Busy Month of May

Dear Friend,

I just wanted to let you know that I am still here and thinking about you. Things have been happening faster than I can keep up with. Here is a rundown of the past few weeks:

May 8th and May 9th we celebrated Morgann's 17th and Ian's 16th birthday's with dinner at a new family favorite Mexican Food Restaurant in Queen Creek - Rio Rico. Then there was a quick trip to Vernon for Mother's Day.

Last week we had 3 graduations (all on one day) I attended 2 of them, Eli's from Kindergarten-too cute, of course and the big one for Logann on Thursday evening. Seth had a graduation ceremony for Jr High at the same time as Eli's, so half the family went to his. I am still recovering from that one. I offered to take Logann early and save the seats, so I spent 3 1/2 hours sitting in the rain, fighting off all encroachers to wet stadium seats so we could huddle under the umbrellas and watch her do her walk.

Definitly Mr. Cool!

We are all so proud of Logann, she graduated in the top 20% of her class and earned academic honors and a full scholarship for her scores on the AIMS exams. She is going to NAU and is so excited.


That's her in the middle looking for us (the blonde).

Proud Moment.

Friday evening, we had a graduation party for her and then early Saturday, Marla and I drove up to spend the weekend at the ranch. Judy had taken dad to the Doctor in Springerville on Friday and they sent him to Show Low to the Emergency room for a proceedure.

Dad is okay but was still having some problems so she had to take him back Saturday morning. She just needed a little support from us plus the fact that we took Hunter up to spend a couple of weeks helping her and dad with some projects.

Hunter will be planting 2 gardens, getting the chicken coop set up with water and several other things on the list. He thinks it is boring up there and for a 17 year old city boy, he's right. It is boring but he will survive it, I'm sure of that. I told him that being the slave labor in Vernon beats being the slave labor in Wellton-hands down! I don't think he believes me though.

Marla, Hunter and I were the only ones up at the ranch this weekend-we don't count the non-Naegles. It was beautiful, peaceful and cold. It rained so hard on Saturday night, I honestly thought I was going to need oars to get off the mountain. Sunday brought a powerful hailstorm in Vernon and Monday we had a downpour that had snow in it.

The best breakfast in the world, ever, biscuits or pancakes, bacon, eggs, and fresh fruit on the porch of your humble home on the mountain!

Well, the long weekend is over and it is back to work. I did call in sick today-I think I can count on one hand, the number of times I have called in sick, but I can't get rid of this cold. I just need to spend one whole day at home in my jammies, don't you agree.

Enjoy some of these gorgeous pictures of Vernon and the Mountain. Hunter did a good job!

Love Jan

Flowers on the Mountain


Hail in Vernon

I love this flower. I think it is a begonia.



The wild iris is blooming all over the mountain.

Mother's Day 2009

Dear Friend.

This Sunday is Mother's Day and it will be a little different for my family.

I know that a lot of you have experienced the same feelings of those first holidays and celebrations with a missing family member. And now I know what you went through because that is what I am going through now.

I am the world's worst shopper. Looking for a greeting card drives me up the wall (especially the seasonal ones) and I never know what to give someone-gift cards are my gift of choice. But driving home yesterday, it dawned on me I hadn't got a Mother's Day card for mom yet-then I remembered.

Tomorrow (Saturday), Marla and I are driving to Vernon to celebrate a little Mother's Day with Judy and Dad. They have set the gravestone and we will go visit with Mom and place some flowers at her grave. I know she would appreciate that.

In the meantime, I am offering to you this wonderful piece about being a Mom because it brought so many memories and emotions back. Enjoy being a Mother. Treasure every minute of it and do not let a day go by without telling your children and your mother how much you love them.

Before I was a Mom,

I never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby.

I didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisonous.

I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom,

I had never been puked on. Pooped on. Chewed on. Peed on.

I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts.

I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom,

I never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests. Or give shots.

I never looked into teary eyes and cried.

I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.

I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom,

I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want to put her down.

I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn't stop the hurt.

I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much.

I never knew that I could love someone so much.

I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom,

I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body.

I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby.

I didn't know that bond between a mother and her child.

I didn't know that something so small could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a Mom,

I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.

I had never known the warmth, the joy, the love, the heartache, the wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom.

I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much, before I was a Mom ...

