CHRISTMAS AT OUR HOUSE

Christmas at our house consists of the following:

First: Oh come let us adore ME!


Second: New jammies

Third: SHRIMP!

Fourth: Leya being ecstatic that I am her mother in law!

Fifth: Christmas Eve games

Sixth: The family photo and Rachel threatening me not to put this picture on the internet because it looks like she is trying to show off her ample bosom. She really wasn't. It just is what it is! Merry Christmas Rachel! Mommy loves you!

Seventh: Presents under the tree on Christmas morning

Eighth: Pretty tutus from Wesley and Jessica

Ninth: Hugs for Grandma

Tenth: Loveable animated baby animals even the adults love to play with

Eleventh: All Joseph needs is a book, Dr. Pepper and a snack

Twelveth: Opening packages just for the joy of it. What's inside is of no significance.

Thirteenth: A long winters nap after a long Christmas DayMERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

READ FAMILY CHRISTMAS

The Harold and Mary Read clan got together Dec. 5th 2009 for our annual party. Erin did an amazing job of organizing everything. We had a tantalizing array of foods, sparkly decorations, and an entertaining "No talent, talent show." We have connections with the principal (Jeffy) of American Falls High School and were able to have the party there.

Erin Read, the party organizer, and decorator.

Mary Read, the matriarch of the family. That is just a nice way of saying, "The old bag!" Afterall, she is 90 years old!

Good food! LaeLoni, Sofie, Lexie

More good eats. Mom, Sandra, Natalie, LaeLoni

Matt, Mike, Cortnie, Robert, Sadie

Sam and Hillary

Mike and Robert

Kyle and Cortnie

Making crafts. Sadie and Cortnie

Gracie, and Gabe

Me and my childhood friend Sherre'

Erin and her favorite sister.......ME!

Playing games and picking noses

Becky and Taylor

Melissa and Mike

Jeff and Debbie and their grandkids Hillary and Robert

Kris and 2 of her children Amy, with her hubby Kevin, and Natalie

Jeremy and Sam

THANKSGIVING 2009

Pictures say it best.

I played pilgrim again this year
Rachel, Wesley, Luana

Luana and Rachel

Rachel and the girls

Sexy pilgrim lady (old, but sexy! :-)

Playing Thanksgiving Jingo with Halle and Emma


Ava and Leya

Juston and Rachel

Joseph, Leya, Ava Mae Mae

Halle raking Leya's back

Evan playing Yatzee with the girls

Grandpa and Mia

AND SO IT BEGINS!

LANDSCAPING

We are done landscaping for fall. Next spring we will add more. As you can see from the pictures we still have lots to do. It is so nice to finally have a yard and a few plants.

NEW HOUSE ON THE BLOCK

We are pretty much settled into our new house. Just a few more things to do. Here is a view of the inside as of now. I still have Evan's office, the guest bedroom, and my bedroom to decorate on the main floor. The basement will be finished up sometime next spring or summer. I will post pics as I finish rooms. We do have our sod now planted and a few plants but today is very cold and rainy so those pics will have to come later.
It is starting to feel a bit more like home, just not quite there yet. My biggest complaint here is the dust. It is everywhere. We have lots of wind up here on the mountain and I have empty lots on both sides and in back of me. I really should dust every day but don't do it. In Wisconsin I only dusted once every other week and my dust cloth was not very soiled afterwards. We just did not have a dust problem in that house. It was wonderful.
The thing I like best about being up here is all the hills. I have lost 9 pounds since moving here. It has all come from walking...no dieting. Of course I am much more active here than I was in Wisconsin so I am sure that has contributed as well. I don't have as much down time to sit and eat. But those uphill walks are making the most difference. Now I just have to figure out what to do now that the weather is turning bad.
And now for a preview of my house:


Kitchen

Entry Way
Family room
Formal Living Room
Evan's Office

I DID NOT FALL OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH!

