Luckily they had one! It was the last one on the shelf. He got a Star Wars gun of some sort. I'm sure it has a name, but I have no idea what it is. It comes in several pieces and the gun itself can be configured in various ways. Before we left the parking lot, it was out of the box, batteries inserted, and gun assembled! He played with it ALL the way home and ALL day on Saturday. We were glad to take the gun (not Matthew) home on Saturday so someone else could listed to the "laser" sound of the gun. We went to dinner...pizza, of course, and the home to watch a movie. Matthew chose Kit Kitteredge. It was a cute movie....it's an American Girl movie, but it was good for any audience...not just girls! That night it started to rain...a lot! When we left here on Saturday morning, it was POURING and it rained all the way to Fiddlestix. That's where Matthew wanted to go for his birthday activity. He wanted to use the batting cage, drive a go cart and play miniature golf. We were afraid it wouldn't be possible, so on the way, we started making alternate plans. However, by the time we got the car parked, it had stopped raining. We purchased his wristband and bought a couple of games of miniature golf for me and Mark. We went to the batting cages first. He got 5 tokens to use and each token was supposed to get him 20 pitches. He put in the first token and probably got 300 pitches from it! We mentioned it to the workers, and they said, "Go for it!" It never stopped, but Matthew got really tired swinging the bat! So we let the next family continue on our token. They were still batting the last we saw! The next stop was the go carts. Luckily, it had dried up enough that they let Matthew go on the ride. He was the only one of the race track, which probably wasn't as fun as it could have been if there had been others to "race". The worker got him going and told us he could ride as long as we wanted him to. He took MANY laps and finally asked to stop. Funny. So he got his fill of batting and driving all in one day! Then we played a round of miniature golf. Of course, Matthew won! By that time, it had started raining again, so it was time to go after the round of golf. Then we went to lunch...he chose pizza at Sam's Club. Funny kid! And we headed back to his house to return him home. It was such a fun day....at least for us....and I think for Matthew. Happy Birthday, Matt!
On Sunday, we had our family dinner here. We were celebrating Brian's birthday (which was on the 7th), and he requested burgers and brats. Yum! Then on Monday, Brian and Kamille went with Dad and Aunt Dovetta to Seven Springs to gather some prickley pears. Brian and Kamille have been wanting to learn how to process them and make jelly. So this was their chance. We had their kids while they went. Cactus and kids don't mix well. They were able to pick all they wanted and went back to Dad's to learn how to get the juice from the pears and process it so they could make jelly. They were successful. They came here and picked up the kids and went home to process the rest of the prickley pears. And last Saturday, Kamille made jelly! Yumm! One batch didn't set up too well (a risk of prickley pears), so we had prickley pear syrup. I can hardly wait to make some waffles or pancakes and try it out.
Mark had a job at the arena on Tuesday. It was a NickelBack concert. Don't know a thing about the group, but I went down and met him for dinner around 9 pm. He picked up salads at Shane's Rib Shack and I picked up sodas. We ate in the parking lot near the intersection where he was directing traffic for the evening.
Wednesday morning I went to Erin's and we (along with Hattie and Ellie) went to her friend, Rachel's house, where Rachel and Terri threw a baby sprinkle (small shower) for Erin and another friend, Kari. It sure was fun. Erin's so fortunate to have such good friends who love and support her. They all used to be in the same ward, but due to several ward divisions, they are all in three different wards now. But that doesn't seem to matter....they all look out for and take care of each others' needs.
On Thursday, I went visiting teaching. I got to go with my new partner, Margaret Jackson. She's so fun! We visited Linda and Jenny and then we went to Margaret's house where we waited for our visiting teachers, Eileen and Joyce to come. Margaret and I visit Joyce and Joyce and Eileen visit both me and Margaret. It worked out well.
Friday was Grandparents Day at Abby's and Dallin's school. Mark took off work and we both went to have lunch with the kids. It was fun to see them interacting with their friends and teachers.
I spent Saturday with Jan teaching a Zutter Fun class. Then that night was a multi-stake Laurel/Priest activity at Polar Ice. It didn't start until 9 pm, so it was a LONG day. I got to visit with Erin and several friends that night, so it wasn't too bad.
Sunday morning was Abby's and Dallin's Primary Sacrament Meeting Program. So we headed out their EARLY. They did well both singing and Abby with her speaking part. Then we rushed back to our ward where I taught in Relief Society. Whew! And in the afternoon, all of the kids and grandkids came over for Sunday dinner. We had an easy-cooking meal...rotisserie chicken from Costco, Rice-a-Roni, fresh corn and Brian and the kids made cookies and brought ice cream. We had a great time. Thanks, everyone, for coming!!!
