Russ & Dedie May

Yea Jotul stoves

2012-01-29T16:26:00.000-08:00

We had a Jotul coal burning stove in Delta years ago that we loved. We didn't have any way to have a stove in Pasco so we heated our house with an electric furnace and heat pump which raised our electric bill about 150 a month each winter. Well here in the east, with some of the most expensive electricity in the nation everyone heats with oil or gas and most spend 300 to 500 a month in the winter to heat their house. So we got another Jotul stove, this time a wood burner and it's been great! It's heated our house. The only time I have used our gas (LP-propane) furnace was a couple of weekends ago when I went to Utah for the weekend. We have an on demand gas water heater and gas dryer and will have a gas cook top when we get the cabinets done and the cook top installed but hope that use will be minimal. And around here with all the woods I've been able to collect all the wood I've needed, just had to rent a splitter to split it. The wood stove is a real blessing.

New family pic, I love Photoshop

2012-01-29T14:59:00.001-08:00

Matthew and Nicole went to Utah for a vacation in January. They rented a house and we all gathered there for the Martin Luther King weekend. Naomi and her kids came down from Washington. The rest of our kids are in Utah except Katie's family. Unfortunately they couldn't make it (they're in Spain). So we took a new family pic. Chris set up his tripod and took three shots. Then I used photoshop to get what I think is the best shot of everyone. Here are some of the "out takes" plus the final project. Not a bad pic!

New house pix

2012-01-29T14:19:00.000-08:00

Matthew came up from Florida and spent a weekend in December and hung all the inside doors except a couple of closet doors and 4 doors in the basement. Plus he trimmed all the windows. This was a huge undertaking since the first floor of our house has 13" walls (and 13" deep window sills) because it was first built out of cinder block then we furred out the inside walls with 2x4 walls so we could re-wire and properly insulate them. Plus we have quite a few windows upstairs. After he left I finished trimming a couple of windows and put down all the baseboards. I had 5 doors to hang. When I got done two of them didn't close right. Guess I won't give up my day job. But I fixed them. Our last two cabinets (that we had to special order) come in this weekend. Then we can finish the kitchen. Then all we have is a bunch of painting and the deck. Almost there. Here are some pics. The first couple of pics are of a snow storm we had last weekend that fell on Saturday and melted on Monday. Kind of like being back in the Tri-Cities. It's been unusually warm this winter. I think it's all that hot air from the politicians.

scary pics

2011-11-05T17:43:00.000-07:00

These are late Halloween pics. the first is of Sadie. I don't think we've ever posted any pics of her since she lost her eye. In case you haven't heard, Dedie was at her dad's and Sadie came to close to Dedie's dad's dog, Boomer when he was eating a bone and he reached out and bit her on the face and popped her eye out. Dedie made a quick middle of the night trip to the vet hospital at Syracuse. But Sadie has adjusted and is doing fine. Here's the best she can do at looking scary.

And this second pic is of me. We spent a day masking and today I used an airless paint sprayer and primied all the new sheetrock in our house. I guess I could have worn a hat but with everything packed I didn't have one I wanted to ruin so my hair gathered a lot of paint dust. When it was time to come home I could hardly get my sweat shirt on, the hair stuck to the inside of the sweat shirt like velcro. Scary!

Snow in October!

2011-10-31T19:23:00.000-07:00

Saturday it started snowing and continued through the night. Snow is not unusual in New York. The problem was that it came before the fall leaves had a chance to fall off the trees. So the snow stuck to the leaves and many branches and trees came down in the road and sometimes across power lines. We finally got power this evening (Monday) to the apartment where we are living while our house is being worked on but we still don't have power at the house. This first picture is to show that the sheetrockers/tapers are almost done. The others are of snow and or trees. The final shot is the apartment where we are living.

Moving forward

2011-10-02T06:29:00.000-07:00

Things are moving along on our house. There has been a lot of work done inside. The plumbers, electricians & HVAC guys have all done their "rough in" and the stairs were put in this week. As soon as the sideing is done we'll do the insulation then be ready for sheetrock. But this week there have been some dramatic changes to the outside of the house as well. Here are before and after pictures and other miscellaneous pics.

Dedie prepainted the trim boards in the kitchen/great room area of the house.

Front door and new stairway (covered with cardboard to protect it).

Jonathan Castro, who's staying with us for a few weeks, helped Dedie hang the tile on the front of our fireplace. The mantle will be added later. It looks great!

A new rock retaining wall. The rocks were all along the fence line in the back of our property (we have a "never ending" supply). The labor was provided by a couple of men who did a great job.

A 90 foot long, 18 inch deep ditch Jonathan dug to run electrical conduit up to the shed. This is hard digging. Lot's of rocks. Way to go Jonathan!

A couple of weeks ago we split all this wood. The pile we split and stacked is two logs (36") deep, 6 ft high and 25 ft long. A "cord estimator" on the internet estimated 2.9 cord. The whole logs to the left are some we got recently that I'll split later.

