I need your info!

Will all you Sparkies please email me with all your wonderful new addresses?!
I would love to add you to my mailing list. I have Oma, Helen and Lisa's.

Thanks!

chessiecurrier@aol.com

Christmas Card Preview

This is actually one of the better pictures with our pets. They both look like aliens and opted to leave them out of the Christmas card this year.

For those of you who haven't been up in our neck of the woods in a while, that's a dog on Dustan's lap, not a rat.

I held his hand while he took his last breath

May he finally rest in peace.

Larry Tippetts 12/31/42 - 11/2/08

Love you dad

Finger Traps and Surgery

They put Paker's fingers into the finger trap to set his arm. Then they put a splint on so that his arm would be able to swell without cutting off his circulation.












A week later they put his arm in a cast.

Another week later, we found out that his arm wasn't growing back the way it should and he went in the following morning for surgery to have his arm re-broken and set correctly. Poor guy was miserable. Tomorrow we find out if his bones stayed where they are suppose to. Yay.

Darn those Monkey Bars!

Parker broke his arm on Sept. 18th.

It was also the first day that I found and plucked my first inch of grey hair.

Lord help me.

First day of School

Dustan and I returned from our Alaskan vacation just hours before we had to take the kids to school. Yippeeee!

Taylee is in Kindergarden and Parker is in the Third grade.

Alaska

Dustan and I went up to Alaska to see his family in mid August. All of his brothers and sisters were there. We opted to leave the kids home with his mom. Thanks Grandma.

Half of Dustan's family lives in North Pole, Alaska. Yes, it is exactly where Santa lives. Before going on our 6 hour road trip to Valdez, we stopped at the local grocery store. That is where I ran into Santa. Boots and all. We couldn't help but get a photo with Santa.

During one of our pit stops, Dustan found some Salmon and HAD to take a pic. This is a horrible picture, but the salmon are bright red.

I'm trying to entertain myself in the hotel.

Again, someone caught me being a dork. I think I was in the middle of throwing out some dance moves.

Dustan and I at one of the many waterfalls we saw.

I think that they got a kick out of how short I was.

While the boys were out at sea fishing, the girls occupied themselves at the local thrift stores.

Serious. Why not 25? OR 30? Come on!

Fourth of July

California was filled with some crazy fires during the fourth of July. Almost all of the towns north of Sacramento cancelled their fireworks display. All of the kids were crushed. The smoke was so bad around here that there were times it seemed worse than the dense S.F. fog.

Here's a few pics from prior years.

Parker's 8th Birthday

Since it's beyond hot in NorCal when time rolls around for Parker's birthday, I usually try to find a place that provides air conditioning to have his party. This year he chose to celebrate his birthday at Party ExtraordinAir. This place was GREAT! There were 3 rooms filled with different jump houses. Our party rotated through the rooms every 40 minutes. The kids loved it. In the last room there was cake and presents. The staff did everything. They passed out food and cleaned up the mess. Fantastic!

Parker sat in the inflatable "Kings Chair" to open his gifts. Too cute.

A letter to OMA from TAYLEE

This is directly from the munchkins mouth.

"Dear Oma,

I love you.When can I see you again? I liked it when you took me on the golf kart. Thank you for the candy that you gave me. When can I go to your house again? Thank you for the stickers and for the money you sent me for my birthday. I have lots of money now, more than Parker. I want to go swimming with the golf kart.

Love,

Taylee

Tooth Fairy

To the best of my knowledge, Parker left for school with all teeth firmly in tact. When he returned, there was a gap in his smile and he was holding two plastic baggies. Each baggie had a soiled tooth in it. Gross.

My initial thought was, OM, Who slugged my kid? I frantically asked him what had happened and he went on to explain that his friend had landed on his head... I was immediately thinking that my poor kid had a traumatic experience at school and lost a couple of teeth. Parker could see my eyes growing and quickly snuck in the fact that his friend fell on him while they were jumping in our trampoline the other day. He giggled and told me that his teeth were a little loose for a couple days and that he just felt like ripping them out. Darn crazy kid. And I was starting to feel bad for him...

I caught you...

It's been a long day. A very long day. Just as I was getting ready to tell the kids that it was time for bed, I noticed Parker sitting directly in front of the TV and Taylee was getting ready to put make-up on him. I slowly backed up and grabbed the camera out of the office and got it ready for a quick snap shot. When he spotted me, he bolted. Luckily, my fabulous husband had purchased a nifty little camera for me for Christmas that's not too bad with the action shots.

Enjoy!

Personally, I like the purple heels. Nice touch Taylee.

Grrr.

I have tried to upload this picture several times. Each attempt I make, it looks like this. I love all of the old photos that mom, helen and bill took in Japan. This is one. I am convinced that Uncle Bill didn't like this picture and that's why it looks like scribble on the computer.

Oma, Barbara, Chessie & Taylee

Okay

So I have finally figured out how to change the background...
Took me long enough. Now, I need to figure out how to put all of the family links on my page so that I don't have to try and keep finding your pages.

Here's my system:

I have Taylor's page bookmarked.
From his page I can link to Michelle and then Alicia, Lindsay and so on...

Ya'll screwed me up when Bob Saget and Mr. T appeared. ;)

Love you all!


Thanks Taylor!

Coffee table gets a top

We have been looking for the perfect piece of slate to become the top of our coffee table for the past few months. About a week ago, our search came to an end.

We needed something that was going to be fairly large. We had no idea that a 53"x 63"x 3" piece of slate was going to weigh 830lbs! Dustan borrowed his company tow truck to get it home.

He thought that we should try and get the rock as close to the house as we could so that we didn't have to move it very far with our fabulous muscles to get it into the house. Unfortunately, It had just rained the other day and the heavy tow truck sunk in deep once it hopped over the curb. Lucky for us, the tow truck had a nifty little rear bumper on it that lifted the tail end of the truck in the air so that Dustan could stack some boards under the tires.

We rented a palate jack to help move the beast. It was great for level ground. Not so much for steps and slopes. What we really needed was a forklift and some ramps.

After what it took us to get the rock up to this point, we decided that it was better off staying outside for a few days until we had some reinforcements.

My wonderful husband conned some of his work buddies and our excellent neighbor into helping us move the beast. They didn't find it too amusing that I was giggling and taking pictures while their hearts tried to pound out of their chests.

That's a 100% muscle and dedication!

That's where everyone crossed their fingers and prayed that the base wouldn't collapse. Yes, my tree is still up. You want to come take it down for me?

It's final resting place.

Isaac Lehr

God looked around his garden

And He found an empty place.

And then He looked down upon the earth,

And saw your tired face.

He put His arms around you,

And lifted you to rest.

God's garden must be beautiful,

He always takes the best.

He knew that you were suffering,

He knew you were in pain,

He knew that you would never

Get well on earth again.

He saw the road was getting rough,

And the hills were hard to climb,

So He closed your weary eyelids,

And whispered"Peace be thine."

It broke our hearts to lose you .

But you didn't go alone,

For part of us went with you,

The day God called you home.

-Author Unknown