Santa & Snowmen

We have always had this Santa in our Christmas tree. Dedie got it from her mom. It was always in her Christmas tree when she was growing up.













And Dedie has this thing for snowmen. Here are a couple.

The May family Christmas Letter

Note: We are sending the following information (with a few more pictures of grandkids) out as our Christmas newsletter (maybe a little late) this week.


We’ve had a busy December, although probably no busier than anyone else. We’ve enjoyed reading the Christmas letters we’ve received but didn’t ever quite get this ready to send, and here it is Christmas day, but we decided to send it anyway. Hope you have a great & prosperous 2008.

This picture was taken in July at the San Diego Temple. Our son Joey (fifth child in the family) is in the center with his bride Kimberly

Our oldest, Naomi is on the left with her husband Dan and two of their daughters, Sophia (2) (in Dan’s arms) and Sabrina (4). Their oldest, Sariah (7) is in front of Joey. Naomi & Dan and their girls live near Mesa Arizona. Dan is an accountant (a bean counter). Naomi had her fourth child, Savanah, December 1. They’re doing great. We wished they lived closer.



Our second daughter Katie & her husband Bill and their three children (Charlie (6), Caisa (4), Calvin (1.5) (pictured here) have lived in Okinawa for the past three years. Bill is a pilot in the Air Force (he flies the KC-135, a refueling plane). They weren’t able to make it to the wedding. Our wish that they lived closer is coming true (kind of). They were transferred back to the states (to Grand Forks North Dakota) this month.

Susan and her husband Chris (our 3rd daughter) are next in the picture with their daughter Hattie. Susan & Chris live in Salt Lake City where they are both going to school. We wish they lived closer too, however they live just a couple of blocks from the Salt Lake Temple so it’s nice to have a place to hang out when we go to Salt Lake City.

Next comes Russ & Dedie (proud parents of this family). We’re still in Pasco Washington. Russ continues to work for the Church Educational System and Dedie works for the school district. We love living here and are grateful for email, family blogs, and phone calls to stay close to our far flung children. Unfortunately lap time with our grandchildren is limited, but we like living here and hope that some of our children will eventually live closer. This is a nice area to live in with its temperate climate and a temple close by.

Joey and Kimberly, the bride and groom in the above picture, were married July 14 in the San Diego temple. They live in Salt Lake City where Joey is finishing up at the University of Utah and studying to take the LSAT, hoping to get into a law school next year. Kimberly is teaching a couple of English classes at the Salt Lake Center for BYU. They’ll be giving us our 10th grandchild (a son) in May.

Next in line in the wedding photo are Matthew (4th child) and his wife Nicole. They were married June 2006 in the Bountiful Temple. They live in Fort Lauderdale Florida with their new baby Rylin (not pictured , born Sept 15). Matthew is working in construction (installing hurricane proof windows) and Nicole has taken a leave from school teaching to be a mom. We wish they lived closer, although it was fun to visit them in October to meet their new daughter and be there for her baby blessing.
Next in the picture is my sister Shirley who was in California visiting her son & his family.

Our last child and the last person in the picture is Jackie (18). She’s a Senior this year and is hoping that this is her last year at home (for awhile). She’ll be off to school next fall (possibly to LDS Business College). She’s a joy to have home with us. We’ll miss her a lot when she goes off to school.

The Mays

Susan's Birthday

Yesterday was Susan's birthday. I scanned a few photos and have added a few from our computer to make this slideshow to celebrate the occasion. One thing I've noticed about Susan. She smiles a lot.
Love Dad

Night joggers

Jackie & I have been running together, usually running a two mile route.
Last night we ran in this season's first snow fall. It didn't snow very much but there was enough snow so that we left tracks in the snow where we had run.

Jackie's new "doo"

Jackie cut her hair off!!
Here's a picture.
We'll post more later.
Dad

What UTL stands for

Thanks for your great guesses. (See especially Jack's with both posts.)
I'm surprised no one guessed "U The Lady!!". Actually UTL stands for that important phrase in Matthew 25:40 where it says as we do some act of service "unto the least" of these my brethren we have done it unto the Savior. What a great name for a super hero -- Unto The Least.
Dad

What does UTL stand for?

Jackie is on the Seminary Student Council and they are making a powerpoint presentation to introduce themselves to the students. They were supposed to supply a baby picture, a current picture and a Superhero picture. I think some of them were things like Chose The Right Charlie, Keep the Commandments Kelly, Let your Light Shine Sam or whatever. Jackie decided on the acronym UTL. I'm enjoying the guesses. (see some of the guesses and Jackie's superhero picture in the next blog). I'd like some more. Maybe someone will figure it out. It has something to do with one of the 100 Scripture Mastery Scriptues.
Dad

Here are a couple of pictures of Jackie with her new outfit.
She's decided to be a superhero. What do you think?