Happy Mother's Day to all of you.
Love, Jan

Nicoll Footprints

Dear Friends and Family,

I want to tell you what an amazing family I have. This past Saturday was a success due to the talents and the help of a lot of Nicolls. I know that we would not have been able to do this without each of you, even those that couldn't be here but encouraged us to go forward.

Ann (Nick) Shreeve and her daughters, Mindy and Miriam, were awesome. Ann and Mindy handled the food assignments and let me tell you, we ate like rich kings. The spread was fantastic. Miriam volunteered to do something with the younger kids to keep them busy. She really came prepared and those young ones that sat with her enjoyed her offerings. Miriam also had a winning Reunion "Momento". Thank you!

If you didn't get one of these, contact Miriam at purpleyum@gmail.com , she is making more and selling them for $2.00 each.

Another talented family member brought her great items to the Reunion for a Silent Auction. Thank you Patti. These were great.

After reimbursing several people for some of their expenses, I am opening an account at WF for the Nicoll Family Reunion so that we have funds to help with the 2010 gathering.

I hope more of us can contribute next year. If you want to be a part of this, let me know. I think the best way to do it is split the proceeds with you and the family but we can talk about it later.

Marla Olson had made arrangements to use their Ward building and then called as soon as she could get home from church last Sunday, to tell me we had to find another location (just one week prior to the Reunion). I started calling all family members in the Mesa area to see if we could useget another building and Steve Nicoll came through. Steve was able to make the arrangemenst to use his Ward building on short notice and we really appreciate both of their help.

A big thanks to Ashley (Darren) for being swept into "official photographer" for the family groups. If you are looking for a great Mother's Day gift, visit her blog http://embraceyourcreativity.blogspot.com/2009/04/mothers-day-mini-sessions.html.






A special thanks to everyone that showed up early to help set-up and those that stayed late to help clear and clean. All of you are the reason we had a successful Reunion.

And a big thank you to Rodney and Denise Standage for volunteering to put together the 2010 Don & Ethel Nicoll Reunion- Saturday, November 27th. That is the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We look forward to seeing all of you then. As soon as I can get an E-mail contact for them, I will share it with you.

To my friends who read my blog that do not have a large extended family, I don't know what to say except that I am sorry you are missing one of life's richest blessings

To my family members who live too far away to attend this year, do try to join us in 2010. I want to get to know you, we want to get to know you!


Don and Ethel Nicoll struggled everyday of their married lives to meet the needs of their large family and we are rich for it. We are growing outward and older so fast.

On Saturday we recognized these events that enforces the need of regular family gatherings:

• Susan passed away 15 years ago on April 25th.
• Barbara and her family were attending the wedding of one of her grandsons. Did I say we were growing fast?
• We took 2 group pictures of Phyllis with 5 generations. (for those of you that don't count-that's 6 generations for Don & Ethel.)
• Shirley just celebrated her 62nd birthday. (Yes, we are getting better, aren't we!)
• We have so many members of the family we don't know or recognize, that we had to spend 30 to 45 minutes just going around the room introducing ourselves and updating, as quickly as we could, our families and a little about those that could not be attend.

Now I have to work on spelling every one's name correctly (Glorya, y not i; Phyllis, 2 l's; Corey, with an e; so far)!


Here are some pictures I didn't post on Facebook-my grandchildren had my camera and took pictures of their view of the reunion.


I'm not sure who "kick-a-pooed his joy-juice", but Stu (Marla) was happy to be there.





This is a picture that only a grandmother could love. Nikki assures me that he is only laying his finger at the side of his nose, trying to make the big decision: 'Which dessert do I want now?'

And the sweat and rosy cheeks on this 10 year old is from making the church hallways unsafe to walk.

By the way, I heard that Jordan (Megan's husband) and the kids were doing karaoke in the RS room. Why weren't we invited?

I've got a lot to do today so I'll close for now.

Love Jan

The Fire In the Next Subdivision

Dear Friend,

I usually drive to and from work using the same route-Ocotillo to Ironwood, Ironwood to the 60, the 60 to Priest and then to my work site and then, I turn around and come home the same route. But, fear not, sometimes I detour. The detour I took last night is one that I really enjoy because I come into our neighborhood the back way-a sort of stop and smell the roses route. This is were I see families out in their corrals, working their horses, mowing their yards, beautiful homes, trashy homes, fences covered in banks roses, goats, sheep, new ponies, well you get the idea. It's just a nice break-until last night.


