Katie Tovey, what a lady

Today is my grandmother's 79th birthday. She is a woman that I sincerely admire and respect and I can barely keep up with her hectic lifestyle she's still leading. When I think of my grandmother I always think of self-less service. One of my favorite grandma Katie quotes is "If not me who? And if not now when?" in regards to service or getting a task done. Nothing I could write would do her justice, so I thought I'd just mention a few of my favorite things about her.

-She grew up on a ranch in Idaho and loved riding horses
-She always knows the blunt but tactful way to say things
-She makes THE BEST bread and rolls on the planet
-She is always thinking of others
-She raised 10 children and still had the energy to go to "Jazzercise"
-She makes everyone she comes in contact with feel valued and loved
-She is fun!
-She is a fantastic dancer
-She is always humming a tune as she's going about her days work
-She's taught me that no matter how rich or how poor you are, you still need to take care of what you have.
-She never forgets a birthday, and with a family as large as ours that's an amazing thing.
-She is stubborn and tough, but in a good way
-She always smells like fresh soap and flowers
-She always has an endless supply of treats and goodies for grandchildren and great-grandchildren
-She is a baby expert and I should be paying her instead of a pediatrician
-She never forgets a friend
-She makes 79 look GOOD!!!!!!









I know she will probably not get to read this, but for posterity's sake there it is. She is an incredible person and I hope to be half as great a grandmother someday!

Cold winter days make for good book reading

I love to read, always have. My parents are the same way and every time I visit them they are always in the middle of a new book. When I was little girl, before I even knew how to read, I would create a big nest of blankets and pillows and dolls and spend hours pouring over books and looking at their pictures. After I finish a book I am anxious to move on to another one and immerse myself in a new story with new characters. I could spend hours in a bookstore pouring over the newly released works and looking for something interesting. I've rubbed off on Riley and he's an avid reader now as well. In the winter I get to do quite a bit of reading when it's cold outside and I'd rather stay in. To me a perfect afternoon would be curling up in front of the fire with a blanket and some hot cocoa and reading to my hearts content. Even if I don't really like a book, I try and stick with it until the end just because I always hold out hope that it will get better. Sometimes they do and sometimes I absolutely can't read another page. Here are some books I've read lately:


-Playing for Pizza by John Grisham. I actually bought this for Riley for Christmas, but I couldn't resist reading it first because I'm a huge Grisham fan. This was one of his non-legal stories about a washed up NFL quarterback that ends up playing small ball football in Italy. This book was highly entertaining and talked not only about football, but about the Italian cuisine, history, and landmarks. The main character went from being an embarrassment to his U.S. team to a local Italian hero. This was a fun read.



-The Innocent Man by John Grisham. "In the town of Ada, Oklahoma, Ron Williamson was going to be the next Mickey Mantle. But on his way to the Big Leagues, Ron stumbled, his dreams broken by drinking, drugs, and women. Then, on a winter night in 1982, not far from Ron’s home, a young cocktail waitress named Debra Sue Carter was savagely murdered. The investigation led nowhere. Until, on the flimsiest evidence, it led to Ron Williamson. The washed-up small-town hero was charged, tried, and sentenced to death—in a trial littered with lying witnesses and tainted evidence that would shatter a man’s already broken life…and let a true killer go free. Impeccably researched, grippingly told, filled with eleventh-hour drama, John Grisham’s first work of nonfiction reads like a page-turning legal thriller. It is a book that will terrify anyone who believes in the presumption of innocence—a book no American can afford to miss."-Book description from Amazon.com

Grisham's non-fiction writing is just as good as his fiction. This book really made me stop to think about every person who is put on trial and the power of DNA testing to solidify a perpetrators guilt. If you are interested in the legal system and crime solving you will like this book.


-Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. This book was about a man in a nursing home remembering his life in the circus where he met his true love. With all of the hype surrounding this book I expected a lot more. There were parts that I basically had to skip over because of the content. I would not recommend it.




- The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Amazon.com says: "In his debut novel, The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini accomplishes what very few contemporary novelists are able to do. He manages to provide an educational and eye-opening account of a country's political turmoil--in this case, Afghanistan--while also developing characters whose heartbreaking struggles and emotional triumphs resonate with readers long after the last page has been turned over. And he does this on his first try. "

This book is an account from a man's perspective of Afghanistan and not for the faint of heart, but if you can make it through until the end you won't be sorry. This book had me in tears so many times, and opened my eyes to the racial struggles that exist in other countries. It felt more like a personal memoir than a novel the writer has created and made me more than thankful for the country I live in and how easy my life is in comparison. I highly recommend this book and can't wait to read the author's second novel "A Thousand Splendid Suns", which is from a women's perspective.