West Point Bands Final Concert

2011-09-04T22:31:00.000-07:00

Tonight was the final West Point music under the stars concert series and it was quite a show. But one of the first thoughts I had when I looked around was that it looked like an "over the hill" gang version of Woodstock.

The West Point bands are all professional soldiers who are permanently stationed at West Point to support the cadets by providing music for parades and drills and they also perform for the public as an extension of West Point and the Army.

The first group to perform was the "Hellcats" drum and bugle corp.
The narrator explained that many years ago drums and bugles were sounds that could be heard by soldiers above the noise of the battle and they played some of those bugle calls. It's amazing what they can do with an instrument witout any valves.

Then the Jazz portion of the West Point band performed.

Then the Concert Band

Then some members of the President's Own Army band from Washington D.C. performed some blue grass numbers. They were great!

Then the Concert Band performed their final number the 1812 Overture that was originally written to be accompanied by cannons at one point in the number. They had cannons and fireworks.

Then they played Stars and Stripes with more fireworks. I made a collage of several of the shots I got of the fireworks.

Roof's on

2011-08-21T19:48:00.000-07:00

Roof's on & the doors are in and most the windows are in & the plummer's coming in this week.

the Purple Cow

2011-08-07T11:44:00.000-07:00

Grandma Hunsaker taught elementary school for years.
Through the years it was common to see the following poem along with a picture (I improvised) on one of her bulletin boards.

THE PURPLE COW

by: Gelett Burgess (1866-1951)

NEVER saw a Purple Cow,
I never hope to see one;
But I can tell you, anyhow,
I'd rather see than be one.

Moving along

2011-08-05T19:00:00.000-07:00

The house is moving along. The first pic is from Monday, August 1 and the second from Friday August 5. Rain interrupted their work this week. The porticos (porch covernings) add a nice touch don't you think?

Church in the Bronx

2011-08-03T17:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon I drove down a typical street in the Bronx.

Along one side of the road is an underground parking lot ...

But this isn't an ordinary parking garage, it's parking for the Kingsbridge Ward church building. Actually few members park in the parking garage. Most walk or ride public transportation to church.

Further down the street is a cottage in a park where a famous American author and poet spent the last years of his life. His signature is posted on a sign by a park entrance (Edgar Allen Poe).

Here's the cottage. Notice what's in the background.

This is a better view of this side of the Kingsbridge church building.

The entrance on this street is protected by a steel door that stays down when not in use.

Here's the entrance with the door up (looks like the entrance to a typical church building).

And here's the Institute class I visited last night in the Kingsbridge building. It was Elder and Sister Cropper's last class. They go home tomorrow. Other called teachers and missionary couples will take their place in the important work of blessing the lives of the Young Single Adults in New York City.

A few more pics

2011-07-31T19:53:00.000-07:00

A few more house pics. We were gone cabinet shopping Friday & Saturday so we'll post new pics tomorrow. Here's were they were before we left. Dedie was amazed at their fearlessness as they nailed boards way up high. She always remembers them in her prayers that they'll be safe.

Music Under the Stars

2011-07-31T19:38:00.000-07:00

The West Point Band, adult army officers who serve at West Point to support the cadets, have a concert series in the summer on Sunday night called Music Under the Stars. It's great music in a great setting. Here's a pic of the Jazz Band, the Jazz Knights from a couple of weeks ago, and the Concert Band that performed tonight. Notice the great setting overlooking a bend in the Hudson River.

Raising the roof

2011-07-27T19:01:00.001-07:00

These framers are amazing! Look what they've accomplished in two days!
It rained Monday so the house stayed covered until Tuesday when the upstairs walls were built. Then today they built the roof trusses from scratch. Notice in the fourth picture how the worker is swinging up the long truss boards up against the house. Then they lifted them in place to nail in place. Our house is on a long bend in the road so it really stands out with the second story and tall roof. I guess we won't paint it pink.

Remodel chapter one

2011-07-25T02:29:00.000-07:00

Finally our remodel begins. Last Monday (July 18, 2011) workers came and started cutting off our roof and threw it in a dumpster. By Tuesday we could see sky in every room in our house. Then they put down new ceiling/floor joists then covered it with the subfloor for the second story. They were this far by Thursday (a very hot, humid day). Rain was predicted for Sunday so they skipped Friday and tarped the house for the weekend. Here are pics.

The latest chapter

2011-04-03T15:31:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to try to give a pictoral blow by blow of our life since we moved to New York. I will say that it was a little crazy. We bought a "short sale" house that didn't close until the end of August so we lived in a motel then borrowed Dedie's dad's camper trailer and camped at a state park on the Hudson through the summer. Meanwhile I had an office to set up and a secretary to hire and teachers and priesthood leaders to become acquainted with because mine was a new assignment that incorporated parts of a couple of previous assignments. Then when we finally closed on the house we had a lot of work to do in the yard and on the house. The first week we were there we replaced the ceptic tank and the list is long of all the things we ended up doing in the house. We bought the two bedroom house with the idea that we would save some money back from the down payment and add on a room or two. That was a learning experience in itself. We talked to various contractors, architects and designers and finally ended up with a great designer and the plan is to add a second story with a couple of bedrooms, a family room, and a bathroom. And downstairs we are extending the house a little and moving the kitchen and opening up a wall so the kitchen is connected with a great room. It will be nice when we are done. We had to make some changes to accomodate building codes so we wouldn't have to get a bigger ceptic tank and a new larger drain field and to accomodate the zoning board. But we finally had all that settled and were going to get our building permit on Friday when on Wednesday, February 23 (Dedie's birthday) we had a fire.