Doesn't seem like it has been a month and a half since my last post, but here we are into September already. We are finally settled into our new house in Utah. I am still adjusting to living in "The Bubble" again. I have to say that it is not easy. As much as I hated Wisconsin when I first moved there, I am really missing it now. However, I will NOT miss Wisconsin winters! Hated them with a passion!
Despite the crazy traffic and masses of people here, I am very happy to be with family again.
We are making progress on our home projects. The plantation shutters were installed last week and hopefully by the end of this week the sprinklers and lawn will be finished. However, that is doubtful. Our landscaping crew is very slow. They started 2 weeks ago today! I am so sick of the dust!
We had a fun labor day with all the kids and grandkids here. We have a nice park directly across the street from us. Dinner was here at home and then it was over to the park for a little play. My pictures aren't the best, but they will have to suffice.
The boys at play (Joseph, Wesley, Juston)

Rachel makes a basket!

All 4 of our adorable granddaughters (Ava, Halle, Mia, Emma)

The beautiful moms (Leya, Rachel, Luana)

Ava Mae Mae

Surpise Farewell Party

Our very loved friend Marilyn Middleton organized a surprise farewell party for Evan and me tonight. Another very loved friend, Paula, helped her out. Thank you so much to both of you and also to all our great friends who were there. We gathered at "The Great Dane" restaurant for a tasty meal and socialization. Evan and I have made some incredible friends here in Wausau and will surely miss them. How fortunate we feel to have special memories of them to last us a life time, and how grateful we are for modern communication that will make it seem like we are somewhat still there. We love you all and thank you sincerely for the wonderful gift of friendship you have given us.
The whole gang

Waiting on the food

Paula Cantu

Marilyn and Bob Middleton

Dan and Deb Waldstein

Larry and Jennifer Gordon

Evan and Jim Kavanaugh

The surprised couple

Brijet and Fred Shaw

No more stinkin pictures!

THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME

I am going to miss my beautiful Wausau home. How I wish I could transplant it to Utah. It has been one of my favorite of the nine homes we have lived in over the 32 years we have been married. As I contemplate each of the homes I lived in, I would have to pick my Texas home as my very favorite. The selling point on that one was the pool, yard, and kitchen. We had pools in 3 of our other homes, but this one just fit me better. I spent 5 to 6 days a week in that pool doing my aerobics and having me some good old fun. And I loved working in the yard. There was much to do and I thoroughly enjoyed it. My Wausau yard is much bigger and somewhat prettier, despite the lack of floral landscaping, but there isn't much work to do other than mowing. It is a beast to mow, but once it is done it looks so majestic! Here are some pics paying homage to my lovely Texas and Wisconsin homes.
Unfortunately I was only in my Texas home 10 months and didn't take many pictures at all.The outside of my house and my friend Connie Cooper and I feeding the ducks at the neighborhood pond. That was such fun. They would come right up and eat out of your hand.

Not a very good shot of the kitchen, but it is the only one I have. It was indeed a chef's kitchen, and I LOVED it!

Wesley, and Joseph and Leya lounging in the pool.


Miss Mia, and Rachel, Halle, and Emma. Emma is an embryo at this stage and none of us including Rachel knew she was there.

Onto my current and beloved home in Wausau.
I am going to miss our beautiful wooded lot and all the wildlife that visited it.

Formal living room

Upstairs family room

Master Bedroom

Master Bath

Basement Family Room

WE NOW OWN OUR UTAH HOME.....FINALLY!

HOUSE OR NO HOUSE? THAT IS THE QUESTION

As I write this, our house in Utah may be in the process of closing, then again, it may not! We were in Utah for the closing and of course it didn't happen when it was supposed to. It had been planned for the 29th of May. We were told it would happen Monday or Tuesday of this week, but not so big surprise...it didn't. This short sell business is for the birds. Evan and I will never buy a short sell home again, and the bank has been very inept at processing everything. Evan has had to do much of what the realtor and the bank should have done. He has been stressed above and beyond what would have killed the average man!!! Good thing he is a complete and total stud muffin of the premium brand!
While we were there we shared a full size bed. At home we have a king size bed. One night Evan was climbing back into bed after going to the bathroom. At the same time, I turned over to face his side and unbeknown'st to me my thumbnail jabbed smack dab into his eye. The only clue I had that something had gone wrong were the screams of pain that emanated from his throat. I didn't feel a thing. In fact I questioned whether or not it had been my hair that brushed across his eye. I guess this picture confirms that it wasn't my hair, but my thumbnail.
I would wager a guess that in a full size bed we are just too close for comfort!

