Kris' Birthday she was 15 yrs old, and getting to be as cute as can be.  After Jared and Jason went bow and arrow hunting of deer, Loye and I and Mandy ate breakfast washed dishes and then we went over to Big Lake and waited for Loyelin and Liza and their kids.  We waited for about 1 hr.  before they finally cae.  We all went to pick raspberries and we had a good time.  We came back to camp and fixed dinner.  The girls had bought chicken and green corn, and we made biscuits and fried together potatoes and onions.  Everything really tasted scrumptious.  After we ate the girls took, Cristina, Sara, Richard, Daniel, Candon, Rikki, Mandy and Tiffany and went home.  So Loye and I and the boys were left all alone.

Continued

My own grandchildren are very dear to me.  Cassandra Lea is going to Eastern Arizona to school she has a boyfriend named Harry Wood he is from Thatcher.  I am very pleased with Cassie she seems to know where she is going.  May she always remember to do what is right and keep her life in order.

Tamara Lynn is out of High School and is having a hard time deciding what she wants to do with her life, the last time I heard she was going to school with Cassie.  I think this is the best decision she has made so far even though I know Tammy does not like school.

Kris Delaine will be a Sophomore this year.  She is a quiet, nice and pretty girl also she does well in school and should do great in life.

Tara Rachael will be in the 8th grade and she will be all right cause she does not know a stranger and she is bubbly and full of fun.

Heather Jo is in 4th grade is quiet, pretty and smart.  She will do good in life, everyone seems to like her.

Heidi Jill starts kindergarten and is Roger's baby and she is cute as she can be.  She is friendly and happy and does about what she wants to do.

Cristina Marie is a freshie and is a cute, talented and smart girl.  If she chooses the right friends she will go far in life.

Sara Rae is in 3rd grade and a born chatter-box knows everything about everybody.  She is cute, kind and smart.

Richard Edward Loye is cute, chubby and tries real hard to talk but is hard to understand.  He will go far as he is pretty diplomatic.

Daniel Martin Louis is a real cutie and he is going to be a big boy if Loyelin can fill up his height.  He is good natured and knows how to wrestle all ready as Richard is teaching him.

Jacob - good looking, smart, tender-hearted.  He takes care of his sisters and tries hard to be a good boy.

Lindsey is a pretty little girl.  She talks non-stop and she is friendly and does not forget people.  She always makes people feel important especially grandparents.

Amber - a cute little sweet, cuddly baby.

Candon Paul is in 2nd grade and is a dependable little boy, handsome and smart, likes to play ball and takes good care of his sisters.

Rikki Rachelle is in 1st grade and is a cute little quiet girl who has her own burdens to bear but does it quietly.  Everyone's heart goes out to her.

Amanda Jo is just what Rikki needs as she speaks right up about everything not only for herself but for Rikki too.  She is pretty, sweet and important.

Tiffany Lynn is everyone's sweetheart and she knows it and basks in this love, she is a real live doll.

It has been so long since I wrote in this that I can't remember all the events that have happened since I last wrote in here.  Lucielle Plumb and Casey Moritzky, both passed away each having cancer it happened unless than a week from each other.  Lucielle was around 80 and casey was about 26.  He left a young wife Laurie.

Josh has a nice girlfriend, Sheryl Van Deren.

This last weekend was Easter and also General Conference.  We went down to Roosevelt Lake camping and stayed Friday and Saturday nights we came home early Sunday morning.  Mark and Liza and their children went also, Jared, Jason, Cristina, Sara, Loye and I all went.  Roger, Cathy and their girls except Cassie all came down and back on Saturday Amber Whiting came with them.

  Loyelin is expecting again so she wasn't feeling like going.  Shanna lives so far away, her and Jim don't get to come very often.  I love all my family but it is easier to feel close to those who want to be near us.

