Traditions

It has become our tradition to get together on Christmas Eve at my Grandma's house. This is when we get to see my brother and his family and exchange gifts with my grandparents and everyone. My grandma has a tradition to get all the grandkids an ornament for Christmas and does a picture calendar with everyone's birthdays, anniversaries etc. We always look forward to seeing the pictures she chooses.

Everyone was dressed up so nice and the boys were just adorable in their suits!! The picture of everyone is not the best... but the boys were ready for presents and SO done with taking pictures. We had a very nice night with everyone.
When we got home from my grandma's house on Christmas Eve night I had a surprise for Kenny. Each year his dad would send him a big box filled with packages and goodies and he would open those gifts on Christmas Eve since that was when his family opened gifts. So to keep the tradition going I got the things like Ron used to buy like slim jims, the giant box of goldfish, velveta etc etc.... just didn't have the mall gift cards. It is more to keep the tradition going and remember him. Kenny was surprised and enjoyed it. We also opened out box from Susie. She included a huge bag of treats for the dogs and they had fun opening the box to get to it-- so cute. My favorite was the "Where in the Hell is Oquawka" shirts (that is the small town she lives in). Very fun.

When Kenny's mom got off work she came over to spend the night. We practically had to beg her to come over-- we thought it would be a nice tradition to have her spend the night and we could hang out Christmas morning. I remember when I was a kid my Grandma Lang would spend the night and when we were a little older my Uncle Rick and his family would come from California and spend the night at our house. My brother and I always loved having family spend the night, especially for Christmas.

Turkey

Wahoo!! Tonight I bowled my first turkey (3 strikes in a row) ever !!

Date Night!

Kenny was given some tickets to the Coyotes game Thursday night so we decided to make it a date night! Our friend from work had recommended a place in West Gate called Saddle Ranch Chop House so we decided to go there for dinner before the game. We had to wait 45 minutes so we walked around West Gate. They had a beautiful tree and lights everywhere. It was chilly out but we had a good time strolling around and talking-it was romantic. The place was SO awesome!! The restaurant atmosphere was neat and they had a mechanical bull to top it off!

The food was great but my favorite by far was the dessert! They brought us giant cotton candy dish on the house~! The cotton candy was the highlight of my night for sure- silly I know but it was just so fun!! Even Kenny had to actually reach up to get some!!

After dinner we headed over to the game next and ended up we were in a fancy suite! They had a huge buffet of free food and drinks. We of course were so full from our dinner and dessert we didn't have any. Our friend's son works for the Coyotes and is one of the guys who shoots T-shirts into the crowd and helps out the cheerleaders-- I know difficult job but someone had to do it. Anyway, we saw him there. The Coyotes won and it was a fun game to watch. We both had a really nice night : )

A Christmas Carol

Our Company party was this Saturday at the Arizona Broadway Theater http://www.azbroadwaytheatre.com/ .

We are really fortunate to work for the same company and we each get to bring a guest to the company partys. We brought our moms again this year (we did 2 years ago when we went to the Broadway Theater for the first time). We ate a wonderful meal and watched A Christmas Carol- It was amazing and I am not much for musicals!!

A Christmas Celebration

This year Kenny and I decided to have a Dirty Santa Christmas party and potluck. We had so much fun we make this a annual tradition!! The Dirty Santa (AKA White Elephant) was a blast - I think my two favorite items


















were the light up Santa slippers that Becky from work ended up with and the snowman toilet seat cover that poor Sarah ended up with at the last minute because Blair stole her candle!! And the food was awesome! Kenny and I cooked up a ham, mashed potatoes and green bean casserole etc. PLUS everyone brought their favorite dish to share!! We probably could have fed a small army!! We just had a really good time. Well, turns out I have more pictures than words to share (I know you are all shocked since I love to talk ha ha ha ) so here are a bunch of pictures from the party-- 1-Blair and me 2- Marc opening his secret Santa gift 3-Me 4-My mom and Dad 5- My handsome hubby 6-Barb

Kookie for Cookies

Last Thursday I took a class at Scrap Happy Sisters with my mom and a co-worker and we made this fun, sparkly, recipe book on a stand! The class also included a cookie swap.

