"SHANK YOU FOR MY HAPPY BIRSHDAY!"

What better way to spend a Saturday

than with a grandson, who just happens

to be having his 3rd birthday.

 Brecken and his friends and family,

went to the bowling alley

where Brecken bowled better than

some of the adults......

Did I bowl you ask??

Well, I didn't want to intimidate the men folk.

(insert sound of clearing throat)ummm....I mean....truthfully

I didn't want Brecken to show me up...so nooo.....

Brecken, great bowler that he is,

Placed the ball on the ground, and

R o o o o o o l e d.............it

He does great considering the

ball is almost as big as he is.

Next stop..... Pirates Pizza

The entrance to the pirates den...

AHOY MATES, come on in and enjoy the ParTaY

The pizza...Why "shiver me timbers" I have never seen anything so

HUGE

The plate gives you some idea of how big it was

and

THERE WERE 4 OF THEM!

No one left the party hungry!

We could easily have fed the "starving children" of several foreign countries.

No party is any fun complete until the grandparents arrive.

Grandpa Kevin is smiling because he was smart enough not

to sit with the old hags mature ladies.......and be forced to listen to their

non-stop talking conversation which goes on and on about

 nothing, useless information   "women stuff"

I'm a Pirate that I be"

ARRRRRR....

Well me hearties, lets see what's next....

Try to shoot the pirate...

keep trying......

and trying.........

...

and

never mind, lets move on to the ball toss.

C'mere me beauties...

"Blimie" look yonder at the smart lassies"

(say this pirate talk is catchy is it not?)

A "pillage" (still going with the pirate talk here) of "LOOT"... and then

C.A.K.E.

Brecken got the "guff" cake he wanted

and "G" "O" "L" "F"

was spelled out so pretty

 

For awhile anyway.

That frosting was just TOO tempting.

But all is not lost.....

Now it says

"GO"

And he certainly does!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUDDY!

FLU SHOT PARTY OR HOW TO BE A GOOD EXAMPLE....

Ron, have you had your flu shot this year?

Why yes, I have, so you can exclude me from the following festivities.

Sighhhh......

Amber and the girls decided to let Bumma have the "privilege" of keeping them safe from the flu this year.

Mama Amber (who from this point on will be referred to as Wimpy) decided she would go first, just to show the girls how easy and painless it was going to be.

 Getting ready...

(Just for the record, it is NOT necessary for you to click and enlarge this picture to look more closely at the mess that is my kitchen at this time... Thank.you.very.much)

Briqelle was terrified and willing to do ANYTHING not to have her shot.

But after "Wimpy" bribed her (and I lie not....for 20 minutes!) and settled on "girls night out with chinese food and smoothies"

even Briqelle got her shot

But didn't we say that "Wimpy" was going first? Why yes we did, and we were also going to document for all to see, what a good example she is to her children. Oh, and BRAVE, lets not forget how brave she is.  The needle after all is at least this long...

While this picture doesn't do "Wimpy" justice, to show how fearless she really is,

 lets just say, she was

 S.C.R.E.A.M.I.N.G.

at this point.

Now how bad was it REALLY?

Don't you feel just a little humiliated?

Next is the 4 (yes FOUR)year old's turn....

Where are the screams,and ooohhhhs and whaaaaaa's?

And is that a hint of a

S M I L E?

and don't I just heart myself right now, because it took some courage

for this Bumma to

poke her darlin' with a needle!!!

She wouldn't have cried at all, but the good example that went first, (remember "Wimpy?")

put a bit of fear into her 4 year old mind.

That wasn't so bad.

Jama...he gave everyone his sympathy tears, I think he was afraid of the

"oh so mature noises" coming out of "Wimpy".

He was one happy little dude, once "Wimpy" quit

going BERSERK and scaring him.

After all was done, everyone was rewarded for their bravery

and got to make their own mini cakes.

All except "you know who".......

Maybe next time

Oh,

and just in case you are wondering if Bumma had her flu shot at this party.....

of course not.....

I am the

MOTHER

WIMP!

MY LIFE AND HOW IT SUCKS........OR......."ME" vs "THE ESTABLISHMENT"

Another tale of woe for poor ole' me..... beginning with this "fine" establishment. Oh, yes, they are "superb" and customer service is their #100,000,000 priority.
My story begins as I am (as usual), minding my own business, and (as usual) open my bank statement to balance the "HUGE" amount I have to operate my life on. Can you imagine my shock/astonishment/surprise when I see that above named establishment has decided to help themselves to "my" money in the amount of $4,_ _ _ _.and some change...

