What a Year

Well here is my year end review of the Harts. 

Bill and I traveled around 8 thousand miles on the Harley! We made a trip to the Grand Canyon in May, 2015. We traveled with Ray and Alene Jensen and Ron Summers. Our trip started out on the chilly side, a big rain storm was brewing! But thank heavens we missed it it was either right behind it or just in front of us! We had a grand time....pun intended! Lol! By the time our trip was nearing the end we were boiling! We seen so much, I am so glad we went. 

On July 19, 2015 Ray and Alene were traveling through Colorado, going to an event called StarBQ a rally for Yamaha owners, they were really looking forward to it! They were involved in a motorcycle accident, Alene was injured pretty bad, she was life flighted and remained in ICU for 9 days. On July 29  , 2015 she passed away at 3:15 am I got the call no one wants to get around 3:45 am from Ray letting me know, I have thought a lot about her since then, I am sad but yet know she is now with her babies that passed before they ever had the opportunity to enjoy life, before their birth. Back with her parents. And her 1st husband and some friends. I spoke at her funeral, I got to share some great memories, our fun times, our sad ones it helped me to grieve. We were not only cousins, but we have worked together for almost 30 years, we sat by each, ate lunch together and seen each other nearly every weekend. It has been an adjustment. But I am thankful I have the belief that we will see each other again!  

Since we do not have kids who need us for really anything any more we tend to come and go as we please, there is no reason to hurry home to cook dinner, do laundry. We are really enjoying this time in our lives! I do miss having little kids, and them being around to fill our home with laughter and fun. But as with anything when the time comes for different events in life you are usually ready for it. It is after all what our job is. To raise our kids to be self sufficient, to be able to manage for themselves. To let them handle things on their own. It's a good feeling to know you have taught them, that they can handle what's put before them. 

Landon  Is back to plumbing but still isn't going to school, he just isn't sure that this is what he wants out of life. He will figure everything out one day. In the  mean time it is a good job. He has a girlfriend who he has been with for 1 1/2 years. 

Tanner is I his 3rd year of plumbing school and has started with a new company just this week. He seems to enjoy it, he is grateful for the the company that he has been with for the last 3 years he learned a lot. And enjoyed his time there, they were good to him. Just a good opportunity to move on to learn something new. He will be doing more service calls where at the old job it was new construction.

Bill and I are still the same nothing job wise has changed. This picture taken today at the Yamaha Christmas party. It's bills tradition to be mr. Grinch and not smile. 

Landon celebrating Turing 23 

The crew at the Grand Canyon! Alene, Ray, Bill, Linda, Ron

Alene and I 

Me and Tanner 20th birthday!

Over and out!

What's Happened In a Year

Well it's been over a year since I've blogged...what is wrong with me?  Well to start off we are all well and not a whole lot has changed. 

Bill bought a Yamaha V Star 1100 motorcycle  last February we have had many fun rides! I told him if he got a motorcycle then I got a cool helmet. I like helmets that stand out so maybe just maybe it might help others to see us better.

 I think they are pretty sweet! I have had many compliments. The only thing about wearing a full faced helmet is they can get a tad but clostrophobic, the minute I get off the bike I have to get it off, but for some reason when riding it doesn't bother me. Bill loves his bike, he looks pretty dang good on if I say so myself!

I didn't really do anything that I can think of that is blog worthy. I just go along with what's happening around me.. I'm just happy to tag along for the ride. Lol!

Don't worry I don't ride my own bike, this is Tanner's friends bike, I just wanted to look cool for a minute.

Landon has had a few different jobs this year he just can't seem to find his niche in life just yet. But he is learning many different things. He turned 21 in December. Wow! How am I old enough to have an adult child?  He still lives at home, but I hardly see him. Between work and his friends us "old folks" are boring. His passion seems to be DJ'ing he has friends that have turn tables he can use, he has DJ'd at a few local clubs and has a blast doing it. I have heard that many people love what he does, if he could somehow manage to do this for work, I'm sure he would love it. 

Landon is a free spirited young man and knows what he likes, and if you don't like it, he don't care. He is diffinately one of a kind and I love him for it!

 

Tanner has completed his first year of plumbing school, and work full time as a plumber. He loves what he does and is going hard after it.  He has BIG plans for his future.

He is also still living at home, but between his job, school and of course his friends he is not home much either. He bought a few things he is pretty proud of 

1. His truck, ford F150 

2. His motorcycle kawasaki Vulcan 900

And 3. His dirt bike - although he sold this just a few weeks ago. But will be getting a new one soon.

He is pretty proud of the fact that he has purchased all of these things on his own. 

So this was us in a nut shell for last year.

This year has diffenately brought some excitement! 

