Hockey Nets - check. (get it? check)

As you can see - the two missing puzzle pieces have been found. (Check older blog). They were next to a box of 'non-given' presents that were at the foot of my bed. I buy toys or books when I find them for a pretty good price and then save them for Christmas or birthdays. I just hadn't taken them back out in the garage since my wrapping days of Christmas were over and so the little kids must have taken the pieces from the puzzle room into my bedroom and when I went to vacuum - there they were. Did I say the word vacuum? Yep! I have a new vacuum. The DeWitt home has had miserable luck with vacuum cleaners. We had a Hoover - broke, and a Bissell - smelled like it was going broke and so we are now trying a Eureka. We'll see how long it lasts in our home.

Tuesday was Shannon's birthday and she got to go out to Panda Express - her favorite! and then we all went to the movie ' Tangled' - Disney's latest. It was pretty cute. In the parking lot, on a curb next to my car, there it was.........

So I'm not sure I've posted about this yet, but my son Jason is going gung-ho into street hockey. He has some orange/yellow team vests, several hockey sticks (I think he told me 16), pads for the goalie guy and everything you can think of that you might need. (He will be using paintball masks for the goalie). Anyway, he needed hockey nets. He looked into buying them but we, yes I was included in the decision, decided to make them. A few PVC pipes, netting - how hard can it be? Jason did an exceptional job in making the frame: adding galvanized pipes in the lower part of the frame for stability, carefully gluing each piece and then wrapping them in foam insulation. I guess that's because the player might run into them alot. Here they are in the workshop. It is sitting on a door so the PVC glue didn't drip on the floor. Thank you Jason, for thinking of Dad's shop floors.

Now it was my turn. I knew sewing through 4 layers of thick canvas, netting material and also a velcro strip was going to be a challenge on my old Singer. Thus, (looking back again in our Christmas blog) Doug bought me a new sewing machine. A Viking. 1/2 horse power compared to my 1/4 Singer. It zipped right though everything. I LOVED IT!!!! The construction took some time because I didn't have a pattern and after each sewing, I would have to fit it back on the frame to see where to cut and add and sew the next part. After a few days it was FIN-ISHED!

We are now ready for the first game. Who knows, Jason might have a game planned behind our back, but for right now the game is set for January 17th. Monday Night Indoor Hockey. Picture this.... ARE YOU READY TO RUMBLE? Tape the football game and come and watch or even participate. I'll probably be photographer/historian of this prodigious event.

pro·di·gious/prəˈdijəs/Adjective
1. Remarkably or impressively great in extent, size, or degree.
2. Unnatural or abnormal

I wonder what someone wants for his birthday in July?

January 4, 2011. So do you say that two-thousand-eleven or twenty-eleven? I can’t figure out which way sounds right or coolest. Twenty-eleven certainly is quicker. But every time I go to say it, it comes out two-thousand-eleven. Not that I’m saying it that much, but it’s only been 4 days and I know I’ve said it at least 4 times already.

Today is Shannon's birthday. My #7 child is turning 15. Crazy I know. Another driver (insurance is a killer) in a few months.

That was the start of my blog yesterday. I had other pressing matters that needed my attention and now that they are done I am able to concentrate on this. I think I started my blog one year ago on January 4th! My bicycling adventures, I'm sure, were something you looked forward to each day. For a while I posted every day. Some were good, some were boring, but I hope you had a little bit of fun reading them.

Our New Year's card will be heading your way today. I need to stamp them and lick the envelopes closed, but they are done. Probably next year you should be anticipating our 'Holiday card' around Valentine's Day. We are now gearing up for Elder Kevin's return. In 21 days he will step off the plane and into the hugs of us all. (Okay - not any of you single girls out there). Alot has happened while he was gone. For one thing, he got a new Brother-In-Law, Jonathan: Here he is on the left, helping us break the law. Here they are at the Dole Pineapple Plantation:Pineapple ice cream. My vote is still out on it.

And here he is loving our daughter Jill.

And each of these kids have grown two years. I will have to post 'before & after' pictures in a few weeks. I will thank all of you who read this and say a 'happy anniversary' to the life of blogging. My bike riding will resume soon.

Our 'real' Christmas tree this year. Pretty small, but smelled better than our usual tree! If you notice the red box in front, it is a new sewing machine. (Which reminds me, I should be sewing Jason's nets - another blog for sure). Anyway, my first sewing on this machine was to shorten a few things for Jill: some cute jean legging's and a long dress - very Hawaiian.
I have two free classes to show me some amazing things the machine can do, but for right now, it did what I needed it to do. Yeah!

Jason's 'stach'. I can't remember what he grew it out for, but we needed a picture of it for sure. One of Allan's gifts this year was a 'fixer-upper' mini motor bike.

He learned the rules of how to ride it properly....Shannon didn't.
This is a terrible view of it, but there is a heart in this 'fencing' that hangs at Mesa High.
Besides my new sewing machine, this puzzle was a great and NEEDED surprise! This is after a few hours of work. Celynda was a great help and Doug also added his helping hand. This morning I went in to finish it and this is the help that was available......hmmm..... Not much.

