April/May Travels

Thursday evening April 15th Mick, Janelle and I flew out of Newark New Jersey to head home to California. As soon as we landed we headed to In N Out for burgers. Even though it was 10pm it tasted soooooooo good. I have to note here that of the 10 days Mick was gone from Jersey he had In N Out 8 times. Yes, 8 times!!!! He loves it.
Friday was dentist appointments and errands and that evening the Peters had us over for Don's famous chicken tacos. The Guziks and Grandma and Grandpa Peters were also there. What fun it was to get together with our dear friends. It has been a tradition to go fishing every year at June Lake in the Eastern Sierras with the Peters and the Guziks. We have been unable to go the past 2 years due to our assignment in Jersey and have missed being with these good friends. Yes, we did play cards. Sunday was church in the Brea 1st ward. Loved being with all our good friends there. Monday was "stage two" of my oral surgery for my implant. I had to go under general anesthesia again. Mick took good care of me.
During dinner the hummingbirds were plentiful, eating the secret recipe Laurie brews for them. I was fasinated by their bright red color. Do you know how hard it is to get a picture of a hummingbird?
Wednesday morning Mick, Janelle, and I drove to utah for Jamie's graduation. It was beautiful when we left california, but arrived in Utah to heavy rains and even had some snow along the way.

Here is the family after Jamie's thursday afternoon general graduation program. The following post also has a couple of pictures of her graduation.

PANIC!!! The computer blacked out on me and the following post is to be included with this one. I thought I had lost all my work........so continue reading for more adventures.......

April/May travels

Here is Jamie seconds after receiving her diploma. She graduated in four years......Way to go Jamie. She now holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Exercise Science. Next......she is planning on attending Nursing School.

This is the gang that attended Jamie's graduation friday morning for her college. We went to Tucanos for lunch and each of us came out with a "Meat Coma" as David and Jamie put it. What a great morning we had.

Saturday morning we were able to attend one of Jamie's indoor soccer games. She played for BYU intramural co-ed and also a city indoor league this past semester. Her Dad was cheering and kicking his legs and LOVED being able to see her play. Graig, Nicole and I headed to SLC to attend a session of the temple before Adam and Jessica's wedding. What a beautiful day it was, as you can see from the pictures taken on the temple grounds. We attended the reception that afternoon and enjoyed being with Mick's family. We were able to be with his mother and Kent, his sister Deanna and her family, his brother Ken, father of the groom and all his children, and Laurie and Calvin, Adams parents.

Sunday morning we attended the broadcast of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and The Spoken Word. Brooke Holyoak, Janelle's friend from Houston days, sings in the choir and her mom Tracie was in town for gradaution and womens conference so we were able to see them both. What a treat it was. The Prophet Thomas S. Monson, Dallin Oaks and David Archuletta were also in attendance. Sorry the picture of David didn't come out.

After taking Mick to the airport for his flight back to New Jersey, Janelle, Jamie, my mom, Graig and Nicole and I headed up to Idaho. What fun we had being in their home and eating the delicious meals they prepared for us. On Monday we were able to go and help Nicole in her first grade classroom. We had so much fun helping with an art project for their moms day surprise. We also helped with math and reading. During lunch recess you could earn tokens for the upcoming field trip. For each lap you earned a token, 4 laps earned you a gold one. What fun I had running and walking to earn a gold and red token. Too bad I'll miss the field trip. Here is Nicole reading to her students. You can tell she loves each and every one of her students.....and they love her.

Wednesday morning Jamie, Janelle, Mom and I were up early to head back to Provo. We stopped in Idaho Falls to join Cousin Kim and Aunt Eleanor for breakfast. We missed seeing Andrew who is there attending Idaho State on a Rugby Scholarship.

We did a Costco run and then headed over to cousin Merr's poolhouse for a Harmer Girls reunion dinner. Uncle Bob BBQ'd and Karyn made yummy desserts, Uncle Albert and patsy made potatoes and we had an awesome meal and laughed and had fun with everyone. All you Harmer relatives, plan on attending next year....we are going to make it a tradition.

