Did I say I just LOVE my new camera (Shauna's bridal's)

 

My New Camera

 

I got to check off a item on my bucket list last

June.  I was able to get a really nice camera, the

Nikon D3200.  It's not a snap and shoot camera

but a real camera.  I have no idea how to use it,

have bought a couple of books (one is Nikon D3200

For Dummies.....haha..)

I got it just in time to take it to California on our

vacation, which some pictures turned out so cute.

I hope to be posting those soon.

Anyways..

Shauna was going to be getting her bridal pictures

taken early Friday morning in Salt Lake City

downtown.  I decided to throw in my camera and

get some shots of Dave (the photographer) and

her getting her pictures taken for her scrapbook

and also to just see how my pictures turned out like.

 

All I can say is Dave from Jaffa Photography

is so amazing to work with.  He is funny, easy

to be around (not stuffy at all), will take pictures

all day until he thinks he's has the shots he wants,

which turned out to be 4 hours in 3 different places.

 

These are the pictures I took behind Dave, which

he was perfectly fine with me taking some of my

own.  In fact he told me I could take as many as

I wanted to.

 

 

 

This is one of my favorites

 

 

Shauna was so beautiful in her wedding gown, her hair

was amazing and she was such a natural in her poses.

She is so gorgeous in these pictures !!

 

Getting ready for Shauna and Clay's Wedding

 

 

 Getting Ready

 

The day we've been preparing for has finally arrived.

We got to the cabin Friday morning and it was just one of

the most beautiful mornings I've ever seen.

 

We had so much to do, that we didn't even know where to

start.  We just started unpacking boxes and boxes and putting

order to them.  Thankfully most of them we're marked and

organized prior at home.  But there we're some last minute

of just throwing things in boxes to just get them in the truck

before leaving the next morning.

 

No matter how much you prepare, there is always and I

mean always last minute details you can't do till the few

days before the big day.

 

Friday we just the big centerpieces together and a few

other jobs but most of it was going to have to wait till

Saturday morning.

 

Saturday morning I woke to see that Shauna and Clay

had arranged a lot of the chairs, put out the chairs

 and had strung most of

the lights around railings and the pergola.

 

Clay's parents and sister had been fixing breakfast that

morning and it was so delicious. 

 

We we're getting so much done but still running out of

time.  How quickly time flies when you need more of it.

 

We we're starting to get ready when the afternoon clouds

started to move in and take over the blue skies that had

been so prominent. 

The ceremony was suppose to start at 5:00 pm and by

4:00 pm, you definitely could see on my phone the radar

showed showers headed our way.  So we cleared up all

the tablecloths, centerpieces, dinner ware and candy

tables up just in time when the rain drops began to fall.

Shauna just showed back up from being down town getting

her hair done.  She was calm and happy, not the crying

hysterical bride to be you think she would be. 

She said she knew it was going to clear up and be beautiful

the rest of the evening. 

Which is was.........

 

While it was raining, we all went and got dressed.

When the rain stopped, our family and friends hurried

and dried all the chairs and set everything up for the

ceremony.  They we're amazing and that is an understatement!

 

We got pictures of Shauna getting dressed and she was

the most beautiful bride to be EVER!!

I shed a few tears along the way. 

What can I say I'm an emotional mother...lol

 

Before we knew it everything had fallen into place

and we we're all ready for the ceremony to begin.

 

 

 Saturday morning all the staging starts.

 

Landon playing a game, waiting for the rain to stop.

The view is still amazing even if it was raining an

hour before the ceremony was to start.

 

 

 

The picture table

I'm back....

We'll its been awhile since I've been on here.  Scott has his back surgery, Kimberly had Braydon in August, then came the holidays.  I have still taking pictures to post but never seems to have the time to sit down and get caught up.  I'm going on my 5th week of the flu/cold. Scott started the following week and is still feeling the effects of it. We both were diagnoised with bronical pnemumonia, its been tough getting rid of it.  I am starting to feel human again but that means I'm trying to play catch up on washing, etc around the house. I usually watch my two favorite grandson's in the world but I haven't been able to do that. One I just don't have the strength to do it, second I surely don't want them to get it either and end up in the hospital.
   It seems that 2013 has been a struggle already and were only into it 27 days. I caught this bug and my dad the same week came down with pnemumonia also and spent 7 days in the hospital. Then Scott came down with it also.  Braydon ended up getting thrush and is now battling a 2nd go around (doctors think he put a toy in his mouth that he had previous played with). My 2nd grandma has been really sick and has been struggling in and out of the hospital for the past couple of months.  Then my sister's yellow lab Maggie had gotten sick and she found out that a tumor was blocking her colon and her left hip was pretty well gone. So she put her down yesterday, which is hard because our dog use to play with Maggie when she we first got her as pup and she had so much energy. My niece drove up from college to say goodbye to Maggie and she ended up in the hospital last night with kidney stones.