Here are some pictures of the house we are thinking will be ours. At the moment I am stumped as to whether or not that will be the case.

STUFF

Can you believe I am back? Me neither. It has been awhile, and that added to the fact that this blog is supposed to be a journal of sorts, I realized it was time to get my hiney going again. Being the old fart that I am, my tired old brain will not recall all that has gone on these last 2 months so I will just hit the highlights......provided I can even remember them!
Evan and I took a trip to Utah last month to visit the kids. We decided just for fun to look at houses, not intending to seriously make offers. It was just a "Lets see what's out there" kind of trip. With the economy so bad and housing at an all time low, we ended up looking at many short sale homes. A short sell is the step taken before foreclosure. The home ends up selling much cheaper (Short) of what it is worth. We found a home we really liked and decided to make an offer with the understanding that it takes the bank 3 to 4 months to accept an offer, and that ours might not even be the one that was accepted. Apparently there can be a biding war between offers. The bank will take any and all offers and when they are satisfied with one of them, they will accept. We wanted that additional time to get our home here in Wausau sold. Two weeks later, Evan and I were at lunch with friends when a message came through on his blackberry informing us that our offer was accepted! WHAT THE CRAP!!!!! What happened to our 3 or 4 month waiting period? We still have a home to sell in Wisconsin. Lest you think we were in deep do do, we can withdraw the offer at any time without penalties. We received the message on May 1st and were told we had to close by May 29th. After some thought and financial finagling, we have decided to go ahead and buy the home because it is a house we both really like and we are getting a killer deal on it despite the fact that we put in a full price offer. The original price was 250,000 more than what we are paying. SWEET! Here are a couple pics I took of the outside.
I think Juston got the bug to sell their home while we were looking, and so this last Friday he and Rachel put their home on the market and sold it the first day with a full price offer! Hells Bells! We have had ours on for 3 months with nary an offer. Of course there is a great difference in the housing market in Utah and Wisconsin. We just don't have the population and buyers here that they have there. Rachel and Juston have a very nice starter home and Juston has put his personal professional touches on it so that it shows very well. Here is their home.

Property Details:

Sq. Feet: 2234 ft.

Acres: 0.19

Year Built: 2004

Bedrooms: 5

Bathrooms: 4

Cooling: Central Air

Heating: Forced Air

Garage: 2 Car

Description:

Please don't call if you are a realtor wanting to list our home. 2234 sq/ft home in East Lehi. 5 bedrooms, 3.5 bath, RV pad, Spacious two car garage with built in shelving, fully fenced (vinyl)yard, back patio, nine foot ceilings, custom bead board and molding, window seats, double sinks and garden tub in the master bath, built in kids playhouse, tile and maple cabinets throughout. Fantastic location. Easy freeway access and close to shopping.
We can't wait to have Juston help us with our new home in Utah. We have some finishing to do in the basement. We will stay here in Wausau until August in order to keep our home furnished for showings since it shows much better with staging. Hopefully it will sell by then. Keep us in your prayers, cross your fingers, knock on wood, etc. etc. etc.!

Last week we were able to host 3 BYU dance students in our home for 3 nights. They are touring the midwest with their show and while they were in our area the members housed them. What fun that was. We had 3 young men stay with us. It was so good to have youth in our home again. I miss that. I enjoy being an empty nester, but it is so nice to have kids around off and on. They were such nice young men and their dance group was excellent. After getting to know these boys, it was as if they were mine for a short time and I felt such pride watching them dance. One of them was from New Zealand (Phillip) and he had a darling accent and personality. The other two were from Colorado(Ben) and California (Aaron). The Colorado boy was the dreamy one all the young girls in the ward and everywhere else went gaga for. Aaron was the oldest and just a wonderful young man. My own opinion was that all 3 of them were very nice looking boys with great personalities. This is one of the advantages of living in the mission field. We have had missionaries living with us, youth conference girls staying with us, and now these dancers. I am really going to miss this aspect of living away from a highly populated LDS area.

