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.

The Storm is Here!

This is a cool picture I found, and it reminds me of the monsoons that have now hit Arizona! Wow, I haven't blogged in 2 months! So much has happened in the past 2 months, not all bad, but just enough to show me that the storm certainly is here. (I refer to President Hinkley when he said a storm is coming) In the past 2 months we have seen &/or lived through a friend who went a little crazy and committed a horrible crime being killed in the process; a young friend who tried to committ suicide; loved ones who are deceived into thinking temporal things are more important than they are; another loved one who had to appear in court; friends dealing with stress & hard times in their family or from losing a job; a nation which is heading towards socialism & greater debt faster than we could have imagined. It's unbelievable! It seems like it has been one thing after the other, but we are holding on and having FAITH that this all leads to a loving Heavenly Father and His plan for us to learn from these experiences. We will weather this STORM with God's help!

May - the Birthday Month

Just wanted to say Happy Birthday to Chuckie, Paul & Jerry!
Oops! How could I forget my sweet daughter in law, Stephanie too!

(we got this family picture taken in May, so there are more of us than the birthday peeps)

Charlie Crawls!

YAY! He did it! And does it all over the place now!

Five Generations!

We had Grandpa Breinholt over for dinner, then Grandma Brown stopped by, then low and behold C.J. & Steph & Charlie came! I was thrilled especially when Stephanie suggested we take a 5 generation picture. This is quite a feat, all five generations together! That is rare and we are blessed to have them all here on earth at one time! (We sure love and miss those on the other side too) Note that sweetest little baby smile! He knows this is a special moment!

Office Staff

Okay, I promised pictures of the office guys, so here they are! Danny Sutton, Operations manager (left) and Stephanie Simmons, "everything else" operator (right). We had a hard time coming up with that name. She does everything from computer drafting, web designing, general organizing, to icy beverage runs. Josie (below pictured at girls camp) is our part time secretary, and comic relief. She keeps us in stitches (and sometime when I have an hour I will list her and Steph's quirks - they have some doosies)

Speaking of girls camp, I believe I fired Josie after she wouldn't go to sleep. Danny can affirm this, as he was our priesthood there and could hear me from the other room yelling at 3 a.m. She keeps showing up at work however - and we're so glad. She's actually had a little leave of absence and we're glad she's back. I still need to get a picture of Brenda on here. She won't let us take a picture, and she actually works for Curt, but she is such a part of the family down there, so I'll keep trying. Chuck is pictured here at my old desk. When he was working out of town I was in this office, but now that he's back and I share a desk with Josie. I don't mind, until I hear Chuck snoring in the other room (heehee, it's actually only happened once or twice, after a night when he can't sleep cuz he's thinking about things at work) He's one hard worker and I'm so glad we have this big job at Sky Harbor so he'll be in town for a while. If anyone is wondering about Korea, it is still a possibility, but we have no more details than that.

These guys are the best and we couldn't have CB or K12 without them! (I'll work on getting our field staff next, so stay tuned)

Aaaaccchhooo!

Bless you, or as C.J. used to say when he was little "flush you". Poor Chuckie has been sneezing so bad this past couple of months. It's driving Kyle crazy! And it's thanks to all these beautiful flowers in bloom. Sad that something so pretty could tickle your nose so intensly! These tulips are on my front porch and the African daisies are covering many of my neighbors yards. I just had to post a few of the flowers around our place, they are so pretty and last such a short time. I'm enjoying them, but . . . ah . . . ah . . . whew!

Brandee's Birthday! (woohoo 19 Big Ones!)

Just some cute pictures of our beautiful Brandee on her special day! She celebrated with friends till long after midnight, then after a few hours of sleep, went with a friend to watch the sunrise on her special day! (sounds like college age life to me - no sleep!) Later we'll have Crab & Steaks (her favorite) and Cake & Ice Cream!
A cute story about Brandee. She loved crab from about 5 years old. (THAT was our mistake - letting her taste it!) She'd talk about it all the time, wanting us to make it for her. We couldn't really afford to have it be a regular dinner item, but we decided on her 7th birthday we'd take her to a fancy seafood restaraunt, Laundry's, and then go see Beauty and the Beast at Gammage.
We got to Laundry's and couldn't wait to see how much she was going to love this birthday dinner. Well she decided she was not in the mood for crab that night, so she is one of the rare few who has had a corndog at Laundry's. From then on she decided she loved Corndogs rather than Crab! However, she wouldn't go for corndogs for dinner tonight! (DARN)

