Quick Visit

Will and I were able to enjoy a quick visit from Mom last weekend. I picked her up from the airport Friday night and we enjoyed a fun night just us girls at a hotel in downtown SLC. Saturday morning we went to the Festival of Trees and shopped a Dillards (a must for Mom). In the afternoon Will met up with us for lunch and to go see Tangled - Disney's newest movie - it was fun. We ended the night with a visit to Temple Square to see the lights. It was beautiful and not too cold. All the pictures we took are on Mom's camera. We also managed to find my good friend Sloane, who's serving on Temple Square right now. Sunday, Mom came to church with us. I'm the primary president right now (we have 3 kids in primary) so she got to come to primary! Then we enjoyed a restful Sunday afternoon before getting Mom back to the airport. It was a quick trip, but fun. We're looking forward to being in Seattle next weekend!

An Okie Thanksgiving

We had fun time in Oklahoma for Thanksgiving. The kids loved Kara. It was a nice break for Becca. Dinner was nice with Aunt Kathy, Uncle Karl, Kara, and Kara's Ganny.Uncle Karl taught us how to play moon, Grandpa's favorite game. Uncle Karl tried to shoot the moon, but Becca spoiled his plans. Karl won anyway with a little help from Aaron. I hope your Thanksgiving was as fun as ours.

Hunter Family

I've actually been meaning to post since the end of August, but I needed Wesley's help to get onto the blog, since it's through his email, and I could never remember to do it when he was home.

Most of you have proabaly already heard our news, but if you haven't, we're expecting our first baby at the end of March. We're very excited.

At the end of August we went to Idaho for Wesley's sister's wedding. She was married in the Idaho Falls temple, and we had a great time visiting with family while we were there. We flew into Salt Lake, and rented a car to drive up to Pocatello, where Wesley's parents live, but before that we spent a few days in Utah and visited with some friends and went to Temple Square.

A week after we got back, a grad student from Wesley's lab at UCR came out to visit us for a long weekend. We took him site-seeing in D.C. and it was fun to have him here.

That's about all going on here. for now

More Sayings from Daddy!

Yesterday when I was in the staff room, I looked at a colleague and stated,
"Another day, another dollar!"
This was definitely one of Dad's favorites.

And right on the heels of that one, out popped,
"Just a fit, just a fit, dollar two ninety-eight!"
I wonder what the origin of that saying is.

Just when I think we've used up all the quotes, along come some more I had totally forgotten!

Robert's Ramblings or Shaun's Stammerings

You pick the title.

Among the many memories:

1. I was lucky enough to go to the steak restaurant in front of the Benjamin Franklin store with Grandma and Grandpa. I ordered a salad with my meal and Grandpa said that "salad was for rabbits."
2. I was out just a couple of weekends ago trying to get my Troy-Bilt Horse tiller started. It wouldn't start and I was just thinking how I could use Grandpa's help.
3. I remember as a kid always being completely mesmerized by Grandpa's multiple tool sheds and work areas. It was an adventure to weave around the small buildings and look at the "ancient" tools.

Quick update on the family. Erin' artwork is once again available for purchase. She submits a Christmas themed piece of art once a year for Vanderbilt Children's Hospital to be used for their fundraising efforts. You can take a look at http://www.vanderbiltchildrens.org/holidayproject. They have Christmas cards and even a cookie tin. The cookie tin is a little pricey especially with the shipping costs.

Our other quick bit of news is that Sarah has broken her hand. She injured her hand about a month ago during a soccer game. We thought it was a jammed finger, taped it for a few days and all was well. She was playing goalie during the last quarter of their last game of the season this past Saturday and as she dropped to get the soccer ball one of the girls from the opposing team kicked at the ball. Sarah's already hurt hand was between the other players charging foot and the ball. She has a fracture around her knuckles close to her growth plate. (I'm sure Jenny has a more official, fancy term for it.) So she will need to see an orthopedic surgeon to possibly have surgery. For now, she has a pretty pink cast.

Some More Favorite Ellis Sayings!

I was taking care of Hadley tonight . . . and remembered -
"What fer? Cat fur to make kitten britches!"

And how did I forget?
"You've been drinking muddy water!"
Anytime you stood between Dad and the TV.

I had another one in mind, but now I've forgotten it!

KARL'S MISC TEN

MEMORIES & QUOTES . . .

1. "What do you mean what kind of homemade ice cream are we going to have? There's only one kind -- banana." Tom asked the question and of course, Dad answered it. I believe this was said before this picture was taken. We had our ice cream down in Granny's front yard at 313 West Tyler -- just down the street from us.

2. "That's stealing!" said Dad when he saw me trying to peel a stamp off an envelope that hadn't been cancelled by the post office. He went on to say, "That stamp has already served it's purpose." Just one example of his honesty and integrity.

3. I don't remember Dad singing very much, but sometimes he'd sing on trips in the car. I'm sure he sang other songs, but the only one I can remember is the one about Casey Jones, the train engineer. Anyone else remember other songs that he sang?

4. "You're just throwing away your college education!" This is what Dad told me when I told him I was quitting teaching and going to work for Zale's Jewelry. However, he loved it when Zale's transferred me to McAlester as store manager. In fact, I think he even changed his mind about me throwing away my college education.

5. "My fingers are itching to stir up some dominoes. Want to come over and play some Moon?" He loved to play 3-handed Moon -- a domino game that could be played by 3 or 4 people.

6. "You've got it bad, don't you?" said Dad. -- When I told him on my afternoon off from Zale's that I was going up to Longtown to mow Kathy's yard. (This was the same son who always used the excuse that he couldn't mow because his hay fever was acting up, when Dad would mention mowing his yard when I lived at home.) Of course, this was while Kathy and I were dating (during our long courtship).

7. "What did you do to your hair?" asked Dad. -- Well I'd gotten a permanent and obviously, he didn't like it. In fact, he said that if I did that to my hair again, he'd dye his hair pink. I told him that he might ought to get him some pink dye, because I just might do it again!

Here's two more quotes that Ramona didn't have on her list . . .

8. "Cute as a speckled pup under a red wagon"

9. "I've had bigger scratches than that on my eyeball."

10. I asked Kathy if she had any memories of Dad. She said, "I liked him, but I didn't really get to know him that well. But I think I would have been his pet." She's probably right and she definitely would have been his favorite daughter-in-law.