Mandy is such a little fisty britches and she always has an answer for everything.  As we were looking for a place to camp we teasingly told the kids we were going back to Taylor.  This upset Sara Rikki and Mandy who were riding in the car with us.  "Why?" said Sara, "Oh Brother!" is Rikki's favorite comment.  Then came this disgusted little voice from Mandy "I'm not happy!"  As she was drinking her milk and looked out toward the lake she said "If I would throw this in there it would all turn to milk."  She is a little pouter but she is so full of life and her comments always send out a ray of sunshine.  Little Rikki's is pretty quiet but still enjoys life to the fullest and never bothers anyone.  Candon is all boy and acts accordingly.  Tiffany is so good natured she just played in her playpen until someone picked her up then she was all smiles and happy.  Sara is a pretty little girl, always talking, sometimes enthusiastically, sometimes not so enthusiastic, but always talking.  Cristina is a very pretty girl and always likes to do fun things.  She is also very talented.  I just hope she sets her goals in the right direction.  Jason is my baby and sometimes acts like it, but he is so much company for me and I love him dearly, he also has lots of talents.  He could be a very good athlete, but athletics really doesn't seem to interest him to much.  As long as he is a good boy and does as his Heavenly Father wants him to, everything will be alright for him.

We did have an enjoyable trip the desert was so green and pretty with wild flowers everywhere.  We came home through young (an isolated community in the middle of Pleasant Valley, located under the great Mogollon Rim of Arizona.)  over 58 miles of dirt road.  The people of Young are very back-woodsy because it is so hard for them to associate with the rest of the world because of the bad roads.  They have a branch of the church there that meets in a small, ice little church house.  Young belongs to the Taylor Stake.

Yesterday was Katie's birthday and the day before was Violets.  I think Kate was 59 and Violet was 58.  Jared and Roger spent all yesterday getting ready to bow and arrow hunt for elk in the Kaibab forest and this morning they left about 3 am to go.  Cathy went to see her friend Anna Marie Peterson in Flagstaff while her friend came from Page.  After work Loye and I went after wood.  We took Candon, Rikki and Sara they seemed to have fun we then came home, got cleaned up and went to Snowflake to watch the Lobos get scobbed by Winslow.  Snowflake's team sure has some problems.  Sept 19 was Mandy's 2nd birthday.

Had an awful hard time getting out of bed this morning.  Finally made it through the weekend.  Then it was Labor Day weekend and Josh was home he came out to Flag with Randy and he got home as I said before about 3:30 then he slept.  When he got up he got in our car and that was about the last we seen of him except for occasional glimpses at the ball games.  Sunday he did get up and go to church, but he didn't sit with us.  Then the rest of the day he was gone.  Monday we got up and prepared to go after wood and cook dinner out.  Josh wouldn't go with us, he was afraid Randy would go back without him.  Dahl and his family were in Lakeside.  They were going to picnic with us but they got sent to the wrong place.  We went up on Decker Wash and really had a nice time, until just before we left Tami was hitting a stump with an axe and I guess she stirred up a swarm of bees.  Heather got 6 bites, Sara had 3 bites, Jared had 3 bites and Mandy got 1 right on her belly button.  When we got home Josh was gone and we never seen Dahl.  Sept 6 set apart as secretary for R.S. also Tami's 15th birthday.

Jason's 11th Birthday, my baby's birthday.  I don't know what I would do without him.  It's nice to have a child who still loves his Mother and I'm going to enjoy it until he out grows it.  Josh moved to the valley.  What an empty space he has left.  On the way to Mesa his pickup broke down at Sunflower.  He said he walked about 10 miles before he caught a ride.  I guess the heat about got him.

Jared went down and pulled Josh's pickup into Mesa where they could get it fixed.  Then Jared came home.  Since he didn't leave home until about 7 pm he didn't get home until 3 am.

Cristina and Sara have been with their Grandma Clark and Sam for about 1 month now and Saturday they are supposed to come home.  It will really be nice to see the again.

Well I keep getting worse at the Journal keeping.

The ball games are all over for the kids.  My "Little Angels" came in 3rd on their league with Teree Webb (I think it is supposed to be Fuentes), and April Ellison making the all star team.  I thought Cristina would make it but she didn't.  Ann Rogers made it from her team, "The Blue Jays."

