It's over, it's over, it's over

Before 8:30am on January 21 I finished Breaking Dawn. I cannot believe I read the last three books in under a month, plus remember I did take down Christmas during that time too. I amazed even myself. I do believe that we have not read the last of Ella, Edward, Jacob, Nessie and the entire Cullen clan. Now I have to go back and try and get into Host. I have read about 100 pages so we'll see. Someone told me it takes half the book to get excited about it--it is another many pages book. Here's to reading--may the Book be forever with us.

There's a New TV at Buddy's Place!!

As anticipated here at Buddy's Place, we have a new HDTV! After much angst and countless hours on the internet and at stores, I selected my favorite. It's a 42 inch Toshiba XV540. Bought it at Costco, giving us a three year warranty and 90 day return capability. I looked at Samsung and Sony, but this one gives me everything I want (1080P, 120 hz) for a fair price and in a good size.

Here's the box safely transported into the family room. Did you know that Toshiba packages their LCDs in the industry's most compact boxes? True.

Opening the box reveals the mysterious contents, snugly wrapped and secure.

Out of the box!

It's a REGZA!

Sitting next to the 32 " JVC--it's just a little bit bigger.

Stand attached and lifted in place.

Turning it on for the first time. This is pretty exciting.

It works!

The picture is breathtaking--here's King Kong on the HD DVD.

Spider Man 3 on the PS3. 4 HDMI ports enables a lot of stuff to be hooked up.

Can there be any question? I love this thing!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! I can't believe that we haven't blogged since Christmas Eve. Christmas Day was great. We did an opposite day. We got up and went to the movies. We saw Twilight. Guess what? Dewey really liked it. I think as much as I did. I was very proud of him. When we got home we put the turkey in the oven and a little while later--somewhere between 3 and 4pm Dewey, Paul and I opened presents. By the time we finished it was dark outside. We had a delicious turkey dinner and watched a movie. Like I said we did things backwards and it was fun. We couldn't get away with that type of day if there were children here but since the youngest here was 36 years old we could.

It took a week of earnest work to take down and put away all the Christmas decorations. We told ourselves that we had to stop buying for Christmas but as soon as the Hallmark store put the 75% off flyer on their door we were up to our old tricks. We did find some very lovely stocking hangers and got them. We have been looking for some for a while so at 75% off we were delighted.

I'm on the 4th and final book of the Twilight saga, BREAKING DAWN. I've read 100 pages so far and I can't imagine what will happen in the next 650 pages. Every time I think it is happily ever after it continues. I really didn't think I would get this involved. BUT I did.

Tomorrow is my first day of being Primary Chorister (again). I'm looking forward to it. It is fun singing with all the little ones. The only thing that would make it perfect is if Dewey could be my pianist.

Winter has been quite interesting so far. First the snows came. I personally loved it but unfortunately this area wasn't equipped with the magnitude and longevity of the snow. Schools closed and even church was canceled the Sunday before Christmas. You know it must have been bad. Buddy liked it and had fun every time he got to go out in it. Sometimes I couldn't find him because of all the white on white. Then just about the time the snow started melting the rains began and then the flooding was upon us. Streets were closed, rivers rose and families were evacuated. Fortunately for us we could get out of our subdivision but only going one way. When we took Buddy for a walk in the park today down by one of the creeks. You could tell how high the creek rose with the amount of sogginess in the grass areas. I think I like the snow better than the rain.

Dewey is in the process of getting ready to buy a new HDTV. He studies and reads and looks and does everything possible so he knows he is getting the perfect one for us. I think it is making him crazy. I know it is making me crazy. It's okay because when it is finally done he gets to start doing the same thing for a new stove that we need.

Time flies. Hayden has 6 teeth now. Little Connor and Spencer are playing football. The Mariners start Spring Training in a while. I am not sure how many days left till BYU plays Oklahoma for the first game of the season but I think we'll we there. It's in Dallas. Happy New Year.

Christmas Eve Pictures

Here's a taste of what Christmas Eve is like at our house tonight:

Merry Christmas!

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

It really is a wonderland. It's beautiful but some of the streets are not passable. We tried taking a Christmas gift to a friend and we couldn't get down her street. According to the weather report we got 10 inches of snow yesterday. Church was even canceled which doesn't happen so you know it was bad here.

Buddy loves it. We tried carrying him out in it and he wouldn't have it. He wiggled so much to get down that we just gave up and let him frolic all over the place. It warmed up a few degrees above freezing today but it didn't melt much. Tonight it will be in the 20's and refreeze those places that were thawing a little. The weather people are predicting a white Christmas. Thought you would like to see some pictures of our yard and house.

What do tamales, BYU Football and snow have in common?

They all happened today at the Owens house. Dewey and I got up and made our annual Christmas tamales. They are delicious. We have been eating them all afternoon and if we don't stop we are going to turn into a tamale. And then everyone could take a bite out of us. We made 105 tamales. We are really getting into the hang of it. I wished we would have started this the year we got married and really had a family tamale making tradition every year. Our friends the Manns have been making tamales for a long time and three years ago we started a tamale exchange with them. Everyone else does cookie exchanges but our tamale exchange is a very exclusive club. However, we would welcome anyone who wants to join.

Next it has been snowing all afternoon and into the evening. We are suppose to get a dangerous storm but so far just snow--the winds haven't shown up yet. This morning the guy on the radio said that we should be prepared to be without electricity for three days. There is ice under the snow and Dewey just heard that church has been canceled in the morning. We haven't been called officially but one of our friends has been called and he told us.

