Well, here I am again...this one is going to be short as it's late and I have to go to work tomorrow....UGH!!

So, this past weekend we went to Sprouts to get some meat (it's the BEST place to get really good steaks, filets, and the only place I trust ground beef!). They also have Copper River Salmon when it's in season and have it flown in fresh for as long as it's in season...yummm....

Part of the meat I bought was some buffalo! One very small "roast" (sirloin tip, I think) was $21.50! I cooked it on Sunday but I thought I should be prepared to have "help" with the gravy for the mashed potatoes. I sent Papa to the store to get me some "gravy mix" - powdered stuff in a little package that you can add to your own gravy for a better flavor. I wasn't sure what would be in the pan to make gravy and if there would be enough. Anyway, he also was going to Wal Mart to see his best door greeter buddy...a little, sweet lady who is 84. Her name is Hilda and she came back to work because she was bored at home. Unfortunately, Hilda has very few days to live as she's dying of lung cancer. It's getting worse and worse, but she will not give up and wants NO sympathy from anyone. She has taken a liking to Bill since he's such a great person to listen to your stories and he loves talking to her. So, since he was going there to see her he asked if I needed anything and that's why he got this gravy mix (which in the end I did not need!)

So, when he was about to leave, there was a commotion in the aisle of the front part of the store. Here comes one of our security guys, chasing a huge Mexican man, yelling, "Stop! Stop!!" He tackled him, and threw him onto the floor, but the guy got up, fought him off and started running again. This happened three times while the guy was heading for the outside door! The security guy just couldn't get him held long enough for some help to get to him! So, as he was heading out to the lobby (the main door area), our friend, Grigory, who is also a door greeter, stuck his foot out and tripped him! Note: Grigory was a soccer star in his homeland of Russia years ago. So, the guy falls down, gets back up almost immediately and head towards where Bill was standing with Hilda. Hilda moved away from the on rush of the thief, the security man and also Bill! As he nears Bill, Bill put up his forearm/elbow and smacked the crap out of him! His head reeled backwards and hit the corner of the sliding door, then Bill grabbed his collar and threw him to the ground. He was stunned by the impact of the hit and then the door knocking him a good one! His hands flew up into the air over his head as he was knee bending to the ground and that's when Bill grabbed his collar and "helped" him to the ground! The security guy came running and sat on top of him while one of our managers called 911 and also while the security guy was trying to find his cuffs! Well, guess what? In true Wal Mart fashion, our esteemed security didn't have his cuffs...they had been placed on another man's wrist the night before and the local cops didn't return his cuffs....soooo....finally the police got there and arrested the shop lifter and cuffed him with their cuffs!!! haha

In the meantime, I'm wondering why it's taking Bill so long to go to Wal Mart!! Finally, he called me and said he'd be a "little longer" as an event had happened and he had to fill out a police report! haha I heard part of the story and was hysterical hearing even a part of this story! I reminded Bill that he is a "lover" not a "fighter!" haha

So, today at work, everyone was congratulating him and one friend said he had been contacted by the WWF as they needed a replacement for their fights on this Friday night! Some were calling him "Jackie Chan."...haha

Well, Bill sustained some scratches, a bruise on his arm and some sore muscles that haven't been used in a very long time! Oh yeah...the guy, the shop lifter...well, he was an illegal and is being deported!!

Hooray for Bill and I can tell all of you when he finally got home, he had a big old stiff drink!! Our usually rather dull life ended up being an exciting weekend!

Love all of you and will write again....I won't promise any timing on that but I will write again...ha

Here I am again! I know I probably have no followers anymore, but thought I'd try anyway! Nothing much has been happening in our lives after we took a trip to Boise in May. Went up for our granddaughter's Confirmation, which was very nice. Was good to see some of our kids.

We are looking forward to the arrival of our Abu Dhabi granddaughter and her son to return to the good old USA!! Her husband will come home at a later date, but it will be wonderful to have all of them back home after being gone nearly two years. Our little great-grandson, Kaden, has grown up in the UAE, and just turned two years old this past July. So, it will be great to get on a short flight and go to Idaho to see them.