Here's what I wrote in an email I sent to family and friends:

We had a fire at our house this past week. It was Dedie’s birthday. Barb Larsen’s daughter Kayleen wondered if we put too many candles on the cake. Here’s what happened:

Wednesday morning I cleaned out the fireplace and put the ash bucket where I’ve kept it all winter, outside the back door where I can reach it easily not realizing there were live coals in the ashes. Then I started a fire for Dedie in the fireplace to take the chill out of the living room (we keep our thermostat set kind of low) and went to work. About 9:30 a man was driving by and saw flames up the side of the house and stopped and banged on the front door. It scared Dedie who was in the bathroom getting ready for a birthday lunch date with a friend. She went to the front door and asked who was there. The man said, “Lady, your house is on fire!” So she got her coat and Sadie and got out of the house. The man called 911 and some fire trucks that were down the road a couple of miles just leaving a house, were there in minutes. Consequently the damage was not near what it could have been if the man had not stopped to warn her and if the trucks would not have been so close.

Dedie called me and I ran out of the office and told Alex Pineda, the LDS Facilities Manager, whose office is next to mine that I was going home because I thought Dedie said our house was on fire. He followed me home and helped me board up a door and window and cover half the roof where they took off the roof caps when the firemen let us go up to the house after they had the fire completely out. Other ward members also came over to help us. The Relief Society President and the friend who was going to go to lunch with Dedie took her to lunch and she came back with a smile on her face.

We’re very grateful for the complete stranger who stopped to bang on our front door and that the fire trucks were so close. They were there in minutes. Consequently the damage was fairly localized in an area that we were going to tear out and change with a remodel we are planning to do. Half the attic trusses are charred. Another few minutes and the whole roof would have been on fire and then the rest of the house. And we also felt blessed by the help from neighbors, professional people and ward members. These are tender mercies from the Lord.

So we’ll be in a motel, then temporary housing for awhile. We’ve been having an adventure since we moved to New York and our house has been part of that adventure. The adventure continues. Life is good.

Trip to NY

2011-04-03T14:19:00.000-07:00

In June the movers loaded up our house and we drove to New York. Dedie drove via Utah to pick up Susan and her kids. I drove via North Dakota (Katie & Bill's) and met up with Dedie at Joey and Kimmie's in Omaha Nebraska. From there we drove to Nauvoo where we met up with my siblinges and their kids who could make it. All our kids were there except the Bosteds who weren't able to make it. Here are some pics. I guess I just have pics at the motel we stayed at. Things were kind of crazy when we got to NY (still are). I'm not sure what happened to my pictures of Nauvoo.

Group shot of all of who could make it to the reunion.

Sharon, Geno & Heather

Shirley & Dave

Russ May family

Dick May family

Marla, Frank, and kids

Sing along in our family talent show

Hintze's playing nose flutes. This was a hit!

Singing the Fish song

Susan, Gus & Sadie with Mississippi River in the background

Hattie & Sadie

Flight over Pasco

2011-04-03T13:28:00.000-07:00

A few days before we left Pasco Jim Fish took me for a flight over Pasco in his airplane. Here are some pics.

Me in front of Brother Fish's plane

The new Parley church building that became the Pasco North Stake center March 2011.

Brother Fish said we were going to do a "touch and go" in a field near President Ferris Naef's house north of Pasco. The sprinklers were on. Brother Fish said that was a first for him.

President Naef's house

The Columbia River near Hanford

The Columbia River Temple

A lot of wonderful memories from this wonderful place.

A great shot of the Cable Bridge

The Blue Bridge

The Pasco Stake Center

Our home in Pasco from the air.

Russ & Dedie -- new Yorkers

2011-04-03T12:46:00.000-07:00

Dedie and I are living in New York. Of course everyone who knows us knows this. It was last year at the beginning of March when we were asked if we would accept a Seminary and Institute position in New York. We decided to take it and our life has been interesting since. We made a trip to New York to find a place to live, we got our house ready to sell and sold it. We had a huge yard sale. And we found ways to say goodby to the Tri-Cities and the people we have known and loved since we moved there twenty years ago (June 1990). The hardest to leave were Naomi & Dan, their girls and Devlin.

Another challenge was to say goodbye to the members of the Pasco 4th Ward where I had served as Bishop for four years. Here are some of the great youth of the 4th Ward.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-25T20:46:00.000-08:00

We're in Salt Lake City having Christmas at Susan and Chris's and sleeping at Jackie's apartment (her roommates went home for Christmas). We came down Wednesday. We're having a good time. Right now the babies are asleep (except for Hattie) and we're playing Wii. Here are some pics.

