Bubbles

We've been spending lots of time with family this week as everyone arrived for Grandpa May's funeral. The kids have had a blast with their cousins! Grandma Holbrook bought bubble wands for the kids, and they were a huge hit {although a bit messy!}.



Jackson decided to forgo the bubble-making and instead opted for wrestling and cloud watching with Grandpa.

Clyde Marlo May

Clyde Marlo May 1932 ~ 2009

Marlo passed away on July 1, 2009, in Salt Lake City after a two year battle with cancer and other related illnesses. He was welcomed by a loving son and an eternal family.

He was the youngest child of Vigo and Mae Severe May born in Grantsville, Utah December 11, 1932.

He married Sharleen Faswon September 5, 1952 in the Salt Lake Temple.

Together they raised four children Mark (Susan), Marla (Richard) Holbrook, Teresa and Bryan (deceased) (Stacey).

He was a dedicated husband and father who supported his family in everything
from sports to hunting to scrapbooking.

Marlo never met a dog he didn't like nor a tomato he couldn't grow. He loved the out of doors, his cabin and his family.

Marlo's career as a railroad engineer, both for Western Pacific and Union Pacific, gave him many wonderful experiences. He was also a licensed barber and made many life-long friends. He also served on the Trans-West Credit Union board of directors.

He was an active member of the LDS church and served in many position over the years. His work in scouting being his favorite. After he retired he and his wife served as Salt Lake Inner-City missionaries in the Granite Park stake and then as guides at Welfare Square.

Survived by his wife of 57 years, three children, 13 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren, sister Vonda Angel, and brother Leo Randall May.

Funeral services will be held Monday July 6, 2009 at 11:00 a.m. at the Imperial 1st Ward, 2738 South Filmore Street (1537 E). Friends and family can visit Sunday evening from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Holbrook Mortuary, 3251 S. 2300 E., and at the church Monday morning from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. prior to the service.

Interment: Grantsville City Cemetery.

We'll miss you, Grandpa!

Tin Man

It's hard to believe that Matt and I have been married for 10 years.

It seems like just yesterday, and yet forever ago........

We had a fabulous celebration this year, thanks to Matt's secretive planning, Grandma Holbrook the babysitter, and my cluelessness.

Matt's mom had me come over to her place in the morning so the "kids could play", and Matt arrived a short time later. He informed me that he had the next two days off of work, that Grandma was watching the kids, and we were off! I was totally bewildered, but so excited!

Year Ten is the Tin Anniversary, so I was presented with a tin heart that held a clue {a cloth napkin} to our first destination.



We got Paradise Bakery to go and headed to the Thanksgiving Point gardens {one of our favorite places} for a picnic. We enjoyed the scenery & our yummy food while reminiscing about everything the past 10 years has brought us.

My next tin contained a box of Junior Mints and a gift card to the movies.



We saw The Proposal, even though I knew that deep down Matt wanted to see Year One :)
Then we headed downtown to The Gateway for some window shopping and dinner at Z'Tejas. Yum O!


My last tin contained a sponge, and led us to the Anniversary Inn and the Jungle Safari suite! Babar, Crocodile Dundee, and some sneaky monkeys kept us company. I didn't even mind that Matt forgot to pack my makeup......



It was a fabulous couple of days. Matt is the best! I am so lucky.

My Elementary School Crush

{this is how I choose to remember him}

The first time I heard a Michael Jackson song was on the bus ride to school. I was in first grade. I was confused. I didn't know why a girl would be singing about another girl named Billie Jean {those were simpler times, folks}.

Then, one day a classmate brought in a record, which my lovely teacher, Mrs. Webb, let us listen to during free time. That day changed my life. It was then that I realized it was not a girl singing that song. I was smitten.

I wore my I ♥ Michael Jackson pin every day, along with my
I ♥ Michael Jackson headband {WHY didn't I keep those??}.




I listened to my Thriller record non-stop.





This was my favorite part of Disneyland:




I watched Michael over and over on our "We Are The World" laser disk.


My crush wore off as I moved on to Jr. High and High School {and he moved on to new facial features}, but my love of his music continued.

I remember our Superbowl party at Dan Ellison's. MJ's halftime performance was the main reason I went.

A BHS Dance Company performance was not complete without at least one dance choreographed to a Michael song {mostly thanks to Jackie, Brooke, and Lisa}. Ahhh, Smooth Criminal........


Sure, he became a nut {and barely recognizable}....

But there's no disputing the sheer awesomeness of his music.

He'll always be the King Of Pop in my book.

The Temperature's Rising

I turned my air conditioning on for the first time today. We celebrated with a run through the sprinklers {sans Jackson- he preferred to stay dry and soak everyone else with his squirt gun while enjoying an otter pop}.

Hooray for Summer!!