Another of our granddaughter's joined the USAF and is stationed in Ramstein, Germany. Don't hear too much from her but know she's having a great time! Germany is a fun country!

We have had some bad luck with animals this summer....Marcia's dog had to be put to sleep. Then Monica and David had to put Pongo to sleep right before they left for their nice vacation on the east coast. Then, Kyle and Amie had to put her nearly 15 yr. old dog, Little Bear, down a few weeks ago. It's sad to lose an animal you love so much, but really, that's so much a part of life, you have to prepare yourself, which is also hard to do. Monica readily replaced their need for a pet with a new black lab. I can't remember the name (a little odd, I thought), but she looks really cute. Marcia has another dog, Coco, and I'm sure Kyle and Amie will get a new pet soon.

Other than just hearing some terrible news, nothing really going on. The terrible news? Oh my gosh, Guiding Light, is leaving tv for good! Sob, Sob, Sob...hahahaha Oh, how I hate those stupid soaps!! We just sleep, go to work, come home, sleep, etc., etc...over and over everyday except the weekends! Thank goodness we have the weekends off! So many changes going on at our store and what is happening there, leaves one to wonder what in the hell is going on so the weekends off gives us a rest from all that crap. The intellectual levels are not measurable in any of the managers...haha...too low!! Makes one to just want to bang their heads on a brick wall! What jokes....

Anyway, just wanted to say hello to all of you that check on this lazy blogger. I always say I'll try to do better, then when I don't, I feel guilty, so to relieve the guilt, I will just say "See You Next Time!"

Dianne and Bill

Well, everyone is now running around like chickens with their heads cut off about this "swine flu." We understand that is can be serious for some, but not for every single person on earth! For crying out loud, the media makes such a huge deal out of everything anymore. We don't take the local newspaper and, for now, that's a good thing. We are spared the experience of having to read about the same thing day after day. Reading/Hearing about the big "O" everyday and what he's screwing up so that it makes one cringe is enough without all the other hysteria.

We are planning a trip to Boise at the end of the month for Flower's Confirmation. We can't wait to see them again. Then if all goes well, we'll go back to Abu Dhabi in September or October for a few weeks. We are going to try to stop (going over or coming back) to see Justine in England where she'll be stationed at her new Air Force Base in Croughton. She will be there for about two years so that will give us time to go see her more than once! On one of those trips, we'll do the whole British Isles tours, etc. Can't wait to get to Ireland!

I'm getting my sewing out - AGAIN! This time I have a lot to do and to finish projects that are at least 10 years old! One person has waited for a very long time to get their quilt so maybe this will be "the" year...don't hold your breath, but I am going to try!

Well, time to go play scrabble with Kyle. I'm catching up on his winning streak and am only three games down thus far. It's great to have someone to play scrabble with. I love table games and Bill hates them, so unless I have someone who likes playing as much as I do, the game never gets used unless Kyle is here!! haha

Until later...

Hello again...
Nothing much to write about except that KYLE IS COMING HOME by this weekend. He will be driving back with his mom and her friend helping them drive through. It will be a fun life when they finally get settled once again and start their life here in the desert. Today is called the "Day of Tricks"...yes, April Fool's Day! We have had many little things April Fool us, but none as this one did today...Sydney's was the best. Go to www.itsalwayssomething.blogspot.com and read her most recent post! She got us good and I don't think we can ever think up something like that to pay her back! We're going to think, though, and see if we can come up with something for next year! haha It was the best. Good going, Sydney! That's about it for now. More next time. Hope everyone is doing well at this beginning of a great spring and summer! Love to all. d and b

