The Brumley Family must say Good-bye for now

Dana and the kids are on their way back to the big state of TX. Getting to know this family has been a first-class experience. They have really made Clearfield their home this month. Their oldest daughter has enjoyed many days at the Clearfield Pool....working out with the swim team. The family has had a field trip to somewhere interesting almost every day. I do hope the Great Salt Lake was not to buggie!

Here we are with the kids...............
Dana clicked a picture of us just before they left for the airport.......
I'm way to emotional about such things and I'm actually teary-eyed as I write this post.

I then made her get into the picture so I could get one more shot!
The two younger Brumley children are absolutely darling, friendly...and pretty dang smart!
The last night at the ballpark....older brother is now in Nicaragua playing with a Christian Ambassador baseball team.... you can read all about them on this blogspot http://alifeworthfollowing.org/
The youngest daughter of the Brumley's is looking forward to a career in the food industry. She wants to own her own restaurant, so we took a field trip to our production shop to show her our Abundance Living Food process. It was a great experience for all of us.

I can't begin to tell you how much I am going to miss this family. My only solace is that I know we will have a life long friendship even though we will be miles and miles apart. Thank you Brumley family for bringing us so many hours of fun, laughter, and friendship.

The "Boy" is back in Town....Mr. Lugo- that is!

Ruddy Joraider Lugo is a Major League Baseball relief pitcher in the New York Mets organization.......but he was one of "My Boys" in 1999 and 2000 with the Milwaukee Brewers organization. Now Ruddy wasn't actually assigned to my home, but none the less he found his way there almost every night! He is an adopted member of our family.....we love ya Ruddy! Sunday Ruddy was in SLC playing against the Bees. After the game we were going to have dinner somewhere in the city, but Ruddy thought going back to Ogden would be a better idea. So off to Ogden we went. We caught the last few innings of our Ogden Raptors game and then attended a BBQ for the team for a few hours........Time to go home Ruddy....ya know what I mean if you were at the party!



Ruddy got reacquainted with lots of the fans from his stay in Ogden.

He has found his way to several teams during his career.
Here is his itinerary of as the baseball turns:
1. Selected by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 3rd round of the free-agent draft (June 2, 1999 - signed June 21, 1999).

2. Traded by the Milwaukee Brewers to the Los Angeles Dodgers (June 1, 2001) completing trade in which the Los Angeles Dodgers traded Devon White to the Milwaukee Brewers in exchange for Marquis Grissom and a player to be named later (February 24, 2001).

3.Traded by the Los Angeles Dodgers to the Houston Astros in exchange for Daryle Ward (January 25, 2003).

4.Released by the Houston Astros (March 28, 2004).

5.Signed with the Florida Marlins (April 2, 2004).

6.Released by the Florida Marlins (March 30, 2005).

7.Signed with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (April 20, 2005).
Granted free agency (October 15, 2005).
Signed with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (November 3, 2005).

8. Claimed off waivers by the Oakland Athletics from the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (June 14, 2007).

9. Claimed off waivers by the New York Mets from the Oakland Athletics (Jan 30, 2008).

And all the time showing that "Ruddy Lugo" smile!

Greats from 68

1968……Some people enjoy a stroll down Memory Lane. I find Memory Lane a bit of frightening place, filled with a few embarrassing mistakes, a few missed opportunities, a few forks in the road of life chosen for the wrong reasons if for any reason at all. Since high school my life has been filled with baseball so the quote from Yogi Berra has some relevancy “If you come to a fork in the road, take it.” On occasions I have followed Yogi’s advice with many enjoyable experiences that have followed. Here are a few memories from Saturday, July 26, 2008! Did we ever think we would be this old?
Duane Dudley and Craig Larsen ....talking about WojaWoda Days....great warriors...that is what the word means!
Sam Gardner and Craig Swenson having a good laugh.
Lynn Leifson still smiling after all these years.
Karla asking Don....how many kids?????
Here we are as the late great of 68!

So the reunion is over now - it was quite brief - and we all will go back to our routines. But I am different now. I had a wake up call from this past weekend, and I am going to re-prioritize some of my goals. Time increases in value as we age, so we have less of it to waste now. Yet we've always had the same amount since the day we were born. It gets perplexing how time seems to be so slow when you are young, and then moves so fast once you hit 50 really approaching 60.

So, we smiled to see each other alive (not all of us have made it) and looking as good as we did and chatted about things that were no longer relevant to any of us before they vanished from memory altogether.

I honestly wish the best that life has to offer for all those people in my graduating class that I spoke with this weekend. You all know who you are. If I am blessed enough to hang on to life for another ten years, I will be at the 50 year reunion. Maybe it'll have something to teach me too.
As wonderful as it was to spend that time in the “Past”, we have all moved on, and grown up or should I say at least tried to grow up. I enjoyed the reunion—but—reality show comes early with the dawning of a new day and we all must return…so it’s back to work for another year....then I too can say "I'm retired"...and sleeping in!

Hmmm...a ballplayer?? No 2 ballplayers!

Those of you who know me well will remember me saying...."No ballplayers this summer!" It worked for almost half of the season. I can't remember now where I was or what I was doing when DH called to tell me ...."We have to take a player home for a few days, because they just don't have enough host families." Right...we now have 2 great guys living with us for the remainder of the season. August brings lots of road trips 18 days of it actually, so it really won't be all that much work...for DH! Those of you who know him well, will remember him saying...."I'll be a great dad!" Hmmm...how many of you actually believe him?
This is Matt Smith. He is a pitcher from Wichita State. Matt has a twin sister that he thinks is pretty awesome. While Matt was in high school he lettered all four years in baseball and three years in basketball...In baseball, he was named all-city honorable mention. In his senior year he pitched a perfect game against West High with 11 strikeouts. He majored in sociology at Wichita State. We're glad he asked to come join our family for the second half of the season.