Jackie's Homecoming

This past weekend was Pasco High's Homecoming game and dance. They lost the game :( but the dance was nice. Here's a picture of Jackie & her date, Justin Wamsley.

In Florida

Mom & I are in Florida. We're hating it! (Tastes like medicine!)
We're happy to be here with Matthew and Nicole, but Rylin is the "main attraction."
Here are some pictures.



Love Dad and Mom

Early morning shots of CRT Temple

I took these pictures this morning at the temple. When I can I like to go to the temple early Saturday morning and do a session of initiatories. This morning I had the idea to take the camera and tripod along. I'm glad I did.
Dad

Comments

Jackie pointed out to me that one of my "setup" adjustments was keeping people from leaving comments on our Blog. Well I went and changed it because I've been wondering why I haven't gotten any comments [is that vain?]. So feel free to comment! (and, speaking of birthdays, enjoy the following cartoon.)

Naomi is a year older

In honor of Naomi's birthday (August 31) I scanned some pictures. I did this for Katie's birthday and figured I needed to do the same for our other children (so beware). I'm still learning. Some of the scanned photos are a little fuzzy. But if you look past the quality, when that's an issue, and look at what the picture is about then it's a fun journey through the past to view these pictures and think about how things were "way back when". So either enjoy the slide show or click on it and go to our picasa web album where you can check out the pics in larger format.
Happy Birthday Naomi
Love Dad

20 years and 2 seconds!

The other day Jackie decided she was going to "fix" my cup. So she put some superglue on the top rim of it. It's a little jagged and has a crack in it and I guess she thought she was doing me a favor. Or at least that is what she said. Well, she didn't tell me what she was doing and I used the cup to get a drink and got super glue on my lips. They didn't stick together or anything but I wore the glue for awhile and it was a litle annoying. I told her I'd had that cup for twenty years and she had ruined it in two seconds. Luckily I was able to scrape the glue residue off of the cup so I can still use it. Then I was looking at some old pictures and, sure enough, I did have the cup twenty years ago. Here's proof, a picture that was taken in 1986.
Dad

Flowers

I wish the flower garden could have looked like this for Joey & Kimberly's wedding.

A new "trick!"

I went to Utah on Wednesday and came back today (Saturday). This was going to be a "low budget" trip so I packed my food for the trip down so I wouldn't have to stop. On a "wild hare" I threw two frozen burritos in and some tin foil. For lunch (and again for dinner) I wrapped a burrito in tin foil and then put it on top of the metal (can't think of what it's called) cover that is over the exhaust manifold. There's a motor lifting hook right there close by so I wrapped the tail end of the foil around that to keep it from falling off of the motor while I was driving down the road. The first one I did for 15 minutes and it was warm. For dinner I left it on for 30 minutes and it was nice and hot but a little dry. I guess I'll have to experiment with this a little. On the way home today Joey and Kimberly and I drove up to Logan to see Dad and left there about 10:30 am. I stopped in Tremonton and got a fruit drink to hold me over and then stopped at Walmart in Mountain Home to get something for lunch. (Remember this is "low budget.") I got a couple of pieces of fruit and was looking over the frozen stuff for something I could heat up under the hood. I found a frozen TV dinner that was on sale for 98 cents! so I nabbed it up. I wrapped it in the tin foil and hooked the corner of the tin foil around the motor hook. The package said to bake it at 350 for 30-45 minutes. I figured the under side of the car would be more like 250 or less so I left it there for an hour and ate it at a road side rest just over the Oregon border. It was great! It was cooked all the way through. In fact a few of the kernels of corn were a little burnt. So that's my new "trick." (Here's a picture of my frozen dinner so you'll know I'm not making this up.)
Dad.

I missed Katie's birthday!

I went online last night and looked at Katie & Bill's blog and hit myself in the forehead when I realized that I had missed Katie's Birthday! So to make it up I spent a little time scanning some "old" pictures that I thought she might enjoy seeing. Katie had the unfortunate luck that Mom and I were almost always gone to the CES Symposium on her birthday so we'd have to celebrate it late. Please note the first picture of her and her cake on her 2nd birthday -- proof that she did get cake on her birthday. The other pictures are some fun random pictures that show her "growing up." We did the best we could on her and then we handed her off to Bill. What she's been able to become since then is their "fault." Enjoy the pics. Hope you had a great day Katie. Love Dad

p.s. If you click on the pictures, then click on the picasa emblem in the bottom RH cornter, then click on "Katie's birthday" you can go to our picasa website and see the pictures in a larger size (with captions) at your own speed.