It is halftime at the BYU/Arizona game. Spencer is there and sitting on the 35 yard line 5 rows up from the BYU players. He's having a good time. Dewey, Buddy and I are watching it from the comfort of our home and it is in HD. Looks good.

We have a fire going in the fireplace. The snow is falling. Wished we had some chestnuts.

Let It Snow Let It Snow Let It Snow

It's snowing. When we woke up there was a covering of the white stuff and now it's almost 8am and it's falling and swirling and becoming a winter wonderland. It was 18 degrees on our thermometer yesterday morning. It is warmer today but is suppose to get colder again by tomorrow. Buddy is not afraid and he likes running around in it. I think it intrigues him. today I won't be going anywhere so I'll put a fire in the fireplace, turn on the Christmas carols, prepare some hot chocolate and write Christmas cards. That really sounds Christmasy. Oh the weather outside is frightful.................................................................yea!

It's a Wonderful Life

This morning the Activity Day Girls and their moms were here for a Mother/Daughter Christmas breakfast. It was fun. The girls sang the new song that was in the October 2008 Friend--"The Family is of God". It's a great song. The girls did a nice job. It was their surprise talent and gift for their moms.

Dewey and I watched "It's a Wonderful Life" today. It really is the Christmas season. It was suppose to snow today, but it didn't. Too bad. I would have loved to have watched "It's a Wonderful Life" while it was snowing outside.

Now if Devin were here and we could watch "White Christmas"--well , that would be very special. Maybe we should watch it simultaneously some morning. What do you think Devin?

It is getting very cold out. When Dewey and Buddy got home from their walk they were freezing. Weatherman said it is going to get colder. I just let Buddy out to go potty and it looks like light little flakes of snow are falling. Yea!!!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Yes, it is. We have already been to the Ward Christmas party and most the presents are wrapped and all the Hallmark ornaments are on the tree (that takes forever, but it is fun when Dewey is helping). I have some non Hallmark ornaments that need to be on and then Christmas decorating is completed. Buddy and our grandsons have had their pictures with Santa. We are anxiously awaiting Hayden's Santa picture. I hope she isn't scared of him like I was. I would walk completely around the store to avoid him. I wonder if there would have been more presents if I would have talked to him and told him what I wanted.

Spencer, Jennifer, Spencer II, Connor, Brian , Flora and Paul were here for Thanksgiving. It was great and I had so much help. Our Thanksgiving meal was delicious except I overcooked the turkey--Dewey said " I told you so" but it was great in the fried turkey and dressing leftovers and the turkey pot pie. We even had vegetarian food on the table for Flora. Paul took the big kids to a concert one night. They all got in free because Paul photographed the concert for the band. They like his pictures. I took Spencer and Connor to the mall to have their pictures made with Santa. Connor didn't want to go at first because he said he wasn't the real Santa and I guess he thought it wasn't worth his time but once we got there and he realized this was a pretty good Santa's "Helper" and he could relay the message back to the Big Man. The boys and I made gingerbread men and proceeded to eat them. We watched "Elf"--my second personal favorite Christmas movie after "It's a Wonderful Life" . We also watched "Fred Claus" and liked it.

We missed having Devin, Carl, Hayden and Jeffrey here. Maybe next year the whole family can be here for Thanksgiving!

Devin, Carl and Hayden were coming this weekend (4th through the 7th), but early in the morning of the 4th Carl got sick and wound up at the hospital. At first they thought it might be his appendix but then discovered his gall bladder was inflamed and he had a gall stone. I think they would have removed it that day but the doctor wanted to have another test to find out for sure if it needed to come out and that isn't scheduled until Wednesday the 10th. We were going to take Hayden to the mall to have pictures made with Santa--he is a Macy's Santa and very good. Now Devin and Carl will take her to a Utah Santa without me. :( We are thankful Carl is feeling better and we hope to see them sometime before the holidays are over. Remember I was going to California a few years back and had the ticket bought and started feeling bad and then worse, canceled my flight and wound up having my gall bladder removed. Things like this happen. At least I don't have to worry anymore about having a gall bladder problem.

Jeffrey called yesterday and said he may be able to be here for Christmas. We look forward to his visit.

Elder Russell M. Nelson was here two weeks ago for our Stake Conference. It was a wonderful weekend. Dewey was the High Councilor in charge of security for him and the men that helped were wonderful. They were professionals and felt it was an extreme honor to be able to be a bodyguard for an Apostle of the Lord.

I finally finished Twilight. I liked it and will read the next one. Devin and I were going to see it this weekend but since plans have changed I think Dewey will have to take me. He's a good sport about things like that. I just finished "Grace" by Richard Paul Evans. A good Christmas book. A very quick read.

Relief Society has a progressive dinner this week. I also have a Mother/Daughter activity day breakfast here next Saturday morning. I also have a baby shower and Dry-Pack canning at the Bishop's Warehouse. On Friday Dewey and I are going to help with "Feeding the Hungry" in downtown Puyallup. I think there are a few other things going on this week but I would need my list to remember and it is upstairs and if I go up I may get back in bed and not finish this blog.

We saw "Australia" for Paul's birthday this week. It was pretty good but very long. One of those movies that you think is over and everyone lives happily ever after and then it continues for another hour. We went for Thai food also and he wanted a Lemon Tart for his "cake". I have to admit I did a good job on it. I was trying to cheat and buy one but I couldn't find one around here. When in doubt--make it yourself. You can find any delicious recipe on the Internet.

We were sadden by the death of Elder Wirthlin. His last Conference talk "Come What May and Love It" was truly inspiring and my favorite. He will be missed. His wisdom and wit were wonderful.

Time to go crawl back in bed and do some reading before heading off to Church.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas--everywhere we go.