The true story between the North

and the South. The North did not want a war.

But the South insisted on a battle.

After the battle the North wanted to kiss and make up.

The South said No we want our way.

But in the end the North won!

The South doesn't seem all that

unhappy.

Grandpa on TV

A month ago I talked to WYAM channel 51 and offered to go on TV to let their audience know what we're doing. Well Tuesday was the day. We arrived at the station at 11:00 a.m. to make sure nothing went wrong. The workers were in high gear scurrying all over the place. Suzie Wily, the blond lady had been at work since 4:00 a.m. There was a computer man in his own room and was he ever good at finding pictures of the Granite Mountain Vault, the Family History Library etc. and loading them on his camera.

We walked into the broadcasting studio and there were lots of bright lights and three cameras looking at me. Derrick and Suzie were really good to try and make me relaxed since this was all new to me. The walls were all painted funny green like you see them in the picture above. They had told me not to wear green because that color actually looks black on TV. Two of the cameras were taking our pictures while another one seemed to use a computer feed that digitally put in whatever background the man in the other room wanted. The three of us sat down on comfortable stools, Derrick clipped a micraphone onto my lapel and some other gadget onto my belt. The fellow in the computer room yelled "Three, two, one" and my blood pressure went 100, 200, 300 and we were on the air. It was a live broadcast so whatever I said was not going to be edited. Suzie and Derrick really made it a pleasant experience. They took a major interest in what Vicki and I are doing and asked a lot of helpful questions and made a lot of interesting comments. We are buying a DVD of the program and will burn copies for all of you.

I was able to tell them about family and the friends we've make here and that Grandpa Hays was born in Northwest Alabama. They wanted to know how we filmed, where the film was stored, how they could access the images, how long we'd be here and about our RV Trailer. I told them some of the intricacies of filming, a few details about GSU (Genealogica Society of Utah), what's happening in Alabama, the Granite Mountain Vault, family history centers and bringing the microfilm images online through digital imaging and indexing. It was actually quite fun and they want us to come back on another program later in our mission! They offfered us apple friters as a reward which is a real favorite of mine. I declined because of my diet but it wasn't easy.

April Update

Hey Everyone,

It is always nice to see how the family is doing. Nicole is doing well she is now five months old and getting older, good news she is taking more naps now which is nice for me, I can actually get some things done around the house. Troy is doing well at his job and selling a lot of cell phones. I had an interview with a business owner about creating a website, which is nice that I can use the skills that I learned in school.

Troy went out and bought Nicole a walker....she loves it but she still can't reach the floor yet. When me and Troy was talking Nicole decided to roll over, but she only did it that once because Troy was so excited we think that he scarred her...she hasn't rolled over since. I am so lucky that she sleeps through the night otherwise I don't think that I would last through the day without any sleep.

The other day Nicole grabbed my arm while I was eating like she wanted a taste. I put my glass of water up to her mouth, she decided that she didn't like that at all. She still is on my milk. Well we got to go but we hope to talk to everyone soon.

Love Kristi, Troy and Nicole

Latest Painting

Here's my latest painting. Finished it at about 2:00am yesterday morning. This is the third painting in a series. The first one sold before the show opened. The second sold before it could be hung on the wall. This one was reserved by a collector while it was still being painted. For some reason people seem to really respond to these paintings.



As usual, I hated it when I first started and Lezlee made me keep painting until suddenly it magically transformed itself into something I really like.

I can't remember if I've written on this blog about the addition we're planning on building to the back of the house. Our architect is this really cool designer that worked with internationally recognized designer William Brueder. Before we even moved to Phoenix we knew about Brueder because Lezlee's boss's wife was an architect and when she heard we were moving to Phoenix she got all excited and told us about him (he's one of her favorite designers) and showed us magazine articles about his designs. Then our architect moved to Chicago where he's helped design a NATO center in Brussels and worked on that amazing skyscraper in Dubai and the Nevada Museum of Art. The stuff he does is pretty amazing.

Luckily he used to date a friend of Lezlee's and so he agreed to do our design. He visited the house a couple of weeks ago to get a feel for what we wanted and then he'll design it back in Chicago. A friend of his is another architect we really like who has building these super-cool condos in the area. That guy will do the construction administration while the addition is being built.

