Boys!

Isaac was playing out in the yard the other morning. I went out to check on him and I found him crouched down, looking intently at something on the driveway.

"Ike," I call, "whatcha got there?"

He looks over in my direction. "Sbleh bleh," he says standing. (Most of what Isaac says sounds like Sbleh bleh, it's a pretty versitle term, kind of like smurf or dude.)

"Sbleh bleh?" I ask as I walk over to him.

"Sbleh bleh," he confirms crouching back down and pointing.

I peer intently, my gaze following his finger.

"It's a spider," I say.

Now I am female but I find that I don't get all that worked up over spiders. In fact I had a very live and let live attitude even toward spiders in my house until I found a black widow. A big black widow. On my mop handle. About half an hour after I finished mopping (it had, very obviously been on the mop since I pulled it out to mop that morning). When I was six months pregnant. Since then I kill the arachnids in my home. But I still don't get too worked up about seeing spiders.

And this is the smallest spider ever. It is the size of an ant. Not one of those big ol' army ants, one of those teeny tiny itty bitty ants that you almost can't see. How this thing ever attracted the attention of my two-year-old son I have no idea.

"Sblehbleh," Ike repeats. (Obviously he was saying sblehbleh rather than sbleh bleh, silly mom.)

"Did you find a spider?" I ask.

"Yeah." (Probably the only word he says that someone who doesn't live with him would understand.)

"Is he a little baby spider?" Of course I'm talking in high pitched baby talk voice.

"Yeah."

"Is he cute?"

"Yeah."

"Do you like that little spider?" I ask innocetly.

"Yeah," he says. And then stands to his full hight of nearly two and a half feet. He lifts his cute little size 6 sneaker. And stomps on the spider.

*sigh*

James Fredrick Washburn Family Reunion

Dear Lark and Arlea and family,
My name is Fay Washburn Truman. My father is James Fredrick Washburn. My mother is Ella Stevens Chapman Washburn. James and Ella had 3 children together: my sister (Lois Washburn Holms), myself, and my brother (Quinn Evan Washburn). Lois and Quinn have already moved on to be with our parents.
My brother’s sons recently visited me and asked “Why have we grown up not knowing the Washburns?’ Actually, Lois, Quinn and I grew up not knowing the Washburns. So, I thought I’d organize a reunion and introduce the Washburns to the Washburns.
It is being held in Orem on June 13th looks like it will be too big for our back yard, so I’ve arranged for the church house right next door.
Please come and get acquainted and sign your name on the branch you belong to on the Washburn family tree.Please RSVP with the number in your family who can attend by June 7th, so we can count how many chickens to kill and assign salads and desserts etc. The Quinn Washburn family will grill the”Famous Quinn Washburn Chicken” for us!

Get acquainted reunion for the descendents of

James Fredrick Washburn

to be held Friday June 13th

in the cultural hall at 195 West 300 South

from 2:00 pm to 8:00 pm.

Please RSVP to Fay Truman @ 801-225-9314, or @ 349 South 230 West, Orem, UT 84058

or alIenbarb.alldredge@gmail.com

Directions to Reunion:1-15 exit 271 — Orem Center Street. Proceed west on Center Street to 400 West. Turn right at the light. Go to 400 South. Turn left at the 4 way stop.Make your first possible left at 280 West. Proceed one block north to 300South — Turn Right. The church is one block away on your right.

From Grandma

Dear Familia,

When I read my diary that I kept when I was in High School, it said,”Got up, went to school, came home, done some ironing, helped fix supper, done dishes, went to bed. Next day it was this same story with very little variation. That’s about the same now. Not too much goes on in my world. I work on quilts, do laundry, fix food (for about 63 years now) and I’d sooner do something else now. However I do read lots of books, which I enjoy much.Stephen, Nan and Truman came for the Memorial thy weekend and we had a good time. Ate Beans,Jello, Potato Salad, Toast ete,etc,etc. Weather was fair.I haven’t talked to anyone who likes the BLOG.Dad is moving ahead slowly on his Gothic Arch but has had a bad back for awhile now so hasn’t done much. Read the reunion letter from Fay Washburn Truman and plan to attend if possible. Uncle Joe is getting a little better each day but is not doing real well. He doesn’t plan to have any more Chemo-Therapy. It makes him too sick for too longWe look forward to our reunion at the end of June Probably come to the other reunion on the 13th of June.

Love to one and all. Mom & or Granny..