Thursday April 29-30 was BYU Women's Conference in Provo, Utah. It has been a tradition for several years now for my mom, cousin Kim, Aunt Eleanor and myself to attend. Through the years others have joined us including my sister, sister in laws, cousin Lynette and good friend Chris Panian. This year my Aunt Patsy and my mother's high school girlfriend Marjean attended with us. We always have so much fun laughing, attending classes, shopping, laughing, eating, laughing, getting some sleep, laughing and having a great time. Thanks to Marjean thisyear we had plenty of snacks and goodies. Good thing we laugh so much or we would really show how much we ate when we went home and tried to get into our favorite jeans.

Saturday morning Janelle and I were up early to head to Cedar City, Utah with my Uncle Bob and Aunt Karyn to participate in my cousins Leslie Ewells graduation. She received her Masters in Education from SUU. Jamie and David were in St George for the weekend so were able to join us also. After the ceremonies, lunch and change of clothes, Janelle and I headed to California. We did the drive in 6 hours with 2 stops. Janelle and I were able to attend church in Brea, I did my follow-up surgery appt and tuesday we headed back home to Jersey. Where is home? Well, I have decided it is where I am at the moment. It seems whenever we are in California it is like we have just been gone on vacation somewhere. I wonder how it will feel when we finally move back at the end of the year.

Well we are here in Jersey until the 15th of June, when I head back to California for more Dr's appointments and also Brit Rabjohns wedding. Jamie is meeting me for the week. Fun, fun, and more travel miles. Seems I've traveled more than Mick so far this year. EGADS!!!!

Spring is in the Air

This is the view I have when I turn onto Mountainview Drive to get to the house. Isn't it beautiful........but the smell is..........well let's just say that when we go for our nightly walks, I have to cover my nose. We didn't notice the smell last week when they were starting to bloom, but now that the blossoms are in full bloom, so is the horrible smell they produce.
Don't you just want to burst out singing "Popcorn, popping on the apricot tree?"

Spring is in the air. Last week we had temperatures in the high 80's and 60's in the evening. I wanted to get the pumpkin starts going, but Mick warned me it could be short lived. Sure enough, we woke up to 34 degrees this morning and high of 58 yesterday. But at least the trees are blossoming and flowers blooming.

Here we are

1 Mountainview Dr.........come for a visit.

Trips, trips and more trips!!

Janelle will tell you this was the highlight of our Florida trip March 5th -10th. She did the Pirate Adventure where she was made up like a pirate. She also loved getting her picture taken with all the characters and getting their autographs. Go figure...30 going on 8 sometimes. This was her trip though, so we did what janelle wanted....well most of the time;)



Every morning we were one of the first in the parks and the last to leave. We saw and did and rode and watched just about everything there was to do in the Disney parks. I must say, I came home exhausted. I loved animal kingdom, rollercoaster was the best, 2nd safari ride, 3rd all the broadway production shows. Hollywood had soooo many show I loved, rockin'rollercoaster, tower of terror and laser light show at night. Epcot I loved the countries, even though I had to drag and hear whining from janelle about how "boring" all the movies were, and then disney was so much like California, we just did the new things that California doesn't have and our favorites like Space Mt, Pirates, etc. Janelle did the pirate adventure where you get made up like a pirate and all. She loved it, I endured it.

This is the only picture we have of Mick with us at Disney World. We are eating in a diner where you are at a drive in movie. Really cute. But anyways.....back to the Mick story. Mick is the reason we are at DisneyWorld. He had a sales meeting there March 8-11th so we decided to tag along since, hey the hotel was paid for, and you all know the tight wad Joni. We flew out early on friday night and then started our disney adventure saturday morning. When we left friday night Mick had just arrived from being out of town all week. He was home long enough to wash his marshmellow suits and repack and off we went. He wasn't feeling too well then, but just thought it was from traveling. Well sautrday morning he woke up not feeling well and it lasted until wednesday. He stayed in the hotel or attended his meetings, but that was it. He didn't even get to go to the park when mars had it exclusively for them. janelle and I were so upset for him, because he could have riden Rockin' Rollercoaster 100's of times without any line. He only went to this resautrant and American Idol with me. Then to top it off on his flight to Atlanta his suitcase got accidently taken from the overhead and he had to shop for an outfit to wear for his meeting thursday morning. So on friday when he finally gets to come home, he pays...well mars pays....$500 extra to get on an earlier flight, which get delayed 3 times and arrives 3 hours later than his original flight. It was one thing after another for him this trip and we were glad to get him finally home.

Got to go to American Idol taping....just kidding...it is an event at Disney Hollywood. It is a fun attraction.

