Cashy bones

Here's a little tribute to Cash for you all to enjoy. Cash the devoted dog that he is, took some time out of his busy napping schedule to play with Grant in the snow.

Sadly, when it was time to warm up next to the fire, Cash was left out in the cold.

Crash: Part D'Oh

Mom was in an accident today, and luckliy she escaped without harm. The Envoy, on the other hand, was a different story. I'll let you know more details as I find them out, but from what I heard from eyewitnesses, she caught about 4-6 feet of air before rolling and ended up about 25 feet from the road. There was signicant damage to both the windsheild and back windows, as both were shattered out, probably from when she rolled. The steering column and dash were all smashed as well, I'm not sure how that happened though. She had a lot of cuts from all the broken glass and complained of neck pain so they took her to the hospital. There was damage to the roof as well, and the back passenger side door was dented. The eyewtinesses also said they were amazed she landed on her wheels. I guess she tried to pass someone on the road to Idaho Falls and lost control. As you can see, it was snowing pretty heavily and visibility was minimal. It was eerily similar to my accident, and happened to be one year and a day to the date when I 'd'oh'ed into a fence. We're just glad she's ok.

Your Christmas stories

With Christmas on the horizon I'm filled with nostalgia of the ghosts of Christmas pasts. I would love to hear your stories of your favorite Christmas memories. I'll start: Little can beat the excitement of receiving the Thriller cassette tape in my stocking and then getting a ghetto blaster from under the tree, but I do have a classic Christmas story I treasure. I'll never forget the family (what was their name?) that our ward gave Christmas to when I was probably the age shown on the previous post. This family had little, maybe nothing for their kids for Christmas. It seems like the Young Men and Women collected gifts for this little family and delivered them on Christmas Eve when they weren't home. Luckily in Idaho in the 1980s people didn't lock their front doors, making it easy to bring a tree and gifts right inside the home of this family, and leave it decorated and stuffed with presents. Although I didn't actually get to see this happen I think Mom or Dad were involved and I heard the description of it and can still picture it to this day as if I was there. I donated a little white cradle to the little girl of the family. I still remember looking at it wistfully, knowing I'd never play with it again (actually probably wondering why I hadn't ever really played with it at all...and then wishing I had been given sisters to play dolls/cradles with), but I also remember that distinct warm feeling I had, knowing this would make another little girl happy Christmas morning.

a few more....

Good times...

So I was going through all of our old pictures trying to find find some of me for our reception. These were a few of my favorites that I had never seen before.

A little bit...

Rafe deftly demonstrates his finger counting abilities in this video. I think most of you are high speed interneters, so you shouldn't have a problem viewing it. Sorry, it's a little dark (the lighting, not the content).

Wit and Wisdom

Nature verses nurture? Where did the Shirley sense of humor originate? It's a safe guess it's in our genes. All we have to do is listen to Grandpa for a few minutes, Grandma too, for proof of that. Here are a few of Grandpa's Quips that Dad has recorded in the last week since his heart attack: When the nurse asked if he wanted his pajamas on: "I used to sleep naked, but not anymore." When the nurse said she was the only one caring for him tonight: "Did all the dummies go home?" "If you mind all your P's and Qs, too soon you'll have too many letters." When Mom said she'll see him in the morning: "I'll be here or die trying." When he awoke to see all his posterity staring at him: "What? Am I on the endangered species list?" When told it was good to see you: "At my age it's good to be seen anywhere." When trying to stand and finding himself a little shaky: "I've been drunk and been smarter than this." "Mama told me there would be days like these. She didn't say there'd be nights like these." And then later, "Mama told me there'd be nights like these but not so many." We can't overlook the sweet humor of our special Grandma: "Every little bit helps said the old woman as she peed into the sea." "My hair is such a mess. I look like something sent for that didn't come." But maybe it didn't start with Grandpa, that funny gene. Here's proof we can trace it back to his grandpa: "I eat my peas with honey, I've done so all my life It makes them taste quite funny But it keeps them on my knife."