Merry Christmas from the May household

2009-12-19T11:18:00.000-08:00

This year we've become either creative or lazy (probably the latter) and decided to post our Christmas newsletter here at our Blog. If this is your first time to our blog don't expect much, since neither Dedie or I (Russ) are regular bloggers. Most recently Dedie has posted her thoughts on Facebook and I haven't had many thoughts to post. But we would like to hear from you so if you came here to take a peek please post a comment to say hi. Thanks. (scroll below to see news & pics)
Russ & Dedie

Christmas 2009 Newsletter

2009-12-19T05:51:00.000-08:00

Dedie & I are still in Pasco Washington where I spend my work time working with Early Morning Seminary teachers. This is our twentieth year here. Hard to believe. Dedie teaches in the Relief Society and I'm the Bishop of our ward. Our children are scattered all over the place (see below). We're grateful for this time of the year, even though it is busy, because our thoughts turn so easily to the Savior. He certainly is the reason for the season.

Here are a few photos to let you know how our family is doing and some of what we've been up to in 2009.

Dedie (Grandma May) made Christmas dresses for her eight granddaughters. Here are some of those girls in their dresses.

Sophia, Sariah, Sabrina & Savana with "Bear" Devlin Bosted.

Cajsa Morse

Hattie with Susan & Gus Petersen

Kylie & Rylin (Florida Mays)

Here are a couple of pictures of the families of our children.

Naomi & Dan live in Selah where Dan is the chief bean counter for the Yakima Juice Company. It's owned by the Yakima Indian Nation so I guess he isn't actually a "chief." Their big news of the year was the addition of a son to their family of four girls.

Devlin was born November 21.

Katie & Bill live at the Airforce base near Grand Forks North Dakota. Their baby boy is still on the way (January due date).

Bill flies KC135 (tanker) refuiling planes. Here's one in action.

Katie & Bill went to Spain last spring for Bill's ten year mission reunion.

Susan & Chris are in Salt Lake City. Chris graduated from the University of Utah in May. Susan had a boy to join their daughter Hattie.

Matthew & Nicole live in Fort Lauderdale Florida. Matthew works in construction--he has a window installation company. They had a baby girl in May.

They are big Gator fans.

Joseph & Kimberly live in Omaha Nebraska where Joey is attending law school. Their son Clark will be getting a baby brother in April.

Maybe you noticed that all our married children have had or will have babies within about a year of each other. That will bring our total to fifteen grandchildren. Digital cameras, the internet and computers have expanded the ability of Grandmothers to share pictures of their grandchildren. Here are some of Grandma's grandchildren enjoying lemonaide with her in Salt Lake City last summer.

Jackie, our youngest, is also in Salt Lake City. She's between school experiences and is currently working. Here she is with her "friend" in their Halloween outfits.

We're grateful for our children and for what they are doing in their lives. We wish you and yours a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Here are a few more miscellaneous pics.

Dedie relaxing in the pool.

Russ discovers his nose is bigger than Joseph's death mask.

Russ's 40th class reunion was in July in Deer Park Washington.

Dedie traveled a lot this summer. She was in Salt Lake City during April & part of May to help Susan recover from complications with the healing of her C-section. She went to North Dakota in May to watch Bill & Katie's kids for one of their two weeks in Spain (the other grandparents spelled her the second week). Then she drove to Utah with Naomi & her kids then flew back out to North Dakota to drive to Utah with Katie (Bill was in Oklahoma for training). Katie planned to drive to Utah for a get together with her sisters but didn't want to drive alone. Dedie, Katie, and her kids stopped off to see Joey and Kimberly in Omaha where they visited the Omaha zoo. Soon after she & Katie got to Utah she drove back to Washington with Naomi and her kids. Then Dedie and I went to Florida for Matthew & Nicole's baby blessing the first of July. In July I had my 40th class reunion in Deer Park Washington and a youth retreat with the youth in our ward at Ensign Ranch in the Cascade mountains of Washington. Then in August we drove to Utah to see Joey, Kimberly and Clark. Joey had worked in the Intellectual Properties division of the Church during the summer and we wanted to see them before they went back to Nebraska for his second year of law school. Then we drove to North Dakota in November for Katie & Bill's son Charlie's baptism and for Thanksgiving. And we're driving to Salt Lake City for Christmas to be with Susan & Chris's family and Jackie and Matthew and Nicole and their kids who are flying out from Florida. It's been a good year.

Here are Katie and her kids and Joey & Clark at the Omaha zoo.

They leave us :( :)

2009-09-13T16:45:00.000-07:00

We will no longer the sweet sounds of this little guy when he is eating. umm, umm, umm he says when you feed him. He also lays on the floor and makes the cutest sounds. He is such a happy baby.

This little girl loves to watch Mary Poppins. We no longer hear her sing Hurry Nanny, which she does so wonderfully. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, has become her other best favorite movie. She is Truly and wears Truly dresses. She is so darling walking around and playing the part of Truly. Next she fell in love with Mr. Incrediable. She watched it a couple of times a day.

