Fun !

My laundry room during Sundays at the Sonksens !!!

My groovy guys at the dance.!!

Ohio State Beats Michigan - Again!!!

This is us at the game. The day started out at 17 degrees. It was like having your head in the freezer. I raided our food storage and brought hand warmers and toasty toes so I felt pretty good all day. We were packed in so tight with all the blankets and jackets and people that it was hard to be cold. Craig was still sorry they weren't selling dippin dots.







Why do the tall people have to sit in front of ME??? This guy is even 2 rows away, I think he was 7 feet tall and he just HAD to stand for all the interesting plays...thus creating a wave of people behind him (like a shock wave) of people standing up in succession to see the game. Tall people should be made to sit on the back row or stay seated.
The view from our seats on the 50 yard line is pretty spectacular...even if we had to watch the Michigan Band prancing around.


This is the OSU marching band coming into the stadium.

5 years in a row Ohio State has prevailed over Michigan...yeah!!

America's Most Wanted

Pledge of Allegiance

My darling granddaughter, Jada, aged 2 1/2 saying the Pledge of Allegiance. Must be because she has an awesome mother and an inspirational aunt who works in Washington DC. This is just adorable!

It's Fall !!

Just some fun images from the backyard of fall. I love the leaves everywhere. Every year I pick up tons of them and press them in books. This one on the right is Stephanie's 15th birthday tree. It's a red maple (planted for her red hair), it's spectacular in the fall.

I love Fall. I love the colors and the cool weather. I love all things made out of pumpkin and my favorite colors are yellow and orange! I switched to pink for a few years in the 80's but now I'm back to my true favorites...yellow and orange.

Our backyard is planted with all kinds of trees that are special to our family. When each of our granddaughters were born we planted a special tree for each of them. A Weeping Cherry for Jada and a Norwegian curly spruce for Kalle. We planted a Tri-color Beech for our son-in-law Chris and Japanese Red Maple for Stephanie when she graduated from college. It's fun to watch the trees and the kids grow!

Stephanie

I made her buy this shirt, I mean...I bought this shirt for her because it was so adorable on her and so fitting....not that it fit well, which it did but, it fit, you know.

It says "My standards aren't that low". Ha-ha

America's Most wanted !!

Yes, Stephanie indulged me and we went to the Crime & Punishment Museum in Washington DC last weekend when I went to visit her. Wow, it was exciting! Not only did we get to see ancient torture methods, we got to learn about modern serial killers, presidential assasins, supermax jail cells and your run of the mill murderers like Scott Peterson and OJ Simpson. The BEST part was visiting the set of America's Most Wanted in the basement. Not only is John Walsh the host of AMW, he is one of my top 5 American Heros of all time! I love that guy! So, it was absolutely a riot to see where it happens. (not of course, a real riot, like Attica).

I'd love to sit in on the call center when the tips start rolling in!

We did the line up.

This is the closest I'll get to my hero, except for watching him at 9:00pm on Saturday nights, I Tivo him when we are away. Oh, they just recently got their 1,000th capture, truly amazing.

Getting ready for Thanksgiving!!!

Thanksgiving is almost here at Grandma's Fruitcakes, located at 45 N. High St., Dublin, OH 43017, at our new home, The Sisters Sweet Shoppe. Those wacky Fruitcake Sisters are cooking up some specialties for the holidays!

This is one of the shots that DID NOT make our postcard for Thanksgiving !! ha ha even though we think it's pretty funny. This is my sister and myself (Melissa and Nanette) and the Thanksgiving turkey (aka Danny our warehouse guy...we make him wear all the costumes) and our darling nieces Nancy and Halle Walborn from Michigan (we don't hold it against them because they are both staunch Buckeye fans!) This is us saying "Save the Turkey, eat FRUITCAKE for Thanksgiving !" Of course we mean our scrumptuous Grandma's Fruitcakes (www.grandmasfruitcakes.com) that are moist and delicious. Made with the harmony of nature's finest flavors - rich fruits and nutmeats and baked and mellowed to produce a moist fruitcake unlike any other. Grandma's Fruit and Nut Cake also comes in several other delicious flavors like Grandma's Blieberry Walnut cake, Australian Apricot Cake, Pineapple Macadamia Nut Cake and Apple Cinnamon Nut Cake. Stop in for a free sample ! or request a catalog at www.kremapeanutbutter.com.

