congratulations a few days late to jenny and daniel on the arrival of little lucy!

and, wow, jenny- what a way to show the rest of us up...

housekeeping

i added blog links to the left side for all of the family blogs that i am aware of. if you know of any others, let me know and i will get those links added.

yay family!

Family history help

we've been asked by our stake president to write down the conversion stories of our ancestors who first joined the church. obviously our little family has much more work to do than someone who's mom joined the church ten years ago, and i'm in need of a bit of help.

has anyone in our family started documenting this information as of yet (heather)? I've been trying to access walkerboot.com, but it keeps timing out...

:)

so, i really have nothing to say, but it looked like our family needed a new post on the blog, so i'm posting one. school's going pretty good. the family's having fun. hm...i don't know what else to say. oh! mike almost finished his killer trashcans movie, and it's pretty good. daniel walker is in it. hm. well, that's all i can think of right now. Remember, keep smiling; eventually you'll feel better.

Reunion

Hey family, have a great reunion this weekend. We are sorry we can't make it. Thanks for all your hard work, Jill. I know it will be a great time for everyone. We love you guys. Oh, but don't have too much fun without us, k?

MIA

Marisa, where is your blog? Did you stop writing? I am bummed, if so. Hopefully you will resurface somewhere. And, I hope all is well with you guys.

Talking with Grandma

Yesterday, I went and visited Grandma and Grandpa Walker, and I got talking with Grandma about some stuff from her early life. I'd thought I'd share.

Grandma grew up in Salt Lake City and went to East High School, the same school that I worked at. It was in a different building back then, but the same place as it is now. She lived in the Sugarhouse area, and once her parents had children, they stayed settled down in one spot. Her mother's dream house was a one-and-a-half story house.

Grandma had a job working with music teacher--helping tend kids and cleaning, that sort of thing, I think. They were going to have a recital, and she was instructed to dust the floor. It was dark, and she couldn't really see, so she just wasn't very thorough. But when the recital came, the sun came up and shone on the floor and you could see just where she had swept. After that, the music teacher didn't need her anymore.

She had another job working at an ice cream place. They were open on Sundays, but they let her go to church and then work afterward. She was a car hop there, and she mentioned that there was a couple who came in every week and ordered two glasses of buttermilk (ick!). They always tipped her quite well, probably about a dollar or so.

Grandma was a sociable and nice, so the guys liked her. There was one guy that she liked as well. His name was Stu (not sure on the spelling). Stu asked her to go to a dance and Grandma wore her favorite rhinestone dangling earrings. When she got back from the date, she only had one earring. She didn't have a phone number for Stu, but she knew he worked at a car dealership so she went with a girlfriend there and asked if maybe the earring was in his car or something like that. After that, Stu didn't go with Grandma anymore. Maybe because he got in trouble at his work or thought she was too pushy, or whatever, but that was the end of it.

So that's what we talked about.

In other news, I just updated walkerboot.com so that is in CSS and valid xhtml 1.0. This took me hours and hours and hours and the website looks pretty much the exact same. There is little fruit of my labor. Oh well. That's how a lot of things are. But now, if I want to, I could make the website look completely different by changing one style sheet. Before, I would have had to change each page (and there are over a hundred pages).

Wonderful. That's all.

Great FHE

What a fun night tonight. Thanks Stephanie for all the help with Grandma and the certificates. I know she never could have done it without you. They are so fun, we had to come home and find a place to hang them. It was great to see everyone. What a great thing to have a happy family.

Welcome home Ben!

Welcome back to the USA. We are so excited you are home, but most importantly, we are so proud of you and your honorable mission service. You are a great example to all the family and especially the young men. You rock!

Good luck getting back into life. We'll let you know if we think you are too weird. And good luck with the dating thing, oh and school. (I think you should name your first son Philip- in honor of your mission. His middle name could be Eens.)

We love you!

Congratulations, Robert!!

We here in Arizona are so excited for you and your mission call! We hope you are excited as well. Good thing we will get to spend a little time with you this summer before you leave. You are going to do great there. Yippee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Event dates

Clarissa will graduate May 29th. Way to go Clarissa. She will be going to UVU in the fall. I also got the travel itinerary for Ben. He will arrive if all goes as planned in SLC July 1st at 9:00 pm. He will speak in church July 13 at 10:45. He will also be going to UVU and playing basketball there. So we will be part of the administration there, the theater department and the athletic department. Maybe I should see if I could get a job on the custodial crew and we would have the whole college covered.

