Happy Birthday!

When you get to be my age....55....you just don't want birthdays to happen.  But the Frugone's were insistent that we celebrate.  Boy am I glad we did.  Christiano made me this beautiful pen and little notebook. 

Angelo did this mosiac picture.

Gio made me a beautiful flower pot complete with special flowers.

And....due to my kids and one of their movies they enjoy at the moment, Just Friends, I can remind all who enter my home to "Be Yourself".  For some reason they think I am just like the mom in that movie and get a big laugh from it.  Megan found this little cute out and just couldn't resist.  Carlos made the most awesome to die for chocolate cake complete with dove dark chocolate candies. 

So....even if your old.....celebrate......BE YOURSELF......it's fun!!!!

Hurrary for Graig!!!

Big news for the Ward family. Graig graduates from BYU-I on friday, April 8, 2011.

Endless Winter!

It has been a long cold winter for us Jersey Wards. It started snowing later this year, but it has been one storm after another and so bitter cold. It was not unusual to wake up to -12, -9 we even had a -15 one morning. I have to say I am soooooo ready for spring.

Just look how high the snowbank was getting at the end of our driveway. You really get a workout throwing the snow up on top. The snow was so deep this storm I had to bring out the rainboots.

I am so sick of shoveling this driveway. Next house will have less property and a shorter driveway if we ever move to another home in Jersey. I've decided that property is so over rated.

This is my new best friend. I waved him down to clear the driveway after a huge storm that left over 12 inches. Mick had to head out of town, so I waited until the storm had stopped AND the snowplow had come through the neighborhood. I hate it when you get your drive all cleared and the snowplow berms you in. I thought for sure I had him outsmarted this time. My friend came at 10:30pm and got the drive clear. The next morning I went to work and smiled as I drove down the clear driveway with no berming.

I came home from work to find this!!! I am so mad at the snowplow guy. I hate the way he berms me in. I had to park the truck and then walk up to get the shovel. Janelle was at home and so proud that she had spent a good amount of time clearing a way for me. Yep, that might just work Janelle if the truck is 3 feet wide. Can you see the mailbox to see how high the berming is. See the nice cleared driveway on the other side!!!! Why did he feel it was so necessary to plow the road back another 12" closer to the curb. I think it is just to see the hair on the back of my neck stand up!!

But with the snow comes some fun times too. I took the Activity Day boys and girls sledding with the YW and YM. We had such a good time, that on the following saturday the Whitehead family and the Townsend family invited me to go again. This is me sitting on the Pony Express that Dustin Townsend created. It is an old hobby horse that he put skis on. Let me tell you, that pony can GO!!!! I love this ward and how they let an old gal like me hang out with these young moms and families.

But, thank God for spring!

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.