Does this look like me?

This week I fought City Hall and won! I only won on a technicality however and not for the reason I should have won. I got "flashed" by a van right by Mesa High during the summer going 49 in a 45 mph speed zone. The sign said 35 mph on school days, I knew it wasn't a school day, so I went at a prudent & reasonable speed, and within what I thought was the speed limit. I was shocked when it took my picture. I wanted to fight it, so when it came I even had Chuck return it with knowing me as the driver (I know lots of friends have said how unwise that was) Anyway I got this great attny/judge friend of mine who helped me make my case. I had all sorts of questions to ask the officer in court. Funny, I watched 4 other cases and no one questioned the officer. I felt like a real lawyer doing my cross examination. Of course the officer had proof that summer school was in session, but I just fired question after question about why were there not any indicators to those of us driving by! I had my proof of when the last day of school was, along with pictures of the speed limit signs and blinking lights at Brimhall (which he said they did not have!) So I'm giving my statement and pulling all of these facts together and the dear, sweet judge interupts me and says "Mrs. Brown, how much longer are you going to be? We only had 15 min for your case, and I've got to let some other cases go now. Please sit at the back of the courtroom and we'll hear the rest of your case in a little bit". Man! Talk about anti-climatic! I sat back there and thought of how she was going to forget all my info, and how many cases she still found the defendant "responsible", so I really got nervous. However when I finally got back up and apologized for taking so long, she was so gracious and said "no apologies necessary, I want you to have all the time you need". So I wrapped it up real quick, the officer gave his one more schpeel, then the judge said "after hearing all of the evidence I'm not even going to judge on whether you were speeding or not. This (as she held up the photo above) is a terrible picture, and you cannot identify anyone from it. Defendant is not responsible". !!! It was pretty fun, but nerve wracking, to say the least. I just sure hope that the city will put up blinking lights around Mesa High now WHEN school is in!

Badminton!

Fun week at Badminton. MHS vs MVHS! Jenni & Cassady were rivals! MHS actually won! (which is a rare thing in sports against those guys) It was fun to watch with Curt & Alison!

It was especially funny to watch Uncle Curt go crazy watching girls play any sport. "They just don't think like a guy!" He'd say over & over again!

Wedding Bell Blues

Yes, I'm talking about Jim & Pam! We've been looking forward to this wedding ever since they flirted on the first season of The Office. What a huge disappointment it was! There were moments; when Jim swept her off to Plan C (Niagra Falls) and the cute dancing all the office staff did up the isle, but for the most part it was the trashiest episode ever! Doesn't Hollywood know what real romance is anymore?
Jill had a Wedding party and I brought over the bubbly (sparkling cider) She did the wedding cupcakes and we all watched together.

I think I should write some of these episodes! I can think of real romance! This happened with the last episode of Cheers years ago. I wrote my own ending after that disappointing one. Shelly Long would have come back with a little mini Sam (some little actor with perfect hair) and he'd have gotten his baby he wanted so bad!
. . . Why don't these writers call me?

It is FALL in some places!

We just got back from New York & Ohio. Those are amazing places and yes, it is FALL there! The leaves were beginning to change, although it was still quite green. We went for a business meeting in Buffalo, but when that was over we went to Ohio and saw the Kirtland Temple. Although our church does not own it, the relationship between the Community of Christ church and the LDS church was amazing. Truly unified in their Christianity.

We stayed at this cool Bed & Breakfast - the Homestead House











We also went to Palmyra and did a session at the temple and walked in the Sacred Grove. It's incredible to realize what happened there, and to ponder the significance.
I loved how the missionaries would tell you about the sites, but then apply it to their lives and ask how you could apply it to yours. At church there it was cool to hear them say the opening prayer and thank Heavenly Father for the Autumn weather. Then we left for home and arrived in the 100 degrees here. Yah, we'll be thanking Him too, in about another month.

Charlie Brown can rock & roll

A tearful goodbye; another one leaves the nest!

Bye Bye Aunt Brandee

Jerry, the tough one who didn't cry

The best to our Brambo

It's hard to say goodbye

even siblings who rival cry

2 sisters in Seattle

I'll miss your kiss!