These are the tail lights as they left us. We are sad to see them go but it is going to be nice to be on our schedule again as it will be for them to be in their own home and be a family once again. Vacations are fun but all good things must end. I will miss Susan and her wee ones. We have had a wonderful time together.

Summer has been busy

2009-07-30T07:51:00.000-07:00

I have been every where this year. I have been to Fort Lauderdale, Salt Lake City, Grand Forks, Salt Lake City, Pasco, then back to Salt Lake City, Fargo, Omaha, Evanston WY, Salt Lake City, Pasco, Ensign Ranch WA, Pasco, Seattle, Fort Lauderdale, Seattle, Bellingham WA, Pasco, Ensign Ranch WA, Deer Park WA, Chewelah WA, and back home to Pasco. It has been a busy summer.

Calvin, Charlie and Cajsa May 2009

Sariah, Sabrina, Sophia and Savannah
on our way to Salt Lake City June 14th 2009

Calvin, Cajsa, Charlie, Clark and Joey
at the Zoo in Omaha NE June 17th 2009

At the "Neighborhood Market enjoying my favorite drink "Thelma's Lemonade" Charlie, Clark (stroller), Hattie, Calvin, Sophia, Sariah, Sabrina, Cajsa is missing she had a sewing date with Aunt Susie and couldn't come. June 19th 2009

Joey, Clark and Kimmie
Temple Square June 19th 2009

Kimmie and Clark, Clark enjoying the water on Temple Square June 19th 2009

In Florida I cute to kiss on this cute little face Rylin

and this cute little face Kylie.

Matthew and Nicole with Rylin and Kylie.

Youth Leadership Camp at Ensign Ranch

Russ's 40th year class reunion.

Hummingbirds at Sharon and Geno's haven in Chewelah.

It has been a delightful summer and I have loved and enjoyed all of my travels. Summer is not over though and we still have one more trip to Salt Lake City. But first I am going to have knee surgery next week. Ugh!

A new project

2009-06-14T16:59:00.000-07:00

This past year I have taught a Monday morning Adult Religion Class. It's been fun. I thought to begin with that if a dozen people came we could have a nice little class and maybe learn something together. But I guess it met a need and we started out with a pretty good crowd and it grew until we had about fifty come every week. We studied the Gospels together. We went through each of them systematically from beginning to end. Last week was our last class. Adults are more expressive than youth usually are and I received a couple of kind notes of thanks in the mail and one interesting comment after our last class. Brother Ulbricht, the dad of one of Dan's High School buddies, said he took a class once from Henry Eyring, the scientist, who suggested that they should consider writing a book sometime during their life to put to paper some of their important thoughts and ideas. Brother Ulbricht suggested that I should consider doing that myself. I thought afterwards, well that goes along with Joey's moniker that I was the best writer in the Church (said tongue in cheek in case you didn't get that part). But, interestingly enough it coincided with some thoughts and feelings I've had lately. And I hope this isn't misunderstood. I've become forgetful lately (more than normal -- see cell phone experience below). And I've begun to wonder if I'll exit life locked in the Alzheimer strait jacket that Dad had to deal with. So I've felt I should write and share some things that are close to my heart. I've felt for years that I didn't do a very good job of sharing gospel/scripture insights with my own children (although we were pretty regular with scripture reading). So I decided to start making new entries in the Insights and Discoveries link (see upper left of this blog)and to find time to be a more regular contributor to this "newsy" blog.

I've been a fairly regular journal writer but who's ever going to read those entries?? I've appreciated keeping up with my kids through their blogs. I hope they're also preserving that information with some kind of a written journal version. I was impressed with President Eyring's talk in the October 2007 Conference titled "O Remember, Remember." I'm just a little slow at responding to his suggestion.

So this Looonngg explanation is to invite you to look under Insights and Discoveries every now and then to see what the Old Man has to say. When Joey was on his mission I was inspired by something that was written in Elder Maxwell's biography -- that he had written his son Cory on his mission more than once a week so I wrote regular weekly epistles to Joey. Mostly they were what I was currently studying and thinking about. It was something kind of special we shared together. I thought I should do the same for all my children so here goes.

Dad

Our little angel Sophia

2009-06-14T16:32:00.000-07:00

Mom's on her way to Utah with Naomi and her girls then on her way to North Dakota to help Katie drive to Utah. She'll be gone all week(another story). Friday afternoon/evening I helped her get ready by helping her in the basement with some spring cleaning she's been working on. I helped her wash walls in our room then she washed windows while I vacuumed leaves and junk out of the bottom of the window wells ("junk" included enough spider webs and spiders that I put the vacuum outside afterwards just in case--you never know when an irate spider might decide to climb out of the vacuum hose and come looking for you). And I vacuumed under our bed. When we were done we made a Winco/Walmart run.