What brings home the bacon

I realized I've never written about our company. The other love of my hubby's life. We've had our company, C.B. Contracting, Inc. for over 13 years now, and started a sister company called K-12 Defense Consultants. I put that logo on cuz it looks cooler than C.B.'s logo. I know it sounds like something education related, but it is the highest crash rating system for a barrier which is pretty much what we do now; install barriers at different government facilities. We have done work at military bases, federal reserve buildings, FBI, court houses, dams, police stations, car rental places, etc. It's amazing to think of how our business has grown and changed, from cutting concrete, to doing curbs & gutters in the 80's & 90's and now to anti-terrorist security. From our office being in our laundry room, then bedroom, then home office, to a real away from home office. We have really been blessed by God with work to keep us busy, great employees who work hard, and talented office staff. Stephanie at the office is working right now on our website, which you can link to at the right top corner links. I'll have to post some pictures of our staff on here too. Just over a year ago it was only Danny, Josie and I in the office, while Chuck and the other guys were working abroad (Japan, Guam, England, etc.) We were so crazy busy and understaffed I thought I'd loose my mind. I've been doing the bookkeeping for a long time now, and we've just grown to where I needed some serious help. Along came Stephanie, and "she completes me", or at least lets me focus more on the accounting (which BTW Paul is studying in school & which I hope he'll take over for me someday)
We also get to share the office with Curt, Chuck's brother and his company. They've got a great bunch of people too. Sometimes we all re-enact scenes from "The Office" and have great laughs. Josie plays jokes on Brenda (she's Jim), Stephanie has wadded paper she throws at Danny, and Danny has hidden my cell phone in the past. I didn't punch a hole in the wall though. At times we all watch Chuck when he falls asleep in his chair, and laugh when he starts snoring! No he really works hard, and we appreciate him so much. He was really inspired to get into something more specialized. He's a genius when it comes to thinking up how to do things. I just love his engineering mind! Chuck has been pretty excited lately because they are working on changing the operations of the barriers in a way that will save money in maintenance on the systems as well as be more environmentally safe (GREEN is in!) Hopefully it will make us some GREEN, and keep us in operations through this tough economy.

Incredible (edible) Snow

Okay, this maybe a very "flakey" post, but I just have to say that snowflakes are an amazing miracle! We just got back from visiting Paul and Skye in Utah, and I could not help being fasinated by the snow! I was hoping to see it fall from the sky (something I've only seen a few times in my life) and Heavenly Father did provide that tender mercy for me. (I know, I know, what about all the Utahans that are sick of it? Well that extra snow was for me!) Skye even said she couldn't believe it was snowing this much. I stood on their back porch yesterday gathering snowflakes on a black kitchen towel and inspecting them, then scooping up the soft white fluff into a cup and eating it. (I sure hope their neighbors weren't watching) We have to pay for "Snowies" in Arizona. (I just wish they'd have had some syrup to go on it) Chuck did it too! He really got into some snowball fights. I'm glad the little neighbor boys came around, I was tired of getting hit in the head! Anyway look at this picture! How can you not know there is a God in Heaven when you see this intricate detail?

Ode to My Love

On this Valentine's Day I must tell my love Thank You for putting up with me for all these years! I know at times I can be a pain. (to think of someone who wouldn't just love roses on Valentines Day or a trip to Hawaii! BTW I get roses on our anniversary and love it) I think back at all the years, 26 to be exact. In some ways I can't believe it's been that long, in other ways it already feels like eternity. I've lived with him longer than I ever lived without him, and the years keep going, faster and faster. How blessed I am to spend them with you! You make me laugh, you take good care of me. You genuinely want me to be happy. You work hard, and you play hard. You help me to play too. I see you now as a grandpa and it warms my heart. You are so much more relaxed with Charlie than you were with our babies. Yet I remember one time in the delivery room, you snuggled close to my face and said "this is the greatest moment. I love this moment, and want to do it again!" Right then I just couldn't quite agree with you, but now I do. . . not . . that we'd ever be there again now, but you know what I mean. There have been many defining moments and will be more.

Grow Old With Me, The Best is Yet to Be!

What a Game!

That was an amazing game! Charlie thought so too. He got so into it, as you can tell by the video. Kinda like his dad and papa. (sorry it's sideways, if anyone knows how to change it leave me a post) This is when he was happy before Papa scared him with his yelling! Here's how much I know about football; when we were ahead with like 2:45 left, I'm thinking "yah, we just gotta hold em for 2 more minutes!" I had no idea they could do all that in 2 minutes! And that was NOT a fumble at the end! We were exhausted after watching the game. Would have been a good exhaustion if we'd have won, but oh well, it was fun!