Bill has bought a new motorcycle.....he bought a new Harley and this thing rides like a Cadillac! We have been on a few rides and let me just say that even though we loved our Yamaha this new bike is like a little piece of heaven! We are selling the Yamaha so if your in the market let me know!

Tanner has started his 2nd year of plumbing school.

Landon is now a commercial painter, just got done painting the Provo mall.

Me... I will be at my job 30 years this year. - what can I say I was a child prodigy and started working at a very young age.

Bill.....well what can I say he is always planning something for us to do. I can't wait to see what he has planned.

Well I'd like to say I won't wait another year to blog again, but you never know! 

Peace out til next time!

GRADUATION!!!

The day that has been long awaited.....Is today!  It is a bitter sweet dream.....

Who would have known that 18 years would have gone by so quickly?

May 22nd 1995...1:18am 6 lbs 11 oz. 19 inches long Tanner Gary Hart joined our family! He was a joy from day 1 an easy baby, for the most part an easy teen! He has the best smile, personality who has add spunk, laughter and a lot of silliness to our family!

Today he graduated High School!

He did it!  We did it!  I think I just may go drink this weekend! LOL!!!
It seems a little surreal! I so happy for him, Tanner has had to work very hard to get here today, he has had his demons, a lot of stress (which has given me stress) but he persevered! I am sure there were times when he thought of giving up. but he didn't! He is very lucky he has had some great friends that stuck with him through it all.

I am almost certain that he had an angel with him today. It was 16  years ago today that my dad entered the heavens. Tanner was 2 when he passed. Tanner is the youngest grandchild and has his name, who also looks a lot like him. I am sure he is proud too!

After graduation which took 2 hours we headed to Mt Fuji for dinner.

Then he came home and started looking for his first purchase as a newly graduated adult.....a Motorcycle!

It has been a great day...One that I thought was going to take a million years to get here, and in reality it was a blink of an eye.  It feels a little strange that I will no longer have to worry about high school registration, schedules, calls from the principal..... "I need to talk to you about an incident today in where your son was caught hanging a Confederate Flag from a pick up truck and driving it around the parking lot"!  credits, hearing those voice mails...."Your student has been tardy or missed one or more classes today"!

I am proud that he has a plan in his head for the future, whether it pans out or not is yet to be seen....But there is a plan.
I am proud to call him my son!
I am excited for his future! I am glad I can watch him as he continues to grow, to see his progress and to be there when he may need a hand.
Way to go Tanner.....You did it!

Tanner wore this when he received his diploma and he texted me and said " I had to wear them...my future is just to bright"

I am sure it is Tanner.....I am sure it is!

TANNER IS GROWING UP

Since Tanner is turning 18 and will be graduating high school  in a couple of months I thought I would write down some of his school "happenings"

When he was in the 8th grade he wanted a job, the job he aspired was a sweeper at his middle school. He applied and talked to the head janitor they had no openings but he was told if he would check in every now and then to see if someone had called in that day he may be able to be a substitute sweeper. Oh that poor janitor didn't know what he was in for. Tanner started checking with Les every day after school and he soon found out that checking after school was a little late, if someone had called in it was already filled by the time school ended. So Tanner changed his tactic he would go and talk to Les before school. He soon found out that was to soon,  so next he started checking in during his lunch time. With all his checking in he would get a few fill in jobs and he was one happy boy. Soon he was checking in at every chance he got.  He was becoming a regular fill in and was working often. Les told me one day when I went into the school that I had a very persistent boy, that he had never had a kid try so hard to get a job.  The next year he became a full timer. He has worked there ever since. He even worked during the summer cleaning the school.

During this same school year Tanner fooled the entire staff of teachers and administrators......How a kid that tried so hard to get a job could pull off this next story is totally beyond me!

During Tanner's English class the teacher was having the kids take turn reading out loud from a book they were reading as a class, when it came time for Tanner's turn to read out loud and the first word he was to read was the word "THE" he tried sounding it out by making the "T" sound then adding "HE" after struggling for some time the teacher sent him to the office to have him read to the administration.  Tanner actually had them believing he could not read......I really don't get how they believed him he was doing fine and reading in all his other classes. but for some reason he pulled it off, now mind you he is an excellent reader and I was buying him books often. the school actually put him in a resource class and treated him like he couldn't read, they gave him no homework in that class. had someone sit by him to assist with his assignments.Yet in all his other classes he was getting along just fine on his own.  All this time they had never bothered to call me to inquire or to inform me how "behind" he was.  Some come then end of the years parent teacher conference I went, he was actually doing pretty well in all his classes and then I came to his English teacher we were talking about his progress when she finally came clean with Tanner's charade of not being able to read. I was dumb founded when she informed me that she is a resource teacher she told me the whole story of Tanner having a hard time reading out loud in class, how he had gone to the office and they confirmed it....he couldn't read.  I couldn't help it I started laughing out loud.  Wouldn't you?  here is a kid that could read and well. a kid who loved to read "how to" books. instructional books and I am being told he couldn't read at all. The teacher said wait let me tell you that I finally tested him about a couple of weeks ago without telling him it was a test......She looked at me and said this is one very SMART boy he had us all fooled he not only can read but he reads way above average and should not have been in this class all year but he should have been in a foreign language class. The only thing I could ask her was why didn't you guys think to call me why would you let this go on all year?  I hope you all have learned something from this.  I just looked at Tanner and asked why would you do this?  He just said to me why wouldn't I.  I had the easiest English class ever and I had no home work.....If you ask me I would say I am pretty smart....I got A's all year in English.  What a turd!  The teacher could never explain why they never called me. I hope they have not let this happen again.

