"It's Nifty to Be Fifty!" (Quoting Susan Plessinger)

September 16, 2007 was my fiftieth birthday! My wonderful friend Tracey gave me these beautiful roses and took me to dinner to celebrate. It was so fun. I really enjoyed turning 50! It was a great time and I stretched it out as long as I could!
It's hard to believe that I am not 50 years old! Since most of my grandparents have lived to be close to 100 years old, I figure my life is only half over! One of my single friends said that now I'm on the best side of 50! I sure hope she is right!

So much happened that I'm sure I won't remember everything now so I may be updating this post later when I remember or someone reminds me of what I failed to include.

It was a joy to have Adalei come play dolls with me on my birthday. She had a great time eating kettle corn - we both love that!

Charity came to spend the weekend with me! What a wonderful surprise! I had a great time having her here. Not knowing that she was coming, I had a lot of plans for the weekend before she arrived.
Charity was such a good sport to keep up with the weekend long birthday celebration as planned! I am so blessed to have a daughter that would come to make my 50th birthday very special.

This was a picture of Misty on my birthday! Misty was so sweet to make my favorite dinner (7 layer salad and Texas sheet cake). In addition, she invited all my extended family and close friends for cake and ice cream. (Misty makes great cake!) It was a wonderful surprise! She went to a lot of work and I really appreciated it as she was just moving into her house a few days before that so was living out of boxes at her house. She put all that aside and planned a special surprise birthday party for me! Thanks Misty - you are great!




Now, when it comes to friends, I was thrilled with all my friends that called, stop by, and especially those special friends that had a surprise birthday party for me! This was a terrific 50th birthday! Mo hosted a potluck, surprise party at her house where we enjoyed delicious food, birthday cake and I was showered with fabulous gifts. I am so blessed with awesome friends. Thanks so much to Mo for doing so much to make my birthday a celebration! Even my father called to wish me happy birthday which was a surprise since I rarely hear from him.

My visiting teachers went all out for my birthday - Sheila and Sandy are the best visiting teachers I have ever had. They love me and truly care about me which is a great example of Christ-like charity. They took for me a manicure and pedicure and included Charity also. It was so relaxing and I thoroughly enjoyed being pampered! Can you tell which feet and hands are mine and which are Charity's? Don't we look great? After the spa treatment, we went to a delicious lunch followed by carrot cake and all the leftovers came home with me! It was so fun!

For my birthday, Nate washed and waxed my car while I played with Adalei! It was a rainy day and he was washing my car in the rain. I think he was surprised that I didn't want to postpone our plans when the weather turned bad. However, it worked out quite well because we planned for Misty to prepare for a surprise birthday party for Nate while he was washing my car.

Little Adalei was so cute in her rain clothes.












She had me sitting in the canoe for a bit and I took a picture of her from the other end. I'm sure she really wanted to go kayaking but she didn't get to and was a little disappointed.






Look how good my car looks! Thanks Nate for a super job washing and waxing my car! This was a perfect birthday gift for me!










Here's Adalei on her birthday tricycle. I think she enjoys pushing it more than riding it but I did capture this shot when I had a chance.








Now, for my birthday, I bought myself a ticket to "Chocolate Confessions" and invited three coworkers to join me. From middle to the right - Lee, Judy, and Cathie..... We had dinner, then watched the show and had a chocolate dessert during intermission. In the picture by me is the creator, actor, etc. of the play. She did such a great job that I invited her to be in my birthday picture with us.





This is a poster announcing the event. I even bought myself and Jenna a chocolate cookbook! Now to find the time to enjoy some of the recipes but I'll have to lose a few pounds first! I really enjoyed my birthday - about 10 pounds worth!!! But no regrets! Like my dad said, "You only turn 50 once."





Thanks to all for a perfect 50th birthday celebration! It was the best ever!

Fun, Fraud, and Freezing in Des Moines, Iowa (11/07)

I was so excited to have the opportunity to spend three days in Des Moines, Iowa, for training regarding fraud investigations. The training was at the parent company - MidAmerican Energy Company. This is the main lobby and reception area for the company headquarters.















The building for our parent company was the tallest building in Des Moines, 40+ stories high. I took a picture of it from our hotel at night and then another picture during the day that was much closer. It was so cold - windy and really cold. The chill factor brought the temperatures in the teens to below zero. I avoided being outside as much as possible. It was way too cold for me.

