GRADUATION!!!!

Since there has been such a gap in my blogging I thought I would fill in the blanks and let you know all the exciting activities the Adams family has had this year.

First, in April, Stuart graduated from BYUI. HURRAY!!!




We took several pictures, including some that Laura's friend took of our family jumping for joy, but they are not on my computer so the above picture will have to suffice. Think, Laura, Stuart, Megan, Danielle, their parents and our parents and you'll have a pretty good idea of how things were.

We loaded up all the possessions of one married couple and two single girls into a moving van and headed West to Marysville leaving Megan and Danielle behind due to the fact they were heading to Wales a couple of weeks later. You can catch all the info. about their exploits in London, Wales, Ireland, and Paris on their blogs. Pretty neat stuff.

Meanwhile Stuart and Laura settled in and Stuart went to work for Jansport while Laura went to work on her Photography.Such a talented lady. They have also applied for school at Life Chiropractic in California and are just waiting to hear the good word.

Stuart wasn't the only one with new plans for the future. Josh also graduated this year from MPHS. Those pictures were on my camara so I can share them with you!!! Megan and Danielle had fun sharing this time with him.

This one would have been great if Danielle would have been in it,
but someone had to take the picture!! Josh is with Heather and her family,
we joined in together for the shot.




He looks pretty happy that it's over with. It was a nice
ceremony though. Better than some I have been to.

Man! I need to be more aware of how I stand for pictures. Isn't

it awful that the older you get the more you look like someone you

don't even recognize?

I'm sure the whole time he was sitting there thinking "When's this going

to be over? I've got Grad Night to get to!!!" It's obvious from the picture that

not everyone was paying attention.

This was the first year any of our kids went to the all night grad party at the school. Several of Josh's friends were going so he decided it would be more fun to be with them than do nothing. He had a good time but was worn out the next day. He slept until the late afternoon and then slept again that night.

Even the cat was tuckered out.

(I have to keep this fuzzy blanket on the end of my bed for her to sleep on so she will quit bugging me and keep to herself. She's a fun kitty but boy is she quirky!!!)

So to wrap it up; Josh got accepted to both BYU and BYUI. He decided, however, to stay at EVCC because he did Running Start and has several credits there. It won't take too long to get his Associates Degree and then apply to University of Washington to pursue a degree in the health field. Good Luck to you Josh!!!

What to do when you have time on your hands.

So Danielle and I were just surfing the internet after a dinner of hot wings, corn on the cob, baked beans and zuccini from the garden, (shoot!!! i just realized I forgot the watermelon in the fridge!!) when I told her that I had seen the cutest pictures on the internet and told her to look for them. She got distracted and started looking at Jack Russell terriers, etc, and then she found this picture....







This looks an awful lot like our Molly when she greets us after we come home. She sits at the top of the stairs and smiles at us while she wiggles her little behind and squeals with delight. She always knows when Mark is home and jumps up out of her little doggie bed to rush over and meet him. Of course this picture looks a little more maniacal, or perhaps demonic, than our little dog has ever looked. Her animal of choice is a stuffed toy that looks just like her. She drags it to her bed to sleep with sometimes and has torn it nose off. That's better than the others she has had which are now just little pieces of stuffing all over the house.

It's funny how pets are a lot like people and how we would have a big empty spot in our lives if we didn't have any pets at all.

Of course some of the other things we do when we have lots of time on our hands is play text twist, typing maniac, bejeweled, etc. All in an effort to keep our brains young and healthy =)

Ready for a Game???

Got this from Megan and I'm passing it on!!!

A Free Gift For You!
Alright everyone! The first FIVE people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!2- What I create will be just for you.3- It'll be done this year. (might be a little while)4- You have no clue what it's going to be.It may be a story. It may be a joke book, autographed picture of myself, handmade bag, or a little invention of my own! I may create you a blog header or paint something for you with my food. (That would be scary). I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows?5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange. Believe me... it may blow your mind!The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must re post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did, win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it! Sounds like fun, right? So, let's play!

Why Do Fools Fall In Love?

It might seem a little silly to be talking about this subject since Valentine's day is long past, but I have been a bit reflective lately, hence the subject of love.

In answer to the question of why, or possibly how, people fall in love I would give you the same philosophical answer that was wisely given to us by the tootsie pop advertisers, "The world may never know."

When Mark has been gone I have noticed a few things. I don't sleep well when he is not here so I make poor choices and stay up, sometimes until 2 am. By that time I know if I crawl into bed I will fall into a coma and therefore not have to lie in wait for sleep to overcome me. I also don't pick up the house as much because I work on projects more.

I thought about how easy it would be to convince yourself not to do things because they didn't matter. I thought about my life and where I might be without my good husband, besides alone and lonely. I thought about how much he loves me and our family and how hard he works to make sure we have the things we need and that we are happy. I thought about how much I love him.

I am grateful that God gave us the ability to love, the desire to share our lives with others, and the joy that doing so brings to us. I am grateful that the man I married has helped me to be better than I would have been alone, and that I too (hopefully) have done the same for him. Without him life would be just another day. I'm glad we have each other!

