Sunday, July 12, 2009
I can't get my pictures. Help!
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Sunday six smiles from the 4th of July
John and I are smiling. July makes us smile.
(Isn't this a nice picture of my cutie pie!)
July 4th patriotic programs at church make us smile.
We love our country. We love America.
Pancake breakfasts make us smile.
(The sausage and eggs made us smile too)
B-B-Qs and watermelon make us smile.
Cute grandkids make us smile
Playing in the pool with family makes me smile.
(John is not a big fan of getting in the pool)
Friday, July 3, 2009
Happy 4th of July

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I always tear up at flag raising ceremonies Sunday, June 28, 2009
Happy Birthday Lynell Sunday Six
Lynell has many gifts and talents.
She has blessed my life every day since her birth.
Happy birthday dear daughter.
I wish that I was there to celebrate with you today.
Much love, Mom
Sunday, June 21, 2009
My Father's Day Sunday Six
Happy Father's DayMy father wasn't around when I was young. He left our family when I was 7 and I didn't see him again until I was a teenager. He died when I was 22. I am sorry that I did not have more of a relationship with him.... but then life is what it is.
My earthly father never got to know me very well or love me very much....
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I am also thankful for the wonderful men and fathers that I have in my life now.
Today I am smiling as I think of them with thankfulness in my heart.
#3 is Ernie, our second daughter Mindy's husband.
family activity and holiday. We also have dinner together every Sunday.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Please help me I need your input and vote
The hot water pitcher fell of off the beverage cart. Hot water spilled on me soaking my jacket and burning my arm. As you can see the burn covered quite a large area.
It remained tender and sore for days.
On top of that my suitcase got ruined.
The plastic inside was crushed into many pieces.
The wood inside the plastic and fabric was crushed and splintered.
My bag is totally ruined.
I thought US Airways would offer to replace my suitcase and give me a complementary ticket voucher as compensation.
I have had several friends who have been given free tickets for much less.
I expressed this in an email to US Airways (you can't call in a complaint)
I got the following offer:
$25 off of a round trip ticket costing $150-$249
$50 off of a round trip ticket costing $250 to $399
$75 off of a round trip ticket costing $400 to $499
$100 off of a round trip ticket costing $500 or more
I replied and told them I was not satisfied with their offer.
(One friend got a free round trip voucher just because the beverage cart was blocking her way to the bathroom and she had to wait to use it because they wouldn't let her go into the first class bathroom. My blog friend, Jan told me that she and her friend both got round trip tickets just because there was a mix up with the seats and they didn't get to sit by each other.)
I got this reply back from US Airways:
"I apologize for the incident on the flight; however, after careful evaluation, we were unable to discover any additional concerns causing us to reconsider our original compensation. "
Well....there you have it.
I have heard nothing back about replacing my suitcase and they are only offering me 10% to 20% off the cost of my next ticket purchased depending on the cost.
I don't think they are being fair.
Am I being unreasonable? (I don't want to be unreasonable)
What do you think?
Please vote on my sidebar poll. It is located at the top right side of my blog.
Thanks, Lura
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Sunday Six Reasons to Smile

As I look back over the past days these are just a few of the things that made me smile.
It was her first loose tooth and she was nervous about getting it pulled.
The theme of his room is airplanes and his colors are blue and brown.
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Calan's smiles make me smile.
Don't they make you smile too?
He had smiles for his Grampy.
(Even though he just turned 2 months , Cal seemed old compared to our new little Evan I had just left.)
He had smiles for his Grammy.
Now I ask you.....isn't he darling!!!!!!
Those dimples melt my heart!
He is full of coos and smiles and so much fun. There was a tender movie on TV but none of us could pay attention to the show because we couldn't take our eyes off of our cute smiling boy.
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Jalen's driving lesson with Grampy made me smile.
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The first day of summer vacation from school makes me smile.
They played all day of course....wii...pool...basketball...ping pong...board games... you name it and they played it last Monday.
Lynell let them play all day Monday and enjoy the moment...
but then at Family Night that night she announced what their summer schedule was going to be.
