Friends With Out End

Jodi Francom, Shereka Kelley, Monica Park, Alisha Whimpey, Me, Merrilee Page.

Jodi wanted to get together before school started. We met at Rotary Park and did pot luck. We talked until it got dark and we were all getting eaten alive by mosquito's, we moved the party to my house where I pulled out the scrapbooks and we reminisced some more.

Not very many of us showed up but the six of us were enough, it was a lot of fun! Love you gals!

Hail-O

I don't think I have ever in my 33 years seen hail this big. The stones were the size of marbles, and they were coming down hard and heavy!

Ryker was so excited by the hail, he went out and filled these cups and this Fritos bag full of the hailstones.

I asked him what he thought he was going to do with them and he said he wanted to keep them.

I told him they would melt but he did not want to give them up.

Once he dropped them all over my carpet I was over how much he wanted to keep them and I insisted he get rid of them.

Teek loved eating the stray ones off the floor.

Grandma and Grandpa's

These two are such trouble! They are

the best friends. We can be at Lynn and Russell's for hours and never lay eyes on these two. We love you Chase, we're glad our Brookey has you for a cousin.

Jadey with L.J.

She is seriously the cutest little peanut!

Jadey having a "ball"!
A liquid libation for his gratification!

Some bubbles for his troubles!

Teeky grabbing all the stray food he could find. Poor kid was a massive sticky mess with root beer and watermelon all over his body and ketchup in his hair.

Cheez-its and cheesers!

Since You've Been Gone

The family visiting your headstone. To B.J.

A year ago today,
you were taken away.


In California we were suppose to be,
but for some reason we came home early.


The call came that would forever change our souls,
Your families hearts were left with holes.


The days were long, filled with tears and pain,
it got even harder when into the ground you were lain.

Seeing my strong husband's eyes freely weep,
your loss for all was felt so deep.


Afterwords it felt wrong to go home or move on,
like we should have all stayed together, to help each other be strong.

Thank you for sending confirmation to Rick's heart,
It's like you took cables and gave him a jump start.

Please send as much help as you can your parents way,
We keep Addie and Kelsey in our hearts when we pray.

365 days have both slowly and quickly passed,
We're sending you letters today into the vast.

We find comfort in your release from the pain of this worl',
We love you, we miss, you our brother Burl.



Brooke wrote B.J. the cutest letter. I wanted to take it home for her scrapbook but she sincerely believed that B.J. would see it. So I told Matt that I was going to leave first and that I wanted him to run back and get it for me, so she wouldn't see me bring it home. In my rush to leave, guess who I forgot...This sweet baby! I had just pulled out of the cemetery when I realized I hadn't buckled him, then I realized I hadn't even brought him. I quickly turned around to find Alicia holding him and laughing at me.
Poor Teeky, I'm sorry baby boy!




Our balloon messages floating to B.J.

Ryker was desperately trying to send a leaf up with his balloon but it was weighing it down. We found an alternative way for him to get B.J. his leaf, we taped it to his headstone.
The picture above shows Brooke's letter and Ryker's leaf.







Brooky with her balloon note. This is what her note said, "Dear Burl, I love you and miss you. I was wondering if you got the rocket. I hope you get this note. I love you. KK is doing good and same with Addie. I pray every night. Addie always wonders about you.I don't know how much longer I can go. Grandma and Papa are horrible. Rick and Matt are OK. I miss you and everyone else misses you. Everyday I would hang with you, you were my life. Russ just turned 14. Well we are here, I have so much more to say, we're here at your grave. I love you and don't want to say bye. I guess this is it. We're sending balloons up. I love you Burlster!"

The girls

We were suppose to go up to the canyon for dinner before visiting the grave, (hence my white trash outfit), but we decided to BBQ at Lynn and Russell's.

Boating Outing & Leaders Pouting

We went boating before girls camp because we had so much on our plates that it was an easy activity. After we got back from camp the girls were begging to go again. It was tentatively on the schedule until I played the goodie two shoes and said that I thought we shouldn't 't go, my case being that we needed to do more than just have fun with the girls, we needed to be teaching them something.

Well the whole presidency was released.

Long story short...screw it let's go boating! Sort of one last coup de grace!

Brock, Ryker and Jakey

We got pizza and soda's and made a real party of it.

The Beehives were in heaven because the laurels and mia-maid didn't show up!

Ryker got to come with us to YW's because Brock was going and Shaunna didn't have a babysitter

for her boys. He was really scared to go on the tube at first but once he did it he LOVED it!
Catching some air!

These kids are grinning from ear to ear!

Russell's 14th Birthday

We had the family over for Russell's fourteenth birthday. We had a nice big meal and Lynn made yummy a cookie cake with ice cream, fudge, and caramel.

Russell and Lynn got him and MP3 player and some salt and vinegar chips.
Matt and Alicia got him a day of golfing.
Rick and I gave him $100 to go shopping and I took him to Breakfast at IHOP.


Heavy, heavy hang!

Uncle Matt and Russ

Russell blowing out his candle.

14 is the approximate number of the weight of Nitrogen, which means - Russ is the BOMB!

14 is the number of lines in a sonnet - which means you are music to my soul!

14 is the number of days in a fortnight -which coincidentally you left today for scout camp and will not be home for a fortnight and you will be missed!

14 in traditional British units of weight is how much a stone weighs - This to me means you are a ROCK! I have seen and heard you be firm in your beliefs, and I am proud of you.

Happy 14th Russ, love you!

The Green Goblin

When we were in the hospital welcoming baby Lola to the world, Russell started all the kids on this... the kids would put the surgical gloves on their heads then blow out through their nose and blow the balloon up.

