Jayla and Jordan

I just got some new pictures of Jayla and Jordan and wanted to share them. Jayla will be a year old in October! She is such a cutie and has been walking since she was barely 9 months old! Jordan and Lacey say she is a sweet girl who is very curious and into everything! Sounds like a typical one year old! I wish I could see her more often. They are planning a trip here for Christmas so we are excited about that. Little Jordan is a very special guy. Lacey and Jordan are wonderful examples. Tragically, Lacey's sister died a couple years ago and they stepped up and took guardianship of little Jordy. They are doing a great job of raising him. He is very into sports now and loves every team that Jordan loves...namely Ohio State and the Bengals. He loves school and is a smart young man. I spend my days working with people who need to step up to the plate as parents and I am reminded of this family who are doing it despite Jordan being in a grueling doctorate program for the next 3 years. You guys are awesome...Lacey is a great mom and a great daughter-in-law...we share a love for garage sales and I miss her especially on Friday and Saturday mornings! Love you guys!

Ike Hit Ohio!

Can you believe it? Hurricane Ike hit Ohio! We have been declared a state of emergency. We were hit with 79 miles per hour winds, which knocked out electricity everywhere. In fact, my workplace- Dept. of Human Services is still without power, so here I sit at home blogging and getting paid!! You know I hate that! We were lucky, we only lost power for about 7 hours. My mom and sister are still in the dark. Mom lost her carport too. Derr road, if you've been here, looks like a disaster area. We had sent lots of our electricity repair people to Texas to help out there so we are shorthanded here. I can only imagine what it must be like in Texas and my prayers are with those people. I have never seen wind like I saw on Sunday. I know the importance of 72 hr. kits and many of the ward members are having to put them to use.

Sadie's Day at the Pool!

We had a fun day a couple of Saturdays ago. Splash Zone, our local water park had closed for the season, so they took all the chemicals out of the pool and invited everyone to bring their dogs for a swim. Sadie, our Springer Spaniel loves nothing more than swimming so we took her! What a riot! There were dogs everywhere! It was a lot of fun and none of the dogs fought...they just swam and played. One even went down the kids slide again and again. As for Sadie...well the swimmer is getting old and arthritic. She jumped right in the deep end and then couldn't get her hind legs up so she dog paddled around and almost went under...I had to pull her up! I took her around to where the steps were and she swam there so she could walk out. She is one crazy dog!

The Houseman's

Create your own family sticker graphic at pYzam.com

35 Years of Married Bliss...ters!

Guerry and I have been married for 35 years! We celebrated in Chicago by attending the temple marriage of one of my best friend's daughters. Whitley Staller was married on August 15th in the Chicago Temple. We attended the wedding which was beautiful... a beautiful sunny day, a beautiful bride and all of her brothers and sisters in attendance. Then we did a temple session, ate lunch and went back to our motel and slept! I guess that's what old people do on their anniversary! We had a great relaxing time. On Saturday, we headed to Indiana to attend the reception. It was so great seeing our old friends from the Huntington Ward. We laughed and reminised and showed pictures of all of our kids and grandkids! We enjoyed our trip. Poor Justin dog sat Sadie for us and she got sprayed by a skunk!! Nasty, to say the least...we are still trying to get the smell out of her. Back to work tomorrow!

I have a really good recipe for fruit salsa and cinnamon chips I wanted to share.

3 peaches, peeled and chopped

1-2 apples peeled and chopped (sprinkle w/lemon juice to keep from browning)

1 qt. strawberries, chopped

1 pt. raspberries, halved

Put chopped fruit in a bowl.

Combine 2 T. brown sugar; 2T white sugar; 1/4 c. jam (any flavor; I used peach)

Mix with fruit. Serve with cinnamon tortillas: Spread flour tortillas with melted butter; sprinkle with cinnamon sugar; spray with pam. Cut into wedges. Bake @ 350 for about 10 min. Yum!