Married

So I'm married now. It's a little strange at times, and so much fun at other times. I am enjoying it. We are back at work and settling into everything. There's a lot of changes and other things to do, but we are getting it all done.
We went to our new ward on Sunday, very friendly, and it's fun to have little ones wandering around. Life is good.

misssion call

Steven Pontius got his mission call to Sacramento, Calif . mission. He enters the MTC July 9.

I have a son-in-law and more

Yesterday, Clarissa said something about Liz's husband and it all felt so strange. I have to remind myself I'm gaining a son not loosing a daughter, but sometimes it feels the other way. They wedding was great. If I could have had 10 degrees of warmth everything would have been perfect. Liz was beautiful and Joe really is a very nice guy. We have all decided that he is now Daniel's favorite sibling. He doesn't seem to get annoyed with the "little brotherness" like the his brother and sisters do. Life really is good.
We got to talk to Ben and Emily. They both are doing so great. Ben has a funny accent, but no Texas drawl in Emily. Ben will spend his last few weeks traveling the mission, doing splits and helping the missionaries teach better. He was excited because he will be able to see the whole mission.
By the way, Chris and Stephanie have the cutest family! They came to dinner last night and it was pure joy having them around.

Married soon...

I will be married in two days, which is very odd. It is weird thinking that all the stuff I am doing is for my wedding, and it is here. It's exciting, and also a little nervous too. Joe is great, and I am glad I get to spend my life with him.

We already have our apartment set up in Logan, and both have good jobs to go back to--but until then, it is very fun to be in Lehi, and visit family. I met Brian today--Joe's only sibling I had yet to meet. That was really fun, his family is pretty cool and I enjoy them a bunch. Still can't remember the names of all the little people running around--I'm getting 15 nieces and nephews all at once, plus another 15 siblings-in-laws.

Plenty to do still--mostly just decorating and finishing up some odds and ends. I will be glad when it is all over with and I can just be myself and not worry about all this. I'm looking forward to starting married life .

arizona walkers

so, it is way too late. i can't sleep, so i thought i would just post some pics of the fam. these are the most recent- taken the end of march. can you believe how cute we are? :) ellie had her joy school graduation tonight. crazy. a graduation for joy school. nevertheless, it was tonight at our house. congratulations, ellie, joy school graduate. maybe now that she has proper blog recognition, i can get some sleep. goodnight.

p.s. i don't love how the text and the pics in this post are situated. weird. will work on that for next time.

wedding

It is amazing what you get done when you have to. With Liz's wedding about a week and half away we are busy getting everything done in the yard we have been meaning to do for years. The playhouse is painted, I have new lights on the house, even a new door bell button. Hopefully tomorrow we will have a fountain. I got the parts for it for my birthday last year and now maybe the fountain. It has been fun to have a goal and really see progress on things. Heather and I installed a new mail box today. After we bought it I was noticing mail boxes and there are quite a rew junky ones in the world. Anyway it has been fun, and now we hope the weather cooperatis so all this work isn't in vain. Although it won't be because it is all things that need to be done anyway. Liz is happy and Joe signed in on IM with Heather today as the GROOM so I think he is pretty excited as well.
Well off to see 7 brides for 7 brothers, Clarissa is doing sound for it.

checking in

just a quick post to say all is well with the arizona walkers. we just celebrated ellie's 4th birthday. where does the time go? she had a great day and her favorite present was a stuffed puppy with a leash and carrying bag. she named her julie. ellie is in a joy school group that meets twice a week. she is learning her letters and how to rhyme different words. i am amazed at how bright she is.

quincy is nearing the end of her kindergarten year. she has learned so much. i can't believe that she will be going into 1st grade. i am able to go and help in her class on tuesdays for a couple hours. i love that time. it is cool to be in her class and watch the learning process. there are two other kids from our ward in her class and they call me sister walker when i go in, so now most of the class calls me sister walker. funny considering quincy and these two kids are the only lds kindergarteners in the whole school. quincy is also in girl scouts and gymnastics and loves both. i really like the girl scouts, as it teaches goal setting and working through plans to achieve the goals.

rees is just into anything boy. he is so active and all over the place. he loves to play and run and laugh. he is fun. boys are certainly so different than girls.