The little league ended their season with the "Pirates" coming in 3rd.  Ryan Hancock, Garrett Hancock and Clinton Neff all made the all star team with Scott Hall getting honorable mention.  Lyn Hancock and Jerry Peck was the coaches for the "Pirates", but I can honestly say these boys knew less about playing baseball when the season ended then when it started.

We made rolls one day for the 4th of July barbecue and another day we cut up slaw for the same purpose.

Dahl and Shelley came up for the 4th as Dahl was playing in the ball tournament at Show Low with his Mesa Ward team.  They played 3 gaes but got beat all 3 games.  Last year we were in Alaska for the 4th so it was sure seemed nice to be home at least for the celebration as last year nothing exciting happened in Alaska and the boys never took any special time off from work.  However, the 4th was on Sunday last year.

It was nice to hear the Anvil as it exploded and made these earth shattering blasts.  And not everyone gets reminded by their Stake President that "it's time to get up to celebrate the 4th of July", as he rides around in the parade of cars, ambulances, band and Anvil to wake everyone up.  Of course the band with the Jennings Drum is always a highlight.  However, this year Judge Jennings had passed away so one of his family members played the drum.  At 6:30 am we went over to the rodeo grounds and ate a pancake and sausage breakfast prepared by the Kiwanis Club for $1.50 per person.  It was a real tasty breakfast.  We came home and got ready to go to Show Low to watch Dahl play ball.  But when we got there his team had drawed a bye and they didn't play until noon.  We went down town and watched the parade.  I have seen much better parades.  Taylor's Rodeo Queen rode in the parade.  Calli Lee was queen with Wendy Webb and Tana Lewis as attendants.  Tana looked real cute.

After the parade we had to come back to Taylor so Loye could help serve barbecue.  Jason, Loyelin, Mark, Liza and their kids all ate barbecue.  It was really good.  We then went back to Show Low to watch Josh play with the Video Magic team, but they got beat.  So we came back to Taylor and just got here when we found out that Dahl had a game at 3pm but we didn't go back up to watch it.  At 6 Loye had to go help with the barbecue again.  As soon as he got through we went back to Show Low where both Dahl and Josh were playing ball.  We watched Dahl's game but they got beat.  Finally we came home and watched the fireworks.  Then Dahl and Shelley went over to Mom's and slept and we went in here to bed.

Chan had come home from Alaska about 1 week ago and he sort of wanted us to keep his care here so it would be out of Keeven's way so Sunday morning Loye, Jason and I rode to the valley with dahl so we could bring Chan's car home with us.  We went straight to Keeven's where Dahl and Shelley left us.  We got in the car that didn't have any air conditioning.  We went over to the Red Lobster, went by the Price Club, then came home (and it was hot).  We got home about 8pm.  On the 4th we did absolutely nothing except wash clothes.

Today was ward conference for us.  The theme of the conference was service.  They showed 2 films one called "The Mail Box", and the other was called "Uncle Ben"  they were real inspirational films.  One was about this old lady who walked everyday out to the mailbox to see if her children had written to her, but they never did.  Finally one daughter called the old lady's neighbor and told her they were going to put her in an old folks home.  The old lady trudged out to the mail box in the snow and there was a letter from her family.  But before she could read it, she had a heart attack and died.

"Uncle Ben" was about a man who was an alcoholic and the only relatives he had was a sister who had 2 sons and 1 daughter.  His sister died and because he was an alcoholic the court didn't want him to have the children.  But he promised the courts he would change if they would let him raise the children.  From the day he took the children until they all graduated he hadn't taken one single drink.

When we came home we really had a hail storm.  The streets out here were really flooding and about 2 inches of hail fell.

Loyelin, Rick and the girls came over and visited for a while.

Loye had a sports meeting he went to and we all went to bed early.

Got up and mopped the kitchen before I went to work, but was late getting there since I had to braid Sara's hair.  Yesterday she didn't even get it combed.