35 Years of Married Bliss...ters!

The Joys of my Life...Grandkids

One of the greatest blessings in my life are my grandchildren. I am so lucky to have 11 grandchildren... 9 boys and 2 girls! Maybe I'm a bit predjudice, but I truly have the cutest, the smartest, and the most talented grandchildren in the world!!! Let me brag a little about each one... from oldest to youngest. Jordan is 7 and lives in Florida. He is a friend to everyone. When he moved to Florida, the lunch lady at his school cried! She told us he was one of the only kids in the school that was nice to her... he gave her a hug everyday! Jamison is also 7 and lives in Mexico. He is very smart and was one of the top 5 students in his class in English and Spanish. He can already do division in math AND can ramp his dirt bike! Peyton is 6 and lives in Utah. He is really smart too- he is a good reader and knows sign language! He has a tender heart, and beautiful brown eyes. Kason is 5 and lives in Mexico. When he loves something he really loves it! And right now he loves dinosaurs! He knows all about them. He is the most cheerful boy- even in the mornings! Evan is 5 and lives about 1/2 mile from us. He loves to play baseball, cars and guns. He has a great imagination. Logan is 3 1/2 and lives in Utah. He has the chubbiest, most squeezable cheeks! He loves baseball, trucks, and cars- a total boy! Ryder is almost 3 and lives in Mexico. His nickname is "Bongo" and he lives up to it. He has no fear... and usually ends up with a bump, bruise, cut, etc. on a daily basis. Desmond is 2 and lives here in Springfield. He is a nonstop talker. He loves grandpa's motorcycle and playing outside. Gabriella is 18 mos.- the first girl! She has a headful of blond curls, and loves to cuddle! She also loves our dog, Sadie. Tanner is 10 months old and lives in Mexico. He's such a happy baby. He is so handsome and really loves his mom! Jayla is almost 10 months old and lives in Florida. She has the biggest bright blue eyes! She is a happy girl who started walking before she turned 9 months! I am one proud grandma! My hope is that one day, we can all get together at the same time, so they all can play together and I can spoil them all!

Florida Vacation Pictures- and funny story

I wanted to put up some pictures of our vacation. Jayla is getting so big. As you can see, the beach is beautiful and so relaxing! I have to share a funny story. St. Augustine is the oldest city in the US and has a lot of pirate history. One of the famous tales is that there is a lot of old coins that wash up from the ocean from pirate ships. Guerry was determined that he was going to find some gold or "Booty" as they call it and that we would be rich! Day after day he searched the beach, only to find shells, crabs and jellyfish! Justin, being the jokester that he is, and Lacey, whose innocent looks are deceiving, cooked up a plan. They bought a fake gold coin at the pirate shop in town. Then on our next beach outing, Lacey brought a BIG shell that she had from home. They buried the coin in the sand just under the big shell, and left part of the shell sticking out. You guessed it...Guerry found the shell...and then found the "booty!" He was pretty excited and all of us went along with the joke! Later that evening, Guerry stayed home with the kids while we all went to the outlet malls. We were laughing about the "joke" and trying to figure out how to tell him that it was fake. Justin was wondering if we had gone too far with the joke, but I said, "Oh, no...dad will think it's funny!" Then I called Guerry to tell him we were on our way home. He said he had just got off the phone with his dad..." I told him about the booty and he thinks that the size of coin I have is worth about 7 or 8k! " I hung up and told the kids, ..."I think we've gone too far!" So that night we were sitting around talking about the time Justin had played a trick on Brady with a fake lottery ticket worth 10,000 dollars and how funny that had been. When Guerry started laughing at that memory, Justin blurts out... "The booty is fake dad...I bought it and hid it in the sand...please don't be mad!" We all had a good laugh, but I think Guerry was a little upset... He watched Anger Management a couple of times after we got back to Ohio!

Florida Vacation

We just returned from a week in St. Augustine Florida...what a great vacation we had! Justin and Evan went with us. We visited our son Jordan, his wife Lacey and their kids, Jordan and Jayla. Jordan is in grad school there, getting his doctorate in physical therapy and his masters in occupational therapy. He is a busy guy, but still managed to show us a great time. We went to the ocean everyday... saw the fountain of youth, downtown St. Augustine (the oldest city in the U.S.) which is so cool, and did lots of other things. But the best thing was just relaxing on the beach and playing with my granddaughter Jayla who is 9 months old and such a cutie! She is walking already and LOVES the ocean! Little Jordan and Evan had a great time together. When I figure out how to post pics, I'll share some. We hated to leave but are happy to be home too. I would recommend St. Augustine to anyone for a great vacation. I am hoping all of my kids and grandkids can meet us there next year for a family reunion...sound good?