ABU DHABI TRIP 2008

Don't anyone faint! I am finally getting to this again. The last time on here, I was telling about our trip to Abu Dhabi to see Sydney, Stu and our little man, Sir Kaden. We were there three weeks and it was wonderful. Our trip over was very nice - plenty of room on the plane and nothing late in arriving to the great smiles of the Foxes! They took us on many tours of Dubai, Al Ain, and Abu Dhabi. In between traveling to each of these cities, there were smaller towns along the way which were very interesting to us. Everywhere there is sand and sand dunes, and on one trip we saw some wild camels in the distance. That was quite amazing. It's one thing to see cows, but camels?? haha I suppose they would be surprised to see cows!! Sydney and Stu have a cute apartment on the fourth floor. Kaden can reach the buttons and he was the elevator operator on any trip out of the building. We experienced many great dinners and our favorite turned out to be Sydney and Stu's favorite, too; The Lebanese Flower. Talk about tasty! After returning, we have tried to find something similar here, and thanks to Bill's cardiologist, his office staff gave us a heads up on one and they were right...it was quite good. The hummus and garlic paste are "almost" identical, so the only thing missing will be the Arabian bread that we fell in love with as well.

It was amazing all the building and construction going on in every city, especially in Abu Dhabi! On one-fourth of a city block, we counted NINE cranes on top of buildings! The whole block was under construction so I'm not sure how many there really were in that city block, and every block had at least three if not more! It has to be the crane capital of the world! Abu Dhabi has many small parks that are perfectly groomed and all the children's equipment is very nice and looks all new. Kaden showed us how good he was at going down the slides and riding on the bouncy toys. He never stopped running from one to the other. He also met a cute little girl (her mother was with her in her full abaya with a small baby on a blanket) and before they left, she came to say goodbye to Kaden and gave him a kiss right on his lips!!! It was the cutest thing. Kaden, as any young man would do, gave her a slight smile....gotta watch those men, little girl!

We visited the Grand Mosque, the third largest in the world, the other two being in Saudi Arabia. It was magnificent. Words can't describe the beauty of it all. It dedicated to Sheik Zayed and his crypt is also housed in a small Mosque near the Grand Mosque. The Grand Mosque isn't yet completed but when it is, we'd love to go see it again. I can't imagine what next they could do to it to make it more beautiful, but they seem to be trying!

Our three weeks went by so fast - for us anyway! haha I'm sure Sydney and Stu were ready to pull their hair out waiting for the last few days! Kaden was so used to us and he was confused about being at the airport and saying goodbye to us...he kept holding his hands out for Papa to take him. I cried all the way to the plane, but we know it won't be long before we see him and them again....back here in the States.

After we got back on Jan. 2, it was a few days later that Marion came to see us for a short visit. That was a lot of fun to have here here for a few days. We had to work, so it cut our "entertaining" time out somewhat, but we did get in a lunch and a short tour of Old Scottsdale. We hope she'll come back again when we can take off work for a few days and take her to Lake Havasu to see the old London Bridge. She has seen it in London, but not in Arizona!!

After Marion was here, Monica called to ask if Justine could come see us before she left for the Air Force. She came and was here for a couple of weeks. We had a blast with her. She's so sweet and never a problem at all. She got in a little Arizona sun and did some reading while we worked.

We took a Valentine's Day weekend trip up to see Mary-Leah and Jeff and the kids. Had a great time there, too. It was one of the nicest times we've spent there...just relaxing and not any rush, rush. Oh, one thing we did, and Lord knows hope we don't ever have to repeat, was to attend a fund raiser BINGO night at school!! Oh boy...ML wrote on one of her bingo cards, "please shoot me!" haha They didn't even serve beer...what's with schools these days anyway?? haha

Just a few more days and it will be Monica's birthday - St. Patrick's Day! I would love to have a neat birthday like that! Hope she has a good time and that our gift will arrive on time!

Next month we'll be going to San Antonio to attend Justine's graduation from boot camp. Never have been to something like that so we are really looking forward to it. I take that back...years ago, we went to Alison Moore's graduation from her nursing school in the Navy somewhere in Washington State. Now, if Monica gets us all the military ID's we'll need and all the instructions, we'll be set to go!

