Going Private.

I've decided to go private with my blog.  I know I don't write much anyway but if you still wish to read the few ramblings I do write let me know.  I will be going private on Wednesday of this week. If you'd like to still keep track, send me your email address or leave a comment and I'll send you an invite.

Locks of Love

Well today I followed in my nieces footsteps and decided to donate my hair to Locks of Love.  Becka donated last year, I think and Rachel donated in April of this year.  Unfortunately I didn't get a before shot of me but here is a picture of how much I got cut off. 

 As you can see (if you click on the picture) I got a little over 16 inches cut off to donate and probably at least another inch or two for the hair style.

And here is a picture of me with my new hair cut.

Giving your hair to locks of love is a really good way to help out those who need wigs due to cancer treatment.  I know for some getting that much hair cut off is pretty traumatic and the hairdresser is always a little worried you will react badly once you see how short your hair is.  I however have never worried about it and it's never been traumatic for me I always say it's just hair it will grow back.  

Thanks to Becka and Rachel for being such an inspiration to me and setting a good example by donating your hair to locks of love.  Thanks girls!!!

First Storm of the Year

California had it's first storm of the winter starting Monday night but really kicking in on Tuesday.  I was at home all day since I had to work Tuesday night.  I listened to the wind and the rain come down.  There is a tree just outside my balcony that was being blown so hard it kept hitting the side of the apartment.  I was worried it was going to break the roof.  As far as I know it didn't.  When I did finally head out to work the storm had subsided and I was able to drive to work without rain or strong wind but I could tell the wind was starting to pick up.  When I turned on to White Rock road just before getting to work I almost hit a downed tree in the road.  There were other trees down and my work lost power for about 10 minutes Tuesday.  The generator kicked in so they were not down at all at least not the computer room.
The news said we got more than 3 inches of rain on Tuesday with winds gusting up to 56 miles an hour.
I went out and took pictures of the downed trees (except for the ones in the road which had been moved by the time I got out in the morning) and thought I would share them with you all.
These first two pictures are of a tree just outside my work and as you can see it just snapped off.  The trunk was probably at least 18 inches wide.

 This tree is in front of the buildings just off White Rock Road in front of my work as you can see it lost a big branch almost half the tree.

 

This tree was just across the street from the previous one and as you can see it took the whole tree down as well as the grass around the trunk.  This was a very large tree as you can see by the building and the cars and people in the background.

 

 As I sat down to write this blog the rain started up again just light at first but all of a sudden it started to just down pour.  I grabbed my camera and headed outside to see if I could get the storm.  Here are a few shots I got.

 

From my balcony but you can't really see just how hard it is raining.

The drainage canal that is "The Creek" for my apartment complex is running high and fast right now.  You can't even see the cement that is the bottom of the canal.

We really need the rain and I just love this kind of weather.  It's just too bad I have to be inside and sleep because I have to work again tonight.  Oh well it's just the beginning of the rainy season so hopefully we will have more great rain storms to come.

I thought I would post some of the pictures I used in the DVD for my parents 50th wedding anniversary.

 

These are just a few of the pictures from the DVD.  I wish I could post the movie here but it's too big to upload.  Anyway this is my family through the years.

Family Reunion

My family got together last week for a mini family reunion. It was to celebrate my parents 50th wedding anniversary which actually was in June but we couldn't get everyone together until August.
It was fun hanging out with my brothers and sister. There are 5 siblings in my family 3 that live in Utah and one brother in Texas and me in Ca. I drove from Ca. on Saturday and picked up my brother and his wife on my way through Vegas since that is the closest airport to Kanab and they were flying in from Texas. My other brother drove down from Riverton on Wednesday and the other two already live in Kanab.
Our plans were kind of loose, we just kind of winged it all week with just a few things on the agenda such as western legions and going to court with my sister(first appearance for her divorce). My mother needed help canning beets so that was our first task on Monday. Carla my sister in law and I proceeded to work on the beets Monday morning and got them all canned and had a blast doing them. Tuesday we went to St George for a doctors appointment for my mother and did the food shopping for the rest of the week. Wednesday was pretty quiet I spent the day mostly setting up and trying to find the times table tape my parents had when we were kids. It was on a reel to reel tape so I had to set up the player and keep loading different tapes to find the one they wanted. My mother wanted to copy it to the computer so we could make a disk for my niece, to help her out with her multiplication learning. It was fun playing with the old reel to reel even thought it was not completely working and I got a sore arm rewinding the tapes. I should have taken a picture of it. It was all the rage back when I was a kid and my parents used it for recording lots of things. I was also trying to get find and get scanned pictures for a project I had in mind for my parents.
The project was a DVD of the family through the years. Starting with my parents and moving on with the addition of each child up to the present. This was to span the whole 50 years of their marriage. The idea was to keep it a surprise and present it to them with a viewing of the finished project. The only problem was we needed to dig through all my mothers boxes of photos to get what we needed and without them knowing what we were doing. It was not easy but we did get a couple of chance while the folks were gone to quickly dig through the photos and find what wee needed. Then to scan them and crop for the show that was another adventure. It was a game of cat and mouse to some degree with my sister in law starting the scanning and then helping to distract my parents as I completed the last of the scans. The project turned out pretty good and I know my mother loved it. She asked "Where did you get those pictures?"

I had planned on downloading the pictures from my mother computer but, time just got away from me and I didn't get it done. However my sister in law (who took most of the pictures) did and even posted them on her blog so to see our adventure please check out her blog page at http://texasbischoffs.blogspot.com/

It was a week of working on computers and tapes and canning as well as having fun with each other. I think a good time was had by all and if you know my family you know we always have a good time.

4th of July

My brother and his family come out to visit for the 4th of July weekend. It was a surprise to me because I had just visited with them last month and they didn't say anything about coming for a visit over the Holiday. Last year we went up to Rucker Lake for the 4th and it was a lot of fun so that is where we went again this year.

The kids love to swim and canoe around the lake. I didn't get many pictures while we were there because I spent most of my time in the water swimming with the kids. However we did get a few.

The boys did a little fishing (catch and release) and Matty was the best catching 3 fish. We are guessing it was the same fish 3 times but hey that's ok he did it 3 times. Here are a few pictures of the fishermen.

Adam and Scott with the first fish to be caught they got by just dragging the line behind them as they rowed back to shore.
It was a beautiful day on the lake and all the kids had a great time. After all the water activities we went up to the eating area and had dinner as well as a pinata breaking. Because it is also Grandpa Sheppicks birthday Dan brought a pinata for the kids to break. It was fun for all. As you can see the Piñata was shapped like a motercycle.

I had a video to upload but I guess blogspot can't handle the size so I'll have to figure something else out to share the piñata fun.

After we had fun at the lake we went back home and enjoyed the neighbor fireworks. No one wanted to fight the traffic to go see the big fireworks at the mall. We just played with light sticks in the front yard of the Sanders house. The kids had a blast, Rachel called it a poor mans fireworks because we got the light sticks at the dollar store. To end the evening Adam wrote this in the street with the light sticks.