Looking better

Years ago Dedie's Dad John made her a wishing well, brought it to our house from Pennsylvania, and set it up in our back yard. It was made completely out of wood, some of it wood scraps that he had, and eventually the base of it rotted out and I had to take off the roof and set it aside, hoping that some day I could use it again. Well it has sat by the back fence for a few years. This year, in anticipation of Joey and Kimberly's wedding reception I got the idea that maybe we could make a new wishing well out of rocks and put the roof John made on top of it.


So that is what we did earlier this spring. We were quite pleased with the results. At the same time we decided to make half the garden into a flower garden with a gravel path running through it. It turned out pretty and looked pretty good in time for the reception. Unfortunately we didn't get the Zinnias planted soon enough and so most of them weren't in bloom. But they're in bloom now and look pretty nice.



Time to have another reception (just kidding) :)

In case you're interested, here's a few more garden pictures
(You may need to copy the URL into your web address line.)
http://picasaweb.google.com/DedieMay/Garden

Old Town San Diego

Another place we visited in California was Old Town San Diego. Here are a few pictures.

Pasco Reception

Here are a few pictures from the Pasco Wedding reception.
We didn't take very many pictures of the bride and groom (we got enough of those at the temple ["get kind of tired of the subject"] but we got a few pictures of those who helped and some of those who came.

Downtown San Diego

We went to San Diego for Joey & Kimberly's wedding. While we were there we did some other fun things. Here are some pictures from downtown San Diego and the waterfront where they have a famous Air Craft Carrier parked (can't remember its name)

Joey & Kimberly's wedding

We had a wonderful day at the San Diego Temple yesterday. Joey & Kimberly were married at 2:00 p.m. All of the May children were there with their children except for Katie & Bill and their kids. Jackie stayed outside the temple with Sariah, Sabrina, & Sophia Bosted and Hattie Petersen. The sealer did a wonderful job. After the ceremony we took pictures outside (nice job on the flowers Naomi!) and then there was a reception at Kimberly's house in Escandito in the evening. When they were decorating the car they were looking for some cans. Matthew had a pop can in their car. That didn't seem like enough so he also found three water bottles. So as Joey and Kim drove off in their car with "Just Married" written with shaving cream on the back window, the car was trailed by one pop can and three water bottles bouncing along behind. Check out these pictures.

Wedding Day

We're staying at Encinitas in California. Our motel is just a couple of blocks from the ocean. We've had fun playing in the water. All of our kids are here with us except for Katie & Bill and their kids. Today is Joey & Kimberly's wedding day. I woke up at 5:00 this morning and drove the 20 minutes to the San Diego temple to take a few "this is my wedding day" pictures. Here's my favorite. We'll post more wedding pictures (and other pictures of our trip) later.
Russ

July 4th Block party

We had our annual block party on July 4th. This year we ate under our carport because it was too hot to gather in the middle of the street. We had lots of food, spent the day talking, the little kids swam in the pool, and had the inevitable water fight. Here's some photos.

http://picasaweb.google.com/DedieMay/70407

There's a story behind the last three photos of Alex Bedoya. He had systematically dumped a bucket of water on everyone who was still dry. One of the last ones he got was his wife Lisa. So later she asked Miguel to fill up his bucket with the icy water from one of the ice chests and get Alex with it. You can tell from Alex's expression how cold the water was.

Grandma rocks!!

Grandma has been walking, 8 miles three days a week and 5 miles the other days. Well, you know how much she likes rocks. "Oh Russ, look at those cool rocks." Well she was on her way to her walk and passed a construction sight and asked a worker about some of the rocks he had dug up and he said he'd gladly deliver them to her house. So he brought his loader and dropped them in our driveway. The only problem is--who are we going to move them (and where will we put them?)? I think we'll just tie a pink ribbon on them for the wedding reception and call that good enough.

Guess who??

Recognize this head??

Whose handsome head could this be?


Click on this link to see.

http://picasaweb.google.com/DedieMay/MiscPics


We found out there is a difference between the #4 haircut attachment and the #2.

But that's ok. Hair grows out and some people have said that they think it makes me look younger!