Cutie Pie Kalle

This is my cute granddaughter Kalle. I just love her look of wonder and that big honking flower on her head. Thanks to my niece Margo for turning all the kids in the family into flowerheads! Cute.

Brownies at the Barneys

Yeah, we have new missionaries in our ward! Elder and Sister Webb from Tremonton, Utah. We're so glad to have them!

If you missed the party, this was one of the food tables.....not including the brownie table! Amazing!!!

The birthday bunch for the month of September.

New Sign!!

We finally got our new sign installed at our store! I think it turned out really cute. The Sisters Sweet Shoppe in Dublin, Ohio is at our new location at 45 N. High St., in Dublin. The entrance to our store is around the back on Darby St. if anyone wants to visit. We give away lots of free samples of our delicious Grandma's Fruitcakes, chocolate covered Fruitcake and other dessert cakes like Blueberry Walnut, Australian Apricot Cake, Pineapple Macadamia Nut Cake and an Apple Cinnamon Cake. We also have gourmet chocolates and gifts, the ever popular Buckeye Crunch, which is caramel corn coated in peanut butter and chocolate....lots of goodies. Shop online at www.grandmasfruitcakes.com OR www.theSistersSweetShoppe.com. You can also find our Krema Natural Peanut Butter in chunky or creamy and our other brand called Crazy Richard's Peanut Butter. It is also all natural without salt, sugar or added hydrogenated oils. Just peanuts. Crazy Richard's has been named one of the 125 Top Foods for men in Men's Health Magazine for 3 years in a row. It is also the only peanut butter they recommend and has received a top pick award as well. Check out the peanut butter info at www.kremapeanutbutter.com OR www.crazyrichards.com. We also have Almond Butter, Cashew Butter and Hot & Spicy Peanut Butter. Please stop in for samples!

Melissophobia !!!!

It's TRUE. Melissophobia is a real fear and NO it's not the fear of Melissa Sonksen ! It's the fear of bees. I read this on www.phobialist.com. I'm not even sure why I was checking for phobias (maybe to see if I have any) but there was a note in my planner to check so that's what I'm doing. Now I can understand having Dentophobia (fear of dentists) and especially Odontophobia (who likes getting dental surgery...sorry Brigham and Dan) those are phobias that are shared by many I'm sure. I found that the phobia list has 530 medically identified phobias...and there's probably more. So I decided to see If I was suffering from any other undiagnosed phobias on the list. I knew I didn't have Lutraphobia (fear of otters) or Clinophobia (fear of going to bed) and not even Myxophobia (the fear of slime)...so what was it? Oh Yes, I used to have Pteromerhanophobia which is the fear of flying (not to be confused with Pteronophobia which is the fear of being tickled with feathers)! Some of my other favorites include Sinistrophobia (fear of things on the left or left handed), Cacophobia (fear of ugliness), Ephebiphobia (fear of teenagers), let's hope none of us get Ecclesiophobia (the fear of church!), and here's one I can't understand...Hippophobia...you'd think it was the fear of hippos but it's the fear of horses! Why would anyone have Mycophobia (the fear of mushrooms) my sister-in-law Karen hates them because they squeak when you eat them eew! But I love them! My daughter Kimberly had Cynophobia as a kid (fear of dogs..maybe she still has it but she's covering it) but for sure she didn't have Porphyrophobia (fear of the color purple) Purple was her favorite color! Stephanie had Agoraphobia (fear of crowds) as a kid. She hated going shopping at City Center Mall, just too many people! She also had that little elevator problem (I had it too, we HATE elevators still but we like the glass ones!) but I can't find the name for it. The longest phobia name has to be Paraskavedekatriaphobia which is the fear of Friday the 13th! In our family that's a great day since my parents met on a Friday the 13th! And one phobia that nobody should have is Arachibutyrophobia not to be confused with Arachnaphobia (fear of spiders) it means....fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth!