He has tried that trick every year since...It has never worked in his favor again.

9th grade went pretty well, but he became a little more obnoxious or should I say class clown, he thinks he always must be the "funny" one.

I got a call one day the principal wanted to meet with me ASAP! oh boy will this ever end?

I get off work and head to the school, I get in there and she informs that he has been kicked out of his ceramics class, when I ask why she hand me his latest project it has ceramic tools embedded in it. The tools are metal and had been fired in the kiln which could have broken the kiln and obviously now they could no longer use these tools as they were now in Tanners pot.  When I asked him why he had done that he makes the excuse he forgot they were in there....I didn't buy it, and neither did they.  He had to pay for the tools $20.00 dollars. and they wouldn't let him have his project.  Sounded reasonable to me.

Can you say Grounded!

There was many times when he would say he has no friends, I am sure he truly felt like it, we all have felt that way from time to time.  He has many friends and good friends too!

When I remember more I will share them!

Tanner is growing up and has a great personality. I will always miss him being little but I am excited to see who he becomes!

IT DOESN'T HAPPEN OFTEN ANY MORE

Back in the day when our boys were young we would go out to dinner almost every friday night, it even got to the point were they would give us grief about "having" to go with us.

Now we don't do it every week but Bill and I try to go out once or twice a month. And it usually is just us two that go and the main reason is, is because when we get home from work no one else is around to even ask if they want to go and even if they are home they usually don't want to hang out with us "old folks" on a very valuable friday night.

Yesterday was a Friday and I had taken the day off, about a month or so ago, Bill and I had planned on going out to Wendover to spend the weekend and see a STYX Concert. But as life goes we had some unexpected things come up like a broken dryer, car renewals, a broken windshield all of these things took over our "FUN" money!  but I decided to still take the day off anyway.  Landon doesn't work on Fridays and now Tanner doesn't have school so I thought it would be fun to go out to eat with them, I didn't say anything to them ahead of time so about an hour before I wanted to go I be-bopped into their rooms and said hey how about we all go to lunch, we will go pick up dad and go to Sizzler! to my surprise they both said yes! so they got ready and we headed out to pick up Bill.

It was fun to have their attention face to face to listen to what they like to talk about, their ambitions, dreams. They have some big dreams of getting rich, school, and their thought process of how they are going to obtain these dreams....in our eyes are way out there.....in their minds it makes perfect sense.

Landon wants to open a store that sells DJ systems(items) and clothing, lighting for techno concerts and then one day opening his own club..... that is a big dream!

Tanner wants to get a degree in business and engineering. and open a bike shop and design bikes....another big dream!

It will be fun to watch them to see what they do with their lives, how they get there and what ends up really happening!

I know both of them can do whatever they set their minds to if they have the discipline to follow through and listen to advice from those that can help them.  and if they get in their head that they need to save money and not just spend, spend, spend!

It was a fun couple of hours spent with my family, I hope they realize that as they are trying to grow up we as their parents are growing old and that family is everything! Family really is the only ones that will be there when you fall, family will be there when no one else will be. Family is where it's at.

THROW BACK MEMORIES

I want to write down things I remember about raising two boys, I am sure if I had girls I would have just as many stories.  Life at the Harts have been filled with much laughter some tears and many smiles and yes some arguing.

LANDON

Landon was a snugly baby right from the get go. I think he knew that I would need that since I had just lost my baby girl and my arms would be aching to hold my baby all the time. He still likes to lay on my lap and have me tickle his back while we watch TV. He is not home any more all that often so I try to take advantage of it when it happens.

Landon and I were buddies and when  I was home (not working) we were always together.  We would make trips to our local K-mart just to look around, he loved riding in the cart looking at all the toys, his favorite at this time in his short 1 year of life was Barney! a purple dinosaur!

He was a very easy baby and very laid back until it came to night time, this is the time he wanted to held the most. He would sleep and sleep until I laid him down.  After he was one I was trying to break him of this habit so I would go into him room and  just hold his hand through the slats of his crib, I gave up on this pretty fast as I was still having to get up and be right next to him. I went back to holding him. I am glad I did you can never turn back the hands of time.

