Grandma Ray's Kitchen Table

My Mom has had the same kitchen table for as long as I can remember. It is the only table I remember. The table has had one upgrade--new legs. I can remember kicking the legs of the table out so they would be straight. The legs have also changed colors throughout the years. I often think about how many different projects, quilts, meals, babies, people (Steven), and food stuffs have been on the table. This picture is the before picture from the November Family Night. We all brought treats to share. Some of the more memorable things that I remember on the table are a cow and Steven. Steven was hit by a car coming home from church on Sunday. I remember him lying on the table and Dr. Ewart (?) coming over and taking care of him. I think he was about 7. He was hit right in front of the fire station on Lindsay Road so he had help really fast.

Next was the cow, or the parts of the cow. I remember walking into the kitchen with a mountain of meat on the table. We had to help Mom package and label the meat. I can't remember if this was the time that we ground our own hamburger too. I do remember cutting up the cow on Uncle Irving's carport...ewww, it was gross.

Dianne came to visit for about a week and had a few "projects" to complete. I couldn't take a picture of the complete project----Christmas present for.. I better not say. Mom's table has something on it for the next week.

Sydney and Rachel are having fun watching Grandma and Dianne I think here they were still trying to figure out how to make the "figure" on the project.....I should just write what it is because in 5 years I won't remember what she made.

DJ would bring Kynzi to visit while Dianne was here.

At the same time Dianne was trying to do her projects, David was working on his Christmas invitations---he made a million of them. These are the little holly-berry things we glued on the green wreaths. Becca spent 3 days cutting pieces out for the invitations.

As you can see, Dianne is hard at work doing "her" projects....just kidding....she sewed for 7 days strait. Mom and Dianne are on one side of the table, David and Becca on the other.

Moms table looked like this the whole week. It was funny to come in and see how they were progressing on all the parts they were cutting out.

Last Saturday we had over 120 jars of Pomegranate Jelly on the table. Oh, I almost forgot about all the Rook, O'Heck, Rage, Dice, Phase 10, Canasta, Hearts, Pictunary, and a million other new "Christmas" games played on Mom's kitchen table.

Family Pictures 2010

It is that time of year again...... I begged Becca to take our family pictures again. Sydney wanted purple. So here is our Jackson Family Pics 2010. Michelle, David, Jessica, Donovan, Brandon, Makynzi, Danielle, Andrew, and Sydney at the Mesa Temple grounds.

Kynzi was about done here.

Becca made this picture black and white. The entire time we were taking pictures Becca was trying to get Makynzi to smile at her.

The temple has Christmas lights ready to be turned on after Thanksgiving. Jessica has a picture with Isaiah, I will have to blog that one later.

I think this is one of my favorite pictures of Donovan. He is just happy sitting in the green, green grass.Brandon and Donovan in the tree. Isn't this what you do on the temple grounds on Sunday afternoon?

Andrew at 18!! In 5 more months he will be 19. It is weird to think next year we will have to photo shop him in the family pictures. (Mission)

I love my grandchildren. Look how cute Donovan and Makynzi are!!

Green Family. Brandon, DJ, Donovan and Mak. I think Makynzi has as many names as DJ does. Brandon calls her Macaroni....he better be careful...it might stick.

I alwas ask Sydney if she likes being the last one at home. She always rolls her eyes like she had a choice or something. :)

Jackson Family 2010.

Honey Taffy

David wanted to learn how to pull honey taffy. I have tried to learn how and I am still not as good as Mom. I don't know how she pulls it perfect every time.

I told mom she had to smile in the camera. This is actually a video, but Sydney's Flip software lets me take still pictures from the video. I have to admit, I think the Flip is now mine.

I don't know if Mom really likes pulling taffy but I know she likes to tell the story about how her Dad (Daddy) (Grandpa Scott) loved honey taffy and he was the one who pulled it. I'm sure Mom must have helped because she is an expert. I only remember Grandpa Scott handing out Popsicles on Sundays. He never pulled taffy when I knew him.

This is one tradition I want to keep. I always start to early and the taffy is so hot it burns my hands.

Sundays are the only time I pull taffy because I have Mom to let me know when the "hard ball" is ready. Sometimes my honey taffy is soft, sometimes very soft, and sometimes to hard. It doesn't seem to matter.....by the time I get finished cutting the long strings it has vanished.

Honey Taffy

1 c. honey

1 c. sugar

boil over medium/high heat unit a hard ball

take off heat and add:

1 T. butter

1/2 t. baking soda

pour onto a buttered pan to cool before pulling.

