Shout Outs!

When I used to play basketball in college my coach always had us point to the person who threw us the pass or assisted us in making the play, so today I would like to send some shout outs to the people in my life that made my visit to see Meagan in Utah last week successful. I'll start out by thanking Richard, the goofball and huge support in my life who didn't even blink an eye when I said that I wanted to go and made all of the flight arrangements in addition to driving me to the airport. You are the best!

Another shout out goes to Allie who was in charge of the house and the children while I was gone and did a most excellent job. Allie is lots of fun and the kids love it when she is in charge. Thanks, Allie!

I even heard that Allie went to see her boyfriend, Jack, while I was gone and bought lunch for everyone from Jack in the Box as a special treat.

The trip definitely couldn't have happened without this great guy. This is my father-in-law, Bill, who worked at Delta for a LOT of years so that we could have the nice perks of flying.

So, I went to see Meagan in Utah so that I could encourage her while she wrote her 73 page teacher work sample that was due this past Monday. It definitely was not a party, but we did have a lot of fun talking to each other. Well, mostly I just talked to Meagan and she did a lot of mumbling to herself while she wrote.

This is Meagan at the beginning of the semester and it was her first day teaching first grade.

Now, two months later she is beginning to feel a little squeezed like this tube of toothpaste. In case you are wondering, yes, this is an actual tube that Meg has been using. Who would have known she was a squeezer? But, I guess it's better to take your frustration out on a tube of toothpaste than other people, right?

We stayed at this hotel because it had free WiFi and that is what we needed.

Books like these were stacked all over the hotel room while Meg worked her magic. It took a lot of sources to make 73 pages of magic happen and Meagan knew just where to turn.

We were so busy we didn't even have time to swim in the pool, not that we thought we really would, it's still cold in Utah.

We didn't even turn on the t.v. once.

This is how many cucumbers it will take during the rest of this semester for Meagan to get rid of..................

the dark circles under her eyes. In fact, they might actually be permanent, but if anyone can work them, it's Meg.

Meg, thanks for letting me come to Utah and cheer you on while you got one step closer to graduating in April.

Fantastic February

February isn't even over yet, but I am already thinking that there have got to be more than 28 days in this month because it seems like it is lasting forever. We have been busy and it seems like we have packed half a year into this month. We started out the month having all of Richard's family come over for our first of the month rotating F.H.E. dinner. We had lots of fun visiting with each other and catching up and celebrating a very cute 4 year old's birthday. Happy Birthday Brinlee!

This is probably my favorite picture taken in the month of February. This is the peach tree in our backyard in full bloom and promising me that peach juice will be running down my face by the beginning of June. February is the month of love and I love this tree.

The first Saturday in February I got to spend the morning talking to these two cute girls, Eden and Delia. These are my sister, Sandra's grandchildren. They got to come to our house while their parents were working at the MCC Rose Garden to earn Disneyland tickets for the Disney Day Of Service. Their parents thought I was doing them a favor, but it was pretty much the other way around. No offense, Meagan, but these two girls were way better than the 2 grandroaches that you have offered to let me call Grandma. Boy, did I have fun with these girls.

Just when you think it couldn't get any better, we talked their Mom into letting their little sister stay with us also. This is Gwen and she is beautiful. Lucky me for getting to spend the morning with all 3 of these cute girls.

On Monday, the 8th of February, my parents and I set off on a road trip to St. George, Utah. I have 2 brothers that live there and it is also where I was born. We had an enjoyable trip and lots of fun seeing all of the snow that we encountered.

If you asked my family who my parents favorite is they would all say me, but we all know that it is their 6th child, Tipper, that they love the most. This dog eats better than most movie stars and her wish is their command. She also accompanied us on our journey.

While in St. George for the week, my brother Kenneth and his wife Mary let me use this fun little Nissan. It was lots of fun and I really enjoyed my week.

I had time to go to the St. George temple and do a couple of sessions and that was really nice.

While in St. George I also had fun visiting my brother Dave, his wife, Sue and some of his cute grandchildren. These are pictures of 2 of his grandsons and we sure did have a lot of fun together doing crafts and playing with cars.

