It's fall!

I just messed with my blog. I was not getting the pictures with the right posts so I changed them. Now I have to learn to put the captions back on the pictures.

Number Nine!

November 6th we welcomed grandchild number nine. Price Oscar Bodine was born about 9:45 am just three hours after his mom and dad arrived at the hospital. He was six pounds four ounces and about 20 inches long. As you can see in the pictures he has gobs of blonde hair.Even the nurses and doctors who see him comment on the hair because it is such a different color. We are thrilled to have him here and healthy and doing well. We know he will be a joy to the enire Coombs Clan.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

We have had an exciting week! First a trip to upstate New York and then Halloween.

Rob needed to fly a few more miles so he could be a preferred flier, we therefor flew to Buffalo, New York. We drove over to the church historical sites in Palmyra. We saw the Hill Camorah, Joseph Smith's log cabin and house, the Sacred Grove, Peter Whitmer's house, and the Grandin Printing office. We went to the Palmyra Temple one night too. It is silly but the highlight of the trip for me was visiting with a women who worked in one of the little stores. We talked to her for ninety minutes and only stopped then because we all needed to get to the temple. She answered our questions about the area and whenever she was a little overwhelmed with emotion (starting to cry) she would wave her hand over her face and say, "Oh,oh," until she could talk again. The low point was watching the BYU/TCU game in the hotel. The Y played awful and I was afraid we could be asked to leave the hotel because Rob was yelling at the TV just like at home.

Tuesday morning I met Erin and Sara at the mall to try on Jolt jeans. They loved them, but I wasn't a fan. While we were busy with the pants, Lucas was eating some Smarties. Kamrie wanted one but he wouldn't share. I told him that he had plenty and should give her some. He said, "I'm too mean to share." I had to leave the dressing room so he couldn't see me laughing. I hurried from the mall to meet Rob. We took Avery and Wells to lunch for their birthdays. Thursday we had a Halloween party for the all the kids. Kace was the lucky one playing Bingo. He was excited to win two paper dollars. I painted pumpkins with chalkboard paint that they could draw on, they got jack-o-lantern stickers, we played pin the nose on the pumpkin, and decorated cookies. The kids all took pictures, but I was too busy being the party planner, so no pictures from me.

An Extra-Special Sunday Dinner

So how great are my kids! Today they brought dinner to us to say thank-you for the Disney World trip. We had yummy soup in homemade bread bowls shaped like Mickey Mouse. The food was wonderful, but the after dinner entertainment was even better. They put their pictures together and Jill made a DVD of our trip. It is a priceless treasure to remind us of the great time we had together. Then the big surprise of the evening was a short game of "Bean Boozled". We finished up with Mickey and Minnie cookies.

Summer is over and no one is more upset about it than our dog, Chloe. Her favorite thing to do is play in the water while I water the plants. I have stopped watering but she continues to run to the door in anticipation of the hose. I feel bad, but in this weather she would turn into a popsicle. She'll just have to wait until it is time for her second favorite activity--chasing the snow flying from the snow blower.

What a great month!

Rob and I have some friends we home teach that are Disney World maniacs. They take their family almost every year. They convinced us it is truly the happiest place on earth, so last Christmas we gave all the kids and grandkids a trip to Orlando to see if it was true. After lots of scheduling problems we went September 9th to the 16th. We stayed on Disney property and used the buses to get around. We also got the free Disney Dining which was fun and saved us money.

We played so hard that every night we were absolutely exhausted. I would wake up every morning and could still feel how tired my legs were from walking and walking and walking. One of the highlights of the trip didn't even have anything to do with Disney. It was raining one morning so instead of heading right for the parks, we all huddled in one room and played a game Scott and Amy brought. It was from the Jelly Belly factory but I can't remember the exact name. Each color of jelly beans had two flavors. One flavor was good and one was totally disgusting i.e. the brown one could be chocolate or dog food. The player would spin, it would land on a color and the player would choose a bean the appropriate hue. Then we all got to watch as they ate it to see if it was a good one or the yucky one. It was really funny to watch the little kids. They would think it was delicious and then we would smell their breath and discover they eaten a terrible one. (FYI the worst flavor was rotten eggs.)

My favorite grandma quotes from the trip were from Avery and Lucas. After riding on Mount Everest in the Animal Kingdom I complained that the ride had made me sick. Avery asked, "Why did it make you sick? Is it because you are old?' The other was as were were waiting for our connecting flight on the way home. I was trying to amuse Lucas by holding up random Disney character toys and asking him their names. Every time I held up Alice in Wonderland he would say, "Child of God." We finally realized it was because her hands were folded in such a way that it looked like she was praying.

My most precious moments are the ones spent with my kids and grandkids. I am so very blessed that they are close by and those wonderful moments can happen often. This trip was a great time to do nothing but be with the people I love the most. It was definitely worth the time, money, and trouble. My friends think that Disney World is the happiest place on earth. I think the happiest place on earth is wherever I can be with my family.

Eventful Week!

Why is it that we can go about our lives with nothing much happening for days and even weeks, then all of a sudden things explode! Well, I guess inferring that my life has just erupted in chaos is a gross exaggeration, but somethings worth noting did happen this last week.

