50 Years.........and counting.

They met a little over 50 years ago

and have never looked back

On a blind date

Can you believe that?

It soon turned into love

When he came to propose

Little did she know

He just asked for his class ring back

And she told him 'NO!'

It was first love

He got down on his knee

And held her hand so gently

He asked her to be his

for all time and eternity

It was love

She answered him 'YES!'

And hugged him so tight

Thankful to her Heavenly Father

For such a gallant Knight

It is love

Through many joys and sorrows

Four wonderful children, too

Many challenges and triumphs

Their love has always seemed new

It is forever love

What seems like to them

Fifty very short years

A great and awesome marriage

Marked by love and many joyful tears.

It is eternal love.

Amazed at by many

And looked at with joy, too

What a wonderful promise and story

Held fast to the heart and true.

Love to All,

midRae

Papa Munk

I would like to introduce all of you to one of the worlds most wonderful men and grandfathers. Papa Munk.

Papa Munk has been a part of my life for over 26 years. He has the sweetest spirit, a ready hug, a great big smile, and an 'I love you!' for me each time I see him, and a sense of humor that you would have to see to believe. He is also willing to share with anyone else that may need it, a hug or a big smile, or a nice joke to brighten their day.

He has given of himself the past 26 years by working in a rehab center, rehabilitating patients so that they can do things on their own such as feeding themselves, and he has enjoyed every minute of his time spent helping them. He has spent countless hours with each of his grandchildren teaching them, listening to them, and just playing with them. He has also raised three amazing sons who have grown into some pretty amazing men, midMan being the best, at least I think so.

He also spent 20 years enlisted in the Air Force and was even present at the landing of the Space Shuttle when it had to land in New Mexico back in the 80's, he was on the medical crew.(We love to throw that in because it's one of our families few claims to fame.) Overall Papa Munk is just a really really great guy. I am proud to be known as his daughter-in-law.

Over the past few months he has had a few moments, or episodes, where he has pretty much passed out and fallen to the floor. Some have been a little funny, like the one where he went running all the way across the room and the one where he bounced from wall to wall going down the hallway. I am not making light of the situation but sometimes you get so scared about something, or the thought of losing someone, that laughter is the only thing keeping you sane.

His last moment happened the day that we left on vacation back in July. He was singing to Grandma from the other room, while she was cooking, and all of a sudden he just stopped singing. She turned around to look and all she could see was his feet. Poor Grandma just laid on Papa and cried as Papa told her, 'I'll be OK.'. She was terrified. What else can you say.

We went on our vacation but we all vowed that Papa would for sure be going to the doctor when we got home. Vacation over, and Grandma held true to her promise. They ended up putting a heart monitor on Papa for a few days to see if they could catch one of his moments. No luck but a few times they called him and asked, "Are you OK?', because something was happening on the monitor. He would tell them that he was fine but even Papa started getting concerned.

The doctors decided that he needed to have an Angiogram. They scheduled that for August 18, and as you all know nothing good came out of that. While having the Angiogram Papa started to have a heart attack. They told Grandma that he was up in ICU having a heart attack and she asked them, 'So what are you going to do?'. They told her they were just going to give him something for the pain and just let the heart attack run it's course.

WHAT!?!? Can't they stop heart attacks? They do it all the time on TV. And what about all of the commercials telling us all to get to the hospital as soon as we can if we think we are having a heart attack? What is up with that? I'm lost! But I am also sure that if I think I'm having a heart attack I am still getting to the hospital as soon as I can. I figure they know better than I what can and can't be done.

Moving on..........

Papa Munk was released from the hospital this past Thursday, and we all sang for joy. He is not completely great but at least he is home and laughing and joking like normal. He's just not moving quite as fast, Grandma can run a lot faster than him now. He will go back to the doctor's in two weeks and they will give him some options as to where we need to go from here. We are all holding are breaths waiting to hear what comes next.