There is going to be lots of things...yard work, house work, lessons, exercise time, scripture reading time as well as play to keep them busy all summer.
Justin heads off to Army boot camp in August and we all know how much fun that is going to be!
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And what was Lonica doing while the boys were busy playing games?
Loni is like her Grammy and loves to sew. She is very creative and makes all sorts of cute things.
She is her Grammy's girl.... that is for sure. Smile.... Smile...Smile.
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Upps.... I listed more that six smile makers.
Oh well, I have so much to smile about that I couldn't limit it to six this week.
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I have been really tired since we got home and I haven't even had the energy to turn on my computer.... however..... I will catch up with all of you soon.
I think of you all the time.
You blog friends are special to me.
I hope that you have a great, smiling week ahead.
Love and best wishes, Lura
Saturday, June 6, 2009
My Marvelous May & Joyful June
I doubt if I live to be 100 I will ever have a better May. You already know about most of these things but I'll post some new pictures as I make this recap. So here goes.......
Week 1
We have loved going to the beach since we were young girls. Going to the beach together takes us back in time and for brief moments we feel young again. (Very brief moments.... until we look in the mirror ....or try to run on the beach..lol)
Just being together is a treat for both of us. We visit for hours, watch movies to our hearts content and eat, eat, eat and eat. We also celebrated her birthday together.
What a fun way to start our May.
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Week 2
May 10th John took me on a Mother's Day cruise to Canada.
I think that there are no prettier places on earth than those we saw in Canada.
What a lovely experience. I still want to do some cruise posts when I have time.
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Week 3
May 17-19 we had a visit with little Cal and his mommy and daddy.
They came to CA while John and I were still on our cruise.
What a treat to get a surprise visit from our 12th grandchild.
This was a lovely way to end our cruise.
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Week 4
May 25th we celebrated Memorial day and John's birthday.
Mindy and family came over and we had a wonderful day together.
We had a great ribeye steak BBQ with all the trimmings...
Then we sang happy birthday and helped Grampy blow out his candles.
(We were helping him celebrate the 28th anniversary of his 39th birthday!!! lol)
May 26th Evan Levi was born...
Marla's mom will arrive next Monday and take over where I left off so they will be in good hands.
Yesterday morning, bright and early I boarded a west bound plane.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
A Special Sunday Six
Grace, Emma, and Davey adore their new little brother.Marla with her boys
Thur. Evan and Marla got to come home from the hospital.
Can you tell that my little Davey is thrilled to be a "big" brother now?
Can you tell that my big Dave is thrilled to have another boy in the family?
Now Marla has 3 men to take care of.
We were all excited to get him home.
I feel so blessed that I can be here to help.
I keep pointing out to Davey how nice it is to be a big brother now...
how many things the "big" kids can do that baby Evan can't....
and took off for a lovely skate, scooter, bike ride, walk.
(Grammy was the one walking... they wanted me to ride a bike but I wanted to come back alive so I declined.)
We had a lot of fun yesterday playing at the pool and the playground.
Tonight we got on our web cams and skyped with Erin and Patrick. I love skyping. We got to show baby Calan (seen on the screen) his new cousin, Evan. The kids sang and danced for Aunt Erin and Uncle Patrick. We had a great time... and skyping is free.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
I have another New Grandson
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Sunday Six Smiles
Grandma B and Sheryl were right when they guessed that one of the places we went to was Butchart Gardens in Victoria, BC, Canada
We had a great time there and in the next port which was Vancouver. I plan to do several posts on our cruise.... but for now suffice it to say that I never stopped smiling the whole time we were cruising.
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Look who I found taking a dip in my bathroom sink.
Yep... It was my newest grandson, Calan.
Can you believe it???
Patrick had business in the area the same week we were on our cruise.
Erin and Cal came to CA with daddy.
They spent the first few days with Mindy and Ernie.
#3
Little Cal got to meet the rest of his CA family for the first time.
E.J. and Claire adore their new cousin.
Like the rest of us, they had been praying for a long time that Erin and Patrick could have a baby. They were delighted that our prayers were answered when we got our little Calan.