We all brought 10 copies of our recipe and a few dozen cookies.When we left we had a smorgage board of cookies and a bunch of new reciepes to try. It was a fun class and evening.

Here is the receipe I exchanged--

Easy Lemon Cookies
Ingredients:
1 (18.25 oz) package of lemon cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 c oil
1 tsp lemon extract
1/3 c confectioners’ sugar – for decoration
directions-
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Pour cake mix into a large bowl. Stir in eggs, oil and lemon extract until well blended. Drop teaspoonfuls of dough into a bowl of confectioners’ sugar. Roll them around until they’re lightly covered. Once sugared put them on an ungreased cookie sheet.
3. Bake for 6-9 mins in a preheated oven. The bottoms will be light brown, and the insides chewy (makes 36)

Bloggin' a Blog

So I came home and read Pastor Lee's blog and low and behold he posted about the Shack -The book I just read! So I am posting a link to his blog... go read it (and the book too) ... http://www.radiantchurch.com/blog/2008/12/shack-what-do-you-think.asp

Best Score

Tonight Kenny bowled his highest scoring game yet!! 229!!! which is 78 pins over average!! He will get bowler of the week for the 2nd time this season!! Yippee for Kenny!! Also, we won 2/3 games and the series! The second game was SO close it came down to the 3rd ball in the last frame and Kenny had to get a strike for us to take the game by just one point and he did it!! It was a fun night.

Too much Christmas

Well, this weekend has been full, overflowing actually with Christmas decorating, shopping, wrapping, planning and preparing. So full in fact that it ran into Monday!! Here I am taking a "mental health day" to finish up and actually rest a little before going back to work. Saturday we (Kenny, mom and dad and I ) shopped almost for almost 5 hours (the car was so full we had to put packages between mom and I in the backseat to make it all fit). That evening Kenny and I finally got all our decorations down and he put up the lights outside. Sunday we finished decorating, cleaned the house, grocery shopped and wrapped pretty much all day. Although Kenny did make time to watch the Cardinals game. We played our last softball game of the season on Sunday night. We lost by 2, but it was a really good game. This week we are busy almost every night and our Christmas party is on Friday, our company party is Saturday and the family party is supposed to be Sunday... I love the holidays but it is only the 8th and I am exhausted!!

I am including some pictures of our favorite decorations just for fun! This is a decoration with a lot of sentiment as it was Kenny's mom and dad's from the first year they were married! It is probably 35+ years old, but my MIL takes such good care of everything it is in excellent shape. She gave it to us last year and we treasure it.

This arrangement came from Kenny's cousin Michelle. One year (before I was part of the family) she had made these for everyone. Every year I would comment on how much I loved them as I would see them at everyone's houses. Then 2 years ago Michelle just made one for us and brought it over at Thanksgiving. It is one of my most favorite decorations.

Bunko Night!

So Friday night we went out to my MIL's house for her neighborhood Bunko night and had a blast!! The plan was that Kenny would work on his "honey do list" for his grandma and mom while we played the game (his idea). The group was one person short so we asked Kenny to join us... 11 women and Kenny! He was so great though and the ladies really enjoyed having him. It was such a great night full of laughter, smiles and conversation. Kenny said is was so good to see his Nana have such a good time and it has been too long time since he has seen her have so much fun. It was really great for my MIL too, just to have people around and have a good time. Kenny and I both won prizes too! I got $20 for getting the most bunkos (6 total!!) and Kenny won $1 for loosing the most games (27/36). It was so much fun and I am already looking forward to next month's Bunko night!!

Bowling Buddies

On Monday nights Kenny and I bowl in a league with our friends. Our team name is Pin Pals (like from the Simpson's!) We aren't great but we have fun! We just got these new shirts so of course we had to take some pictures!