Here are our boys

Aaron, Ben Phillip


And our girliesHalle, Ava, Mia

Emma, Joseph, Ava, Halle

RACHEL, RACHIE, RACH, PEE PODER, SAL, SAL, SALAMANDER

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY LITTLE GIRL (And I mean that literally!)

Thirty one years ago today at 3 o'clockish pm I gave birth to my first born child and only daughter...Rachel Denise Byington, who is now also a Sandberg.
She is my favorite daughter in the entire world and universe. I feel very blessed to have her as my child. Rachel is outwardly very very pretty, but it doesn't stop there. She is truly a beautiful woman. She has many admirable qualities. She is fun, compassionate, loyal, generous, talented, sensitive, kind, wise, a great mother, hard working, stylish, animated, a wonderful friend, a sexy wife (I had to put that in there for Juston! ), and really and truly the best daughter we could have ever hoped for. Happy Birthday Rachel.

Our sweet baby girl soon after her birth
Three years old, five years old, Baptism day, 14 years old
Graduation from high school in 1995, and Wedding day July 8th 2000
First time mommy with Mia in 2002, and last time as a new mommy with Emma in 2006
Beautiful mother with three beautiful daughters, and beautiful daughter with her adorable mother! :-)

TWO MONTHS OF PURE BLISS

DANCING WITH THE STARS!!!!

EARLY APRIL FOOLS

I'm not leaving after all. However, I won't post nearly as often. Isn't it a woman's right to change her mind?

GOING, GOING, GONE

I will be leaving the blog world soon. A year of blogging has been quite sufficient for me. Perhaps I will come back sometime, but for now Adieu.

HE SAID...SHE SAID

Cute little funnies to give you a laugh for the day

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY STUDDLY DO RIGHT! :-)

Happy Birthday to the most handsome, intelligent, loving, kind, funny, compassionate, wise, beautiful, sweet, spiritual, handy, sensitive, and great at everything he does, husband of mine... Evan Dowe Byington. Here are some facts about my "Stud Muffin."

He is very studious.
He loves to fish and is very good at it.
He used to be an avid hunter and will probably be so again once we get back to Utah
My man brings home the bacon, and I fry it up in a pan!
He once had a horse named Susie
He is loyal and true to his friends, and really loves them (Deniece, we miss you!)
He is a manly man despite growing up with 4 sisters and no brothers
He has a beautiful mother
Even grown up men LOVE him as Santa Claus!
He loves winter sports

He was a football hero in high school
He was Mr. Marsh Valley in high school
He is friends with Johnny Miller
He seriously dated these 2 girls, but unfortunately for them and lucky for me, I am the one he married.
Because he married me, these gorgeous women and girls are his posterity
He loves his truck
He likes my seriously abnormal family
I like to cook, and he likes to eat!
He is a really cute clone of Radar O'Reilly
He looks cute sleeping and loved our little doggy To sum it all up....He is the best husband in the whole world and even the entire universe! And.......I LOVE HIM SOOOOO
HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVAN

ALBEQURQUE, HE"S MY TURKEY

Mr. Turkey came for a visit this morning looking for scraps of bird seed. Isn't he the cutest? This is one of the things I am really, really, really going to miss about living here. I just love the wild life. The only wild life I will see in Utah are my 4 granddaughters! :-)

OH MY MAN I LOVE HIM SO

Today is the celebration of love…love for my man. I love my man for the following reasons

He is smart
He is not so smart that he won’t play baby with me
He is a mighty hunter and fisher, providing all good things nutritious for me
He makes me laugh
He has bought me many beautiful homes
He is some"Bunny" special
He is a great listener
He lets me dress him up for all sorts of adventures
He is a wonderful grandpa
He is totally cool and hip
He helps me keep my bum clean
He is Santa Claus
He is damn good looking And there you have a glimpse as to why my man is KING!