In May we'll be going to Boise for the Confirmation Mass of Flower, our granddaughter. I know that will be very nice. We've been to several of these, so at least we know what to expect!

Nothing planned - YET - in June, July or August, but in September we'll be flying to Denver to attend Kyle Patton's and Amie Mace's wedding. This is going to be quite elegant and we're really excited about going.

Think that's about it unless something comes up at the last minute for our summer plans. We are still coming down from the high of our great trip to Abu Dhabi ! We have all our little souvenirs on the the tv and can't believe we've gone to the Middle East! We can't thank Sydney and Stu enough for allowing us to visit, and they were very great host and hostess. She's a great cook, too, so if anyone else can visit them, you'll enjoy some of her cooking as well as the Flower Restaurant!

Love to all of you who may read this. Sorry, I don't know how to publish pictures yet, but maybe someday! I'll keep trying!

That's it for now...Mom and Dad/Mimi and Papa/Friend and Friend

ON OUR WAY TO ABU DHA-BAY

Since we have been planning this trip for eons now, we got our hopes up that all would go well. HA! on that one! Last week, Bill had to get a quick appointment for the dentist, having broken off a tooth the week before! That amounted to a new crown and $$$'s. He'll go to the Daub with a temporary crown and get the final one when we get back. Then yesterday (Thursday) I went to work feeling like crap. I had had this pain in my (as the hospital says) "belly" and kept thinking it would go away soon. NOT! So, about 8:30 in the evening, I told Bill he'd need to take me to the ER as the pain was getting worse. Thinking I had appendicitis, I was a nervous wreck. I made up my mind I was NOT going to miss this trip and was prepared to argue with any of the doctors about getting the surgery over with immediately so that I could travel by the next weekend more $$$'s. Well, it wasn't the appendix, but diverticulitis! Just one more thing to give you a headache about getting OLD. Damnit! Well, they put me on some really strong antibiotics for the very large infection they said I had after going through a CT scan, etc. In a colonoscopy last spring, everything was just fine with only a small amount of diverticuli detected. Now, again damnit, I have to have those damn things about every 3-6 years instead of the every ten years they first told me. So, now Bill is feeling the same way, but this is fairly normal for him after having a Sigmoid Colon resection a few years back. So, we are both on (you kids will love this one) a "soft" diet for three days, then going back gradually to regular food within a month! I mean, I feel like I should rush out and by Depends and baby food in jars! We already have our burial set up, and that's one of the questions they ask you up front..."do you have a living will and your final time arranged?? What the hell? Am I dying NOW?? What a shitty thing to happen right before we go on this great trip! Oh well, we'll work it out and still enjoy all the great food that Sydney and Stu are going to show us....no nuts, no seeds, no popcorn,.....and on and on. I told Sydney we'd just pick out all the nuts in the Chinese food and she can still cook her recipe that has nuts in it!

I doubt I will try to write much more than this before we go. I can't seem to get anything together to write about. Our lives are pretty boring, really, and my humor only lights up at work when I'm downing certain people and their management skills!! haha Yes, work has never changed and is only getting more ridiculous as each day passes. Everyday there is a new "rule" that is "from corporate" or so we're told. They now call the store to check up on the phone operator(s) to make sure they are saying "the right thing." Whatever happened to freedom of speech and your own style of greeting customers on the phone that is natural to you? Now, we have a FRAMED greeting to read from as if we are still in the first grade annual play! This does nothing to people but make them paranoid and uncooperative. Everyone is on edge in every department. Ahhh...but I digress....

I was saying I probably won't write anymore here until we return. I'm sure I'll have plenty to write about then!

So, in ending this boring post, I want to say how much Papa and Mimi enjoy everyone's blogs and to read all the interesting posts that everyone does. It's entertaining to see the different ways of expression that everyone has. I haven't read some for a while and others I don't have addresses for, but we love them all and check more than once a day to see any new posts that have been added while we are idle! Keep up all the good and funny things!

