Dang! I've Been "8" Tagged! Here goes....

Thanks, Bob a Lou--see if I log onto your blog again! Just kidding. So, here's my series of 8's...

8 Shows I Watch...

24
The Bachelor
Lost
Prison Break
The Biggest Loser
The Office
Everybody Loves Raymond
The Price is Right

8 Things I Did Yesterday...

Rode my bike on it's trainer in the house
Declined a Job Offer
Played on Facebook
Had lunch w/Critty at Sweet Tomatoes
Visited my Mom
Picked up a prescription
Had friends over for a Pizza Parth
Watched 24/The Bachelor w/friends & Family

8 Things I Look Forward To...

Spring/Summer and it's outdoor activities
Bree's Baby coming
Starting a new job/making new friends
Going to our house in St. George
Going to eat Crab in Mesquite
Draper Temple Dedication
Bi-Annual Vacation with my sister
Next Episode of my favorite shows

8 Things on my Wish List...

Going to Greece, England, Scotland, Ireland
Losing Weight
Drywall Industry to Pick Up again
Bree to have healthy baby
T/Vinny to find jobs they love
Me to find a job that I love
Find my temple recommend
My Mom's memory to get better

8 Places I Like To Eat...

Zupas
Eureka Buffet
Sam's Town
Red Lobster
Melting Pot
Cheesecake Factory
Market Street Broiler
Magelby's

8 Things I'm Grateful For...

The Plan of Salvation
My Family
My Friends
My Home
My Health
Food/Water
Clothing
Happiness

8 People I Tag...

Tierney
Breezy
Jenn B.
Heather
Jen M
Jessica
Jaci
Anyone and everyone who reads this!!!

Australia 2009

We finally made it to Australia!!

I can't believe it finally happened, but we actually made it to Australia! Chris drywalled a guy's cabin up in the Uintas in exchange for airline tickets and hotel accommodations in Sydney, Australia and we actually got to go! For awhile there, it looked as if the fellow wasn't going to make good on the trade, but we finally got it all arranged and it all worked out! Our buds, Geno and Meli Anderson went with us (Geno traded the heating on the cabin) and we had a blast! We left here on the 1st of February, but didn't get to Sydney until the 3rd of February because you cross the International Date Line. (Chris crossed this line once the day before his birthday and didn't arrive in Japan until the day after his birthday, so he is still trying to convince us that he is a year younger than he really is since he never had that birthday!). Then we had two fabulous weeks there in Sydney. It was incredible! The first week the weather was scorching hot--over 110 degrees--in some places over 120 and we slathered on the sunscreen. Then the next week we had a 40 degree swing and we found ourselves in rain--warm rain, but still rain. Crazy! That didn't stop us from having fun. Nor did the fires south of us in Victoria, the floods north of us in Queensland, or the shark maulings right where we were! We felt horrible for all the people involved in these tragedies, and fortunate that we weren't involved. The Aussies thought that we were a good luck charm bringing all the rain to an area that has had a drought for 12 years. Somehow, we didn't feel lucky. But we had tons and tons for fun, and that's all that counts! Here are just a few of the 550+ pictures we have of the trip! Hope you enjoy! Australia is beautiful and the people are fantastic!

Breezy's having a BOY!

On January 9th, Bree and Andy went in for an ultrasound on their unborn baby and found out it's a BOY! That'll make four boys and one girl for us as grandparents! Little Laila remains the only "cincess". There are lots of Princes' to watch out for her! Maybe her Mommy and Daddy will decided to add another baby to their family and it will be another girl, or maybe Aunt Andrea and Uncle Sky will have another baby that'll be a girl! We don't care one way or the other--we just love having more grandkids to spoil!

We LOVE Sledding !!

This was our year to have all the kids home for Christmas--yahoo! It is so fun to have all the grandkids together, as well as the kids--our kids! Santa brought us a new sled and so a few days after Christmas, we went sledding. The kids loved it! But the adults loved it just as much! Tierney and Andrea jumped on one of the sleds and took off and they could have set a new recreational sledding speed record! They were flying! It was so funny to hear them scream like little kids. The little ones couldn't get enough of it, but after an hour or so, they were almost icicles, so we called it a day. Carson was more interested in eating the snow off his gloves than sledding, but he still had a great time. I hope we are still sledding down the hills with our grandkids when we're 70! This was too much fun!

Santa Came to OUR House?