It's Summer"

Technically, I don't think it's warm enough to be summer. But the fact that school is over definitely qualifies it. We have been out of school about a week now and mostly I'm working on making summer go slower than the school year. Actually we have spent the last week in Vernal. We went up to see Duane's parents who seem to be doing pretty well despite age and ills, celebrate Lukie's birthday late, celebtate Jake's birthday, spend time with various kids and grandkids, and so that Duane could look for a job. We stayed at Meg's and really had lots of good food and good company. Molly, Paxton, Gavin, and Savannah came out for a few days. And Marisa also came up for a few days. Lukie got a small plastic pool with a giraffe slide and also a slip 'n slide for his birthay. It was'n really warm, but evidentally warm enough for the kids and they had a ball. We also went bowling, wow we're bad, and laughed and had a good time. We spent time with Jacqueline and Dylan, and also Laramie (Anna's little boy). We are now home to lots of yard work. I have a couple of workshops in Salt Lake and Midway in June and am really looking forward to the reunion.
I was sad that I couldn't make it to Maggie's baptism (Allison's family is lucky that they live so close and we really appreciate them being so supportive), but I did go up the week before and take her for a pedicure for her birthday. She loved it and said that's what she is going to request every year. I told her that would be okay, because I was always ready for a good pedicure.
For Mother's day my girls gave me some flowers and then also the neatest book. It has pictures of all of our family, in order. So it starts with Duane and me and then has double page spreads of each of our kids and each of their kids. It is awesome and will be cherished for a lifetime. I'll bring it to the reunion for all to see.
Casey and Marisa are making great progress on their new house and hope to be moved in by the end of June (cross your fingers).
Molly, Gavin, and Savannah are coming down for the weekend, and we are very excited to have them here.
Well, I'm off to the school to ready my room for summer cleaning. Much love to all of you. Pen

Thanks

Now that I'm big and have my own login I would just like to thank Jabe & Kristin for coming to Maggie's baptism. We had a huge showing from Allison's side of the family and I am grateful to them that my side was at least represented.

It was a very rewarding experience for Maggie and me an we're so proud of her and her decision.

All is well at casa Flannery and we hope all's well with all of you.

Shaun

A Day In the Life...

For anyone who may not already know, I quit my job back in September (at my wife's suggestion) so that I could finish my bachelor's degree. We thought it was a great idea then. I hope we're right. We basically decided that there were three options that made the most sense (the 4th being to not finish my degree because I was doing fairly well without it): I could either keep working and take a class or two at a time and graduate in five years, or I could take a full load of night classes for a few semesters and keep working (which would have been the smartest, probably), or I could quit my job and we could borrow student loan money to get by for two semesters so that I could finish. We chose the third option because the first one would have taken forever and the second one would have meant that I would not have slept for most of a year and would not hardly have seen my wife or kids during that time either.

So now I'm pretty much done. Officially I still have a few classes to finish online, which I'm working on now, but I'm looking for a job, based on the idea that while I don't officially have my degree, I can pretty much claim to be done. If questioned I just admit that I'll graduate next month. We're entertaining a theoretical plan to get me a CPA, too, but it turns out that the requirements may be more than I can cope with at this point. No decision has been made at this point, but we're looking into it.

What that leaves me with, then, is working on classes online and taking care of AJ all day. Kristin's working part time at a job she pretty much hates. It's actually been better lately, but it lost a good chunk of tolerability this week when they denied her request for a better raise than the standard 3%. It's pretty idiotic from almost any perspective. The first part is sort of funny to me: They hired her to get the new physical therapy clinic up and running, but after the initial stuff was done, there wasn't really much for her to do. She mostly does collections for the clinic now. She does a lot of other things, including filling in for people to take breaks (or vacations), but she told them a long time ago that she didn't have nearly enough to do. They told her not to worry about it. They said her job was to keep physical therapy running smoothly, which it is (or at least, it's running as smoothly as it can with such a collection of morons in charge. Well, that's an exaggeration. There's really just one moron in charge. Okay, two) and to make sure that her accounts receivable stay under a certain amount, which she does.

Well, a little over a year ago she cut back to working about 25 hours a week. The funny thing is that she still got all the same work done. Now, from my point of view, this should have been a cue to management to be really irritated with her. In their position I would have been wondering, why have we been paying you for 40 hours a week plus benefits when you could do that job in 25 (and benefits are forfeit when you're part-time)? That, apparently, never occurred to them. They have continued to praise her work for the entire two years she's worked there. So when her review came up a few weeks ago, and she got 4's across the board (4 is "exceeds expectations"), they offered her a 3% raise. She said she thought she deserved more, and the moron in charged (referenced earlier) asked why she thought she deserved it. She said that first, he had just given her a sparkling review. I suggested that she should have told him to either give her the raise or go back and change a lot of her 4's to 3's, but she thought that might have been counterproductive (and I have to agree, despite the fact that it was my suggestion). She also pointed out all the things she does that aren't even part of her job description and the fact that she's getting everything done that they need her to do in only 25 hours a week. That 15 hours a week plus the benefits they don't have to pay her should have been way more than enough to justify a little bit more than the 3% they were offering. Her moron (I mean, boss) said he couldn't give her more than 3% without the doctors' permission, but he would take it to them.