The Parable of the Cardinal

A few years back we had a bird feeder. Our girls were so excited to see all the different birds that came to our feeder. We had a book and checked off the pages of the ones we'd seen. It was fun to identify new birds and keep a list of our feathered friends. I still have that list. It carefully tells the story of the finches, robins, hummingbirds, tropical buntings, grackles, warblers, titmice, blue jays, bluebirds, owls, woodpeckers, sparrows and my favorite the Northern Cardinal. The males are a bright red and the females a more muted color with a regal pointed crown. They love to sit in the tops of the trees and warble to each other. Their call was so distinct and clear that even if I had my back to the window, when the cardinals made their chirp I knew which birds were at the feeder. When we would take walks or ride our bikes in our nearby woods, I could always tell if a cardinal was in the tree top by their call. After a time the racoons found our bird feeder and would raid it every night. Finally they destroyed it as it came crashing down due to their heavy weight and big scratching claws. Some years later when we were walking in our favorite neighborhood woods we heard some birds calling. Craig said, "that's a cardinal, do you hear it?" There were so many other birds singing at the time that I couldn't identify the cardinal. I strained to pick out my favorite bird but could not. I realized that I'd forgotten the song of the cardinal and therefore could not identify it. I related this to hearing the whisperings of the spirit. When we are in tune and listening every day, it's easy to hear the one song we're searching for. Even when so much other noise is around, if we reaquaint ourselves daily (and practice listening) to the spirit, we will always know it. The Savior said, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." John 10:27

The Grandkids !

This is Kalle, age 10 months and adorable and sweet. She loves to eat, is starting to walk and really loves her mommy. I just couldn't keep my eyes off of her beauty and charm.
This is Jada and Grandpa. Jada is 2 1/2 and talks non-stop (she comes from a long line of talking women!) Jada can charm the pants off of anyone and she has her Grandpa just where she wants him...doing her bidding whether it's building towers with blocks or going outside to swing...he just can't say NO to our darling jada!

Sundays at the Sonksens - August

Our cute missionaries were having so much fun they probably thought they shouldn't have come!! ha ha. They sure do a great job in our ward.
Dan Eastman loves to schmooze with the Dehners!

Laurie and Clint enjoying their ice cream cones.

More fun hanging around outside at the Sonksens.

Brandi, Brigham, Katie, Matt & John were the August Birthdays! Looks like everyone was having a great time with their peach spice cake ( I just made it up today!)

Wedding Weekend !!

Wow !! When it comes to good looks, that's Maria & Jeremy. At their ultra classy reception at the beautiful Bridgewater Banquet Center....and I loved Maria's gorgeous dress with lots of beads and lace....nice!
The cutest reception idea...a candy BAR! All the candies were red and yellow (Maria's colors) and you could fill up your cup as many times as you wanted....with scoops and spoons. I loved the lemon heads and dove caramel and colored M & M's. How fun!!! The Bishop loaded up quite a few times!
One week to go before the wedding for Maria & Jeremy Fairbourne.....they are ready for the party!

Aubrey, Oakley & Stephanie...having fun at the wedding reception.
Christy Frost Ghazi-Moradi (did I spell that right) and Stephanie Sonksen...long time Ohio buddies and adorable bridesmaids for Aubrey.

Aubrey & Steve Mangum were so happy and loved partying with their friends and family at their reception at Corazon Club & Spa on August 22, 2008. An AWESOME time was had by all with great food, great music and lots of crazy people having fun. Hey!!! I used to be Aubrey's Seminary teacher and I watched her grow up! She was a very happy bride!

My Stephanie

Stephanie and I had walked down to the pier (in Michigan at my parents cottage) and she just looked so pretty in the light of the sunset (her colors) and I couldn't resist taking a few photos of her....she was not cooperating so I had to sneak some in while she wasn't looking. She's still my sweet baby with the ginger hair.