As we take this great trip, we thank God for all the good things He's allowed us and given us the opportunity to do. This is a season of Thanks and we thank all of you, especially our own kids, Marcia (Deven), Monica (David), Mary-Leah (Jeff) and Doug, for being such great children throughout our lives and for all the wonderful grandchildren they've give us. Now, I know we'll hear from Doug (since he has no children of his own that we know of) as he will want us to include Woodie and Ozzie in the "grandchildren" list, but that would mean we'd have to mention ALL the dogs in the family....oh well, OK....."Merry PETmas" to Pongo, Woodie, Ozzie, Georgie, Coco, Charlie, Shade and Sparky, our token "cone head." ha You always have to have that "one" in the group that is different, right? My mom used to say it was a poor family that couldn't claim an odd one in the family! And more important than pets we mention all the grandchildren, too, since they are the light of our lives: Sydney, Stu, Justine, Hayden, Maddison, Flower, Aubrey, Mitch, Hayley, Hannah, Harrison and Arlie and our sweet little guy in that land so far away, Kaden, the only great grandchild so far!! That's it! All your names on here, I hope! I know for sure I'll hear about it if I forgot someone! HAHA

Love you all!!! See you again on or about January 2, 2009!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!!!

I have just spent about an hour trying to figure out how to get to the right place to add a new blog! I am so stupid...I called Kyle and asked him what to do. After he quit laughing and we hung up, I followed his directions and..... here goes one more time!

We are still getting anxious about our trip to the UAE. I am trying to be as organized as possible so we won't have a big hassle at customs! We both hate that, but since it will be closer to Christmas by that time, Bill usually causes a "stir" in the airport and one time when we were clearing customs, they just passed us on through, laughing with us saying Merry Christmas. However....this is a muslim country we'll be entering and I doubt Christmas means a whole hell of a lot to them! LOL He was thinking of wearing his Santa hat, but we're thinking about that the second time! We're afraid that he'll have enough of a problem with the diamond in his ear!! haha I have decided to send things to Sydney before we leave so that we can have the "larger" amounts of the things to use when we get there. If we just send it there, it will be there when we arrive and we can dump all those little "sample" things we'll carry on with us in case we have any delays without luggage! You know..a fresh change of underwear, toothbrush, toothpaste, deodrant, some Handi-Wipes to wipe off our faces, etc....anyone that has traveled knows to carry those precious things!! haha

We will fly from Phoenix to Minneapolis, then MN to London, England (Heathrow). We'll pick up an Etihad flight from London to Abu Dhabi. We will arrive around 8:30 p.m. If my organization goes as I have planned (but all of you know that I never have any plans that ever come together, but it's a thought), we'll only have one bag each to check through. The rest we'll carry on! I have my iPod to entertain us for the flights and I'll take my crossword puzzle book. Bill will select a book from Barnes/Noble to read while flying. Anyone have any good suggestions for him? We were talking about that and he can't decide.....

Our trip home sounds awful in that we'll be leaving The Daub at 2:35 A.M.!!! Poor Stu having to drive us to the airport at that time in the morning then having to go to work a few hours after that. Maybe we can just get a cab or something...shuttle?? I'm sure we'll not want to be leaving and, in fact, we are dreading leaving right now and we've not even arrived there yet!! haha We do get back at a decent hour though (about 5 p.m.) so that will give us some time to unpack and wind down before going to bed. We'll have that weekend off from work to get over the jet lag, so it might turn out to be OK....but jet lag is the hardest part of any trip.