The idea is to build a bigger studio for me and an outdoor kitchen. For those of you in the north countries, an outdoor kitchen is a kitchen with a roof on it but no walls. It usually also has couches, a tv, a fireplace etc. With misters during the summer and gas heaters during the winter you can use them all year round down here. So basically it allows you to spend most of your time outside.

We're working through the initial design concepts now. There are all kind of zoning requirements and set-backs we have to deal with. Right now he wants to build the studio on pillars and then cantilevered back over our existing house so that it looks like it floats in the air. The outdoor kitchen would be under the shadow of the studio and then he wants to add a two-car garage with a terrace on top if it with a fire pit etc. This would allow us to have a great view of Squaw Peak from there.

The problem is that we've always planned on building a garage but in a later phase. Moving it into this phase would increase the construction costs beyond what we planned to spend right now. So we're struggling with deciding between something that would meet all our needs now and be the coolest design and should we limit the project for budget reasons only. Lezlee is concerned about cost because she doesn't care about a garage anyway. One thing I've never liked about this house is that it doesn't have a garage. I'll keep you updated on how it turns out.

Brennan wrestled in his first inter-mural match on Thursday. We weren't able to attend but his coach told us that Brennan did a great job. Hopefully I'll get to see him wrestle this Thursday. He works out with the wrestling team every day after school. He's earned the nickname Rulon from his coach. Rulon Gardner is a big Mormon wrestler that won a gold medal at the Olympics.

Lezlee has been on very restrictive diet for a couple of weeks. It's under a doctor's care and she has to go in every two weeks for blood tests to make sure everything is going okay. Some of you may have met one of my counselor's Scott Gardner. He's been doing the diet for a year and he's lost 177 pounds. Lezlee lost 16 1/2 pounds in just under two weeks. The doctor proscribes a diet for each patient based on their metabolism. Lezlee can only eat 1 oz. of tuna for breakfast (that's about three bites), for lunch she usually has 3-4 ozs of shrimp and a cucumber and then for dinner 5-6 oz. of meat and some vegetables. The key to the diet's success is the doctor monitors her to make sure she stays in a state called "ketosis," which is where the body switches from burning carbohydrates to proteins and then fat. The trick is that under most diets the body thinks it's in a famine situation and so starts to conserve fats. Lezlee has to take daily tests to make sure her body is in that fine line between ketosis and fat saving famine mode.

I told her that she should set rewards to keep herself motivated. So every 17 pounds she gets a reward. The problem is that I didn't monitor the rewards list. When she gave it to me the other day it had things like a trip to Boston, a trip up the California coast, a weekend at a spa with her best friend, shopping sprees, a Hermes scarf ($300 for a frickin piece of fabric to wrap around your neck!! Does that make any sense?), etc. I think this is going to be a very expensive diet!

Jordan had a friend sleep over last night. Unfortunately they were reading "The Daring Book for Girls" together. So we awoke to a heart attack all over the wall (notes that say they "heart" us), fake blood and they short-sheeted Holden's bed. I'm a little worried because they're in Jordan's bedroom now concocting their next scheme.

Holden has been skateboarding a lot with his friends lately. One of them was good enough to get sponsored by a skate board company. He's not that good and seems to be beat up a lot. He's also really into street art. We figured out that he wasn't eating lunch to save money to buy a special type of spray paint. His friend's mom lets them paint on their brick wall. He's getting pretty good so Lezlee and I have decided to let him have the fence on the side yard to paint on.

And that's pretty much life here in Phoenix. The art store just opened so I've got to go get some paint to paint the side of this painting and then take it to the gallery.

Mr. Shadow Competition

Remember this guy?

It's hard to believe how much he has grown! I think he's about 4 in this photo.

Last night he competed in a Mr. Shadow Competition which is a benefit for the March of Dimes at his high school. It's a little like Miss America with a snarky twist for Senior boys. There is a talent portion, evening wear and even an opening dance number. For his talent he wrote an original humor and performed it. He had the whole audience laughing. He did an EXCELLENT job! I had to go up on stage for him to give me a rose during the evening wear portion. He looked great in his tuxedo. He just did a fabulous job. After all the intermission we learned the results - only 4 boys could make it in to the final and Holden was one of the finalists! Very cool. At that point they had to perform and impromtu karioke and each of them had a different 'pop' song. None of the boys knew their songs very well. Holden made up for it with his dancing and acting, it was very funny. Later they had to answer questions from the vice principal. We honestly thought Holden had won based on the questions and the karioke. He came in third running up (well...is that third or second? There is a winner, and then the runner up and then Holden was next). We were thrilled (even though we seriously thought he should have won the whole thing - apparently a lot of kids told him that at school today too and his history teacher asked him to perform his humor for the class - he politely declined).