 To say the least we are ready for a break.
 

Landon's vacation with Grandma and Grandpa in Idaho

So me and Scott was vacationing in Island Park a few weeks

ago and decided to have our little bud come up and spend the

week with us. 

We throughly enjoyed him, he kept us on our toes but we

had some leverage to keep him in line----

our Razor.

He LOVES to ride in the razor, so anytime he would

behave all we had to do was tell him he wouldn't be

riding in the razor anymore...aren't we bad!

Landon eating at his own picnic table

under the pine tree's.

He rode his bouncy ball all over the place.

Landon playing on the log like he was riding a horse.

Landon and Kylie, best of buds!!

The Buffalo river behind them.

So he helped grandma paint the picnic table, he

had a blast!!

Landon just had just rode up in the razor,

to the boat dock

where you can float down the river.

So the last day we were up there we went to West

Yellowstone to buy him and his soon to be brother,

a T-shirt. 

 He wasn't even interested in buying a shirt,

he wanted "Socks"  yes ...socks.

So he found the pair he wanted with bears

and campfires on them..

 He totally loved them!!

Then in another store he found a couple of belts with

Yellowstone Park on the back of it made with beads.

....I did buy a couple of shirts but he was happy with his

Socks and Belts.

So that evening after taking a bath, I went to put his

regular white socks on and he threw a fit and then we

finally found out why..

He wanted to wear his new socks to bed!!

....with his Mickey Mouse pajamas...laugh

Landon going to bed with his new socks on.

So we had a great week with him and made alot of memories

that we will never forget and hopefully he'll remember some himself.

Time goes by so fast. 

 I remember 3 years ago, when Kimberly, Jon and

Landon came up to our place and he was a month old then when

we introduced him to our favorite place in the pines.

He even went boating that trip, slept like a baby in his

carseat wearing his lifevest we got for him.

I hope he will come to love Island Park as much as we do

and hopefully we will leave a legacy of memories with

him and his soon to be new brother.

Grandpa Griffin and Landon

Landon and Grandpa Griffin

So my dad is still recovering from his knee surgery.  He originally

got operated on May 7th, but due to problems with health care facilities and

infection in his knee, it has been a slow road to recovery.

On Friday, they transferred him from an acute facility to a skilled

nursing facility here in town...he is getting excited...little by little

he is getting closer to home, I think he can even smell it.

So today me, Kimberly and Landon went to visit him.  While there

Landon was showing him how he could play a game on mommy's

phone.  It was so cute I had to take a picture of them together.

While there we went out on the patio and was visiting when we

seen Scott walking up to the facility.  It is 2 miles from our house,

I didn't know whether to kick him in the rear or tell how proud I

was for walking that far...So I told him how great he done ...then

scolded him a bit.

WHY?

Because on May 19th, he had a two level fusion done on his

back.  He was suppose to be resting at home when I left him.

He had already walked 2 miles in the morning, which I thought

he'd over done that.  The doctor told him the best therapy was

to walk, walk, walk and do some more walking.  So that is what

he has been doing.

I'll post about Scott and his ordeal next time but it is time for bed

and relax for another day in my mixed up world.



Day Dreaming

Some days it's just hard getting out of bed when you know you have a challenging day ahead.

Most of my days consist of getting up to greet my energy bouncy grandson (somedays he reminds me of Tigger on "Winnie The Pooh" ) when Kimberly drops him off in the mornings before she goes to work.
   I, like most people have a list of "To Do's" that we'd like finished before the
end of the day...and sometimes you have the UNEXPECTED happen that set's
you off your course.