We'll be in Abu Dhabi for Christmas and New Years. We are so excited to be spending our first Christmas that far away from the hustle and bustle of the "American Way." Of course, at our work, we are now heavily into the shoppers and bad attitudes of said shoppers, but it will be peaceful there and we can do our own thing and celebrate any way we want to. We might take a few Christmas decorations with us, but it might be fun to just be like the old pioneers had to do and string popcorn and cranberries (or whatever berries they have there) for the tree. Ahh...another problem...finding a Christmas tree in the muslim country! haha I mentioned to Bill that we should just start to send "branches of an artificial tree" in the mail and by the time decorating time comes, we'll have the whole tree!! He thought that was pretty insane....oh well, he's a man and putting up a tree is one of his most annoying things to do in life! All our kids can remember our "Annual Christmas Tree Fight"....those were the days. We'd go out to find that perfect tree...find a lot that seemed to have decent prices and stop to look. I can't tell you how many years I wondered about his true intelligence when he'd pick out the most crooked, ugly tree. He'd call me to look at it....well, being somewhat of a closet artist, my first look would tell it all...and he'd throw it back against the fence and say, "Well, f--- that one! YOU pick it out! Why did I come with you anyway? You never like anything I like!!" Yeah, well, Bill you are a retard when it comes to Christmas trees! Get a life, honey...you just ain't got it for trees! He used to think those mesquite trees with the nine inch thorns were "so pretty" when we lived in Texas! Except that one stick of those thorns could cause you to have to go to the doc and get a shot for the infection!!

Finally, after so many years of our "ACTFs" he finally convinced me that we should "try out" a fake tree! OK..so I went along with it. Guess he got me really drunk one night and convinced me, because he held me to my promise! Actually, I was a bit tired of cleaning up those real pine needles which, of course, turned into a full house cleaning as they seem to get in every room of your house even though it was ONLY in the livingroom! We got a fake one on sale after Christmas from Wal Hell. It came organized in this small square-ish box, but upon opening it, it burst out of its confines like one of those springs in a can surprises you used to take to parties to scare the crap out of unsuspecting folks! I knew we were doomed. The "trunk" was nothing more than a very uninteresting metal pole with holes in it. The base was cheap looking and good thing we had a tree skirt to hide it which my mom made for us years ago. Each descending branch was a different color on the end and color-coordinated to go in certain holes! Well, you know, it's just not mood-enlightening without your favorite beverage to "get into the swing of things" for the season. The next day, our tree almost looked upside down! I had pink in the blue holes, red in the green ones and the silver ones didn't even have a place on their directions! The branches were all scrunched together and even Charlie Brown's Tree looked better than this thing! I was so pissed at myself for allowing Bill to talk me into this horrible FAKE tree! No good scent, you had to adjust EVERY branch to make it look "real" and the damn thing stuck you something fierce if you touched them just right! AND...get this....it was losing its needles every time you touched it to put on the lights! If you stepped on them, they did not give in a bit like real ones do, they actually stuck into the sole of my houseslipper I was wearing! It was quite dangerous, I thought! What if a small child crawling on the floor got into these damn things? Hell, he'd look like a porcupine before he could get out from under the tree!

So, after that first fake Christmas tree, it was repacked in its box and put on the patio for storage. Just today, Bill moved it to a storage until we've rented to get some of this crap out of our small, Barbie doll apartment! I'm hoping Kyle will want to use it for his first Christmas in the Desert, but he'll probably read this and know how much I hate it and will buy himself a nice one!! You get what you pay for, so our $25 on sale tree was worth the lesson learned! And to think that that tree sold regular priced for $139 at Wal Hell...what a piece of crap! Made in China...well, you know how that goes!

As most of you know, I've never been known to be one for short stories, and I realize this is a long one - again! Well, you can always just quit reading when you get bored enough...ha I wouldn't blame you one bit!

Maybe one of these days if I keep posting, I"ll get to be as good as Sydney and Hayley! Mary-Leah, too! But I'm not the writer(s) they are, so you'll just have to bear with me when I want to rant and rave!

Bye for now and know we are working on getting this trip on schedule and having a great time in Abu Dhabi with Sydney and Stu and OUR PRECIOUS KADEN!! They have so much planned for us to do and we can't wait to go to the Grand Mosque and wear the burkas we have to wear to tour the place! We will post more later, but for sure, will let you all know about our trip which is only 22 more days!!! Yeah...!!!!!

From the warm desert to all of you out there....let the sun shine in!!! Dianne and Bill con amore