Family, Friends and Food

We have had such a wonderful 4 day weekend. Thanksgiving was awesome and the entire weekend included friends, family and food!

Saturday morning my mom and I went to visit with an old family friend and had such a wonderful time. Her son was the ring bearer at our wedding (almost 6 years ago), but I barely recognized him! They sure grow up fast! Stargret is one of those people who has such a happy, energetic and contagious spirit! She showed us all her current crafting projects and we got a tour of their awesome new home. She also shared with us a bunch of her samples of Heritage Makers products which is digital scrapbooking and SO much more-- check out the website- http://www.pictures2stories.com/ You can make scrapbooks, playing cards, greeting cards and tons of other neat things. She showed us how she took a 12X12 scrapbook page printed from heritage makers and modge podged it onto a tile (like for your floor) and then propped it up on an easel. I wish I had a picture to share but trust me it is super cute and would make a great gift! That's not all ! She also showed us these awesome magnet boards that she made out of 9X11 pieces of sheet metal from Home Depot! They were SO cute my mom and I promptly went to Home Depot for supplies on our way home. I will post a picture once I get one completed. I felt so inspired when we left and so did my mom. We ate a quick lunch and went to the scrapbooking store. We ended up signing up for a really fun class to make a holiday recipe book and the class includes a cookie exchange! I will post more about that with pictures after we take our class on the 10th--which we are both really looking forward to.

While we were doing this all day Kenny was spending a fun Saturday with his mom and grandma. They went out for breakfast and had a fun morning hanging out and getting things done on his "honey do" list. During the afternoon the 3 of them headed over to the Goodyear Swap Mart ( BTW I am so jealous I didn't get to go with them). They all had a good day too.

Today Kenny, my mom and I ran some errands and went out to my brother's house to have an early celebration for his 29th B-day which is this Thursday (12/04). We shared some cake and hung out. Him and Crystal (the newly weds- just married on 10/31/08) are doing so good and I am so glad to see my brother so happy!! The boys were so excited to see us which always makes me feel so good... although it is hard when they cry when we leave : ( Jacob was so funny today. I was holding him and he started pointing to the freckles on my arms and saying "dirt" SO CUTE!~ Little Brian is such a ham too and I had to include this picture of the little stud! I wish they didn't live so far away (takes about 45 mins to get there) because we really enjoy spending time with all of them.

This evening we had my parents over for dinner and played the new "13" game we learned from our friends on Friday. My dad really liked it once he caught on, but mom beat us all! My dad also brought over some Wild Turkey-101 for Kenny to try and he actually really likes it!

We had a great holiday weekend but tomorrow it is back to work!! Hope everyone is well and hope to hear from you soon -- and yes I love to hear from you all by e-mail too : )

Busy Black Friday!!

Every year on black Friday I make a list of all the sale items I just can't live without and wake up before the sun rises to hit the stores. This year was no exception! I left the house at 4AM and headed to Kohls. The deal I am most proud of is a King size comforter set for only $29.99!! I sure earned it by waiting in line for over 40 mins!! I also hit Walmart were I met up with my girlfriend Blair and we hit Target together. We were done when the sun was just coming up (around 7 AM)!! We were both starving so we headed to IHOP for some pancakes. By the time I got home Kenny was up and ready for the day. I spend the rest of the morning wrapping my finds.

For lunch we met up with Barb, Sarah, Peggy and JW at Apple Bee's to celebrate Barb's b-day. It was nice to spend some time with Peggy and JW before they headed home. We were glad they came all the way from Arkansas to spend Thanksgiving with Sarah and all of us. After lunch we went to Kohls, then headed on home.That evening we had our friends Beverly and Lloyd over for Pizza and cards. They taught us a couple new card games-a new version of 13 and Kings in the corner, which were both really fun.