I don't think Cal got put down the whole time he was here.
(This was a really big deal since it was Claire's first day to miss school all year)
..but having him here was far better than getting the flowers..
(and you know how much I love flowers!)
Cal looks so cute in the cap Silvija knit him and Erin loves the Adoption baby books Sil gave them.
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#5
Yesterday we were invited to a lovely B-B-Q house warming party given by our friends Ken and Jann who moved to the mountains a few months ago.
It took us about 1 1/2 hours to get up to their mountain lake home.
The scenery is beautiful and the air crisp and clean at 7000 ft.
We enjoyed the visit and good food.
Jann is the breeder from whom we bought our dog Heidi .
It is her sister, Lonna and niece, Chelsea that babysit Heidi for us when we travel.
We feel like they are family.
After the feast the talented group put on a family show for us.
They are so good and entertaining.
We had a great time.
#6
We could have stayed all evening listening to them but we had to leave in time to attend the musical. "Savior of the World" which Claire was in last night.
Claire played the part of Nathan a shepherd boy.
It was a big part for a little 7 year old with lots of lines and 3 solos.
She did a outstanding job.
In fact she brought tears to her Grampy's and Grammy's eyes.
I want to tell you more about it on another post.
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Thanks for stopping by. I hope you will take time to say hello. I love hearing from you.
I wish you a great week ahead with many blessings coming your way.
Love, Grammy Lura
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Wednesday, May 20, 2009
I am back
We had a great trip. Can you tell from this picture where we went?
It was beautiful.
I am anxious to tell you ... and show you... all about it...
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Happy Mother's Day

...God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers."
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I thank my children for making me a mother.
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It has been my privelige to be their mother.
They love me and honor me in spite of the mistakes I make and my faults.
Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs... since the payment is pure love. ~Mildred B. Vermont
Love, Grammy Lura
PS. I am in a great rush today.... there are many fun plans and much to do. Please forgive me for not commenting on your blogs. I will be back to read your blogs and comment as soon as I can.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Wednesday Wisdom
Neither could we....but we picked the right side.
We looked at the menu in the window of the left side and found that most of the meals started at about $15.00. That seemed about right since is a nice place over the water. We decided to go in. We wanted to eat outside where we could see and hear the waves and feel and smell the ocean breeze. We saw a table in a perfect spot on the right side and hurried in and asked the waitress if we could sit there.
They said it was happy hour....
Guess what the price for a big....lovely....delicious dinner was...
Did you guess???? No you are not right...
It was $3.00!!!
Yes... that is correct....$3.00.
We could not believe it. We asked why we did not see that on the menu we had looked at on the left side of the restaurant. The waitress explained that the right side had a bar and served food and drinks at this low price during happy hour.... but the left side of the restaurant did not.
We do not drink alcohol but we ordered our sodas and had a wonderful $3.00 meal.
I was taking Sil out for an early birthday dinner.
The total bill came to $12.00....$15.00 with the tip...for both of us.
Am I a generous friend and a big spender or what!!!
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But my mom's and my church's teaching proved once again to be valuable advice.
Choose the right when a choice is placed before you!
Have a great day.
Love, Lura
Sunday, May 3, 2009
A fast Sunday Six
I love going out in my patio.
I sometimes wish that they would stay quiet a while longer....
but even though I ask them to sing a little softer early each morn
they ignore me and greet the sun singing at the top of their lungs.
How can I be upset at them?
We should all greet the day with a song in our hearts.
We have lived in the same home for 29 years.
We have made many dear friends at church and in the community.
They are such a blessing to me. They make me smile.
No matter when my grand children come, the patios and plants come alive with their laughter.
It doesn't matter whether we are splashing in the pool, cooking on the B-B-Q, roasting marshmallows in the fire pit or having Royal tea parties, we have a great time.
It doesn't matter if they are little tykes or my big boys, we all are smiling when we are together in the patios.
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I am also smiling because I have the health and strength to work in the patios and keep them up.
I enjoy tending my flowers, veggies and plants.
I even enjoy sweeping up the leaves and keeping it looking nice.












