Countdown!

ok ok here I am again, and it is just 2 days before Christmas.  Incredible isn’t it?  That I am posting another one?  Well that is what happens when I am totally bored out of my mind at work!  Good thing the boss doesn’t read this!  I just wanted to post what my Mr. Higgins(es) have been doing.  You know… the “Little Rascals” up North in Erda where I am headed this afternoon on a Shuttle.  Never done this before and I know it will be full.  The Shuttle I mean.  Full of people I don’t know.  A 5 hour drive.  I hope I don’t get stuck in the very back…I am afraid to eat anything.   I have never sat in the back of a vehicle for a long time…hope it is comfortable.  I wonder it they thought I was weird if I started taking pictures LOL.  Anyway, my son Mike e-mailed me these pictures last week

 

A cute bed with a loft on top for Lauren to put her toys and princess “stuff”

 

 

 

 

A bunk bed for Owen and Ryan, pretty cute huh

so Mike sad, “hey dad can you come up a week early and let’s make these beds for the kids for Christmas…

So Huh-honey went up last Saturday.  Mike went to the furniture store and indiscreetly took measurements and with the photo he had, within hours this is what they came up with…  I am telling you that husband and son of mine are incredible!  Owen wanted to be a part of the making of whatever they were doing in the garage.  Now this was suppose to be a secret.  Owen could help measure and do things that little guys can do…but had no idea what the end result would be.  When Bob and Mike needed to put it all together to see if it was going to work Owen was very upset because he had to go in the house.  I am talking VERY UPSET.  He just wants to be in the garage with dad and papa…doing…whatever they are doing.  Then the next day he overheard Mike telling a friend that the beds were coming along…so Owen told Camille my DIL that he knew dad’s secret but please don’t tell dad that he knows he doesn’t want dad to be sad that he knows the secret…Owen is playing along know…and Mike knows…..LOL

So the next day after un assembling the bed which will be painted and other finish work added…Owen was in his element once again.

They gave him a real drill and put him to work…

And part of making a lot of dust and mess you have to clean up too.  Ryan is the one all bundled up and Owen is the one with gloves on and no coat.  Papa and Dad were  not wearing coats so Owen didn’t need to wear one either. The pieces are a puzzle right now.  That’s all…a giant puzzle. The kids even got to help paint the puzzle…

 

 

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While Camille (she is amazing!) got into the router-ing part of the finish work…

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Yes this is my DIL…there isn’t anything this young lady won’t do or try…and she is good at it…then the night before last she had another brain storm……to add a few more embellishments to Lauren’s bed….Bob doesn’t look too thrilled in this picture and Mike looks real thrilled LOL but believe me…Bob was happy with the results…thank goodness it is done…

This is a picture that needs to be framed to remind Bob how much fun he was having LOL.  I love you honey and I know the kids really appreciate your hard work!  It is going to be amazing when they are all done and put together….

The count down begins!  And I will be there tonight to rub your feet and sore back….. (kiss, kiss)!

Thank you Mikie for putting me on the shuttle……(I think)! I can’t wait to spend Christmas with your little family again!

I am missing these 2 girls really badly this Christmas….

Madison and Brooklyn and of course their mommy Natalie (which I don’t have a picture of except an old one)

 

 

 

And I will be home on Sunday to see these cuties

 

Our sweet Kinlee who loves to rip off ornaments from Oma’s tree and try and eat them

 

 

 

Don’t you just LOVE those cheeks!

 

 

Kolytn, our little stinker who is so much like his daddy….OH BOY did that kid  (Brad) keep me on my toes… and I say “what goes around, comes around”

 

Kyler our little man…who is growing so fast into all of his almost 8 years!

Where does the time go?

I will be looking forward to the New Year and all that it may bring.  All the happiness these sweet children bring into my life…I am so blessed. 

 

 

 

 

I need to keep this guy healthy so we can continue to enjoy all of the above….

 

 

 

PS I am so glad I am off all those steroids….my poor triple chin and chunky face has not made for pretty pictures….slowly getting back to double chin instead of triple!  of which a turtle neck doesn’t even hide it!  LOL

OK..this is my last post until after Christmas…have a wonderful weekend everyone!

The desert can be wet….