It was a great day-- although I was exhausted from being up for 21 hours!! I guess I just wanted to get the most out of our extra days off : )

Counting Our Blessings

After the month this family has had I don't think we could have asked for a better Thanksgiving Day celebration. The weather was beautiful- overcast and cool and I think we all really enjoyed spending the time together. Since hosting Turkey Day was a last minute decision we decided to do the meal potluck style. Each family member brought a dish or two


















and DH and I made the Turkey and a few other items- it worked out SO well! Everything tasted great since everyone made what they were good at! We played a laughter, fun filled game of pictionary and ate lots of pie!

We weren't able to make it out to my brothers house so we missed seeing them and my grandparents this year, but they were very understanding. We also missed Quint and Dave, but they were definitely in our thoughts all day today.

Tonight I am making two huge batches of turkey noodle soup with our leftover turkey and bones and will be heading to bed early so I can get up for the black Friday sales tomorrow~~ Kohls and Target here I come!!

Book List

Okay I am having way too much fun with this bloggin' stuff and just wanted to post something else today... our current book list! I am always one to have more than one book going at a time, more than one project and a ton of activities... Anyway, currently Kenny and I are reading The Shack by WM. Paul Young. Our friends from our church softball team recommended it to us. They just got back from a trip to Disneyland and they listened to this book on tape during the drive there and back. They said is was SO good and we just had to read it. I just started it last night and cannot put the thing down!! Also, I am almost done with Mariner's Compass which is #6 in the Benni Harper series I love so much by Earlene Fowler. Love Your Life by Victoria Osteen I just had to pick up because I love Joel and we went to see him in San Diego in January. And perfect for Christmas time- The Purpose of Christmas by Rick Warren. I was in Lake Forest, CA earlier this month and almost got to go to a Bible study at his church with my boss. Unfortunately our appointments ran late and we couldn't make it in time. Maybe next trip. Anyway, these are our current reads--- anyone got any good recommendations for our next set??

Mail Call!

I wanted to take a minute to thank everyone for all the kind phone calls, e-mails, cards and letters we have received recently. It is nice to know people care and are thinking of us and our family during this time.

Monday we got a note from Kenny's step-sister when we got home from the funeral and it contained several pictures of our little nephew and niece in their Halloween costumes. Our nephew had been a Marine for Halloween and apparently told everyone he was a "submarine"- made us laugh which was just what we needed after the long day we had. He is about the same age as our other nephew Brian who ended up being a business man for Halloween- while we were trick-or-treating this year someone asked him who he was, he promptly responded "I Brian". Kids are so funny!

Also, I wanted to share this new indulgence I have discovered. My friend's brother and his wife came up with this line of homemade soaps called Tvala. I ordered one called Pink Sugar Wafer and it came today (I only ordered it on Saturday night-super fast shipping). It smells absolutely delicious!! And look how cute the packaging was too... check out their website at- http://www.tvalahandmade.com I am thinking I should add these into my Christmas packages!! Yum

Accomplished

This weekend was a good weekend for getting some things done! I went to Kohl's in search of PJ's for our nephews and came across these giant, soft, comfy Chaps brand towels on clearance 70% off!! So I snagged a few and embroidered names on them and bam - a $12 Christmas gift completed!! Also, I wrapped up this fun travel rag quilt I made for two of my favorite people--- can't reveal their name or they won't be surprised when they open it on Christmas day!!

Kenny and I are on a roll for our Christmas shopping and I am anxious to see what the sales will be for black Friday!!

A Relentless November

On Sunday November 9, 2008 we received a call at 4:45 AM that shocked me to the core. My FIL had passed away just hours before. I couldn't believe that a healthy 47 year man could be taken so quickly- it scared me, a lot. He was someone I really looked up to and I cherished the thought that one day he would be my child's grandpa. He was such a great guy and we grieve for him, but I have comfort to know we will be together again someday and that he is in a better place. His sister said something at his service that will probably stick with me for life. She said that when she heard her brother had passed she pictured him arriving in heaven and being knocked down by all of his dogs Sally ad Cassy - the black labs. And the others Lulu (a pug) all catching up and jumping on him because they were so happy to see him too. I don't know why but it really just gave me peace of mind.