This afternoon we went bowling the last time this season.  Kate, Charlayne and I  bowled Ilene Brimhall, Elsie Martineau and Gwen Garrels to see who won, but they beat us.  They didn't give trophies just money so I won about $45.00 today.

Came home washed clothes, folded them, made supper, washed dishes and went to bed.

The wind blew all night long and continued on through the day, finally dying down toward evening so I could hang out some clothes to dry. 

Maybelle was back to work so everything was normal again  Today we served chicken chow mein but the kids just threw it away. 

Mom came over and visited for a while.  She said she didn't feel to good, but she visited and didn't complain to much.  I love my mother very much and enjoy having her come over.  

In the evening I rode down to a High School band concert with Roger and Cathy to watch and listen to Cassie play.  Some of the parts were dull but most were good especially the band.

We have Sara and Cristina staying with us until Loyelin gets back.  But they were all in bed when I got home, expect Loye who was up watching the fights on TV. 

Bro. Johnson in our ward was killed in a car wreck and his small son Jared was hurt bad.

Today has been another windy one.  So whats new in Taylor in the spring, just typical weather.  

Kathy Rogers worked today for Maybelle.  We got along just fine.  Served Pigs-in-a-blanket (bread dough wrapped around a weiner) pretty good.

After work I went by Loyelin's to see how I could help.  She had everything pretty well under control with Jane's help.  So I went on up to Liza's and we took the kids down to Snowflake and drake a coke.

When I got home it was time to get ready to go over to the stake center.  They wanted us there by 5:00 so they could take pictures.  And we made it on time.  

Loree Mills had decorated the Cultural Hall and it looked real nice.  We served punch made with mashed bananas, pineapple juice, orange juice and kool-aid and sugar frozen together, we then took it out of the freezer mashed it up and poured ginger ale over it.  Turned out real good.

Norris Baldwin, who is Loyelin's bishop performed the ceremony, I thought he did an outstanding job.  The ceremony was in the chapel.  Loyelin wore a long pink dress.  In her hair she had a halo of flowers.  She really looked pretty.  Rick wore a gray tuxedo and looked real handsome.  Sara and Cristina wore white dotted-swiss dresses trimmed with pink, blue, and green ribbons they looked like 2 little dolls.

The family was about all that came but from both sides I think all that could come were there.  They got some nice gifts.  Rick's Father, Louis Aceves II was there from Navajo and his Grand Parents Louis and Emma were there from Albuquerque.  Turned out to be a real nice party.  Mom and Eva were both there.

Another windy day in northern Arizona.  I'm thankful we have it all the time and not in the form of a tornado.  There has been so much destruction in other states just this week from tornados and in California this week they had an earthquake in Coalinga in the San Joaquine Valley.  Lots of damage done.

We had a hectic day in the kitchen we made turkey and dressing, potatoes and gravy, harvard beets, rolls and pumpkin pie, it all turned out real good.  Roger and Cathy, Jared and Loyelin, Sara, Heidi, Candon, Rikki, Mom, Grandma Willis, Ann Lewis and Viva Hatch all came by to eat dinner with us.

After work we went bowling and I bowled a 119 game and a 155 and a 145 which wasn't to bad for me, but Kate had a 209 game, it sure made her day.

In the morning we are going to the valley to watch the ball game at 7:30 hope I can get done everything I need to.

Good ole Friday, the day we work all week for.  Also it's payday and I get a whopping 123.70 for 2 weeks work.  Of course I have $100 sent to the credit union each payday so I guess it isn't too bad.  Next year I think I will have my whole check sent to the credit union and that way it should add up faster.  Kate was gone so Barbara Neff worked for her and Aunt Ida was gone so Sherree Lewis worked for her.  This was the first time for Sherree to work, but she did all right.  And we all enjoyed having her there.

