I am not smiling

I hope that you have had a

Happy Halloween

Today is Claire's birthday.
We have had a lovely day together.
In fact with 3 birthdays this week....we have had a great time all week.
...
I just spent the last 2 hours uploading pictures to share with you.
My newly fixed computer will only let me upload 2 at a time.
But I was determined and persisted until they were all in my post.
Then...as I went to publish it.... everything disappeared....
gone....poof????
I HATE THIS TOSHIBA COMPUTER!!!!
It is too late to start over.
I will probably try again tomorrow.
Please check in with me again soon....maybe I can get it to work.
Until then, I am not smiling but I send you my best wishes.

I'm almost back with smiles and woes

Dear Blog Friends

I finally got my computer back...
I thought I was back in blogland business...

but I was wrong!!!!

For some reason each time I click on ANYTHING

I get told

Internet Explorer cannot display this page.

I am going nuts!

I have only been able to visit 2 of your blogs today...
It took me 3 hours to download these few pictures...

I can't read my email.

WHY????

I have no idea..... do you?
...

Meanwhile these are the happy things that I've been smiling about.

Last Friday my sweet Mindy celebrated her birthday.
This wonderful daughter is such a joy to me.
No mother ever had a dearer daughter..

Yesterday her son, our grandson, E.J. turned 11.

We have had so much birthday fun this past weekend.
...
Two weeks ago we went on another cruise.

This is one of the lovely perks of being travel agents.

We had a lovely time on this beautiful ship.

I will show you more of the Mariner of the Seas
in a future post.
...
Last week we visited family in Arizona

It was so nice to visit with my 88 year old Aunt Susy
and my cousins, Randy and David (Dave is not pictured)
and Linda

Linda got lung cancer earlier this year.

She is a cancer survivor. What a blessing!
...
We also got to visit my nephew, Jim and his sweet family.

I want to share a lot more with you when my computer is behaving better.
I hope that I will be able to visit all of you soon.
These computer problems are so maddening.
I think of you often and really miss visiting with you.
It is so frustrating.
I send love.

Wednesday's woes and wisdom

Dear Blog Friends,

Here are my Wednesday Woes.....I STILL AM LAP TOPLESS!!!

As I mentioned in my last post, my brand new laptop crashed.

We took it to the computer hospital last week...

It is still there in intensive care.

The hard drive is fried... along with all my pictures and documents.

It can not be repaired until Toshiba mails us the restore disk....which we had to order and pay $25.00.

...

Those are my woes....

Now for my wisdom...

1. Don't buy a Toshiba lap top.

It was recommended to us by 3 different Geek squads at Best Buy as being the most dependable...... WRONG!

2. If you do buy a Toshiba be sure to make restore disks when you first turn it on.

3. Back up all your documents and pictures as soon as you upload them.

I didn't because my lap top was so new I thought I was safe. I intended to do it but thought

I had plenty of time to get around to it.....WRONG!

So, here I am waiting for Toshiba to mail us the restore disks.

John is always on his computer doing business and does not like to share.... so

I am in computer limbo.

I miss all of you. I think of you often and send you mental hugs.

I hope you are all doing well....and I hope I will be back in the world of blogland soon.

Birthday Smiles for Jordan and Gracie and news

I couldn't wait until Sunday to share my smiles this week.

I am full of Happy Birthday smiles

for Jordan and Gracie.

First I will share my smiles....and then I will tell you my news.

...

This week 2 of my grandchildren had birthdays.

Our Jordan turned 22 last Tuesday on Sept. 28th.

How I love this dear young man who was the first to make me a Grammy...

When we are visiting him, he never leaves the house without giving me a hug and telling me that he loves me. He is great with his cousins and siblings.

Jordan makes me smile.

...and...

Our little pixie Gracie Lynn turned 8 today.

I could not be with either of them... but I am sending them lots of love.

Gracie I have your confirmation dress all finished except for
some of the hand work.

I will get it done tomorrow. That makes me smile.
I did not mail it to you since you are coming here to be baptised and confirmed.

I can't wait to give it to you.
It was made with love for this special 8th birthday.
...

Here are some pictures of Jordan, Gracie and the rest of us at Snake River this past July.

Our son David, Gracie's dad, wanted me to send these pictures to them.

But maybe I shouldn't do it.
They may not let her come again after they see them.

This was Gracie's first time on the river....

She was really brave....and loved it....

...in spite of being such a wee one.

The most amazing thing that Gracie, Loni, Johnny, Jalen and E.J. did was

jumping off of a 30 foot cliff into the icy waters.

Climbing up to the cliff was a major accomplishment by itself.

Just thinking about jumping nearly gave me a heart attack .

Gracie really wanted to jump when she saw her cousins do it the day before.

She called home and got her dad's permission to do so.

(I had said no...I tell everyone NO! It scares me to death.)

Even though Gracie really wanted to do it,

she got scared when she got up there and saw how high it was.
Loni jumped in first to show her how to do it... but Grace was still afraid...
...but with lots of encouragement...
...and...
since there was no other way to get down ...

Gracie jumped!

What a brave little trooper you are Gracie Girl !

You were full of smiles after your jump and so were all of us.

Happy Birthday Dear.

I hope that you had a wonderful day.

Grampy and I love you very much.

...

These are my smiles for this week.

I hope that you have many smiles too.

...

Now for the NEWS!

I had planned on putting on a new post....instead of this p.s.

but I can't because...

MY BRAND NEW COMPUTER DIED!

Yes, that is right.

I got out my new lap top yesterday to read your blogs and do a post..

AND MY COMPUTER WOULD NOT BOOT UP.

##!!**///*ZIP!## NADA!!**##//

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!

I had not backed up all the pictures because it was so new.

(John says I should know better.)

Well anyway...It is fatally ill and in the hospital for up to 2 weeks.

So I am back to borrowing use on a computer

or being computerless.

...

That is my bad news.... Now for the good news...

...

It is conference weekend.

Twice year the leaders of our church speak to us in

General Conference.

With Direct TV it is on channel 374.

I don't know about the other carriers but you can

click Here to find conference in your area or get it on your computer.

I hope that you will take a look and see for yourselves.

The talks are wonderfully inspiring.

They up lift and edify no matter what your religious beliefs.

...

I am sending hugs.... I will be back as soon as I can.

I will miss you until then.