The Big Cheese

The local grocery store had a contest during the holidays. It was to guess the weight of this block of cheese. Hey, I am a sucker for contests and trying to win things. I enter any contest I come across. So when we saw this one, I tried to get everyone to enter to increase our chances of winning. Well only Janelle put in an entry, couldn't get Graig, Nicole, or Jamie to give it a try. Three days later the phone rings early in the morning....caller ID shows ShopRite. Umm, I'm thinking, why is the grocery store calling me?

Well they asked for Joni Ward. That's me I said. We are calling to tell you you have won the cheese contest. What????? Me???? I was so excited. Really????? Yes, they said, come in with your ID to claim your prize. OK, hey how far off was my guess, I asked. You missed it by only 4 pounds they said.

Graig gets up and asks what I was so excited about. I won the cheese contest. Mom, he asks, what are you going to do with all that cheese? Oh I wish I would have won the cheese......I won a $25 gift certificate to Shop Rite. I think I would have rather had the 586 pounds of cheese. Everyone would have had cheese for Christmas.

So when I dragged the kids to claim my prize, and to have them take a photo of me with the cheese, A local shopper gave me a funny look while Jamie was in the middle of the photo shoot. I won the cheese contest I told him. Oh he said, I thought you were from Wisconsin.

Cookie and Ugly Ornament Exchange

In California we do an ugly ornament exchange every year after Christmas. It is so much fun to see the "uglies". So when Megan and I decided to do a "cookie exchange" this year I also suggested an ugly ornament exchange. We laughed so hard and had a great time unwrapping and swapping ornaments. Everyone loved it. The theme of this years uglies was feathers. After our games and ugly exchange it was cookie time.

There were so many good cookies that we had to do the "cookie shuffle" when going around the table. What great fun we had. Can't wait until next year. Hey, I just might have an easter cookie exchange.

If you want to see some additional photos of the night, go to Jamie's blog....A Day in the Life located on the right hand column of my blog.

Two Year Mission for Mars...........going on three.

Yep, you read it right. Mick has agreed to work another year here in Jersey. So our two year mission is now going to be at least 21 more months longer than originally planned. Good news, bad news......

Good.....getting to enjoy the seasons for another year.

Bad.....another winter shoveling the looooooong driveway with snow. It has been really cold this winter and it is only January. Some days the overcast and low ceilings get a little depressing. Good thing we have lots of lights. Missing the sunshine and nice days...almost everyday when you live in Southern California.

Good.....Church is always at 10am since we don't share the building with any other wards.

Bad....get to clean the church at least 5 times a year.

Good.....living in a rural area where we pass farms and lakes and ponds and Mick's commute is only 8 miles and 2 stoplights.
Bad....takes 12 miles to get to the closet grocery store. Costco is 20 miles away. Mick hit and killed a black bear only 1 1/2 miles from the house. Truck still isn't the same.

Good....Jersey Girls don't pump gas. Yeah...gotta love this when it is pouring down rain or freeing cold outside.
Bad....go to the gas station at least once a week because everything is so far away.

Good.....Made some great friends here in Jersey, have a fun job at Kohls and going to start teaching piano again to 2 new students. Also the adopted Grandkids are here.

Bad....missing all my good friends in CA and all my piano students there.

Good.....summers we have daylight from 5:30am until close to 9:45 pm. Lightning bugs are fun to catch and put in canning jars.
Bad....hot humid summers.

Good.....deer can be seen daily in the yard. We have a group of 6 that come in the front and backyard. A good size buck is with them. They love the bread and carrots and things I leave out for them.

Bad.....Lymes disease......the deer cause this great little disease. First spring here had a little adventure with this. Also the deer love my pumpkin plants and pumpkins.

Good.....the stars are amazing at night.
Bad....it is sooooooo dark at night with no streetlights.

Good....historical buildings, old churches, old barns and historic sights.

Bad......hard to find the latest and greatest.

Good...having lots of company since we live so close to NYC.
Bad....not having enough company since we live so far away from family and friends. Come on everyone, come out to see us. The next 12 months will go by way to fastr and you will have missed out on the cheapest bed and breakfast you will ever stay at.

These are just a few things off the top of my head. I need to get out the camera and take some pictures of the things I will miss. The past 31 months went really fast.....I'm sure the next 12 will go even faster.

Thanksgiving Twice

We were in California this year for the Thanksgiving Holiday. Mick had surgery on his knee and also had a lypoma removed from his right elbow the Monday before Turkey Day. He did really well, so as soon as he was alert from his anesthesia we headed out to the desert house.

This was Mick's favorite chair while recovery from his surgery. Notice the remote in his hand. He watched a lot of soccer games. I swam each morning and enjoyed my walks and Jamie finally made it out to California a day later than planned, due to snow causing her flight from Utah to be cancelled. She was with us Wednesday through Monday morning.

Even though it was cool for Palm Springs, we enjoyed the sunshine and blue skies of the desert house. The mountains even had snow on the tops. It was really a pretty sight.

We were able to go out to dinner with Ashley, my niece who is attending Pepperdine University. Afterwards we went to see the lights at the LA temple.