Note{s} To Self

• First, give value. Then, get value. Not the other way around.

• Be proactive. Not reactive.

• Mistakes and failures are good.

• Don’t beat yourself up.

• Your attitude changes your reality.

• Gratitude is a simple way to make yourself feel happy.

• Don’t compare yourself to others.

• 80-90% of what you fear will happen never really come into reality.

• Don’t take things too seriously.

• Write everything down.

• There are opportunities in just about every experience.

I Stumble Often...

Is anyone else obsessed with stumbling???

Here are some sundry things I've stumbled upon recently:

Dancing & Gardens & Stitches, Oh My!

Well, we're officially into the throws of summer {although it feels more like April outside, which I don't mind at all!}. Here are a few things I'm just getting around to posting:

Most recently, Jackson got a MAJOR boo-boo. On Monday he cut his finger on a tin can lid. I'll spare you the details, mostly because I can't bear to think about it, but I hauled him and the other kids to the urgent care where they told me to get him to Primary Children's. Matt met me there and took care of Kensie & Lincoln while Jackson & I met with the ER dr. Luckily it wasn't cut to the bone, and the tendons were okay, so they gave him some "happy" drugs & sewed it up. It was so funny to watch his face during the procedure. He was grinning at everyone and was so out of it! I wish I had my camera.

Seven stitches later.....
He's doing okay, but I almost cannot bear to look at it {which I have to do 2 times a day to clean and change bandages}. It looks SO bad, and my heart breaks every time. He'll have a great scar to brag about later in life. He would not let me take his "stickers" off until today. He thought they were pretty cool and loved to show everyone!

Poor guy!




Kensie's school had their annual Dance Festival the last week of May. This year the 2nd grade performed "Put On A Happy Face". It was super cute, but nothing could compare to the Napoleon Dynamite "Canned Heat" number!

We've enjoyed starting our little garden this year. It's nothing like the enormous grow boxes we had in our last house, but it's a start! Matt had fun making the box, and the kids loved planting the seeds and are excited to see them grow. This year we planted:

tomatoes
cucumbers
broccoli
spinach
lettuce
beets
green onions
green pepper
spaghetti squash
beans
zucchini
yellow squash

So far the deer have left them alone. Let's hope it stays that way!

Blogger Etiquette

Goldilocks and the Three Bloggers

by Jenners

Once upon a time, a lovely young girl named Goldilocks was playing happily on the Internet while her little baby slept peacefully nearby. (Yes, she had a baby. She had struggled to put the baby to bed last night but now the wee babe was sleeping peacefully. This is a literary device called foreshadowing. The sleeping babe will come into play soon.) She was frolicking around on the nice safe haven that is Facebook -- completing quizzes, sending Easter Peeps to her peeps and struggling to understand what to put in the new empty box. After all, the prompt "Goldilocks Is..." had recently disappeared -- leaving her unsure of what to write. (Goldilocks wasn't a very bright or creative girl; she needed that prompt.)

As she was playing around, she accidentally clicked on a link that led her to a strange world -- the Land of Blog. "We're not in Facebook anymore," Goldilocks thought to herself (confusingly mixing up her story references). "All these pages look so different." But Goldilocks was intrigued...she wanted to see more.

She clicked on a little sign that said "Next Blog." Suddenly, a loud noise assaulted her ears. It was music playing loudly. Goldilocks didn't know where the music was coming from -- and the loud music woke up the wee babe. "Waaahhh....waaaahhhh," cried the babe. "What the flippin' hell?" thought Goldilocks, panicking. "What is happening?" She frantically clicked on "Next Blog" and the music blissfully stopped. "Oh my," thought Goldilocks. "I sure don't like that. The music scared the bejeezus out of me and woke up my sleeping baby. I sure don't want to visit that blog again!"

The new blog she had clicked to was much more peaceful...but it was taking an awfully long time to load. Goldilocks kept waiting...and waiting...and waiting...and then she lost interest and clicked "Next Blog."

The third blog was just right. No music was playing and the page loaded in under 5 seconds. "Wow," thought Goldilocks, "this blogger must have checked their blog loading speed at Pingdom and used some handy blog optimization tips found at MintBlogger. It loaded in just 3.9 seconds!"

Goldilocks decided to check out this fast-loading blog that didn't have music playing. She looked at the first post. But it was really hard to read. "This teeny tiny black type on a dark red background is really hard to read!," she thought. "I'm getting a headache." She clicked "Next Blog."

The next blog had posts that were in an easy-to-read font size and had dark text on a light background (the easiest on the eyes). But the post was long and and centered and hardly any paragraph breaks. Goldilocks soon lost patience. "Long blocks of centered type with little or no white space sure is hard to read," she thought. "I just don't think I can read anymore of this!"
She clicked "Next Blog."