Saturday morning I went to our Stake Youth Conference at Teancum Timbers. I looked all over for my cell phone but couldn't find it so I went without. In the evening when I returned I looked some more but couldn't find the phone anywhere. We called Walmart and I drove out to Winco to see if maybe I'd left it out there. On the way I prayed, "Heavenly Father, please help me find my cell phone." Shows you how far I've descended into the current age--imagine, praying to find a cell phone. It wasn't at Winco. When I got home Naomi's kids were all in bed and Naomi and Mom sat on the couch wearing funny grins. It seems that Naomi had laid down with Sophia who asked where Papa went? "He went to see if he could find his cell phone." Sophia: "I know where his cell phone is." Naomi: "You do?" Sophia: "It's under their bed." Naomi: "Are you sure." Sophia: "Yea, I'm sure. I saw it there." Naomi: "Go get it and take it to Grandma."

Thanks Sophia for being the little angel who answered my prayer.

Best Lemonade in Town

2009-06-07T22:13:00.001-07:00

Thelma's Lemonade is the best icy lemonade around. You find it on the corner of State and 1st right across the street from the church office building. I went several times this spring while in Salt Lake taking care of Susan before they started selling it again. (Evidently they shut down the machine in the winter.)

It is cold and it makes you pucker. As you can see by the look that Hattie is giving us. If you are not careful when guzzling this you will get one of those brain freezes. It is so good

"Oh Grandma I love my Pinks"

2009-06-07T18:33:00.001-07:00

One day when Hattie and I went to Temple Square she threw her arms out wide and said to me "Oh Grandma I love my pinks". She was refering to all of the pink tulips on Temple Sqaure. I must agree with her I love them and they were absolutely beautiful.

Happy Fathers Day

2009-06-07T17:44:00.000-07:00

Write a short message to your Dad or brother or friend or what ever he may be to you.
This good man is my wonderful husband, friend and lover. He is all that I had hoped for as a young woman in wondering what kind of man I would marry. He is a great Dad to our children and even greater Grandpa to our grand children. He always wants to do what is right and is wonderful Bishop in our ward.

A new car for Jackie

2009-01-18T19:09:00.000-08:00

Jackie's car is on it's last leg--or so she tells me. So I asked Miguel to see what he could find. He's got a couple of possibilities that he's going to fix up. I'll send a picture later. But in the midst of it mom said that I was looking at a car that needed some paint on the hood of the car. Jackie interpreted that to mean something else and asked me, "Dad, you're not going to get me a car that has a hood that is a different color are you?" Here's a picture of what she was picturing in her mind. "No, Jackie, I'll try to do better than that."
Dad

fun with the grandkids

2009-01-18T19:01:00.001-08:00

I guess this event gets double billing because Naomi also "reported" it on her blog.
Mom & I went to Yakima on a day it snowed and I built a snowman with the girls. We couldn't find any rocks for the eyes so I went in the house to see what I could find and improvised--smashed pop cans. And I think I've invented a new way to do snowman eyes. I'll probably use pop cans from now on.

Nice day in the temple

2009-01-18T18:54:00.000-08:00

We challenged the temple recommend holders in our ward to be in the temple this past Thursday--to attend whatever session they could. We ended up having 4th warders in every session at the temple. We had 51 attend during the day. We did 57 temple "units" (endowment or sealing session); some did more than one session. We were pretty excited how it turned out. I think we have about 100 temple recommend holders, so we didn't get everyone, but we had more members of the ward there in one day than we ever have before, that I've known about. I was grateful.

34 Years

2008-11-16T18:32:00.000-08:00

Today is our 34th wedding anniversary. I wonder where all the years have gone. And then I look at the pictures of all of my kids on the wall in their senior picture and the wedding pictures that are hanging on the walls now along with grandkids of the those that are married and I know where the years have gone. It has been a great journey with Russ and our kids and grandchildren. We haven't always agreed and liked some of the things that we have done but we have loved each other like no others. I am grateful that Russ has been my companion and best friend and may we have another 34 years together.

Receive these little ones

2008-10-26T07:57:00.000-07:00

I'm teaching the New Testament this year. Last week I was reading Matthew 18 where it talks about becoming as a little child. I read verse 5 that says, "And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me." I thought about how we need to teach, help, and bless little children and was ready to read on when I wondered about the word "receive." What does it mean to "receive" little children? How do we receive them? It occurred to me that one way we receive them is when we welcome them into our families. And I thought about my children who are now young parents and are in the middle of the challenges of raising young families. Thanks for receiving these precious children into your families. Thanks for loving them and teaching them. The Savior said when you receive them you receive Him. This adds new meaning to the verse "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these ... ye have done it unto me" (Matt 25:40). Love, Dad

