Elder Thackeray's Christmas message

This was too big to put in an email so I hope it fits here.
I know it's not much of a video but it's the audio that's cool.
I love my missionary boy!

So this is Christmas!

Our Christmas Eve tradition includes a re-enactment of the Nativity with our cute neighbors, the Freeman family.





























We got our Christmas phone call from Johnny! He's doing very well. We had a whole hour to visit. We thoroughly enjoyed talking to him and hearing his strong testimony of the gospel. Yes, we did cry (not Jason) but it was a good cry.









Next it was off to Wa Wa Kathy's for food and fun. This is Harper opening her present. Johnny drew her name and sent her some Hoosier racing attire:)














Last stop, Grandma Thackeray's to hang with the fam for awhile. Everyone was intrigued by the new puzzles that one of the kids got for Christmas. It was an awesome holiday!

The tell-tale signs of Christmas!

The tree is adorned...


















Harper's Birthday....















Uncle Billy's open house........
















Santa's visit to the Thackeray family Christmas party.......














Christmas time is here!!!!

The Big Ugly

In this week's email from my Missionary son, we learned about 'The Big Ugly'.
Here's what John said:

Let me tell you about "THE BIG UGLY ELK BURGER" the place is called "Bub's Cafe" and they have the "BIG UGLY"

A one pound Elk Burger that is bigger than my face.

Many have tried and failed. Those who succeed in eating the "BIG UGLY" get their picture on the wall of awesomeness:)

Many missionaries have eaten one. If you eat one you get a small picture. If you eat two you get a bigger picture and if you eat three you get a poster on the wall. My goal before I leave is to eat two:)

When I ate it and was done I wasn't too full or not full enough it was just right:) I can eat two:) and I'm going to:)

hahaha the "BIG UGLY":) one of the sisters even did it:) hahahah the best:)

Look how fat I am:) just enjoying the yummy not so fatty elk:)

MMMMMM yes you do want one:) we will come back to get one when I get home:)

Snow Already?

I'm not ready for the snow!
This morning it was everywhere! At least 8 inches! Ahhhgh!
Jason and Michal emptied the gas out of the summer yard machines and got the winter yard machines ready for action.
I want more time to dig in the dirt.

I'm 'beside myself' with excitement!

Today was the Utah Foreign Language Association's annual conference at Utah Valley University. I was given the honor of being named the Utah Foreign Language teacher of the year!

It was a great day! My colleagues and I learned some awesome new ideas for teaching foreign language. I got to present 2 workshops. That's a blast but it's exhausting:)

My wonderful principal, Mr. Shaw, came to present the award. He said "I don't want some 'stranger' presenting the award to you." He's the best principal I've ever worked with!


In April, Jason, Michal and I will go to Fort Worth, Texas for the Southwest regional conference where I will be the nominee from Utah for the Southwest award. If I am named the regional teacher of the year, I'll go to the national conference next year and be a nominee for that award.

This is a ton of fun! I'm so honored!
Nobody gets to a place like this in their life without the help and collaboration of a lot of other people.

What do I make?

I wanted to share this story because it hits home for me:

The dinner guests were sitting around the table discussing life. One man, a
CEO, decided to explain the problem with education. He argued, "What's a
kid going to learn from someone who decided his best option in life was
to become a teacher?" He reminded the other dinner guests what they
say about teachers: "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach." To
stress his point he said to another guest; "You're a teacher, Bonnie.
Be honest. What do you make?"
Bonnie,
who had a reputation for honesty and frankness replied, "You want to
know what I make?" (She paused for a second, then began...)

"Well, I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could. I
make a C+ feel like the Congressional Medal of Honor winner. I make
kids sit through 40 minutes of class time when their parents can't make
them sit for 5 minutes without an I Pod, Game Cube or movie rental. You
want to know what I make?" (She paused again and looked at each and
every person at the table.)