It hasn’t stopped raining for 4 days now.  On the way home from work last night I stopped and took some pictures of the Virgin River, which on a daily basis is just a tiny little stream…but not anymore.

this has become news worthy in this town and also across the state of Utah…

 

 

 

large, very large branches and trees flow down the Virgin River

 

 

the bike and walking trail is closed because it is covered by the river now

 

 

the deer that usually live in the brush will have to find another home, probably in someone’s yard…

 

The rain did not stop….so I skipped out of work and took some more pictures of the Virgin River from another point.  The water is coming from Zions National Park.  5 years ago 13 homes were lost along the bank of the river… Millions of dollars was spent supporting the banks with lava rock which is holding it together….for now….there is usually just a teeny tiny stream in here.  But not today…and it hasn’t peaked yet.

there is a lot of debris floating along…

 

 

 

 

A helicopter overhead is taking pictures of a bridge that crumbled into the flow…

 

 

 

 

THIS WATER IS VERY POWERFUL….I hope and pray that people are smart enough to stay far away…

It hasn’t yet peaked to the top of this bridge, if it does I will have to find another way home…

I will go back to this spot after work to see if there is a park left on the other side of the river…

Coming to work this morning, even this critter….stopped traffic, I thought it looked like a HUGE RAT, so I called it a river rat….I have NO idea what it was…but no one wanted to run it over…it was UGLY.

where the river is flowing…use to be a golf course.  The city decided this would be a GREAT place to build an entrance onto the I-15 freeway.  The city has been working on this entrance for 6 months now and it was to open in January.  YA THINK they may  have to change their mind now and just BAG the new freeway entrance?  DUH.  I wonder how much the city engineers got paid for thinking this one up?  In the path of the RIVER????

On a brighter note.  I thought I would end this post with a more uplifting image and verse that I wrote several years ago.  I posted this last year but it is worth reading once again. 

(2004) I woke up in the middle of the night. A melody kept going over and over in my head. I am not musical. I don’t play an instrument, I can’t read music, but a melody kept playing in my head. I tried to ignore it. I tried to sleep, but it wouldn’t stop. I remember looking at my clock illuminating in the dark, it was after 3 am. I closed my eyes and tried to stop the music. Then lyrics came to my mind. Over and over again, lyrics kept coming to my mind. It wouldn’t stop. OK, ENOUGH I said. I will get up and go to my computer. Ever so quietly, not to wake my Huhoney I crept into the office, and opened up a new screen. I was so tired and I didn’t think to grab my glasses. It didn’t matter, the words were coming so quickly now that I couldn’t stop typing. The music kept on and on and on. The words just spilled from me. I closed my eyes while I was typing because the screen was so bright. That’s ok, I can type very quickly and I don’t need to see what I am typing. I was done. I sighed a huge sigh. I will look at it in the morning I thought to myself. I left my desk and went to my bed, it was after 4 am. I laid my head on my pillow and slept a dreamless sleep. When I awoke in the morning I jumped out of bed and RAN to my computer….to see what I had written. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, I began to cry. What had I done? I was typing to frantically last night my fingers were one key over to the left. Yes, every word was a total scramble. There was nothing to my words smf o vpi;frmy frvogrt smuyjomh. This is what every line looked like. Huhoney came to me and asked what had happened and I told him of my night. “Don’t worry” he said, “you will remember, I know you will remember, the spirit will let you remember”. He hugged me. I was so sad. I couldn’t stop thinking, I didn’t want to do anything until I had remembered. Then I prayed. Yep, I prayed. I am not a renowned poet or anything but this was special, the melody was special and I knew I needed to write it down. Even if it is just for myself and my children. Late in the same evening after the day’s events, it all came back to me. This is what I wrote. I wish I could sing you the melody, it is so pretty. But I can’t. I don’t know how to sing! lol

Sleep; sleep my angel, our Prince of Peace,

The son of God, please don’t you cry;

Sleep; sleep my baby sang Mary’s lullaby

A cloudless night, the stars shone bright

A warm wind blew throughout the manger

The beautiful voice of a mother’s song

The son of God born in a stable

A cry rang out so soft and gentle

A mother’s kiss and this babe lay still

As she cradled the infant Christ child

She so sweetly sang this verse

Sleep; sleep my angel, our Prince of Peace,

The son of God, please don’t you cry;

Sleep; sleep my baby, begotten son,

The chosen one, to reign on high

The night was endless dark but bright

As stars glistened through out the night

And one alone shone over head

To lead the way to a manger bed

Mary held her infant son

As tears of joy washed her face so pure

And Joseph smiled as he watched them both

So sweet a sound her voice was heard

Sleep; sleep my angel, our Prince of Peace,

The son of God, please don’t you cry;

Sleep, sleep my baby, sang Mary’s lullaby

All those who came and knelt in awe,

Knew that they saw the son of God;

And though the heavens praised his birth,

Just one voice whispered in the night

So gentle a sound, so soft, so light

Her lullaby touched all who heard

God’s promise had come to earth

Sleep; sleep my angel, our Prince of Peace,

The son of God, please don’t you cry;

Sleep; sleep my baby, King of Kings

Our Lord and Savoir, the chosen one.

12/14/2004 Linda Higgins

Copyright©

Merry Christmas all my Village Friends…and a Happy, Joyful and SAFE New Year.  I will be up North visiting the “little rascals” this Christmas.  I may find time to post more pics of the flood if I get any new ones….

hugs and smiles across the miles

 

 

 

 

 

I can’t wait to celebrate a New Year with all of you!