I just started a new book yesterday and can't wait until I have some quiet this afternoon to sit down and have a good read.

Snow, Snow and more Snow

What crazy, snowy weather we experienced today. The white stuff has been coming down since before we woke this morning and is still going strong now in the evening. Church was cancelled and our whole day was spent holed up inside our cozy little house in front of the fire. We stayed in our comfy clothes and just enjoyed a relaxing, quiet (for the most part) Sunday. Riley ventured out around noon to shovel the driveway and walkway and Kendle got bundled up to play around in the snow for all of twenty minutes or so.













While they were out in the cold I decided to whip up some home made potato soup and scones. There is nothing better on a snowy day like today. Yum!

The last time we had snow like this was a couple of years ago when we still lived in Burbank. I hope the snow plows come soon, but it's nice to not have to worry about Kendle having school tomorrow, that semester break day sure coincided well with the weather. For most of the day there was not a soul to be seen outside. Then after dinner we saw someone skiing behind a truck down the middle of the street. It looked fun but slightly dangerous.

Days like today don't happen too often around here and it was a treat to be able to enjoy it with my family.

Pet Peeves

I feel like I need to vent some of my pet peeves and perhaps by writing them down they will seem a bit silly to me and not worth wasting my time and energy being irritated day after day.

#1 Every day when I go to pick Kendle up from morning kindergarten, there is a woman who despite all of the notes the school has sent home about "parking lot etiquette and safety" thinks it is perfectly OK to not pull her car up behind the first car parked by the curb. She is there every day and she refuses to pull all the way up and parks right smack dab in the middle so all of the other parents have to maneuver and back in to the big space she leaves between her car and the one in front of it. I am going to go insane watching her do this for the rest of the year. It's just common sense. If there is a big space between your car and the car in front of you, pull up so other people have room to park by the curb as well!

#2 There is nothing better than reading a soggy, wet, newspaper in the morning. I know it's time consuming to walk that extra step and put the paper closer to the door (or heaven forbid put it in a plastic bag when it's pouring outside), but it's also time consuming for me to lay my wet newspaper out on the counter to dry so I can read it in a couple of hours. Then when the paper boy comes to collect his money he has the gumption to give me a disgusted look when I don't add a tip onto the check. What ever happened to good old fashioned customer service? Which brings me to #3:

#3 Walmart. I hate you, but I need you. Why must you only have one checker when there are fifty people trying to check out? Why must you leave price tags off of random items? Why must I always get the shopping cart with the squeaky, wobbly wheel? Last night after Riley's indoor soccer game I sent him there to pick up some groceries for me and apparently they only had one check stand open and he had to use the self-checkout for his big cartload of items, only to have something not be able to scan and the "self-checkout" attendant then came over and said "Oh, I can help check you out over here". That was the straw that broke the camel's back. Riley said he went off on them and told them they had the worst customer service out of any store he's ever been in and that he will never shop there again. He was so mad when he got home that I think he might actually hold to that. We shall see. Bottom line - Walmart, people will continue to shop at your store because it's cheap and convenient but don't be surprised if every customer leaving your store is telling themselves they should never come back.

#4 I know other people have talked about this before, but the radio stations around here are HORRIBLE. There isn't one station that I can listen to consistently. I consider myself pretty well-rounded when it comes to types of music that I like. I like rock, country, pop, indie, a little alternative, reggae, classical and stuff you can't even put in a specific category, but I can not take one more Chris Daughtry (or is it just Daughtry now?) or Nickelback song. I can pretty much turn on the radio the same time every day and hear the same song as the day before. If I don't get Sirius Satellite radio soon I will become a permanent talk radio listener.

I know this wasn't the most uplifting post, but I do feel a little bit better now that I got that out of my system. Sometimes a girl just needs to rant a bit. So now I'm feeling a bit guilty if I brought anyone down by reading this so I'll attempt to lift your spirits by leaving you with one of my favorite quotes which should help me put this all in perspective:

"If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain"-Dolly Parton