How time flies or wow where did the year go?

I can't believe Thanksgiving has come and gone. Wow, this has been a fast year and we haven't even done much other than work and work some more. I will post our Christmas newsletter soon.

the Graduate

So last week was incredibly busy. We drove to Logan on Tuesday for the Senior Art Exhibit for Kellyn. Grandma Bailey went down with us and we took Raegan too. We met Melissa there to trade Raeggie back. She had been up here for a couple of days because Steve and Melissa have both been sick. Her portfolio looks great and that is not just me that has told her that. Check it out at www.kellynbailey.com or her New York project kellynbailey.com/nyc

Wednesday, I had stake Leadership Meeting with strawberry shortcake for refreshments and I had the leadership part of the training as my assignment. Thursday I was back cooking to get ready for the picnic after graduation. Chicken salad croissants, ham and cheese wraps and chicken caesar warps plus a graduation cake for Heather, Kellyn's roommate. Melissa made the cake for Kellyn with Derek's brainstorming help. Crazy family cake competition!!! I used rolled fondant for the first time on Heather's cake. Melissa is the pro with that.

Friday was temple night for the stake for stake conference but we didn't make it, we were load ing the car and finishing the food for the picnic, and getting the grandparents ready to go.

Saturday weather looked great sunny with clouds but the closer we got to Logan the more rain we got into. Arghh! the rain was supposed to stop by afternoon but, NO, it didn't. She graduated summa cum laude in Graphic Design and wore bright blue shoes with her cap and gown (Aggie Pride?!?). It is all about the shoes at graduation, she told me that when she graduated from high school. She was part of the College of HASS (Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences). By far the largest college on campus, but they hustled them through quickly and all of us out the door so the next college could graduate. It was still raining like crazy so our picnic relocated to The Loft. Thank you Justin Hamilton! He had a wedding upstairs and an empty room downstairs he let us use. Grandma and Grandpa Morris did make it but were tired by the time we got home. Grandma Bailey and Aunt Sunny drove down with us too. I think we were all tired.

We are proud of Kellyn and all her work, efforts and accomplishments as an undergraduate. She has done well. Her professor said it all, "She is extraordinarily talented!" The future is her open book. Good luck, we love you and will always be there for you. Go Kel!

Bailey Eastertime

We have had an Easter tradition for as long as I can remember with the kids. It involves hiding eggs (not real ones) in places as creatively as possible in the house. I think we were only able to have an outdoor egg hunt once a very, very long time ago, hey, it's Idaho in the springtime. We still hunt eggs even though the kids are adults. The Easter Bunny hid eggs this year as well. Not all were found so there are still some hidden, yet to be found months or years later. We did find a couple of eggs from previous years this year. The jelly beans were pretty much petrified but that's ok because it's all about the hunt.

Another family quirk is the Peeps controversy. Fresh Peeps - ick! Aged Peeps - ahhh!! Also, the ducks are better than the bunnies. This year I tried a new trick with peeps. S'meeps, which are making s'mores sacrificing peeps (thanks to my cousin Colette Kelley). I gave it a little more pizazz by adding to the Hersey bar some Cadbury mini eggs peeking out from under the peep. It was a warm, gooey, colorful creation. One was enough, until next Easter.

Carnival of the Animals or Weekend in Idaho

So Carsen and Raegan got to spend a couple of days with us a few weeks ago. It was fun to have both of them here. We fed the cute little ducks down by the falls and yelled a lot at the geese. This also involved a great flurry of kicking action and much yelling by a five year old to keep from being over run by aggressive geese. It didn't seem to phase Raegan at all but Carsen was not loving the large and obnoxious birds so much.

Later the same day we went out to see if Piper's and Tai's cat had had kittens. She hadn't so we drove down the road a ways and saw a baby donkey, baby horses, and a little Shetland, plus a bunch of big horses. The kids were very impressed by the vocal skills of the daddy donkey. Boy could he "hehaw" and very loudly. Carsen does a pretty fair imitation and I'm sure that he is working on perfecting it. The kittens were born the day after we had been there. We'll have to see them next time.

All in all, we had a very animalrific kind of day. Lots of fun to watch the kids. Who needs the zoo, all you need to do is come to Idaho in the springtime and hope like crazy it's not snowing!!

ARGHHHH ! ! ! !

Some days are just the pits. Yesterday the wind blew so hard and so long that I thought I would never get warm again. That is Idaho in March. I wonder why I choose to live here. It was below zero all day with the wind chill. That's ridiculous!

Today was warmer, the sun shone - hurray - but other frustrations rained on my parade. Arghhh!!! Maybe tomorrow (which technically is here because it now after midnight) will be sunny, windless and alright. Or maybe I'll just pull the covers over my head and just stay in bed.

Bailey Baby Boarding School

I have been scolded for not blogging, but I really have a hard time thinking of what to write. Last week was a fun week, so I'll share that.

We had Raegan for most of the the week. Her mom and dad said she was being sent to baby boarding school, aka "school for terrible twos". However, she is not terrible but she is two and that can be challenging. We had fun. Building towers with LocBlocs was great. She loved watching Blue's Clues, Carsen is not interested in that anymore. She liked Grandpa's jelly beans at his office and Adele's and Cathy's treats they always give her. I know. . . we all spoil her. She had Marshmallow Mateys for breakfast every morning, mostly the marshmallows. She liked calling the shots and not having to share that task with her brother. She really loved puzzles, sometimes it was more fun taking them apart than putting them back together. Bandaids are a magic cure for anything that hurts. Kisses work pretty well too. She likes to cook, we made "puffy pancakes", German pancakes, and she stirred so long that they were rather flat. It is fun being Headmistress Grandma!!!! So boarding school is in session any time they need it.

Arghhhh - computers eat my time!!

Ok, yes! I now have a blog as requested. But I really don't have much time to spend thinking up interesting stuff upon which to comment. Sorry! I find that with the website I am working on, and the random lists going around that I am trying to answer, and the lesson I am preparing for Sunday, I spend WAY too much time sitting on my butt in front of a computer ( not so good for the butt). I really shouldn't complain, Kellyn spent 9 hours yesterday in the computer lab. Wow!

However, I will comment on the website project. It is driving me crazy. I have spent this week at work trying to input product that I really don't have the correct numbers for or even have a clue about because we don't have that product line in the warehouse here in IF, just up in MT. Then the price sheet I have is 2 years out of date. So the numbers I have don't coordinate with the product's website or the price sheets. ARGHHH!!! . . . and it is snowing again. I guess I'll go shovel snow instead.

I Guess It's Time

My daughter has been telling for ages to start a blog. So here it is Melissa. She was the one who set me up on facebook too. What would we do without kids to help us embrace the technology of the 21st century. Dave has no interest in blogs or facebook, email really just annoys him. Probably because he doesn't spend much time in front of his computer. It is much easier for him to grab mail or a fax as he dashes through on his way to where he needs to going next. I do spend more time on the computer. So anyway here we are, Dave and Marcia but I think it will mostly be Marcia.