The third blog was just right. The font size was readable, the dark text on a light background was readable, the text was left justified (just like in books!), and there were lots of paragraph breaks to give her eyes a rest. "This is wonderful," thought Goldilocks. "Even though this post is long, the blogger obviously tried to make reading it as easy as possible by making some smart choices about type size, font, white space, text justification and page background! Plus the writing is so darn funny that I want to read the whole post!"

Goldilocks read to the end of the post and saw there was a place where she could leave a comment. "Oh," thought Goldilocks (whose nickname was Goldie, which is much shorter and easier to type ... so let's just call her Goldie from now on) "I want to tell this blogger how much I loved this post. I think I will leave a comment." She clicked on the comment link and a box popped up. Goldie happily typed her witty and erudite comment and hit the submit button. A strange word appeared. "Nichscieslgheelsdl?" thought Goldie. "What the heck does that mean? And why are the letters so twirly and hard to read? Apparently I have to type this strange word before I can submit my comment. Screw it. I'm moving on." So she clicked on "Next Blog."

The next blog also had a great post so Goldie decided to leave another comment. She was excited to see what her comment would look like when published. After all, this is part of the fun of leaving comments. But even though she didn't have to enter a pesky, nonsensical twisted up word, her comment didn't appear. "What the heck?" thought Goldie. "Where is it?" She finally noticed that the comment had to be approved by the blog owner. "Oh," thought Goldie, disappointed. She clicked on "Next Blog."

The next blog also had a great post that Goldie wanted to comment on. Hesitantly, she clicked on the comment button. Would she have to jump through hoops to let this blogger know what she thought? Would she get to see her comment appear on the post? She held her breath and clicked "Submit." No crazy words appeared and the comment appeared instantly on the post with all the other comments! This blog was just right."

Awesome," thought Goldie. "This made it easy for me to leave a comment and have a bit of fun on this blog. I wonder if those other bloggers know that the crazy word verification thing is just to prevent spam from appearing on a blog and isn't really necessary. In fact, many blogs don't use it and they don't get spam!!! Plus, you could always turn it back on if you did develop a spam problem. And I wonder if the blogger with the comment moderation uses it so they don't miss any comments? Don't they know that they can have all their comments sent directly to their e-mail so they won't miss a single comment (even if someone leaves a comment on a very old post)? Plus, this way they can easily reply to their visitors via e-mail if needed. All they need to do is go to this easy tutorial or this one to find out how to set it up!"

Goldie sure was enjoying her visit in the Land of Blog. She decided to stay awhile and quickly amassed a huge blogroll that she tried to visit every day. The first blogger she liked had great stuff but seemed to post about five times a day. "I just can't keep up with all these posts," thought Goldie. "Although the blogger may want me to read all of the posts, I just can't do it. It is too much."

The second blogger that Goldie liked had some wonderful posts but then didn't post again for two weeks. Goldie had forgotten about the blog by the time the next post came around.

The third blogger posted once a day for 3 or 4 days during the week. "This is just right," thought Goldie. "The posts come often enough that I can form a relationship with this blogger but not so often that I can't easily keep up with the posts."

Eventually, Goldilocks created her own blog -- a blog that didn't play music, loaded in under 5 seconds, used a readable type size, used dark text on a light background, left-justified the type, had paragraph breaks on longer posts, did not use word verification or comment moderation, and had posts just 3 to 4 times a week. She was also sure to be a good hostess and visit the blogs of any new visitors and she tried to respond to comments via e-mail if possible. She also tried to visit the blogs of regular readers as much as she was able to let them know how much she appreciated their visits. All in all, Goldilocks had fun blogging and she lived happily ever after in the Land of Blog.

The End.

Look Who's Two!!

Jackson turned two on May 30th. He's a baby no longer {weep weep}. He has become an independent, feisty, curious little boy! He's still a cuddler, and loves to give hugs and kisses. He is very passionate about two things at the moment: Cars and Bugs.

He carries handfuls of cars around the house all day long and I am constantly finding them in random places {as my mom can attest to}! He even takes his handful of cars to bed with him. He frequently has handfuls of bugs, too. His favorite are "tay bugs" or potato bugs, but he'll pick up just about anything {unlike his fraidy-cat brother}.

He had a fun birthday, with lots of family there to help him celebrate {thanks to Kensie's baptism}. It was so funny to see his reaction as he opened each present. He got lots of cars & some new clothes {which he didn't really care about but I did!} and even a "tay head" {mr. potato head}!
It was a great day!

Happy Birthday Mr. J!!

Our little monkey had a monkey cake, naturally.

Here he is, blowing out the first candle. He burned his lip on the second candle, which put a damper on the festivities....but he got over it quickly.

He'd rather play with his car than eat his cake....