Tuesday, November 25, 2008

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STACE-GHOST!


Today is Stace-Ghost's birthday. Stace-Ghost is married to my youngest son. I was thrilled when Stace-Ghost and Babs announced their engagement! Stace is such a great person. She allowed me to help with the wedding and reception far more than a normal mother-in-law would, so it was a great chance for us to get to know each other better, even though she and Babs had dated for several years. I've always admired Stace-Ghost for joining the church when she was a teen-ager. I remember when she was investigating the church and was trying to decide if she should join. Her mother was allowing her to join, but was not thrilled with the idea and she was trying to decide if she should go ahead and do it. I didn't know her real well at this point, but I had friends who knew her and I could see the love that they had for her and knew that she was a special person. She and Babs have been living with us since August and as I continue to get to know her better and better, I also grow to love her more and more. She is perfect for Babs. She is funny and energetic and gets Babs to be more energetic than he might think of being otherwise. I read Bab's blog about her and I'm glad that he tries to be a better person for her. That is the way it should be. Stace-Ghost is friendly and easy to talk to. I like how she speaks her opinion and is not afraid. She truly cares about Babs and every member of his family and will do anything for them. I could not have found a better soulmate for Babs if I had been choosing myself. Happy Birthday Stace-Ghost!

Sunday, November 23, 2008

THANKSGIVING DINNER


We had our Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. We had it a week early because my husband and I are going to his mother's for Thanksgiving next week. Last year we decided to start having Thanksgiving a week early (we actually have it on the Saturday before Thanksgiving) because 4 of our 5 kids live in our town and all go to their in-laws for Thanksgiving. Last year we had our dinner at night so they could all go to their inlaws at mid-day. By the time everyone sat down for dinner, no one was hungry except my husband and I, thus the reason for the change.
We have the same things every year. The. Same. Things. Every. Year. This year I thought maybe we should change things up so I asked my kids if we should change some of the dishes. Some mentioned a dish or two they could do without, but most wanted the same things. The. Same. Things. So I made the same things: Turkey (although this year I decided to just do a Turkey breast), Cornbread stuffing, Candied Sweet Potatoes, Broccoli-Rice Casserole, Pink Stuff, Rolls, Pumpkin pie, Pecan pie, and then I threw in something new: Cheesecake.
Well, now we're going to go to my husband's mother's next week. Guess what we will have: Turkey, Cornbread stuffing, Broccoli-Rice Casserole, Pink Stuff, Candied Sweet Potatoes, Rolls, Pumpkin Pie, Pecan Pie. :0+ I'm not sure I can eat this stuff for our Thanksgiving plus eating it for leftovers for a day or so, and then go to my mother-in-law's and eat it again. So NEXT year, there are definitely going to be some changes. Maybe we'll start small and just replace one dish at a time. So here's my question: What do you have for Thanksgiving? I need some ideas!

Thursday, November 20, 2008

JUST SEVEN

I've enjoyed reading everyone's seven things, so here are my seven:
1) I was a horrible tomboy when I was a kid. All the boys in my neighborhood had a "club" and built a treehouse a few blocks away from our home, in the "woods", and they let me help build it. My parents bought my sister and I a bike, but I secretly coveted my little brothers red bike. I rode it everywhere - mostly by myself. I couldn't wait to come home and get his bike and go riding. Another thing I loved doing was riding a "skateboard". I had to put that in quotation marks, because it was really a "skate" - "board". I got a board, tore a pair of my roller skates apart, and nailed them to the board - Voila! We had a choice of riding our skateboard on the street - which had lots of gravel on it from when they would sand down the snow in the summer, or on the sidewalk, which had bumps and places where the sidewalk had either risen or fallen. I remember challenging one of the older boys to a "Skateboard Race" to see who could make it all the way to the bottom of the street 1) first, 2) without falling off your skateboard. I won!! It actually even amazed me. I used to argue with the lady next door. She wasn't really great at arguing and my friends and I always thought I won the arguments. She was always yelling at us kids for being mean to her daughter. Her daughter was spoiled, bratty, a cry-baby and a whiner, so we never really felt that bad about being mean to her. Another one of my favorite things to do was climb trees. We had one Maple tree that had a little spot in it we called "Scamper's Perch" because it was where our cat always climbed up to and sat. I always loved to climb that tree and just sit in Scamper's Perch. I can even remember when Scamper was alive, he climbed up there and got on a limb by me and looked at me like, "Hey! You're in my seat!" I also used to climb the tree - in my Sunday dress - behind our old church on Fontnelle (sp?) street - waiting for my mom and dad to get finished doing their "church stuff". I think I still have tomboy tendencies, because a t-shirt or sweatshirt and jeans is my absolute favorite thing to wear. I don't wear those shirts that much, because they are really not very flattering (maybe I've gotten a little more girly), but I do wear jeans almost every single day.