He was eager to learn to read and write but school was not always his thing. All of his teachers thought he was ADHD and wanted him medicated.  by the time he hit 5th grade I talked to his doctor to see what he thought.  after some talking he had me convinced to try him on some medication, so as an experiment I gave him the medication and did not tell his teacher I did this as the doctor said that if he was indeed ADHD things a school would change immediately! Three months went by with no word from his teacher so I went in to get some homework that he had left and his teacher was still there and she once again started in on me about medicating him.....Hmmm that's interesting....I stated I was glad she brought it up, I said just for fun I want to ask you a question? has there been any change at all in the last 2-3 months with Landon in your class?  No none why she asks....That's when I informed her that he has been medicated and that since there has been no change he would no longer be taking the medicine and that she should stop bugging me about him being ADHD that he is just a boy!

TANNER

Was not a snugly baby right from the get go! want to eat and be put down to put himself to sleep.  Only slept in my room one night as he was such a noisy sleeper, he groaned all night so I couldn't sleep!
Being the 2nd child I felt a teeny tiny bit of happiness that he was one that could put himself to sleep, since I worked full time had a 2 and 1/2 year old, I was a busy mom!  But on the other hand I missed having a baby that loved to be held!

Tanner went to LaPetite for pre-school and learned quick and was a really happy boy!  but of if he got mad watch out he could throw a tantrum that could last for hours! Everyone was always surprised when they would see this side of him, it would come on so quickly.

when he was about three i gave him a piece of bread with honey on it, as he was eating it I needed him to do something so I asked him to put it down, so he did upside down on my couch!  I said NOOOOOOOO why did you put it upside down .....and he then asked why did you put the honey on the bottom?

When in the 5th grade he got in trouble (for all thing)stealing a recycled cell phone. (they were doing some sort or recycle program ) so this phone he got in trouble for taking was no ones, it was garbage in which he tells me some other kids put it in his back pack to get him in trouble. None the less he got so mad for getting into trouble for something he claimed he didn't do he ran way from school. He teacher Mrs. Smith even left the class to go drive around to try to find him. By the time they got a hold of me they were in a panic and wanting to call the police it had been over an hour and no one could find him...They asked me if I wanted them to call the police, I told them no I was sure I could find him.  I left work on my way home I called the house and he answered. he informed me that he was home cleaning ( smart kid trying to get on moms good side) When I got home I informed he that I was taking him back to school that this was no way to resolve this situation. He told me that he lives in America and that I couldn't make him go back.  That we live in a FREE COUNTRY!  I kindly explained what living in a free country means and then I took him back to school!  Crisis over!

Oh the joys of boys!  More throw back memories to come!

The Perks of Being A Wall Flower

I just got home from seeing the movie "THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER" While I had never heard of it the title was catchy and I thought I might be able to relate. Oh how I related.

It is a story of a group of misfit high school kids who for one reason or another just didn't fit in with the "In Crowd"  Oh how I remember having those same feelings from time to time while I was trying my best to grow up. I remember those days as I walked the halls of my high school saying hi to those I past to only get the feeling I was invisible, it seemed at that time I had not one friend. To only turn around the next day to having everyone say hi back and some others even saying something kind to me that I was positive knew nothing of me just the prior day.

There were days that all you would hear is the "Gossip" and really who knows if any of what was being said had any truth at all. There sat someone by themselves and everyone just thought "What a looser" then there was the pretty girls and the jocks who you just wished for once knew you were alive!

Really and truly I loved high school as I look back It was a good time for me, I had friends many of them and there are a few that I still keep in touch with. And thanks to social media I have come to know some that back in the day....the days of high school for any number of reasons we did not connect. Probably for some of the reasons I listed earlier. Because in high school you just don't get it.  cannot even fathom what really matters. Oh if I could go back to those days with the knowledge I have today high school would be such a different experience.

What would I do differently:
I would not take everything so personally.  If someone didn't say "hi" back I would just keep smiling and say hi anyway.

That person that was sitting alone I would go and ask to sit with them. Try to get to know them.

You never know how your actions can affect a persons life. For better or worse.

I would try to make a new friend everyday.

I would do something unexpected, help someone some how big or small.

Not to judge

Be more accepting.

Be a real friend

Believe in youself

Take school more seriously, understand that you work habits there will carry with you.

As I watched this movie tonight I thought about these things and I think for most of the time I do these things.......Now.....Sure there is always room for improvement. I just wish we could learn them earlier in life.

Why can we not listen and learn from those that have already walked in our shoes? why must we learn through our own mistakes, hardships. If only we could see ahead to the future to know what really matters!

Even if others never see us as a Wall Flower......We have all been there.

Be the one who makes a difference in the life of someone else!