Jake's the Best!!

I had a terrific day today with this handsome young man, my oldest grandson! Jake turned 12 this past Saturday, July 26. He was off playing at Flaming Gorge with his other grand parents so we are still celebrating his big day! When I asked him what he wanted for lunch he said "well I haven't had sushi for a long time".......you're kidding right, when was the last time a 12 year old you know preferred sushi?! Well, not having any great sushi bars in B-town, he opted for Pei Wei's. We had my favorite the Pei Wei spicy salad and Jake ordered the Thai dynamite with shrimp. Neither dishes were too spicy on their own, but wow, when we finished BOTH dishes, I have to admit my mouth was firey hot!

So off we went in search of some new church shoes. Jake will be ordained a Deacon this Sunday and we wanted to make sure he had comfy shoes. We headed to Ross' just because my secretary, Susan, bought some darling shoes there and I thought hey they might just have some cool guy shoes.......no luck. Then over to Famous Footwear......again no luck. On main street in Bountiful is Barton's Shoes, they don't carry young men's shoes, but at least we got them to measure his feet, now we're on a crusade for a size 7. Both of us are wondering just why shoes are so hard to find. Not to be deterred we went to Kohl's and found a pair that would do if we absolutely couldn't find anything else. I suggested we go out to the Layton Hill's mall and try Mervyn's or Penney's.....on our way out of the parking lot we decided to give our trusty Super Target a go (neither one of us were very hopeful). Well were we ever surprised, first box we snagged were these good looking shoes: Wow! Aren't these just perfect for the Jakester??! He was glad to finally find some shoes that looked good and fit!

I am so impressed with this young man, he has great manners, even opening the door for me. He is a big brother to three other brothers and one sister, he loves them and takes time to play with them. He's a great example too. Jake loves to play golf, hunt, fish and play the Wii he just got for his birthday. He is a sensitive young man and has a lot of friends and realizes how important good friends are. He'll be starting seventh grade and is going to wrestle (and study!) He has a ton of family who love him. Jake ALWAYS gives me a hug and tells me he loves me, he has done this since he was just a tiny little guy, thanks Mike for teaching your sons to love and respect others!! Jake prefers fruits and vegetables to candy and water instead of soda (can you believe that!), he eats pretty healthy food most of the time, however he does love ice cream!!

Hey Jake, Happy Birthday, I sure do love you and thanks for spending a couple of hours with me today, it was a great date!!

Yvonne May Davis Hutteball October 18, 1924--July 28, 1975

This terrific lady contributed greatly to the other half of why I am who I am today! My sweet mom was only here for 50 short years, but she managed to cram a lot of life and teachings into those years. She was my very best friend, we laughed until we cried on many occasions, how I wish I could remember what it was that set us off, then I realize it's the laughing that counts, not the why. She gave me her clumsiness, she and I would trip on almost anything and don't even get me started on the toe stubbing thing!!

She taught me to "kill others with kindness", especially those cranky sales clerks! She would do anything for anyone without question, she loved to serve others. She was good with numbers, words and cards and she passed those traits on to me and our kids! She loved to get dressed up and go to dinner at the Elks Club with dad and their friends, then she would dance the night away!! Both mom and dad were very good dancers!

She LOVED to move the furniture around in our living room, she would even move our piano almost every week......she was pretty happy to send the piano to Utah when I got married!

She loved to go camping, but what was even more fun was to find all of those darling minature things that go so well in camp trailers.......you know the little peanut butter jar, jam jars, hershey syrup cans.....this is where I must have gotten my LOVE for tiny things huh? She loved to salmon fish and caught a whopping 52 pounder (wish I could find that photo...)
Can you stand it....here I wished for the photo and wall-ah, our terrific family history extra-ordinaire expert, Suni May, sent it my way!! The whole fishing trip is worthy of its very own post someday!!


She waited so long for grand kids and then was so HAPPY when they finally arrived, she lived for those darling grand babies!! Curt and Emily came along first, they would have fun sleeping in the "big" bed reading with Nannaw and Gramps! When Marisa was born mom and dad drove from Washington to Utah to help out, we didn't know at the time but mom was suffering the first effects of the cancer that would ultimately take her from us. She NEVER complained and I mean NEVER! She lived with terrible headaches and then the pain of cancer, she was so strong and would smile and tell us she felt just fine.

Her desire was to be in her home near the end. I watched my dad work furiously to find a hospital bed on the weekend so he could put it in the living room to make her more comfortable. The bed was delivered and we brought her home from the hospital. She knew immediately where she was and felt good with her surroundings. She had a peaceful night and woke early. Then with grace and style, she smiled, took a few breaths and was gone.....just like that-- I lost my mom and best friend........

A few years ago Randy gave me the best compliment I could ever receive, he said "Sue, you are your mom!!" It was probably after a really great clumsy move no doubt!!

Somewhere along the way she gave me the gift of being able to have our kids be MY best friends..........I am such a lucky lady to have 3 beautiful daughters and one very handsome son who I can honestly say are my very best friends!! I know they would do anything for me and I for them (and they know that!)