i am just busy being a mom and taking care of the laundry. i have been called to go to girls camp this year to be in charge of programs. that will be fun once all the planning is complete. huge job and huge stress to make sure that all the programs are what the girls need. when i was released as young women president i was sad to not be able to work with the girls anymore, so this is awesome to be able to go to camp. i am also now getting into digital scrapbooking. much cheaper than real scrapbooking. i am loving it.

chris is busy working, changing blow out tires, and keeping himself free from the paper shredder at church. story: last sunday right after his bishopric meeting he was in the clerk's office. he leaned over to get something out of a drawer and his suit got caught in the paper shredder. (can you picture it?) it actually shredded his suit up to and including a button. funny.

post soon so that we can know what is up with you and your families.

stephanie

Grandma's Email

I asked Grandma for some information about her early married life.

This is what she gave me:

When we got married I felt like were were starting our own world. If I could choose the perfect couple to be Adam and Eve, I would choose Jim's parents. We lived in Salt Lake. Jim was going to the University of Utah on the GI Bill, so we sold our car to save money and found it really did save us a lot of money. We walked to school and church and grocery shopping. I worked at Continental Bank downtown and road the bus to work. Jim & I road the bus to attend the temple monthly. It was fun! When I got pregnant, the cigar smell that the cleaning lady left after using our bathroom was to much for me. I'd walk in from work and have to run and throw up. Jim got a job in White Sands New Mexico. I stayed with my parents with the baby coming. I had cramping and called the doctor, He said, meet me at the hospital and I'll check you. A big nurse tried to prep me for delivery, but I insisted I had only come to be checked. He sent me home and I had to ride the bus to the doctor once a week for a shot to keep the baby.

I was doing the dishes when I started in labor. We did not want another false alarm so mother and I drove around Liberty Park for a while to make sure this was the real thing. I didn't have bad pains until they told me I had to lay down. Walking around worked great! I was fine. Jim and I had taken the classes for a natural childbirth delivery. Then this big nurse came into the room without a word or warning & slapped a gas mask on my face. It was awful, chloroform, the spinning and a feeling of sinking & voices getting farther away.

Jill was a fine healthy baby, but I couldn't remember whether I had a boy or a girl. I asked several times. Jim came home to see us because I had to go back to the hospital after 10 days they didn't get all the afterbirth. Jim didn't feel right about handing out paychecks to his employees that were larger than his, just because they had a degree and he didn't. He quit his job and worked for the post office delivering mail that Christmas.

We moved to Elizabeth Street to a house on stilts. It was cold! There was one wall heater. We kept Jill next to it and we slept on the couch. It was too cold in the bedroom. There were holes in the floor that we could look down and see the ground way below. We stuffed newspapers into them to try and make it warmer. A family in our ward moved, so we moved into Vogel's apartment on Douglas Street. We loved it there well enough that we were still there after Raymond was born. Lemoyne and Mary, Jim's sister, lived not far away. Lemoyne taught me to drive in
his Volkswagon. Those were great times. Mary has always been so fun!

We didn't have much money. The bishop looked at me and asked when I had any meat. I thought that was a strange question. He brought Jim & me some meat and a case of canned milk for Jill. We bought a Volkswagon so we could show off our children to their grandparents and stalk up on garden vegetables from Jim's dad's garden and the Japanese gardeners. We got as much food as the car would hold for $.50 It was so good and lasted so long.

Love you!

I'm sorry I can't seem to make things simple.

Hello everyone

Hello, I finally figured out how to do this. It wouldn't connect through my e-mail but brilliant Heahter helped me, actually I figured out what to do about the same time she did. Life is good. The wedding for Liz and Joe is scheduled for May 14th at 10:00 AM in Timpanogos Temple. We will be having an open house the night before at our house, if the weather decides to rain on our parade we will go to our little church, but I have faith in sunshine.

YIPPEE!!!!!

Congratulations, Liz!!! We are so excited for you. We can't wait to hear more about him and when the wedding will take place. Keep us posted.

p.s. i think we need to re-invite everyone to join the blog, so email me any email addresses you have for the family so that they can all be up to date on the goings on of the walkers.

So I have some new for everyone: I'm getting married! The guy's name is Joe Braithwaite and I'll include a picture of him so you can see. We met in September up in Logan and we plan on getting married in May sometime.