Heart Attack

Happy Valentine's Day! Last night was so funny. I was making phone calls and was standing right next to the carport door when there was this quick knock at the door. I opened it, there was no one there . . . but our door was decorated and and there was a plate of cookies. I could see two cars parked in front of our neighbor's house with their lights on and knew they needed a getaway, so I reached down to get the cookies. As I did that, they seriously peeled out and sped away into the night. It made me laugh because I knew who was driving (Mari) the frantic getaway car. Ana (our favorite babysitter) admitted that it was the Young Women that decorated the door.

Happy Anniversary Adam and Jenny!

Adam and Jenny celebrate their #9 wedding anniversary today! Congratulations!

Grandmother's Visit

My Grandmother Louise McAllister came to Mesa for a visit and stayed with my Uncle David and Aunt Lora for a few days. Stella and I went with Lindsay and Keith to a Family Home Evening last night at UD & AL's. Grandmother gave the lesson which was a talk she had given to the Young Women in her ward a while ago about her dreams as a 90 year old woman. She spoke about her dreams as a girl as well. It was hard to try to make Stella sit still while I listened, but it was so worth it to hear the words straight from Grandmother's mouth. She looked fabulous (as always) and even though Stella was being a heathen, she said that she was adorable.


Here is the adorable girl crying and saying, "I wanna hold you for a minute!"

All Caught Up

I’ve just completed updating the blog as far back as December 10th, so look again even if you think you’ve seen it all!

Enrichment

I am the Enrichment Leader in the ward. I did a little 4 question survey last week that harvested very little useful information on how to get the Relief Society sisters to attend the activities. So I came up with an easier survey that listed every activity that I could ever think of and all they had to do was check which one’s they would possibly attend and then give more suggestions if they had them. You’d think I was asking them to all give birth without an epidural or something . . . they just aren’t really helping me. Some complain about not having activities for sisters over the age of 40, but won’t give suggestions for that age group. Others complain about the time, but won’t tell me when they can meet. I know I can’t make everyone happy and those who really want to attend the activities will make it a priority to go. But I’m asking for help. What are some activities that you’ve done in your ward that I haven’t thought of?

Photo Session

Stella and I were bored, so we took pictures of each other.

Dinner Theater

Last night was so great! I’m still trying to get over my lost voice and haven’t been able to sing to Stella for a while. While Beth was making cookies and I was playing a game with Mother Dibble, Elliot and his dad were at the piano trying to play hymns and sing. I love it when Elliot sings. After a while, they finally asked Mother Dibble to come in and relieve them from having to play the piano. Bethany joined them and they all stood around the piano and sang hymns while I watched them.

This made me a little homesick! This is not an every week occurrance at the Dibble home, so seeing and listening to them sing brought back a lot of great memories of my family standing and singing around Miles or Marci playing the piano. I don't think that anything could have made me happier last night (besides actually being able to join them) than to experience the angelic voices of the Dibble family.

Girls Night Out

I went to Emily’s family cabin over night and had such a great time with friends. I’m always so amazed at how much planning goes into an activity that is going to be less than 24 hours.

I was in charge of bringing the facial supplies, then we ate a bunch of unhealthy snacks, played silly games, and talked A LOT!

Mari Ashby

Jen Mix

Emily Campbell

Mari, Amy Webb, and Crystal Earl

Me (you know for a bunch of women who all mostly scrapbook, I was the only one who brought my camera!)

Myra Johnson, Stacy Reading, Brooke Cook

Kimmie and Stanton Curry

Stan

I, however, lost my voice. Before I left, Elliot told me that it was Heavenly Father’s way of telling me that I shouldn’t gossip or tell inappropriate stories . . . who does he think I am anyway? . . . well, truth is, he knows exactly who I am . . . and the loss of voice did hinder my ability to tell all of the stories I probably would have revealed had my voice been fully functional.

Its funny how time goes by so fast when you really don’t want it to. I told Elliot that since we were all mostly mothers and tired, we’d stay up no later than 1 or 2 o’clock . . . hello! All of the sudden as we were not even winding down from our first wind, someone mentioned that it was 2:30 a.m. . . . I finally fell asleep at 5:30 a.m., even though I wasn’t sleepy, but because I didn’t want my bra to get frozen.

Stacy left her bag out, so we found her bra . . . frozen stiff!

Sometimes it's nice just to get away with the Girls, but it's even better to get back with my favorite Girl!

Happy Birthday Miles!