(Actually, go check out the pictures that Susan & Chris took at Disney World and you'll find my twin -- Matthew).

Dad

House facelift

We've been doing some remodeling. It all started when mom got the idea that she'd like to sell the house last fall. We did some painting downstairs (painted all the doors white like we did upstairs) and we decided it was time to remodel our bathroom upstairs. (Take a look for yourself!)

First we tore out the paneling that was around the tub and the window & I replaced the window and mom got some tile to put on the walls and the floor (a great sale at Home Depot -- $1.00 a tile). I tried painting a new finish on the old tub (twice) but the results were lowsy so we decided we needed a new tub and started saving for one. Then we special ordered one from Home Depot. Then I tore out the tub. Then I sanded off the old paint mess that had always pealed (latex on top of oil base) and re-plastered the walls and we primed and painted them. And when the new tub arrived I tore up the floor. The floor around the toilet was all wet so we called in a plumber to replace the toilet drain pipe where it connects to the toilet and they said they'd set in the tub and do the plumbing for me. I asked them for a bid to replace all the pipe in the house (to get rid of the old galvanized pipe) and they gave me a price I thought I could live with and they went to work. They also replaced the front and back faucets and hooked up the fridge so the water and ice dispensers now work (yea!). Then last week mom & I started hanging tile (I previously hung the backer board and last night we tiled the floor and today mom grouted it. It turned out great! (see photos) We still have some work to do on it but we're excited with the results so far. This link will take you to some photos of our ongoing project.

Mom & Dad

http://picasaweb.google.com/DedieMay/Remodeling

Father's Day pics

I just started "blogging" today so I don't really know what I'm doing. I did a quick browse through some of the pictures we have on our computer and found some that caught my eye. Unfortunately the results are are not even. Looks like there might be more pictures of Matthew and Sabrina this time. I'm going to do this again. It seems a shame to have a bunch of nice pictures on our computer and not share them. Next time I'll feature someone else. This time I just wanted to find some random pictures of my children and grandchildren. I tried to catch everyone. I'm grateful for my family. Hope you enjoy looking at these pictures. Just click on the link below. I'll have to have Susan teach me how to have the picture showing.
Love Dad

http://picasaweb.google.com/DedieMay/OurFamily02

Father's Day Tribute to my kids

It's Father's Day 2007.

It takes a child to make a Dad. We were lucky enough to have six! Six kids! How does that happen? Well I guess I know how it happens, but it's still amazing to me how we all get together in a family and how we get to know each other and grow to love one another and the experiences we have together. I'm really proud of my children and grand children and with what they are doing (although having another teenager in the house has it's moments :).

I'm looking forward to being with all of you (I guess except Katie & Bill) in the San Diego Temple with Joey and Kimberly in July. And I know that Katie & Bill would be there if they could. To my mind this is the mark of success. This is, as they say, what it's all about. So, Naomi, Katie, Susan, Matthew, Joey, and Jackie ... thanks for being our children, thanks for being such good people, thanks for working to receive your own testimony of the gospel and for working to make a contribution in the kingdom, and thanks for the love you express and show to me and your mom. And to those who have joined our family -- Dan, Bill, Chris, Nicole, and soon Kimberly (along with Sariah, Sabrina, Sophia, Charlie, Cajsa, Calvin, Hattie, Rylann (soon) and "the other little bambino :), I love each of you and and I'm glad you're part of our family.

Love Dad.

Happy Father's Day!!

Today, at the end of Sacrament meeting the primary children were excused and the fathers and grandfathers asked to stand. The primary children came back in and delivered to the fathers and grandfathers a hand made tie and a candy bar! The ties were decorated by the primary children the week before. They were classy! All of the brethren wore them throughout the day. (Some had more than one tie, one for each of their primary children, but all of us had at least one).

In Matthew & Nicole's ward the Bishop stood and wondered about the fairness of Mothers getting flowers on Mother's Day and the Fathers not getting anything on Father's Day. He then said his counselors would be at the doors as everyone left the chapel and would give every father an official Father's Day High Five! (Wow!)

Then, when I got home I received this wonderful greeting from my adorable Arizona grandchildren.

Thanks tons Sariah, Sabrina, and Sophia!! You made my day!

Love Dad, Grampa (Papa May).

A New Adventure

It's Father's Day 2007.
I've decided to follow my daughter Susan's lead and create a "Blog."
I've wanted to have a place where I could post pictures I have taken, talk to Grandkids, share musings (humorous and/or spiritual), communicate with my children, etc. Maybe this can be such a place. I hope so.