Then on Wednesday October 19- my grand FIL ended his long fight with Alzheimer's. He passed peacefully with family surrounding his bedside and his wife of 61 years holding his hand. His funeral will be Monday at 11.

This is an especially had time for my MIL loosing both her husband and her dad within 10 days of each other.

We are all having a difficult time understanding why this happened so close together, but again I remind myself that God has a plan and he will not give us more than we can handle.

Our Saturday

What a great Saturday! We slept in watched some TV and then I headed off to my make and take class at one of the local Quilt Shops called Cotton Fields. The deal was you pay $10 for the class and you get $10 in store credit to spend. When I got there I found out I was the only one that signed up!! She asked me what project I wanted to do and they had the cutest veggie table runners so I choose this carrot to the left. I actually completed the whole thing today- which is SO great for me. Later my mother-in-law Barb took us our for linner (lunch/dinner) to Cracker Barrel as a special thank you for everything we have done lately. It was really good-- I just love their apple butter and biscuits AND looking around the shop. It was a fun day!

Vegas Baby!

This week My hubby is spending time in Vegas with his uncle and 2 cousins. So far they are having a great time!! They played some craps last night and lost... then pooled the chips they had left and let Brett go bet for them... he won some money and they all got back in the game and lost again! It is the thrill of the game though I guess and I am happy Kenny is having so much fun with his family!

My Very First Blog Post

Well a friend of mine introduced me to the world of blogging and I just love it!! So of course I have to have my own...

On 9/18/2008 2:05 PM, Amanda L. Kuhn wrote:

Hi Everyone!