This is Cole St.Clair who is from Newport Beach, Calif. His father played basketball at Southern California and his mother helped organize and competed on the first crew team at UCLA. His sister, Olivia, was on the crew teams at UC-Irvine and Texas. His other sister, Elise, was on the sailing team at Hawaii. Cole graduated from Rice with a degree in Economics.

So saying "No" doesn't seem to work for me very well. Now I'm back in the swing and when the 2 boys both pitched in last nights game one of the fans asked what was in my bottled water..... I said, "Mother juice"..... I take games a little to personally! Gotta love baseball.

So Proud to Live in Utah

Lookin' Like a Cabin More and More

View from the road dormer windows in the front and private deck off the master bedroom.

My Daughter-in-love and her family never stop....work non-stop....around the clock! But look how far they have come....oh what a dream they are making come true. I'm amazed!

Keirsey Temperament Sort Test..... I am a Guardian!

Tonight I took a personality test..... It says I am a Guardian....YOU THINK?

Your Keirsey Temperament Sorter Results indicates that your personality type is that of the
All Guardians share the following core characteristics:

Guardians pride themselves on being dependable, helpful, and hard-working.

Guardians are concerned citizens who trust authority, join groups, seek security, prize gratitude, and dream of meting out justice.

Guardians tend to be dutiful, cautious, humble, and focused on credentials and traditions.

Guardians make loyal mates, responsible parents, and stabilizing leaders.

Guardians are the cornerstone of society, for they are the temperament given to serving and preserving our most important social institutions. Guardians have natural talent in managing goods and services--from supervision to maintenance and supply -- and they use all their skills to keep things running smoothly in their families, communities, schools, churches, hospitals, and businesses.


Guardians can have a lot of fun with their friends, but they are quite serious about their duties and responsibilities. Guardians take pride in being dependable and trustworthy; if there's a job to be done, they can be counted on to put their shoulder to the wheel.

Guardians also believe in law and order, and sometimes worry that respect for authority, even a fundamental sense of right and wrong, is being lost. Perhaps this is why Guardians honor customs and traditions so strongly -- they are familiar patterns that help bring stability to our modern, fast-paced world.

Practical and down-to-earth, Guardians believe in following the rules and cooperating with others. They are not very comfortable winging it or blazing new trails; working steadily within the system is the Guardian way, for in the long run loyalty, discipline, and teamwork get the job done right.

Guardians are meticulous about schedules and have a sharp eye for proper procedures. They are cautious about change, even though they know that change can be healthy for an institution.

Better to go slowly, they say, and look before you leap. '

Guardians make up as much as 40 to 45 percent of the population, and a good thing, because they usually end up doing all the indispensable but thankless jobs everyone else takes for granted.


I'm thinking this is pretty dang close to who I am....who I alway will be...and who I have always been.

Long Time No See....BC brings me Back!

I've been lost in the world of .....Don't have time to blog????? Shame on me! So the quote from Sir Heneage Ogilvie is absolutely true: "The really idle woman gets nowhere....the perpetually busy woman does not get much further." So I'm back and hopefully can learn how to manage my time and tame my schedule to fit blogging in more often.

Our book club met to discuss All Creatures Great and Small. We are definitely not a book club you would join if you are interested in critical discussion of only the book. We have been together for several years…I’m thinking 7 now…….and we enjoy lots of discussion other than the book itself. I absolutely admire, respect, and sometime even worship the women in our group….not to mention how much I love each one of them! I'm sure this discussion was not about the book....Lisa...Tricki Woo is not my new dog!


This month we were lucky to have 2 guests join us, Nancy’s friend Cecily and my new friend Dana. Dana is living next door to me for the summer. Her DH is the manager for the Ogden Raptors and it has been such a pleasure to get to know their family. Dana is amazing in so many ways….I have such an admiration for a woman who can: 1. Live the life style of the MLB family 2. Have a career of her own and 3…be an amazing mother who has homeschooled her 4 children with remarkable results. I’m so delighted we can now call you a part of our family circle.
Cecily is an author and editor, so I’m sure she knows that we are not a true “LITERARY” BC. I do hope we weren’t a disappointment to her. Nancy and Cecily have been friends for many...many years. Cecily moved to Arizona several years ago, and they have continued their friendship with many trips for each of them back and forth from Utah to Arizona. Cecily is a very generous woman…. Ali and I traveled to Phoenix during Spring Training 1999….Cecily opened her home to us and we were so appreciative....especially the lemon trees and swimming pool in the backyard.

Oh how I digress….so back to BC……. Actually I felt like we discussed the book more this month than we have several others….we all seemed to feel a great deal of affection for the characters as well as the animals in the story. The story is about James Herriot and his life as a rural veterinarian in 1930's Yorkshire. Herriot certainly knows how to tell a heartwarming, funny tale, but he never lets us forget that a country animal doctor's life is hard, sometimes tinged with sadness and that even in a lovely place like the farming midlands tragedy is never far away. He practices veterinary medicine in a small town and out on the little family farms that dot the Dales. His boss Seigfried (later his partner) and Seigfried's jovial brother Tristan work beside James as they answer midnight calls to birth calves, stitch up injured sows, and partner with the local farmers to keep England's agricultural concerns feeding the nation. Around these duties, James has assorted adventures and is a time or two lead astray by the charming, well-meaning but definitely problem-prone Tristan, who with his skirt chasing and love of the odd pint is perpetually in danger of flunking out of vet school. These lovable men allow us to come along as they mingle with some of the amazing characters. They work with farmers who live in such isolation they have in some cases never been five miles from their own homes, and Herriot's prose celebrates their glorious idiosyncrasies. This was a great book to add to my have read collection!