Hidden Treasures

I was cleaning out some things on my computer and I found a few treasures.

I have no idea why Josh and Molly were hanging out so far on the rock, but it's a cool picture. I wish I could have found a few pictures of Stuart and Laura, and some of Marks parents, etc. but he must have them all on his computer. The only picture I could find of Marks mom was in with the Halloween photos. The only things is she wasn't in costume. I wonder if Mark was making a comment. She does look pretty scary in those curlers she wears at night.

Oh well. I am grateful for the "treasures" in my life.

YUMM! TATOR TOTS!

Ode To Tator Tots!!!!!!

It has been a long time since I really enjoyed tator tots. I remember that they were the longed for item at school lunch. We never filled our pockets with them like Napoleon Dynamite did, but we all loved them.

I had a lot of things to do on Thursday so I was cleaning the house when my hair dresser called and said she could move my appointment from 5:45 to right that minute if I wanted. (10 am) Luckily I had taught Seminary that morning so I was already wide awake and ready to go. Afterwards I decided to just go ahead and run my errands. That was where I made my fatal mistake. I now know why you never shop on an empty stomach. All sorts of things were calling my name in the store as I looked for items to make "healthy" meals. When I went past the freezer section I saw a bag of "mini" tator tots. They won the grand prize, a trip home with me for lunch!!!

They were so yummy, and extra crispy, that I thought I would make a blog about them. I wanted a picture so I went to Yahoo search and typed in Tator Tot images. Some cute and interesting things came up. This was the first image:




Then this cute little guy showed up:

Let me say I would never eat either of those for lunch. EWWW!

I must say that I think this next one is my favorite though.

The title of the picture was "Life after Coffee", but I think

I can see a bit of myself early on Christmas morning, or on

mornings I go help at Seminary. Or maybe a resemblance

to Yoda? I don't know, but it made me laugh out loud.

I know!!! It's the way Josh looks when you take his place at the table!! ;o) JK!!!

THESE are the lucious nummy tots I was talking about!

Only these are full size tots. The mini ones get a bit crispier and I like that!

They bring back days of nostalgia and fill your tummy, can't get much better

than that!!! They are versitile too. I found out you can make a casserole with

them, and kabobs as well.

Another favorite image of mine with the answer of why dinosaurs

no longer roam the earth....... the mighty cholesterol.

And thats the truth!

I want Boaf! ( Name that cinematic treasure!)

No it's not land before time 3,500!

The Sun Will Come Out . . . . .

Here in the lovely state of Washing ton we often have to look at pictures of the sun to remind us what it looks like and why it's lighter outside in the am hours versus the pm hours. Yesterday I actually got excited because it was 60 degrees and I actually had to take my coat off for a while in the afternoon. We are back to normal today. It has caused me to reflect on some wonderful, glorious times, with our family when we actually saw the sun!

One year we got to go camping with Mark's brother's family and his mom and dad. We went to Bryce Canyon, among other places. It was pretty cool. I enjoyed walking down the canyon with Mark, Josh, Dad, and John. The other kids stayed up on top. It was hot but it was beautiful. I am not a camping person but I really liked seeing all the new places. One of the reason's I don't like camping is the bugs. One night we were trying to eat tacos for dinner and we kept having this huge grasshopper (locust) fly around us. We would bat it out of the way and it would come back. I made a comment about how irritating it was and Mark, taking care of me, smashed it. I couldn't eat after that. Kind of stupid, I know.

That night, as the canyon cooled off, the wind picked up. It came swooshing down through the canyon and the camp ground and the wind was ferocious. The next morning I told Mark how half the night I layed there praying that the tent wouldn't fall down and smother us. He admitted he'd done the same thing. We never knew the other was awake! It really was a fun trip. We did a lot of hiking and other things.

One of our favorite places to be is in Grants Pass at Grandma and Grandpas house. Right down the road they have a sports park with lots of hiking paths and protected waterways. It's really pretty in the spring and summer. They have this little pond with ducks and turtles. I love it when they all come out and line up in the sun. It's just one of the little fun things. I also love it in the spring when all the momma and daddy ducks come out with their little fuzz balls and swim on the pond.

It also reminds me of the year we got to go vacation over by lake Chelan. I actually think it was Perrygin lake. It was fun to relax and the kids caught some fish with Mark and grandpa. We went swimming at the state park and Danielle got her feet washed out from under her by a boat that passed too closely. I was busy with Josh and couldn't get to her. It was Grandma to the rescue! She ran, fully clothed, into the water to grab the back of Danielle and haul her up to the shore. She was sopping wet from the knees down, but Danielle had been saved!

One year on the coast we all went camping but Mark and I chickened out and got a hotel room. We were glad we did. It rained, no poured, all night!!! When we came back to camp we heard about how Michael and Brianna, John and Kara had practically floated away on their air mattresses in the middle of the night because the rain came through the tent. Grandma and Grandpa, snug in their little burrito, had no idea what had happened during the night. AHH! The beauty of a good mattress!!

I can't wait for the sun to come out. Maybe we'll get to go camping with our family again soon.