"I make them wonder. I make them question. I make them apologize
and mean it. I make them have respect and take responsibility for their
actions. I teach them to write and then I make them write. Keyboarding
isn't everything. I make them read, read, read. I make them show all
their work in math. They use their God-given brain, not the man-made
calculator. I make my students from other countries learn everything
they need to know about English while preserving their unique cultural
identity. I make my classroom a place where all my students feel safe.
I make my students stand, placing their hand over their heart to say
the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, One Nation Under God, because we
live in the United States of America. Finally, I make them understand
that if they use the gifts they were given, work hard, and follow their
hearts, they can succeed in life."

(Bonnie paused one last time and then continued.)

"Then, when people try to judge me by what I make, when I know money isn't
everything, I can hold my head high and pay no attention because they
are ignorant.... You want to know what I make? I MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
What do you make, Mr. CEO?"

His jaw dropped; he went silent.

¡Feliz Día de Brujas!

Halloween is my favorite holiday. I love dressing up and being silly. I love having a costume closet where there's always an available costume from sizes 2T to grown up. Here are some pix and video from this year!

Here we are at Hunter's birthday party. I'm a whoopie cushion. Jason's the king. Michal is Ace Ventura. She's holding Hunter, my great-nephew. I had the fart machine in my pocket and Michal had the remote control to it so there were random fart sounds through the whole party. What a hoot!

Here's my great niece, Austyn singing her Halloween cat song. She's dressed up as Tinkerbell. She's darling!



We decorated Johnny's truck to look like a graveyard for our trunk or treat activity at the church and we had it in the garage when the trick or treaters came. It played music and had fog and a strobe light. OOOOOO, Scary!

Jason wore the Sumo wrestler outfit at the trunk or treat. Everyone wanted to grab his man boobs!

School's in session. Not much time to blog.

I wanted to share this picture because I finally got to meet Erica! She is one of my 'cyber' friends. I met her through my sister Piper. We have talked back and forth through blogs and facebook. We were both at Piper's getting our hair done and we finally got to meet! We've decided we're family. She's my sista from anotha motha.

It's Canning Season!

It has started! Harvest time is upon us and canning has begun. Saturday, we bottled some tomatoes. We set up the camp stove on the patio and do most of our canning outside. That makes for a much easier cleanup!









A few of the ladies from the neighborhood came over to learn how to do it. Of course, my lovely mother was there to make sure we did everything correctly.


I remember working beside my mom in the kitchen when I was growing up. We bottled tomatoes, peaches, pears, beets, pickles, jams etc. I loved working beside her and learning from her. It feels good to get the cupboards filled up for winter!

Finishing summer projects

Here's what's been happening inside the house this summer.


We have a green wall in the living room and my husband made the corner entertainment center to hold the TV et al. Everything's up off of the floor.







The color scheme in the kitchen is now red instead of blue. See the red light switch cover? I have since died all of the placemats red(ish). The table can be small now since it's usually only 3 for din-din:)












And MY favorite! the upstairs bathroom is even MORE purple! Michal cleaned and painted the closet doors and I found some cute knobs at Hobby Lobby. The light switch covers in this room are purple. Yay!







And lastly, I bought these cute shelves at Tai Pan to display my shot glass collection. I used to have them all strung out across the fireplace mantle down downstairs but now they have a better home. No, I don't drink but I do collect shot glasses. Everyone has to collect something, right?




Since school starts in only a couple of weeks, I'm glad to have these projects finished. Thanks so much to my darling husband and cute daughter. They are the ones who have to do all of the painting because I am inept at it and ALWAYS get it all over myself. Well, we each have our talents.

My missionary son.

Johnny sent a few new pictures by email this week. Just wanted to share with you. He's getting transferred today so he'll have a new address soon.
Here he is on his bike,












spilling gas while filling the car (rookie),


















with a member's great dane,





















and at the zoo with his companion.




Oh I love my boy!
What a goofball!