Done at last ( with two pieces 'MIA') Grandkids were here yesterday. I'll be looking in closets and toy baskets. You'll have to look at it close. Besides the birds, there are ladybugs, butterflies, dragonflies, caterpillars, and bumblebees! Fun! Thanks mom!

We had a great time with the Selin's this year. It hasn't happened for a while, but all of my sister Carrie's kids were here in town. Sadly, because of the stomach flu passing through their family, we couldn't get together on our first choice day, but when we did get the chance to meet, Evan and Shanna and Calvin, had to take off back home. (sad face). And another sad thing - I forgot my camera. After playing some pretty good sand volleyball, (pictures would have been great) we headed to Carrie and Doug's home for the annual 'white elephant' exchange.
side note; Trudy, white elephant can be held any time during the year, so if you ever get a chance to vacation this way, let us know, we'll start hitting the thrift stores.
Here's the really sad part about not having my camera. There were some pretty spectacular gifts this year. The large white elephant wall hanging/table thing. (I swear it weighed 30lbs) (Carrie could you weigh that thing and send me the information with a picture of it!) We still don't know what it was, but I'm sure it will be left at Carrie's house and not taking the drive back to Utah with the owner, Lindsey. Also, the make it yourself wreath kit: the kitty cat statue thing that must have been made with real cat hair (scary): mom ended up with a novel called Viking that had Fabio as the front cover model, with a matching chest protector type thing that would make any of us look like Fabio's famed chest; a t-shirt with Evan and Shanna's makemebabies.com -baby to be- image: a mirror with darling attached colored pieces of glass; and one of our favorites, Richard Simmons 'video's and a sparkling outfit to match; and many more items. So, Selin's.....Thanks for having us over there and letting us leave a mess of papers, ugly gifts, oops, I mean, sweet, great gifts, and a mess in the kitchen. We had a great time. And if any of you happen to post any pictures especially of Allan in the Richard Simmons outfit, let me know and I will attach a post here.

a few hearts...

These past few weeks have been busy and I haven't been really attentive, but here are a few hearts we have found along the way. Sunday dinner's potatoes. Brian said he wants credit for these because he was the one slicing them. On Saturday night we had our DeWitt White Elephant out at Brad and Brenda's home. This was on a sidewalk out their front door. A mushroom for my cheeseburger.

These next two are stretching it a little, but here they are anyway: A pancake Shannon made- and when I was opening a jar of marinade the sauce formed a heart on the paper lid part. By the time I got back with me camera it was not really all there any more, but you get the jest of it.

Hancocks - Christmas Party

So we took a quick trip up to Snowflake on the 4th of December. I'm not sure I've posted about it yet, but since I downloaded some pictures of that event - I thought I'd mention just a few things about our trip. Our good friends Greg and Karla were getting sealed in the Snowflake Temple. We were glad they invited us to go up and join them. (We were slightly nervous though, because we didn't make the one day trip up for Thanksgiving - and here we are making a trip up for 'non-family'.) We had Karla's daughter ride up with us who is one of Shannon's best friends and we also took Jeff so Uncle Alan could look at an ingrown toenail. Along the way we had to stop and play in the snow. They are all throwing at me right here and if you pull up the picture you can see all of their snowballs. Allan's hit my camera. Shay and Shannon's snowman. A little help was given by Doug and Allan too.


Allan needed a potty break along the way. At the Snowflake Temple. Doug goofy. Ever since we moved into this ward Greg and Shannon have had this friendship. It's been fun to see him help her grow up with his unconditional love for her. Thanks Greg for helping us to raise her!! Grand kids on top of Grandpa's truck. Can you tell we're not in Snowflake anymore? Shorts, no shirts, barefoot. I love Mesa winter weather.
Shannon's Christmas Concert. Katie couldn't stay out of the camera shots.
Our ward Christmas party was this past Friday. Here are a few of the items we worked on for the dinner. These buckets came from a story I read called 'The Red Buckets'. They represent service and giving to others. The whole month before the party I had asked the ward members to secretly do service acts to family or neighbors, teachers, etc. We made 150 of them. Also, we wrapped 200 packets of silverware.
I have also been taking a sewing class for my serger machine. It is on Fridays and last Friday, the 10th, I was really thirsty so I broke down and bought a water. There are drinking fountains around the school, but I decided to spend $1.25 for a water just to have with me in class. My water came out and I heard clunking from the machine and I was thinking it was just setting itself up for the next customer, but, no, another water came out. Bottle #2. And wait, yes, more clunking and bottle #3 appeared. So, there you have it. 3 water bottles for $1.25. I felt better about my splurge. A sad story to my class though - I had a final I had to take on Friday, the 17th. Our teacher said it would take less than an hour. I had gone down to the church to finish decorating and realizing that I needed a few more things for the party I got to running around and completely forgot about my final. I'm hoping that I'll at least get my credit hours for attendance and the projects I had to make. I guess I'll see. Fog on Friday.
My heart findings coming up next.

P.S.

I can see that part 3 of my Thanksgiving story fell between 1 and 2. That is because I wrote it before I wrote part 2 and the computer saved it and put it in that order. I just thought I better let you know that Allan's swimming happened DURING the warmest part of the day and we didn't do it after returning from our part 3 activities.