We forgot the camera but his girlfriend was there and took photos so hopefully we can get some uploaded to the blog at a later time.

Anyway, we were extraordinarily proud.

I remember when dad would come across a hot loaf of bread. He would call us all up to the counter and he would rip the bread into big chunks and hand us each one. We would than put butter and honey on it. I am still convinced that that is the best way to eat bread.
On Sunday we devored a loaf of bread in minutes using dad's method. It was delicious and I almost felt that mom and dad were in the kitchen with us.
Monika

Arizona Attorney Magazine

Help

I cannot get any of my pictures on the blog. They get copied onto the blog page, but as soon as I try to put them into the text box of the blog, they go into numbers and letters. Any suggestions?

Monika

Hello Warm Weather!

Can you say "stir crazy"? You never quite realize just how nuts you are near the end of the winter months until the first warm days arrive and your children start spending more time outside. My sanity has returned (what's left of it, that is). No more running around the house hollering at the top of their voices for two hours before bedtime. I honestly don't care if they come in for dinner or anything else right now!

Ahh, but with warmer weather comes "fix it" projects. Hidden problems that rear their ugly heads near the end of the winter months like the leaking ceiling in our bedroom and the mushrooms growing in our kitchen window. Did I say mushrooms? Yes, mushrooms. I was looking out the kitchen window during dinner one evening and noticed some weird brown spots near the top of the window. A closer look and there you are, mushrooms! Why do we have mushrooms growing in our window? Well, I'm not that bright and I'm thinking it just has to do with some leaking raingutters over the window. I have not made the connection between the moisture and the ants that have started appearing in the kitchen again. My wise father takes one look at the mushrooms and says, it looks like you've got an ant farm! Duh! So, now we're tearing off the siding to address the moisture and ant problem.

After replacing our furnace this winter, I'm not sure how we're going to pay for these new problems, but they're not something you can ignore, so you grin and pay it (or charge it)!

Cow Memories

Lezlee, your picture of the women milking the cow brought back memories of my childhood. Our family shared a cow with Uncle Moses family. Dad often worked away from home and so he bought the feed for the cow and uncle Mose fed and milked her. One night uncle Mose was late getting home from work and you could hear the cow bellowing from our house. That cow wanted to me milked NOW! My sweet 70 year old grandmother picked up the three legged stool and headed for the barn. All the grandchildren run for the barn. This was a once in a life time experience and no one wanted to miss it. Grandma was a pro, she had Bessie emptied and the bucket full in minutes. She also feed 3 cats and any grandchild that wanted to try warm milk.

Is it a DIARY or a DAIRY?

Have you ever typed in hays family dairy instead of hays family diary? Or am I the only one that does that all the time? If other people admit to it I won't feel quite as dyslexic.

Love, Lezlee

Hi Everyone,
I wanted to update you on my health. I finally talked to my doctor today, I really didn’t want to admit how bad it was. He told me what to do over the phone. He doesn’t think it is a good idea for me to go see him until I am in better shape. We both agree that it would cause too much pain to have me go in. We know what it is, he doesn’t need to see me yet. I will be on ibuprofen for ten days, and Aciphex to protect my stomach against the ibuprofen. I can also take a muscle relaxer and Vicodin for pain as needed. I am also not to walk around, as it is causing pain. Dr. Lee does not want me doing anything that causes pain where I was injured. It is because the pain is in response to me reinjuring it or stressing that injured part too much. So I have been told if it is painful at all I have to stop what I am doing immediatley, and try not to do that again. It is frusterating when pain can happen when I go up stairs, walk across the room, bend, twist, while I’m sitting, while I’m lying down, getting up and down. Right now one of my big triggers is walking, so no walking. Luckily, I have a wheelchair that I can use, and four kids that will push me.
At breakfast this morning the kids were talking about how many days of school left. They were out last week for Spring Break and I think they liked the sleeping in, staying up late, and not much homework.
Eric is really busy at work this week. They are still adding some things to his game before they let everyone on it. Eric teaches Matt’s robotics class today. Some of the kids are getting pretty good at programming. The robotic compition is this week. They haven’t had as much time as they would have liked to work on it, we hope it is ready by Saturday. Matt has done a lot of programming for it.
I hope you are all doing well.
Take care.
Love,
Monika

Jessica's pictures

Matt sleeping.
The tapioca pudding I made
Our new fish tank.