On a lighter note I wanted to share with you all what Papa Munk is really like. Wednesday, while he was still in the ICU, midMan and I were visiting with him. Each time he coughed, he is an ex-smoker now by 2 weeks and his body is clearing itself of all of the yuck, his blood pressure would go way down. We would just watch it on the monitor but the nurses and Papa Munk weren't worried so we just watched with Papa. When it was time for us to go and let someone else come visit, Papa told us to tell Grandma that the doctor had given us a new prescription for him. The prescription was for Grandma to get in their, with a cute little nightie, and get his blood pressure raised up by any means necessary. ha ha hee hee ha ha Oh Papa.........what are we gonna do with you?

I guess just love him with all that we have and be very thankful that he is still here.

Love to All,

midRae

Apology with a Hint of Things to Come.

The first thing I must say is that I am so very sorry for being remiss in my blogging. I know that I do not have a lot of followers but for the few I have I feel an obligation to try my best to have something new and fun for you to read as often as possible. I can and have come up with many many reasons as to why this has become a problem over the past couple of weeks and I look forward to sharing each and every one with all of you. But please know that from the bottom of my heart I appreciate each and every one of you and hope that you will continue to check up on me and the family to see if life ever does calm down.

Here we go........

The first thing that comes to mind is that my parents have now been married for 50 years. Amazing!!! For the most part this milestone in a marriage does not get reached by very many couples, what with the divorce rate what it is we are all lucky to reach 10 years. Anything beyond that I find amazing, I even know a couple, yes in my extended family, that only managed to stay married for 6 weeks. I know crazy, my oldest son even had to change the date of his wedding to accommodate this couple. I am happy to say that my son and his wife have been married for over three years and are still going strong. There is also death, which most of us in this world would like to put on the back burner of the stove and really not think about at this time, at least that's what I like to do. I have to admit I am a little afraid to die, but that's another post.

Anyways.....back to my parents. Yeah, they have been married for 50 years and we decided to have a little family BBQ and get together to visit and hear alot of stories from their lives together. Nothing fancy, that's just not us. But we have been planning it for a couple of months and we just had it this past Saturday.

Now for the second thing that comes to mind. tailEnd!!! Yup, just tailEnd. Man can that kid keep you busy. He is playing Freshman football this year and also going to Cedar High School for half a day and also going to a charter school, Success Academy, for the second part of each day. And we had to register at both schools this past week, Success was Tuesday with a half day of Freshman Bootcamp, then Wednesday we had to do Cedar High School registration. And please keep in mind that we also had football practice and weights to take care of each day. Now top that off with me myself working a full time job and midMan being gone on vacation this past week. Yup, tailEnd just keeps us young and busy.

Now for the third thing that has kept us going this past couple of weeks. midMan and the fun of Bow Hunting. I know a lot of people just don't get into this but my midMan loves the challenge and the solitude. The quiet of man communing with nature. That is my midMan. Planning all year to be gone for at least one week, by himself, stalking that elusive prey, the great and mighty Mule Deer.

Now for the fourth thing that has kept us going the past couple of months but especially this past week. Papa Munk. A few fainting spells and some not so great readings on his heart monitor and we end up with a trip to the ICU and a heart attack this last Tuesday. Papa is OK and resting and recovering at home right now. He got released Thursday. Wonderful news!!! More on him in a later post.

Actually, more on it all in the next few posts. Again I hope you all will forgive me and please keep visiting me. I also cherish each comment that I receive (I guess I need that recognition, oh just tell me to get out and get a life!!!) heee heee heee haaa haaa haaa. I'm hysterical now! Just teasing, I'll try to hold it all in. Anyways, please come back and visit, I got a few pictures, so many in fact that my computer is now telling me that I am running out of room, I hope I can get that external hard drive soon or my own lap top, which ever comes first. I really love you all.

Love to All,

midRae

Growing Up.