2) I HATE liars. I hate people who do not tell the truth. I hate people who only tell half-truths or twist the truth to their advantage, or conviently leave something out so you don't get the whole story. I'm not quite sure where I got this, but twice when I was a teen-ager I lied to my parents. The first time was because a boyfriend had asked me out to a drive-in movie and my parents didn't want me to go to drive-in movies. He told me to lie to my parents and tell them we were going to go to a walk-in movie, and then we'd just go to a drive-in. We did this, I know at least twice, maybe three times. He would always tell my parents we were going to go to a movie that he had seen, so he could tell me about it enough to tell my parents, when they asked me the next day about the movie. This worked pretty good, until one day I guess he either ran out of movies, or didn't tell me enough about it. He told my parents we were going to see "Bullet" with Steve McQueen. If you have never seen this movie, it has one of the greatest car chase scenes ever made in it. The next day, sure enough, my dad asked me about "Bullet". My dad was a great movie buff and saw lots of movies. He had seen "Bullet". I guess I wasn't "gaga" enough over the chase scene, or else he got suspicious and threw something in that really wasn't in the movie. I never knew. Anyway, the jig was up. They made me break-up with him. The other time I lied, I plead the 5th. :0)

3) Another thing about me, which is evident above, I NEVER tell ALL my secrets, and never will.

4) I dated my cousin. I know, this probably grosses some of you out. I never looked at it that way. He was my second cousin - maybe second cousin, once removed, I don't know. I dated him for two summers. He also dated my sister, Inside Stories, so there is another secret about her. :0)

5) I am an absolutely obsessive Harry Potter freak! I have all 7 books and I also have all 7 books on cd. I have listened to the cd's probably 5 or 6 times each, maybe more. I love Harry Potter, because to me it is a great Good vs. Evil story. I love those kind of stories, because I think that is what the world is going to come to. Those of us for good will band together, regardless of religion or race, and fight against those who are evil.

6) When I was a kid I thought I was horibbly ugly. I was too tall, too skinny, had naturally curly hair in a straight hair world, and had horribly bucked teeth, so bad I couldn't even close my lips around them. I used to drink this stuff called "Neutrament" (was that what it was called?) that was supposed to help you gain weight. It didn't work. I used to iron my hair, and especially my bangs, with the iron. One time I burned my forehead on the iron. I used to put hair straighteners on my hair and roll my hair on huge rollers. I wore braces for 4 years and retainers after that. One time when I was a younger teenager, an teenage boy investigator came to our church. Everyone at church came up to me and told me he and I looked exactly alike - so alike we could be twins. I think they were going up to him and telling him the same thing, because he kept looking over at me. This turned out to be one of the more traumatic events of my young teenage life. I started crying and ran out of the church and started walking home. My parents picked me up on their way home, but I continued to cry ALL night. My dad came in to try to console me and told me if I wanted to, I could go to a beauty shop and get my hair cut and styled. I cried harder because to me, my dad was saying that yes, I was ugly and hideous. That night really changed me and finally I dried my tears and picked up a huge chip and put it on my shoulder and got an attitude that dared people to knock it off. I think that also started my rebellious streak. I decided I wouldn't let people hurt me anymore because I wouldn't care anymore what people thought.

7) When I was a teen-ager I played the guitar. I used to take that guitar everywhere I went when I was hanging out with my friends. I had a group of friends who loved to sing. Nece, Danny, Billy, and Randy were the main ones. We weren't boyfriend and girlfriend with any of them, just friends. If you saw these guys, you wouldn't think they were singers, but they did. Some of them would have parties at their house and I'd take my guitar and we'd sing half the night. We used to love to go out to Buffalo Lake. There were small caves out there that we could get in and build a fire and sit and talk and sing. I can remember other people who came to our parties, but they would often not stay long. I remember one guy said, "Geez, all you guys do it sing - this party's no fun!" One of our favorite songs was one my friend, Danny taught us - "Flowers for Mamma". It was a tear-jerker country western song. Danny first started singing it, but then after my friend Nece and I learned it, he used to love it when she and I would sing it and would always want us to sing it. She and I even sang it one time at our church talent show that my mom entered us in. I can remember how shocked the members of the ward were that I had actually come to a ward social. I think they thought I had seen the errors of my ways, but I hadn't. Not yet anyway.