This toy poodle was at the airport and unbelievably cute. I got to hold her and she was so soft. She was so small she fit in your hand. I would love to have a puppy like that and seriously thought about getting one. I thought I'd keep her at Nate's but that idea was rejected so no puppy for me.

What a fun trip to Des Moines. The training was great and I enjoyed learning more about fraud investigations. However, I was happy to get back to the warmer temperatures in Portland!

Two Sisters! 1/12/08

Adalei loves to play with her little sister Brielle!









































Adalei 2 yrs old....










Brielle almost 2 months old........











































































































































Brielle's first smile captured by my camera!




































Such a cute baby!


































Nate on the way to dinner.... an emergency phone call from a dental patient and trying to rock the baby to stop the crying while Misty drove! He's such a patient dad.
















Dinner at the Mexican restaurant! Adalei did great but didn't eat her meal but sure had fun playing with the sugar.





























She ate enough of her burrito that she earned her dessert - cinnamon sugar tortilla with whipped cream and strawberry sauce! (Good thing grandma was there to make sure she got her treat!)





I am SO grateful that I live close to this wonderful family! I am lonely no more! :)

Brielle's Blessing Day

Brielle Elaine Tanner was given a name and a blessing at the Prune Hill Ward, Vancouver East Stake on 12/9/07 by her father. This is a picture of the family at their home after the blessing. What a joyous occasion to welcome Brielle to the family.







The happy family!


Adalei ready to pray! She blessed the food for the family get together after the blessing. Misty with Brielle! What a beautiful blessing dress worn by Brielle and made by Grandma Waldram.



Grandma and Grandpa Waldram with Brielle.







Kelly and Cindy Waldram with Craig, Stephane, Adalei and Brielle!






Brielle with her great uncle randy, great aunt Susan, cousins Kade and Kayla! We were so glad to have them attend.


Adalei tried on Aunt Susan's shoes and thought they fit quite well!






Here's the other grandma with the cute girls! (below)

Nate reading with Adalei on the floor. Adalei loves her books! (at the bottom)

Brielle's 2nd day on Earth

Thanksgiving Day, November 22nd, Adalei was introduced to her baby sister.












Adalei was shy at first and wasn't sure what to do.













It wasn't long before she was ready to see the baby and touch her.












This first experience went quite well.













Brielle's first time in the car seat! So cute with her little hat.












Here's grandma with her two granddaughters!













Happy Adalei holding 1 day old Brielle!

Christmas Eve - 2007

For the first time, we had a Christmas eve dinner. It was really nice as Jenna, Ashley, and Charity helped with the food preparation. Nate, Casey, Jason, and Misty helped with clean up after.
You can see in this picture that everyone was eager to get started with the ham! We had a table full! The menu was ham, rolls, cauliflower, parsley potatoes, cranberries, cranberry jello, layered jello, sparkling cider, peppermint ice cream pie. Yum!
Charity HAD to watch her favorite Christmas movie - One Magic Christmas! You can see that no one else was too excited to watch it. Just a few minutes into the movie and Charity had disappeared without telling anyone that she was leaving. I found her in my bed reading a book. Apparently she had enough of her movie and didn't want to watch the rest of it. We told her she had to watch it so she came back downstairs for awhile so I could take this picture. Funny Charity!
Here's my new TV! Jason was a huge help to identify the best deal and where to get it. He was also awesome at helping me get it home. (Ask Charity about her role in traveling from Best Buy in Gresham to my house in Vancouver! She received a lot of nonverbal communication that made this day very memorable for us.) It was really nice of Jason and Ashley to come early and help me get ready for Christmas.












The hot spot for the Christmas holiday was on the couch in the family room with the laptop/internet and the TV. From left to right: Ashley, Jason, Casey, Jenna!








Here's a picture of Jason and Ashley assembling my new entertainment center and setting up my new TV. I was so exhausted. I went to bed and they had it all done when I got up in the morning! I love my new TV! Thanks for Jason for making this dream come true!

Primary Sharing Time - December 2007

This is my primary class for 2007 - Valiant 9's. For sharing time, they acted out the nativity story from Luke 2 in the Bible. I was so pleased with their great costumes. From left to right - Sam, the shepherd; Parker, the wise man; Lexi, the angel; and Mady, as Mary. They acted out the story while I read from the Bible. We studied the New Testament last year.
I have a wonderful Primary class and love teaching them. I'm excited to be able to teach them in 2008 also! We will be learning about the Book of Mormon this year.