As I came south on Kenworthy, this man was walking his dog and waving one arm and then the other-I thought he was either demented or slapping at insects. As I got closer, he actually was waving me to stop-he wanted me to call 911 to report this:





This is the unfinished and abandoned housing project just north of ours. These houses have been left as framed projects for probably a year now. When I first saw the homes they were just beginning to blaze-it probably took less than 10 minutes for them to go completely. I could see 2 distinct fires-across the street from each other. After I called 911, I came home because everybody in Queen Creek suddenly needed to use that back road and they were just stopping in the middle of the street! I don't know how the emergency vehicles were able to weave through the parked cars.





On the other hand, I came home to this too:

Nikki was making yummy cinnamon rolls for a presentation project in her communications class. We were glad she chose to practice on us.

I'm home today to do a little sewing and some cooking in preparation for the Nicoll Reunion on Saturday. I am really looking forward to seeing everyone. I hope we have a good turn-out. I wish we could plan this so that it would work for every one's schedules and that all of you that don't live in this area could be here. Hopefully, we can put another reunion together that will work for more of us.

On another note, does anyone have a clue what this is? Well, here is your first hint-This is Shawn holding his newest and biggest favorite Fathers & Sons Outing toy.

Bingo! It's his newest potato gun. Watch out world. Shawn is hunting for a potato target. Actually, he just wants to see how far he can shoot the potato. A man with a dream!

More Later, I had to boil all the potatoes for Saturday before Shawn found them and they need my attention now.

Love Jan

Dear Friend

See if you can guess where we were yesterday afternoon (4/15). Here is your first hint:

Okay, here is another hint-do you know were this is?

Yes, I do admit to belonging to the the Radical Rightwing Extremist.

We are such a menacing group too. After all, the median age is probably 55.

I still don't know what makes not wanting to saddle our children and grandchildren with tons of debt or ask our government to read and follow the Constitution, me an "extreme", but I will proudly wear the badge anyway.

It was a great group of people and more came as we were leaving-oh did I say we? Oh, yeah these 2 radicals were there with me-

Our Dad was so glad to hear that we we going. He reminded me that we had a GGG or GGGG grandfather that fought with Washington in the Revolutionary War and Dad was proud that we were also willing to stand up and be counted.

(thanks for the great picture, Kevin)

We even got to check up on a Wellton Friend who is doing a great job of representing the Gilbert Legislative District in the the State Legislature.

Thayer Verschoor spent a few minutes with us-updating where all his family is now before he was scheduled for the J.D. Hayworth interview.

Most of the signs were home-made, I even saw one that was taped to a child's toy shovel, but they all carried the same messages-We don't want to pay higher taxes, bail-outs don't work, Congress doesn't know how to read (the legislation they are passing or the Constitution) and there are going to be some changes in the near future.

I am so grateful I live in a country that allows me the opportunity to express my feelings openly and in public. I am grateful for all of our fathers, uncles, grandfathers and ggggggg grandfathers (mothers, too) that have fought to defend our right to live in freedom and built a nation based on Judeo-Christian principles that make democracy and independance work for us.

If they have another TEA PARTY, I'll be there.

Love, Jan

America, The Great

Dear Friend,
I have received 2 links to this first piece today and as I listened to it the second time I decided I needed to share it with you . Take a minute, sit down and listen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUBIJCXz9M8

Then watch this one and see if you have a dry eye. I didn't.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0mm4u2VzDs&feature=player_embedded

I won't say anything else.
Love, Jan

Weekend Quilt Retreat

Dear Friend,



I am off for a great weekend retreat with friends. It is a bed and breakfast (lunch & dinner, too) for small groups, primarily quilters but I know she has had scrapbook groups as well as others. Besides being in a beautiful setting (Christopher Creek), Pines and Needles has wonderful group accomodations with a great studio. It's like a slumber party, except most of us are in bed by 11 PM, oh well.



Pictures upon return.

In the meantime, I found this great picture on Kempe's Facebook photo album. It brought back so many wonderful memories of a Uncle Cecil, Aunt Millie and Laurie. And then I remembered, they are all still having a wonderful time!

More Later, love Jan.

PS Judy, I'll trade you places for the next one.