This is Ryker a couple of weeks later when we took my Mom to the doctor's doing what his older brother taught him, and me, his mother, taking pictures rather than warning my child against the dangers of putting things over his head. Oh-well!

Marsh"Not Even Close to" Mellow

I was at Shaunna's working on Youth Conference pictures. Todd started a fire in the backyard...the aftermath of the fire! What happened to EATING the Marshmallows?

Camp Caravan

Shaunna's car - Taylar, Kaylee, Mariah, Mary, Arika and Hailey


Merisa's car - Me, Chevaus, Cydnee and Kater

Suzy's car -Suzy and Kenya

So I was riding shotgun with Merisa, and we were following this car and just shootin the breeze, it wasn't til we got to Spanish Fork, that we realized Shaunna wasn't in front of us any more. I called her and asked what exit we get off of. She said, " where are you?" I said, "Near Spanish Fork", she was like, "Duh, you were suppose to get off clear back at 8th North in Orem and go through the canyon to Heber....ugh we totally knew that, we did go to camp last year. Guess that's what you get when you put Gabby Golding in a car with Dialectic Debbie!

The "Stakes" Are High

We had a contest last year on who could get their tent up the fastest.....dunt, dunt, duh, duh....the leaders won! This year we talked about doing the same but then we all ended up helping each other out...awh. I think the Laurels ended up getting theirs up first.

Beehive tent #1/Page Boys - Key Grips
Beehive tent #2/ Assistants to the Directors and Producers

The Leaders/Director-Producers tent.

Eric and Don, helping us get it up.

Laurel tent/Movie Stars Trailer

Mariah is not a laurel, but she would have been very lonely in a mia-maid tent by herself. She is great friends with the laurels anyway.

Bead It, Just Bead It, Ooohhh!

I helped Kenya make this Earring, necklace and bracelet set.

While we were making jewelry we had a GLEEK off. Kenya had been talking smack for weeks about how she is a bigger GLEEK than me. Taylar made up a list of questions and you guessed it, I am the biggest GLEEK of all! neener, neener, neener! I win! Kenya is just a GEEK not a GLEEK!

This is one of my favorite things to do with the girls. I could have done it for days.


Chevaus, Cydnee, Mariah, Kate, Mary, Merisa, and Arika all really got into it and beaded for along time.





I made each of the girls with pierced ears a pair of earrings, Merisa, Angie and Michelle a pair, and Shaunna two pairs.

Walk Of Fame

We got these cute walk of fame stars that we used as place mats. Each girl got to make up a fun Hollywood name for themselves.

Mine was - Debbie Delish

Michelle's was - Bomb "Chelle"

Angie's was - Angelina Holy

Cami's was - "Cami"fornia Girl

Mary's was - Mary Millionaire

etc. etc.

Secret Sister

This is what my secret sister gave me the first day; a cute little bouquet of dum dum suckers. Should I be offended? She's not trying to send me a not so subtle message is she?

This is what the little b"rat" gave me the next day!

I was sitting on my cot minding my own business when I saw this gosh awful rodent, right on my sleeping bag, next to my pillow!

I practically had a heart attack. I ran from the tent screaming. The girl's laughed their heads off. I however did not find it in the least bit funny!

Later that day I got a note saying,

"Debbie, hello, this is your secret sister. Lots of people told me to do the mouse. I did not think it would work. More is on the way, so I hope you like what is to come! Ha Ha.

From: You Don't Know

That night around the campfire I let my secret sister know that secret sister's are suppose to be nice. The next day I got a letter saying, "Deb, I am a nice secret sister the mouse was not my idea. I saved you because other people wanted me to do it again. So if you see the mouse, it's either real or I didn't do it. Also you are so funny. I hope you like the next gift.

P.S. The note was just for fun. The girls wanted me to do it.

From: Secret Sis

I laughed so hard at this letter, I loved it so much I cried!

So on the last secret sister day we were all sitting in the leaders tent chit chatting and I had my notebook full of all the notes the girls had given me. We were talking about how I was being tormented and I said, "I should just compare my secret sisters handwriting to the notes I've received. I opened up the notebook just half kidding but the first two notes right in front of me were one from Hailey and one from my S.S. , the handwriting was a PERFECT match! Hailey was sitting right next to me and was like. "it's not me" after professing her innocence several times she finally gave in and got mad at me for finding out. The funny thing is that Arika wrote the first note that Hailey had given me, so it really wasn't a match, but their handwriting was almost identical!! She was so mad at me for finding out she wrote me another letter calling me a stinker! Besides the mouse the second day, I did get some cute socks and the last day I got a cute Pink hair claw.

Bag It

Tuesday night activity.

Decorating our bags for camp.

You've Got Mail

Not since Meg Ryan has anyone been so excited to get mail!

This is one of my favorite things we did at camp. We started it last year and it was so much fun. Since the girls are not allowed to have cell phones, IPod's computers etc. We put up a clothes line between two trees, all the girls made a bag with their name or picture on it and decorated it how they wanted. We called it, Young Women on-line. We could leave each other notes or put our secret sister stuff in there. It was so fun getting notes, I got some of the sweetest letters ever! I seriously re-read them over and over. I had fun writing notes to the girls and my besties as well. I went through an entire notebook in 4 days!

Up In The Hair

Taylar's 18th birthday was the day we left for camp. We went to McDonald's on the way out and had a little surprise celebration for her. When we got to camp we made her wear her birthday shirt, that everyone signed and we each made her a wish as we tied a balloon in her hair. We made her keep the balloons in until we went to the first flag ceremony.

Talk about a bad hair day!