Since it was just the 4 of us for Thanksgiving we decided to go out to Marie Callendars for dinner. The past two years I've done Thanksgiving at the Desert House or St George and it was harder to do without all the big pots and pans, plus we had sooooo much food we ended up throwing so much away. I thought going out would be best, but......it was NOT THANKSGIVING to me. Yes we had turkey and all the fixings, but the yams were not prepared like Mick does them, the pumpkin pie wasn't my pumpkin pie, the dressing was mushy. I asked the waiter to take our picture and when he handed the camera back to me and I looked at the picture, I started crying. This is not Thanksgiving, I said. SO......

Since Thanksgiving was such a let down to me, I decided to have a big Thanksgiving Dinner here in Jersey when the family all got here. We had it the sunday before Christmas and had the Frugone's, Kathy and Steve Wilson, Cory and Sophie Grillone and all of us. It was great fun and was more like Thanksgiving with turkey, ham, pumpkin pie and all the goodies and smells that go wtih the holiday.

Fun activities included Mick tying up the boys, the boys tying up Mick, hide and seek, games, and trampoline time. Now this is more like Thanksgiving. A big crowd, lots of food and fun.

3rd Annual Pumpkin Weight Contest

Look closely....I think that is pumpkin juice on his lips!!!!!

In anticipation of growing the biggest pumpkin this year, I lovingly started my pumpkin seeds in early april. I had Jack be Littles, Cinderalla, carvers, and of course the BIG MAX for the 3rd annual contest this year. I had so many pumpkin plants I filled every dirt spot I had around the house. I planted over 26 pumpkin plants in hopes of a record year of growing pumpkins. I had so many plants I gave them to neighbors, friends, church members....anyone who would take one and promise to plant them. They were growing well and I lost a few plants to rabbits, deer, and who knows what else. But never fear, I had several plants to replace those eaten. When we headed to Italy and Greece in late July I had a fairly good number of pumpkins growing. I hired the neighbor kids down the street who so lovingly took care of my garden last year. Well lets just say that when I got home from vacation.....EGADS!!!!!!!!! All the plants were eaten except for 3 pumpkins. No problem.....I will concentrate on those 3 and we will have the biggest pumpkin ever. Well would you believe the very next morning I woke up to this...........

My mom comes by her green thumb from her father who loved planting a huge garden every year. Mick and I when we were first married canned beans, tomatoes, and corn from his garden when Mick was going to school. Here is some of the beautiful flowers she had this year. When I was having such a terrible time with the deer eating my pumpkins I convinced her to plant some pumpkin seeds at the lakehouse. She started them the end of June and got a very large and fun crop.

Here it is the biggest of the many pumpkins my mom grew this year. This is the pumpkin for the contest this year. You can post your guess on this blog or e-mail me at mjjgjward@roadrunner.com by friday Nov 5th. Good luck. I have several candy bars, all Mars of course. Even have the new coconut Twix, coconut M&M's, pretzel M&M's etc.

Good Luck and Happy Halloween!!!

Ron and Ruth Wise come for a Jersey Visit

Ron and Ruth Wise from California came for a short visit. They arrived tuesday evening and stayed with us until early friday morning.
First thing we did wednesday was head to Hoboken to visit the Cake Boss. It was a beautiful sunny day and the view of the NYC skyline was superb.

We didn't see the cake boss or mamma this trip to Carlos Bakery, but look at all these cakes and goodies. Got a picture with the family though. We had famous canole, cream puffs, and a few other delictables. The line was just about an hour long from the outside line until we ordered and had our goodies in hand. Evidently that is a short wait.

We headed to Thomas Edisons factory for a tour after our Cake Boss adventure. This site has just reopened for visitors. We learned so much about Edison and how organized he was and what a brillant inventor he was. His home was closed for tours, but we got to see his lab and factory and tour the library. Here is Ron and Ruth in his lab, just the way Edison had it the day he died.

I had to work that evening, so Ruth dyed Janelle's hair red and they watched a movie. Janelle even popped popcorn for them.

We headed to Morristown to visit the Ford Mansion and Jockey Hollow on thursday. This is where Washington and his troops spent the winter of 1779-1780. It was the coldest winter in recorded history. We went to the Ford mansion first only to find we had just missed the tour and the next one was in 2 hours. So we decided to head over to Jockey Hollow first and come back to the Ford Mansion. This is a picture of Ruth and I by the gardens of the Wick home in Jockey Hollow. The fall leaves were gorgeous. If only the sun was shining. After coming back from Jockey Holley and the Wick house tour we found this note on the National Park Service Door. " We are closed for the rest of the year. Some emergency or something like that. Just came on suddenly. You know how these things happen"

I was so upset as Ron had already purchased our tickets for the Ford Mansion tour at this park site. So I decided to try the door. Sure enough it was open and here was Ranger Steve laughing. Guess I have been going too often to these sights, as now they are playing jokes on me, as well as being on a first name basis. But, I will say, we got a great tour. The Ford tour is usually 20 minutes long......ours was over 1 hour. I love hearing all the stories these park rangers have researched.