"Twas the night before the night before Christmas and we were all just hanging out around the house. Suddenly, there arose such a clatter--bells ringing and some "Ho, Ho, Ho's" that Jackson and Cole bolted to the door. Somehow in all the excitement, Cole got tangled up with an iron candle holder and really hurt his cheek (we were surprised it didn't split it open!) and what was supposed to be sheer delight started with tears. Poor Santa didn't know what to do! Though I'm sure he's experienced some tears with children on his lap who are afraid of him, this was a totally unexpected welcome. Hurt as he was, Cole toughed it out and soon the surprise visit was joyful! Jackson had his usual round of questions for the Jolly Old Man, but Santa knew all the answers and once again this year, WE BELIEVE ! Santa had us sing some songs with him and he told us stories about how all the reindeer are doing--and what kind of jokes they like to play on Santa. Carson wasn't so sure about the whole thing, but Laila overcame her fear of Santa and she, Jackson and Cole cuddled right up to him for this picture. Thanks, Santa! Oh, and tell our friend, Ping, that he's the best!

Blogger Illiterate!

Wow! I've been trying for months now how to get this slideshow on my blog. It took forever to get all the pictures together and labeled and then I couldn't get it to the blog. Thanks to my friend, Heather, I think I got it, however, any time I try to type anything in the Panama Canal Cruise post, it deletes the slideshow. So, I finally gave up! I am blogger illiterate! I just decided to do this separate post and leave the slideshow alone. Here are some of the pictures of our cruise to the Panama Canal. It was a FABULOUS vacation! We left Sunday, October 26th out of Los Angeles on Royal Caribbean's Splendor of the Seas and went to Cabo San Lucas, Acapulco, and Huatulco, Mexico, then to Costa Rica, Panama, through the locks and over to Aruba, then to Puerto Rico where we got off the boat on November 8th and stayed in Puerto Rico for two more days. We went with our good friends, Steve and Bobbie Ostler and Jerry and Sandy Moon. I can't even begin to tell you how much fun we had...it was non stop. We haven't laughed that much or played that hard for months. We've decided two weeks is the only way to go for cruising. It was the first cruise we didn't feel rushed on! We did not want to come home. We've been on lots of vacations at all different times of the year, but this one was really hard to come home from because when we left the weather was nice, the trees still had leaves on them and the sun stayed up until seven or seven thirty. We came home to cold weather, naked trees and because of daylight savings time, early nights. No good. Oh well, we'll just have to live on the memories! It was GOOD times!

Panama Canal Cruise

Breezy's Having A Baby!!!

Our youngest daughter, Bree, and her husband, Andy have been married for three years. During that time, we have occasionally asked if they were going to have children...only to just about get our heads bitten off. So, needless to say, we gave up asking. We had just returned from a 16 day cruise to the Panama Canal (the pictures are coming--this was more important!) and it was a Sunday. We were all watching football and suddenly Bree drops these two photos in my lap. I assumed she had a friend who was pregnant and had some questions about the ultrasound, so I asked, "Who's are these?" To which she replied, "Mine." Then I figured she must have gotten out her baby book and pulled her ultrasound pictures out. I turned to look at her and just then it hit me. She had tears in her eyes and I started screaming, "You're pregnant?" We were all (Chris and Andy were there, too!) jumping up and down and crying tears of joy. Suddenly it hit me that they were moving to Georgia in January and my tears of joy turned to tears of sobbing sorrow. I said, "Oh no, but you're moving to Georgia." Bree said, "Well, that's Part 2: We're not going to Georgia any more! Now that I'm pregnant, we feel it would be best to stay here with family." And Part 3 is: Can we live with you a little longer until we find a place to live? I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Christmas came early for us! So, she followed the advice of a baby book which told her that you shouldn't announce that you're pregnant until your second trimester. Stupid book...that author never had a daughter. Anyway, she's due May 27th! Yahoo! I can't wait. I hope none of their houses that they own can be vacated for at least another 6 or 7 months! We love having them live with us!


This one shows it's little heartbeat...



...and this one is the little guy--or gal!

More About New York...

I spent 10 days in New York City and I could have spent another month! The first 5 days were with Chris, and then I took him to the airport and picked up my sister, Jeanie ! Between the two of them, I got to see 6 Broadway plays! Chris and I saw The Lion King and Young Frankenstein. Then Jeanie and I saw Title of Show, The Jersey Boys (my favorite!), Gypsy Rose and South Pacific. They were awesome! Title of Show wasn't great, but it was interesting! Here are some pictures of other things we did. The first is a sneak preview of the new Yankee Stadium. Then one of me after the Yankee game on the street in Times Square. Next is the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. It is so amazing to me that on out of four Americans can trace their ancestry back to an immigrant that came through Ellis Island. The stories were heard while there were incredible. I can't even imagine the things our ancestors went through to be able to come to America! One day Lou (another name for my sis, Jeanie), and I went up to the Bronx to take pictures of the new Yankee Stadium, then took the subway through four of the five burroughs and ended up in Coney Island. We had always heard of this place, but had never been there, so we checked it out. It was mostly deserted because it's Fall, but we still went to the famous Nathan's for a Coney Island hot dog. We found out a Coney Island dog is just a hot dog with sauerkraut and onions. Truth is, Lou had a regular hot dog and I had a steak sandwich. But hey, we can say we've been to Coney Island!