It was just brought to my attention today that my baby, tailEnd, is growing up. But first I need to give you all a little background.

The past two weeks have been so busy. We have been getting tailEnd to football practice everyday and also getting midMan ready for the bow hunt. Then to add to the chaos my mom and dad have been married for 50 years and we are planning a nice little lunch and remembering for them this Saturday. Then we had to register tailEnd at two different schools and take care of fees at both of the schools. And the icing on the cake was midMan's dad having a heart attack this past Tuesday, and yes, he is going to be just fine, but like I said life has been so chaotic lately that some things just get forgotten.


Yes, I did it, I forgot something in all of that mess. It wasn't anything really major, just money so that tailEnd would be able to eat a little lunch each day. Sooooo, yesterday was the first day of school and it dawn's on me that he has no money and will get no lunch. Now this is tailEnd we are talking about and he is growing into a man. You know how 14 year old boys will down 2 gallons of milk at one sitting and eat the whole package of Oreo's with it, well that would be tailEnd times 2.

So I left work and ran over to his school to get him some money and the girls in the office just sent me to his gym class. Here he sits, listening to his teacher, being such a great kid and in walks, oh no, his mom. He just wanted to be sucked up by the floor. I told his teacher I needed to talk with the kid with the big hair, not even realizing that it may embarrass him. She sent him over to me and I gave him the money that he would need for the next two weeks and explained to him that this was all that he would get and once it was gone there would be no more until the two weeks had passed. He's all serious and say, 'OK, I got it mom.' Then he says in an inaudible whisper, 'No hug.' I said, 'What?', and he said, 'Don't hug me.' He was so cute I really did want to hug him at this point, but I restrained myself, just barely! I realized that the time had come, a little later than normal for most kids, that my baby is embarrassed by his mother. sniff sniff sniff How sad, and doesn't is just make you want to cry. Now that I think about it I should have done cartwheels across the floor to really embarass him.


Just a reminder to all of those parents out there. There will come a time in each of our children's lives when a hug, or holding their hand, or giving them a kiss, is just not cool anymore and we as parents need to resist the urge to just override their feelings. But keep in mind that when they are hurt or sad or just lonely they will always come to you and need that kiss, that hug, or to just be held by Mom.


Love to All,


midRae

"not me" MONDAY

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Two weeks ago I did not go shopping at Ross and buy a really cute shirt, to wear to work when our parent company executives were visiting, that turned out to be a maternity shirt and then have to alter it to fit me correctly. Nope, definitely not me, I always check each and every item I purchase meticulously, always!

And I did not take tailEnd out to eat twice this past weekend to the same place and both of us ordered the same thing, twice. Nope I would never do that even if this place, 'The Pastry Pub', had been closed for months and had recently re-opened, and I really really like their food and midMan doesn't and midMan was out of town for the weekend and I got to choose where we would eat. Nope I definitely would not do that either.

And I am such a great gardener that I most definitely did not grow just 1, count them 1, zucchini, when the whole modern world is capable of growing hundreds on each one of their zucchini plants to feed the world. Nope, not me, The Worlds Greatest Gardener Ever, I definitely would not have that problem.

Love to All,

midRae

The Garden (update)

When I wrote this post about planting a garden, our expectations were so high, we were dreaming about all of the wonderful tomato's, zucchini, jalapenos and squash that we would be giving away to our neighbors. Reality is sinking in. These are our tomato plants, not to bad you say, but please realize that these have been growing since May. Now you say, 'Not so impressive.' That's what I said, 'Really not to impressive.' But please realize that they have done the best overall in our little garden.

Here are our hot jalapenos!

Not so amazing and hot when you again realize that they have been growing for a few months and we have managed to grow a total of 9!

And here for the wonders to end wonders.........our sad little zucchini plant.