I know I blogged about this event. Last minute I headed to Utah to celebrate my parents 56th wedding anniversary. It was so much fun to see my parents and Graig and Jamie and David and all the Springville relatives and parents friends.

Just think, now we are off to California on thursday to see all the Brea gang, then to Utah to see Jamie at BYU graduation, women's conference which is an annual event with my cousin Kim, her mom Eleanor, and my mom ( we occasionally get some others to join us, it's not too late), and then off to my cousin Leslie's graduation in Cedar City for her master's, and then back to Brea for post op check and back to Jersey on May 4th. Whew......it will be fun!! Looking forward to seeing ya'll.

Bear Encounter

Ok, who would have thought a bear would run out in front of you just 46 miles outside of NYC and just 1 mile from our house? Well that is exactly what happened on friday night when Mick headed out at 10:30 pm to pick me up at the airport returning from Salt Lake. He didn't see the bear, just felt the impact on the driver side of the truck, saw a flash of black fur and felt a big bump as he drove over him.
Mick turned around, but didn't see the big guy, so thought the bear had run off into the big corn field. After limping back to the house in the truck, he got the Acura and headed out again to get me. It was then that he saw the bear laying on the side of the road.

I meanwhile had arrived and called him to let him know I was heading to the door. He said he had almost asked me to get a cab and told me the story. Why the cab? Well just 2 miles from the bear encounter a cat ran out in front of him and he fatally injured the stray guy also.
Ouch!!! When we saw the size of the bear and damage to the truck, we are so grateful that Mick was not driving the Acura. Mick would surely have been hurt and the car probably would have been totaled.

Notice the bear hair between the tire and rim.

The scary thing is that the next morning Mick went to get a haircut and I asked him to get more pictures of the bear during daylight. When he got to the spot, there were cars around and people down looking at the bear. It had moved about 10 feet from the original place friday night. We feel so bad that he had suffered so during the night.

March 18, 2010 my parents celebrated their 56th wedding anniversary by attending the temple where they were sealed 56 years ago the Manti Temple in Utah. I flew me out to be with them for this special day and am so glad I was able to be there. I flew into Salt Lake City Wednesday morning. Graig had driven from Idaho and picked Mom, Dad and me up at the Salt Lake airport. We immediately set out for "the sandwich shop" a.k.a., In N Out, for a burger and then to Jamie's place for a quick visit. Mom and I went to the tap class at BYU that Jamie teaches to film the students as a help in her testing of them. We had so much fun meeting them and being with her. Uncle Bob and Aunt Karyn had the traditional St Patricks Day dinner for us all. Thursday was the big day to celebrate Mom and Dad's anniversary. Dad rented a bus in which 27 of us made the journey to Manti. The session was very special. Afterwards we went to the Manti House for lunch. We spent the evening at Albert's and Pat's where we had dinner and more fun visiting with family and friends. I flew out Friday afternoon. Mick picked me up at Newark Airport....and that is another adventure. Tune in tomorrow.

What a great day it was with family and friends. Here's to another 56 years Mom and Dad. I love you!!!

Happy Saint Patricks Day

Happy St. Patricks Day everyone. I saw this cute idea on one of the blogs I visit. I did the hearts with my new cricuit machine my parents gave me for my birthday. I am having all sorts of fun playing with it and creating things. the little poem is a backwards message from the leprechaun that lives in our home.

I am headed to Utah tomorrow morning on a last minute trip to celebrate my parents 56th wedding anniversary. We will be attending the Manti Temple on thursday the 18th, the day they were married. There is a big group going so should be fun to visit with family and friends and see Graig and Jamie. Nicole wasn't able to attend, but will be seeing her next month when we head back to Utah for Jamie's graduation.