In the end they denied her the extra and said they could only give her the 3%. Their reason was that she already makes more than any other collector and that she's technically over the cap for her position. She explained that she wasn't just a collector, to which her boss said he knew that to be true. She said that if she couldn't be paid extra for doing extra, she might not have the motivation to continue doing extra. He said that made him sad (I may bomb his house. He's clearly too dumb to live. You don't know how dumb he is because I've only told you one small part of the big picture of how he runs the place. If the doctors really knew all the stupid crap he did, they'd fire him for sure). She said she would have to consider other offers. He said he hoped she would come to him before taking another offer. She asked why she should bother and whether he'd be able to offer her more money if she was leaving, and if so, why he couldn't just give her the money she'd already asked for. No good answer for that one. Big surprise.

So I'm a stay-at-home dad, which I love, but we really can't afford it. I need to get a pretty good job and pretty quickly. We've used up pretty much all of the money we borrowed for this adventure, and now that it's pretty much over, we've got to get moving. I've sent out my resume a little, but there hasn't been much interest yet. I'm hopeful still, because it's early in the search. But the difference between "it's early in the search" and "how are we going to pay the mortgage?" isn't nearly as long as I'd like it to be.

AJ continues to grow and make people smile everywhere we go. This picture is from when we took him to our Monday night softball game and the weather was pretty questionable for the second week of May. We had to bundle him up tight. The good news is that his little bear suit is ridiculously cute.

Chickens

It's a good thing we have chickens, since I have egg on my face. I can't believe there wasn't a response or comments or something when I posted my last blog. Lukas is also having a birthday in May, which I neglected to mention. Anyway, he and Isaac are both two. Their parents are probably thinking, "My how time flies when you're having fun." Hey, only one more Monday of school for this year. Yipee!!! Pen

Hello from Vernal

Hi everyone! Hope you're all doing well. Everything is good out here in Vernalville. Luke will be turning 2 on the 18th (My mom must have forgotten to mention him in her big list of May birthdays) He is getting a swingset for his birthday, which may turn out to be bad for me. He never wants to come inside now, so when we have a swingset he really won't want to! Our yard and fake grass are looking great! (Anyone is welcome anytime to see it, and swing on the swingset!) Russell continues to really love his job and is getting ready to play in a golf tournament this weekend with his dad. Marisa and I went out and stayed with Molly for a few days. We hung out and chased wild kids around, and tried to keep Luke from permanantly disfiguring Savannah. (I guess he didn't really like her this trip.) Luke is really starting to say a lot more, and has just learned how to say "Poop!" so now he says everyone is pooping all the time. I think it's hilarious! We're looking forward to seeing everyone at the reunion.
Love-Meg

Happy May again

The flowers in my Mother's Day bouquet are Gerber daisies in various colors of pink and orange -- sometimes I'm a little slow and others alot slow. Anyway, I thought I would correct myself before I got lots of help, which I probably need. I went in to set up my own account but I got nervous about where I was going so I didn't finish. Maybe I'll be brave some day. Pen

Happy May Everyone

So Mike, is the chapel covered with broken glass? I googled it but couldn't find a very close picture? Well, May is moving right along. Maggie was baptized last week, Gavin graduated from preschool, I have to go to Lagoon on Wednesday with the graduating seniors from Monticello High School, Duane has to use one of his personal leave days before the end of the school year or he will loose it. Shelby will have a birthday. Dustin will have a birthday, Jake will have a birthday. (Maggie and Isaac already had birthdays). Lots of gorgeous flowers. Sorry I didn't get to go to the Tulip Festival this year but it just didn't work out time wise. It is finally looking like it won't freeze here at night so we are setting out some of our veggies. We planted tomatoes and various hot? peppers on Thursday night and will be planting squash, cucumbers, and various flowers today. Duane and Marisa planted peas last Saturday. I have yet to figure out why we continue to make so much work for ourselves! I got a gorgeous bouquet of flowers from my girls and Duane for Mother's Day. It has 5 different colors of Shasta Daisies in it and is very lovely. Happy Mother's Day to all of you who are mothers, especially those of you who are mothers to my sweet and wonderful grandkids. Much love to all. Pen

