Authorship

I just added myself as an individual author to the blog so my comments would be attributed to me instead of the general stevens chick chat label and it is easier for me to slide between my personal blog and this one. You can do that for yourselves by visiting the settings label and then the permissions tab, I think. Help me out, Jill. Toni, was that you who left the comment about the sense of humor? Just the stevens thing showed up.

Cole, the French Horn Player

I watched Cole's french horn video late Saturday night after a long weekend of Great America and our nephew's birthday party and baptism. I must admit I was quite hysterical as I laughed my head off. I defiinitely agree with Jill. If you have not seen Ann's blog, and more particularly, Cole's famous performance, you MUST. It was a wonderful treat for my children, who are all big-time Cole fans, after church yesterday.

I too am really enjoying this sharing mechanism Jill has set up for us. What a great way to communicate. And I appreciated the tip on hiding my dirty dishes. Unfortunately, I don't think my oven's big enough for the task. Perhaps I'll keep a shelf in the refrigerator handy and make sure our guests don't insist on making themselves at home (and helping themselves to something in the refrigerator.)

By the way, the photo is from the 4th of July

Random Posting

First of all, I have to say I am so proud of you all for posting and keeping this blog going. It is wonderful to see all the comments.
Second, if you haven't checked out Ann's blog, you should because the funniest little video of Cole and his French horn is posted on there, and it is hilarious. Justin and I laughed so hard over it. Justin made me play it two or three times. We just couldn't get over it. I think we're going to have to invest in a webcam....
Third, yesterday Justin and I had one of Justin's friends over for dinner last night. As we were getting ready, I hurried and washed, dried, and put away the few dishes we had left over from dinner the night before. Well, our guest came and after he had gone, Justin looked around at the sink and the counters like he was confused. I asked him what he was looking for. He said "where "What dishes? And why on earth would dishes be in the oven?" I asked.
"Weren't there dishes from last night?"
"Yes, I washed them and put them away before Robbie got here."
I guess he hadn't realized that I had done that, and he thought that I hidden the dirty dishes in the oven so I wouldn't be embarrassed by them when Robbie came over. I thought that was the funniest thing ever. Whoever heard of hiding dishes in the oven...well, apparently that's what Justin's mom did sometimes when they had dirty dishes and people would come over. I guess it also backfired a couple times, and they forgot the dishes were in the oven. Then they would go to bake something, and preheat the oven, and some plastic dishes got melted. I thought this was so funny I had to share it with the rest of you.
Lastly, I think the reunion is a great idea. Justin votes for a camping trip. I'm fine with whatever. I'm really excited about it.

Propaganda Galore!

Hello All! I do hope you'll forgive me for using this glorious resource as a tool to spread my propaganda. I'm guessing by now that you've all at least HEARD about my crazy idea of planning a STEVENS FAMILY REUNION for 2009. If not, well, here's your first notice (don't you even worry--you'll be hearing from me over and over and over and over--get the point?!). Anyway, I've been thinking a lot lately how everyone I know has a family reunion and they don't even have as cool of a family as we do (just kidding!). No really, though. I decided that we should get together and have a smashing good time next summer (in April's terms, "preserve the family legacy"). It doesn't have to be anything grand and glorious--just a few days spent together to have fun and get to know each other better. I have all sorts of ideas and would love to hear ideas from all of you as well. To impress upon you how serious I am about pulling this off, I'm giving everyone almost a YEAR's notice to get used to the idea. I'm taking full responsibility for planning and organizing and coordinating, etc. everything. For those of you who may be worried about financing the trip, I'm even willing to pay for everything. It means that much to me. There really shouldn't be any excuses for not participating (well, death, serious injury, etc. will be acceptable excuses; simply not wanting to to come will not be accepted, and we'll label you a pantywaist forever if that's your excuse - okay maybe not FOREVER). Anyway, I hope you all will agree to participate in this upcoming shin-dig because it's going to be one that you won't want to miss. I will definitely be sending out more information in the near future but get your brains a-goin' thinking of things we can do as a family to have a woppin' good time. - TONI-