Our last look as we drive away. Hours later after we stopped crying we were reading the Ensign aloud and read Pres. Eyrings tearful goodbye to his father as he left the nest . . . yah, the crying all started again!

Birthday Party in Seattle!

We had the best time taking the whole family up for Gavin's first birthday. It was a trial at times; driving long hours, CJ & fam getting bumped from flights, and blow outs in the RV, but all in all the fun stuff made up for the troubles. We used a friends huge luxury RV, and went first to Paul & Skye's to bring his car back to him, then drove up through Couer de Lane, ID, which was so beautiful (slept in the Walmart parking lot), then up to Vancouver to see John & Chawna for a day, then to Nikki & Shaun's for the big birthday celebration. We were also there to deliver Brandee, who is going to either be a "Nanny for Nikki" or she'll get a job & go to school there. She's so excited to get out of this heat! On the way home we went back to see Paul & Skye (slept in the church's parking lot & woke to girls camp gathering just outside the RV) Then drove to Las Vegas to see our good friend Teresa Staples, then on to home. A great big thanks to Brittney & Kyle for taking good care of our house, pets & plants!

EM Excitement!

The box (unfinished)

The boys
The barrier

So what is EM? It stands for ElectroMagnetic and are we excited about it? On July 16 we had our demonstration to show some big wigs this new system our company has been working on. (the picture above is not the big wigs, it's our boys, seeing what dad's been up to) The meeting went better than we could have hoped, and the jobs are beginning to line up. This is such a blessing in this economy when so many in the construction industry are out of work. We have had so many people helping to get this together; a great freind who let us use their warehouse and nice offices to facilitate; a couple of amazing engineers who have worked for next to nothing for many hours; office staff who put so much together; and my sweet hubby who never sleeps (seriously I wake up in the middle of the night and he's not snoring, he's thinking) - he eats and breaths thoughts of EM! He's pretty amazing! And thanks to God on high for helping this come together!

Girl's Fun Time

It is really starting to hit us that Brandee is moving out soon. We'd better enjoy every minute that we can. We were having fun one night playing Skip Bo & Ligretto, in between Jenny making this yummy strawberry cake, listening to music and playing with the dog, when it suddenly hit me that we were all girls, right down to the dog! This house has in the past, been mostly MALE, and here we were, no guys around and having an unplanned girls night! It was so COOL! The next day we even went out and took a bunch of pictures of the girls in the front yard. And let me tell you, they were the "models", striking poses all over the place (see facebook, I'll post more there). It was hilarious Brandee put her leg out and said "Jenny touch my leg", meaning to sit on the bricks too, and make their feet meet. Well Jenny being so obedient strikes a pose and puts her hand on Brandee's leg in such "Vanna White" style. It was so funny! We laughed and laughed! I love these girls!

Independence Day 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4S10D6SdCs
It's been a fun & relaxing day! I love the 4th of July! I get all my cheesy decorations out and have my side of the family over and swim and eat! It's one of the few days I actually play in our pool. We had a mean game of volleyball going! My nephew, Matt Platt, must have just gone to see the Transformers movie, cuz he was playing like a transformer, it was hilarious! Brookie & Heather spent the night and we had a blast doing Karaoke, making "cottage cheese" shakes, and playing Lagretto (cards). Wow does she have a set of singing pipes! Be watching for her on American Idol in a few years! I included this youtube video so you'd know that we did also think about our great nation today. Celine Dion has an amazing voice (almost as good as Brookie's) & the pictures are great. I am so thankful for those who founded our country; their courage and strength and inspiration. God Bless America!

Transformer seen here with baby transformer

From 1 to 90

June 6 Charlie turns 1 year old (seen here with his sweet mama)

And on July 3 Grandpa Breinholt turns 90!

(seen here with his 2 favorite daughters)

Grammy & Papa to the rescue

Not that we did all that much, but both Chuck and I have gone back to Washington to help out Nikki & Shaun in their move. They renovated a house and recently moved in. It's amazing the work Shaun did for 4 months everyday after a full days work at Boeing. He basically gutted the inside and made this house so beautiful. Nikki in the meantime has been raising two beautiful boys, Jayon & Gavin. She's the best mom! They don't have any family there, and since they are our other adopted kids (even named Brown!) we had to come help.