We are back from our trip and had such a great time!! We left on Friday 08/29/08 after work and made the 3 hour drive (which turned into 4 with the holiday traffic) up to Forest Lakes, AZ. Nanette, Michelle and Baby Zack were up for the weekend so we got to see our cute little God Son-- he sure is growing now. Barb and Dave made it up late that night and we visited with them before we left too.
Saturday morning we left bright and early 4AM and drove thru New Mexico and on to Texas. We stopped at the Cadillac Ranch and sprayed painted a heart with our initials. It was pretty fun. Then we headed to our RV park. The spot was nice because we had our own little yard for the dogs. That evening we went out for a Steak Dinner at the Big Texan. It was such a cute restaurant!! They have a challenge if you can eat a 72 oz stake and the fixins its free!! We didn't partake in that, but enjoyed our 21 oz steak we shared and had some left for the dogs.
The next morning we took off just before sunrise.We drove thru Oklahoma and made it into Maumella Park in Arkansas that evening. Our spot was so awesome-- right on the Arkansas River. The next morning we drove up to Petitie Jean mountain and had breakfast at Mather Lodge. The food was good and the view was amazing!! That afternoon we went to a get together at Kenny's cousin Peggy's house. She invited friends and family and it was so nice to see/meet everyone. She has such a beautiful home you will have to check out the pictures to see her Razerback room!!
The next morning we headed to Branson, MO. We got a lot of rain from the Hurricane and it didn't stop for 3 days!! We went shopping at the craft malls (poor Kenny) and saw two fun shows- Mickey Gilley (09/02) and Dixie Stampede (09/03). Mickey Gilley was really fun and much better than I expected since Kenny and I don't have the same love for older country music. Joey his side kick was so funny and really made the show. Dixie Stampede was our favorite though- and we had front row seats!! Its dinner and a show and kind of interactive you cheer for the North or South depending on which side you are on. The food you eat with your hands only and it was baked potatoes, corn on the cob and a Cornish hen-- so good. We ended up being part of the show!! The asked if we wanted to be in the show- I said yes and Kenny said no, but they needed a couple so Kenny decided to do it. We were going to ride horses- sounded fine to me. We go down to the arena with 3 other couples and they tell the men to choose their horse. There are 6 beautiful women on horses and they run and pick on. Then the announcer says no guys those are the women's horses here are yours-- and hands them each stick horses (you know like a horse head on a stick). We had to ride it together and compete against the other couples- it was really funny.
Next we headed on to Springfield, IL but not before stopping in St Louis for some frozen custard - recommended by our coworker. Ted Drews Frozen Custard- yum. We made it into Springfield--still getting rained on... and met up with Kenny's Uncle Jerry, Aunt Kathy and cousins Jerry Jr and Brett. They took us out to an awesome restaurant called O'Charley's. The food was great and we ended up talking until after the resturant closed! It was really a nice time.
The next day (Saturday 09/06/08) we drove to Arthur Illinois to visit Amish country. I read a fictional book a while back that talked about Amish and one of the things I remembered from the book was the amazing cinnamon swirl bread - so we tracked that down and got some. Also, I wanted to get an Amish Quilt, but they were well out of my price range ($700+) so I settled for a really neat framed quilt block. The Amish we saw were Mennonites and from what I understand they are more open to technology but it still kinda weird to see people decked out in Amish clothing get into a mini van OR a man in a buggy pulled by a horse talking on a cell phone. It was a fun experience though. After that we drove into Kenny's home town of Clinton, IL and saw the house his mom and dad lived in and the Hardee's they owned. We drove back to Springfield and did some shopping at the White Oaks mall then had dinner with the Kuhns again. After dinner we went back to their house and Jerry Jr taught us how to play craps. It was SO much fun.
The next morning we met up with everyone again at the cracker barrel for breakfast before we left. For lunch that day we met up with Kenny's Aunt Donna and her son David and one of her granddaughters. We ate at Stake and Shake-- yum. After that we visited Ron's (Kenny's dad)  grave sight. The cemetery really is a beautiful place. Then we headed up to see Susie (Kenny's step mom). That night we ended up going to a demolition derby - my first and a fair in a nearby town. It was SO awesome!!! We met up with Kenny's step sister Jennifer and her family. Sunday, Susie and I went to a fun store called maple City - it is a candy and gift store and Kenny stayed at Susie's and relaxed. The store was amazing it is 3 stories and endless rooms of cute stuff. Later that day Susie took us to Fun City in Iowa. They have a casino so Kenny tried his luck at the craps table and did awesome!! We won like $80--- he gave it all back but had a lot of fun doing it. I won $10 on penny machine which was pretty fun too. We played lots of video games and Susie bought us lunch at the restaurant there.
Monday (09/08/08) we took off and drove through Iowa and on to Nebraska. We stayed the night and pretty much headed out first thing to Denver Co. We stayed 2 days in Co and had such a blast. Idaho Springs outside of Denver is where we stayed and it was just beautiful. We were near a place called Central City which was an old mining town 'where the gold rush began' they say. We enjoyed walking around the near old town and found a neat Deal or No Deal penny slot machine (since there were no chaps tables there) to play. We at at a restaurant called Beau Jo's, recommended by coworker, both nights we were there. They had "mountain pies" which is yummy pizza. On 09/11/08 we headed on to Utah and then headed home on 09/12. We used the weekend to recoup, clean out the trailer etc.
We feel really lucky to have been able to see so much of this beautiful country. It was a nice trip.
Sunday we went to PIR with Barb and Dave for a Dodge Challenge Event. They were introducing the 2009 Dodge Truck. They had several courses set up where you could test drive the Dodge along with several competitors- Ford, Chevy and Toyota Trucks threw the test courses. It was really fun and at the end we got free T-shirts, hats and other Dodge stuff. Afterwards we headed over to Barb's for a B-day dinner for Bubba.

Monday we started our bowling league and really had a fun time. We ended up winning 2/3 of the games. We are playing with our friend Blair and a 4th lady we haven't met yet. It should be a fun season.

Well we are back to work and busy busy-- hope to hear from you soon!! 

On 8/21/2008 9:16 AM, Amanda L. Kuhn wrote:

Hello Everyone!!

