It's In the Mail - for some!

From our house - to yours, Merry Christmas!
Now - some of you will be getting this card in the mail, but then again, some of you won't!
So here it is for all! (thanks Jo for the family picture and thanks to Cheryl for the card design!)
Here is another family picture - it didn't make it into the card!

It's Official!

It official - Matt and Xyonane (Jo) are engaged! Matt popped the question (officially) last night.

They haven't picked a date yet - we'll let you know about that later. Jo needs to talk to her dad in El Salvador and find out when he is able to come up - along with her older siblings.

We are so excited to be welcoming her in the family.

Here they are after letting us know. Don't they both look happy!

The ring:

Matt went to take Jo to the place where they had their first date to pop the question, but it was closed for a private party. So he took her to the Temple lights, where they walked around, then to Tempe Town Lake. They were sitting, just talking, when he said "Can I ask you a question?" - then he got down on the one knee and popped the big question. Her response "Are you serious?" She hadn't expected the ring quite yet. Then her response was "YES!" - and we are glad it was! (I'm sure Matt was too).

This is a picture of them that was taken after we had our family picture taken for our Christmas card - which will be in the mail shortly to you lucky few!
Congrats Matt and Jo! We are very excited to be welcoming you into the family.

You'll never guess...............

what Jason, Dani and Carson and I saw

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while we were driving down the street.

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guessed yet?

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and I didn't have my camera - forgetting that my phone has one

.

but I probably wouldn't have wanted to take a picture

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it wasn't a pretty sight - but I thought it was funny

(Jason and Dani didn't though)

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so - who guessed

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a naked lady - I mean totally naked. About 50 years of age,

a little bigger than me.

which is why

you proably know

it wasn't a pretty sight!

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.

.

Poor policeman who came up behind her on his motorcycle.

She didn't even acknowledge he was there - just kept on walking,

and walking and walking - not even turning her head to look at him or at

all the traffic going by.

Then- just as we got by - a police car - with 2 policeman in it was getting

ready to stop.

Now - watching them try and get her in the car might have been worth

a picture

Poor policeman.

I told Jason - what a nice Merry Christmas sight.

He said - please no more Christmas present sights like that again.

My first real streaker - well - not really streaker -

she was just walking sighting.

How about any of you?

Any of you had such a sighting before?

Another Winner!

I received a phone call from Kristi today from her school. (I don't like getting calls from my kids during school - usually because something is wrong or they forgot something I need to bring to them. I hate that!). However - this was a good phone call. Kristi called to tell me she won 2nd place in a writing contest from last spring. It was sponsored by the Arizona Republic and Tilly's (store). She received a $150 gift card to the store too! Congratulations Kristi. That is so neat. I am very proud of you. Her name was even in the Arizona Republic newspaper. If you would like to read her essay - it is online at this link (just scroll down to the end of the page to find the contest winners)

http://www.nieonline.com/azcentral/index.cfm

(One of these days I'll figure out how to just say "Go here" and it will take you to the link)

Now - she is anxious to spend her money. Imagine that.

Cousins

Yesterday Mikel was getting ready to go to the ASU football game with Kris. She came walking in with a beanie on and it was - hey - I've seen a picture like that before. Not her - but one that looked like her. So tell me what you think........

Mikel

and............Chalyn
Don't they look quite a bit alike - the face,the big blue eyes, hair and both are as skinny as can be (sigh - I remember when people USED to say that about me)! Why shouldn't they look alike you ask - after all they are cousins. Well, for those of you who don't know - Chalyn is the daughter of my older brother Bruce. Well, Bruce is my half-brother - we have different moms. That Pickett gene from my dad must be strong!
What is really interesting about this whole cousins thing with them - is they have such similar taste in clothes (and more things too). Chalyn and Mikel might not see each other for a year or so - but when they do, many times one of them will be wearing something that the other will say "Hey - I have one just like it!" Weird.

Crazy!

Crazy! That's me. I guess I should clarify it and say - I am very tired and exhausted and I deserve it. Today is Black Friday. And I was up and at the stores with Mikel and all of those other crazy people by 4 am. I haven't done that for quite a few years - and now I remember why. As many of you know - Doug is out in the hills hunting today with Jeremy (Matt joins them for Saturday). When Doug isn't home - I can't sleep very well. So not only did I get up just after 3 - I didn't go to sleep until after 1:30. And we didn't get home until 10 am. On the bright side - we did get everything we went out for. Lucky us! We hit Kohl's for the 4 am opening. Was out of there by 4:45 - and over to Best Buy just as they were letting everyone in. Got what we wanted there - and it was off to Target. Waited in line for only 10 minutes before we got in there. Paydirt again. Got all we wanted there too. We hit a few other stores - and finally home. Just in time to get Carson out of bed. (He had woken up earlier - but no one got him out of bed. poor little boy!). I did get an hour nap in. And it is only 1 am and I am still awake - updating my blog. Like I said - Crazy me!

By the way - I hope all of you enjoyed your Thanksgiving Day! We had our family thanksgiving day early - on the 23rd. It was great. We were all there - along with a few extra special guests. We had our family picture taken (thanks Jo - and Kris for being her assistant!). Aren't you all excited thinking about receiving one of those great pictures! Dinner was great - I love spending time around the dinner table with all my family. On Thursday we were all scattered. Doug, Jeremy, Jo and EmmaLee were up in the hills getting ready for the hunt and eating at Jo's grandma's house. I WAS going to go to St. George - but the weather report wasn't good so ended up staying home. I decided to take Kristi, Dani and Carson out to eat that day, but Matt and Xyonane invited us over to eat at her mother's house. It was great meeting her family and enjoying the wonderful meal they fixed. Mikel spent the day with Kris' family - Kendall with Marie's family, and Jason was at a friends house too. Isn't it great to have such great friends helping us out. Thanks to all of you in making Thanksgiving Day so special for all of us!

She's a Winner!

Friday - the 21st - Dani came home from school excited as she could be. She was jumping up and down with excitement! She had won a book at school - out of all the 4th, 5th and 6th grade students she was the only winner. Each student who entered who had to write 5 or more students on "The diary of an Edison Student". And she won! Great job Dani.

Here she is with the book she won