Most people in this world can grow zucchini without even trying, but not us. Nope, we can not even get this right! But in our defense we did manage to grow one little one, and ain't it a cute one, and we did manage to figure out that pots just do not make for big zucchini or anything else for that matter. Especially when it comes to the Munk Family Farm. I think next year planting beds will be in the plans if we want to succeed at growing anything that is edible in our back yard.

Love to All,

midRae

Sunflowers

As I promised all of you months ago here they are, the only Sunflower I have had a chance to take a picture of, and it resides in my back yard. Please enjoy the beauty. They are quickly fading away in my part of the world.

Love to All,

midRae

I Just Don't Get It.

This ladies and gentlemen is my oven, and it hates me. (the pig is to remind me to stop eating, isn't he cute) It seems like in the past year it has gone from being my best friend to being the one thing in my live I really wish not to see on a daily basis. I just don't get it! I mean I can cook, most of the time, but in the past year every time I try to bake a cake it falls, flat as flat can be. And sometimes they will even remind you of that flat, rubbery, basketball sitting in the garage. My dinner rolls, oh my gosh, only half will raise. How did that happen?! Come on oven give me a break.

So after much discussion and debate we have come up with the following causes of my failure:

• old baking soda
• old baking powder
• new mixer
• operator error (this one is still in the running for #1)
• inaccurate temperature

I threw out the old baking soda and baking powder. Still using the new mixer, I paid good money for it, if it's the issue it will look really good sitting on my counter never getting used. Operator error??? Yup it could definitely be that. Inaccurate temperature, well we found a temperature thingy at Ross and are giving it a go. As far as I can tell it's a crap shoot with me trying to get an accurate temperature even with the thingy sitting in the middle of the oven.

Shortbread Cookies

(from HERE)

Burnt Shortbread Cookie! The recipe said 325 degree oven for 20 minutes. These burnt after 15 minutes. I am at a total loss and just don't get it.

As you can see I adjusted the time and the ones on the left turned out a little better.

I can't figure it out. I am a total loss. And if it is operator error then there is no hope for my family. They will just have to live with what ever I can manage to make happen when I bake with my old best friend.

Love to All,

midRae

Wednesday's Walk Down Memory Lane.....

I've wanted to join in on 'Wednesday's Walk Down Memory Lane ' so here ya go.



I can remember the day I had my first child quite vividly. I was woken up at 3:30am to the wonderful feeling that something just wasn't right. I wasn't sure what that was but a quick chat with my mother-in-law soon convinced me that I was in labor, plus it was the 7th. My father-in-law had predicted from the very start of my pregnancy that I would deliver my baby on the 7th. You see my husbands birthday is on the 7th, and we were married on the 7th, so it should follow suit that our first child would be born on the 7th. And he did not disappoint.

As this was my first delivery we wanted to be sure to keep the contractions going, so anytime that they started to slow down we would start to walk. I believe that we had to of walked quite a few miles that day. On one walk we were wandering through the park in town, at 5:00am in the morning, and came across a brand new little Tonka truck. This made us sure that our baby was going to be a boy! WhooooHoooooo! You see this was a time in the distant past when ultrasounds were not given during each pregnancy and the majority of new parents had no idea what gender their new baby was going to be. Although I had always had a feeling that I would only have boys the Tonka truck confirmed my feelings.

Moving on with our day, we eventually took a ride the 3 short blocks to the hospital. We wandered up to the 4th floor, that would be labor and delivery, and was quickly given a bed in which to twist and turn and moan and groan in pain. Again, here we are in the distant past and no one even mentioned an Epidural. What?! you say. No Epidural?! And yes I will say it again, I had no clue, I mean no clue what an epidural was, and no one even offered. I didn't even know what one was 4 years later when I had my second child, but that's a completely different story. So here I am, hurting like you would not believe and my poor husband is just holding my hand, being such the good husband as I crush all life out of said hand. Seriously, I didn't even know about breathing to help you through the pain. I just tensed up and made it so much worse. I just have to laugh. Boy was I uninformed and naive.

