The Year 2008

2009 will be here tomorrow. The year of 2008 is nearly gone. As the new year comes into view, I think back on the past year and all that had happened. Here is what I have remembered that made my 2008 a great year:
1) A Cruise to Ensada with my dear friends from work
2) The death of President Hinckley
3) Melchor and I both turned the BIG 5-0!!!
4) My niece Rachel got married so we did a trip to Utah
5) Jeremy recieved his mission call and is serving in the Sao Paulo Brazil, North mission.
6) Waterskiing with the girls at the lake--I still laugh about that trip.
7) Indoor skydiving--what a blast
8) Sunday dinners with Mom and Dad
9) Teaching the 5-6 yr olds in Primary

Yes, it was a very good year and I hope that the next year is even better--the same to you all.

Happy New Year Everyone!!!!!!!!!

I can not believe that this is the last day of 2008!!! When I was younger, it seemed forever for the year to end. Now that I am older, the year goes by way too fast! Growing up and doing New Years' Eve was always fun. As a youth, we would go to the church dance at the stake center and have a blast and wait for midnight to come to see who we would be dancing with and see if we would get a kiss (at least a hug). Being from N. Hollywood, we were only 15 minutes away from Pasadena. One had not lived until you had spent the night on Colorado Blvd and slept on the sidewalk and then the next morning see the Rose Parade (I did that twice). As a young adult, I still attended the stake New Years' Eve dance and still wandered who I would have the midnight dance with and still wander if I would get the hug or a kiss (it never happened). One New Years Eve, my parents let my sister and I have a party. We had a lot of friends over for the entire night. We played games, ate and ate and then my mom got up and cooked everyone a big breakfast--aw, memories. Now Melchor and I go bed at 9pm--midnight came already in New York. This year I will be spending New Years' Eve at work with all of my nursing friends and babies. We will have lots of food and hats and of course the Martinelli's. So if any of you guys are planning to be up past midnight (AZ time), give me a call--512-5105--I'll be up!! From our family to yours, please have a safe and a very Happy New Year!!!

We Had a Very Merry Christmas

I tried to remember to write a blog to wish everyone a very merry christmas, but as par for the course for my little brain, I forgot to. I do sincerely hope that you and your families had a great holiday. I sent out christmas cards. I got in trouble for not writing individual notes and each christmas card...by the way someone did not get our name printed on the cards (he stated that there was no step to do that) and because of that little error, no one would know who the card was from. It was a picture card--I do think that our dear friends and family know what we look like and I did write our name on the envelope with the return address.

On the 23rd, we received from Elder Jeremy, our very first handwrittened letter. It was his christmas present to us. He also included a few pics for us. This letter was three and a half pages long. For those of you that know me well, yes, I did cry.


Christmas Eve was fun. We had a nice dinner with all of the extened family members--aunts, uncles, cousins, cousins' kids and it was a blast!!! The little cousins got all dressed up and did the nativity scene. My cousin made all of the costumes--she is the "Martha Stewart" of the family. We each brought a gag gift and we picked numbers and took turns choosing gifts. The highlight of that activity was that my dad kept getting girly gifts--he did't want a girly gift. It was a great time had by all.

Our Christmas day was even nicer. We opened up our gifts. The best part was that I was very sneaky and surprised Ryan by giving him "guitar hero. He was shocked and very happy. We were able to talk to Jeremy. He is doing well. He has a bad cold and as her put it, "feel like crap". He sounded wonderful. We had a few of his friends over to talk to him too, along with my parents. We talked for an hour and a half--thank you Rhea for the wonderful idea of getting an international phone card!!
We also had christmas dinner at our house. Everything turned out great. We had the Coxs' over and we played a game and was able to talk to Elder Cox on the phone.

Here are some pictures from my wonderful christmas eve and christmas night!

I Love the Rain

When we first moved here to AZ back in 1992, that first winter was a wet one. You would drive on the 10 and go over the Salt River and it would be running rapid. It hasn't happened since. AZ is having and been in a drought for a very long time, so when it does rain, we are being blessed. About a year ago, our stake was asked to fast and pray for rain and it did come. For the past couple of days was have been blessed once again with wet weather. I personally love the rain--I enjoy walking in the rain, I love rain songs--"Rainy Days and Mondays", "I Love the Rainy Nights" and my personal favorite--"I Hear Laughter in the Rain". The other morning I thought that I would take Maddie out for a walk, so I got her ready--leash attached, coat on, opened the front door and started to walk. Mind you, it was just sprinkling at the time. Well, we got about three steps out the door and she stopped dead in her tracks, looked up at me and be-lined it for the front door! I guess that she doesn't like the rain as much as I do!!!!

Skateboarding USA

For those of you that might not know, my youngest son, Ryan (who just turned 16 last month--which means that he became eligible to get his drivers lincense, which he did, which his instructor said was the best driver that he had all day, which he scored 100% on his driving road test, which is a lot better than his mother did---but I degress), is a supurb skateboarder--if I do say so myself. Ryan is labeled as the atheletic one of the family. He has always excelled himself in sports such as basketball, baseball and even wrestling (for a short time, however) but at the age of 9, he decided to take on the role of skateboarder. He is really good at it. So to show him off to you, I, with the help of Ryans' computer knowledge and assistance, I talked him into putting some of his pictures of him skateboarding on this blog entry. Mind you, to be a good as he is, it has paid a price, such as bruised butts, hips, thighs and arms, not to mention the lovely scrapes that he recieved, which are now beautiful scares so when he takes a shower and sees all of those scares, it is a reminder of all of his hard work. Thank goodness though, we have not had to take him to the ER for anything--YET!!! Ryan is a great son and in my humble opinion, not a bad skateboarder either. I do hope that you like the pictures.




OUCH

Tis the Season to be Jolley

I can not believe that it is now only 24 days left until Christmas!!! When I was a little tot, it seemed to take forever for Santa to visit. Being the first day of December, I am planning to get out my christmas decor and decorate the house (Melchor and Ryan got some of the lights up last night, neighborhood pressure!!). I will now bring myself to start to listen to the christmas music stations on the radio (I refuse to start listening prior to the first) to get into the holiday spirit. Jeremy did request that I listen to 99.9 for him. I just love Christmas season. It brings out the very best in people. It gives one to be thinking of the real purpose of the season--you know, Jesus is the reason for season. I find myself thinking of the savior even more and the story of his birth. I enjoy reading chirstmas stories, the holiday miracles so to speak. The one thing I don't mind missing is the snow. I don't do well in cold weather. Jeremy is finding it hard to be in hot weather when it is suppose to be cold. So everybody, start getting into the holiday spirit--start getting that shopping done, put up those decorations and lights and start listening to that beautiful christmas music and remembering the true meaning of the Christmas season. Have fun!!!!!