YICKS !it has been SOOO long since I have written and this note is SO long- sorry!!! Hope everyone is doing awesome! We have both been so busy at work and at home- in fact Kenny is in Nevada right now that I just haven't had the time to officially write the "Kuhn Update". With the poor economy the pressure has really been put on me at work and I don't have as much extra time. There is has been no indication of layoffs yet, but with expenses so high that is always a possibility looming in the future. Well enough doom and gloom we really have been good and enjoying ourselves. Here is what we have been up to--

06/14- Barb and Dave’s for fathers day and Sarah’s b-day. We had a nice meal and enjoyed spending time together.

06/15/08- Brian’s house for fathers day celebration

Friday night (06/20/08) was my dad’s 51^st b-day so we ordered some pizza and played cards at their place. It was such a shame to have to beat him at cribbage and backwards bridge on his b-day, but sometimes that is just the way the cards fall! Afterwards we ran over to our softball game at 9- we had fun although the other team whooped us.

06/21 Kenny and Randy went shooting at Ben Avery

06/27 Kenny got his new gun. We just had to go visit Barb and Dave and show them and since the store was near my Grandparents house we stopped by there too.

06/30 I was “lucky” enough to get into the dentist on Monday morning for an emergency visit—I ended up getting my first crown. I don’t do well with needles and passed out when they gave me the novocaine. Then when they gave me the $460 I wanted to pass out again. I was SO numb after that (even my ear was numb!!) I ended up just going home and spending the afternoon on the couch with the dogs.

07/01- Tuesday was a much better day- work breezed by and that evening Kenny went to get the trailer for our trip and I went to the American Idol Concert with Blair. Now don’t feel sorry for Kenny not going to the concert, because I really tried to get him to go, but he didn’t want to be part of the “teenie boper craze” Blair and I had such a blast and want to make it an annual tradition!

Wednesday we left on our camping trip to Forest Lakes. We camped out in the forest near Kenny’s grandparent’s cabin. We were super lucky to get an uncrowded spot with lots of room for the dogs to run and play. The weather was wonderful and it rained on us every day. Friday was Sarah’s yard sale and we helped out with that and went to a few of the other yard sales in the area. Friday night Sarah and Quint took us (Kenny, me Nanette and Kim) to dinner for all our help with the yard sale. It was nice, but chilly believe it or not with the rain we actually had to wear jackets!! Saturday we drove into Heber/Overgaurd, Bison ranch and Show Low. We ran into a friend at Bison ranch who was up there camping with his SSR buddies. The drive was so beautiful to/from! On Sunday when we left it was only 59 degrees! We wanted to get a jump start down the hill to avoid some of the holiday weekend traffic. We were doing fine until we approached Sunflower and saw some smoke. It turned out to be a car fire and they stopped our traffic for 51 mins! Everyone was getting out of their cars and walking dogs and kids along the highway. One lady offered us $20 to use our restroom in the trailer! We let her use it for free of course, but it was kinda funny.

 Monday night (07/07) We visited my Grandma and Grandpa and had some Pizza for dinner. My grandma had dug out an old family picture album. It was so much fun to see the old pictures of our family. My brother was the cutest little guy, plus there were pictures of my Grandma Max, Grandma Taylor, Uncle Kenny and even my parents wedding! It was so much fun to hear the stories—my favorite was the Christmas picture of my uncle rick and my grandma remembered that, that was the year he came home (he lives in CA) and said he was going to marry Mei-lan. The really funny thing is he hadn’t even asked her out yet—So cute and romantic!!

Friday (07/11/08) Was my day off Friday and I met up with a friend from work to sew all day at the quilt shop. She taught me how to make a super cute purse and we worked on other unfinished projects. Later Kenny and I went out for Mexican food since our softball game was canceled due to rain (since the field was flooded).

07/12 Saturday my mom and I went and got pedicures and did some shopping—it was a lot of fun. We have so many events coming up 2 baby showers, a housewarming and a wedding to buy for it was good to get some of that done. Saturday night Kenny and I went to Blair’s housewarming party.