We'll my story is about my dad who had a total knee revision done last week.
He had both of his knee's replace around 10 years ago. 
  Lately he has had alot of knee pain which eventually the doctor told him
that his left knee had worn out and would need the plastic replaced with a chance that if he had something unexpected come up he might have to do a total knee revision again.   Which did happen.  The bone never grew to the new knee hardware (which might explain why it wore out so fast and why he was in so much pain), so the doctor took the old one out and replaced it with a new
shiny one. 
  He had a few small episodes with his sugar level being low while in there
but seemed to have it under control.  They transferred him to a skilled
nursing facility which was really nice.  It was like staying in a 5 star hotel.
We soon discovered that the only care he got was from us or unless it was
in rehab or when we called for something.  We were told that a skilled nursing facility was for people that was pretty well on their own but needed therapy
or a touch of care. 
My dad needed an acute nursing facility, where they monitor your care continuiously.
Well my brother and sister-in-law went in on Sunday to visit and check up on my dad when he wasn't in his room....figuring that he was in therapy.  A few minutes later a young lady brought my dad in the room in his wheelchair when
she said she found him down the hall wondering around.  My brother became furious to think he had gotten out of bed on his own and had made it to the wheelchair and was pushing himself around the facility.  He had almost fallen twice when someone was close by to catch him on both occasion.
He had called my sister to vent...which in turn she quickly drove in to see him. While they both were there they had determined that the infection in the knee had grown worse that it would be best to take him to the ER to make sure it hadn't grown into gangreen.   They we're in the ER 9 hrs before he was transfered back to the original hospital.  They called people in to staff the hospital just for my dad because the doctor wanted him back there to keep an
eye on him.
  We'll for a few days the infection didn't seem to get much better after being on strong antibotic's, so they determined it was best to go back in and make sure the infection hadn't made it to the knee itself.  They cleaned it all out and treated it with antibotic's. 
  He was in excursiating pain afterwards.
Today he done so much better, so hopefully he will be on the road to recovery
very soon.  We still have to send him to a rehad facility before going home but
maybe next week at this time he will be going home or soon afterwards.

There was so much more to the story but this is a touch of our experience with
our dad. 
My advice to those who might be in the same situation someday.  Talk with the nurses and caseworker to determine what kind of rehab facility they will be going to.  There is acute, transitional and skilled nursing facilities.  My dad needed an acute facility and was sent to a skilled nursing facility.

Thank you Todd and Susan for your many hours of caring for dad.

Sometimes I'll find myself daydreaming of sitting on a sandy beach, watching the sunset into the ocean, with a cool breeze with the smell of the ocean blowing on my face, taking all my cares and worries away..... 

And now I am preparing for the next chapter in my book.......

Scott's back surgery in 2 days.

Macey's shopping trip

So I haven't been on for awhile. It just seems that I've

been so busy that I hurry and get on the computer for a

few minutes and then get off.

But since I finally got a new computer maybe I'll try

to start posting again.

So today I went to Macey's and got a few things

before the sale went off tonight. I found meat

that had been marked down.

Idaho Spuds .99 cents - .55 coupon = .45 cents

Better Oats .99 cents

93% hamburger reduced to $2.99 lb = $4.73 savings

country sausage reduced

Jennie-O breakfast turkey sausage reduced $1.00

Jennie-O Sweet Italian sausage reduced $1.00

Johnsonville Italian sausage reduced $2.00

Pork roast reduced (can't remember how much)

Between all items purchased (some not pictured) I saved $48.00

This was last weeks shopping trip.

Carefree liners: .94 cents Walmart - $1.00 coupon = .06 money maker

White Cloud tissue free w/puchase of White Cloud toliet paper which I

used $1.00 coupon on the toliet paper also.

Eclipse: BOGO w/ coupons from Coupons.com =.48 cents each

Allegra allergy pills: $12.63 - $7.00 coupon = $6.63

Colgate: .94 Walmart (bin) - .75 coupon = .18 cents

Snickers easter eggs: $1.00 walmart - $1.50/2 parade coupon = .25 cents

M&M's: $1.00 walmart - $1.00/2 = .50 cents

Beneful dog treats: $3.84 Walmart - BOGO = $1.92 each

Nexcare: $1.50 Walmart - .55 coupon = .95 cents