Mowing Jersey Style

Yesterday we woke up to 2 inches of very wet snow. Mick had just gotten in from California the night before, so had slept in until 6am. Since he didn't have time to do the driveway before heading to work, guess who got to use the snowblower. Me!!! That's right!! And........I loved it. It helped to fill my "mow the lawn" fix. It is just like mowing the lawn, only it is white and you don't have to empty the grass catcher. I was so happy the landlord was in Florida and had left his little toy for us to use and that Mick had slept in so he didn't have time to do it.
Yep, that's me working the snowblower. I had so much fun. I wanted to go up and down the block and do everyones!!! Well today it is snowing really hard again. We are expected to get 1-2 feet of snow. (We shall see.) The landlord has returned and has taken back my little toy so I was out with the shovel trying to keep up with the snowfall. Well I am out shoveling the 4 inches that have fallen so far, and Andy my snowplow friend from last post, is coming down the street. He stops and says he found me a snowplow guy for my driveway. Great!!! He calls Joe up and we make a 1:30 appointment to give me a bid. I hang up and ask Andy, "Ok what will be a fair price to just go up the driveway and that is all. I can do all the walks and fancy stuff around the house." "50 bucks would be a great deal," he says. Well after recovering from the snowplow bid heart attack, I came right in, called Joe the snowplow guy and told him he didn't need to come give a bid. I WOULD BE THE SNOWPLOW GUY!!! Just a note: I'm thinking about retiring from Kohls and attaching a snowplow to the front of the toyota truck and go out and do driveways. Do you think anyone out there would hire a California Girl?

I've always wanted to go out on the lake when it is frozen. So last friday I went over to my friend Eliana's home on Lake Shawnee. She has a beautiful home right on the lake and she said it was frozen. Well here I am, standing on the lake. Wish I was doing what these guys were, but hey, I'd probably break my wrist or something.

Keep checking on updates. I told Andy the snowplow guy I had to get his picture for the blog.

Oh what do you do in the Winter Time?

Last week we got about three inches of snow in two different snowstorms. Janelle and I went out each morning to clear the driveway before we ran our errands so we wouldn't have icy tire tracks on the driveway. I hate those. Well as you can see our driveway is really loooooooooooong. The bummer was that by the time we got home from errands all the driveways in the neighborhood were clear, even those that didn't shovel one flake. So when the big storm hit tuesday night on my drive home from work, I thought to myself.....self, don't shovel that drive until you know it is worth it. Well as you can see from the next picture I waited until we had 5 inches and had to do it 3 times before the storm was done. Thank goodness last night our landlord loaned us his snowblower so we could get the 10 inches cleared.

Here I am in the middle of the storm around noon trying to get the driveway cleared. By noon we had 5 inches. After one pass down the driveway and back and I gave up. By the time I came back up the drive, there was already an inch where I had shoveled.

This is the cute neighbor kids who came over yesterday afternoon and asked if I wanted to help build a snowfort and have a snowball fight. They said they wouldn't hit me in the face, just right here they said as they pounded on their chest. Did I go out? You betcha. Went straightway and got my snow boots and coat on for the 3rd time that day. Jersey snow doesn't pack very well so our fort was not huge, but they loved it. I would love to build a snowman, but the snow will not pack to do so.

I love how this picture shows how deep the snow gets after the plow has come through. I was shoveling the snow this morning on the driveway, once again, when I heard the plow coming down the road. I promptly went out to the edge of our driveway and started waving my shovel at him to stop. Did he? No!! He plowed right through piling the snow 2 feet deep at the end of the driveway. Your killing me I yelled. He went to the end of the block, you can see the stop sign way off in the distance, turned around and came back to talk to me. I told him he was killing me by plowing all that snow at the end of my driveway. "How much to clear it so I can get the car out?" Plow guy: "Sorry mam but I would get fired if I did that. Instant dismissal for plowing driveways." Joni: "Well I can appreciate how great you keep the roads cleared, but I hate this mess." Plow guy: "OK how about next time I come down I swerve away from your driveway and try to help you out?" Me: "I would love that!!!! I am a California girl here on a temporary assignment and need all the help you can give me." So next time he comes down he swerves away from the driveway. I give him a thank you wave and he gives me a smile. Gotta love those guys!

Here's the house the day after the storm. You can see the pile of snow the snowplow left for me to clear from the end of the driveway.

Doesn't get much prettier than this. Not a footprint in the snow. Even the deer were not out last night. The birds were busy this morning though in the birdbath. Picture was taken from my office desk.

Mars Hackettstown New Jersey Remodel complete

The New Jersey Mars site has been under remodeling for over a year now. They just had the ribbon cutting ceremony and unveiled the new exterior. I love how green is sitting so pretty making the guys do the work.

The crossing guards in New Jersey are usually moms. Well this mom really got into her job and the holiday spirit this year. Jamie caught this picture while we were driving by. Who would have thought Mrs Claus also works part time as a crossing guard.

Just another sight in our 2 Year Adventure for Mars. When does the adventure end? We should know soon..........could be soon.......better plan your trip to come see us in Jersey.