Love Letters

2008-10-19T18:34:00.000-07:00

Today in Relief Society the Joseph Smith lesson 'A Heart Full of Love and Faith: The Prophet's Letters to His Family was taught. I was touched by his words of love and devotion he had towards his family. I was thinking how we know that we love one another but do we truly express it to one another. Yes, we call often and say "I love you" but do you really know that I pray for each one of you daily. That your success in the world and in the gospel and for your safety and my grandchildren are always in my prayers. I name each of you by name including my grandchildren. I pray that my children are teaching my grandchildren about the gospel of Jesus Christ. That you are teaching them who God the Father is and that He answers prayers. That Jesus Christ is their Redeemer. I pray that you are doing all you can in your church callings. I pray for your safety in your jobs, that you will be good mothers and fathers, you do well in your schooling. I pray that evil men and women will be kept away from my children and grandchildren that you will not be harmed by them. I pray that you are serving where you see a need. I worry about each one of you. My prayers have been heard by a loving Heavenly Father because so far each of you seem to be doing all that I ask for in my prayers. I am grateful for each one of you. I appreciate who you are and the things you are doing in the world and in the church. You give my heart great joy when I think of the good that all of you are doing. Please know that I know that Heavenly Father lives! He knows me and He knows each one of you by name. I know that Jesus is the Christ. I know that he did atone for my sins. That by Him and only Him can I return to be with My Father in Heaven. This is a first of a "Love Letter" to each of you.

Come to the Pumpkin Patch with Gamma and the Bosted Girls

2008-10-19T17:18:00.000-07:00

On Saturday the 18th of October the Bosted Granddaughters went to the Pumpkin Patch with Gamma May at the Hatch Farm. Grandpa Hatch had planted a pumpkin patch as big as can be with some of the biggest pumpkins I have seen in a long time. We got to ride on the trailer with hay bales and Grandpa Hatch pulled it with his oldtractor. I think they have had it since they started farming 40 years ago. Anyway we had a delightful time picking out pumpkins and riding out to the patch on Hatch property. Happy Halloween everyone:)!! I hope everyone gets their packages that I sent out this past Saturday. Please let me know when they arrive.

All on an early afternoon in October we went to the Pumpkin Patch and had such a good time.

So, slow at blogging

2008-10-12T22:13:00.000-07:00

I keep checking Susan's and Matthew's blog to see if they have done any updating and I wish they would. Then I realized I haven't done any on my own. And the only comments I get is from some crazy lotto that I don't even play or like. So what is that with the comments. It is now October and school has been going on for a month and a half. We have two school days off this month and one half day of school. I think it is so crazy that they give us all these piddly days off. Why not do all of the teacher days off for what ever at the beginning of the school year and let us go to school with out interruption so that we can get out earlier in the spring. It would be so nice if they would do that. Last Friday was a no school day so I got to go to Seattle with Dad. He had some meeting in Seattle and so we left Thursday evening and went to Seattle. He had some bishop thing to do so we got out of town late. But we stopped at the little girls in Yakima and Nom fed us dinner, pizza, she makes great pizza and we were stuffed. We then stopped in Ellensburg at the Grovers to drop something off for someone and then on to Seattle. We stayed in the University district. I had gotten us a 31/2 star hotel for $64.00 on priceline.com it was a nice hotel. The next day I was suppose to go to the institute to sew because I have some quilts that need to get done. I instead to the advantage of having no husband with me and went to IKEA. I spent 2 and half hours just wandering through the store. I did not hear once, "are you done looking", "have you seen everything you want to see", or my personal favorite, "do you really need that?". I loved every moment of just wandering around at my own pace. I finally got back to the institute and went to this Mexican restaurant for lunch and then met up with Russ there. Hope everyone is doing well. Love, Mom

School back in session

2008-08-27T22:35:00.000-07:00

I started back to school today. I am glad to be back in a routine. Maybe I can accomplish some things now. I hate it when all I have energy to do sometimes is sit and stare at the TV, how boring. Susan asked me if I got any new school clothes. I bought two new pair of shorts that were on sale and 3 new aprons that I made. I was excited to start school again. We have a brand new cafeteria and commons area 3 million dollar addition to the old one that we are working out of this year. It is beautiful and spacious. The kitchen must be a mile long. The cooks are really getting a work out. I hope all those who are back in school grandkids, Sariah, Charlie, Sabrina and Cajsa, Jackie 1st year college, Chris last year of college and Joey first year of law school have a great school year. Learning is fun. Have a great year students. Enjoy your time Mom's they will be off for Christmas break sooner than you realize. Love, Mom, aka Grandma.

Learning the how to's

2008-08-02T01:15:00.001-07:00

I am just learning how to put things on this blog and I have run into a few snags. Hopefully you will enjoy what I have put on and be able to get the right words with the right picture. Maybe next time I will have done it right. Love, Mom and or Dedie