What is Ashley doing?

This is me. Who am I? Guess who I am?

Love,

The Unseen

This is me taking a picture of myself in the mirror
This is me and my sister fighting over the camera, it took a picture during the fight.
This is my mom in bed.
This is my mom on the bed again. She has the computer.
Signed,
O

It's been a rough two weeks for me. I overdid it, and I have been in bed. I did get out Saturday, but only in a wheelchair. It was nice to get out, being stuck in bed for two weeks was making me go stir crazy. Yesterday I was standing up talking to Eric when I had multiple shooting pains hit me and I was almost on the floor with the pain, but luckily Eric caught me. He carried me into bed. Actually, He had to carry me in and out of bed a few times yesterday, and help me turn over in bed. So the family stayed home from church yesterday to take care of me. We had a samll church service at home and then watched a lot of movies.
Ashley was doing great, even walking a bit on her hurt foot. She even started jumping on it. Needless to say, she is back to using the crutches.
We bought a new fish tank on Saturday. Our old one held 50 gal. of water and it was in our dining room. This new one is in the hall, my dining room looks much bigger.
Monika

Nathan,
I love your hair. It looks like mine when I wake up in the morning. My guess it Nat is either the old lady in the shoe or Moses. Love Grandma

Happy 18th Holden

Holden had his 18th Birthday this week (as most of you know - thanks for all the nice phone calls and text messages to him).

He kept worrying that he wasn't going to have a good birthday. We are not sure why. He kept worrying that we weren't really going to do anything for his birthday.

Because you have to apply for your eagle by your 18th birthday, and Holden had not finished the process yet, he had to go meet with some of the had scout guys before we could really celebrate. He got really stressed out too - it's a long story, but basically he almost didn't get his eagle. But here he is in a rare moment wearing his scout uniform (I'm not sure if he's worn it at all since he turned 13 - he kind of ditched this whole look right about then). I think he looks darling, but he has other thoughts about this look.

Right after he meet with the scouts (and after he changed in the car...he loves the uniform that much) we took him to dinner and to open his presents. We took him to a restaurant called "Green" - it's a vegetarian restaurant. Most of you know Holden has been a vegetarian since January. He is still doing it and so we thought we would accomodate him by taking him there. Here is what he ordered:
This is a meatball sub - except it's made from soy instead of meat. And the bread is not regular bread either. And that is not cheese (I forgot to mention it's not just vegetarian, it's vegan), but cheese made from soy. The tomatoe sauce is real.

Actually I was a little worried about eating there but it was fine. And Holden was very happy. Plus I think he liked his gifts - so all was well, scout trama aside.

Here he is with his "Soynami" - Soy ice cream. But his birthday did not end there!

For about a month his girlfriend and I had been planning a surprise party for Saturday. He had absolutely no idea and we managed to pull off a party with about 20 kids and keep him clueless. Here are some photos of him with his cake from his birthday night and his party on Saturday.
















Here is me, super happy to be done with weeks of birthday preparation for two kids! And this year we will be in Mexico for Brennan's birthday so Kirk took him and two friends to an amusement park a couple of weeks ago for his "birthday" so that means we are kinda finished with parties for one more year!




In all seriousness though we were so happy last night that he has such good friends and he is such a great kid. What a blessing he has been to our family for the past 18 years. So once again "Happy 18th!" Holden! We love you!

This is for you, Chandler!

Here's a picture of Nate for crazy hair day at school. Needs a little hair paint, don't you think?












Here's Nate IN YOUR FACE!












And here's a funny for Grandma - Who is Nathan pretending to be? (Hint - It's General Conference and the blanket is a beard - someone old-timey.)

The Cicken and the Egg Festival

Who is is the cage? Grandma or the Chicken?

The festival was not that great but we liked the chickens and the

Funnel Cake. They take cake batter and deep fry it. They deep fry everything down here.

We were in charge of the April Senior Activity

The group went to the Jesse Owens Museum

In 1936 Jesse Owens won 4 gold medals.

We enjoyed watching actual footage of Hitler

watching a black American win against his

aerian race.

Alabama Senior Missionaries

We went to the Cullman church for have lunch. .

These are pictures of the Churhes gardens

Love Mom