Happy Birthday to Miles! You’d think that as brother and sister, Miles and I would have had a lot of ups and downs and arguments, though I can only really think of one of which details are very clear to me, yet hazy to everyone else. I DIDN’T RUN AWAY! I was just on a walk OK! Miles had rearranged my little garage play area after I had just arranged it the way I liked it. Me, being the highly sensitive and mildly dramatic girl that I was, flew off the handle and called him a bad name. Miles responded by kicking me really hard in my rear, which made me really mad at him (mad enough to write swear words on a fallen street sign with mud), and so upset that I started down the driveway on a walk in the direction we weren’t supposed to walk. I don’t remember an apology from him, and I didn’t apologize either (although I’m sure that Miles AND Natalie got in trouble . . . where Miles was, Natalie was also).



As my little sunshine through the rain, Miles gallantly offered to come to my rescue as I had to attend my Senior Grand Ball without my father. Dad had just undergone major heart surgery the day of my long awaited Grand Ball. The Grand Ball was a big deal to me. I had waited many years to be honored as a Senior in High School at our combined ward Grand Ball. The Senior gets to have a special dance with their father/mother and even though I had many opportunities to dance with my father in the past, this dance was more significant. Admittedly and also extremely selfishly (at the time), I was more sad about not being able to dance with Dad than I was scared to have him in the hospital. One by one, my brothers Jeff and Miles and sister Marci arrived back home (Adam and Nat were on missions) to support my father and mother. I’m not sure if he remembers, but Mom told me that when Miles called to say he was coming home, he said it was to make sure that I had someone to dance with at my Grand Ball. Mom had already arranged to have Grandpa Anderson stand in as my dance partner. To most this would be a trivial situation, but Miles’ consideration for my feelings at that time was momentous to me (I still got to dance with him).

Apparrently Miles and Ashley have a love/hate relationship.



Now that I’ve had time to reflect upon the whole situation, Miles I’d really like to apologize for overreacting and calling you a bad name all those years ago and I forgive you for the butt kick and wish you the best birthday ever!

Blogless

OK, so just stop your complaining (oh wait, I haven’t even heard any complaints . . . you guys don’t even really miss my blog do you!). Here is just one excuse for not updating my blog for the last 2 months. I would have a picture to accompany the explanation, but there was a knife involved, so I decided that the safety was more important than the picture.

I’m trying to update my blog today. I’ve been in here for about 23 minutes, writing stories and looking for pictures. I have a movie on for Stella because that’s my new way of babysitting her when I don’t really want to spend time with her. It’s usually ok, until I hear her in the kitchen. She no longer needs to move the chair over to the counter to climb up (which usually gives me time to get off my duffer and catch her before she gets there), she just climbs up the drawers. Just a minute ago, I heard her on the counter and, if I may paint a picture for you, this is what I found. Stella squatting on the counter, holding a sharp Miracle Blade knife, trying to cut the half banana off of the bunch . . . and she’s absolutely buck naked!

I’m telling you . . . I can’t get anything done with this girl! Every time I’m on the computer, she’s climbing on me saying, “I wanna hold you!” or finding my well-hidden scissors all over the house c 0063 vvrmeeeedssdsdgfsdddwdw ddddddddddffffffffffvvvvvvvvvv ffffffffffffffffffffffffff ffffffffffff or just climbing on my lap and getting angry with me because for some reason it’s always her turn to use the computer!

So if you don’t see an update as often as you’d like, and if you don’t like the month-at-a-time updates, well, I don’t know what to tell you. We don’t always get everything we want, do we now? But if you are excited that I am actually updating my blog, start around the beginning of December.

Balen Anderson

My friend Yumiko and her husband Shawn had their baby boy Balen today! He was 6 pounds 21 inches long (and if you’d seen Yumi, it was ALL baby!). Congratulations Yumi & Shawn!

Family Hike

We went for our first family hike of the year in the Papago Park area. It was freezing! Well, not really, but the wind was blowing a little bit and Stella was miserable until we got to the park and she could swing. I had just run 2 miles, so my legs were already sore from the exercise. It was fun to get away from the house in a physical activity as a family! A new tradition has started!

The Next Challenge

We had some friends over for dinner last night and tried the ball balancing challenge again. This is high comedy! The rules are that you’re not allowed to touch the ground with your feet and not allowed to fall gracefully . . .

Mari Ashby

Amy Orr

David Orr

Todd “Roldopho” Thorne

Mike Ashby

Larisa Thorne (I think the spike-heeled boots were throwing her off)

Guess

The guys went to the Fiesta Bowl game tonight while the rest of us went to Grandma’s and ate Outback. Beth was making cookies and Stella and Anabelle were sitting at the counter. Anabelle said, “Beth what are you making?” Beth replied, “Guess!” Anabelle said, “Who’s Guess?” It kind of tickled my funny box.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! We were in bed by 9:30. Hope you had a good one too.