Reunion on the Trail of the Coeur D'Alenes

2008-08-01T23:49:00.000-07:00

This past Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we (Russ and I) did a small family reunion with the Ludwig family (Geno, Sharon, Heather & Robbie, Mary and her little boys Shade & Miles and Scott's boy Christopher) on the Trail of the Coeur D'Alenes. We had such a wonderful time. Great company, Great food and a Great time riding our bikes on the trails which originally were for the train from Chicago to Seattle. I believe it was the Milwaukee. They have have paved the rail road bed and it is all down hill. The scenery was beautiful and the ice cream in Wallace was so yummy. On Thursday we closed our camp at Osburn and went to the "Route of the Hiawatha". It is this amazing bike trail down the mountains starting from the Montana Idaho border to this place which use to be a town called Pearson. The first thing you do is go
through this two mile tunnel. It is scarier than all get out, because when you first get in there you cannot see anything till your eyes adjust and you get use to the little light that is on your bike. You have to have a light to go on the trail, it is required. I was pretty freaked out. I am a little claustrophobic and was having a hard time. Russ was behind me and I asked him to sing. His voice was so soothing in all that darkness. Besides the beauty of his voice the tunnel really made it sound so amazing. I calmed right down and was able to make it through that first tunnel. It made think that when we feel like we can not get our breath or feel like we are lost that if we just listen to the voice our prophet or read the scriptures they will lead us to the light. That is what his voice did for me. There are 9 tunnels in all and you have to go through the first one twice, that makes 10 that you go through all together. There are also 7 train tresses that you go over too, the highest one is 230 feet high but you don't even notice the height part. The scenery is breathtaking. The trek down is about 14 miles down and you ride a bus back to just before the first tunnel and you have to go through the two mile tunnel again which makes the trek about 16 miles in all.

The whole gang on the trail from Mullan to Osburn

Heather

Sharon and Christopher

At the head of the trail of the Route of the Hiawatha

The Two Mile tunnel

Train tresses

Russ had every one eating out of his hand with all of that singing he was doing for me.

Our transportation to the first tunnel we went through.

3 Fold Trip to Utah

2008-07-24T13:15:00.000-07:00

I am finally finishing this blog that I started on the 24th of July. We went to Utah for several reasons. First, was to take all of Jackie's things down so they would be there when she arrives to go to school. Auntie Barb has graciously let us store them at her house till she gets there. It was also Hattie's second birthday. And thirdly Joey and Kimmie are moving to Omaha Nebraska and we said good bye to them. It was a busy three days. We spent our last morning visiting the market that Susan sells her wares at. Chris, Susan's husband went down with us. The day before he had driven up here with his little sister Sarah and he needed to get back down to SLC. Lucky for him we were going his way. We have made tinfoil dinners in the past and put them on the manifold to cook while we drove down the freeway and Chris wanted to that. We had some delicious dinners about Baker Oregon. It is really fun to do.

Hattie enjoying her Second Birthday!!

I didn't know that we were related to Popeye. Clark looks like him in this picture. Sorry Joey and Kimmie but it is so cute!!

Joey, Kimmie and Clark

Susan's booth at the Pioneer Market in SLC

We've moved for now

2008-06-20T20:30:00.000-07:00

I guess I'm not a very committed blogger. And the other problem I have is that when I decide to post something I have to wait until the desktop computer at home is free since the filtering software on my work laptop blocks out all blogs. So I set up another place I can post things it's here:
http://www.myfamily.com/Home.aspx?mfsid=34735932
It's not as fancy as blogspot (ok well maybe it's a little lame) but it works for me for now.
Dad

Dad, "Update your blog!"

2008-03-08T07:17:00.000-08:00

So Katie & Susan have been bugging me to update our Blog. My problem is that between Jackie being a diligent student and mom working on her Geneology, I can never get on the computer to do it. So I got up early on this Saturday morning before the rooster was even up and posted a few pictures. Hope you like them. Dad.

Bath for Sadie

2008-03-08T07:14:00.000-08:00

Here's mom bathing Sadie in our sink that is more accessible now that we re-did the Utility room.

January trip to Utah

2008-03-08T07:01:00.001-08:00

Here are some pics from our trip to Utah in January to see "the kids" and to bless Savanah.

January Snow Storm

2008-03-08T06:32:00.000-08:00

Here are a few snow pics from our big snowstorm at the end of January.

Santa & Snowmen

2007-12-26T22:42:00.001-08:00

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

2007-12-26T16:12:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-27T18:52:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-27T18:25:00.000-08:00

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"

2007-11-14T21:04:00.000-08:00

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

What UTL stands for

2007-11-03T19:04:00.000-07:00

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?

2007-10-29T22:07:00.001-07:00

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

2007-10-28T20:50:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-28T20:39:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-30T14:15:00.001-07:00

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

2007-09-08T10:56:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-03T23:35:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-03T23:31:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-09-03T11:32:00.001-07:00

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

2007-09-01T22:03:00.000-07:00

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

A new "trick!"

2007-08-25T20:33:00.001-07:00

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!

2007-08-18T17:06:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-07T17:42:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-29T15:40:00.001-07:00

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

Pasco Reception

2007-07-29T15:36:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-29T15:26:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-15T10:38:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-14T11:15:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-06T07:07:00.001-07:00

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!!

2007-07-06T06:59:00.000-07:00

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??

2007-07-01T20:40:00.001-07:00

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

2007-06-30T21:15:00.000-07:00

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

2007-06-17T21:20:00.000-07:00

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

2007-06-17T17:25:00.000-07:00

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!!

2007-06-17T16:15:00.000-07:00

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

2007-06-17T15:43:00.000-07:00

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.