This time of year….

Ok ok I know, it has been a couple of weeks again, it either is all at once and I have a huge brain spurt of ideas or just blank space which has been happening a lot lately….blank space.  This time of year is always so beautiful for me.  Because I am excited to see children excited.  I use to get excited….not yet though…but  will be soon when it gets a little closer to “the day”. 

I am just grateful to have a roof over my head and my health.

Did I say my health?  Oh excuse me…I must have been thinking of..oh forget it, I wasn’t thinking at all LOL.

No really I do feel blessed.  Very blessed.  This year has been ONE HECK OF A YEAR (screaming) and I CAN’T WAIT FOR IT TO BE OVER ALREADY (still screaming).

I am sure many of you feel the same way.  Then I read a beautiful blog with such beautiful inspiration from Heather T (found on my side bar) or Wanda or Barb and remember the beauty in this world and my Savior and (getting inspired here) my funny friend Diane and so many blogger friends (all on my side bar) that I visit and forget all my Woe’s and I am ok again.

Yes I am rambling, because I haven’t blogged in 2 weeks again.

Ah my LADY at the top, she is such an icon!  This is me some day, all glammed out (not the grey hair though, I have tried and I just look….old) (no offense to women who have beautiful silver hair!) it just isn’t me…. my dad had the most BEAUTIFUL hair and loads of it, I have 3 brothers with beautiful silver hair too, and if I hadn’t started coloring my locks at age 20 I probably would be completely silver, but I will have the diamonds and pearls and a list for Santa…hehehe.  I might just have to keep her out all year round to remind me of how beautiful life is….

It took me 4 days to get all my Christmas decor out and spread out all over my great room. 

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Tree up, lights on the house, (Huh-honey) just finished them the other night…

I have my office filled with a few ornaments here and there since I spend my daylight hours here (sigh). I am just a sparkly kind of gal that loves the lights and  prettiness of the season.  It just brings a smile to my face.  Don’t get me wrong …I know the true meaning of the season.  I never forget the true meaning  but I love Christmas music and usually play it much earlier than most people would like to hear it.  I have it on my i-tunes on my computer so….you get the picture.  “Is that Christmas music I hear?” (co-workers) “uh huh” (me laughing) so if your a scrooge please don’t walk into my office and complain of having to listen to softly playing Christmas music!

My sweet Huh-honey and I went and picked pine cones off of the ground (at a park), we picked the very best and biggest we could find and shhhh don’t tell anyone, we plucked a few off of the branches.  I love how they cluster together,  I took a few pictures of the pine trees and then Huh-honey sprayed and put glitter on those big ole cones and we added them to my tree.  It just made the tree look…well fuller. hehehe

 

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Do you see the Robin resting on the branch?  They like plucking the nuts out of the opened pine cones…

Looks like I have rambled on long enough….tomorrow I will ramble some more….I took some pics of my adorable grandbaby Kinlee.  I haven’t posted very many pics of the grandkids lately…so I had better get to it…of course for journaling sake that is!…..

hugs and smiles across the miles

A “Veterans” many faces

He has many faces….

The role of a husband

 

 

 

 

 

 

Builder

 

 

 

 

Gardener

 

 

Maintenance Man

 

 

 

 

Outdoorsman

Fisherman

 

 

 

 

 

 

Survivor, Good Sport

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marksman, Self picture taker

Story Teller, Helper

 

 

 

 

Biker Dude, Proud Papa

 

 

 

 

 

Handsome, Santa

 

Never a complainer

Be silly and have fun…

 

Never afraid to get his hands dirty…..Daredevil

 

Food Connoisseur

 

 

 

 

 

 

and ok with wearing a bib…

 

 

 

Helper

 

 

 

 

 

Partier…..Care Taker

 

 

 

 

 

Thinker…..

 

Outdoorsman

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Innovator, Creator

 

 

 

Daredevil

 

 

 

 

 

Good listener

 

 

 

 

 

Friend to many

 

 

 

 

Son and proud father

 

 

 

 

 

Adventurer

 

 

 

Rain dancer……

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grandfather and teacher….

 

 

Proud father to Natalie

Proud father to Micheal

Proud father to Brad

 

and much much more….last but certainly not least

he stepped off the bus at Camp Pendleton to enter Boot Camp on his 18th birthday…

Age 18

United States Marine

April 4th 1967-December 11th 1969

Viet Nam Veteran

standing in line at the grocery store, Bob was at the check out counter, I was standing behind looking at all the gossip magazines, a gentleman behind me nodded to me and said, “Tell him thank you” I said, “ok” with a question on my face and the man pointed to his head.  Bob was wearing a ball cap.  A Viet Nam Marine Corp ball cap.  I smiled and said “thank you I will tell him”

It made Bob proud…

It made me proud….

Thank you Bob, for serving our country and for being my husband who I love, adore, and am so proud of.