There's a difference between ORGANIZED and OCD

One of my summer projects was to clean the shop. It's attached to the garage and full of everything and all out of order. Since Johnny's on his mission, there's no one to blame for not putting tools away etc. So I figured I'd get everything in order, find all the tools to the tool sets, organize all the screws, nails, thingybobbers, and whatchamacalits and label everything so it can be found easily. This hasn't been easy for my husband because he knows where he has 'thrown' things and now he has to check the labeling before he can find something. It's all good. We'll get used to being able to actually find something without having to hunt for 30 minutes. It brought back a lot of memories from my days of working at Allied hardware. Their motto was "If we don't have it, you don't need it". That's pretty much how things are at our house in the shop. We are where the neighbors come to borrow or have things fixed because my hubby is so talented. He's the only person I know who buys sprinkler parts in bulk! We considered writing a song about everything we found while cleaning out the shop. Imagine this to the tune of 'The 12 days of Christmas'
72-hour kits
20 tons of nails
19 thousand fish lures
18 pairs of gloves
17 unused suitcases
16 auto light bulbs
15 empty quart jars
14 butcher blocks
13 bungee chords
12 garden tools
11 old deer antlers
10 folding camp chairs
9 fishing poles
8 jars of car wax
7 tennis rackets
6 pounds of screws
5 sets of drill bits
4 sleeping bags
3 hundred sprinkler parts
2 spotting scopes
And a shell for a '93 Dodge!
No, I'm not OCD.

Mr. Wilson

Our cute neighbor Vern was given the nickname 'Mr. Wilson' when we moved in 15+ years ago. He was the nicest old dude in the neighborhood and his wife is the nicest old gal on the block. Mr. Wilson nicknamed all the boys in the neighborhood 'Dennis' and all the girls 'Denise'. I think Johnny was the first Dennis because he was the most mischievous. He and his wife both fought cancer. This is a picture of them last summer when we all went on a camping trip as neighbors.

Mr. Wilson passed away in January. We have a lot of good memories with him. Whenever you'd drive by his house, he'd be sitting on the front porch and wave at you as you went by. We miss him. His sweet wife and kids had this beautiful monument made and put in the front yard. It's beautiful!

4th of July Fun

We had a terrific 4th of July weekend. My husband had 4 days off because he doesn't work on Fridays and he got Monday off, too. We got to go to a fun family barbecue, light fireworks in the street, play in the yard in perfect weather, and just enjoy being together. Good times!

Happy Birthday, Candice!

Summer fun

Cute nephew sleeps over.











Went golfing with brother and sister in law.
















Johnny's first pix came from Indiana!

Do NOT try this at home!

Two summers ago, my cute nephew helped me to prepare some fresh eggs for food storage. We put vaseline all over them and packed them away in their cartons. The theory was that if you restored the protective coating on the eggs, you could store them for up to TWO YEARS and still be able to use them. Well...
This is what they looked like when I opened them yesterday.
EWWW! Many had split open and all that dark stuff is mold and ca ca!
I cleaned off one of the whitest ones just for the sake of science.

I put it in a bowl of water. If it sank it was supposed to be OK because no air got into it.
It sank.

So I cracked it open.

It looked cloudy and smelled funny.

So I chucked 'em all! Needless to say, you can't store fresh eggs for two years. HOWEVER, my cute friend Lois says that she stores her eggs like this all the time but she rotates them so they're never stored for over two months. Hmmm.
OK, so maybe two months, but NOT two years!

I think I'll just buy the can of powdered eggs for my food storage.

Disneyland Dad

Happy Father's day to my darling husband. The kids call him 'Disneyland Dad' because he's always so much fun to be around. (my nickname is 'Drill Sergeant Mom', opposites attract, you know)
Michal calls him 'Batman' because he can do anything. I always tell him he's charmed. Anything new that he tries, he can do it. Any game that we play, he wins. Any project he works on turns out perfect. He's the best! We love you, Jason!

22 years ago today...

These two kids were married. It's hard to believe how quickly time flies.
I'm so blessed to have such a great husband. He's patient, kind, wise, loyal, hard-working, etc., etc., and he smells nice too!
I love you Jason!
Here's to our eternity together!