Hello everyone,
I don't think I am much of a blogger. Whatever that means. I am doing relatively well. I am still working on the house. I am still working on finding a job. I was thinking one of my brothers or sisters should plan to come and see me sometime. You are all invited. I just had a visit from Kory and I was worried he might want to stay on permanently but luckily he chose to go back to Las
Vegas. I think it was my telling him he could be in AZ if he wanted the reason he isn't is because he doesn't want to be. And he started thinking she's right, I don't want to be. That was a major load off my stress meter. It was good to see him and he got a chance to see his son. I have spent quite a bit of time with little Kory Lee and with Jason's daughter Marla. They are both so cute and lots of fun. I am going to see Dustin tomorrow. His birthday is May 22 for anyone interested in sending a card. I hope to see you all at the reunion. Love and miss you all. Love Paula

Gavin's Preschool Program

Gavin had his end of the year preschool program tonight. The theme was, "When I Grow Up." Gavin held the microphone so proudly and said, "when I grow up, I am going to be a log worker, and cut the wood with a chain saw, and build a log cabin for me to live in." He chose to wear his carhartt overalls, very fitting I thought. It was so fun listening to all the songs and the cute things the kids had to say! Gavin's favorite song was the one about his dad. He sang loud and proud. During the program he kept scratching his throat and trying to tell me something. After I asked him if he had a sore throat. He said, "no, it wasn't a sore throat, I have fleas." I guess we should have him checked out! He has had so much fun this year , and I cannot believe he has finished one year of school. He is growing up too fast! In the photo, he is with his teachers, Miss Denise and Miss Laurie. They are so great!

Maggie's Baptism

Margaret Avonell Flannery has chosen to be baptized. The service will be this Saturday at 4:00 at our meetinghouse (2850 W 3835 S). We will be going out for dinner after and all who would like to join us are welcome.
I'll try to get Shaun to call most of you but... in case he doesn't you have now been officially invited.

Just a note

Hey Kids,

It's the first of May so we are starting our 2nd month of blogging. Congratulations to those of you who jumped in and did it. I mailed 3 copies only - Dustin, Lucas and GrandPa/GrandMa.

Login with the info I sent in the email, get your own login - it's easy! - and let's BLOG!!!!!!!!!!!!

From GrandPa and GrandMa

Blanding City April 29th-08

Dear Wandering Bloggers( whatever that means)

The force was with me and the cherry pie, promised for my Valentines Day (didn’t happen) re-promised for my birthday (didn’t happen), showed up and was I eating high on the hog! Perchance the hog was eating high, ‘cause I accidentally got most of it. T’was way good.
Tuesday the 28 the Granny and I were off to Red Canyon to see the Purple Sage and talk to the rock and of course check on the chickens. (Chukar Partridges) Well, the dumb Purple Sage was like the dumb tulips Mike raises and there was no, none, not any in bloom. Maybe later. The only chicken (partridge, no pear tree)we saw was miles from where we normally see them. However the Indian Paint Brush was majestic. The Primrose was spectacular. We encountered 4 deer. One beautiful hawk. We feasted on Diet Mountain Dew, Sandwiches and Peanut Nut rolls. In addition and also I was in exceptionally good company all day long and the day was declared a success by one and all.

After only seven years of service, we sustained a new Bishop last Sunday. Hopefully the new Bishop will pay more attention to our needs and bring groceries and good stuff around.
Occasionally. After all it has been nearly 20 years since I have had gainful employment, and the Grandmother for one is beginning to doubt if I am really look for a job.

A yearning to rock my two youngest granddaughters, and the small Sectarian grandson, as well as a whole bunch of gorgeous great grands, there for I threaten to venture north in the next week or two or three. The grandmother makes a list, admits she doesn’t trust my driving and says I want to come to stock up on ice cream.

The Grand Mother says she will pay for the Reunion Costs at Thanksgiving Point and likely for the Catered cost at the church or wherever. Pres. Monson said, “Don’t let your yearning exceed your earning.” Good advice. Love by the bushel and peck.

Lark L (GrandPa)


Placed on the blog by J.B. with some help from Penelope and my computer buddy Mark Bird.

I got this note from Alayna and decided I would stick it on here:

Dear family,I will keep this very short as I do not have much to say. Nate graduates on May 18th and we move the week after to parts still unknown. Isn't life a fun adventure? On the bright side I get to quit my job here in a few weeks! I will give you all our new address as soon as we have it. If you think of it, please say an extra prayer for us and the job search. We love you!Alayna Sechrest