Not usually a "swearing" person, I did say

"WHAT THE CRAP!!"
"OH MY HECK"
"DING DANG FREAK"
( all Utahisms  and all repeated several times)

Of course, I discoverd this on of all days,

Veteran's Day

And we all know that

banks take
this day
off!!

Long story, (trying to make short) I call "the establishment"

EVERY DAY

for a week....

and

EVERYDAY

I am told, "our recovery department is working on it".

AND

"Don't worry, we'll pay any charge back fees"

AND
"Could your account have been accessed by someone who has gained your account information.?"
(um.....yes....that would be you, Ms. BrainCellOrLackThereof)
AND
"Oh yes, we will definitely call you and/or e-mail you as soon as the problem is corrected."
AND
my personal favorite....

"Of course we won't deduct "your" morgtage payment from your account until we have corrected our error"
(HELLooooo..........you already have my mortgage payment for the next 5 months)

Someone else was certainly enjoying a

vacation from their mortgage payment

for 2 months.

I hope they went somewhere nice,

like, Balise, or Fiji.

But as of today,  the above mentioned

"ESTABLISHMENT"

has

FINALLY

returned my money.  

Interest..............no

Apology........... no
Phone call..........no
E-mail................no

Deduction from my account  for "my"mortgage payment before THEY corrected THEIR error?................
that would be a big YES.
Did I waste more that 1 nano second

disenrolling from "the establishment's"

auto mortgage payment plan.....

BIG FAT NO!!

And from what I hear from other "little people" like myself

IT HAPPENS ALL THE TIME!

I am living proof that
If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all. Unknown
AND
I love sleep..my life has a tendency to fall apart when I'm awake.  Hemmingway

I'M "THAT" GRAMMY

This just saved me from writing my own post, because June from Bye, Bye Pie (love her, shes a crackup) describes me to perfection, minus the baggies part. Oh, and the drinking part. Eeeek...and the drugs part. Because anyone who knows me, knows that I start to P A N IC if I am not at the airport 20 hours before my flight is scheduled to leave. So just sayin, I'm not the only one out there that HAS HAS HAS to arrive at the airport  WAAAAAAY.....early. The earlier the better.  Gotta keep me in my comfort zone at all costs!
NOTE TO MY KIDS:  S.T.O.P. laughing, and rolling your eyes! RIGHT now. I can hear you!!! You are rolling on the floor, you KNOW this is SO TOTALLY EXACTLY what I do. Really, stop laughing...I can STILL hear you!

ANOTHER OOPS.........

The Grantham Family and

Grandma Marilyn

(sorry the picture is dark, my camera was on the wrong setting!)

( and yes, I did forget to put this in the last post)

Somehow I didn't get a family picuture of the Park family.

I wonder how that happened.. Any answers ROB???

A BLESSING............AND A CURSE

To get this

treasured picture...

took 2 1/2 years.

That's how long it has been since

all the cousins have

been together with

"Bumma"

The Shepherd family
The big occasion

Khloe Lin Grantham's
blessing on
October 11, 2009

My great kids, who laughed and told me I was short

(dang,I thought you were kidding)

and now the story of the blessing
and the
curse..........
I decided that it would be a great opportunity to have PRK (the PAINFUL alternative to Lasix) in SLC the same weekend that we would be going to Meridian for Khloe's baby blessing. (Now that it's over, I will admit it was not the most brilliant idea I've ever had. I was in pain for about 4 days) The day after the surgery I am driving to SLC after staying the night with mom and dad in Nephi. Of course I am in rush hour traffic at 106th south and traffic is at a complete stop. Or at least it is supposed to be. I stopped, the person behind me stopped, but........
the person after that
DID NOT!!

All of a sudden my head is jerking forward and I hear those horrible sounds no one wants to hear.....
c.r.u.n.c.h.

this is the curse part...

which I didn't

curse

I think I was too stunned
The first thing that goes through my mind is "how am I going to get to Idaho and back home with a damaged car?"
The second thing I thought of was, EECCCHHH...... did this crackup do any damage to my freshly lasered eyeball?????
So, I CAREFULLY opened my door, and went to look at the damage to my car. (Let me just say, it was NOT a fun experience to be on the freeway OUTSIDE the safety of my car, with traffic whizzing by, to see what the damage was!)
MIRACLE!!!!!........
No
damage!
Not
a
single
scratch!!

