HAPPY BIRTHDAY LORI

This is my sister-in-law Lori.

I love her.

She is married to my brother Larry a.k.a "DaCoacha".  (Bless her soul!)

Lori married my brother when I was 14 years old.  It was a very impressionable time in my life and Lori was a huge influence in who I am today.  

I thought the sun shone right out of her eyes and she could do NO wrong as far

as I was concerned.

She let me wear her cute shoes.

She is an outstanding cook.

She taught herself to watercolor.

She is an amazing homemaker.

Her laundry is ALWAYS done and folded...even if it isn't put away. 

(Private joke!)

She and my brother have raised two gorgeous daughters Brandy, and Alissa.  And one handsome son, Michael.

I wish I lived closer to them.  I know that Lori and I would be the best of buds.  But, alas, she is WAY up in Canada and I am WAY down in Utah.

Thank you Lori for being such a wonderful sister and friend.

And thanks for taking such amazing care of my crazy brother.

You deserve an award.

Happy Birthday!

Lori, Brandy, and Larry

See how much her daughters love her?

The whole family.

(sorry so small!)

As you look at this picture, try not to look at my goofy pose.  It's the dress I want you to pay attention to.  When I graduated from grade 9, Lori altered the pattern for this dress and made it for me.  It really was gorgeous.  She is a great seamstress.

(I was proud of myself in this picture because I was in my late 30's and tried on this dress...it fit!  I wish it STILL fit!)

Happy Birthday LeAnna RaDawn!

This is my oldest niece

  LeAnna (the "a" will always be attached at the end for me!  Sorry my dear)

  RaDawn Talbot Bosworth.

LeAnna is the oldest daughter of my sister Donna.  I was only six years old when she was born and I have always thought of her as "my " baby.  I toted her everywhere.  I had her picture with me and showed everyone when I was far away.

Every summer from the time she was born, my parents would ship me off to Malad, Idaho where I helped Donna raise her kids. :0)  I have so many memories of LeAnna.  Though our lives have moved forward and our become busier, she will always hold a very special spot in my heart and I hope she knows that...I think she does!

I wonder if she remembers when I removed her poster of a chubby fat guy whose butt crack was peeking out the top of his pants with the title "Say no to crack!"from her wall.  I was such a dork.  I found it to be such a scandalous picture that I turned it over and wrote 

"I am a child of God" in huge letters all over the back.  I've always felt guilty about that.  Someday, I'll buy you a new one.

Do you forgive me LeAnna?

After much searching (that's why this post is so late in the day) I found a bunch of pictures of LeAnna.  I've included a few of them as well as some I snagged from Facebook.  :)

Enjoy!

Auntie Tami with her first neice.

Can you say Princess Leia??  What is up with my hair??

Look at this adorable 13 month old little girl!

(This picture has always been a favorite of mine. I remember it as a framed picture on top of our piano.  Your grandparents loved you and were so proud.)

Look at LeAnna's cute bangs.

Don't look at her Aunt's bangs.

How about those puka shells?

(There's little David too)

LeAnna and her sister Jodi.  Aren't they so adorable?

She's a sweet little superhero...with Jodi again.

Here's how I will remember LeAnna...in curlers to prepare for her dance performance with her "Stars" dance troop.  She was a terrific dancer.  I remember many hours traveling with Donna to all the performances around the state.

Woo Hoo!  Look at those legs!!  Gorgeous.  This is a performance I attended.  She was part of the half time show at a Boise State basketball game.  

I loved that fringe!

LeAnna's love of horses was passed on to her oldest daughter Brittney, who is in the picture below.  Brittney was my first grand-niece and my parent's first great grandchild.

Isn't she pretty??

This is LeAnna's son Kade. 

If you ask me, he is probably the coolest kid at Malad High School.

Am I right??

You guessed it...her other daughter loves horses as well.  This is Nicole. 

She is LeAnna's youngest.

She is darling.

FINALLY...

are you ready???

LeAnna became a grandma this month.

A GRANDMA!!!

Brittney and her husband became the parents of little Emma.  LeAnna's first grandchild.

Will she love horses too?

I'm sure she will.

Little Emma Cheyenne Daniels.

My great-great-niece.  I love her and I've never even met her!

Happy Birthday LeAnna!

I love you.  I really do.

But I'm still in denial...you are NOT 40!

To find out more about LeAnna click HERE.

My Sweeeeeet Bike!

The tassels!

The wicked handlebars!

The metallic golden sheen!

The ringlets!

The matching socks and shorts!

The white shoes with no scuff marks!

The adorable barrettes!

Man!  My parents really loved me!

What Lives Inside of Me?

Oh boy.  Where to begin.

First, if you are squeamish at all with anything bloody or pusy, do not read this post.

You have been warned.

So, on we go.

As most of you know, I had surgery this past school year...twice.  The last one

was in March.  And, as many of you know, my incision didn't cooperate and split open

causing me weeks of wound care.

What you may not know though is that said wound is still not healed!  It's been 13 weeks

yet every time I take a look at the wound, I have pus coming out.

If I push it or put any type of pressure around the open spot, the pus pretty much 

just oozez out.  It's disgusting and depressing.

So, and here's the part that might get a little gross for some, last night I took matters

into my own hands and decided to dig around to see where the cause of 

this infection was coming from.

I cleaned the hole very well.  Then, I took some small scissors and trimmed away 

the skin that was struggling so hard to be "real" skin but 

was really just bubbly skin full of liquidy goodness.

Once that was trimmed, the blood started gushing...none of this hurt mind you. 

So don't worry about that.

Anyway, the blood poured and poured.  I stuffed it with gauze...okay, toilet paper, until I felt I had soaked it up and could look inside.

When I looked, I saw a small dot deep within the wound.

I took my trusty Bath and Body Works tweezers and grabbed ahold of that sucker and pulled

out this:

Contrary to what it may look like, it is NOT an earwig.  

That's what Mr. Candadiantami said it was and then rubbed a little salt into the wound by adding "it probably laid it's eggs in there too"

That was the one and only time I've ever told him to "shut up".

It appears to be a series of about 8-10 knots of surgical line

AKA fishing line! with the tied off ends poking out as antennae.  

Thank you Dr. Platt

Thank you Dr. Soissen

Now what do I do?

There could be more in there don't you think.  Maybe a sponge or two, or a piece of surgical tape, maybe an old shoe.  Who knows??

Do you?

Size comparison with my wedding ring.

PLEASE help me!

This is a challenge for all my blog readers!

I NEED TO HELP MY CLASS WIN THE BOXTOP CHALLENGE NEXT YEAR!

(Plus, I really, really want to beat my best friend Kathe, hahahahha)

Here's how it works:

1.  Save your boxtops from the product you buy.  If 

you aren't familiar with Boxtops or the products they are on, click 

here

2.   At the end of the month, mail them to me (I'll send you my address and I will even reimburse your postage!).

3.   I will count the totals on the 4th of each month.

4.   The person who sends me the most boxtops each month will receive an entire batch of either:  my famous caramel brownies...

OR

 12 delicious homemade cupcakes.

This is VERY important to me.  I have been known to stop my car and rifle through strangers' garbage cans when I see a cereal box with a boxtop on it.

Every Boxtop collected brings 10 cents to my classroom.  

Not bad.