Bits and Pieces to the Hall up-date

It has been a month since I last posted and A LOT has been going on for me.  However I wanted to catch up the news on the family as well.

Jessica has bought a small house near where she works in Magna, UT (in the Salt Lake Valley).  It is a bit of a fixer-up but a good step in life.

Scott and Chantel have been cleared for graduation in May.  Scott will actually finish in August of this year but will walk in May as they don't have graduation ceremonies in August.

Ben managed 9 days with Gary and I gone and then another week of me being gone.  He was a big help with cooking dinner for Jena and keeping the house cleaned and laundry done.  It was great when I got home to have those things done.

Tosha interviewed for a "trainer" position at Cracker Barrel and got it which means a raise and more responsibilities.

Jena, after finishing the play, got her top braces on right before we left.  She will get the bottom ones in April.  One day after Gary was back, Gary overslept and woke at 7:50 about 5 minutes after the carpool should have picked her up.  He raised to her bedroom to wake her up and discovered that she wasn't there.  It ended up that she had gotten up, made a Eggo for breakfast, got herself ready, and headed out to the carpool when they arrived.  When Gary told me, I commented that it was good that the school realized that I was out of town so her DAD was doing her hair!  Not sure what it looked like that day when no one did it.  But great for her to get to school all on her own

Gary was with me most of the past month so read those other posts to see how we spent our time.

"Guys and Dolls"

This past weekend was the long anticipated performances of the Legacy Junior High "Guys and Dolls".  Jena was a member of the cast and has been practicing for months in her musical theater class and for the past few weeks after school.  She loved it and she was awesome in her performance as "the flute player" in the mission band.

I will post a few "professional pictures" when the CD arrives but here are some shots from the three days of performances.  She had a good fan club on every night.  Thursday night Grandpa and Nana Giberson, Jessica and two of her friends-Elessia and Rachel, Scott and Chantel, her Aunt Valerie Burk, Gary and I attended.  Friday night, her friend, Kaitlyn joined me and then we all three went for ice cream after wards, and then on Saturday, Gary came with Grandma Hall, her bowling coach and her daughter, Kelsey, and Jena's friend Maddie and her grandmother, and her functional skills teacher, Mrs. Brooks. (I was there, too.  I sold candy and snacks before and during the intermission.  I still have the music running through my head.)  In addition there were 7 other kids from our neighborhood who were also in the play so all of their families were there each night so Jena knew lots of people in the crowd.

Jessica took some cute ones with her camera but I haven't gotten them yet. Hint, hint....

Midnight Prayer Meeting for the "sinners"

Street Meeting in New York

The bows

The whole mission band on Saturday night
I think there was a total of about 100 students
involved in the play.

Jena with her flowers

I think Jena smiled all three days of the performances.  She wants to do it (be in a play) again.

Ode to the T-shirt

(This post is entirely for family history purposes and will probably be very boring and dull to any persons currently living................just an FYI)

As many of you may know, Gary works from our home for his employment.  One of the benefits of that is that he wears jeans and a t-shirt every day except for Sunday (suit) and other special occasions.  In a recent "spring cleaning", I counted 33 t-shirts in his drawer and one on his person (after I weeded out the ones I no longer would let him wear.)  I decided that it was time to record his "collection" for history.  So here is a look at......

....the T-Shirt....

Of course, he has the typical sports t-shirts...although he has only BYU Cougar shirts and only bought by me.  (I often borrow them to walk in.)

And Scout shirts.  For years his drawer was filled with grey Class B t-shirts with different Troop numbers on them.  I think they are all finally gone.  He does have some Scout Camp shirts to wear.  This was is from Camp Bartlett Family Camp when I took my Wood Badge course.

And his current Cub class B which are tye dyed shirts.



                         Holiday shirts are fun and he will often wear one to our various Christmas functions.

This past year's Christmas t-shirt
Our theme for our Annual Party was
"How the Grinch stole Christmas"

Gary has wore this Christmas favorite
for many Christmases

My family often has "reunion shirts" and Gary is a good son-in-law and wears these shirts out...just in time to be replaced by the next reunion shirt.

I think the above are the "normal" shirts that might be found in the drawers of those who just need to wear t-shirts.  However, Gary has a broad range of shirts, mostly provided by Jessica.  Years ago, she found a funny computer related shirt to give Gary for some birthday or Christmas.  It was a big hit with all of us so she has now established a tradition of giving him t-shirts.  She often finds them months in advance and stores them until the appropriate holiday.  We all love seeing what she has found for him each time.

Humor

 

The story of our lives...the yard always wins!

My unfavorite--The Last line says "wait until your mom get home."
I don't like it.  In fact, Gary commented after I had spring cleaned
that he was surprised it was still in his drawer.  It is still in good shape.

Fun shirt for those old enough to really
connect with the Pillsbury Dough Boy

Left hand humor!

I was thinking that this was one of the only ones I bought..
However, I think we got this in Disneyland and Jessica
was shopping with me at the time so probably influenced it.

Gary is a fan of Dilbert

This was this past Christmas shirt.
Look at it a minute...you will get it.

Computer Humor

Gary gets lots of comments about these computer themed shirts. All of these were gifts from Jessica. I never find them even when I try to, so I have given up and just let it be Jessica's thing.

People often relate to the feelings expressed in these. I guess we all have a love-hate relationship with our computers.

Look carefully.

Know the feeling

That is often the case for me...although I have often accused my
computer of "behaving" when Gary uses it and going crazy when I try to get it
to do something for me.

Probably the shirt that gets the most comments as people are trying to figure it out.

Ask a computer person near you.

And one final shirt....the one Gary was wearing on Saturday when I cleaned our dressers.

Interestingly for enjoying travel as much as we do, he has only two "vacation" shirts--one from a LDS Mexican cruise we went on with the icon "And it came to pass..." and one from Park City that I got on a weekend trip with Gary's mom and sisters.  Gary's mom bought it because she wanted to add to his humorous t-shirt collection.  It wasn't funny enough to make the cut however.  We will have to find a shirt when we go to Hawaii in a couple of weeks.

And now you know...........

                 (Aren't you glad I didn't put all 34 shirts on the blog!)

Spring Cleaning Part 2

I think I operate under the mistaken notion that if only I would organize things better I would....be ______________ (fill in the blank....more organized, cook better meals, be a better housekeeper, etc.)  I don't know if I am the only one that does that.  Even though I understand it doesn't always work, here I am reorganizing and redoing (and buying more totes) in an attempt to accomplish something lasting.  As I mentioned in a prior post, spring cleaning use to be a yearly event in January and February, although it has lasted throughout the year and often missed completely during the past 7 years.  This week, I touched up and repainted sections of our baseboards, washed wails, redid and cleaned my China hutch, and re did my PANTRY.  Yeah!  Here is the finished product.

I have an idea of how to manage my food storage better through using my pantry better as well.  Ask me next year how that is working.  I am open for ideas.  Does anyone have a computer program to mange their food supplies?