Heber/Snowflake

Friday, October 22, 2010 Me, David, Andrew, Sydney and Donovan drove up to Dewey and Dee's house in Heber. Steven, Angie and Spencer made it up there about 10 pm. We all got up around 6 am. Well, Steven and Dewey were the first ones up.

It was the funniest thing to see all of the carpenters plan and decide which way would be best (and safest) to put the trusses on Dewey's garage. Steven was the Foreman and he ended up on the top of the trusses all day.

The boys did discuss who had the best life insurance. :)

Dewey, Steven, Spencer (Ray), Donald, Mark, David and Andrew all started working on the roof. Brian and Steven Birtcher were on their way over from Snowflake.

While the boys worked, Me Donovan and Syd went to Annette's house for the day. It only takes 30 minutes from Dewey's front drive to Annette's driveway.......at 70-75 mph. :)

Sarah and Nicolee had soccer games. It was FREEZING.

I know, I know, bad pic, but if I didn't put bad pictures of me there wouldn't be any pictures at all. Annette is trying to show Donovan how to take our picture.

After the soccer game we went strait to lunch at Eva's Mexican restaurant. Nic, Syd, Sarah and Donovan are all waiting for food.

When we were all done with lunch, Annette went to practice her harp and we all went to the corn maze. It was to hard for me. In the maze were 6-7 different shapes to find. Once you found the shape you punched the card to take up to the finish line for a prize.

Donovan will never let me forget that we did not find the "star" even though the owner of the maze tried to help me find it. I stink at corn mazes.

I made Nicolee, Sarah, Donovan and Sydney take their pictures before starting the maze.






We spent about an 1 and 1/2 at the corn maze and still didn't find all the shapes. I took the girls back to Annette's house and Donovan took advantage of having the trampoline all to himself.

I made Donovan get back in the car with me to go back to Dewey's house to see the progress on the roof. I also had to get David and Andrew so we could go to Annette's concert.

Steven is here on the trusses.

Donald and Mark are lifting the sheets of plywood to Steven and Brian

Steven (Birtcher) and Andrew were lifting the sheets to Donald and Mark......Sorry Spencer I didn't get a picture of you helping but I know you did....

Steven and Brian on the almost finished West side of the roof. I think it was the west side. The other side didn't get finished today.

Andrew, Spencer, Steven and Donovan. All the boys had to come help their dads.









We all drove back to Annette's house for Annette and Rachel's concert.

David and Donovan stayed home. Annette was so nervous about playing her harp. Yes, and she was concert master too. The concert was really good.

This is how Donovan's day ended. He was trying to wait for all of us to come home. Donovan said, "Grandma Chelle, we did lots of things today."

This was a fun day.

Dewey's New Roof

On Saturday, October 23, 2010 Dewey invited some helpers to come and help put his new roof on. I thought it was freezing that day. I think the high was around 60 something.

The people helping with the roof were: Dewey, Donald, Mark, Steven (Ray), Spencer, Brian, Steven (Birtcher), David (Jackson) and Andrew. Hmmmm... all the dads brought their young sons to "help" out. I will post different pictures of that later. I was just trying to get a few on so others could see the fun time everyone had helping Dewey.

I will post another post later... I have to finish doing my homework and go to bed. Me, Sydney and Donovan went to visit Annette while the boys were working. I will share that later too.

Makynzi

Makynzi

This video was taken in August 2010.

What do you do when.....

What do you do when you are 18 and don't have a full time job?......Any thing your mama tells you!!

Andrew is currently "between" jobs and going to school full time. Andrew gets to do all the things that I can't do while I am at work. He is getting pretty good at dishes and laundry. Oh, and Grandma Ray has lots of "jobs" each morning in her garden for him.

The picture to the right is David's garden. The beans have grown over 6 feet up the trellis and sometime you see the plant sticking up past the trellis.

Merry Christmas in October to Michelle and David!!! 4 new trees: navel, Arizona sweet, lemon, and red ruby grapefruit. AND since Andrew is my hired hands these days he was the one who had the privilege to plant them. I have to admit, he did a great job.....and even cleaned up when he was done!

There is a little tiny tangelo tree in the corner. (My home depot tree.) The other trees I bought from Moon Valley Nursery. (They were a bargain!!)

I had Andrew take a picture by the trees so I could take another picture after his mission to see how much they have grown (if I haven't killed them) and how much Donovan will change.

Before I planted the trees I had to call Becca and ask her to measure how far apart her trees were in her back yard. She was such a nice sister she went outside with her measuring tape and told me 7 feet. My trees are planted just under that so I could fit all 4 across the back of my yard.

Oh, and by the way, people who don't have full time jobs at my house can't watch NetFicks or play Xbox until after 5pm when normal people are returning from work. I am so mean!!