So come for a visit. We will surely go to Jockey Hollow and the Ford Mansion. Who knows what Ranger Steve or Ranger Keith will do.

Thanks again for coming Ron and Ruth. You know I love company!!!!!

California Girls Week

September 28th through the 5th of October, I was blessed to have 3 good friends from California come out for a New Jersey visit. Laurel, Denise and I have been friends since our babies were just 3 years old. Jenny Summers and I became great friends when we served in the Stake YW together. We laughed, ate, and had great fun. Below are just a few of the many pictures we took

One of the rainy days we headed over on the ferry to one of my favorite places...Ellis Island. The stories always bring me to tears. A trip over to the Statue of Liberty completed the day.

Trip to the M&M's store is always fun.

We rode the train into the city and then took the subway around town. We even had a NYC taxi ride complete with cutting drivers off, horn honking, and Joni white knuckling it to get to our matinee broadway show on time.

Wouldn't be a trip into the city without being in Times Square. Look for Jenny in her NYC torquoise sweatshirt in the bottom left corner. This is a huge screen they have posted with a camera in the heart of Times Square. So fun to find yourself.

We ate at some fun restaurants. This is at Shake Shack, which is the In and Out Burger of NYC. Jenny who loves NY and their cheesecake, knew all the hot spots for that dessert. So Juniors and Stage Light Cafe were visited for that delight.

We were able to see 2 Broadway Shows. West Side Story, which was excellent and In the Heights with Jordan Sparks.

A visit to Hoboken, NJ to visit the bakery of The Cake Boss. Got to meet mamma.

Chicken leg skiing

Yesterday I finally got enough razzing to get in the cold lake...65degrees with outside temperature of 63 degrees, to go waterskiing. The lake was like glass, as we were the only boat on it, and Mick had just finished a superb run. I was dreading getting cold and wet, but when I heard a boat start up across the lake, I finally got in. Was it worth it.......you BET!!!!! It was perfect and with the wetsuit it wasn't too cold. Mick gives me a bad time about how I start on one ski, he calls it the chicken leg and he had us all laughing in the boat when he started skiing his last run imitating me.

This ones for you Steve......have a good laugh.

Summer Vacation - Day 9 (Split, Croatia)

Beautiful sunset from the cruise ship. It was the end of a perfect day as we departed Venice on our way down the Dalmatian coast.

Jamie had to pose with this picture of "So you Think You Can Dance" contestants.

As most of you know there are photographers all over the ship taking pictures of you. Graig just couldn't resist this shot at dinner one night. Then the whole table got into it. I don't think the photographers thought it was funny.

We awoke the next morning to find ourselves in Split, Croatia, the picturesque ancient Roman resort of Diocletian. It was a beautiful, clear morning leading to an afternoon with temperatures in the mid-90s. That was great because the girls wanted a summer climate for this vacation.

The following are some sights in Split, Croatia.

The port of Split, Croatia.

In an alley at Diocletian's palace.

The remains of Diocletian's palace.

This is the beach we walked to after walking around the town of Split. It is hard to see, but in the water they had soccer goals set up and several older gentlemen were playing water soccer. It was fun to watch, what at first we thought was a friendly game of water soccer, but when the first team scored their goal, we very quickly realized that they took it very seriously....in their speedos I might add........older men....some really old in stretched out speedos.

The water was very salty and it stung our skin.

Split Croatia where we swam in the Adriatic Sea.

Summer Vacation - Day 7 and 8 (Venice)

Friday we spent the day introducing Graig and Nicole to Venice...and gelato. We fought the crowds at the plaza of San Marcos (it was jammed!) to see the Doge's Palace and the cathedral of St. Mark. It appears they are doing quite a bit of renovations to the cathedral and the plaza because there was a lot of scaffolding which was covered with cosmetic and designer clothing advertisements. Accordingly, the plaza and cathedral were not as picturesque as usual but I am sure the advertising was working for somebody. The local residents must have heard what I was thinking because as I rounded a corner one of their flying ambassadors dropped a messy greeting card on my shoulder. It was a special treat but given the number of pigeons in the city it is probably more of a surprise that it did not happen to me earlier!
We spent the rest of the day wandering the streets but also took a boat to the island of Murano. Murano is known for its glassblowing and there are shops aplenty hawking their art. We watched a glassblowing demonstration and then walked the canal, peeking into the shops, before returning to Venice. It is amazing to me what the Venetian people accomplished in the 15th and 16th centuries. By dominating/controlling trade in southern Europe and the Mediterranean they were able to accumulate extraordinary wealth and build an amazing city with natural defenses. As we continue our cruise we will see their influence and the remains of their conquests.
Yesterday, we visited the Frari church where there are several spectacular works of art by Titian (e.g., The Asunscion). From the outside it is a rather plain looking 15th century chapel, but the inside is a unique treasure. It also contains the only remaining 15th century choir section which is ornately hand carved and a sight to see.
We then boarded the ship (Splendour of the Seas) and some in our group were overjoyed to have American food and drink. I was happy to be able to turn tour director duties over to Joni. She has all of the shipboard events scoped out and we are signed up for all of the games, drawings and contests.