Games from the past

Okay, so I failed to weigh in the first time on the activities we Stevens youngsters enjoyed in the good old days. I noticed that no one mentioned the classic "Buffalo Jump." What an iconic example of pure genius. And what about deer: that fabulous cross between dodgeball and baseball--did we really use rocks sometimes instead of a ball!!!!!! And I'll never forget using the two hinged windows on the porch as restaurant "walk-up" windows; the porch also carrying the label of what I guess would be considered a time-out for me and Mary when we were up way past our bedtime "tittering" while Dad watched TV. Of course, we just "tittered" some more once we were out there. Isn't that the word they used? APRIL

Toni

1. Independence Day bash - well, I was going to head up to Montana on the night of the 2nd, but then work scheduled an important meeting for half a day on the 3rd (how irritating!) so I didn't get to leave until after the boring meeting was over. It turned out to be okay though, because by the time the meeting was over, Matt was back in UT (after a couple days fishing in Montana) and we were able to go to lunch. I hadn't seen him for years so I really enjoyed being able to have lunch with him. Then I drove to ID, picked up Jill & Justin, and we continued on to Montana. Upon arriving in Butte, we immediately proceeded to MT Tech to watch the fireworks (after getting some gas). It was kind of rainy, but I had faith that they'd still light the fireworks anyway--they're Montanans after all--not pantywaists like most people. I WASN'T disappointed in my hopes and sure enough, we got to enjoy another fabulous fireworks display this year. Good work, Butte! On the 4th, we went to the parade as usual. Amber and I cheered for pretty much everything (except the questionable and sketchy ones). They actually had a Republican float in the parade this year and guess who was the only one cheering for them--yep, you guessed it, me! Oh well, ask me if I care what a bunch of Democrats think! I must say that I was HIGHLY disappointed over the fact that there was not one single bagpiper in the entire parade--NOT A SINGLE ONE! Can you believe it? Talk about getting shafted! I did feel a little better, however, because the US Forest Service had a truck in the parade (with Smokey the Bear in the back). So, I at least got to shout, "I love the US Forest Service!!!" at the top of my lungs, which made me feel a little better about the lack of kilt-wearers. If there's one thing that I love as much as I love bagpipers it's park rangers. Well, I hung out with the family for a few days and then I had to go back to work (snore)! For the adventurous, I'll just briefly mention that Amber and I went on a couple of treacherous outings (I won't go into explicit detail for the sake of the faint-hearted). All in all, it was a glorious, incredible, fantastic, super-duper, jolly good time. I think I should do it every weekend. period.

2. Favorite childhood shin-dig: well, I don't know if I'd say it was my FAVORITE--I mean, after all, some of our games are quite legendary--it's hard to pick JUST ONE FAVORITE--but I really enjoyed our homemade Olympics. From long-jumping on old couch cushions (that we also used to put in the van on Saturday nights in glorious preparation for our Sabbath conveyance to church) to the back stroke (crab-walking backwards to the hedge and back) in our "swimming pool" lawn, our Olympics was quite the event for us kids. John seemed to be the one who headed up the festivities, even carving "medals" out of washed meat trays (rather disgusting to think about NOW if you ask me--come on, old used meat trays that had been washed? Ick!). But you don't think of those things as kids. Anyway, we had all sorts of events: high-jump (we got a big long plastic pipe from somewhere to use as our bar), long-jump (already mentioned), floor exercise (Mary & I just reminsced about this the other day) on the rectangle front lawn, swimming races (crawling, crab-walking, etc. to the hedge & back, depending on the "length" of the race), various races (usually around the block), diving (off Mom and Dad's desk onto their bed--while they were otherwise occupied of course!) and we even hung a bar in the garage (remember the old ropes used to hang deer? Yep, those are what we used to hang our bar) to do all sorts of gymnastic routines on. C'mon! Could life be possibly better than this?! ESPECIALLY when you compare it to what children THESE DAYS do for "fun"--sit on their behinds and play video games or watch TV for hours on end. Okay, I'll just say it bluntly--we were some pretty amazing and creative children if you ask me.

Jane

For the 4th, we went to the parade, then we had a bbq. After that we took
naps and went to a neighborhood fireworks show. Very tiring but fun. We
also went to Jill's graduation. That was fun. It was a fast trip but lots of
fun. Jane