Finally it's 3:00pm in the afternoon and it's time to push, yes push! Yeah. I push and I push, still with no pain medication at all, and by 3:40pm the doctor is doing an Episiotomy, at which point my husband, midMan, has to step out for moment to regain his balance and his stomach. At 3:48pm, on June 7th, our first born entered into this world with a wonderful head full of black hair, I was terrified to have a bald baby, and yes midMan made it back in time to watch the wonderful happenings. I know, of all thing to worry about, that should have been the last thing, but as I said I was naive! What can I say. He weighed in at 7lbs 14oz and 19 inches long.

I was able to head home in less than 24 hours. We had even managed to pay the complete bill, hospital $448 and doctor $500, before we even went to the hospital. The cost makes it seem like such a long time ago, but seriously it was only 25 years ago and the total bill was $948, it was more than double that 4 years later. We had no insurance and we had no idea what medicaid was. We just did what we had to do.

We have watched him grow into a really amazing young man. And we are so very very proud of him and his accomplishments. (I wish I was more organized and I would have had a picture for you all to see, but you can see him if you go back about 4 postings.)

Love to All,

midRae

Not Me Monday!!

I have been racking my brain all week for a chance to join 'not me Monday' and I am at a total loss. My brain just will not work and I swear (if I did swear) that my brain always works. It really does, my brain would definitely not take a vacation, nope not my brain. And my brain did not decide to stay on vacation ever since I got back from vacation. Nope, my brain is always on top of things, it would never abandon me in a time of need.

And I definitely did not laugh with my youngest child while in church yesterday. Nope we would never do that! And then we would never get a look of disapproval from midMan. Nope, midMan would never be embarrassed because people were looking at him.

And I have decided that I sure do have an exciting life, NOT!!! I would never bore the world with my decidedly, desperate, depressing week. Nope not me.

I love all of you guys and can't wait to join in the fun for 'Not Me Monday' and really read what an exciting life is really like, because I DO NOT HAVE ONE OF THOSE.

Love to All,

midRae

Three Brothers

I would like to introduce you all to Three Brothers. midMan, wearing the helmet, Jeff, on the green 4-wheeler, and Eric in the middle.

You have all met my midMan and know that he completes me. I am so blessed to have him in my life. He is also the oldest brother of the Three, and I believe he is the quietest. If he could, he would hang out next to the wall watching what the world is doing and taking it all in. He will never put himself in the center of attention, ever. He is so even keeled that he rarely let's anything get him upset or mad. He will go along with whatever anyone else decides to do and really, really hates to make any decision. He likes to just go with the flow.

Now to introduce you to brother number Two, Jeff. He is the one that is always on the go and ready to always be moving. He has a dream to someday host, 'Jeffrey D. Outdoors", and even has a few episodes already filmed, much to the laughter and joy of his entire family. He loves to grow his garden and is quite successful at that, I wish mine was doing as good as his, he definitely has a green thumb, maybe even his whole arm. He loves his children and enjoys taking them with him to the mountains when ever he is not working. He loves to build things but does not have the patience to plan it out. He is midMan's best friend.

Last, but definitely not least, here is Eric. the baby. He is six years younger than midMan so they really did not get close until they were adults. Eric loves computers, his 4-wheeler, fishing, and he is a really good cook. He is content to spend time on his computer or sitting back enjoying a day of fishing. He and his wife enjoy long rides on the weekends exploring the world around them. He is the father of 4 great kids and the step-father of an additional four more. He loves and cares for each of them and wants to see the best for his kids.

These Three Brothers love to spend time together. The only problem is that a few years ago they all spread their wings and moved away from each other. We all started out in St. George, UT. midMan and I then moved to Cedar City, and Eric and his family moved to Payson soon after. Jeff and his wife finally made the big decision and moved to Salina. We are spread all over the place. The last time they were all able to get together was at Easter, when we all met up at Jeff's house in Salina.

