Great Mother's Day Present!!

Boy, was I spoiled for Mother's Day this year! Rusty, Olivia, William and the grandson's took me to the Tempe Town Square and we just checked out all the fun shops. Brayden and his little friend who came with us painted a ceramic little do dad then we ate at Red Robin's restaurant.. I did really good in eating a very healthy salad with apples and blue cheese in it.
On Mother's Day morning, on Sunday I weighed myself and found that I had lost 11 lbs in the past month and didn't even realize it. I was so beside myself since i hadn't weight this in 5 years!!
We also had the Missionaries over for dinner along with Phillip and my good friend and her husband and grand kids who are going thru a very difficult situation. Phillip bought me a DVD that he knew i would enjoy later in the week. We all had a great Sabbath Mother's Day
Then today, Saturday 5/15/10 when i thought all the Mother's Day celebration was over, Olivia and Rusty paid for me to have a message. In fact Olivia and I both were able to get an hour message. I didn't realize just how knotted up my shoulder blades get with stress knots. We went out for lunch and Super Salad and then shopping at Ol' Navy.. just a spoiled mommy over here..

March madness 2010 coming to an end

Well, Brayden boo went home with mommy tonight and all is quiet now.. he is such a sweet, kind, loving and yes annoying little guy.. they don't call it the "terrible twos" for nothing! This morning started at 6:30am with "Nana, get up!" while pulling the nice warm comforter off. "Nana, I"m hungry I want cereal" "Nana, get up! by this time as he is pulling me up, i am getting annoyed.. I explain, it is too early to get up (seeing I got to bed at 1am) I am told "no Nana, it's not too early, get up!"

Well, needless to say, he won! I got up and put him to work making pancakes with me.. (which he didn't mind seeing he loves to cook with "Nana".

I love being a grandma and I hope I never tire of it.. however this AM.. kind of left me wondering.. just for a little while..love you Brayden!!

February.. 2010 I can not believe it is already February.. I celebrated my birthday on friday by going shopping with my friend Rene. We went to Macy's since i had a gift card and I took Rene to Pita Jungle.. a very healthy restaurant. My day was going well until William called to say he was rear-ended, him being the 3rd car that was hit by two other cars that was hit by a small truck. All had car insurance except for the dude that caused the actual accident.. figures!! William is ok except for a dull headache that he can't shake. It could have been worse. We did go out for dinner on my birthday and we as an entire family went out saturday to a restaurant called Oreganal's, a fancy pizza place. it was a very nice atmosphere. Brayden and Noah are both growing and just getting cutter every day! I love those little guys soooooo much.. Brayden is such a curious little boy who doesn't leave anything unturned and Noah just smiles and cooos all the time.. you can carry on a complete conversation with him and he isn't even 3 months old yet.. he is my little blue I darling! Enough bragging, however i could go on and on....

made it thru Christmas.....

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010:
Well made it through Christmas with the most peaceful of days since both William & I were both sick with this upper respiratory stuff going around. William took off the 2nd and 3 week of Dec to get a lot done and spent most of his time in bed and I have been battling asthma for the past 2.5 months then getting what William had. I took off the last week of Dec to get a lot done and have spent most of my time off in bed. HO HO HO Merry Christmas!!
I normally have all the relatives over for a Christmas get together and had to tell everyone, "can't do it this year" My personal opinion is Heavenly Father is trying to get me to slow down and since I am so stubborn, He had to resort to the tough love method.
We did have a very calm, warm, peaceful, wonderful, spiritual Christmas. We were both too sick to stress out over anything. It was kind of nice, however I don't want to be sick every year to obtain the peaceful agenda.. Brayden and Noah had a great Christmas. We did get to spend Christmas with Phillip.. .for once Walmart wasn't open on Christmas day..

end of semister... yea!!

I have been taking on line classes from the University of Phoenix and it has been very educational and fun. My challenge has been navigating through the computer searching for what I need to utilize and secondly has been the no sleep syndrome. My schedule has been nuts. I felt prompted to go back to school to complete my degree in Psychology but I just found out my employer will only cover one third due to the economy plus I put in 4 -12 hour days (4-10 hour days plus the 2 hour drive daily going back and forth). So on my day off on Friday, I am beat since I have daily requirements. I need to assess where I am at or go to a cheaper school. Rio Salado is one I may be checking into. University of Phoenix has suggested some ways to cut cost but I have to research and dig to figure it out. Any suggestions will be welcomed.

On a very positive note. Brayden and Noah are doing wonderful. Brayden loves his little brother (as I knew he would) Noah is growing like a weed.. 2 weeks old and 24" long and 10 lbs 7 oz. Olivia is at pre-pregnacy weight and looks great. We all have changed our eating habits and I am finally seeing that my portions were the problem even though everything I ate was healthy, it was just a little too much of a good thing.

Noah Willliam Odom

November 11, 2009 @ 12:50pm
We welcomed our second grandchild to our family. Noah William Odom weighed 9 lbs 9 oz and was 22 1/2" long. He was a "big" surprise! When the doctor was delivering him, the first thing she said was "wow, look at the size of this head". We are so happy that he is here and is healthy.
I was the picture taker and was able to experience this great occasion for the second time. He has dark blond hair.. ( it looked autumn red to me when he first came out) Brayden was so excited for his "baby Noah" to come home and is so good with him. The only pictures I have of him is on my camera but Olivia has promised to give me a disc.
He looks like is Papa Leavitt but has his daddy's dimpled chin and this little one has 4 other dimples.. 2 on each check. His dimples really show when he smiles and he has a beautiful smile.
So we have a Pioneer Day baby and a Veteran' s Day baby. Brayden and Noah were 2 lbs difference in their weight and 2 1/2" difference in the length. Brayden was born 12:40 am and Noah was born 12:50pm. So needless to say, we are so blessed.

good by to Pat Zink 10/13/09

I have been friends with Pat & Joy for 31 years. I met Joy at a young adult activity and she introduce me to her fiance Pat. Pat and I had a friendship like a typical brother and sister. He would always say, "you never know what you are going to get out of Karen" and i always enjoyed going up to visit with them. Our children were close in age and with my going up there 4-6 times a year when my kids were growing up, we are were like a big happy family. Pat loved to cook very fancy meals and he really liked food. I used to tell him that food was his God. He didn't dispute that. Sadly, Joy and Pat divorced and I know this was hard on Pat. About 15 years ago, he got a flu bug that attacked his heart and enlarge it and he had suffered from the affects of that. He was overweight and a lot of our disputes was my trying to get him to eat more healthy. I took the skin off the chicken and he had a cow. "hey, that's the best part" I told him, "hey, you don't need it you are heavy enough". Our meal times up in Safford with Joy and Pat were very humerous since it didn't take much for me to start laughing and get the ball ping ponging around with the kids and all. He will be missed, even though he drove people with his extreme political views and his sarcastic ways.. I guess that was one thing we both have in common, we both were very sarcastic and it would be a contest who could get to the other one the worst. He passed away on Oct 13th, 2009. He will be missed however I know he is in a better place and I know when we meet again, it will be a quite a reunion.