 07/13 Sunday Kenny and I had a date afternoon! We went to Firebirds for lunch and then went and saw the movie Hancock after. When we walked out of the theater we had no idea it was pouring rain!! We both ran like crazy people to the car. By the time we got in we were both laughing hysterically and soaked to the bone.

2008

07/20 Sunday was Michelle's (Kenny's Cousin) surprise baby shower. I went a little early and helped her sister Kim set up. It was a lot of fun to see her surprise and excitement. She is so excited for her little boy and so are her friends and family! Nanette (her mom) made her 9 crocheted blankets and they were just beautiful! 

07/21-07/29 My grandma went in to the hospital for a simple out patient procedure.I am no doctor, but I will describe this the best way I can. She was supposed to get stints put in her heart and have her artery cleaned out in her neck. Monday they went in to put the stints in her heart and decided she didn't need them, but kept her over night to do the second procedure. Tuesday they did the thing in her neck and when they did she had a small stroke. They had her in ICU for several days after that. She had Pneumonia and was on oxygen. Everyday they told her she would go home the next day but then something else would go wrong. Finally Saturday she was about to be discharged and another doctor had to check her over before she could leave and thank God he did! He noticed that she was bleeding from her surgery still and that they had not properly clamped off the artery! Saturday night she broke out in this terrible rash - they said a reaction to the antibiotics. Also, she had a horrible episode of shaking which they wrote off as a anxiety attack, but might have been her passing a clot in her chest.  Sunday she had another surgery and they fixed the problem. She recovered more quickly after that and finally got to go home on Tuesday after a 8 day stay in the hospital for an out patient procedure. She had to go home with oxygen, but only used it for the first week or so. She seems to be doing really well. When my mom I talked to her about a possible malpractice suit she said that she wasn't mad and that they didn't do it to her on purpose. I thought that was really something to think about if only more of us thought like that. If I went through what she went through because of doctors mistakes or inadequate care I don't think I would be quite as forgiving as her.

Okay moving on I could probably talk about that all day-- on 07/31/08 Michelle and Trevor's baby boy Zackery Quinton Ross was born at 10:44 PM and was 19 3/4 inches and 6.4 lbs . He is just the cutest little guy ever!

August has been a blurr of softball games, work, studying, cooking classes, a birthday party, a graduation (Crystal my brothers girlfriend graduated from Mechanic school), visiting friends and family etc. But one really  important thing that happened to us was on Sunday August 3 Kenny and I became God Parents! Michelle and Trevor asked us to be Zack's God parents. God Parents can have a lot of meanings so I just want to clarify what it means to us is basically if Zack were orphaned we would take care of him and be his legal guardians. For us it is a really huge honor and we are more than excited about it.

Well, that is what we have been up to and next week Monday I am taking another CPCU test (7/8) and Friday we leave for our glorious 2 week vacation to Illinois. We will be taking our travel trailer and the dogs cross country through New Mexico, TX, Oklahoma then on to Little Rock Arkansas were we will visit Kenny's mom's side of the family. Then on to Branson, MO for some shows and fun then to Springfield to visit his dad's side of the family-- Uncle Jerry and Aunt Kathy, Brett and Jerry JR and hopefully Aunt Donna. Then to Peoria to visit his dad's grave and Susie his step mom. Jennifer, Kenny's step sister, is due 09/09 with baby number 2 so we may get to be there or visit with her new baby girl! On our way home we will go through Iowa, Nebraska, Co and stay 2 days in Richfield Utah to end our trip. Anyway, I will tell you all about it next month!!

Have a good one!

Love,

Amanda and Kenny

Family Pictures

On Saturday we got family pictures taken with my side of the family. We had them taken at Target. My brother and Kenny are so funny they had all of us laughing so hard! The boys (Jacob and Little Brian) were so cute too. Every time I look at those pictures it makes me smile.