Thanks mom for being such a huge example of what is good and right and more importantly for passing on so many great qualities. It's so exciting to know that you live on in all of us!!!

xoxo

Douglas Ray Hutteball-- October 4, 1923-July 24, 1991

This wonderful man is half of why I am who I am today! He was a hard working Ironworker, he endured more on the job accidents than most, he almost lost his life fighting in the war, he loved to camp, fish and hunt, he was an avid poker player, he played golf and got me interested in playing when I was 12, he LOVED his grand kids, he was proud of his son and daughter and what we've been able to accomplish, he taught me about tools and how to fix things, he taught me to hunt and fish and how to play cards, he taught me to be responsible and honest. He respected my desire to be active in the LDS church, he knew it would keep me out of trouble (and it did!). He smoked a pipe, could blow smoke rings, loved to drink coffee (black), and have a drink before dinner and sometimes after!

Our Doug is named after Gramps, he was so proud to have a grand son with his name! I have a company now and it is called Hutteball, Inc. The name used to really haunt me as a kid, I endured a lot of teasing, but I am very proud of my heritage and enjoy telling people where the name came from. My great grandpa changed his name from Hansen to Hutteball before he immigrated from Denmark to the U.S., needless to say, genealogy can be a real challenge!

He passed away 17 years ago today after playing 18 holes of golf. He didn't suffer and in fact probably didn't even know what hit him, what a way to go!!

He was not a perfect man, but he was my dad and I love and miss him everyday!

Everyone, meet Gladys!!

Well good heavens! Here I have been suffering and looking like a fool trying to find my way around when I show homes, especially in Herriman. Marisa and I have been buying GPS units trying to figure out which one would work the very best. Finally the verdict is in and the Magellan 1412 won, it is awesome!! I found one at the Murray Costco and Risa helped me do the Trip Planner for the seven homes I was scheduled to show in Herriman last night. WOW! At first I was very nervous, because Gladys* does have a mind of her own, and would emphatically tell me to turn left at .........., well I followed her every word and hey she would say, destination on your left (or right) and guess what, SHE WAS RIGHT EVERY TIME!! Can you tell I am so totally excited about this new addition to the family?! Now I am excited to go show homes in Herriman, Layton, Timbuktu (I know a couple of you should know where this is!? :) just about anywhere anyone would want to go, I can find the place!! Makes me want to just hop in the car and go, go, go.......except for the awful gas prices! Happy traveling, everyone needs a Gladys in their lives, welcome to the Benson family Gladys, we love you already, wahoo!!!

*Named after the ever nosy, loving, Gladys Kravitz on that crazy sit com I can't remember (Janet where are you?!) Also please note, the GPS does not come already named, that is something each owner has the right to do.....sort of like a WebKinz!!

Tending My Boys......

Suni and Mike took a short trip to float the Green, see her great post at Thumbs, Toes and Thursdays. We had a fun field trip planned for Friday, but Thursday evening Luke spent some quality time in one of his most favorite places, the tub!! As you can see by this huge smile, he was having a great time, I had to convince him that squirting water with his mouth really needed to stay confined to the bathtub and NOT the back of my legs!! He went off to bed like a champ!
Friday morning I had to wake up said "champ" at 9:35 am to get ready for our field trip to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point. Wow, this place is absolutely terrific, just take a look at Max's happy grin, I love to take this boy's photos, he always says "cheese" for me! He has his hand on a huge fossilized dinosaur foot (I think).

This shark was my all time favorite!!! Not even close to real, but when Max had already gone around the corner and said "Wow, Nana Sue you won't believe this!!!" I was pretty impressed with this toothy guy lookin right at us!
We had this area all to ourselves so I had Max take my photo with Luke and my shark friend! (oops, I think I still have my bluetooth (no pun intended!) in my ear) oh well, I think Max did a terrific job with the camera.
Max and I loved this metal dragonfly. The photo was taken through the glass so is a bit fuzzy, still pretty cool.


Gosh, hmmmm, don't know where the actual dinosaur photos went......maybe it was just too dark in there. You will all have to go experience this on your own, I highly recommend it. If you can get into the movie that would be a great adventure as well. Max's favorite part were the HUGE dinosaurs and Luke was happy to get a pretzel and popcorn on our way out!

For dinner Friday night we got pizza and had a picnic in our front yard with Papa Randall while he mowed the lawn, the boys had fun running and rolling around on the grass, did I ever have that much energy??!!

Thanks Max and Luke for being such great companions for a few days, sure do love you both!!!

Hours, Days, Weeks, etc.......

Well time, days and weeks keep continuing to fly by and I am left wondering what I am doing will all of MY time, days and weeks!! I will try another recap. I really have been busy. I have recently take over management of a really neat club house, swimming pool and sales office building. It is about 35 miles away and I have been out there at least three times. I had to fill the swimming pool up to the full line, it was probably about 7 inches from the top......a 60,000 gallon pool!

I spent 7 hours one day with 2 garden hoses.......well needless to say I really didn't make a dent in it. I did some research and found a great company called Water Movers (catchy huh?). Here I am with a much BIGGER hose, 4" to exact and boy can it every "move" the water!

These two helpful guys met me there and we used the fire hydrant to fill this huge pool, even so it still took almost 3 hours!! Below you can see the wonderfully FULL pool. It was important to my sanity that I post plenty of these full pictures. The pool is not supposed to be clean, only full so the gunite doesn't pop out of the ground. Some of you may say it is dangerously full, I say nah, it now has plenty of extra water to aid in the evaporation process. Thanks to the Water Movers and of course my garden hoses!!