After work we went to Snowflake to watch the High School baseball team play and defeat Holbrook 7-3.  This was their last game and about the end of Josh's High School Sports.  They do have the state tournament to go to next Friday.  I hope we can afford to go watch it, Loye just hasn't had any work so we really can't afford very much.

In the evening we went down to the El Rancho and ate Spanish Food.  Rick and Loyelin and girls were there. Rick paid the bill.

Barbara Neff worked for Aunt Ida today and she is getting to know the work pretty good.  Today we had tostados.  Maybelle and I took Inventory so Kate and Barbara did most of the dinner.

After work we went bowling and rode up with Charlayne in Lee Brewer's pick-up so she could pick up some new chairs she was getting from Montgomery Ward.

I bowled pretty good for a change.  I had a 121, 142 and a 171.  For me that's good.  

We went over to Loyelin's for supper and she had fixed a roast with mashed potatoes and gravy, mixed vegetables, vegetable salad, garlic toast and olives.  Sure did taste good.  We enjoyed visiting with her and Rick and the girls. 

When we came home I called Louise Kay Hatch, who was celebrating her 54th birthday today.  She is one of my oldest and dearest friends.  We had so many happy memories of our youth.  I watched an old Bing Crosby movie and finally went to bed.

Back to school in the wind it started before we got off to work this morning.

Maybelle wasn't at work so Barbara Neff worked for her.  Not nearly as lively at work but it wasn't bad.

Picked up Candon and Sara after work and brought them home with us.  Then Cathy wanted us to watch Heather for a while so we did until the girls got home from school.  We (Loye and I) took Candon and Sara up to Show Low where Loye had to rent a trencher to do some work for "The Little General" out East.  He is putting in a sprinkling system.

Mark, Liza and Loyelin came over and visited for a while in the evening.  Then all went to bed.

After breakfast on this really beautiful day, Loye took the Datsun down to Ballard Brothers where all it needed was to have the clutch adjusted and "Teeuse" charged Loye $1.00 which was really a relief.

We got ready to go to Payson to meet with Shanna's husband Jim Nalley who is here from Ohio where they live.  Josh had a wrestling tournament in Lakeside so he went up there and won, but didn't get to go to Payson.  We couldn't find Jason so we just left him here playing with the neighbors.  Loyelin, Mark and Liza went to the valley shopping so they didn't make it either.

We were about 20 minutes late getting there but when we got to the circle K there was Jim, Dahl, Shelley, Jacob, Lindsey and Jared.  We borrowed Grandma Willis' car so just Loye and I and Mandy went in it but, Roger and Cathy had Mark and Liza's pick-up and they had Cassie, Tami, Kris, Tara, Heather, Heidi, Sara, Cristina, Rikki, and Candon.  We had prepared  picnic and had everything but the chicken so Jim went to Kentucky Fried Chicken and bought 2-21 piece barrels of chicken, when we offered to help pay he said Shanna would beat him up, cause she had told him to take us out to eat.  We went to the park and ate and visited while the kids played on the slides, swings ect.  We sure had an enjoyable time.  It would of been better if all the kids had been there.  Makes you know how the Savior feels when all of his sheep aren't with the flock.

Birthday of my Grand daughter Sara Rae Thompson 5 yrs. old.

Oh Boy! Today we had Navajo Tacos for lunch and it really is a hard day.  We served 343, the most we have served in one day this year, and I'm tired.

The weather has been cold, cloudy and windy.  Jason has gone swimming with Cleve Malone and Eddie Neff and as of yet hasn't got home.  

Josh is already home, but wants to go to some sort of party.  I'm a little leary of his parties.

Loye hasn't had much work to do so he has been home all afternoon.  

Loyelin left Sara here with us for while so she could go to Show Low and get her a birthday present.  She got tired and Grandpa wouldn't let her watch cartoons so she went down to Heather's for a while.  

Cathy has been practicing endurance running and now is pretty good.  She got an infection in a blister on her heel and she has really felt bad today, Roger said.

Jacob fell on a utility box and jammed his teeth so far up they couldn't even see one of them.  He jumped off from this box backwards and got his teeth.