Then on Monday this week, I went to Erin's house about 9:30 am. We spent until after 4:30 cooking, if you can believe it! Erin had planned out several recipes and had all of the ingredients ready and we put together 20+ meals to put in the freezer to feed their family after the baby arrives. It was a very tiring day, but it felt so good to be so productive. By noon, both of us had aching feet, but I think it was worth the work and effort. Poor Hattie and Ellie, though. They felt very neglected that day.
Tuesday this week found us at another school for Grandparents' Day. We had lunch with Matthew and Emma. It was a fun time. I guess when they came home from school, they couldn't stop talking about the fun time they had at lunch with us!
Today I got a haircut, then went to pick up papers from Brian. We stopped by Erin's to drop off a rug that Dad had made for her new baby's room. It turned out to be the perfect colors. It looks so cute in her room. Then Mark and I went junkin' to a couple of places and other than one really sweet Little Golden Book score, we didn't find much today. Boo! Then we came home and I've been grinding wheat. Erin and I are baking bread tomorrow! Does it ever end? I don't think so!!
Oh, I almost forgot. I picked up my new glasses today. I'll have Erin take a picture tomorrow and I'll post it for you, Courtni!!
Have a great rest of the week. I think I need a nap! Just reading what I've been doing makes me tired. And yes, I took some pictures, but they aren't downloaded yet. I'll post them later....maybe. :)

Bad Blogger

It was brought to my attention tonight that I haven't updated my blog in a while. (Thanks Ashley!) I know....bad! So I will attempt to do a bit of an update.
Last week:
Wednesday--visiting teaching....I will have a new partner and a new sister to visit starting in September. Yea!
Thursday--I picked Abby and Dallin up from school. It was early release for them and it's pretty pricey for them to attend the after school program, so I got to pick them up, take them to lunch and spend the rest of the day with them. So fun. It could be a monthly event...we'll see.
Friday--Jan and I cropped at Scrap Happy. We worked on a Christmas project. Basically, it's a star book structure with an additional signature tied into each star point. We used the newest Graphic 45 paper (Christmas Past) and it's an ABCs of Christmas book. It folds out for display, but after Christmas it folds up for easy storage. So cute. When I finish, I'll take pictures and post.
Saturday---we picked up a Bountiful Basket. Then we spent the day junkin' and running errands.
Sunday--Dinner at Erin's house. Then we went to a meeting at their stake center. Four of the ward in their stake were being realigned and Erin husband, Brian, was put into their ward bishopric. The party has begun for Erin....Sacrament meeting with (soon to be) five little girls and her husband sitting on the stand! I pray that ward members will help her as needed. But they'll be well blessed for the sacrifices they'll be making.
Monday (this week)--Jan and I taught a Collections From the Journey travel journal class in Sun City. There were three women in the class and another six signed up for us to teach another time! Yikes!!!
Tuesday--Jan and I went to Creative Quest to get ribbon for our Christmas project. Later that day Erin and I (along with Hattie and Ellie) went to Hobby Lobby. Erin needed knobs for the new baby's dresser. Hobby Lobby has a good selection of dresser knobs, cabinet knobs and door knobs. She found some pretty clear glass ones. They'll look great on her antiqued orange dresser!
Today--I spent the morning grading papers for Brian. And working on some church activity books for Erin's girls. This afternoon I had an appointment with the eye doctor. Not bad until they put in the drops to dialate my eyes. I hate that part. It's been seven hours and my eyes are still dialated. I must take after my mom...her eyes were dialated most of the time. UGH! The worst part is the sunlight and at night, it's the street lights and the beams of light radiating from them. Not fun.
Tomorrow--a trip to swap papers with Brian at school, a teeth cleaning appointment and a session with the wheat grinder to prepare for bread baking on Friday. Also on Friday, I'll be meeting Erin at the eye Dr. to help me choose new frames for my new glasses. Mark offered to help, but I opted to have Erin....I think she'll be a better judge of what looks best. Sorry Mark! And Friday night will be Matthew's birthday sleepover. Don't know yet what he has in store for us, but I'm sure it will be lots of fun! Can't believe he'll be 10 this year. He was born on 9/9/99...and turns 10 on 9/9/09!!