New York, New York! We love New York!

So, Chris' birthday and Father's Day are always within a day or two of each other, which makes gift finding really hard. Well, this year, for Father's Day, I gave him a trip to New York. He'd been there for a few hours on the way home from his mission, but hadn't REALLY seen New York! I had gone with my sister, Jeanie, a few years ago, and absolutely fell in LOVE with the city...everything about it...the subways (yeah!), the people, the Broadway plays, the food, the landmarks, EVERYTHING! Chris has been an avid Yankee fan since the Mickey Mantle days, but has never been to a game in Yankee stadium. As most of you know, they are tearing it down even as I write. I was able to get some fantastic tickets to the second to the last game (or the last Saturday night game) before they tore the stadium down. Chris was excited when he opened them and I told him we were going, but NOTHING compared to what I witnessed when we got there. We arrived at the stadium a few hours prior to the game because we had special passes to get into the Stadium Club. This was supposed to give us an advantage and guarantee that we would be able to see Monument Park--where all the retired players numbers and plaques are--but when we got there, we found out that since it was the next to the last game, they were going to allow the first 200 people in line only to visit Monument Park. I was sick. We were about 600 people back. We talked to one of the police officers guarding the stadium and explained our situation and he saved us! He allowed us a five minute head start through the Stadium Club (which is on the opposite side of the stadium from Monument Park) and we literally ran through the stadium. We were almost to the entrance to Monument Park when they let the rest of the public into the stadium. What chaos! Luckily, another guy that worked at the stadium blocked the raging crowd off and let us in to Monument Park. I was so relieved! I knew that was one of Chris' "bucket list" items, so I am eternally grateful to Officer Manuela and the guy inside the stadium for letting a couple of Utah punks into the Park. When we got there, it was boiling hot outside, but I looked at Chris and he had goose bumps on his arms. He was SO excited to be there! His dream had come true! We took tons of pictures! The grin never left his face for the next 5 hours. He loved every minute of it. In 30 years of marriage, he has never thanked me so much for something. I think I did good on this one!

Jackson's Baptism

On Saturday, the 6th of September, our first grandson--Tierney's oldest child, Jackson, was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. His biological father, John Beck--Tierney's first husband-- baptized him, and then his dad, Vinny Rowe, confirmed him. It was a great day! Jackson had so many friends and family there. He was the only one from his ward baptized that day and the whole room was full! He had three sets of grandparents there (one good thing about divorce!), one set of great grandparents, lots of aunts and uncles and cousins and tons of friends. His mom played the piano for all the songs, two of his grandpas gave talks, one of his friends, Julia (aka Huba to those of us who love her best) sang "One Clear Voice" and Tierney bore her testimony. It was fantastic! Thanks to everyone who came and helped us celebrate this great occasion...and helped with the luncheon afterward. Jackson looked so handsome and we are so proud of him! I can't believe we have a grandchild that old! Yikes, the years are slipping up on us!

The Eck Women Reunited!

Last Saturday night, my cute nephew (okay, so they are all cute!), Justin and his new bride, Christiana had a reception in Provo. They actually got married in the Sacramento temple on August 22nd, but they have lots of friends and family here in Utah, so they had a reception here, too! My sister, Lou (she goes by Jeanie to most people, but her given name is Lou Jean, so those of us that love her most call her Lou) did a great job of pulling it all together from 700 miles away. It was a great night...lots of family I hadn't seen for awhile, and what's better than getting together with the fam? Here's a pic of me, my sisters, Joette and Jeanie, and my mom. That's the female side of the Joe Eck family!

Jackson Tage turns 8 years old!

September 3rd was Jackson's eighth birthday. We can't believe we could possibly have a grandchild that old! He is such a sweet boy and so smart! For his birthday, he told Tierney he just wanted a big, fat, juicy steak for dinner and then to go to Boondocks. So, that's exactly what we did. Vinny barbequed some HUGE steaks and Tierney made all the fixin's to go with them. Then we had cupcakes (another request of Jack's), opened presents, and went to Boondocks and played miniature golf. It was a great night! Happy Birthday, Jackson! Oh, and congratulations on getting the first hole-in-one of the night! Good work! I'm not quite sure if Jack's playing his golf club like a flute, or pondering his next shot! He looks pretty serious!

Home Away From Home...

Okay, lots of you have asked about our house in St. George. I tell you, it is just small and simple, but we LOVE it! It is our home away from home. We have some great friends right next door that feel like family and when we leave the Salt Lake Valley to go south, this is where we go! I was down here last week getting the lawns mowed and decorating some more. I don't usually like to be alone, but when I'm down here, it doesn't bother me at all...though I did take my guard dog, Tucker, all nine pounds of him, with me!