Well, that's it - or at least that's "seven". The hard part was not coming up with seven things, but just trying to find seven things I was willing to tell. :0)

Monday, November 17, 2008

LUV YER GUTS


Whenever my brother says goodbye at our family chats,he says "Luv yer guts". My sisters and I are always trying to come up with something similiar to say back to our him. I was thinking we should come up with a list, so we'd have something to go by, since he signs off so fast you barely have time to think.
So here's some sayings I've come up with:

Adore yer adnoids
Care for yer colon
Lovin' yer liver
Ecstatic about yer eyelids
Dig yer duodendum
Pleased about yer pinkie
Relish yer reumatism
Like yer larynx
Covet yer clavical
Envy yer eyes
Happy for yer hair
Glad for yer gallbladder
Elated for yer eyebrows
Here's more from Amber & Delirious:
Best to yer breasts
Appreciate yer appendix
Cherish yer chunkiness
Attached to yer arteries
Enjoy yer ears
Partial to yer pecs
Friendly to yer fingers
Infatuated with yer irises
Devoted to yer tailbone
Bewitched by yer brain
Sweet on yer stomach
Idolize yer intestines
A kiss for yer kidney
Ecstatic for yer elbow
Luv yer lungs
Thankful for yer thyroid
From Sticks:
Not knockin' yer knees
From Inside Stories:
Dig yer bones

Can you think of any more?

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

MY MOM'S A SURVIVOR


My mom is one of the greatest people I know. Yesterday she had a masectomy and she did so well she was able to come home today - a day early. She never wants anyone to worry about her so she always downplays everything. When she found out she had to have a masectomy, she told the doctor she had been flat chested all her life so it wouldn't be much of a change for her. She told everyone not to worry about her, because she wasn't worried. When her surgery was delayed about 6 hours, because of longer surgeries ahead of her, she sent my dad and her sister on home because she was worried about them, that they wouldn't get home before dark. She tried to keep it a secret from people other than family, that she was going in to the hospital. She lives in a small town and didn't want anyone making a fuss about her or bringing in meals, etc. She came home from the hospital, taking no pain medication. None of her children live near to her - the closest are about 2 hours away. She refused to let any of her children come to help take care of her. I hope she continues to do well and can recover from this without any complications. Here are some words that describe my mom: fighter, lady, stubborn, fiesty, energetic, able, artistic, beautiful, caring, dear, devoted, patient, loving, funny, corny, big-hearted, generous, kind, learned, nice, clownish, regal, sweet, eighty-three, evans-blooded*, tough, wonderful, witty, enduring, smart, trusting, nutty, obstinate, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, wife, daughter, sister, friend.
*family joke

Monday, November 10, 2008

UNDER SIEGE

This is a picture of the Los Angeles Temple with police riot guards at the Propostiton 8 Demonstration. For more info and pictures on this, go to this blog: http://beetlebabee.wordpress.com/

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

BREAST CANCER


I found out today that my mom has breast cancer. It is only in the first stages. For some strange reason it took her doctor 4 weeks to get back to her to tell her she had cancer. That did not set well with us one bit. She will have a masectomy on Monday. My mom always downplays everything. She doesn't want us to worry. She says, "Oh, I'm not worried about this, they'll do the surgery and it will be okay. This is very routine." She doesn't want us to worry and she doesn't want my dad to worry. But that doesn't make it so. Mom opted to only have a single masectomy. I think I'd just go ahead and have a double if it was me. I couldn't deal with the whole cyclops look. Mom is 83. If I was 83 and found out I had breast cancer in the early stages, I hope I would be as positive and non-chalant as she is about it. She always tells us she doesn't want to be 90. But then again, does anyone hope to live to 90 years of age? Why?

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

A NEW PRESIDENT....

GOD HELP OUR COUNTRY.

I VOTED - DID YOU?


Today's the day - go vote or keep your mouth shut for the next four years! I did early voting this year and voted a couple of weeks ago. It was pretty nice - the lines weren't long and the whole thing only took about 15-20 minutes.

SO GET OUT AND VOTE!

Saturday, November 1, 2008

OUR NEW FENCE!



I don't know if you can see this very well, I took this with my phone because I can't find my camera. We just had this wall/fence built this week. It is a block wall with wrought iron on the top, and a wrought iron gate. If I find my camera, I'll take a better picture.