Monday, the 24th was my mom's birthday. We had a party for her out in our backyard because of the fire hazard of the 98 candles on her cake. My sister, Carol, and all of her family (except Paul who lives in Arizona) as well as all my kids and grandchildren came. We swam, ate, and then had a little program about grandma's life. Each family was assigned a specific event of grandma's life to tell us about. We found out that when grandma and grandpa met there was a lot of kissing, that grandma thought grandpa was a spoiled brat when she first met him, that grandpa was hard to find when it was time for grandma to have a baby, and lots more. Mom seemed to enjoy the trip down memory lane and added her share of comments.

Wednesday, I mentioned to my friend and neighbor, Kathy, that I needed more to do. She warned me not to talk like that or the church would find me more to do. That evening we got a call from a woman at the Jordan River Temple. She said our names had been suggested to be workers there. We went for an interview Saturday and came home set apart ordinance workers. I have been practicing my smiling and directing traffic skills. I'm a little apprehensive about it, but I'm also excited. The man who set me apart promised me some special experiences in the temple.

Friday morning we attended the wedding of a close friend's daughter. After, I helped stuff rolls with chicken salad for the reception. That evening I helped with serving the food. I have never seen so much pasta salad in my life. They had mixed it in a garbage bag in a picnic cooler because that was the only thing big enough. Needless to say there was enough left to feed a room full of starving teenage boys.

Along with these special events were the everyday things that we usually do around here. The girls came with their kids to swim almost everyday. I tended. I did whatever it is I do!

Granny's birthday

It seems that days, even weeks can go by without anything worth sharing happens. Then, something can happen daily for a while. That is how my weekend has been.

Monday, yesterday, was my mom's 98th birthday. We had all my kids and grandkids along with my sister's entire family over for a party. We swam and had dinner and cake (lit with 98 candles). I had given all the kids an assignment to talk to granny and find out specific things about her life. No one was really happy with the request, but it turned out great. Granny thoroughly enjoyed it. She listened to facts about her life with a huge smile on her face. She loved recalling her life and sharing it with us. It was important for the kids to hear things they didn't know about granny.

Our Weekend in St. George

Rob had the cement at our home in St. George sealed with some kind of epoxy stuff. He didn't want to pay for it until we could look at it, so we went down there this last weekend. The Bodines and Cowleys went with us. Rob and the Cowleys rode in the truck pulling the boat down and I rode in the Bodine's back seat next to the boys.

Saturday we took the boat to Sand Hallow. The Coombs family boating guide has Rob back the boat into the water and Linda drive the boat off the trailer and over to the dock. I could tell something was not right and kept telling Rob we weren't floating or something. He as impatient and told me everything was okay and to just start it and go. After trying it twice and not getting anywhere, I turned it off and went to the back of the boat. Yes, I was right. The boat was still strapped to the trailer in the back! Score one for me.

We had a great day on the lake! Our new boating pastime is wake surfing. Jill's husband, Preston, really loves it. He got five-year-old, Kace, up with him for the third time this summer. Wells, who is only two, tried it with his dad too. I can get up on the surf board, but then I think I'm skiing and pull back on the rope. Wrong thing to do when wake surfing. I would only stay up a couple of seconds. I do however, enjoy our new three man tube. It doesn't cause whiplash like the old one man things we used to use. I rode it with both Kace and Wells. Kace and I even got Erin (who hates boating) to ride it with us.

We got off the lake just at the right time. We stopped for a hamburger and as we were eating a storm blew in. As we were leaving, it was raining buckets. When we got back to the house, Rob started backing the boat into the garage. The new epoxy stuff works great. The water just beads up on it. The problem is that it makes the cement as slippery as ice. After having some trouble with spinning wheels, he put the truck in four-wheel-drive. That didn't work. The truck slid, the boat slid, and everything came to a stop less that an inch before the boat took down the garage. The dilemma at this point was that we couldn't pull the boat forward at all, and if we tried to back it in farther and it slid, things could get worse. The men tried to push the boat over. Then they tried to pull the boat over. Boats are heavy. That didn't work. They finally jacked up the boat and then pushed it over. That moved the boat. While all that was going on, Clint took a towel and dried off the driveway. Wonder of wonders, the truck had traction and the boat was successfully backed into the garage.

Sunday we went to the broadcast of the dedication of the Oquirrah Temple, cleaned up, had dinner and went home. I again was with the Bodine boys in the back seat. We slept.

Clint drying the driveway.

My good friend (who's daughter had the highly successful bake sale) took a picture of the cupcakes I made. So here it is. They probably didn't taste very good cuz I don't bake/cook all that well, but I love to craft. I thought it was so fun!!

I'm learning1

So, I learned how to put a background on this blog. But, I still can't add a picture to the heading but I did get it in this posting. This is Rob in his most natural state! You can't call him too late cuz he goes to couch early.

Yesterday I had such a good time baking cupcakes for a charity bake sale. I used my favorite cupcake decorating book and made cupcake TV dinners and corn-on-the cobs. I was going to post a picture to show off, but I forgot to snap the shot.

Finally blogging!

I decided that I needed to blog. I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, but hopefully I'll learn.

This will be plain and boring until I can figure out how to add pictures and stuff.

Rob and I found two new eateries this weekend. We had dinner at McCool's at the District. There was an article in the paper months ago that raved about it but Erin at there and didn't like it at all so we were very hesitant to try it. We went there because the wait at the pizza place (which is also way good) was to long. Out dinner was wonderful. We had "Potato Fin Skins" to start and licked the plate. We both ordered a corned beef sandwich for our entree. It was great!

Today while we were out and about we stopped at "YogurtVibes" that was recommended by or neighbor, Kathy Love. It is a self-serve frozen yogurt store. You choose your flavor and then the toppings. Yum!