We have spent so many years doing everything together that it has been a big adjustment for us all to not have each other right around the corner. I think the Three Brothers only realize this when they do get together and have to say goodbye, again. We have all been blessed with our families and we never realize how important they are until they are not there every day, until they are gone and we can't say goodbye or I love you. These Three Brother know this and they cherish the moments they get to spend together. They laugh, they remember, they share, they grow. THEY LOVE.

Love to All,

midRae

Rides With The Boys.

See these two cute guys? Are they not adorable? These two wonderful guys are my constant companions, it seems like we do everything together. Now midMan will be my constant companion forever and ever, while tailEnd is only being forced to be our companion for the next 2 to 4 years. These two just make me smile.


I have to share with you all what fun and laughter we have together. While we were on vacation tailEnd and I were riding back to camp, from fishing, with Grandma. Not so exciting you say, but you have never heard this child laugh. It's like half of Beeves and B___head. I am totally serious. This child's laughter is so catching and you find yourself just laughing to keep him laughing to hear it.


Anyways......as we were driving back to camp a vehicle, pulling a boat, decided he needed his side and half of our side of the road to get around a corner. Well Grandma just had to say a few choice bad words about this turn of events and that started tailEnd in on the laughter, I'm laughing just thinking about it. If you could have been there! tailEnd starts to laugh which then starts me to laugh which then starts Grandma to laugh. Here we are, driving down a twisty mountain road, laughing so hard tears are rolling down are cheeks, asking Grandma to please pull over before we get into a wreck, and her saying she can't pull over because there is no place to pull over and we continue to laugh, and laugh, and laugh. We are so lucky we did not die, either from wrecking or from laughing our selves silly. It really wasn't that funny, but tailEnd has that effect on everyone and you just catch yourself laughing along with him.

I mean just look at this child, doesn't he make you want to laugh?

Most of our rides together, tailEnd and I, at one point during the ride, will get each other laughing, which then will get midMan laughing right along with us. I have found as I look back how enjoyable these rides are, which usually happen every Saturday, and entail just exploring the world around us or just getting out of the house. I seriously love these rides and really look forward to them each week, it really helps me get through the work week knowing that there is some major fun and laughter to be had come the weekend. Don't get me wrong, we definitely share tons of laughter at home during the week with the whole family but it really seems like lately we have had some major laugh fests while driving down the road.

Another case in point is this past Sunday. We went to St. George for the weekend to get some school clothes shopping done. Man do I love Ross! I hate shopping, but I love Ross. They made it so easy and so cheap. Name brand and new, but low low pricing. So Cool!


Anyways, again, as we were driving home Sunday tailEnd and I were laughing and acting like a couple of kids. We had even started to get midMan in on some of the fun when up ahead midMan saw something on the side of the road. (I am laughing just thinking about this.) He points, and can't think of the name of what he is seeing. His hand starts to wiggle up and down as he is trying his hardest to think of the name of what he is seeing, which has now gotten our attention. 'And what is it that he is pointing at?', you ask yourself. Well he never could think of the name so he just popped out with, 'Gobble, Gobble, Gobble!' Any idea about what he had seen?...............


You guessed it, Turkey's, only he really could not think of the name for the mommy and babies along the side of the road. Well as you can guess this really started tailEnd and I laughing. Again, here we are driving down the road and the driver makes us start laughing so hard we are crying our eyes out which then gets the driver, midMan this time, laughing himself to tears trying to drive, at which point he finally figures out what it was that he saw and he says, 'Turkeys!'. ROFLMAO


I know my telling does not even convey how hysterically funny these situations were. But suffice it to say that I love laughter. It gives me hope. It also gives me strength to take what ever life throws at me and find the joy and laughter of the moment, the bright side, and share it with the world. In my mind there is always a bright side, you just have to remember to look for it.


SMILE!!! for the world may smile with you.


Love to All,


midRae