I know I was being watched over!!!
The lady behind me was not so lucky. She had a small hole in her bumper, that looked like a nail hole to me, and being the auto specialist that I am, it looked like it had been there before the accident, but the lady in the car was insisting it was new. Not my problem, but I don't think she was being honest. Anyway....
I was able to continue to drive to Amber's house where we loaded up the kids and got ready to continue on to Meridian. But E.Y.E. (get it? eye for I... ohh...I have been taking about eyes, and so I used that funny play on words, so ok, never mind; on with the story.)any way eye have to have more drama!!! So eye promptly proceeded to fall off of the porch and do a number on my knee. (And I broke my favorite Maverik mug in the process!!) Eye was going to take a picture of my knee, but if you want to see it just go here

It was the same knee, and looked pretty much like the first injury, but I did manage to fall down the stairs this time, instead of tripping up them. (whoo hoo, I'm a learnin' the tricks of proper falling)
We FINALLY get on the road, and the rest of the trip is uneventful until about an hour outside of Meridian when Rob calls. He is about 20 minutes behind us and has just hit something "smaller than a deer, but bigger than a dog" with his car. My brilliant daughter (don't worry, I won't tell the world your name Mrs. Shepherd) says, "Oh, no! was it the front bumper or the back bumper?" Rob says, "Well I'm not driving backwards, so it must be the front." He was not so fortunate as me and did have to break off part of his bumper because it was dragging.
The rest of the trip was COLD, so we weren't able to take any pictures outside like professionals do, and we are all about being professional, but I did manage not to have any more accidents.
It was so great to have all the kids and grandkids together again. We had a wonderful time, and loved being able to stay with Dave and Lindsay. Thanks so much for all your hospitality and putting up with all the noise that 7 kids, 7 adults and 1 dog make! Khloe looked beautiful and Dave did a great job with her blessing. Thanks to Ron and Amber for letting me hitch a ride with them and to Rob and Britny for following me home from SL to make sure I got back safely. EYE love you all.
(sorry, couldn't help myself)

SO I'M NOT PERFECT

In a perfect world, this

post about the grandkid's birthdays

(which were in August)

would have been posted before the debout of Khloe Lin.

You know, kind of in the order in which they happened....

BUT

because this is not a perfect world, and I am

so.not.perfect

this is what you get.

Briqelle has actually captured the essence of

"bumma"

PRECISELY.

she's

coo

coo

My Bumma, shes a crazy one!

Lets get started with the discombobulated, out of order,random ravings

of a crazy kook...

post.

Jameson, celebrating his 1st

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Look at it, it's a comin'

ohhh....choc o latte!!
First things first, checkin it out
playin' it oh so cool....
But as I said
IT'S CHOC O LATTE!!
and there is nothin' better
right?

So what do you mean,
IT'S NOT ALL ABOUT ME TODAY????


Ok, ok, I'm coming.
Who else is stealing "my"
Birthday show bash?

Princess Cali

in her finest
birthday attire...

"why yes, it is all about me....why do you ask?"

I love all 7 of you !
But this is the only one I could
capture for the picture!

SO I'M NOT PERFECT...PART 2

SOOOO NOT PERFECT

I somehow deleted this picture,

it should have been at the end of the last post, but in keeping with my

so.not.perfect.theme

I am posting it here. Truth of the matter is, I don't know how to

put it at the end of the post. Anybody want to enlighten me?

and since I am:

SO.NOT.PERFECT.....

not even in the running,

in fact,

below the

bottom

of

the

barrell...

I give you my final(but at the beginning)

picture.

are you as confused as I am??

"Nothin says "I love you" more than a

"hot" blankey for

a birthday present

in freakin' August!"
Yup, thats your

bumma....

PERFECT!

THE DEBOUT OF KHLOE LIN

ANNOUNCING

the scheduled debout of

Khloe Lin Grantham
gracing the world with her presence
on August 26, 2009 , and weighing in
at 6 lbs 12 oz

Khloe has lots of hair!

And was getting sick of the picture overload

She is welcomed to the family by her older sister and brother and a proud mama and papa.

(Is it fair that Lindsay looks this good only a couple of hours after giving birth? I know, we should hate her for it)

Bumma is pretty proud of #7

And I am getting all the pictures I can because she will grow so fast

and

soon will be like her big sister and brother

and say

ENOUGH ALREADY!

But for now, I'm all about as many picture as possible.

And this is only the beginning.

More to follow next month, but HOPEFULLY this time

I will have ALL 7 of my grandchildren together!!

WHOO HOO!

And they will all be getting lots of these.