Here are some pictures of SOME of the pets that my brother, Dave has at his house. Can you believe this turtle? It is going to be 150 pounds when it is full grown.

Dave has 2 dogs that look very similar. One is named Bob and the other is named Stanley. He also has a cat and a huge tank of exotic fish.

This is my niece, Holly, and I am sure that she could get a job at a zoo feeding the animals if she really wanted to.

We went home by way of Jacob's Lake. I don't know why it is called this because I don't even think there is a lake there, but it sure was fun to see the beautiful snow and even some icicles. That is definitely something you never see in Mesa, Arizona.

This isn't an actual picture of a St. George mountain, but it reminds me of one because the dirt and the hills are red in St. George. Something that my family in Arizona misses.

I'm not sure everyone even knows what these are. We brought these home as a souvenir of the trip - pine nuts. When I was little we used to drive to the forest where my Dad would put tarps under the pine trees and then climb them and shake them so that we could gather these yummy nuts. Definitely a Utah thing.

Allie, Sarah, Paige and Kaylee had fun on Valentine's Day delivering valentines and singing at a nursing home.

Then on President's Day we invited the Priest Quorum in our Ward to come for a big breakfast and then they all headed to the temple to do baptisms. That was fun.

Later in the day the girls and I headed out to do a little shopping. We didn't buy much of anything, but we had a fun day together.

Then on Tuesday, February 16th, we were off to the cardiologist's office for a check-up. Not everyone's favorite activity.

All was well at the check-up and Allie and Paige posed with the Ronald McDonald that sits outside of the Phoenix Children's Hospital for a photo opportunity. Matt declined the photo opportunity, but agreed to take the pictures. I'm headed back to Utah at the end of this week for some more fun in the snow and a quick visit with Meg. We hope your February was just as fantastic!

Valentine's Day and the Word Roof :)

This is Miss Cluff...aka: "Teacher, Teacher"...aka: Meagan. I was so busy planning lessons and figuring out where to fit in our Valentine's Day party that I completely forgot that I would get valentines too. We had a great day, the students sure brought a lot of treats for everyone! Wow!

My students had a good laugh today. I was telling a story and said "Then they climbed on top of the roof..." and I got the weirdest looks. My students said "Miss Cluff, what did you say?" I repeated myself and they said "Do you mean roof?" I thought that I had said that...turns out I say the word "ruff" instead of "roof." My students say I say the word the same way you would describe a dog's bark...ruff, ruff, ruff. Ha! Ha! I'm glad I have my 1st graders to set me straight. They're teaching me just as much (if not more) than I'm teaching them!

This Weekend Was Just Rosie!

On Saturday we got up with the sun so that we could go and work at the MCC Rose Garden and earn our free tickets to Disneyland. We signed up on January 1st and Disney advertised this promotion as give a day of service and get a day at Disney, but who are they kidding, if you are getting into Disneyland for free you really aren't performing service.


Our first stop on the way to MCC was at this beautiful house so that we could pick up our fun cousin, Annie, who will appear in the majority of the following pictures.

Paige and Kaylee are just waiting to begin trimming the roses.

Annie and I start the day with a hug.

I like to think that Annie likes me the best, but when Richard is around she doesn't even know who I am.

>This is a picture of Annie showing us that she likes her Uncle Richard soooo much that her leg pops up every time she hugs him. What charisma he must have!

Here is Annie showing her cousin love for Paige.

It takes 3 pictures to get Matt and Richard to stop moving around and smile and then this is the smile that we get from Matt. Is that the best he can do?

Here is Sarah looking into the big green dumpster at all of the rose clippings.

These cute cousins were born exactly 2 weeks apart. They are having birthdays in the next few weeks and they will both be turning 16, how exciting!

Our 3 teenage cousins had lots of laughs together.

Too bad Matt is your cousin Annie.

It didn't take us long to turn the garden into this rose wasteland. It is hard to believe that they actually wanted us to do this to the rose garden, but don't worry, the roses will be blooming and beautiful again by March or April. We had lots of fun even though we all got stuck with bunches of thorns and yes, we were all wearing gloves. No wonder they charge so much for these flowers at the store!